This curiosity was born in the seventies. It was when TV stars were connected with their home network. ABC, CBS, and NBC would all send stars to compete with each other. I will admit it was fun to watch. You would see Telly Savalas, Lynda Carter, Kristy McNichol (remember her?) compete with each other with no other than Howard Cossell announcing.
Regular events included swimming, kayaking, volleyball, golf, tennis, bowling (on custom-made outdoor lanes), cycling, 3-on-3 football, the baseball dunk, running, and the obstacle course. As a pre-teen boy, I still remember Kristy McNichol was great on the obstacle course.
TV now is so fragmented that it would not work. They did try to bring it back in 2017 but it wasn’t the same and fewer viewers viewed with every episode. The networks didn’t want to share their actors with rivals. All of the contestants were from the Disney owned networks or older casts from long ago shows.
The original show ran from 1976 to 1988… Some of the Contestants are below the video.
Some of the Contestants
Howard Cosell
Gabe Kaplan
Darleen Carr
Lynda Carter
Farrah Fawcett
Richard Hatch
Robert Hegyes
Ron Howard
Hal Linden
Penny Marshall
John Schuck
Telly Savalas
Adrienne Barbeau
Gary Burghoff
Kevin Dobson
Pat Harrington Jr.
Bill Macy
Lee Meriwether
Mackenzie Phillips
Loretta Swit
Jimmie Walker
Robert Conrad
Melissa Sue Anderson
Karen Grassle
Tim Matheson
Ben Murphy
Barbara Parkins
Joanna Pettet
Kevin Tighe
Demond Wilson
Mark Spitz
Peter Lawford
Lona Barrett
Caitlyn Jenner
Bob Rosburg
Reggie Jackson
Nadia Comaneci
Joyce Brothers
Robert Stack
Roosevelt Grier
Howard W. Koch
Free ended up being the blueprint for Bad Company. Two of the band members were in the latter group. With a voice Paul Rodgers possesses, I’ve wondered why he isn’t more of a household name outside of the world of rock. He was in successful rock groups such as Free, Bad Company, The Firm, The Law and toured with Queen.
Free was known as a great live band but I’ve only known them as the band before Bad Company. To my surprise by the time they disbanded, they had sold more than 20 million albums around the world. I have never been a fan of some of Rodgers’s songwriting but his voice can carry any song.
Paul Kossoff was the guitar player and influenced a generation of guitar players before and after his early death in 1976.
This song peaked at #13 in the UK charts in 1972. The band formed in 1968 and disbanded in 1973. They are known for their hit All Right Now.
I first heard A Little Bit Of Love on theLife On Mars BBC television show that I have shamelessly plugged since I’ve been posting. It’s only 16 episodes long…if you get a chance to watch it I think you will enjoy it…The UK version NOT the American version.
A Little Bit Of Love
I believe If you give A little bit of love To those you live with A little bit of love Oh oh oh Has gotta come your way.
Well in my mind It’s easy To lose sight of the truth But in my heart I can’t deny My feeling inside
‘Cos I believe If you give A little bit of love To those you live with A little bit of love Oh oh oh Has gotta come your way.
Man in the sky You say you are flying To lose sight of the world You wanna stay high Then don’t deny Your feeling inside
‘Cos I believe If you give A little bit of love To those you live with A little bit of love Oh oh oh Has gotta come your way.
Yeahh! Whooo!
I believe If you give A little bit of love To those you live with A little bit of love Oh! Has gotta come your way.
I believe If you give A little bit of love To those you live with A little bit of love Whooooo Has gotta come your way
The rhythm of this song drew me in when I was younger. Jive Talkin’ has a strong R&B feel to it. This song started it all for the disco era Bee Gees. This was the first big disco hit for The Bee Gees. They became icons of the era, singing in falsetto harmonies over dance beats.
You couldn’t go anywhere without hearing them blare out of the radio at that time. This song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, 5 in the UK, and #4 in New Zealand in 1975.
The Bee Gees had an incredible 9 Number 1 hits, 15 Top Ten hits, and 43 songs in the Billboard 100. They have sold more than 220 million records worldwide, making them one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time
From Songfacts
This was called “Drive Talking” in its early stages, but producer Arif Mardin suggested the change to “jive” to play to teenage sensibilities. “Jive Talkin'” is a term for slang.
The rhythm was inspired by the chunka-chunka-chunka sound of a car rolling over a bridge crossing Biscayne Bay near Miami. Robin Gibb explained to The Mail On Sunday November 1, 2009: “We’d already thought up the title for this song, but it wasn’t until Barry, Maurice and I drove from Biscayne Bay to Miami that we realized what the tune was going to be. We had the idea as we passed over a bridge. Some tar noises made a rhythmic sound on the wheels of our car, which created the feel to the type of song we wanted to write. We finished the song at the Criteria studios that day.”
They had seven more #1 hits in the disco era, but the band went out of style at the same time as white leisure suits. The group, which had considerable success before the disco era, took a lot of heat in the press. This criticism would weigh on them in later years as they felt that accusations of selling out and creating popular schlock were out of line. They would often point out that disco became homogenized in the years after they got to it, and that their sound was really an extension of R&B.
This was a comeback song for the group. They were very successful as contemporary singers in the late ’60s and early ’70s, but the two albums they released before Main Course flopped, and it looked like their careers were over.
Knowing that a new Bee Gees single would be met with skepticism by radio programmers, their label sent promotional singles to stations with plain, white labels, giving no indication as to what the name of the song was, or who it was by. The plan worked: the song was added to playlists and revived the fortunes of the group.
Along with several other Bee Gees hits, this was featured on the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever in 1977. Along with “You Should Be Dancing,” it was one of two previously released Bee Gees songs used – they wrote five more specifically for the film. The set became the best-selling soundtrack album of all time, until it was outsold by The Bodyguard soundtrack.
This was an R&B track that did very well in the black charts in America. The Bee Gees were one of the first white groups to explore that territory.
Former Fugees singer Pras sampled this on his song “Blue Angels.”
Jive Talking
It’s just your jive talkin’ You’re telling me lies, yeah Jive talkin’ You wear a disguise Jive talkin’ So misunderstood, yeah Jive talkin’ You really no good
Oh, my child You’ll never know Just what you mean to me Oh, my child You got so much You’re gonna take away my energy
With all your jive talkin’ You’re telling me lies, yeah Good lovin’ Still gets in my eyes Nobody believes what you say It’s just your jive talkin’ That gets in the way
Oh my love You’re so good Treating me so cruel There you go With your fancy lies Leavin’ me lookin’ Like a dumbstruck fool With all your
Jive talkin’ You’re telling me lies, yeah Jive talkin’ You wear a disguise Jive talkin’ So misunderstood, yeah Jive talkin’ You just ain’t no good
Love talkin’ Is all very fine, yeah Jive talkin’ Just isn’t a crime And if there’s somebody You’ll love till you die Then all that jive talkin’ Just gets in your eye
Jive talkin’ You’re telling me lies,yeah Good lovin’ Still gets in my eyes Nobody believes what you say It’s just your jive talkin’ That gets in the way
Love talkin’ Is all very fine, yeah Jive talkin’, just isn’t a crime And if there’s somebody You’ll love till you die Then all that jive talkin’ Just gets in your eye, yeah yeah
This song changes my mood as soon as it plays. Into the Mystic flows through you…wait… hold on… I’m sounding like a sixties guru but the song is a special one. It was on his album Moondance released in 1970. The album peaked at #29 in the Billboard Album Charts.
Van’s output from the late sixties to mid-seventies was just incredible in quantity and quality. He continues to this day releasing music. In the last 10 years, he has had 3 top ten albums.
I’ve never really tried to interpret this song…I just go where it takes me.
Van Morrsion: “‘Into the Mystic’ is another one like ‘Madame Joy’ and ‘Brown Eyed Girl’. Originally I wrote it as ‘Into the Misty’. But later I thought that it had something of an ethereal feeling to it so I called it ‘Into the Mystic’. That song is kind of funny because when it came time to send the lyrics in WB Music, I couldn’t figure out what to send them. Because really the song has two sets of lyrics. For example, there’s ‘I was born before the wind’ and ‘I was borne before the wind’, and also ‘Also younger than the son, Ere the bonny boat was one’ and ‘All so younger than the son, Ere the bonny boat was won’ … I guess the song is just about being part of the universe.”
From Songfacts
This is about a sailor at sea thinking about returning to his lover, who is back on land. Normally a foghorn signals danger, but in this case it means he is close to home and his love.
There is room for interpretation beyond the superficial meaning. It might be interpreted as expressing an understanding that life is finite (the ship sailing on its round trip) and must be lived to its fullest (“I want to rock your Gypsy soul”), and an acceptance of its inevitable end (“We will magnificently float into the mystic, when the foghorn blows I will be coming home”). When you have seen the world and loved someone, you should have no reason to fear the end because you have lived your life to the fullest.
The original title was “Into the Misty.”
According to Morrison, he couldn’t decide whether the first line should be “We were born before the wind” or “We were borne before the wind.”
This was played in the 1989 Mary Stuart Masterson movie Immediate Family. She played a woman who was young and pregnant and planning to give her baby to Glenn Close and James Woods, who couldn’t have a baby of their own.
According to a BBC survey, because of this song’s cooling, soothing vibe, this is one of the most popular songs for surgeons to listen to whilst performing operations.
Jen Chapin, the daughter of Cat’s In The Cradle singer-songwriter Harry Chapin, covered this on her 2008 CD Light of Mine.
Into The Mystic
We were borne before the wind Also younger than the sun Ere the bonnie boat was won As we sailed into the mystic
Hark, now hear the sailors cry Smell the sea and feel the sky Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic
And when that foghorn blows I will be coming home And when the foghorn blows I want to hear it
I don’t have to fear it and I want to rock your gypsy soul Just like way back in the days of old And magnificently we will flow into the mystic
When that fog horn blows You know I will be coming home And when that fog horn whistle blows I got to hear it
I don’t have to fear it and I want to rock your gypsy soul Just like way back in the days of old And together we will flow into the mystic Come on, girl
The Undertones were a Northern Irish punk band led by Feargal Sharkey. This song got them a record deal when British DJ John Peel played it on his show. Peel was a very influential and well-respected DJ, and he raved about this, even playing the song twice in a row, something he never did before. With Peel’s endorsement, it became a punk anthem and got the group signed to Sire Records.
The song peaked at #31 in the UK in 1978. The Undertones had 7 Top 49 UK hits.
From Songfacts
Sharkey: “Our only hope was John Peel, and we sent him a copy – that was the only copy we sent anyone”
Peel died October 25, 2004. This was played at his funeral.
Guitarist John O’Neill (from Q Magazine): “In 1978 we didn’t think ‘Teenage Kicks’ was the best song. True Confessions was the one we thought people would go for and we only named the EP after it because we were teenagers and it seemed appropriate. When John Peel played it twice on his show we were in shock. I came-up with the title. I was an MC5 fan and they had a song called Teenage Lust and we used to cover Route 66, so with the licks in the chorus I just made the connection. I was actually shocked that there wasn’t already a song called Teenage Kicks because it’s an obvious cliché. To be honest, I still don’t think the song;s that good – it’s the band’s performance on record that gives it the special quality. We were just the right age at the right time. It’s the strength of the voice, and the urgency of the drums and guitars, it seemed to capture the moment.”
A boy band called Busted performed this at the Brit Awards in 2003.
The Undertones went on to have several UK hits, including “My Perfect Cousin.” They split in 1983, but reformed in 1999 with Sharkey replaced by former Carralines singer Paul McLoone when Sharkey refused to participate. Sharkey had a solo hit with his cover of the Maria McKee song “A Good Heart,” which went to #1 in the UK in 1985. In the ’90s, Sharkey worked in the business end of the music industry as A&R manager for Polydor Records.
The line, “teenage dreams so hard to beat” from this song was carved on John Peel’s gravestone. His widow, Sheila Ravenscroft said: “We have put the words on the stone that he would have wanted. I wouldn’t dare do anything else.”
Bass player Mickey Bradley never rated the song. He told Mojo magazine April 2013: “We didn’t mind it being released, but we didn’t think it was special on its own. I remember someone at the Casbah saying, ‘Teenage Kicks’ – that’s your big song isn’t it?’ So we recorded some newer songs, which we thought were as good. But they weren’t.”
Teenage Kicks
Are teenage dreams so hard to beat? Everytime she walks down the street Another girl in the neighbourhood Wish she was mine, she looks so good
I wanna hold her, wanna hold her tight Get teenage kicks right through the night
I’m gonna call her on the telephone Have her over ’cause I’m all alone I need excitement, oh, I need it bad And it’s the best I’ve ever had
I wanna hold her, wanna hold her tight Get teenage kicks right through the night, all right
Are teenage dreams so hard to beat? Everytime she walks down the street Another girl in the neighbourhood Wish she was mine, she looks so good
I wanna hold her, wanna hold her tight Get teenage kicks right through the night, all right
I’m gonna call her on the telephone Have her over ’cause I’m all alone I need excitement, oh, I need it bad And it’s the best I’ve ever had
I wanna hold her, wanna hold her tight Get teenage kicks right through the night, all right
I wanna hold her, wanna hold her tight Get teenage kicks right through the night, all right
This is the version I like best…and I love Ben E. King’s version. I think it’s the reverb and John’s voice that makes this one the one I listen to the most.
“Stand By Me” was the name of a gospel hymn written by the Philadelphia minister Charles Albert Tindley in 1905. His hymn became popular in churches throughout the American South and was recorded by various gospel acts in the 1950s. The most popular adaptation was by The Staple Singers, who recorded it in 1955. It was this version that Ben E. King heard; he pushed The Drifters to record it, but the group’s manager rejected it.
Ben E. King, Jerry Leiber, and Mike Stoller wrote the song based off the old hymn.
This was on John Lennon’s Rock and Roll album (made up of entirely covers of mostly 50s Rock and Roll). This version peaked at #20 in the Billboard 100 in 1975 for John…and at #4 in 1961 for Ben E. King.
Ben E King: “David Ruffin from the Temptations did a great version of it. And, of course, the one that held up in my head the most was John Lennon’s version. He took it and made it as if it should have been his song as opposed to mine.
From Songfacts
Ben E. King recorded this shortly after leaving The Drifters in 1960. It gave him a solid reputation as a solo artist.
After leaving The Drifters, King auditioned for the wildly successful songwriting/production team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, singing a few popular songs before doing what he had of “Stand By Me,” which was just a few lines of lyrics with some humming to fill in the words. He agreed to collaborate on the song with Leiber and Stoller, who gave it a more contemporary sound and polished it into a hit. The bassline at the beginning was Stoller’s idea.
The song was credited as being written by Leiber, Stoller and King. Charles Albert Tindley, who composed the original hymn, was left off the composer credits as his work had been sufficiently transformed. This wasn’t the first time Tindley was omitted from the credits of a song he originated: he also wrote “I’ll Overcome Someday,” which eventually became “We Shall Overcome.”
In an interview with the TV station WGBH, Jerry Leiber explained: “Ben E. is not a songwriter, he’s a singer, he might have written two songs in his whole career. I would guess that this comes out of church. The whole ‘stand by me’ and the way the release takes out, it sounds like a gospel-type song.”
This was used in the 1986 movie of the same name starring River Phoenix. The film was based on a short novel by Stephen King called The Body, but that title was a little to gruesome for a movie hoping to appeal to a wide audience.
Rob Reiner, who directed the film, met the song’s co-writter Mike Stoller at a party, and convinced him to play some of his classic songs on a piano while Reiner sang along. Months later, Reiner got the idea to use “Stand By Me” as the title and incorporate it into the movie when he heard the song at his house. This played up the friendship of the young boys in the film and downplayed the role of the dead body they find, which was a good move at the box office. The movie was a hit and propelled the song back to the charts, introducing the track to a new generation.
When this was first released in 1960, it charted US #4 and UK #27. When it was re-released to coincide with the movie, it hit US #9 and UK #1. Now a hit with two generations, the song started showing up at weddings and other special occasions, becoming a timeless classic.
The movie Stand By Me is set in 1959 – a little before this song was released, but pretty close. When Rob Reiner asked to use the song, its composers Leiber and Stoller thought he would want to re-record it with a contemporary artist like Tina Turner, but Reiner wanted the original so it fit the era. It was surprising then when the song vaulted up the charts, since it was the exact same song released in 1961.
According to BMI, this was the fourth most-played track of the 20th Century on American radio and TV.
This song has made an astounding nine appearances on the US Hot 100, plus two more that “bubbled under.” Here’s the breakdown:
1961, #4 – Ben E. King 1964, #102 – Cassius Clay 1965, #75 – Earl Grant 1967, #12 – Spyder Turner 1970, #61 – David & Jimmy Ruffin 1975, #20 – John Lennon 1980, #22 – Mickey Gilley 1985, #50 – Maurice White 1986, #9 – Ben E. King (re-release) 1998, #82 – 4 The Cause 2010, #109 – Prince Royce
Sean Kingston sampled this on his 2007 hit “Beautiful Girls.” Other songs that have used pieces of “Stand By Me” include “A Little Bit of Soap” by De La Soul (1989), “My Darlin'” by Miley Cyrus feat. Future (2013), and “Marvin Gaye” by Charlie Puth (2015).
Dionne Warwick sang backup on this song as part of a trio known as The Gospelaires. Soon after, songwriter Burt Bacharach helped Warwick launch a successful solo career.
This was not released on an album until it had been out as a single for two years.
Cassius Clay (who would later change his name to Muhammad Ali) recorded this in 1963 on an album called I Am The Greatest!. In 1964, when he beat Sonny Liston to become the heavyweight boxing champ, Clay’s version of “Stand By Me” was released as a single, with his spoken-boast song called “I Am The Greatest” as the flip side. The single made the Billboard charts, bubbling under at #102 on the Hot 100.
During an interview with Spinner UK, Now there’s a [Dominican] singer named Prince [Royce] – he has a version out there that I think is brilliant. And then there’s Sean Kingston, with ‘Beautiful Girls’ [chuckles] – that’s another one that did well. So many of them have done well. As a songwriter, it pleases me a lot – you don’t always have a chance to write a song that people can relate to.”
The Bachata singer Prince Royce released a cover of this song (with mostly Spanish lyrics) in 2010 as his first single. Royce had been selling cell phones in New York City when he started shopping his demo CD around. When he got little reaction to the songs he wrote, he decided to record one that was familiar, and he chose “Stand By Me” because it was one of his favorite songs. The ploy worked, as it garnered attention and jumpstarted his career.
Florence + The Machine covered the song for Final Fantasy XV. Her version features in the video game’s trailer. “I’ve always seen Final Fantasy as mythical, beautiful and epic,” Florence Welch said. “‘Stand By Me’ is one of the greatest songs probably of all time and you can’t really improve on it, you just have to make it your own. For me it was just about bringing the song into the world of Florence + The Machine and the world of Final Fantasy.”
In England, this was used in commercials for Levi’s jeans in 1987 before the movie was released there. The exposure helped lift the song to #1 UK. “When A Man Loves A Woman” by Percy Sledge, used in the same group of Levi’s ads, went to #2 at the same time.
Budweiser used a version of this song by Skylar Grey in a commercial that aired during the 2018 Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots. The spot shows the beermaker’s plant in Cartersville, Georgia transforming to process water as part of disaster relief efforts in the wake of hurricanes and wildfires.
This has been played at countless weddings, but none more prominent than the royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on May 19, 2018. Before exchanging their vows in Windsor Castle, Karen Gibson and The Kingdom Choir performed a stirring gospel rendition of the song, which was chosen by the couple.
An ambient version by the artist Bootstraps (Jordan Beckett) got the attention of music supervisors and landed a number of placements, including the Power Rangers movie (2017) and episodes of MacGyver, Lethal Weapon and Hawaii Five-0.
Bootstraps included the song on his 2016 album Homage at the last minute. In a Songfacts interview, he explained why it works so well in visual media. “A lot of my songs that have done really well in the sync world are pretty linear – they don’t have these big, huge chorus hits,” he said. “‘Stand By Me,’ which has hands down been the biggest sync song I’ve done, has no kick drum. It has a lot of atmospherics, and the chorus is kind of slowly growing into a swell. So it’s really good for an editor, and that’s just the pragmatics of TV and film.”
Stand By Me
When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we see
No I won’t be afraid
No I won’t be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me
And darling, darling stand by me
Oh, now, now, stand by me
Stand by me, stand by me
If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
And the mountain should crumble to the sea
I won’t cry, I won’t cry
No I won’t shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me
And darling, darling stand by me
Oh, stand by me
Stand by me, stand by me, stand by me
Whenever you’re in trouble won’t you stand by me
Oh, now, now, stand by me
Oh, stand by me, stand by me, stand by me
Darling, darling stand by me
Stand by me
Oh stand by me, stand by me, stand by me
Stewart’s original version was released as a single with “Reason To Believe” as the B-side. Disc jockeys liked the flip side better and played “Maggie May” instead, which became the hit.
Rod did the song for MTV unplugged in 1993 and the song peaked at #19 in the Billboard 100 in 1993.
This was written by folk singer Tim Hardin, who originally recorded it in 1965 and performed it at Woodstock four years later. Hardin wrote some popular songs and was a very influential musician, but he had severe drug problems and died in December 1980 at age 39.
From Songfacts
At first listen, this song can seem rather sweet, but it’s anything but. The girl “lied straight-faced” while he cried, but still he can’t get over her. He knows if he gives her the chance, she’ll make him forget about it because he keeps looking for a reason to believe she’s not that kind of person.
Stewart released this again in 1993 as a live, acoustic version for MTV Unplugged. Appearing on the album Unplugged… and Seated, this is the version that charted.
Bobby Darin recorded a version of this in 1967.
The 1993 Unplugged version was recorded at an MTV special with Ron Wood, who played with Stewart in The Faces. It was the first time they performed it together in 22 years. Stewart commented that his wife at the time, Rachel Hunter, was one year old when it was first released.
Reason To Believe
If I listened long enough to you I’d find a way to believe that it’s all true Knowing that you lied straight-faced while I cried Still I look to find a reason to believe
Someone like you makes it hard to live without Somebody else Someone like you makes it easy to give Never think about myself
If I gave you time to change my mind I’d find a way just to leave the past behind Knowing that you lied straight-faced while I cried Still I look to find a reason to believe
If I listened long enough to you I’d find a way to believe that it’s all true Knowing that you lied straight-faced while I cried Still I look to find a reason to believe
Someone like you makes it hard to live without Somebody else Someone like you makes it easy to give Never think about myself
Someone like you makes it hard to live without Somebody else Someone like you makes it easy to give Never think about myself
Someone like you makes it hard to live without Somebody else Someone like you makes it easy to give Never think about myself
Someone like you makes it hard to live without Somebody else
Unlike the Partridge Family Bus, I had better luck on this one. The story on the mechanical sharks they used…approximately 25 feet long is clear.
Everyone knows the great 1975 movie Jaws that made people think twice about going into the water. The movie stands up today. They had no CGI back then and had to use a mechanical shark for the scenes. All together they used 3 of them. All of them malfunctioned but they called all three of them “Bruce” after Steven Spielberg’s lawyer, Bruce Ramer.
When the movie was over they dumped all three fake sharks on the backlot and let them rot away…however they kept the mold and made a fourth Bruce out of fiberglass and hung him up at Universal Studios in 1976. It stayed there until 1990, that is when Universal cut him down and sent him away to the junkyard.
The junkyard (U Pick Parts) owner Sam Adlen didn’t consider Bruce junk and mounted him on poles until 2016 at his junkyard. Sam had died but his son Nathan Adlen sold the business and donated Bruce to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
Bruce mounted at the junkyard
Greg Nicotero had been a Jaws fan since the day he watched the movie with his mom in 1975. He had his picture taken with “Bruce” at Universal Studios in 1976 before Bruce’s journey to the Junkyard. He had been inspired to be a special effects person because of it. He took the job of restoring Bruce to his former glory.
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures plans to unveil Bruce to the public soon. Although this Bruce wasn’t in the movie he was the last made of the original mold.
1 2 3, 4 5 6, 7 8 9, 10 11 12, Ladybugs came to the Ladybug’s Picnic…wah wah wah
I first saw this on Sesame Street in the 70s. I would find it coming back to me years later.
Sometimes when I play music with the guys…I’ll suddenly break out in this song in the middle of learning something else…just have some fun. It’s one that is hard to get out of your head. I get things thrown at me but I love it.
Jim Kweskin sang the original 1971 version and it was written by Bud Luckey and Donald Hadley
Let’s move from Christmas to Blondie…not a bad thing. I hope everyone had a great Christmas/Holiday.
Yet another great pop/rock single by Blondie. Blondie had a short window but they made the best of it. They had 4 number 1 hits, 4 top 10 hits, and 10 songs in the Billboard 100 total.
Lead singer Debbie Harry wrote this song with the group’s bass player, Nigel Harrison. Harry wrote the lyrics to Blondie’s songs, but composer credit for the music was generally given solely to whoever made the biggest contribution. This was often guitarist Chris Stein, who co-wrote “Rapture” and “Heart Of Glass.”
The song was on the Parallel Lines album and peaked at #24 in the Billboard 100 in 1979.
From Songfacts
This song is about a stalker. The lyrics are very dark and go into detail about a guy with evil intentions, but the music is very light and catchy, which masked the meaning of the song. According to Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry, it was inspired by real events. She told Entertainment Weekly: “I was actually stalked by a nutjob, so it came out of a not-so-friendly personal event. I tried to inject a little levity into it to make it more lighthearted. It was a survival mechanism.”
Harry says that the title and the idea for the song popped into her head during a rehearsal, and most of the song was hashed out on the spot.
This was featured on a 2011 episode of the TV show Glee in a mashup with “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.” The medley by the Glee Cast was released as a single and went to #86 in the US.
With radio-friendly songs like this one, Blondie was one of the first Punk bands to have Pop success. They played clubs like CBGB’s (stands for Country, BlueGrass, Blues) with bands like The Ramones and Television, but their songs were much lighter and led to mainstream acceptance. The Police and Talking Heads are other groups that came out of that scene.
In 2013 the UK boyband One Direction recorded a new version of this song, mashing it up with The Undertones’ “Teenage Kicks.” It was recorded to mark the 25th anniversary of the fundraising event Red Nose Day and was a hit in both the UK where it topped the chart and the US where it peaked at #13.
Kristen Bell sings this (quite well) at karaoke in the 2005 Veronica Mars episode “Clash Of The Tritons,” where she uses the song to alert a gang of her intentions.
One Way Or Another
One way or another, I’m gonna find ya I’m gonna get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya One way or another, I’m gonna win ya I’m gonna get ya, get ya ,get ya, get ya One way or another, I’m gonna see ya I’m gonna meet ya, meet ya, meet ya, meet ya One day, maybe next week, I’m gonna meet ya I’m gonna meet ya, I’ll meet ya
I will drive past your house And if the lights are all down I’ll see who’s around
One way or another, I’m gonna find ya I’m gonna get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya One way or another, I’m gonna win ya I’ll get ya, I’ll get ya One way or another, I’m gonna see ya I’m gonna meet ya, meet ya, meet ya, meet ya One day, maybe next week, I’m gonna meet ya I’ll meet ya, ah
And if the lights are all out I’ll follow your bus downtown See who’s hangin’ out
One way or another, I’m gonna lose ya I’m gonna give you the slip A slip of the hip or another, I’m gonna lose ya I’m gonna trick ya, I’ll trick ya One way or another, I’m gonna lose ya I’m gonna trick ya, trick ya, trick ya, trick ya One way or another, I’m gonna lose ya I’m gonna give you the slip
I’ll walk down the mall Stand over by the wall Where I can see it all Find out who ya call Lead you to the supermarket checkout Some specials and rat food Get lost in the crowd
One way or another, I’m gonna get ya (where I can see it all, find out who ya call) I’ll get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya One way or another, I’m gonna get ya (where I can see it all, find out who ya call) I’ll get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya One way or another, I’m gonna get ya (where I can see it all, find out who ya call) I’ll get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya One way or another, I’m gonna get ya (where I can see it all, find out who ya call) I’ll get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya One way or another, I’m gonna get ya (where I can see it all, find out who ya call) I’ll get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya One way or another, I’m gonna get ya (where I can see it all, find out who ya call) I’ll get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya
I always have wondered where certain pop culture items have gone. Where is the “M” hanging on the wall in Mary Tyler Moore Show (she actually kept that), Fonzie’s leather jacket (Smithsonian), the original model of the Starship Enterprise (Again Smithsonian), the… well you get the point.
I like collecting seventies items. The Partridge Family bus would be one of the ultimate things to collect. It would be nice to find it somewhere on an old farm…but it is most likely lost to time. There are two known explanations for what happened to it.
One story is… it was last seen behind “Lucy’s Tacos” in LA in 1987. It supposedly was in the back parking lot. Then it was towed away to a junkyard into history.
But… I still have hope! Some have said the bus at Lucy’s Taco was a replica of the original because the make and model of the bus didn’t jive with the one on the show. There was only one bus…they changed the interior a bit during the later seasons but just one bus was used.
Others say it was painted white and used in a short-lived tv series called Apple’s Way in 1974. Most likely it’s gone to pop culture heaven…You never know though…somewhere it could still be out there.
What would I do with it? Tour America in the bus picking up fellow bloggers on the way? Dig up Tiger Beat magazines and look for Susan Dey? I have no clue…The closest I’ll ever get to it is this.
I know what I was doing on November 30, 1977. I was watching Merrie Olde Christmas special as a kid. I didn’t appreciate the weirdness of the combination of Bing Crosby and David Bowie at the time. Something that the seventies did well and sometimes bad…was to intersect generations on variety shows. This one was a good combination.
This special had guest stars Twiggy, David Bowie, Ron Moody, Stanley Baxter, and The Trinity Boys Choir. It was the duet with Bing Crosby and David Bowie that has been remembered. I remember watching this knowing that Bing Crosby had died the month earlier. The duet was taped on September 11, 1977, and Crosby died on October 14, 1977.
David Bowie’s mother was a huge Bing Crosby fan and Bing Crosby’s children were big David Bowie fans…so the two agreed to sing together. It was questionable at first if it would work out.
Mary Crosby: “The doors opened and David walked in with his wife,” she recalled. “They were both wearing full-length mink coats, they have matching full makeup and their hair was bright red. We were thinking, ‘Oh my god.'” Nathaniel Crosby, Bing’s son, added: “It almost didn’t happen. I think the producers told him to take the lipstick off and take the earring out. It was just incredible to see the contrast.”
Another possible hitch happened with Bowie. He didn’t like The Little Drummer Boy and refused to sing it. The writers then wrote a revised version of the song that he liked. They wrote a counterpart section for Bowie to sing. Crosby liked the challenge of his part. The rest is history and one of the most unusual pairings you will ever see…
One funny part is Bowie’s idea of “older fellas” at the time is John Lennon and Harry Nilsson.
The Little Drummer Boy (Peace On Earth)
Come they told me pa-rum-pum-pum-pum A newborn king to see pa-rum-pum-pum-pum Our finest gifts we bring pa-rum-pum-pum-pum Rum-pum-pum-pum, rum-pum-pum-pum
[Verse 2: Bowie and Crosby] Peace on Earth can it be? Come they told me pa-rum-pum-pum-pum Years from now, perhaps we’ll see? A newborn king to see pa-rum-pum-pum-pum See the day of glory Our finest gift we bring pa-rum-pum-pum-pum See the day, when men of good will To lay before the king pa-rum-pum-pum-pum Live in peace, live in peace again Rum-pum-pum-pum, Rum-pum-pum-pum Peace on Earth So to honour him pa-rum-pum-pum-pum Can it be When we come
[Bridge: Bowie and Crosby in unison] Every child must be made aware Every child must be made to care Care enough for his fellow man To give all the love that he can
[Verse 4: Bowie and Crosby] I pray my wish will come true Little baby pa-rum-pum-pum-pum For my child and your child too I stood beside him there pa-rum-pum-pum-pum He’ll see the day of glory I played my drum for him pa-rum-pum-pum-pum See the day when men of good will I played my best for him pa-rum-pum-pum-pum Live in peace, live in peace again Rum-pum-pum-pum, rum-pum-pum-pum Peace on Earth Me and my drum Can it be
This is a reblog from last year but… history hasn’t changed. This is fast becoming my favorite rock Christmas song second only to John Lennon’s Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
This is one that I haven’t heard as much but if you live in the UK you probably have heard it MANY times. 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
My favorite Christmas song hands down. Yea I’m biased because I am a Beatles fan but this one is great. John’s voice goes so well with this song. The song peaked at #2 in the UK charts in 1971….the song did peak at #42 in the Billboard 100 in 2019.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono wrote this in their New York City hotel room and recorded it during the evening of October 28 and into the morning of the 29th, 1971 at the Record Plant in New York. It was released in the US for Christmas but didn’t chart. The next year, it was released in the UK, where it did much better, charting at #2. Eventually, the song became a Christmas classic in America, but it took a while.
I think of High School when I hear this song. Our school had a Christmas poster contest and a buddy and I made a poster as a joke and wrote “So this is Christmas and what have you done another year over, and a new one just begun” and won first prize…with an assist from John.
From Songfacts.
John and Yoko spent a lot of time in the late ’60s and early ’70s working to promote peace. In 1969, they put up billboards in major cities around the world that said, “War is over! (If you want it).” Two years later this slogan became the basis for this song when Lennon decided to make a Christmas record with an anti-war message. John also claimed another inspiration for writing the song: he said he was “sick of ‘White Christmas.'”
The children’s voices are the Harlem Community Choir, who were brought in to sing on this track. They are credited on the single along with Yoko and The Plastic Ono Band.
Lennon and Ono produced this with the help of Phil Spector. Spector had worked on some of the later Beatles songs and also produced Lennon’s “Instant Karma.” It was not Spector’s first foray into Christmas music: he and his famous session stars (including a 17-year-old Cher) spent six weeks in the summer of 1963 putting together A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector, featuring artists like The Ronettes and Darlene Love. Unfortunately, the album was released on November 22, 1963, which was the same day US president John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The album sold poorly as America was focused on news of the killing.
This was originally released on clear green vinyl with Yoko Ono’s “Listen, The Snow Is Falling” as the B-side.
At the beginning of the song, two whispers can be heard. Yoko whispers: “Happy Christmas, Kyoko” (Kyoko Chan Cox is Yoko’s daughter with Anthony Cox) and John whispers: “Happy Christmas, Julian” (John’s son with Cynthia). >>
This being a Phil Spector production, four guitarists were brought in to play acoustic guitars: Hugh McCracken (who had recently played on the Paul McCartney album Ram), Chris Osbourne, Stu Scharf and Teddy Irwin. According to Richard Williams, who was reporting on the session for Uncut, when Lennon taught them the song, he asked them to “pretend it’s Christmas.” When one of the guitarists said he was Jewish, John told him, “Well, pretend it’s your birthday then.”
As for the other personnel, Jim Keltner played drums and sleigh bells, Nicky Hopkins played chimes and glockenspiel. Keltner and Hopkins were part of Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band, and a third member, Klaus Voorman, was supposed to play bass on this track, but got stuck on a flight from Germany. One of the guitarists brought in for the session covered the bass – which one nobody seems to remember.
John Lennon was shot and killed less than three weeks before Christmas in 1980. The song was re-released in the UK on December 20 of that year, reaching #2 (held off the top spot by “There’s No One Quite Like Grandma” by St. Winifred’s School Choir). It made the UK Top 40 again in 1981 (#28), 2003 (#32) and 2007 (#40). Also in 2003, a version sung by the finalists of the singing competition Pop Idol reached #5.
The Fray were the first to chart with this song in America, reaching #50 in 2006; Sarah McLachlan’s version went to #107 that same year. Other artists to cover it include The Alarm, The Cranes, The December People, and Melissa Etheridge (in a medley with “Give Peace a Chance”).
The Australian artist Delta Goodrem also covered it in 2003, taking it to #1 in her native country as a double-A-side single with “Predictable.”
Though now a Christmas standard, Lennon originally penned this as a protest song about the Vietnam War, and the idea “that we’re just as responsible as the man who pushes the button. As long as people imagine that somebody’s doing it to them and that they have no control, then they have no control.”
This didn’t appear on an album until 1975, when it was included on Lennon’s Shaved Fish singles compilation. Most Christmas songs are compiled with other songs of the season, but Shaved Fish listeners got to hear it year round.
Happy Xmas (War is Over)
(Happy Christmas Kyoko) (Happy Christmas Julian)
So this is Christmas And what have you done Another year over And a new one just begun And so this is Christmas I hope you have fun The near and the dear one The old and the young
A very Merry Christmas And a happy new year Let’s hope it’s a good one Without any fear
And so this is Christmas For weak and for strong For rich and the poor ones The world is so wrong And so happy Christmas For black and for white For yellow and red ones Let’s stop all the fight
A very Merry Christmas And a happy new year Let’s hope it’s a good one Without any fear
And so this is Christmas And what have we done Another year over A new one just begun And so happy Christmas We hope you have fun The near and the dear one The old and the young
A very Merry Christmas And a happy new year Let’s hope it’s a good one Without any fear War is over, if you want it War is over now
This is an epic song That was on the Who’s concept album Quadrophenia. The album peaked at #2 in 1973 in the Billboard Album Charts.
This may be Roger Daltrey’s best vocal performance in the Who’s long career. Pete has said he wanted a quiet song but when Roger sang it…it was more of a scream…Pete liked what Roger did and thought it fit the story better.
“Love, Reign o’er Me,” date back to 1972. It was originally intended to be part of the unreleased autobiographical album, Rock Is Dead—Long Live Rock! This later evolved into Quadrophenia.
The song peaked at #76 in the Billboard 100 and #31 in Canada in 1973.
From Songfacts
This is the last track on The Who’s rock opera Quadrophenia. The main character Jimmy suffers from a four-way split personality, with each personality reflecting a member of The Who. This is Pete Townshend’s theme. The personality is described as “A beggar, a hypocrite, love reign over me.”
At the end of the story, Jimmy steals a boat and takes it to a rock out on the sea. What happens out on the rock is described in this song.
Townshend was a follower of the spiritualist Meher Baba. Meher Baba’s teachings were incorporated into some of Townshend’s songs, including this one.
Townshend (from the Quadrophenia liner notes): “(Love, Reign O’er Me) refers to Meher Baba’s one-time comment that rain was a blessing from God; that thunder was God’s Voice. It’s another plea to drown, only this time in the rain. Jimmy goes through a suicide crisis. He surrenders to the inevitable, and you know, you know, when it’s over and he goes back to town he’ll be going through the same s–t, being in the same terrible family situation and so on, but he’s moved up a level. He’s weak still, but there’s a strength in that weakness. He’s in danger of maturing.”
In 2007, Adam Sandler starred in a dramatic film titled after this song, named Reign Over Me. Sandler played a widowed dentist who can only relate to old rock music since losing his family in the September 11th terrorist attacks. The soundtrack of the film featured a cover version of this song by the band Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder is a huge Who fan, and has covered many Who songs in the past.
Love Reign O’er Me
Only love Can make it rain The way the beach is kissed by the sea. Only love Can make it rain Like the sweat of lovers’ Laying in the fields.
Only love Can bring the rain That makes you yearn to the sky. Only love Can bring the rain That falls like tears from on high.
Love reign o’er me. On the dry and dusty road The nights we spend apart alone I need to get back home to cool cool rain. I can’t sleep and I lay and I think The nights are hot and black as ink Oh God, I need a drink of cool cool rain.
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