stories behind the music: Twin-Pick (Pop Music Interactive Quiz) -- The Beatles
- 05/12/09 03:43 AM
When I was a youth, when AM radio was king in the 1960's, my favorite deejay, and an inspiration for my own radio career, was Kirk Wilde at rockin' 1170 KPUG in Bellingham. Wilde had a nightly contest he called twin-pick. Listeners would call in and pick their favorite songs out of the new releases from that week. I always liked the name twin-pick so, forty years later, I have borrowed the name for my new and exciting music trivia contest. It is not exactly what Kirk Wilde did, but I figure it is a great name for this contest anyway and … (11 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind the Music -- When the Band Was Playing "Shakin' All Over"
- 05/10/09 11:09 AM
I am amazed by the contacts that I receive through Active Rain and my music blogs. And, I do not mean just contacts from other Active Rain members. It is astounding to me the contacts I receive from the general public. Bellingham is located just below the larger city of Vancouver, British Columbia. Because of that, many of us who live in Bellingham have close connections to Canada that are unique when compared to most U.S. cities. This story ties in to that close connection to Canada. I expect a number of visitors to my home inspection information, thanks to the … (8 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind the Music -- Country Music's Greatest Legends
- 05/06/09 01:57 AM
Back when I worked as a country music deejay, I learned early on that there are only two real legends of country music. Both legends had short lives and a mysterious and ghostly aura about them.
That first legend was a guy named Jimmie Rodgers, the "singing brakeman" or the "blue yodeler." Neither legend is still around, nor was either one around when I became a country music deejay 35 years ago. These are old legends.
Jimmie Rodgers was born 102 years ago in Mississippi. Despite there being two legends, Jimmie, for all intents and purposes is considered to be the father of country … (4 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind the Music -- Wasn't That A Party
- 05/04/09 01:41 AM
I believe that we mere mortals have a hard time understanding what it must be like to be living the life of the famous. I had a request in this series, Stories Behind the Music, to tell the story of the Johnny Cash novelty hit called A Boy Named Sue.
That is a fascinating journey that takes us into the Cash household. Boy, does that journey give insight into the lives of the rich and famous. You have to be impressed with the names on the guest list for a party that took place at the Cash residence in Nashville back in 1969.
Johnny … (7 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind the Music: Three Very Famous Cousins
- 05/02/09 06:46 AM
Back in my days in broadcasting, I always found the relationship between three famous men to be interesting.
There were three cousins. All three of these cousins, who would become famous, were born in the 1930's in Ferriday, Louisiana. The one named Jerry played the piano from age seven. Jimmy Lee also played the piano and cousin Mickey played the guitar.
The boys played individually, and together, and they were all strongly influenced by their roots in a fundamentalist church. Much of their musical ability came from their playing in church.
The first shot at fame came to Jerry. In the late 1950's, next … (23 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind The Music -- The Dusty Invasion
- 04/30/09 04:24 AM
When the British Invasion hit in the early 1960's, to a large degree the solo artists from the U.K. -- both men and women -- were left behind. The big acts that crossed the Atlantic ocean were mainly the boy groups like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Animals, Kinks, Hollies, Herman's Hermits. One of the most popular male singers from the U.K. -- they called him the British Elvis -- was Cliff Richard. He did not create much excitement over here.
While the success of female artists was modest as well, there were British women who had big hits in the U.S. They … (9 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind the Music -- Little Anthony and the Imperials
- 04/28/09 02:22 AM
There were many great vocal groups back in the 1950's, however, not that many of them were able to stay together and remain popular through the British Invasion and into the 1960's. That is a fair statement. But how about a 1950's vocal group that is still touring today?
Little Anthony, Anthony being Anthony Gourdine, and friends formed a vocal group in 1954. They competed in battles of the bands against other performers of that era, including the legendary Frankie Lyman. Anthony had talent, garnered attention, and was signed by a record label.
The group that Anthony started eventually became Little Anthony … (12 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind The Music -- An Anthem for an Era
- 04/26/09 02:44 AM
One of the songs that would go on to be a signature song of rock n' roll -- one released by many artists and some of those covers went on to be hits -- was first recorded by a secretary at Motown Records.
Martha Reeves, and her friends who would become the Vandellas, did backup singing at Motown, along with Martha's clerical duties. The girls recorded with Marvin Gaye and, at that session, the owner of Motown, Berry Gordy, was impressed with Martha's voice. He decided to put out a single featuring her girl group.
Martha first heard the song that would … (5 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind the Music -- A Groovy Kind of Blog
- 04/25/09 02:06 AM
"Groovy." Who would have ever thought that a hard to define slang word from the 1960's would grow legs and be around years later. I was 14 years old when I heard the term and, even then, I thought it was a dumb word. I could not figure out whether the root of it had to do with "grooves", like in all those 45's we were listening to, or what. In the long run I do not know that there ever was a proper explanation. But, suffice it to say that "groovy" means super cool, good, wonderful.
Back then, early 1966, the record … (18 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind the Music: Bill Wither's Interesting Career
- 04/21/09 06:08 AM
Bill Withers had a career in manufacturing and was actually building toilet seats for 747's when his career, like a 747, took off. His career took off because he had confidence in his music and he paid to record demos of some songs that he had written. That risk, on his part, paid off. He was discovered.
When Bill Withers, in his classic song and first hit Ain't No Sunshine repeated the verse that goes "I know, I know" it was initially a mistake he made during the studio session, because he forgot the words to the song. Since he wrote … (4 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind the Music: Their Greatest Success Was Their Undoing
- 04/19/09 04:19 AM
If you like music, or the movies, then I guarantee that you will enjoy stepping into my time machine and going back to the 1960's and the 1970's in this post. If you were alive then, it will bring back memories.
The Bee Gees had two distinct stages in their musical development. I first heard them in 1967 when they released their first single in the USA. The song was The New York Mining Disaster, 1941 (Have You Seen My Wife, Mr. Jones). The Bee Gees were Australian, with their own series on Australian TV, and many Americans and Canadians thought … (13 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind The Music -- Play Misty For Me
- 04/18/09 02:21 AM
If you go back to the early 1970's, you will probably remember Play Misty For Me. I am not talking about a song here, but the Clint Eastwood movie thriller that creeped people out. It was a horror story, and one of the first of the type, where a woman becomes infatuated with some guy, gets jilted by the guy and then she goes violently psycho. Eastwood directed the movie and it was a box office doozy about a floozy.
Even though there is a song called Misty, that is not the song that got major bounce from the Eastwood movie. That … (15 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind the Music -- The Comedian Topped The Charts
- 04/16/09 01:53 AM
This blog post is by request. Barbara Duncan said that she has enjoyed the career of Ray Stevens so here we go with his story.
Ray Stevens was a Georgia boy. His musical influences were country -- Ernest Tubb, Kitty Wells and Lefty Frizzell. In Atlanta, Ray was also introduced to some of the great R&B artists of the day, including Ruth Brown and the Drifters. At age 17, Ray went professional.
Not long thereafter, Stevens moved to Nashville and he wrote and recorded a few songs, all comedy from what I can tell. His first big hit, also comedy, established him as a novelty … (9 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind the Music -- Music Across the Water
- 04/14/09 03:55 AM
Over the years, there have been a number of performers who excelled on one side of the ocean but not on the other. The success of English speaking music is primarily gauged by popularity and sales in North America (the U.S. and Canada) and in Great Britain.
For the most part, although the single releases and album tracks might vary in different countries, we English speaking people tend to like the same performers and bands -- the Beatles, the Stones, Elvis, the Beachboys. These artists were popular in their homelands and across the ocean. However, there have been a number of artists who … (5 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind the Music -- Steve Winwood
- 04/13/09 01:01 PM
This "story behind the music" tells of a member of a successful band, bands actually, who went on to have his most success as a solo artist. The Spencer Davis Group, where this man first gained fame, was formed in 1963. The rock band played clubs in the UK, much like the early gigs of the Beatles, the Stones, the Animals, the Yardbirds, etc. The Spencer Davis Group was named after their guitarist -- Spencer Davis. Despite that fact, the band has historically been more associated with the famous keyboardist and lead singer, Stevie Winwood. Here in North America, the band's top … (7 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind the Music: The Boss and the Girl
- 04/12/09 03:10 PM
I recently read an interesting blog post, members only so you can read it if you are a member of Active Rain, by that Jersey boy, Jim Albano. Jim wrote a post about another Jersey boy -- a guy they call "the boss". Active Rain members can read Jim's post here.
It is interesting that Jim wrote that post, since I have had an offbeat Springsteen blog post in the coffers for some time. Fact is, it was a tough road for Springsteen to become a hit maker, even after receiving an early boost in his career when articles on him were published in Rolling Stone, Time and Newsweek. Shortly after … (21 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind the Music -- Eric Clapton Hits #1
- 04/11/09 04:26 AM
Eric Clapton has been known as a "guitar god" since the mid-1960's. That nickname "guitar-god" came about after Clapton's years with the Yardbirds. Later he added to that legend while playing with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream and Blind Faith. As awe inspiring as he has been as a musician, it is surprising that it took so long for Clapton to have a #1 hit. And, actually, when one realizes the source of that #1 hit material, it is a stranger story still.
Clapton has been, first and foremost, a bluesman and a rocker. That is the style of music that he has been known … (17 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind the Music _ Lightnin' Struck More Than Once
- 04/06/09 01:54 AM
Back in the 1960's the music buying public seemed to have a real appreciation for male singers with high falsetto voices. I would say that, historically, the best known proponent of that style of music would be Frankie Valli and the super group the Four Seasons.
However, there was another performer who had his share of hits with a similar style. Lugee Sacco had a minor regional hit, but quite a personal surprise, when his first single was released. That song was called "The Gypsy Cried." The biggest surprise was not that he had a hit, it was that the voice coming … (3 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind the Music -- Bigger than the Beatles
- 04/05/09 02:00 AM
It is an interesting glitch in music history that a couple guys who did not even record in English ended up having one of the longest running songs in American chart history. This novelty song from 1996 is the biggest "one-hit Wonder" in all of creation.
The song was recorded by a pair of Spanish musicians, lounge singers. The men were known as Los Del Rio and they had seen a beautiful young flamenco dancer. Her dancing inspired them to write about "giving joy to the body".
The two Spaniards, who wrote and performed the song, were not youngsters. They were born in … (4 comments)
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stories behind the music: Stories Behind the Music -- Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye
- 04/02/09 03:32 PM
I am going to get more esoteric and dig a little deeper than I usually do with this post. I remember liking this song as a kid, back in 1967. Funny thing too, you had the Beatles, the Stones and all that rock n' roll. Yet this very enjoyable song, that refused to rock, was popular with kids and their parents.
The Casinos consisted of nine members. Their hit was a John D. Loudermilk (well-known in country music) penned song. Even though the recording was released in 1967, it came across as a classy doo-wop oldie from fifteen years prior.
While I say the group is … (10 comments)
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When I was a youth, when AM radio was king in the 1960's, my favorite deejay, and an inspiration for my own radio career, was Kirk Wilde at rockin' 1170 KPUG in Bellingham. Wilde had a nightly contest he called twin-pick. Listeners would call in and pick their favorite songs out of the new releases from that week. I always liked the name twin-pick so, forty years later, I have borrowed the name for my new and exciting music trivia contest. It is not exactly what Kirk Wilde did, but I figure it is a great name for this contest anyway and … (11 comments)
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