One of my favorite live albums of all time. Remember 1981 my oldest brother riding me around in his new Mazda RX7 listening to this riding through Whispering Pine subdivision smoking one at night. Great times! @Cris_Ard just for you. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
On this day in 1981, the Rush single “Tom Sawyer (Live)” debuted on the UK Single Chart at #34 (October 31)
The studio version of “Tom Sawyer" was originally released on Rush’s 1981 album “Moving Pictures”, but despite its popularity in the US and Canada, there was no single-release of the song in other territories.
In the UK, "Vital Signs" was chosen as the single from “Moving Pictures”.
This live version of "Tom Sawyer" from “Exit...Stage Left” was released in the UK, and went on to peak at #25 on the UK Singles Chart.
The song was written by lead singer, bass and keyboard player Geddy Lee, drummer Neil Peart, and guitarist Alex Lifeson in collaboration with lyricist Pye Dubois of the band Max Webster, who also co-wrote the Rush songs "Force Ten", "Between Sun and Moon", and "Test for Echo".
In the December 1985 Rush Backstage Club newsletter, drummer and lyricist Neil Peart said:
“Tom Sawyer was a collaboration between myself and Pye Dubois, an excellent lyricist who wrote the lyrics for Max Webster.
His original lyrics were kind of a portrait of a modern day rebel, a free-spirited individualist striding through the world wide-eyed and purposeful.
I added the themes of reconciling the boy and man in myself, and the difference between what people are and what others perceive them to be—namely me, I guess.”
Alex Lifeson describes his guitar solo in "Tom Sawyer" in a 2007 interview:
“I winged it. Honest!
I came in, did five takes, then went off and had a cigarette.
I'm at my best for the first two takes; after that, I overthink everything and I lose the spark.
Actually, the solo you hear is composed together from various takes.”
Geddy Lee has referred to the track as the band's "defining piece ... from the early '80s".
It’s one of the most played songs on US classic rock radio, and is the fifth most downloaded Canadian digital song from the 1980s.
"Tom Sawyer" was one of five Rush songs inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame on March 28, 2010.
Click on the link below to watch:
One of my favorite Zeppelin albums.
On this day in 1970, the Led Zeppelin LP “Led Zeppelin III” went to #1 on the US 200 Albums Chart (October 31)
After a grueling touring schedule, Robert Plant suggested to Jimmy Page that they get away from it all to find inspiration for writing songs for their next, much anticipated album.
He suggested Bron-Yr-Aur, an 18th-century cottage in Snowdonia, Wales, where he had been previously with his family, on a hilltop overlooking the Dyfi Valley, three miles (4.8 km) north of the market town Machynlleth.
Page recalled:
“Robert (Plant) and I went to Bron-Yr-Aur in 1970. We'd been working solidly right up to that point. Even recordings were done on the road.
We had this time off and Robert suggested the cottage. I certainly hadn't been to that area of Wales.
So we took our guitars down there and played a few bits and pieces.
This wonderful countryside, panoramic views and having the guitars ... it was just an automatic thing to be playing.
And we started writing…”
The creative forces in Zeppelin specifically wanted a change in direction, to show they could play any style of music they wanted, and the remote cottage in Wales with beautiful countryside and no running water or electric power, encouraged a slight change of musical direction for the band, and inspiration towards an emphasis on acoustic arrangements.
Page later explained that the tranquillity of Bron-Yr-Aur stood in sharp contrast to the continual touring of 1969, affecting the overall tone of the songwriting and dominance of acoustic guitars.
Led Zeppelin III's original vinyl was packaged in a gatefold sleeve with an innovative cover, designed by Zacron, a multi-media artist whom Page had met in 1963 whilst Zacron was a student at Kingston College of Art.
It became an iconic album cover of the day…
And the album was a worldwide hit, spending four weeks in the #1 spot in the US, also hitting #1 in the UK, Australia, Canada, Italy, Sweden, and Denmark, and going Top 5 in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Norway and Finland.
Click on the link below to watch “Immigrant Song”:
On this day in 1984, the Van Halen single “Hot For Teacher” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #83 (October 27)
The song was the fourth and final single from their sixth studio album “1984”.
Despite its relatively underwhelming performance on the charts, this song is one of my favourites from the band - high octane fun!
Eddie cuts loose, Diamond Dave gets to ham it up, but Alex Van Halen is undoubtedly the star of this one, with his superb performance behind the kit.
It peaked at #56 in the US, #83 in Canada, and #89 in the US.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1982, Prince released the LP “1999” (October 27)
“1999” was Prince’s first Top 10 album, and the first album to be recorded with his band the Revolution.
Buoyed by the singles “1999” and “Little Red Corvette”, the album peaked at #6 in New Zealand, #9 in the US, #23 in Canada, #30 in the UK, and #35 in Australia.
Following Prince's death in 2016, the album re-entered the US Billboard 200 and peaked at #7, besting its original performance on the chart thirty-three years earlier…
Rolling Stone ranked the single "1999" #339 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.
In 2020, the album was ranked #130 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The music videos for both "1999" and "Little Red Corvette" were significant as two of the first videos by a black artist to receive heavy rotation on the newly launched music video channel, MTV, after heated controversy over its failure to promote black performers.
Click on the link below to watch the video of the title track:
On this day in 1984, the U2 single “Pride (In The Name of Love)” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #85 (October 27)
The lead single from their 1984 album “The Unforgettable Fire”, was written about American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
The melody and the chords for "Pride" were actually improvised by U2 during a soundcheck prior to a November 1983 concert in Hawaii on the band's War Tour.
The song contains an inaccurate reference to King's shooting as "Early morning, April 4," when it actually occurred after 6 p.m.
Bono acknowledges the error and in live performances he often changes the lyric to "Early evening...".
The powerful track went all the way to #1 in New Zealand, #2 in Ireland, #3 in the UK, #4 in Australia, #5 in the Netherlands, #6 in Belgium, #7 in Norway, #9 in Poland, #12 in Sweden, #20 in Italy, #26 in Canada, #27 in Germany, and #33 in the US.
In 1989, Spin named the song the 65th-greatest single in history.
In 2010, Rolling Stone ranked it #388 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
The song was included on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list.
Click on the link below to watch:
This week in 1980, the Robert Palmer single “Johnny and Mary” debuted on the Australian charts at #50 (October 27)
Palmer wrote the new wave-style track for inclusion on his “Clues” LP.
The song is about a couple just going through the motions: Johnny is trapped in predictable patterns and Mary just goes along with it.
Songfacts tell us that Robert Palmer was living in Nassau, Bahamas when he wrote song, and was inspired by what he witnessed.
There was a large ex-pat community there comprised of people who thought moving to the Bahamas would solve their problems, only to discover their issues travel with them.
"Lyrically I was dealing with my exposure to expatriots in the Bahamas," Palmer wrote in his Addictions: Volume 1 compilation.
“I'd never seen such contrived formality before, but Johnny and Mary obviously had.
These are people who have fallen into life like a habit, here's no struggle or romance in what they do."
It peaked at #1 in Spain, #5 in South Africa and Switzerland, #7 in Germany, #8 in Belgium, #10 in Austria, #11 in Sweden, #12 in New Zealand, #20 in Australia, #21 in the Netherlands, and #44 in the UK.
Though the single did not chart in the US Hot 100, it did reach #18 on Billboard's Club Play Singles chart.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1978, the Little River Band single “Reminiscing” peaked at #3 on the US Billboard chart (October 28)
Although it only peaked at #35 in Australia, at the Australian 1978 King of Pop Awards the song from the “Sleeper Catcher” LP won Australian Record of the Year.
The song written by Graeham Goble very nearly didn’t get recorded.
Goble had three goes at putting down the track with different keyboard players, and the band were losing interest in the song.
Then when they sent the album that would be “Sleeper Catcher” to Capitol, their record company, Capitol said they couldn’t hear any singles on the album.
Luckily they changed their mind on “Reminiscing” and peaking at #3 in the US, it gave Little River Band their biggest chart hit.
According to Albert Goldman's biography, John Lennon named "Reminiscing" as one of his favourite songs.
This was confirmed by his one-time girlfriend May Pang.
High praise indeed…
Click on the link below to watch:
This week in 1973, the Suzi Quatro single “Daytona Demon” debuted on the UK Singles Chart at #45 (October 27)
Suzi’s fourth solo single and third UK hit was never included on the US or other foreign release of her second album “Quatro” and remained unavailable in any format in the US until the advent of the CD and numerous compilations in the 1990s.
Following on from two Australian #1 hits with “Can the Can” and “48 Crash”, “Daytona Demon” peaked at #4 in Australia for Suzi Q, and also went to #2 in Germany, #3 in Switzerland, #8 in Belgium, #11 in Austria, and #14 in the UK.
Click on the link below to watch:
This week in 1979, the Joe Jackson LP “I’m The Man” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #63 (October 27)
It was the second album released in 1979 for Joe Jackson, after the brilliant “Look Sharp!”, which came out at the start of the year in January.
Jackson speculated:
“Compared to the first album, I think it's a bit more mature. It's getting more interesting as it goes along.
The band is getting stronger. I think the band is gonna amaze people on the next album".
Since then, the album has been described by Jackson as "Part Two of Look Sharp!".
He later said on his website:
“This is really Part Two of Look Sharp! – it was released less than a year later.
I don't know how I even had the time to write and record a slightly more mature record, but I think it is, and the best of the first three.”
It contains his biggest UK chart single “It's Different for Girls", which peaked at #5 on the UK Singles Chart.
Jackson later confessed: "I was amazed when that one was a hit."
I’m not; it’s one of my favourite Joe Jackson songs…
Click on the link below to watch “It’s Different For Girls”:
This week in 1984, the Talking Heads LP “Stop Making Sense” debuted on the UK Albums Chart at #57 (October 27)
The LP was the soundtrack to the live performance concert film of the same name.
It spent over two years on the Billboard 200 chart.
The film is famous for David Byrne’s “big suit”, which features in the clip for “Girlfriend is Better”.
He explained it this way to Openculture.com:
“Music is very physical and often the body understands it before the head.
I wanted my head to appear smaller, and the easiest way to do that was to make my body bigger.”
The album peaked at #2 in New Zealand and the Netherlands, #9 in Australia, #13 in Switzerland, #24 in the UK, #25 in Germany, #26 in Sweden, #33 in Canada, and #41 in the US.
The classic live album was ranked #345 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Click on the link below to watch “Girlfriend is Better” from the album:
On this day in 1981, the Rush single “Tom Sawyer (Live)” debuted on the UK Single Chart at #34 (October 31)
The studio version of “Tom Sawyer" was originally released on Rush’s 1981 album “Moving Pictures”, but despite its popularity in the US and Canada, there was no single-release of the song in other territories.
In the UK, "Vital Signs" was chosen as the single from “Moving Pictures”.
This live version of "Tom Sawyer" from “Exit...Stage Left” was released in the UK, and went on to peak at #25 on the UK Singles Chart.
The song was written by lead singer, bass and keyboard player Geddy Lee, drummer Neil Peart, and guitarist Alex Lifeson in collaboration with lyricist Pye Dubois of the band Max Webster, who also co-wrote the Rush songs "Force Ten", "Between Sun and Moon", and "Test for Echo".
In the December 1985 Rush Backstage Club newsletter, drummer and lyricist Neil Peart said:
“Tom Sawyer was a collaboration between myself and Pye Dubois, an excellent lyricist who wrote the lyrics for Max Webster.
His original lyrics were kind of a portrait of a modern day rebel, a free-spirited individualist striding through the world wide-eyed and purposeful.
I added the themes of reconciling the boy and man in myself, and the difference between what people are and what others perceive them to be—namely me, I guess.”
Alex Lifeson describes his guitar solo in "Tom Sawyer" in a 2007 interview:
“I winged it. Honest!
I came in, did five takes, then went off and had a cigarette.
I'm at my best for the first two takes; after that, I overthink everything and I lose the spark.
Actually, the solo you hear is composed together from various takes.”
Geddy Lee has referred to the track as the band's "defining piece ... from the early '80s".
It’s one of the most played songs on US classic rock radio, and is the fifth most downloaded Canadian digital song from the 1980s.
"Tom Sawyer" was one of five Rush songs inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame on March 28, 2010.
Click on the link below to watch:
One of my favorite Zeppelin albums.
On this day in 1970, the Led Zeppelin LP “Led Zeppelin III” went to #1 on the US 200 Albums Chart (October 31)
After a grueling touring schedule, Robert Plant suggested to Jimmy Page that they get away from it all to find inspiration for writing songs for their next, much anticipated album.
He suggested Bron-Yr-Aur, an 18th-century cottage in Snowdonia, Wales, where he had been previously with his family, on a hilltop overlooking the Dyfi Valley, three miles (4.8 km) north of the market town Machynlleth.
Page recalled:
“Robert (Plant) and I went to Bron-Yr-Aur in 1970. We'd been working solidly right up to that point. Even recordings were done on the road.
We had this time off and Robert suggested the cottage. I certainly hadn't been to that area of Wales.
So we took our guitars down there and played a few bits and pieces.
This wonderful countryside, panoramic views and having the guitars ... it was just an automatic thing to be playing.
And we started writing…”
The creative forces in Zeppelin specifically wanted a change in direction, to show they could play any style of music they wanted, and the remote cottage in Wales with beautiful countryside and no running water or electric power, encouraged a slight change of musical direction for the band, and inspiration towards an emphasis on acoustic arrangements.
Page later explained that the tranquillity of Bron-Yr-Aur stood in sharp contrast to the continual touring of 1969, affecting the overall tone of the songwriting and dominance of acoustic guitars.
Led Zeppelin III's original vinyl was packaged in a gatefold sleeve with an innovative cover, designed by Zacron, a multi-media artist whom Page had met in 1963 whilst Zacron was a student at Kingston College of Art.
It became an iconic album cover of the day…
And the album was a worldwide hit, spending four weeks in the #1 spot in the US, also hitting #1 in the UK, Australia, Canada, Italy, Sweden, and Denmark, and going Top 5 in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Norway and Finland.
Click on the link below to watch “Immigrant Song”:
On this day in 1984, the Van Halen single “Hot For Teacher” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #83 (October 27)
The song was the fourth and final single from their sixth studio album “1984”.
Despite its relatively underwhelming performance on the charts, this song is one of my favourites from the band - high octane fun!
Eddie cuts loose, Diamond Dave gets to ham it up, but Alex Van Halen is undoubtedly the star of this one, with his superb performance behind the kit.
It peaked at #56 in the US, #83 in Canada, and #89 in the US.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1982, Prince released the LP “1999” (October 27)
“1999” was Prince’s first Top 10 album, and the first album to be recorded with his band the Revolution.
Buoyed by the singles “1999” and “Little Red Corvette”, the album peaked at #6 in New Zealand, #9 in the US, #23 in Canada, #30 in the UK, and #35 in Australia.
Following Prince's death in 2016, the album re-entered the US Billboard 200 and peaked at #7, besting its original performance on the chart thirty-three years earlier…
Rolling Stone ranked the single "1999" #339 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.
In 2020, the album was ranked #130 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The music videos for both "1999" and "Little Red Corvette" were significant as two of the first videos by a black artist to receive heavy rotation on the newly launched music video channel, MTV, after heated controversy over its failure to promote black performers.
Click on the link below to watch the video of the title track:
On this day in 1984, the U2 single “Pride (In The Name of Love)” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #85 (October 27)
The lead single from their 1984 album “The Unforgettable Fire”, was written about American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
The melody and the chords for "Pride" were actually improvised by U2 during a soundcheck prior to a November 1983 concert in Hawaii on the band's War Tour.
The song contains an inaccurate reference to King's shooting as "Early morning, April 4," when it actually occurred after 6 p.m.
Bono acknowledges the error and in live performances he often changes the lyric to "Early evening...".
The powerful track went all the way to #1 in New Zealand, #2 in Ireland, #3 in the UK, #4 in Australia, #5 in the Netherlands, #6 in Belgium, #7 in Norway, #9 in Poland, #12 in Sweden, #20 in Italy, #26 in Canada, #27 in Germany, and #33 in the US.
In 1989, Spin named the song the 65th-greatest single in history.
In 2010, Rolling Stone ranked it #388 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
The song was included on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list.
Click on the link below to watch:
This week in 1980, the Robert Palmer single “Johnny and Mary” debuted on the Australian charts at #50 (October 27)
Palmer wrote the new wave-style track for inclusion on his “Clues” LP.
The song is about a couple just going through the motions: Johnny is trapped in predictable patterns and Mary just goes along with it.
Songfacts tell us that Robert Palmer was living in Nassau, Bahamas when he wrote song, and was inspired by what he witnessed.
There was a large ex-pat community there comprised of people who thought moving to the Bahamas would solve their problems, only to discover their issues travel with them.
"Lyrically I was dealing with my exposure to expatriots in the Bahamas," Palmer wrote in his Addictions: Volume 1 compilation.
“I'd never seen such contrived formality before, but Johnny and Mary obviously had.
These are people who have fallen into life like a habit, here's no struggle or romance in what they do."
It peaked at #1 in Spain, #5 in South Africa and Switzerland, #7 in Germany, #8 in Belgium, #10 in Austria, #11 in Sweden, #12 in New Zealand, #20 in Australia, #21 in the Netherlands, and #44 in the UK.
Though the single did not chart in the US Hot 100, it did reach #18 on Billboard's Club Play Singles chart.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1978, the Little River Band single “Reminiscing” peaked at #3 on the US Billboard chart (October 28)
Although it only peaked at #35 in Australia, at the Australian 1978 King of Pop Awards the song from the “Sleeper Catcher” LP won Australian Record of the Year.
The song written by Graeham Goble very nearly didn’t get recorded.
Goble had three goes at putting down the track with different keyboard players, and the band were losing interest in the song.
Then when they sent the album that would be “Sleeper Catcher” to Capitol, their record company, Capitol said they couldn’t hear any singles on the album.
Luckily they changed their mind on “Reminiscing” and peaking at #3 in the US, it gave Little River Band their biggest chart hit.
According to Albert Goldman's biography, John Lennon named "Reminiscing" as one of his favourite songs.
This was confirmed by his one-time girlfriend May Pang.
High praise indeed…
Click on the link below to watch:
This week in 1973, the Suzi Quatro single “Daytona Demon” debuted on the UK Singles Chart at #45 (October 27)
Suzi’s fourth solo single and third UK hit was never included on the US or other foreign release of her second album “Quatro” and remained unavailable in any format in the US until the advent of the CD and numerous compilations in the 1990s.
Following on from two Australian #1 hits with “Can the Can” and “48 Crash”, “Daytona Demon” peaked at #4 in Australia for Suzi Q, and also went to #2 in Germany, #3 in Switzerland, #8 in Belgium, #11 in Austria, and #14 in the UK.
Click on the link below to watch:
This week in 1979, the Joe Jackson LP “I’m The Man” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #63 (October 27)
It was the second album released in 1979 for Joe Jackson, after the brilliant “Look Sharp!”, which came out at the start of the year in January.
Jackson speculated:
“Compared to the first album, I think it's a bit more mature. It's getting more interesting as it goes along.
The band is getting stronger. I think the band is gonna amaze people on the next album".
Since then, the album has been described by Jackson as "Part Two of Look Sharp!".
He later said on his website:
“This is really Part Two of Look Sharp! – it was released less than a year later.
I don't know how I even had the time to write and record a slightly more mature record, but I think it is, and the best of the first three.”
It contains his biggest UK chart single “It's Different for Girls", which peaked at #5 on the UK Singles Chart.
Jackson later confessed: "I was amazed when that one was a hit."
I’m not; it’s one of my favourite Joe Jackson songs…
Click on the link below to watch “It’s Different For Girls”:
This week in 1984, the Talking Heads LP “Stop Making Sense” debuted on the UK Albums Chart at #57 (October 27)
The LP was the soundtrack to the live performance concert film of the same name.
It spent over two years on the Billboard 200 chart.
The film is famous for David Byrne’s “big suit”, which features in the clip for “Girlfriend is Better”.
He explained it this way to Openculture.com:
“Music is very physical and often the body understands it before the head.
I wanted my head to appear smaller, and the easiest way to do that was to make my body bigger.”
The album peaked at #2 in New Zealand and the Netherlands, #9 in Australia, #13 in Switzerland, #24 in the UK, #25 in Germany, #26 in Sweden, #33 in Canada, and #41 in the US.
The classic live album was ranked #345 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Click on the link below to watch “Girlfriend is Better” from the album:
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