Radio's Next Dimension
Mardi Gras may be over, but the music keeps rolling on. Jessie Hill was originally a drummer who backed both Professor Longhair and Huey “Piano” Smith before turning to vocals striking and out with his own group, The House Rockers. To further heighten his New Orleans pedigree, this track was produced by none other than [...]
Every Tuesday is Fat Tuesday when I look in the mirror…bada-bum! Yet, today is Fat Tuesday which in some cultures is a religious holiday. Fat Tuesday is Mardi Gras. “Gras” is French for fat and “Mardi” is French for Tuesday. The annual festivities start on January 6, the Twelfth Night Feast of the Epiphany, when [...]
Sometimes when bad things happen to people, other people benefit. Case in point is the story of Leonard Cohen. The Canadian musician/poet spent a good portion of his 77 years amassing a fortune off of such classic songs as “Hallelujah,” “Suzanne,” “Bird On A Wire,” “So Long Marianne,” “Sisters Of Mercy,” “Famous Blue Raincoat,” and [...]
The magical ingredient of this song that sets it apart from all others is the swirling roller rink organ. Ruby And The Romantics’ million seller “Our Day Will Come” was their first hit back in 1963. While many think they were a one hit wonder, their follow-up single, “My Summer Love,” rose to #16 on [...]
Although they were best known for this 1971 million seller, The Persuaders also recorded the original versions of classics like “The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me” (later covered and brought to the charts by Gladys Knight & The Pips) and “Some Guys Have All The Luck” (covered and charted by Rod Stewart). In [...]
Along with Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method, Groove Armada, The Propellerheads and The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers introduced the world to an influential dance oriented “Big Beat” music driven by heavy breakbeats in the early 1990s. The duo of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons called themselves “The Dust Brothers” after the influential U.S. producers of [...]
He was perhaps best known for his acting role as Mark Slate in the TV series, “The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.,” but Noel Harrison had a fruitful recording career in the 1960s culminating in three long out-of-print albums for Reprise Records. This 1968 Academy Award winning song was composed by Michel Legrand (music) and Alan & [...]
There’s nothing like the kaleidoscopic sound of West Coast Pop Music from the late 1960s. Groups like The Neon Philharmonic could have only happened in a world nurtured by an artist-friendly record label like Warner Bros. and its sister label Reprise with label mates like Randy Newman, Van Dyke Parks, Harpers Bizarre, the Association and [...]
I had to go there…it is Valentine’s Day and Cooke’s voice was as smooth as the finest of chocolates. So how did a holiday associated with romance and love have so much death, despair and martyrdom at its core. St. Valentine was a Christian martyr who was beheaded in AD 269 for trying to convert [...]
OK…time for a rant. After spending 3 1/2 abysmal hours with our friends at NARAS last night watching them trade awards for record sales and publicity, I think I have a right to complain a little about some of the stuff that passed for music that I sat through. Nicki Minaj…WFT was that? While she [...]
