On Dec. 10, 1965, the Grateful Dead played their first show at the Fillmore in San Francisco for concert promoter Bill Graham. We believe this was only the 2nd time they had played under that name having recently changed it from The Warlocks.
This was one of Graham’s earliest shows at the Fillmore and there isn't a 'formal' poster that we can find for the gig as Graham didn't start those posters until 1966.
Now here's the 'hard to understand' part. The Dead's first show at The Fillmore…… 59 years ago today...
On this day in 1972, the Elton John single “Crocodile Rock” debuted on the US Billboard Top 10 at #73 (December 9)
The pre-release single from his forthcoming 1973 album “Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player” eventually became Elton’s first US #1 song, reaching the top spot on 3 February 1973, and staying there for three weeks.
It also went to #1 in Canada, New Zealand, Italy and Switzerland, #2 in Australia, #3 in Germany, Belgium and Norway, #5 in the UK and #6 in South Africa.
The song was inspired by John's discovery of leading Australian band Daddy Cool and their hit single "Eagle Rock", which was the most successful Australian single of the early 1970s (with 1,000,000 sold), remaining at #1 for a record of 10 weeks.
John heard the song and the group on his 1972 Australian tour and was greatly impressed by it.
A photo included in the album packaging features John's lyricist, Bernie Taupin, wearing a "Daddy Who?" promotional badge.
Classic rock song!
Click on the link below to watch a brilliant clip of “Crocodile Rock” from back in the day:
This week in 1969, The Rolling Stones LP “Let it Bleed” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #199 (December 6)
“Let It Bleed” is the 8th British and 10th American studio album by the Stones, and like its predecessor “Beggars Banquet”, the album marks a return to the group's more blues-based sound, after the Sgt. Pepper-esque psychedelic experimentation of “Their Satanic Majesties Request” of 1967.
This is a significant album in the Stones history, as it was the last recorded with input from original founder and band leader Brian Jones, and was released just a few months after his death in July 1969.
In fact, on the “Let it Bleed” sessions, Jones played no guitar, and made just two contributions to the work in progress: autoharp on "You Got the Silver" and percussion on "Midnight Rambler".
His arrests and subsequent legal troubles, estrangement from his bandmates, substance abuse, mood swings, and erratic attendance at rehearsals had built up over the years, and become too much of an obstacle to his active participation in the band.
He was struggling big time.
On 8 June 1969, Jones was visited by Jagger, Richards and Watts, and was told that the group he had formed would continue without him.
Out of respect for him, and all he had done for the band, they said it was his choice how to break it to the public.
Jones released a statement on 9 June 1969, announcing his departure, saying among other things, that, "I no longer see eye-to-eye with the others over the discs we are cutting".
He was replaced by the 20-year-old guitarist Mick Taylor, formerly of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.
Tragically, a month after being fired, Jones was found at the bottom of his swimming pool at his home. The coroner's report stated this was a drowning, later revised to "death by misadventure".
Most of the guitar parts on “Let it Bleed” were recorded by Keith Richards, with Mick Taylor appearing on just two tracks, "Country Honk" and "Live with Me", having contributed some overdubs during the May 1969 London Olympic Studios recording sessions.
He also appears on "Honky Tonk Women", the classic stand-alone single recorded during the “Let It Bleed” sessions.
The album also spawned two songs that would go on to become Rolling Stones classics, “Gimme Shelter” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”.
After its release, “Let it Bleed” went all the way to #1 in the UK and the Netherlands, #2 in Australia and Norway, #3 in the US and Germany, #4 in Canada, and #5 in Sweden.
“Let It Bleed” was also the last Stones album to be released in an official mono version, which is rare and highly sought-after today.
According to E-Street Band stalwart Steven Van Zandt, the album was one in the Stones' series of four studio LPs – including “Beggars Banquet” (1968), “Sticky Fingers” (1971) and “Exile on Main St.” (1972) – that was "the greatest run of albums in history".
It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2005.
In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked “Let it Bleed” at #41 on the magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time."
One of the best album covers in rock too, in my opinion…
Click on the link below to watch “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”:
On this day in 1967, the Doors single “Love Me Two Times” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #75 (December 9)
In his autobiography, Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek described the song as "Robby [Krieger]'s great blues/rock classic about lust and loss, or multiple orgasms, I'm not sure which".
Songwriter and guitarist Krieger said to Guitar World's Alan Paul that the song's musical idea came from a lick by one of US blues guitarist Danny Kalb's compositions.
It was originally recorded for the Doors’ first album, but didn’t make the cut, appearing on their second studio album “Strange Days”, later edited to a 2:37 length and released as the second single (after "People Are Strange") from that album.
It peaked at #25 in the US, and #31 in Canada.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1978, the Al Stewart single “Time Passages” peaked on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #7 (December 9)
The song was produced by Alan Parsons and is the title track of Stewart's 1978 album release.
It peaked at #7 in the US, 10 in Canada, and #36 in Australia.
“Time Passages" also spent ten weeks at #1 on the US Billboard Easy Listening chart, the longest stay at #1 on this chart in the 1970s. It also topped the Adult Contemporary Chart in Canada.
Billboard magazine also ranked "Time Passages" as the #1 Adult Contemporary single of 1979.
Click on the link below to watch the clip:
On this day in 1978, the Queen LP “Jazz” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #30 (December 9)
Again, it was Queen at their most flamboyant, diving in head-first to a variety of musical styles and genres, as fans of their LPs had come to expect.
The album was anchored by the hits “Bicycle Race”, “Fat-Bottomed Girls”, and “Don’t Stop Me Now”.
In 2006, Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times included it in his list of "The Great Albums," describing it as "a genre-hopping tour of diverse musical styles" and concluded that "What ultimately keeps me coming back to the album, however, is that ambiguous sexual energy running through all 13 tracks; the fact that each of them boasts more hooks than some bands have on an entire album, and the inviting sonic density of it all."
Rolling Stone subsequently featured it on their list of “10 Classic Albums Rolling Stone Initially Panned”, indicating they now regarded the album as a "classic”, and poked fun at their original reviewer that bagged the album.
“Jazz” went to #2 in the UK, #3 in the Netherlands, #5 in Germany, #6 in the US, Norway and Sweden, #7 in France, #8 in Austria, #13 in Canada, and #15 in Australia.
Click the link below to see the clip of “Don’t Stop Me Now” from the album:
On this day in 1989, the Billy Joel single “We Didn’t Start The Fire” went to #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (December 9)
In the liner notes of Piano Man: The Very Best of Billy Joel, Joel explains that he wrote the song after a conversation with John Lennon's son Sean.
Joel was in the studio trying to come up with song ideas for the album, when Sean Lennon stopped by with his friend, who had just turned 21 and was lamenting over how tough his generation had it.
Joel, who was approaching 40, commiserated with the young men, recalling how 21 was also a tough age for him with the Vietnam War, civil rights upheavals, and other crises, but was astounded when Sean's friend claimed Joel didn't have it so bad because he grew up in the '50s, and "everyone knows that nothing happened in the '50s."
In response, Joel started jotting down all of the events and major figures he could remember from his generation and a song idea was born - not just for baby boomers, but for anyone struggling in this perpetually messy world.
Joel told biographer Fred Schruers: "What does the song really mean? Is it an apologia for the baby boomers? No, it's not. It's just a song that says the world's a mess.
It's always been a mess, it's always going to be a mess."
He recalled:
“I started with Harry Truman because in 1949, the year I was born, Harry Truman was president.
From there it kind of wrote itself."
The clever song with the stream-of-consciousness, rapid-fire list-style lyrics chronicling world events and pop culture throughout the decades, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, and eventually became Joel's third single to reach #1 on the US charts, after "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me" and "Tell Her About It."
“The River Of Dreams" hit #1 six years later.
It was also a Top 5 song in Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland and Canada, and #7 in the UK.
There are 118 separate events listed in the song…
It’s a polarizing song for Billy Joel fans; not all like it, but to watch the clip, click on the link below:
This week in 1972, the Helen Reddy single “I Am Woman” went to #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (December 9)
“I Am Woman” was written by Helen Reddy and fellow Australian musician, singer and songwriter Ray Burton.
It first appeared on her debut album “I Don't Know How to Love Him”, released in May 1971.
The song came near the apex of the counterculture era and, by celebrating female empowerment, became a powerful and enduring feminist anthem for the women’s liberation movement.
Reddy explained her inspiration:
“I couldn't find any songs that said what I thought being woman was about.
I thought about all these strong women in my family who had gotten through the Depression and world wars and drunken, abusive husbands. But there was nothing in music that reflected that.
The only songs were 'I Feel Pretty' or that dreadful song 'Born A Woman'. (The 1966 hit by Sandy Posey had observed that if you're born a woman "you're born to be stepped on, lied to, cheated on and treated like dirt. I'm glad it happened that way".)
These are not exactly empowering lyrics.
I certainly never thought of myself as a songwriter, but it came down to having to do it.”
In 2002 she said, "I had no idea what the song was destined to become. If I'd known, I would have been far too intimidated to have written it."
"I Am Woman” went to #1 in the US and Canada, and was the first #1 hit on the Billboard chart by an Australian-born artist and the first Australian-penned song to win a Grammy Award.
In her Grammy acceptance speech for Best Female Performance, Reddy thanked "God, because She makes everything possible".
It also became the second Helen Reddy hit – after "I Don't Know How to Love Him" – to peak at #2 in her native Australia.
Reddy's description of the "typical DJ reaction" to the song is quoted in The Billboard Book of Number One Hits: 'I can't stand this record! I hate this song! But you know, it's a funny thing, my wife loves it!'
She has been quoted as saying, "To this day I get mail from women who say, I went to law school because of your song.
But I would hate to think out of the wide spectrum of things I have done in my career, that's all I would be remembered for."
To Reddy, the song's message reaches beyond feminism. "It's not just for women," she said. "It's a general empowerment song about feeling good about yourself, believing in yourself.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1977, the Bee Gees single “Stayin’ Alive” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #65 (December 10)
The iconic opening scene of the hit film “Saturday Night Fever” where John Travolta (as Tony Manero) struts down the street swinging his paint can to the sounds of The Bee Gees “Stayin’ Alive” is one of the most memorable scenes of the movie.
In fact, in 2004, it ranked #9 on AFI's “100 Years...100 Songs” survey of top tunes in American cinema.
It went all the way to #1 in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Netherlands, Mexico, and South Africa, and Top 5 in France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.
In the US, it would become the second of six consecutive #1 singles for the Bee Gees, tying the record with the Beatles for most consecutive number ones in the United States at the time.
In 2021, "Stayin' Alive" was ranked #99 on the list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
In 1995 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named “Stayin’ Alive” one of the “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll".
Click on the link below for the classic clip:
This was one of Graham’s earliest shows at the Fillmore and there isn't a 'formal' poster that we can find for the gig as Graham didn't start those posters until 1966.
Now here's the 'hard to understand' part. The Dead's first show at The Fillmore…… 59 years ago today...
On this day in 1972, the Elton John single “Crocodile Rock” debuted on the US Billboard Top 10 at #73 (December 9)
The pre-release single from his forthcoming 1973 album “Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player” eventually became Elton’s first US #1 song, reaching the top spot on 3 February 1973, and staying there for three weeks.
It also went to #1 in Canada, New Zealand, Italy and Switzerland, #2 in Australia, #3 in Germany, Belgium and Norway, #5 in the UK and #6 in South Africa.
The song was inspired by John's discovery of leading Australian band Daddy Cool and their hit single "Eagle Rock", which was the most successful Australian single of the early 1970s (with 1,000,000 sold), remaining at #1 for a record of 10 weeks.
John heard the song and the group on his 1972 Australian tour and was greatly impressed by it.
A photo included in the album packaging features John's lyricist, Bernie Taupin, wearing a "Daddy Who?" promotional badge.
Classic rock song!
Click on the link below to watch a brilliant clip of “Crocodile Rock” from back in the day:
This week in 1969, The Rolling Stones LP “Let it Bleed” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #199 (December 6)
“Let It Bleed” is the 8th British and 10th American studio album by the Stones, and like its predecessor “Beggars Banquet”, the album marks a return to the group's more blues-based sound, after the Sgt. Pepper-esque psychedelic experimentation of “Their Satanic Majesties Request” of 1967.
This is a significant album in the Stones history, as it was the last recorded with input from original founder and band leader Brian Jones, and was released just a few months after his death in July 1969.
In fact, on the “Let it Bleed” sessions, Jones played no guitar, and made just two contributions to the work in progress: autoharp on "You Got the Silver" and percussion on "Midnight Rambler".
His arrests and subsequent legal troubles, estrangement from his bandmates, substance abuse, mood swings, and erratic attendance at rehearsals had built up over the years, and become too much of an obstacle to his active participation in the band.
He was struggling big time.
On 8 June 1969, Jones was visited by Jagger, Richards and Watts, and was told that the group he had formed would continue without him.
Out of respect for him, and all he had done for the band, they said it was his choice how to break it to the public.
Jones released a statement on 9 June 1969, announcing his departure, saying among other things, that, "I no longer see eye-to-eye with the others over the discs we are cutting".
He was replaced by the 20-year-old guitarist Mick Taylor, formerly of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.
Tragically, a month after being fired, Jones was found at the bottom of his swimming pool at his home. The coroner's report stated this was a drowning, later revised to "death by misadventure".
Most of the guitar parts on “Let it Bleed” were recorded by Keith Richards, with Mick Taylor appearing on just two tracks, "Country Honk" and "Live with Me", having contributed some overdubs during the May 1969 London Olympic Studios recording sessions.
He also appears on "Honky Tonk Women", the classic stand-alone single recorded during the “Let It Bleed” sessions.
The album also spawned two songs that would go on to become Rolling Stones classics, “Gimme Shelter” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”.
After its release, “Let it Bleed” went all the way to #1 in the UK and the Netherlands, #2 in Australia and Norway, #3 in the US and Germany, #4 in Canada, and #5 in Sweden.
“Let It Bleed” was also the last Stones album to be released in an official mono version, which is rare and highly sought-after today.
According to E-Street Band stalwart Steven Van Zandt, the album was one in the Stones' series of four studio LPs – including “Beggars Banquet” (1968), “Sticky Fingers” (1971) and “Exile on Main St.” (1972) – that was "the greatest run of albums in history".
It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2005.
In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked “Let it Bleed” at #41 on the magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time."
One of the best album covers in rock too, in my opinion…
Click on the link below to watch “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”:
On this day in 1967, the Doors single “Love Me Two Times” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #75 (December 9)
In his autobiography, Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek described the song as "Robby [Krieger]'s great blues/rock classic about lust and loss, or multiple orgasms, I'm not sure which".
Songwriter and guitarist Krieger said to Guitar World's Alan Paul that the song's musical idea came from a lick by one of US blues guitarist Danny Kalb's compositions.
It was originally recorded for the Doors’ first album, but didn’t make the cut, appearing on their second studio album “Strange Days”, later edited to a 2:37 length and released as the second single (after "People Are Strange") from that album.
It peaked at #25 in the US, and #31 in Canada.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1978, the Al Stewart single “Time Passages” peaked on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #7 (December 9)
The song was produced by Alan Parsons and is the title track of Stewart's 1978 album release.
It peaked at #7 in the US, 10 in Canada, and #36 in Australia.
“Time Passages" also spent ten weeks at #1 on the US Billboard Easy Listening chart, the longest stay at #1 on this chart in the 1970s. It also topped the Adult Contemporary Chart in Canada.
Billboard magazine also ranked "Time Passages" as the #1 Adult Contemporary single of 1979.
Click on the link below to watch the clip:
On this day in 1978, the Queen LP “Jazz” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #30 (December 9)
Again, it was Queen at their most flamboyant, diving in head-first to a variety of musical styles and genres, as fans of their LPs had come to expect.
The album was anchored by the hits “Bicycle Race”, “Fat-Bottomed Girls”, and “Don’t Stop Me Now”.
In 2006, Jim DeRogatis of the Chicago Sun-Times included it in his list of "The Great Albums," describing it as "a genre-hopping tour of diverse musical styles" and concluded that "What ultimately keeps me coming back to the album, however, is that ambiguous sexual energy running through all 13 tracks; the fact that each of them boasts more hooks than some bands have on an entire album, and the inviting sonic density of it all."
Rolling Stone subsequently featured it on their list of “10 Classic Albums Rolling Stone Initially Panned”, indicating they now regarded the album as a "classic”, and poked fun at their original reviewer that bagged the album.
“Jazz” went to #2 in the UK, #3 in the Netherlands, #5 in Germany, #6 in the US, Norway and Sweden, #7 in France, #8 in Austria, #13 in Canada, and #15 in Australia.
Click the link below to see the clip of “Don’t Stop Me Now” from the album:
On this day in 1989, the Billy Joel single “We Didn’t Start The Fire” went to #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (December 9)
In the liner notes of Piano Man: The Very Best of Billy Joel, Joel explains that he wrote the song after a conversation with John Lennon's son Sean.
Joel was in the studio trying to come up with song ideas for the album, when Sean Lennon stopped by with his friend, who had just turned 21 and was lamenting over how tough his generation had it.
Joel, who was approaching 40, commiserated with the young men, recalling how 21 was also a tough age for him with the Vietnam War, civil rights upheavals, and other crises, but was astounded when Sean's friend claimed Joel didn't have it so bad because he grew up in the '50s, and "everyone knows that nothing happened in the '50s."
In response, Joel started jotting down all of the events and major figures he could remember from his generation and a song idea was born - not just for baby boomers, but for anyone struggling in this perpetually messy world.
Joel told biographer Fred Schruers: "What does the song really mean? Is it an apologia for the baby boomers? No, it's not. It's just a song that says the world's a mess.
It's always been a mess, it's always going to be a mess."
He recalled:
“I started with Harry Truman because in 1949, the year I was born, Harry Truman was president.
From there it kind of wrote itself."
The clever song with the stream-of-consciousness, rapid-fire list-style lyrics chronicling world events and pop culture throughout the decades, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, and eventually became Joel's third single to reach #1 on the US charts, after "It's Still Rock And Roll To Me" and "Tell Her About It."
“The River Of Dreams" hit #1 six years later.
It was also a Top 5 song in Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland and Canada, and #7 in the UK.
There are 118 separate events listed in the song…
It’s a polarizing song for Billy Joel fans; not all like it, but to watch the clip, click on the link below:
This week in 1972, the Helen Reddy single “I Am Woman” went to #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (December 9)
“I Am Woman” was written by Helen Reddy and fellow Australian musician, singer and songwriter Ray Burton.
It first appeared on her debut album “I Don't Know How to Love Him”, released in May 1971.
The song came near the apex of the counterculture era and, by celebrating female empowerment, became a powerful and enduring feminist anthem for the women’s liberation movement.
Reddy explained her inspiration:
“I couldn't find any songs that said what I thought being woman was about.
I thought about all these strong women in my family who had gotten through the Depression and world wars and drunken, abusive husbands. But there was nothing in music that reflected that.
The only songs were 'I Feel Pretty' or that dreadful song 'Born A Woman'. (The 1966 hit by Sandy Posey had observed that if you're born a woman "you're born to be stepped on, lied to, cheated on and treated like dirt. I'm glad it happened that way".)
These are not exactly empowering lyrics.
I certainly never thought of myself as a songwriter, but it came down to having to do it.”
In 2002 she said, "I had no idea what the song was destined to become. If I'd known, I would have been far too intimidated to have written it."
"I Am Woman” went to #1 in the US and Canada, and was the first #1 hit on the Billboard chart by an Australian-born artist and the first Australian-penned song to win a Grammy Award.
In her Grammy acceptance speech for Best Female Performance, Reddy thanked "God, because She makes everything possible".
It also became the second Helen Reddy hit – after "I Don't Know How to Love Him" – to peak at #2 in her native Australia.
Reddy's description of the "typical DJ reaction" to the song is quoted in The Billboard Book of Number One Hits: 'I can't stand this record! I hate this song! But you know, it's a funny thing, my wife loves it!'
She has been quoted as saying, "To this day I get mail from women who say, I went to law school because of your song.
But I would hate to think out of the wide spectrum of things I have done in my career, that's all I would be remembered for."
To Reddy, the song's message reaches beyond feminism. "It's not just for women," she said. "It's a general empowerment song about feeling good about yourself, believing in yourself.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1977, the Bee Gees single “Stayin’ Alive” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #65 (December 10)
The iconic opening scene of the hit film “Saturday Night Fever” where John Travolta (as Tony Manero) struts down the street swinging his paint can to the sounds of The Bee Gees “Stayin’ Alive” is one of the most memorable scenes of the movie.
In fact, in 2004, it ranked #9 on AFI's “100 Years...100 Songs” survey of top tunes in American cinema.
It went all the way to #1 in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Netherlands, Mexico, and South Africa, and Top 5 in France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.
In the US, it would become the second of six consecutive #1 singles for the Bee Gees, tying the record with the Beatles for most consecutive number ones in the United States at the time.
In 2021, "Stayin' Alive" was ranked #99 on the list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
In 1995 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame named “Stayin’ Alive” one of the “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll".
Click on the link below for the classic clip:
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