Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Catching Up On A Tuesday

re: BY THE BOOK ... 
(or should that be BUY The Book???):


      


BY U.S. BONDS - THAT'S MY STORY 
Gary's Book recounts the early days of R&B, rock, E-Street Band / Springsteen collaboration...
Publication date: June 1, 2013
Title: BY U.S. BONDS, That's My Story
Authors: Gary U.S. Bonds with Stephen Cooper
ISBN: 978-0-9887063-0-9
248 pages
Wheatley Press LLC
World-known performer, hit songwriter, influencer of Bruce Springsteen, and now published author, Gary U.S. Bonds will be celebrating his 74th birthday and first world book launch for his memoir, By U.S. Bonds - That's My Story, written by Bonds with Stephen Cooper. The event June 5, 2013 at B.B. King's, NY, includes Gary's live performance of his newest music single "That's My Story," with after-concert book signing and party festivities. West coast launch is slated for June 17 at the iconic Book Soup, West Hollywood, Calif. Other cities for book signings to be announced as well as concert tours worldwide (John Regna/Regna Artist Management, Orlando FL).
Bonds is noted for his hits: "New Orleans" (#6 on the charts 1960), "Quarter To Three" (#1, 1961), "School Is Out" (#5, 1961), "This Little Girl" (his comeback hit in 1981, which reached #11 on the pop chart and #5 on the mainstream rock chart) from the album Dedication, followed by On the Line, both of which were collaborations with Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt and the E-Street Band. Twenty years later, Bonds released Back in 20, featuring Springsteen and recently Christmas Is On!
The book is a fascinating tale tying together the sometimes loose ends of music history, putting readers right smack in the middle of the early days of R&B and rock music.
The foreword by Steven Van Zandt, guitarist for The E-Street Band, provides the perfect start. Also included are eighty photos selected by photo editor Mark Weiss from the family's collection.
Among the many stories, Bonds recounts memories of traveling with B.B. King and Sam Cooke, his first big break with Dick Clark, music hits "New Orleans" and "Quarter to Three," the real "Garden Party" with Rick Nelson, his humorous outing with Muhammad Ali and the "comeback" album.
Bonds received a Grammy nomination (Rock Male Vocalist, 1982) for Dedication, and was nominated for the Country Music Association's "Song of the Year" ("She's All I Got") in 1972 and inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame, Oct. 15, 2006.
Confirmed to attend is very special guest 86 year old Gene "Daddy G" Barge, Bond's original sax player and founding member of the Church Street Five. When Bonds sang "Blow Daddy," on his 1961 #1, "Quarter to Three," it was Barge who played the iconic horn riff, and guests will hear "Daddy G" and Bonds once again on his new release, "That's My Story."
As with his previous birthday celebrations, special guests can be expected with prior years' celebrants including:
Ben E. King (singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me,")
Darlene Love (known for 1960s for the song "He's a Rebel," a #1 American single in 1962)
Chuck Jackson (recorded Burt Bacharach, Bob Hilliard hit "Any Day Now")
Steven Van Zandt, Vince Pastore and The Rascals Gene Cornish
LINKS:
Official website: http://www.garyusbonds.com
Performing videos - New Orleans, This Little Girl Is Mine, Quarter To Three

PAUL ANKA was interviewed on satellite radio by Opie & Anthony. Paul has a new, pull (not-too-many) punches book to set the record straight concerning the parts of his 'living-among-giants' that are from him ... HE WAS THERE! SINATRA, RAT PACK, BEATLES, VEGAS, ANNETTE, BOBBY DARIN, ELVIS, ALCOHOLIC JOHNNY CARSON (beaten by mobsters for flirting with a 'side-dish'), CAREER CHOICES, and confirming that YES, IT'S TRUE ... Milton Berle had 'enough' for the room ... FASCINATING, INTERESTING INTERVIEW !!!
--- GARY
We covered this one about a week ago ... and I've got to say that the book sounds absolutely amazing! (The excerpts I read blew me away ... I'm going to have to pick up a copy of this one!!!)
For more tidbits and details, check out this site:

Kent ...
In honor of Paul Anka's new book "My Way", the other day Paul was on the "Imus In The Morning" radio program. Imus was amazed. He asked everybody around him - "Who wrote 'My Way'?"
Nobody knew that is was Paul Anka. They also said Paul got $800,000 a year for writing the
"Tonight Show Theme." Not bad.
Frank B.
I finally caved and went out and bought a copy this weekend ... I've just been hearing too many good things about it to wait any longer. I'll keep you posted! (kk)   

More good press for Howard Kaylan's new book, "Shell Shocked" ...
Amazing and Humbling.
This is the big one.
The NEW YORK POST.
Thanks to Michael Jensen Communications for helping me to carry the ball.
Bigger than coverage in Forgotten Hits?!?!? 
Seriously?!?!?
(Well, OK, I'll give you that one!!!)
Congratulations, Howard! (kk)  

And, speaking of new books, we heard from Jim Peterik last week that his new book is now in the hands of the publisher ... hopefully we'll have release news soon! (kk)

re:  THIS AND THAT:
Here is another update from Jeff March on important events from this past week in pop music history:

Hi, Kent,
Here are a few more upcoming "anniversary" news items from our Facebook postings for "Pop Stars -- Volume 2."
---
April 12:
"The River Is Wide," the ninth chart single by the Grass Roots, made its debut on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 12, 1969. Gary A. Knight (credited as B. Knight on the Dunhill label) and Billy Joe Admire (shown as E. Admire on the label) wrote the song about love gaining strength like a powerfully flowing current. Steve Barri produced the recording session, with strings and horns arranged by Jimmie Haskell. Grass Roots rhythm guitarist and keyboard player Warren Entner and lead singer Rob Grill wrote "(You Gotta) Live for Love," the song on the flip side. "The River Is Wide," on the Dunhill label, peaked at No. 31, and remained on the chart for 11 weeks. The song was released just as producer Barri decided to withdraw from songwriting to concentrate on his role as vice president of A&R (artists and repertoire), in charge of developing new talent for Dunhill and ABC Records. "We had an incredibly large artist roster, and I felt it would be real awkward to pitch somebody on a song and say, 'by the way, I'm the writer on this one.' So I decided to stop writing. It's one thing when you sign an act that you're involved with producing, with the understanding that you're going to be the creative force behind them. It's another thing when you’re supposed to be looking for songs for 20 or 30 different artists," Barri told us for "Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? -- Volume 2."
---

April 12:
A 28-year-old singer and rhythm guitarist who initially worked in a bottling plant before struggling unsuccessfully for four years in country music bands finally found his niche in the emerging genre of rock and roll. Decca Records had signed the singer and his band to a recording contract, and scheduled the band to work with Milt Gabler, who had produced many hits for Louis Jordan. The band's first session was scheduled for April 12, 1954, in the Pythian Temple at 135 West 70th Street, between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues in Manhattan. The building had been constructed in 1928 as the meeting place of the Knights of Pythias, a fraternal organization. In the early 1940s Decca Records converted the temple's acoustically superb auditorium into a recording studio in which Billie Holiday, Louis Jordan, Coleman Hawkins, Sammy Davis Jr. and other performers recorded tracks. Pianist Johnny Grande, tenor saxophonist Joey D'Ambrosio, steel guitar player Billy Williamson, bass player Marshall Lytle and drummer Dick Richards -- collectively the Comets -- entered the studio that April 12 for their first recording session along with their leader, 28-year-old Bill Haley and session guitarist Danny Cedrone. That day they recorded two songs for a single: The intended "A" side, "Thirteen Women," and the planned "B" side, "(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock." Radio airplay favored "Rock Around the Clock following its May 1954 release (in both 78 and 45 rpm formats), and while the song did place on the Billboard Hot 100, its peak success occurred in the spring of 1955, when it was featured in the film "The Blackboard Jungle." That exposure perched "Rock Around the Clock" at No. 1 for eight consecutive weeks. Although "Rock Around the Clock" wasn't the first rock and roll record, it thrust rock and roll into the mainstream of pop music.
---

April 13:
Only three weeks after its debut on the Billboard Hot 100, Bobby Goldsboro's recording of Bobby Russell's "Honey" hit No. 1 on the chart on April 13, 1968. Former Kingston Trio member Bob Shane recorded the song first. Goldsboro admired Shane's singing, but thought the arrangement was lacking. "I really believe if Bob Shane had sung my version, and I sang his, he would have had the hit. My version had a great arrangement that Don Tweedy wrote. He was as much responsible for it as I was," Bobby told us for "Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? -- Volume 2." His recording of "Honey," which displaced Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" from the top spot, remained No. 1 for five consecutive weeks, until "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell and the Drells unseated it. "Honey," on the United Artists label, remained on the chart for a total of 15 weeks. It also topped the country and adult contemporary charts, was No. 1 in Canada, and hit No. 2 in the United Kingdom. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) awarded a gold record for the single “Honey” in April 1968, and certified Bobby’s "Honey" album as gold that November.
---

April 13:
Singer Ray Stevens had been absent from the charts for two and a half years when he took notice of a new fad that emboldened people to bare their souls -- as well as all their clothes as they "streaked" through restaurants, hotel lobbies, sporting events and other public gatherings. The fad prompted Ray to write "The Streak." It was a hot topic when it hit the charts on April 13, 1974, less than two weeks after a streaker dashed across the stage at the Academy Awards presentation during a live telecast on NBC. Ray's recording of "The Streak," on the Barnaby Records label, dislodged Grand Funk's version of "The Loco-Motion" from the No. 1 position, and held onto that ranking for six weeks until "Band on the Run" by Paul McCartney and Wings replaced it. "The Streak" remained on the chart for 17 weeks -- four months -- and became Ray's third RIAA gold record. The success of the record inspired the name of one of Ray's publishing enterprises: Lucky Streak Music.
---

April 14:
The Recording Industry Association of America awarded gold record status to the Herman's Hermits single "There's a Kind of Hush" on April 14, 1967, only two months after the song had premiered on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The recording, released by MGM Records in the United States, rose to No. 4 and remained on the Billboard chart for 12 weeks. It was the band's third RIAA-certified gold record. "There's a Kind of Hush" was written by Les Reed and Geoff Stephens, who also teamed to write "Here It Comes Again," with which the Fortunes scored a hit. Stevens is best known for creating a group composed of studio musicians, which he dubbed the New Vaudeville Band, to record his autumn 1966 novelty hit "Winchester Cathedral." As a teenager, Hermits rhythm guitarist Keith Hopwood had taken classical guitar lessons. "Qt that time I was about 14, and playing classical music wasn’t really where I wanted to be going. I wanted to play rock and roll, so I left and found a sort of informal tutor -- the guy down the road who knew three chords. So we took it from there," Keith told us for the Hermits chapter in "Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? -- Volume 1" (http://www.editpros.com/WHATPSG.html).
---

April 15:
On April 15, 1963, a group called El Riot and the Rebels performed at the Riverside Dancing Club in Tenbury Wells, about 40 miles southwest of Birmingham near the border of Wales. The lead singer of El Riot was Ray Thomas, who later would form the Moody Blues with keyboard player Mike Pinder. The bass player for El Riot and the Rebels was John Lodge, another future Moody Blues member. The other members of El Riot and the Rebels were lead guitarist Bryan Betteridge, rhythm guitarist Mike Heard and drummer Ricky Wade. Calling himself El Riot, Ray dressed in a green satin Mexican toreador suit and began his trademark entrance of sliding across the stage on his knees. The group landed several spots on "Lunch Box," ATV’s popular midday entertainment show. "In Birmingham, they have these huge assembly rooms that they open on Friday and Saturday nights when the guys get paid, and they’d take their wives there. We used to rent these rooms and stage our own shows. John [Lodge] and I had the cheek of the devil, and we would go in and ask, 'Can we hire your room on a Tuesday or Wednesday?' So they would make 100 pounds on the bar, which was a huge amount of money then, because all of the people who came to see us play drank a lot of beer, including us," Ray Thomas told us for "Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? -- Volume 2." At that gig on April 15, 1963, El Riot and the Rebels were the opening act for a band from Liverpool -- the Beatles.
---

The Tokens' version of "Portrait of My Love," which Steve Lawrence had recorded in 1961, premiered on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 15, 1967. Matt Monro and the Lettermen also recorded versions of the song, which was written in 1960 by musical theater conductor, arranger and composer Cyril Ornadel and lyricist David West. The Tokens produced their "Portrait of My Love" session through their company, Bright Tunes Productions, with musical arrangement by Jimmy Wisner. The recording marked the Tokens' debut on the Warner Bros. label, reached No. 36 and remained on the chart for eight weeks. In their version of "Portrait of My Love," the harmonies of the Tokens were somewhat reminiscent of the Lettermen, who also recorded the song. Perhaps that’s what inspired Tokens member Hank Medress to produce the Lettermen in the 1980s and prompted Lettermen member Tony Butala to invite Tokens lead singer Jay Siegel to join the group. "I had to decline because the Lettermen stay on the road so much and I didn’t think I was ready to do that, considering my family and kids," Jay Siegel told us for our first book, "Echoes of the Sixties" (http://www.editpros.com/echoes_ebook.html).


Not since 1967 has the song "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" had such a revival as this month! Sure wish it was the 5th Estate version!

Clark Besch 

>>>Your reader mentioned that sometimes people in the business who are compiling greatest hits of various artists or groups, sometimes grabs the first recording they come upon to include it in the collection, maybe not knowing if it's the original as it came out on 45 rpm. This reminded me of something. For about a year or so, whenever I hear Bobby Bloom's MONTEGO BAY on the radio, the TOC, they play an extended version where at the end he sings or says, "Oh, what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, etc etc). Where did this come about? Was this an album version? And also, on Bobby Lewis' TOSSIN' AND TURNIN' ... for years the beginning of the record you heard on the radio was different than the one on the original 45, that being Bobby would start out by talking for a few seconds and then belting into "I couldn't sleep at all last night" Anyone out there know the real story behind these recording? Also, the other morning our local "oldies" DJ played SPEEDY GONZALEZ by Pat Boone but it wasn't the original version as it came out on 45. I like to think that my ear for this music is still good. (Larry Neal)

>>>Unfortunately just another downside to all this material being reissued on CD by people who weren't around when this music first came out ... and it's only going to get worse. The "Montego Bay" thing has bugged me for quite some time ... but unfortunately, it's the only version available on CD. Another one like that, with an extended ending, that immediately comes to mind is the Shirley Ellis hit "The Name Game" ... it goes on WAY past the fade-out of the original 45. "Life Is A Rock" by Reunion suffers from a similar fate. For a while there Dick Bartley was putting out a CD series that featured the original 45 mix of each single it featured. I have been pushing for ten years now to get the labels to reissue their catalog in compilation CDs that give the consumer the music the way we originally heard it. You can always include these extra mixes as bonus tracks ... but they should clearly be identified as such. I'm not sure about "Speedy Gonzales" ... one of the first 45's I ever bought with my own money. I'm sure over the years Pat has rerecorded his biggest hits, too, as most of the '50's and '60's artists have. I'm shocked you heard the song at all! Radio has LONG forgotten about this track, despite it's Top Ten showing in 1962. Maybe we're just supposed to appreciate the fact that they played it at all. To ME, it should be the sole objective of an oldies station to play the original versions of these hits. Some go so far as to dig out their own 45s and play them on the air. But again, some of the deejays are now younger than this music, too. This is, of course, when there ARE still deejays playing the music rather than programmed automation. I remember a few years ago when Jeff James yanked an Everly Brothers record right off the air because the copy the station had in its library was a Warner Brothers re-recording of one of their original Cadence hits. He basically said "I can't play this" ... and brought the REAL record in the next day to play instead. Who knows how many more cases like this happen every single day? It's a shame. (kk)
Yes, that Montego Bay that you hear on the radio today is the album version. The original single master is lost. ERIC Records put the song out recently on their Hard To Find 45s on Cd Volume 11: Sugar Pop Classics, and to re-create the single version, they took the album master and edited the end off, which they spliced on from the cleanest 45 dub they could get ahold of, resulting in what is essentially the 45 version on cd.
As for Tossin' and Turnin', I like the long intro on it, but more often than not, copies of that song on cd with the intro fade out well before the 45 does ... some copies on cd without the intro run longer than the 45 does too ... and I'm not entirely sure if there are actually any copies with the real original single version on cd or not. That intro was on the session tape and was cut off for the 45 release. By the way, I just saw Bobby Lewis perform that song at the All Star Doo Wop Weekend in Hauppauge, NY. From the stage Bobby claimed he is 88 years old, but that may not be true as apparently somewhere about a decade ago Bobby decided to add 8 years to his age ... prior to that, he always said he was born in 1933. I told another singer who also appeared at the concert but had missed Bobby's appearance that Bobby said he was 88 and the reply I got from him was "hell no he's not 88! He's 80, at best ... I used to play golf with him all the time. He is only a couple of years older than I am".
The guy that posted this video says its the same as the mono 45 but that this came off a various artists LP, it does sound right to me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqJ-43HzgZ8
Tom Diehl



More on the brand new Motown Broadway Musical courtesy of FH Reader Tom Cuddy, by way of the Los Angeles Times:

'Motown: the Musical' — signed, sealed but will it deliver?

The Broadway jukebox show is sure to please baby boomers who loved the record label's sound, but the familiarity of the story and songs could be a problem.

By Alana Semuels, Los Angeles Times
NEW YORK — The songs are among the most popular of the baby boom era — "My Girl," "I Want You Back," "Dancing in the Streets." They may be the staple of oldies radio; they haven't been part of a big Broadway musical. Now "Motown: The Musical" is about to become this season's big bet on the drawing power of the jukebox.
The show will tell the real story that "Dreamgirls" was merely based on: the life of producer Berry Gordy, a onetime boxer who founded the Motown record label and signed some of the decade's biggest R&B stars, including the Supremes, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson, the Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye.
Gordy wrote the book to the show, drawing on his experiences teaching black recording artists how to behave on the road, playing to racially divided audiences in the South during the civil rights era and romancing Diana Ross of the Supremes. Actors play the part of the Motown stars, with Charl Brown as an uncanny facsimile of Robinson, Valisia Lekae as Ross and Brandon Victor Dixon as Gordy.
It's a time period that audiences can't seem to get enough of: "Dreamgirls," "Hairspray" and "Memphis" all have succeeded on Broadway telling the story of people who use music and dance to overcome racial tensions.
But "Motown" has an added draw, producers say: beloved songs and a story that hasn't been told. President Obama used Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours" during both of his presidential campaigns, and Chrysler recently seized on the popularity of the songs to launch a television ad that featured Gordy, sitting in the back of a 2013 Chrysler 300 Motown Edition, as "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" plays.
"Motown music is relevant and contagious," said Kevin McCollum, one of the show's producers, who was also a producer on "Avenue Q" and "Rent." "And it's never been mined from this point of view."
The popularity of the time period can be explained by two words: baby boomers. Older audiences are most able to afford the high ticket prices on Broadway. They grew up in the 1950s and 1960s and want to relive the era.
The show is regarded by Broadway observers as a commercial, if not critical, contender. "Motown: The Musical" cracked the million-dollar mark after its first week of previews, grossing $1.03 million after seven performances at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York. That's the first time a Broadway show has surpassed $1 million in sales without first having an out-of-town tryout.
"We're seeing all kinds of audience, all kinds of groups, booking this show," said Stephanie Lee, president of Group Sales Box Office, which sells tickets to groups. "It's reaching every type of theater-goer and crossing all age and ethnic demographics."
Producers say that audiences want to hear these familiar songs, perhaps more than they ever have. Doug Morris, the current chairman and chief executive of Sony Music Entertainment, who is also a "Motown: The Musical" producer, says shows such as "American Idol" seldom use new work. "You never hear an original song," he said. "There's a reason for that — when they've tried, you hear the television sets going off around the country."
But the show's familiar story line and popular songs could be a blessing and a curse. Many Broadway shows that merely cull together popular music catalogs have flopped along the years, killed by a lack of interesting plot and character development.
For every "Jersey Boys" or similar Broadway musical based on a familiar catalog of songs, there's a "Good Vibrations," a 2005 show about the music of the Beach Boys that closed after just 94 performances.
The difference, critics say, is how well the show translates a musical catalog into a show with a plot and compelling character development — something that can be harder to do when the person whose life the show is based on is the one writing it.
"A Broadway musical has to have a good plot and good characters, otherwise, why would people come to see a bunch of Broadway actors sing songs that they could just sit at home and listen to the original artists sing?" said Michael Riedel, a theater critic for the New York Post who also hosts a weekly show, "Theater Talk," on PBS. "The big question is, 'Is he willing to sell it warts and all?'" Riedel said of Gordy.
The warts could include references to his second wife, Raynoma Gordy Singleton, who wrote a tell-all memoir, "Berry, Me and Motown," portraying Gordy as an ambitious and unfaithful womanizer; and a reported dispute (denied by Gordy) with Marvin Gaye over whether the protest song "What's Going On" was too political. Gordy has also been the subject of lawsuits over royalty payments to his artists.
In a preview of the show in a rehearsal space on 42nd Street, the cast performed four songs from the show in a revue-like presentation. Actors playing the Jackson 5 performed "I Want You Back" on "The Ed Sullivan Show"; the Contours sang "Do You Love Me" to a segregated crowd in Alabama; Gordy and Ross fell in love to "My Girl," performed in Paris. The dialogue didn't sparkle, but it was hard not to bounce along to the songs.
Rick Elice knows the potential pitfalls of the jukebox musical. When producers first approached him and asked him to write what became "Jersey Boys," he turned them down, because the idea of writing a show around a musical catalog was a "creative non-starter," he said.
But then he talked to Frankie Valli and Bob Gaudio of the Four Seasons and found that they were willing to share details of their lives they hadn't told anyone, including their involvement with mobsters.
He and co-writer Marshall Brickman acted as journalists at first, he said, drawing out stories from Valli and Gaudio. Then they began writing, thinking of the songs as a prop, rather than a guide, for the book. "We were imagining that we were writing a play and it happened to have a great soundtrack," he said.
Since Gordy wrote the book himself, "Motown" may come together in a different way — he had no outsider coaxing out the pros and cons of his life as a producer.
But he says it's the true story.
"When they see the play, I want people to know what I did, and how I did it, and how I felt doing it, and what were the obstacles," he said. "It's an honest account of how I did it," he said, "and I was the only one there."
We happened to catch about ten minutes of "American Idol" the night they did their annual salute to Motown Records. These songs are timeless and I believe new generations will continue to discover and enjoy them for many, many more years to come. So many kids today know the catalogs of The Four Seasons and ABBA thanks to successful musicals ... if there's a decent story here, I believe this could be the next one in line to do the same.  

And it's great to see more and more of these old tracks being resurrected again in movies, commercial ads ... whatever ... just to keep them in front of an audience again. I had to whip out my own copy of Rosemary Clooney's "Come On-A My House" tonight after seeing the new Eva Longoria television commercial featuring this track. (Jeez, talk about your desperate housewives ... beautiful Eva is how hawking cat food ... and has one of those God-Awful reality shows coming on about lost loves. That's just WRONG!!!) kk

 

THINK BACK TO ONE OF THE 'BRIGHT-SPOTS' IN MUSIC IN THE 1980'S ...
WE ARE THE WORLD
 
 
"We Are the World" is a song and charity single originally recorded by super group 'USA for Africa' in 1985.
A worldwide commercial success, it topped music charts throughout the world and became the fastest-selling American pop single in history.
Fans enjoyed hearing racially and musically diverse recording artists singing together on one track, and felt satisfied in buying "We Are the World", knowing that the money was going to charity.
LIST OF PERFORMERShttp://www.inthe80s.com/weworld.shtml
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9BNoNFKCBIMY QUESTION?
WOULD IT EVEN BE POSSIBLE TO CREATE AN ICONIC 'HAPPENING' WITH POST-1985 'TALENT'?If you don't include the original super- stars, now over 60 years old (it was 28 years ago), who span many genres of music, who did the original one, are there more than a handful of super-stars, recognize-able to the world by both face and material, who could pull this off to even half the attention ?I THINK NOT ...
Too many sub-genres that hit-the-top in their area, but haven't become worldwide or 'national', across the board, treasures.ADDENDUM
Plus, if you put that many of today's performers in a room that size, with all that VERY physical dancing,SOMEBODY'S GONNA GET HURT!
RENFIELD
The only thing is they went in and recreated We Are The World a couple of years ago ... and as lame as that sounds (and as lame as I thought it would be) it was actually incredibly good. In fact, they used it to raise money (for Katrina I believe ... nope, it was Haiti) where every time you viewed it thru your cable outlet a donation was made toward the cause.
If you've never seen it, check it out ... you'll be surprised. (And you'll see a few "oldies but goodies" artists up there as well. Over 120 Million people have already watched this:
(You'll be surprised how many of these "new" artists you recognize too!)
kk
THIS KINDA CONFIRMS WHAT I WAS SAYING ...
It was fine, but DEFINITELY not original ... and it was all 'polished-up' with lower tier celebs.(SOME OF WHOM I KNOW)
CAN YOU NAME 'UNDER-60' PERFORMERS FROM MEMORY?(HOW MANY FROM 1985 CAN YOU NAME?)
DID YOU NEED REMINDING THAT IT EVEN HAPPENED ?(It was only 2010)
YOU WILL RECOGNIZE SOME, BUT ARE THEY ACROSS-THE-BOARD 'HEAVY HITTERS' ...
with songs all have some familiarity with ?(Celine, Tony Bennett & Barbra are 'oldsters' ... and Michael Jackson is dead)WAS THERE MAGIC ?(or was the original a one-and-done?)
Gary.
 
And, finally ... this is pretty cool ...
This is a keeper. It gives you the song & the label from the 45.
And here's alook at 40 years of change in the Record Biz in 40 seconds ...
Gary Pike
 
 
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