Singles – Page 128 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Ricky Nelson – Travelin’ Man

Ricky Nelson was a two-way star in the 50s. He gets overlooked at times compared to his peers.

This song was written by Jerry Fuller, a singer who had minor hits in 1959 with “Betty My Angel” and a cover of “Tennessee Waltz.” Fuller wrote “Travelin’ Man” one day at De Longpre Park in Hollywood while he was waiting to pick up his wife. He didn’t play an instrument, so he beat out the melody on his car’s dashboard.

Fuller recorded a demo of this song with Glen Campbell on guitar. He was hoping Sam Cooke would record it, so he brought it to Cooke’s manager, J.W. Alexander. Joe Osborn, who was Ricky’s bass player, heard it through the wall, He said, ‘J.W., do you have that ‘Travelin” song you just played?’ He said, ‘Yeah, you can have it,’ and he reached in the trash and he pulled out the demo.”

Osborn brought the song to Nelson, who loved it and recorded it. The song became his second (and last) #1 hit, and gave him a huge career boost.

Travelin’ Man peaked at #1 in 1961.

From Songfacts

For the lyrics, Fuller came up with a “girl in every port” idea – a guy who travels all over the world and finds a different girl waiting for him wherever he goes. He used an atlas to get ideas for places and looked up what the word for “girl” was in those places, so in German it’s “Fraulien,” in Mexico it’s “Senorita,” and in Alaska it’s a “cute little Eskimo.” He couldn’t figure out what the term was in Hawaii, so he went with “pretty Polynesian baby.”

Nelson used Elvis Presley’s backing singers The Jordanaires on this song, as he did on most of his recordings. He loved the background vocals on the demo though, which were done by Fuller, Glen Campbell and Dave Burgess. Nelson brought them in to record on subsequent records.

Depending on the criteria, “Travelin’ Man” could be the song with the very first music video. Ozzie Nelson realized that whenever he had Ricky sing on their show The Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet, Ricky’s record sales shot up the next day, so Ozzie tried to work it into the plot whenever Ricky had a new record out. As Ricky became popular and the demand for his songs was overwhelming, Ozzie realized that working his singing into the plot was going to be impossible, so Ozzie filmed Ricky singing “Travelin’ Man,” superimposed some travelogue scenes over the film and tacked it onto a show episode at the end. Viola! The music video was born.

That is, if you don’t count performance videos and extracted movie scenes like “Jailhouse Rock.” And if you’re OK with it being black and white.

The episode, “A Question of Suits and Ties,” aired on April 5, 1961 (the song hit #1 on May 29). The clip is far from groundbreaking, but it was footage synched to a performance. Around this time, standalone concept videos were starting to show up for use throughout Europe in Scopitone video jukeboxes, which were typically placed in bars. A few American artists made videos for these machines in the mid’-60s when they started to appear Stateside. Neil Sedaka made one for “Calendar Girl” and Nancy Sinatra did one (for a company called Color-Sonics) for “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’.”

Rick Nelson was born Eric Hilliard Nelson in 1940. He died in a small plane crash in Texas in 1985 while flying to a New Year’s Eve concert. Mechanical problems and a cabin fire were suspected as the cause of the crash. Speculation that the fire was caused by someone on board freebasing cocaine was never proven, though aerosol cans were found at the crash site. The Nelson family said that the cans were part of the makeup box and that no drugs were involved. The matter was never completely resolved.

This is a crowd favorite on the “Ricky Nelson Remembered” show, staged by his twin sons Matthew and Gunnar. In our interview with Matthew Nelson, he said, “When I’m singing ‘Travelin’ Man,’ it’s 1977 at the Sahara in Las Vegas, when I hung out for a week while Pop did a residency there. And I think about the guys who were in the band.”

Travelin’ Man

I’m a travelin’ man and I’ve made a lot of stops
All over the world
And in every part I own the heart
Of at least one lovely girl

I’ve a pretty Señorita waiting for me
Down in old Mexico
If you’re ever in Alaska stop and see
My cute little Eskimo

Oh, my sweet Fraulein down in Berlin town
Makes my heart start to yearn
And my China doll down in old Hong Kong
Waits for my return

Pretty Polynesian baby over the sea
I remember the night
When we walked in the sands of the Waikiki
And I held you, oh so tight

Oh, my sweet Fraulien down in Berlin town
Makes my heart start to yearn
And my China doll down in old Hong Kong
Waits for my return

Pretty Polynesian baby over the sea
I remember the night
When we walked in the sands of the Waikiki
And I held you, oh so tight

Oh, I’m a travelin’ man
Yes, I’m a travelin’ man
Yes, I’m a travelin’ man
Whoa, I’m a travelin’ man

Love Affair – Everlasting Love

I was looking through UK #1’s Blog posts and I found this song from 1967. If you haven’t visited his site…do it. He lists every number 1 in the UK starting in the 50s and now he has just started the 1970s. I’ve found a lot of songs I didn’t know like this one.

I’ve always known the Carl Carlton version released in 1974 and it is a great version but I really like this one. This version from 1967 sounds fresh…especially the bass. The only member of the group who performed on it was their 16-year-old vocalist Steve Ellis. The rest of the band were replaced in the studio by studio musicians.

Love affair went onto achieve five more UK Top 20 hits on which the group did get to perform.

Everlasting Love peaked at #1 in the UK in 1967.

Steve Ellis: “The general opinion seemed to be that I should do it with an orchestra and then give it a Phil Spector-type production. Obviously, I felt odd without the band being in the studio but it was for the good of all involved. Two takes and it was done. The band were not too concerned about this approach to things.”

Everlasting Love

Hearts gone astray, deep in hurt when they go
I went away, just when you, you need me so
You won’t regret, I come back beggin’ you
Won’t you forget, welcome love we once knew

Open up your eyes then you realize
Here I stand with my everlasting love
Need you by my side, girl to be my bride
You’ll never be denied, everlasting love

From the very start, open up your heart
Feel that you’re part of everlasting love

Need a love to last forever
Need a love to last forever

Where life really flows, no one really knows
Till someone’s there to show the way to lasting love
[Lyrics from: https:/lyrics.az/love-affair/the-everlasting-love-affair/everlasting-love.html]
Like the sun it shines, endlessly it shines
You always will be mine, if eternal love

Whenever love went wrong, ours would still be strong
We’d have our very own everlasting love

Need a love to last forever
Need a love to last forever

Open up your eyes then you realize
Here I stand with my everlasting love
Need you by my side, girl to be my bride
You’ll never be denied, everlasting love

From the very start, open up your heart
Be a lasting part of everlasting love
Whenever love went wrong, ours would still be strong
We’ll have our very own everlasting love

Rolling Stones – Angie

This song is a great ballad by the Rolling Stones. Keith Richards wrote this song in Switzerland after the Exile on Main St. album had been approved by the record company, but before it was released. “Angie” was one of the first songs The Stones recorded for Goat’s Head Soup.

It was on 20 October 1973 that the Rolling Stones secured their 7th US No.1 when ‘Angie’ made the top of the Billboard chart.

It has been speculated that it was inspired by Angie, David Bowie’s wife, or even Keith’s daughter. Keith, who wrote the majority of the song’s music and lyrics. Keith said in his autobiography that the name Angie came to him while in Switzerland detoxing from his heroin addiction. “I wrote ‘Angie’ in an afternoon, sitting in bed, because I could finally move my fingers and get them in the right place again…It was not about any particular person, it was a name, like “Ohhh, Diana””I didn’t know Angela was going to be called Angela when I wrote ‘Angie.’ In those days you didn’t know what sex the thing was going to be until it popped out.”

The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #5 in the UK, #1 in Canada, and #1 in New Zealand in 1973.
From Songfacts

The big rumor about this song is that it was written about David Bowie’s wife, Angela, who wrote in her autobiography that she once walked in on Bowie and Mick Jagger in bed together – a story Jagger denies. According to the rumor, Jagger wrote this song to appease her, but it was Jagger’s bandmate Keith Richards who wrote most of the song. Jagger had this to say about it: “People began to say that song was written about David Bowie’s wife but the truth is that Keith wrote the title. He said, ‘Angie,’ and I think it was to do with his daughter. She’s called Angela. And then I just wrote the rest of it.”

There was also speculation that Richards’ girlfriend Anita Pallenberg inspired this song, but Keith cleared it up in his 2010 autobiography Life, where he wrote: “While I was in the [Vevey drug] clinic (in March-April 1972), Anita was down the road having our daughter, Angela. Once I came out of the usual trauma, I had a guitar with me and I wrote ‘Angie’ in an afternoon, sitting in bed, because I could finally move my fingers and put them in the right place again, and I didn’t feel like I had to s–t the bed or climb the walls or feel manic anymore. I just went, ‘Angie, Angie.’ It was not about any particular person; it was a name, like ohhh, Diana.

A rare ballad for The Stones, this was the first single released from Goat’s Head Soup. It wasn’t typical of their sound, since most of the band’s material at the time was hard and aggressive. Still, it was a huge hit, and their only ballad that hit #1 in the US.

This is one of the few Rolling Stones songs that is acoustic.

The Angela Bowie rumor picked up steam in 1990, when she went on The Joan Rivers Show and claimed she once walked in on David Bowie and Mick Jagger in bed together naked. What’s even more shocking is that Rivers had her own talk show. She was quickly replaced by Arsenio Hall.

Nicky Hopkins played piano on this track. He became part of the band’s inner circle after working on the 1966 Stones album Between The Buttons.

In 2005 German chancellor Angela Merkel appropriated this acoustic ballad for her Christian Democratic Union Party. “We’re surprised that permission wasn’t requested,” said a Stones spokesman of Merkel’s choice of song. “If it had been, we would have said no.”

The line from this song, “Ain’t it time we said goodbye,” was used as the title to Robert Greenfield’s 2014 book, which chronicles his time covering the Stones’ 1971 British tour and their Exile on Main St. sessions for Rolling Stone magazine. Greenfield is not a fan of the song, however, calling it “soppy and far too sweet for my taste.”

Angie

Angie, Angie, when will those clouds all disappear?
Angie, Angie, where will it lead us from here?
With no loving in our souls and no money in our coats
You can’t say we’re satisfied
But Angie, Angie, you can’t say we never tried

Angie, you’re beautiful, but ain’t it time we said good-bye?
Angie, I still love you, remember all those nights we cried?
All the dreams we held so close seemed to all go up in smoke
Let me whisper in your ear:

Angie, Angie, where will it lead us from here?
Oh, Angie, don’t you weep, all your kisses still taste sweet
I hate that sadness in your eyes
But Angie, Angie, ain’t it time we said good-bye?

With no loving in our souls and no money in our coats
You can’t say we’re satisfied
But Angie, I still love you, baby
Ev’rywhere I look I see your eyes

There ain’t a woman that comes close to you
Come on baby, dry your eyes
But Angie, Angie, ain’t it good to be alive?
Angie, Angie, they can’t say we never tried

Billy Thorpe – Children of the Sun

I always post music that I like…it would be hard for me to post something I didn’t like and write about it indifferently. This one…I have played on guitar more than I’ve listened to. I played in bands for years and when I was beginning, this one was taught to me. I never heard it before I played it but it’s pretty easy…if you take away all of the space effects. It was a few years after I’d played it at least 20 times before I heard the record.

Billy Thorpe, was an English-born Australian singer-songwriter, producer, and musician. He was in a band called Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs in Australia. their first major pop hit was a cover of “Poison Ivy” in 1964. The band broke up in 1967 but re-formed one year later, with Thorpe on guitar as well as vocals. Thorpe’s signature song in Australia was “Most People I Know (Think that I’m Crazy)” in 1972.

Children of the Sun made it to #41 in 1979. The song was written by Billy Thorpe and Spencer Proffer. This was his only hit in America.

Children of the Sun

People of the Earth can you hear me?
Came a voice from the sky on that magical night
And in the colors of a thousand sunsets
They traveled through the world on a silvery light
–More–(51%)
The people of the Earth stood waiting
Watching as the ships came one by one
Setting fire to the sky as they landed
Carrying to the world Children Of The Sun

All at once came a sound from the inside
Then a beam made of light hit the ground
[Lyrics from: https:/lyrics.az/billy-thorpe/children-of-the-sun-revisited/children-of-the-sun.html]
Everyone felt the sound of their heartbeat
Every Man – Every Woman – Every Child

They pa**ed the limits of imagination
Through the doors – to a world – of another time
On the journey of a million lifetimes
With the Children Of The Sun – They started their climb

No more gravity, nothing holding them down
Floating endlessly, as their ship leaves the ground
through the walls of time – at the speed of light
Fly the crystal ships on their celestial flight
On their celestial flight.

Kinks – Catch Me Now I’m Falling

On May 17, 1983, I know where I was…I was watching the Kinks play in Nashville at the newer Grand Ole Opry. This is a song I remember well from that show. The Kinks were still in their early 40s and they had more energy than their much younger opening band The White Animals.

The song was on the album Low Budget released in 1979. The album peaked at #11 in the Billboard Album Charts. Catch Me Now I’m Falling didn’t make the Billboard 100 but it was an FM hit. Another song off of Low Budget did chart… (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman peaked at #41 in the Billboard 100 in 1979.

I will have to say that Ray borrowed liberally from the Stones Jumping Jack Flash as far as the riff goes…but the song is great.

Catch Me Now I’m Falling

I remember, when you were down
And you needed a helping hand
I came to feed you
But now that I need you
You won’t give me a second glance
Now I’m calling all citizens from all over the world
This is Captain America calling
I bailed you out when you were down on your knees
So will you catch me now I’m falling

Help me now I’m calling you
Catch me now I’m falling
I’m in your hands, it’s up to you
Catch me now I’m falling

I remember when you were down
You would always come running to me
I never denied you and I would guide you
Through all of your difficulties
Now I’m calling all citizens from all over the world
This is Captain America calling
I bailed you out when you were down on your knees
So will you catch me now I’m falling

Help me now I’m calling you
Catch me now I’m falling
I’m in your hands, it’s up to you
Catch me now I’m falling

When you were broke you would come to me
And I would always pull you round
Now I call your office on the telephone
And your secretary tells me that she’s sorry,
But, you’ve gone out of town.

This is Captain America calling
This is Captain America calling

Help me now I’m calling you
Catch me now I’m falling
I’m in your hands, it’s up to you
Catch me now I’m falling

Catch me now I’m falling
Catch me now I’m falling
Catch me now I’m falling
Catch me now I’m falling

I stood by you through all of your depressions
And I lifted you when you were down
Now it’s your chance to do the same for me
I call your office and your secretary tells me
That you’ve gone out of town

This is Captain America calling
This is Captain America calling

Catch me now I’m falling
Catch me now I’m falling

I was the one who always bailed you out
Of your depressions and your difficulties
I never thought that you would let me down
But the next time you’re in trouble
Better not come running to me

Now I’m calling all citizens from all over the world
This is Captain America calling
I bailed you out when you were down on your knees
So will you catch me now I’m falling
Catch me now I’m falling

Catch me now I’m falling
Catch me now I’m falling
Catch me now I’m falling
Catch me now I’m falling

Eric Clapton – Before You Accuse Me

When I think of lead guitar players…Eric Clapton is usually the first to automatically come to mind. I’ve seen Clapton twice and was always impressed with his trademark blues licks. His Cream era guitar playing influenced generations of guitar players.

This is a song I don’t hear as much anymore and I’ve always liked it. This song was written and originally recorded by the rock pioneer Bo Diddley in 1957.

He never considered putting it on a record until guitarist Robert Cray and drummer Jim Keltner started jamming on the song one day in the studio during the Journeyman sessions. The Cray/Clapton combo on this song makes it a favorite of guitar fans.

Eric released the song as the B-side of “Bad Love,” the first single from Journeyman. …I like this one better than the A side.

Before You Accuse Me

Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself
Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself
You say I’ve been spending my money on other women
You’ve been taking money from someone else

I called your mama ’bout three or four nights ago
I called your mama ’bout three or four nights ago
Well your mother said “Son”
“Don’t call my daughter no more”

Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself
Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself
You say I’ve been spending my money on other women
You’ve been taking money from someone else

Come back home baby, try my love one more time
Come back home baby, try my love one more time
If I don’t go on and quit you
I’m gonna lose my mind

Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself
Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself
You say I’ve been spending my money on other women
You’ve been taking money from someone else

Beatles – Something

This was released as a double A-side single with “Come Together.” It was the only song written by George Harrison released as a single by The Beatles. They had used some of his songs as B-sides, including “The Inner Light” and “Old Brown Shoe.”

The song was written about his then-wife Pattie Boyd. This song moved his songwriting abilities up… in the eyes of his bandmates Lennon and McCartney. George had written some very good songs before like Taxman, If I Needed Someone, and While My Guitar Gently Weeps but this one…this one placed him in another league. George had two of the highlights on the album wth Something and Here Comes The Sun.

Harrison wrote this during a break while they were working on The White Album. It was not recorded in time for the album, so Harrison gave this to Joe Cocker, but Cocker didn’t release it until after The Beatles did.

When I saw Paul McCartney in 2014 he played this as a tribute to George Harrison. He played a version of this using a ukulele George had given him…and it made it really special.

Frank Sinatra called this “”the greatest love song of the past 50 years”.” He often performed it in the ’70s, at one point wrongly attributing it to Lennon and McCartney rather than Harrison.

With at least 200 cover versions on record, this is the second-most-covered Beatles song; only “Yesterday” has been covered more.

Harrison chastised McCartney for being too active with his bass lines in this song. In the past, Paul had sometimes been critical of George’s guitar playing on his songs. I have to say though…Paul did a great job on this song…his bass playing compliments the song.

From Songfacts

Pattie did inspire “Layla” when Eric Clapton realized he loved her a few years later. She and Clapton were married from 1979-1988 (he also wrote “Wonderful Tonight” for her).

In her 2007 book Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me, Pattie Boyd wrote: “George wrote a song called ‘Something.’ He told me in a matter-of-fact way that he had written it for me. I thought it was beautiful and it turned out to be the most successful song he ever wrote, with more than 150 cover versions. George’s favorite version was the one by James Brown. Mine was the one by George Harrison, which he played to me in our kitchen. But, in fact, by then our relationship was in trouble. Since a trip to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in India in 1968, George had become obsessive about meditation. He was also sometimes withdrawn and depressed.”

Harrison came up with the title and the first line after listening to a James Taylor song called “Something In The Way She Moves.” Taylor was signed to Apple Records (The Beatles’ label) at the time.

This is the only song on the Beatles 1 album that was not a #1 hit on its own in the US or UK. “Something” and “Come Together” spent one week at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart when the compilers of the chart changed its ranking method and stopped giving separate rankings for the two sides of a single. It was also gave Harrison representation among the 27 tracks.

Harrison had the first line, “Something in the way she moves,” but had trouble coming up with the second. He considered “attracts me like a pomegranate,” before coming up with “attracts me like no other lover.”

This was used in a commercial for Chrysler cars in 1987.

John Lennon said that this was his favorite song on Abbey Road.

Harrison wrote this on a piano. The Beatles often composed and recorded separately at this time.

Harrison pictured Ray Charles on vocals when he wrote this. Charles did eventually cover it.

With 21 string players used in overdubs, this ended up being one of the most orchestral Beatles songs. This sound made it a staple of light rock radio and, in bowdlerized instrumental form, Muzak.

Before this was edited down, it contained a long instrumental tag at the end.

Dave Grohl, a former member of Nirvana and leader of The Foo Fighters, recorded a tribute song to Harrison on the Foo’s first album called “Oh, George” based on the guitar lead to this. Harrison was Grohl’s favorite Beatle, and this was one of the first leads he learned to play on guitar.

Jeff Lynne, Joe Walsh and Dhani Harrison performed this song on the CBS special The Beatles: The Night That Changed America. The show featured Grammy-winning performers covering Beatles songs; it aired on February 9, 2014 – the 50th anniversary of the group’s first Ed Sullivan Show appearance.

Something

Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover
Something in the way she woos me
I don’t want to leave her now
You know I believe and how

Somewhere in her smile she knows
That I don’t need no other lover
Something in her style that shows me
I don’t want to leave her now
You know I believe and how

You’re asking me will my love grow
I don’t know, I don’t know
You stick around and it may show
I don’t know, I don’t know

Something in the way she knows
And all I have to do is think of her
Something in the things she shows me
I don’t want to leave her now
You know I believe and how

James Gang – The Bomber

Great album cut by The James Gang. Val brought this one to my attention a few weeks ago and I’ve been listening ever since.

Bill Szymczyk produced the second album for the James Gang called Rides Again which was released in 1970.

A big space was filled with “The Bomber,” which took up more than seven minutes of Rides Again‘s 35-minute running time, and ended up spawning a couple of classic James Gang stories in the process…while triggering a decades-long copyright battle and paving the way for the invention of industry-standard speakers in the bargain.

The Record Plant had just installed new expensive monitors, and Bill Szymczyk was the first guy to use them, which was a real mistake. During playback of “The Bomber” the speaker just physically blew out of the wall.

Bill Szymczyk: “We blew eight of those speakers up,” “The next day, [Record Plant co-founder] Gary Kellgren went to his maintenance guy, his head tech, who was Tom Hidley, and he said to Tom, ‘Make me a monitor that Szymczyk can’t blow up!’ That was the birth of the Hidley monitor, which is in hundreds of studios around the world at this point.”

“The Bomber” also included a passage from Ravel’s “Boléro,” which ended up costing the James Gang a fair bit of legal drama. “Ravel was French, and French copyright law and French law, in general, is insane. The French copyright, Ravel’s heirs and Ravel’s estate stipulated in the French copyright law that the piece had to be played in its entirety, top to bottom,” recalls Walsh. “You could never play little parts of it. And it had to be played by the full orchestra that it was written for. Well, we didn’t know that!”

The band was forced to remove the Boléro part but it was restored when the CD was released.

The Bomber

When I became of age my mama sat me down
Said “Son, you’re growin’ up, it’s time you looked around”
So I began to notice some things I hadn’t seen before
That’s what brought me here knockin’ on your back door
Oh, yeah

A closet queen, the busstop’s dream, she wants to shake my hand
I don’t want to be there, she decides she can
It’s Apple Dan, he’s just the man to pick fruit off your branches
I can’t sleep, and we can’t keep this cattle on my ranches
Oh, yeah

It’s too strong, something’s wrong and I guess I lost the feelin’
I don’t mind the games you play, but I don’t like your dealin’
God looked bad, the luck’s been had and there’s nothin’ left to smoke
Will I be back tomorrow for the punchline of the joke?

Beatles – Come Together

The opening track to The Beatle’s last album Abbey Road.

This song was part of one of their best double A-sided singles…Come Together was sided with Something and the single peaked at #1 in 1969.

In 1969, Timothy Leary decided to run for Governor of California and asked John Lennon to write a song for him. “Come Together, Join The Party” was Leary’s campaign slogan a reference to the drug culture he supported and was the original title of the song. Leary never had much of a campaign, but the slogan gave Lennon the idea for this song.

Leary wasn’t happy with it when he heard it and said: “I was a bit miffed that Lennon had passed me over this way…When I sent a mild protest to John, he replied with typical Lennon charm and wit that he was a tailor and I was a customer who had ordered a suit and never returned. So he sold it to someone else.”

In the song, Lennonwrot the opening line o “Here come old flat-top / he come grooving up slowly,” which is very similar lyrically and in meter to a line in Chuck Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me,” “Here come a flat-top / he was moving up with me.”

This similarity caught the notice of the song’s publisher Morris Levy who, shortly after the Beatles song was released, filed a lawsuit against John for plagiarism. Timothy Leary may have walked away quietly, but Morris Levy was to do nothing of the sort.

A settlement was reached in 1973 which stipulated that Lennon would record three songs owned by Big Seven Music Corp., which was owned by Levy. Lennon picked Ya Ya, You Can’t Catch Me, and Angel Baby. He recorded the first two but the last one, Angel Baby he never did. Levy sued Lennon again and was eventually awarded a total of $6,795 in damages.

Aerosmith covered this song and did a good job…

John Lennon: “Though it’s nothing like the Chuck Berry song,” “they took me to court because I admitted this once years ago. I left in one line, which is not just Berry’s: ‘Here come old flat top.’ I could have changed it to ‘Here comes old iron face.’

Paul McCartney: “here come old flat-top, “That was a lyric John could NOT let go of. And he couldn’t better it, so he just used it. And I said, ‘Well, it’s a bit of a nick, isn’t it?’ He said, ‘No, it’s a quote.’ I said, ‘OK, fair enough.”

From Songfacts

Timothy Leary was a psychologist who became famous for experimenting with LSD as a way to promote social interaction and raise consciousness. Leary did many experiments on volunteers and himself and felt the drug had many positive qualities if taken correctly. When the government cracked down on LSD, Leary’s experiments were stopped and he was arrested on drug charges.

After Timothy Leary decided against using this song for his political campaign Lennon added some nonsense lyrics and brought it to the Abbey Road sessions. Paul McCartney recalled in Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs: “I said, ‘Let’s slow it down with a swampy bass-and-drums vibe.’ I came up with a bass line, and it all flowed from there.”

John Lennon was sued for stealing the guitar riff and the line “Here comes old flat-top” from Chuck Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me.” The lawsuit did not come from Berry, but from Morris Levy, one of the music industry’s most infamous characters (see our interview with Tommy James for more on Levy). He owned the song along with thousands of other early rock songs that he obtained from many poor, black, and unrepresented artists. Levy sued the Beatles, or more accurately, John Lennon, over the song around the time the Beatles broke up.

For years, Lennon delayed the trial while he and the Beatles tried to sort out all the legal and business problems that plagued Apple Records. Finally, in an attempt to avoid the court room as much as he could (Lennon felt like he was appearing in court more often than not), he settled with Levy. Lennon agreed to record his Rock N Roll album, which was just a series of cover songs, including three songs Levy owned (including “You Can’t Catch Me”) on the tracklist.

The deal made sense: Lennon always wanted to make a covers album, and Levy wanted the value of his songs to increase (when a Beatle re-records a song, that is just what happens). To make a long long long story short, Lennon recorded the album over the Lost Weekend, a year-or-two period when he was separated from Yoko Ono and lived in Los Angeles. During that time he was often drunk or high, and was rather sloppy and useless. Levy was getting frustrated with the lack of progress. Phil Spector was the producer, but in a fit of madness (which was not too unusual for Spector) he ran away and stole the recording session tapes. Levy invited Lennon to his upstate New York recording studio, and that is where he finally recorded the album, which ended up with only two Levy songs: “You Can’t Catch Me” and “Ya Ya.” >>

The whispered lyric that sounds like “shoot” is actually Lennon saying “shoot me” followed by a handclap. The bass line drowns out the “me.”

The Beatles recorded this on July 21, 1969 and it was the first session John Lennon actively participated in following his and Yoko’s car accident 3 weeks earlier. John was so insistent on Yoko being in the studio with him that he had a hospital bed set up in the studio for her right after the accident, since she was more seriously injured than he was. >>

The line “Ono sideboard” refers to Yoko.

The British Broadcasting Company (The BBC) banned this because of the reference to Coca Cola, which they considered advertising.

This has one of the most commonly misheard lyrics in the history of popular music: “Hold you in his -armchair- you can feel his disease.” It’s actually “Hold you in his arms, yeah, you can feel his disease.” All published sheet music had the “armchair” lyric, including the inner sleeve of the 1967-1970 compilation, which contained lots of other errors too, notably on “Strawberry Fields Forever.” After John heard that his lyric was incorrect in the sheet music and other folios, he decided he liked “armchair” better and kept it. >>

The Beatles released this as a “double A side” single with “Something.”

In 1969, this won a Grammy for best engineered recording.

When rumors were spreading that Paul McCartney was dead, some fans thought the line “One and one and one is three” meant that only George, John and Ringo were left. The line “Got to be good lookin’ cuz he’s so hard to see” was supposed to be Paul’s spirit. >>

A rotary phone was used to make the sound heard before each verse and after the chorus. The sound was accompanied by the bass Paul played. Kids, ask your parents or grandparents what a rotary phone was. >>

Aerosmith recorded this song with Beatles producer George Martin for the 1978 movie Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which turned out to be one of the worst films ever made. Aerosmith appeared in the film performing this song (as the Future Villain Band), agreeing to the role only because they couldn’t resist the chance to record a Beatles song with George Martin. They weren’t the only big names in the film – Peter Frampton and The Bee Gees were also in it.

The Aerosmith version of “Come Together” made #23 in the US when it was released as a single. When we asked their guitarist Brad Whitford why some folks prefer the Aerosmith version, he replied, “I’ve actually never heard anybody say that.” Whitford added, “But you know, it’s funny, I hear our version more on the radio than I do The Beatles’ version.”

In 2001, Beck, Moby, Marc Anthony, and Nelly Furtado were scheduled to put on a tribute concert in Radio City Music Hall called “Come Together: A Night For John Lennon.” Due to the terrorist attacks on America, it was postponed and dedicated to the people of New York City, with proceeds benefiting victims of the attacks.

Nortel used this in commercials, as did Macy’s.

On an early demo version of “My Monkey” by Marilyn Manson (whose vocals were sped up to sound like “a demonic toddler”), Manson sang the second verse as an opener. It appeared on Demos in Lunchbox by Manson’s former band, The Spooky Kids.

This has been covered by Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Meat Loaf, Guns N’ Roses, Soundgarden, Marilyn Manson, Nazareth, and Oasis.

Though Ringo is best known for playing on Oyster Black Pearl Ludwig drum kit, he used for this his Ludwig “Hollywood” maple-finish equipment, with a 22″ kick. Starr produced his distinctive late ’60s drum muffling sound on tracks like this by wrapping tea towels (dishtowels) around his snares and toms.

On October 7, 2016, The Rolling Stones covered this song during their headline set at the Desert Trip festival in Indio, California. Before launching into the tune, Mick Jagger told the crowd: “We’re gonna do a cover song of a sort of unknown beat group. I think you might remember [them], we’re gonna try a cover of one of their tunes.”

Come Together

Here come old flat top
He come groovin’ up slowly
He got joo joo eyeballs
He one holy roller
He got hair down to his knee
Got to be a joker
He just do what he please

He wear no shoeshine
He got toe jam football
He got monkey finger
He shoot Coca-Cola
He say I know you, you know me
One thing I can tell you is
You got to be free
Come together, right now
Over me

He bad production
He got walrus gumboot
He got Ono sideboard
He one spinal cracker
He got feet down below his knee
Hold you in his armchair
You can feel his disease
Come together, right now
Over me

He roller coaster
He got early warning
He got muddy water
He one Mojo filter
He say one and one and one is three
Got to be good looking
‘Cause he’s so hard to see
Come together right now
Over me

Come together, yeah
Come together, yeah
Come together, yeah
Come together, yeah
Come together, yeah
Come together, yeah
Come together, yeah
Come together, yeah
Come together, yeah

Slade – Cum On Feel The Noize

Slade was very successful in the UK with 6 number ones, 16 top ten, and 24 top 40 singles. They could not duplicate their success in America where they only had two top forty singles…Run, Runaway, and My, Oh My both in the 80s.

Jim Lea and Noddy Holder of Slade wrote this song, and it was produced by Chas Chandler, who managed Jimi Hendrix before working with Slade. The song entered the UK charts at #1, becoming the first to do so since The Beatles “Get Back” in 1969. It was Slade’s fourth UK #1.

This song peaked at #98 in the Billboard 100 and #1 in the UK in 1973.

Americans know this song and Slade’s Mama Weer All Crazee Now more by Quiet Riot in the 80s. I’ve grown to appreciate Slade’s glam rock and wonder why they weren’t more successful in America.

From Songfacts

This is a glam rock classic. Slade performed loud, anthemic songs in flamboyant costumes, often with lots of makeup and plenty of energy. Glam rock was big in the UK in the mid-’70s, and this was one of the genre’s first hits. Slade also hit #1 with similarly misspelled songs “Coz I Love You” and “Mama Weer All Crazee Now.”

Most Americans know this song from the Quiet Riot cover, which went to #5 in 1983 and helped their album Metal Health become the first metal album to hit #1 on the Billboard 200. It was the band’s producer, Spencer Proffer, who asked them to cover the song; lead singer Kevin DuBrow wanted nothing to do with it, since he wanted the band to write every song on the album. He and the band cooked up a plan to sabotage the song, but it failed.

In a Songfacts interview with Quiet Riot drummer Frankie Banali, he told the story: “We were supposed to rehearse the song and go in and record it. The producer kept calling the rehearsal studio, ‘Are you working on ‘Cum On Feel the Noize’?’ And we’d say, ‘Yeah. It sounds great.’ But we never played it.

So the day came when it was time to record the song, and I came in early and told the engineer what was going on. I was honest with him. I said, ‘You might just want to record this for laughs and giggles.’

We went in, there was no intro, no nothing at all. There was a little bit of arguing as to how it was going to start, and finally, when I knew the engineer was rolling tape, I just started playing what became the intro. Rudy [Sarzo, bass] joined in, and then Carlos [Cavazo, guitar] joined in. Kevin was sitting at the corner of the studio, just giggling, waiting for this massive train wreck, and the train wreck never happened.

I had already done so many sessions in LA – even before the Metal Health record – that I knew, ‘Vamp long, there’s no click track on it,’ and all of that. And then when we were done, the producer says, ‘That sounded great. I wish we had recorded it.’ And the engineer said, ‘Come on in.’

He went in to listen, and Kevin grabbed me by the arm and almost dislocated my shoulder. He says, ‘What the hell was that?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know man. I just started playing it!’ He says, ‘Well, what am I supposed to do now?’ And I said, ‘Well, you can always sing it s–tty, can’t you?’ He smiled a little, but he was really pissed off.

The thing is, when you listen to the original Slade version and you listen to our version, Slade begins at a different part of the song. Slade did not have an intro – it just goes right in. And because we weren’t familiar with the song – and I definitely wasn’t familiar with the song – I think I either left out a verse or a chorus in our arrangement. So if you play them side-by-side, they’re not going to match.

I will say that there is a lot of similarities between Kevin’s voice and Noddy Holder’s. It was good call on the producer’s part to do that. And I understand why he did it: Quiet Riot was a new band, doing music that nobody else was doing, and he just wanted to have a ‘safety song’ that was a hit everywhere except for the United States. I get it. And the reality is, if we had not done that song, you’d probably be interviewing the drummer from another band right now.”

Quiet Riot had been recording since 1975 without a hit. After finding success with “Cum On Feel The Noize,” they had a minor hit with their next single “Bang Your Head (Metal Health)” and recorded another Slade song, “Mama Weer All Crazee Now.” After Metal Health, they never caught on and failed to enjoy the success of similar bands like Mötley Crüe and Poison.

In 2007, Quiet Riot lead singer Kevin DuBrow died of a drug overdose at age 52. The band re-formed in 2010 with a number of vocalists going through the ranks. James Durbin, the fourth place finisher on American Idol in 2011, took over in 2017.

The Quiet Riot version took off thanks to a video that got lots of airplay on MTV. At the time, pop radio was dominated by Michael Jackson, The Police, Madonna and other acts that were chasms away from metal, but MTV had plenty of wiggle room in their playlist and was looking for American rock bands in particular. The “Cum On Feel The Noize” video was sweet nectar to the young male audience they were trying to attract; one of this species stars in the clip, undergoing a metal assault in his bedroom. Mark Rezyka, who did all of Quiet Riot’s early videos, was the director.

Though little known Stateside, Slade was enormously popular in the UK, where they had 18 songs reach the Top 5, seven of them #1s.

Much of their musical output was produced by Chas Chandler, famous for managing Jimi Hendrix and a talented rocker in his own right, playing bass as a founding member of the seminal British rock band The Animals. But Glam Rock was buried in Britain by the late 1970s and Slade slid into semi-obscurity in the US until the release of Quiet Riot’s cover, which helped boost their own sales a bit.

Cum On Feel The Noize

Baby baby baby!

Yow!

So you think I got an evil mind, well I’ll tell you honey
And I don’t know why
And I don’t know why
So you think my singing’s out of time, well it makes me money
And I don’t know why
And I don’t know why
Anymore
Oh no

So come on, feel the noise
Girls, grab your boys
We get wild, wild, wild
We get wild, wild, wild
So come on, feel the noise
Girls, grab your boys
We get wild, wild, wild
At your door

So you say I got a funny face, I ain’t got no worries
And I don’t know why
And I don’t know why
Say I’m a scruff bag well it’s no disgrace, I ain’t in no hurry
And I don’t know why
I just don’t know why
Anymore
Oh no

So come on, feel the noise
Girls, grab your boys
We get wild, wild, wild
We get wild, wild, wild
So come on, feel the noise
Girls, grab your boys
We get wild, wild, wild
At your door

Yow!
So you think we have a lazy time, well you should know better
And I don’t know why
I just don’t know why
And you say I got a dirty mind, well I’m a mean go-getter
And I don’t know why
And I don’t know why
Anymore
Oh no

So come on, feel the noise
Girls, grab your boys
We get wild, wild, wild
We get wild, wild, wild
So come on, feel the noise
Girls, grab your boys
We get wild, wild, wild
At your door

So come on, feel the noise (come on, come on)
Girls, grab your boys (grab your boys)
We get wild, wild, wild (we get wild)
We get wild, wild, wild (yeah)
So come on, feel the noise (feel it, feel it)
Girls, grab your boys (grab ’em, grab ’em)
We get wild, wild, wild (we get wild)
We get wild, wild, wild (we get wild)

Come on, feel the noise (can you feel it, can you feel it?)
Girls, grab your boys (feel the noise)
We get wild, wild, wild (come on, get wild)
We get wild, wild, wild (get wild)
So come on, feel the noise (come on, come on, come on)
Girls, grab your boys (feel the noise)
We get wild, wild, wild
We get wild, wild, wild

Alice Cooper – Eighteen

This song was an anthem for teenagers when it was released in 1971 . It remains one today.

Eighteen peaked at #21 in the Billboard 100 and #7 in Canada in 1971.

Most of the band’s support was in the midwest, and they often toured with Detroit groups like the Stooges, the MC5, and Bob Seger. They were usually very low on the bill, but when this song came out, they moved up a few rungs.

Neal Smith (drummer in the Alice Cooper Band) said: “The first show we did after they started playing ‘I’m Eighteen’ was the Detroit Auto Show. It was the big teen event of the year. It was the very first time we played a song where the crowd went crazy. That’s what we were trying for the whole time.”

John Lydon auditioned for The Sex Pistols by singing along to this song for the group’s manager, Malcolm McLaren. This took place in a pub, when Lydon was hanging out after closing and McLaren asked him to mime some songs. Lydon said that the jukebox was filled with “that awful ’60s mod music,” and that “I’m Eighteen” was the only song on it he could tolerate. McLaren gave him the job and renamed him Johnny Rotten.

From Songfacts

This song is about the feelings of a frustrated teenager, which described many of Alice Cooper’s fans. 18 was an interesting age in America at the time, as in many states, you had to be older to vote or drink alcohol, but you could be drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. The group’s drummer, Neal Smith, told us: “It was a song about growing up in the ’60s, with lines in it like you could go to war but you couldn’t vote. We had no idea it would become an anthem; we were just thinking it would be a cool song.”The band (“Alice Cooper” was the name of both the lead singer and the group at the time) wrote the song in the summer of 1970 when they were living in a dorm house in Cincinnati. Their drummer, Neil Smith, told us how the song came together: “We were getting a lot of work in Ohio and Michigan; we were working and writing all the time. We had access to a club and we rehearsed there if we weren’t playing a show. Mike Bruce (guitarist) had this idea for a song called ‘I’m Eighteen.’ At first it was almost like a Pink Floyd kind of thing. We’d always been two guitars, bass, drums and the lead singer. Michael was well versed as a keyboard player. So we got a Farfisa organ and he wrote the song on that. The intro was kind of a melodic, haunting tune that built and built.”“I’m Eighteen” was eight minutes long in it’s original form. The group had an elaborate stage show with lots of gore and histrionics, so they wrote longer songs that would give them time to build a story with their visuals.

An 8-minute freakout was fine for a live performance, but the group needed a hit: their first album had made #199 on the charts, and their next one didn’t chart at all. They were signed to Frank Zappa’s Straight Records label, but when Zappa’s interest waned, the Straight’s parent company, Warner, took over the band and made them produce a 4-song demo to prove their worth. They went to the producer Jack Richardson, who had worked with the Guess Who, looking for help. Richardson wanted nothing to do with them, but he dispatched a young producer working at his Nimbus 9 studios named Bob Ezrin to see the band perform. Ezrin went to New York and saw them perform this song at a club called Max’s Kansas City. The band was so raw that Ezrin thought Cooper was singing “I’m Edgy,” but he saw lots of potential in the group and in the song.

Alice Cooper recorded their four-song demo with Ezrin at RCA Studios in Chicago, and “I’m Eighteen” was the standout track. With Ezrin at the controls, they polished the song down to 2:56. The label was impressed, the song became a hit, and Ezrin continued to work with the band, helping them craft radio-friendly rock songs without compromising their caliginous image. Neal Smith told us, “We were playing every night on stage. We knew how to get a crowd excited. We were like a pot ready to boil over. But the heat wasn’t hot enough yet. We always worked with a total group effort, everybody collaborating, everybody making suggestions. But Bob became like the 6th member of the band. He was the one person who had the final word.”Cooper was not really 18 at the time. He was 23 when they recorded it.This song was released in November 1970 as the first single from Love It To Death, which came out in January 1971. The song got a lot of early support on the Windsor, Ontario radio station CKLW, whose signal went into Cleveland.

Lydon, who was always a huge fan of Alice Cooper, narrated a 2000 BBC documentary on Cooper and wrote liner notes for his 1999 boxed set. Creed covered this on the soundtrack to the 1998 movie The Faculty.In 1998, the publishing company that owned the copyright of this song sued Kiss, claiming that “Dreamin’,” from their Psycho Circus album, resembled this too closely. The case was settled a year later.Alice told Mojo magazine December 2010 how producer Bob Ezrin contributed to this song: “Eighteen was a jam that we’d warm up with, it wasn’t even a song, and Bob said, ‘That’s a hit.’ ‘How?’ we said. He kept saying, ‘Dumb it down. Make it simpler.’ He’d add a piano on the bassline, and we’d go, ‘You can’t put a piano on an Alice Cooper song.’ But he was absolutely correct. When we got done listening to Eighteen, we just could not believe it.”The single was issued with the title “Eighteen.” On the album, it’s listed as “I’m Eighteen,” which is how it’s most commonly known.Anthrax recorded this song for their first album, Fistful of Metal (1984). It was the only album Dan Lilker played on with the band, and his performance on the song was sometimes cited by Anthrax members as a reason for his departure, since it took him a long time to get it right.

In our interview with Lilker, he explained that the producer, Carl Canedy, made lots of little changes during overdubs, which caused problems. “After a while I would get confused and play a note the wrong way,” he said. “It took 25 or 30 takes for me to play that right because he kept changing the part – which was about a good 20 of them – and then I would f–k up, because all the tiny little changes that would mess me up. So a song that sounds relatively easy was actually very difficult.”

Eighteen

Lines form on my face and hands
Lines form from the ups and downs
I’m in the middle without any plans
I’m a boy and I’m a man

I’m eighteen
And I don’t know what I want
Eighteen
I just don’t know what I want
Eighteen
I gotta get away
I gotta get out of this place
I’ll go runnin in outer space
Oh yeah

I got a
Baby’s brain and an old man’s heart
Took eighteen years to get this far
Don’t always know what I’m talkin’ about
Feels like I’m livin in the middle of doubt
Cause I’m

Eighteen
I get confused every day
Eighteen
I just don’t know what to say
Eighteen
I gotta get away

Lines form on my face and my hands
Lines form on the left and right
I’m in the middle
The middle of life
I’m a boy and I’m a man
I’m eighteen and I LIKE IT
Yes I like it
Oh I like it
Love it
Like it
Love it

Eighteen!
Eighteen!
Eighteen!
Eighteen and I LIKE IT

Elvis Presley – I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone

These Sun records by Elvis are untouchable. Many artists have tried to get the same sound that Sam Phillips achieved with his small studio in Memphis Tennessee. This title makes you want to listen to the song.

This was written by Bill Taylor and Stan Kesler, who were part of a group called the Snearly Ranch Boys, which recorded for Elvis’ label, Sun Records. The melody for the song was lifted by a jingle for Campbell’s soup.

The head of Sun, Sam Phillips, arranged for Elvis to record the tune, and brought in a drummer named Jimmie Lott to play on it, augmenting Elvis’ regulars: guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black.

In February of 1955, Elvis Presley records this as the “B” side to “Baby, Let’s Play House” to be released on Sun Records. This is the record that convinced RCA-Victor to drop $35,000 to buy Elvis from Sam Phillips…plus 5,000 Phillips owed Elvis.

I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone

Well, you’re right, I’m left, she’s gone
You’re right, and I’m left all alone
Well, you tried to tell me so
But how was I to know
That she was not the one for me?

You told me all along
You’re right, our love was so wrong
But now I changed my mind
Because she broke the ties that bind
And I know that she never cared for me

Well, I thought I knew just what she’d do
I guess I’m not so smart
Oh, you tried to tell me all along she’d only break my heart
I’m left, you’re right, she’s gone
You’re right, and I’m left all alone

Well, she’s gone I know not where
But now I just don’t care
For now I’m falling for you

If you’ll forgive me now
I’ll make it up somehow
So happy we will be
In a home just for three
And I’ll soon forget her now I know

Well, I thought I knew just what she’d do
I guess I’m not so smart
You tried to tell me all along
She’d only break my heart

Well, you’re right, I’m left, she’s gone
You’re right, and I’m left all alone
Well, she’s gone, I know not where
But now I just don’t care
For now I’ve fallen for you

Stevie Wonder – Superstition

I love the Clavinet in this song and it is what plays the opening riff. This song has been played a lot but it still sounds just as fresh as the day it was released.

This was recorded at Electric Lady Studios, which is where Jimi Hendrix recorded. The studios stayed active after Hendrix’s death, with artists like Miles Davis and Deep Purple also recording there.

Superstition was written for Jeff Beck, as part of an agreement between Beck and Wonder. The deal was for Jeff Beck to play on the recording sessions of his upcoming album Talking Book in return for Wonder writing him a song. Beck came up with the opening drum beat which inspired Wonder to improvise along with it, resulting in Superstition. After the recording of the album, Wonder went ahead and allowed Beck to record his own version of the song and release it

Berry Gordy released Stevie Wonder’s version of the song months ahead of Jeff Beck’s version and resulted in one of his best selling singles.

The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #6 in Canada, and #11 in the UK in 1973

This was Wonder’s second #1 hit in the US. His first was with “Fingertips (Part 2)” in 1963, which he recorded as “Little” Stevie Wonder.

From Songfacts

Wonder wrote this about the dangers of believing in superstitions. Some of the bad luck superstitions he alludes to include walking under a ladder, breaking a mirror (said to bring seven years of bad luck), and the number 13.

This was intended for Jeff Beck, who was brought in to play some guitar parts on the album in exchange for a song. At one of the sessions, Stevie came up with the riff and wrote some lyrics, and they recorded a rough version of the song that day for Beck. It took Beck a while to record the song, and by the time he released it, Wonder’s version had been out for a month and was a huge hit. Beck felt shortchanged, and made some statements in the press that Wonder didn’t appreciate. In 1975, Beck released an instrumental version of Wonder’s “Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers” on his album Blow By Blow. The album was a hit and helped solidify Beck’s reputation as an elite guitarist.

When Wonder turned 21, he was no longer obligated to Motown Records, and used his clout to sign a deal with the label giving him unprecedented control of his music. He got a large share of royalties and publishing rights, and Motown was not allowed to alter the albums once they were delivered. One thing Motown did control, however, were what songs they released as singles. Knowing Jeff Beck was about to record his version, Motown head Berry Gordy made sure this was the first single and released it before Beck could get his out.

Taking a cue from Marvin Gaye, who put musician credits on his album What’s Going On, Wonder included credits on Talking Book. On this track, Stevie played Hohner clavinet, drums, and Moog bass. Two of his band members also contributed: Steve Madaio played trumpet and Trevor Lawrence played tenor saxophone.

Jeff Beck finally recorded his own version of this song in December 1972 with bass player Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice. They recorded as Beck, Bogert and Appice, and while their album did well, their version of this song was hardly noticed.

At the time, Wonder would keep the studio booked so he could record when inspiration hit. Stevie’s bass player at the time, Scott Edwards, told Songfacts this was not always convenient for his band. “Because he does not have sight, he’s not controlled by daylight,” said Edwards. “So he may begin his night at midnight. Which is bad, because if they want you to come do an overdub or something, he may call you at 4 a.m. and say, ‘Come on in.'”

Several artists besides Jeff Beck have covered this. None made much of an impact until Stevie Ray Vaughan released a live version as a single in 1986 on his album Live Alive. His version is still played on Classic Rock radio, and has grown even more popular since Vaughan’s death in 1990.

This song incorporates many elements of rock music, which helped Wonder extend his appeal to a white audience. Before Talking Book was released, Stevie went on tour with The Rolling Stones, which boosted his credibility in the world of rock. When “Superstition” was released, it was warmly welcomed on the same radio stations that played The Stones, earning Wonder many new fans. It also helped Wonder move past his image as a child star.

Wonder performed this song on Sesame Street in 1973 during the show’s fourth season. It was recorded at the show’s New York studios at a time when Wonder and his band were playing lots of gigs, and they treated the Sesame Street performance just like any other, extending it to nearly 7 minutes, complete with intricate musical shifts directed by Wonder. Video of the performance shows kids and puppets having a blast on the set, but the band remained focused, since getting distracted by a monster would not be a valid excuse for missing a change.

Wonder was the biggest musical act to appear on the show to this point, and other top talent followed: Johnny Cash appeared the next year and Paul Simon showed up in Season 8. In later years, just about anyone who grew up watching the show was thrilled to appear, so they had no trouble attracting musical guests. Rather than straight performances, the songs were typically re-written to fit the theme of the show or teach a lesson: R.E.M. did “Shiny Happy People” as “Furry Happy Monsters”; The Goo Goo Dolls turned “Slide” into “Pride.”

The album was called Talking Book because wonder considered the songs akin to chapters in a book that tell a whole story. On the cover is a rare photo of Wonder without his sunglasses on.

Raven-Symoné of The Cosby Show and Disney Channel’s That’s So Raven fame, recorded this for the 2003 Disney movie The Haunted Mansion, starring Eddie Murphy. >>

Wonder appeared in Bud Light commercials that debuted during the Super Bowl in 2013 as part of the “it’s only weird if it doesn’t work” campaign, which showed superstitious fans acting compulsively in an effort to steer their teams to victory. Wonder appeared as some kind of witch doctor in New Orleans (where the game took place), asking, “are you looking for a little mojo?” He then transports our hero to the big game, where he has a voodoo doll to help his cause. The song “Superstition” plays throughout.

The song also appears in the 2018 “Trick. Treat. Win!” campaign for McDonald’s, which sell the idea that you don’t need luck to win.

Superstition

Very superstitious, writings on the wall
Very superstitious, ladders bout’ to fall
Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin’ glass
Seven years of bad luck, the good things in your past

When you believe in things that you don’t understand
Then you suffer
Superstition ain’t the way

Very superstitious, wash your face and hands
Rid me of the problem, do all that you can
Keep me in a daydream, keep me goin’ strong
You don’t want to save me, sad is my song

When you believe in things that you don’t understand
Then you suffer
Superstition ain’t the way, yeh, yeh

Very superstitious, nothin’ more to say
Very superstitious, the devil’s on his way
Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin’ glass
Seven years of bad luck, good things in your past

When you believe in things that you don’t understand
Then you suffer
Superstition ain’t the way, no, no, no

Bruce Springsteen – Bobby Jean

This will close out the Born in the USA weekend but I’ll cover the other songs soon. This one I really think would have been a hit if they would have released it as a single…but that can be said about a few other ones also.

This song was really poignant when I heard it because I was about to graduate and I was starting to say goodbye to a lot of classmates that I knew I’d never see again.

This was written as a farewell message to guitarist Steven Van Zandt, who left the E Street Band during the recording of Born In The U.S.A. to pursue other projects. Van Zandt returned to the band years later.

From Songfacts

Springsteen called this “a good song about youthful friendship.”

In this song, Springsteen sings from the perspective of guy going to visit someone important to him, only to find that this person – Bobby Jean – has left town. Many assumed that Bobby Jean was a girl, which changes the storyline considerably. This interpretation plays out in the 1995 Nick Hornby book High Fidelity, where the main character, a record store clerk, says: “There’s this Springsteen song, ‘Bobby Jean,’ off Born In The U.S.A. About a girl who’s left town years before and he’s pissed off because he didn’t know about it, and he wanted to say goodbye, tell her that he missed her, and wish her good luck. Well, I’d like my life to be like a Springsteen song. Just once.”

The book was adapted into a movie in 2000, starring John Cusack. Springsteen appears in the film in a dream sequence; this was his first time acting in a movie. In this scene, he closes by telling Cusack, “Good luck, goodbye,” echoing the last line of this song. The song itself is not named in the film though.

Bobby Jean

Well, I came to your house the other day
Your mother said you went away
She said there was nothing that I could have done
There was nothing nobody could say
Me and you, we’ve known each other ever since we were sixteen
I wished I could have known
I wished I could have called you
Just to say goodbye, Bobby Jean

Now, you hung with me when all the others
Turned away, turned up their nose
We liked the same music, we liked the same bands
We liked the same clothes
We told each other that we were the wildest
The wildest things we’d ever seen
Now I wished you would have told me
I wished I could have talked to you
Just to say goodbye, Bobby Jean

Now, we went walking in the rain,
Talking about the pain that from the world we hid
Now there ain’t nobody, nowhere, nohow
Gonna ever understand me the way you did
Maybe you’ll be out there on that road somewhere
In some bus or train traveling along
In some motel room there’ll be a radio playing
And you’ll hear me sing this song
Well, if you do, you’ll know I’m thinking of you
And all the miles in between
And I’m just calling you one last time
Not to change your mind, but just to say I miss you, baby
Good luck, goodbye, Bobby Jean

Ramones – Rock ‘n’ Roll High School

This song was the title song for the movie The Ramones made in 1980. I got a VHS copy of this movie in the early 80s and loved it.

The Ramones first recorded this song with producer Ed Stasium, who produced their previous album Road to Ruin. The band started working with Phil Spector soon after, and Spector remixed this song for the film. This is the version that was released as a single and included on the film’s soundtrack.

This song has a fifties sound to it and it does sound commercial for the Ramones but it never made it into the Billboard 100 but it did manage to get to #67 in the UK in 1979. It was not the hit they were hoping to have.

The song clocked in at a little over 2 minutes…true Ramones fashion. This is one band I regret never getting to see live.

From Songfacts

The Ramones wrote this song for the movie Rock ‘N’ Roll High School, which is about a student who leads a rock rebellion against the school administration. In the film, the student, Riff Randell (played by P. J. Soles), writes the song in her songwriting class (somehow this school she found so stifling offered a songwriting class and a means for her to work up a professional demo) and plays it to her classmates during gym class.

Determined to get the song to her favorite band, the Ramones, she is thwarted by the principal and stages a protest in retaliation, taking over the school with her fellow students. In the final scene, she leads the students out of the school in apparent surrender, but then introduces the Ramones, who have joined them to perform the song. While they play, Riff hits the plunger and blows up the building as the horrified teachers look on.

The film is campy in the tradition of Animal House, and it captured the punk attitude of rebellion with a heaping of humor. It was released independently, so it was never big at the box office, but Rock ‘N’ Roll High School earned an excellent review from the influential movie critics Siskel & Ebert, and quickly gained a cult following.

Rock ‘N’ Roll High School director Allan Arkush was a big Ramones fan, and pushed to make them the band in the movie. When he met with the band’s manager, Danny Fields, Arkush pitched him the story of the band playing while the school blows up. Fields was sold.

Much of the Ramones brand of punk rock was influenced by early rock and roll.

When Spector produced the Ramones End of the Century album, he had them record a new version, employing his “wall of sound” technique. While the original begins with eight seconds of drums, this rendition opens with the sounds of students mulling about at school, a class bell, and a sustained guitar note played by Johnny Ramone.

This guitar note became the stuff of legend when tales were told of Specter making Johnny play it over and over for eight hours. When Johnny walked out, Spector ordered him back in, and Johnny retorted, “What you going to do, shoot me?” (this exchange is captured on tape).

Spector is often said to have brandished a gun either at this point or at another point in the session, but Marky Ramone tells us that this is overblown – Spector carried a gun but never threatened them with it.

The album took about six months to make, which was an eternity by Ramones standards, although most of that time was Spector working without the band. The album was a modest success, going to #44 US and outselling previous Ramones efforts, but it left the band divided – Joey and Marky loved it, but Dee Dee and Johnny felt traumatized by the experience.

If the Ramones were ever going to score a hit single, this would have been it. The song was the title track to a movie, and the renown hitmaker Phil Spector had his hands on it. It was not to be: the song didn’t crack the American charts and the Ramones never did have a commercial breakthrough.

A video was made for this song using the 1980 End of the Century release. The video is based on the movie, with most of the band in detention and Marky dressed like a woman, playing the role of the principal in the film, Miss Togar. When MTV launched in 1981, it got some spins, but the Ramones never became video stars.

The version sung in the movie by P.J. Soles was also included on the soundtrack album.

According to Joey Ramone, the movie was going to be called Disco High School, since disco was big at the time. Director Allan Arkush managed to make it a rock movie starring the Ramones.

Joey says that when they blew up the high school at the end, they were really destroying the school and the explosions were frightening. The band was under strict instructions not to turn around until cameras stopped rolling. When they did, they saw the school up in flames.

Imploding the set did more than just create a great visual: it made it impossible to do re-shoots, ensuring that it couldn’t be reverted to Disco High.

The End Of The Century album cover was shot by Mick Rock, whose famous clients include David Bowie, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. He was warned before the shoot that the Ramones did not like photographers, but the session went well and resulted in one of the more memorable images of the band, with them wearing colorful T-shirts and no leather.

“It only took about an hour,” Rock told Songfacts. “They came, I did some Polaroids. They didn’t really comment much, but at least they liked them enough for one to appear on the album cover.”

Rock ‘n’ Roll High School

Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock ‘n’ roll high school

Well I don’t care about history
Rock, rock, rock ‘n’ roll high school
‘Cause that’s not where I wanna be
Rock, rock, rock ‘n’ roll high school
I just wanna have some kicks
I just wanna get some chicks
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock ‘n’ roll high school

Well, the girls out there knock me out, you know
Rock, rock, rock ‘n’ roll high school
Cruisin’ around in my GTO
Rock, rock, rock ‘n’ roll high school
I hate the teachers and the principal
Don’t wanna be taught to be no fool
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock ‘n’ roll high school
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock ‘n’ roll high school

Fun fun, rock ‘n’ roll high school
Fun fun, rock ‘n’ roll high school
Fun fun, rock ‘n’ roll high school
Fun fun, oh baby
Fun fun, oh baby
Fun, fun, fun, fun
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock ‘n’ roll high school
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock ‘n’ roll high school
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock ‘n’ roll high school

I don’t care about history
Rock, rock, rock ‘n’ roll high school
‘Cause that’s not where I wanna be
Rock, rock, rock ‘n’ roll high school
I just wanna have some kicks
I just wanna get some chicks
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock ‘n’ roll high school
Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock ‘n’ roll high school