On this day in 1979, the AC/DC single “Highway to Hell” debuted on the Australian charts (September 3)
The Angus Young riff that intros the song has gone down as an absolute classic in Oz rock.
There were hundreds of riffs going down every day," recalled Malcolm Young. "But this one, we thought, 'That's good.' It just stuck out like a dog's balls!”
As far as the title went? As Angus explained:
“… all we'd done is describe what it's like to be on the road for four years, like we'd been.
A lot of it was bus and car touring, with no real break.
You crawl off the bus at four o'clock in the morning, and some journalist's doing a story and he says, "What would you call an AC/DC tour?" Well, it was a highway to hell. It really was.
When you're sleeping with the singer's socks two inches from your nose, that's pretty close to hell!”
The highway that also allegedly inspired the title, Canning Highway, connects the Perth Kwinana freeway to its port Fremantle.
Ranked #258 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, the song is also part of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll” list.
Click on the link below to watch it:
On this day in 1977, the Heart single “Barracuda” peaked on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #11 (September 3)
The first single off the “Little Queen” LP.
In addition to peaking at #11 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (and spending 20 weeks on the chart), Barracuda’s legendary guitar riff and Ann Wilson’s soaring vocals helped boost it to #1 in South Africa, #2 in Canada, #4 in the Netherlands, #8 in Germany, #14 in Sweden, and #15 in Australia.
Ann Wilson revealed in interviews that the song was about Heart's anger towards Mushroom Records, who as a publicity stunt released a made-up story of an incestuous affair involving Ann and her sister Nancy Wilson.
The song particularly focuses on Ann's rage towards a male radio promoter who came up to her after a concert asking how her "lover" was. She initially thought he was talking about her boyfriend, band manager Michael Fisher.
After he revealed he was talking about her sister Nancy, Ann became outraged, went back to her hotel room, and wrote the original lyrics of the song.
When Heart entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, they played "Barracuda" last in a 3-song set.
Such a good song they named a fish after it…
Click on the link below to watch:
Beach Boys co-founder, singer, songwriter, and musician Al Jardine was born in Ohio on this day in 1942 (September 3)
Mainly rhythm guitarist and harmony singer in The Beach Boys, Jardine occasionally took the lead vocal duties on songs like “Then I Kissed Her” and “Help Me Rhonda”.
He stopped touring with the band following the death of Carl Wilson in 1998, and moved on to solo work and collaborations with various other musicians.
Jardine was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Beach Boys in 1988.
Click on the link below to watch “Help me Rhonda”:
Canned Heat co-founder, leader, co-lead singer, guitarist, and primary composer, Alan Wilson passed away on this day in 1970 (September 3), aged just 27.
He was the heart and soul of Canned Heat: a gifted slide guitarist, harmonica player, songwriter and blessed with a truly unique voice.
Wilson is widely remembered as a pioneer of blues-rock during its crucial development period of the 1960s who also promoted the revival of early Delta Blues, and although his recording career spanned only three years, he left behind a rich legacy of inspiration to fellow artists, music scholars, and fans alike.
Alan Wilson earned the nickname "Blind Owl" due to his extreme nearsightedness, roundish facial features and scholarly nature.
At one time when he was playing at a wedding, he laid his guitar on top of the wedding cake because he didn’t see it!
As Canned Heat's drummer, Fito de la Parra, wrote in his book: "Without the glasses, Alan literally could not recognize the people he played with at two feet, that's how blind the 'Blind Owl' was."
With Canned Heat, Wilson performed at two iconic concerts of the 1960s era, the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and Woodstock in 1969.
The studio version of "Going Up The Country" (written and sung by Wilson) was featured in the Woodstock film.
Wilson also wrote and sang the hit record "On the Road Again".
On September 2, 1970, Canned Heat was scheduled to leave for Germany to begin a European tour.
Wilson hated touring and travelling by plane. He often missed flights and the band would fly without him while he caught a later flight.
When he missed his September 2 flight, this didn’t raise any alarms, and co-lead vocalist Bob Hite assumed he was doing laundry to prepare for the tour.
The next day on September 3, 1970, Wilson was found dead in his sleeping bag on the hillside behind Hite's Topanga Canyon home where he often slept.
He was 27 years old.
Although he suffered from depression, and it’s sometimes reported that he took his own life, this was not clearly established and he left no note…
Wilson's death came just two weeks before the death of Jimi Hendrix, four weeks before the death of Janis Joplin, and ten months before the death of Jim Morrison, three artists who also died at the same age: 27…
Click on the link below to watch their classic “On the Road Again”:
Steely Dan co-founder, guitarist, and songwriter Walter Becker passed away on this day in 2017 (September 3)
Along with keyboard player Donald Fagen, Becker was the nucleus of the superb Steely Dan, one of the finest and most respected bands of all time, responsible for so many brilliant songs, and classic LPs like “Can’t Buy A Thrill”, “Pretzel Logic”, “Katy Lied”, “Aja”, and “Gaucho”.
In 2001 Becker was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Steely Dan.
In addition to his work with Steely Dan, Grammy Award-winning Becker released solo albums, worked closely with Rickie Lee Jones, and the band China Crisis, and was also a valued producer for various artists…
Becker passed away after a brief battle with esophageal cancer, aged 67.
In a statement released to the media the day of Becker's death, Fagen recalled his long-time friend and musical partner as "smart as a whip, an excellent guitarist and a great songwriter," saying that he intended to "keep the music we created together alive as long as I can with the Steely Dan band."
Click on the link below for “Hey Nineteen”:
On this day in 1988, The Beach Boys single “Kokomo” debuted on the US Billboard charts at #96 (September 3)
Brian Wilson was the only Beach Boy who didn’t feature in the recording due to a dispute involving psychologist Eugene Landy, Wilson’s therapist-turned-business-and-creative-collaborator.
The video for "Kokomo" has clips from the Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown movie “Cocktail” in which the song featured, and was filmed at the then-recently opened Grand Floridian Resort at Walt Disney World in Florida.
Although they didn’t play these instruments on the recording, Mike Love is seen playing saxophone, while actor and occasional Beach Boys live guest John Stamos is shown playing steel drum.
The song was a massive comeback hit for The Beach Boys, making #1 in the US, Australia, and Japan, and Top 10 in Canada, France, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Germany…
Click on the link below to watch:
Exactly forty years ago, on this day in 1983, the Eurythmics single “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” went to #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (September 3)
The song from the album of the same name was their first single released in the US, and became their breakthrough worldwide hit.
The music video also did its bit to help propel the song to #1 in the US, Canada and France, #2 in the UK, Ireland, Spain, New Zealand and Belgium, #4 in Germany, #5 in South Africa, #6 in Australia, #8 in Switzerland, and #9 in the Netherlands.
Rolling Stone called the song "a synth-pop masterpiece that made Lennox and Dave Stewart MTV superstars".
Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart wrote the song after the Tourists had broken up and they formed Eurythmics.
Although the two of them also broke up as a couple, they continued to work together.
According to Stewart, he managed to produce the beat and riff of the song on one of their new synthesizers, and Lennox, on hearing it, said: "What the hell is that?" and started playing on another synthesizer, and beginnings of the song came out of the two dueling synths.
According to Lennox, the lyrics reflected the unhappy time after the break up of the Tourists, when she felt that they were "in a dream world" and that whatever they were chasing was never going to happen.
She described the song as saying: "Look at the state of us. How can it get worse?" adding "I was feeling very vulnerable.
The song was an expression of how I felt: hopeless and nihilistic."
Stewart, however, thought the lyrics too depressing and added the "hold your head up, moving on" line to make it more uplifting.
On Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time issue in 2003, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" was ranked #356.
In 2020, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Click on the link below to watch:
This week in 1989, the Aerosmith single “Love in an Elevator” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #56 (September 2)
The song from their “Pump” LP was written by Joe Perry and Steve Tyler.
According to Tyler, the song was based on an actual experience where he was making out with a woman in an elevator and the doors opened. Tyler said that "It felt like a lifetime waiting for those doors to close."
It went to #5 in the US, #13 in the UK and Canada, #14 in the Netherlands and New Zealand, #28 in Belgium, and #33 in Australia.
The song received a Grammy Award nomination in 1990 for Best Hard Rock Performance, but lost out to Living Colour.
The music video was rife on all the video hits tv shows of the day, and certainly helped sell the song.
“Oh……Mr Tyler!…….
Going……..down?”
Click on the link below to watch:
The Angus Young riff that intros the song has gone down as an absolute classic in Oz rock.
There were hundreds of riffs going down every day," recalled Malcolm Young. "But this one, we thought, 'That's good.' It just stuck out like a dog's balls!”
As far as the title went? As Angus explained:
“… all we'd done is describe what it's like to be on the road for four years, like we'd been.
A lot of it was bus and car touring, with no real break.
You crawl off the bus at four o'clock in the morning, and some journalist's doing a story and he says, "What would you call an AC/DC tour?" Well, it was a highway to hell. It really was.
When you're sleeping with the singer's socks two inches from your nose, that's pretty close to hell!”
The highway that also allegedly inspired the title, Canning Highway, connects the Perth Kwinana freeway to its port Fremantle.
Ranked #258 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, the song is also part of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll” list.
Click on the link below to watch it:
On this day in 1977, the Heart single “Barracuda” peaked on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #11 (September 3)
The first single off the “Little Queen” LP.
In addition to peaking at #11 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (and spending 20 weeks on the chart), Barracuda’s legendary guitar riff and Ann Wilson’s soaring vocals helped boost it to #1 in South Africa, #2 in Canada, #4 in the Netherlands, #8 in Germany, #14 in Sweden, and #15 in Australia.
Ann Wilson revealed in interviews that the song was about Heart's anger towards Mushroom Records, who as a publicity stunt released a made-up story of an incestuous affair involving Ann and her sister Nancy Wilson.
The song particularly focuses on Ann's rage towards a male radio promoter who came up to her after a concert asking how her "lover" was. She initially thought he was talking about her boyfriend, band manager Michael Fisher.
After he revealed he was talking about her sister Nancy, Ann became outraged, went back to her hotel room, and wrote the original lyrics of the song.
When Heart entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, they played "Barracuda" last in a 3-song set.
Such a good song they named a fish after it…
Click on the link below to watch:
Beach Boys co-founder, singer, songwriter, and musician Al Jardine was born in Ohio on this day in 1942 (September 3)
Mainly rhythm guitarist and harmony singer in The Beach Boys, Jardine occasionally took the lead vocal duties on songs like “Then I Kissed Her” and “Help Me Rhonda”.
He stopped touring with the band following the death of Carl Wilson in 1998, and moved on to solo work and collaborations with various other musicians.
Jardine was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Beach Boys in 1988.
Click on the link below to watch “Help me Rhonda”:
Canned Heat co-founder, leader, co-lead singer, guitarist, and primary composer, Alan Wilson passed away on this day in 1970 (September 3), aged just 27.
He was the heart and soul of Canned Heat: a gifted slide guitarist, harmonica player, songwriter and blessed with a truly unique voice.
Wilson is widely remembered as a pioneer of blues-rock during its crucial development period of the 1960s who also promoted the revival of early Delta Blues, and although his recording career spanned only three years, he left behind a rich legacy of inspiration to fellow artists, music scholars, and fans alike.
Alan Wilson earned the nickname "Blind Owl" due to his extreme nearsightedness, roundish facial features and scholarly nature.
At one time when he was playing at a wedding, he laid his guitar on top of the wedding cake because he didn’t see it!
As Canned Heat's drummer, Fito de la Parra, wrote in his book: "Without the glasses, Alan literally could not recognize the people he played with at two feet, that's how blind the 'Blind Owl' was."
With Canned Heat, Wilson performed at two iconic concerts of the 1960s era, the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and Woodstock in 1969.
The studio version of "Going Up The Country" (written and sung by Wilson) was featured in the Woodstock film.
Wilson also wrote and sang the hit record "On the Road Again".
On September 2, 1970, Canned Heat was scheduled to leave for Germany to begin a European tour.
Wilson hated touring and travelling by plane. He often missed flights and the band would fly without him while he caught a later flight.
When he missed his September 2 flight, this didn’t raise any alarms, and co-lead vocalist Bob Hite assumed he was doing laundry to prepare for the tour.
The next day on September 3, 1970, Wilson was found dead in his sleeping bag on the hillside behind Hite's Topanga Canyon home where he often slept.
He was 27 years old.
Although he suffered from depression, and it’s sometimes reported that he took his own life, this was not clearly established and he left no note…
Wilson's death came just two weeks before the death of Jimi Hendrix, four weeks before the death of Janis Joplin, and ten months before the death of Jim Morrison, three artists who also died at the same age: 27…
Click on the link below to watch their classic “On the Road Again”:
Steely Dan co-founder, guitarist, and songwriter Walter Becker passed away on this day in 2017 (September 3)
Along with keyboard player Donald Fagen, Becker was the nucleus of the superb Steely Dan, one of the finest and most respected bands of all time, responsible for so many brilliant songs, and classic LPs like “Can’t Buy A Thrill”, “Pretzel Logic”, “Katy Lied”, “Aja”, and “Gaucho”.
In 2001 Becker was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Steely Dan.
In addition to his work with Steely Dan, Grammy Award-winning Becker released solo albums, worked closely with Rickie Lee Jones, and the band China Crisis, and was also a valued producer for various artists…
Becker passed away after a brief battle with esophageal cancer, aged 67.
In a statement released to the media the day of Becker's death, Fagen recalled his long-time friend and musical partner as "smart as a whip, an excellent guitarist and a great songwriter," saying that he intended to "keep the music we created together alive as long as I can with the Steely Dan band."
Click on the link below for “Hey Nineteen”:
On this day in 1988, The Beach Boys single “Kokomo” debuted on the US Billboard charts at #96 (September 3)
Brian Wilson was the only Beach Boy who didn’t feature in the recording due to a dispute involving psychologist Eugene Landy, Wilson’s therapist-turned-business-and-creative-collaborator.
The video for "Kokomo" has clips from the Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown movie “Cocktail” in which the song featured, and was filmed at the then-recently opened Grand Floridian Resort at Walt Disney World in Florida.
Although they didn’t play these instruments on the recording, Mike Love is seen playing saxophone, while actor and occasional Beach Boys live guest John Stamos is shown playing steel drum.
The song was a massive comeback hit for The Beach Boys, making #1 in the US, Australia, and Japan, and Top 10 in Canada, France, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Germany…
Click on the link below to watch:
Exactly forty years ago, on this day in 1983, the Eurythmics single “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” went to #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (September 3)
The song from the album of the same name was their first single released in the US, and became their breakthrough worldwide hit.
The music video also did its bit to help propel the song to #1 in the US, Canada and France, #2 in the UK, Ireland, Spain, New Zealand and Belgium, #4 in Germany, #5 in South Africa, #6 in Australia, #8 in Switzerland, and #9 in the Netherlands.
Rolling Stone called the song "a synth-pop masterpiece that made Lennox and Dave Stewart MTV superstars".
Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart wrote the song after the Tourists had broken up and they formed Eurythmics.
Although the two of them also broke up as a couple, they continued to work together.
According to Stewart, he managed to produce the beat and riff of the song on one of their new synthesizers, and Lennox, on hearing it, said: "What the hell is that?" and started playing on another synthesizer, and beginnings of the song came out of the two dueling synths.
According to Lennox, the lyrics reflected the unhappy time after the break up of the Tourists, when she felt that they were "in a dream world" and that whatever they were chasing was never going to happen.
She described the song as saying: "Look at the state of us. How can it get worse?" adding "I was feeling very vulnerable.
The song was an expression of how I felt: hopeless and nihilistic."
Stewart, however, thought the lyrics too depressing and added the "hold your head up, moving on" line to make it more uplifting.
On Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time issue in 2003, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" was ranked #356.
In 2020, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Click on the link below to watch:
This week in 1989, the Aerosmith single “Love in an Elevator” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #56 (September 2)
The song from their “Pump” LP was written by Joe Perry and Steve Tyler.
According to Tyler, the song was based on an actual experience where he was making out with a woman in an elevator and the doors opened. Tyler said that "It felt like a lifetime waiting for those doors to close."
It went to #5 in the US, #13 in the UK and Canada, #14 in the Netherlands and New Zealand, #28 in Belgium, and #33 in Australia.
The song received a Grammy Award nomination in 1990 for Best Hard Rock Performance, but lost out to Living Colour.
The music video was rife on all the video hits tv shows of the day, and certainly helped sell the song.
“Oh……Mr Tyler!…….
Going……..down?”
Click on the link below to watch:
