The song for today is a familiar one, despite its age. The reason I pick this one is to remember one of the greats who passed away on this day in 1971. Perhaps you don’t know him by his real name, Curtis Montgomery, or his adopted name Curtis Ousley. If you are a music lover, I would hope that you are familiar with his stage name – King Curtis. He was one of the all time great saxophonists and had quite a career.
Curtis began playing saxophone at age twelve and liked a variety of music. He turned down college scholarships to join up with the legendary Lionel Hampton band where he wrote and arranged music. In the early 1950’s he left the band to go to New York. He became an on call session musician for labels like Atco, Prestige, and Capitol Records. He recorded with Clyde McPhatter, Bobby Darin, Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, Andy Williams and was on Waylon Jennings first record. He also made his own records like “Soul Twist” (with his Noble Knights) in 1962.
In 1967, Aretha Franklin covered Otis Redding’s Respect by flipping the gender and presenting it from the female point of view. The song featured Aretha’s sisters, Erma and Carolyn on the repeated “sock it to me” line and King Curtis on the saxophone solo.
In February of 1971, John Lennon started recording tracks for his Imagine album. When Lennon, Yoko Ono and Phil Specter were mixing and finishing the album, John must have felt that he needed something more on a couple tracks. Apple’s Allen Steckler said, “John knew he wanted a sax player and it was his idea to use King Curtis. He asked me to get him. I found his agent and booked him. John played him the tracks and told him the kind of feel he wanted. He went into the studio and played his ass off. John loved it, as did Phil Spector and all of us.“
Curtis recorded his parts for the album in July of 1971. He can be heard on Lennon’s “I Don’t Want to Be a Soldier Mama” and “It’s So Hard.”
Long before all of that, Curtis decided to move towards playing rhythm and blues in part because it was a more lucrative career choice, but he also loved the music. It was in 1958 that he became widely known for his unique saxophone work when he played on The Coasters hit “Yakety Yak.” The sound that Curtis unleashed earned him some fame and influenced the sound of R&B the saxophone. He developed a strong relationship with The Coasters, becoming their go to sax man and contributing to arrangements as well on a string of hits that included “Charlie Brown,” “Along Came Jones,” “Shoppin’ For Clothes,” and more.
Saxophonist Boots Randolph was so influenced by the “Yakety Yak” solo that he altered the melody a bit and made it his own song called “Yakety Sax” (which played prominently on the Benny Hill Show). That song only further exposed the King Curtis sound.
On the night of August 12, 1971, Curtis was attempting to access the fuse box to his house (his central air conditioning system was tripping the breaker) when he confronted Juan Montanez, who was loitering on Curtis’s front steps with an unidentified female. A fight ensued and Montanez stabbed him. Curtis was found on the steps outside his apartment and was taken to New York’s Roosevelt Hospital where he died early on the morning of August 13, 1971. He was 37 years old.
So today, on the 53rd anniversary of his passing, check out the great King Curtis with the Coasters on the classic, “Yakety Yak.”
Welcome back to The Music of My Life, where I feature ten songs from each year of my life. In most cases, the ten songs I choose will be ones I like personally (unless I explain otherwise). The songs will be selected from Billboard’s Year-end Hot 100 Chart, Acclaimed Music, and will all be released in the featured year. I turned two in 1972, so what songs were influencing my tiny ears? Let’s find out.
By March of 1972, Badfinger was enjoying the success of their fourth album, Straight Up. Baby Blue was their last top 20 single. It reached number 14 on the charts. Todd Rundgren produced the song. Younger folks remember this song from the 2013 series finale of Breaking Bad.
Baby Blue
In April of 1972, the Hollies had a hit that was a film noir story set to music. Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress features an FBI agent, a bar filled with criminals and a 5’9″ beauty. Songfacts.com says: This tale of a government agent and a femme fatale contains one of the classic indecipherable lyrics in rock history. The part after “she was a long cool woman in a black dress” is “just a 5′ 9″ beautiful tall.”
The song should have been a number one, but Alone Again Naturally by Gilbert O’Sullivan prevented it from grabbing the top spot.
Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress
One of the biggest films of the year was The Godfather. The Love Theme from The Godfather is instantly recognizable. The music was composed by Nino Rota and most folks are familiar with the instrumental version. A lyricist named Larry Kusik actually wrote words to the song and it was recorded by Andy Williams under the title Speak Softly Love.
While it only reached number 34 on the charts, personally, I found the arrangement of this simply beautiful. Andy’s vocal is great, but give it a listen and just focus on the instrumentation of the orchestra.
Speak Softly Love
Three days after my second birthday, The Looking Glass released Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl). The story of the barmaid who serves the many sailors was from the band’s debut album and the song went to number one. The song was so popular that the US Social Security Administration saw a large increase in baby girls with that name in 1973.
This was not typical of the band’s sound, which caused a problem at concerts. While audiences expected pop songs like this one, the Looking Glass played rock, which left the crowds disappointed. The band broke up less than two years later.
Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)
Also in May of 1972, the world was introduced to a little band known as The Eagles. The story behind their debut single Take it Easy is a great one. Here is the short version from Songfacts.com:
Jackson Browne started writing “Take It Easy” for his first album, but he didn’t know how to finish it. At the time, he was living in an apartment in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles, and his upstairs neighbor was Glenn Frey, who needed songs for his new band – the Eagles.
Frey heard Browne working on the song (he says that he learned a lot about songwriting by listening to his downstairs neighbor work), and told Jackson he thought it was great. Browne said he was having trouble completing the track, and played what he had of it. When he got to the second verse, Frey came up with a key lyric: “It’s a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowing down to take a look at me.”
Browne turned the song over to Frey, who finished writing it and recorded it with the Eagles, who used it as the first song on their first album, and also their first single. Frey says Browne did most of the work on the song and was very generous in sharing the writing credit. He described the unfinished version of the song as a “package without the ribbon.”
Take It Easy
1972 introduced us to another new artist – Jim Croce. “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” was his first single. After several years struggling for success and battling music industry politics, the song got the promotion it deserved when a rep at ABC/Dunhill named Matty Singer visited radio stations in the Philadelphia area to promote the song. It got solid airplay and national attention, which was followed by lots of positive press for the album. You Don’t Mess Around With Jim wasn’t released until nine months after it had been recorded, so Croce and his musical partner Maury Muehleisen had perfected the songs in performance, earning rave reviews.
You Don’t Mess Around With Jim
Here’s a story for you – The King of Rock and Roll was actually prevented from hitting the number one spot in 1972 by the Granddaddy of Rock and Roll. Yep, Burning Love reached number two on the charts while Chuck Berry held the number one spot with “My Ding-A-Ling!” Urgh!
Burning Love was the final Top 10 hit in the American Hot 100 or pop charts for Elvis. The electric guitar opening and riffs were overdubbed and played by Dennis Linde, the writer of the song. He performed the song in the concert movie Elvis on Tour, and because the song was still new to him, you can see him holding a sheet of paper with the lyrics on it.
Burning Love
In October of 1972, Motown’s of Stevie Wonder released on of my all time favorite songs. When some music bloggers were doing a “Song Draft” I actually picked Superstition as one of my songs. You can read that blog here:
In September of 1972, Johnny Rivers released a cover of Huey “Piano” Smith’s 1957 song, Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu. In the late 50’s the country was hit with the Asian Flu, also called the “walking pneumonia.” The title of the song is a play on this. Johnny’s version did much better than Huey’s version. Huey didn’t even get into the top 40 (it peaked at 52), while Johnny had a top ten (peaking at 6). Playing piano on Johnny’s version was none other than the Wrecking Crew’s Larry Knechtel.
Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu
My final song from 1972 is a funky jam. There is so much that I love about Use Me by Bill Withers. The song was released on his Still Bill album. It has such a neat syncopated percussion line that interplays with the rest of the instruments and Bill’s vocal. Again, there is a great story about the writing of the song. It seems a lot of women were telling him he was just “too nice” and he wanted to change that. Bill said in an interview:
That’s fun stuff. That’s just talkin’ trash. That’s just a song about being a little playful, a little arrogant and a little cool. Unless you were one of those people that were born popular, I was a chronic stutterer until I was twenty-eight. I avoided the phone. So I wasn’t this popular guy. I remember being young and I would have girls tell me, “You’re too nice.” I didn’t understand that.
What kind of twisted world are we in? Women like bad boys, I guess. There is no more confusing form of rejection than for somebody to tell you that you’re not interesting to them because you’re too nice.
So over the course of time, you say okay, you wanna play, okay, let’s play? Use Me taps into that. I tried to be nice, now let’s get nasty. That song came quick. I was working in McDonnell Douglas out in Long Beach and the noise of the factory, they had some women working there. I crossed that line there thinking, “You all want a nasty boy? Well here I come.” [laughs]
Use Me
I hope you enjoyed my picks. What 1972 tunes were your favorites?
My friend, Eric, was the choir director at my high school. While I was never in choir, music brought us together. We played many Easter services together, he matches with the alumni band, and he even provided music at my first marriage.
Every day on Facebook, he will play a song on his piano. Selections vary from classical to jazz to pop. He is currently playing a series of ballads.
Last night he played “Speak Softly Love.”. You may know it as the Love Theme from The Godfather. It was a huge song for Andy Williams. It reminded me of a version I was introduced to by my brother.
I had never heard of Petrizio Buanne. My brother shared his first album with me and I loved it. He covers the Godfather tune, entitled “Parla Piu Piano.”. Sung in Italian, it sounds SO good!
I figured I have been so focused on books lately, it was time to once again share some music. Here are all three versions of the song. Enjoy.
Once again, Dave from A Sound Day has asked some of us music lovers to participate in another round of Turntable Talk. This time around was a bit of a challenge for me. Dave’s e-mail stated:
“Put your thinking caps on and go through your stacks of records (or scroll thru that I-pod) and … come up with what you think the best year for music was. A tough call of course, thankfully there have been more than a few good ones! I’m interested in what you pick and don’t worry if yours duplicates someone else’s , you still have your reasons which might be different.” He goes on to say, “I think I have a guess on a couple of years that might come up more than once, but we’ll wait and see.”
This particular blog will be one of the last ones to be featured and I do not know if my year will be or has been featured. I plan on writing this KNOWING that the year I have chosen very well may be one that comes up in another post. Before I tell you the year I picked, let me tell you that I had a very difficult time narrowing it down.
My first thought was to go with 1956/1957 because those years were always so unique. You had the birth of rock and roll mixing with pop standards. When I worked at Honey Radio, I loved doing the Top 12 at 12 show when those years popped up because there was such a big variety in what was played. You could go from Elvis or Jerry Lee Lewis to Pat Boone or Nelson Riddle. When I looked at the list of songs, however, were they really the BEST? No.
The same thing can be said for some of the years in the 70’s decades. I looked through many lists and while there were many great songs, there were also a lot of really crappy songs! I just couldn’t really come up with the conviction to pick a year in that decade as the BEST.
One year kept coming up every time I started thinking about it – 1964.
I want you to know before I continue that I was dead set AGAINST 1964 when I read Dave’s e-mail. Why? Well, I felt that it would just be too Beatle heavy and loaded with British Invasion stuff. And it is. On the Top 100 Chart, The Fab Four nabbed 9 spots. 18 spots were held by other British Invasion acts. In total 27% of the Top 100 were British acts. When I really looked at the chart, the more and more I felt like this WAS the year.
1964 really was the year of the Beatles, so let’s discuss them first. They were present almost right from the start as their “Introducing The Beatles” album was released in America on January 10th of that year.
This album preceded Capitol Records “Meet the Beatles” by 10 days and there was a lawsuit surrounding that whole issue. Capitol Records won an injunction and Vee-jay Records was not allowed to put out any more Beatles recordings.
In February of 1964, the Beatles arrived in the US and appeared on Ed Sullivan’s show three times (2/9, 2/16, and 2/23). In March of 64, Billboard magazine stated that the Beatles were responsible for 60% of all single record sales! In a feat that has yet to be matched, on April 4, 1964, the Beatles held the Top 5 spots on the Billboard chart!
A week later, the boys held 14 spots on the Hot 100 Chart! That broke the previous record of 9 spots held by Elvis Presley in 1956.
In May, The Beatles Second Album was released and in July, they would release A Hard Day’s Night in theaters. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” wound up being the #1 song for the whole year of 64 (“She Loves You” was #2) To say that they played a small part in the music of 1964 would be a huge understatement.
Among the other artists that came over from “across the pond” in 64 were Manfred Mann (Do Wah Diddy Diddy), Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas (Little Children and Bad to Me), The Dave Clark Five (Glad All Over, Because, Do You Love Me), Peter and Gordon (A World Without Love), The Animals (House of the Rising Son), The Honeycombs (Have I The Right), Dusty Springfield (Wishin’ and Hopin’), Gerry & The Pacemakers (Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying and How Do You Do It), Chad and Jeremy (A Summer Song), The Kinks (You Really Got Me), and the Searchers (Don’t Throw Your Love Away and Needles and Pins). It is interesting to note that the Rolling Stones debut album was released this year, but no songs appear in the Top 100 for the year.
Once you move away from the British artists, the chart has a nice variety of pop, rock, folk, country, soul, and even a few novelty songs. I think that is what made me ultimately choose this particular year.
It was nice to look over the Top 100 and see Motown represented with some classics. The Supremes hold two of the six Motown songs (Where Did Our Love Go and Baby Love), Motown was female heavy as Mary Wells (My Guy) and Martha and the Vandellas (Dancin’ In The Street) grabbed the next two spots, and the male gender was represented by The Four Tops (Baby I Need Your Loving) and The Temptations (The Way You Do The Things You Do).
While they were not “oldies” at the time, there were some classic songs that are still in hot rotation today on the oldies stations across the country. Roy Orbison had a smash with Pretty Woman in 64, and also had a hit with It’s Over. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons grabbed three of the Top 100 with Rag Doll, Dawn and Ronnie. The Beach Boys only entry in the Top 100 was I Get Around.
1964 brought us classics like The Drifters Under The Boardwalk, Chapel of Love by the Dixie Cups, Suspicion by Terry Stafford, It Hurts to Be In Love from gene Pitney and Come A Little Bit Closer by Jay and the Americans. Johnny Rivers had a hit with Chuck Berry’s Memphis, Bobby Freeman invited us to C’mon and Swim, Detroit’s Reflections offered up Just Like Romeo and Juliet and the Shangri-Las told us the story of the Leader of the Pack.
Car songs were well represented in 64! Ronny and the Daytonas had GTO, while the Rip Chords sang Hey Little Cobra, and the Hondells had Little Honda. Jan and Dean told us the stories of The Little Old Lady from Pasadena and Dead Man’s Curve, while J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers told us the tragic story of a Last Kiss.
Soul music is represented by The Impressions (I’m So Proud and Keep on Pushing), Joe Hinton (Funny How Time Slips Away), The Tams (What Kind of Fool Do You Think I Am), Jimmy Hughes (Steal Away) and Nancy Wilson (How Glad Am I). If you throw Blues into the “Soul” mix, the great Tommy Tucker song “Hi Heel Sneakers” was out in 1964.
Instrumentally, Al Hirt had a monster hit with Java, The Ventures had Walk Don’t Run 1964, The Marketts had The Outer Limits, and Robert Maxwell had the incredibly cheesy lounge version of Shangri-la. While novelty songs included Jumpin’ Gene Simmons (Haunted House), The Trashmen (Surfin’ Bird) and Roger Miller (Chug-a-Lug).
While Rock was dominant in 1964, there were still some pop (and even folk) songs that made the Top 100 – one of them, doing the “impossible.” Two of the biggest pop hits of the year couldn’t be more different from each other. The third biggest hit of the year belonged to Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong and his Dixieland hit “Hello, Dolly!” Barbra Streisand (who won Album of the year at the 1964 Grammy Awards) had the 11th biggest hit of the year with “People.”
Pop/Folk was also represented by Gale Garnett (We’ll Sing in the Sunshine), The Ray Charles Singers (Love Me With All Your Heart), Dionne Warwick (Walk On By), Al Martino (I Love You More and More Every Day), and Andy Williams (A Fool Never Learns). But the biggest surprise came from an artist who hadn’t had a top 40 record since 1958!
Dean Martin didn’t care for Rock and Roll. With the British Invasion in full swing, there was very little chance of him ever having another hit. His kids loved the new artists. His son, Dean Paul, loved the Beatles. Dean told his boy, “I’m gonna knock your pallies off the charts!” On August 15, 1964 – he did just that with a song that became his NEW theme song, “Everybody Loves Somebody.” (It replaced That’s Amore as his theme song)
The song knocked the beloved Beatles A Hard Day’s Night out of the number 1 spot! It went on to stay at #1 on the Pop Standards Singles Chart for 8 weeks. It also became the theme to his weekly television show in 1965.
I picked 1964 for a few reasons. Despite my initial worry about it being British act heavy, it was the year that introduced us to the Beatles (who changed the music scene forever!). It is also the year that one act held the top 5 spots on the charts (a record that remains in place). It is also the year that my favorite singer of all time bumped the biggest group in music out of the top spot.
It is also a year that encompasses such a vast variety of music. While there may be better songs that appeared before and after 1964, it truly represents a unique time in history. America was still recovering from the loss of a beloved president, there were still Civil Rights issues, and a war in Vietnam. The music of 1964 was a welcome escape from so many things.
Was it all good? No, and that is true of every year. However, as I look at the 100 biggest songs of the year, there are a lot of great songs that have gone on to become classics. There are so many songs that are still looked at as pivotal in the music scene. The fact that many of these songs are still getting airplay today is a statement to just how good they are.
Thanks again to Dave at a Sound Day for allowing me to be a part of this feature. I can only hope that my contribution is worthy of an invite to participate in the next round.
Tune Tuesday takes us back 50 years to 1969. It is a “One Hit Wonder” from the California band, The Spiral Starecase. The group was formed for an Air Force Talent contest. Originally, the group was called the Fydallions. When they signed with the Columbia record label, they were told to change their name. They chose the name of the movie The Spiral Staircase, but purposely misspelled it.
The song is the title track from their only album. Pat Upton (who was the lead vocalist and guitar player) wrote the song. The song reached #12 in the US, and was their biggest hit. The song has been covered by Andy Williams, Sonny and Cher, Lena Horne, Diana Ross, and Chicago. Despite the fact that they released a few other singles, the band eventually broke up due to “poor management” and bickering over finances.
The song, still sounds great today! It has great horns, a great vocal, and great lyrics! I love it because I can totally relate to song! I tell my wife almost daily that I love her “more today than yesterday,” and it is true! Give this a listen and enjoy!
More Today Than Yesterday
I don’t remember what day it was
I didn’t notice what time it was
All I know is that I fell in love with you
And if all my dreams come true
I’ll be spending time with you
Every day’s a new day in love with you
With each day comes a new way of loving you
Every time I kiss your lips my mind starts to wander
And if all my dreams come true
I’ll be spending time with you
Oh, I love you more today than yesterday
But not as much as tomorrow
I love you more today than yesterday
But, darling, not as much as tomorrow
Tomorrow’s date means springtime’s just a day away
Cupid, we don’t need ya now, be on your way
I thank the lord for love like ours that grows ever stronger
And I always will be true
I know you feel the same way too
Oh, I love you more today than yesterday
But not as much as tomorrow
I love you more today than yesterday
But only half as much as tomorrow
Every day’s a new day, every time I love ya
Every way’s a new way, every time I love ya
Every day’s a new day, oh, how I love ya
In order for my Christmas season to be “official”, I have to hear Bobby Helms “Jingle Bell Rock” in its entirety on the radio. I’m not sure why, it just has always been the song that I have associated with the holiday. Perhaps it was one of those songs that I remember hearing on the radio as a kid, I really don’t know. I just know that it is the song that says “It’s Christmas time, Keith.”
Let me say this: I love Christmas music. As a DJ, I have played countless Christmas parties and have a huge tub of Christmas CD’s. I have a huge variety of various formats: Country Christmas songs, Pop Christmas songs, Novelty Christmas songs, and more. One of the radio stations I work for is actually playing all Christmas music right now and I enjoy doing an on air shift there. All that being said, there are certain Christmas songs that I can do without! Today’s short blog is a commentary about some of those songs.
Please Stop Playing These
“I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas” – I don’t care whether this is the original version or one of the countless remakes. This song is just plain annoying. This song makes me want to drive off the road when I hear it. I cannot change the station fast enough when it comes on. I have yet to understand what is so appealing about this song!
ANYTHING by the Mannheim Steamroller. While I do appreciate improvisational music, there is nothing about their music that I find entertaining or worth listening to. Let’s face it, the synthesizer died in the 80’s …. let’s put these songs to bed, too.
“Jingle Bells” by the Singing Dogs. While we are at it, let’s add any Christmas songs done by cats, rabbits, ducks, ferrets, owls, pigs, or any other “musical animal”! Stop it! These awful songs deserve no place on the radio.
“Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” – It sucked when it first came out. I continues to suck. Why is ok to play this song, in which grandma is MURDERED by Santa’s sleigh, but people are offended by a song that was recorded YEARS before the phrase “date rape” was even uttered claiming that is what the song is about (“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” for those unaware of that controversy)?
“Mistletoe” by Justin Beiber. – It’s friggin’ Justin Beiber. That is reason enough!
Jingle Bell Rock by Hall and Oates. As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, the original is a classic and a must hear for me. I am not sure what it is about this version that makes me want to throw the radio out the window. It is awful! Perhaps it is just my love for the original that makes me hate this one so much, but probably not, as there are other versions of it that I like. To me, it’s like listening to cats puking…..hell, I’d actually rather listen to that, than to listen to this.
Christmas Wrapping – The Singing Waitresses. What the hell is this? I understand that the Spice Girls recorded this too and I can’t imagine their version being any better. This is probably the biggest waste of 3 minutes ever (with the exception of all Justin Beiber music). This song is in a “hot” rotation on Sirius XM’s Holly channel. This song needs to be go away forever! I want to wrap it up in toilet paper and flush it away!
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year – Andy Williams. It’s the most overplayed song of the season!! I don’t mind hearing it every so often, but every 20 minutes is a bit much.
I am a HUGE Beatles fan – but I have to admit that “Happy Christmas” by John Lennon and “Wonderful Christmastime” are, outside of the previously mentioned Andy Williams song, played to death. Yoko Ono singing on “Happy Christmas” is like fingernails on the chalkboard! God! Who ever told her she could sing – John, must have. As for Sir Paul, he probably could never record again and live off the royalties from just that song they play it so much. It’s not a bad song – neither of them are – they are just so overplayed!!!
ANYTHING by Pentatonix!!! I LOVE acapella music! I do. When voices blend in good harmony, it is something amazing. Check out Ricochet’s “Let It Snow” – it’s awesome! I am not sure if the Pentatonix stuff is just overproduced, but it just sounds wrong to me. Take the song Hallelujah…Rufus Wainwright’s version is perfect. This version doesn’t sound right from the first note. I guess this album is the “new” Bing Crosby album, as stores can’t seem to keep it in stock. Personally, I’ll pass.
Dominick, the Donkey. As an Italian, I am embarrassed by this song. Lou Monte is one of the great Italian singers. His song Lazy Mary was a hit and I danced with my grandmother to it at my first wedding. Sadly, more people know Lou because of this piece of crap, than his hits! Jingity jing….URGH! Do the entire Italian community a favor and don’t ever play this again!!!
These are just a few of the songs that drive me insane. I am sure if I sat and thought about it more, or just turned on the radio, I could list countless others. For now, I will let you add to this list. What Christmas songs do YOU hate and why? I look forward to reading your responses.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 