I owned a softrock compilation album with this song and It’s So Nice To Be With You on it. Bend Me, Shape Me peaked at #5 in the Billboard 100 in 1968. The group was formed in Cicero, Illinois as Gary & The Knight Lites. The founding members included Gary Loizzo- vocals and guitar, Charles Colbert, Jr.- bass guitar and vocals, Al Ciner- guitar and vocals, and Jim Michalak on drums.
This was originally recorded in 1967 by The Outsiders, who were known for their hit “Time Won’t Let Me.”
This was written by songwriters Scott English and Larry Weiss. Larry Weiss later wrote “Rhinestone Cowboy.”
The song is about a guy who is so enamored with a girl that he will let her do whatever she wants to him as long as she continues to love him.
In the UK this was a #3 hit in 1968 for Amen Corner. The following year they went to the top of the UK charts with “(If Paradise Is) Half As Nice.”
Bend Me, Shape Me
You are all the woman I need, and baby you know it, You can make this beggar a king, a clown or a poet. I’ll give you all that I own. You got me standing in line Out in the cold, pay me some mind. Bend me, shape me Anyway you want me, Long as you love me, it’s all right Bend me, shape me Anyway you want me, You got the power to turn on the light. Everybody tells me I’m wrong to want you so badly, But there’s a force driving me on, I follow it gladly. So let them laugh I don’t care, Cause I got nothing to hide, All that I want is you by my side. Bend me, shape me Anyway you want me, Long as you love me, it’s all right Bend me, shape me Anyway you want me, You got the power to turn on the light. Bend me shape me anyway you want me
I had this song on a compilation album I had when I was around 18. Gallery was a 1970s American rock band, formed in Detroit, Michigan by Jim Gold. While they did record a number of songs, they are most famous for this 1972 hit single. They are a true one-hit wonder.
The song peaked at #4 on the Billboard 100 and #1 in Canada in 1972.
They had another hit as well as pointed out by a commenter…it was “I Believe In Music”, written by Mac Davis. It peaked at #22 on the Billboard 100 and #5 in Canada in 1972.
It’s So Nice To Be With You
Oh, it’s so nice to be with you I love all the things ya say and do And it’s so nice to hear you say You’re gonna please me in every way Honey, I got the notion you’re causin’ commotion in my soul
Baby, you and me have got somethin’ that’s real I know it’s gonna last a lifetime Aw, ya better believe it, girl at night I call your name Darkness fills my room, I’m only dreamin’ About the time I’m gonna be with you
Oh, it’s so nice to be with you I love all the things ya say and do And it’s so nice to hear you say You’re gonna please me in every way Honey, I got the notion you’re causin’ commotion in my soul
When I’m feelin’ down You’re there to pick me up and help me to carry on Aw, little things mean a lot when you need a shoulder to cry on I’m there to ease the pain and chase away the rain Aw, darlin’, I just gotta say
Oh, it’s so nice to be with you I love all the things ya say and do And it’s so nice to hear you say You’re gonna please me in every way
Oh, it’s so nice to be with you I love all the things ya say and do And it’s so nice to hear you say You’re gonna please me
This song has a gritty garage sound to it. There were many 1960’s garage bands that formed after The Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan. The Seeds were formed in 1965 by Sly Saxon. Saxon wrote, “Pushin’ Too Hard” while sitting in the front seat of a car waiting for his girlfriend to finish grocery shopping at a supermarket. The song peaked at #36 in the Billboard 100 in 1967. The song is simple and repetitive but catchy in its own way.
This song was a B side of “Don’t Stop” with both songs coming on the great album Rumors. This is a nice short acoustic Lindsey Buckingham written song. It’s a very understated but powerful song compared with the other ones on the album and one of my favorites.
Lindsey is a great guitar player. He is not flashy but he plays just what is needed like the sustained solo in “Go Your Own Way.” This song is what made me start listening to his playing.
from Rolling Stone Magazine: In the studio, co-producer Ken Caillat asked Buckingham to restring his guitar every 20 minutes. “I wanted to get the best sound on every one of his picking parts,” Caillat said. “I’m sure the roadies wanted to kill me. Restringing the guitar three times every hour was a bitch. But Lindsey had lots of parts on the song, and each one sounded magnificent.”
According to Q magazine, June 2009 the inspiration for this Lindsey Buckingham penned song was a brief relationship with a woman whom he’d met on the road. Buckingham had only recently broken up with his Fleetwood Mac co-singer Stevie Nicks.
Most of the Rumours album was recorded at The Record Plant in Sausalito, California, but this song was recorded at Studio City Sound Recording Studios in Los Angeles. According to recording assistant Cris Morris, this song took a while to record. Said Morris: “It was Lindsey’s pet project, just two guitar tracks but he did it over and over again. In the end his vocal didn’t quite match the guitar tracks so we had to slow them down a little.”
Never Going Back Again
She broke down and let me in Made me see where I’ve been
Been down one time Been down two times I’m never going back again
You don’t know what it means to win Come down and see me again
Been down one time Been down two times I’m never going back again
More soul from the seventies. The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100 and #6 in Canada. The Main Ingredient had two top ten hits and 11 songs in the top 100. The band was formed in Harlem, New York City in 1964 as a trio called the Poets, composed of lead singer Donald McPherson, Luther Simmons, Jr., and Tony Silvester. Don McPherson died of leukemia in 1971 and was replaced by Cuba Gooding, Sr…the father of Cuba Gooding Jr.
I love Seventies soul music. There were so many great artists like The Delfonics, The Chi-Lites, Smokey Robinson, and the list goes on.
Everybody Plays the Fool
Okay, so your heart is broken You sit around mopin’ Cryin’ and cryin’ You say you’re even thinkin’ about dyin’ Well, before you do anything rash, dig this
Everybody plays the fool sometime There’s no exception to the rule Listen, baby, it may be factual, may be cruel I ain’t lyin’, everybody plays the fool Falling in love is such an easy thing to do And there’s no guarantee that the one you love Is gonna love you
Oh-oh-oh, lovin’ eyes they cannot see A certain person could never be Love runs deeper than any ocean You can cloud your mind with emotion
Everybody plays the fool, sometime There’s no exception to the rule Listen, baby, it may be factual, may be cruel I want to tell ya Everybody plays the fool
How can you help it when the music starts to play And your ability to reason is swept away Oh-oh-oh, heaven on earth is all you see You’re out of touch with reality And now you cry but when you do Next time around someone cries for you
Everybody plays the fool, sometime They use your heart like a tool Listen, baby, they never tell you so in school I want to say it again Everybody plays the fool Listen to me, baby Everybody plays the fool, sometime (No exception) no exception to the rule It may be factual, may be cruel, sometime But everybody plays the fool Listen, listen, baby Everybody plays the fool
One of my favorite Paul Simon songs. The lyrics, melody, and the reggae feel make this song a classic. Paul’s songwriting is world class…the structure to his songs are great as well as is his guitar playing. The song peaked at #4 in the Billboard 100 and #5 in the UK in 1972.
Simon wrote this in response to the Jimmy Cliff song “Vietnam,” where a mother receives a letter about her son’s death on the battlefield. Simon recorded “Mother and Child Reunion” in Jamaica using Cliff’s musicians, hence the very authentic sound. Simon said of the song that it “became the first reggae hit by a non-Jamaican white guy outside Jamaica.”
Simon came up with the title after seeing a chicken and egg dish called “Mother and Child Reunion” on the menu at 456 Restaurant in Chinatown, New York.
This was Simon’s first single as a solo artist.
Paul Simon was ahead of the trend when he released this reggae-infused song: Johnny Nash went to #1 US later in 1972 with “I Can See Clearly Now,” and Eric Clapton topped the chart with “I Shot The Sheriff” (a Bob Marley cover) in 1974.
Mother and Child Reunion
No I would not give you false hope On this strange and mournful day But the mother and child reunion Is only a motion away, oh, little darling of mine
I can’t for the life of me Remember a sadder day I know they say let it be But it just don’t work out that way And the course of a lifetime runs Over and over again
No I would not give you false hope On this strange and mournful day But the mother and child reunion Is only a motion away, oh, little darling of mine
I just can’t believe it’s so Though it seems strange to say I never been laid so low In such a mysterious way And the course of a lifetime runs Over and over again
But I would not give you false hope On this strange and mournful day When the mother and child reunion Is only a motion away
Oh the mother and child reunion Is only a motion away Oh the mother and child reunion Is only a moment away
Oh the mother and child reunion Is only a motion away Oh the mother and child reunion Is only a moment away
Oh the mother and child reunion Is only a motion away Oh the mother and child reunion Is only a moment away
Everyone’s list will be different but classic rock radio has just overplayed these songs. It does not mean I don’t/didn’t like the song to begin with…some I didn’t…some I did… There are more than this but I kept it at 20. No need for me to post youtube links…just turn on a classic rock station and they will come to you.
I’ve tried to keep it one per band or artist. The order of these is not really important…you could pull them out of a hat and be just as well. Sometimes the artists have other hits that you don’t hardly hear but no… they stick to the old reliables.
Radio has ruined these for me. Yes, I’m older and have heard them more than some other people but my 18-year-old son suggested a few of them.
Taking Care of Business – Bachman Turner Overdrive – I liked this song at one time…Now I would pull a hamstring getting up to turn it off.
Hotel California – Eagles – I still like the solos at the end with Joe Walsh and Don Felder but the rest I can do without.
More Than A Feeling – Boston – At one time it was refreshing and different. Radio has worked this song like the town pump.
In The Air Tonight– Phil Collins (just one of many) His songs saturated the market so much in the 80s that is was enough for 3 lifetimes
Jukebox Hero – Foreigner – I know huge Foreigner fans but I’m not one of them. This one I know more than I should.
Feel Like Making Love– Bad Company – Not a well-written song to begin with…it doesn’t get better with more spins. They have good songs…Painted Face, Crazy Circles but they don’t get played as much.
Don’t Stop Believing– Journey – Yes it’s catchy and an eighties theme…it fit at the end of the Sopranos…but I can do without it.
Start Me Up – Rolling Stones – Oh how I loved this song when it was released. I liked it a decade later…until Microsoft used it and since then you would think it was the Stones only song.
Tom Sawyer – Rush – See number 5
The Joker – Steve Miller – Hanspostcard says it all.
Money – Pink Floyd – Great band and they have so many others they could play.
Roundabout – Yes – When I hear the octave on the guitar I spin the dial like a top to another station.
Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd – In the south where I live this song is required listening…. over and over and over…They have better songs…
Sharp Dressed Man – ZZ Top – I loved the video, the car, and the girls in the video but the song no more. How about the older ZZ Top?
Bad to the Bone – George Thorogood & the Destroyers – In high school alone I heard it enough.
Old Time Rock and Roll– Bob Seger – The first 5 times I heard it…I liked it…but after the 1, 855th time…no more.
Stairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin – It’s been played backward, forward and sideways…and the hidden message is the same…a worn out masterpiece.
Barracuda – Heart – This and Magic Man are like the bookends of worn out songs.
Black Water – Dobbie Brothers – I’ve never bought a record by them and they had great musicians in that band…but this is nauseatingly overplayed
You Give Love a Bad Name – Bon Jovi – Not for me the first time or the many times after…in cars, shopping centers, and grocery stores.
To be fair…there are songs that are worn out but yet I still listen to… Who Are You, Baba O’Riley, Hey Jude, Lola, Paint It Black, Brown Eyed Girl…
In the early 70s Television was going through a bout of criticism by the public because of its violence, there was the fear of government intervention and censorship. CBS decided to make the “Homecoming” into a series. Their reasoning was that once this family-oriented series aired and if it proved a failure, they would have shown they tried to put out a show that the public wanted. But the show did not fail. It took a little time, but it found its audience and CBS unexpectedly found itself with a smash hit on its hands.
The Waltons have been made fun of through the years. Other shows such as Good Times took shots at it for being too wholesome. I watched it when it was originally on. I liked the show and my mom thought I loved the show so she got me a Waltons Lunchbox. So while my buddies had the Superfriends, Evel Knievel, and cool lunchboxes I had the Waltons…yea my buddies got some mileage out of that but it was ok…I would love to have that lunchbox now.
A few years ago I got the complete DVD set and started to watch them again. The series had such quality scripts and the children were believable but the ones who made the show to me were Will Geer and Ellen Corby.
Will Geer’s grandpa was a grandpa everyone would love to have. Johnboy (Richard Thomas) was the lead to the show but when he left it remained solid to me. When Will Geer died the show missed him terribly. Ellen Corby’s grandma could be spicy and cantankerous and she helped balance the show from the sometimes sugary episodes.
The show ages well because it was set in the depression era and that is what you get until later on in the show’s run. The show remained a quality show in part because writer Earl Hamner Jr. remained with the show the nine years it was on. The show ended up winning 11 Emmy Awards…Good Night Johnboy became a catchphrase that you still hear today.
I remember hearing this song on Fast Times at Ridgemont High. A good pop song by Jackson in 1982 and it peaked at #7 in the Billboard 100 and #16 in Canada in 1982. It was written by Jackson Browne and Danny Kortchmar.
This was his highest ever charting song.
Jackson Browne recorded the song for the film because he was friends with its writer, Cameron Crowe. The song’s co-writer Danny Kortchmar was also friends with Crowe, and was working on the song “Love Rules” for the film with Don Henley when he came up with the framework for “Somebody’s Baby.” Kortchmar convinced Browne to finish writing the song and record it for the movie.
Browne has called this an “unabashed pop song.” Most musicians would want their most popular songs on their albums, but Browne was OK having it on the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack, despite the advice of his former label boss David Geffen, who told him he was nuts for giving it up.
This song is about a guy who is infatuated with a girl, and convinces himself that she must have a boyfriend. As he tries to work up the courage to talk to her, he keeps losing confidence by reminding himself that she’s too fine not to be taken.
This was part of a memorable scene in the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High, where it was used to express the feelings of a frustrated teenager. The movie was a huge hit and helped drive the chart success of the song. “Somebody’s Baby” was the only hit from the soundtrack, although “Moving In Stereo” by The Cars was used in a famous scene and also became associated with the film.
Jackson Browne wrote this song with Danny Kortchmar, who played guitar on his Running On Empty and Lives In The Balance albums. Kortchmar had the music and the “must be somebody’s baby” hook. He knew Browne could do something special with the song, so he brought what he had to Jackson, who helped Kortchmar complete it. That’s what I brought to him: all the guitar parts and everything else. In our 2013 interview, Kortchmar explained:
“It was not typical of what Jackson writes at all, that song. But because it was for this movie he changed his general approach and came up with this fantastic song. It’s a brilliant lyric. I think it’s absolutely wonderful. But it’s atypical of him – he wasn’t sure what to make of it himself. He didn’t want to put it on his album that he was making because it was atypical of what he did, but it ended up being something that got requested a lot and he ended up playing it live and taking it to his heart, as it were. And now he plays it all the time.”
Somebody’s Baby
Well, just, a look at that girl with the lights comin’ up in her eyes. She’s got to be somebody’s baby. She must be somebody’s baby. All the guys on the corner stand back and let her walk on by.
She’s got to be somebody’s baby. She must be somebody’s baby. She’s got to be somebody’s baby. She’s so fine.
She’s probably somebody’s only light. Gonna shine tonight. Yeah, she’s probably somebody’s baby, all right.
I heard her talkin’ with her friend when she thought nobody else was around. She said she’s got to be somebody’s baby; she must be somebody’s baby. Cause when the cars and the signs and the street lights light up the town,
She’s got to be somebody’s baby; She must be somebody’s baby; She’s got to be somebody’s baby. She’s so
She’s gonna be somebody’s only light. Gonna shine tonight. Yeah, she’s gonna be somebody’s baby tonight.
I try to shut my eyes, but I can’t get her outta my sight. I know I’m gonna know her, but I gotta get over my fright. We’ll, I’m just gonna walk up to her. I’m gonna talk to her tonight.
Yeah, she’s gonna be somebody’s only light. Gonna shine tonight. Yeah, she’s gonna be somebody’s baby tonight. Gonna shine tonight, make her mine tonight.
Atomic Rooster… Now that is a name. I’ve been in short term bands with different names such as… “The Flying Junebugs”, “The Cryin ‘Shame” and “Green Swingset” but Atomic Rooster is unique. Atomic Rooster was an English rock band, originally composed of former members of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Throughout their history keyboardist, Vincent Crane was the only constant member and wrote the majority of their material.
This is another song I noticed on the Life On Mars series in the mid-2000s.
Their history is defined by two periods: the early-mid-1970s and the early 1980s. Their genre in music is difficult to define since they went through radical changes in very short times during the life of the band. However, their best-known era represented a more hard rock/progressive rock sound, exemplified by their only hit singles, Tomorrow Night (UK No. 11) and The Devil’s Answer (UK No. 4), both in 1971.
The Devil’s Answer
People are looking but they don’t know what to do It’s the time of the season for the people like you Come back tomorrow, show the scars on your face It’s a clue to the answer we all chaseThree, five and seven lift the heaviest load reach the top of the heaven that’s fallen below Devil may care but you wish for the best can’t you see there’s an answer that lies there Come all you sinners and keep with the time can we see all the faces that have fallen behind Don’t make the reason it’s a secret for you
There’s a clue to the answer we all know There’s no clue to the answer we all know People are looking but they don’t know what to do It’s the time of the season for the people like you Come back tomorrow, show the scars on your faceIt’s a clue to the answer we all chase It’s a clue to the answer we all chase
This is a rocking song from 1971 made it to the top 10 at #10 in the Billboard 100, #5 in Canada, and #5 in the UK. This song got blacklisted and of course, gave it a boost. After singles such as “Mary Had A Little Lamb” this song gave Paul some “cool” teenager credibility about apparently getting high.
In an interview with the October 2010 edition of Mojo magazine, McCartney claimed to be surprised when the BBC blacklisted this song. Said the former Beatle: “Look at Bob Dylan, ‘everybody must get stoned.’ It was like, ‘Ooh, does he mean you get high? Or does he mean getting drunk? So there was that ambiguity and I assumed the same would apply to me.”
This song was banned by the BBC for what they described as “inappropriate sex and drugs references.” Fair enough – McCartney is singing about getting high, using his “sweet banana” and “doing it” to her!
McCartney talked about this song in a 2018 interview with GQ. “A lot of people were getting high, so to me it was just like a fantasy song, sort of saying, ‘Hey girl, come on let’s get high,'” he said. “It was just about the times. It’s very much a period piece, but it goes down well.”
McCartney dropped this from his setlists after 1976, but brought it back in 2013 and has played it recurrently ever since. As a grandfather, the song can be a bit embarrassing, so he tweaks it a bit, singing, “Let’s get hi… on life!”
Hi Hi Hi
Well, when I met you at the station You were standing with a bootleg in your hand. I took you back to my little place For a taste of a multicolored band. We’re gonna get hi hi hi, The night is young. She’ll be my funky little mama, Gonna rock it and we’ve only just begun.
We’re gonna get hi, hi, hi With the music on. Won’t say bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye Til the night is gone. I’m gonna do it to you, gonna do it, Sweet banana, you’ll never give up. We’re gettin’ hi, hi, hi, in the midday sun.
Well well, take off your face, Recover from the trip you’ve been on. I want to lie on the bed, Get you ready for my polygon. I’m gonna do it to you, gonna do it, Sweet banana, you’ve never been done. Yes, I go like a rabbit, gonna grab it, Gonna do it ’til the night is done.
We’re gonna get hi, hi, hi with the music on. Won’t say bye,bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye Til the night is gone. I’m gonna do it to you, gonna do it, Sweet banana, you’ll never give up. We’re gonna get hi, hi, hi, we’re gonna get hi hi hi, We’re gonna get hi, hi, hi, in the midday sun.
Last night my son and I went to see this film in Nashville at the Belcourt Theater at the screening. It opened up with Paul McCartney and Wings in very early seventies attire talking about how they met the Mcmouses. The one thing that surprised me…it was a smaller amount of animation that I anticipated. I thought it would be 60-40 animation but it was around 30-70 with Wings playing live on their 72 European tour and various film clips with the music. I’m not unhappy with the ratio because I wanted to hear Wings live more than seeing the animation.
They did use some soundstage shots mixed in with live shots also.
My biggest complaint was the voices of the mice were a little too animated…no pun intended but you could not understand what they were saying without straining. Wings were great though. This is the earliest video I’ve seen of Paul playing outside of the Beatles. The sound was great. The songs I can remember were Big Red Barn, Wild Life, Long Tall Sally, Seaside Woman, My Love, Hi Hi Hi, Mary Had a Little Lamb, C Moon, Blue Moon Over Kentucky, Maybe I’m Amazed, and there are a few more I’m forgetting.
The film is only 55 minutes long but a good representation of Wings in 1972. The band looked like they were having a lot of fun. I will get the film when it is released.
It’s a nice film that was made right before Live and Let Die and Band on the Run. The Bruce Mcmouse Show is not the best thing Paul has done…but a fun film all the same. It’s also a nice time capsule of the early seventies… Also, it was cool that at least 80 percent of the audience were college students…that gives me hope…and it was packed.
Now Paul…release the 1976 tour to the Theaters, please.
Good riff and rock song by the Kinks. It starts off with a chord that is reminiscent of the “A Hard Days Night” intro. I was in high school when it was released and it was great to hear a guitar driven song.
Ray Davies wrote this about the stressful working schedules the Kinks were going through. The song peaked at #41 in the Billboard 100 in 1983.
Do It Again
Standing in the middle of nowhere Wondering how to begin Lost between tomorrow and yesterday Between now and then
And now we’re back where we started Here we go round again Day after day I get up and I say I better do it again
Where are all the people going Round and round till we reach the end One day leading to another Get up go out do it again
Then it’s back where you started Here we go round again Back where you started Come on do it again
And you think today is going to be better Change the world and do it again Give it all up and start all over You say you will but you don’t know when
Then it’s back where you started Here we go round again Day after day I get up and I say Come on better do it again
The days go by and you wish you were a different guy Different friends and a new set of clothes You make alterations and [a fact in you knows] A new house a new car a new job a new nose But it’s superficial and it’s only skin deep Cause the voices in your head keep shouting in your sleep Get back, get back
Back where you started, here we go round again Back where you started, come on do it again
Back where you started, here we go round again Day after day I get up and I say, do it agaiiinnn Do it again Day after day I get up and I say, do it again
The song started out as a mistake, but one that Charles Wright liked. The record company didn’t want him to record it. “No one wanted to record it. I had to sneak a bass player, drummer, and engineer into the studio one Sunday and cut it in secret,” Wright recalls. “The president of Warner Bros. told me I made a mistake. So did every DJ that I played it for. But I had a feeling that it was a hit.”
Charles was right…it peaked at #12 in the Billboard 100 in 1970. It has become one of the most licensed songs of the last 40 years.
Express Yourself
Express Yourself! Express Yourself!
You don’t ever need help from nobody else. All you got to do now:
Express Yourself!
What ever you do, do it good. What ever you do, do it good. All right…
It’s not what you look like, when you’re doin´ what you’re doin´. It’s what you’re doin´ when you’re doin´ what you look like you’re doin´!
Express Yourself! Express Yourself!
They’re doin´it on the moon, yeah… In the jungle too. Everybody on the floor, now. Jumpin´ like a kangaroo. So let the horns do the thing they do, yo…
Some people have everything, and other people don’t. But everything don’t mean a thing if it ain´t the thing you want.
Express Yourself! Express Yourself!
O, do it! O, do it. Do it to it. Go on and do it. Yo, do it. Give.
I’ve read about this gathering for years. Writers, Editors, Artists, Humorists, Actors, Actresses and Reporters would gather at the Algonquin Hotel for what has been known as the 10-year lunch. They would hold court jesting with each other about a number of topics. It was not the place for the thin-skinned. Groucho Marx, the king of insults never felt comfortable there. He once said, “The price of admission is a serpent’s tongue and a half-concealed stiletto.”
Round Tabler Edna Ferber, who called them “The Poison Squad,” wrote, “They were actually merciless if they disapproved. I have never encountered a more hard-bitten crew. But if they liked what you had done, they did say so publicly and whole-heartedly.” Their standards were high, their vocabulary fluent, fresh, and very tough. Both casual and sharp-witted, they had incredible integrity about their work and endless ambition. Some of the members of the Round Table came together to work on each other projects. They essentially networked with each other. George Kaufman teamed up with Edna Ferber and Marc Connelly on some of his stage comedies, including Dulcy and The Royal Family. Harold Ross of The New Yorker hired both Dorothy Parker as a book reviewer and Robert Benchley as a drama critic.
By 1925, the Round Table was famous. What had started as a private gathering became public. The country-at-large was now attentive to their every word—people often coming to stare at them during lunch. Some members began to tire of the constant publicity. The time they spent entertaining and being entertained took its toll on several of the Algonquin members. In 1927, the execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, whose case had divided the country and the Round Table… seemed to cast a pall over the group’s antics.
Dorothy Parker believed strongly in the pair’s innocence, and upon their deaths, she remarked “I had heard someone say and so I said too, that ridicule is the most effective weapon. Well, now I know that there are things that never have been funny and never will be. And I know that ridicule may be a shield but it is not a weapon.”
As America entered the Depression, the bonds that had held the group together started to break. Many members moved to Hollywood for work or on to other interests. It didn’t officially end…it just faded. All in all, it lasted around 10 years.
The last gathering of the Algonquin Round Table was when Alexander Woollcott died in 1943. They all hadn’t met there in years…but the surviving members went straight there after the funeral for the last time.
Members and Part time-Members who would drop by
George S. Kaufman (1889–1961): Playwright, New York Times drama editor, producer, director, actor. Wrote forty-five plays (twenty-six hits), won two Pulitzer Prizes.
Alexander Woollcott (1887–1943): Drama critic for New York Times and New York World, CBS radio star as the Town Crier, model for the character of Sheridan Whiteside in Kaufman and Hart’s “The Man Who Came to Dinner”.
Beatrice B. Kaufman (1894–1945): Editor, writer, socialite. Married to George.
Harpo Marx (1888–1964): Actor, comedian, musician, card player.
Dorothy Parker (1893–1967): Vanity Fair drama critic, New Yorker critic. Celebrated poet, short-story writer, playwright. Wrote Hollywood screenplays. Champion for social justice.
Franklin P. Adams (1881–1960): Columnist at the New York Tribune, the New York World, and the New York Evening Post; wrote the “Always in Good Humor” and “The Conning Tower” columns. Always known as FPA.
Robert Benchley (1889–1945): Vanity Fair managing editor, Life drama editor, humorist and actor in short films.
Heywood Broun (1888–1939): Sportswriter at New York Tribune, columnist at New York World, author; helped found Newspaper Guild.
Marc Connelly (1890–1980): Newspaperman turned playwright; cowrote plays with George S. Kaufman. Won Pulitzer Prize for play The Green Pastures.
Edna Ferber (1887–1968): Novelist and playwright. Cowrote plays with George S. Kaufman, including Dinner at Eight. Won Pulitzer Prize for her novel So Big. Wrote Show Boat, Saratoga Trunk, Cimarron, and Giant.
Ruth Gordon (): American film, stage, and television actress, as well as a screenwriter and playwright. Later in life starred in Harold and Maude.
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Margalo Gillmore (1897–1986): Actress and “the baby of the Round Table.” Starred in early Eugene O’Neill plays.
Jane Grant (1892–1972): First female New York Times general assignment reporter; co-founded The New Yorker with husband Harold Ross.
Ruth Hale (1887–1934): Broadway press agent, helped pass Nineteenth Amendment for women’s rights, married Heywood Broun.
Margaret Leech Pulitzer (1894–1974): Magazine short story writer turned serious historian. Married Ralph Pulitzer; after his death, she earned two Pulitzer Prizes in history.
Alice Duer Miller (1874-1942): A writer from the U.S. whose poetry actively influenced political opinion. Her feminist verses made an impact on the suffrage issue.
Neysa McMein (1888–1949): Popular magazine cover illustrator, painter. Wrote about party games.
Herman J. Mankiewicz (1897–1953): Press agent, early New Yorker drama critic; cowrote plays with Kaufman, produced Marx Brothers movies. Won an Oscar for co-writing Citizen Kane.
Brock Pemberton (1885–1950): Broadway producer and director. Wrote short stories.
Harold Ross (1892–1951): Founded The New Yorker with his wife, Jane Grant.
Arthur H. Samuels (1888–1938): Editor of Harper’s Bazaar.
Robert E. Sherwood (1896–1955): Vanity Fair drama editor, Life editor, author, playwright who won four Pulitzer Prizes. Won Oscar for writing The Best Years of Our Lives.
Laurence Stallings (1895–1968): Ex-reporter, editorial writer for New York World. Collaborated with Maxwell Anderson on What Price Glory?
Donald Ogden Stewart (1894–1980): Author, playwright, screenwriter. Won Oscar for The Philadelphia Story.
Frank Sullivan (1892–1976): Journalist turned humorist. longtime contributor to The New Yorker.
Deems Taylor (1886–1966): Music critic turned populist composer. Wrote libretto for The King’s Henchmen with Edna St. Vincent Millay. Started national concert series. Narrator of Disney classic Fantasia.
John V. A. Weaver (1893–1938): Poet who wrote in street vernacular, literary editor of the Brooklyn Eagle
Peggy Wood (1892–1978): Actress in musical comedies, plays, early TV star.
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 