Happy Heavenly Birthday to Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. who was born on this day in 1929. You probably know him as “Buck.”
I was introduced to Buck when I saw him on Hee Haw with Roy Clark.
They co-hosted the show together from 1969-1986! Had quite a run full of hillbilly humor and corny jokes.
Buck taught himself how to play guitar, horns, mandolin, and drums. He was the frontman for The Buckaroos and together they chocked up 21 number one hits. He is best known for his Bakersfield sound, named in honor of Bakersfield, California.
In 1963, Johnny Russell pitched his song “Act Naturally” to Buck. Buck really didn’t care for it at first. His guitarist and longtime collaborator Don Rich, however, enjoyed it and convinced Owens to record it with the Buckaroos. Laid down on February 12, 1963, it was released on March 11 and entered the charts of April 13. By June 15 the single began its first of four non-consecutive weeks at the No. 1 position, Owens’s first top hit.
The song made an impact on four guys from Liverpool known as The Beatles. They covered the song in 1965 and Ringo Starr handled the lead vocals.
23 years later, Ringo and Buck would get together and perform the song as a duet.
Owens was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996. He passed away in March of 2006.
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. Last week we looked at the 70’s, and I thought we’d stay there one more week before moving on to the 80’s. So, let’s check out a few “Decade Extras.”
A hat tip to songfacts.com for much of the information.
1970
I suppose it wouldn’t be right to leave out the number one song for the entire year I was born, so we start off with Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water. Paul Simon wrote this about providing comfort to a person in need. It started as a modest gospel hymn but became more dramatic as he put it together.
He wrote the song with just two verses, considering the song “a little hymn.” Art Garfunkel and producer Roy Halee heard it as more epic, and convinced him to write an extra section, which Paul did in the studio (the “Sail on, Silvergirl part”). This was very unusual for Simon, as he usually took a long time writing his lyrics. The song got a grand production, and after hearing it, Paul thought it was too long, too slow and too orchestral to be a hit. It was Clive Davis at Columbia Records who heard the commercial appeal of the song, and insisted they market it like crazy and use it as the album title.
In 1971, this won five Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Contemporary Song, Best Engineered Record, and Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists. The album also won Album of the Year.
My mom loved this song and I remember her singing along with it on car trips.
Bridge Over Troubled Water
1971
Many folks poked fun at Ringo Starr when he began a solo career. Of the four, people thought he was the least likely to have success as a solo artist. He proved them wrong and he still tours to this day. One of the songs that did well for him was It Don’t Come Easy.
Ringo is the only songwriter credited on this one, but he had a lot of help from George Harrison. George was very generous in giving his former band mate full writing credit. The track (less Ringo’s vocal and horn parts) was already completed when Harrison gave it to him, and it included a scratch vocal by George.
Fun Fact: Peter Ham and Tom Evans of Badfinger sang on the intro to this song (“It don’t come easy, ya know it don’t come easy”). Badfinger was signed to The Beatles’ Apple Records, and helped out George Harrison’s first solo album.
It Don’t Come Easy
1972
Growing up there were a lot of Van Morrison songs that I liked, but never knew it was him. It wasn’t until I worked at my first radio station that I discovered he sang Moondance, Domino, and Jackie Wilson Said.
Listening to Jackie Wilson Said, I would have never guessed that the recording was unorganized. However, according to guitarist Doug Messenger the session was chaos! He told “Uncut”:
“Jackie Wilson Said was totally disorganized. He didn’t know where anything went, and no one seemed to know what to do with it. Van went away and the band worked on the basic structure. When he came back we went through it a couple of times and he was real happy because all of a sudden it seemed to be making sense. He said, ‘I think it’s coming together,’ which is what he always said when he felt it was working.”
“I remember he said to the drummer, Ricky Schlosser, ‘When I sing “boom boom boom,” hit the tom and the kick drum at the same time.’ We ran through it once or twice, and the first recorded take is what’s on the album. It was all over the place, but somehow it worked. Even when he ad-libbed at the end -‘One more time’- somehow we all kept it together. At the end, Van was smiling like a Cheshire Cat. ‘I think we got it!’ We tried a second take and – of course – it all fell apart.”
Give it a listen and see if you can hear the “disorganization.”
Jackie Wilson Said
1973
The next song makes me think of my oldest son. His mother would play songs from her iPod around the house and one of those songs was Let Me Be There by Olivia Newton-John. There would be times where he would take her iPod and listen to it in headphones. I still laugh when I think about him singing loudly and off-key “Let me be there in your mornin’, let me be there in your night!” It was really more of a scream than singing.
The was Newton-John’s breakthrough single in the US, where it landed in the Top 10 on the Hot 100, the Country chart, and the Adult Contemporary chart. At the time, she was still living in Britain and didn’t travel across the pond to promote the single or the album. Turns out she didn’t need much promotion at all. When the song hit it big, people had no idea who she was. That actually was a relief to the singer. “The one great thrill I had in America was that my music was accepted before I was ever seen, before I was on television, before I did live appearances,” she told Rolling Stone. “Therefore I had to hope it was my music and not my face.”
Keep in mind that this was five years before she starred in the movie musical Grease. She would win her first Grammy Award for song. This was surprising because she was up against country veterans like Tammy Wynette and Dottie West. She won for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
Let Me Be There
1974
I was lucky enough to have never walk in on my parents when they were being intimate. My friends who have say it was a truly traumatic experience. On the TV series That 70’s Show, that exact thing happens to Eric, the main character. As he opens the door, Tell Me Something Good by Rufus and Chaka Khan. As a running gag throughout the episode, that song pops up a few times. I think of that episode when I hear this song.
Stevie Wonder wrote the song and recorded it himself on December 13, 1973 – he copyrighted it on January 3, 1974. His version was never released because he gave the song to Rufus, since Stevie was a fan of their lead singer, Chaka Khan.
Chaka Khan tells the story that Stevie was going to bring them a song in the studio, and when he dropped by and played her one he had written, she stunned her bandmates by telling the mighty Stevie Wonder she didn’t like it! So Wonder asked her astrological sign, and when she told him Aries, he delivered “Tell Me Something Good.” According to Chaka, she loved it and they worked out the song together in the studio, although Stevie is the only credited writer on the song.
Fun Fact: Rufus evolved from a group called The American Breed, who had the hit “Bend Me, Shape Me.” They took their name from a column in Popular Mechanics magazine called “Ask Rufus,” later shortened to Rufus when Chaka Khan joined the band in 1972.
Tell Me Something Good
1975
I remember playing Bad Blood by Neil Sedaka when I worked at the oldies station. I had no idea at the time that he had done anything other than those 60’s songs he was known for.
Sedaka wrote this song with Philip Cody. Phil said in a Songfacts interview that it’s his least favorite song. “I went to visit my family and I spent some time with my grandmother, who is an old Sicilian lady. She was telling stories about the lady up the street who used to be a witch, a Strega. And the whole idea of people being good or evil because of what goes on in their blood was just part of the superstitious nature of my Sicilian upbringing that I tried to stay as far away from as I could. (laughing) I just thought it would be an interesting way to approach a lyric: rather than from a place of enlightenment the idea is that love makes us stupid. And that’s where I went. It wasn’t (heavy sigh – pause)… I did it, and I didn’t think I did a very good job on it, and before I had a chance to do a re-write Neil was in the studio with Elton doing the song, and that was it. So I guess the best things are left undone.”
This song turned out to be Sedaka’s biggest hit, reaching #1 on the Billboard Top 100, remaining there for three weeks. He was helped by Elton John, who sang back-up for this song which ensured airplay. In an odd coincidence, this song was knocked out of its #1 position by an Elton John song, “Island Girl.”
Bad Blood
1976
More Than a Feeling was Boston’s debut single. It turned out to be a big surprise hit. Songfacts says: The group’s rise was sudden and unexpected; when “More Than a Feeling” was released, their managers spent a lot of time pitching it to radio stations, which is a very tough sell for an unknown band, but the song is so polished and radio-friendly that many stations put it on the air. It took off, and very soon this unknown band with an album recorded mostly in a basement was a major player on the rock scene.
Boston’s Tom Scholz worked at Polaroid, which made him enough money to buy equipment to create a basement studio. He did most of the recording of the first album there. He actually took a leave of absence from his job at Polaroid to complete the album. Once the album was released, he went back to work.
Songfacts says, “disco was big, so he wasn’t sure his rock record would find an audience. He got very excited when co-workers would summon him to let him know ‘More Than A Feeling’ was playing on the radio. After that happened a few times, he was confident enough to quit his day job.
The song is a classic rock standard and appeared on the soundtrack of the film “FM,” which was the subject of this blog on Monday.
More Than a Feeling
1977
Being born and raised in Michigan, Bob Seger’s music was everywhere when I grew up. When my dad played in a wedding band Night Moves and Trying To Live My Life Without You were songs that they played at gigs.
Mainstreet was a song that was always requested at the station. The actual street Seger sings about in this song is Ann Street, which was off of Main Street in Ann Arbor. Seger told the Chicago Sun-Times: “It was a club. I can’t remember the name of the club, but the band that played there all the time was called Washboard Willie. They were a Delta and Chicago blues band. Girls would dance in the window. They were a black band, and they were very good. That’s where I would go but I was too young to get in. It wasn’t in a great part of town but college students loved to go there.”
This was the second single from the Night Moves album, following the title track. Both songs are very nostalgic and a departure from high-energy rockers his fans were used to hearing. By this time, Seger had been at it in earnest for over a decade and was just starting to break through to a national audience. Live Bullet was his first album to find a broad audience; many who bought it snatched up Night Moves when it came out, and weren’t disappointed. Both albums ended up selling over 5 million copies, making Seger a star.
Mainstreet
1978
Kiss You All Over by Exile was another one of those songs that dominated pop and country radio. It was the perfect crossover song.
In an interview with Billboard, writer Mike Chapman said:
“It’s a very unusual song and is very much about what music in the US is all about in 1978. It’s MOR (Middle Of the Road) soft rock, slightly disco though not pure disco, and has a sensuous lyric line that Americans love. Americans are big lyric listeners and listen to every word.”
It is no surprise that the song has frequently been used as backing music for TV scenes involving various degrees of smooching or similar lip-caressing activities. Songfacts notes that the most creative use of “Kiss You All Over” goes to the Canadian Broadcasting Company’s use of the song in a 2007 montage of hockey players kissing the Stanley Cup. HA!
Kiss You All Over
1979
Many DJ’s will play the song Single Ladies when they do the bouquet toss at weddings. I always love using Ladies Night by Kool and the Gang. It had a funky beat that the ladies would dance to as they waited for the bride to toss her flowers.
Songfacts notes that disco was dying when “Ladies Night” was released at the end of 1979. That didn’t stop Kool & the Gang from using a disco groove on this track and mentioning the “disco lady” and “disco lights” in the lyrics. The song mixed in enough of their funk flourishes to stand out from the pack and bring them into the ’80s – it reached its chart peak of #8 in America the second week of 1980.
Like most Kool & the Gang songs, every member of the group is credited as a writer. “Ladies Night” started with a groove their multi-instrumentalist music director Ronald Bell came up with. His brother, Robert “Kool” Bell (the bass player in the group), gave him two ideas for lyrical themes: “Ladies Night” and “Hangin’ Out.” It was no contest – Ronald knew there were ladies nights everywhere, and loved the idea.
They fleshed out the song with the group, but struggled to find a hook. Ronald Bell remembered a piece of advice from his mother. He recalled to Billboard: “My mother, Aminah, had a hand in that one. Because she would say to me, ‘Always give the people nursery rhymes. Give them something they remember.’ She liked the Dells’ song, ‘Oh What A Night,’ so I put that in. When we were finished, we were all in tune that this was it. We just didn’t know how big!”
Of course, younger folks will always think of Jon Lovitz in the Wedding Singer when they hear this one.
Ladies Night
Yes, there are plenty of great songs I missed from the 1970’s, but next week, we’ll head to the 80’s. I’ll feature ten songs, one from each year of the decade. I hope you will join me next week.
Last May I began this feature. Today, I will finish it off by looking at 2020 through the present. As I got closer to the end, it became difficult for me to pick ten songs from each year. Proof of this will be evident from this post.
The songs that I featured each year had to connect with me in some way. It was attached to a core memory. Maybe it reminded me of one of my kids or a friend. Maybe it was a song from my years DJing. Maybe it was just a song that I liked a lot. The only real rule was that it had to be released in the year featured. With that in mind, let’s see how the last five years of music connects with me….
2020
There were no songs that really hit me in 2020. Thank you, Covid
2021
The world was still reeling from the pandemic. There was so much uncertainty. Many folks reconnected with their faith, as I did. I went back and watched the Bible classes I had taken. There I found comfort and the strength to get through things.
I want to say that a friend of mine asked if I had ever heard the song “My Jesus” before. I hadn’t and I found it online. It hit me immediately and I shared it with my wife. It is a powerful song, but even more powerful when you hear the story behind it.
Anne Wilson’s life changed in more ways than one when her older brother, Jacob, died in a car accident at 23. She told songfacts.com: “It was so tragic. He was my best friend. That’s actually how I started singing and how I got into music and that’s why I wrote the song ‘My Jesus.'”
After losing her brother, Wilson processed her emotions through journal entries. As she flicked through her entries before a writing session with Matthew West and Jeff Pardo, the young singer had an idea for a song. She told Billboard: “I walked through a really tough season of grief. I remember having this moment where I wanted to give up on life. When I looked back at my journals, I saw how God pulled me through. I also realized I never referred to God as anything else, except ‘My Jesus.'”
When she brought the title into the writing room, it turned out that the two others had that same exact title as an idea. None of the three had spoken about it, so it must have been “a total God thing.”
My Jesus
2022
No songs
2023
When I heard that they were releasing a new Beatles song, I hoped it would be better than Free As a Bird. When they released that for the Anthology stuff, the technology wasn’t as good as it was in 2023. Because of this, Lennon’s vocal sounds tinty.
Songfacts tells the story:
“Now and Then” was originally written and recorded by John Lennon around 1977 as a solo piano track. After his death in 1980, the unfinished demo floated in limbo until 1994 when his widow, Yoko Ono Lennon, gave the recording to the three surviving Beatles, along with Lennon’s demos for “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love.”
Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr considered “Now and Then” as the third Beatles reunion single for their 1995–1996 retrospective project The Beatles Anthology, following “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love.” After two days of recording, it was scrapped, largely because Harrison’s didn’t like it.
In 2022, using advanced technology and a curatorial touch, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr completed the track. The same AI restoration technology Peter Jackson used on the Beatles documentary Get Back was applied to Lennon’s vocal take.
“Back in 1995, after several days in the studio working on the track, George felt the technical issues with the demo were insurmountable and concluded that it was not possible to finish the track to a high enough standard,” Harrison’s widow, Olivia, said. “If he were here today, Dhani and I know he would have whole-heartedly joined Paul and Ringo in completing the recording of ‘Now And Then.'”
Besides Lennon’s John’s vocals, “Now And Then” includes electric and acoustic guitar recorded from the scrapped 1995 sessions by Harrison, a new drum part by Starr, and bass, guitar and piano from McCartney that matches Lennon’s original playing. McCartney added a slide guitar solo in Harrison’s style “as a tribute to George.”
“Now And Then” became the first AI-assisted song to earn a Grammy nomination, and the first to win, when it took the award for Best Rock Performance at the 2025 ceremony.
As a life long Beatles fan, I was impressed with just how good this one turned out.
Now and Then
2024
My wife will often listen to Pandora as she gets ready for work. The next song seemed to play on there at lot. It also seemed to play on her Sirius XM station when we went anywhere. It sort of had a catchy hook, but it wasn’t so good that I’d buy it.
One day I was driving with the kids in the back of the car and my daughter started singing “Excuse me, you look like you love me…” over and over again. It made me chuckle.
You Look Like You Love Me
2025
There has not been any songs from this year that connect with me. I tend to listen to audio books or songs from my iPod when I drive, so I don’t really get to hear anything new anyway. I’m ok with that.
Wow. Five years and only three songs. What a way to wrap up a feature, huh? Well, technically, I had wanted to wrap this up in May. So I have an idea on how to fill a couple Wednesdays and still keep it musical. Tune in next week to find out more….
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.
In 1995 a new form of media was invented – The DVD. 1995 was also the year I hit the quarter century mark, turning 25.
30 years ago this month, in 1994, my partner, Rob, and I lost our jobs at Honey Radio. We searched for other radio work, but no one was looking for a morning team. I kept searching and eventually found some part time radio work. I also ventured out and began to host Karaoke at a few places every now and then.
My full time gig was working in the mail room at EDS. I spent a lot of time in the car and listened to a lot of radio. Many of these songs accompanied me on my deliveries.
After seven years of touring and three previous albums, Blues Traveler finally broke through with the song Run-Around. John Popper had a crush on the band’s original bass player Felicia Lewis. She was actually classically trained as a violinist. She was just playing bass for fun.
Guitar player Chan Kinchla says that Felicia was a great student and eventually became a doctor. “Her calling was medicine, not music” . When Bobby Sheehan was ready to take over on bass, Felicia stepped aside. Kinchla says, “It’s a very amicable situation. John always had kind of a crush on her, but they were friends, as well. So that song’s from that whole affair. They’re still very close. It’s just an unrequited love song.”
The song won a Grammy for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal in 1995.
John Hopper could really blow the harp! His harmonica stuff is just fantastic. It is hard to to hear this one and not feel happy. I often found myself having to set the cruise control, as this one often made me want to drive fast.
If you are a fan of the Wizard of Oz, you’ll appreciate the nod to the classic film in the video.
Run-Around
Until researching for this blog, I had no idea the story behind the next song. I Believe was a top ten record for Blessid Union of Souls. The song is about the power of love and the belief that it can impact life for the better. It is a powerful message.
The song came about because of the end of a relationship. Eliot Sloan recalls writing this song after his girlfriend’s father coerced her into breaking up with him. Many sources say that it was because of his race. Her dad went as far as threatening to cut off her college tuition, if she didn’t leave him.
They did break up, but she obviously meant a lot to him. He placed a message in the liner notes of the Home album. It says, “Lisa, give me a call sometime just to say hello, my number is still the same.”
Sloan says, “I always tell people, and it’s the truth, ‘I Believe’ was written in the middle of the night at about three in the morning. I always used to live in downtown Cincinnati, a really cool spiral staircase up to my bedroom, which kind of ended up as my studio. I kept a piano there that my mother got me when I was nine. In the middle of the night I was hearing the melody and I thought, ‘this is pretty.’ I just had to get up and play it.”
That piano line is really beautiful, and I love the way it intermingles with the strings. I love the message, too:
‘Cause I believe, that love is the answer I believe, love will find the way
I Believe
There are many stories about how Better Than Ezra came up with their name. As far as I can tell, they’ve never really said. The one that I love is that they were playing at some event that featured many bands. The story goes that they followed a band called Ezra, and when asked what their name was they said, “Better Than Ezra.” I hope that is the real story, because I think that is hilarious!
We just heard I Believe about a break up. Better Than Ezra’s, Good, looks at a break up in a different way. As a matter of fact, I tend to look at my past break ups like this.
BTE’s Kevin Griffin wrote the song. In an interview with songfacts.com he said:
“I wanted to talk about the positive things that come from the end of a relationship. There’s always the hurt feelings and everyone’s guarded and it can be traumatic, but when the dust settles, it was about looking at the good things – no pun intended – that you got from that relationship. How did you grow? What did you learn emotionally? And to experience some stuff. And in this case it was just kind of reflecting on how this person changed.“
That isn’t always easy to do. I have to remind myself, for example, that while things with my ex-wife weren’t great, I have two amazing sons from that relationship.
As much as I heard this song, I find it hard to believe that it only reached #30 on the charts.
Good
A new Beatles song in 1995?! How can that even happen!? John Lennon had been dead for 15 years by then. Believe it or not, you can thank Yoko Ono for it. Yoko agreed to release a demo tape of John’s to the other Beatles the day after he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 1994 the three remaining Beatles recorded around his demo track to complete the song Free As a Bird. It was released as a single in 1995. Before their breakup, The Beatles won just four Grammy Awards. They picked up three more in 1997 when “Free As A Bird” won for Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal and Best Music Video, Short Form.
It was Jeff Lynne of ELO who would produce the single. He The Daily Mail that of all the songs he’s produced, “Free as a Bird” is the one he’s most proud of. “I just had to improvise and come up with a few things to make it work,” Lynne recalled. “I did it late at night, 3 a.m. in the studio, just me and the engineer, because I didn’t want to do it in front of Paul and George. But I came in the next day and Paul gave me a hug and he said, ‘You’ve done it, well done!'”
My first records were Beatles songs. So it was so neat to hear all four of them together again for the first time in years!
Free As A Bird
Next is another song that I heard a lot while driving. It stood out for a few reasons. First, it was uptempo. I seem to remember a lot of ballads being played at the time. Driving while tired, uptempo is always good!
Second, it was short. It was very rare to have any song be under 3 and a half minutes on the radio. Many of them were 4 and 5 minutes. This one clocks in at just under 2 and a half minutes.
Finally, it reminds me of Run-Around by Blues Traveler. Ok, maybe it was Blues Traveler that reminds me of this one. I really don’t know.
The first time I saw the video, I laughed out loud. In it the guys from Del Amitri are being wheeled about in strollers by beautiful women. The band members’ heads were superimposed (badly) on the babies to create the effect.
Roll To Me
When I worked at W4 Country in Detroit, they used to host a huge summer festival. It was downtown in Hart Plaza and all kinds of country artists came to play. It was called the Downtown Hoedown. At this time in my career, I had really never done a lot of backstage stuff.
Looking back now, I could kick myself. So many of the singers were just walking around backstage and in the area that was reserved for our staff. I took my ex wife with me and we were just sitting at a table drinking water. This guy walked by with a cowboy hat on and he looked familiar. I couldn’t place him to save my life.
As he walked by, he nodded and said hello to us. I didn’t know if it was an artist, a manager, a roadie, or someone else. We said hello and he continued walking. What was weird was that as he approached us, he kind of slowed down like he expected us to start chatting him up. I know now that this was David Lee Murphy.
Dust on the Bottle was a big hit for him, but it almost didn’t make his album. He tells the story:
“I had the idea for that song, but I hadn’t ever done anything with it. I just remember being at my house the second day [of recording]. We started recording on Monday, and Tuesday morning, I was drinking coffee at my kitchen table. I started playing the opening chords on my guitar for ‘Dust on the Bottle.’ It just came out of nowhere. The song just fell out in like 15 minutes.
I called Tony Brown, who was producing my record, and I told him, ‘Man, I just wrote this new song!'” Murphy continued. “We had all the songs picked out already for the album. He told me to bring it in and play it for him that day. When he heard the song, he said, ‘Man, we’ve got to cut this.’ So we cut it, and what’s on the record is the first take of the song. A lot of the vocals on it were the first time I sang it. It was really a special song, and it still is to this day.”
Dust On The Bottle
I will apologize for the next song right now. I had to include it because it was such a big song when I was DJing. In the US, the Macarena was the biggest dance craze of the 1990s. It was played at weddings, office parties, cruise ships, and just about anywhere there was dancing. Like the earlier dance craze, the “Electric Slide,” it was easy to learn and was done in a group. This made it perfect for Americans who lacked rhythm. It would spawn other dance crazes in the years ahead.
The song was one that had many “mixes.” The meaning of the song changes depending on what mix you are listening to. In the original version, Macarena is upset because her boyfriend, Vitorino, has joined the army. She retaliates by going out on the town and carousing with other men. In the Bayside Boys mix, Macarena gets mad at her boyfriend and goes out to shake it while he’s out of town. In this version, she seems to be more promiscuous. The Bayside Boys also made it a first-person account, with the lyrics being the voice of Macarena.
Macarena
I never cared for the song that much, however two years later, there was a country mix. It sounded ridiculous. I went out and bought one of those hillbilly hats with the feather on it and a corn cob pipe. I would get out and dance with it on. It only made it more silly.
The next song was one that got played a lot on the radio with dedications to someone who passed away. It was played at weddings in remembrance of a loved one, too. When my mom passed away, this was another of those songs that made me think of her.
Mariah Carey wrote One Sweet Day with Boyz II Men. She said she wrote a song that was identical to a song Boyz II Men had written, so they combined the two.
Mariah was in the middle of writing the poignant ballad with her longtime collaborator Walter Afanasieff when she had the idea to bring in the R&B group.“I just thought the chorus was crying out for the vocals that they do,” she recalled in a 1999 interview. “We contacted them, we went through all the channels, this and that, and we finally got together, sang them the song and Nate had written a song that was basically identical to my song in the theme and melodically – he could actually sing it over my song and it was really bizarro, it was like fate, so we put the two songs together and came up with ‘One Sweet Day.'”
This was #1 on the US Billboard charts for 16 weeks! That is longer than any other song up to that time. It held that record until 2019 when Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road was #1 for 17 weeks.
One Sweet Day
Despite being a 1995 release, Give Me One Reason was a song that Tracy Chapman had been performing since 1988. She also performed it on a 1989 episode of Saturday Night Live.
The song would wind up on her fourth studio album, New Beginnings in 1995. In 2005, she said “This is autobiographical,” before performing the song. “I left it on someone’s answering machine, and it worked. I wrote it late one night hanging out with my dog, a mini dachshund.”
The song would be her first hit since 1988’s Fast Car. The charts had changed a bit in 1995. Songfacts.com explains: The mid-’90s were a tougher time for female singer-songwriters with stories to tell, but Melissa Etheridge, Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow and Jewel all got their piece of the pie even as the airwaves were dominated by R&B and dance singers, mostly guys. “Give Me One Reason” fell into this bucket, skewing to an older audience averse to hip-hop and modern rock.
I love this song because of the bluesy feel to it. That opening guitar lick and her voice are just so good!
Gimme One Reason
My final pick for 1995 comes from a gang member. Yes, you read that right. Lead singer Pauly Fuemana was a gang member in Auckland, New Zealand before achieving pop immortality with this song. He received his musical training in a New Zealand juvenile prison.
How Bizarre by OMC reached #1 in eight different countries, the first of which was New Zealand in early 1996. Others include Australia, Canada, and the US (on the Mainstream Top 40 chart). What is Bizarre is that it never entered the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. Why? It was released as a radio-only promo single. Therefore it was ineligible to chart on the Hot 100 according to rules in place at the time.
According to songfacts.com: OMC stands for Otara Millionaires Club, after the neighborhood in Auckland where Fuemana grew up. It’s a somewhat fanciful name, as the Auckland suburb of Otara is a ghetto/slum.
This was another one of those songs I would hear driving at work. Many of the drivers would come in to the mail room and if something unexpected happened they’d say “How Bizarre!” Some of my ex wife’s sisters would also say this a lot, but usually they’d say, “How Bizzaaaah.”
The song has a fun sound to it and it brings back some great memories.
How Bizarre
So that’s all for 1995. Did I miss one of your favorites? Let me know in the comments.
Next week, we move forward to 1996. My list includes movie music, a cover song or two, a couple artists I have had the chance to hang out with, and a few I’d like to hang out with. It also includes a song that was given to me by a girlfriend to express how she felt about us. Was it good or bad? Tune in next week!
It’s time again for my contribution to Dave from A Sound Day’s monthly feature Turntable Talk. If you are keeping track, this is round #30! Way back when we started this, he asked us if the Beatles were still relevant. This time we circle back to the Fab Four and Dave wants us to write about our favorite Beatle. He is calling this round The Most Fab of Them All.
I have struggled in the past to narrow down what song or artist I am going to write about, but never like this. It shouldn’t be hard to pick one guy out of four, right? For me it is, believe it or not. Frankly, and I mean no disrespect to Dave, the topic is unfair. To me, a musical group or band is the coming together of people, each contributing something unique. Like a puzzle, when all the pieces come together, you have something amazing. To have to choose one is a daunting task.
Let me start by saying that if you had asked me as a kid, without a pause, I would have chose Ringo. This may be because I was so familiar with the Beatles cartoon and Ringo always made me laugh. I also really enjoyed the almost all of the songs that he sang lead on. He went on to have some solo hits post-Beatles, too.
There are times I might have picked George Harrison, but probably not because of his Beatles stuff. Don’t get me wrong, he wrote the amazing song “Something,” which even Sinatra said was a beautiful love song. I also loved a lot of the early songs he sang on. Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby is one of my favorites. George really gained my respect as a musician and songwriter post-Beatles.
John was a quick wit and always made me laugh when I saw him in those early interviews. You cannot deny the songwriting power that he had both solo and with Paul McCartney. He really wrote some deep songs. To me, it is interesting to look back and see how he put much of his hurt, suffering and confusion into a song.
John was also a guy who wasn’t afraid to take a stand for something. Many of his solo songs are still as relevant today as they were when they were released. If only the people would listen to the lyrics of Imagine, maybe we’d see a change? Every Christmas I hear War is Over, yet every day when I go to MSN, there is some new story about Putin and World War III. Obviously, Give Peace a Chance is not something any of the world powers wants to do.
Then, there is Paul. I don’t have to really say much about his songwriting abilities. As a matter of fact, if you look at the output of the Lennon-McCartney machine, you cannot help but be in awe of the volume of work they put out. As a musician, he really was the greatest talent of the group. Before you get up in arms, let me prove it to you.
We know that he was best known for playing bass guitar for the Beatles. Growing up, his first instrument was the trumpet (given to him by his dad). He also knew how to play the piano, and did so on Beatles songs like Slow Down and Ob La Di Ob La Da. While it is a simple tune, you can hear Paul’s drumming skills on The Ballad of John and Yoko. As a matter of fact, he can play over 40 instruments including mandolin, cello, harmonica, harpsichord, and the ukulele. Watch his video from 2020 for Find My Way and you will see him playing many (FYI – it’s not my favorite McCartney song, but it is a good illustration).
While many songs had both John and Paul listed as writers, many were “all Paul.” Yesterday, Hey Jude, Blackbird, and Here There and Everywhere, just to name a few. Paul said once that the last one was the only one that John had ever complimented him on. John said in an interview that it “was all his” and was “one of my favorite Beatles songs.”
So why am I picking Paul? Honestly, if it wasn’t Paul it would be Ringo for the simple fact that they are still around. Both are still touring and in the public eye. I love watching Paul do interviews. He is fun to watch, tells great stories and isn’t afraid to be a part of something a bit silly.
One of my favorite McCartney moments was when Chris Farley interviewed him on SNL for the Chris Farley Show bit. How Paul kept a straight face through that still amazes me. Farley asks him, “Remember when they said you were dead? That was a hoax, right?” and Paul simply says, “I wasn’t really dead!” That always makes me laugh. How Paul keeps a straight face through the bit is beyond me. I wish there was a better quality clip…
There’s another great SNL bit where he and Martin Short and doing something for a Christmas Pageant. Martin says that he and Paul are a team but he is the only singer because Paul “cannot sing.” Paul plays the triangle in the bit. He misses cues and Martin screams at him through the whole bit. Paul is hilarious. The bit ends with Martin leaving and Paul asking, “Can I sing now?” Walls move and Paul walks onto the stage to sing Wonderful Christmastime, as himself.
Paul was fantastic on the Letterman show reminiscing about being there on the Ed Sullivan show. During the interview Dave says that they have been trying to get him on the show for years. He asks why it took so long to get him there, to which Paul says with a straight face, “I don’t like the show, David.” But THE highlight for me was to watch him do a rooftop performance of Get Back. I want to say that he wound up doing about a 40 minute concert from up there that night.
Another great Paul bit is when he shows up on James Corden’s show and does his Carpool Karaoke. The first song they sing together is Drive My Car and he’s having a blast doing it. The conversation between the two of them as they drive around is moving at times. Paul and James stop at Paul’s boyhood home and shares some great stories. The kicker is that they go to a pub that McCartney used to play at and he and his band surprise the patrons of it with a concert. It is worth a watch on Youtube –
As I write this, I have no idea what Beatle the other contributors have chosen. I am guessing that many of the pieces will be very music related. While I feel mine is also a bit music related, I also feel that what made Paul stand out to me was Paul being Paul. Paul, years away from the Beatles, talking about those days, the music, the memories, and the rest of the band. Paul, looking back at those early days that influenced and brought him to where he is today.
Not too long ago, country singer George Strait said he was done touring. George is 72. Sir Paul is 82 and still out there playing for sold out crowds for hours at a time. He is an artist who is always trying something new, while never forgetting his roots. He has a passion for the music and for his fans. He just seems to be that guy who’d be fun to hang out with.
Thanks to Dave for asking me to be a part of Turntable Talk. Thanks for another great topic. I love writing for it and love to see the responses from the other music lovers. Until next month … Thanks for reading.
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 13 in 1983. I had a paper route and a weekly income because of it. I spent my money on toys, books and music. I loved going into Harmony House and buying 45’s or albums. As I get deeper into the 80’s, I’m seeing more and more songs that I “had” to have.
I am noticing something about a lot of the songs on my lists. There have been some that have not necessarily been meaningful to me the year they were released, but wound up being important later on in my life. That is the case of a few of them from this year. That being said, let’s check out my list….
When Lionel Richie left the Commodores, he had a number one song with “Truly.” The follow up song has always been one of my favorites. I can still see and hear my mother singing along the the chorus of “You Are.”
What I love about this is the fact that while it is a love song, it has some tempo to it. It also has a horn section. Future hit maker Richard Marx sang backup on this track. His first job in music was singing on the Lionel Richiealbum, and he proved himself on this track, which required some deft background vocals. Richard told songfacts.com: “Every session I ever did with Lionel, or for him, was a very fun atmosphere. I’ve been on so many sessions where it’s a downer, and you just try to get through it and nobody is having fun. Lionel is always having fun – no matter what.”
You Are
When I worked in country radio, I used to go to the Country Radio Seminar. It was a place where you got to hear various panels discussing programming, promotions and more. There were plenty of artists there (both old and new) to entertain. We’d often bring stuff for artists to sign so we could auction them off for St. Jude.
Every night there was always a show somewhere. Everyone had always talked about “the boat.” One record label would bring folks about the General Jackson Showboat and provide dinner and drinks. While us radio people would sit and eat, they would bring artists out on the stage to play for us. Many times it was familiar artists featuring their new songs or new artists that the label wanted to showcase.
One of the things about the boat was that there were always one or two surprise guests. You never knew who might show up. The year before my first boat ride, Huey Lewis had mad an appearance. The first time I was on the boat, they wheeled out this piano on the stage. Next, they brought out Ronnie Milsap and I was thrilled. I had always loved his music and he did not disappoint.
He came out laughing and joking and cranked out a few songs, including Stranger In My House. It was written by Mike Reid, who was a defensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals for five seasons and had a couple country hits of his own. The song was a country hit and also crossed over to the AC and Hot 100 charts.
The song is done in a minor key and from the opening chords, I was hooked.
Stranger In My House
Anyone who goes through a divorce or a break up knows that what follows can be a rough road. The next song is an example of a song that meant nothing to me at the time, but years later it did.
The fighting, the bickering, the pettiness, the blame, the suffering, the accusations and all the things that comes with a divorce is difficult enough. Once they hand you the final decree, it is important to start anew. I had a wonderful support system in place for me and as time passed, I looked back to see that I was making it. I had been through the war and I had made it to the victory.
Elton John’s I’m Still Standing was used in an animated movie called “Sing.” It was while watching that with the kids that I really heard and felt the lyrics. I can look in the mirror and know that I’m Still Standing and life is GOOD!
I’m Still Standing
Remember ELO’s song “Motor Factory?” Of course, you don’t. That’s because as the group was recording the song, it went through a bunch of changes. They lyrics were completely changed and it became Rock and Roll Is King. The song was released as a single from their Secret Messages album.
ELO’s Dave Morgan said in an interview, “I sang on quite a few tracks, I sang on ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Is King’. I played on that one, but it wasn’t called that, it was something about something about working at Austin Longbridge! It was full of car plant sounds, you could hear it going clank, clank, clank, like somebody hitting a lathe with a hammer, and Jeff went away and made it into ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Is King’, wiped off everything we’d done, no, there was still some backing left in there, It was much better how he finished it off than it was before.”
I remember recording this off the radio as a kid. I didn’t realize that there was (what we radio guys call) a “fake cold” ending. That’s where the song stops, you think it’s over, and they come back and sing again. The first time I recorded it off the radio I hit pause on the fake cold, only for ELO to start singing again. Urgh! I got smart after that and went and bought the single.
Rock and Roll Is King
Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham released a few solo albums in the 80’s. Despite some songs that were Top 40 hits, not many folks can recall them. There is, however, one song that folks know thanks to the misadventures of a family named Griswold.
Thanks to National Lampoon’s Vacation, Buckingham’s song Holiday Road had become his best known song. That’s really saying something for a song that never cracked the Top 40 and peaked at #82 when it was released. The song almost didn’t happen.
Actor/director Harold Ramis asked Buckingham to create two songs for his film National Lampoon’s Vacation. He was initially reluctant, believing that soundtrack work “wasn’t part of his discipline.” Thankfully, he decided to grant Ramis’s request, and wrote. Buckingham recorded “Holiday Road” without seeing the entire film. He figured that the movie “had to be somewhat uplifting and a little bit funny”. To keep in line with that, he added dog barks near the end of the song, unaware that the movie featured a scene where a dog is accidentally dragged to death from the bumper of a car.
It is one of those songs that makes you unconsciously press down a bit too much on the gas pedal if your driving while it is playing. I’m not sure I ever “got” the video for the song, though.
Holiday Road
ZZ Top’s Eliminator album was one of few albums that have sold over 10 million copies in America, earning Diamond certification. I helped it get there! This was an album that I remember buying and dropping the needle on for the first time. It had such a neat sound.
Billy Gibbons says that he got the idea for Sharp Dressed man when he saw a movie and a character was listed in the credits as “Sharp-Eyed Man.” According to songfacts.com, the song attracted a slew of new fans to ZZ Top when the video ran constantly on MTV. Their long beards made them instantly recognizable and the babes certainly helped, but the car was the real star.
Prior ZZ Top albums had a Tex-Mex vibe, but when it came time to sort out visuals for the album, the hot rod was finally ready – Gibbons had been working on it for years. It was good timing, giving them an MTV-friendly focal point just when they needed it. They had never made videos before and had no acting experience, but their videos provided everything MTV’s target audience craved: girls, rock and roll, and a really sweet ride.
The music video was the first that was a sequel. It picked up the story from the “Gimme All Your Loving” video of the down-on-his-luck gas station worker who is swept away by three beautiful women. In “Sharp Dressed Man,” he’s a valet, and he encounters the same three girls and is once again given the keys to the Eliminator, Billy Gibbons’ 1933 Ford Hot Rod.
Sharp Dressed Man
I had no idea in 1983 that I would be working as a sleep technologist. The next song is one that is based on a real sleep disorder – somniloquy (Sleep talking). “Talking In Your Sleep” is the biggest hit of The Romantics’ career. In fact, it’s their only Top 10 hit, and only one other song by them (“One in a Million”) even made it to the Top 40. Contrast that with the number of times you’ve heard their song, “What I Like About You,” which only made it to #49.
I love this story about the song: As usual, MTV helped boost The Romantics’ success right around this time with videos of their songs. In Greg Prato’s book MTV Ruled the World, Romantics’ lead singer Jimmy Marinos talks about this song: “That was the last song recorded for the album In Heat. All we had was a backtrack, the instrumental part of the song. And we realized it was too good a track to leave unfinished. So everybody put their heads together, and in a couple of days, we finished up the song melodically and lyrically.” Ha also mentions that the video was filmed at 8:00 in the morning in Detroit, surrounded by girls in their jammies, at what was deemed “not really rock ‘n’ roll hours.” So if they look like they just woke up, that’s because they did – and it works great!
Check out their hair in this video!!
Talking In Your Sleep
Two years ago, Dave Ruch invited a bunch of us to write a column for his Turntable Talk feature. The first topic was about why the Beatles are still relevant, the next song is an example of their influence.
When Genesis began to write That’s All, it was intended as an attempt to write a simple pop song with a melody in the style of The Beatles. Phil Collins even acknowledged in a subsequent interview that the song also features one of his attempts at a “Ringo Starr drum part.”
Genesis keyboard player Tony Banks was one of the first to use an Emulator, which was one of the first digital samplers (it was introduced in 1981). Banks would record his bandmate Mike Rutherford as he noodled around on his instruments, then play around with those samples to craft a track, which is how this song developed.
That’s All was the band’s first Top 10 hit in the US, setting the stage for their tremendous success the rest of the decade as they adapted their sound from progressive rock to tighter pop songs. The video certainly played a part in the success of the song, too. It depicts the band as homeless men taking shelter outside a disused factory. They perform the song, eat soup, play cards, and keep warm around an open fire. It was the first time Genesis used director Jim Yukich, who would direct the majority of their next videos as well as many of Collins’s solo videos.
That’s All
Remember the group Blue Angel? Me either. It was the group that Cyndi Lauper was in in 1981. It was her solo career and her first single, however, that made her famous. It is interesting to note that Girls Just Wanna Have Fun didn’t start out as the female anthem that Cyndi made it.
A Philadelphia singer/songwriter named Robert Hazard, who had a band called Robert Hazard and the Heroes, wrote it. He recorded a demo of it in 1979. Speaking with Rolling Stone, Lauper said that she had to alter the lyrics from Hazard’s original. “It was originally about how fortunate he was ’cause he was a guy around these girls that wanted to have ‘fun’ – with him”
Believe it or not, Cyndi didn’t want to record this song, but her producer, Rick Chertoff, was convinced it could become her anthem. The challenge for her was figuring out how to sing it. She ended up doing her vocal in the style of the ’50s hit “Let the Good Times Roll” by Shirley & Lee, which Shirley Goodman sings in a high-pitched voice. It obviously worked as the song went to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
MTV again played into the success of the song, as this was a very fun video to watch. The video, which ran constantly on MTV, features the wrestler Captain Lou Albano as Lauper’s father, and also Lauper’s real-life mother, who had no acting experience but did just fine. It won the first ever award for Best Female Video at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards.
The song had a huge influence on how girls dressed in the 80’s. When I think of it, I can picture so many of my gal friends who dressed like Cyndi.
Girl’s Just Want To Have Fun
Everyone I grew up with had the 1984 album from Van Halen. The song actually was a bigger hit in 84, but it is on this list because it was released in December of 1983. Jump is just one of many songs that used synthesizers in the 80’s. The synthesizer intro for Van Halen’s Jump is iconic, but not everyone in the band wanted to use it.
The synthesizer was a point of contention in the band. Eddie wanted to use it, but lead singer David Lee Roth thought it would look like they were selling out to get more radio play. Eddie was classically trained on piano growing up – he didn’t start playing guitar until he was a teenager – so it wasn’t that far a stretch for him. Had the band brought in an outside keyboard player they probably would have gotten a lot of flak, but Eddie was held in such high esteem that fans were happy to hear him on another instrument.
Songfacts.com says: 1984 was David Lee Roth’s last album with Van Halen before he left the band in 1985; the video for “Jump” inflamed the tensions that led to his departure. The video was produced by Robert Lombard, who wanted to show the personal side of the band on stage. Roth, however, wanted the performance intercut with footage of him doing other things, so they shot him doing things like riding a motorcycle and getting arrested while wearing nothing but a towel. Lombard edited the video and used none of the extra Roth footage, taking it to Eddie and Alex for approval. Two days later, the band’s manager fired him for bypassing Roth. Lombard says he never received the award the video won from MTV.
Jump
Next week, we’ll look at songs from 1984. 1984 was a big year for me in a lot of ways. Musically, it was a big year for ballads. With a mix of country, R&B, and a song that led to me embarrassing myself on the air years later, it will be an interesting list!
Tell me about your favorite from 1983 that I may have missed in the comments and I will see you next week.
In 1965, The Beatles’ second feature film, Help! premiered at the London Pavilion Theatre in the West End of London. The musical comedy, which followed the success of A Hard Day’s Night, was a much larger production than its predecessor, finding the band and director Richard Lester shooting in a variety of international locations. The film’s soundtrack doubled as The Beatles’ fifth studio album.
Ok, before I go on, I need to clarify the title of this blog. Just what in the world is NUJV? Originally, the album cover showed The Beatles spelling out the word “Help” using the semaphore system of communicating with flags, which was usually used by ships. The photographer, Robert Freeman, didn’t like the pose because it looked unbalanced. Instead, he had them pose in a more “balanced” way – that in semaphore spells the letters NUJV.
Apparently, only those who knew semaphore saw the issue.
This movie played a big part in the way another group portrayed themselves. Help! was used by The Monkees to prepare for their TV series. The Beatles showed off their individual personalities in their movies, which The Monkees made sure to emulate. By not presenting all members of the band as identical, it made the Beatles even more popular, as many of their fans picked a favorite.
There certainly are some great tracks on the album: Ticket to Ride, Yesterday, The Night Before, Act Naturally, Dizzy Miss Lizzie, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, I’ve Just Seen a Face, and the title track – Help! (Which is what I want to feature today.)
According to Lennon’s cousin and boyhood friend Stanley Parkes, “Help!” was written after Lennon “came in from the studio one night. ‘God,’ he said, ‘they’ve changed the title of the film: it’s going to be called ‘Help!’ now. So I’ve had to write a new song with the title called ‘Help!’.”
Fun Fact: The original title to the title song and the movie was “Eight Arms To Hold You,” and the first copies of the single said it was from the movie “Eight Arms to Hold You.”
Originally, John Lennon wanted this to be a much slower song. He was convinced, however, that by speeding it up, it would sound “more commercial” and would naturally sell more albums.
The song itself runs just 2:18, but packs in 267 words! This makes it one of the most lyrically dense hits of the era. It starts and ends on a vocal, and there are two vocal lines running throughout the song, as John Lennon sings lead while George Harrison and Paul McCartney do backgrounds, singing some of the same phrases either before or after Lennon. There are only a few seconds in the song where somebody isn’t singing.
Lennon admitted that the song truly was a “cry for help!” He has described this time of his life as his “fat Elvis period.” In a 1971 interview with Rolling Stone, Lennon said this is one of his favorite Beatles records, because, “I meant it – it’s real.” He added: “The lyric is as good now as it was then. It is no different, and it makes me feel secure to know that I was that aware of myself then. It was just me singing ‘Help’ and I meant it.” Paul McCartney helped Lennon write the song, but did not realize it was actually John calling for help until years later.
Writer Ian MacDonald describes the song as the first crack in the protective shell Lennon had built around his emotions during the Beatles’ rise to fame, and an important milestone in his songwriting style. In January of 1980, John told Playboy magazine, “The whole Beatles thing was just beyond comprehension. I was subconsciously crying out for help”.
Welcome to May! Were you aware that May is International Drum Month? Cheers to the instrument that keeps the music in time.
Anyone who has played in a school band or any band really knows that there are plenty of jokes made about the percussionists and the percussion section:
What do you say to a drummer in a three-piece suit? “Will the defendant please rise?”
Hey, did you hear about the drummer who finished high school? Me neither.
What is the difference between a drummer and a savings bond? One will mature and make money.
What is the difference between a bad drummer and a vacuum cleaner? You have to plug one of them in before it sucks.
There are hundreds of jokes like that. Honestly, though, without the percussion section (or percussionist) the rest of the group would fight to keep time. I can’t imagine marching in a parade without a solid drum cadence and so many great bands had well known drummers.
So in honor of International Drum Month – I wanted to share some of my favorite drum songs, drum solos, and songs about drums.
First, let’s head back to 1936 and the fantastic song by Benny Goodman – Sing, Sing, Sing. The song was written by Louis Prima and became one of Benny’s signature songs.
In 1941, legendary drummer Gene Krupa had a hit with Drum Boogie (with Irene Day on the vocals). There are many videos of him performing this.
Instrumentals were big in the 50’s and 60’s. My dad introduced me to 1958’s Topsy Part 2 by Cozy Cole. He worked with great artists like Louis Armstrong and Cab Calloway.
Preston Epps learned how to play the bongos when he was in the Korean War. His big hit was Bongo Rock, but I liked 1960’s Bongo, Bongo, Bongo a bit better (Though it never broke the top 40). I often used this as background music when I was on the radio.
If you have ever heard To Know Him Is to Love Him (Teddy Bears), Alley Opp (Hollywood Argyles), or A Thousand Stars (Kathy Young and the Innocents), then you’ve heard Sandy Nelson. He was a session drummer and played on a lot of songs. He even had some solo hits, including 1961’s Let The Be Drums.
Johnny Smith recorded Walk, Don’t Run in 1954. Chet Atkins covered it in 1957 and when the Ventures heard it, they recorded their own version in 1960. While many consider it more of a guitar tune, the drums are a key part of the song.
Probably one of the most famous drum songs was from 1963. The Surfaris took Wipe Out! all the way to #2 on the Hot 100 chart. It is a song that continues to pop up on TV and in movies and has even made a few reentries on the charts because of that.
In 1967, Michael Nesmith of the Monkees penned a percussion tune for Linda Ronstadt and her group The Stone Poneys. Linda has a birthday coming up and I was going to feature this song on that day, but it fits better here. This was her first single and it reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
In 1969, The Beatles released Abbey Road, which contains a song that has a drum lick that famous drummers everywhere still talk about. It is often called “genius” and I couldn’t agree more. The drum line from Come Together is just an amazing thing to listen to. Atta Boy, Ringo!
In 1972, Gary Glitter had a hit with the B-side of Rock and Roll Part 1, which was appropriately called Rock and Roll Part 2. Most folks remember this one as simply, “The Hey Song.” This was his only top 10 hit in the US. It used to be big at sporting events, but it went away after some sexual crimes in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. It was featured in the recent Joker movie.
1972 also brought one of my favorite drum intros by way of Stevie Wonder. I’ve written about this one before, but you know I had to hear it again as I wrote this.
1977 brought another great drum tune that is still used at sporting events today. I couldn’t do a piece about drum songs without Queen’s We Will Rock You.
So many songs can be instantly recognized by the drum intros and the next one from 1980 is no exception. It is a classic rock and party staple. I am, of course, talking about AC/DC’s Back in Black.
When you talk about drums and drum solos, there seems to be one song that always comes up – In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins. It’s not my favorite song, but you can’t deny the very cool drum solo.
The next drum song has become sort of a Monday morning anthem for anyone who works for a living. Todd Rundgren’s 1983 Bang On The Drum All Day is unique in that he plays every instrument on the track.
I am sure I could feature many more songs, but I have decided to conclude with a song that was very unusual. It was unusual, because there are very few songs that begin with a 30 second drum solo. In 1984, Van Halen did just that. Alex Van Halen kicks off Hot for Teacher with an amazing double bass drum performance and a song remembered not only for his drum work, but a steamy video.
This month, I salute drummers like Ringo Starr, John Bonham, Keith Moon, Buddy Rich, Sheila E, Dave Grohl, Alex Van Halen, Phil Collins, Charlie Watts, Gene Krupa, Questlove, Hal Blaine, Max Weinberg, Lars Ulrich, Neil Peart, Levon Helm, Chad Smith, Ed Shaughnessy, and so many others!! Thanks for keeping the beat!
What songs do you remember for drum solos or great drum work?
In reading through the blogs I subscribe to, I came across a recent post from Lesley at https://aeschtunes.com/ . Bryan Adams has released a powerful new song that I hope makes people (and governments) think.
The video can be found on YouTube and I will share in this blog, too. The description accompanies the videos says, “This is an anti-war peace song written with aim to provoke thought and perhaps even encourage governments to sit down and talks peace.”
Lyrically, the song is simple – and deep. It proclaims a message of peace.
What If There Were No Sides At All
What if there were no sides at all What if there were no sides at all
Just a big blue ball – floating in space It’s a beautiful world – but a dangerous place It’s perfectly round – it’s perfectly clear There are no sides – on a perfect sphere
What if there were no sides at all What if there were no sides at all
Don’t make me hate – don’t make me choose Why should one side win and the other side lose
I don’t understand – why take sides at all There are no sides – on this big blue ball
We tell ourselves it’s a stand we take But there’s no sides except the ones… we make
What if there were no sides at all What if there were no sides at all What if there were no sides at all
In her piece about the song, Lesley says that the song reminded her a little of the Beatles. I felt the same way. It does have that John Lennon “Imagine” and Ringo Starr’s “Peace and Love” vibe to it. Today’s songs often clock in at 4 or 5 minutes, but this song sends a powerful and thoughtful message in just over 2 minutes.
As a former radio guy, I know that there are times where songs like this are often avoided by programmers. I truly hope that this one gets some airplay – not just here but world wide. It is one of the great “What if” questions.
It’s been quite awhile since I’ve heard new stuff from Bryan Adams, and I am grateful to have stumbled on Lesley’s blog about it. Give the song a listen …
It’s time for another round of Turntable Talk. This is the 14th edition hosted by Dave over at A Sound Day. As always he has presented our little group of music lovers with a great topic.
In his instructions he asks:
“Do you remember what the first album you bought was? LP? CD? Reel to reel, LOL? Why that one? Do you still have it? Would you want to ? Let your nostalgia run wild! Tell us about that first record you made your own.“
Let me start by saying that many of the albums my dad had, eventually wound up as “mine.” When I think back to the albums I remember there are some that I will never forget. To be clear, my dad bought these, but I wound up listening to them. He had many from Roy Orbison, Elvis, Lenny Dee, Herb Alpert, and so many others. The ones that eventually wound up in my room were a bit odd.
First, there was Dumb Ditties. An album of novelty songs put out by K-Tel. What 6 year old kid didn’t like silly songs?
Then there were two albums that had TV themes on them. There were not the original artists, and this was long before TV Toons put out their collections. They were actually pretty cheesy versions that a kid like me knew weren’t quite right, but close enough. They had goofy cartoon drawings of the main characters from the shows on the cover and were done by the Pop Singers and Orchestra. Was that even a real group?!
The last album that my dad bought that wound up in my record collection was the 1977 album of The Muppet Show. It had the theme song, Mah-Nah-Mah-Nah, and plenty of clips of the two old guys heckling the acts.
Now as far as the first album I actually bought, my memory is hazy. I know it had to be one of two and I know I would have bought them within a week of each other.
I had a paper route. I remember that you collected whatever your customers owed you for the week, and you paid for your papers. Whatever extra tip money you made was yours. I don’t recall making a lot of money, but it was enough to go up to the toy store to buy Star Wars stuff or to Harmony House to buy an album.
My dad had a couple of the Beatles albums. He had the blue and red greatest hits albums with them looking over the railing.
I loved the Beatles growing up – early Beatles. It took me a while to appreciate the later Beatles stuff. I recall walking into the Harmony House and grabbing either Beatles ’65 OR Beatles VI. I wish I could remember which one was THE first. I know, however, that these two albums were bought almost immediately after I began delivering papers.
Whichever one I bought first, I suppose doesn’t matter. These two albums contain some of my favorite songs by the Fab Four and they were played over and over again.
“This happened once before, when I came to your door. No reply….” A cold open starts Beatles 65. Boom! There’s John. What follows on the album was a variety of musical nuggets that my young ear just loved!
The harmonies sounded even better with headphones. I’m a Loser, Baby’s In Black, I’ll Be Back, and Mr. Moonlight each had me trying to sing all the different notes. There were great cover songs like Honey Don’t, Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby, and Rock and Roll Music. Then there was I’ll Follow the Sun. Beautifully simple.
Beatles 65 was an album I played from start to finish many times.
As for Beatles VI, there were “skip” songs on this one for me. Skip songs were You Like Me Too Much, Words of Love, Tell Me What You See, and Every Little Thing. Why those didn’t do much for me, I can’t say.
I, of course, loved those great cover songs – Dizzy Miss Lizzie, Bad Boy, and Kansas City. I knew all of these songs by their original artists, but came to dig those Beatles versions more.
As a kid, I often found myself drumming my desk in school to the opening of Look What You’re Doing. The teachers told me to leave the drumming to Ringo!
The one song that is the stand out for me on the album was Eight Days a Week. What a great song. It is one that even non Beatles fans know, love, and sing along to. I could be mistaken on this, but I swear there was no fade in on the album. I remember the first time I played this at a radio station and the fade in happened – it freaked me out. Either way, it is one of their best songs.
My love for the Fab Four started very early in life thanks to the musical influence of my mom and dad (and maybe that Beatles cartoon). That love for them continues to this day. It only makes sense to me that the first album I would buy would be from them! These albums remain as fresh today as they were when they were released – years before I ever got my hands on them.
Thanks again to Dave for inviting me to take part in this feature. As always, I look forward to reading the other contributions and to next month’s topic.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 