The great Patti Smith at last month's San Remo Song Festival, San Remo, Italy (Daniele Venturelli
Getty Images Entertainment)
Discovered by Clive Davis and signed to Arista in 1975, the Godmother of Punk, Patti Smith, had a surprise hit in 1978 with “Because the Night.”
George Strait, 2010 (Rick Diamond
Getty Images Entertainment)
Last week, country music star George Strait hit #1 on the country chart for the 59th time.
Aretha Franklin performed earlier this month in Atlanta. (Getty Images/Rick Diamond for the Fox Theatre)
The great Aretha Franklin turned 70 years old on March 25th. When she was only 18, she signed a recording contract with Columbia Records. The five-year period she spent at Columbia before moving on to Atlantic — and the legendary sessions that crowned her the Queen of Soul — is frequently glossed over in histories of her career. For her birthday, let’s not do that.
Aretha came to the label’s notice as a gospel singer in her father’s church — she had made an album in 1956 at age 14 — but marketing her strictly as a gospel artist would have limited her appeal. The goal was to turn her into a pop singer. Fifty years ago, that meant recording the Great American Songbook. Some of her performances featured full orchestras, while on others she was backed by small groups of jazz players. The jazz arrangements proved to be a more comfortable fit, because they let her show off her gospel side, although it frequently burst free in the orchestral settings, too.
Aretha made eight albums between 1961 and 1966. The last three, Runnin’ Out of Fools, Yeah!!!, and Soul Sister, were top-10 hits on the R&B album chart. Runnin’ Out of Fools features versions of the Motown hit “My Guy,” “The Shoop-Shoop Song,” and “Walk on By,” made famous by Dionne Warwick — who, in 1964, was the singer Columbia imagined Franklin becoming.
She scored a surprising number of minor hit singles during this period, albeit nothing so titanic as records she would make beginning in 1967. But “One Step Ahead,” which bubbled under the Hot 100 for three weeks in the spring of 1965, has the ingredients in the test tube.
Franklin’s early work was collected last year on an 11-CD box called Take a Look: Aretha Franklin Complete on Columbia.
Lady Antebellum are up for five ACM awards this year. (Rick Diamond/Getty Images)
The Academy of Country Music rolls out the red carpet on April 1 for their 47th annual awards show. Here are the Top 10 Things You Need To Know About This Year’s ACM’s heading in Sunday’s ceremony.
This image comes from the American cover of "Help!" (1965).
In the summer of 1965, millions of Beatles fans went happily off to the theaters to see Help!, bought the soundtrack album, and were glad that their old favorites were up to their old tricks. But Help!, which spent nine weeks at #1 in America beginning in September, shows stirrings of change.
Here's a detail from the cover of the debut album by Kokomo (1975).
The middle of the 1970s saw a riot of rock styles — hard rock and progressive rock were worldwide phenomena, while glam rock and pub rock were big mainly in the British Empire. But pub rock, with its loose and informal mix of folk, blues, country, and rock ‘n’ roll, was a precursor of the roots rock movement that came to America in the ’80s. The style got its name from the out-of-the-way clubs where they played their back-to-basics brand of music.
The biggest of the pub-rock acts in America was Ace, who scored a hit with “How Long” in 1975. That same year, another batch of pub-rockers bubbled under the American charts at the same time they were making an impression on one of the biggest stars in rock.
Neil Innes (L) and Eric Idle (R) appear as Ron Nasty and Dirk McQuickly of the Rutles on the cover of the fictional album "Let It Rot."
In 1978, a British invasion happened, when the Beatles parody group the Rutles came to the United States. It was the brainchild of Monty Python member Eric Idle and Python collaborator Neil Innes. Thirty-two years ago this month, the Rutles’ story was featured in a TV movie.
Before starring in movies including "The Sixth Sense," "Die Hard," "Armageddon," and others, Bruce Willis (R, with Haley Joel Osment) was a TV star, and scored a Top-10 hit single. (Getty Images)
Everybody who loves music also hates music — certain specific examples of it, anyhow. This feature is about those songs: the World’s Worst Songs.
In the spring of 1985, ABC launched a new TV series called Moonlighting, starring movie star Cybill Shepherd and an unknown actor named Bruce Willis. Within a few months, it rode the chemistry between its stars to a perch near the top of the TV ratings. In 1986, Willis began doing commercials for Seagram’s wine coolers, making it one of the top brands in the beverage market. In one of the most memorable spots, Willis sang — so somebody gave him the opportunity to make an album.
(Getty Images)
When Spring is in full bloom, the weather warms, and blossoms are on the tree, it is only natural that people’s minds turn to tender thoughts of love. Throughout the ages, the gentle words of poets and artists have given voice to our fairer emotions and the noblest of human affections. Century after century, artists have spoken for so many of us when we have trouble expressing the depth of feeling within our hearts, from Plato to Shakespeare to Robert Frost. But perhaps most poignant is the hauntingly beautiful phrase by the Beatles that offers up the sum of human longing in the simple, elegant words ‘Why don’t we do it in the road?’
Well, maybe not.
The Judds - "Why Not Me" (RCA, 1984)
Kind of spooky how much they look alike, isn’t it? Today’s Awesome Album Cover is wrapped around the second release from the Judds called Why Not Me.
Platinum
1
Bob Dylan: The Collection
Greatest Hits
The Beatles (The White Album)
Revolver
Abbey Road
Greatest Hits II
Experience Hendrix: The Best Of Jimi Hendrix
Greatest Hits
Beatle George Harrison is shown playing the guitar in a scene from the Beatles movie "Help!" on location in the Bahamas in 1965. (AP Photo)
© 2012 CBS Radio Inc. All rights reserved | Powered by WordPress.com VIP
Recent Comments