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psychicdeath

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

O-o-h Child – The 5 Stairsteps

Friday song of the day: Today’s song was recorded by a family.




The Five Stairsteps (sometimes spelled as The 5 Stairsteps) were a group of siblings, the children of Betty and Clarence Burke of Chicago. For a while, the sixth child Cubie Burke was added to the group and they were known as The Five Stairsteps and Cubie. When they recorded O-o-h Child in 1970, they still had all six members, but had dropped the “and Cubie” from their name.

They released their first single in 1966, but their records failed to break the Top 40 until O-o-h Child. That record was a big hit, reaching #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Originally, the song was a B-side on a record with a cover of Dear Prudence as the A-side, but O-o-h Child started getting airplay in several key cities, so the record company re-released it as an A-side, with Who Do You Belong To as the B-side.

The Five Stairsteps disbanded in 1976, although a version of the band under the new name The Invisible Man’s Band formed in 1979.


View: https://youtu.be/dguz0IsCuKU


Tomorrow: But everybody’s working overtime
 

psychicdeath

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

Living in America – James Brown

Saturday song of the day, 4th of July Edition: Today’s song was the last Top 40 hit for an R&B legend.




Sylvester Stallone was working on Rocky IV in 1985 and wanted a patriotic song for the film about Rocky fighting the Russian Drago. Dan Hartman and Charles Midnight wrote the song Living in America, and Stallone approached James Brown to record the song for the film’s soundtrack. Brown had been a popular R&B artist since the 1950s and was still a reliable live act, but he had not had a hit record since 1976. While he usually recorded his own songs, he agreed to perform Living in America for the movie.

In Rocky IV, James Brown and his band perform the song before the Apollo Creed vs Ivan Drago fight, and the music video for the song features part of the scene, interspersed with images from across America. Between a catchy tune and exposure in a blockbuster movie, Living in America was a hit, placing #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was one of Brown’s biggest hits, surpassed only by 1965’s I Got You (I Feel Good), which placed at #3 on the Hot 100. Brown referenced I Got You (I Feel Good) in Living in America, ending the later song with the exclamation “I feel good!”

Living in America was the final big hit for James Brown. While he continued performing into the 2000s, he only had one more song place in the Hot 100, and that only at #93. Brown died on Christmas Day, 2006 of complications from pneumonia.


View: https://youtu.be/c5BL4RNFr58


Tomorrow: You know how to hold me just right
 

psychicdeath

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

I Can Dream About You – Dan Hartman

Sunday song of the day: Today’s song was recorded for a movie and then the original vocals were replaced by those of the songwriter.




Dan Hartman was in The Edgar Winter Group in the early 1970s, writing and singing on the band’s hit Free Ride, among others. He launched a solo career in 1976, and by the 1980s was best known for writing songs for movies. This included yesterday’s song of the day, Living in America, which was recorded by the legendary James Brown for 1985’s Rocky IV.

The previous year, Hartman wrote for the underrated action/noir film Streets of Fire. One of the standout songs in the 1984 film was I Can Dream About You. In the movie it was performed by the fictional singing group The Sorels, portrayed by actors but voiced by studio musicians, with Winston Ford singing lead. Hartman, however, had had it written into his contract that only he could sing the song on a soundtrack album for the film, so on the record the same musical track was used, but with Dan Hartman’s voice replacing Ford’s. The soundtrack album sold well, and Hartman’s version of I Can Dream About You was released as a single and reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Hartman had three other Top 40 hits during his solo career, but only I Can Dream About You cracked the Top 10.

Dan Hartman


View: https://youtu.be/621Nk3Ubz4A


“The Sorels”, from Streets of Fire


View: https://youtu.be/BrGf_iyoWgs


Tomorrow: But everyone knows that a man ain’t supposed to cry
 

psychicdeath

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

I Wish It Would Rain – The Temptations

Monday song of the day: The events that inspired the lyrics of today’s song resulted in the author committing suicide.





One of the saddest songs sung by The Temptations was 1967’s I Wish It Would Rain. The song told the story of a man who had just been left by his girl, who had found someone else. The singer was crying and wanted rain to hide his tears when he went outside. It was a common enough premise for a song, but one that mirrored reality.

The song was written by Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong, and Rodger Penzabene. Whitfield and Strong wrote the music, and Penzabene provided the lyrics. When they wrote the song, the 23-year-old Penzabene had just found out that his wife was cheating on him with someone else, so he put his real-life situation into the lyrics. His pain was real, and ten days after The Temptations’ recording of the song was released on December 21st, 1967, Penzabene committed suicide by shooting himself on New Year’s Eve.

In February 1968 I Wish It Would Rain peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and remained in that position for three weeks.


View: https://youtu.be/fUk-7aanXHE


Tomorrow: Everything here is so clear, you can see it
 

psychicdeath

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

Grazing in the Grass – The Friends of Distinction

Tuesday song of the day: Today’s song added lyrics to an earlier instrumental hit.




In 1968, South African trumpet player Hugh Masekela had a huge hit with the jazz instrumental Grazing in the Grass. While working on Masekela’s album The Promise of a Future he was told that the album’s run time was about three minutes short of the contractual minimum of 30 minutes, so he and the studio musicians improvised a tune to fill the needed time. One of the studio musicians, Philemon Hou, came up with the main melody, so he was credited as the songwriter. While Grazing in the Grass was a throwaway song, the record company thought it had potential and released it as a single. The label was right, and the record went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming one of the biggest hits of 1968.

The following year, a fairly new vocal group called The Friends of Distinction decided to record a version of Grazing in the Grass using lyrics written by one of the group’s members, Harry Elston. The lyrics were fairly simple and repetitive, but they fit the song well. The Friends of Distinction released Grazing in the Grass as their first single and while it didn’t make it to #1 like the Masekela original, it was still a big hit, peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The group had a few more hits in 1969 and 1970, and then broke up in 1975.

The Friends of Distinction, 1969


View: https://youtu.be/ZyMUNt18-4Q


Hugh Masekela, 1968


View: https://youtu.be/b_V3mg_7xlE


Tomorrow: Hits you when you’re down
 

psychicdeath

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

It’s a Heartache – Bonnie Tyler

Wednesday song of the day: A surgery to remove nodules from her vocal cords helped the singer of today’s song achieve stardom.




In the 1976 and 1977, Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler released four singles and had minor hits in the UK and a few other countries but had yet to crack the US market. Then she developed nodules on her vocal cords, and the surgery to remove them left her with a raspy voice. Her first single after the surgery was It’s a Heartache, a song written by her managers. The single was released in some European countries in November 1977, and her new raspy voice turned out to be a benefit rather than a detriment to her singing.

It’s a Heartache was an international hit, reaching #4 in the UK, and placing in the top 5 in most other European countries. In the United States, the record wasn’t released until March 1978, and peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in June. Beyond its high chart placement, it stuck around for a considerable period, and achieved sales in excess of six million records.

Since It’s a Heartache was released several months earlier in Europe than in the United States, Tyler’s original had direct competition from a cover version that was in circulation at the same time. Singer Juice Newton released a cover as her first solo single in early 1978, around the same time that Tyler’s version hit US stores. The Juice Newton version had some minor success, placing at #86 on the Hot 100 in April 1978, nowhere near the popularity of the Bonnie Tyler original. Nevertheless, it was Newton’s first charting single until her big breakthrough with Angel of the Morning and Queen of Hearts in 1981.

Ever since the surgery left her voice raspy, Tyler’s singing has been compared to another singer with a hoarse voice, Rod Stewart. Apparently, Stewart had heard these comparisons over the years, and in 2006 he covered It’s a Heartache on his album Still the Same… Great Rock Classics of Our Time.

Bonnie Tyler, 1977


View: https://youtu.be/3CiRsfAOJ4E


Juice Newton, 1978


View: https://youtu.be/HK8PL4orRDI


Rod Stewart, 2006


View: https://youtu.be/LONrti4Qxf8


Tomorrow: You’re just a heartache in disguise
 

psychicdeath

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

Queen of Hearts – Juice Newton

Thursday song of the day: Today’s song uses an earlier arrangement and generated a big hit for the cover version.




Hank DeVito, a steel guitar player in Emmylou Harris’s backing band, wrote a song that used gambling terms as metaphors for a relationship. The song was called Queen of Hearts, and it was first recorded by Dave Edmunds for his 1979 album Repeat When Necessary. (Another Dave Edmunds song from the Repeat When Necessary album, Crawling from the Wreckage, was song of the day for Oct 5th, 2014, here: Crawling From the Wreckage – Dave Edmunds ) Edmunds released the song in Europe and it placed at #11 on the UK singles chart. His record company, however, refused to release Queen of Hearts in the United States, so it was mostly unknown here.

As mentioned yesterday, Juice Newton’s first solo single was a cover of Bonnie Tyler’s It’s a Heartache in 1978, and it had limited success. She continued to release music to little notice for the next few years. Then in 1981, she released her third solo album, Juice, and it proved to be a breakthrough. The first single off the album was a cover of the Merilee Rush #7 hit from 1968, Angel of the Morning. The Juice Newton cover surpassed that, ranking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. The follow-up single was Queen of Hearts, and it did even better, peaking at #2 on the Hot 100 and selling well over a million copies. The Newton version was obviously based on the Dave Edmunds original, so much so that Edmunds later stated, “She did pinch my arrangement, note for note, but I’m not angry with that.” Queen of Hearts earned Newton a Grammy nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance but lost to 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton.

Newton went on to have several more hits in the 1980s, even a few in the Top 10, but none charted as high as Queen of Hearts.

Audio, 1981


View: https://youtu.be/2L7R-XOittY


Video


View: https://youtu.be/P0DK-0fIKCw


Dave Edmunds, 1979


View: https://youtu.be/_pAFVUZHeoI


Tomorrow: Somewhere there’s music
 

psychicdeath

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

How High the Moon – Les Paul and Mary Ford

Friday song of the day: Today’s song became the tune most often associated with this musical legend.




Les Paul was a genius. It is impossible to overstate his importance to music in the Twentieth Century and beyond. Simply put, much of today’s music would not exist if not for the many innovations of Les Paul. Starting in his teens, he tinkered with ways of amplifying guitars, and his work helped perfect the solid-body electric guitar, leading of course to the famous Gibson Les Paul guitar. He also originated numerous electronic effects, recording techniques, and recording hardware, including phase-shifting, multitrack recording, delay, and close-miking.

In addition to his endless tinkering, he was a professional musician for over eighty years, starting in the 1920s as a teenager from Waukesha, Wisconsin (originally using his birth name Lester Polsfuss, but soon shortening it to Les Paul) and continuing until his death in 2009. His commercial peak was in the 1940s and 1950s, when he had numerous hits, including 19 records that reached the Top 10.

One of these was How High the Moon, which he recorded with his wife, singer Mary Ford. The song was written in 1940 by Morgan Lewis and Nancy Hamilton, and had been recorded by several artists, including Benny Goodman and Ella Fitzgerald. Les had recorded a version himself in 1945 with The Les Paul Trio. The definitive version, however, came in 1951 when he and Mary Ford recorded it for Capitol Records. This version showcased many of his innovations, including multitrack recording to make Mary Ford’s voice sound like an entire vocal group (a technique later famously used by Queen to great effect, particularly on Bohemian Rhapsody.), phase-shifting, delay and other effects added to Les Paul’s guitar. In all, the recording of How High the Moon consisted of 24 parts, twelve for guitar and twelve for Mary Ford’s singing.

How High the Moon was released as a single and went all the way to #1, a position it held for nine straight weeks. Over the years it became one of Paul’s signature songs and is recognized as a landmark in musical history. The recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1979, and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recognized How High the Moon on its list of Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. As for Les Paul himself, his accomplishments are far too numerous to list. Suffice it to say that he is the only person to have been inducted into both The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame. I highly recommend watching the documentary The Wizard of Waukesha for a glimpse into his monumental contributions to music and technology.

Audio 1951


View: https://youtu.be/DLweGCkQcOg


Les Paul and Mary Ford on Omnibus, Oct 23rd, 1953 (a performance of How High the Moon begins at the 5:11 mark)


View: https://youtu.be/VCEmAgak9V8


Tomorrow: Been playin’ since they’s babies
 

Grateful Dude

TMMAC Addict
May 30, 2016
8,925
14,261
Dave's Song of the Day

How High the Moon – Les Paul and Mary Ford

Friday song of the day: Today’s song became the tune most often associated with this musical legend.




Les Paul was a genius. It is impossible to overstate his importance to music in the Twentieth Century and beyond. Simply put, much of today’s music would not exist if not for the many innovations of Les Paul. Starting in his teens, he tinkered with ways of amplifying guitars, and his work helped perfect the solid-body electric guitar, leading of course to the famous Gibson Les Paul guitar. He also originated numerous electronic effects, recording techniques, and recording hardware, including phase-shifting, multitrack recording, delay, and close-miking.

In addition to his endless tinkering, he was a professional musician for over eighty years, starting in the 1920s as a teenager from Waukesha, Wisconsin (originally using his birth name Lester Polsfuss, but soon shortening it to Les Paul) and continuing until his death in 2009. His commercial peak was in the 1940s and 1950s, when he had numerous hits, including 19 records that reached the Top 10.

One of these was How High the Moon, which he recorded with his wife, singer Mary Ford. The song was written in 1940 by Morgan Lewis and Nancy Hamilton, and had been recorded by several artists, including Benny Goodman and Ella Fitzgerald. Les had recorded a version himself in 1945 with The Les Paul Trio. The definitive version, however, came in 1951 when he and Mary Ford recorded it for Capitol Records. This version showcased many of his innovations, including multitrack recording to make Mary Ford’s voice sound like an entire vocal group (a technique later famously used by Queen to great effect, particularly on Bohemian Rhapsody.), phase-shifting, delay and other effects added to Les Paul’s guitar. In all, the recording of How High the Moon consisted of 24 parts, twelve for guitar and twelve for Mary Ford’s singing.

How High the Moon was released as a single and went all the way to #1, a position it held for nine straight weeks. Over the years it became one of Paul’s signature songs and is recognized as a landmark in musical history. The recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1979, and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recognized How High the Moon on its list of Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. As for Les Paul himself, his accomplishments are far too numerous to list. Suffice it to say that he is the only person to have been inducted into both The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame. I highly recommend watching the documentary The Wizard of Waukesha for a glimpse into his monumental contributions to music and technology.

Audio 1951


View: https://youtu.be/DLweGCkQcOg


Les Paul and Mary Ford on Omnibus, Oct 23rd, 1953 (a performance of How High the Moon begins at the 5:11 mark)


View: https://youtu.be/VCEmAgak9V8


Tomorrow: Been playin’ since they’s babies
Les and Mary were wonderful together!
 

psychicdeath

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

Nashville Cats – The Lovin’ Spoonful

Saturday song of the day: Today’s song is a celebration of the Nashville music scene.




In 1966, The Lovin’ Spoonful were already a successful band, having had hits with Do You Believe in Magic, Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind, and most recently the #1 smash Summer in the City. Still, a recent trip to Nashville had left them in awe of the level of unknown talent in that city, prompting John Sebastian to write Nashville Cats, a hyperbolic description of the many excellent guitarists toiling away in the local music scene.

The song was included on their third album, Hums of The Lovin’ Spoonful, and in November 1966 was the third single released from that album. While not as iconic as Do You Believe in Magic or Summer in the City, Nashville Cats was a hit for the band, placing at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. While it did have pop success, songwriter Sebastian did regret that it wasn’t popular with the country music audience, saying “We thought our version would cross over to the country market. It never did. So we’re always kind, gee, well I guess that tells us what we are and what we aren’t.”

Legendary country artists Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs (Whose The Ballad of Jed Clampett, the theme from the TV show The Beverly Hillbillies, was song of the day for November 12th, 2014 here: The Ballad of Jed Clampett – Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs ) released a cover of the song in February 1967, however, and that version of Nashville Cats did crack the Country Music chart, reaching #54.

The Lovin’ Spoonful, 1966


View: https://youtu.be/9ZqgFyj5uTo


Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, 1967


View: https://youtu.be/nC8_YpYy80k


Tomorrow: He’s a faker of passion
 

psychicdeath

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

Irresistible – Stephanie

Sunday song of the day: Today’s song is what happens when royals get bored.




Princess Stephanie of Monaco is the daughter of Prince Rainier, the ruler of Monaco, and Princess Grace. (…you know, the former movie star Grace Kelly.) Her older brother Albert is the current ruler of Monaco, ascending to the throne in 2005 when their father passed away. Stephanie was the youngest of Rainier and Grace’s children and only 14th in line for the throne, so she has pursued various careers over the years to occupy her time. She was quite a successful fashion model and has been a clothing designer as well. In the 1980s, she decided to become a recording artist. With her name and position, it was quite easy for her to pull this off despite not having any talent to speak of. In 1986, she released her first album, titled Besoin, credited simply to Stephanie. Adding the “Princess” part would be crass. (Besides, it’s not like anyone buying the record wouldn’t know who she was…)

The first single from the album was Ouragan, which is the French word for “windstorm.” It was pretty standard Europop stuff. Stephanie sang softly and the musical arrangement covered her vocal deficiencies. Not that competent singing mattered all that much in the genre anyway, particularly when all that was required was a beautiful girl who was already a celebrity. Ouragan was a big hit in France and Germany. In France it was #1 for ten straight weeks. Overall, the record ended up selling over two million copies worldwide.

Another version of the song with new lyrics was released in English-speaking countries under the title Irresistible. Princess Stephanie’s appeal was far less in the UK and the United States than in Continental Europe. Irresistible topped out at #84 on the UK Singles chart and failed to chart at all in the United States.

The song also spawned a very silly music video. Well, two videos that were essentially the same except one used Ouragan and one used Irresistible. In it, Stephanie jet-setted all over – looking beautiful and following a stranger in a hat. At the end, the person in a hat turns out to be Princess Stephanie herself.

After the success of her first album, she immediately recorded another, titled simply Stephanie. It sat on the shelf for 5 years, however, and when released in 1991 it received negative reviews and sold poorly. Her musical career ended in 1992 when she guested on the Michael Jackson song In the Closet, credited only as “Mystery Girl.” It wasn’t revealed until a few years later that Mystery Girl was Princess Stephanie. Other than appearing as one of many performers on a 2006 charity single for AIDS, she has not recorded since.

Irresistible


View: https://youtu.be/zp5ojD736yY


Irresistible video


View: https://youtu.be/xe8k-5_SyVg


Ouragan


View: https://youtu.be/yCfjWkN-gOw


Tomorrow: I said no one could take your place
 

psychicdeath

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

Right Back Where We Started From – Maxine Nightingale

Monday song of the day: Today’s song was written on a drive to the hospital.




When he was working on the song Fool by Al Matthews in 1975, J. Vincent Edwards heard backing singer Maxine Nightingale’s voice and decided he should write a song for her. He and the producer of Fool, Pierre Tubbs, arrived at the title Right Back Where We Started From for the new song, and wrote lyrics for it on a 7-minute drive to the hospital where Tubbs’ wife was about to give birth. For the music, Edwards used a tune he had written a few years before.

Right Back Where We Started From was an upbeat pop song with disco influences, about a woman trying to rekindle a stagnant relationship. Maxine Nightingale recorded the song and it was released in England in late 1975 and was immediately popular in dance clubs. It made it to #8 on the UK singles chart before the record label decided to release the single in the United States. The US release was in January 1976, and the song peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.


View: https://youtu.be/JoI7MLxGRjQ


Maxine Nightingale on the Dutch show Top Pop, May 28th, 1976


View: https://youtu.be/_bna2ni6h4c


Tomorrow: It burns you when it’s hot