If anyone would like to 2 free tickets to VIP Club Access and 2 tickets for Alter Bridge let me know. I got 2 tickets same night for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss in Asheville. Have a good weekend.
On this day in 1977, the Peter Gabriel single “Solsbury Hill” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #90 (April 30)
This is one of my favourite songs…
After leaving prog rock legends Genesis in mid-1975, (the band he started in the late 1960s with school friends Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford), Gabriel took music lessons, and went about writing songs for his first solo album.
When he finally released the album in 1977, “Solsbury Hill” became his debut solo single.
Gabriel has said of the song's meaning, "It's about being prepared to lose what you have for what you might get ... It's about letting go”; so it has autobiographical elements of the big decision for him to leave Genesis and go solo.
The song with the unusual 7/4 time signature peaked at #13 in the UK and the Netherlands, #16 in Germany, #17 in Belgium, and #68 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
FYI - Solsbury Hill is a small flat-topped hill (and the site of an Iron Age hill fort), located above the village of Batheaston in Somerset, England.
This brilliantly made video of “Solsbury Hill” is a montage of Peter Gabriel’s performances of the song from 1978 to 2013:
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On this day in 1977, the Steve Miller Band single “Jet Airliner” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #71 (April 30)
Paul Pena wrote and recorded "Jet Airliner" in 1973 for his “New Train” album, which bizarrely was not released until 2000, due to conflicts between him and his label.
Steve Miller heard the album through Pena’s producer Ben Sidran, who was formerly in Miller's band, and really liked the song.
Miller then recorded "Jet Airliner" in 1975 during sessions for the “Fly Like an Eagle” LP, but the song wasn’t issued until 1977, when it was released as a single and included on Miller's “Book of Dreams” album.
The lyrics of the Steve Miller Band version are slightly different from the Pena original, as is Miller's performance of the main riff.
It went on to peak at #3 in Canada, #8 in the US, #11 in the Netherlands, #12 in New Zealand, and #23 in Australia.
Click on the link below to watch:
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On this day in 1966, the Young Rascals single “Good Lovin’” went to #1 on the US Billboard charts (April 30)
The song was first recorded by Lemme B. Good (stage name of singer Limmie Snell) in March 1965 and written by Rudy Clark.
The following month it was recorded with different lyrics by R&B artists The Olympics; this version reached #81 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart.
The Young Rascals version was the band’s first hit, and also went to #1 in Canada.
They went on to achieve seven US Top 30 hits before becoming The Rascals in 1968. They disbanded in 1972 after recording five more American Top 30 songs.
The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
"Good Lovin'" is one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll, and was ranked #333 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.
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On this day in 1977, the Glen Campbell single “Southern Nights” went to #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (April 30)
Campbell’s cover version of the 1975 Allen Toussaint song was a real winner, also going all the way to #1 in Canada.
It was also a Top 10 song in Ireland, New Zealand and Belgium, and #12 in the Netherlands.
The song scored a whole new generation of fans after it featured in the 2017 film “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” and was a popular song on the film's soundtrack album.
Click on the link below to watch:
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On this day in 1983, the original soundtrack LP “Flashdance” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Album Chart at #166 (April 30)
When the film became a surprise success, the soundtrack sold out within days, and the record company was left scrambling to fill orders.
It went all the way to the top in the US, spending two weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200, and becoming one of the best selling albums of all time.
It also went to #1 in Australia, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Japan, Austria, Norway and Finland, #2 in Canada and New Zealand, and #9 in the UK and the Netherlands.
The theme song “Flashdance….What a Feeling” written by Irene Cara and Giorgio Moroder (and sung by Cara), was also #1 in many other countries around the world, including the US, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, and made the Top 5 in Austria, Finland, Ireland, the UK, and Germany.
The music from the “Flashdance” soundtrack was nominated for nine Grammy Awards and won three: Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, which went to Cara for "Flashdance... What a Feeling", Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special, and Best Instrumental Composition.
“Flashdance….What a Feeling” also won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Song.
In 1998, "Flashdance... What a Feeling" came in at #9 on Billboard magazine's list of the top 10 soundtrack songs, and on the Songs of the Century list compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2001, the song was listed at #256.
In 2008, the song was ranked at #26 on Billboard's All Time Top 100, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Billboard Hot 100.
The success of the song made it clear to Cara that she was not receiving royalties that were stipulated in her recording contract, and she took legal action against her label in order to be compensated.
The backlash that she claims she suffered in retaliation for filing a lawsuit left her feeling shut out of the entertainment industry as she struggled to find work.
Although she began receiving royalties for the recordings she made for them, the label and its owner declared bankruptcy and claimed that they were unable to pay her the $1.5 million settlement she was awarded by a Los Angeles Superior Court.
Irene Cara later reflected, “I never realized that what seemed so logical a decision at the time would cost me so much."
Click on the link below to watch the iconic clip of the title track:
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On this day in 1983, the Chris De Burgh single “Don’t Pay the Ferryman” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #78 (April 30)
“Don't Pay the Ferryman" is an upbeat, yet foreboding, mythology-tinged pop rock song that evokes images of the Grim Reaper, which became De Burgh’s first hit single outside of Ireland, reaching #5 in Australia, #24 in Germany, #29 in New Zealand, #32 in Canada, #34 in the US, and #48 in the UK.
Click on the link below to watch the clip:
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On this day in 1983, the David Bowie LP “Let’s Dance” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Album Chart at #41 (April 30)
David Bowie’s fifteenth studio album featured players from Chic and then-unknown Texas blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan on lead guitar, and the first time ever, Bowie only sang and played no instruments.
The album contains three cover songs: Iggy Pop's "China Girl", which Bowie and Pop had recorded together for the latter's “The Idiot” (1977); Metro's "Criminal World"; and a reworking of "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)", originally recorded by Bowie and Giorgio Moroder in 1982 for the film of the same name.
It remains Bowie’s best-selling album, peaking at #1 in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, France, Norway and Sweden, #2 in Germany, #3 in Spain, #4 in the US, #5 in Italy, and #6 in Japan.
In 1989, the album was ranked #83 on Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Best Albums of the Eighties", and in 2013, NME ranked Let's Dance at #296 in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Click on the link below to watch the classic title track clip, filmed in the Carinda Hotel in regional Australia:
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Exactly forty-five years ago this month, the Vibrators released the LP “V2” (April 1978)
The follow-up to their debut LP “Pure Mania”narrowly missed the UK top 30, peaking at #33.
The only single to be taken from the album, "Automatic Lover", turned out to be the only Vibrators’ single to reach the UK top 40, peaking at #35, and earning the band a TV appearance on the prime-time TV show Top of the Pops.
This is one of my favourite punk albums, and I’ve still got my original vinyl.
“Flying Duck Theory” is a highlight…
Click on the link below to watch a live performance of four songs from “V2” from The Old Grey Whistle Test:
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