Billy Swan (born Billy Lance Swan, May 12, 1942, Cape Girardeau, Missouri) is an American songwriter and singer, best known for his 1974 single, "I Can Help".
Swan's first album included the popular song "I Can Help", a rockabilly number that topped both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Country charts in 1974. The track reached 6 in the UK Singles Chart. "I Can Help" was certified gold on December 2, 1974, for sales of one million units by the Recording Industry Association of America. Swan recorded the song in two takes (without overdubs) with an electric organ that Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge had bought for him as a wedding present. The accompanying album of the same name also topped the Country list.
Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show was a pop-country rock band formed around Union City, New Jersey in 1969. The founding core of the band consisted of four friends—George Cummings, Dennis Locorriere, Ray Sawyer, Billy Francis—who had played up and down the East Coast and into the Midwest, ending up in New Jersey one by one, with invitations from founding band member George Cummings. Told by a club owner that they needed a name to put on a poster in the window of his establishment, Cummings made a sign: "Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show: Tonic for the Soul." The name was inspired by the traveling medicine shows of the old West. To this day, frontman Ray Sawyer is mistakenly considered Dr. Hook because of the eyepatch he wears as the result of a near-fatal 1967 car accident in Oregon.
Norman Smith aka Hurricane Smith (22 February 1923 – 3 March 2008) was an English musician and record producer. Smith was born in Edmonton, North London and served as a RAF glider pilot during World War II. After an unsuccessful career as a jazz musician, Smith joined EMI as an apprentice sound engineer in 1959.
He was the engineer on all of the EMI studio recordings by The Beatles until 1965 when EMI promoted him from engineer to producer. The last Beatles album he recorded was Rubber Soul and Smith engineered the sound for slightly fewer than 100 Beatles songs in total.
In early 1967, he began working with a new group, Pink Floyd, producing their first, second, and fourth studio albums The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, A Saucerful of Secrets, and Ummagumma. During the sessions for the song, "Remember a Day", drummer Nick Mason became agitated that he could not come up with the right drum part for the song. Smith, however, knew what he wanted with the drums, so he played the part himself.
Looking Glass was an American pop music group of the early 1970s that was part of the Jersey Shore sound. They are best remembered for their million selling 1972 song, "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)". The group was formed in 1969, at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and consisted of four members:
* Elliot Lurie (lead guitar and vocals) * Lawrence Gonsky (piano) * Pieter Sweval (bass) * Jeff Grob (drums)
Looking Glass had one #1 hit single in the week of 26 August 1972 with "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)", which was written by Lurie."Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" was released in the U.S. in June 1972 and topped the Billboard Hot 100 for one week, with a total stay of 16 weeks in the best-sellers.[1] This disc was their only million seller, achieving a gold disc from the R.I.A.A. on 9 August 1972. After the official disbanding of Looking Glass in 1974, two of the members went on to form the heavy metal band Starz in 1976. Lurie appeared as a solo artist with "Your Love Song," an entry on Billboard's "Easy Listening" chart in 1974. Lawrence Gonsky now resides in Long Valley, New Jersey and is a chorus teacher at Frelinghuysen middle school.
Lee Michaels (born 24 November 1945, in Los Angeles, California), plays the Hammond organ, piano, and guitar (plus vocals), was best known for his 1971 Top 10 pop hit, "Do You Know What I Mean".
Michaels' choice of the Hammond organ as his primary instrument was unusual for the time, as was his bare-bones stage and studio accompaniment: usually just a single drummer, most often a musician known as "Frosty" (Bartholomew Eugene Smith-Frost) member of Sweathog (band)
The Pipkins were a short-lived novelty duo, best known for their hit single "Gimme Dat Ding" (Albert Hammond/Mike Hazelwood), which reached No. 6 in the UK Singles Chart in 1970. They were Roger Greenaway, best known as a member of several songwriting teams as evidenced by the track listing, and Tony Burrows (singer), who had fronted several groups (often simultaneously) such as Edison Lighthouse, White Plains, The First Class and Brotherhood of Man.
The Fortunes are an archetypal English beat group. Formed in Birmingham, The Fortunes first came to prominence and international acclaim in 1965, when "You've Got Your Troubles" broke into the American and British Top Tens. In 1966, their manager Reginald Calvert was shot dead in a dispute over pirate radio stations. Following in the wake of Merseybeat, and the R&B of The Rolling Stones, The Fortunes added another dimension to the sound of pop, with their sophisticated orchestration, dual lead vocals and well worked counter-melodies. The result was a succession of distinctive hits including "You've Got Your Troubles", "Here It Comes Again" (both 1965), and "Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again"; even continuing into the 1970s with more globally successful releases such as "Storm in a Teacup" and "Freedom Come, Freedom Go".
Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again
Originally formed as a vocal trio backed by an instrumental group known as The Cliftones, the aggregation placed an instrumental track on a compilation LP (Brumbeat) issued by the local Dial label, "Cygnet Twitch" (like the mid-chart British hit "Saturday Nite at the Duck-Pond" by The Cougars an "instro" take on Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake) and subsequently signed to British Decca in 1963. Their first single "Summertime, Summertime/I Love Her Still," was credited to the Fortunes and the Cliftones; "Summertime Summertime", although competent, was an odd choice for a disc issued in the frenzy of the incipient Beat Boom - it went unnoticed, and as the enterprise's sax-laden sound became anachronistic overnight, the vocalists picked up guitars, jettisoned the Cliftones, and added Andy Brown on drums and Dave Carr on keyboards. The follow-up disc co-written by the singer-songwriter and future Ivy League member Perry Ford, "Caroline", was used as the signature tune for the influential pirate radio station, Radio Caroline
Daddy Dewdrop is a pseudonym for an American songwriter named Dick Monda (born Cleveland, Ohio, 1940), backed up by some studio musicians, including Tom Hensley who later became the musical director for Neil Diamond and Butch Rillera who later became a member of the group Redbone. Monda had written the song "Chick-A-Boom" for the cartoon, Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies. The song was re-recorded and distributed by Sunflower Records, and released a full album of novelty based tunes, including "Chick-A-Boom" and was retitled "Chick-A-Boom (Don't Ya Jes' Love It)". The tune was a hit in the US, peaking on the Billboard Pop Singles chart at #9 in 1971, and #3 on Cashbox.
R. Dean Taylor (born Richard Dean Taylor, 1939, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a singer, most famous as an recording artist, songwriter, and record producer for Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s. According to Jason Ankeny, Taylor "remains one of the most underrated acts ever to record under the Motown aegis". After first proving his mettle as a chart-topping staff songwriter, his own single "Indiana Wants Me" was a Top Five smash in 1970, becoming one of the label's first major crossover hits performed by a white artist.
The Jaggerz are a pop/rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, often considered a one-hit wonder because their only major success was the single "The Rapper", written by Donnie Iris (who was then billed by his birth name, Dominic Ierace). Released on the Kama Sutra label in 1970, "The Rapper", released in late December 1969 got to #2 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks in March 1970, and sold over one million copies with the gold record awarded by the R.I.A.A..
The band's name derives from the Pittsburgh English slang term, "jagger bush," meaning a thorny bush.
Redbone is a Native American rock group that was most active in the 1970s. They reached the Top 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1974 with the song, "Come and Get Your Love". Formed in 1968 in Los Angeles, California, by the brothers Patrick Vasquez (bass and vocals) and Lolly Vasquez (guitar and vocals), the name Redbone itself is a joking reference to a Cajun term for a mixed-race person, the band's members being of mixed blood ancestry. Pat and Lolly had previously performed and recorded under the stage surname Vegas, in part to downplay the Latin American association of their birth surname, Vasquez
Witch queen of New Orleans 1971
Redbone played primarily rock music with R&B, Cajun, Jazz, tribal, and Latin roots. Their first commercial success came with the single "Maggie" from their second album, Potlatch, in 1970, and two other hit singles followed - "The Witch Queen of New Orleans" (1971, #21 on the Billboard Hot 100) and "Come and Get Your Love" (1974, #5 on the Billboard Hot 100).
The Platters were a successful vocal group of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound was a bridge between the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition, and the burgeoning new genre. The original group members were Alex Hodge, Cornell Gunther, David Lynch, Joe Jefferson, Gaynel Hodge and Herb Reed.
After signing with Buck Ram, the act went through several personnel changes before hitting the charts, with the most successful incarnation comprising lead tenor Tony Williams, David Lynch, Paul Robi, Herb Reed, and Zola Taylor.
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Twilight Time 1958
The Platters formed in Los Angeles in 1953 and were initially managed by Ralph Bass. The group had a contract with Federal Records but had found little success before meeting music entrepreneur and songwriter Buck Ram. The band recorded a series of singles backing Linda Hayes before Ram made some changes to the lineup, most notably the addition of lead vocalist Tony Williams (Linda Hayes' brother) and female vocalist Zola Taylor. Under Ram's guidance, the Platters recorded seven singles for Federal in the R&B/gospel style, scoring a few minor regional hits on the West Coast. One song recorded during their Federal tenure, Only You (And You Alone), originally written by Ram for the Ink Spots was deemed unreleasable by the label.
The Platters - Great Pretender, Only You (live) 1955
The McCoys were a pop group that started in Union City, Indiana, United States, in 1962. The original members, all from Union City were guitarist Ricky Zehringer (later known as Rick Derringer), his brother Randy on drums, and bassist Dennis Kelly. This first line-up was known as The Rick Z Combo, and later known as Rick and the Raiders. When Kelly left for college, the Zehringers were joined by bassist Randy Jo Hobbs, saxophonist Sean Michaels, and keyboardist Ronnie Brandon. This was the line-up that took the name of The McCoys. Brandon left the group in 1965 and was replaced by Bobby Peterson on keyboards.
One of their best-known songs is "Hang on Sloopy", which was #1 in America in the Billboard Hot 100 chart in October 1965 and is the official rock song of the state of Ohio. The two Zehringer brothers (then known as Rick Derringer and Randy Z) and Hobbs became Johnny Winter's band for the albums Johnny Winter And and Live Johnny Winter And in the 1970 and 1971 respectively. As backing musicians, both Derringer and Hobbs contributed to Winter's later releases, Still Alive and Well (1973), Saints & Sinners (1974) and John Dawson Winter III (1974). Derringer and Hobbs later played with Edgar Winter, as well as appearing on the Together: Edgar Winter and Johnny Winter Live album (1976). Hobbs later toured with Winter, but without Derringer, resulting in Winter's Captured Live! album (1976). Derringer also played with Steely Dan, Cyndi Lauper, among others, in addition to forming later bands, such as DNA, with drummer Carmine Appice.
Hobbs died of drug-related heart failure on 5 August 1993, (Rick Derringer's birthday), at the age of 45.
Being a guitarist, I always admire the artist that makes me want to lay down my instrument just because they are so good at what they do. Jose' is a "guitarist's guitarist" and there are very few that fit in this category.
At 17, he quit school to play in clubs, having his first professional, contracted performance in Detroit. He got together with Rick Jarrard who was at the time also producing Nilsson & Jefferson Airplane. They recorded the The Doors' song Light My Fire in a Latin style and when released as a single, it reached #3 on the U.S. pop charts in late summer, 1968. Many subsequent recordings of "Light My Fire" by a multitude of artists took the arrangement from the Feliciano recording. He immediately became a sensation all across North America, selling millions of albums and followed up his success with another top 20 hit in the USA with his version of "Hi-Heel Sneakers", again recorded with a Latin feel. On the strength of this success he won two Grammy Awards for Best New Artist of the Year and for Best Pop Song of the Year in 1969.
Light My Fire
In October 1968, at the height of protests against the Vietnam War, Feliciano was given the opportunity to perform The Star-Spangled Banner at Tiger Stadium in Detroit during Game 5 pregame ceremonies of the World Series. His highly personalized, slow, Latin jazz performance proved highly controversial. He accompanied himself on an acoustic guitar. The rendition was released as a single which charted for 5 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #50. Feliciano's "Star-Spangled Banner" took place 10 months before the more famous Jimi Hendrix rendition at Woodstock.
Star Spangled Banner
Ain't No Sunshine
Malaguena
Flight of The Bumble Bee - Guitar
The volume of what this man has done to this point is staggering. Flamenco techniques have always baffled me, as the speed is almost effortless, when viewed.
John Fred (born John Fred Gourrier, May 8, 1941 – April 14, 2005) was a blue-eyed soul, Cajun swamp pop and bubble-gum pop performer from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, best known for the song, "Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)". His group, John Fred and the Playboys, was formed in 1956; their first hit single was 1958's "Shirley". He appeared on Alan Freed's show, but when Dick Clark asked him to sing on American Bandstand, Fred had to turn him down because he had to play in a basketball game.
In 1967, Fred and band member Andrew Bernard co-wrote "Judy in Disguise", a parody of The Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". The song, issued by Louisiana-based Jewel Records on the Paula label, became enormously successful, ironically knocking another Beatles song ("Hello, Goodbye") out of the #1 chart position on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in January 1968.
Amen Corner was a successful British pop group, formed in late 1966 in Cardiff, Wales.The band was named after The Amen Corner, a weekly disc spin at the Victoria Ballroom (later to become The Scene Club) in Cardiff, Wales, where every Sunday night Dr. Rock would play the best soul music from America. I am going to post their original version of the song and The American Breed's version. I think the first one sucks. no wonder they weren't around that long. They are in such contrast to each other. I have always been amazed when someone can interpret a song so differently from the original. I mean, Amen Corner may have written the song, but the singer sounds like he is drunk and the tune is all wrong.
Amen Corner - Bend Me, Shape Me - Top Of The Pops (1968)
Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk (born February 3, 1947, in Astoria, New York City) is an American singer-songwriter.
Usually known professionally as Melanie, she is best known for her hits "Brand New Key", "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" and "What Have They Done To My Song Ma". Melanie grew up in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens in New York City.
Brand New Key
"Lay Down" (Candles in the Rain)
What Have They Done To My Song, Ma 1971 (I believe that the song's actual name is "Look what they've done to my song, Ma...call me crazy, but that seems to fit better than What Have They Done To My Song, Ma)
Edwin Hawkins (born 18 August 1943, Oakland, California) is a Grammy Award-winning American gospel and R&B musician, pianist, choir leader, composer and arranger. He is one of the originators of the urban contemporary gospel sound. He (and the Edwin Hawkins Singers) are best known for his arrangement of "Oh Happy Day" (1968-69), which was included on the Songs of the Century list. The Edwin Hawkins Singers are somewhat less well-known for backing Melanie one year later on the song, "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)".
The Swinging Blue Jeans are a four piece 1960s British Merseybeat band, best known for their hits You're No Good and the hit single, "Hippy Hippy Shake".
The Swinging Blue Jeans were originally founded by Ray Ennis and Les Braid. They performed on many popular TV shows in the United Kingdom and Europe. They performed with The Beatles, Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Searchers, and The Merseybeats. Many people, including myself, thought that the Beatles wrote this song.
"Hippy Hippy Shake" was released in 1963. The video is from 1974.
I am one of those musicians that likes to see things done solo...one instrument and done well. I know a lot of pianists that can't play this on 88 keys, let alone anyone who can play it on 12 strings. To me, this is one brilliant piece.
Adam Fulara (b. 1977 in Ostrzeszów, Poland) is a Polish guitarist who specializes in two-handed polyphonic tapping.
Fulara's fame grew via various YouTube videos featuring his unique playing style and guitar. The videos showcase his tapping abilities and iconic face which goes into a grimace while playing. His most popular videos are his guitar versions of J.S. Bach Goldberg Variations which were originally for harpsichord. Fulara also keeps the complex counterpoint intact due to his double-neck guitar and tapping abilities.
Fulara plays both classical and jazz pieces, the latter often with his trio "Fool-X", which has toured much of Poland and Germany. His music has been featured in the periodicals Magdeburger Volksstimme ("Two hand tapping mit Fool-X", August 31, 2006) and Czas Ostrzeszowski ("Debiutanckie wymiatanie Fool X Trio", November 22, 2006).
Don't mind the faces he makes.... most of this post is Bach. The paper pieces at the top of the neck cancel the sustain of the strings.
I post a lot of stuff here and I think that from now on, I will post my favorite song of the posting again by itself. The video tonight is Al Green's "Rainin' In My Heart". I have always loved the uniqueness of his voice, but for whatever reason, Having him playing a guitar (albeit rhythm) as well as singing this...well...you just gotta love it.
Albert Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer who received great acclaim in the 1970s, and a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Green was born in Forrest City, Arkansas. He was the sixth of ten children born to Robert and Cora Greene. The son of a sharecropper, he started performing at age ten in a Forrest City quartet called the Greene Brothers; he dropped the final "e" from his last name years later as a solo artist. They toured extensively in the mid-1950s in the South until the Greenes moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, when they began to tour around Michigan. His father kicked him out of the group because he caught Green listening to Jackie Wilson.
Let's Stay Together
FOR THE GOOD TIMES
On October 18, 1974, Mary Woodson, a girlfriend of Green's, assaulted him before killing herself at his Memphis home.Although she was already married, Woodson reportedly became upset when Green refused to marry her.At some point during the evening, Woodson doused Green with a pan of boiling grits while he was showering causing third-degree burns on Green's back, stomach and arms. Woodson then shot herself with Green's gun.
Love and Happiness
Green cited the incident as a wake-up call to change his life.He became an ordained pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis in 1976.
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American soul singer. Often called the "King of Soul", he is renowned for an ability to convey strong emotion through his voice. According to the website of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (where he was inducted in 1989), Redding's name is "synonymous with the term soul, music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm and blues into a form of funky, secular testifying." In addition, rock critic Jon Landau said in 1967 that '"Otis Redding is rock & roll". Redding died in a plane crash at the age of 26, one month before his biggest hit, "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay", was released. In 2008 American music magazine Rolling Stone named Otis the eighth greatest singer of all time.
My Girl
Try A Little Tenderness
On December 9, 1967, Redding and his backup band, The Bar-Kays, made an appearance in Cleveland, Ohio on the local "Upbeat" television show. The next afternoon, Redding, his manager, the pilot, and four members of The Bar-Kays were killed when his Beechcraft 18 airplane crashed into Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin, on December 10, 1967 "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" was recorded only three days before Redding's death. According to Nashid Munyan, curator of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Redding considered the song unfinished, having whistled the tune of one verse for which he intended to compose lyrics later. The song was released (with the place-holding whistling intact) in January 1968 and became Redding's only number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, and the first posthumous single in U.S. chart history.
Dobie Gray (born Lawrence Victor Ainsworth, July 26, 1940) is an African American musician/singer best known for his cover of the song "Drift Away", which was one of the biggest hits of 1973, and still remains a staple of radio airplay.
Gray was born in Texas, possibly in Simonton. There is some disagreement about his birthdate, but it is generally placed in the early 1940s. His birth name is also disputed, being listed as "Leonard Victor Ainsworth" or "Laurence Darrow Brown". However, Gray is listed in the Fort Bend County Birth Records in Texas, as being born on July 26, 1940, to Jane P. Spencel and Jethro Clifton Brown.
Donovan (Donovan Phillips Leitch, born 10 May 1946, in Maryhill, Glasgow), is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music. Donovan came to fame in the United Kingdom in early 1965 with a series of live performances on the pop TV series, Ready Steady Go!, and his popularity spread to the USA and other countries. After signing with the British label, Pye Records in 1965, he recorded a handful of singles and two albums in the folk music vein. After extricating himself from his original management contract, he began a long and successful collaboration with leading independent record producer Mickie Most, scoring a string of hits in the UK, the USA, Australia and other countries, including several British and American #1 hits and million-selling records. Donovan was the first artist to be signed to CBS/Epic Records by then-new Administrative Vice President Clive Davis, who later became head of the CBS Record empire.
Donovan was one of the leading British recording artists of his day. He produced a series of hit albums and singles between 1965 and 1970. He became a friend of leading pop musicians including Joan Baez, Brian Jones, Bruce Springsteen, and The Beatles, and was one of the few artists to collaborate on songs with the Beatles. He influenced both John Lennon and Paul McCartney when he taught them his finger-picking guitar style in 1968. Donovan's commercial fortunes waned after he parted ways with Mickie Most in 1969, and he left the music industry for a time.
He continued to perform and record sporadically in the 1970s and 1980s, but gradually fell from favour. His gentle musical style and hippie image was scorned by critics, especially after the advent of punk rock. Donovan withdrew from performing and recording several times during his career, but he underwent a revival in the 1990s with the emergence of the rave scene in Britain. Late in the decade, he recorded an album with producer and long-time fan Rick Rubin and released a new album, Beat Cafe, in 2004.
Catch the wind 1964
"Sunshine Superman"
COLORS -Live
released in May 1968, was the swirling psychedelic classic "Hurdy Gurdy Man". In the liner notes from EMI's reissues, it is revealed that the song was intended for Donovan's old friend and guitar mentor Mac MacLeod, who had a heavy rock band called Hurdy Gurdy. After hearing MacLeod's power trio version, Donovan considered giving it to Jimi Hendrix, but when Mickie Most heard it, he convinced Donovan that the song was a sure single that he should record himself.
HURDY GURDY MAN
Donovan himself states that Jimmy Page did indeed record guitar on the "Hurdy Gurdy Man" song, with John Paul Jones on bass and Jon Bonham on drums, with virtually all of Led Zeppelin performing on that song except for lead singer Robert Plant. Jones and Page have both stated that Led Zeppelin was formed during "The Hurdy Gurdy Man" sessions.
Bloodrock was a Fort Worth, Texas-based (hard) rock & roll band in the 1970s.
Bloodrock was best known for the song "D.O.A." (Dead On Arrival). D.O.A. was a graphic and mournful first person account of a mortally injured crash survivor and his dead girlfriend. Some think that the song refers to a car crash, and others think that the song refers to a plane crash. Both meanings are possible, because of nuances and phrasings in the lyrics, as well as the meaning of the lyrics themselves. The lyrics "we were flying along" may refer to kids joyriding because "flying low" is a metaphor for speeding. However given the era that the song was written in, and the popularity of drug use amongst rock musicians at that time, most people assumed the words "we were flying along and hit something in the air" refer to the car's occupants as being on drugs and barely aware of where they were and what happened to them. Another possibility is that the lyrics really mean, literally, flying in an airplane, presumably in the fog or bad weather or similar. Another lyric, "Then I looked straight at the attendant. His face is pale as it can be. He bends and whispers something softly. He says there's no chance for me." could refer to an ambulance attendant after a car crash, or a flight attendant after a plane crash. Only Bloodrock knows for sure. (Although there were very, very few male flight attendants in 1971 and they were still referred to as stewardesses at that time. The term "paramedics" was relatively unknown in 1971 and "attendant" was the most common noun applied to ambulance.)
This became their only hit single, reaching #36 on the music charts on March 6, 1971. They were only marginally popular in the United States and were essentially a cult band, but reportedly became a favorite among troops in Vietnam.
We Five was a 1960s folk rock musical group based in San Francisco, California. Their best-known hit was their 1965 remake of Ian and Sylvia's "You Were on My Mind", which reached #1 on the Cashbox chart, #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The original group split after recording their second album in 1967, but a re-formed band produced three more albums between 1968 and 1977. The original group is probably best remembered for the vocal qualities of its lead singer Beverly Bivens.
The 5th Dimension is a multiple Grammy-winning American popular music vocal group, whose repertoire also includes pop, R&B, soul, and jazz.
The 5th Dimension was best-known during the late 1960s and early 1970s for popularizing the hits "Up, Up and Away", Wedding Bell Blues", "Stoned Soul Picnic", "One Less Bell to Answer", "(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All", and "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In", as well as the eponymous 5th Dimension and The Magic Garden LP recordings.
The five original members were Billy Davis, Jr., Florence LaRue, Marilyn McCoo, Lamonte McLemore, and Ron Townson. They have recorded for several different labels over their long careers. Their first work appeared on the Soul City label, which was started by Imperial Records/United Artists Records recording artist Johnny Rivers. The group would later record for Bell/Arista Records, ABC Records, and Motown Records.
Some of the songwriters popularized by The 5th Dimension later went on to careers of their own, especially Ashford & Simpson, who wrote "California Soul". The group is also notable for having more success with the songs of Laura Nyro than Nyro did herself, particularly in the cases of "Wedding Bell Blues", "Stoned Soul Picnic", and "Save the Country" The group also covered music by well known songwriters such as the song "One Less Bell to Answer", written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. And perhaps best of all, they became great interpreters of the songs and music of Jimmy Webb, who penned their original mega-hit "Up, Up, and Away", including an entire recording of memorable Webb songs called The Magic Garden.
The Rascals (initially known as The Young Rascals) were an American soul and rock group of the 1960s.
Eddie Brigati (vocals), Felix Cavaliere (keyboard, vocals), Gene Cornish (guitar) and Dino Danelli (drums) started the band in Brigati and Danelli's native state New Jersey. Three-quarters of the group - Brigati, Cavaliere and Cornish - had previously been members of Joey Dee and the Starliters. Eddie's brother, David Brigati, an original Starliter, helped arrange the vocal harmonies and sang backgrounds on many of the group's recordings (informally earning the designation as the Fifth Rascal). When Atlantic Records signed them, they discovered that another group (Borrah Minnevitch's and Johnny Puleo's Harmonica Rascals) objected to the release of records under the name Rascals. To avoid conflict, manager Sid Bernstein decided to rename the group the Young Rascals.
The Lovin' Spoonful is an American pop rock band of the 1960s, named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. When asked about his band, leader John Sebastian said it sounded like a combination of "Mississippi John Hurt and Chuck Berry.
The band's name was inspired by some lines in a song of Mississippi John Hurt called the "Coffee Blues." John Sebastian credits Fritz Richmond for suggesting the name.
This is something other than what I heard it was acclaimed to; The male equivalent of an ejaculation (1 teaspoon) and the british equivalent is 10cc...LOL
Who would have thought that an autoharp could be a main instrument in a rock band?
Summer In The City
Do You Believe in Magic + You Didn't Have To Be So Nice
The Temptations (sometimes abbreviated as The Temps or The Tempts) are an American vocal group that achieved fame as one of the most successful acts to record for Motown Records. The group's repertoire has included, at various times during its five-decade career, R&B, doo-wop, funk, disco, soul, and adult contemporary music.
THIS IS ONE LONG POST. They had so much to listen to. they were phenomenal...
The original group included members of two local Detroit vocal groups: The Distants, which featured second tenor Otis Williams, first tenor Elbridge "Al" Bryant and bass Melvin Franklin; and first tenor/falsetto Eddie Kendricks and second tenor/baritone Paul Williams (no relation to Otis) from The Primes. Among the most notable future Temptations were lead singers David Ruffin and Dennis Edwards (both of whom became successful Motown solo artists after leaving the group), Richard Street (another former Distant), Damon Harris, Ron Tyson, Ali-Ollie Woodson, Theo Peoples, and G.C. Cameron. Like its sister female group, the Supremes, the Temptations' lineup has changed frequently particularly in recent decades.
The Temptations: Reflecting To Members' Past
Get Ready (1966)
Aint Too Proud To Beg 1966
Papa Was A Rolling Stone (1972)
The Way You Do the Things You Do
The Temptations-Just My Imagination(acapella)
I Can't Get Next To You
I Wish It Would Rain(acapella)
Ball of Confusion
Psychedelic Shack
I'M LOSING YOU
The Girls Alright With Me
(Acapella) My Girl
Cloud Nine(acapella)
The Temptations - Cloud Nine
I am sure there are many more. If you know of any, post a comment and I will try to find it.
The Mindbenders (originally the backing group for Wayne Fontana) was a 1960s beat group from Manchester, England. They were part of the mid 1960s British Invasion with their chart-toppers "Game of Love" and "Groovy Kind of Love".
Groovy kind of love
"Game Of Love" / "Just A Little Bit Too Late" (Live 1965)
The Zombies, formed in 1961 in St Albans, is an English rock band. Led by Rod Argent on piano and Colin Blunstone on vocals, the band scored US hits in the mid- and late-1960s with "She's Not There", "Tell Her No", and "Time of the Season". Their 1968 album Odessey and Oracle, comprising twelve songs by the group's principal songwriters, Argent and Chris White, is now considered one of the best of its time and is ranked 80 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
She's not there - 1965
Tell Her No
I can't find a good link to "time of the season". If you can help with it, please reply to me.
The Byrds were an American rock and roll band. Formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964, The Byrds underwent several lineup changes, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group's disbandment in 1973.
Their trademark songs include covers of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "My Back Pages" and Pete Seeger’s "Turn! Turn! Turn!", as well as the originals "I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better", "Eight Miles High" and "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star."
The Byrds were popular and influential during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The band melded the British Invasion sound with elements of contemporary folk and pop music. They also helped forge such subgenres as folk rock, space rock, raga rock, psychedelic rock, jangle pop, and –- on their 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo, which featured Gram Parsons –- country rock.
"Turn Turn Turn" (with a VERY young David Crosby with no moustache)
eight miles high
Chimes Of Freedom Live
"You Ain't Goin' Nowhere"-9/28/68
"Mr. Tambourine Man" Featuring Bob Dylan
"He Was A Friend Of Mine"
I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better
I know I posted this song, but this is the earliest version I could find.
"Mr.Tambourine Man"-5/8/65 (The Byrds debut on TV!!!)
Tommy James and the Shondells are an American rock and roll group whose period of greatest success came in the late 1960s. They had two number one singles in the U.S. — "Hanky Panky" (1966) and "Crimson and Clover" (1968) — and also released five other top ten hits; "I Think We're Alone Now," "Mony Mony," "Crystal Blue Persuasion", "Mirage", and "Sweet Cherry Wine"
Mony Mony (1968)
and they still rock!
Tommy James And The Shondells - Sioux Falls, SD - 6-18-08
Barry McGuire (born 15 October 1935) is an American singer-songwriter.
McGuire was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and moved to California in early childhood. At age 16 he joined the United States Navy, but was discharged ten months later for being 'under age'.
After working as a commercial fisherman, and then going onto become a journeyman pipe fitter, at age 25 McGuire got a job singing in a bar. In 1961, he released his first single called "The Tree", which was not a hit, and formed a duo with Barry Kane. They both joined the New Christy Minstrels in Spring 1962. In 1963, McGuire along with Randy Sparks (the founder of the New Christy Minstrels) co-wrote the Christys' first and biggest hit single: "Green, Green." He left the Christys in January, 1965, after recording the album, Cowboys and Indians; however, on the 1965 album Chim Chim Cher-ee, he sang only on the title cut.
As a folk rock solo singer in the 1960s, he was best known for his hits "Eve of Destruction" and "Sins of the Family", both written by P.F. Sloan. His other chart successes, "Child of Our Times" was co-written by Steve Barri, and "Cloudy Summer Afternoon (Raindrops)" was penned by Travis Edmonson of 1960's folk-duo, Bud & Travis.
Eve of Destruction
Barry McGuire: "Eve of Destruction"
The eastern world, it is exploding Violence flarin', bullets loadin' You're old enough to kill, but not for votin' You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you're totin' And even the Jordan River has bodies floatin'
But you tell me Over and over and over again, my friend Ah, you don't believe We're on the eve of destruction.
Don't you understand what I'm tryin' to say Can't you feel the fears I'm feelin' today? If the button is pushed, there's no runnin' away There'll be no one to save, with the world in a grave [Take a look around ya boy, it's bound to scare ya boy]
And you tell me Over and over and over again, my friend Ah, you don't believe We're on the eve of destruction.
Yeah, my blood's so mad feels like coagulatin' I'm sitting here just contemplatin' I can't twist the truth, it knows no regulation. Handful of senators don't pass legislation And marches alone can't bring integration When human respect is disintegratin' This whole crazy world is just too frustratin'
And you tell me Over and over and over again, my friend Ah, you don't believe We're on the eve of destruction.
Think of all the hate there is in Red China Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama You may leave here for 4 days in space But when you return, it's the same old place The poundin' of the drums, the pride and disgrace You can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace Hate your next-door neighbor, but don't forget to say grace And... tell me over and over and over and over again, my friend You don't believe We're on the eve Of destruction Ah, no no, you don't believe We're on the eve of destruction.
Zager and Evans were a Lincoln, Nebraska rock-pop duo of the late 1960s and early 1970s named after its two members, Denny Zager and Rick Evans, who met at Nebraska Wesleyan University. Artists Dave Trupp and Mark Dalton backed up the duo.
Zager and Evans are best known for their immensely popular "In the Year 2525." written by Rick Evans. The song warned of the dangers of technology, portraying a future in which the human race would at length be destroyed by its own technological and medical innovations and Divine wrath. The last stanza of the song intimates a continuing cycle of birth, death and rebirth of mankind.
"In the Year 2525" hit number one on the pop charts in 1969. It claimed the #1 spot for six weeks, a remarkable achievement. It also topped the charts in the UK. Coincidentally, it was number one on July 20, 1969 in the USA, the date of the first manned moon landing by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. It was nominated for a special Hugo Award that same year.
The song was originally written in 1964 and recorded and released in 1967 on the Truth Records label. After a radio station in Odessa, Texas popularized the two-year old record, RCA Records distributed the song nationwide. Sales of the original hit recording (including singles sales, album usage and compilation inclusions) now total over 10 million units worldwide.
The B-side of the 45, "Little Kids," is a short but touching tale of childhood sweethearts.
The band signed with RCA records, who claimed they were "The Next Big Thing", but follow-up singles, such as "Mr. Turnkey" (a song about a rapist who nails his own wrist to the jail wall as punishment for his crime) achieved only minor success. "In the Year 2525" was their only top 40 song.
Denny Zager and Rick Evans no longer perform as a duo, but they both remain in the music business and remain friends. Denny Zager now builds custom guitars at www.zagerguitar.com
Blood, Sweat & Tears (also known as "BS&T") is an American music group, originally formed in 1967 in New York City. Since its beginnings in 1967, the band has gone through numerous iterations with varying personnel and has encompassed a multitude of musical styles. What the band is most known for, from its start, is the fusing of rock, blues, pop music, horn arrangements and jazz improvisation into a hybrid that came to be known as "jazz-rock". Unlike "jazz fusion" bands, which tend toward virtuostic displays of instrumental facility and some experimentation with electric instruments, the songs of Blood, Sweat & Tears merged the stylings of rock, pop and R&B/soul music with big band, while also adding elements of small combo jazz traditions.
David Clayton-Thomas (born David Henry Thomsett, 13 September, 1941, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, England, UK) is a musician and singer.
Steppenwolf is a Canadian rock band that helped establish heavy metal music in the late 1960s. The band was formed in 1967 in Los Angeles by vocalist John Kay, guitarist Michael Monarch, bassist Rushton Moreve, keyboardist Goldy McJohn and drummer Jerry Edmonton after the dissolution of its predecessor, The Sparrows.
The band has sold more than 25 million units worldwide, releasing 8 gold albums and 13 Hot 100 singles, including three top-10 hits in the iconic "Born to Be Wild" (it is in the lyrics of this song in which the term "heavy metal" is first heard in rock music, thus, according to some, attributing the term to songwriter Mars Bonfire)
The Youngbloods were an American folk rock band consisting of Jesse Colin Young (Vocals, bass), Jerry Corbitt (lead guitar), Lowell Levinger (rhythm guitar), and Joe Bauer (drums). Despite receiving critical acclaim, they never achieved widespread popularity. Their only U.S. Top 40 entry was "Get Together", although this release did sell over one million copies.
Pacific Gas & Electric was an American rock band, best known for the song "Are You Ready?" released in 1970. The band's history dates from 1967 in Los Angeles. Self-taught guitarist Tom Marshall met bassist Brent Block at a party thrown by Block's former art teacher and formed a band then named "Pacific Gas and Electric Blues Band". It was one of the first multiracial bands to be part of the Los Angeles music scene. An early member was Charlie Allen (May 1, 1942 - May 7, 1990), a drummer from San Francisco, whose vocal abilities were so good that he moved from drums to lead singer, and was replaced on drums by Canned Heat's former drummer, Frank Cook, who had earlier signed to manage the band.
Canned Heat is a blues-rock/boogie band that formed in Los Angeles in 1965. The group has been noted for its own interpretations of blues material as well as for efforts to promote the interest in this type of music and its original artists. It was launched by two blues enthusiasts, Alan Wilson and Bob Hite, who took the name from Tommy Johnson's 1928 "Canned Heat Blues", a song about an alcoholic who had desperately turned to drinking Sterno, generically called "canned heat".
Music and whatever...I am now backing up video in case of it's link demise. Let me know of any bad links and I will do my best to bring them back. Feel free to comment. This site is a compilation of findings from other sites. Nothing on this site is "actually" here. just links to stuff.
you see the month and an arrow to the left. if you click on the arrow, it will bring up hyperlinks to older posts. check it out...
Twice married, 3 kids; Boy 28, Girl 25, Boy 2 1/2 (my birthday present. Son was born on my birthday) Totally enveloped in music; Listen to it, write it. Music to me is the only thing beyond my wife and my son that makes sense to me. It's like "time stamps" to my past. It is said that if you grew up in the 60's and 70's you really can't remember them. Well, I do...through music. I don't remember dates specifically or time frames at all. It was drugs. it was "Tune in, Turn on, Drop out". But the songs... "Time stamps" Remembering the music gives a certain vantage point, and, the point was almost always a pleasant memory. It's a way to go back.
