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Today in Rock History – October 27

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Sonny-and-Cher1964, 31-year old Salvatore Philip Bono married 18-year old Cherilyn Sarkisian La Piere. For a time they performed together as Caesar and Cleo before changing the name of their act to Sonny and Cher. Their union lasted twelve years.

1966, The Four Tops were at number one on the UK singles chart with “Reach Out I’ll Be There.” It was the group’s only UK chart topper.

1967, Keith Altham reports in New Musical Express on a chaotic meeting at a recording studio attended by The Who and manager Kit Lambert. Pete Townshend describes The Who’s singles prior to “I Can See For Miles” as “too flimsy, too poignant, too prissy.”

1967, The James Gang played at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan.

1969, Muddy Waters was seriously injured in a car crash in Champaign, Illinois. Three people were killed in the accident.

1969, A documentary film called Shadows Of Bliss is broadcast on BBC-2 TV’s Horizon series. The program deals with recent discoveries about sub-atomic particles and features music by Pete Townshend and Terry Ralph Knight.

1969, Ringo Starr begins recording his album Sentimental Journey. Following the completion of Abbey Road, he becomes the first Beatle to formally embark on a solo album.

1970, Black Sabbath played their first ever-live show in the US when they kicked of a 16-date tour at Glassboro State College in New Jersey.

1971, Pink Floyd played at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago as part of their North American tour.

1972, The Moody Blues appeared at the St. Louis Arena in St. Louis, Missouri.

1972, David Bowie performed at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco

1973, Gladys Knight and the Pips started a two week run at number one on the singles chart with “Midnight Train To Georgia.”  The record won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus. It was the group’s 18th Top 40 hit and first number one.

1973, Mott the Hoople, supported by Aerosmith appeared at The Orpheum Theatre, Boston.

1974, KISS performed at the Agora Ballroom, Youngstown, Ohio.

time-newsweek-springsteen1975, The publicity and critical acclaim following the release of Born To Run resulted in Bruce Springsteen being honored with simultaneous covers on both Time and Newsweek magazines in the US.

1976, Frank Zappa played at Music Hall in Boston.

1977, AC/DC appeared at Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England.

1978, Bob Dylan appeared at Wings Stadium, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

1979, During a US tour Elton John collapsed on stage at Hollywood’s Universal Amphitheatre suffering from exhaustion.

1980, former T Rex member Steve Took, choked to death on a cherry stone, after some hallucinogenic mushrooms he had eaten, numbed all sensation in his throat.

1980, Mark David Chapman purchases the five-shot Charter Arms .38 Special he will use to kill John Lennon.

1981, The Allman Brothers Band appeared at the Saenger Theatre, New Orleans.

1982, Van Halen performed at The Centrum, Worcester, Massachusetts.

1984,  The Grateful Dead allocated a specific recording area for fans to bootleg the show in Berkeley, California.

1988, U2’s film Rattle And Hum, received its world wide premiere in the group’s hometown Dublin.

1988, Def Leppard played the final show on their 232-date Hysteria world tour at the Tacoma Dome, Tacoma, Washington.

1990, Paul Simon started a two-week run at number one on the UK album chart with The Rhythm Of The Saints, his third UK chart topping solo album.

2006, Amy Winehouse released her second and final studio album,  Back to Black. The album spawned five singles, “Rehab,” “You Know I’m No Good,” “Back to Black,” “Tears Dry on Their Own,” and “Love Is a Losing Game.” It won Best Pop Vocal Album at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. Back to Black sold 3.58 million copies in the UK alone, becoming the UK’s second best-selling album of the 21st century. Worldwide, the album has sold over 20 million copies.

2006, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row program.

2007, Keith Richards marched with campaigners protesting against possible Sussex hospital cuts. The Stones guitarist joined 15,000 people for the walk through Chichester to oppose plans which could see St Richard’s Hospital downgraded. A spokeswoman for the guitarist said, “Keith is a long-standing member of the West Wittering community and is pleased to lend his support to local efforts to save St Richard’s Hospital.”

2009, Eric Clapton pulled out of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert in New York City after he underwent an operation to remove gallstones. His place at the Madison Square Garden gig was taken by Jeff Beck.

2011, Liam Gallagher’s Carnaby Street clothing store Pretty Green hosts an exhibition inspired by the Who album Quadrophenia. It features a specially made parka for the event along with Pete Townshend’s notes, desk diaries, photos and original lyric sheets related to the album.

2013, Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed died at the age of 71. An admitted hard drinker and drug user for many years, he underwent a liver transplant in Cleveland in April 2013.

Born on October 27: Floyd Cramer, piano, Elvis Presley (1933); Dick Dodd, drummer, actor The Bel-Airs, The Standells (1945); Byron Allred, keyboards, Steve Miller Band (1949); Garry Tallent, bass, E Street Band (1949); Ken Downing, guitar, Judas Priest (1951); Simon Le Bon, vocals, Duran Duran (1958); Scott Weiland, vocals, Stone Temple Pilots (1967)

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Today in Rock History – September 5

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1964, The Animals started a three week run at number one on the singles chart with “House Of The Rising Sun.” When first released the record company printed the time of the song on the record as three minutes feeling that the real time of four minutes was too long for radio airplay.

1965, Sonny & Cher made their first live UK appearance when they appeared at the 100 Club in London.

1965, The Rolling Stones recorded their eighth single “Get Off Of My Cloud” at RCA studios in Hollywood. The song peaked at number one in the US and the UK.

1966, John Lennon started work in Germany on his role as Private Gripweed in the film How I Won The War.

1967, Working at Abbey Road studios, London, The Beatles began recording John Lennon’s new song “I Am the Walrus,” recording 16 takes of the basic backing track.

1968, On their first ever visit to the UK The Doors appeared on Top of The Pops performing “Hello I Love You” live on the TV show.

1969, King Crimson performed at Market Hall, Romford, England.

1969, The Stooges made their New York debut at The Pavilion supporting MC5.

1970, Janis Joplin started recording sessions recording a version of the Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster song “Me and Bobby McGee.” Joplin, who was a lover and a friend of Kristofferson’s from the beginning of her career to her death, topped the US singles chart with the song in 1971, making the song the second posthumous number one single in US chart history after “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding.

1970, Poco appeared at the Terrace Ballroom in Salt Lake City, Utah.

1971, During a North American tour Led Zeppelin appeared at Chicago International Amphitheatre.

1972, Yes played at Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, Scotland.

1974, David Bowie played at the Gibson Amphitheatre, Universal City, California.

1975, Black Sabbath performed at Swing Auditorium, San Bernardino, California.

1976, Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington was seriously injured in a car crash in Florida.

1978, Joe Negroni from Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers died of a brain hemorrhage. They had the 1956 UK number one and US number six single “Why Do Fools Fall In Love.”

1978, The Electric Light Orchestra appeared at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum, Biloxi, Mississippi.

1979, The Allman Brothers Band played at the Civic Center, Dothan, Alabama.

1980, Black Sabbath performed at the Lakeland Civic Center, Lakeland, Florida.

1981, Soft Cell were at number one on the UK singles chart with their electronic version of “Tainted Love.” The song had been a hit for Gloria Jones in 1964. Jones who became Marc Bolan’s girlfriend, was the driver of the car, that crashed and killed Bolan on  September 16, 1977. Jones nearly died in the accident.

1981, Stevie Nicks went to number one on the US album with Bella Donna, featuring the tracks “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” with Tom Petty, “Leather and Lace,” with Don Henley, “Edge of Seventeen,” and “After the Glitter Fades.”

1994, Oasis appeared at The Hacienda in Manchester to celebrate the launch of their debut album Definitely Maybe. The album went on to become the fastest selling debut album of all time in the UK and marked the beginning of Oasis’ success in America, selling over one million copies there.

2006, Arctic Monkeys won the UK Mercury Prize for their album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. The Sheffield-based bands album became the fastest-selling debut in chart history after shifting more than 360,000 copies in its first week of release in Feb 2006.

2012, Singer-songwriter Joe South, who had hits in the late 1960s and early ’70s, including “Games People Play,” “Walk a Mile in My Shoes,” and (“I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden,” died at home in Atlanta, Georgia from a heart attack, aged 72.

Born on September 5: John Stewart, The Kingston Trio (1934); Al Stewart (1945) Freddie Mercury, Loudon Wainwright III, and Buddy Miles (1946); Dave Clempson, guitar, Humble Pie (1949)

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Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – The Jukebox Series #57– Cher: “Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves” b/w “The Way Of Love” – MCA/Collectables COL-900087 (N6/P6)

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chergypsies45cherwayoflove45

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – The Jukebox Series #57– Cher: “Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves” b/w “The Way Of Love” – MCA/60035 (N6/P6)

“The Jukebox Series” focuses on the 80 records that inhabit my 1963 Seeburg LPC1 jukebox. I’ve had my jukebox (or as I like to call it “the prehistoric iPod”) for a little over twelve years and in that time I’d like to think that I’ve perfected the mix of 45s within.

Today’s jukebox classic is as much a testament to performance and great songwriting, as it is to timing and opportunities demonstrating the power of television when it comes to career revival. In 1971, Sonny & Cher were offered their first television variety show, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour which debut in August and became a big hit. As a result, many of the songs Cher performed on the show also became her biggest hits. Case in point is today’s Song Of The Day which was performed in September of 1971 on the show, and by November it was sitting atop the charts selling over four million copies in its wake.

When it was released, it had been four years since Cher had had a top ten single with “You Better Sit Down Kids,” and this song not only marked a comeback for Cher, but put her firmly in the spotlight where she has remained ever since. It was also the song that kicked off the era of Cher as a glamour queen wearing dresses designed by Bob Makie rather than the hippie attire she was known for up to this point. As a result, she became an icon to both gay men and middle-aged housewives at the same time.

The song was from her seventh solo album which was simply titled Cher, however the album was retitled Gypsies Tramps & Thieves after the single broke big. It was Cher’s first album for a new record label (Kapp Records) and also her first without Sonny Bono at the production helm.

The song was originally titled “Gypsies, Tramps & White Trash,” but songwriter Bob Stone amended the title upon the urging of the late, great producer Snuff Garrett. The song tells a story about the cyclical nature of life from the vantage point of a sixteen year old girl from a family of gypsys whose mother dances for the men of the town, and then they move on to the next town. The daughter was “born in the wagon of a traveling show” whose mother “used to dance for the money they’d throw.” Years later, the daughter finds herself in the same position dancing for money when she meets a 21 year old guy who travels with the show. Three months later, he finds out that she’s “a girl in trouble” (i.e. pregnant) and then he leaves her in the lurch. A performance of the song was performed on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour TV show and was made into a video for the song in 1971.

The song is regularly used to kick off games by the Clyde F.C.  Scottish football team. It was covered by the likes of Cilla Black, Vicki Lawrence, Nirvana and the English punk rock band Anti-Nowhere League, amongst others.

The flip of this double-A-sided reissue single was another top-ten hit from the album called “The Way Of Love,” which peaked on the singles charts at #7 selling over one million copies. The melody of this song shares an uncanny resemblance with Perry Como’s 1970 hit, “It’s Impossible,” so much so that Cher took to performing the two songs in a medley during concerts.

“The Way Of Love” had its genesis in the French song “J’ai le mal de toi,” and was written by Jack Dieval with French lyrics by Michel Rivgauche. The lyrics to the English version were written by Al Stillman and the song was recorded by British singer Kathy Kirby, whose version of the song charted at #88 on the U.S. Billboard charts in 1965. The song’s lyrics were somewhat ambiguous as to whether the relationship was between a man and a woman, a mother and a daughter, or most notoriously by two women, further giving Cher credibility with her gay fans.

The song has been covered by Ronnie James Dio in 1964 with his group Ronnie Dio and the Prophets, and has also seen covers by such middle-of-the-road artists as Vikki Carr and Shirley Bassey.

Musicians At Work on The 3D RadioActivity

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On this episode of The Award Winning 3D RadioActivity, we are playing songs about Work, various professions and other employees on the jog in honor of the United States Holiday celebrating “Labor Day”.

Musicians @ Work on The Award Winning 3D RadioActivity

We hope you had a pleasant day away from your toils, and have gratitude for all of the people who are on the clock.