On this day in 1974, the self-titled album “Kiss” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Album Chart at #192 (April 20)
KISS was formed when Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley’s previous band Wicked Lester disbanded in 1972, and the pair recruited Peter Criss from his ad in Rolling Stone:
“EXPD. ROCK & roll drummer looking for orig. grp. doing soft & hard music. Peter, Brooklyn”.
They then placed an ad in The Village Voice:
"LEAD GUITARIST WANTED with Flash and Ability. Album Out Shortly. No time wasters please”, scoring Ace Frehley.
Stanley came up with the name while he, Simmons, and Criss were driving around New York City.
Criss mentioned that he had been in a band called Lips, so Stanley said something to the effect of "What about Kiss?"
Ace created the now-iconic logo, making the "SS" look like lightning bolts, when he went to write the new band name over "Wicked Lester" on a poster outside the club where they were going to play. (Some of Wicked Lester's artwork included one lightning bolt for the "S" in Lester.)
Later, Stanley designed the logo with a Sharpie and a ruler and accidentally drew the two S's nonparallel because he did it "by eye".
The art department asked him if he wanted it to be redrafted to be perfect and he said, "It got us this far, let's leave well enough alone.
Our number one rule has always been no rules."
Much of the material on their debut studio album was written by Simmons and Stanley, as members of pre-Kiss band Wicked Lester, while "Firehouse" was written by Stanley while he was attending the High School of Music & Art in New York City.
Simmons estimated that the entire process of recording and mixing took three weeks, though co-producer Richie Wise recalled it took just 13 days…
Both Gene & Ace have said that “Kiss” is their favorite Kiss album…
“Kiss” peaked at #38 in New Zealand, #54 in Japan, #82 in Canada, and #87 in the US.
Click on the link below to watch their debut single from the album, “Nothin’ To Lose”:
On this day in 1989, The Bangles single “Eternal Flame” was at #1 on the UK Singles Chart (April 21)
The song was written by Susanna Hoffs with the established hit songwriting team of Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly.
The ballad was a hit all around the world, going all the way to #1 in the US, the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Ireland, and Portugal, and Top 10 in Canada, New Zealand, France, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, Denmark and Austria.
Hoffs revealed she actually sang the studio recording of the song completely naked after producer Davitt Sigerson told her that Olivia Newton-John recorded her vocals unclothed on a recording he’d recently produced (which was actually a lie, that Sigerson eventually admitted to).
Click on the link below to watch:
Singer, songwriter and musician Steve Marriott passed away this week in 1991 (April 20)
Marriott started out as a child actor, with his first major role, aged 13, as the Artful Dodger in the West End musical “Oliver!”.
A freakish talent, Marriott was later songwriter and frontman guitarist of legendary rock bands Small Faces (1965–1968 and 1975–1978) and Humble Pie (1969–1975 and 1979–1983), spanning over two decades.
In later life Marriott became disillusioned with the music industry and turned his back on the big record companies, remaining in relative obscurity.
He returned to his music roots playing the pubs and clubs around London and Essex.
Marriott died aged just 44 on 20 April 1991 when a fire, which was thought to have been caused by a cigarette, swept through his 16th century home in Arkesden, Essex.
He posthumously received an Ivor Novello Award in 1996 for his Outstanding Contribution to British Music.
On this day in 1975, the Skyhooks single “Ego Is Not A Dirty Word” debuted on the Australian charts at #65 (April 21)
The single was released ahead of the smash hit #1 LP of the same name, and was written by bass guitarist Greg Macainsh, and produced by the legendary Daddy Cool’s Ross Wilson.
“Ego is not a Dirty Word” was a huge song in Australia, but narrowly missed out on getting to the top spot on the charts, peaking at #2…
Click on the link below to watch Skyhooks do it on Countdown:
On this day in 1980, the Australian Crawl single “Boys Light Up” debuted on the Australian charts at #100 (April 21)
The song from their debut album of the same name was the band’s second single, and was written by lead singer James Reyne.
The single was almost banned from radio play and some TV shows due to its explicit lyrics for the time.
Reyne makes observations about cocktail parties that his parents attended, including where one of his teachers was caught in the garden with someone else's wife.
Many listeners believe the chorus lyrics are about smoking marijuana but Reyne has stated that it was about smoking tobacco cigarettes when he was in Form Four at The Peninsula School.
In an interview with Peter Thompson on the ABC Television program Talking Heads, broadcast on 31 May 2010, Reyne answered a question on what the song was about:
“Well, really? It's about fellatio, but….it was also about the sort of burgeoning, you know, kind of... new middle class, the new money and the new money aspirational... uh... class."
Aussie rock fans were also getting used to Reyne’s unique vocal delivery, combined with occasional made-up words…
"People aren't used to hearing 'Dorseted', and it's not actually a word - it's from the Dorset Gardens - I'm trying to be as suburban as possible, and it rhymed with 'corseted’” Reyne said in 2003.
It peaked at #22 on the charts, but was way more popular than that chart position suggests…
Click on the link below to watch:
The Cure singer, songwriter and guitarist Robert Smith was born on this day in 1959 (April 21)
Co-founder, leader and primary songwriter of The Cure, Smith was also a sometime member of Siouxsie and The Banshees, but he didn’t start out as The Cure’s singer:
He recalled, “When we started, and were playing in pubs, I wasn't the singer ...
I was the drunk rhythm guitarist who wrote all these weird songs.
We went through about five different singers – they were f***ing useless, basically.
I always ended up thinking, 'I could do better than this.' ...
I mean, I hated my voice, but I didn't hate it more than I hated everyone else's voice ... So I thought, 'If I can get away with that, I can be the singer.' I've worked on that basis ever since.”
Smith has recently been an outspoken critic of the practice of dynamic ticket pricing to concerts, (where major ticketing firms sell outrageously high priced “platinum” tickets to shows), calling it “a greedy scam” in 2023 and then elaborating in 2024:
“We didn’t allow dynamic pricing because it’s a scam that would disappear if every artist said, ‘I don’t want that!’
But most artists hide behind management. ‘Oh, we didn’t know,’ they say.
They all know. If they say they do not, they’re either f***ing stupid or lying. It’s just driven by greed.”
The Cure’s stand on dynamic pricing has subsequently been taken up by other major artists, including Neil Young.
Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Cure in 2019.
Instantly recognizable with his unique voice, awry birds-nest black hair, white face, smudgy lipstick, goth-style outfit, and panda-eyes makeup, he’s still singing brilliantly to this day, as this video shows...
On this day in 1973, the Lou Reed LP “Transformer” debuted on the UK Albums Chart at #36 (April 21)
Lou Reed’s second solo studio album was produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, and is more than just his most successful single, "Walk on the Wild Side".
There are other classic tracks from the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer with the unique vocal delivery, such as “Satellite of Love”, “Vicious”, and the brilliantly conceived “Perfect Day”.
Bowie and Ronson also contribute vocally and instrumentally to various tracks on the album.
In 2020, it was ranked #109 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and in 1997, “Transformer” was named the 44th greatest album of all time in a "Music of the Millennium" poll conducted in the United Kingdom by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM.
On the charts of the day it wasn’t rated as highly, failing to make the Top 10 anywhere in the world, peaking at #11 in the Netherlands, #12 in Australia, #13 in the UK, and #29 in the US.
The iconic cover art was from a Mick Rock photograph that accidentally became over-exposed as he was printing it in the darkroom.
Rock noticed the flaw but decided he liked the effect enough to submit the image for the album cover, and as you would expect…Lou Reed loved it!
Click on the link below to watch “Perfect Day”:
On this day in 1979, the Gary Moore single “Parisienne Walkways” debuted on the UK Singles Chart at #55 (April 21)
“Parisienne Walkways” is one of Gary Moore’s signature songs, appearing on his album “Back on the Streets”, with vocals courtesy of the song’s co-writer, the late, great Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott.
Lynott also played bass on the track, alongside Thin Lizzy drummer Brian Downey, reuniting (with Moore) the short-lived 1974 Thin Lizzy line-up which had recorded "Still in Love with You", "Sitamoia" and the single "Little Darling".
The melody of "Parisienne Walkways" is based on the jazz standard "Blue Bossa" by Kenny Dorham, and was a fan favourite, with the master Northern Irish guitarist often playing the song in his live shows throughout his career, before his untimely death in 2011.
On the charts, “Parisienne Walkways” went to #5 in Ireland and #8 in the UK.
Click on the link below to watch Gary Moore and Phil Lynott do it live:
Happy Birthday to the Godfather of Punk, James Newell Osterberg Jr, aka Iggy Pop, who was born on this day in 1947 (21 April)
Vocalist and lyricist firstly with The Stooges and then as a solo act, Iggy paved the way for many with his unique, energetic, sometimes bizarre and shocking stage antics and distinctive baritone voice.
Iggy was truly one of a kind.
Although he had comparatively limited commercial success, he has remained both a culture icon and a significant influence on a wide range of musicians in numerous genres.
One of his hits was a cover of Australian music legend Johnny O’Keefe’s “Wild One”, called "Real Wild Child (Wild One)" in 1986.
A further cover of the song titled “The Wild One" was recorded again in 2008 by Iggy Pop who teamed up with Aussie rockers Jet, and released it as a tribute to Johnny O'Keefe.
Iggy Pop was inducted as part of the Stooges into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, and in January 2020, he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
He explored a range of musical styles over the years, but his main commercial success was this 1990 duet with Kate Pierson from the B-52’s.
Great live version right here...
KISS was formed when Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley’s previous band Wicked Lester disbanded in 1972, and the pair recruited Peter Criss from his ad in Rolling Stone:
“EXPD. ROCK & roll drummer looking for orig. grp. doing soft & hard music. Peter, Brooklyn”.
They then placed an ad in The Village Voice:
"LEAD GUITARIST WANTED with Flash and Ability. Album Out Shortly. No time wasters please”, scoring Ace Frehley.
Stanley came up with the name while he, Simmons, and Criss were driving around New York City.
Criss mentioned that he had been in a band called Lips, so Stanley said something to the effect of "What about Kiss?"
Ace created the now-iconic logo, making the "SS" look like lightning bolts, when he went to write the new band name over "Wicked Lester" on a poster outside the club where they were going to play. (Some of Wicked Lester's artwork included one lightning bolt for the "S" in Lester.)
Later, Stanley designed the logo with a Sharpie and a ruler and accidentally drew the two S's nonparallel because he did it "by eye".
The art department asked him if he wanted it to be redrafted to be perfect and he said, "It got us this far, let's leave well enough alone.
Our number one rule has always been no rules."
Much of the material on their debut studio album was written by Simmons and Stanley, as members of pre-Kiss band Wicked Lester, while "Firehouse" was written by Stanley while he was attending the High School of Music & Art in New York City.
Simmons estimated that the entire process of recording and mixing took three weeks, though co-producer Richie Wise recalled it took just 13 days…
Both Gene & Ace have said that “Kiss” is their favorite Kiss album…
“Kiss” peaked at #38 in New Zealand, #54 in Japan, #82 in Canada, and #87 in the US.
Click on the link below to watch their debut single from the album, “Nothin’ To Lose”:
On this day in 1989, The Bangles single “Eternal Flame” was at #1 on the UK Singles Chart (April 21)
The song was written by Susanna Hoffs with the established hit songwriting team of Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly.
The ballad was a hit all around the world, going all the way to #1 in the US, the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Ireland, and Portugal, and Top 10 in Canada, New Zealand, France, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, Denmark and Austria.
Hoffs revealed she actually sang the studio recording of the song completely naked after producer Davitt Sigerson told her that Olivia Newton-John recorded her vocals unclothed on a recording he’d recently produced (which was actually a lie, that Sigerson eventually admitted to).
Click on the link below to watch:
Singer, songwriter and musician Steve Marriott passed away this week in 1991 (April 20)
Marriott started out as a child actor, with his first major role, aged 13, as the Artful Dodger in the West End musical “Oliver!”.
A freakish talent, Marriott was later songwriter and frontman guitarist of legendary rock bands Small Faces (1965–1968 and 1975–1978) and Humble Pie (1969–1975 and 1979–1983), spanning over two decades.
In later life Marriott became disillusioned with the music industry and turned his back on the big record companies, remaining in relative obscurity.
He returned to his music roots playing the pubs and clubs around London and Essex.
Marriott died aged just 44 on 20 April 1991 when a fire, which was thought to have been caused by a cigarette, swept through his 16th century home in Arkesden, Essex.
He posthumously received an Ivor Novello Award in 1996 for his Outstanding Contribution to British Music.
On this day in 1975, the Skyhooks single “Ego Is Not A Dirty Word” debuted on the Australian charts at #65 (April 21)
The single was released ahead of the smash hit #1 LP of the same name, and was written by bass guitarist Greg Macainsh, and produced by the legendary Daddy Cool’s Ross Wilson.
“Ego is not a Dirty Word” was a huge song in Australia, but narrowly missed out on getting to the top spot on the charts, peaking at #2…
Click on the link below to watch Skyhooks do it on Countdown:
On this day in 1980, the Australian Crawl single “Boys Light Up” debuted on the Australian charts at #100 (April 21)
The song from their debut album of the same name was the band’s second single, and was written by lead singer James Reyne.
The single was almost banned from radio play and some TV shows due to its explicit lyrics for the time.
Reyne makes observations about cocktail parties that his parents attended, including where one of his teachers was caught in the garden with someone else's wife.
Many listeners believe the chorus lyrics are about smoking marijuana but Reyne has stated that it was about smoking tobacco cigarettes when he was in Form Four at The Peninsula School.
In an interview with Peter Thompson on the ABC Television program Talking Heads, broadcast on 31 May 2010, Reyne answered a question on what the song was about:
“Well, really? It's about fellatio, but….it was also about the sort of burgeoning, you know, kind of... new middle class, the new money and the new money aspirational... uh... class."
Aussie rock fans were also getting used to Reyne’s unique vocal delivery, combined with occasional made-up words…
"People aren't used to hearing 'Dorseted', and it's not actually a word - it's from the Dorset Gardens - I'm trying to be as suburban as possible, and it rhymed with 'corseted’” Reyne said in 2003.
It peaked at #22 on the charts, but was way more popular than that chart position suggests…
Click on the link below to watch:
The Cure singer, songwriter and guitarist Robert Smith was born on this day in 1959 (April 21)
Co-founder, leader and primary songwriter of The Cure, Smith was also a sometime member of Siouxsie and The Banshees, but he didn’t start out as The Cure’s singer:
He recalled, “When we started, and were playing in pubs, I wasn't the singer ...
I was the drunk rhythm guitarist who wrote all these weird songs.
We went through about five different singers – they were f***ing useless, basically.
I always ended up thinking, 'I could do better than this.' ...
I mean, I hated my voice, but I didn't hate it more than I hated everyone else's voice ... So I thought, 'If I can get away with that, I can be the singer.' I've worked on that basis ever since.”
Smith has recently been an outspoken critic of the practice of dynamic ticket pricing to concerts, (where major ticketing firms sell outrageously high priced “platinum” tickets to shows), calling it “a greedy scam” in 2023 and then elaborating in 2024:
“We didn’t allow dynamic pricing because it’s a scam that would disappear if every artist said, ‘I don’t want that!’
But most artists hide behind management. ‘Oh, we didn’t know,’ they say.
They all know. If they say they do not, they’re either f***ing stupid or lying. It’s just driven by greed.”
The Cure’s stand on dynamic pricing has subsequently been taken up by other major artists, including Neil Young.
Smith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Cure in 2019.
Instantly recognizable with his unique voice, awry birds-nest black hair, white face, smudgy lipstick, goth-style outfit, and panda-eyes makeup, he’s still singing brilliantly to this day, as this video shows...
On this day in 1973, the Lou Reed LP “Transformer” debuted on the UK Albums Chart at #36 (April 21)
Lou Reed’s second solo studio album was produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, and is more than just his most successful single, "Walk on the Wild Side".
There are other classic tracks from the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer with the unique vocal delivery, such as “Satellite of Love”, “Vicious”, and the brilliantly conceived “Perfect Day”.
Bowie and Ronson also contribute vocally and instrumentally to various tracks on the album.
In 2020, it was ranked #109 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and in 1997, “Transformer” was named the 44th greatest album of all time in a "Music of the Millennium" poll conducted in the United Kingdom by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM.
On the charts of the day it wasn’t rated as highly, failing to make the Top 10 anywhere in the world, peaking at #11 in the Netherlands, #12 in Australia, #13 in the UK, and #29 in the US.
The iconic cover art was from a Mick Rock photograph that accidentally became over-exposed as he was printing it in the darkroom.
Rock noticed the flaw but decided he liked the effect enough to submit the image for the album cover, and as you would expect…Lou Reed loved it!
Click on the link below to watch “Perfect Day”:
On this day in 1979, the Gary Moore single “Parisienne Walkways” debuted on the UK Singles Chart at #55 (April 21)
“Parisienne Walkways” is one of Gary Moore’s signature songs, appearing on his album “Back on the Streets”, with vocals courtesy of the song’s co-writer, the late, great Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott.
Lynott also played bass on the track, alongside Thin Lizzy drummer Brian Downey, reuniting (with Moore) the short-lived 1974 Thin Lizzy line-up which had recorded "Still in Love with You", "Sitamoia" and the single "Little Darling".
The melody of "Parisienne Walkways" is based on the jazz standard "Blue Bossa" by Kenny Dorham, and was a fan favourite, with the master Northern Irish guitarist often playing the song in his live shows throughout his career, before his untimely death in 2011.
On the charts, “Parisienne Walkways” went to #5 in Ireland and #8 in the UK.
Click on the link below to watch Gary Moore and Phil Lynott do it live:
Happy Birthday to the Godfather of Punk, James Newell Osterberg Jr, aka Iggy Pop, who was born on this day in 1947 (21 April)
Vocalist and lyricist firstly with The Stooges and then as a solo act, Iggy paved the way for many with his unique, energetic, sometimes bizarre and shocking stage antics and distinctive baritone voice.
Iggy was truly one of a kind.
Although he had comparatively limited commercial success, he has remained both a culture icon and a significant influence on a wide range of musicians in numerous genres.
One of his hits was a cover of Australian music legend Johnny O’Keefe’s “Wild One”, called "Real Wild Child (Wild One)" in 1986.
A further cover of the song titled “The Wild One" was recorded again in 2008 by Iggy Pop who teamed up with Aussie rockers Jet, and released it as a tribute to Johnny O'Keefe.
Iggy Pop was inducted as part of the Stooges into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, and in January 2020, he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
He explored a range of musical styles over the years, but his main commercial success was this 1990 duet with Kate Pierson from the B-52’s.
Great live version right here...
