On this day in 1973, Paul McCartney and Wings scored the double in the US, with “My Love” hitting #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and “Red Rose Speedway” going to #1 on the US Billboard 200 Album Chart (June 2)
The name change from simply “Wings” to "Paul McCartney and Wings" was made in the belief that the public's unfamiliarity with the band had been responsible for the disappointing sales of the previous album “Wild Life”.
It seemed to work…
The album engineered by the brilliant Alan Parsons also went to #1 in Australia and Spain, #2 in Canada, Sweden and Denmark, #3 in Belgium, #4 in Norway, #5 in the UK, #6 in the Netherlands, #9 in France, and #13 in Japan.
Originally conceived as a double album, EMI were a bit gun-shy due to the modest sales of “Wild Life”, and were not convinced that all the songs were of a sufficiently high standard, so decided to release a more commercial and less expensive record.
Before recording the album, Wings recruited Northern Irish lead guitarist Henry McCullough, and his solo on the single “My Love” was a pivotal moment in Wings.
McCartney recalled,
"I'd sort of written the solo, as I often did with our solos. And Henry walked up to me before the take and just sort of said (adopts Celtic brogue), Hey, would it be all right if I try something else?' And I said, (uncertainly) 'Er…yeah.' It was like, 'Do I believe in this guy?' And he played the solo on 'My Love,' which came right out of the blue. And I just thought, f***ing great!”
McCullough explained,
“I can't remember what it was I was asked to play, but whatever it was I refused and said that I was going to change the solo. So Paul says, 'Well, what are you going to play?' I said, 'I don't know.'
Well, that put the fear of God in him, I think. Because there I am, just me and a 50-piece orchestra in the studio and there's George Martin in the control room and Paul.
I knew it was going to be a turning point in some shape or form regardless of what I came up with. I don't use pedals or anything, so I just plugged into the amp and that was it - it was all over and done with very quickly.
I went in and they ran the track and I did it once and went back into the control room and there was silence. And I thought I was going to have to do it again or something. But it was not the case.
This was a turning point for me, because I was able to, in later life, look back on it and say, 'That's what I did for Paul McCartney. I gave him that solo.'”
McCartney wrote the single “My Love” for Linda, and it spent four weeks at #1 in the US.
The track also went to #2 in Canada, #3 in New Zealand, #4 in Australia, #7 in Norway m, #9 in the UK, and #12 in the Netherlands.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1978, Thin Lizzy released the LP “Live and Dangerous” (June 2)
The acclaimed live double album climbed to #2 in the UK, #17 in New Zealand, #20 in Australia, #27 in Sweden, #41 in Germany, and #84 in the US.
The album's sleeve notes credit two concerts as its source: Hammersmith Odeon, London, England on 14 November 1976, and Seneca College Fieldhouse, Don Mills, Toronto, Ontario, Canada on 28 October 1977.
Producer Tony Visconti later revealed that shows at the Tower Theater, Philadelphia on 20 and 21 October 1977, a week earlier than the Toronto gig, had also been recorded.
"That was us at our best," observed guitarist Scott Gorham, "before the bad drugs came in."
In 2010 “Live and Dangerous” was ranked #1 in PlanetRock.com's The Greatest Live Album Top 40, and in 2015, Rolling Stone ranked the album at #46 in its list of the greatest live albums of all time.
Click on the link below to watch the single released from the album “Rosalie”:
On this day in 1979, Bad Company’s self-titled LP re-entered the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #162 (June 2)
Bad Company’s debut album that was originally released back on 26 June 1974, was the first album released on Led Zeppelin's Swan Song Records label.
It went all the way to #1 in the US, #3 in the UK, #6 in Australia, #7 in Canada, #17 in Norway, and #27 in New Zealand.
A classic rock album…
Click on the link below to watch “Can’t Get Enough”:
On this day in 1978, Bruce Springsteen released the LP “Darkness on the Edge of Town” (June 2)
An insight into how prolific Springsteen’s writing was at this time was the release in 2010 of “The Promise”, 22 previously unreleased songs that were outtakes from the “Darkness” sessions, including “Because the Night”, which he initially gave to Patti Smith, becoming her breakthrough hit, and “Fire” a hit for the Pointer Sisters.
Appraising “Darkness on the Edge of Town”, Womack and Chapman said, "Springsteen drives away from the beach and boardwalk and into the ethos of the American heartland", and music journalist Joe Marchese suggested, "Darkness showed that one could marry hard rock with piano and saxophone", while writer Rob Kirkpatrick regarded it as "the album in which Springsteen leaves R&B behind and plants himself firmly in the world of hard rock, seventies style."
It went to #4 in the Netherlands, #5 in the US, #7 in Canada, #9 in Australia and Sweden, #11 in New Zealand, #12 in Norway, and #14 in the UK.
In 2020, “Darkness…” ranked at #91 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Here’s the first song off the album, “Badlands”:
On this day in 1984, the Prince single “When Doves Cry” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #57 (June 2)
The lead single from the acclaimed “Purple Rain” LP went all the way to the top, and stayed at the #1 spot on the US Billboard Hot 100 for 5 weeks, making it the highest-selling single of 1984.
It was also a #1 in Canada and Australia, and a Top 10 hit in many other countries.
"When Doves Cry" was ranked #52 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. According to Acclaimed Music, it is the 31st most celebrated song in popular music history.
Remarkably for an 80s dance song it has no bass line!
This is what it sounds like…..
Exactly forty years ago, on this day in 1984, the Cyndi Lauper LP “She’s So Unusual” peaked on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #4 (June 2)
In 1978, Lauper formed the band Blue Angel, who signed a recording contract with Polydor Records; however, their debut album, “Blue Angel”, was a commercial failure.
The band parted ways after firing their manager, who sued Lauper for $80,000 and forced her into bankruptcy.
Lauper went on to work in retail stores, waitressing, and also singing solo in many New York night clubs, and it was here she caught the eye of David Wolff.
He became her manager and subsequently got her signed to Portrait Records, (a subsidiary of Epic Records), who went on to release this, her debut solo LP.
Lauper co-wrote four songs on “She's So Unusual”, including the hits "Time After Time" and "She Bop".
While recording her hit single “Girls Just Want to Have Fun", Lauper found the original lyrics to be misogynistic, so she rewrote the song as an anthem for young women.
"Girls Just Want to Have Fun" became a worldwide hit, and her first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.
“Time After Time" became her first #1 hit on the chart and experienced similar success worldwide, while the next two singles “She Bop" and "All Through the Night" also peaked in the US Top 5.
This made Cyndi Lauper the first female singer to have four Top 5 singles on the Hot 100 from one album.
“She's So Unusual” is still her best-selling album to date and one of the best-selling albums of the 1980s.
It went on to peak at #4 on the Billboard 200 chart and stayed in the chart's Top 40 for a massive 65 weeks.
The album also went to #1 in Canada, #3 in Australia and New Zealand, #4 in Norway, #5 in Japan and Austria, #6 in South Africa, #8 in Switzerland, #14 in Italy, #16 in the UK, and #19 in the Netherlands.
“She’s So Unusual” helped Cyndi win Best New Artist at the 1985 Grammy Awards, and also received nominations for Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"), and Song of the Year (for "Time After Time").
“She's So Unusual” was ranked at #184 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2020.
In 2019, the Library of Congress selected “She's So Unusual” for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The iconic front cover of “She's So Unusual” was photographed on Henderson Walk in Coney Island, New York, in front of a closed-down wax museum, in the summer of 1983 by the legendary Annie Leibovitz, with Lauper wearing a vintage red prom-style dress that she purchased at the vintage clothing shop where she used to work, Screaming Mimi's.
She is also seen holding a bouquet of flowers which were purchased from a vendor on the boardwalk at the time of the shoot.
The cover won Janet Perr the Grammy Award for Best Recording Package in 1985.
The video for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", featuring professional wrestler Captain Lou Albano, won the inaugural award for Best Female Video at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards, and made Lauper an MTV staple.
Click on the link below to watch “Time After Time”:
On this day in 1985, the Mental as Anything single “Live it Up” debuted on the Australian charts (June 3)
The Greedy Smith-penned track off the “Fundamental as Anything” LP peaked at #2 for three weeks behind Madonna's "Angel / Into the Groove", spending a total of 12 weeks in the Top 10, becoming the fourth biggest-selling single of 1985 in Australia.
Smith did not initially think the song would be a hit when he wrote it, but became more confident as the song was completed, explaining:
“You know when I felt that was going to be a hit? When we finished mixing it.
It took about half an hour to write in my head.
But then two years to get it right.
We had no idea of how big it would be."
“Live it Up” also peaked at #2 in Ireland, #3 in the UK, #4 in Norway, #6 in Germany and New Zealand, #15 in Austria and #20 in Sweden.
Greedy Smith recalled,
“And I remember when 'Live It Up' went to number three in the UK… that was a special moment.
It had been a hit in Australia but nobody was interested over there and in Europe.
Then, when ‘Crocodile Dundee’ came out, our record company over there said 'Let's put the poster on the single pack.
After that, it was a huge hit. So we were very grateful to have a bit of a go around there."
In 2020, the song became an unofficial anthem of Glasgow based soccer team Rangers FC, and the fans even began a campaign to get the song to #1 in the UK charts for Christmas that year.
"Live It Up" has been placed in the collection of the Australian National Film and Sound Archive.
The song also won Best Single at the 1985 Countdown Australian Music Awards.
Click on the link below to watch the clip:
The name change from simply “Wings” to "Paul McCartney and Wings" was made in the belief that the public's unfamiliarity with the band had been responsible for the disappointing sales of the previous album “Wild Life”.
It seemed to work…
The album engineered by the brilliant Alan Parsons also went to #1 in Australia and Spain, #2 in Canada, Sweden and Denmark, #3 in Belgium, #4 in Norway, #5 in the UK, #6 in the Netherlands, #9 in France, and #13 in Japan.
Originally conceived as a double album, EMI were a bit gun-shy due to the modest sales of “Wild Life”, and were not convinced that all the songs were of a sufficiently high standard, so decided to release a more commercial and less expensive record.
Before recording the album, Wings recruited Northern Irish lead guitarist Henry McCullough, and his solo on the single “My Love” was a pivotal moment in Wings.
McCartney recalled,
"I'd sort of written the solo, as I often did with our solos. And Henry walked up to me before the take and just sort of said (adopts Celtic brogue), Hey, would it be all right if I try something else?' And I said, (uncertainly) 'Er…yeah.' It was like, 'Do I believe in this guy?' And he played the solo on 'My Love,' which came right out of the blue. And I just thought, f***ing great!”
McCullough explained,
“I can't remember what it was I was asked to play, but whatever it was I refused and said that I was going to change the solo. So Paul says, 'Well, what are you going to play?' I said, 'I don't know.'
Well, that put the fear of God in him, I think. Because there I am, just me and a 50-piece orchestra in the studio and there's George Martin in the control room and Paul.
I knew it was going to be a turning point in some shape or form regardless of what I came up with. I don't use pedals or anything, so I just plugged into the amp and that was it - it was all over and done with very quickly.
I went in and they ran the track and I did it once and went back into the control room and there was silence. And I thought I was going to have to do it again or something. But it was not the case.
This was a turning point for me, because I was able to, in later life, look back on it and say, 'That's what I did for Paul McCartney. I gave him that solo.'”
McCartney wrote the single “My Love” for Linda, and it spent four weeks at #1 in the US.
The track also went to #2 in Canada, #3 in New Zealand, #4 in Australia, #7 in Norway m, #9 in the UK, and #12 in the Netherlands.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1978, Thin Lizzy released the LP “Live and Dangerous” (June 2)
The acclaimed live double album climbed to #2 in the UK, #17 in New Zealand, #20 in Australia, #27 in Sweden, #41 in Germany, and #84 in the US.
The album's sleeve notes credit two concerts as its source: Hammersmith Odeon, London, England on 14 November 1976, and Seneca College Fieldhouse, Don Mills, Toronto, Ontario, Canada on 28 October 1977.
Producer Tony Visconti later revealed that shows at the Tower Theater, Philadelphia on 20 and 21 October 1977, a week earlier than the Toronto gig, had also been recorded.
"That was us at our best," observed guitarist Scott Gorham, "before the bad drugs came in."
In 2010 “Live and Dangerous” was ranked #1 in PlanetRock.com's The Greatest Live Album Top 40, and in 2015, Rolling Stone ranked the album at #46 in its list of the greatest live albums of all time.
Click on the link below to watch the single released from the album “Rosalie”:
On this day in 1979, Bad Company’s self-titled LP re-entered the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #162 (June 2)
Bad Company’s debut album that was originally released back on 26 June 1974, was the first album released on Led Zeppelin's Swan Song Records label.
It went all the way to #1 in the US, #3 in the UK, #6 in Australia, #7 in Canada, #17 in Norway, and #27 in New Zealand.
A classic rock album…
Click on the link below to watch “Can’t Get Enough”:
On this day in 1978, Bruce Springsteen released the LP “Darkness on the Edge of Town” (June 2)
An insight into how prolific Springsteen’s writing was at this time was the release in 2010 of “The Promise”, 22 previously unreleased songs that were outtakes from the “Darkness” sessions, including “Because the Night”, which he initially gave to Patti Smith, becoming her breakthrough hit, and “Fire” a hit for the Pointer Sisters.
Appraising “Darkness on the Edge of Town”, Womack and Chapman said, "Springsteen drives away from the beach and boardwalk and into the ethos of the American heartland", and music journalist Joe Marchese suggested, "Darkness showed that one could marry hard rock with piano and saxophone", while writer Rob Kirkpatrick regarded it as "the album in which Springsteen leaves R&B behind and plants himself firmly in the world of hard rock, seventies style."
It went to #4 in the Netherlands, #5 in the US, #7 in Canada, #9 in Australia and Sweden, #11 in New Zealand, #12 in Norway, and #14 in the UK.
In 2020, “Darkness…” ranked at #91 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Here’s the first song off the album, “Badlands”:
On this day in 1984, the Prince single “When Doves Cry” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #57 (June 2)
The lead single from the acclaimed “Purple Rain” LP went all the way to the top, and stayed at the #1 spot on the US Billboard Hot 100 for 5 weeks, making it the highest-selling single of 1984.
It was also a #1 in Canada and Australia, and a Top 10 hit in many other countries.
"When Doves Cry" was ranked #52 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. According to Acclaimed Music, it is the 31st most celebrated song in popular music history.
Remarkably for an 80s dance song it has no bass line!
This is what it sounds like…..
Exactly forty years ago, on this day in 1984, the Cyndi Lauper LP “She’s So Unusual” peaked on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #4 (June 2)
In 1978, Lauper formed the band Blue Angel, who signed a recording contract with Polydor Records; however, their debut album, “Blue Angel”, was a commercial failure.
The band parted ways after firing their manager, who sued Lauper for $80,000 and forced her into bankruptcy.
Lauper went on to work in retail stores, waitressing, and also singing solo in many New York night clubs, and it was here she caught the eye of David Wolff.
He became her manager and subsequently got her signed to Portrait Records, (a subsidiary of Epic Records), who went on to release this, her debut solo LP.
Lauper co-wrote four songs on “She's So Unusual”, including the hits "Time After Time" and "She Bop".
While recording her hit single “Girls Just Want to Have Fun", Lauper found the original lyrics to be misogynistic, so she rewrote the song as an anthem for young women.
"Girls Just Want to Have Fun" became a worldwide hit, and her first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.
“Time After Time" became her first #1 hit on the chart and experienced similar success worldwide, while the next two singles “She Bop" and "All Through the Night" also peaked in the US Top 5.
This made Cyndi Lauper the first female singer to have four Top 5 singles on the Hot 100 from one album.
“She's So Unusual” is still her best-selling album to date and one of the best-selling albums of the 1980s.
It went on to peak at #4 on the Billboard 200 chart and stayed in the chart's Top 40 for a massive 65 weeks.
The album also went to #1 in Canada, #3 in Australia and New Zealand, #4 in Norway, #5 in Japan and Austria, #6 in South Africa, #8 in Switzerland, #14 in Italy, #16 in the UK, and #19 in the Netherlands.
“She’s So Unusual” helped Cyndi win Best New Artist at the 1985 Grammy Awards, and also received nominations for Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"), and Song of the Year (for "Time After Time").
“She's So Unusual” was ranked at #184 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2020.
In 2019, the Library of Congress selected “She's So Unusual” for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The iconic front cover of “She's So Unusual” was photographed on Henderson Walk in Coney Island, New York, in front of a closed-down wax museum, in the summer of 1983 by the legendary Annie Leibovitz, with Lauper wearing a vintage red prom-style dress that she purchased at the vintage clothing shop where she used to work, Screaming Mimi's.
She is also seen holding a bouquet of flowers which were purchased from a vendor on the boardwalk at the time of the shoot.
The cover won Janet Perr the Grammy Award for Best Recording Package in 1985.
The video for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", featuring professional wrestler Captain Lou Albano, won the inaugural award for Best Female Video at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards, and made Lauper an MTV staple.
Click on the link below to watch “Time After Time”:
On this day in 1985, the Mental as Anything single “Live it Up” debuted on the Australian charts (June 3)
The Greedy Smith-penned track off the “Fundamental as Anything” LP peaked at #2 for three weeks behind Madonna's "Angel / Into the Groove", spending a total of 12 weeks in the Top 10, becoming the fourth biggest-selling single of 1985 in Australia.
Smith did not initially think the song would be a hit when he wrote it, but became more confident as the song was completed, explaining:
“You know when I felt that was going to be a hit? When we finished mixing it.
It took about half an hour to write in my head.
But then two years to get it right.
We had no idea of how big it would be."
“Live it Up” also peaked at #2 in Ireland, #3 in the UK, #4 in Norway, #6 in Germany and New Zealand, #15 in Austria and #20 in Sweden.
Greedy Smith recalled,
“And I remember when 'Live It Up' went to number three in the UK… that was a special moment.
It had been a hit in Australia but nobody was interested over there and in Europe.
Then, when ‘Crocodile Dundee’ came out, our record company over there said 'Let's put the poster on the single pack.
After that, it was a huge hit. So we were very grateful to have a bit of a go around there."
In 2020, the song became an unofficial anthem of Glasgow based soccer team Rangers FC, and the fans even began a campaign to get the song to #1 in the UK charts for Christmas that year.
"Live It Up" has been placed in the collection of the Australian National Film and Sound Archive.
The song also won Best Single at the 1985 Countdown Australian Music Awards.
Click on the link below to watch the clip:
