birthday Archives - Page 34 of 49

Stevie Wonder is 65

One of the Spinners’ relatively few hits on Motown before they moved to Atlantic.

Since I’ve tried to list my favorite songs by an artist on his/her 70th birthday, and Stevie Wonder’s is five years away, what to do this year?

Fortunately, I found this nifty list of songs written, co-written, by Stevie for other artists. Occasionally (Whitney, Macca, and Jermaine, e.g.), Stevie also performs. These are listed, more or less, up to my favorite Stevie song first recorded by another artist; Stevie did subsequently cover a couple of these. LISTEN TO ALL.

First, though, a couple of cuts introduced to me by Chuck Miller recently:
1966 All I Do (Is Think About You) – Tammi Terrell (S.Wonder/C.Paul/ M.Broadnax)
1983 The Crown – Gary Byrd And The G.B. Experience (S.Wonder/G.Byrd) – also has a Stevie vocal.

1974 Perfect Angel – Minnie Riperton (S.Wonder) I had forgotten that the late Riperton was the mother of former Saturday Night Live cast member Maya Rudolph.
1990 We Didn’t Know – Whitney Houston (S.Wonder). I have only two Whitney albums and one has this song.
1974 Take A Little Trip – Minnie Riperton (S.Wonder)
1980 Let’s Get Serious -Jermaine Jackson (S.Wonder/Lee Garrett). This was the benefit of Jermaine staying with Motown when his brothers moved to Columbia/Epic. Have this on vinyl.
1975 I Can See The Sun In Late December – Roberta Flack (S.Wonder). The last six minutes of this 12-MINUTE SONG are probably extraneous, but I like it. Also, own this on vinyl.

1982 What’s That You’re Doing – Paul McCartney (S.Wonder/P.McCartney). Pauly can be pretty soulful (Lady Madonna, e.g.), but I was glad to see Stevie back in form; much of his 1980s output was disappointing.
1982 Try Jah Love – Third World (S.Wonder/M.McCully). The one song on this list I did not know was co-written by Stevie.
1970 It’s A Shame – the Spinners (S.Wonder/S.Wright/L.Garrett). One of their relatively few hits on Motown before they moved to Atlantic.
1974 Tell Me Something Good – Rufus (S.Wonder). Couldn’t find a studio version, but this pretty representative.
1967 Tears Of A Clown -Smokey Robinson & The Miracles (S.Wonder/H.Cosby/S Robinson). Also love the version by the English Beat, or The Beat.

Eric Clapton is 70

Despite the fact that it directly led to Clapton’s departure from the band, I’ve always liked this song.

Even before singer-bassist Jack Bruce died in October 2014, guitarist Eric Clapton had nixed the idea of a Cream reunion with those two plus drummer Ginger Baker. In fact, he suggested that retiring from the road would be his 70th birthday present to himself, though he might record an occasional album.

No reunion was just as well. Over nine years ago, I received The Royal Albert Hall album, and while it was quite good, it could never measure up to my expectations.

Cream represented my first awareness of “Slowhand,” whose guitar prowess had generated “Clapton is God” messages all over England, even when organized religion there was on the wane.

Certainly, I knew of his Beatles connection, with him playing on While My Guitar Gently Weeps. And of course, there was the fact that, at different points, both George Harrison and his good friend Clapton, wrote songs about, and were married to, Pattie Boyd.

This is more about retailing than Clapton: I went to a store in the Binghamton area and bought 461 Ocean Boulevard, Clapton’s second album, from 1974, though I probably bought it the following year. As soon as the sale was completed, the sales clerk told me what a lousy album it was. I took it home, decided that I liked it, particularly Motherless Children, I Shot The Sheriff, and Let It Grow. Suffice to say, I never bought a record from that store ever again.

Here are some of my favorite songs featuring Clapton. The order, other than the top five, is rather fluid.

20. Why Does Love Got to be So Sad? – Derek and the Dominos. Clapton and Duane Allman licks, with a solid foundation from Jim Gordon on drums and Carl Radle on bass
19. Let It Rain. Written by Clapton, with Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett and Eric Clapton, it was the last song on his first solo album.
18. We’re Going Wrong – Cream. I loved Cream’s second album, Disraeli Gears, from its fanciful cover, to its reference to a 19th-century British prime minister. I created in my mind a harmony vocal for this chorus.
17. Politician (live) – Cream. Politician was recorded by the band for the Wheels of Fire album. But it’s the live version on Goodbye Cream which really shows its lyric cynicism.
16. Those were the Days – Cream. Those trippy lyrics, changing rhythms, and the bells. I owned three different songs with this title, and still do: this one (the B-side of White Room, one of the few singles I owned), the Mary Hopkin hit, and the opening theme to the television show All in the Family.

15. Little Wing – Derek and the Dominos. A cover of the Jimi Hendrix song, showing the greatness of Duane Allman.
14. Sea of Joy – Blind Faith. This was the group that rose from the ashes of Cream with Clapton and Baker, plus Ric Grech, bassist with a band called Family, and the distinctive vocals of Steve Winwood, formerly of the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic.
13. I Feel Free – Cream. LOVE the a cappella opening. From Fresh Cream. I recall that my 7th-grade history teacher referred to the group as The Cream, and one of my classmates sternly corrected him.
12. Cocaine. One of many J.J. Cale songs covered by Clapton, this one for the 1977 Slowhand album. I used to sing “this go better with Coca-Cola” in counterpoint to this song; it DOES fit.
11. I Ain’t Got You – the Yardbirds. I love the stops in this song.

10. Strange Brew – Cream. First song on Disraeli Gears.
9. Can’t Find My Way Back Home – Blind Faith. A song written by Winwood that speaks to a basic tenet of my 20s and 30s
8. White Room – Cream. This is one of my favorite Jack Bruce bass lines.
7. For Your Love – the Yardbirds. Despite the fact that it directly led to Clapton’s departure from the band, I’ve always liked this song. Clapton was upset that the band was moving from R&B to pop, and left to join John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers.
6. Tales of Brave Ulysses-Cream. Naturally, from Disraeli Gears.
And you see a girl’s brown body dancing thru the turquoise
And her footprints make you follow where the sky loves the sea
And when your fingers find her, she drowns you in her body
Carving deep blue ripples in the tissue of your mind

5. To Tell The Truth (single)- Derek and the Dominos. This was, according to the Clapton box set I own, the first Derek and the Dominos’ single, but it was withdrawn as not in keeping with the band’s sound. I loved this more frantic version from the first listen, far more than the album version.
4. Badge – Cream. This sounded Beatlesque even before I knew George Harrison co-wrote this with Clapton and plays guitar under the pseudonym L’Angelo Misterioso.
3. Layla – Derek and the Dominos. When the Okie and I lived in Colonial Arms Apartment in New Paltz, NY, our neighbors Howie and Debi had a cat named Layla who was a sister to our cat Doris. Incidentally, this song was re-covered by Clapton in an unplugged version, which The Wife prefers.
2. Sunshine of Your Love – Cream. This was about a perfect pop song: great trading vocals, and harmonies; tremendous playing, especially that tom-tom beat. The Blue Moon guitar solo on the bridge. Of course, from Disraeli Gears.
1. I’m So Glad (live) – Cream. Still, my favorite Clapton performance is on the live version of a Skip James tune from Goodbye Cream. The studio version was on Fresh Cream.

The Lydster, Part 132

She gets a thrill when she gets a question right on JEOPARDY!

This is probably true: the Daughter will be taller than her mother, and quite likely, her father. She’s about 5 feet, 4 inches tall, which is about 1.6 meters.

She is generous of spirit, contributing her money to causes, especially those involving dogs and cats.

She relishes being helpful. She teaches me about current music, even as I share with her the Beatles and Motown.

She is quite good in math, instinctively, though the showing of the work, especially with those bar charts, is tedious for both of us.

She LOVES reading, but some of her “compare and contrast” writing assignments suck the joy out of it.

She gets a thrill when she gets a question right on JEOPARDY!, and at least once she got an answer that none of the three contestants could come up with.

She probably watches the news too much, though I was the same at her age. (But the news didn’t seem so grim then: Cold War and racial tension, whereas now it’s terrorism and ethnic tension.)

She went to two funerals this year, one for a person she cared deeply for.

She still likes it when her mother and/or I watch the scary parts of the movies with her, e.g., in Brave, when the mama bear was in peril.

She still loves her papa, and he’ll always love her.

Smokey Robinson is 75

Interesting that two of my top three Smokey Robinson songs have the word “tears” in the title.

Usually, when a musical artist reached the age of 70, I would indicate my favorite songs that they recorded. For some reason, though, five years ago, I listed some of my favorite songs WRITTEN by Smokey Robinson. And his legendary songwriting, and producing, are worthy of note, and absolutely VITAL to the success of Motown Records.

A bit of Motown trivia: I Heard It Through the Grapevine, written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, was first recorded by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles [LISTEN], but Berry Gordy rejected it, and Marvin Gaye’s version as well. He allowed Gladys Knight and the Pips to release it, and they had a #2 hit. Then, the other versions were released, with Marvin having a massive hit.

I haven’t heard it yet, but the artist released a new album, “Smokey & Friends” on August 19, 2014, on Verve Records, a duets collection “with Contemporary and Classic Artists such as Elton John, James Taylor, Mary J. Blige, Aloe Blacc, Jessie J, Miguel, CeeLo, Ledisi and more. It was his highest-charting album in 33 years.

The “problem” with putting together this list is that I’ve far too often heard many of the songs by another artist first, before Smokey and the Miracles, and that tends to be my association. For instance, I’ll Try Something New (# 11 on the rhythm and blues/soul chart – listed as RB, #39 on the pop charts in 1962) I associate as a song by the Supremes and the Temptations on their Join album. So I’m ranking these by my favorites, as performed by Smokey, usually with the Miracles. LISTEN to all.

15. Who’s Lovin’ You (B-side of Shop Around) – I associate this more with a preternaturally old preteen Michael Jackson singing this on the Jackson 5’s first album.

14. What’s So Good About Good-by (16rb, 35 in 1962). That’s the spelling of “goodbye” in the Billboard books.

13. Baby Baby Don’t Cry (3rb, 8 in 1969)

12. Being with You (1rb for 5 weeks, 2 in 1981). Solo Smokey.

11. Got A Job (1958) a pre-Motown song recorded by Berry Gordy, an answer song to Get A Job by the Silhouettes.

10. The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage (10rb, 20 in 1967)

9. You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me (1rb, 8 in 1963). I associate this with the Beatles, specifically the Beatles’ 2nd Album on Capitol, or With the Beatles in the civilised world.

8. Special Occasion (4rb, 26 in 1968)

7. Mickey’s Monkey (3rb, 8 in 1963). Possibly my favorite hook, “Lum de lum de la ey” (or however you spell it) from Holland-Dozier-Holland.

6. Shop Around (1 rb for 8 weeks, 2 in 1961). This song always sounded like it was from the 1950s. It was the first big Motown hit.

5. Ooo Baby Baby (4rb, 16 in 1965)

4. Goin’ To A Go-Go (2rb, 11 in 1966)

3. The Tracks of My Tears (2rb, 16 in 1965). Interesting that two of my top three have the word “tears” in the title.

2. I Second That Emotion (1rb, 4 in 1968). As is true with many great pop lyrics, this came from a mistake, with Smokey and a friend at a department store. One person said something and the other meant to say, “I second the motion,” but misspoke. This song Smokey covered with the Manhattan Transfer on the Tonin’ album features other artists doing their own songs (Let’s Hang On with Frankie Valli of the 4 Seasons, Groovin’ with Felix Cavaliere of the Rascals, et al.)

1. Tears of a Clown (1rb for 3 weeks, 1 for 2 weeks). From Wikipedia:

Stevie Wonder and his producer Hank Cosby wrote the music for the song, and Cosby produced the instrumental track recording. Wonder brought the instrumental track to the 1966 Motown Christmas party because he could not come up with a lyric to fit the instrumental. Wonder wanted to see what Robinson could come up with for the track. Robinson, who remarked that the song’s distinctive calliope motif “sounded like a circus,” provided lyrics that reflected his vision. In the song, his character, sad because he does not have a woman who loves him, compares himself to the characters in the opera Pagliacci, comedians/clowns who hide their hurt and anger behind empty smiles.

I’m also rather fond of the English Beat cover [LISTEN].

Bob Marley would have been 70

Almost all of Bob Marley’s songs are message songs

It’s inevitable that people who die young are frozen in time so that when they hit some age almost twice what they were when they passed away, it’s difficult to imagine. Reggae music superstar Bob Marley was only 36 when he died in 1981 of cancer, but before that time, he brought a whole new sound to the world.

Since many of the Wailers songs were, for contractual as well as artistic reasons, recorded more than once, the versions below may not be the ones referred to in the description.

16. Rock, Roots, Reggae (1976) – oddly, this is the only Marley single to reach the Billboard (US) Hot 100 charts, peaking at #51.
15. Simmer Down (1963) – the first single released by The Wailers. It was the #1 hit in Jamaica in February 1964.
14. Waiting in Vain (1977) – from the great Exodus album, it reached #27 on the UK singles chart.
13. Exodus (1977) the title song of the album that Time magazine, in 1999, named the best album of the 20th century.

12. I Shot the Sheriff (1973) – probably the song that introduced most Americans to the music of Bob Marley, but not HIS version. Eric Clapton’s cover version was a massive international hit in 1974. LISTEN.
11. Redemption Song (1979) one of his last works, and one of his greatest, it’s a simple solo acoustic recording utilizing some of Marcus Garvey’s words. It has been heavily covered, including versions by Johnny Cash/Joe Strummer, and by Stevie Wonder, which I own.
10. No Woman, No Cry (1974) – I think the song’s history is as interesting as its performance. “Though Bob Marley may have written the song, or at least the melody, songwriter credits were given to Vincent Ford, a friend of Marley’s who ran a soup kitchen in Trenchtown, the ghetto of Kingston, Jamaica where Marley grew up. The royalty checks received by Ford ensured the survival and continual running of his soup kitchen.”
9. Could You Be Loved (1980)- as usual, it fared better on the charts in Europe (and New Zealand!) than in the US. “The song is considered by many reggae fans to be disco influenced.”

8. Lively Up Yourself (1974) – this is the first song on the Natty Dread album, the “first recorded without former bandmates Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer. It is also the first album recorded with the I-Threes, a female vocal trio that included Bob’s wife, Rita Marley, along with Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt.”
7. Buffalo Soldier (1983) – this was from Marley’s final recording sessions in 1980, not appearing on record until the 1983 posthumous release of the album Confrontation. “The title and lyrics refer to the black U.S. cavalry regiments, known as ‘Buffalo Soldiers’, that fought in the Indian Wars after 1866.”
6. Three Little Birds (1977) – I was watching some cartoon with The Daughter about five years ago, and it used this song, to great effect. It was released as a single in 1980, reaching #17 on the UK charts and “has been covered by numerous other artists.”
5. One Love/People Get Ready (1965, 1977) – it was first recorded by Marley’s original group, The Wailers, then rerecorded for the Exodus album. “The song contains an interpretation of The Impressions’ song ‘People Get Ready’ written by Curtis Mayfield.”

4. Is This Love (1978) – released on his 1978 album Kaya.
3. Get Up, Stand Up (1973)- almost all of Marley’s songs are message songs. This was the last song Marley ever performed on stage, “on September 23, 1980, at the Stanley Theater, now the Benedum Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.”
2. Jamming (1977). -the 1980 Stevie Wonder hit Master Blaster (Jammin’) (LISTEN) was a tribute to Bob Marley.
1. Stir It Up (1972) – I may have heard the 1973 Johnny Nash version (LISTEN) first, but prefer the Wailers.

Or you can listen to most of these songs HERE.
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Last two-thirds of Coverville cover story in honor of Bob Marley.