Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.
“Frosty the Snowman,” debuted in 1969. It was by Rankin/Bass Productions, the same company that produced many holiday specials. Most of us had favorite Christmas specials we would watch. Mine was Rudolph, A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Grinch, and this one…Frosty The Snowman.
Narrated by the legend Jimmy Durante, the special involves a magic hat that transforms a snowman, Frosty, into a living being. The magician who owned the hat wants it back now that he knows it contained actual magic, so the kids had to get together and find a way to bring Frosty to the North Pole to keep him from melting. However, once there, Frosty sacrifices himself to warm up the little girl, Karen, who took him to the North Pole. He melts, but Santa Claus explains that Frosty is made out of special Christmas snow and thus can never truly melt. Frosty then comes back to life and everyone has a Merry Christmas.
The song was written in 1950 by Walter “Jack” Rollins and Steve Nelson. They wrote it for Gene Autry, especially, after Autry had such a huge hit with “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” the previous year. It was later recorded by Jimmy Durante as we hear in this wonderful cartoon.
This wasn’t the only animation of Frosty…
In 1954, United Productions of America (UPA) brought Frosty to life in a short cartoon that is little more than an animated music video for a jazzy version of the song. It introduced the characters mentioned in the lyrics visually, from Frosty himself to the traffic cop. The three-minute, black-and-white piece quickly became a holiday tradition in various markets, particularly in Chicago, where it’s been broadcast annually on WGN since 1955.
Robbie Robertson’s Christmas gift to his new son Sebastian during the sessions for Northern Lights-Southern Cross album… it never became a seasonal favorite but it should have been. It wasn’t released until the bands Islands album in 1977.
Rick Danko sings this song from a Shepherds point of view. It’s pure and down to earth like only the Band can be. No sleigh bells or other Christmas trappings…just pure music. Maybe that is the reason it never got picked up.
Robbie Robertson re-recorded this song after he left the group. And he did for the soundtrack of Bill Murray’s Scrooged. That version is very good but I still like The Bands version much more…it’s hard to beat Rick Danko.
Christmas Must Be Tonight
Come down to the manger, see the little stranger Wrapped in swaddling clothes, the prince of peace Wheels start turning, torches start burning And the old wise men journey from the East
How a little baby boy bring the people so much joy Son of a carpenter, Mary carried the light This must be Christmas, must be tonight
A shepherd on a hillside, where over my flock I bide Oh a cold winter night a band of angels sing In a dream I heard a voice saying “fear not, come rejoice It’s the end of the beginning, praise the new born king”
I saw it with my own eyes, written up in the skies But why a simple herdsmen such as I And then it came to pass, he was born at last Right below the star that shines on high
I’ve never had recipe’s on my blog but since it’s near Christmas I thought I would stick with my usual theme and post this dessert that is associated with the 1970s.
Watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer every year is the same as setting up the tree. Every year I would look forward to seeing this along with the others but what a fantastic durable show this has been. When I hear Burl Ives in anything…I think of him as the narrator Sam the Snowman of this program.
The characters are wonderful. Well except those other young reindeer who really come down on Rudolph when his nose lights up.
Hermey the elf who wants to be a dentist Clarice – The reindeer who likes Rudolph just as he is red nose and all. Yukon Cornelius the prospector who loves silver and gold and has a tongue that can find his silver and gold. Abominable Snowman – The bad guy of the show who only needs a dentist to make him a good guy. Head Elf – He leans on Hermey to get his elf self-act together and discourages him from being a dentist…I never liked him too much.
Throughout the special, Yukon Cornelius is seen throwing his pickaxe into the ground, taking it out and licking it. It turns out that he is checking for neither gold nor silver; Yukon was actually searching for an elusive peppermint mine. In a scene right at the end of the special’s original broadcast, deleted the next year to make room for the Misfit Toys’ new scene, Cornelius pulled his pick from the ground, licked it and said, “Peppermint! What I’ve been searching for all my life! I’ve struck it rich! I’ve got me a peppermint mine! Wahoo!” The scene was restored in 1998 and has been reinstated in all the subsequent home video release except for the 2004 DVD release. However, this scene is still cut from recent televised airings.
The Island of Misplaced Toys got to me when I was a kid. I really felt sorry for these lonely toys. King Moonracer was over the island and tried to convinced Rudolph to tell Santa about them so he could pick them up and find kids who would play with them.
The original 1964 airing did not include the closing scene where Santa picks up the misfit toys. That scene was added in 1965, in response to complaints that Santa was not shown fulfilling his promise to include them in his annual delivery.
The stop animation in this works really well.
The songs are really good. Silver and Gold, Holly Jolly Christmas, Jingle Jingle Jingle, We Are Santa’s Elves, There’s Always Tomorrow, We’re a Couple of Misfits and The Most Wonderful Day of the Year.
This is a very commercial sounding rock song by Lynyrd Skynyrd. The record company picked this one as the lead off single from their album Second Helping. Personally I like this song but it was the second single they should have picked first…that one was Sweet Home Alabama which ended up being their biggest hit.
This song was a message to the people who wanted a piece of the band when they became famous. They were largely ignored for about 6 years while they were struggling, but when their first album was a hit in 1973, they faced huge demands on their time.
The album did well…it peaked at #9 in the Billboard Album Chart and #12 in Canada in 1974. Pete Townshend heard the band through Al Kooper a few months before this album was released and was impressed enough to have Lynyrd Skynyrd open up for them on their Quadrophenia tour.
The one thing the band was…was extremely tight. They were always well rehearsed and built a huge reputation as a live band.
From Songfacts
The world of agents, managers, and record companies was a strange one for Lynyrd Skynyrd. They were just working-class guys who liked making music.
Lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Gary Rossington wrote this one day while they were fishing. Gary played his guitar while Ronnie came up with the lyrics about how they wanted to be left alone.
This was released as a single before the album came out. It didn’t chart, but their next one, “Sweet Home Alabama,” was a huge hit.
Don’t Ask Me No Questions
Well, every time that I come home Nobody wants to let me be It seems that all the friends I’ve got Just got to come interrogate me I appreciate your feelings And I don’t want to pass you by But I don’t ask you ’bout your business Don’t ask me about mine
Well it’s true I love the money And I love my brand new car I like drinkin’ the best of whiskey And playin’ in a honk-tonk bar But when I come off the road I just gotta have my time ‘Cause I got to find a break in this action Or else I’m gonna lose my mind
So don’t ask me no questions And I won’t tell you no lies So don’t ask me ’bout my business And I won’t tell you goodbye
Well, what’s your favorite color And do you dig the brothers, is drivin’ me up a wall And every time I think I can sleep Some fool has got to call Well, don’t you think that when I come home I just want a little piece of mind? If you want to talk about the business Buddy you’re just wasting time
So don’t ask me no questions And I won’t tell you no lies So don’t ask me ’bout my business And I won’t tell you goodbye
I said don’t ask no stupid questions And I won’t send you away If you want to talk fishin’ Well, I guess that’ll be OK
A sneak peek montage that shows the Beatles having a good time filming what was then Let It Be. From what I read…a lot of the footage is positive. In the original movie Let It Be it’s really only one tense scene in the entire movie. I’m so much looking forward to this movie’s release.
This song started with a jam session at The Wick, Ron Wood’s house. Faces guitarist Ron Wood, who had not yet joined The Rolling Stones, had a big part in it. It was there that Wood put the song together at a session with Mick Jagger on vocals, David Bowie singing background, the session player Willie Weeks on bass, and future Who member Kenney Jones, on drums.
Ron Wood was going to record the song. When Keith Richards heard the demo he told Mick he had to get it back. When Keith Richards got a hold of the recording, he put his own guitar parts on, but left some of Wood’s 12-string. Jones, Weeks and Bowie remained on the final product.
Although Ron Wood a good part of the song…the song was credited to the Jagger/Richards team as usual. Jimmy Miller had left the band after the previous album and their sound changed somewhat.
The song peaked at #16 in the Billboard 100, #10 in the UK, and #12 in Canada in 1974.
Mick Jagger:“The title has been used a lot by journalists, the phrase has become a big thing. That version that’s on there is the original version, which was recorded half in Ron Wood’s basement, if I remember rightly. It was a demo. It’s a very Chuck Berry song, but it’s got a different feeling to it than a Chuck Berry song. You can’t really do proper imitations of people. You always have to start out by imitating somebody. In painting, some famous artist always starts out by being an impressionist. And then they become the most famous abstract artist. Or an actor starts out by imitating someone else’s style. And then you develop your own. And I think that’s what happened with this band and all the musicians that have played in it. You start off with one thing, and then you mutate into another, but you still acknowledge the fact that these influences came from here and here and here. Because not everyone knows that. But you make this new amalgam. And out of all this different music, all out these blues, out of all this country music, out of all this jazz and dance music and reggae music, you know, you make something that’s your own.”
Songfacts
This was the title track to the first album after producer Jimmy Miller left the band. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards did the production work.
Lyrically, this drew inspiration from David Bowie’s 1972 Ziggy Stardust track “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide.” When Mick Jagger sings, “If I could stick a knife in my heart, suicide right on stage,” he’s likely referencing glam rockers like Marc Bolan and Alice Cooper who did a suicide bit as part of their stage theatrics.
Mick Jagger sang this with Tina Turner on the Philadelphia stage of Live Aid in 1985. After singing “State Of Shock” with Turner, they launched into “It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll” and Jagger started disrobing. Both performers left the stage, and when they came back, Jagger was fully clothes and Turner was wearing a tearaway skirt that Jagger ripped off (Janet Jackson and Justing Timberlake tried something similar when performing at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, resulting in the infamous “Wardrobe Malfunction”). Live Aid was Jagger’s first live performance as a solo artist.
The promotional video (this was before MTV) had The Stones wearing sailor suits in a circus tent that slowly filled with bubbles. The bubbles eventually covered Charlie Watts, who was the only one sitting down.
This has been covered by the Spice Girls, Emmylou Harris, Natalie Imbruglia, The Cranberries and Eurythmics (who released their version as a single in support of a charity called Children’s Promise).
It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It)
If I could stick my hand in my heart And spill it all over the stage Would it satisfy ya, would it slide on by ya Would you think the boy is strange? Ain’t he strange?
If I could win ya, if I could sing ya A love song so divine Would it be enough for your cheating heart If I broke down and cried? If I cried?
I said I know it’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it I know it’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it, like it, yes, I do Oh, well, I like it, I like it, I like it I said can’t you see that this old boy has been a lonely?
If I could stick a knife in my heart Suicide right on stage Would it be enough for your teenage lust Would it help to ease the pain? Ease your brain?
If I could dig down deep in my heart Feelings would flood on the page Would it satisfy ya, would it slide on by ya Would ya think the boy’s insane? He’s insane
I said I know it’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it I know it’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it, like it, yes, I do Oh, well, I like it, yeah, I like it, I like it I said can’t you see that this old boy has been a lonely?
And do ya think that you’re the only girl around? I bet you think that you’re the only woman in town
I said, I know it’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it I said, I know it’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it I know it’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it I know it’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it, like it, yes, I do Oh, well, I like it, I like it I like it I like it I like it I like it It’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it It’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it It’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it It’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it It’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it It’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it It’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it It’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it It’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it It’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it It’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it It’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it It’s only rock ‘n roll but I like it I like it I like it I like it Oh yeah I like it I like it
Merry Christmas Everybody… for all of the UK readers…I know I know…you are so tired of it. I’ve only heard it for the past two years or so. One of the comments from the past … (NO not that song again!)… there are a few Christmas songs along with Alices Restaurant that I reblog every year…and this is one of them.
This is fast becoming my favorite rock Christmas song second only to John Lennon’s Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
This is a great Christmas song that was released in 1973 and ever since it re-enters the charts every December in the UK. The song never hit in America but it went to #1 in the UK Charts. I first heard it on a Doctor Who episode in the mid-2000s and have liked it ever since.
This went straight in at #1 in the UK, selling over 300,000 copies on the day of its release, making it at the time the fastest ever selling record in Britain. It eventually became Slade’s best-ever selling single in the UK, selling over a million copies.
In the UK this has become a standard, and it is usually reissued in its original form each Christmas. On several occasions, the song has re-entered the Top 40.
UK copyright collection society and performance rights organization PRS For Music estimated in 2009 that 42 percent of the earth’s population has heard this tune.
The song was written by Noddy Holder and Jim Lea of Slade. It was produced by Chas Chandler formerly of the Animals.
From Songfacts.
This was based on a psychedelic song, “My Rocking Chair,” which Noddy Holder wrote in 1967. In 1973 the Slade vocalist decided to convert it into a Christmas song after a night out drinking at a local pub. He and the band’s bass player and co-writer Jimmy Lea camped out at Noddy’s mother’s house and got down to changing the lyrics to make them more Christmassy. Jimmy Lea incorporated into the verse parts of another song which he was then writing and Noddy re-wrote the words incorporating different aspects of the Christmas holiday season as they came to mind.
When Noddy Holder wrote the line “Look to the future now, it’s only just begun,” he had in mind the strikes that were blighting Britain at the time. He told the Daily Mail On Sunday November 10, 2007: “We’d decided to write a Christmas song and I wanted to make it reflect a British family Christmas. Economically, the country was up the creek. The miners had been on strike, along with the gravediggers, the bakers and almost everybody else. I think people wanted something to cheer them up – and so did I. That’s why I came up with the line.”
The harmonium used on this is the same one that John Lennon used on his Mind Games album, which was being recorded at the studio next door.
This was recorded at the Record Plant studios in New York while the band were on a tour of the States in the summer of 1973. When they recorded the vocals, they sang the chorus on the stairs in order to achieve the echo that they required. Guitarist Jimmy Lea recalled to Uncut magazine in 2012: “All these Americans were walking past in their suits thinking we were off our rockers singing about Christmas in the summer.”
Producer Chas Chandler opened the song with a howl recorded during some of Noddy Holder’s vocal exercises.
A few months before Slade recorded this song, drummer Don Powell was badly injured in a car crash. Though his physical recovery was quick, the mental scars took longer to heal. Noddy Holder explained to The Daily Mail December 18, 2009: “The doctors told us to get him playing drums again as soon as possible to boost his confidence. But he was suffering from short-term memory loss – he could remember our old songs, but not the new ones. So, instead of recording live, we built up Merry Xmas Everybody layer by layer. That gave it a more poignant, restrained sound. It was something new for us. But the fates were with us and it became our biggest hit.”
Noddy Holder explained to Q magazine January 2013 how the song was originally inspired by The Beatles: “I wrote the original verse with the lyrics, ‘Buy me a rocking chair, I’ll watch the world go by. Bring me a mirror, I’ll look you in the eye,’ in 1967 in the aftermath of The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper,” he said. I was being psychedelic. Dave (Hill) wrote another part to the song but it didn’t work so we put it away. Then in 1973 he remembered my verse one day when we were trying to write a Christmas single. We changed the words to, ‘Are you hanging up your stocking on the wall?’ and the rest fell into place.”
Noddy Holder’s earliest childhood memory served as inspiration for one of the song’s lines. He recalled to the Mail On Sunday’s Live magazine: “As a lad we used to knock sleds with old orange boxes and go tobogganing down this big old quarry in the snow at Christmas. It was the inspiration for the line ‘are you hoping that the snow will start to fall.’”
I want that hat he starts off with… in this video…very subtle.
Merry Christmas Everybody
Are you hanging up a stocking on your wall? It’s the time that every Santa has a ball Does he ride a red nosed reindeer? Does a ‘ton up’ on his sleigh Do the fairies keep him sober for a day?
Chorus: So here it is merry Christmas Everybody’s having fun Look to the future now It’s only just begun
Are you waiting for the family to arrive? Are you sure you got the room to spare inside? Does your granny always tell ya that the old are the best? Then she’s up and rock ‘n’ rollin’ with the rest
Chorus: So here it is merry Christmas Everybody’s having fun Look to the future now It’s only just begun
What will your daddy do When he sees your Mama kissin’ Santa Claus? Ah ah
Are you hanging up a stocking on your wall? Are you hoping that the snow will start to fall? Do you ride on down the hillside in a buggy you have made? When you land upon your head then you’ve been slayed
Chorus (4x) So here it is merry Christmas Everybody’s having fun Look to the future now It’s only just begun
This song is for Song Lyric Sunday for Jim Adams’s blog. This week’s prompt is Circle/Polygon/Square/Triangle…
The Who are my second favorite band…right behind the Beatles. This song is early Who at the time of My Generation. The song was known as “Circles (Instant Party)”, “Instant Party (Circles)” and “Instant Party”…the song has a complicated history. It was recorded during a time they were trying to leave their producer. The song was written by Pete Townshend and released in 1966.
Circles is an early example of what would become Power Pop. Pete Townshend was trying to write a song with a different sound. Pete found out that bassist John Entwistle could play trumpet, the band’s manager, Kit Lambert, decided to allow the band to try creating a song featuring Entwistle’s horns.
John Entwistle:When we recorded our first LP and wanted a bit of a different sound, Pete told our manager, Kit Lambert, that I could play trumpet. He thought Pete was joking at first but then said he’d give it a try. I showed him I could play the trumpet and in the end we used French horn.
The song was to be the follow up to the anthem My Generation…but the band was not happy with their producer Shel Talmy and secretly broke their contract with him and re-recorded Circles as the B-side to their new UK single “Substitute”.
Talmy sued the Who and a legal battle began.
Pete Townshend:We did two versions of “Circles”, which were both identical because they were both copies of my demo. Shel [Talmy] put in a High Court injunction, saying there was copyright in the recording. In other words, if you’re a record producer and you produce a song with a group, and you make a creative contribution, then you own that sound….He took it to the high-court judge and he said things like ‘And then on bar thirty-six I suggested to the lead guitarist that he play a diminuendo, forget the adagio, and play thirty-six bars modulating to the key of E flat,’ which was all total bullshit — he used to fall asleep at the desk…
They did get away from Talmy but it cost them dearly. It was agreed that Talmy would receive a percentage of each album going forward until the early seventies. So Talmy made a huge amount of money off of their best known albums that he had nothing at all to do with…like Tommy, Live At Leeds, and Who’s Next.
Circles (Instant Party)
Circles, my head is going round in circles My mind is caught up in a whirlpool Dragging me down
Time will tell if I’ll take the homeward track Dizziness will make my feet walk back Walk right back to you
[chorus:] Everything I do, I think of you No matter how I try, I can’t get by These circles, leading me back to you
Round and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around
And round and round like a fool I go Down and down in the pool I go Dragging me down
[chorus]
There one thing could kill the pain of losing you But it gets me so dizzy then I’m walking right back again Back to you
Time will tell if these dreams are nearly fact Don’t know why I left, I’m coming back Coming on back to you
This is obviously the 4th edition of this series. Part 1, Part2, and Part 3 we covered Brian May’s Red Special, Willie Nelson’s Trigger, George Harrison’s Rocky, Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstrat, Bruce Springsteen’s guitar, and Neil Young’s Old Black guitar.
Part 5 will be right after the holidays. Next week I will have a post on a not so famous guitar…one of my guitars with an interesting back story.
Today we will look at two Alpha males of their bands. Plus an odd Bonus!
John Lennon’s Epiphone Casino and Keith Richard’s “Micawber” … + Bonus!
John was best best known for two guitars. His Rickenbacker 325 and this Epiphone Casino.
In 1964 Paul McCartney bought a 1964 Epiphone Casino and he would end up using on songs like Taxman and Paperback writer. In 1966 John Lennon and George Harrison would buy 1965 Casino’s for themselves.
John’s was a double-cutaway semi-hollow f-hole body, P-90 pickups, vintage tuners with small buttons, trapeze tailpiece and originally a sunburst finish. However, after hearing from Donovan Leitch that a guitar would sound better without a heavy finish, he decided to sand the paint off the instrument, leaving it with a natural wood finish.
John played this guitar on the White Album and Abbey Road. He continued to play it many times for the rest of his career.
Lennon was never a “gear” head. He was known as an impatient man and would just plug in and go. Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick said he played around with the famous Rickenbacker at the Double Fantasy recording session but John didn’t play it on that album because it was in such bad shape. Rick said “the set list from Shea Stadium was still scotch-taped to the back of the guitar”…he said it was almost unplayable. It had rusty strings.
This video is about an Epiphone newer Casino model that was released it was inspired by Lennon’s guitar.
Bonus Guitar…John Lennon’s Sardonyx guitar
This is a “Bonus” guitar…the one John Lennon used on the Double Fantasy recordings. One of the oddest guitars I’ve ever seen. It is a Sardonyx guitar made in the seventies. It had built in effects and the rails acted as a guitar stand.
John Lennon bought this guitar from Matt Umanov’s guitar shop in Manhattan’s West Village… which is the shop where Jeff Levin sold many of his guitars through. Ken Schaffer actually sold most of them. Ken sold Jeff’s guitars to Ian Hunter, Howard Leese, Jeff Lynn, Pappy Castro, and a couple bass models to Phil Lynott and Bootsy Collins. It was Ken who sold John Lennon his Sardonyx, directly.
It’s not famous but it was so odd I had to include it.
Ken Schaffer:Months after John bought the guitar, I got a call from John’s personal assistant, who asked me to come to the Dakota. John had been impressed by the electronics I‘d stuffed into the Sardonyx, and asked to retain me to design the kill-all stereo he had in mind for the new apartment in the Dakota. In the small bedroom, which was to be Command Central for the system, hung above and behind the bed, vertically — the Sardonyx! MY Sardonyx! (Tears were welling up) … “Fred – you mean – John is using my guitar as a ($#%$&%*$) WALL ORNAMENT?!” Fred was John’s PA, and fought to settle me down, “No, man – wrong! He loves that guitar so much it hangs over his head when he’s sleeping!” (Tears dried) Whoa! And, in fact, there were pictures of this amazing guitar on the packaging of “Double Fantasy.” It was the guitar he used throughout.
Keith Richards’ Micawber
Micawber is a Butterscotch early fifties Telecaster Blackguard that Keith got around the recording of Exile on Main Street. The guitar was given to him by no other than Eric Clapton as a birthday present.
After the 1972 tour, Keith’s tech at the time, Ted Newman Jones III, replaced the neck pickup with a 50’s Gibson PAF humbucker upside down and the bridge pickup with a pickup out of a Fender lap steel which he chose because it was as close as he could find to the pickups used in a Broadcaster
In the 80’s Keith gave the guitar the nickname “Micawber” after a character in a Charles Dickens novel. Micawber has been Keith’s go-to for any song using Open G tuning.
In the eighties then guitar tech Alan Rogan made more modifications…Sperzel locking tuners and a modified brass bridge in which the low E saddle is removed to accommodate his five-string tuning.
I have used this 5 string tuning before. You can play a lot of the Stones catalog with that 5- string opening G tuning.
***Thanks to run-sew-read for pointing out this song by Barclay James Harvest called John Lennon’s guitar. It would be about the Epiphone Casino.
From Songfacts….Barclay James Harvest guitarist John Lees wrote this song. On the original recording of “Galadriel,” he played the Gibson Epiphone Casino that Lennon had played during the Beatles’ last ever live performance, in January 1969. This song describes that experience
Nice little Christmas song by the father of Rock and Roll Chuck Berry. The song has a “Carol” vibe to it and that is never a bad thing. It was one of the first rock and roll Christmas songs and it was released in 1958.
Berry based this song on “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer,” giving Rudolph a bit of an attitude as he delivers the toys. The song is credited to Johnny Marks and Marvin Brodie. Johnny Marks wrote Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Chuck puts his stamp on this song.
The song is sometimes known as “Run Run Rudolph,” which is how it appears on some other covers. Other artists to record the song include Sheryl Crow, Bryan Adams, The Grateful Dead, Jimmy Buffett, Dwight Yoakam, Bon Jovi and Keith Richards.
The song peaked at #69 in the Billboard 100 in 1958 and has re-charted many times through the years…it peaked at #36 in the Billboard 100 in January of 2020…and I’m sure it is charting now.
The song appeared in a lot of films including Home Alone, Diner, The Santa Clause 2, Cast Away and Jingle All the Way.
Run Rudolph Run
Out of all the reindeers you know you’re the mastermind Run, run Rudolph, Randalph ain’t too far behind Run, run Rudolph, Santa’s got to make it to town Santa make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down Run, run Rudolph ’cause I’m reelin’ like a merry-go-round
Said Santa to a boy child what have you been longing for? All I want for Christmas is a rock and roll electric guitar And then away went Rudolph a whizzing like a shooting star Run, run Rudolph, Santa’s got to make it to town Santa make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down Run, run Rudolph, reeling like a merry-go-round
Run, run Rudolph, Santa’s got to make it to town Santa make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down Run, run Rudolph, reeling like a merry-go-round
Said Santa to a girl child what would please you most to get? A little baby doll that can cry, sleep, drink and wet And then away went Rudolph a whizzing like a Saber jet Run, run Rudolph, Santa’s got to make it to town Santa make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down Run, run Rudolph ’cause I’m reelin’ like a merry-go-round
This one and Highway to Hell are two of my favorite AC/DC songs. The Rolling Stones could have written this song. Great riff and great singing by Bon Scott. The song was written by Bon Scott and Malcolm and Angus Young. I’m going to turn 12 year…this song just plain out rocks!
Years ago I would never pay the Bon Scott era much attention…now it’s rapidly becoming my favorite of the band. That is not a knock on Brian Johnson. Both have one of a kind voices but I like the writing in the Bon era a lot.
This was on their 1979 Highway To Hell album. It was their largest album to this point. It setup their next album Back in Black to be huge.
Highway To Hell was the first AC/DC album produced by Mutt Lange, who worked the band very hard and tried new techniques that made the band’s sound more appealing to the masses without softening their sound. He helped Bon Scott with sharpening his vocals along with Angus Young’s solos.
Lange was an up-and-coming producer at the time, but he would soon become a superstar, launching into the stratosphere with AC/DC’s next album, Back In Black.
Highway to Hell peaked at #17 in the Billboard 100, #40 in Canada, and #8 in the UK in 1979.
The band also would launch into superstar status with their next album but sadly Bon Scott wasn’t part of it. He would die alone in a car Febrary 19, 1980. The official cause was listed on the death certificate as “acute alcohol poisoning” and classified as “death by misadventure.”
His grave site has become a cultural landmark; more than 28 years after Scott’s death, the National Trust of Australia declared his grave important enough to be included on the list of classified heritage places.[33][37] It is reportedly the most visited grave in Australia.
From Songfacts
This lascivious rocker is one of the last tunes written by lead singer Bon Scott, who died six months after the album was released. It’s a classic Bon Scott lyric, as he finds myriad ways of explaining how his woman satisfies him, all while keeping the title squeaky clean and radio-friendly. It was released as a single in the UK and other parts of Europe, but didn’t chart. In America, the song did very well on stations with the Album Oriented Rock (AOR) format.
Note that there is no apostrophe in the title, which implies multiple girls having rhythm. The lyric suggests that an apostrophe is necessary, as Scott is singing about one specific girl, but it’s not likely that anyone challenged his grammar.
Girls Got Rhythm
I’ve been around the world I’ve seen a million girls Ain’t one of them got What my lady she’s got
She’s stealin’ the spotlight Knocks me off my feet She’s enough to start a landslide Just a walkin’ down the street
Wearing dresses so tight And looking dynamite Enough to blow me out No doubt about it can’t live without it
The girl’s got rhythm (girl’s got rhythm) The girl’s got rhythm (girl’s got rhythm) She’s got the backseat rhythm (backseat rhythm) The girl’s got rhythm
She’s like a lethal brand Too much for any man She gives me first degree She really satisfies me
Love me till I’m legless Aching and sore Enough to stop a freight train Or start the Third World War
You know I’m losin’ sleep I’m in too deep Like a body needs blood No doubt about it, can’t live without it
The girl’s got rhythm (girl’s got rhythm) The girl’s got rhythm (girl’s got rhythm) She’s got the backseat rhythm (backseat rhythm) The girl’s got rhythm
You know she moves like sin And when she lets me in It’s like liquid love No doubt about it, can’t live without it
The girl’s got rhythm (girl’s got rhythm) The girl’s got rhythm (girl’s got rhythm) She’s got the backseat rhythm (backseat rhythm) The girl’s got rhythm (girl’s got rhythm)
You know she really got the rhythm (girl’s got rhythm) She’s got the backseat rhythm (backseat rhythm) Rock ‘n’ roll rhythm (rock n roll rhythm) The girl’s got rhythm
I would put Peter Wolf up with the best live front men in rock.
The J Geils Band sounded a bit different in the seventies. They had their biggest hits in the ’80s with “Freeze-Frame” and “Centerfold,” but that was the culmination of a long career that included lots of blues-based boogie music like this track.
This song peaked at #30 in the Billboard 100 and #39 in Canada in 1973. The song was on the album Bloodshot and peaked at #10 in the Billboard Album Charts and #17 in Canada.
Peter Wolf wrote the song with the group’s keyboard player Seth Justman.
While the band was experiencing the greatest commercial success of its career and preparing a follow-up to Freeze Frame…the two main songwriters Wolf and Justman were not getting along. The band refused to record material Wolf had written with other writing partners…so Wolf left in 1983.
The band wanted to go in a more pop direction while Wolf wanted to continue the more blues/rock path they were going .
From Songfacts
One of the most popular J. Geils Band songs from the group’s early years, this one is unusually carnal, with Peter Wolf making it very clear in his vocal delivery what he’s asking for in “Give It To Me.”
“Give It To Me” was cut down to 3:07 for radio play, but the full version runs a healthy 6:32, with showcase spots for many of the band members. Seth Justman gets a long solo on organ, which is followed by a guitar spot by J. Geils (the group’s guitarist was the band’s namesake) and an extended harmonica solo by Magic Dick. The song became a concert favorite, and one that established the J. Geils Band as a great live act. The live version from their album Blow Your Face Out is the one many radio stations play, as it captures the energy of their shows.
Heineken beer used this in commercials in 2002.
Bill Szymczyk produced the Bloodshot album, which was recorded at the Hit Factory in New York City. Szymczyk would later produce the Eagles, including their albums On the Border and Hotel California.
Give It To Me
You’ve got to give it to me You’ve got to give it to me You’ve got to give it to me You’ve got to give it to me
You’re so slick now, know every trick now You know I want it, I want it so bad You know I need it, I can’t believe it So come on baby, Please relieve it
Now you’ve been bugging me, Every night now You say you want it, You want it right now I can’t get to it, I can’t get through it So come on baby, Please
You’ve got to get it up (give it up) You’ve got to get it up (give it up) You’ve got to get it up (give it up) You’ve got to get it up (give it up)
Why keep me cold When it’s so warm inside Come on baby Your love is too good to hide
As with a lot of Zeppelin songs…it’s the riff…that riff is a beautiful thing. It’s not a complex one like Black Dog but it works.
Houses Of The Holy is the name of Led Zeppelin’s fifth album, released in 1973. This song was going to be on it, but they decided to hold it back and use it on their next album, Physical Graffiti. I never understood that…Page has said that the song didn’t fit with the Houses of the Holy album’s other songs.
The song supposedly refers to the spiritual feel of their concerts.
In order to create the layered guitar introduction and fade-out, Page used a Delta T digital delay unit.
Despite being a fan favorite and about their shows, this was never performed live. For all you audiophiles out there…The squeak of John Bonham’s drum pedal can be heard about 3 minutes in.
The song was not released as a single… the album Physical Graffiti peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Charts, Canada, and the UK in 1975. The song was written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.
Houses of the Holy
Let me take you to the movies Can I take you to the show Let me be yours ever truly Can I make your garden grow
From the houses of the holy, we can watch the white doves go From the door comes satan’s daughter, and it only goes to show, you know
There’s an angel on my shoulder, in my hand a sword of gold Let me wander in your garden and the seeds of love I’ll sow you know
So the world is spinning faster are you dizzy when you’re stoned Let the music be your master will you heed the master’s call Oh Satan and man
Said there ain’t no use in crying ’cause it will only, only drive you mad Does it hurt to hear them lying? Was this the only world you had? oh oh
So let me take you, take you to the movie Can I take you, baby, to the show Why don’t you let me be yours ever truly Can I make your garden grow, you know
NOT to be confused with the MC Hammer song U Can’t Touch This…who sampled this classic intro. MC Hammer sampled the famous bass line for his biggest hit, U Can’t Touch This. James filed suit against Hammer, which ended in an out-of-court settlement giving James a songwriting credit on the track.
This resulted in Rick James only Grammy Award when “U Can’t Touch This” won in 1991 for Best R&B Song….Life just isn’t fair.
Super Freak peaked at #16 in the Billboard 100, #40 in Canada, and #4 in New Zealand in 1981.
When James exclaims, “Blow, Danny!,” he’s talking to his sax player Daniel LeMelle just before his solo.
The song featured backup vocals by The Temptations. You will hear James point it out in the song when he says: “Tempations sing.” Temptation member Melvin Franklin was Rick James’ uncle.
One story bout Rick James… He dodged the Vietnam War draft by heading across the Canadian border from his hometown of Buffalo. But as soon as he got into Toronto, three drunk guys tried to beat him up for going AWOL. Some other guys came over to help Rick out… Two of those guys were Garth Hudson and Levon Helm, then playing backup for Ronnie Hawkins…later The Band. He also became friendly with Joni Mitchell and she introduced him to Neil Young…Rick and Neil would soon form a band called the Mynah Birds.
Rick James: “I wanted to write a silly song. I was in the studio and everything else for the album (Street Songs) was done. I just put ‘Super Freak’ together really quickly. I wanted a silly song that had a bit of new wave texture to it. So I just came up with this silly little lick and expounded on it. I came up with the bass part first. Then I put a guitar on it and keyboards, doing the ‘ehh ehh,’ silly keyboard part. Then I found a tuning on my Oberheim OB-Xa that I’d been wanting to use for a long time – it sounds like ghosts. And I put a very operatic vocal structure on it ’cause I’m really into opera and classical music. You probably hear a lot of that in my music. So I put (sings in a deep voice) ‘She’s all right’; very operatic, sort of funny, stuff.”
From Songfacts
This song is about a girl who is very adventurous sexually, especially with members of a band. A “freak” is slang for someone willing to try various fetishes, thus a “Super Freak” will try just about anything. James was famous for his penchant toward “freakish” behavior, which got him in trouble with the law when he and his girlfriend were arrested for kidnapping another girl for sex.
Explaining how he came up with this song, James he told Musician magazine in 1983:
“Super Freak” was the biggest pop hit for Rick James, reaching #16 in the US. He had just modest success on the Hot 100 but had four #1 R&B hits and secured a legend as a prolific producer and innovator of funk. The big R&B hit from the album was “Give It to Me Baby”; “Super Freak” made #3.
This was released in the summer of 1981, around the time MTV went on the air. With director Nick Saxton, James made videos for “Give It To Me Baby” and “Super Freak,” hoping to get them on the network. At the time, however, MTV refused to play videos by black artists, and they rejected them, continuing to feed America a steady stream of rock and EuroPop. This refusal to play black music was a holdover from radio station programming, where conventional wisdom was that you would lose your white listeners if you played black music. The first black artist to make MTV with a new song was Musical Youth, who despite adapting a song about smoking marijuana, was a lot less scary to network executives than the glitter-vested James singing about kinky sex. This color barrier was shattered by Michael Jackson, who brought a new sound and sophistication to the network with the videos for his Thriller album.
Even though the network didn’t play this video, Rick James eventually made peace with MTV and put their co-founder, Les Garland, in the video for Eddie Murphy’s song “Party All the Time,” which James produced. As for exactly why MTV passed on “Super Freak,” their director of acquisitions, Carolyn Baker, explained in the book I Want My MTV: “It wasn’t MTV that turned down ‘Super Freak.’ It was me. I tuned it down. You know why? Because there were half-naked women in it, and it was a piece of crap. As a black woman, I did not want that representing my people as the first black video on MTV.”
Over the years, the word “freak” became very popular in hip-hop and R&B lyrics. It’s a versatile word that can be used as both a verb (“Freak Me”) and a noun (“The Freaks Come Out At Night”). Use of the word peaked in the mid-’90s with the phrase, “Get your freak on.”
The Dutch dance duo The Beatfreakz covered this in 2006. Their version reached #7 in the UK, the first time this song charted in Britain as Rick James original version wasn’t a hit there.
In the movie Little Miss Sunshine, the little girl Olive does a wonderfully inappropriate dance to this song in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant.
It also shows up in these movies:
A Madea Family Funeral (2019) Love, Simon (2018) Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) Suicide Squad (2016) Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins (2008) Norbit (2007) American Dreamz (2006) Biggie and Tupac (2002) Batman Returns (1992) Doctor Detroit (1983)
And in these TV shows:
Scandal (“It’s Handled” – 2013) The Simpsons (Treehouse of Horror XXIV – 2013; Treehouse of Horror X – 1999) Ugly Betty (“Derailed” – 2007) Two and a Half Men (“Squab, Squab, Squab, Squab, Squab” – 2005) Gilmore Girls (“We Got Us a Pippi Virgin” – 2004) King of the Hill (“Returning Japanese” – 2002) Boy Meets World (“Shallow Boy” – 1996) In Living Color (“The Black Man’s Guide to Understanding the Black Woman” – 1990) The A-Team (“The Heart of Rock N’ Roll” – 1985)
A Los Angeles DJ named Alonzo Miller is credited as a writer on this track along with James. Miller worked on the lyrics with James, helping tone them down so the song had a better chance of getting airplay and crossing over to a white audience. Miller was able to get the song played at the station where he worked, KACE.
Super Freak
She’s a very kinky girl, The kind you don’t take home to mother; She will never let your spirits down, Once you get her off the street.
She likes the boys in the band, She says that I’m her all time fav’rite; When I make my move to her room, It’s the right time; she’s never hard to please.
That girl is pretty wild now; The girl’s a super freak; The kind of girl you read about In the new wave magazines. That girl is pretty kinky; The girl’s a super freak; I’d really like to taste her Ev’ry time we meet. She’s all right; she’s all right; That girl’s all right with me yeah. She’s a super freak, super freak, She’s super freaky; super freak, super freak.
She’s a very special girl, From her head down to her toenails; Yet she’ll wait for me at backstage with her girlfriends, In a limousine.
Three’s not a crowd to her, she said; “Room 714, I’ll be waiting.” When I get there she’s got incense, wine and candles; It’s such a freaky scene.
That girl is pretty wild now; The girl’s a super freak; The kind of girl you read about In the new wave magazines. That girl is pretty kinky; The girl’s a super freak; I’d really like to taste her Ev’ry time we meet. She’s all right; she’s all right; That girl’s all right with me yeah. She’s a super freak, super freak, She’s super freaky; super freak, super freak. Temptations sing; oh, super freak, Super freak, the girl’s a super freak; oh.
She’s a very kinky girl, The kind you don’t take home to mother; She will never let your spirits down, Once you get her off the street.
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