March 2020 – Page 3 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Jim Croce – Bad, Bad Leroy Brown

Jim Croce was the first time I ever heard about a star dying. I heard it on the radio when I was 7. My sister had his greatest hits and I played it non-stop. This one is easy for kids to remember. This song has been played to death and I wasn’t going to post it…but after listening to it I have to admit I was enjoying the song again.

Jim Croce and guitarist Maury Muehleisen died in a plane crash on September 20, 1973. The song peaked at #1 in July of 1973 and was still on the charts when the accident happened.

Jim Croce: This is a song about a guy I was in the army with… It was at Fort Dix, in New Jersey, that I met this guy. He was not made to climb the tree of knowledge, as they say, but he was strong, so nobody’d ever told him what to do, and after about a week down there he said “Later for this” and decided to go home. So he went AWOL—which means to take your own vacation—and he did. But he made the mistake of coming back at the end of the month to get his paycheck. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen handcuffs put on anybody, but it was SNAP and that was the end of it for a good friend of mine, who I wrote this tune about, named Leroy Brown.

“Yeah, I spent about a year and a half driving those $29 cars, so I drove around a lot looking for a universal joint for a ’57 Chevy panel truck or a transmission for a ’51 Dodge. I got to know many junkyards well, and they all have those dogs in them. They all have either an axle tied around their necks or an old lawnmower to keep ’em at least slowed down a bit, so you have a decent chance of getting away from them.”

From Songfacts

Set in the hardscrabble section of Chicago, this song tells the story of Leroy Brown, the “baddest man in the whole damn town.” He’s big and dangerous, loved by the ladies and feared by the men. But one day he picks a battle he can’t win, making a move on the wife of a guy who leaves him looking like a jigsaw puzzle with a some missing pieces.

The story is based on truth, but embellished. Jim’s wife, Ingrid Croce, told Songfacts the story.

Jim Croce joined the US National Guard in 1966, hoping it would keep him from getting sent to Vietnam. He married Ingrid that year, and hoped to continue his education and launch his music career. Unfortunately, Jim was sent for training less then two weeks after their wedding. As Ingrid explained, Jim had no interest in being a soldier and had the distinction of having to repeat basic training. But he did meet a guy who inspired one of his most famous songs.

When Jim Croce would introduce this song, he said there were two people he encountered in the military who inspired this song: a sergeant at Fort Jackson and a private at Fort Dix. The actual Leroy was the sergeant, but it was the private who went AWOL and returned for his paycheck.

Croce had his breakthrough in 1972 with the album You Don’t Mess Around with Jim, which had hit singles in the title track and “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels).” “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” appeared on his next album, Life And Times, and gave him his first #1 hit, topping the Hot 100 on July 21, 1973. On September 30, Croce died in a plane crash at age 30. After his death, “Time In A Bottle,” a track from You Don’t Mess Around with Jim, was released as a single and also went to #1.

The piano riff at the beginning was based on Bobby Darin’s “Queen of the Hop.”

Ingrid runs Croce’s Restaurant & Jazz Bar in San Diego, where she keeps Jim’s legacy alive and hears from many patrons who were touched by Jim’s songs. Says Ingrid: “I have a lot of staff members that come up to me and say, ‘You know what, there’s a guy named Leroy Brown, he kind of looks like the part, and he’s sitting at our bar right now.’ I say, ‘Well, I’ll be glad to come over and say hi.’ There’s so many Leroy Browns who have come up to me and said, ‘I’m sure I’m the one he was talking about.'”

Croce was a peaceful guy, but two of his biggest hits end in violence. In his first single, “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim,” the title character gets it even worse than Leroy, getting “cut in in about a 100 places and shot in a couple more.”

This is sung by a parrot in the 1997 movie Home Alone 3; Shelly Smith covered it for that film’s soundtrack.

Other movies to use the song include Sneakers (1992) and Easy Street (1987). TV series to use it include Psych (“Dis-Lodged” – 2008) and The Wonder Years (“Scenes from a Wedding” – 1992).

This wasn’t the first hit from the ’70s to feature a “Leroy.” In Todd Rundgren’s song “We Gotta Get You A Woman,” the lovelorn character is named Leroy. In real life, he was Paul, but Rundgren couldn’t find a good rhyme for that name.

The song gets a mention in the 1999 episode of Friends, “The One With All the Resolutions,” when Joey walks out Phoebe’s guitar lesson and she yells at him, “Don’t come crying to me when everyone is sick and tired of hearing you play ‘Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.'” Rachel then walks in singing the song.

In 2008, producer Warren Zide (American Pie) bought the movie rights to this song, but nothing became of it. Ingrid Croce said: “We’ve always wanted to do a movie with one of Jim’s character songs – we just want him and his memory and his music to live on. Most importantly, it sounds as if it’s going to be a lot of fun. And Jim liked to have fun.”

Bad Bad Leroy Brown

Well the South side of Chicago
Is the baddest part of town
And if you go down there
You better just beware
Of a man named Leroy Brown

Now Leroy more than trouble
You see he stand ’bout six foot four
All the downtown ladies call him “Treetop Lover”
All the men just call him “Sir”

And it’s bad, bad Leroy Brown
The baddest man in the whole damned town
Badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog

Now Leroy he a gambler
And he like his fancy clothes
And he like to wave his diamond rings
In front of everybody’s nose
He got a custom Continental
He got an Eldorado too
He got a thirty two gun in his pocket for fun
He got a razor in his shoe

And it’s bad, bad Leroy Brown
The baddest man in the whole damned town
Badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog

Now Friday ’bout a week ago
Leroy shootin’ dice
And at the edge of the bar
Sat a girl named Doris
And oo that girl looked nice
Well he cast his eyes upon her
And the trouble soon began
And Leroy Brown learned a lesson
‘Bout messin’ with the wife of a jealous man

And it’s bad, bad Leroy Brown
The baddest man in the whole damned town
Badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog

Well the two men took to fighting
And when they pulled them off the floor
Leroy looked like a jigsaw puzzle
With a couple of pieces gone

And it’s bad, bad Leroy Brown
The baddest man in the whole damned town
Badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog

Badder than old King Kong
And meaner than a junkyard dog

Johnny Cash – A Boy Named Sue

This was written by the multitalented Shel Silverstein, who later wrote several hits for Dr. Hook, including “Sylvia’s Mother” and “Cover Of The Rolling Stone.” He got the idea for the song from his friend Jean Shepherd – a guy who had to deal with a girl’s name.

Shel Silverstein sang his song ‘Boy Named Sue,’ and Johnny’s wife June Carter thought it was a great song for Johnny Cash to perform. And not too long after that they were headed off to San Quentin to record a record Live At San Quentin and June said, ‘Why don’t you bring that Shel song with you.”And so they brought the lyrics. And when he was on stage he performed that song for the first time ever, he performed it live in front of that captive audience, in every sense of the word.

When Johnny performed this song at San Quentin he read the lyrics from a sheet of paper on the stage.

The song peaked at #2 in the Billboard 100 and #1 in the Billboard Country Charts. The album Johnny Cash At San Quentin peaked at #1 in 1969.

Johnny Cash performed this song in the East Room of the White House on April 17, 1970, when he and his wife were invited by President Richard Milhous Nixon. Nixon’s staff had requested the song along with Okie From Muskogee and the song “Welfare Cadillac,” but Cash refused to perform those songs, saying he didn’t have arrangements ready.

Thanks to Victoria at The Hinoeuma for suggesting this Johnny Cash song.

From Songfacts

This is about a boy who grows up angry at his father not only for leaving his family, but for naming him Sue. When the boy grows up, he sees his father in a bar and gets in a fight with him. After his father explains that he named him Sue to make sure he was tough, the son understands.

Cash recorded this live at San Quentin Prison in February 1969. Shel Silverstein’s nephew Mitch Myers told us the story: “In those days in Nashville, and for all the people that would visit, the most fun that anyone really could have would be to go over to someone’s house and play music. And they would do what one would call a ‘Guitar Pull,’ where you grabbed a guitar and you played one of your new songs, then someone else next to you would grab it and do the same, and there were people like Johnny Cash or Joni Mitchell, people of that caliber in the room.

It wasn’t touched up, it wasn’t produced or simulated. They just did it, and it stuck. And it rang. I would say that it would qualify in the realm of novelty, a novelty song. Shel had a knack for the humorous and the kind of subversive lyrics. But they also were so catchy that people could not resist them.”

Shel Silverstein went on to write another song titled “The Father of the Boy Named Sue.” It’s the same story, but from the father’s point of view.

In the 2019 animated film Missing Link, the main character, a male Sasquatch voiced by Zach Galifianakis, is named Susan.

A Boy Named Sue

I want you to uh, I want to a,
If you don’t mind Carl, I’d like you to stay out and help us on some songs
I’d love to
One of the greatest guitar players as well as song writers and singers in Memphis
Appreciate a little help on guitar, alright. Thank you Carl

Well,my daddy left home when I was three
And he didn’t leave much to ma and me
Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze
Now, I don’t blame him cause he run and hid
But the meanest thing that he ever did
Was before he left, he went and named me Sue

Well, he must o’ thought that is quite a joke
And it got a lot of laughs from a’ lots of folk
It seems I had to fight my whole life through
Some gal would giggle and I’d get red
And some guy’d laugh and I’d bust his head,
I tell ya, life ain’t easy for a boy named Sue

Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean
My fist got hard and my wits got keen
I’d roam from town to town to hide my shame
But I made a vow to the moon and stars
That I’d search the honky-tonks and bars
And kill that man who gave me that awful name

Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July
And I just hit town and my throat was dry
I thought I’d stop and have myself a brew
At an old saloon on a street of mud
There at a table, dealing stud
Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me Sue

Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dad
From a worn-out picture that my mother’d had
And I knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye
He was big and bent and gray and old
And I looked at him and my blood ran cold
And I said, “My name is Sue, how do you do
Now you’re gonna die”

(yeah, that’s what I told him)

Well, I hit him hard right between the eyes
And he went down, but to my surprise
He come up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear
But I busted a chair right across his teeth
And we crashed through the wall and into the street
Kicking and a’ gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer

I tell ya, I’ve fought tougher men
But I really can’t remember when
He kicked like a mule and he bit like a crocodile
I heard him laugh and then I heard him cuss
He went for his gun and I pulled mine first
He stood there lookin’ at me and I saw him smile

And he said, “Son, this world is rough
And if a man’s gonna make it, he’s gotta be tough
And I knew I wouldn’t be there to help ya along
So I give ya that name and I said goodbye
I knew you’d have to get tough or die
And it’s the name that helped to make you strong”

He said, “Now you just fought one hell of a fight
And I know you hate me, and you got the right
To kill me now, and I wouldn’t blame you if you do
But ya ought to thank me, before I die
For the gravel in ya guts and the spit in ya eye
‘Cause I’m the son-of-a-bitch that named you Sue”

Well what could I do? What could I do?
I got all choked up and I threw down my gun
And I called him my Pa, and he called me his son
And I came away with a different point of view
And I think about him, now and then
Every time I try and every time I win
And if I ever have a son, I think I’m gonna name him..
Bill or George! Any-damn-thing but Sue!

Alright, thank you very much

Warren Zevon – Play It All Night Long

Play that dead band’s song
Turn those speakers up full blast
Play it all night longYes, it’s crude and this is just the start but the words fit together really well. You then get a reference to the ill-fated southern rock band Lynyrd Skynryd.Plus…good luck finding another song with a reference to brucellosis in it! Not that you asked but here is the definition.Brucellosis – Brucellosis is an infectious disease caused by bacteria. People can get the disease when they are in contact with infected animals or animal products contaminated with the bacteria. Animals that are most commonly infected include sheep, cattle, goats, pigs, and dogs, among others.

Warren Zevon explained that the song was written “really fast” while on marijuana on the synthesizer ostinato. The song is also considered a satire/homage to the dead band’s song (Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama”). Warren had read a novel around the time the song was written by Newton Thornburg titled Black Angus and got the idea for the line “the cattle all have brucellosis” from it. The song was a common live favorite of Warren’s and made it many setlists subsequent to its release. It is probably the only popular song ever written which contains a reference to brucellosis.

I’ve always liked it because it’s on the strange side and one that only Zevon could have written. The song was on the album Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School. The album peaked at #20 in the Billboard Album Chart in 1980.

Play It All Night Long

Grandpa pissed his pants again
He don’t give a damn
Brother Billy has both guns drawn
He ain’t been right since Vietnam

“Sweet home Alabama”
Play that dead band’s song
Turn those speakers up full blast
Play it all night long

Daddy’s doing Sister Sally
Grandma’s dying of cancer now
The cattle all have brucellosis
We’ll get through somehow

“Sweet Home Alabama”
Play that dead band’s song
Turn those speakers up full blast
Play it all night long

I’m going down to the Dew Drop Inn
See if I can drink enough
There ain’t much to country living
Sweat, piss, jizz and blood

“Sweet Home Alabama”
Play that dead band’s song
Turn those speakers up full blast
Play it all night long

Alice Cooper – You and Me

I remember the first time I heard this song. On Radio? On Record? Nope… Alice Cooper performed the song on The Muppet Show in his 1978 season three appearance, doing it as a duet with Beakie, a bird-ish Muppet who was actually the embodiment of Miss Piggy after she was transformed by Cooper.

This was the lead single off the 1977 album Lace and Whiskey, which was the shock-rock legend’s third album as a solo artist following the breakup of the original Alice Cooper band in 1974. Cooper decided to change up his sound a bit on this collection and soften his image.

This song was un-Cooper like although a couple of years before he did release a softer ballad Only Women Bleed.

The song peaked at #9 in the Billboard 100 in 1977.

Alice Cooper on his ballads: “I did those songs totally out of spite,” “I kept reading so many interviews and articles that I said I was never considered musical. Best rock show they ever saw, but musically lacking. ‘They aren’t as good as ELP.’ Of course not,” he laughed, “we didn’t want to be.”

Alice and Beakie

From Songfacts

A very romantic soft rock song by the Grandfather of Goth. It is every man’s love song to his significant other – celebrating the everyday pleasures of two people sharing their lives together.

This love ballad was a significant departure from Cooper’s usual dark-themed rockers. It was the last in a trilogy of ballads Cooper recorded, following “Only Women Bleed” and “I Never Cry” He has described this genre as “heavy metal housewife rock.”

This song was written by Cooper and the renowned rock guitarist and songwriter Dick Wagner. During his long and distinguished musical career, Wagner has played lead guitar and written songs for many big-name bands and artists. In addition to Cooper, some of the other notable musical acts he has worked with include KISS, Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, Tori Amos, Frank Sinatra, Meat Loaf, Etta James, Ringo Starr, Guns N’ Roses, Rod Stewart, Air Supply and Tina Turner. Wagner contributed to several Alice Cooper albums, both as a guitarist and songwriter; he and Cooper usually collaborated on ballads. In addition to “You and Me,” other rock ballads Wagner co-wrote include “I Never Cry” and “Only Women Bleed.”

He considered it a concept album based on a 1940s-era detective he called “Inspector Maurice Escargot.” For his 1977 tour, Cooper divided his show into three sets: Oldies, Hell, and Lace And Whiskey. This third part he performed in his Escargot character.

Lace and Whiskey was produced by Bob Ezrin, who co-wrote most of the album’s tracks with Cooper and Dick Wagner. He also played keyboards on the album. Ezrin is a well-known figure in the music industry, particularly in the rock world. He was one of the most commercially successful producers in the 1970s and has done production work for a slew of top artists and bands, including KISS, Pink Floyd, Lou Reed, Rod Stewart, Jane’s Addiction, Hanoi Rocks, Deftones, Berlin, Nine Inch Nails and Peter Gabriel. Ezrin produced eleven albums for Cooper, including the hugely successful LPs Billion Dollar Babies and School’s Out.

This song climbed to #9 on the US Billboard Hot 100, marking his last Top-10 on the chart until “Poison” in 1989. The song also hit #23 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and # 3 on the singles chart in Australia.

You and Me

When I get home from work,
I want to wrap myself around you.
I want to take you and squeeze you
Till the passion starts to rise.

I want to take you to heaven.
That would make my day complete.

[Chorus]
But you and me ain’t no movie stars.
What we are is what we are.
We share a bed,
Some lovin’,
And TV, yeah.
And that’s enough for a workin’ man.
What I am is what I am.
And I tell you, babe,
Well that’s enough for me.

Sometimes when you’re asleep
And I’m just starin’ at the ceiling,
I want to reach out and touch you,
But you just go on dreamin’.

If I could take you to heaven,
That would make my day complete.

[Chorus]

You and me ain’t no super stars.
What we are is what we are.
We share a bed,
Some popcorn,
And TV, yeah.
And that’s enough for a workin’ man.
What I am is what I am.
And I tell you, babe,
You’re just enough for me.

When I get home from work,
I want to wrap myself around you.
I like to hold you squeeze you
Till the passion starts to rise.

I want to take you to heaven.
That would make my day complete.

[Chorus]

Where is…Bob Dylan’s Guitar He Played at The 1965 Newport Folk Festival?

Bob Dylan released his first album in 1962. He was primarily known as a folk artist. Dylan would play with his acoustic guitar and harmonica.

On Saturday, July 24, 1965, Bob Dylan played the Newport Folk Festival and he played an acoustic set that all of his fans wanted. He received great applause… After that, he walked back on stage with a rock band and plugged in his 1964 Fender Stratocaster and all hell broke loose. His folk fans did NOT want him playing an electric guitar with a rock band. He did receive some cheers but they were mixed with a lot of boos. Dylan’s appearance is one of the most iconic performances of rock and roll.

Even after the boos, he was determined to continue down his electric path. It has been known as the time when “Dylan went electric.”

He toured in 1965 and 1966 with “The Hawks” as a backing band. The Hawks changed their name after the 66 tour and became The Band. During those tours, the boos continued throughout but Dylan pressed on. On the British leg of the tour the boos intensified and in one concert a fan of the old Dylan yelled out “Judas!”

Now back to the electric guitar that Bob played at Newport.

Dawn Peterson thought she owned the guitar, her father was a pilot who flew music acts in the 1960s. He said Dylan left this guitar on his plane. Dawn didn’t believe it until she saw a documentary picturing Bob Dylan on that Newport stage playing a guitar that looked just like her dad’s.

Bob Dylan thought he still had this Stratocaster…but in 2012 on the PBS series History Detectives… The experts matched the wood grain on the guitar owned by Dawn from the pictures of the historical event in 1965. The guitar was a match and it was no doubt that Dawn’s guitar was the one. Also in the guitar case were some of Dylan’s lyrics that he was working on in 65.

Lawyers got involved but it was soon settled that Dawn could sell the guitar.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay purchased Dylan’s Newport guitar in 2013 for $965,000 in an auction, making it the most expensive guitar to ever hit the auction block.

Within the case itself was another hidden gem: early-draft lyrics to three Dylan tunes (“Absolutely Sweet Marie,” “I Wanna Be Your Lover” and two others). Those pieces were estimated between $3,000 and $30,000 by the auction house.

The guitar was on display from November 2018 through November 2019 at the American Writers Museum in Chicago as part of Bob Dylan: Electric – an interactive exhibit curated by music journalist Alan Light chronicling Dylan’s impact on American writing and pop culture following the Newport performance.

Rolling Stones – Let It Bleed

This song is why I first bought this album. I heard it and it’s country/blues/rock style stayed with me. The song sounds low down, dirty, and sleazy…that only the Stones can deliver.

Keith Richards’ fingers began to bleed as he played acoustic guitar for hours while Mick Jagger worked with an engineer on the drum track. The title came from Keith’s desire to record his track. At least that’s the story the Mick and Keith tells. The phrase “Let It Bleed” is an intravenous drug user slang for successfully finding a vein. The syringe plunger is pulled back and if blood appears, it is called letting it bleed.

This was recorded around the same time as The Beatles Let It Be, but the similar titles were just a supposed coincidence.

The Stones recorded this after the death of Brian Jones but before Mick Taylor joined the band as his replacement. As a result, Keith Richards played both acoustic and slide electric guitar, and Bill Wyman played bass and autoharp.

The song wasn’t a single but the album (also named Let It Bleed) peaked at #3 in the Billboard Album Chart in 1969.

From Songfacts

This was the first Stones song to also be the album title.

Ian Stewart, often considered “The sixth Stone,” played the piano. This was his only appearance on Let It Bleed.

There are many references to sex and drugs in the lyrics to this track – an example of the Stones writing about what they knew.

Autoharp is a string instrument with a series of chord bars attached to dampers which, when pressed, mute all but the desired chord. An autoharp is not really a harp – it’s a zither.

The English TV cook and author Delia Smith baked the cake on the album sleeve before she became famous. She got the gig through being a friend of the photographer, Don McAllester. In 1971, two years after the release of Let It Bleed, Delia Smith’s first cookery book, How To Cheat at Cooking, was launched and by the end of the decade she’d become the UK’s best known TV cook.

Let It Bleed

Well, we all need someone we can lean on
And if you want it, you can lean on me
Yeah, we all need someone we can lean on
And if you want it, you can lean on me

She said, my breasts, they will always be open
Baby, you can rest your weary head right on me
And there will always be a space in my parking lot
When you need a little coke and sympathy

Yeah we all need someone we can dream on
And if you want it baby, you can dream on me
Yeah, we all need someone we can cream on
Yeah and if you want to, you can cream on me

I was dreaming of a steel guitar engagement
When you drunk my health in scented jasmine tea
But you knifed me in my dirty filthy basement
With that jaded, faded, junky nurse oh what pleasant company, ha

Though, we all need someone we can feel on
Yeah and if you want it, you can feel on me, hey
Take my arm, take my leg
Oh baby don’t you take my head
Hoo

Yeah, we all need someone we can bleed on
Yeah but if you want it, well you can bleed on me
Yeah, we all need someone we can bleed on
Yeah yeah and if you want it baby why don’t ya
You can bleed on me
All over, hoo

Ah, get it on rider, hoo
Get it on rider
Get it on rider
You can bleed all over me, yeah
Get it on rider, hoo
Get it on rider, yeah
You can cream all over, you can come all over me, ah
Get it on rider ey
Let it out rider
Let it out rider
You can come all over me

Get it on rider
You can come all over me, yeah

Get it on rider

Chic – Le Freak

Ah Freak out! Dance music is usually not my thing but Nile Rodgers guitar groove on this song is fantastic. It’s also a great memory of 5th grade for me.

Rodgers and Edwards wrote this after they were denied admission to a nightclub, even though their song “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)” often played inside.

It was New Year’s Eve, 1977, and they were invited to Studio 54, a very popular club in New York City where many celebrities and trendsetters were known to hang out. A singer named Grace Jones wanted Nile Rodgers (guitarist) and Bernard Edwards (Bass Player) to do some production work for her and asked them to come down to the club as her guest.

When they got there, they were not on the list, and couldn’t convince the doorman that they were the group Chic. All dressed up and nowhere to go on New Year’s Eve, they left and started writing this song as a reply to the doorman. They called it “F–k Off,” but when they decided to record it, Edwards wasn’t comfortable with the cursing, so they tried it as “Freak Off.” That title sounded lame, but when they made the opening lines “aaaahh Freak Out!” instead of “aaaahh F–k Off!”, they came up with a better title: “La Freak.”

The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100 in 1978. This was #1 in the US for six weeks. After a while, they stopped distributing it as a single to encourage people to buy the album.

From Songfacts

Chic was a group led by bass player Bernard Edwards and guitarist Nile Rodgers. Both were very successful writers and producers, combining to work on hits for Sister Sledge and Diana Ross. Edwards went on to produce for The Power Station, Joe Cocker, and Robert Palmer, while Rodgers has worked with Mick Jagger, David Bowie, and Madonna. Edwards died of pneumonia in 1996.

They ended up not working for Grace Jones, although Rodgers produced her comeback album in 1986.

Studio 54 is mentioned in the last verse: “Come on down to 54.” A year after Rodgers and Edwards couldn’t get into the club, this was included on an album of dance songs called A Night At Studio 54. They had no trouble getting in at this point.

“C’est Chic” (which was not just the name of the album but also part of the lyrics to the song) is French for “It is Chic.”

This is the best selling single of all time for Atlantic Records with 13 million sales, including 2 million in the USA.

This was the first single to be displaced from the US # 1 twice, each time regaining the top position. It first hit the top spot in December 1978, then dropped to #2 for a week to make way for “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.” After reassuming the #1 position for a second week, it then dropped to #2 again for two more weeks, this time to make way for the Bee Gees’ hit “Too Much Heaven.” In January 1979, “Le Freak” then moved back into the #1 spot for a third time, holding down the top spot for four more weeks.

This song returned, remixed, to the UK Top 20 in 1987 as “Jack le Freak.”

Nile Rodgers told Billboard that the song “was our homage to a Chubby Checker song called the ‘Peppermint Twist.'”

Nile Rogers told the Big Issue that he knew “Le Freak” was going to be a monster record even though the record company hated the song. He recalled:

“By the time the song ended, after about seven and a half minutes, we’d cleared the conference room. We were just sitting there by ourselves – myself, Bernard Edwards and our attorney. Everybody else was outside trying to figure out how to tell us how much the song sucked, and wondering did we have anything else on the album that was better.”

Le Freak

Ah Freak out!
Le Freak, see’est Chic
Freak out!
Ah Freak out!
Le Freak, see’est Chic
Freak out!
Ah Freak out!
Le Freak, see’est Chic
Freak out!
Ah Freak out!
Le Freak, see’est Chic
Freak out!

Have you heard about the new dance craze?
Listen to us, I’m sure you’ll be amazed
Big fun to be had by everyone
It’s up to you, It surely can be done
Young and old are doing it, I’m told
Just one try, and you too will be sold
It’s called Le Freak! They’re doing it night and day
Allow us, we’ll show you the way

[Chorus]

All that pressure got you down
Has your head spinning all around
Feel the rhythm, check the ride
Come on along and have a real good time
Like the days of stopping at the Savoy
Now we freak, oh what a joy
Just come on down, two fifty four
Find a spot out on the floor

[Chorus]

Now Freak!
I said Freak!
Now Freak!

[Chorus]

Led Zeppelin – Kashmir

This is one of my favorite songs from Led Zeppelin. I think it’s one of their best if not their best. It was on the Physical Graffiti Album released in 1975. The song did not chart but is hugely popular on the radio.

The song is hypnotic to listen to. The drums are the key to this song… Jimmy Page has said this about John Bonham on Kashmir… It was what he didn’t do that made it work.

Jimmy also said this was the best Led Zeppelin guitar riff.

Kashmir, also known as Cashmere, is a lush mountain region North of Pakistan. India and Pakistan have disputed control of the area for years. The fabric Cashmere is made from the hair of goats from the region. The area is also famous for growing poppies, from which heroin is made.

The songwriters were John Bonham, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant.

Robert Plant – Plant explained: “‘Kashmir’ came from a trip Jimmy and me made down the Moroccan Atlantic coast, from Agadir down to Sidi Ifni. We were just the same as the other hippies really.”

From Songfacts

All band members agreed this was one of their best musical achievements. Robert Plant said it was “One of my favorites… it was so positive, lyrically.”

Plant wrote the lyrics in 1973 while driving through the Sahara Desert on the way to the National Festival of folklore in Morocco. Kashmir is in Southern Asia; he was nowhere near it. In Mojo magazine, September 2010,

The original title was “Driving To Kashmir.”

This runs 8:31. Radio stations had no problem playing it, especially after “Stairway To Heaven,” which was almost as long, did so well.

The signature guitar riff began as a tuning cycle Jimmy Page had been using for years.

This is one of the few Zeppelin songs to use outside musicians. Session players were brought in for the string and horn sections. Jimmy Page said (Rolling Stone, 2012): “I knew that this wasn’t just something guitar-based. All of the guitar parts would be on there. But the orchestra needed to sit there, reflecting those other parts, doing what the guitars were but with the colors of a symphony.”

Speaking with Dan Rather in 2018, Robert Plant said: “It was a great achievement to take such a monstrously dramatic musical piece and find a lyric that was ambiguous enough, and a delivery that was not over-pumped. It was almost the antithesis of the music, this lyric and this vocal delivery that was just about enough to get in there.”

Led Zeppelin played this in every live show from it’s debut in 1975 to their last concert in 1980.

Page and Plant recorded this with an orchestra and Moroccan musicians for their 1994 Unledded album.

Puff Daddy (he wasn’t Diddy yet) sampled this in 1998 for a song called “Come With Me.” He performed it on Saturday Night Live with Page on guitar.

The remaining members of Led Zeppelin performed this at the Atlantic Records 40th-anniversary party in 1988 with Jason Bonham on drums. It was a mess – the keyboards got lost in the feed and Plant was bumped by a fan and forgot some of the words. They had more success when they performed the song on December 10, 2007, at a benefit show to raise money for the Ahmet Ertegun education fund.

In the movie Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Mike Damone tells Mark Ratner, “When it comes down to making out, whenever possible, put on side one of Led Zeppelin 4. In the next scene, he is on the date with this song playing in the car. Cameron Crowe, who wrote the screenplay, couldn’t get the rights to any of the songs on Led Zeppelin 4, so he used “Kashmir” instead. Crowe used Zeppelin’s “That’s The Way” on his 2001 movie Almost Famous.

Plant said in an audio documentary that he loved this song not only because of its intensity but also because it was so intense without being considered “heavy metal,” a label none of the band liked.

Jimmy Page: “The intensity of ‘Kashmir’ was such that when we had it completed, we knew there was something really hypnotic to it, we couldn’t even describe such a quality. At the beginning, there was only Bonzo [drummer John Bonham] and me in Headley Grange. He played the rhythm on drums, and I found the riff as well as the overdubs which were thereafter duplicated by an orchestra, to bring more life to the track. It sounded so frightening at first…”

Zeppelin’s manager Peter Grant said: “I remember Bonzo having me listen to the demo of ‘Kashmir’ with only him and Jimmy. It was fantastic. What’s funny is that after a first recording of the song, we found it sounded a bit like a dirge. We were in Paris, we had Atlantic listen to it, and we all thought it really sounded like a dirge. So Richard (Cole) was sent to Southall in London to find a Pakistanese orchestra. Jonesy put it all together and the final result was exactly what was needed. He was an exceptional arranger.”

“Kashmir” makes the “songs performed at the Super Bowl” list because a few seconds of it played during Shakira’s set when she performed at halftime in the matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers in 2020.

Kashmir

Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face
And stars to fill my dream
I’m a traveler of both time and space
To be where I have been
To sit with elders of the gentle race
This world has seldom seen
They talk of days for which they sit and wait
All will be revealed

Talk in song from tongues of lilting grace
Sounds caress my ear
And not a word I heard could I relate
The story was quite clear

Oh, oh
Oh, oh

Oh, oh baby, I been flying
No yeah, mama, there ain’t no denying
Oh, oh yeah I’ve been flying
Mama, mama, ain’t no denying, no denying

All I see turns to brown
As the sun burns the ground
And my eyes fill with sand
As I scan this wasted land
Trying to find, trying to find, where I’ve been

Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace
Like thoughts inside a dream
Heed the path that led me to that place
Yellow desert stream
Like Shangri-la beneath the summer moon
I will return again
Sure as the dust that floats high in June
When moving through Kashmir

Oh, father of the four winds fill my sails
Across the sea of years
With no provision but an open face
Along the straits of fear

Oh, oh
Oh, oh

Oh, when I’m on, when I’m on my way, yeah
When I see, when I see the way, you stay yeah

Oh, yeah-yeah, oh, yeah-yeah, when I’m down
Oh, yeah-yeah, oh, yeah-yeah, but I’m down, so down
Oh, my baby, oh, my baby, let me take you there
Come on, come on, oh, let me take you there, let me take you there

Beatles – For No One

McCartney wrote this song. John Lennon had said it was a Paul song and it is thought to be mostly if not all his song. The song was not a single but just added another great song to the album.

The song was on the Beatles arguably best album Revolver…and perhaps one of the best albums of all time.

George Martin called in Alan Civil to play the French horn in the solo.

Paul McCartney and George Martin about the French Horn : ‘Well, it goes from here to this top E,’ and I said, ‘What if we ask him to play an F?’ George saw the joke and joined in the conspiracy. We came to the session and Alan looked up from his bit of paper: ‘Eh, George? I think there’s a mistake here – you’ve got a high F written down.’ Then George and I said, ‘Yeah,’ and smiled back at him, and he knew what we were up to and played it. These great players will do it. Even though it’s officially off the end of their instrument, they can do it, and they’re quite into it occasionally. It’s a nice little solo.”

Most people would have never written that part for a French horn player because it was too high to play, but that was the note Paul wanted to hear.

If you want to know more songs with French Horn…go here to Aphoristical’s site.

Paul McCartney: “I was in Switzerland on my first skiing holiday. I’d done a bit of skiing in ‘Help!’ and quite liked it, so I went back and ended up in a little bathroom in a Swiss chalet writing ‘For No One.’ I remember the descending bass-line trick that it’s based on, and I remember the character in the song – the girl putting on her make-up.”

From Songfacts

Paul McCartney wrote this song sitting in a chalet while on holiday with his girlfriend Jane Asher in Klosters, Switzerland, March of 1966. The working title was “Why Did It Die,” and there is speculation that McCartney wrote the song about Asher, who was a successful London actress.

The theory is that Paul wanted her to cater to his schedule, tour with him, and be the “perfect Beatle wife,” but Jane had a life and career of her own, hence the “She doesn’t need you” lyrics. Paul has never said it was about Jane specifically, however he did say, “I guess there had been an argument. I never have easy relationships with women.” He knew what he was getting into when he got involved with Jane, and being that the song was written in 1966 and they didn’t break up until 1968, it’s likely that if the song was about Jane, it wasn’t a serious argument.

This was recorded on May 9, 16 and 19, 1966 by only two Beatles – Paul singing and playing the keyboard and bass, and Ringo on percussion.

Maureen McGovern recorded this and “Things We Said Today” as a 2-song medley for her 1992 album Baby I’m Yours.

McCartney used this in his 1984 movie Give My Regards to Broad Street.

Revolver was the last Beatles album to have different US and UK versions. In 2002, Rolling Stone readers voted it the greatest album of all time. The album cover was created by artist Klaus Voormann, who became friends with the band when they were playing clubs in Hamburg, Germany in the early ’60s.

For No One

Your day breaks, your mind aches
You find that all the words of kindness linger on
When she no longer needs you

She wakes up, she makes up
She takes her time and doesn’t feel she has to hurry
She no longer needs you

And in her eyes you see nothing
No sign of love behind the tears
Cried for no one
A love that should have lasted years!

You want her, you need her
And yet you don’t believe her when she says her love is dead
You think she needs you

And in her eyes you see nothing
No sign of love behind the tears
Cried for no one
A love that should have lasted years!

You stay home, she goes out
She says that long ago she knew someone but now he’s gone
She doesn’t need him

Your day breaks, your mind aches
There will be times when all the things she said will fill your head
You won’t forget her

And in her eyes you see nothing
No sign of love behind the tears
Cried for no one
A love that should have lasted years!

The Georgia Satellites – Keep Your Hands To Yourself

A friend of mine who played guitar in high school got a bootleg of this song a year before it was officially released. His band was playing in the gym before we went on and they played this song. I thought they wrote it until I asked him. It’s a great-sounding song live.

It was an instant bar band song. It was a song you didn’t really have to rehearse…just one listen would do it.

This was the only big hit for the Georgia Satellites, although lead singer Dan Baird had a hit as a solo artist in 1992 with “I Love You Period.” They didn’t have another big hit but they did have some songs that got airplay on radio and MTV like Battleship Chains and a cover of Hippy Shake. This was one of the few straight-out rock and roll songs to hit the charts at this time.

It was released in 1986 and peaked at #2 in the Billboard 100 and #69 in the UK in 1987.

From Songfacts

Lead singer Dan Baird wrote this about the problems their drummer was having with his girlfriend. He wrote it in one sitting on their tour bus.

The video portrayed a shotgun wedding, complete with very pregnant bride and actual shotgun. It was directed by Bill Fishman, whose other credits include the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” and Good Charlotte’s “Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous.”

Many people thought the line “I’ve got a little change in my pocket, going jingle, linga, ling” was a reference to masturbation. The group denied this.

The group was signed to Elektra Records after executives heard a cheaply made 8-track demo of this song. Elektra gave the band a 5-figure budget to cut an entire album of material, but despite attempting several different recordings of “Keep Your Hands to Yourself,” none of these takes were as good as the demo. The demo was included on the album, and that is the version you hear.

Keep Your Hands To Yourself

I got a little change in my pocket going jingle lingle ling
Want to call you on the telephone baby i give you a ring
But each time we talk i get the same old thing
Always no huggin no kissin until i get a wedding ring
My honey my baby don’t put my love upon no shelf
She said don’t give no lies and keep your hands to yourself

Cruel baby baby baby why you want to treat me this way
You know i’m still your lover boy i still feel the same way
That’s when she told me a story ’bout free milk and a cow
And she said no huggin no kissin until i get a wedding vow
My honey my baby don’t put my love upon no shelf
She said don’t hand me no lies and keep your hands to yourself

You see i wanted her real bad and i was about to give in
That’s when she started talkin’ true love started talkin’ about sin
I said honey i’ll live with you for the rest of my life
She said no huggin no kissin until you make me your wife
My honey my baby don’t put my love on no shelf
She don’t hand me no lies and keep your hands to yourself.

Tom Petty – Refugee

The album Damn The Torpedos broke Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to the masses.

In the US, Damn The Torpedoes was a big success and helped the band grow a huge audience. The album peaked at #2 in the Billboard 100, held out of #1 by Pink Floyd’s The Wall.

The song peaked at #15 in the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, and #3 in New Zealand in 1980.

Tom Petty: “This was a reaction to the pressures of the music business. I wound up in a huge row with the record company when ABC Records tried to sell our contract to MCA Records without us knowing about it, despite a clause in our contract that said they didn’t have the right to do that. I was so angry with the whole system that I think that had a lot to do with the tone of the Damn the Torpedoes album. I was in this defiant mood. I wasn’t so conscious of it then, but I can look back and see what was happening. I find that’s true a lot. It takes some time usually before you fully understand what’s going on in a song – or maybe what led up to it.”

From Songfacts

Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell wrote the music and Petty added the lyrics. In a Songfacts interview with Campbell, he told us about the recording process: “That was a hard record to make. It was a 4-track that I made at my house. Tom wrote over the music as it was, no changes, but it took us forever to actually cut the track. We just had a hard time getting the feel right. We must have recorded that 100 times. I remember being so frustrated with it one day that – I think this is the only time I ever did this – I just left the studio and went out of town for two days. I just couldn’t take the pressure anymore, but then I came back and when we regrouped we were actually able to get it down on tape.”

Mike Campbell: “When we were at the studio mixing it, I remember this one girl who was working in reception, she came in and heard the mix and she said, ‘That’s a hit, that’s a hit,’ and we looked at each other and said, ‘Maybe it is.’ You don’t always know. Sometimes you think certain things are surefire and people just don’t latch on to them and other things they do. You know when it’s good or not, but you don’t always know if it’s a hit. A hit record a lot of times is more than just the song, it’s the timing, the climate you put it out in, what people are listening to and what they’re expecting to hear and if it touches a nerve at a certain time.”

Campbell and Petty teamed up to write many of the band’s songs, including “Here Comes My Girl,” “Jammin’ Me,” and “You Got Lucky.” Mike also wrote the music for Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” and “The Heart Of The Matter.” When we asked him what was his favorite song he’s written, he said: “Refugee always makes me happy. Maybe because it was so hard to get on the tape, there was a time when I thought it would never come out, that we just can’t do it. It always sounds like it really captured a moment. If I had to pick one favorite, I’d probably pick that first.”

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performed this in 1979 on their first Saturday Night Live appearance, where they also played “Don’t Do Me Like That.”

The band closed out their Live Aid set at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia with “Refugee.” The massive 1985 benefit concert was also staged in London the same day.

The band shot a music video for this song because they didn’t want to appear on The Merv Griffin Show in person. It did the trick, and the video aired on the show, allowing Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers to promote the song without showing up. This was the only place they thought the video would air, but when MTV launched in 1981, it got lots of play on the network, which craved rock videos from American artists. The band became one of the most popular acts on MTV, feeding the network with cinematic productions for songs like “Don’t Come Around Here No More” and “Free Fallin’.”

During a Twitter Q&A in December 2011, Petty disclosed that Melissa Etheridge doing “Refugee” was the best cover of the song he ever heard. Etheridge’s version was recorded for her 2005 compilation album, Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled.

Refugee

We did somethin’ we both know it
We don’t talk too much about it
Ain’t no real big secret all the same
Somehow we get around it
Listen it don’t really matter to me baby
You believe what you want to believe
You see you don’t have to live like a refugee (don’t have to live like a refugee)

Somewhere, somehow somebody
Must have kicked you around some
Tell me why you want to lay there
And revel in your abandon
Honey, it don’t make no difference to me baby
Everybody’s had to fight to be free
You see you don’t have to live like a refugee (don’t have to live like a refugee)
Now baby you don’t have to live like a refugee (don’t have to live like a refugee)

Baby we ain’t the first
I’m sure a lot of other lover’s been burned
Right now this seems real to you
But it’s one of those things
You gotta feel to be true

Somewhere, somehow somebody
Must have kicked you around some
Who knows, maybe you were kidnapped
Tied up, taken away and held for ransom
It don’t really matter to me
Everybody’s had to fight to be free
You see you don’t have to live like a refugee (don’t have to live like a refugee)
I said you don’t have to live like a refugee (don’t have to live like a refugee)
You don’t have to live like a refugee (don’t have to live like a refugee), ah , ah

Stray Cats – Stray Cat Strut

Looking back it’s kinda hard to believe that a fifties sounding band made a big splash among the big hair synth 1980s. In the seventies yes it would have been not only possible but probable because of a 50’s revival then.

Brian Setzer lead guitarist: ‘I couldn’t relate to prog rock. We never had any wizards in my neighborhood. We had ’58 Chevys and good-looking girls’

Brian came up with Stray Cat Strut back his garage in Long Island when he was 18. He wanted something slower than their other songs. It was about the three members, and the lives they were living. At that point, they were still called the Tomcats, but it became “stray” when they went to London.

They found a counterculture in London that related to the fifties music and style. The original group of people that came to see them included Chrissie Hynde, Joe Strummer, Lemmy and Glen Matlock.

Ronnie Lane from the Faces put them up and Dave Edmunds grabbed them at the Venue and said: “Let me produce you before someone else ruins you.” Dave did indeed produce them.

This song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100 in 1983.

Stray Cat Strut

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh

Black and orange stray cat sittin’ on a fence
Ain’t got enough dough to pay the rent
I’m flat broke, but I don’t care
I strut right by with my tail in the air

Stray cat strut, I’m a (Ladies’ cat)
I’m a feline Casanova (Hey, man, that’s where it’s at)
Get a shoe thrown at me from a mean old man
Get my dinner from a garbage can

Meow
Yeah, don’t cross my path

I don’t bother chasing mice around, oh, no
I slink down the alley looking for a fight
Howling to the moonlight on a hot summer night
Singin’ the blues while the lady cats cry
“Wild stray cat, you’re a real gone guy
I wish I could be as carefree and wild
But I got cat class, and I got cat style”

I don’t bother chasing mice around
I slink down the alley looking for a fight
Howling to the moonlight on a hot summer night
Singin’ the blues while the lady cats cry
“Wild stray cat, you’re a real gone guy
I wish I could be as carefree and wild
But I got cat class, and I got cat style”

Meow

George Harrison – Got My Mind Set On You

In 1988 I bought Cloud Nine by George Harrison. It stayed on my turntable and in my cassette player for months. This song is not my favorite on the album but I was happy to see George at the top of the charts for the first time since “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” in 1973.

The song was written and composed by Rudy Clark and originally recorded by James Ray in 1962 but it was not a hit for James.

ELO’s Jeff Lynne produced this song with Harrison. His influence can be heard in the backing vocals of the chorus. The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #2 in the UK, and #4 in NewZealand in 1988.

This song is the last number 1 song by a Beatle. Paul did have a number 1 album in 2018 with Egypt Station. Cloud Nine peaked at #8 in the Billboard Album Chart.

From Songfacts

This was written by Rudy Clark and originally recorded by James Ray in 1962. Harrison bought a copy of the single in the summer of 1963 when visiting his sister Louise in Illinois. Many years later when he was writing his Cloud Nine album, he remembered the song and decided to cover it.

Cloud Nine was Harrison’s comeback album. He hadn’t had a hit since 1981 with “All Those Years Ago,” and his previous US #1 was “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)” in 1973. Until the Beach Boys released “Kokomo,” Harrison had the record for longest span between #1 hits. “Got My Mind Set On You,” however, was his last single to chart.

Harrison released another album earlier in 1982 called Gone Troppo, which flopped. Proving that he could whip up a hit, he released this very simplistic cover song and it was a huge commercial success. A lot of Harrison’s work was well off the mainstream, using unusual instruments and based on Indian music. This proved that he could release a song requiring very little thought and send it up the charts. Predictably, many of Harrison’s ardent followers can’t stand this song.

Along with Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty, Harrison and Lynne formed The Traveling Wilburys in 1988.

Got My Mind Set On You

I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you

But it’s gonna take money
A whole lot of spending money
It’s gonna take plenty of money
To do it right, child

It’s gonna take time
A whole lot of precious time
It’s gonna take patience and time, um
To do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it
To do it right, child

I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you

And this time I know it’s for real
The feelings that I feel
I know if I put my mind to it
I know that I really can do it

I got my mind set on you
Set on you
I got my mind set on you
Set on you

But it’s gonna take money
A whole lot of spending money
It’s gonna take plenty of money
To do it right, child

It’s gonna take time
A whole lot of precious time
It’s gonna take patience and time, um
To do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it
To do it right

I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you
I got my mind set on you

And this time I know it’s for real
The feelings that I feel
I know if I put my mind to it
I know that I really can do it

But it’s gonna take money
A whole lot of spending money
It’s gonna take plenty of money
To do it right, child

It’s gonna take time
A whole lot of precious time
It’s gonna take patience and time, um
To do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it
To do it right

Set on you
Set on you

Set on you
Set on you
Set on you
Set on you
Set on you
Set on you
I set my mind on you
I’m gonna set on you

The Go Go’s – We Got The Beat

This is the first song I heard by them and I liked it right away.

The Go-Go’s formed in the spring of 1978 but didn’t really get serious until 1979 when drummer Gina Schock joined. Her playing gave the music a more forceful punch, and her insistence on frequent practicing helped move the band from novelty to contender in the L.A. scene.

Guitar player Charlotte Caffey wrote this song. It peaked at #2 in the Billboard 100 and #3 in Canada. The song was on the album Beaty and the Beat which peaked at #1 in 1981 in the Billboard Album Charts.

The Go-Go’s are the first all-girl band to write the songs and play the instruments on a #1 US album.

Charlotte Caffey: “I thought it would be very clever to do ‘Going To A Go-Go.’ I thought, Well, let’s try working this out as a cover song. Which is really funny when I think about it. I was listening to it a lot one day, and later that night, the song came to me within five minutes. I don’t even know if it has anything to do with listening to that song, but this whole idea came to me. It was one of those things that just went right through me and came out my hand; I wrote it down, recorded it a little bit, and then brought it into rehearsal a few days later.”

From Songfacts

The Go-Go’s wrote their own songs, and along with the Bangles and The Dixie Chicks, are one of the most successful all-girl bands to do so. “We Got The Beat” was written by guitarist Charlotte Caffey, who drew inspiration from some Motown beats, specifically one that mentioned the name of her group.

In the ’70s, American female rockers like Suzi Quatro and The Runaways found the UK more receptive than their homeland, so The Go-Go’s followed this model, releasing an early version of “We Got The Beat” in the UK as their first single. It was issued on Stiff Records, which was home to The Specials and Madness, both groups The Go-Go’s toured with in England to promote it. It flopped, but the group fared far better in America, where they were signed to IRS Records by Miles Copeland, who managed The Police. In the US, “Our Lips Are Sealed” was released as their first single in the summer of 1981, followed by a new version of “We Got The Beat” in January 1982. This release was The Go-Go’s biggest hit, spending three weeks at #2 in April behind Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock And Roll.”

Jett was able to box them out of the top spot on the Hot 100, but Beauty And The Beat spent six weeks at #1, fending off Jett’s album. This made The Go-Go’s the first all-girl band to top the US albums chart, a mark that stood until 1999, when Dixie Chicks landed with Fly.

This plays in the opening scene of the 1982 movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High, where we meet the main characters in their natural habitat: the Ridgemont Mall. The song doesn’t appear on the soundtrack but got a lot of attention from the film. Other movies to use the song include:

Brimstone & Treacle (1982)
Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997)
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001)
My Little Pony: The Movie (2017)
Poms (2019)

When The Go-Go’s formed in 1978, they had little experience but figured they could learn on the fly in the LA punk scene, where enthusiasm could make up for shortfalls in musicianship. The only seasoned member was guitarist Charlotte Caffey, who was a few years older and knew how to play when lead singer Belinda Carlisle asked her to join this new all-girl band. Charlotte took the offer, leaving her band The Eyes and becoming a key songwriter in the group along with Jane Wiedlin, the group’s other guitarist, who quickly developed into an excellent musician as well. In 1979, they replaced original drummer Elissa Bello with the more experienced Gina Schock; in early 1981 they swapped out bass player Margot Olavarria for Kathy Valentine, who had been in a group called The Textones and also wrote songs.

The narrative of the band having no idea how to play when they started stuck with them, but by the time they released their first album, Wiedlin and Carlisle were the only members without much previous experience. Those two became the most visible members and each launched successful solo careers after the band folded in 1985. Carlisle got a lot of help from Charlotte Caffey, who worked on much of her solo material.

The Go-Go’s played this and “Our Lips Are Sealed” when they were musical guests on Saturday Night Live, November 14, 1981. The group would often have a few drinks before their shows, but for SNL they didn’t take the stage until about midnight, so all that early drinking caught up with them, resulting in a rather sluggish performance.

In a Songfacts interview with Go-Go’s bass player Kathy Valentine, she said: “I think of ‘We Got The Beat’ as an anthem. It’s very trance-like, so you combine that trance factor with the beat and the anthem nature and it’s very unique.”

The song ties into the album title, Beauty And The Beat, which was Belinda Carlisle’s idea. The group’s first album, it was recorded in New York City with producer Richard Gottehrer, the man who gave us “I Want Candy.” The Go-Go’s were based in Los Angeles, so during this time they stayed together in suites at the Wellington Hotel in New York City, causing lots of mischief and having way too much fun.

The group brainstormed ideas for the cover and decided to go with a spa theme, showing the girls wrapped in towels with cream on their faces. Their art director, George DuBois, took the photos in the hotel, with shots of each member in the bathtub for use on the back cover. According to Kathy Valentine, their manager, Ginger Canzoneri, got the towels from Macy’s and returned them after the shoot. They used Pond’s cold cream on their faces.

This was performed by the cast of the TV series Glee in the 2011 episode “The Purple Piano Project.” Released as a single, this version went to #83 in the US.

This opens the musical Head Over Heels, based on the music of The Go-Go’s, which played on Broadway in 2018. When an oracle, played by Peppermint of RuPaul’s Drag Race, foresees a beatless future for the Elizabethan-era townsfolk of Arcadia, they respond with the tune.

We Got The Beat

See the people walking down the street
Fall in line just watching all their feet
They don’t know where they want to go
But they’re walking in time

They got the beat
They got the beat
They got the beat
Yeah, they got the beat

All the kids just getting out of school
They can’t wait to hang out and be cool
Hang around ’til quarter after twelve
That’s when they fall in line

They got the beat
They got the beat
Kids got the beat
Yeah kids got the beat

Go-go music really makes us dance
Do the pony puts us in a trance
Do the Watusi just give us a chance
That’s when we fall in line

‘Cause we got the beat
We got the beat
We got the beat
Yeah we got it!

We got the beat
We got the beat
We got the beat
Everybody get on your feet we got the beat
We know you can dance to the beat we got the beat
Jumpin’ get down we got the beat
Round and round and round

We got the beat
We got the beat
We got the beat
We got the beat
We got the beat
We got the beat
We got the beat
We got the beat
We got the beat
We got the beat
We got the beat
We got the beat
We got the beat
We got the beat

Johnny Cash – I Walk The Line

A signature song for Cash.

“I Walk the Line” was recorded at Sun Studios for Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. A 24-year-old Cash is said to have written the lyrics in just 20 minutes as the words about his then-wife, Vivian Liberto, flowed out of him.

Recorded in April 1956, Cash’s first #1 was sped up at the urging of Sun Studios owners Sam Phillips. Jack Clements, who worked with Cash, recalled: “I wasn’t impressed with Cash at first, because I like recordings with class… And Cash seemed rough, but ‘I Walk The line’ was a class recording.”

While performing the song on his TV show, Cash admitted that his eerie hum at the beginning of each verse was to get his pitch. The song required Cash to change keys several times while singing it.

Cash wanted to record the song at a much slower tempo, making it a ballad. Sam Phillips, encouraged him to speed up the track, it became the song that we remember.

Bob Dylan on the song: “It was different than anything else you had ever heard,” “A voice from the middle of the Earth.”

From Songfacts

One of his most famous songs, this song details Johnny Cash’s values and lifestyle. It is a promise to remain faithful to his first wife, Vivian, while he is on the road.

“Walk The Line” was the title of the 2005 Cash biopic, starring Joaquin Phoenix as Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter.

Carl Perkins suggested the title “I Walk The Line” while on tour with Cash.

A version by Megan Wyler and Adem Ilhan was used in popular Levi’s commercials that aired in 2006.

On March 31, 1971, Cash closed out the finale of his television series The Johnny Cash Show with this song. The show had run since June 7, 1969, and drew a substantial audience, but was eliminated as part of the “rural purge” that cancelled many popular shows because they didn’t appeal to the younger generation of television viewers who were primarily concerned with things like the Vietnam War, rock and roll, and the Hippie counterculture.

The Voice contestant Craig Wayne Boyd reached #84 on the Hot 100 following a November 24, 2014 performance of the song on the show where he reinterpreted it as a slow, soulful ballad. It was the tune’s first appearance on the chart since Jaye P. Morgan’s cover reached #66 in 1960.

I Walk The LIne

I find it very, very easy to be true
I find myself alone when each day is through
Yes, I’ll admit that I’m a fool for you
Because you’re mine, I walk the line

As sure as night is dark and day is light
I keep you on my mind both day and night
And happiness I’ve known proves that it’s right
Because you’re mine, I walk the line

You’ve got a way to keep me on your side
You give me cause for love that I can’t hide
For you I know I’d even try to turn the tide
Because you’re mine, I walk the line

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you’re mine, I walk the line

Because you’re mine, I walk the line
Because you’re mine, I walk the line