Last Tuesday Night at Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo put on a show. Their band is awesome and she can still sing at 72.
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On this day in 1973, the Pink Floyd LP “The Dark Side of the Moon” spent its one and only week at #1 on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart (April 28)
“The Dark Side of the Moon” has become the stuff of legend for being one of the best-selling albums of all time.
Although it held the #1 spot in the US for only a week, the album has featured in the US Billboard 200 albums chart for more than a staggering 980 nonconsecutive weeks since it debuted on March 17, 1973…
As well as its success in the US, the album also went to #1 in New Zealand, Canada, and Austria, #2 in the UK (the highest selling LP in the UK without getting to #1), Australia, Norway, and the Netherlands, and #3 in Germany and Spain.
A concept album, “The Dark Side of the Moon” explores themes such as conflict, greed, time, death and mental illness, inspired by the band’s various pressures at the time, and their attempts to deal with the apparent mental health problems suffered by former band member Syd Barrett, who left the group in 1968.
Gifted engineer Alan Parsons was responsible for many sonic aspects of the album, and the recruitment of singer Clare Torry, who appears on "The Great Gig in the Sky".
He received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical for his efforts.
In addition to its commercial success, it is also one of the most critically acclaimed albums in rock history.
Rolling Stone listed “The Dark Side of the Moon” as the best progressive rock album ever.
The album artwork designed by Hipgnosis and George Hardie, of a simple black cover with a glass prism dispersing a beam of light into colour, is also without question one of the most iconic and recognized record covers in existence.
In 2012, “The Dark Side of the Moon” was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
In 2020, the album was ranked #55 on Rolling Stone’s list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
Click on the link below to watch “Money”:
On this day in 1973, The Rolling Stones single “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #74 (April 28)
The song was originally released on the B-side of "Honky Tonk Women" in July 1969.
Although it did not chart at the time, London Records released the single in 1973 and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" reached #42 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Mick Jagger recalled:
"’You Can't Always Get What You Want’ was something I just played on the acoustic guitar—one of those bedroom songs.
It proved to be quite difficult to record because Charlie couldn't play the groove and so Jimmy Miller had to play the drums.
I'd also had this idea of having a choir, probably a gospel choir, on the track, but there wasn't one around at that point.
Jack Nitzsche, or somebody, said that we could get the London Bach Choir and we said, "That will be a laugh."
It was ranked #100 by Rolling Stone magazine in its 2004 list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1979, the Rickie Lee Jones single “Chuck E.’s In Love” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #65 (April 28)
The story goes like this:
Jones and her lover/fellow songwriter Tom Waits spent a lot of time hanging out with their friend Chuck E. Weiss at the seedy Tropicana Motel in Los Angeles.
Eventually Weiss, affectionately referred to as "Chuck E.", disappeared. Later Weiss called the apartment where Jones and Waits lived. When Waits took the call, Weiss explained that he was in Denver, and that he had moved there because he had fallen in love with someone.
When Waits hung up he announced to Jones, "Chuck E.'s in love".
Jones liked the sound of the sentence and wrote a song around it. Although toward the end of "Chuck E.'s in Love" the lyrics state, "Chuck E.'s in love with the little girl singing this song," the twist ending is fictional; Jones was never the girl with whom Chuck E. was in love....
The song was her biggest hit, and rose to #4 in the US.
It was a top 5 hit in Canada and New Zealand too...
On this day in 1984, the Journey LP “Escape” re-entered the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #193 (April 28)
Hitting the UK charts almost a year after its 1981 US release, Journey’s seventh, and most successful studio album first charted in 1982, then re-appeared here for its 140th week on the charts.
It featured four hit US Billboard Hot 100 singles – "Don't Stop Believin'" (#9), "Who's Crying Now" (#4), "Still They Ride" (#19) and "Open Arms" (#2) – plus rock radio staple "Stone in Love".
“Escape” was the band's first album with keyboard player Jonathan Cain from John Waite’s band The Babys, who replaced Journey co-founder Gregg Rolie after he left at the end of 1980.
The album went all the way to #1 in the US, #6 in Canada, #26 in Japan, #32 in the UK, #36 in New Zealand, and #49 in Germany.
In 1988, Kerrang! readers voted “Escape” the greatest AOR album of all time―Classic Rock expressed the same opinion in 2008.
In 2001, Classic Rock ranked the album #22 in "The 100 Greatest Rock Albums of All Time".
Click on the link below to watch “Don’t Stop Believin’”:
On this day in 1979, the Cheap Trick single “I Want You To Want Me” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #78 (April 28)
It was the first single released from their second album “In Colour”, but the original studio version failed to chart in the US.
Nineteen months later, a more rock-oriented live version from the band's successful “Cheap Trick at Budokan” album was released as a single and became one of their biggest hits, and eventually one of their signature songs.
This version peaked at #1 in Japan, Belgium, and the Netherlands, #2 in Canada, #7 in the US, #18 in Germany, #23 in New Zealand, and #43 in Australia.
It was also the band's highest charting single in the UK, where it reached #29.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1978, the John Paul Young single “Love Is In The Air” debuted on the UK Singles Chart at #45 (April 29)
The Vanda & Young song was a worldwide hit in 1978, peaking at #3 on the Australian charts, #5 in the UK Singles Chart, and #7 in the US.
The song from the album of the same name was also a Top 10 hit in Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland.
At the Australian 1978 King of Pop Awards the song won Most Popular Australian Single.
In 2017, the song was selected for preservation in the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia collection.
“Love Is In The Air” also got a new lease of life as the theme song to Baz Luhrmann's 1992 debut feature film “Strictly Ballroom”.
This version also made the Top 10 in Australia, New Zealand and Denmark…
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1985, the Eurogliders single “We Will Together” debuted on the Australian charts (April 29)
“We Will Together” was the lead single from their third studio album, “Absolutely!”, and the band’s second highest charting single behind “Heaven (Must Be There)”.
The song written by guitarist Bernie Lynch, and sung by Lynch and Grace Knight, eventually peaked at #7 on the Australian charts for the Perth band.
Click on the link below to watch:
This week in 1992, the Candy Harlots single “Sister’s Crazy” debuted on the Australian charts (April 26)
Sydney band Candy Harlots were hugely popular on the live Australian music scene, playing what esteemed Oz rock music historian Ian McFarlane called “an entertaining brand of hard-edged rock 'n' roll."
They made their mark on the recording scene as well, with their March 1992 EP “Foreplay” peaking at #17 on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Singles Chart and their sole full-length album “Five Wicked Ways” (May 1992) peaking at #31.
This single “Sister’s Crazy” from the album, peaked at #37.
Click on the link below to watch:
Musician, songwriter, arranger, and producer Mick Ronson passed away on this day in 1993 (April 29)
Ronson had a profound and lasting effect on rock music…
In March 1970, during the recording sessions for Elton John's album Tumbleweed Connection, Ronson played guitar on the track "Madman Across the Water".
He was the guitarist of the Spiders from Mars, and between 1970 and 1974, he was the musical genius behind David Bowie's greatest run of albums, The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, and Pin Ups. Not only did he play guitar, he wrote the arrangements, cleverly conceived soundscapes that perfectly complemented Bowie's vision.
Ronson had a short-lived stint with Mott the Hoople, and became a long-time collaborator with Mott's former leader Ian Hunter, and also worked as a sideman in touring bands with Van Morrison and Bob Dylan.
Ronson and Bowie also produced Lou Reed's iconic “Transformer” album with Ronson playing lead guitar and piano and writing string arrangements, including playing the distinctive piano on “Perfect Day” and “Satellite of Love”.
John Cougar Mellencamp revealed:
“I owe Mick Ronson the hit song 'Jack & Diane'. Mick was very instrumental in helping me arrange that song, as I'd thrown it on the junk heap. Ronson came down and played on three or four tracks and worked on the American Fool record for four or five weeks.
All of a sudden, for 'Jack & Diane', Mick said 'Johnny, you should put baby rattles on there.' I thought, 'What the **** does put baby rattles on the record mean?
So he put the percussion on there and then he sang the part 'let it rock, let it roll' as a choir-ish-type thing, which had never occurred to me.
And that is the part everybody remembers on the song.
It was Ronson's idea."
“Jack & Diane” and “American Fool” went on to top the charts, with the single becoming Mellencamp’s most successful song…
A classically trained musician, Ronson was known for his melodic approach to guitar playing, and he released five studio albums of his own.
Despite his success, his sister Maggi Ronson recalled to The Guardian that….
"Mick never made any royalties," For most of his career, in fact, he was living on a weekly sum…..But he was never bitter about his lack of money – with Yorkshire stoicism he would say: "I've got two arms and two legs and I can play the guitar."
He didn't bother with sponsorship or product endorsement either. "At the Freddy Mercury tribute concert, his final appearance," Maggi says, "the Guns N' Roses guys all said to him: 'Don't you get free guitars from all these different companies?' Michael was just not into doing that. His last car was an old Toyota Corolla that sounded like a hairdryer."
Mick Ronson died of liver cancer on 29 April 1993, aged 46.
He was named the 41st greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2012.
Click on the link to watch his work live with Bowie doing “Ziggy Stardust” in’72:
The Jam released their debut single “In The City” from their debut LP of the same name on this day in 1977 (April 29)
They would go on to be one of the most unique and influential bands of the late 1970s - early 80s, with “In The City” starting a run of 18 consecutive UK Top 40 hits, including four at #1...
Paul Weller was only 18 when he penned this celebration of youth in the big city.
He recalled, "It was the sound of young Woking, if not London, a song about trying to break out of suburbia.
As far as we were concerned, the city was where it was all happening; the clubs, the gigs, the music, the music.
I was probably 18, so it was a young man's song, a suburbanite dreaming of the delights of London and the excitement of the city.
It was an exciting time to be alive.
London was coming out of its post-hippy days and there was a new generation taking over.
The song captured that wide-eyed innocence of coming out of a very small community and entering a wider world, seeing all the bands, meeting people, going to the clubs, and the freedom that it held."
Total high energy live performance....
This week in 1980, Iron Maiden’s self-titled debut album, debuted on the UK Albums Chart at #4 (April 26)
Iron Maiden were formed on Christmas Day, 25 December 1975, by bass player Steve Harris, shortly after he left his previous group, Smiler.
Harris attributed the band's name to a film adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel The Man in the Iron Mask, as the title reminded him of the iron maiden torture device.
In December 1979, the band secured a major record deal with EMI, and work began on this self-titled debut album, which allegedly took just 13 days to record.
In addition to the title track, the album includes other early favourites such as "Running Free", "Transylvania", "Phantom of the Opera" and "Sanctuary" – which was not on the original UK release, but appeared on the US version and subsequent remasters.
The album features pre-Bruce Dickinson singer Paul Di'Anno, and is the band's only album to feature guitarist Dennis Stratton.
On the charts it went to #4 in the UK, #10 in France, #27 in Sweden, #34 in Germany, #38 in Switzerland, and #200 in Australia.
Click on the link below to watch “Running Free”:
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On this day in 1973, the Pink Floyd LP “The Dark Side of the Moon” spent its one and only week at #1 on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart (April 28)
“The Dark Side of the Moon” has become the stuff of legend for being one of the best-selling albums of all time.
Although it held the #1 spot in the US for only a week, the album has featured in the US Billboard 200 albums chart for more than a staggering 980 nonconsecutive weeks since it debuted on March 17, 1973…
As well as its success in the US, the album also went to #1 in New Zealand, Canada, and Austria, #2 in the UK (the highest selling LP in the UK without getting to #1), Australia, Norway, and the Netherlands, and #3 in Germany and Spain.
A concept album, “The Dark Side of the Moon” explores themes such as conflict, greed, time, death and mental illness, inspired by the band’s various pressures at the time, and their attempts to deal with the apparent mental health problems suffered by former band member Syd Barrett, who left the group in 1968.
Gifted engineer Alan Parsons was responsible for many sonic aspects of the album, and the recruitment of singer Clare Torry, who appears on "The Great Gig in the Sky".
He received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical for his efforts.
In addition to its commercial success, it is also one of the most critically acclaimed albums in rock history.
Rolling Stone listed “The Dark Side of the Moon” as the best progressive rock album ever.
The album artwork designed by Hipgnosis and George Hardie, of a simple black cover with a glass prism dispersing a beam of light into colour, is also without question one of the most iconic and recognized record covers in existence.
In 2012, “The Dark Side of the Moon” was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
In 2020, the album was ranked #55 on Rolling Stone’s list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
Click on the link below to watch “Money”:
On this day in 1973, The Rolling Stones single “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #74 (April 28)
The song was originally released on the B-side of "Honky Tonk Women" in July 1969.
Although it did not chart at the time, London Records released the single in 1973 and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" reached #42 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Mick Jagger recalled:
"’You Can't Always Get What You Want’ was something I just played on the acoustic guitar—one of those bedroom songs.
It proved to be quite difficult to record because Charlie couldn't play the groove and so Jimmy Miller had to play the drums.
I'd also had this idea of having a choir, probably a gospel choir, on the track, but there wasn't one around at that point.
Jack Nitzsche, or somebody, said that we could get the London Bach Choir and we said, "That will be a laugh."
It was ranked #100 by Rolling Stone magazine in its 2004 list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1979, the Rickie Lee Jones single “Chuck E.’s In Love” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #65 (April 28)
The story goes like this:
Jones and her lover/fellow songwriter Tom Waits spent a lot of time hanging out with their friend Chuck E. Weiss at the seedy Tropicana Motel in Los Angeles.
Eventually Weiss, affectionately referred to as "Chuck E.", disappeared. Later Weiss called the apartment where Jones and Waits lived. When Waits took the call, Weiss explained that he was in Denver, and that he had moved there because he had fallen in love with someone.
When Waits hung up he announced to Jones, "Chuck E.'s in love".
Jones liked the sound of the sentence and wrote a song around it. Although toward the end of "Chuck E.'s in Love" the lyrics state, "Chuck E.'s in love with the little girl singing this song," the twist ending is fictional; Jones was never the girl with whom Chuck E. was in love....
The song was her biggest hit, and rose to #4 in the US.
It was a top 5 hit in Canada and New Zealand too...
On this day in 1984, the Journey LP “Escape” re-entered the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #193 (April 28)
Hitting the UK charts almost a year after its 1981 US release, Journey’s seventh, and most successful studio album first charted in 1982, then re-appeared here for its 140th week on the charts.
It featured four hit US Billboard Hot 100 singles – "Don't Stop Believin'" (#9), "Who's Crying Now" (#4), "Still They Ride" (#19) and "Open Arms" (#2) – plus rock radio staple "Stone in Love".
“Escape” was the band's first album with keyboard player Jonathan Cain from John Waite’s band The Babys, who replaced Journey co-founder Gregg Rolie after he left at the end of 1980.
The album went all the way to #1 in the US, #6 in Canada, #26 in Japan, #32 in the UK, #36 in New Zealand, and #49 in Germany.
In 1988, Kerrang! readers voted “Escape” the greatest AOR album of all time―Classic Rock expressed the same opinion in 2008.
In 2001, Classic Rock ranked the album #22 in "The 100 Greatest Rock Albums of All Time".
Click on the link below to watch “Don’t Stop Believin’”:
On this day in 1979, the Cheap Trick single “I Want You To Want Me” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #78 (April 28)
It was the first single released from their second album “In Colour”, but the original studio version failed to chart in the US.
Nineteen months later, a more rock-oriented live version from the band's successful “Cheap Trick at Budokan” album was released as a single and became one of their biggest hits, and eventually one of their signature songs.
This version peaked at #1 in Japan, Belgium, and the Netherlands, #2 in Canada, #7 in the US, #18 in Germany, #23 in New Zealand, and #43 in Australia.
It was also the band's highest charting single in the UK, where it reached #29.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1978, the John Paul Young single “Love Is In The Air” debuted on the UK Singles Chart at #45 (April 29)
The Vanda & Young song was a worldwide hit in 1978, peaking at #3 on the Australian charts, #5 in the UK Singles Chart, and #7 in the US.
The song from the album of the same name was also a Top 10 hit in Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland.
At the Australian 1978 King of Pop Awards the song won Most Popular Australian Single.
In 2017, the song was selected for preservation in the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia collection.
“Love Is In The Air” also got a new lease of life as the theme song to Baz Luhrmann's 1992 debut feature film “Strictly Ballroom”.
This version also made the Top 10 in Australia, New Zealand and Denmark…
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1985, the Eurogliders single “We Will Together” debuted on the Australian charts (April 29)
“We Will Together” was the lead single from their third studio album, “Absolutely!”, and the band’s second highest charting single behind “Heaven (Must Be There)”.
The song written by guitarist Bernie Lynch, and sung by Lynch and Grace Knight, eventually peaked at #7 on the Australian charts for the Perth band.
Click on the link below to watch:
This week in 1992, the Candy Harlots single “Sister’s Crazy” debuted on the Australian charts (April 26)
Sydney band Candy Harlots were hugely popular on the live Australian music scene, playing what esteemed Oz rock music historian Ian McFarlane called “an entertaining brand of hard-edged rock 'n' roll."
They made their mark on the recording scene as well, with their March 1992 EP “Foreplay” peaking at #17 on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Singles Chart and their sole full-length album “Five Wicked Ways” (May 1992) peaking at #31.
This single “Sister’s Crazy” from the album, peaked at #37.
Click on the link below to watch:
Musician, songwriter, arranger, and producer Mick Ronson passed away on this day in 1993 (April 29)
Ronson had a profound and lasting effect on rock music…
In March 1970, during the recording sessions for Elton John's album Tumbleweed Connection, Ronson played guitar on the track "Madman Across the Water".
He was the guitarist of the Spiders from Mars, and between 1970 and 1974, he was the musical genius behind David Bowie's greatest run of albums, The Man Who Sold the World, Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, and Pin Ups. Not only did he play guitar, he wrote the arrangements, cleverly conceived soundscapes that perfectly complemented Bowie's vision.
Ronson had a short-lived stint with Mott the Hoople, and became a long-time collaborator with Mott's former leader Ian Hunter, and also worked as a sideman in touring bands with Van Morrison and Bob Dylan.
Ronson and Bowie also produced Lou Reed's iconic “Transformer” album with Ronson playing lead guitar and piano and writing string arrangements, including playing the distinctive piano on “Perfect Day” and “Satellite of Love”.
John Cougar Mellencamp revealed:
“I owe Mick Ronson the hit song 'Jack & Diane'. Mick was very instrumental in helping me arrange that song, as I'd thrown it on the junk heap. Ronson came down and played on three or four tracks and worked on the American Fool record for four or five weeks.
All of a sudden, for 'Jack & Diane', Mick said 'Johnny, you should put baby rattles on there.' I thought, 'What the **** does put baby rattles on the record mean?
So he put the percussion on there and then he sang the part 'let it rock, let it roll' as a choir-ish-type thing, which had never occurred to me.
And that is the part everybody remembers on the song.
It was Ronson's idea."
“Jack & Diane” and “American Fool” went on to top the charts, with the single becoming Mellencamp’s most successful song…
A classically trained musician, Ronson was known for his melodic approach to guitar playing, and he released five studio albums of his own.
Despite his success, his sister Maggi Ronson recalled to The Guardian that….
"Mick never made any royalties," For most of his career, in fact, he was living on a weekly sum…..But he was never bitter about his lack of money – with Yorkshire stoicism he would say: "I've got two arms and two legs and I can play the guitar."
He didn't bother with sponsorship or product endorsement either. "At the Freddy Mercury tribute concert, his final appearance," Maggi says, "the Guns N' Roses guys all said to him: 'Don't you get free guitars from all these different companies?' Michael was just not into doing that. His last car was an old Toyota Corolla that sounded like a hairdryer."
Mick Ronson died of liver cancer on 29 April 1993, aged 46.
He was named the 41st greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone in 2012.
Click on the link to watch his work live with Bowie doing “Ziggy Stardust” in’72:
The Jam released their debut single “In The City” from their debut LP of the same name on this day in 1977 (April 29)
They would go on to be one of the most unique and influential bands of the late 1970s - early 80s, with “In The City” starting a run of 18 consecutive UK Top 40 hits, including four at #1...
Paul Weller was only 18 when he penned this celebration of youth in the big city.
He recalled, "It was the sound of young Woking, if not London, a song about trying to break out of suburbia.
As far as we were concerned, the city was where it was all happening; the clubs, the gigs, the music, the music.
I was probably 18, so it was a young man's song, a suburbanite dreaming of the delights of London and the excitement of the city.
It was an exciting time to be alive.
London was coming out of its post-hippy days and there was a new generation taking over.
The song captured that wide-eyed innocence of coming out of a very small community and entering a wider world, seeing all the bands, meeting people, going to the clubs, and the freedom that it held."
Total high energy live performance....
This week in 1980, Iron Maiden’s self-titled debut album, debuted on the UK Albums Chart at #4 (April 26)
Iron Maiden were formed on Christmas Day, 25 December 1975, by bass player Steve Harris, shortly after he left his previous group, Smiler.
Harris attributed the band's name to a film adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel The Man in the Iron Mask, as the title reminded him of the iron maiden torture device.
In December 1979, the band secured a major record deal with EMI, and work began on this self-titled debut album, which allegedly took just 13 days to record.
In addition to the title track, the album includes other early favourites such as "Running Free", "Transylvania", "Phantom of the Opera" and "Sanctuary" – which was not on the original UK release, but appeared on the US version and subsequent remasters.
The album features pre-Bruce Dickinson singer Paul Di'Anno, and is the band's only album to feature guitarist Dennis Stratton.
On the charts it went to #4 in the UK, #10 in France, #27 in Sweden, #34 in Germany, #38 in Switzerland, and #200 in Australia.
Click on the link below to watch “Running Free”:
