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Man, haven't heard some Atmosphere in yearssssssssss
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUmo8ez3nX0&list=RDMMEXnFUj6hg80&index=4
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUmo8ez3nX0&list=RDMMEXnFUj6hg80&index=4
Dave's Song of the Day
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher – Jackie Wilson
Thursday song of the day: Versions of today’s song made the Top 10 twice under two slightly different titles.
Carl Smith and Raynard Miner, writers at Chess Records, wrote a song called Higher and Higher in 1967 and it was recorded by The Dells. That record was not released, however, and shortly thereafter the song was offered to Jackie Wilson at Brunswick Records. Wilson recorded the song as (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher, and it was released as a single in August 1967 and as the title track to an album in November 1967. The song went to #1 on the Billboard R&B chart, and to #6 on the overall Billboard Hot 100.
After the Jackie Wilson version became a hit, the original Dells recording of the song, titled just Higher and Higher was released on their 1968 album There Is. It was not released as a single, however, and thus did not chart at all.
A decade later, Rita Coolidge recorded a cover version of the song, with a few lyric changes. This version was titled (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher and was released in March 1977. It proved to be an even bigger hit than the Jackie Wilson record, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Jackie Wilson, 1967
View: https://youtu.be/CNLMOUtBLT0
The Dells, 1968 (although recorded prior to Jackie Wilson’s version)
View: https://youtu.be/yOETOx5Mi5o
Rita Coolidge, 1977
View: https://youtu.be/0153gqgCEYI
Tomorrow: Here come the sharks
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher – Jackie Wilson
Thursday song of the day: Versions of today’s song made the Top 10 twice under two slightly different titles.
Carl Smith and Raynard Miner, writers at Chess Records, wrote a song called Higher and Higher in 1967 and it was recorded by The Dells. That record was not released, however, and shortly thereafter the song was offered to Jackie Wilson at Brunswick Records. Wilson recorded the song as (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher, and it was released as a single in August 1967 and as the title track to an album in November 1967. The song went to #1 on the Billboard R&B chart, and to #6 on the overall Billboard Hot 100.
After the Jackie Wilson version became a hit, the original Dells recording of the song, titled just Higher and Higher was released on their 1968 album There Is. It was not released as a single, however, and thus did not chart at all.
A decade later, Rita Coolidge recorded a cover version of the song, with a few lyric changes. This version was titled (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher and was released in March 1977. It proved to be an even bigger hit than the Jackie Wilson record, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Jackie Wilson, 1967
View: https://youtu.be/CNLMOUtBLT0
The Dells, 1968 (although recorded prior to Jackie Wilson’s version)
View: https://youtu.be/yOETOx5Mi5o
Rita Coolidge, 1977
View: https://youtu.be/0153gqgCEYI
Tomorrow: Here come the sharks
Dave's Song of the Day
Surf City – Crack the Sky
Friday song of the day: Today’s song is from one of the most promising bands of 1975.
Fronted by singer, guitarist, and songwriter John Palumbo, the band Crack the Sky formed in the mid-1970s and released their first album in 1975. Also called Crack the Sky, it was well-received and got both good reviews and radio play. However, problems with the small record company squandered this promising debut and turned what could have been a breakout band into just a fondly remembered musical footnote. The new Lifesong Records was poorly managed and distributed and could not get the records into stores in any volume. Crack the Sky was the first album released by Lifesong, and the label botched it horribly. Palumbo recalls, “”We got pretty decent airplay but they didn’t know how to support it. They were clueless.”
Producer Terry Minogue explained further, “Records were promised but never arrived at the distribution centers. The record would be on the radio but there would be no product on the store shelves or vice versa. When people wanted it, it would never be available.”
The company also stiffed them on the records that they did sell. The contract basically charged the band for the costs of just about everything, so they never got into profits. Guitarist Rick Witkowski claims that he only ever received one royalty check for $2.43, that he never cashed.
Crack the Sky toured with some of the biggest acts of the 1970s, including Boston, Foreigner, Yes, and ZZ Top. In 1975, Rolling Stone magazine named Crack the Sky as Debut Album of the Year. The distribution problems prevented the buzz around the band from translating into commercial success, and although the band has existed on and off in several incarnations since then and recorded numerous albums, it never regained its early momentum.
Today’s song, Surf City, is one of the standout songs from the debut album. Written by John Palumbo, the song was about failure, unlike its namesake 1960s Jan & Dean song. Naturally Surf City and the rest of the songs on the album, never charted. Crack the Sky remains regionally popular in the Maryland area, but never attained the nationwide fame they deserved.
View: https://youtu.be/XCViNDamB1E
Tomorrow: It’s the only way to live
Surf City – Crack the Sky
Friday song of the day: Today’s song is from one of the most promising bands of 1975.
Fronted by singer, guitarist, and songwriter John Palumbo, the band Crack the Sky formed in the mid-1970s and released their first album in 1975. Also called Crack the Sky, it was well-received and got both good reviews and radio play. However, problems with the small record company squandered this promising debut and turned what could have been a breakout band into just a fondly remembered musical footnote. The new Lifesong Records was poorly managed and distributed and could not get the records into stores in any volume. Crack the Sky was the first album released by Lifesong, and the label botched it horribly. Palumbo recalls, “”We got pretty decent airplay but they didn’t know how to support it. They were clueless.”
Producer Terry Minogue explained further, “Records were promised but never arrived at the distribution centers. The record would be on the radio but there would be no product on the store shelves or vice versa. When people wanted it, it would never be available.”
The company also stiffed them on the records that they did sell. The contract basically charged the band for the costs of just about everything, so they never got into profits. Guitarist Rick Witkowski claims that he only ever received one royalty check for $2.43, that he never cashed.
Crack the Sky toured with some of the biggest acts of the 1970s, including Boston, Foreigner, Yes, and ZZ Top. In 1975, Rolling Stone magazine named Crack the Sky as Debut Album of the Year. The distribution problems prevented the buzz around the band from translating into commercial success, and although the band has existed on and off in several incarnations since then and recorded numerous albums, it never regained its early momentum.
Today’s song, Surf City, is one of the standout songs from the debut album. Written by John Palumbo, the song was about failure, unlike its namesake 1960s Jan & Dean song. Naturally Surf City and the rest of the songs on the album, never charted. Crack the Sky remains regionally popular in the Maryland area, but never attained the nationwide fame they deserved.
View: https://youtu.be/XCViNDamB1E
Tomorrow: It’s the only way to live
Dave's Song of the Day
Cars – Gary Numan
Saturday song of the day: Today’s song is about how machinery allows us to isolate ourselves from other people.
In 1979, Gary Numan released his first solo album, The Pleasure Principle. It was not that much of a change for Numan, however. For the previous few years he had led the band Tubeway Army and had had a #1 hit in the UK with the band. The change from band to solo career was more of a renaming, though, since all the other members of Tubeway Army remained as Numan’s backing band.
The first single from the album was Cars, which told of how the singer enjoyed being in cars because they separated him from people. The song was inspired by an earlier incident Numan had experienced while driving. “A couple of blokes started peering in the window and for whatever reason took a dislike to me, so I had to take evasive action. I swerved up the pavement, scattering pedestrians everywhere. After that, I began to see the car as the tank of modern society.”
Cars was a hit, helped by Numan performing the song on Saturday Night Live. It peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the only hit for Gary Numan in the United States, although he had several others in England.
View: https://youtu.be/E4Lo-D8NQF0
Tomorrow: Well now, I think you’ve got the knack
Cars – Gary Numan
Saturday song of the day: Today’s song is about how machinery allows us to isolate ourselves from other people.
In 1979, Gary Numan released his first solo album, The Pleasure Principle. It was not that much of a change for Numan, however. For the previous few years he had led the band Tubeway Army and had had a #1 hit in the UK with the band. The change from band to solo career was more of a renaming, though, since all the other members of Tubeway Army remained as Numan’s backing band.
The first single from the album was Cars, which told of how the singer enjoyed being in cars because they separated him from people. The song was inspired by an earlier incident Numan had experienced while driving. “A couple of blokes started peering in the window and for whatever reason took a dislike to me, so I had to take evasive action. I swerved up the pavement, scattering pedestrians everywhere. After that, I began to see the car as the tank of modern society.”
Cars was a hit, helped by Numan performing the song on Saturday Night Live. It peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the only hit for Gary Numan in the United States, although he had several others in England.
View: https://youtu.be/E4Lo-D8NQF0
Tomorrow: Well now, I think you’ve got the knack
Dave's Song of the Day
The Loco-Motion – Little Eva
Sunday song of the day: Today’s song was recorded by the songwriters’ babysitter.
Eva Boyd was born in North Carolina and moved to New York at the age of 15 to try to make it in the music business. To help support herself she eventually got a job as a nanny for the husband and wife songwriting team of Jerry Goffin and Carole King. At the time Eva was 17 years old, while King was 19 and Goffin was 22.
Goffin and King wrote a song called The Loco-Motion. In the early 1960s, songs about dances were very popular, so The Loco-Motion was written with a dance in mind. Originally Goffin and King offered the song to singer Dee Dee Sharp, but that deal fell through and they had Eva record it. She used the stage name Little Eva.
The single was released in June 1962 and soon rose to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. With the song a hit, Little Eva was in demand to perform The Loco-Motion on live shows, and it soon became apparent that for live performances of a song about a dance that there should be an actual dance, so Eva made up a Loco-Motion dance based on the lyrics.
In 1974, Grand Funk Railroad released a more hard-rock cover of the song. Their version of The Loco-Motion also rose to #1. This was the second time that a song had made #1 in America by two different acts. The first was Go Away Little Girl, which was also written by Goffin and King, and with #1 versions recorded in 1963 by Steve Lawrence and in 1971 by Donny Osmond. Since then seven other songs have duplicated the feat.
In 1987, Australian singer Kylie Minogue released a version of the song as her debut single. The single was titled The Locomotion (without the original hyphenated spelling) and was a #1 hit in Australia. In 1988 she re-recorded the song in a slightly different version for international release and labeled with the original spelling as The Loco-Motion. The Kylie Minogue cover of the song failed to make #1 in America for the third time, but it still did quite well, peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Little Eva, 1962
View: https://youtu.be/lNNW0SPkChI
Grand Funk Railroad, 1974
View: https://youtu.be/FULmAxNS4hk
Kylie Minogue, 1988
View: https://youtu.be/ZM6SZkd-JzE
Tomorrow: Go placidly amid the noise and haste
The Loco-Motion – Little Eva
Sunday song of the day: Today’s song was recorded by the songwriters’ babysitter.
Eva Boyd was born in North Carolina and moved to New York at the age of 15 to try to make it in the music business. To help support herself she eventually got a job as a nanny for the husband and wife songwriting team of Jerry Goffin and Carole King. At the time Eva was 17 years old, while King was 19 and Goffin was 22.
Goffin and King wrote a song called The Loco-Motion. In the early 1960s, songs about dances were very popular, so The Loco-Motion was written with a dance in mind. Originally Goffin and King offered the song to singer Dee Dee Sharp, but that deal fell through and they had Eva record it. She used the stage name Little Eva.
The single was released in June 1962 and soon rose to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. With the song a hit, Little Eva was in demand to perform The Loco-Motion on live shows, and it soon became apparent that for live performances of a song about a dance that there should be an actual dance, so Eva made up a Loco-Motion dance based on the lyrics.
In 1974, Grand Funk Railroad released a more hard-rock cover of the song. Their version of The Loco-Motion also rose to #1. This was the second time that a song had made #1 in America by two different acts. The first was Go Away Little Girl, which was also written by Goffin and King, and with #1 versions recorded in 1963 by Steve Lawrence and in 1971 by Donny Osmond. Since then seven other songs have duplicated the feat.
In 1987, Australian singer Kylie Minogue released a version of the song as her debut single. The single was titled The Locomotion (without the original hyphenated spelling) and was a #1 hit in Australia. In 1988 she re-recorded the song in a slightly different version for international release and labeled with the original spelling as The Loco-Motion. The Kylie Minogue cover of the song failed to make #1 in America for the third time, but it still did quite well, peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Little Eva, 1962
View: https://youtu.be/lNNW0SPkChI
Grand Funk Railroad, 1974
View: https://youtu.be/FULmAxNS4hk
Kylie Minogue, 1988
View: https://youtu.be/ZM6SZkd-JzE
Tomorrow: Go placidly amid the noise and haste
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