On this day in 1976, the Cliff Richard single “Devil Woman” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #87 (July 3)
The song written by Terry Britten and Christine Authors from his “I’m Nearly Famous” LP was Cliff Richard’s biggest hit in the US, climbing to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100.
It also went to #1 in South Africa, #3 in Australia, #4 in Canada, #5 in New Zealand, and was a Top 10 hit in Norway, France, Ireland, and the UK.
The song saw a resurgence in popularity after appearing in the film “I, Tonya” (2017), as the theme for the character of LaVona Golden, played by Allison Janney.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1982, the Billy Idol single “Hot in the City” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #77 (July 3)
The lead single from Idol’s debut, self-titled LP was originally recorded for his debut EP “Don't Stop”, but his label Chrysalis considered it too good just to release as part of the EP, feeling that it could be a successful single, so decided to keep it for the album.
It charted best in New Zealand, where it was a Top 10 song, peaking at #5, and also went to #10 in Austria, #18 in Australia, #23 in the US, #34 in Canada, and #58 in the UK.
It was his most commercially successful single at that time, with his previous two releases failing to chart.
It also got decent airplay on radio and music video shows like MTV.
Click on the link below to watch:
Musician, songwriter and singer Brian Jones passed away on this day in 1969 (July 3)
Jones was an English multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter, best known as the founder and original leader of the Rolling Stones.
Initially a guitarist, Jones went on to provide backing vocals and played a wide variety of instruments on Rolling Stones recordings and in concerts, including guitar, marimba, organ, saxophone, harmonica, dulcimer, sitar, mellotron, and autoharp.
Jones and fellow Stones guitarist Keith Richards also developed a unique style of guitar play that Richards refers to as the "ancient art of weaving" in which both players would play rhythm and lead parts together, without clear boundaries between the two roles.
Richards continued this with future Stones guitarists Mick Taylor and Ronnie Wood.
Watts described Jones' role in these early days of the Stones: "Brian was very instrumental in pushing the band at the beginning. Keith and I would look at him and say he was barmy. It was a crusade to him to get us on the stage in a club and be paid half-a-crown and to be billed as an R&B band".
When Jones’ alcohol and drug problems began to escalate, his performance in the studio became increasingly unreliable, leading to a diminished role within the band he had founded.
Keith Richards and Mick Jagger also began to take over the band's musical direction, becoming a successful songwriting team.
Jones was also at odds with the Stones’ manager, believing he was steering the band away from their blues roots.
These combined issues eventually resulted in his sacking by the rest of the band.
Jones released a statement on 9 June 1969, announcing his departure.
In this statement he said, 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.
Less than a month later, Jones died in the swimming pool at his home, Cotchford Farm.
The coroner's report stated it was a drowning, later clarified as "death by misadventure", and noted his liver and heart were greatly enlarged by past drug and alcohol abuse.
Jones' death at 27 was the first of the 1960s rock phenomenon, and was followed within two years by the drug-related deaths of Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson (from Canned Heat), Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin, all at the same age.
Referring to Jones, the Rolling Stones' Bill Wyman lamented the waste of a great innovator:
“Everybody thinks that it was Mick and Keith's band, but it was Brian's band.
He formed the band. He chose the members.
He named the band. He chose the music we played. He got us gigs……he was very influential, very important, and then slowly lost it - highly intelligent- and just kind of wasted it and blew it all away.”
In 1989, Brian Jones was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Rolling Stones.
Click on the link below to watch him playing sitar on “Paint it Black”:
Singer, songwriter and poet Jim Morrison passed away on this day in 1971 (July 3)
Unique, creative, enigmatic, erratic, controversial, and one of the greatest and most influential frontmen in the history of rock.
Morrison ranked #47 in Rolling Stone’s list of "The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time", and in 2011, a Rolling Stone readers' poll ranked him #5 in the magazine's "Best Lead Singers of All Time".
Morrison was found dead in the bathtub of his apartment in Paris at approximately 6:00 a.m.
The official cause of death was listed as heart failure, although no autopsy was performed, as it was not required by French law.
Conjecture as to his actual cause of death has caused wild, ongoing speculation ever since.
In 1993, Morrison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Doors.
Click on the link below to watch him sing “Touch Me” with The Doors:
or click on the link below for “Love Her Madly”:
On this day in 1971, the Doors single “Riders on the Storm” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #74 (July 3)
“Riders on the Storm” was the last song recorded by all four members of the Doors, and the last song that Jim Morrison recorded during his lifetime, coincidentally debuting on the week of his sudden death in Paris on July 3, 1971…..…
Keyboard player Ray Manzarek told Uncut magazine September 2011: "There's a whisper voice on 'Riders on the Storm,' if you listen closely, a whispered overdub that Jim adds beneath his vocal.
That's the last thing he ever did.
An ephemeral, whispered overdub."
According to guitarist Robby Krieger and Manzarek, the song was inspired by the classic country track “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend", written by Stan Jones and popularized by Vaughn Monroe.
The mesmerizing track highlighted by Manzarek’s atmospheric “raindrops” keyboards, and Morrison’s sombre, foreboding vocals, peaked at #5 in Canada, #7 in the Netherlands, #12 in Ireland, #14 in the US, #20 in New Zealand, and #22 in the UK.
In 2010, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as a recording "of lasting qualitative or historical significance".
In 1990, Doors' drummer John Densmore released a book called “Riders on the Storm”, detailing the story of his life and times with the legendary band…
Click on the link below to watch:
Bass player and songwriter Andy Fraser was born in London, England, on this day in 1952 (July 3)
Fraser is best known as the bass player for the English rock band Free, which he helped found in 1968 when he was 15, after a brief tenure in John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers.
Fraser produced and co-wrote the song "All Right Now" with Free lead singer Paul Rodgers, a #1 hit in over 20 territories and recognised by ASCAP in 1990 for garnering over 1,000,000 radio plays in the United States by late 1989.
In October 2006, a BMI London Million-Air Award was given to Rodgers and Fraser to mark over 3 million radio and television plays of "All Right Now".
Free drummer Simon Kirke later recalled: "'All Right Now' was created after a bad gig in Durham.
We finished our show and walked off the stage to the sound of our own footsteps.
The applause had died before I had even left the drum riser.
It was obvious that we needed a rocker to close our shows.
All of a sudden the inspiration struck Fraser and he started bopping around singing 'All Right Now'.
He sat down and wrote it right there in the dressing room. It couldn’t have taken more than ten minutes."
Fraser also co-wrote two other hit singles for Free, "My Brother Jake" and "The Stealer".
After leaving Free, Fraser formed Sharks, but left after their debut album, “First Water” (1973).
He then formed the Andy Fraser Band, who released two albums, “Andy Fraser Band” and “In Your Eyes”, both in 1975, before that also folded.
Fraser then relocated to California to concentrate on songwriting. He wrote hits for Robert Palmer, Joe Cocker, Chaka Khan, Rod Stewart and Paul Young.
Andy Fraser battled AIDS and cancer in later years, and passed away on 16 March 2015 at his home in California of a heart attack caused by atherosclerosis, according to the official report from the Riverside County Coroner’s Office.
Click on the link below to watch his Free hit “All Right Now”:
Pseudo Echo frontman, singer, songwriter, musician and producer Brian Canham was born in Victoria, Australia, on this day in 1962 (July 3)
Pseudo Echo was formed in Melbourne in 1982 by high school friends Brian Canham on vocals, guitars and keyboards, and Pierre Gigliotti (as Pierre Pierre) on bass guitar and keyboards.
They were later joined by Tony Lugton (ex-Steeler, James Freud & the Radio Stars) on guitars and keyboards.
Playing around the pubs and clubs of Melbourne, their big break came when Molly went to see them play at “The Jump Club” in Collingwood.
Molly was impressed, and they were invited to play on Countdown when they were still an unsigned band, playing a very early version of “Listening” which went on to become their first single, after the national exposure lead to them signing with EMI.
Canham recalls the early struggles of the band being a very European-style synth pop band in the midst of a sea of hard-core pub rock, but they soon found their niche, with hordes of adoring fans, and hits like “A Beat For You”, “Don’t Go”, “Love an Adventure” and their rocked-up version of the Lipps Inc. disco classic "Funky Town", a song which Canham remembers first being intrigued by when watching Molly play it in the nightclub he was DJing at in Melbourne.
“Funky Town” started off as a song Pseudo Echo just munched around with, then started using as an encore song in their live shows.
Little did Canham and the boys know it was going to bring Pseudo Echo their biggest international chart success, reaching #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, #8 on the UK Singles Chart, #1 in Canada, and #1 in New Zealand.
“Funky Town” also highlighted Brian Canham’s proficiency on guitar to a wider audience.
Pseudo Echo broke up in 1990, but got back together in 1999 and continue to tour and perform all over Australia.
In June 2021, the group released the album, “1990 The Lost Album Demos”, a compilation of songs Brian Canham demoed in 1989 for what would have been Pseudo Echo's fourth studio album.
The tracks remained "lost" until the original "master demo tape" was rediscovered by Canham in 2019.
Outside of his work with Pseudo Echo as a lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter, Brian has mixed, produced, and co-written platinum selling singles and albums for Chocolate Starfish, and co-wrote and produced the hit single "Santuary" for Origene, which reached #2 on the US Billboard Club Pop Charts.
Canham's remix of Anthony Callea's "Live for Love" was also a Top 10 hit in Australia.
Brian has also done sound design, jingle writing, artist development, and management.
His company Mumbo Jumbo Music has produced radio and television commercial jingles for such high profile clients as 7-Eleven, National Australia Bank, Just Jeans, Coca-Cola, Heinz, Kraft, Mobil, BP, Peters, Mattel, LG, Austereo, and Fisher Price.
Click on the link below to watch the demo version of “Listening” on Countdown back in 1983:
Singer and songwriter Laura Branigan was born in Brewster, New York, on this day in 1952 (July 3)
Branigan’s signature song, the platinum-certified 1982 single "Gloria", stayed on the US Billboard Hot 100 for 36 weeks, then a record for a female artist, peaking at #2.
It also reached #1 in Australia (for seven consecutive weeks) and Canada, #4 in Ireland, #6 in New Zealand and the UK, and #9 in South Africa.
Branigan's cover of "Gloria" appeared in the smash hit Grammy and Academy Award-winning musical drama “Flashdance” in 1983, though it was not included in the film's soundtrack.
She also contributed songs to other motion picture and television soundtracks, including the Ghostbusters soundtrack (1984), and also Miami Vice (1984).
Laura Branigan had a string of other hits in the 80s, including “Self Control”, “Solitaire”, “Ti amo”, and “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You”.
After two albums in the early 90s, Branigan’s career went into hibernation until she returned to performing in the early 2000s, most notably appearing as Janis Joplin in the off-Broadway musical “Love, Janis”.
As she was recording new music and preparing a comeback to the music industry, she sadly passed away at her home in August 2004 from a previously undiagnosed cerebral aneurysm, aged just 52.
Click on the link below to watch “Gloria”:
On this day in 1976, the Fleetwood Mac single “Say You Love Me” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #74 (July 3)
The song written by Christine McVie for Fleetwood Mac's 1975 self-titled album went to #11 on the Billboard Hot 100, #29 in Canada, #38 in Australia, and #40 in the UK.
McVie wrote "Say You Love Me" after her fifth year in the band while she was married to bass player John McVie.
It was the first song the band rehearsed during the making of self-titled 1975 album.
McVie recalled that Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks impressed her with their vocal harmonies following the run-through of the first chorus. "I started singing the chorus and those two came in from nowhere with the most amazing harmonies.
It was one of those moments you remember forever."
Click on the link below to watch:
The song written by Terry Britten and Christine Authors from his “I’m Nearly Famous” LP was Cliff Richard’s biggest hit in the US, climbing to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100.
It also went to #1 in South Africa, #3 in Australia, #4 in Canada, #5 in New Zealand, and was a Top 10 hit in Norway, France, Ireland, and the UK.
The song saw a resurgence in popularity after appearing in the film “I, Tonya” (2017), as the theme for the character of LaVona Golden, played by Allison Janney.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1982, the Billy Idol single “Hot in the City” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #77 (July 3)
The lead single from Idol’s debut, self-titled LP was originally recorded for his debut EP “Don't Stop”, but his label Chrysalis considered it too good just to release as part of the EP, feeling that it could be a successful single, so decided to keep it for the album.
It charted best in New Zealand, where it was a Top 10 song, peaking at #5, and also went to #10 in Austria, #18 in Australia, #23 in the US, #34 in Canada, and #58 in the UK.
It was his most commercially successful single at that time, with his previous two releases failing to chart.
It also got decent airplay on radio and music video shows like MTV.
Click on the link below to watch:
Musician, songwriter and singer Brian Jones passed away on this day in 1969 (July 3)
Jones was an English multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter, best known as the founder and original leader of the Rolling Stones.
Initially a guitarist, Jones went on to provide backing vocals and played a wide variety of instruments on Rolling Stones recordings and in concerts, including guitar, marimba, organ, saxophone, harmonica, dulcimer, sitar, mellotron, and autoharp.
Jones and fellow Stones guitarist Keith Richards also developed a unique style of guitar play that Richards refers to as the "ancient art of weaving" in which both players would play rhythm and lead parts together, without clear boundaries between the two roles.
Richards continued this with future Stones guitarists Mick Taylor and Ronnie Wood.
Watts described Jones' role in these early days of the Stones: "Brian was very instrumental in pushing the band at the beginning. Keith and I would look at him and say he was barmy. It was a crusade to him to get us on the stage in a club and be paid half-a-crown and to be billed as an R&B band".
When Jones’ alcohol and drug problems began to escalate, his performance in the studio became increasingly unreliable, leading to a diminished role within the band he had founded.
Keith Richards and Mick Jagger also began to take over the band's musical direction, becoming a successful songwriting team.
Jones was also at odds with the Stones’ manager, believing he was steering the band away from their blues roots.
These combined issues eventually resulted in his sacking by the rest of the band.
Jones released a statement on 9 June 1969, announcing his departure.
In this statement he said, 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.
Less than a month later, Jones died in the swimming pool at his home, Cotchford Farm.
The coroner's report stated it was a drowning, later clarified as "death by misadventure", and noted his liver and heart were greatly enlarged by past drug and alcohol abuse.
Jones' death at 27 was the first of the 1960s rock phenomenon, and was followed within two years by the drug-related deaths of Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson (from Canned Heat), Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin, all at the same age.
Referring to Jones, the Rolling Stones' Bill Wyman lamented the waste of a great innovator:
“Everybody thinks that it was Mick and Keith's band, but it was Brian's band.
He formed the band. He chose the members.
He named the band. He chose the music we played. He got us gigs……he was very influential, very important, and then slowly lost it - highly intelligent- and just kind of wasted it and blew it all away.”
In 1989, Brian Jones was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Rolling Stones.
Click on the link below to watch him playing sitar on “Paint it Black”:
Singer, songwriter and poet Jim Morrison passed away on this day in 1971 (July 3)
Unique, creative, enigmatic, erratic, controversial, and one of the greatest and most influential frontmen in the history of rock.
Morrison ranked #47 in Rolling Stone’s list of "The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time", and in 2011, a Rolling Stone readers' poll ranked him #5 in the magazine's "Best Lead Singers of All Time".
Morrison was found dead in the bathtub of his apartment in Paris at approximately 6:00 a.m.
The official cause of death was listed as heart failure, although no autopsy was performed, as it was not required by French law.
Conjecture as to his actual cause of death has caused wild, ongoing speculation ever since.
In 1993, Morrison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Doors.
Click on the link below to watch him sing “Touch Me” with The Doors:
or click on the link below for “Love Her Madly”:
On this day in 1971, the Doors single “Riders on the Storm” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #74 (July 3)
“Riders on the Storm” was the last song recorded by all four members of the Doors, and the last song that Jim Morrison recorded during his lifetime, coincidentally debuting on the week of his sudden death in Paris on July 3, 1971…..…
Keyboard player Ray Manzarek told Uncut magazine September 2011: "There's a whisper voice on 'Riders on the Storm,' if you listen closely, a whispered overdub that Jim adds beneath his vocal.
That's the last thing he ever did.
An ephemeral, whispered overdub."
According to guitarist Robby Krieger and Manzarek, the song was inspired by the classic country track “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend", written by Stan Jones and popularized by Vaughn Monroe.
The mesmerizing track highlighted by Manzarek’s atmospheric “raindrops” keyboards, and Morrison’s sombre, foreboding vocals, peaked at #5 in Canada, #7 in the Netherlands, #12 in Ireland, #14 in the US, #20 in New Zealand, and #22 in the UK.
In 2010, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame as a recording "of lasting qualitative or historical significance".
In 1990, Doors' drummer John Densmore released a book called “Riders on the Storm”, detailing the story of his life and times with the legendary band…
Click on the link below to watch:
Bass player and songwriter Andy Fraser was born in London, England, on this day in 1952 (July 3)
Fraser is best known as the bass player for the English rock band Free, which he helped found in 1968 when he was 15, after a brief tenure in John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers.
Fraser produced and co-wrote the song "All Right Now" with Free lead singer Paul Rodgers, a #1 hit in over 20 territories and recognised by ASCAP in 1990 for garnering over 1,000,000 radio plays in the United States by late 1989.
In October 2006, a BMI London Million-Air Award was given to Rodgers and Fraser to mark over 3 million radio and television plays of "All Right Now".
Free drummer Simon Kirke later recalled: "'All Right Now' was created after a bad gig in Durham.
We finished our show and walked off the stage to the sound of our own footsteps.
The applause had died before I had even left the drum riser.
It was obvious that we needed a rocker to close our shows.
All of a sudden the inspiration struck Fraser and he started bopping around singing 'All Right Now'.
He sat down and wrote it right there in the dressing room. It couldn’t have taken more than ten minutes."
Fraser also co-wrote two other hit singles for Free, "My Brother Jake" and "The Stealer".
After leaving Free, Fraser formed Sharks, but left after their debut album, “First Water” (1973).
He then formed the Andy Fraser Band, who released two albums, “Andy Fraser Band” and “In Your Eyes”, both in 1975, before that also folded.
Fraser then relocated to California to concentrate on songwriting. He wrote hits for Robert Palmer, Joe Cocker, Chaka Khan, Rod Stewart and Paul Young.
Andy Fraser battled AIDS and cancer in later years, and passed away on 16 March 2015 at his home in California of a heart attack caused by atherosclerosis, according to the official report from the Riverside County Coroner’s Office.
Click on the link below to watch his Free hit “All Right Now”:
Pseudo Echo frontman, singer, songwriter, musician and producer Brian Canham was born in Victoria, Australia, on this day in 1962 (July 3)
Pseudo Echo was formed in Melbourne in 1982 by high school friends Brian Canham on vocals, guitars and keyboards, and Pierre Gigliotti (as Pierre Pierre) on bass guitar and keyboards.
They were later joined by Tony Lugton (ex-Steeler, James Freud & the Radio Stars) on guitars and keyboards.
Playing around the pubs and clubs of Melbourne, their big break came when Molly went to see them play at “The Jump Club” in Collingwood.
Molly was impressed, and they were invited to play on Countdown when they were still an unsigned band, playing a very early version of “Listening” which went on to become their first single, after the national exposure lead to them signing with EMI.
Canham recalls the early struggles of the band being a very European-style synth pop band in the midst of a sea of hard-core pub rock, but they soon found their niche, with hordes of adoring fans, and hits like “A Beat For You”, “Don’t Go”, “Love an Adventure” and their rocked-up version of the Lipps Inc. disco classic "Funky Town", a song which Canham remembers first being intrigued by when watching Molly play it in the nightclub he was DJing at in Melbourne.
“Funky Town” started off as a song Pseudo Echo just munched around with, then started using as an encore song in their live shows.
Little did Canham and the boys know it was going to bring Pseudo Echo their biggest international chart success, reaching #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, #8 on the UK Singles Chart, #1 in Canada, and #1 in New Zealand.
“Funky Town” also highlighted Brian Canham’s proficiency on guitar to a wider audience.
Pseudo Echo broke up in 1990, but got back together in 1999 and continue to tour and perform all over Australia.
In June 2021, the group released the album, “1990 The Lost Album Demos”, a compilation of songs Brian Canham demoed in 1989 for what would have been Pseudo Echo's fourth studio album.
The tracks remained "lost" until the original "master demo tape" was rediscovered by Canham in 2019.
Outside of his work with Pseudo Echo as a lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter, Brian has mixed, produced, and co-written platinum selling singles and albums for Chocolate Starfish, and co-wrote and produced the hit single "Santuary" for Origene, which reached #2 on the US Billboard Club Pop Charts.
Canham's remix of Anthony Callea's "Live for Love" was also a Top 10 hit in Australia.
Brian has also done sound design, jingle writing, artist development, and management.
His company Mumbo Jumbo Music has produced radio and television commercial jingles for such high profile clients as 7-Eleven, National Australia Bank, Just Jeans, Coca-Cola, Heinz, Kraft, Mobil, BP, Peters, Mattel, LG, Austereo, and Fisher Price.
Click on the link below to watch the demo version of “Listening” on Countdown back in 1983:
Singer and songwriter Laura Branigan was born in Brewster, New York, on this day in 1952 (July 3)
Branigan’s signature song, the platinum-certified 1982 single "Gloria", stayed on the US Billboard Hot 100 for 36 weeks, then a record for a female artist, peaking at #2.
It also reached #1 in Australia (for seven consecutive weeks) and Canada, #4 in Ireland, #6 in New Zealand and the UK, and #9 in South Africa.
Branigan's cover of "Gloria" appeared in the smash hit Grammy and Academy Award-winning musical drama “Flashdance” in 1983, though it was not included in the film's soundtrack.
She also contributed songs to other motion picture and television soundtracks, including the Ghostbusters soundtrack (1984), and also Miami Vice (1984).
Laura Branigan had a string of other hits in the 80s, including “Self Control”, “Solitaire”, “Ti amo”, and “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You”.
After two albums in the early 90s, Branigan’s career went into hibernation until she returned to performing in the early 2000s, most notably appearing as Janis Joplin in the off-Broadway musical “Love, Janis”.
As she was recording new music and preparing a comeback to the music industry, she sadly passed away at her home in August 2004 from a previously undiagnosed cerebral aneurysm, aged just 52.
Click on the link below to watch “Gloria”:
On this day in 1976, the Fleetwood Mac single “Say You Love Me” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #74 (July 3)
The song written by Christine McVie for Fleetwood Mac's 1975 self-titled album went to #11 on the Billboard Hot 100, #29 in Canada, #38 in Australia, and #40 in the UK.
McVie wrote "Say You Love Me" after her fifth year in the band while she was married to bass player John McVie.
It was the first song the band rehearsed during the making of self-titled 1975 album.
McVie recalled that Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks impressed her with their vocal harmonies following the run-through of the first chorus. "I started singing the chorus and those two came in from nowhere with the most amazing harmonies.
It was one of those moments you remember forever."
Click on the link below to watch:
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