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psychicdeath

Member
Jan 21, 2015
955
1,521
Dave's Song of the Day

Coming on Strong – Brenda Lee

Thursday song of the day: Today’s song is likely more well-known in 2020 for being name checked in a later song than when it was a hit record in the mid-1960s.



Yesterday, we mentioned that Golden Earring’s classic Radar Love referenced the song Coming on Strong by Brenda Lee twice, and consequently, the song is likely better known because of Radar Love than from its own merits.

Brenda Lee began her professional singing career at a young age, recording her first records when she was just twelve years old. Over a long career, she had numerous chart hits, including the classic I’m Sorry and the holiday perennial Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.

One of these many hits was Coming on Strong. It was a fairly simple song, dealing with the pain and heartache that the singer feels since her lover has left her. It was released in September 1966 and rose to #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Not a bad showing at all, but at the same time it was far from being Brenda Lee’s most well-known song. She had two #1 hits with I’m Sorry and I Want to be Wanted, as well as several top 5 songs. As mentioned, Coming on Strong is best remembered today for being mentioned in Radar Love, through the line “The radio’s playing some forgotten song/ Brenda Lee Coming on Strong.”

Brenda Lee has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy. At the age of 75, Brenda Lee still performs and records. Her song Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, first released in 1958 and charting for the first time at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100, has re-charted several times during Christmas seasons. Just last month, December 2019, the 61-year-old record had its highest chart placement, reaching #2 on the Hot 100, trailing only Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You.



Tomorrow: You’ll miss me honey when you go away
 

MMAPlaywright

First 100
First 100
Jan 18, 2015
6,030
10,714
It is the springtime of my loving
The second season I am to know
You are the sunlight in my growing
So little warmth I've felt before
It isn't hard to feel me glowing
I watched the fire that grew so low, oh
It is the summer of my smiles
Flee from me, keepers of the gloom
Speak to me only with your eyes
It is to you I give this tune
Ain't so hard to recognize, oh
These things are clear to all from time to time, ooh
Oh, oh
Oh, oh
Oh
Talk talk, talk, talk
Hey, I felt the coldness of my winter
I never thought it would ever go
I cursed the gloom that set upon us, 'pon us, 'pon us, 'pon us
But I know that I love you so
Oh, but I know
That I love you so
These are the seasons of emotion
And like the wind, they rise and fall
This is the wonder of devotion
I see the torch
We all must hold
This is the mystery of the quotient, quotient
Upon us all, upon us all a little rain must fall
Just a little rain, oh
Ooh, yeah-yeah-yeah

 

psychicdeath

Member
Jan 21, 2015
955
1,521
Dave's Song of the Day

Some of These Days – Sophie Tucker

Friday song of the day: Today’s song was a hit over a hundred years ago.



In 1910 songwriter Sheldon Brooks wrote a song called Some of These Days. It was a pretty simple tune with fairly minimal lyrics, basically telling someone that they would miss the singer eventually, presumably after the breakup of a romantic relationship. By today’s standards it is very sappy and dated. The song came to the attention of rising vaudeville star Sophie Tucker through her maid, who suggested that Tucker meet Brooks and listen to the song. After hearing the song, Tucker made a recording of it and began performing it in her act.

At the time, recordings were made on wax cylinders. The Sophie Tucker recording of Some of These Days was released by Edison Records in February 1911. This early recording was a hit, and the song became associated with Tucker for the rest of her long career. She recorded it several times, but the most well-known was a 1926 recording in which she was backed by Ted Lewis & His Band. This version, on 78 RPM disc instead of wax cylinder, sold over a million copies. It was the number one song in the country for five straight weeks.

Since then the song has been covered over 200 times, by artists ranging from unknowns to those as famous as Ethel Waters, Cab Calloway, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, and Ella Fitzgerald. It is much less well-known now than it was during the first half of the Twentieth Century, however.

If it is remembered at all in more recent times, it would be because Some of These Days was featured in the great 1979 film musical All that Jazz. The character Joe Gideon is having a hallucination following a heart attack in which he envisions the three most significant women in his life – his ex-wife, girlfriend, and daughter – performing the song. The lyrics have been changed somewhat, but essentially the singers are telling Gideon not to die.

Sophie Tucker 1911 wax cylinder



Sophie Tucker 1926 78 RPM record



All That Jazz, 1979, Joe Gideon’s hospital hallucination



Tomorrow: And I’m not your captive
 

psychicdeath

Member
Jan 21, 2015
955
1,521
Havent heard this in ages.

Did concrete blonde ever have any hits other than Joey and tomorrow Wendy?

View: https://youtu.be/OdpTcvSn8HQ
It depends how you define a hit. I generally use the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and personally consider top 10 there a major hit, 11-40 a respectable hit, and 41-100 a minor hit. Concrete Blonde only made the chart once, with Joey at #19. I've always been partial to Still in Hollywood and God is a Bullet myself, but they only really got play on college radio.
 

ShatsBassoon

Throwing bombs & banging moms
First 100
Jan 14, 2015
18,555
33,607
It depends how you define a hit. I generally use the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and personally consider top 10 there a major hit, 11-40 a respectable hit, and 41-100 a minor hit. Concrete Blonde only made the chart once, with Joey at #19. I've always been partial to Still in Hollywood and God is a Bullet myself, but they only really got play on college radio.
I should've said popular songs, that's what I meant by hit. I don't I've ever used a chart other than the much music countdown back in my younger days.
 

psychicdeath

Member
Jan 21, 2015
955
1,521
Dave's Song of the Day

Radioactive – The Firm

Saturday song of the day: Today’s song is the sole hit from a 1980s supergroup who, like most bands made up of already famous musicians, did not stick around for very long.



Supergroups – those bands made up of members who had already achieved fame in previous bands or as solo artists – typically do not last very long. There are numerous supergroups that were together for only a few years or even a few records before breaking up. Prominent examples are The Power Station, The Traveling Wilburys, Damn Yankees, Velvet Revolver, and many others. In the space of about five years, Eric Clapton was in one of the first supergroups, Cream, and then went on to form two other short-lived supergroups, Blind Faith, then Derek and the Dominos.

In 1984, two musicians whose previous bands had come to an end decided to start working together. Led Zeppelin broke up in 1980, leaving guitarist Jimmy Page without a band, and in 1982 Bad Company dissolved, freeing singer Paul Rodgers for other projects. The two started working together and decided to form a band, which they named The Firm. Drummer Chris Slade, formerly of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and Uriah Heep, and relatively unknown bassist Tony Franklin rounded out the band.

The band released a self-titled debut album in February 1985, with a song called Radioactive as the first single. Radioactive sold well, reaching #28 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the video received heavy airplay on MTV. The Firm released a second album, Mean Business, in February 1986, and then broke up a few months afterward. Of the band’s four singles – two from each of the two albums – only Radioactive charted.



Tomorrow: Dancing in an Eastern dream
 

psychicdeath

Member
Jan 21, 2015
955
1,521
Dave's Song of the Day

Woman from Tokyo – Deep Purple

Sunday song of the day: Today’s song was inspired by a successful tour of Japan and went on to become a minor hit.



In 1972, the English band Deep Purple released the Machine Head album, which contained the huge hit Smoke on the Water. In support of the album, the band had a long world tour, which included several dates in Japan. While there, the band recorded a double live album, Made in Japan, which was also a hit. Inspired by the time they had in the country, the band wrote a Japanese-themed song.

The song, Woman from Tokyo (often misidentified by fans as My Woman from Tokyo), was a love song about a fictional Japanese girlfriend. It used several clichés about the country, such as mentions of tradition, the rising sun, neon signs in the city, and an Eastern dream. Nonetheless, it was a catchy hard rock tune, and the way singer Ian Gillan stretched out the name of the city as “To-kay-oh” is memorable.

The song was included on Deep Purple’s next studio album, 1973’s Who Do We Think We Are. Woman from Tokyo was the first single off the album, and was a minor hit in the United States, topping out at #60 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It did considerably better in Europe, however. While it was popular with the fans, some band members have said they didn’t think it was some of their better work.

Tensions between singer Ian Gillan and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore led to Gillan leaving the band a few months later. Shortly after that, Blackmore forced bassist and songwriter Roger Glover out of the band. Coincidentally, the last live show for the classic lineup of the band before Gillan and Glover left was the final date of their second Japanese tour, a June 29,1973 performance in Osaka.

Deep Purple has carried on in several different incarnations, and still performs today. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016. The current version includes both Ian Gillan and Roger Glover, but not Ritchie Blackmore.



Tomorrow: But I tell myself I didn’t lose her