Turntable Talk #47 – Baby Come Back!

This piece was originally published on the A Sound Day website as a part of the feature: Turntable Talk.

My thanks to Dave from A Sound Day for inviting me to take part in his monthly feature, Turntable Talk. This is the 47th round of the feature and once again he has given us a great topic. This time around he is calling it “Baby Come Back!”

Dave’s instructions this month: “I’d just like you to pick an artist you enjoy that had a great comeback; whether it’s one you have come across historically or one that you loved in real time, thought had disappeared but happily – boing! – they were back and great again.”

When Dave reached out to us, I had just written about the passing of Neil Sedaka. He certainly falls into this category. I didn’t want to feel repetitive, so I opted not to write about him again. Instead, I chose someone who I have written about a few times and definitely saw his career take off – stall – and then have a resurgence. Today, I shift the spotlight to “The Big O,” Roy Orbison.

Roy Orbison is a rock and roll legend. I refuse to debate this. It is a fact. The Beatles and Elvis Presley (both legends in their own right) have stated on record that Roy was a major influence on their music. Roy’s music was different – it had its own style and a certain darkness to it. My first exposure to Roy Orbison was when I was about 4 or 5 years old.

I distinctively remember my dad having an album of Roy’s Greatest Hits. My favorite song as a kid was Dream Baby. I didn’t know that was the name of it at the time. I do know, however, that when I asked him to play it, I would ask for it by singing the opening bass line: “Daddy, play ‘boom boom boom, bum bum boom.’” I remember the first song on the album was Candy Man, which started with a harmonica. Coincidentally, that is the instrument Roy asked his parents for as a kid.

When asked he wanted for his sixth birthday, Roy told his parents he wanted a harmonica. Luckily for the music industry, his father bought him a guitar instead. While some stories differ, most biographies claim that Roy learned how to play from his father Orbie Lee Orbison. Some sources say that he learned from his Uncle Charlie, Orbie’s brother. Either way, he was taught how to play by family.

After graduating from high school in 1954, Roy enrolled at North Texas State College. His original plan was to study geology so he could secure work in the oil fields if music didn’t pan out. In his first year, he became bored with the course and switched to history and English.

While in college, Roy played music with fellow students Billy Pat Ellis, Dick Penner, and Wade Moore. They called themselves the Wink Westerners. Penner and Moore had written a simple, catchy rockabilly song, called “Ooby Dooby.” The song impressed Orbison, and he started looking into how he could make a recording of it. He heard that his schoolmate Pat Boon had been signed to a record deal, and it further strengthened his resolve to become a professional musician.

While playing a New Year’s Eve dance in 1954, Roy and the Wink Westerners had mostly played country and western swing music throughout the night. A decision was made to end the night by playing Bill Haley & The Comets’ song, “Shake, Rattle and Roll.” This would be the thing that caused the band to switch to rock and roll music.

The band began playing “Ooby Dooby” in their shows and because of their success, they got their own radio show on station KMID. In 1955, the band got their own TV show and artists came to play and sing on it. Among them, Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash.

Roy pulled Johnny aside and asked for advice. He wanted to know how to get a record released on the radio. Johnny suggested that he call Sam Phillips over at Sun Records in Memphis. Johnny gave Roy the number and sure enough Roy called. I am sure he was not expecting what happened. Sam Phillips answered the phone and after a brief conversation, Sam hung up on him, but not before telling Roy, “Johnny Cash doesn’t run my record company!”

In an ironic twist of fate, Roy eventually found a place to record and recorded “Ooby Dooby” with his band, now called the Teen Kings. The song was released in 1956 and Roy took it to a well known record dealer named Cecil “Poppa” Hollifield. He heard the song and immediately called a “connection” he had in Memphis and played him the record over the phone. His connection asked for a copy of the record, and three days later he called Poppa up to tell him he wanted the Teen Kings in Memphis in three days to record in his studio. That connection was none other than Sam Phillips of Sun Records!

His record deal put him out on tour with the likes of Johnny Cash, Faron Young, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Horton among others. In 1958, Roy was asked to tour with the Everly Brothers. During the tour, the Everly Brothers told Roy they needed a new single and asked if he had any songs. He picked up his guitar and sang the song Claudette. They liked it, and asked him to write down the words and chords. The song was the B-side of All I Have To Do Is Dream. Roy had some of his other songs recorded by artists like Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, and even Ricky Nelson.

In 1959, Roy was signed to an independent label called Monument. It was on this label that so many of Roy’s big hits were released, starting with Uptown. That was followed by Only The Lonely (which reached #2), Blue Angel, and I’m Hurtin’. What followed was Roy’s first #1 song, Running Scared.

Roy had hoped to change up the “pop” sound and try something different. They recorded the song twice and he was disappointed with the two takes, so they cut it again. Instead of using a falsetto voice, Roy sang the high natural A and nailed it. The accompanying musicians were awestruck and had never heard anything like it. Producer Fred Foster said “Nobody had ever hear anything like it before!”

What followed was four solid years of top 40 hits. Those hits included Crying, Candy Man, Dream Baby, Working for the Man, In Dreams, Pretty Paper, Leah, Blue Bayou, Mean Woman Blues, and Its Over. His success got him a spot opening up for some concerts in England. He was the opening act for a few guys who were known as The Beatles (they had yet to become a big thing in the US). The tour sold out in minutes, and on the first night of the show, they say that Roy played 14 encores before the Beatles ever got on stage!

In 1964, Roy recorded what is probably his biggest hit, Oh Pretty Woman. It would be his last big hit while at Monument records. How it came about is a story in itself. Touring hurt his personal life, and his wife Claudette began having an affair. One day while writing with songwriter Bill Dees, Claudette entered the room and said that she was going to Nashville. Roy asked her if she had any money, and Dee’s replied, “A pretty woman never needs any money.” With that phrase, and about 40 minutes, they wrote Oh, Pretty Woman, which went to number 1 in almost every country in the world.

The success of Oh, Pretty Woman was followed by a string of tragedies. In 1966, Claudette was killed when a pickup truck pulled out in front of her and she hit the door. She died instantly. Two years later, Roy was on a tour in England and he received a call that his home had burned down. As if that wasn’t enough bad news, he was also told that his two oldest sons were killed in the fire. He tried to cope by keeping himself busy with work. He starred in the film The Fastest Guitar Alive, which ended up being his only lead role. After that, Roy seemed to slip away from the spotlight.

Despite all that was going on in his life, Roy continued to make music in the 1970’s. It was during this time that his career really slowed. It was around this time that he started to wear his hair straight, instead of combing it back. He would wear it like this for the rest of his life. He did see some success when his single “Penny Arcade” was number one in Australia for many weeks and “Too Soon to Know” reached number three in England.

He continued to tour, but played to mostly empty auditoriums. This was the case with the concert at Cincinnati Gardens that he played on his 40th birthday in April 1976. This was a new low for Roy. In his book, Roy Orbison: Invention Of An Alternative Rock Masculinity, Peter Lehman stated that Orbison’s absence was a part of the mystery of his persona: “Since it was never clear where he had come from, no one seemed to pay much mind to where he had gone; he was just gone.”

In 1977, Roy was not feeling well, so he decided to spend the winter in Hawaii. Once there, he checked in to a hospital where testing discovered that he had severely obstructed coronary arteries and was lucky to be still alive. He underwent open-heart surgery on January 18, 1978. His medical history stated that he had suffered from duodenal ulcers since 1960 and had been a heavy smoker since he was young. The surgery was a success and Roy said that he felt great. His weight would continue to fluctuate, however, for the rest of his life. He also continued to smoke cigarettes, despite the advice of his doctor.

A decade later, in 1987, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Bruce Springsteen was there to do the induction honors. Bruce concluded his speech with a reference to his own album Born to Run: “I wanted a record with words like Bob Dylan that sounded like Phil Spector—but, most of all, I wanted to sing like Roy Orbison. Now, everyone knows that no one sings like Roy Orbison.” Roy was so touched by the speech, he asked Springsteen for a copy of it. He would go on to say of his induction that he felt “validated” by the honor. After the awards, Orbison signed with Virgin Records and began preparing to record an album of new songs.

Following his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Roy recorded a concert that would go air on television as a special. He had always wanted to do one and this special included some powerful special guests: Elvis Costello, k.d.Lang, Tom Waits, Bonny Raitt, Jennifer Warrens, Jackson Brown, and, of course, Bruce Springsteen. The special was called Roy Orbison and Friends – A Black and White Night Live. It was aired on cable and released on video and became one of Roy’s greatest concerts.

Roy had begun working with Jeff Lynne of ELO, who would produce his next album. Lynne had just completed production work on George Harrison’s Cloud Nine album. The three of them ate lunch together one day when Orbison accepted an invitation to sing on Harrison’s new single. They subsequently contacted Bob Dylan, who, in turn, allowed them to use a recording studio in his home. Along the way, Harrison made a quick visit to Tom Petty’s House to get his guitar; Petty and his band had backed Dylan on his last tour. By that evening, the group had written “Handle With Care.” The song and all that went into it led to the idea of recording an entire album together. They called themselves the Traveling Wilburys.

When Jeff Lynne described the recording sessions, he said, “Everybody just sat there going, ‘Wow, it’s Roy Orbison!’ … Even though he’s become your pal and you’re hanging out and having a laugh and going to dinner, as soon as he gets behind that [mic] and he’s doing his business, suddenly it’s shudder time.”

For the Wilburys album, Roy was given a solo track. The song was “Not Alone Anymore.” In reviews of the album, Roy’s contributions were highly praised by critics and fans alike. Because of this, he decided to pursue his second chance at stardom. He expressed amazement at his success: “It’s very nice to be wanted again, but I still can’t quite believe it.” He lost some weight to fit his new image and the constant demand of touring, as well as the newer demands of making videos.

In November of 1988, Roy put the finishing touches on the Mystery Girl album. It was co-produced by Jeff Lynne. It was set for release in 1989. This would be the “Return of Orbison!” There was to be a world tour to support the project. No one could have known that Roy would not be around to enjoy his comeback.

On December 6, 1988, Roy went to his mother’s house and chatted with his son Wesley. He went to the bathroom but did not return for 30 minutes. He was found collapsed on the bathroom floor and rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Roy never regained consciousness and passed away at age 52 of a heart attack.

I was still a senior in high school and I was going to WKSG to rip news and type up stories for the news director. I would stay till 6am and then head to school. I remember going to the Associated Press wire and seeing the “URGENT” breaking news that Roy had died. We were an oldies station and this was big news. I can still remember when we broke the news. It is one of those moments I will never forget.

You Got It (from the Mystery Girl album) was released after Roy’s death and reached the top 10. One of the coolest tributes to Roy was when the Traveling Wilburys released the song End of the Line. In the video, the group is on a train singing. When Roy’s vocal comes on, the camera is on a rocking chair in which Roy’s guitar is sitting. Next to it, is a framed photo of Roy. That scene will always give me chills.

One can only wonder what might have happened if Roy hadn’t passed away. Would the world tour have led to further chart success? Numerous new albums and singles? Perhaps another #1 record? The world will never know. However, Roy never really was forgotten.

On April 8, 1989, Orbison became the first deceased musician since Elvis Presley to have two albums in the US top five at the same time, with Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 at number four and his own Mystery Girl at number five.
In the early 1990s, Rodney Crowell and Roy’s friend and occasional songwriting partner Will Jennings wrote the lyrics to a recording of a melody that Orbison had made before his death. They titled the resulting song, which was recorded by Crowell and released in 1992, “What Kind of Love.”
In 2014, a demo recording of Orbison’s “The Way Is Love” was released as part of the 25th-anniversary deluxe edition of Mystery Girl. The song was originally recorded on a stereo cassette player around 1986. Roy’s sons contributed instrumentation on the track along with Orbison’s vocals.
On December 4, 2015, the studio album One of the Lonely Ones, recorded by Orbison in 1969, was posthumously released. The album, which Orbison recorded surreptitiously in the aftermath of his first wife Claudette’s death in a motorcycle accident and the death of their two sons in a house fire 2 years later, was long believed lost.

One of my favorite posthumous Orbison recording were released in 2017 and 2018. In 2017, the album A Love So Beautiful was released. It features archival vocal recordings of Orbison accompanied by new orchestral arrangements by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. I believe that these “new” recordings only add to the beauty of these hit songs. The addition of strings to In Dreams, Crying, It’s Over, Running Scared and Love Hurts only deepens the meaning and emotions of the songs. The addition of a horn section to Dream Baby and Mean Woman Blues only makes them sound more vibrant and full. A second album, Unchained Melodies, with the Royal Philharmonic was released in 2018.

To me, Roy Orbison will always be a legend. His music was one of a kind. Colin Escott wrote an introduction to Orbison’s biography published in a CD box set: “Orbison was the master of compression. Working the singles era, he could relate a short story, or establish a mood in under three minutes. If you think that’s easy—try it. His greatest recordings were quite simply perfect; not a word or note surplus to intention.” His style was like no one else. In the 60’s he said, “I’m not a super personality—on stage or off....People come to hear my music, my songs. That’s what I have to give them.” His vocals were indescribably beautiful, haunting, and amazing. Elvis Presley stated Orbison’s voice was the “greatest and most distinctive he had ever heard.” I would have to agree.

Thanks again to Dave for hosting another great round of Turntable Talk. I cannot wait to hear what we’re writing about next month. Thanks for reading!

Tune Tuesday – Ooby Dooby

It was on this day in 1987 that Roy Orbison got some friends together and recorded A Black and White Night. It would air on Cinemax in January of 1988.

The performance was recorded at the Ambassador Hotel’s Coconut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles California. It would include many of Roy’s early hits and, as the title suggests, it was filmed entirely in black and white.

Appearing with Roy or Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, JD Souther, Bonnie Raitt, Jennifer Warnes, and kd Lang. The performance was almost lost.

The following day in Los Angeles an earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale hit the Los Angeles area. The earthquake caused some of the chandeliers to fall on the master video that recorded the entire evening. Thankfully, after they went in to clear the debris, they found that no damage had been done to the recording. It remains one of the last, if not the last, of Roy’s performances as he passed away about 14 months later.

One of the things I love to see in this performance, is the respect and awe that the other performers felt. You can see that especially When Roy performs Ooby-Dooby. Bruce Springsteen for example not only looks like he’s having fun, but he almost can’t believe he’s performing with Roy Orbison.

The Music of My Life – Decade Extra – The 2000’s

This is sort of a continuation of the Music of My Life feature. It focused on music from 1970-2025. It featured tunes that have special meaning to me, brought back a certain memory or a tune that I just really like. I found that with the first three decades, there were songs that I didn’t feature. So I sat down with my original lists and selected some songs that “bubbled under,” so to speak.

I figured a good way to present them was to focus on a decade. 10 years = 1 song per year = 10 songs. Two weeks ago we finished looking at the 90’s. This we we’ll move to the 2000’s. So, let’s check out a few “Decade Extras.”

2000

I’m not sure why, but the more I listened to Barenaked Ladies The more I liked their stuff. It always seemed like they were having a good time and always like to have some tongue in cheek kind of lyrics. Pinch Me is no exception.

According to Songfacts, this song is one of the many that the band often change the lyrics to during live performances for comedic effect. Lyrics that are often changed include “And run through with my gym short on” replaced with “no clothing on,” “And change in to drier clothes” to “changing to my sister’s clothes.” When they were on tour with Alanis Morissette, the line was often changed to “change into Alanis’ clothes.”

In the third verse there is a classic schoolyard joke: “I could hide out under there – I just made you say underwear.” This caused a fan trend of throwing underwear on stage during live performances. When this happens, Robertson changes the line to “I just made you throw underwear.”

Bandmember Ed Robertson came up with the concept for the Philip Harder-directed music video, where he plays a fast food worker who daydreams an exciting life with restaurant patrons dancing all around him. One customer is played by Will & Grace actor Eric McCormack, a friend of the band who did the cameo free of charge. The story hit close to home for Robertson, who really did work at a Wendy’s back in the ’80s.

Pinch Me

2001

I suppose this is another one of those great Friday at 5 songs. I don’t know that I ever used it as one on my radio show, but it certainly could work. The song was previously recorded by The Ranch, a short-lived Country trio founded by Keith Urban. It was the Dixie Chicks, however, who would have a hit with Some Days You Gotta Dance.

Urban played guitar on their rendition, but according to Songfacts he kept the female trio waiting. The Australian country star recalled to Rolling Stone: “I got on a bit of a three-day bender and couldn’t come to the session and had to call them and tell them I’m going to be a bit late. Then I would call them and say I’m going to be a bit later. And then I would call them and be a bit later. And I completely missed the session. I lived like a street away. It was ridiculous. I could have walked there with my guitar in hand and I couldn’t make it. I remember just feeling so ashamed and disgusted at myself. I finally [showed up] the next day.”

“I think they brought in another guitarist that ghosted my playing, so I think there are two players on there,” Urban added. “I’m not sure how much of mine actually ended up on there.”

What amazes me about this song is that it was the eighth and final single from their Fly album! That is truly unheard of. At most, usually there are only four singles released from an album. I don’t deny that the album itself was one of the best released that year, but eight singles?!

The song peaked at #7 on the Country chart and #55 on the Hot 100. Is hard not to want to dance to this one.

Some Days You Gotta Dance

2002

As a radio DJ, you get a lot of requests. A lot of times it’s because someone loves a song, sometimes they want to dedicate a song, and sometimes they want to play it in remembrance of someone. It’s hard to believe today, but at one time the DJ was a friend who made their listener feel good with the songs that they played.

That is kind of the sentiment of Van Morrison in a song that not many people know. ‘Hey, Mr. DJ” is a song written by Van Morrison and recorded on his 2002 album, Down The Road. In the song, he pleads with the DJ to play a song that will “Make everything all right.” It was released as a single in the United Kingdom and charted at number fifty-eight.

The Rolling Stone reviewer, David Fricke said, “‘Hey Mr. DJ’ is a requiem for the one-on-one electricity of pre-Clear Channel radio, swinging with sweet brass and the iconic echo of Sam Cooke’s ‘Havin’ A Party.’

The song was originally recorded in 2000 with Linda Gail Lewis, intended for an album entitled Choppin’ Wood. Before the release of the album, Lewis’ contributions to the song were removed and string and vocal overdubs were added.

Hey Mr. DJ

2003

I remember the first time I played Clocks by Coldplay on the adult contemporary station I worked at. I was really hooked from that opening piano and even long after my shift I can remember that piano playing in my head as sort of an earworm.

According to Songfacts, lead singer Chris Martin wrote the lyrics and the piano riff for “Clocks” in 15 minutes in a studio in Liverpool, shortly before Coldplay released the album. Since they didn’t have much time, they put it aside and planned to work on it for their next album. When the band’s manager, Phil Harvey, heard the demo, he convinced them to do whatever was necessary to record it for A Rush Of Blood To The Head, especially since the song deals with the importance of time. Consequently, Coldplay delayed the release of the album by two months to finish “Clocks.”

The song was a favorite of many other musicians. U2’s Bono included “Clocks” on his “60 Songs That Saved My Life” list, compiled to coincide with him turning 60. “I chose ‘Clocks’ because I can hold onto it tighter than time,” he wrote in a “fan letter” to Coldplay. “‘Clocks’ arrived in the nick of time with its Phillip Glass-type arpeggiation and ecstatic exhortation… I just punched the air in a manly, but not aggressive way. ‘They are not a rock band,’ I thought out loud to myself, ‘there is something much more interesting going on… they’re like The Isley Brothers or something.'”

“Clocks” won the Grammy for 2003 Record Of The Year.

Clocks

2004

One of the hardest things about scheduling music on a country station is creating a balance of up-tempo to mid-tempo songs in comparison with slow ballads. Country music certainly has a lot of ballads and a lot of times those ballads are hits at the same time which makes it very difficult to schedule the music so there’s not too many slow songs in a row. I remember that being the problem when Brad Paisley released Whiskey Lullaby.

The subject matter of the song itself is not very happy. As a matter of fact it is a very sad song about a man who gets his heart broken so bad, he drinks himself to death. His ex blames herself for his death and also starts drinking, eventually killing herself with the whiskey as well.

I still remember the line of the song that made me want to add it to our playlist. Songfacts even mentions it: The key line in the song is “He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger,” a striking metaphor for what happens when drinking away one’s sorrows will no longer work, and it becomes a method of suicide.

The song is a duet with Alison Krauss, who sings the second verse in the role of the woman and also plays viola on the track.

Despite earning the 2005 CMA for Song Of The Year and also taking Video Of The Year at both the CMAs and ACMs. It was not a #1 Country hit. The way that a song becomes number one is by the amount of plays it gets on the radio. Because of the songs sad and depressing nature, it just didn’t get played as much. What’s interesting is it was never expected to be a single.

The Dixie Chicks were the first act to put the song on hold, but they didn’t record it. Then Brad Paisley heard the tune and spotted its potential as a duet. Country legend Bill Anderson co-wrote the song and recalled:

“Brad called me one day on the phone, and said, ‘I’ve been listening to this ‘Whiskey Lullaby,’ what would you think if I brought a girl to sing on that second verse?’ And I said, ‘I’ve never thought of that. Who do you have in mind?’ And he said, ‘Well, I think there’s only two people who could do it, and I would like to have one of those: Alison Krauss or Dolly Parton.’ And I told him, ‘Well, you don’t have to ask my permission to do that, because I love them both!’ So next thing I knew, they worked out all the contract stuff with Alison and everything fell into place.”

The song is extremely sad, but hauntingly beautiful at the same time.

Whiskey Lullaby

2005

I suppose I don’t remember too much about this year’s particular season of American Idol. But I must have watched it on and off occasionally because I remember when Katherine McPhee sang it. I was really impressed with not only her singing but I kind of like the song too. I’m talking about KT Tunstall’s Black Horse and the Cherry Tree.

From Songfacts:

In The Guardian newspaper of February 24, 2006, Tunstall explained: “One summer, I was traveling in Greece on a little moped and this massive black horse had broken free in an olive grove and was going nuts. It looked apocalyptic: a seed was sown. I wrote the song years later in a tiny studio in Shepherd’s Bush. I was about to tour Scottish coffee shops and was worried about coming across like Phoebe from Friends. At the same time I saw a brilliant guy called Son of Dave who looked like a ginger nylon 1980s’ Elvis: really raw blues with just voice and effects. I got a pedal and one of my techie friends helped me put myself and my guitar through it. It’s probably the most scientific I’ve been, but the song was written in a 10-minute burst. The lyrics where my ‘Heart stops dead’ refer to a heart murmur I had as a baby. I got into this fantasy that my heart felt betrayed and had decided to stop working. The song is about having to dig incredibly deep to find out who you wanna be.”

KT Tunstall says in You magazine November 4, 2007 about granting Katharine McPhee permission to cover her song on American Idol:

“It was a bit of a quandary for me, because I don’t like reality pop shows at all. They’re great TV, but they’re not good for music. When Katharine chose ‘Black Horse,’ she demonstrated a bit of personality in what’s otherwise a puppet show, and that appearance did me a lot of favors.”

Black Horse and The Cherry Tree

2006

I do realize that this is the second song from Brad Paisley on this list. He impressed me from the first time I saw him playing a little local club at a show we hosted.

He is an absolutely amazing guitar player. I was really impressed with the fact that he played every guitar on this particular song. Brad is also one of those tongue-in-cheek kind of artists, and this song is a good example. The World.

It was released on March 13, 2006, as the third single from Paisley’s 2005 album Time Well Wasted. It reached the top of the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and also peaked at number 45 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

The music video was directed by Scott Scovill. It features a little girl whose older sister finds one of her CDs in the former’s room and yells at her for it. The little girl then opens a little chest that reveals a Brad Paisley concert. She magically appears at the concert, and Brad Paisley gives her his hat. Then when the little girl is in her room again, her older sister comes in to apologize for being mean and permit her to listen to her CDs anytime. The little girl then shows her older sister what’s in the magic chest. The concert shows earth balls rolling around on top of the audience, which has been done at some of Brad Paisley’s concerts. The video peaked at #1 on CMT’s Top 20 Countdown in 2006.

The World

2007

Every once in a while, I will come across a song that I like, just because of the sound of it. That’s why James Blunt’s 1973 wasn’t on my original 2007 list, but is here.

I Like Music asked James Blunt what 1973 meant to him personally. He replied:

“Well I was born in 1978. So I wrote it about a girl called Simona in a song about a nostalgic moment – it’s a celebration of something we did last year in Ibiza. And Pacha originally opened in 1973, but 1973 was also a great year for music, so many fantastic albums came out at that time.”

According to Blunt, the girl “Simona” mentioned several times in the lyrics was based on a real woman whom he met at a club.

I’m not sure why, but I like the sound of this one.

1973

2008

The Fray always seemed to have a song that hit me with deep lyrics. I felt that way with You Found Me.

The starting point for this song was back in 2006 when frontman Isaac Slade found himself pondering why bad things happen to good people after witnessing various crises among people close to the singer. The lyrics for this tune came from these deliberations. Slade said on The Fray’s website that this was a tough song for him to write. He explained:

“Its about the disappointment, the heart ache, the let down that comes with life. Sometimes you’re let down, sometimes you’re the one who lets someone else down. It gets hard to know who you can trust, who you can count on. This song came out of a tough time, and I’m still right in the thick of it. There’s some difficult circumstances my family and friends have been going through over the past year or so and can be overwhelming. It wears on me. It demands so much of my faith to keep believing, keep hoping in the unseen. Sometimes the tunnel has a light at the end, but usually they just look black as night. This song is about that feeling, and the hope that I still have, buried deep in my chest.”

This song was inspired by a dream. Isaac Slade told The Sun February 6, 2009:

“I dreamt I ran into God on a street corner. He looked like Bruce Springsteen and he was smoking a cigarette. I had it out with him and asked ‘Where were you when all this bad stuff was happening to these very undeserving, good people?'” Slade, whose Christian faith is important to him added: “There were tough times. I was questioning my faith, angry at things that had happened in my life and the lives of my friends. A friend had suffered a miscarriage, I had lost my grandfather. I was angry and the song felt angry and hopeless too. I imagined what I’d say to God, in the face of all the crap my friends have gone through in the last couple of years.”

His description reminds me of the country song A Few Questions by Clay Walker. In that song, he questions God about a lot going on the in the world.

You Found Me

2009

I have said in the past that when Lady Antebellum (now Lady A) first came by the studio, I knew they would be a success. They have proved that in many ways. It took them three songs to get their first chart topper and it took them quite a while to get there.

I Run To You was the first #1 on the Hot Country Songs Chart for the group. The track took 26 weeks to climb to the top.

Co-Producer Paul Worley said on the album’s liner notes: “The song is an expression against hate, prejudice, negativity, running the rat race, but ultimately the redemption of love! And it has an irresistible melody and a head-bobbing groove. What could be better?”

While the trio had had two previous hits they really connected with their audience with this song. “Our fans grasped who we were with ‘I Run to You,’ “Hillary Scott told Billboard magazine. “The message and that song is so much about what we’re about. It was like two puzzle pieces fitting together. Now you know us and we know you.”

This won the 2009 CMA Single of the Year Award. Lady Antebellum also snagged the Vocal Group of the Year award at the same ceremony, ending a six-year run by Rascal Flatts in that race.

I Run To You

That wraps up this week. We’ll go one more week in the early 2000’s before moving to the 2010’s and then putting a bow on this feature for good. I hope you enjoyed it.

Thanks for reading and thanks for listening – see you next week.

“Mama’s Got a Squeezebox…”

It wasn’t until I was working at B-95 that I discovered National Accordion Awareness Month. My buddy Tim and I would get together quite often and think of bits we could write and produce to play during our radio shows. We came up with some really funny stuff.

It was mid-May and we were writing stuff for June. I am pretty sure that it was Tim who told me about it. I don’t recall who came up with the idea, but we produced this little sweeper to play in between songs. It was the silliest thing, but it always made me laugh. It basically went like this:

The song playing on the air ends. Then the announcer says, “B-95 reminds you that June is National Accordion Awareness Month! Here’s an Accordion Awareness Month Update!” Then we’d insert 10-15 seconds of some ridiculous accordion clip which was followed again by the announcer. “Keep it here all month long for more Accordion Awareness Month Updates – on B-95!” Then the next song would play. It was so out of place and so funny to me. I used this bit for years even taking it to other stations.

According to the National Day Calendar Website:

Through a complex construction of bellows and reeds, the accordion (also known as a concertina) produces its mournful timbre when air is forced over the reeds. While the accordion accompanies traditional polka music, the instrument has found its way into many classical and modern works of music.

For generations the accordion complimented many genres in American music. From jazz and zydeco to folk and Gospel and Blues, musicians found the accordion a fit a variety of musical styles.

The instrument changed, too. Manufactured in several different sizes, the smaller squeeze boxes became popular. The accordion fit well into country music, and when Rock and Roll made the scene, the accordion followed. Today, the instrument is no stranger to the recording studio.

Musicians such as Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, and Mumford and Sons all have recorded hit songs with the accordion playing a supporting role.

In honor of the occasion, here are some of my favorite accordion players: