1965, Working at Abbey Road studios in London The Beatles completed work on the new Paul McCartney song “Yesterday” with the overdubbing of an additional vocal track by McCartney and a string quartet. They also recorded “Act Naturally” for Ringo’s vocal contribution on the Help! album and the song “Wait” in four takes. “Wait” will […]
Song Of The Day – “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive ” by Johnny Mercer
With a resume that includes writing the lyrics to some of the greatest songs of the 20th century including “Goody Goody,” “I’m An Old Cowhand,” “Too Marvelous For Words,” “Hooray For Hollywood,” “You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby,” “Jeepers Creepers,” “And The Angels Sing,” “Sweet Georgia Brown,” “G.I. Jive,” “Day In Day Out,” “I […]
Song Of The Day – “Streamline” by Artie Shaw
“Benny Goodman played clarinet, I played music.” Such was the animosity between the two main clarinet-playing band leaders during the height of the big band era. While both musicians were exemplary, Artie Shaw was far more inventive in his soloing, composition style, use of instrumentation and crucially, in the arena of arrangements. Shaw held a […]
Song Of The Day – “Hard Hard Year” by The Messengers
I’ve been listening to late ‘60s Garage Rock all day via an exceptional compilation of tracks originally released on the U.S.A. and Destination record labels out of Chicago. U.S.A. is known to most as the label that released The Buckingham’s classic chart-topping 1967 single “Kind Of A Drag.” Sundazed Records, a collector’s label that specializes […]
Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Michael Praytor, Five Years Later” by Ben Folds Five
It’s been 13 years since Ben Folds, Darren Jessee and Robert Sledge recorded together as Ben Folds Five. Last year, the trio got back together to record three new songs for the Ben Fold’s retrospective three-disc set “The Best Imitation Of Myself.” Having found the experience pleasing, the trio regrouped this year to record “The […]
Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Solar Prestige A Gammon” by Elton John
This is the “Seinfeld” of songs, meaning that it is a song about…nothing! By the release of “Caribou” in 1974, Elton John’s career was so white-hot he could do no wrong. Hence, Elton unleashed a flimsy, tossed-off album chock full of half-baked songs (by a fully baked superstar), that topped the charts all over the […]
Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Born To Sing” by Van Morrison
I’m always fascinated by how the record companies approach the marketing of their legacy artists. To the record company, legacy artists are loss leaders, they have name value but don’t sell the number of records they used to. Many of these artists are either kept on their label’s roster for their marquee value, or they […]
Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Uptown” by The Crystals
They had a string of hits in the early ‘60s written and produced by the best of what The Brill Building had to offer. There was “Uptown,” written by Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, the somewhat ludicrous “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss), (Carole King and Gerry Goffin), “He’s A Rebel” (Gene […]
Today in Rock History – May 28
1966, Herb Alpert And The Tijuana Brass went to number one on the album chart with What Now My Love, setting a new American record with four albums in the Top Ten. The other three were; South of the Border, Going Places and Whipped Cream and Other Delights. 1966, The Who appear at South Pier in Blackpool, […]
Today in Rock History – May 22
1964, The Beatles arrived back from their first US trip at Heathrow Airport and were greeted by thousands of fans. Also on this day The Beatles scored their second chart topping album with The Beatles Second Album. It displaced Meet The Beatles! from the top of the charts. 1965, The Beatles’ “Ticket to Ride ” surpassed Herman’s […]
