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psychicdeath

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

The Letter – The Box Tops

Monday song of the day: The first line of today’s song was suggested by the songwriter’s father.




Wayne Carson constructed the song The Letter based on the line “Give me a ticket for an aeroplane” suggested by his father. From that line, he built a song on the premise that the singer wants to quickly fly back to see a former love, who had sent him a letter saying that she wanted him back. Carson recorded a demo tape of that and other songs, which he gave to studio owner Chips Moman. Moman liked The Letter and suggested it for a group called The DeVilles, who had a new lead singer, sixteen-year-old Alex Chilton.

The record’s producer, Dan Penn, suggested to Chilton that he exaggerate the pronunciation of aeroplane and that he sing with a fairly gruff voice. He later said that Chilton “picked it up exactly as I had in mind, maybe even better. I hadn’t even paid any attention to how good he sang because I was busy trying to put the band together.” It all seemed to work well.

Before the record was released in August 1967, the band’s name was changed from The DeVilles to The Box Tops. The Letter was a hit, and rose to the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, where it stayed for four weeks. The single sold over four million copies and ended up as the number 2 song for the entire year.


View: https://youtu.be/pyq3PUTnpd0


The Box Tops on the TV show Upbeat, 1967


View: https://youtu.be/HIWY8UyW9bw


Tomorrow: It isn’t easy, but I’ll try
 

psychicdeath

Member
Jan 21, 2015
955
1,521

To Sir, With Love – Lulu

Tuesday song of the day: Today’s song is the theme from a classic movie.




I noted in yesterday’s song, The Letter, that it was the #2 selling song of 1967. Naturally, that made me curious about what song was #1 for the year. Given that it was 1967, I guessed it might be something by the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. As it turns out, it wasn’t a tune from any of the stereotypical 1960s bands. The number one song from 1967 was To Sir, With Love, by the Scottish singer Lulu.

Lulu (born Marie Lawrie) began her recording career in 1964, and had a few hits in the UK, but had not really cracked the U.S. market yet. She was cast in a supporting role in the Sidney Poitier film, To Sir, With Love, and was also selected to sing the film’s theme song. The movie was very popular, and the theme song even more so. Oddly, the song was initially released as the B-side to The Boat That I Row, but US disc jockeys preferred the film theme and gave it heavy airplay, making To Sir, With Love a huge hit.

The song, written by Don Black and Mark London, was ostensibly about one of the students taught by Poitier’s character – a high school teacher – thanking him for his mentorship. Lulu delivered a powerful performance, and the song was an international hit. To Sir, With Love rose to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and stayed atop the chart for five weeks. As mentioned, it ended up as the top-selling song of 1967.


View: https://youtu.be/kE3OpWcD_fM


Tomorrow: Leave the lights on
 

Yossarian

TMMAC Addict
Oct 25, 2015
13,489
19,127
How to post a vidya these days?? Everything worked so great on this site. This new setup is sketchy.
 

psychicdeath

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

Last Song – Edward Bear

Wednesday song of the day: Today’s song became a local Detroit hit without having been released in the United States.




Canadian band Edward Bear released their third album in 1972, and the first single was Last Song, a tune about the singer missing a lost love, but at the same time being tired of waiting for her return. It was released in Canada, but not in the United States, so it was almost entirely unknown in the U.S. market.

The exception was in Detroit. Windsor, Ontario is just across the river from Detroit, and Windsor radio station CKLW was very popular in the Southeast Michigan area. CKLW began playing Last Song, and it gained an audience across the river. Unfortunately, with the record not available in Detroit stores, it was hard to convince the United States division of Capitol Records that it would sell well to U.S. audiences. To get around this, Bill Bannon from Capitol Records, Canada drove from Windsor to Detroit with his car’s trunk full of Last Song singles, which he gave to record stores in Detroit for free. They sold well, and this helped convince the label to release the song in the United States, and it soon took off across the country.

Eventually, Last Song became a big hit, placing at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and selling well over a million copies. Edward Bear’s follow-up single, Close Your Eyes, peaked at #37. With a second Top 40 hit, this prevented the band from being a one-hit wonder. They had a few more hits in Canada before disbanding in 1974, but today are pretty much unknown in the States other than for those who remember Last Song.


View: https://youtu.be/ch_Fb0AnzC0


Tomorrow: But words for you are lies
 

psychicdeath

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

Harden My Heart – Quarterflash

Thursday song of the day: No, today’s song was not recorded by Pat Benatar.




Marv and Rindy Ross were a husband and wife team who made up the core of Seafood Mama, a band finding some success in the Portland, Oregon scene during the late 1970s. Marv played guitar and Rindy played saxophone and sang. In 1980, the existing Seafood Mama broke up, and Marv and Rindy formed a new version of the band with themselves and a few former members of fellow Portland band Pilot. Initially, the new incarnation of the band continued calling itself Seafood Mama. Shortly after the change in personnel, they released a single of Harden My Heart, a song about a woman preparing to leave her toxic boyfriend. The record was a local hit and Portland television station KOIN aired a one-hour special on the band, Seafood Mama in Concert, in June 1980. The record never broke out of the local market, however.

The next year, the band renamed itself as Quarterflash and signed a deal with Geffen Records. Their first single was a re-recorded version of Harden My Heart, released in September 1981. The new version was a little punchier, and with Geffen’s marketing department behind it, the song became a hit nationwide, and then internationally. It eventually reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and sold well over a million copies. It also helped the band’s debut album, Quarterflash, go Platinum. Quarterflash went on to have a few more hits in the early 1980s, but then disbanded in 1985.

Since Harden My Heart felt a little like some of Pat Benatar’s hits, and with Rindy Ross having a fairly similar voice, many people assume that Harden My Heart is a Pat Benatar song. Over the years the mistake has been repeated on several websites, but the reality is that Benatar had nothing to do with the song.

Quarterflash, 1981


View: https://youtu.be/CilnL5w_kC8


Quarterflash video


View: https://youtu.be/OqeKV2UYq1Q


Seafood Mama, 1980


View: https://youtu.be/PmqGAQxiyIU


Tomorrow: I’m gonna put on my walkin’ shoes
 

psychicdeath

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

Tired of Toein’ the Line – Rocky Burnette

Friday song of the day: Today’s song is from a second-generation Rockabilly artist.




Rocky Burnette’s father was the early Rock and Roll singer Johnny Burnette, who had several hits in the early 1960s. Rocky acknowledged this fact when he released his first album in 1979, naming it The Son of Rock and Roll. The first single from the album was Tired of Toein’ the Line. Like yesterday’s song, Harden My Heart, it was about someone making the decision to leave their lover, who doesn’t treat them right. The difference is that Tired of Toein’ the Line is from the man’s perspective and is a much more upbeat song than Harden My Heart.

Burnette’s song was an early example of the rockabilly revival that became popular for a while in the 1980s, with the Stray Cats and The Fabulous Thunderbirds being other examples. Tired of Toein’ the Line was released in May 1980 and proved to be a hit. It rose to #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This tied the chart position of his father’s biggest hit, Johnny Burnette’s You’re Sixteen, which also peaked at #8 in 1960.

Rocky’s first hit was his only one, however. He never again had another song crack the Top 40. His only other song to chart at all was the follow up single, Fallin’ In Love (Bein’ Friends), which topped out at #109 later in 1980. Despite the lack of further hits, Burnette has continued performing ever since, either as a solo act or with others.


View: https://youtu.be/zU3bRGmdEz8


Video


View: https://youtu.be/2Z6RRlJPGJ0


Tomorrow: Eyes that sparkle and shine
 

psychicdeath

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

You’re Sixteen – Johnny Burnette

Saturday song of the day: Today’s song hit the Top Ten twice.




As mentioned in yesterday’s discussion of Rocky Burnette’s Tired of Toein’ the Line, his father Johnny Burnette had several hits in the early 1960s. The biggest of these was You’re Sixteen in 1960. Johnny Burnette performed throughout the 1950s and up until his death in 1964, sometimes as part of The Rock and Roll Trio with his brother Dorsey Burnette, and sometimes solo. He didn’t have a national hit until 1960, when Dreamin’ hit #11.

The follow-up to that record was You’re Sixteen, a love song to a high school girl. While an adult (Burnette was 26 years old at the time) singing about a teenager is pretty creepy by today’s standards, in context it’s pretty innocent. By far the biggest audience for rock and roll in 1960 was teenagers, so a lot of songs were created specifically to appeal to them. Obviously, songs about teenage love would be big, so while Burnette (or Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, or whoever) was an adult, the protagonist of the song was another teenager singing about his high school love. In effect, he and others were playing the part of much younger characters.

You’re Sixteen was released in October 1960 and proved to be a hit, rising to #8 on the Hot 100. He had two more Top 20 hits before he was killed in 1964 in a boating accident at the age of 30.

Years after Johnny Burnette had a hit with it, former Beatle drummer Ringo Starr recorded a cover version. When the Beatles broke up in 1970, Ringo embarked on a solo career, and had three Top Ten hits, including the #1 hit Photograph, before releasing You’re Sixteen in 1973. His cover of the Johnny Burnette hit also went to #1 on the Hot 100 chart. Five years later, in 1978, Ringo released a video of the song, with Carrie Fisher playing the part of the girl in the song.

Johnny Burnette, 1960


View: https://youtu.be/sYT6eRx84GQ


Ringo Starr, 1973


View: https://youtu.be/6hv1GSTR-JE


Ringo’s 1978 video


View: https://youtu.be/8ainB6qnWBI


Tomorrow: And then he walked out
 

psychicdeath

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

Love on a Two-Way Street – The Moments

Sunday song of the day: The original singer of today’s song claims that she was wrongly denied songwriting credit for her contribution to the lyrics.




Vocal group The Moments had a big hit in 1970 with the song Love on a Two-Way Street, but they were not the originators of the song. It was written two years earlier for another artist. Sylvia Robinson, the co-owner of All Platinum Records, had the idea for the song, based on a line that came to her, “Love on a two-way street, lost on a lonely highway.” Musician Bert Keyes and singer Lezli Valentine were present, and according to Valentine, all three contributed to the song, with Keyes writing the music, and Valentine writing the majority of the lyrics. When completed, they recorded the song, with Lezli Valentine singing.

Love on a Two-Way Street was released as a single in 1968 but didn’t sell very well. Songwriting was credited to Sylvia Robinson and Bert Keyes. According to Valentine, Robinson altered the lead sheet to remove her from the songwriting credit (and thus royalties).

On a failed single, this would cut Lezli Valentine out of some money, but not a huge amount. That wasn’t the end of the story, however. Robinson still felt the song had promise, so she had The Moments record it for their 1969 album, Not on the Outside, But on the Inside, Strong! The album was released on the Stang Records label, which was a subsidiary of All Platinum. Initially, the song was just an album track, but several months later, in March 1970, it was released as a single. This time Love on a Two-Way Street was a hit, staying at #1 on the Soul Singles chart for five weeks, and peaking at #3 on the overall Billboard Hot 100 chart. In the process it sold over a million copies. Valentine not having a share of the royalties became much more significant then.

Even after the Moments record had run its course, the song continued to generate revenue for Robinson and Keyes, but not Valentine. Several years later, teenage singer Stacy Lattisaw recorded a cover version. Her 1981 recording of Love on a Two-Way Street was a minor hit, placing at #26 on the Billboard Hot 100. Valentine lost out on even more money from royalties when Jay-Z heavily sampled the Moments version of Love on a Two-Way Street to create his 2009 recording Empire State of Mind with Alicia Keys.

The Moments, 1970


View: https://youtu.be/M5Dv37R6ATo


Lezli Valentine, 1968


View: https://youtu.be/_nOajAt7LSE


Stacy Lattisaw, 1981


View: https://youtu.be/VTiOUS0nSMY


Tomorrow: Floating weightless
 

psychicdeath

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

Major Tom (Coming Home) – Peter Schilling

Monday song of the day: Today’s song is a “sequel” to a song by another artist.




In 1969, David Bowie released the single Space Oddity, which told the story of fictional astronaut Major Tom. In the song, Major Tom launches into space and there is an accident which prevents his return and dooms Major Tom to eternally float off into space. The song was a hit in England and some other countries, but only placed at #124 on the United States singles charts. It was re-released in 1973 when Bowie’s career was exploding in the U.S. and this time became his first major hit in the States, peaking at #15 on the Billboard Hot 100. Eventually it became one of Bowie’s most iconic hits.

In 1980, Bowie released Ashes to Ashes, which again referenced Major Tom. A German artist, Peter Schilling, released his own unofficial sequel to Space Oddity a few years later. Although he denied at the time that the Major Tom character in his song was based on Bowie’s creation, he later admitted that, yes, it was meant to be a continuation of Space Oddity. The song was Major Tom (Völlig Losgelöst), and it was in German. “Völlig Losgelöst” translates to “totally disconnected.” Released in January 1983, it told of a failed mission in which an accident on reentry apparently sends Major Tom to his death, Later in the song it is revealed that he faked his death and is now going further into space, which he considers his new home.

The song was a big hit, reaching #1 in the German-speaking countries of West Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. In September, Schilling released an English version of the song, entitled Major Tom (Coming Home), on his first English-language album Error in the System. The English version was an international hit, including the United States, where it peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Since then, Schilling has released updated and remixed versions several times, in 1994, 2000, and 2003.

Major Tom (Coming Home)


View: https://youtu.be/Ggkaj2lRPuM


Official video


View: https://youtu.be/wO0A0XcWy88


Major Tom (Völlig Losgelöst)


View: https://youtu.be/LsVQEMWs6qE


Tomorrow: I’m savin’ my love for you