Chosen from among all others by the immortal elders – Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury – Billy Batson and his mentor travel the highways and byways of the land on a neverending mission: to right wrongs, to develop understanding, and to seek justice for all! In time of dire need, young Billy has been granted the power by the immortals to summon awesome forces at the utterance of a single word!
The show aired from 1974 thru 1977 and was on CBS. Captain Marvel seventies style. The series had a grand total of 28 episodes.
I would watch this show right after Land of the Lost (Which I think was the best-written Saturday morning show) A live-action superhero show! I would get up early on a cold Saturday morning and lay on the floor with my blanket over the heating vent and watch Saturday Morning shows.
The show starred Michael Gray as Billy Batson. He traveled with an older man named “Mentor” played by Les Tremayne. They traveled in their motorhome and helped people in need. when trouble came Billy would say “SHAZAM!” and turn into Captain Marvel and save the day. but not before he talked to the “Elders” Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury.
It was a low-budget show aimed at kids teaching life lessons. You won’t see Captain Marvel taking on super villains but at the time it was a fun fantasy tv show. Between 1975-1977 it was part of the super Shazam/Isis Power Hour.
This song came out in 1970 and was performed by Edison Lighthouse who was not a working band but an English studio group with Tony Burrows singing. This is bubblegum music but I do like it. In 1970 this song peaked at #5 on the Billboard 100, #3 in Canada and #1 in the UK.
Freedy Johnston also covered this song in 2001 and I like his version just as much or more as the original. The song didn’t chart but did get some airplay.. I have it under the original.
Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)
She ain’t got no money Her clothes are kinda funny Her hair is kinda wild and free Oh, but Love grows where my Rosemary goes And nobody knows like me
She talks kinda lazy And people say she she’s crazy And her life’s a mystery Oh, but Love grows where my Rosemary goes And nobody knows like me
There’s something about her hand holding mine It’s a feeling that’s fine And I just gotta say She’s really got a magical spell And it’s working so well That I can’t get away
I’m a lucky fella And I’ve just got to tell her That I love her endlessly Because Love grows where my Rosemary goes And nobody knows like me
There’s something about her hand holding mine It’s a feeling that’s fine And I just gotta say She’s really got a magical spell And it’s working so well That I can’t get away
I’m a lucky fella And I’ve just got to tell her That I love her endlessly Because Love grows where my Rosemary goes And nobody knows like me
Fadeout: It keeps growing every place she’s been And nobody knows like me
If you’ve met her, you’ll never forget her And nobody knows like me
La la la- believe it when you’ve seen it Nobody knows like me
This man has always intrigued me. A reclusive billionaire who ran an empire from a darkened suite.
What a fascinating man. In his life, he was a busy man. He got his fortune from his father developing a drill bit called the Sharp–Hughes Drill Bit for drilling oil. Howard was very talented himself. He was a producer, part owner in RKO, playboy, aviator and much more. He started his own aircraft company and worked with the government developing World War II military aircraft.
He had an airplane crash in 1946 and after that, he started to become a recluse. This is where it started to go downhill for Hughes. Not only was he deathly afraid of germs but he also had OCD. He showed signs of this for years but it gradually got worse.
in 1966 he arrived in Las Vegas and stayed at in the penthouse of the Desert Inn. The management wanted him out because he was not a high roller. So what did Howard do? He bought the Desert Inn. Afterward, he went on a Vegas buying spree, snapping up other hotel-casinos, an airport, and airline and various tracts of undeveloped land. He stayed in the hotel during this. He did not venture out of his room.
He loved movies but there were no all-night tv stations at that time. So again what did he do? He bought a television station and made them an all-night station and they played the movies he wanted to see…a very expensive VCR.
Hughes employed key aides who belonged to the Church of Latter Day Saints. Mormons were prohibited from doing two things he did not do—drink alcohol and smoke. He was afraid of germs and had long rules on how to do certain things that his aides had to follow.
To open a can, a memo, for example, was over a thousand words…and included newspapers and 2 bars of soap….to break it down..Step 1: “Preparation of Table.” Step 2: “Procuring of Fruit Can.” Step 3: “Washing of Can.” Step 4: “Drying the Can.” Step 5: “Processing the Hands.” Step 6: “Opening the Can.” Step 7: “Removing Fruit from Can.” Step 8: “Fallout Rules While Around Can.” Step 9: “Conclusion of Operation.”
Flyswatters would be banned because they could stir up the air and recycle germs that were lying dormant in the air conditioner system. His aides had to catch flies with kleenex. He also made his aides to wash their hands multiple times and use paper towels while bringing him his food. The ironic thing is he lived in his own filth hardly ever taking a bath or brushing his teeth. It is said he thought “outside” germs were bad but his own germs were evidently ok.
One of his right-hand men who carried out his orders was former CIA and FBI agent Robert Maheu… Robert worked for Hughes from 1955 to 1970 and he never met Hughes face to face…only communicating over the phone and through written messages.
His last 30 years of life he was addicted to codeine because of injuries from the 1946 crash. There were rumors that he would wear Kleenex boxes on his feet and never cut his finger and toenails. He left Las Vegas in 1970. Some say it was because of nuclear testing in the desert and others say he was being investigated by the government.
Howard did help change Las Vegas to more corporate-owned casinos, thinning out the Mafia element. He died in 1976 of renal failure while on a plane to Texas.
If I could meet any performer I wanted to…Arlo would be one of them. He seems like the most laid back guy in the world. His father was the great singer-songwriter, Woody Guthrie. Arlo wrote some very good songs but he didn’t write this one. City of New Orleans was written by Steve Goodman. Steve did a great job writing this song. Its structure and imagery are fantastic.
Arlo released this in 1972 and it peaked at #18 in the Billboard 100 and #11 in Canada.
Arlo said he ignored his mother’s advice. She said if he wanted to play music that was fine…but learn something else as a fallback. He said if he would have learned something else, in the hard times he would have done something else instead of music.
“I’ve quoted my dad a lot of over the years. One of my favorite things he said is: ‘It’s better to fail at being yourself than to succeed at being somebody else’.”
From Songfacts about the writer Steve Goodman
Goodman wrote the lyrics on a sketch pad after his wife fell asleep on the Illinois Central train, where they were going to visit his wife’s grandmother. Goodman wrote about what he saw looking out the windows of the train and playing cards in the club car. Everything in the song actually happened on the ride.
After he returned home, Goodman heard that the train was scheduled to be decommissioned due to lack of passengers. He was encouraged to use this song to save the train, so he retouched the lyrics and released it on his first album in 1971.
The City of New Orleans
Riding on the City of New Orleans Illinois Central Monday morning rail Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail All along the southbound odyssey The train pulls out at Kankakee Rolls along past houses, farms and fields Passin’ trains that have no names Freight yards full of old black men And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles
Good morning America how are you? Don’t you know me I’m your native son I’m the train they call The City of New Orleans I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done
Dealin’ cards with the old men in the club car Penny a point ain’t no one keepin’ score Won’t you pass the paper bag that holds the bottle Feel the wheels rumblin’ ‘neath the floor And the sons of Pullman porters And the sons of engineers Ride their father’s magic carpets made of steam Mothers with their babes asleep Are rockin’ to the gentle beat And the rhythm of the rails is all they dream
Good morning America how are you? Don’t you know me I’m your native son I’m the train they call The City of New Orleans I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done
Nighttime on The City of New Orleans Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee Half way home, we’ll be there by morning Through the Mississippi darkness Rolling down to the sea And all the towns and people seem To fade into a bad dream And the steel rails still ain’t heard the news The conductor sings his song again The passengers will please refrain This train’s got the disappearing railroad blues
Good night, America, how are you? Don’t you know me I’m your native son I’m the train they call The City of New Orleans I’ll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done
As a 12-year-old, I waited for this and couldn’t wait to watch it. The film started out with The Beatles about to take off to America…and then flashed back to 1961 and followed them until their Ed Sullivan appearance. It was made by Dick Clark Productions. There is a Pete Best slant to the film…with good reason. They used Pete as an advisor and you can tell. Many things slant his way.
For a fan like me, some things bother me about it…like The Beatles in Hamburg playing “Don’t Bother Me” which wasn’t written until at least 2 years later (I just looked up trivia in IMDB and this was listed…so others noticed). They mixed some facts around and left some out but with the length of the movie, they could not include everything. When making a movie about someone, events will get exaggerated and some things made up.
The movie I would make would be around 10 hours long and heavily detailed…in other words unwatchable by the general public.
I did like the spirit of this film and the actor playing John Lennon (Stephen MacKenna) I thought did a good job.
Overall it was a good try for the time and the film did do the early Beatle highlights… Stuart Sutcliffe, Astrid Kirchherr, Hamburg, Brian Epstein, Cynthia telling John she was pregnant, Paul and Pete lighting the Cinema (though heavily exaggerated), the comedy of the Beatles, George Martin, Rory Storm, Aunt Mimi and more. The group “Rain” did the soundtrack and that is maybe the highlight of the film
It was the only movie about the Beatles made when John was still alive. John, Paul, George, and Ringo…the real ones…tried to get the movie stopped but were obviously unsuccessful. The film was released to theatres in Europe but on television in America.
There are wince moments throughout the film…when in 1961 Hamburg, you see a little of seventies clothing and hairstyles plus some rushed acting. It’s full of flaws but they were on a budget and they tried to highlight the big moments. It’s a fun watch anyway even though they did get some of the story wrong.
From Wikipedia, these are the songs that were performed in the movie. Below these songs is the movie from youtube.
She Loves You – Opening titles version
My Bonnie (Lies Over the Ocean)
Oh Baby Doll – Performed by a different group at the Liverpool audition and not by the Beatles themselves.
Dizzy Miss Lizzy
Blue Suede Shoes – Performed by Rory Storm and the Hurricanes
I Saw Her Standing There – featuring Pete Best on drums
Don’t Bother Me
Johnny B. Goode
Lawdy Miss Clawdy – Performed by Rory Storm and the Hurricanes
Roll Over Beethoven
Kansas City
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Shake, Rattle and Roll!
Ask Me Why
Love Me Tender
Twist and Shout
P.S. I Love You
Dizzy Miss Lizzy – Reprise, a different recording featuring heavier drums and a more raw-sounding guitar
Cry for a Shadow
Please Mr. Postman
Long Tall Sally
Love Me Do
Rock and Roll Music
I Saw Her Standing There – Reprise, featuring Ringo Starr on drums. The drumming styles differ between versions for story reasons
Please Please Me
Thank You Girl
I Want to Hold Your Hand
She Loves You – Ending titles version
The quality is not great but here is the movie on youtube.
This was a very enjoyable song by Dexy’s Midnight Runners. It was very different than what was on the radio at the time. It was released in 1982 and peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in the UK Charts, and #2 in Canada. The song was written by lead singer Kevin Rowland.
I really thought this band would score another hit but they ended up a one hit wonder…one thing that didn’t help was when they were opening up for David Bowie in France, Kevin Rowland called Bowie a bad copy of Bryan Ferry and later he told the British press: “We only agreed to the show because France is an important market for us – not because I have any respect for Bowie”… Not a smart thing to do.
This song is based on a true story. Eileen was a girl that Kevin Rowland grew up with. Their relationship became romantic when the pair were 13, and according to Rowland, it turned sexual a year or two later.
Rowland was raised Catholic and served as an altar boy in church. Sex was a taboo subject, and considered “dirty” – something that fascinated him. When he wrote this song, Rowland was expressing the feelings of that adolescent enjoying his first sexual relationship and dreaming of being free from the strictures of a buttoned-down society:
You in that dress
My thoughts I confess
Verge on dirty
The song describes the thin line between love and lust.
“Come On Eileen”
Come on Eileen
Come on Eileen
Poor old Johnnie Ray Sounded sad upon the radio But he moved a million hearts in mono Our mothers cried Sang along Who’d blame them?
You’ve grown (you’re grown up) So grown (so grown up). Now I must say more than ever
Come on Eileen
Too-ra-loo-ra, too-ra-loo-rye, aye And we can sing just like our fathers
Come on Eileen Oh, I swear (what he means) At this moment you mean everything You in that dress My thoughts I confess Verge on dirty Oh, come on Eileen
Come on Eileen
These people ’round here Wear beaten-down eyes sunk in smoke-dried faces They’re so resigned to what their fate is
But not us (no, never) No, not us (no, never) We are far too young and clever Remember
Too-ra-loo-ra, too-ra-loo-rye, aye Eileen I’ll hum this tune forever
Come on Eileen Oh, I swear what (what he means) Ah, come on let’s take off everything Pretty red dress Eileen (tell him yes) Ah, come on let’s Ah, come on Eileen
Pretty red dress Eileen (tell him yes) Ah, come on let’s Ah, come on Eileen, please
Come on Eileen, too-loo-rye-aye Come on Eileen, too-loo-rye-aye Now you’re all grown Now you have shown Oh, Eileen
Say, come on Eileen These things they are real And I know how you feel Now I must say more than ever Things ’round here have changed
I say, too-ra-loo-ra, too-ra-loo-rye-aye
Come on Eileen Oh, I swear (what he means) At this moment you mean everything You in that dress, My thoughts I confess Verge on dirty Ah, come on Eileen
Ah, come on Eileen Oh, I swear (what he means) At this moment you mean everything You in that dress, My thoughts I confess Well, they’re dirty Come on Eileen
I bought this book 1978 when I was 11 and it changed me. I recommend anyone picking this book up anywhere you can. Any beginning Beatles fan or an older one will like this book. Nicholas Schaffner touches on their history without treating them like Saints. The photos of the collectibles are worth the book.
He covers how the Beatles impacted our culture and some of the changes that took place. He covers the craziness of Beatlemania to the gradual maturing of The Beatles. Nicholas highlights each Beatle along with following the band as a whole.
It’s fun to see the many collectibles that flooded the market during Beatlemania. It has great pictures and enough content to keep you coming back to it. This book was updated after John Lennon was killed but any version is worth buying.
I’ve been rereading it recently and it holds up today well. Of course, history doesn’t change but more details have come out but overall the book is good. He follows their solo careers with honesty.
One thing to remember it’s not a straight history of the Beatles (it starts with Beatlemania) or a strict discography but more about the impact they had on the world with history and a highlighted discography on the way.
For a casual Beatle fan, you can’t go wrong with Nicholas Schaffner’s The Beatles Forever.
In 1979 my Jr. High School librarian knew I would read anything on baseball or the Beatles so she had me paged to the library and showed me this…
again by Nicholas Schaffner and it’s great for a beginning Beatles fan. This would be a good starter book on The Beatles for a young teen.
I usually don’t post novelty songs, but I grew up with this one. It still makes me laugh to this day and contains one of my favorite lines,Take a trip and never leave the farm.
This song made me laugh as a kid. It’s about as corny as you can get but fun all the same. Jim Stafford had some novelty hits. His prime was 1973-1974. I had in my possession (from my sister) three of his hits. The Wildwood Weed, Swamp Witch, and his biggest hit, “Spiders and Snakes.”
It was a left-field slice of Southern-fried pop comedy that somehow crashed the charts in the middle of an era dominated by singer-songwriters and serious rock men. Now let’s be clear: “Wildwood Weed” isn’t a song so much as a story, a little slice of country funk narrated by a hayseed philosopher who sounds like he might’ve just rolled off the porch with a mason jar in hand. Over a shuffling, easygoing country-blues vamp, Stafford drawls out the tale of two good ol’ boys who discover a mysterious plant growing in the fields. They dry it, smoke it, and before long they’re laughing, dancing, and finding themselves “sittin’ on that sack of seeds.”
Jim has a sense of humor.
It didn’t take a genius to know what Wildwood Weed was about but the first time I heard it as an eight-year-old, an older neighbor had to tell me about it. It peaked at #7 on the Billboard charts. It actually made it to #57 on the country charts, which surprises me, knowing how conservative country was at that time.
Wildwood Weed
Jim Stafford
The wildwood flower grew wild on the farm, And we never knowed what it was called. Some said it was a flower and some said it was weed, I never gave it much thought …… One day I was out there talking to my brother, Reached down for a weed to chew on, Things got fuzzy and things got blurry, And then everything was gone! Didn’t know what happened, But I knew it beat the hell out of sniffin’ burlap.
I come to and my brother was there, And he said, What’s wrong with your eyes? I said, I don’t know, I was chewing on a weed. He said, Let me give it a try. We spent the rest of that day and most of that night, Trying to find my brother, Bill. Caught up with him, ’bout six o’clock the next morning, Naked, swinging on the wind mill! He said he flew up there. I had to fly up there and bring him down, He was about half crazy …..
The very next day we picked a bunch of them weeds, And put ’em in the sun to dry. Then we mashed ’em up and chopped ’em up, And put ’em in the corncob pipe. Smokin’ that wildwood flower got to be a habit, We didn’t see no harm. We thought it was kind of handy, Take a trip and never leave the farm!
All good things gotta come to an end, And it’s the same with the wildwood weed. One day this feller from Washington came by, And he spied it and turned white as a sheet. Then they dug and they burned, And they burned and they dug, And they killed all our cute little weeds. Then they drove away, We just smiled and waved ………. Sittin’ there on that sack of seeds!
I remember this song all over the place when I was 8 years old. Probably one of the first songs I remember blanketing radio and TV at the same time. Glen Campbell sang this song written by Larry Weiss and it was playing on top 40 radio and country alike. It peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #1 in the US Billboard Hot Country Singles, #1 in Canada and #4 in the UK.
For Campbell, this was a very important song, and one he would call “maybe the best song I’ve ever sung.” It came at a time when his career had gone flat: His popular TV show had been canceled, acting gigs dried up, and he hadn’t had a hit since 1971. The story of the faded star who perseveres in the song held a lot of meaning for Campbell.
This sold over 4 million units and hit #1 on the Hot 100, Country, and Adult Contemporary charts in the summer of 1975, becoming the first song since “Big Bad John” by Jimmy Dean to reach the apex of all three charts. “Rhinestone Cowboy” gained three Grammy nominations and was the Country Music Association’s Song of the Year for 1976. In 1977, the song earned Weiss the Nashville Songwriters’ Association International’s Songwriter of the Year award.
“Rhinestone Cowboy”
I’ve been walkin’ these streets so long Singin’ the same old song I know every crack in these dirty sidewalks of Broadway Where hustle’s the name of the game And nice guys get washed away like the snow and the rain There’s been a load of compromisin’ On the road to my horizon But I’m gonna be where the lights are shinin’ on meLike a rhinestone cowboy Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo Like a rhinestone cowboy Getting cards and letters from people I don’t even know And offers comin’ over the phone
Well, I really don’t mind the rain And a smile can hide all the pain But you’re down when you’re ridin’ the train That’s takin’ the long way And I dream of the things I’ll do With a subway token and a dollar tucked inside my shoe There’ll be a load of compromisin’ On the road to my horizon But I’m gonna be where the lights are shinin’ on me
Like a rhinestone cowboy Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo Rhinestone cowboy Gettin’ cards and letters from people I don’t even know And offers comin’ over the phone
Like a rhinestone cowboy Riding out on a horse in a star-spangled rodeo
Like a rhinestone cowboy Gettin’ cards and letters from people I don’t even know….
Some people tend to forget how big Elton was back in the early to mid-seventies. The songs just kept coming one after another. I’ve been watching some seventies sitcoms and shows recently and there was Valerie Bertinelli on “One Day at a Time” dressed like Elton John. He was everywhere back then. Some today remember him only by Candle in the Wind…the 1997 version for Lady Diana.
It seemed that everything he touched turned to gold. He covered Pinball Wizard and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and turned them into hits…some people like those versions better than the originals.
Elton John was pop/rock but he had some Liberace elements in showmanship. The sparkling pianos and even a Donald Duck suit. Elton is a very good piano player, songwriter and performer…but I think it’s his voice that sets him apart. It was a combination of all but he had a style all his own.
Bernie Taupin and Elton wrote those great singles that kept coming year after year. He has had 9 number 1 hits, 27 top ten hits, and 67 songs in the top 100. 1971 – 1975 was my favorite period… some of the singles were Your Song, Levon, Tiny Dancer, Honey Cat, Rocket Man, Crocodile Rock, Daniel, Saturday Nights Alright for Fighting, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Candle in the Wind, Bennie and the Jets, Philadelphia Freedom, The Bitch is Back and Don’t Let The Sun Go Down on Me… this much success could fill up 5 different careers… hard to believe it happened in a four year period.
Bernie Taupin was just as important as Elton. They stopped writing together around 1977 and Elton’s output was not as successful. They started to work together again a little later and still had hits but that stretch in the early seventies would be impossible to match.
I did like some Elton John songs after the mid-seventies but in the eighties, many of his songs just didn’t have the quality of his earlier ones to me. One standout was a song about John Lennon called Empty Garden. It is one of my favorite songs about John Lennon.
I got to know Eddie Cochran’s music through The Who. The Who covered Summertime Blues and I wanted to know where that came from…I read about his influence on the Beatles but never heard anything from him until the mid-eighties when I bought one of his compilation albums.
Eddie Cochran was a huge influence for the up and coming British guitar players of the sixties. Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, John Lennon, and Pete Townshend. He was huge in the UK. He was one of the big 50s guitar heroes. He broke through with the song “Summertime Blues” in 1958 that peaked at #8 in the Billboard 100 and he also did well with C’mon Everybody. He was never really big in America… he was a bigger star in Europe.
He didn’t use his guitar as a prop like some did…he played it and played it well. He also worked as a session musician. He helped bring rock guitar along in more ways than just his playing. He was one of the first to modify his pickups and he did away with the wound G string on the guitar. He replaced it with an unwound string which made it easier to bend. Many future musicians were paying attention, sitting on the front row of his British tour.
His influence can be heard throughout rock and roll…It was because Paul McCartney knew the chords and words to “Twenty Flight Rock” that impressed John Lennon to asked Paul to become a member of the Quarrymen.
During a British tour in 1960, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Sharon Sheeley (Eddie’s fiancé), and tour manager Pat Thompkins were in a taxi. They were leaving a show in Bristol, England to go to the London Airport…the taxi hit a lamp post and Eddie was thrown from the car and suffered a head injury and died in a hospital. He was only 21 years old. Gene Vincent received injuries to his already bad leg and walked with a limp after the crash. Eddie was the only one to die.
Sharon Sheeley was a songwriter. She wrote Ricky Nelson’s first hit “Poor Little Fool” and a couple of songs (Love Again and Cherished Memories) for Cochran.
There are a couple of stories about Eddie’s Gretch guitar. A 13-year-old Marc Feld met Cochran outside the Hackney Empire, a theater in the London borough of Hackney, where Cochran had just played a concert. Cochran allowed the boy to carry his guitar out to his limousine. Later Marc Feld would be known as… Marc Bolan of T Rex.
After the crash the guitar was impounded at a London police station…a young policeman used it to teach himself how to play. That policeman’s name was David Harman, but he would soon change his name to Dave Dee and help start a band called Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich…One of the soon to be British Invasion bands.
I bought this single right after it was released in 1981. The song was written by Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon. Jackie did a version of this in 1974. Kim Carnes was not a one-hit wonder…she had 3 top ten hits but this one was huge going to number 1 for nine straight weeks.
I would love to hear a duet between her and Rod Stewart…or Bonnie Tyler.
This is a cool fact about this song from songfacts.
After this song became a hit single, Bette Davis wrote letters to Kim Carnes and the songwriters to say she was a fan of the song and thank them for making her “a part of modern history.” One of the reasons the legendary actress loved the song is that her granddaughter thought her grandmother was “cool” for having a hit song written about her.
Bette Davis Eyes
Her hair is Harlow gold Her lips are sweet surprise Her hands are never cold She got Bette Davis eyes She’ll turn the music on you You won’t have to think twice She’s pure as New York snow She got Bette Davis eyes
And she’ll tease you, she’ll unease you All the better just to please you She’s precocious, and she knows just What it takes to make a pro blush She got Greta Garbo’s standoff sighs, she’s got Bette Davis eyes
She’ll let you take her home It whets her appetite She’ll lay you on the throne She got Bette Davis eyes She’ll take a tumble on you Roll you like you were dice Until you come out blue She’s got Bette Davis eyes
She’ll expose you, when she snows you Off your feet with the crumbs she throws you She’s ferocious and she knows just What it takes to make a pro blush All the boys think she’s a spy, she’s got Bette Davis eyes
She’ll tease you, she’ll unease you All the better just to please you She’s precocious, and she knows just What it takes to make a pro blush All the boys think she’s a spy, she’s got Bette Davis eyes
She’ll tease you She’ll unease you Just to please you She’s got Bette Davis eyes She’ll expose you When she snows you ‘Cause she knows you, she’s got Bette Davis Eyes
I’ve always liked Bill Haley and His Comets. I liked the pattern of his vocals and the tone of his guitar. He is sometimes referred to as one of the Fathers of Rock and Roll. Happy Days where I discovered Bill Haley and also Fats Domino.
Haley was blinded in his left eye as a child due to a failed operation. Haley later adopted his distinctive spit-curl hairstyle to distract attention from his blind eye. The hairstyle caught on as a 50s-style haircut.
Bill Haley is overlooked constantly. He was one of the firsts to play Rock and Roll but he didn’t exactly have the Elvis look. He was 30 in 1955 but looked much older. He looked like someone’s dad playing rock and roll but he had some of the iconic songs of the 1950s.
In 1953 he recorded the song “Crazy Man, Crazy” and it peaked in the charts at #15. It is said by some to be one the first rock and roll songs. In 1954 came the breakthrough song “Rock Around The Clock” that went to number 1. Other hits included “Shake Rattle and Roll” and “See You Later, Alligator” that was a hit in 1956.
His popularity started to decline in America with the emergence of Elvis but he was huge in Europe when he toured there in 1957. They had many more top twenty hits in the UK than in America.
A self-admitted alcoholic, Haley fought a battle with alcohol well into the 1970s but he and his band continued to be a popular touring act. He enjoyed a career resurgence in the late 1960s with the rock and roll revival movement. “Rock Around the Clock” recharted again in 1974 at #34 on the Billboard 100.
Haley was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1980 and he passed away on February 9, 1981. Haley was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
Over 100 musicians were in the Comets from 1952-1981 and The Comets kept touring until the 2000s…
Rock Around the Clock
One, two, three o’clock, four o’clock, rock Five, six, seven o’clock, eight o’clock, rock Nine, ten, eleven o’clock, twelve o’clock, rock We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight
Put your glad rags on and join me, hon’ We’ll have some fun when the clock strikes one We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, ’til broad daylight We’re gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight
When the clock strikes two, three and four If the band slows down we’ll yell for more We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, ’til broad daylight We’re gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight
When the chimes ring five, six and seven We’ll be right in seventh heaven We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, ’til broad daylight We’re gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight
When it’s eight, nine, ten, eleven too I’ll be goin’ strong and so will you We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, ’til broad daylight We’re gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight
When the clock strikes twelve, we’ll cool off then Start a rockin’ round the clock again We’re gonna rock around the clock tonight We’re gonna rock, rock, rock, ’til broad daylight We’re gonna rock, gonna rock, around the clock tonight
I met Don Williams many times. I can’t say I really knew the man well but he was as down to earth as you could get. When I was growing up he would mow the High School baseball field and the City Park fields where I live just to help out. He gave back to the community and always would be nice to anyone.
Tulsa Time was released in 1978 and peaked at #1 in the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts and #1 in Canada RPM Country Tracks. “Tulsa Time” was Williams’ eighth of 17 number ones. He had 45 top ten hits.
Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend were admirers of Don Williams and both covered his songs. Eric Clapton would cover this song and take it to #30 in the Billboard 100.
Tulsa Time was written by Chuck Flowers. “I wrote ‘Tulsa Time’ in about a half an hour in a motel in Tulsa. There was a big snowstorm, and we had the night off because we couldn’t work. I wrote it while watching The Rockford Files [a dramedy private eye NBC series starring James Garner]. So, I played it for Don, and a few months later I played it for Eric. I never even made a demo or put it on tape or anything. They both just went and recorded it ‘cuz it’s so simple.”
“Tulsa Time”
I left Oklahoma, drivin’ in a Pontiac Just about to lose my mind I was goin’ to Arizona Maybe on to California Where the people all live so fine.
My baby said, I’z crazy My mama called me lazy I was gonna show ’em all this time ‘Cause you know I ain’t no fool And I don’t need no more schoolin’ I was born to just walk the line.
Livin’ on Tulsa time Livin’ on Tulsa time Well, you’ll know I been through it When I set my watch back to it Livin’ on Tulsa Time.
Well, there I was in Hollywood Wishin’ I was doin’ good Talkin’ on the telephone line But they don’t need me in the movies And nobody sings my songs Guess, I’m just a wastin’ time.
Well, then I got to thinkin’ Man I’m really sinkin’ An I really had a flash this time I had no business leavin’ An nobody would be grievin’ If I just went on back to Tulsa time.
Livin’ on Tulsa time Livin’ on Tulsa time Gonna set my watch back to it ‘Cause you know I been through it Livin’ on Tulsa time.
Livin’ on Tulsa time Livin’ on Tulsa time Gonna set my watch back to it ‘Cause you know I been through Livin’ on Tulsa time.
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