Ironically, he had just wrapped up a short tour with Actor Johnny Depp, with whom he recorded an album last year ... and who was at his bedside when he died. (Beck recently contracted viral meningitis and went quickly.)
While Beck never ran up a string of hits under his own name, he put his signature on everything he ever played ... and was the guitarists' guitarist.
He did a short stint with The Yardbirds, replacing Eric Clapton before being replaced himself by Jimmy Page (who actually recommended him for The Yardbirds gig in the first place) ... and helped pay the bills in the '60's by touring with and doing session work with some of the biggest artists of the day. His greatest chart success came as a sideman performing on recordings by Donovan ("Goo Goo Barabajagal," #36, 1969) and Rod Stewart ("People Get Ready," #48, 1985.) A key album cut that also earned him a bit of notoriety would have to be "Beck's Bolero" from 1967.
He was one of the most respected guitarists of our era. He is a two-time Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Inductee, first as a member of The Yardbirds in 1992, and then again as a solo artist in 2009. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him as the fifth greatest rock guitarist of all time. He recruited Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood as members of his Jeff Beck Band and the trio recorded two albums together in the late '60's: "Truth" and "Beck-ola." (kk)
Jeff Beck died.
'Nuff Said.
ABC just had a short story and what song did they play?
>>>While Bowie never got the chance to sing with
Elvis, he DID do a very memorable duet with Bing Crosby in 1982!
(Several rock critics at the time made the remark "OK ... now I've seen
EVERYTHING!!!") kk
Please
don't forget Bing died in October of 1977. The duet was recorded just prior
to his death for a holiday special that aired for Christmas of that same
year.
Santi
Paradoa
Miami,
Florida
OMG, do you think the shock of singing with Bowie is what
killed him?!?!
Sorry … totally my bad …
I checked Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles book as I didn’t
think their holiday duet ever charted …
And it absolutely shows the year as 1982, so I just went
with it without checking … so shame on me for that.
If it’s even possible that anyone out there hasn’t seen this
yet, we present it again as part of our post-Christmas cheer (No, we have NOT
taken our tree down yet!!!But last year
we left it up until May … so I think we’ll be SLIGHTLY prompter this time
around! Lol)kk
And have you seen this spot-on tribute put together by Will
Ferrell and John C. Reilly??? It'll blow you away. (kk)
Best Classic Bands has collected quotations from some of the
biggest names in music history as a way of paying tribute to the impact and
influence of Elvis Presley in honor of what would have been The King’s 88th
birthday …
One of the things that makes music so special is
the fact there is to time limit associated to it … no expiration date …
Music is good whenever and however you discover it
…
That’s why hearing a song from the ‘60’s for the
very first time today still makes it relevant … not only for every NEW listener
… but also for every other person who grew up exposed to it along the way.
In the words of Me-TV-FM, this is what makes this music “timeless and memorable”
… no matter WHEN you discover it.Or, to
paraphrase John Sebastian, “the magic’s in the music and the music’s in me.”
Matt
Because of our increasingly challenging schedule of late, we
didn’t have a chance to plug Clark Besch’s “Strictly ‘60’s” radio program last
week …
But if you’d like to hear it, the replay is posted here:
So we watched the 3-Part Soft Rock special on Paramount + this past weekend ...
It covered a lot of ground ... but in many cases only offered a couple of seconds of music by several of the artists it featured ... in between they also squeezed in a few lengthier profiles on several others (The Carpenters, The Captain and Tennille, Air Supply and Rupert Holmes to name just a few.)
I'm not sure that I totally agree with the whole concept that Hip-Hop saved Soft Rock (and begat Yacht Rock.) In all fairness, I've never listened to enough Hip-Hop to accurately or objectively comment one way or another ... but Gilbert O'Sullivan suing Biz Markie for sampling "Alone Again (Naturally)" hardly points to a trend of rappers and other contemporary hip hop artists resurrecting the best music of the '70's and early '80's and saving it from extinction.
Still, the special makes the point that Soft Rock had been all but stomped out by the mid-'80's until some of these contemporary artists started feeding it back to us with their own embellishments, supposedly because THEY grew up listening to (and loving) this music when they were still living at home and listening to their parents' record collection!
Hey, it's a good enough excuse to hear some of our soft rock favorites from over the years ... and you'll see David Pack from Ambrosia, LOTS of Air Supply, Dan Hill (whose hit "Sometimes When We Touch" became the title of this expose), the guys from Pablo Cruise, Player, Orleans, Hall and Oates and many more. (Hey, what happened to Firefall???)
It's currently running On Demand on Paramount + ... and there are worse ways you could blow three hours. (kk)
The new Lily Tomlin / Jane Fonda flick “80 For Brady” (which
opens in theaters next month) will feature a new Diane Warren track called
“Gonna Be You,” performed by what is being described as “The Ultimate Girl
Group.”
Participants include Dolly Parton, Cyndi Lauper, Gloria
Estefan, Belinda Carlisle and Debbie Harry!
The film itself depicts four long-time best friends
(Tomlin, Fonda, Sally Field and Rita Moreno) who embark on a road trip to watch
Tom Brady and the New England Patriots compete in Super Bowl.
The track will become available on Friday, January 20th,
while the film opens in theaters the following month.(kk)
Tom Cuddy sent us this new interview with Huey Lewis, who
talks about his life today and the status of his hearing loss …
Huey Lewis - The Power of
Love | new interview: talks about his hearing loss
Here’s one from Chuck Buell for the more “Senior”
Forgotten Hitters among us ~~~
Do you remember what Lawrence Welk suggested
naming his twin granddaughters?
Anna 1, Anna 2!
G’nite, Ever’body!
No, but I remember when Uncle Joe told one of the pregnant
Petticoat Junction girls that if she had a girl, she should name it Denise …
And if it was a boy, Denephew!
(ba-da-bump)kk
Chuck also tells us … (as part of his on-going duties as our
Public Service Director) …
Since Buffalo Bills player Damar
Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest during an NFL Game recently, knowing
how to correctly perform CPR has returned to the forefront.
First Response Training
International says keeping the required chest compressions of 100-120 beats per
minute is essential. Humming certain Forgotten Hits with those beats can be
extremely helpful in performing the technique properly.
Without going into the dozens of
songs they suggest, I will point out, as you may already know, the “Number
One” song on theirs and almost every other “CPR Lifesaving Playlist” is,
appropriately enough, “Staying’ Alive” by the Bee Gees!
Another FRTI suggestion is “I Will
Survive” by Gloria Gaynor. Good songs both!
BUT!! I’m not sure what mixed
emotions I'd might feel coming to with someone hovering over me performing CPR
while singing either of a couple of other approved songs on their list, ---
Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky” or Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust!”
CB(Cardio Boy)
*Look For New Posts on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday*
It's our first SUNDAY COMMENTS Page of the new year ...
(Time's been scarce ... and so have we ... but as pointed out yesterday, there are still THOUSANDS of articles here on the site available to read ... check 'em out!!!)
And we DO have a couple of things planned for this week as well ... including a special Friday the 13th feature ... and a double feature on Saturday, the 14th as well ...
So please continue to stop by ...
And if you don't see something new, check out some of our "oldies but goodies!"
Heart and The Supremes are just two of the artists who will be honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards at a special Grammy Awards Ceremony being held on February 4th at The Wilshire Ebell Theatre.
Also receiving recognition this year for outstanding achievement are Nirvanna (seriously?), producer Nile Rodgers and photographer Henry Diltz, who shared photos and entries from his personal journals with our readers last year, thanks to his curator, Gary Strobl! Recently passed Stax Records co-founder Jim Stewart and artists Bobby McFerrin, Ma Rainey, Slick Rick “The Ruler” and Ellis Marsalis round out the list.
It's all part of Grammy Week next month.
Tommy Roe's new CD is now available (but only thru Solar Music ... see the link below)
It includes the title track from his last LP, "Devil's Soul Pile" (which is a GREAT track) along with a few more new cuts (and a great remake of his 1969 smash "Heather Honey."
Of course, January 8th is Elvis' birthday (incredibly, he would have been 88 years old today!) ...
But it is ALSO David Bowie's birthday. (Hard to believe that we lost David SEVEN YEARS AGO!!! How is this even possible?!?!) He died two days after his 69th birthday in 2016.
FH Reader Mike Wolstein sent us this cool GIF of Bowie's ever-changing look throughout the years ...
I'm calling it "David Bowie: CHANGES" ...
While Bowie never got the chance to sing with Elvis, he DID do a very memorable duet with Bing Crosby in 1982! (Several rock critics at the time made the remark "OK ... now I've seen EVERYTHING!!!") kk
[Look for a VERY special Elvis Presley piece this coming Saturday, the 14th, as part of our Saturday Double Feature!!!]
It’s a fear I’ve addressed several times before …
What happens when today’s rather misinformed generation is
responsible for keeping our music alive but without the “I LIVED this song”
aspect to help them do so?
Sure enough, this week’s Billboard Magazine talks about the
significant increase in streams and downloads for The Beatles’ White Album
track “Glass Onion” thanks to its use in the latest Netflix “Knives Out”
mystery.
Except they COMPLETELY blew it when they said “ ‘Looking
through the bent-backed tulips / To see how the other half lives / Looking
through a glass onion,’ Paul McCartney sings on The Beatles’ White Album classic
“Glass Onion” …
Paul McCartney didn’t sing this song … John Lennon
did!In fact, it’s a John Lennon song
all the way, referencing previous (and even then-current) Beatles tunes in his
lyrics. (For the record, it has since
been fixed … but my God, if Billboard Magazine doesn’t know this stuff, we’re
all doomed!!! Let's face it ... They’ve already published
chart data falsely establishing Drake, Taylor Swift and The Cast of Glee as bigger hit
recording acts than The Beatles as it is!!!And now THIS?!?! My guess is they got flooded with letters pointing out
their error and then went back and made the correction … but when you’re Billboard Magazine, which we’re all supposed to
accept as “The Music Bible,” this sort of thing just isn’t supposed to happen!!!)
The article goes on to say that “Glass Onion” experienced a
167% increase in weekly U.S. on-demand streams during the week of Dec. 23 - 29,
jumping to over 160,000 streams after earning a little over 60,000 the previous
week.Thanks to the same Netflix series, David
Bowie’s track “Star” (which was used in a dance sequence featuring Kate Hudson’s
character), was up 60% during the same week, while The Bee Gees’ “To Love
Somebody” (which was featured in its original version in the film), scored a
37% bump, up to nearly 259,000 streams during the week ending Dec. 29.
And the Christmas Hits just keep setting new records
(although all of that should stop now that we’ve passed the first of the year,
leaving the charts safe for at least the next ten months until this year’s
blitz kicks in.)
Billboard also reports that Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For
Christmas Is You” has just logged its 12th week at #1 … while Nat “King”
Cole’s “The Christmas Song” returns to The Top Ten some 59 years and six months
since his last Top Ten Hit!
And here’s an interesting statistic …
Mariah Carey’s hit becomes only the second holiday hit to hold down
the top spot for four consecutive weeks … and it is the first to do so in 64
years, after “The Chipmunk Song,” by David Seville & the Chipmunks, spent
four straight weeks at No. 1 beginning in December of 1958.
And, while vintage Christmas tunes have been ruling the
charts for the last month of the year for several years now since Billboard
“relaxed” their chart methodology, now allowing holiday songs to chart
alongside the current hits of the day, there were TEN songs in particular that
experienced significant gains in sales, airplay, downloads and streams from last
year to this …
These include Gene Autry's "Here Comes Santa Claus" (up about 53.5% over last year with just over 70 million on-demand streams), Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas" (up nearly 49%), "Deck The Halls" by Nat "King" Cole (up 41%), "This Christmas" by Donny Hathaway (up 53.5%), "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" by Dean Martin (up about 32%), Frank Sinatra's version of "Jingle Bells" (up 31%), Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas" (up just under 30%) and Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree," which enjoyed almost 203 million streams!
Even Mariah Carey's seasonal chart-topper "All I Want For Christmas Is You" experienced a 29.5% increase over last year. Amazing!
Congratulations to FH Reader Colin Donahue ...
He just won a copy of Davie Allan's brand new CD "Turn It Up!"
You can order YOUR own copy of Davie's new disc here:
The official release date for my latest recording is today, 1/6/23 And it's on Compact Disc this time!
For over a decade, Carole King was perfectly content to write hits (and we're talking about some VERY MAJOR HITS here!) for other artists ... with only minor aspirations to perform her music herself. (A fluke Top 40 Hit in 1962, "It Might As Well Rain Until September" was her only successful solo venture on the pop charts ... until "Tapestry" hit in 1971 ... and turned her entire world as she knew it upside down!)
Shyness about performing in front of an audience was also one of the reasons given for her reluctance to pursue the limelight as a recording artist ...
So imagine the condition of her nerves when, in 1973, she found herself as the featured performer at a Free Concert in New York's Central Park in front of about 100,000 fans!!! (Hers was the first-ever Free Concert in Central Park, an ongoing tradition for decades now!)
That moment was captured on film and is now being made available again through various streaming services for all to enjoy.
You Didn't Mention My Favorite Version Of "WHAT ARE YOU DOING NEW YEAR'S EVE" by DANTE & THE EVERGREENS (12/31/1960)
I Saw A You Tube Clip of The Beatles On The Jack Parr Show (On Film) From January of 1964 Before Appearing On The Ed Sullivan Show in February of 1964 (Live) Jack Filmed Them In England Because He Thought They Were Funny, Not Because Of The Music.
He Went On To Say That He Didn't Think Ringo Got A Full Share Of The Profits.
Sean Ross tells us about a new three-part Soft Rock Documentary that's running on Paramount + ...
I will admit to likely a fair amount of this music back in the day ... it certainly beat Disco at the time (although once disco hit, I leaned more toward the hard rock side of things) Still, after my British Invasion phase, spilling over into heavier rock by the late '60's, I did enjoy the soft rock / singer-songwriter era of the early '70's.
But today I can't listen to "Yacht Rock" ... I just can't embrace the concept. (This is especially true on Sirius/XM ... yet I can listen to their channel "The Bridge" all day long, especially since they've been adding many of the stories behind the songs, told by the artists themselves.)
Still, we WILL have to check out this new series ... it sounds like it is very well done. (kk)
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