On this day in 1973, the soundtrack to the Universal Pictures movie “American Graffiti” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #176 (September 1)
Directed by George Lucas and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, the classic coming-of-age movie starred Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, Cindy Williams, and Suzanne Somers among others.
The movie set in the early 60s had a killer soundtrack, including "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & his Comets, “Why Do Fools Fall in Love" by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, "That'll Be the Day" by Buddy Holly & The Crickets, “Surfin' Safari" by The Beach Boys, “The Book of Love" by The Monotones, and this one from Del Shannon from 1961….
This week in 1975, the KC & the Sunshine Band single “Get Down Tonight” went to #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (August 30)
The groovy track was written by KC (Harry Wayne Casey), and bass player Richard Finch, who wrote numerous hits together, including "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty”, Please Don't Go" and "Boogie Shoes."
"Get Down Tonight," from their self-titled LP ended up being the first of their five #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, and also reached the top of the Hot Soul Singles chart.
It also went all the way to #1 in Canada, #5 in the Netherlands, #13 in Belgium, #21 in the UK, and #44 in Australia.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1979, The Charlie Daniels Band single “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” debuted on the Australian charts at #82 (September 3)
The legendary uptempo bluegrass song tells the classic tale of Satan’s failure to gain a young man's soul by losing a fiddle-playing contest (re-visited and slightly edited decades later in Tenacious D’s “Tribute”).
It eventually peaked at #3 in the US, #5 in Canada, #13 in New Zealand, and #14 in Australia and the UK.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1990, the Jimmy Barnes LP “Two Fires” debuted on the Australian charts (September 3)
It was Barnsey’s fifth consecutive #1 album, peaking on release in September 1990 and remaining in the #1 position for four weeks, before climbing to the top again nine months later on 16 June 1991.
“Two Fires” was also his first United States release for Atlantic Records, and went to #1 in New Zealand.
Some great tracks on this one, including “Lay Down Your Guns", “Let's Make it Last All Night", and “When Your Love is Gone".
Diesel (Mark Lizotte) and Stray Cat Brian Setzer appear on the album, as do other members of the Barnes clan, Eliza-Jane 'E.J.' Barnes, Jackie Barnes, Jane Barnes, and Mahalia Barnes, on backing vocals.
Click on the link below to watch “When Your Love is Gone”:
On this day in 1979, the AC/DC single “Highway to Hell” debuted on the Australian charts (September 3)
It also debuted this week in 1979 on the UK Singles Chart at #65.
As far as the title went? As Angus explained:
“… all we'd done is describe what it's like to be on the road for four years, like we'd been.
A lot of it was bus and car touring, with no real break.
You crawl off the bus at four o'clock in the morning, and some journalist's doing a story and he says, "What would you call an AC/DC tour?" Well, it was a highway to hell. It really was.
When you're sleeping with the singer's socks two inches from your nose, that's pretty close to hell!”
The iconic riff that intros the title track has gone down as an absolute classic in Oz rock.
There were hundreds of riffs going down every day," recalled Malcolm Young. "But this one, we thought, 'That's good.'
It just stuck out like a dog's balls!”
There is a highway that allegedly partially inspired the title, the Canning Highway, in Western Australia.
Ranked #258 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, the song is also part of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll” list.
Click on the link below to watch it:
On this day in 1983, the Eurythmics single “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” went to #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (September 3)
The song from the album of the same name was their first single released in the US, and became their breakthrough worldwide hit.
The music video also did its bit to help propel the song to #1 in the US, Canada and France, #2 in the UK, Ireland, Spain, New Zealand and Belgium, #4 in Germany, #5 in South Africa, #6 in Australia, #8 in Switzerland, and #9 in the Netherlands.
Rolling Stone called the song "a synth-pop masterpiece that made Lennox and Dave Stewart MTV superstars".
Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart wrote the song after the Tourists had broken up and they formed Eurythmics.
Although the two of them also broke up as a couple, they continued to work together.
According to Stewart, he managed to produce the beat and riff of the song on one of their new synthesizers, and Lennox, on hearing it, said: "What the hell is that?" and started playing on another synthesizer, and beginnings of the song came out of the two dueling synths.
According to Lennox, the lyrics reflected the unhappy time after the break up of the Tourists, when she felt that they were "in a dream world" and that whatever they were chasing was never going to happen.
She described the song as saying: "Look at the state of us. How can it get worse?" adding "I was feeling very vulnerable.
The song was an expression of how I felt: hopeless and nihilistic."
Stewart, however, thought the lyrics too depressing and added the "hold your head up, moving on" line to make it more uplifting.
On Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time issue in 2003, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" was ranked #356.
In 2020, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Click on the link below to watch:
Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones was born in London, England, on this day in 1955 (September 3)
Jones hadn’t been playing long before the Pistols commenced their brief but spectacular foray into rock history, but he and mate Paul Cook’s musicianship was crucial to the success of the band.
I reckon he’s a pretty underrated guitarist in terms of his sound at the time…
According to the Sex Pistols documentary The Filth and the Fury, Jones also helped the band get started by stealing equipment from a truck parked behind the Hammersmith Odeon where David Bowie was playing the Ziggy Farewell concerts, when he and some of his friends posed as road-crew, stealing amps, mics and other equipment.
After the Sex Pistols broke up in 1978, Jones and Cook co-founded the Professionals. He was also a member of Chequered Past from 1982 to 1985.
Jones played with Thin Lizzy, Billy Idol, Joan Jett, Kraut, Adam Ant, Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, Andy Taylor, the Dano Jones Band, Megadeth, Neurotic Outsiders, and had a solo career in the 1980s and early 1990s.
In 2024 he’s playing gigs this month with fellow Sex Pistols Paul Cook and Glen Matlock, along with Rattlesnakes frontman Frank Carter
Steve Jones was ranked #97 in Rolling Stone's 2105 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Click on the link below to watch “Pretty Vacant”:
Directed by George Lucas and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, the classic coming-of-age movie starred Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, Cindy Williams, and Suzanne Somers among others.
The movie set in the early 60s had a killer soundtrack, including "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & his Comets, “Why Do Fools Fall in Love" by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, "That'll Be the Day" by Buddy Holly & The Crickets, “Surfin' Safari" by The Beach Boys, “The Book of Love" by The Monotones, and this one from Del Shannon from 1961….
This week in 1975, the KC & the Sunshine Band single “Get Down Tonight” went to #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (August 30)
The groovy track was written by KC (Harry Wayne Casey), and bass player Richard Finch, who wrote numerous hits together, including "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty”, Please Don't Go" and "Boogie Shoes."
"Get Down Tonight," from their self-titled LP ended up being the first of their five #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, and also reached the top of the Hot Soul Singles chart.
It also went all the way to #1 in Canada, #5 in the Netherlands, #13 in Belgium, #21 in the UK, and #44 in Australia.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1979, The Charlie Daniels Band single “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” debuted on the Australian charts at #82 (September 3)
The legendary uptempo bluegrass song tells the classic tale of Satan’s failure to gain a young man's soul by losing a fiddle-playing contest (re-visited and slightly edited decades later in Tenacious D’s “Tribute”).
It eventually peaked at #3 in the US, #5 in Canada, #13 in New Zealand, and #14 in Australia and the UK.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1990, the Jimmy Barnes LP “Two Fires” debuted on the Australian charts (September 3)
It was Barnsey’s fifth consecutive #1 album, peaking on release in September 1990 and remaining in the #1 position for four weeks, before climbing to the top again nine months later on 16 June 1991.
“Two Fires” was also his first United States release for Atlantic Records, and went to #1 in New Zealand.
Some great tracks on this one, including “Lay Down Your Guns", “Let's Make it Last All Night", and “When Your Love is Gone".
Diesel (Mark Lizotte) and Stray Cat Brian Setzer appear on the album, as do other members of the Barnes clan, Eliza-Jane 'E.J.' Barnes, Jackie Barnes, Jane Barnes, and Mahalia Barnes, on backing vocals.
Click on the link below to watch “When Your Love is Gone”:
On this day in 1979, the AC/DC single “Highway to Hell” debuted on the Australian charts (September 3)
It also debuted this week in 1979 on the UK Singles Chart at #65.
As far as the title went? As Angus explained:
“… all we'd done is describe what it's like to be on the road for four years, like we'd been.
A lot of it was bus and car touring, with no real break.
You crawl off the bus at four o'clock in the morning, and some journalist's doing a story and he says, "What would you call an AC/DC tour?" Well, it was a highway to hell. It really was.
When you're sleeping with the singer's socks two inches from your nose, that's pretty close to hell!”
The iconic riff that intros the title track has gone down as an absolute classic in Oz rock.
There were hundreds of riffs going down every day," recalled Malcolm Young. "But this one, we thought, 'That's good.'
It just stuck out like a dog's balls!”
There is a highway that allegedly partially inspired the title, the Canning Highway, in Western Australia.
Ranked #258 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, the song is also part of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll” list.
Click on the link below to watch it:
On this day in 1983, the Eurythmics single “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” went to #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 (September 3)
The song from the album of the same name was their first single released in the US, and became their breakthrough worldwide hit.
The music video also did its bit to help propel the song to #1 in the US, Canada and France, #2 in the UK, Ireland, Spain, New Zealand and Belgium, #4 in Germany, #5 in South Africa, #6 in Australia, #8 in Switzerland, and #9 in the Netherlands.
Rolling Stone called the song "a synth-pop masterpiece that made Lennox and Dave Stewart MTV superstars".
Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart wrote the song after the Tourists had broken up and they formed Eurythmics.
Although the two of them also broke up as a couple, they continued to work together.
According to Stewart, he managed to produce the beat and riff of the song on one of their new synthesizers, and Lennox, on hearing it, said: "What the hell is that?" and started playing on another synthesizer, and beginnings of the song came out of the two dueling synths.
According to Lennox, the lyrics reflected the unhappy time after the break up of the Tourists, when she felt that they were "in a dream world" and that whatever they were chasing was never going to happen.
She described the song as saying: "Look at the state of us. How can it get worse?" adding "I was feeling very vulnerable.
The song was an expression of how I felt: hopeless and nihilistic."
Stewart, however, thought the lyrics too depressing and added the "hold your head up, moving on" line to make it more uplifting.
On Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time issue in 2003, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" was ranked #356.
In 2020, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Click on the link below to watch:
Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones was born in London, England, on this day in 1955 (September 3)
Jones hadn’t been playing long before the Pistols commenced their brief but spectacular foray into rock history, but he and mate Paul Cook’s musicianship was crucial to the success of the band.
I reckon he’s a pretty underrated guitarist in terms of his sound at the time…
According to the Sex Pistols documentary The Filth and the Fury, Jones also helped the band get started by stealing equipment from a truck parked behind the Hammersmith Odeon where David Bowie was playing the Ziggy Farewell concerts, when he and some of his friends posed as road-crew, stealing amps, mics and other equipment.
After the Sex Pistols broke up in 1978, Jones and Cook co-founded the Professionals. He was also a member of Chequered Past from 1982 to 1985.
Jones played with Thin Lizzy, Billy Idol, Joan Jett, Kraut, Adam Ant, Bob Dylan, Iggy Pop, Andy Taylor, the Dano Jones Band, Megadeth, Neurotic Outsiders, and had a solo career in the 1980s and early 1990s.
In 2024 he’s playing gigs this month with fellow Sex Pistols Paul Cook and Glen Matlock, along with Rattlesnakes frontman Frank Carter
Steve Jones was ranked #97 in Rolling Stone's 2105 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Click on the link below to watch “Pretty Vacant”:
