Song: Sanford and Son Theme (The Streetbeater) (1972/1973) Artist: Quincy Jones Album: You’ve Got It Bad Girl Label: A&M Composer: Quincy Jones Sanford and Son is one of the greatest American television shows of all time. I’m still amazed that Redd Fox was only 49 years old when the show started. He so successfully portrayed … Read more
Song: Creep (1992) Artist: Radiohead Album: Pablo Honey Label: Parlophone / Capitol Writer: Thom Yorke, Mike Hazlewood, Albert Hammond The controversy surrounding the supposed lawsuit between the band Radiohead and Lana Dal Rey over their 1992 hit song Creep goes to show us that you just can’t write something brand new. No matter how much … Read more
Song: Tainted Love (1981) Artist: Soft Cell Album: Non-Stop Erotic Caberet Label: Some Bizzare/ Sire/ Warner Bros. Records Writer: Ed Cobb When Tainted Love was first released in 1964 as the B-side of a record called ‘My Bad Boy’s Comin’ Home’ it was a total commercial failure. No, you are not experiencing a senior moment. … Read more
Song: Unchained Melody (1965) Artist: The Righteous Brothers Label: Philles Writers: Alex North, Hyman Zaret The Righteous Brothers’ Unchained Melody is a soaring, or as Billboard put it in 2007, towering song. Few know that it was not an original. In fact, the song was over ten years old when The Righteous Brothers recorded it. … Read more
Song: Eat It (1984) Artist: Weird Al Yankovich Label: Scotti Brothers Writers: Michael Jackson, Al Yankovic Just as Michael Jackson’s album Thriller and the mega-hit Beat It was reaching its height, propelled by MTV and the 1984 Grammy Award for Record of the Year as well as a vocal performance Grammy for Jackson, Weird Al … Read more
Song: Ring My Bell (1979) Artist: Anita Ward Label: Juana Records Songwriter: Frederick Knight Yes, some people think that the hit disco song Ring My Bell was recorded by Blondie and sung by the great Debra Harry. In fact, if you search for “blondie ring my bell lyrics” you will get a result that lists … Read more
The answer is a resounding NO! The Kinks and specifically Dave Davies of the Davie brothers did not invent the concept of guitar distortion. The fact is that guitarists have been intentionally overloading their amps to create distortion for pretty much as long as amplifiers have been around. The Kinks happened on a sound that … Read more