Xmas Super Special
December 24, 25, 26, 27, 28.
JAMES Brown gave his first concert performance in two years for soldiers of Ft. Jackson, tonight, Brown on a four-day furlough from prison. Shoot forward to the very same day in 2006, and the 'godfather of soul' died at the age of 73, after being diagnosed with severe pneumonia. Brown had gone to his dentist in Atlanta the previous day, the dentist telling him something appeared to be wrong, telling Brown to immediately go to the doctor. Xmas day, Brown was dead. Brown's hits included Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, I Got You (I Feel Good), and Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine, Pt. 1. The soul king was married four times, and 16yo, was arrested for theft and served 3 years in prison. In 1988, Brown was arrested following a high-speed car chase on along the Georgia-South Carolina state border. He was convicted of carrying an unlicensed pistol and assaulting a police officer and was sentenced to six years in prison. We go back to 1966, Brown at his absolute peak, live from Paris's L'Olympia, in glorious black and white, and when rock'n'roll and soul music was sweaty and nasty and dirty, and sometimes just down right smelly funky.
1939 - W.C. HANDY, the man they called 'father of the blues', wrote and recorded the classic St. Louis Blues 72 years ago today and remains among the most influential of American blues songwriters. Though he was one of many musicians who played the distinctively American form of music known as the blues, he is credited with providing its contemporary form. While Handy was not the first to publish music in the blues form, he took the blues from a not very well-known regional music style to one of the dominant forces in American music. Handy's life and times are interesting, his self-published success story breaking many boundaries in terms of ethnicity and business. No video remains of his efforts, but from 1959, here is Louis Armstrong's version of the eternal St. Louis Blues, live in Belgium, featuring Louis Armstrong trumpet, vocal; Peanuts Hucko clarinet; Trummy Young trombone; Billy Kyle piano; Mort Herbert bass; Danny Barcelona drums, and Velma Middleton on vocals.
1954 - Bing Crosby's White Christmas entered the Billboard Pop chart for the 11th time today. His rendition has sold more than 100 million copies around the world, with at least 50 million sales as singles. It was the largest selling single in music history at that time. While modernists claim Elton John's Candle In The Wind sold more singles, renditions of Crosby's song leave Crosby feat still the biggest selling song.
1955 - BILL Haley and the Comets released their song, See You Later Alligator today, their follow up to their world-breaker, Rock Around The Clock. His sound was country music rock'n'roll mix, and he and his band found themselves at the start of the rock'n'roll music revolution, even if it was by accident. From the Curtis Clark documentary Blue Suede Shoes, here's a version you may not have seen before, from 1980.
1963 - It was the start of what would become what I call the Beatlisation of popular music, when four wanna-be rock'n'rollers took rock music to a place it had never been before. This was the day when Capitol Records released the Beatles' I Want to Hold Your Hand backed with I Saw Her Standing There. Here are both songs, live, from 48 years ago.
1967 - DAVE Brubeck and his Quartet formally disbanded after Paul Desmond left the group. Six years earlier they were at their peak, all around the world, with this near-perfect groove, a song that is still a bona fide modern music classic.
1970 - GEORGE Harrison started a four week run on top of charts all over the world, today, with his classic song, My Sweet Lord, making him the first Beatle to score a solo #1 hit. Harrison says he originally wrote the song with Billy Preston in mind. Here's the classic version, with Eric Clapton on guitar.
1973 - DOOBIE Brothers were named after a joint of marijuana, so it was quite ironic then, when the group's bass player, Tom Johnson, was arrested in Visalia, California today, on charges of marijuana possession. This was one of the group's many hit records.
1976 - JOHNNY Mathis, the American MOR singer was on top of Brit charts 35 years ago today with his #1 Christmas song, When A Child Is Born, the singers only chart topper in that country.
1978 - PUBLIC Image Ltd. made its debut performance at the Rainbow Theatre in London on this day, following the breakup of the Sex Pistols. Following is a great, unheralded pop songs, though Lydon would probably hate it being referred to as a pop song. This performance from almost two years ago is live from the Nokia Club in Los Angeles…an obvious bootleg, of course, with a shaky start.
1978 - ABBA'S pre-recorded appearance on BBCI-TV's Mike Yarwood Christmas Show aired in Britain tonight, and from that show we feature the four-piece pop sensation singing If It Wasn't For The Nights - not one of my fave Abba songs, but this is the one they sang.
1982 - CHAMELEON David Bowie had a top-selling hit in Britain today, with this little Christmas doozy duet with Bing Crosby - Peace On Earth - Little Drummer Boy.
1995 - One of my favourite singing entertainment personalities, Dean Martin, died on this day, December 25, 16 years ago. Aged 78, he leaves behind a legacy of cool - some would say the original Mr. Cool. I loved his sense of humour and self-effacing style. Here is one of his biggest hits, featuring the man who wrote it on piano.
1996 - COURTNEY Love's brilliant acting performance in the movie The People vs. Larry Flynt was released today. The controversial and sensational movie thrust headlong into issues pertaining to people having the right not to be censored. Love's role earned her a nomination for an Oscar award.
1997 - SPICE World the movie was released in the United Kingdom Xmas Eve, 14 years ago tonight. Like them or not, this is a scene from the spice Girls' one and only movie, Spiceworld. They were a pop sensation of their time.
December 27
1975 - The Staple Singers went to #1 on the US singles chart with Let's Do It Again the group's second US chart topper. The Staple Singers were an American gospel, soul, and R&B singing group formed by Roebuck "Pops" Staples, the patriarch of the family, with his children Cleotha, Pervis, Yvonne, and Mavis. They are best known for their 1970s hits I'll Take You There, Respect Yourself, Let's Do It Again, and this one, Come Go With Me.
1976 - Blues guitarist Freddie King died of heart trouble and ulcers aged 42, today. Eric Clapton covered his song, Have You Ever Loved A Woman on his Layla album. King was a major, major influence on British and American blues-rock musicians such as Jimmy Vaughan, Ronnie Earl, Peter Green and Eric Clapton. Following is his best-known song, Going Down, followed by his original version of Clapton's Have You Ever Loved A Woman.
1981 - American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader Hoagy Carmichael died 30 years ago, aged 82. Composer of evergreen classics such as Georgia On My Mind, (covered by many acts including Ray Charles), Star Dust and Lazy River, Carmichael was one of the most talented song writers in the first half of the 20th century. He also was a singer, band leader, pianist and actor. Here he is in the Humphrey Bogart Lauren Bacall movie, Casablanca…three class acts. Then Willie Nelson's version of the Carmichael song, Stardust.
December 24, 25, 26, 27, 28.
JAMES Brown gave his first concert performance in two years for soldiers of Ft. Jackson, tonight, Brown on a four-day furlough from prison. Shoot forward to the very same day in 2006, and the 'godfather of soul' died at the age of 73, after being diagnosed with severe pneumonia. Brown had gone to his dentist in Atlanta the previous day, the dentist telling him something appeared to be wrong, telling Brown to immediately go to the doctor. Xmas day, Brown was dead. Brown's hits included Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, I Got You (I Feel Good), and Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine, Pt. 1. The soul king was married four times, and 16yo, was arrested for theft and served 3 years in prison. In 1988, Brown was arrested following a high-speed car chase on along the Georgia-South Carolina state border. He was convicted of carrying an unlicensed pistol and assaulting a police officer and was sentenced to six years in prison. We go back to 1966, Brown at his absolute peak, live from Paris's L'Olympia, in glorious black and white, and when rock'n'roll and soul music was sweaty and nasty and dirty, and sometimes just down right smelly funky.
1939 - W.C. HANDY, the man they called 'father of the blues', wrote and recorded the classic St. Louis Blues 72 years ago today and remains among the most influential of American blues songwriters. Though he was one of many musicians who played the distinctively American form of music known as the blues, he is credited with providing its contemporary form. While Handy was not the first to publish music in the blues form, he took the blues from a not very well-known regional music style to one of the dominant forces in American music. Handy's life and times are interesting, his self-published success story breaking many boundaries in terms of ethnicity and business. No video remains of his efforts, but from 1959, here is Louis Armstrong's version of the eternal St. Louis Blues, live in Belgium, featuring Louis Armstrong trumpet, vocal; Peanuts Hucko clarinet; Trummy Young trombone; Billy Kyle piano; Mort Herbert bass; Danny Barcelona drums, and Velma Middleton on vocals.
1954 - Bing Crosby's White Christmas entered the Billboard Pop chart for the 11th time today. His rendition has sold more than 100 million copies around the world, with at least 50 million sales as singles. It was the largest selling single in music history at that time. While modernists claim Elton John's Candle In The Wind sold more singles, renditions of Crosby's song leave Crosby feat still the biggest selling song.
1955 - BILL Haley and the Comets released their song, See You Later Alligator today, their follow up to their world-breaker, Rock Around The Clock. His sound was country music rock'n'roll mix, and he and his band found themselves at the start of the rock'n'roll music revolution, even if it was by accident. From the Curtis Clark documentary Blue Suede Shoes, here's a version you may not have seen before, from 1980.
1963 - It was the start of what would become what I call the Beatlisation of popular music, when four wanna-be rock'n'rollers took rock music to a place it had never been before. This was the day when Capitol Records released the Beatles' I Want to Hold Your Hand backed with I Saw Her Standing There. Here are both songs, live, from 48 years ago.
1967 - DAVE Brubeck and his Quartet formally disbanded after Paul Desmond left the group. Six years earlier they were at their peak, all around the world, with this near-perfect groove, a song that is still a bona fide modern music classic.
1970 - GEORGE Harrison started a four week run on top of charts all over the world, today, with his classic song, My Sweet Lord, making him the first Beatle to score a solo #1 hit. Harrison says he originally wrote the song with Billy Preston in mind. Here's the classic version, with Eric Clapton on guitar.
1973 - DOOBIE Brothers were named after a joint of marijuana, so it was quite ironic then, when the group's bass player, Tom Johnson, was arrested in Visalia, California today, on charges of marijuana possession. This was one of the group's many hit records.
1976 - JOHNNY Mathis, the American MOR singer was on top of Brit charts 35 years ago today with his #1 Christmas song, When A Child Is Born, the singers only chart topper in that country.
1978 - PUBLIC Image Ltd. made its debut performance at the Rainbow Theatre in London on this day, following the breakup of the Sex Pistols. Following is a great, unheralded pop songs, though Lydon would probably hate it being referred to as a pop song. This performance from almost two years ago is live from the Nokia Club in Los Angeles…an obvious bootleg, of course, with a shaky start.
1978 - ABBA'S pre-recorded appearance on BBCI-TV's Mike Yarwood Christmas Show aired in Britain tonight, and from that show we feature the four-piece pop sensation singing If It Wasn't For The Nights - not one of my fave Abba songs, but this is the one they sang.
1982 - CHAMELEON David Bowie had a top-selling hit in Britain today, with this little Christmas doozy duet with Bing Crosby - Peace On Earth - Little Drummer Boy.
1995 - One of my favourite singing entertainment personalities, Dean Martin, died on this day, December 25, 16 years ago. Aged 78, he leaves behind a legacy of cool - some would say the original Mr. Cool. I loved his sense of humour and self-effacing style. Here is one of his biggest hits, featuring the man who wrote it on piano.
1996 - COURTNEY Love's brilliant acting performance in the movie The People vs. Larry Flynt was released today. The controversial and sensational movie thrust headlong into issues pertaining to people having the right not to be censored. Love's role earned her a nomination for an Oscar award.
1997 - SPICE World the movie was released in the United Kingdom Xmas Eve, 14 years ago tonight. Like them or not, this is a scene from the spice Girls' one and only movie, Spiceworld. They were a pop sensation of their time.
December 27
1975 - The Staple Singers went to #1 on the US singles chart with Let's Do It Again the group's second US chart topper. The Staple Singers were an American gospel, soul, and R&B singing group formed by Roebuck "Pops" Staples, the patriarch of the family, with his children Cleotha, Pervis, Yvonne, and Mavis. They are best known for their 1970s hits I'll Take You There, Respect Yourself, Let's Do It Again, and this one, Come Go With Me.
1976 - Blues guitarist Freddie King died of heart trouble and ulcers aged 42, today. Eric Clapton covered his song, Have You Ever Loved A Woman on his Layla album. King was a major, major influence on British and American blues-rock musicians such as Jimmy Vaughan, Ronnie Earl, Peter Green and Eric Clapton. Following is his best-known song, Going Down, followed by his original version of Clapton's Have You Ever Loved A Woman.
1981 - American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader Hoagy Carmichael died 30 years ago, aged 82. Composer of evergreen classics such as Georgia On My Mind, (covered by many acts including Ray Charles), Star Dust and Lazy River, Carmichael was one of the most talented song writers in the first half of the 20th century. He also was a singer, band leader, pianist and actor. Here he is in the Humphrey Bogart Lauren Bacall movie, Casablanca…three class acts. Then Willie Nelson's version of the Carmichael song, Stardust.
