My favorite album and one the greatest ever made in my opinion. Came out 50 years ago this past Tuesday.
On this day in 1975, the Led Zeppelin released the LP “Physical Graffiti” (February 24)
One of the greatest albums of all time…
Zeppelin wrote enough new songs to fill three sides of the new album, so they included previously unreleased tracks from the sessions for the earlier albums “Led Zeppelin III”, “Led Zeppelin IV” and “Houses of the Holy” to bump it up to four sides and make it a double album.
It was released on their own newly created record label Swan Song Records.
The two five-storey buildings photographed for the iconic album cover are located at 96 and 98 St. Mark's Place in New York City.
The album peaked at #1 in the US, the UK and Canada, #2 in Australia, France, Spain and Austria, #3 in New Zealand, #4 in Norway and Germany, #5 in Finland, #7 in Sweden, and #10 in Denmark and the Netherlands.
Robert Plant believed that “Physical Graffiti”represented the band at its creative peak, and has since said that it is his favourite Led Zeppelin album.
Jimmy Page has also said the album was a "high-water mark" for the group, and the creative energy from jamming and gradually working out song structures together led to some strong material.
In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it at #144 on the magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time."
Click on the link below to watch side 2, track 3 “Kashmir”:
Van Halen first number one song.
On this day in 1984, the Van Halen single “Jump” peaked at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (February 25)
It’s Diamond Dave at his gymnastic best, and Eddie showing off the keyboard skills that won him first place from 1964 to 1967 in the annual piano competition held at Long Beach City College, when he was a just a kid whose parents wanted him to be a classical pianist, rather than the master axe shredder he turned out to be.
The lead single from their album “1984” is Van Halen's most successful single, also charting at #1 in Canada, #2 in Australia and Ireland, and Top 10 in the UK, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.
The song with one of the most recognizable synth hooks in rock was listed by The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum as one of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll."
"Jump" was ranked #15 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 1980s, and was nominated at the 27th Annual Grammy Awards (1984) in the "Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal" category.
In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked "Jump" at #177 on their updated list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The classic clip for “Jump”, featuring a lot of jumping on stage courtesy of David Lee Roth, was nominated for three MTV Video Music Awards, and won "Best Stage Performance" for the video.
Click on the link below to watch it:
On this day in 1979, the LP “Cheap Trick at Budokan” debuted on the Billboard 200 Album Chart at #93, and the UK Albums Chart at #68 (February 24)
It was the first live album by Cheap Trick, and not only their best-selling recording, but arguably one of the best live albums in rock history…
Cheap Trick found early success in Japan, and capitalized on this popularity by recording Cheap Trick at Budokan at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on April 28 and 30, 1978, with an audience of 12,000 screaming Japanese fans nearly drowning out the band at times.
Originally intended only for release in Japan, the album went to #1 in Canada, #2 in the Netherlands, #4 in the US, #10 in New Zealand, #12 in Japan, #26 in Sweden, and #29 in the UK.
It was ranked #426 in the 2003 edition of Rolling Stone magazine's list of "the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
In 2019, the album was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
In its official press release upon the album's entry into the National Recording Registry, the Library of Congress stated that, along with its success in the Japanese market, Cheap Trick at Budokan "proved to be the making of the band in their home country, as well as a loud and welcomed alternative to disco and soft rock and a decisive comeback for rock and roll."
The album was included in the book “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”.
Click on the link below to watch “I Want You To Want Me”:
Guitarist, singer and songwriter George Thorogood was born in Wilmington, Delaware, on this day in 1950 (February 24)
His "high-energy boogie-blues" sound became a staple of 1980s rock radio, with hits like his original songs "Bad to the Bone" and "I Drink Alone".
He has also helped to popularize older songs by American icons, such as "Move It on Over", "Who Do You Love?", and "House Rent Blues/One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer".
George’s version of “No Particular Place To Go” is also a cracker…
With his band, the Delaware Destroyers, Thorogood has released over 20 albums, and continues to tour to this day.
His 1982 song “Bad to the Bone” is one of the all-time classic rock songs.
Click on the link below to watch it:
On this day in 1973, the Stealer’s Wheel debut, self-titled LP debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #200 (February 24)
The album, produced by American songwriters and producers Leiber & Stoller, was a success for the Scottish folk rock combo, peaking at #25 in Canada, #44 in Australia, and #50 on the US Billboard charts.
Their timeless Top 10 hit “Stuck in the Middle with You” first appeared on this album, with Gerry Rafferty providing the lyrics and lead vocals.
The clever cover art painting is by Scottish playwright and artist John Patrick Byrne.
The words "Stealers Wheel" are embedded ten times in the design, in addition to the large lettering in the bottom left-hand corner (eleven in total).
Click on the link below to watch “Stuck in the Middle with You”:
On this day in 1968, the Troggs single “Love Is All Around” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #98 (February 24)
Reg Presley, lead singer of the Troggs, wrote "Love Is All Around" in about ten minutes, inspired by a TV broadcast of the Salvation Army band Joystrings performing an evangelical song titled "Love That's All Around".
In the US, although it was released there in November 1967, the song didn’t enter the Billboard Hot 100 until 24 February 1968, spending a total of 16 weeks on the chart, reaching its peak at #7 in the third week of May.
Elsewhere it went all the way to #1 in South Africa, #3 in New Zealand, #4 in the UK and Sweden, #6 in Canada, #15 in Germany, #17 in the Netherlands and Ireland, and #44 in Australia.
At the time Billboard wrote that "this smooth, easy beat ballad with good lyric line should be just the commercial entry to put the British group back in their top selling bag in the U.S.".
"Love Is All Around" has been covered by numerous artists, including R.E.M., with whom the Troggs subsequently recorded their 1992 comeback album “Athens Andover”.
R.E.M.'s cover was a B-side on their 1991 "Radio Song" single, and they also played it during their first appearance at MTV's Unplugged series that same year.
Wet Wet Wet's cover, for the soundtrack to the 1994 film “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, was a massive international hit and spent 15 consecutive weeks at #1 on the UK Singles Chart, also topping the charts around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden and Belgium.
Click on the link below to watch the original:
On this day in 1978, the Player single “Baby Come Back” debuted on the UK Singles Chart at #48 (February 25)
The lead single from their self-titled debut album was the breakthrough hit for the band, gaining them mainstream success, topping the charts in the US and Canada, and hitting #4 in New Zealand, #9 in South Africa, #15 in Australia, #25 in the Netherlands, and #32 in the UK.
Songfacts tells us that the song was written by Player founders Peter Beckett and J. C. Crowley.
Beckett is from Liverpool, England (home of The Beatles), but moved to Los Angeles to join a band called Skyband, which broke up after one album.
By the time he formed Player with Crowley, his wife had left him and returned to England. Crowley was also going through a breakup, so they both channeled their feelings into this breakup song.
Beckett sang lead on the track.
"Baby Come Back" earned Player a record deal.
After Peter Beckett and J. C. Crowley, who were both singer-guitarists, wrote the song, they added bass player Ronn Moss (later to be known as Ridge Forrester from the Bold & the Beautiful), and pitched it to producers Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, who heard its hit potential straight away and took it to RSO Records, who signed the band.
Adding drummer John Friesen to the lineup, they recorded their debut album before they actually ever played live together.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1980, the Jon English single “Hot Town” peaked on the Australian charts at #11 (February 25)
Released in 1979, the song written by Graeme Connors and Mike Wade was the first single from Jon English’s sixth studio album “Calm Before the Storm”, and ended up being the loveable entertainer’s third-highest charting single in Australia, behind “Six Ribbons” and “Words Are Not Enough”.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1984, the Men At Work single “Be Good Johnny” debuted on the UK Singles Chart at #78 (February 25)
Released in 1982, the final single from the mega-successful “Business As Usual” LP was written by Colin Hay and Greg Ham.
The quirky, fun track from the quirky, fun Aussie band, flipped the iconic Chuck Berry title “Johnny B. Goode”, but it wasn’t as big a hit as Chuck’s classic, or others off the “Business As Usual” album.
It peaked at #3 in New Zealand, and also on the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart, #8 in Australia, #18 in Canada, but only got to #78 in the UK…
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1975, the Led Zeppelin released the LP “Physical Graffiti” (February 24)
One of the greatest albums of all time…
Zeppelin wrote enough new songs to fill three sides of the new album, so they included previously unreleased tracks from the sessions for the earlier albums “Led Zeppelin III”, “Led Zeppelin IV” and “Houses of the Holy” to bump it up to four sides and make it a double album.
It was released on their own newly created record label Swan Song Records.
The two five-storey buildings photographed for the iconic album cover are located at 96 and 98 St. Mark's Place in New York City.
The album peaked at #1 in the US, the UK and Canada, #2 in Australia, France, Spain and Austria, #3 in New Zealand, #4 in Norway and Germany, #5 in Finland, #7 in Sweden, and #10 in Denmark and the Netherlands.
Robert Plant believed that “Physical Graffiti”represented the band at its creative peak, and has since said that it is his favourite Led Zeppelin album.
Jimmy Page has also said the album was a "high-water mark" for the group, and the creative energy from jamming and gradually working out song structures together led to some strong material.
In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it at #144 on the magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time."
Click on the link below to watch side 2, track 3 “Kashmir”:
Van Halen first number one song.
On this day in 1984, the Van Halen single “Jump” peaked at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (February 25)
It’s Diamond Dave at his gymnastic best, and Eddie showing off the keyboard skills that won him first place from 1964 to 1967 in the annual piano competition held at Long Beach City College, when he was a just a kid whose parents wanted him to be a classical pianist, rather than the master axe shredder he turned out to be.
The lead single from their album “1984” is Van Halen's most successful single, also charting at #1 in Canada, #2 in Australia and Ireland, and Top 10 in the UK, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.
The song with one of the most recognizable synth hooks in rock was listed by The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum as one of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll."
"Jump" was ranked #15 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 1980s, and was nominated at the 27th Annual Grammy Awards (1984) in the "Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal" category.
In 2021, Rolling Stone ranked "Jump" at #177 on their updated list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The classic clip for “Jump”, featuring a lot of jumping on stage courtesy of David Lee Roth, was nominated for three MTV Video Music Awards, and won "Best Stage Performance" for the video.
Click on the link below to watch it:
On this day in 1979, the LP “Cheap Trick at Budokan” debuted on the Billboard 200 Album Chart at #93, and the UK Albums Chart at #68 (February 24)
It was the first live album by Cheap Trick, and not only their best-selling recording, but arguably one of the best live albums in rock history…
Cheap Trick found early success in Japan, and capitalized on this popularity by recording Cheap Trick at Budokan at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on April 28 and 30, 1978, with an audience of 12,000 screaming Japanese fans nearly drowning out the band at times.
Originally intended only for release in Japan, the album went to #1 in Canada, #2 in the Netherlands, #4 in the US, #10 in New Zealand, #12 in Japan, #26 in Sweden, and #29 in the UK.
It was ranked #426 in the 2003 edition of Rolling Stone magazine's list of "the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
In 2019, the album was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
In its official press release upon the album's entry into the National Recording Registry, the Library of Congress stated that, along with its success in the Japanese market, Cheap Trick at Budokan "proved to be the making of the band in their home country, as well as a loud and welcomed alternative to disco and soft rock and a decisive comeback for rock and roll."
The album was included in the book “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”.
Click on the link below to watch “I Want You To Want Me”:
Guitarist, singer and songwriter George Thorogood was born in Wilmington, Delaware, on this day in 1950 (February 24)
His "high-energy boogie-blues" sound became a staple of 1980s rock radio, with hits like his original songs "Bad to the Bone" and "I Drink Alone".
He has also helped to popularize older songs by American icons, such as "Move It on Over", "Who Do You Love?", and "House Rent Blues/One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer".
George’s version of “No Particular Place To Go” is also a cracker…
With his band, the Delaware Destroyers, Thorogood has released over 20 albums, and continues to tour to this day.
His 1982 song “Bad to the Bone” is one of the all-time classic rock songs.
Click on the link below to watch it:
On this day in 1973, the Stealer’s Wheel debut, self-titled LP debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #200 (February 24)
The album, produced by American songwriters and producers Leiber & Stoller, was a success for the Scottish folk rock combo, peaking at #25 in Canada, #44 in Australia, and #50 on the US Billboard charts.
Their timeless Top 10 hit “Stuck in the Middle with You” first appeared on this album, with Gerry Rafferty providing the lyrics and lead vocals.
The clever cover art painting is by Scottish playwright and artist John Patrick Byrne.
The words "Stealers Wheel" are embedded ten times in the design, in addition to the large lettering in the bottom left-hand corner (eleven in total).
Click on the link below to watch “Stuck in the Middle with You”:
On this day in 1968, the Troggs single “Love Is All Around” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #98 (February 24)
Reg Presley, lead singer of the Troggs, wrote "Love Is All Around" in about ten minutes, inspired by a TV broadcast of the Salvation Army band Joystrings performing an evangelical song titled "Love That's All Around".
In the US, although it was released there in November 1967, the song didn’t enter the Billboard Hot 100 until 24 February 1968, spending a total of 16 weeks on the chart, reaching its peak at #7 in the third week of May.
Elsewhere it went all the way to #1 in South Africa, #3 in New Zealand, #4 in the UK and Sweden, #6 in Canada, #15 in Germany, #17 in the Netherlands and Ireland, and #44 in Australia.
At the time Billboard wrote that "this smooth, easy beat ballad with good lyric line should be just the commercial entry to put the British group back in their top selling bag in the U.S.".
"Love Is All Around" has been covered by numerous artists, including R.E.M., with whom the Troggs subsequently recorded their 1992 comeback album “Athens Andover”.
R.E.M.'s cover was a B-side on their 1991 "Radio Song" single, and they also played it during their first appearance at MTV's Unplugged series that same year.
Wet Wet Wet's cover, for the soundtrack to the 1994 film “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, was a massive international hit and spent 15 consecutive weeks at #1 on the UK Singles Chart, also topping the charts around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden and Belgium.
Click on the link below to watch the original:
On this day in 1978, the Player single “Baby Come Back” debuted on the UK Singles Chart at #48 (February 25)
The lead single from their self-titled debut album was the breakthrough hit for the band, gaining them mainstream success, topping the charts in the US and Canada, and hitting #4 in New Zealand, #9 in South Africa, #15 in Australia, #25 in the Netherlands, and #32 in the UK.
Songfacts tells us that the song was written by Player founders Peter Beckett and J. C. Crowley.
Beckett is from Liverpool, England (home of The Beatles), but moved to Los Angeles to join a band called Skyband, which broke up after one album.
By the time he formed Player with Crowley, his wife had left him and returned to England. Crowley was also going through a breakup, so they both channeled their feelings into this breakup song.
Beckett sang lead on the track.
"Baby Come Back" earned Player a record deal.
After Peter Beckett and J. C. Crowley, who were both singer-guitarists, wrote the song, they added bass player Ronn Moss (later to be known as Ridge Forrester from the Bold & the Beautiful), and pitched it to producers Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, who heard its hit potential straight away and took it to RSO Records, who signed the band.
Adding drummer John Friesen to the lineup, they recorded their debut album before they actually ever played live together.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1980, the Jon English single “Hot Town” peaked on the Australian charts at #11 (February 25)
Released in 1979, the song written by Graeme Connors and Mike Wade was the first single from Jon English’s sixth studio album “Calm Before the Storm”, and ended up being the loveable entertainer’s third-highest charting single in Australia, behind “Six Ribbons” and “Words Are Not Enough”.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1984, the Men At Work single “Be Good Johnny” debuted on the UK Singles Chart at #78 (February 25)
Released in 1982, the final single from the mega-successful “Business As Usual” LP was written by Colin Hay and Greg Ham.
The quirky, fun track from the quirky, fun Aussie band, flipped the iconic Chuck Berry title “Johnny B. Goode”, but it wasn’t as big a hit as Chuck’s classic, or others off the “Business As Usual” album.
It peaked at #3 in New Zealand, and also on the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Chart, #8 in Australia, #18 in Canada, but only got to #78 in the UK…
Click on the link below to watch:
