April 21, 1961: THE FIRST NIGHT OF A SEVEN DAY STAND AT CHICAGO’S FAMED REGAL THEATER...
THE SHOW INCLUDED:
The Olympics, Aretha Franklin, The Capris, Johnny Hartman and The Dells…LOTTA GREAT MUSIC FOR A SOLID WEEK STAND!!!
The Olympics, an already well- established act, famous for very hip, but nearly novelty tunes such as the 1958 smash hit WESTERN MOVIESand my favorite, the 1960 release titled BIG BOY PETE...
On this tour they were also introducing America to another side of the usually ‘playful’ Olympics with the ballad "Stay Where You Are"
And they most likely did DOOLEY because it was the A-Side of
STAY WHERE YOU (which was their latest release)…
AND, without a doubt, they tore up the joint with their dance tunes like (Baby) Hully Gully...
IT WAS CERTAINLY A PART OF THEIR SHOW AS SEEN HERE IN 1965…
(NOTE: This great group is still touring today! And, STAY WHERE YOU ARE is part of that show…Check ‘em out!)
Aretha Franklin, that “new kid” from The Motor City was also on the show… (“new” even though she’d already been touring for the past four years—She was 19 in 1961),..
By the time of this 1961 tour, Aretha already had two Top 10 R&B hits with "Operation Heartbreak"and "Won't Be Long"…
The Jazz Singer, Johnny Hartman was on the bill in support of his pre-Coltrane career…
AND SO WERE THE DELLS!
OH WHAT A NIGHT(!?!)
—WHAT A GREAT SEVEN NIGHTS
AT THE REGAL!!!
THAT’S HOW IT WAS DONE IN 1961…
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In an Italian show, in 1970: Stevie Wonder makes it clear that he wants a piece of this MONEY action, too!!!
Hell, even The Stooges covered the tune in ’72:
NOTE: The above was from the album “More Power” which was recorded in 1972 – 1973 but not released until 2009. It was dedicated to Ron Asheton (R.I.P. Ronnie)
June 30th 1980, Festhalle, Frankfurt, Germany: Led Zepplin still wants money…
Then there’s the relative newcomer, Bruno Mars: Bruno Mars - Money (That' What I Want), Billionaire, & I Wanna Be Rich Medley (The Grove, Los Angeles) 09-17-10
IN FACT: There are 79 charted covers of this GREAT Barrett Strong tune:
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Blues guitarist and fiddler Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown was born in Vinton, Louisiana, but raised in Orange, Texas. His professional musical career began in 1945, playing drums in San Antonio, Texas…
He was tagged with the moniker "Gatemouth" by a high school instructor who claimed young Brown had a "voice like a gate". Brown used it to his advantage throughout his career...
A true musician's musician, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown mastered the guitar, fiddle, drums, viola, harmonica, piano, mandolin and bass. Gatemouth's smooth blend of Texas style swing with Jazz, Country and Cajun music has altered the definition of the Blues. His versatility singles him out as an architect of modern Blues sounds.
"Gatemouth" on Piano
Although primarily known as a rhythm & blues artist, Brown's music truly defied any simple description. Influenced by big bands and horn players, Louis Jordan and others, his work on the guitar and fiddle exhibited the music he grew up hearing along the Gulf Coast…
One evening in 1947, when Gatemouth was in attendance at a T-Bone Walker concert in Don Robey's Bronze Peacock Houston nightclub,
Walker became ill, and Brown took up his guitar and quickly wrote and played "Gatemouth Boogie," right on the spot! This was the beginning of a long association between Gatemouth and Robey…
In 1949 Robey founded Peacock Records in order to showcase Brown's virtuoso guitar work.
Johnny Ace on Duke
Brown's "Mary Is Fine"/"My Time Is Expensive" was a hit for Peacock in 1949. A string of Peacock releases in the 1950s were less successful commercially, but were nonetheless pioneering musically. (Peacock combined with Duke in 1952).
Particularly notable of Gatemouth’s Peacock releases was the instrumental "Okie Dokie Stomp", in which Brown solos continuously over a punchy horn section…
His final Peacock release (1959) showcases his gutsy violin playing: "Just Before Dawn"
In the 1960s Gatemouth made several appearances on the television show Hee Haw and, in 1966, Brown was the musical director for the house band on the short-lived television program, The !!!! Beat…
AND ALL OF THE ABOVE WAS JUST THE BEGINNING OF THIS INCREDIBLE ARTIST’S CAREER…
His first success came when he performed the song "Twenty Flight Rock" in the movie The Girl Can't Help It, starring Jayne Mansfield...
Soon after, Liberty Records signed him to a recording contract...
NOTE:That bitchin' guitar sound from Eddie’s originalSummertime Blues? They did it in the studio by recording it real slow, then speeding it up. The chords sound so vibrant and full because of all the noise packed into the grooves when played at normal speed…
Eddie Cochran was one of the first rock and roll artists to write his own songs and overdub tracks. He’scredited also with being one of the first to use an unwound third string in order to "bend" notes up a whole tone – an innovation which has since become an essential part of the standard rock guitar vocabulary...
Artists such as The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Van Halen, Tom Petty, Rod Stewart, Motörhead, Humble Pie, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, Lemmy Kilmister, The Head Cat, The Damned, UFO, T. Rex, Stray Cats, Brian Setzer, Cliff Richard, The Who, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Blue Cheer...
Led Zeppelin, The White Stripes, The Sex Pistols, Rush, Buck Owens, Tiger Army, Dion, Simple Minds, Guitar Wolf, Paul McCartney, Alan Jackson, Keith Richards & The X-Pensive Winos, and Jimi Hendrix have covered his songs...
Eddie was extremely popular in The UK in the late 50s and into 1960.
In fact, he was more popular there, than in his native US. In early 1960, Eddie went on a five week tour of England which due to its success was extended to fifteen weeks. Despite the fame and adulation accorded to him in The UK, Eddie was feeling homesick and decided to return home for Easter...
Eddie Cochran & Gene Vincent
On 16th April 1960, he did what was supposed to be the last gig of the tour at The Hippodrome Theatre, Bristol. It was in fact, the last one of his short life.
Eddie Cochran & Gene Vincent Show
After the show,
Eddie, his girlfriend, Sharon Sheeley
Eddie & Sharon
(Note:It seems she was much more than Eddie's girlfriend--actually fiancee. She was a rather successful songwriter in her own right [penning Ricky Nelsons #1 hit "Poor Little Fool" in 1958!] In fact, she co-wrote with Jackie DeShannon in the USA after recovering from Cochran's fatal crash…)
and Gene Vincent all jumped in a limo and headed off to London from where they were due to fly back to The US. This being pre-freeway days, traveling by car from Bristol to London involved driving through many towns and villages. It was one of these small towns, Chippenham, that Eddie met his fate. In the early hours of the morning of April 17th the car blew a tire at Rowden Hill.
The speeding limo (a UK Ford Consul MkII which is a 4-cylinder Zephyr) blew a tire, lost control, and crashed into a lamp post on Rowden Hill, where a plaque now marks the spot (the Zephyr should have been an excellent handler, even on the bias-ply tires, and is as solid as a tank, yet the car was completely destroyed--no other car was involved…)
All four people in the car were injured. Gene Vincent broke a few ribs, his collarbone and suffered a leg injury. Sharon broke her pelvis Cochran, who was seated in the centre of the back seat, threw himself over his girlfriend to shield her and was thrown out of the car when the door flew open--He suffered severe head injuries and was rushed to St. Martin's Hospital, Bath, where he died at 4.10 p.m. the following day.
The limo driver, George Martin (NOT “The 5th Beatle” who merely shares the name), was convicted of dangerous driving, fined £50, disqualified from driving for 15 years, and sentenced to prison for six months…
R.I.P. Eddie Cochran and THANK YOU!!!
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The Legendary MC5 get kicked off the Electra Label...
The Rolling Stones release their first record on the Rolling Stones Label...
and Ringo tells us It Don’t Come Easy…On The Beatles' own label, Apple...
1969…Elektra Records dropped Detroit's MC5 from the label after the band took out an ad in a local paper that included the company logo and said, "F--- Hudsons." They were protesting the Michigan department store's refusal to stock their albums…
1971…The Rolling Stones released the single "Brown Sugar" in the UK... The first issue on their own Rolling Stones Records label…
1971…Ringo Starr released the George Harrison-produced single "It Don't Come Easy" in North America (On their own label)...
It Didn't Come Easy on April 16 in the 60s--EASIER FOR SOME THAN OTHERS, THOUGH...K.O.T.J.M.F. !!!
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