February 19, 1980 - THIS WAS the day I received a phone call from my very close friend, Bon's ex-wife Irene, telling me that our mutually intimate buddy, Bon, was dead. While it came as no surprise to some of us who knew he was a little troubled on several fronts, it was still a personal shock. So, dear reader, this was the day that Bon Scott, lead singer of rock'n'roll band AC/DC, died in London at the age of 33. He died from a combination of reasons; whilst there was no vomit inside the car, the fact is he choked on his own vomit after one of many heavy drinking sessions; he also had a badly affected liver; he was an asthmatic, and it was bitterly cold that night in London, below zero temperatures. It is now a matter of record that he was very depressed on a number of levels. Bon wrote real and pedestrian lyrics with which most people could relate, and had a cheeky, old-style show business ethic, in a modern rock'n'roll context. There are many songs we could place here right now, but these are two of my fave Bon songs; the first, his song Ride On, with which I can relate on many levels, particularly visual, and lyrical - and a big thumbs up to youtuber bandersonben for compiling this brilliant video. The other song is from August 1967, the second song recorded by Bon and I in our band the Valentines, an old Phil Spector song that he wrote for the Teddy Bears, To Know You Is To Love you. This is when Bon and I began to develop our harmony strategy using the same vocal style as the Everly Brothers and to a lesser degree, Sam and Dave - that is, dual leads, harmonising with each other. RIP old mate.
1958 - THE SILOUHETTES doo wop band scored big time on the charts, 53 years ago with their song, Get A Job. As was often the case in those days, it didn't take long for a response to come along, and in this case it was the original Miracles, lead singer of which was Smokey Robinson. Their response song was called Got A Job, but we no got a video, so…dip dip dip dip dip dip dip dip…sha na na na na sha na na na na.
1964 - SIMON & GARFUNKEL completed the original acoustic version of Sounds of Silence, today, and here they are, from 48 years ago - no choreography, no electronica, no dancing girls, no video tricks - just two voices, an acoustic guitar and a classic folk song that crossed over into mainstream pop at the start of Beatles-era rock'n'roll.
1968 - GERRY MARSDEN, after many hits with his band, The Pacemakers, on the crest of the British pop explosion of the early sixties, turned to the stage, replacing Joe Brown - another Brit pop singer - in the musical Charlie's Girl. It happened at London's Adelphi Theatre, and enjoyed a three and a half year run in his role. But here's a reminder of Marsden and his band with their debut 'Liverpool sound' hit song, How Do You Do It.
1971 - PAUL McCARTNEY, as we have reported here recently, wasted no time kick-starting his solo recording career when the Beatles split. On this day in 1970, he released Another Day, but exactly a year later, on the same day, he released his classic protest song, Give Ireland Back to the Irish. The song caused controversy all over the world, and was immediately banned by England's BBC. The song, nevertheless, became a giant hit…being banned certainly helped. Here's a bootleg of McCartney and friends, in his lounge room, rehearsing the song, with no individual vocal microphones.
1972 - HARRY NILSSON started a four week run at #1 on American music charts, today, the success soon spreading to other countries. The song he reached the top with was his version of the Badfinger song Without You. In 1994, Mariah Carey had her version of the Peter Ham & Tom Evans song - both songwriters in Badfinger. Carey's version was released on January 24, 1994, just a little more than a week after Nilsson had died following a heart attack. Tragically, both Ham and Evans committed suicide, Ham in 1975, Evans in 1983, after ongoing battles to receive royalties from the song. Here's Nilsson's version just prior to his death, then his appearance on the famous Smothers Brothers Show in the early seventies.
1977 - LEO SAYER hit top spot today with his only UK #1 song, written by Albert Hammond and Carole Bayer Sager, When I Need You. Both Celine Dion and Cliff Richard have also scored hits with the song.
1981 - GEORGE HARRISON was ordered to pay ABKCO Music the sum of $587,000 for "subconscious plagiarism" between his song, My Sweet Lord and the Chiffons He's So Fine. This is the thing, though, his manager at the time was a New York music crook, Allen Klein, who also happened to be the manager of the publishing company which owned the Chiffons' song. So, no matter what way you look at it, George Harrison was ripped off, too. Here's his iconic song, My Sweet Lord, then a bar-by-bar comparison of the two tunes.
1997 - MILES DAVIS is one of the great legends, not only of jazz music, but of music in general. If ever anyone deserved a star it was Miles Davis, and this is the day he received one on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, demonstrating that even the great Miles was open for Hollywood-style show business. Accordingly, this is the great Miles Davis, live, in form, and outa sight, with his composition, Tutu.
1998 - The Stray Cats reunited for a single show at L.A.'s House Of Blues tonight, the occasion being a benefit fund raiser for the Carl Perkins Foundation. No footage here for this, so we go forward a year for his tour of Japan, 1999, & a stunning rendition of the song he played that night, the Grammy-winning cover version of the old 1959 hit, Sleepwalk, originally written and recorded by brothers Santo and Johnny. The song has also been covered by Al Kooper, Paul Mauriat, The Shadows, The Ventures, Deftones, Leo Kottke, Chet Atkins, Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani, and of course The Brian Setzer Orchestra. Here's Brian.
1958 - THE SILOUHETTES doo wop band scored big time on the charts, 53 years ago with their song, Get A Job. As was often the case in those days, it didn't take long for a response to come along, and in this case it was the original Miracles, lead singer of which was Smokey Robinson. Their response song was called Got A Job, but we no got a video, so…dip dip dip dip dip dip dip dip…sha na na na na sha na na na na.
1964 - SIMON & GARFUNKEL completed the original acoustic version of Sounds of Silence, today, and here they are, from 48 years ago - no choreography, no electronica, no dancing girls, no video tricks - just two voices, an acoustic guitar and a classic folk song that crossed over into mainstream pop at the start of Beatles-era rock'n'roll.
1968 - GERRY MARSDEN, after many hits with his band, The Pacemakers, on the crest of the British pop explosion of the early sixties, turned to the stage, replacing Joe Brown - another Brit pop singer - in the musical Charlie's Girl. It happened at London's Adelphi Theatre, and enjoyed a three and a half year run in his role. But here's a reminder of Marsden and his band with their debut 'Liverpool sound' hit song, How Do You Do It.
1971 - PAUL McCARTNEY, as we have reported here recently, wasted no time kick-starting his solo recording career when the Beatles split. On this day in 1970, he released Another Day, but exactly a year later, on the same day, he released his classic protest song, Give Ireland Back to the Irish. The song caused controversy all over the world, and was immediately banned by England's BBC. The song, nevertheless, became a giant hit…being banned certainly helped. Here's a bootleg of McCartney and friends, in his lounge room, rehearsing the song, with no individual vocal microphones.
1972 - HARRY NILSSON started a four week run at #1 on American music charts, today, the success soon spreading to other countries. The song he reached the top with was his version of the Badfinger song Without You. In 1994, Mariah Carey had her version of the Peter Ham & Tom Evans song - both songwriters in Badfinger. Carey's version was released on January 24, 1994, just a little more than a week after Nilsson had died following a heart attack. Tragically, both Ham and Evans committed suicide, Ham in 1975, Evans in 1983, after ongoing battles to receive royalties from the song. Here's Nilsson's version just prior to his death, then his appearance on the famous Smothers Brothers Show in the early seventies.
1977 - LEO SAYER hit top spot today with his only UK #1 song, written by Albert Hammond and Carole Bayer Sager, When I Need You. Both Celine Dion and Cliff Richard have also scored hits with the song.
1981 - GEORGE HARRISON was ordered to pay ABKCO Music the sum of $587,000 for "subconscious plagiarism" between his song, My Sweet Lord and the Chiffons He's So Fine. This is the thing, though, his manager at the time was a New York music crook, Allen Klein, who also happened to be the manager of the publishing company which owned the Chiffons' song. So, no matter what way you look at it, George Harrison was ripped off, too. Here's his iconic song, My Sweet Lord, then a bar-by-bar comparison of the two tunes.
1997 - MILES DAVIS is one of the great legends, not only of jazz music, but of music in general. If ever anyone deserved a star it was Miles Davis, and this is the day he received one on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, demonstrating that even the great Miles was open for Hollywood-style show business. Accordingly, this is the great Miles Davis, live, in form, and outa sight, with his composition, Tutu.
1998 - The Stray Cats reunited for a single show at L.A.'s House Of Blues tonight, the occasion being a benefit fund raiser for the Carl Perkins Foundation. No footage here for this, so we go forward a year for his tour of Japan, 1999, & a stunning rendition of the song he played that night, the Grammy-winning cover version of the old 1959 hit, Sleepwalk, originally written and recorded by brothers Santo and Johnny. The song has also been covered by Al Kooper, Paul Mauriat, The Shadows, The Ventures, Deftones, Leo Kottke, Chet Atkins, Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani, and of course The Brian Setzer Orchestra. Here's Brian.
