On this day in 1984, the Steve Perry single “Oh Sherrie” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #47 (April 7)
Perry's debut solo single, and biggest hit as a solo artist, was written for his then-girlfriend Sherrie Swafford, who also appeared in the music video.
It was a great vehicle for one of the best voices in the rock business…
Two of the song's co-writers and supporting musicians, Bill Cuomo and Craig Krampf, also performed on Kim Carnes' signature song "Bette Davis Eyes".
The surrogate Journey track went all the way to #1 in Canada, #3 in the US, #5 in Australia, #6 in South Africa, #8 in New Zealand, and #89 in the UK.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1979, the Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band single “Old Time Rock and Roll” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #72 (April 7)
“Old Time Rock and Roll" was written by George Jackson and Thomas E. Jones III, with uncredited lyrics by Bob Seger.
The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, who often backed Seger in his studio recordings, sent Seger a demo of the song during the recording of “Stranger in Town”.
He said in 2006 (and also on the "Stranger in Town" episode of the US radio show In the Studio with Redbeard a few years earlier):
“All I kept from the original was: ‘Old time rock and roll, that kind of music just soothes the soul, I reminisce about the days of old with that old time rock and roll’.
I rewrote the verses and I never took credit.
That was the dumbest thing I ever did.
And Tom Jones (Thomas E. Jones) and George Jackson know it, too. But I just wanted to finish the record [Stranger in Town].
I rewrote every verse you hear except for the choruses. I didn't ask for credit.
My manager said: "You should ask for a third of the credit." And I said: "Nah. Nobody's gonna like it."
I'm not credited on it so I couldn't control the copyright either. Meanwhile, it got into a Hardee's commercial because I couldn't control it.
Oh my God, it was awful!
The song gained renewed popularity after being featured in the 1983 film “Risky Business” starring Tom Cruise.
Cruise's character, Joel Goodsen, famously lip-syncs and dances in his underwear as this song plays after his parents leave him home alone.
On the charts “Old Time Rock and Roll” went to #28 in the US, #31 in Canada, and #38 in New Zealand.
In Australia, the song was released twice and charted for a total of 55 weeks.
The first run was in 1983 after its use in the film Risky Business, reaching #53 on the charts.
The second run saw it go all the way to #3 in late 1987 and it was the 3rd biggest selling single in Australia in that year.
It was ranked #2 on the Amusement & Music Operators Association's survey of the Top 40 Jukebox Singles of All Time in 1996.
It was also listed as one of the Songs of the Century in 2001 and ranked #100 in the American Film Institute's “100 Years...100 Songs” poll in 2004 of the top songs in American cinema.
Click on the link below to watch:
Guitarist, singer and songwriter John Oates was born in New York City on this day in 1948 (April 7)
As the more-in-the-background, guitar-playing half of the rock and soul duo Hall & Oates, with Daryl Hall, John Oates also co-wrote many of the top 10 songs that they recorded, including: “Out of Touch", “You Make My Dreams", "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)", and “Maneater".
Oates was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004, and in 2014 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of Daryl Hall & John Oates.
John Oates has also released six solo albums, and his memoir, “Change of Seasons”, was published in 2017.
In recent years, it has been the seemingly irrevocable split between Hall and Oates that has dominated the music headlines.
But as Oates revealed in an interview on "Good Morning America," they've been distant for quite some time, admitting that the two "never really talked to each other,"
Oates told NME:
"Over the past 20 years, we'd show up at a show individually, walk on stage, play, and then we'd go our separate ways. It really wasn't as tight as people might, you know, would like to imagine in their kind of a fantasy imagination of our relationship."
When asked if he has anything to say to Darryl, John offered:
“I love you like a brother, but you know what? Brothers have disagreements, families grow apart… would say, I wish him the best.
I hope that he has everything he wants in life, and that he can pursue his dream of being a respected solo artist, which I believe is something that he's always wanted."
Click on the link below to watch “You Make My Dreams”, which was released exactly forty-four years ago this month (April 1981):
On this day in 1984, The Cars LP “Heartbeat City” debuted on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #37 (April 7)
The album was a huge success for The Cars, packed with songs that would turn out to be hit singles, such as “You Might Think”, “Drive”, “Magic”, and “Hello Again”, once more with Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr sharing lead vocal duties.
The LP itself went to #1 in New Zealand, #3 on the US Billboard 200, #5 in Canada, and #15 in Australia and Germany.
For this album The Cars swapped producers from legendary long-term producer Roy Thomas Baker, to another legendary producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange.
And of course, the production is excellent.
Click on the link below to watch “You Might Think”:
On this day in 1964, the Beatles single “Can’t Buy Me Love” went to #1 on the the UK Singles Chart ( April 8 )
"Can't Buy Me Love" became the Beatles' fourth UK #1, and their third single to sell over a million copies.
By November 2012, it had sold 1.53 million copies there, and as of December 2018, it was the 35th best-selling single of all time in the UK.
Written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership, the song was included on the album “A Hard Day's Night” and was featured in a scene in Richard Lester's film of the same title.
The single also topped charts in the US, Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Denmark and Sweden.
Click on the link below to watch:
This week in 1990, the Roxette single “It Must Have Been Love” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #67 (April 7)
The song was originally titled "It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted)", and was first released in 1987, when EMI Germany asked the duo to "come up with an intelligent Christmas single".
This version became a top five hit in Sweden, but was not released internationally.
Later, during a run of increasingly successful singles from the duo's 1988 album “Look Sharp!”, Touchstone Pictures approached Roxette and their label about contributing a song to the soundtrack of the upcoming romantic comedy release “Pretty Woman”, starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts.
The duo then re-worked a version without the Christmas references, which they re-released in 1990, and which was included on the soundtrack to “Pretty Woman”, which went on to make more than US$460 million at the worldwide box office.
The soundtrack went on to sell more than nine million copies worldwide.
The single went all the way to #1 in the US, Australia, Canada, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and Denmark, #2 in the Netherlands and New Zealand, #3 in the UK, Austria and Belgium, #4 in Germany, #5 in Ireland, #6 in Sweden, #7 in Finland, and #11 in Italy.
As songwriter, in 2005 Roxette’s Per Gessle received an award from BMI after the song's four millionth radio play in the US.
He received updated awards from the same organization after its five millionth radio play in 2014, and its six millionth play in 2021.
Click on the link below to watch the clip:
On this day in 1972, the LP “Slade Alive!” debuted on the UK Albums Chart at #11 ( April 8 )
This was Slade's first album to enter the UK charts and also the first to enter the Billboard 200 in the US.
Considered by many to be one of the best live albums of all time “Slade Alive!” contains three original songs, plus cover versions of songs by Ten Years After, The Lovin' Spoonful, Bobby Marchan, and Steppenwolf, and was recorded live at Command Theatre Studio.
The three nights cost £600 to record.
Noddy Holder recalled:
“Our manager, Chas Chandler, had come up with the idea of us doing a live album, because he'd been Jimi Hendrix's manager and he'd seen how some of Hendrix's live performances had been turning points in his career.
So we booked a little studio-cum-theatre on Piccadilly for three nights: the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
The bulk of the album was from the Wednesday night, which was mayhem. 'Coz I Luv You' was number one, and we'd come straight from doing Top of the Pops.
We were still wearing our clobber from the telly, and we went pretty much straight onstage… Our aim onstage was to hit the crowd between the eyes and grab them by the balls."
It worked….the album was a resounding success.
NME ranked it #2 in the magazine's Top 10 albums of 1972.
In Australia, it reached #1 and was the biggest-selling album since The Beatles' “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” (1967).
Elsewhere, the album peaked at #2 in the UK, #5 in Finland, #8 in Austria, #18 in Norway, #25 in Germany, #77 in Canada, and #158 in the US.
Click on the link below to watch “Hear Me Calling”:
On this day in 1977, The Clash released their debut self-titled LP ( April 8 )
One of the defining albums of 70s punk, they played with urgent fury and passion, and that’s what comes out in the record.
The production is suitably raw, as the band rails agains all that is unjust in classic songs like “White Riot”, and “I’m So Bored with the USA”, and there’s also a hint of the musical creativity that was on the horizon for The Clash in songs like “Police & Thieves”, and “Hate & War”.
The album was recorded over three weeks in February 1977 for just £4,000, and went on to reach #12 on the UK charts.
Drummer Terry Chimes, though a full member of the Clash at the time, did not appear in the picture on the album cover as he had already decided to leave the band.
CBS in the US refused to release it until 1979 and Americans bought over 100,000 imported copies of the record making it one of the biggest- selling import records of all time.
In 2020 it was ranked #102 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
One of the best.
Click on the link below to watch a live rendition of “I’m So Bored with the USA” from Rock Revolution, Manchester, 1978:
Perry's debut solo single, and biggest hit as a solo artist, was written for his then-girlfriend Sherrie Swafford, who also appeared in the music video.
It was a great vehicle for one of the best voices in the rock business…
Two of the song's co-writers and supporting musicians, Bill Cuomo and Craig Krampf, also performed on Kim Carnes' signature song "Bette Davis Eyes".
The surrogate Journey track went all the way to #1 in Canada, #3 in the US, #5 in Australia, #6 in South Africa, #8 in New Zealand, and #89 in the UK.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1979, the Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band single “Old Time Rock and Roll” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #72 (April 7)
“Old Time Rock and Roll" was written by George Jackson and Thomas E. Jones III, with uncredited lyrics by Bob Seger.
The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, who often backed Seger in his studio recordings, sent Seger a demo of the song during the recording of “Stranger in Town”.
He said in 2006 (and also on the "Stranger in Town" episode of the US radio show In the Studio with Redbeard a few years earlier):
“All I kept from the original was: ‘Old time rock and roll, that kind of music just soothes the soul, I reminisce about the days of old with that old time rock and roll’.
I rewrote the verses and I never took credit.
That was the dumbest thing I ever did.
And Tom Jones (Thomas E. Jones) and George Jackson know it, too. But I just wanted to finish the record [Stranger in Town].
I rewrote every verse you hear except for the choruses. I didn't ask for credit.
My manager said: "You should ask for a third of the credit." And I said: "Nah. Nobody's gonna like it."
I'm not credited on it so I couldn't control the copyright either. Meanwhile, it got into a Hardee's commercial because I couldn't control it.
Oh my God, it was awful!
The song gained renewed popularity after being featured in the 1983 film “Risky Business” starring Tom Cruise.
Cruise's character, Joel Goodsen, famously lip-syncs and dances in his underwear as this song plays after his parents leave him home alone.
On the charts “Old Time Rock and Roll” went to #28 in the US, #31 in Canada, and #38 in New Zealand.
In Australia, the song was released twice and charted for a total of 55 weeks.
The first run was in 1983 after its use in the film Risky Business, reaching #53 on the charts.
The second run saw it go all the way to #3 in late 1987 and it was the 3rd biggest selling single in Australia in that year.
It was ranked #2 on the Amusement & Music Operators Association's survey of the Top 40 Jukebox Singles of All Time in 1996.
It was also listed as one of the Songs of the Century in 2001 and ranked #100 in the American Film Institute's “100 Years...100 Songs” poll in 2004 of the top songs in American cinema.
Click on the link below to watch:
Guitarist, singer and songwriter John Oates was born in New York City on this day in 1948 (April 7)
As the more-in-the-background, guitar-playing half of the rock and soul duo Hall & Oates, with Daryl Hall, John Oates also co-wrote many of the top 10 songs that they recorded, including: “Out of Touch", “You Make My Dreams", "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)", and “Maneater".
Oates was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004, and in 2014 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of Daryl Hall & John Oates.
John Oates has also released six solo albums, and his memoir, “Change of Seasons”, was published in 2017.
In recent years, it has been the seemingly irrevocable split between Hall and Oates that has dominated the music headlines.
But as Oates revealed in an interview on "Good Morning America," they've been distant for quite some time, admitting that the two "never really talked to each other,"
Oates told NME:
"Over the past 20 years, we'd show up at a show individually, walk on stage, play, and then we'd go our separate ways. It really wasn't as tight as people might, you know, would like to imagine in their kind of a fantasy imagination of our relationship."
When asked if he has anything to say to Darryl, John offered:
“I love you like a brother, but you know what? Brothers have disagreements, families grow apart… would say, I wish him the best.
I hope that he has everything he wants in life, and that he can pursue his dream of being a respected solo artist, which I believe is something that he's always wanted."
Click on the link below to watch “You Make My Dreams”, which was released exactly forty-four years ago this month (April 1981):
On this day in 1984, The Cars LP “Heartbeat City” debuted on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #37 (April 7)
The album was a huge success for The Cars, packed with songs that would turn out to be hit singles, such as “You Might Think”, “Drive”, “Magic”, and “Hello Again”, once more with Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr sharing lead vocal duties.
The LP itself went to #1 in New Zealand, #3 on the US Billboard 200, #5 in Canada, and #15 in Australia and Germany.
For this album The Cars swapped producers from legendary long-term producer Roy Thomas Baker, to another legendary producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange.
And of course, the production is excellent.
Click on the link below to watch “You Might Think”:
On this day in 1964, the Beatles single “Can’t Buy Me Love” went to #1 on the the UK Singles Chart ( April 8 )
"Can't Buy Me Love" became the Beatles' fourth UK #1, and their third single to sell over a million copies.
By November 2012, it had sold 1.53 million copies there, and as of December 2018, it was the 35th best-selling single of all time in the UK.
Written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership, the song was included on the album “A Hard Day's Night” and was featured in a scene in Richard Lester's film of the same title.
The single also topped charts in the US, Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Denmark and Sweden.
Click on the link below to watch:
This week in 1990, the Roxette single “It Must Have Been Love” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #67 (April 7)
The song was originally titled "It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted)", and was first released in 1987, when EMI Germany asked the duo to "come up with an intelligent Christmas single".
This version became a top five hit in Sweden, but was not released internationally.
Later, during a run of increasingly successful singles from the duo's 1988 album “Look Sharp!”, Touchstone Pictures approached Roxette and their label about contributing a song to the soundtrack of the upcoming romantic comedy release “Pretty Woman”, starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts.
The duo then re-worked a version without the Christmas references, which they re-released in 1990, and which was included on the soundtrack to “Pretty Woman”, which went on to make more than US$460 million at the worldwide box office.
The soundtrack went on to sell more than nine million copies worldwide.
The single went all the way to #1 in the US, Australia, Canada, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and Denmark, #2 in the Netherlands and New Zealand, #3 in the UK, Austria and Belgium, #4 in Germany, #5 in Ireland, #6 in Sweden, #7 in Finland, and #11 in Italy.
As songwriter, in 2005 Roxette’s Per Gessle received an award from BMI after the song's four millionth radio play in the US.
He received updated awards from the same organization after its five millionth radio play in 2014, and its six millionth play in 2021.
Click on the link below to watch the clip:
On this day in 1972, the LP “Slade Alive!” debuted on the UK Albums Chart at #11 ( April 8 )
This was Slade's first album to enter the UK charts and also the first to enter the Billboard 200 in the US.
Considered by many to be one of the best live albums of all time “Slade Alive!” contains three original songs, plus cover versions of songs by Ten Years After, The Lovin' Spoonful, Bobby Marchan, and Steppenwolf, and was recorded live at Command Theatre Studio.
The three nights cost £600 to record.
Noddy Holder recalled:
“Our manager, Chas Chandler, had come up with the idea of us doing a live album, because he'd been Jimi Hendrix's manager and he'd seen how some of Hendrix's live performances had been turning points in his career.
So we booked a little studio-cum-theatre on Piccadilly for three nights: the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
The bulk of the album was from the Wednesday night, which was mayhem. 'Coz I Luv You' was number one, and we'd come straight from doing Top of the Pops.
We were still wearing our clobber from the telly, and we went pretty much straight onstage… Our aim onstage was to hit the crowd between the eyes and grab them by the balls."
It worked….the album was a resounding success.
NME ranked it #2 in the magazine's Top 10 albums of 1972.
In Australia, it reached #1 and was the biggest-selling album since The Beatles' “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” (1967).
Elsewhere, the album peaked at #2 in the UK, #5 in Finland, #8 in Austria, #18 in Norway, #25 in Germany, #77 in Canada, and #158 in the US.
Click on the link below to watch “Hear Me Calling”:
On this day in 1977, The Clash released their debut self-titled LP ( April 8 )
One of the defining albums of 70s punk, they played with urgent fury and passion, and that’s what comes out in the record.
The production is suitably raw, as the band rails agains all that is unjust in classic songs like “White Riot”, and “I’m So Bored with the USA”, and there’s also a hint of the musical creativity that was on the horizon for The Clash in songs like “Police & Thieves”, and “Hate & War”.
The album was recorded over three weeks in February 1977 for just £4,000, and went on to reach #12 on the UK charts.
Drummer Terry Chimes, though a full member of the Clash at the time, did not appear in the picture on the album cover as he had already decided to leave the band.
CBS in the US refused to release it until 1979 and Americans bought over 100,000 imported copies of the record making it one of the biggest- selling import records of all time.
In 2020 it was ranked #102 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
One of the best.
Click on the link below to watch a live rendition of “I’m So Bored with the USA” from Rock Revolution, Manchester, 1978:
