February 14, 1967 - ARETHA FRANKLIN recorded her version of the song Respect, in New York City, 45 years ago today. The classic tune was written and originally released two years earlier by Stax recording artist, the late & great Otis Redding. The song then became a 1967 hit and a subsequent signature song for R&B singer Ms. Franklin. While Redding wrote the song as a man's plea for respect and recognition from a woman, the roles were reversed with Franklin's version, her cover a landmark for the feminist movement, often considered as one of the best songs of the R&B era, earning her two Grammy Awards in 1968 for Best Rhythm & Blues Recording and Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Female Vocal Performance. Ms. Franklin was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998, and in 2002 the Library of Congress honoured Ms. Franklin's version by adding it to the National Recording Registry. It is number five on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and was also included in the list of Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. And now for something completely different - howzabout a multi-decade medley of Aretha's signature tune. Then...the original by the late and very great Otis Redding. You ready?
1970 - THE WHO taped the concert held at Leeds University in Leeds, England, tonight, and the end result became the album, Live at Leeds. Clearly. In this video, it is plain to see that it was Keith Moon and Pete Townshend who provided a large portion of the originality, the spark, the flair and the fire of the Who, but that is not to take anything away from the bass and vocals, of course. Spread the word on this one, dear reader, this is an absolute classic piece of film footage of The Who, and to my knowledge, the following footage is the ONLY footage of the event. This is magic.
1972 - VALENTINE'S DAY 40 years ago, and American national television talk show host Mike Douglas featured John Lennon and Yoko Ono as co-hosts for one week, starting today. In addition to performing on the set and showing music videos of their own, Lennon and Ono were interviewed each day by Douglas. The highlights of this part include a short interview and duets between Chuck Berry and Lennon on Memphis and Johnny B. Goode; although Yoko insensitively puts in some of her avant-garde backing vocals at one point, Berry gracious enough not to let on if he's disturbed.
1972 - STEPPENWOLF lead songer, John Kay, announced the band's breakup on Valentine's Day 1972, the same day Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty declared the day Steppenwolf Day. Ironic? Fits in with a kind of irony about the band. Declining record sales and tour fatigue were given as the main causes for the split. Steppenwolf had a subtle but solid position in American rock'n'roll, even though they were Canadian. Their self-titled debut LP was released in the spring of '68, and was a tough sound, rooted in rhythm & blues. The first single, Born To Be Wild, became an instant hit. Their cover version of Hoyt Axton's anti-drug song The Pusher, and Born To Be Wild were both featured in the genre-breaking movie for freedom, Easy Rider, later that year. In the movie, The Pusher accompanies a drug deal, and Peter Fonda stuffs dollar bills into his Stars & Stripes-clad fuel tank. Born to Be Wild is heard in the opening credits of the flick, with Fonda and Dennis Hopper - accompanied by Jack Nicholson - riding their Indian and Harley choppers through the American West. The song, which has been closely associated with motorcycles ever since, introduced to rock lyrics the signature term 'heavy metal', now heavily etched as a major genre of rock music.
1972 - GREASE, the musical, was a comedic stage spoof of teens in the fifties, and it opened off-Broadway 40 years ago today. Way before the Travolta/Newton-John movie, the original stage show ran for the next decade for a total of 3,388 performances. In this following video Barry Bostwick and Carole Demas sing Summer Lovin on PBS' TV series, 'Great Performances' in 1985, where the couple reprise their roles as Sandy Drumbowski and Danny Zuko - 13 years after the show originally opened.
1973 - DAVID BOWIE collapsed at the end of his Valentines Day Show at New York's Radio City Music Hall, tonight, reportedly due to total exhaustion. Bowie's life at this stage was that of a superstar, with all its distractions, highs, lows, frustrations and insecurities. Here's a brilliant clip from 1972, of Ziggy, who turned 4o the previous year. - not sure if the audio on this video is recorded live, but it's a damn good vid.
1974 - THE CAPTAIN & TENNILLE, musical partners and lovers, were married on Valentines Day, 38 years ago. Here is Toni singing a song that she wrote for her husband, the song becoming a gold record for them...the video is introduced by Tony Orlando, who was with a band called Dawn.
1977 - THE B-52s performed their first concert together in Athens, Georgia on Valentines Day at a local club, the so-called Love Shack. One of the quirky, original rock groups, B-52s were fun. We could easily put in Love Shack here, but to celebrate their debut gig let's check out what I think is their best ever clip, and one of their best songs, Planet Claire.
1977 - JANET IAN received 461 Valentine's day cards, today, after indicating in the lyrics of her song At Seventeen, that she had never received a Valentines Day card. The American songwriter, singer, musician, columnist, and science fiction author first entered the folk music scene while still a teenager in the mid-sixties; most active musically in that decade and the 1970s, she has continued recording into the 21st century. In 1975, Ian won a Grammy Award for her song, At Seventeen. At the age of 13, Ian wrote and sang her first hit single, Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking), about an interracial romance forbidden by a girl's mother and frowned upon by her peers and teachers: the girl ultimately decides to end the relationship, claiming the societal norms of the day have left her no other choice. Society's Child finally became a national hit on its third release, after Leonard Bernstein featured it in a TV special called, Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution. The song's lyrical content was taboo for some radio stations, and they withdrew or banned it from their playlists. She received hate mail. It wasn't until 2001, though, that Society's Child was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. First video here, is Janis at 16 years old doing Society's Child on the Smothers Brothers TV show; the second video is Ms. Ian performing the same song aged 60; third video is her international hit, at Seventeen, aged 26 years old.
1981 - BILLY IDOL left his band, Generation X for a solo career, today, 31 years ago. Originally formed in 1976, Generation X was thus named after a book that focused on battles between the Mods and the Rockers in Britain during the 1960s. The final album for Gen X was 1981's Kiss Me Deadly, which contained the original version of a song with which Idol would later cover as a solo artist and score a massive hit, Dancing With Myself. Here's the lad, with Generation X live at London's Marquee
1986 - FRANK ZAPPA, without the shadow of a doubt was one of the greats of modern music, one of the few creative contributors whose musical integrity was always uppermost. But on this Valentines Day, 26 years ago, Frankie baby expanded his repertoire, appearing on cop series Miami Vice, playing a crime boss named Mr. Frankie...clearly a joke, but here it is, that one-time performance.
1970 - THE WHO taped the concert held at Leeds University in Leeds, England, tonight, and the end result became the album, Live at Leeds. Clearly. In this video, it is plain to see that it was Keith Moon and Pete Townshend who provided a large portion of the originality, the spark, the flair and the fire of the Who, but that is not to take anything away from the bass and vocals, of course. Spread the word on this one, dear reader, this is an absolute classic piece of film footage of The Who, and to my knowledge, the following footage is the ONLY footage of the event. This is magic.
1972 - VALENTINE'S DAY 40 years ago, and American national television talk show host Mike Douglas featured John Lennon and Yoko Ono as co-hosts for one week, starting today. In addition to performing on the set and showing music videos of their own, Lennon and Ono were interviewed each day by Douglas. The highlights of this part include a short interview and duets between Chuck Berry and Lennon on Memphis and Johnny B. Goode; although Yoko insensitively puts in some of her avant-garde backing vocals at one point, Berry gracious enough not to let on if he's disturbed.
1972 - STEPPENWOLF lead songer, John Kay, announced the band's breakup on Valentine's Day 1972, the same day Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty declared the day Steppenwolf Day. Ironic? Fits in with a kind of irony about the band. Declining record sales and tour fatigue were given as the main causes for the split. Steppenwolf had a subtle but solid position in American rock'n'roll, even though they were Canadian. Their self-titled debut LP was released in the spring of '68, and was a tough sound, rooted in rhythm & blues. The first single, Born To Be Wild, became an instant hit. Their cover version of Hoyt Axton's anti-drug song The Pusher, and Born To Be Wild were both featured in the genre-breaking movie for freedom, Easy Rider, later that year. In the movie, The Pusher accompanies a drug deal, and Peter Fonda stuffs dollar bills into his Stars & Stripes-clad fuel tank. Born to Be Wild is heard in the opening credits of the flick, with Fonda and Dennis Hopper - accompanied by Jack Nicholson - riding their Indian and Harley choppers through the American West. The song, which has been closely associated with motorcycles ever since, introduced to rock lyrics the signature term 'heavy metal', now heavily etched as a major genre of rock music.
1972 - GREASE, the musical, was a comedic stage spoof of teens in the fifties, and it opened off-Broadway 40 years ago today. Way before the Travolta/Newton-John movie, the original stage show ran for the next decade for a total of 3,388 performances. In this following video Barry Bostwick and Carole Demas sing Summer Lovin on PBS' TV series, 'Great Performances' in 1985, where the couple reprise their roles as Sandy Drumbowski and Danny Zuko - 13 years after the show originally opened.
1973 - DAVID BOWIE collapsed at the end of his Valentines Day Show at New York's Radio City Music Hall, tonight, reportedly due to total exhaustion. Bowie's life at this stage was that of a superstar, with all its distractions, highs, lows, frustrations and insecurities. Here's a brilliant clip from 1972, of Ziggy, who turned 4o the previous year. - not sure if the audio on this video is recorded live, but it's a damn good vid.
1974 - THE CAPTAIN & TENNILLE, musical partners and lovers, were married on Valentines Day, 38 years ago. Here is Toni singing a song that she wrote for her husband, the song becoming a gold record for them...the video is introduced by Tony Orlando, who was with a band called Dawn.
1977 - THE B-52s performed their first concert together in Athens, Georgia on Valentines Day at a local club, the so-called Love Shack. One of the quirky, original rock groups, B-52s were fun. We could easily put in Love Shack here, but to celebrate their debut gig let's check out what I think is their best ever clip, and one of their best songs, Planet Claire.
1977 - JANET IAN received 461 Valentine's day cards, today, after indicating in the lyrics of her song At Seventeen, that she had never received a Valentines Day card. The American songwriter, singer, musician, columnist, and science fiction author first entered the folk music scene while still a teenager in the mid-sixties; most active musically in that decade and the 1970s, she has continued recording into the 21st century. In 1975, Ian won a Grammy Award for her song, At Seventeen. At the age of 13, Ian wrote and sang her first hit single, Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking), about an interracial romance forbidden by a girl's mother and frowned upon by her peers and teachers: the girl ultimately decides to end the relationship, claiming the societal norms of the day have left her no other choice. Society's Child finally became a national hit on its third release, after Leonard Bernstein featured it in a TV special called, Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution. The song's lyrical content was taboo for some radio stations, and they withdrew or banned it from their playlists. She received hate mail. It wasn't until 2001, though, that Society's Child was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. First video here, is Janis at 16 years old doing Society's Child on the Smothers Brothers TV show; the second video is Ms. Ian performing the same song aged 60; third video is her international hit, at Seventeen, aged 26 years old.
1981 - BILLY IDOL left his band, Generation X for a solo career, today, 31 years ago. Originally formed in 1976, Generation X was thus named after a book that focused on battles between the Mods and the Rockers in Britain during the 1960s. The final album for Gen X was 1981's Kiss Me Deadly, which contained the original version of a song with which Idol would later cover as a solo artist and score a massive hit, Dancing With Myself. Here's the lad, with Generation X live at London's Marquee
1986 - FRANK ZAPPA, without the shadow of a doubt was one of the greats of modern music, one of the few creative contributors whose musical integrity was always uppermost. But on this Valentines Day, 26 years ago, Frankie baby expanded his repertoire, appearing on cop series Miami Vice, playing a crime boss named Mr. Frankie...clearly a joke, but here it is, that one-time performance.
