Happy Thanksgiving to All!
This week in 1964, the Who performed their first gig as the Who at the Marquee Club in Wardour St, London (November 24)
They originally started out as the Detours in late 1962 when guitarist Roger Daltrey joined bassist John Entwistle and guitarist Pete Townshend, who used to play in a Dixieland band as teenagers, along with drummer Doug Sandom and singer Colin Dawson.
Dawson left after frequently arguing with Daltrey, who then moved to lead vocals.
After issues with Sandom’s performance behind the kit, the band were playing with a stand-in drummer when a young Keith Moon got up and played a few songs with the group, breaking the kick drum pedal and tearing a couple of drum skins.
The band were so impressed with his energy and enthusiasm that they offered him the job.
Moon later claimed that he was never formally invited to join the Who permanently; when Ringo Starr asked how he had joined the band, he said he had "just been filling in for the last fifteen years."
After briefly changing their name to the High Numbers, they settled on The Who.
For their debut at the Marquee, on a dark and rainy evening on November 24, 1964, they played to an audience less than 40 people, which actually was the start of a Thursday residency that lasted for seven weeks.
The band’s new managers printed black and white posters under the now famous tag line of "Maximum R&B".
Within a few weeks the Who broke the Marquee attendance records which remained during all of their appearances there.
Keith Moon recalled to Beat Instrumental magazine in 1968: "My most memorable moment at the Marquee was when Pete Townshend started smashing up his guitar.
Really, you should have seen the audience. Mouths open, great rows of teeth showing. You could almost count the cavities.
But when we started there, the audiences weren't very big.
Word-of-mouth recommendations helped and we ended up breaking all previous records…”
And the rest, as they say, is rock history…
Click on the link below to watch some live clips of the band a few months later:
On this day in 1984, the Bryan Adams LP “Reckless” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #44 (November 24)
Bryan Adams' most successful solo album has reached 12 million album sales worldwide, and was the first Canadian album to sell more than a million copies within Canada.
Six singles were released from the album: "Run to You", "Somebody", "Heaven", "Summer of '69", "One Night Love Affair", and "It's Only Love".
In a massive achievement for the Canadian rocker, all six singles from the album made the Top 15 on the US Billboard Hot 100, which until that time had only been accomplished previously by Michael Jackson's “Thriller” and Bruce Springsteen's “Born in the USA”.
"Reckless" also reached #1 in Canada and New Zealand, #2 in Norway and Australia while reaching the Top 10 in the UK, Switzerland and Sweden.
A classic 80s rock LP…
Click on the link below to watch “Summer of ‘69”:
On this day in 1984, the REO Speedwagon LP “Wheels Are Turnin’” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #91 (November 24)
Sales were initially sluggish, until the release of the album’s second single "Can't Fight This Feeling”, which became the band from Champaign, Illinois’s second and longest-running #1 single.
After that, demand ramped up, and the album went on to peak at #7 in the US, and #13 in Canada, and a little more modestly at #40 in Sweden and #54 in Australia.
Click on the link below to watch “Can’t Fight This Feeling”:
On this day in 1973, the John Lennon LP “Mind Games” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #16 (November 24)
Lennon’s fourth solo studio album was his first self-produced recording without help from Phil Spector.
The album came out of a time of personal turmoil for the ex-Beatle, amid frequent court appearances battling to stay in the United States, a situation that was only worsened by constant surveillance by the FBI, due to his political activism.
Lennon said, "I just couldn't function, you know? I was so paranoid from them tappin' the phone and followin' me."
Also, just as the sessions were to get under way in June at New York's Record Plant Studios, he split with Yoko Ono, and her assistant and production coordinator May Pang became Lennon's companion and lover in what would become an 18-month relationship later renowned as Lennon's "lost weekend".
Despite all this, he wrote all the songs for “Mind Games” in about a week, recorded the album between July and August 1973 in Lennon's characteristic quick fashion, and mixed it over a two-week period.
On the charts, the album went to #6 in Japan, #7 in Norway and the Netherlands, #8 in Australia, #9 in the US and Spain, and #13 in the UK.
Click on the link below to watch the title track:
On this day in 1972, Lou Reed released the single “Walk on the Wild Side” (November 24)
The song from his landmark solo album, “Transformer” was produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson and released as a double A-side with another Lou Reed classic: “Perfect Day".
The song’s lyrics were controversial and shocking to many at the time, referencing oral sex, transgender people, drugs, and prostitution, and described the journey to New York City of some of the real people in Lou Reed’s life.
These people were some of Velvet Underground manager and visual pop art icon Andy Warhol’s “superstars” from his New York studio, The Factory, a well-known gathering place that brought together an eclectic bunch of intellectuals, drag queens, playwrights, Bohemian street people, artists, Hollywood celebrities, musicians and wealthy patrons.
It has gone down in rock history as one of Reed’s signature and most recognizable songs, peaking at #10 in the UK, #13 in Ireland, #15 in the Netherlands, #16 in the US, #18 in Canada, and #100 in Australia.
After Lou Reed’s death in 2013, the song charted again around the world, climbing to #13 in France, #7 in Italy, and #21 in Spain.
The baritone saxophone solo played over the fadeout of the song is performed by Ronnie Ross, who had taught David Bowie to play the saxophone during Bowie's childhood.
The famous “and the colored girls go” backing vocals are sung by Thunderthighs, a vocal group that included Dari Lalou, Karen Friedman, and Casey Synge.
The absolutely iconic ascending and descending bass hook was played by the esteemed Herbie Flowers, who by the end of the 1970s had played bass on an estimated 500 hit recordings by the likes of Bowie, Elton John, Melanie, Bryan Ferry, Cat Stevens, George Harrison and Paul McCartney.
He also played bass on “Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds”.
Click on the link below to watch “Walk on the Wild Side”:
On this day in 1991, former Mi-Sex lead singer Steve Gilpin was involved in a car accident that would eventually cost him his life (November 25)
After Mi-Sex hit the pause button in 1985, Gilpin remained in Australia and played with a variety of bands, including the covers band Under Rapz.
On 25 November 1991, while driving home to his property near Mullumbimby in northern NSW from an Under Rapz gig, Gilpin was involved in a car accident, sustaining serious head injuries that left him in a coma.
He never recovered consciousness and tragically passed away on 6 January 1992.
In a golden age of live rock bands in Australia, Mi-Sex built a reputation as one of the very best live bands in the country, and Gilpin out front cemented himself as one of the most talented and most loved frontmen.
Steve Gilpin started out as a solo singer in New Zealand, and in 1972 he won the New Zealand TV talent show “New Faces”, ahead of Shona Laing.
In 1977 he formed the band Fragments of Time (from the remnants of prog rock band Father Thyme), which in turn morphed into Mi-Sex in 1978.
The band was named after an Ultravox track.
Mi-Sex' debut single (co-written by Gilpin and Kevin Stanton) “Straight Laddie" was released in early 1978, and later that year the band decided they would cross the ditch and relocate to Australia.
Within six months they were one of the biggest bands in Sydney, and had signed with CBS.
Their first single for CBS, "But You Don't Care", was released in May 1979, and peaked at #25 in Australia and #33 in New Zealand, and their debut album, “Graffiti Crimes” was issued in July 1979 to coincide with their national tour supporting Talking Heads.
Then came their breakthrough new wave anthem with the brilliant Murray Burns synth hook “Computer Games”, which rocketed to #1 in Australia, and charted Top 10 in Canada, France, Austria, Italy, New Zealand, Germany and South Africa.
Mi-Sex went on to win the 1979 TV Week – Countdown Music Awards for 'Most Popular Album or Single', 'Best Australian Single' and 'Best New Talent'.
Mi-Sex followed “Computer Games” with a few albums of really strong material, including great singles like “People”, “Falling In and Out”, “Castaway”, “Only Thinking”, and “Blue Day”.
Great singer and charismatic frontman, with his unique, distinctive hand and arm flourishes and vocal yelps……one of our best.
Click on the link below to watch Mi-Sex on Countdown doing “Falling In and Out”, which was released this month in 1981:
This week in 1990, the Iggy Pop (featuring Kate Pierson) single “Candy” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #90 (November 24)
The duet with Kate Pierson of the B-52's, it was the album's second single from Pop's ninth solo album “Brick by Brick”.
It became the biggest mainstream hit of Pop's career, as the song went on to break into the Top 40 in the US for the first and only time for the veteran shock rocker.
Iggy reflected:
"I've written one good pop song: 'Candy'.
It's a very decent, proper pop song, but that's as far as that went."
The song was initially offered to Chrissie Hynde. She said,
“…we didn't pull that off. And I always regretted that, because Iggy was always my number one when I was growing up.
And then he wrote this song and he sent it to me. It was handwritten and everything.
I don't know what I did to turn him off the idea, but then I never heard from him.
And he ended up doing the song with Kate Pierson."
“Candy” did significantly better in the Netherlands (#7), Australia (#9), and Belgium (#10) than anywhere else, but also peaked at #28 in the US, #39 in New Zealand, and #67 in the UK.
Click on the link below to watch it live:
This week in 1979, the Police single “Message in a Bottle” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #86 (November 24)
Andy Summers’ jangly guitar, Stewart Copeland’s new wave/reggae-infused lock-down beat, with his exuberant creativity, and Sting’s distinctive clear-as-a-bell vocals, combined again on this one, with the Police’s trademark “sound”.
Summers recalled:
“Sting had that riff for a while, but there was another tune with it originally. He'd been fiddling about with it during our first American tour.
Finally, he rearranged the riff slightly and came up with the song."
Summers called it Copeland’s “finest drum track”, and and said, "For me, it's still the best song Sting ever came up with and the best Police track."
Copeland said it was "one of our best moments in the studio and always great on stage."
Sting reflected:
“‘Message in a Bottle' is a good song.
That can move me.
I like the idea that while it's about loneliness and alienation it's also about finding solace and other people going through the same thing.
The guy's on a desert island and throws a bottle out to sea saying he's alone and all these millions of bottles come back saying, So what So am I!
I like the fact that the whole deal is clinched by the third verse.
It makes a journey.”
The lead single from their second studio album, “Reggatta de Blanc”, and written by Sting, was the first of their five UK #1 singles.
It was also an international breakthrough of sorts, with the band charting in single digits in multiple international markets for the first time.
It went to #1 in the UK and Ireland, #2 in Canada, #4 in the Netherlands, #5 in Australia and Belgium, #11 in New Zealand, #20 in Sweden, and #21 in Italy.
They were still finding the US hard to crack, with “Message in a Bottle” peaking at a disappointing #74.
Rolling Stone ranked it #65 on its list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time".
Click on the link below to watch:
This week in 1964, the Who performed their first gig as the Who at the Marquee Club in Wardour St, London (November 24)
They originally started out as the Detours in late 1962 when guitarist Roger Daltrey joined bassist John Entwistle and guitarist Pete Townshend, who used to play in a Dixieland band as teenagers, along with drummer Doug Sandom and singer Colin Dawson.
Dawson left after frequently arguing with Daltrey, who then moved to lead vocals.
After issues with Sandom’s performance behind the kit, the band were playing with a stand-in drummer when a young Keith Moon got up and played a few songs with the group, breaking the kick drum pedal and tearing a couple of drum skins.
The band were so impressed with his energy and enthusiasm that they offered him the job.
Moon later claimed that he was never formally invited to join the Who permanently; when Ringo Starr asked how he had joined the band, he said he had "just been filling in for the last fifteen years."
After briefly changing their name to the High Numbers, they settled on The Who.
For their debut at the Marquee, on a dark and rainy evening on November 24, 1964, they played to an audience less than 40 people, which actually was the start of a Thursday residency that lasted for seven weeks.
The band’s new managers printed black and white posters under the now famous tag line of "Maximum R&B".
Within a few weeks the Who broke the Marquee attendance records which remained during all of their appearances there.
Keith Moon recalled to Beat Instrumental magazine in 1968: "My most memorable moment at the Marquee was when Pete Townshend started smashing up his guitar.
Really, you should have seen the audience. Mouths open, great rows of teeth showing. You could almost count the cavities.
But when we started there, the audiences weren't very big.
Word-of-mouth recommendations helped and we ended up breaking all previous records…”
And the rest, as they say, is rock history…
Click on the link below to watch some live clips of the band a few months later:
On this day in 1984, the Bryan Adams LP “Reckless” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #44 (November 24)
Bryan Adams' most successful solo album has reached 12 million album sales worldwide, and was the first Canadian album to sell more than a million copies within Canada.
Six singles were released from the album: "Run to You", "Somebody", "Heaven", "Summer of '69", "One Night Love Affair", and "It's Only Love".
In a massive achievement for the Canadian rocker, all six singles from the album made the Top 15 on the US Billboard Hot 100, which until that time had only been accomplished previously by Michael Jackson's “Thriller” and Bruce Springsteen's “Born in the USA”.
"Reckless" also reached #1 in Canada and New Zealand, #2 in Norway and Australia while reaching the Top 10 in the UK, Switzerland and Sweden.
A classic 80s rock LP…
Click on the link below to watch “Summer of ‘69”:
On this day in 1984, the REO Speedwagon LP “Wheels Are Turnin’” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #91 (November 24)
Sales were initially sluggish, until the release of the album’s second single "Can't Fight This Feeling”, which became the band from Champaign, Illinois’s second and longest-running #1 single.
After that, demand ramped up, and the album went on to peak at #7 in the US, and #13 in Canada, and a little more modestly at #40 in Sweden and #54 in Australia.
Click on the link below to watch “Can’t Fight This Feeling”:
On this day in 1973, the John Lennon LP “Mind Games” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #16 (November 24)
Lennon’s fourth solo studio album was his first self-produced recording without help from Phil Spector.
The album came out of a time of personal turmoil for the ex-Beatle, amid frequent court appearances battling to stay in the United States, a situation that was only worsened by constant surveillance by the FBI, due to his political activism.
Lennon said, "I just couldn't function, you know? I was so paranoid from them tappin' the phone and followin' me."
Also, just as the sessions were to get under way in June at New York's Record Plant Studios, he split with Yoko Ono, and her assistant and production coordinator May Pang became Lennon's companion and lover in what would become an 18-month relationship later renowned as Lennon's "lost weekend".
Despite all this, he wrote all the songs for “Mind Games” in about a week, recorded the album between July and August 1973 in Lennon's characteristic quick fashion, and mixed it over a two-week period.
On the charts, the album went to #6 in Japan, #7 in Norway and the Netherlands, #8 in Australia, #9 in the US and Spain, and #13 in the UK.
Click on the link below to watch the title track:
On this day in 1972, Lou Reed released the single “Walk on the Wild Side” (November 24)
The song from his landmark solo album, “Transformer” was produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson and released as a double A-side with another Lou Reed classic: “Perfect Day".
The song’s lyrics were controversial and shocking to many at the time, referencing oral sex, transgender people, drugs, and prostitution, and described the journey to New York City of some of the real people in Lou Reed’s life.
These people were some of Velvet Underground manager and visual pop art icon Andy Warhol’s “superstars” from his New York studio, The Factory, a well-known gathering place that brought together an eclectic bunch of intellectuals, drag queens, playwrights, Bohemian street people, artists, Hollywood celebrities, musicians and wealthy patrons.
It has gone down in rock history as one of Reed’s signature and most recognizable songs, peaking at #10 in the UK, #13 in Ireland, #15 in the Netherlands, #16 in the US, #18 in Canada, and #100 in Australia.
After Lou Reed’s death in 2013, the song charted again around the world, climbing to #13 in France, #7 in Italy, and #21 in Spain.
The baritone saxophone solo played over the fadeout of the song is performed by Ronnie Ross, who had taught David Bowie to play the saxophone during Bowie's childhood.
The famous “and the colored girls go” backing vocals are sung by Thunderthighs, a vocal group that included Dari Lalou, Karen Friedman, and Casey Synge.
The absolutely iconic ascending and descending bass hook was played by the esteemed Herbie Flowers, who by the end of the 1970s had played bass on an estimated 500 hit recordings by the likes of Bowie, Elton John, Melanie, Bryan Ferry, Cat Stevens, George Harrison and Paul McCartney.
He also played bass on “Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds”.
Click on the link below to watch “Walk on the Wild Side”:
On this day in 1991, former Mi-Sex lead singer Steve Gilpin was involved in a car accident that would eventually cost him his life (November 25)
After Mi-Sex hit the pause button in 1985, Gilpin remained in Australia and played with a variety of bands, including the covers band Under Rapz.
On 25 November 1991, while driving home to his property near Mullumbimby in northern NSW from an Under Rapz gig, Gilpin was involved in a car accident, sustaining serious head injuries that left him in a coma.
He never recovered consciousness and tragically passed away on 6 January 1992.
In a golden age of live rock bands in Australia, Mi-Sex built a reputation as one of the very best live bands in the country, and Gilpin out front cemented himself as one of the most talented and most loved frontmen.
Steve Gilpin started out as a solo singer in New Zealand, and in 1972 he won the New Zealand TV talent show “New Faces”, ahead of Shona Laing.
In 1977 he formed the band Fragments of Time (from the remnants of prog rock band Father Thyme), which in turn morphed into Mi-Sex in 1978.
The band was named after an Ultravox track.
Mi-Sex' debut single (co-written by Gilpin and Kevin Stanton) “Straight Laddie" was released in early 1978, and later that year the band decided they would cross the ditch and relocate to Australia.
Within six months they were one of the biggest bands in Sydney, and had signed with CBS.
Their first single for CBS, "But You Don't Care", was released in May 1979, and peaked at #25 in Australia and #33 in New Zealand, and their debut album, “Graffiti Crimes” was issued in July 1979 to coincide with their national tour supporting Talking Heads.
Then came their breakthrough new wave anthem with the brilliant Murray Burns synth hook “Computer Games”, which rocketed to #1 in Australia, and charted Top 10 in Canada, France, Austria, Italy, New Zealand, Germany and South Africa.
Mi-Sex went on to win the 1979 TV Week – Countdown Music Awards for 'Most Popular Album or Single', 'Best Australian Single' and 'Best New Talent'.
Mi-Sex followed “Computer Games” with a few albums of really strong material, including great singles like “People”, “Falling In and Out”, “Castaway”, “Only Thinking”, and “Blue Day”.
Great singer and charismatic frontman, with his unique, distinctive hand and arm flourishes and vocal yelps……one of our best.
Click on the link below to watch Mi-Sex on Countdown doing “Falling In and Out”, which was released this month in 1981:
This week in 1990, the Iggy Pop (featuring Kate Pierson) single “Candy” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #90 (November 24)
The duet with Kate Pierson of the B-52's, it was the album's second single from Pop's ninth solo album “Brick by Brick”.
It became the biggest mainstream hit of Pop's career, as the song went on to break into the Top 40 in the US for the first and only time for the veteran shock rocker.
Iggy reflected:
"I've written one good pop song: 'Candy'.
It's a very decent, proper pop song, but that's as far as that went."
The song was initially offered to Chrissie Hynde. She said,
“…we didn't pull that off. And I always regretted that, because Iggy was always my number one when I was growing up.
And then he wrote this song and he sent it to me. It was handwritten and everything.
I don't know what I did to turn him off the idea, but then I never heard from him.
And he ended up doing the song with Kate Pierson."
“Candy” did significantly better in the Netherlands (#7), Australia (#9), and Belgium (#10) than anywhere else, but also peaked at #28 in the US, #39 in New Zealand, and #67 in the UK.
Click on the link below to watch it live:
This week in 1979, the Police single “Message in a Bottle” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #86 (November 24)
Andy Summers’ jangly guitar, Stewart Copeland’s new wave/reggae-infused lock-down beat, with his exuberant creativity, and Sting’s distinctive clear-as-a-bell vocals, combined again on this one, with the Police’s trademark “sound”.
Summers recalled:
“Sting had that riff for a while, but there was another tune with it originally. He'd been fiddling about with it during our first American tour.
Finally, he rearranged the riff slightly and came up with the song."
Summers called it Copeland’s “finest drum track”, and and said, "For me, it's still the best song Sting ever came up with and the best Police track."
Copeland said it was "one of our best moments in the studio and always great on stage."
Sting reflected:
“‘Message in a Bottle' is a good song.
That can move me.
I like the idea that while it's about loneliness and alienation it's also about finding solace and other people going through the same thing.
The guy's on a desert island and throws a bottle out to sea saying he's alone and all these millions of bottles come back saying, So what So am I!
I like the fact that the whole deal is clinched by the third verse.
It makes a journey.”
The lead single from their second studio album, “Reggatta de Blanc”, and written by Sting, was the first of their five UK #1 singles.
It was also an international breakthrough of sorts, with the band charting in single digits in multiple international markets for the first time.
It went to #1 in the UK and Ireland, #2 in Canada, #4 in the Netherlands, #5 in Australia and Belgium, #11 in New Zealand, #20 in Sweden, and #21 in Italy.
They were still finding the US hard to crack, with “Message in a Bottle” peaking at a disappointing #74.
Rolling Stone ranked it #65 on its list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time".
Click on the link below to watch:
