Ella Langley has now officially spent HALF of the past year holding down the #1 Spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 Pop Singles Chart. “Choosin’ Texas” just recorded its 26th week at the top, a remarkable feat that will likely be a pop culture trivia question twenty years from now. Still, we’ve got to give the song its due … as no other record … not by Elvis or The Beatles or Michael Jackson or anybody else has ever even come close to this kind of dominance … unless, of course, you count Mariah Carey’s perennial holiday favorite, “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” which should knock Langley’s hit off its peak any day now, now that holiday music is once again filling the airwaves. (Of course, Ella accomplished her record-setting feat all within the course of a single year, while Mariah has counted years of seasonal streaming to etch her name into the history books … but when all is said and done, using that same time frame of twenty years from now, you can bet that it’ll be Mariah’s hit that people are still talking about, buying, downloading and streaming (through whatever new musical platform may be in our future next.) kk
Look for a new documentary coming from Christopher Booker called “Let It Be, Let It Bleed,” an in-depth profile of the musical changes being made by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in 1969, a pivotal era in music at the end of the ‘60’s, as seen thru the lens of noted photographer Ethan Russell.
Harvey Kubernik tells us all about it here: https://www.musicconnection.com/doc-nyc-to-present-debut-screening-of-let-it-be-let-it-bleed/
Got this from a couple of FH Readers regarding next year’s nominees for The Songwriters Hall Of Fame …
https://www.songhall.org/news/songwriters-hall-of-fame-2027-nominees-for-induction-announced
Some pretty impressive names on this list again this year! (kk)
Tom Cuddy sent us this profile of the classic Jimmy Webb song “MacArthur Park” …
MacArthur Park Meaning: Why Jimmy Webb's Cake Was Left Out
https://neonmusic.co.uk/macarthur-park-meaning
Many years ago (probably in 2017 or 2018 after Webb’s autobiography came out) I wrote an extensive piece on the origins and meaning of this song. It was scheduled to run as a 3-part series in Forgotten Hits … and then my computer crashed, wiping out EVERYTHING.
I was so frustrated and distraught with the idea of having to rebuild everything … AGAIN, as this was just one of about four or five major computer crashes that wiped out tons of FH history as well as new pieces planned for the future, that I never revisited it again … so it was nice to see this new history recap.
I’ve never made any secret regarding my total dislike of this song … it seems to be one of those that you either love it or hate it, and I definitely fall into the latter category. (Frannie, on the other hand, absolutely LOVES it!) My series was going to include a number of different versions and interpretations of the song, including the story behind the idea that it was first intended for The Association, who were extremely hot on the charts at the time … but THEY hated it, too, and decided to pass on recording it. (I had forgotten about the original idea of doing an 18-minute opus … I can barely make it thru the 7 minute Richard Harris version, knowing full well that upon each listen, those’ll be 7 minutes that I’ll never get back. (I remember all the fuss, too, at the time about The Beatles’ recording of “Hey Jude” which came out a few months later and “broke the 7-minute single” barrier … no they didn’t … Richard Harris had already DONE that four months earlier … and proved that if it was a good enough song, radio would still play it despite its length … and, despite my own personal disdain for it, “MacArthur Park” is generally considered to be an absolute classic.) Lots of longer songs would follow in its wake … think “American Pie,” for example (although if you bought they single, they still split the song in half to fit on both sides of the label … how crazy was that?!?!)
Anyway, it’s nice to see the story finally being told for the benefit of anyone out there who didn’t know or understand its true history. Yes, MacArthur Park was a REAL place … and held a special place in Jimmy Webb’s heart.
His autobiography is an interesting read … you can order it here:
Tom also sent us this report on the recent Dave Clark Five CD collection that was jus released … Part One of a THREE-Part Series that is coming, exploring the entire recorded catalog of The Dave Clark Five …
CD Saturday: The Dave Clark Five Finally Get Their Catalogue on CD, Too!
https://youtu.be/JMv_HBVDoY8?si=jyPABcWRpVDc9GWG
Speaking of British Drummers, Clark Besch just let us know that Clem Cattini, drummer for The Tornados, who scored a #1 Hit with “Telstar” in 1962 and then went on to do session work for everyone from Dusty Springfield to Tom Jones to The Kinks to The Equals to Johnny Kidd and the Pirates to Engelbert Humperdinck, has passed away at the age of 89. (kk)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c317kjwj18wzo
From Tom Cuddy, here's Billy Joel speaking out on Sirius XM again with more health updates ... (be aware, this is a two hour clip!!!) https://youtu.be/8BBsqF6zMx4?si=4keVpvYOanMlhaVy
And from Timmy …
