On this day in 1967, The Rolling Stones single “She’s A Rainbow” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #77 (December 30)
The song from their 1967 album “Their Satanic Majesties Request” featured memorable piano by work by Nicky Hopkins, Brian Jones' use of the Mellotron, and strings arranged by John Paul Jones, later of Led Zeppelin.
“She comes in colors everywhere
She combs her hair
She's like a rainbow”
Inspiration for "She's A Rainbow" came at least in part from Love's 1966 single "She Comes In Colors."
"The Rolling Stones stole the line 'she comes in colors' for 'She's A Rainbow,'" Love drummer Michael Stuart-Ware told Uncut magazine. "Wasn't Mick Jagger afraid of being sued?
I remember we all thought, Wow! How could Mick think it was OK to do that."
“She’s A Rainbow” peaked at #2 in the Netherlands, #3 in Switzerland, #8 in Austria, #9 in Canada and Sweden, #13 in Belgium, #19 in Spain, and #25 in the US.
The song returned to Billboard's Hot Rock Songs chart in 2018 as a result of its appearance in a commercial for the all-new Acura RDX.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1972, the Eagles single “Peaceful Easy Feeling” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #73 (December 30)
“Peaceful Easy Feeling” was written by singer-songwriter Jack Tempchin, who also co-wrote their 1974 song “Already Gone”, and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019.
Tempchin wrote the song during a period in which he was performing at folk coffee shops around his hometown of San Diego.
“I guess I was trying to distill the beauty of every girl I saw into words on paper and then into a song," he later said.
Tempchin moved to Los Angeles and was attempting to break into the music industry alongside Jackson Browne, Glenn Frey, and J.D. Souther, when Frey heard Tempchin's "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and asked if he could develop it further.
Eagles had only just formed eight days prior.
The band’s third single went on to peak at #22 in the US, and #35 in Canada.
Click on the link below to watch:
Blues rock legend Bo Diddley was born Ellas Otha Bates in McComb, Mississippi, on this day in 1928 (December 30)
The iconic guitarist and singer played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll, and influenced many prominent artists, including Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Animals, George Thorogood, Syd Barrett, and the Clash.
In recognition of his achievements, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2003, and the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2017.
He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Diddley is also recognized for his technical innovations, including his use of tremolo and reverb effects to enhance the sound of his distinctive rectangular-shaped guitars.
Bo Diddley died on June 2, 2008, of heart failure at his home in Archer, Florida at the age of 79.
His final guitar performance on a studio album was with the New York Dolls on their 2006 album “One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This”.
Mick Jagger said “he was a wonderful, original musician who was an enormous force in music and was a big influence on the Rolling Stones. He was very generous to us in our early years and we learned a lot from him.
We will never see his like again".
Click on the link below to watch him play “Road Runner” live:
Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Del Shannon was born Charles Weedon Westover in Coopersville, Michigan, on this day in 1934 (December 30)
Del Shannon was best known for his 1961 smash hit “Runaway”, co-written by himself and keyboard player Max Crook, which went to #1 in the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Chile.
The song was #472 on the 2010 version of Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
In late 1964, Shannon also produced a demo recording session for a young fellow Michigander named Bob Seger, who would go on to stardom in the 1970s.
He continued to perform through the 70s and 80s, but in the years leading up to his death Shannon suffered from depression, and on February 8, 1990, he took his own life, aged 55.
Shannon was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.
Click on the link below to watch “Runaway” from 1961:
This month in 1955, the single “Rock Around The Clock” by Bill Haley & His Comets went to #1 on the UK Singles Chart (December 1)
"Rock Around the Clock" was a rock and roll song in the 12-bar blues format written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers (the latter being under the pseudonym "Jimmy De Knight") in 1952.
The best-known and most successful rendition was the one recorded by Bill Haley & His Comets, which not only was the first rock and roll record to reach #1 on the US charts, but also went to #1 in the UK and Australia.
It became somewhat of an anthem for rebellious 1950s youth particularly after it was included in the 1955 film “Blackboard Jungle” starring Sidney Poitier.
The recording is widely considered to be the song that, more than any other, brought rock and roll into mainstream culture around the world. The song is ranked #159 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
In 2018, it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant."
Click the link below for a trip back in time:
Jazz, funk, and soul saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. passed away this month in 1999 (December 17) aged just 56.
Along with George Benson, he is considered by many to be one of the founders of the smooth jazz genre, and throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Washington made some of the genre's most memorable hits.
He performed frequently with other artists, including Bill Withers on "Just the Two of Us", and Patti LaBelle on "The Best Is Yet to Come".
He was also a songwriter, and later became an arranger and producer.
Grover Washington Jr. passed away after suffering a heart attack while waiting in the green room after performing four songs for The Saturday Early Show, at CBS Studios in New York City.
Click on the link below to watch his 1981 song “Just the Two of Us” featuring Bill Withers:
Exactly fifty-one years ago, on this day in 1973, AC/DC played their first official gig (December 31)
Malcolm Young recruited drummer Colin Burgess from the Masters Apprentices, and bass player and saxophonist Larry Van Kriedt to play with him and little brother Angus in the new band AC/DC, and singer Dave Evans responded to an ad in The Sydney Morning Herald.
Their first ever official gig was a New Year’s Eve show at Chequers nightclub, 79 Goulburn Street
Sydney, NSW.
Faceoffrockshow.com reports that these were AC/DC’s two sets that New Year’s Eve night:
Set One
School Days (Chuck Berry cover) (from TNT, 1975)
Honky Tonk Women (Rolling Stones cover)
Get Back (The Beatles cover)
Jumpin’ Jack Flash (Rolling Stones cover)
No Particular Place To Go (Chuck Berry cover)
I Want You (She’s So Heavy) The Beatles cover)
The Old Bay Road
Midnight Rock
Show Business (from High Voltage, 1975)
Rock N Roll Singer (from TNT, 1975)
Soul Stripper (from High Voltage, 1975)
Rockin’ In The Parlour (b-side of Can I Sit Next To Your Girl, 1974)
Can I Sit Next To You Girl (from TNT, 1975)
Baby, Please Don’t Go (Big Joe Williams cover) (from High Voltage, 1975)
Set Two
School Days (Chuck Berry cover) (from TNT, 1975)
Honky Tonk Women (Rolling Stones cover)
Jumpin’ Jack Flash (Rolling Stones cover)
Nadine (Chuck Berry cover)
Heartbreak Hotel (Elvis Presley cover)
That’s Alright Mama (Elvis Presley cover)
Tutti Fruitti (Little Richard cover)
The Old Bay Road
Midnight Rock
I Want You (She’s So Heavy) The Beatles cover)
No Particular Place To Go (Chuck Berry cover)
Lucille (Little Richard cover)
Get Back (The Beatles cover)
All Right Now (Free cover)
“Can I Sit Next To You Girl” b/w “Rockin’ In The Parlour” from that night went on to become AC/DC’s first single, released only in Australia on 22 July 1974 on the Albert Productions label.
This single is the only commercial recording featuring Dave Evans…
Some of the songs played that night later appeared as AC/DC singles, and were earlier versions of the songs before they had the Bon Scott touch…
The rest, of course, is rock history, with AC/DC going on to become a worldwide rock phenomenon, and their 1980 LP “Back in Black” (featuring the band’s third lead singer Brian Johnson), becoming the second best-selling album of all time.
The photo below is not the band that played that first ever gig, but is the earliest photo I can find of the band…
Click on the link below to watch “Can I Sit Next To You Girl” with Dave Evens on lead vocals:
On this day in 1977, the Elvis Costello single “Watching The Detectives” was at its peak of #15 on the UK Singles Chart (December 31)
"I wrote it when I heard the first Clash album," Costello explained. "I sort of locked myself in the flat that we were living in and listened to their record over and over again through headphones.
It was the new thing, and I wanted to know what this thing was about.
Reggae was part of my teenage years, as party music. But this was the more radical, political reggae.
By the end of it, I thought, with the arrogance of youth, "Well, I can do better than this.”
So I just wrote the whole song in 36 hours without sleep during a caffeine binge.”
Costello's fourth single overall, "Watching the Detectives" was his first hit single on any national chart, peaking at #15 in the UK, #35 in Australia, #60 in Canada, and #108 in the US…
The classic Costello track, with the reggae-style beat and film noir “true crime” paperback moments, was produced by Nick Lowe.
The song featured at # 363 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
This is an excellent live version:
Happy Birthday to Police guitarist Andy Summers, who was born in Lancashire, England on this day in 1942 (December 31)
Summers achieved international fame as the guitarist for the Police, who he joined in 1977, replacing original guitarist Henry Padovani.
Emerging from London's punk scene, the Police gained international renown with many hit songs, including "Message in a Bottle", "Roxanne", "Don't Stand So Close to Me", "Every Breath You Take", and "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic".
During his time with the band, Summers twice won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, first in 1979 for "Reggatta de Blanc" (written with Copeland and Sting) and in 1980 for "Behind My Camel".
Though not given songwriting credit, Summers wrote the guitar riff for "Every Breath You Take". It was recorded in one take with his 1961 Fender Stratocaster during the Synchronicity sessions.
The song was #1 for eight weeks.
Sting won the 1983 Grammy Award for Song of the Year, and the Police won Best Pop Performance by a Duo Or Group With Vocal for this song.
Summers was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Police in 2003.
In addition to his work with The Police, Andy Summers has also recorded solo albums, collaborated with other musicians, composed film scores, and exhibited his photography in galleries.
Click on the link below to watch “So Lonely”:
The song from their 1967 album “Their Satanic Majesties Request” featured memorable piano by work by Nicky Hopkins, Brian Jones' use of the Mellotron, and strings arranged by John Paul Jones, later of Led Zeppelin.
“She comes in colors everywhere
She combs her hair
She's like a rainbow”
Inspiration for "She's A Rainbow" came at least in part from Love's 1966 single "She Comes In Colors."
"The Rolling Stones stole the line 'she comes in colors' for 'She's A Rainbow,'" Love drummer Michael Stuart-Ware told Uncut magazine. "Wasn't Mick Jagger afraid of being sued?
I remember we all thought, Wow! How could Mick think it was OK to do that."
“She’s A Rainbow” peaked at #2 in the Netherlands, #3 in Switzerland, #8 in Austria, #9 in Canada and Sweden, #13 in Belgium, #19 in Spain, and #25 in the US.
The song returned to Billboard's Hot Rock Songs chart in 2018 as a result of its appearance in a commercial for the all-new Acura RDX.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1972, the Eagles single “Peaceful Easy Feeling” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #73 (December 30)
“Peaceful Easy Feeling” was written by singer-songwriter Jack Tempchin, who also co-wrote their 1974 song “Already Gone”, and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2019.
Tempchin wrote the song during a period in which he was performing at folk coffee shops around his hometown of San Diego.
“I guess I was trying to distill the beauty of every girl I saw into words on paper and then into a song," he later said.
Tempchin moved to Los Angeles and was attempting to break into the music industry alongside Jackson Browne, Glenn Frey, and J.D. Souther, when Frey heard Tempchin's "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and asked if he could develop it further.
Eagles had only just formed eight days prior.
The band’s third single went on to peak at #22 in the US, and #35 in Canada.
Click on the link below to watch:
Blues rock legend Bo Diddley was born Ellas Otha Bates in McComb, Mississippi, on this day in 1928 (December 30)
The iconic guitarist and singer played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll, and influenced many prominent artists, including Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Animals, George Thorogood, Syd Barrett, and the Clash.
In recognition of his achievements, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2003, and the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2017.
He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Diddley is also recognized for his technical innovations, including his use of tremolo and reverb effects to enhance the sound of his distinctive rectangular-shaped guitars.
Bo Diddley died on June 2, 2008, of heart failure at his home in Archer, Florida at the age of 79.
His final guitar performance on a studio album was with the New York Dolls on their 2006 album “One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This”.
Mick Jagger said “he was a wonderful, original musician who was an enormous force in music and was a big influence on the Rolling Stones. He was very generous to us in our early years and we learned a lot from him.
We will never see his like again".
Click on the link below to watch him play “Road Runner” live:
Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Del Shannon was born Charles Weedon Westover in Coopersville, Michigan, on this day in 1934 (December 30)
Del Shannon was best known for his 1961 smash hit “Runaway”, co-written by himself and keyboard player Max Crook, which went to #1 in the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Chile.
The song was #472 on the 2010 version of Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
In late 1964, Shannon also produced a demo recording session for a young fellow Michigander named Bob Seger, who would go on to stardom in the 1970s.
He continued to perform through the 70s and 80s, but in the years leading up to his death Shannon suffered from depression, and on February 8, 1990, he took his own life, aged 55.
Shannon was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.
Click on the link below to watch “Runaway” from 1961:
This month in 1955, the single “Rock Around The Clock” by Bill Haley & His Comets went to #1 on the UK Singles Chart (December 1)
"Rock Around the Clock" was a rock and roll song in the 12-bar blues format written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers (the latter being under the pseudonym "Jimmy De Knight") in 1952.
The best-known and most successful rendition was the one recorded by Bill Haley & His Comets, which not only was the first rock and roll record to reach #1 on the US charts, but also went to #1 in the UK and Australia.
It became somewhat of an anthem for rebellious 1950s youth particularly after it was included in the 1955 film “Blackboard Jungle” starring Sidney Poitier.
The recording is widely considered to be the song that, more than any other, brought rock and roll into mainstream culture around the world. The song is ranked #159 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
In 2018, it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant."
Click the link below for a trip back in time:
Jazz, funk, and soul saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. passed away this month in 1999 (December 17) aged just 56.
Along with George Benson, he is considered by many to be one of the founders of the smooth jazz genre, and throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Washington made some of the genre's most memorable hits.
He performed frequently with other artists, including Bill Withers on "Just the Two of Us", and Patti LaBelle on "The Best Is Yet to Come".
He was also a songwriter, and later became an arranger and producer.
Grover Washington Jr. passed away after suffering a heart attack while waiting in the green room after performing four songs for The Saturday Early Show, at CBS Studios in New York City.
Click on the link below to watch his 1981 song “Just the Two of Us” featuring Bill Withers:
Exactly fifty-one years ago, on this day in 1973, AC/DC played their first official gig (December 31)
Malcolm Young recruited drummer Colin Burgess from the Masters Apprentices, and bass player and saxophonist Larry Van Kriedt to play with him and little brother Angus in the new band AC/DC, and singer Dave Evans responded to an ad in The Sydney Morning Herald.
Their first ever official gig was a New Year’s Eve show at Chequers nightclub, 79 Goulburn Street
Sydney, NSW.
Faceoffrockshow.com reports that these were AC/DC’s two sets that New Year’s Eve night:
Set One
School Days (Chuck Berry cover) (from TNT, 1975)
Honky Tonk Women (Rolling Stones cover)
Get Back (The Beatles cover)
Jumpin’ Jack Flash (Rolling Stones cover)
No Particular Place To Go (Chuck Berry cover)
I Want You (She’s So Heavy) The Beatles cover)
The Old Bay Road
Midnight Rock
Show Business (from High Voltage, 1975)
Rock N Roll Singer (from TNT, 1975)
Soul Stripper (from High Voltage, 1975)
Rockin’ In The Parlour (b-side of Can I Sit Next To Your Girl, 1974)
Can I Sit Next To You Girl (from TNT, 1975)
Baby, Please Don’t Go (Big Joe Williams cover) (from High Voltage, 1975)
Set Two
School Days (Chuck Berry cover) (from TNT, 1975)
Honky Tonk Women (Rolling Stones cover)
Jumpin’ Jack Flash (Rolling Stones cover)
Nadine (Chuck Berry cover)
Heartbreak Hotel (Elvis Presley cover)
That’s Alright Mama (Elvis Presley cover)
Tutti Fruitti (Little Richard cover)
The Old Bay Road
Midnight Rock
I Want You (She’s So Heavy) The Beatles cover)
No Particular Place To Go (Chuck Berry cover)
Lucille (Little Richard cover)
Get Back (The Beatles cover)
All Right Now (Free cover)
“Can I Sit Next To You Girl” b/w “Rockin’ In The Parlour” from that night went on to become AC/DC’s first single, released only in Australia on 22 July 1974 on the Albert Productions label.
This single is the only commercial recording featuring Dave Evans…
Some of the songs played that night later appeared as AC/DC singles, and were earlier versions of the songs before they had the Bon Scott touch…
The rest, of course, is rock history, with AC/DC going on to become a worldwide rock phenomenon, and their 1980 LP “Back in Black” (featuring the band’s third lead singer Brian Johnson), becoming the second best-selling album of all time.
The photo below is not the band that played that first ever gig, but is the earliest photo I can find of the band…
Click on the link below to watch “Can I Sit Next To You Girl” with Dave Evens on lead vocals:
On this day in 1977, the Elvis Costello single “Watching The Detectives” was at its peak of #15 on the UK Singles Chart (December 31)
"I wrote it when I heard the first Clash album," Costello explained. "I sort of locked myself in the flat that we were living in and listened to their record over and over again through headphones.
It was the new thing, and I wanted to know what this thing was about.
Reggae was part of my teenage years, as party music. But this was the more radical, political reggae.
By the end of it, I thought, with the arrogance of youth, "Well, I can do better than this.”
So I just wrote the whole song in 36 hours without sleep during a caffeine binge.”
Costello's fourth single overall, "Watching the Detectives" was his first hit single on any national chart, peaking at #15 in the UK, #35 in Australia, #60 in Canada, and #108 in the US…
The classic Costello track, with the reggae-style beat and film noir “true crime” paperback moments, was produced by Nick Lowe.
The song featured at # 363 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
This is an excellent live version:
Happy Birthday to Police guitarist Andy Summers, who was born in Lancashire, England on this day in 1942 (December 31)
Summers achieved international fame as the guitarist for the Police, who he joined in 1977, replacing original guitarist Henry Padovani.
Emerging from London's punk scene, the Police gained international renown with many hit songs, including "Message in a Bottle", "Roxanne", "Don't Stand So Close to Me", "Every Breath You Take", and "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic".
During his time with the band, Summers twice won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, first in 1979 for "Reggatta de Blanc" (written with Copeland and Sting) and in 1980 for "Behind My Camel".
Though not given songwriting credit, Summers wrote the guitar riff for "Every Breath You Take". It was recorded in one take with his 1961 Fender Stratocaster during the Synchronicity sessions.
The song was #1 for eight weeks.
Sting won the 1983 Grammy Award for Song of the Year, and the Police won Best Pop Performance by a Duo Or Group With Vocal for this song.
Summers was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Police in 2003.
In addition to his work with The Police, Andy Summers has also recorded solo albums, collaborated with other musicians, composed film scores, and exhibited his photography in galleries.
Click on the link below to watch “So Lonely”:
