On this day in 1966, the Jimi Hendrix Experience released the single “Hey Joe” (December 16)
In 1966, while Jimi Hendrix was experimenting with a more rock-focused sound in New York City with his band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, he frequently performed the Billy Roberts rock classic “Hey Joe,” which had been popular in the early 60s.
Chas Chandler, the former bass player for the Animals, was scouting for musical acts to produce when he came across Hendrix. By coincidence, the first song Hendrix played for Chandler was “Hey Joe,” a track Chandler was keen to promote.
Impressed, Chandler decided to take Hendrix to England in September 1966, where the exceptional guitarist quickly rose to fame.
Released in December 1966, Hendrix’s rendition of “Hey Joe” became a hit in the UK, peaking at #6 on the UK Singles Chart.
The single was released a few months later in the US on May 1, 1967 with the B-side "51st Anniversary", but failed to chart.
Hendrix’s “Hey Joe” was listed at #201 on Rolling Stone magazine's The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2010.
In 2000, Total Guitar magazine ranked it as the 13th greatest cover version of all time, and in 2009 it was named the 22nd greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1.
"Hey Joe" was the last song Jimi performed at the Woodstock festival in 1969 and as such, it was also the final song of the whole festival…
Click on the link below to watch Hendrix do it live:
On this day in 1978, the Gloria Gaynor single “I Will Survive” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #87 (December 16)
“First I was afraid, I was petrified….”
The song with the memorable opening line (and dramatic piano intro) has an interesting back story:
The main songwriter Dino Fekaris worked for Motown Records for seven years as a staff writer.
But he didn’t write this song there.
You see, Dino was fired from Motown, and it was his dismissal from the music production giants that provided the inspiration for “I Will Survive”.
The story goes that depressed and jobless, Dino turned on the tv, and the theme song he had written for a movie happened to be playing.
He took it as a good omen, and jumped up and down on the bed saying, "I'm going to make it. I'm going to be a songwriter. I will survive!".
Fekaris teamed up with his collaborator Freddie Perren, another former member of the Motown production team, to write the song; however, the song remained unrecorded for two years as no suitable singer was available.
Later, in 1978, Perrin was asked to produce "Subsitute" for Gloria Gaynor, which he agreed on the understanding that he could also produce the B side.
When Gaynor was asked what kind of songs she liked, she said she liked "songs that are meaningful, have good lyrics, and touch people's hearts."
The producers then handed her the song lyrics of "I Will Survive" scribbled on a piece of brown paper.
Gaynor recognized the song as a hit immediately.
According to Robert "Boogie" Bowles who played guitar on the song, in the three-hour recording session, the session musicians spent most of their time recording the A side, "Substitute".
As a result, they only had 35 minutes to record the B side "I Will Survive".
They also did not even know the song title or the melody of the song, but they were fairly relaxed recording it in the belief that the B side would likely not be played.
Based only on the chord changes and a few notes, they improvised freely much of the backing track, and Bowles filled in the bare bone of the tune with jazzy blues licks.
Although Gaynor was convinced that "I Will Survive" would be a hit and tried to persuade the label to release it as the A side, the label refused to entertain the idea and it was released as the B-side to "Substitute".
Studio 54 DJ Richie Kaczor loved it though, and played it at the popular venue.
Other disc jockeys in discos and radio stations soon followed and played that side of the record instead.
The popularity of "I Will Survive" with the DJs then finally led to the label releasing the song as an A side.
It went to #1 in the US, the UK and Ireland, and was Top 5 in a host of other countries around the world, including Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands.
The song is also often used as a symbol of female empowerment.
Rolling Stone ranked it #492 in their List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004.
Billboard placed it at #97 in their ranking of The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs.
In 2016, the Library of Congress deemed Gaynor's original recording to be "culturally, historically, or artistically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Recording Registry.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1993, MTV aired the Nirvana “MTV Unplugged” session for the first time (December 16)
The acclaimed acoustic set was recorded for the television series the month before, on November 18, at Sony Music Studios in New York City
The resulting album “MTV Unplugged in New York” was released almost a year later, debuted at #1 on the US Billboard 200, and was certified eight-times multiplatinum by the RIAA in 2020.
It also went to #1 in Australia, the UK, Spain, Ireland, Canada, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, New Zealand, and France.
The album won Nirvana the Best Alternative Music Performance at the 1996 Grammy Awards, Nirvana's only Grammy Award win, and it has since been ranked one of the greatest live albums of all time.
It was the first Nirvana release after the suicide of Kurt Cobain seven months prior.
Unlike many artists who appeared on the show, Nirvana filmed the entire performance in a single take…
Click the link below for their acoustic version of “About a Girl”:
On this day in 1979, the Fleetwood Mac single “Tusk” peaked on the Australian charts at #3 (December 17)
The song written by Lindsey Buckingham from the 1979 double LP of the same name, came from a rehearsal riff that Buckingham used for sound-checks.
Mick Fleetwood recalled that the band played the riff the same way every night with the intention of developing it further in the studio.
At the request of Fleetwood, the band recruited the University of Southern California's Trojan Marching Band to play on the single.
The idea came to Fleetwood while he was a on a vacation in Barfleur in France, when he was woken up by a local brass band playing outside.
He recalled:
“I saw the entire village dancing in the streets. They were following the band...I grabbed the remainder of my bottle of Beaujolais from the night before and went down to join in...That joyous, irresistible cacophony is what I heard when I listened to that loop of the riff.”
The song went to #3 in Australia, #4 in New Zealand, #5 in Canada, #6 in the UK and Austria, #7 in Germany, #8 in the US, and #10 in the Netherlands.
Click on the link below to watch:
Thirty-eight years ago this month, the Pseudo Echo single “Funkytown” went to #1 on the Australian charts (December 1986)
With Brian Canham out front, Pseudo Echo established themselves as Australia’s premier 1980s synth-based new wave band, with slick singles like "Listening", "A Beat for You", and Don't Go".
But their version of the 1980 Lipps Inc. classic from the “Love an Adventure” LP was their biggest hit, also showing record-buying punters that Canham also knew his way around a guitar, smashing out a memorable solo half way through the song.
It was even a Top 10 hit in America, reaching #6 on the US Billboard Hot 100, making it Pseudo Echo’s only US Top 40 hit (same as Lipps Inc.)
In addition to topping the charts in Australia, it was also a hit around the world, going all the way to to #1 in Canada and New Zealand, #2 in South Africa, Top 10 in the UK and Sweden, #11 in Switzerland, #12 in Ireland, #13 in Austria, and #16 in Germany.
It became a dance floor staple of the day, just like the original…
To watch it again, click on the link below:
On this day in 1979, the Rupert Holmes single “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” debuted on the Australian charts at #87 (December 17)
“If you like piña coladas…
And gettin' caught in the rain…”
But those famous lyrics weren’t the ones that were originally written…
Rupert Holmes recalled that the original lyrics referenced “Humphrey Bogart” as opposed to “piña coladas”:
“The original lyrics said, ‘If you like Humphrey Bogart and getting caught in the rain.’…
As I was getting on mic I thought to myself, I’ve done so many movie references to Bogart and wide-screen cinema on my earlier albums, maybe I shouldn’t do one here.
I thought, What can I substitute? Well, this woman wants an escape, like she wants to go on vacation to the islands.
When you go on vacation to the islands, when you sit on the beach and someone asks you if you’d like a drink, you never order a Budweiser, you don’t have a beer.
You’re on vacation, you want a drink in a hollowed-out pineapple with the flags of all nations and a parasol.
If the drink is blue you’d be very happy.
And a long straw.
I thought, What are those escape drinks? Let’s see, there’s daiquiri, mai tai, piña colada… I wonder what a piña colada tastes like? I’ve never even had one.
I thought that instead of singing, ‘If you like Humphrey Bogart,’ with the emphasis on like, I could start it a syllable earlier and go, ‘If you like piña-a coladas.’”
It seemed to work a treat!
The lead single from his “Partners in Crime” LP eventually made it to #3 in Australia, but went all the way to #1 in the US and Canada, #4 in New Zealand, #10 in Ireland and Belgium, #11 in South Africa, and #13 in the Netherlands.
And Holmes said in 2019 that he still doesn’t drink piña coladas!
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1978, the Alice Cooper single “How You Gonna See Me Now” debuted on the UK Singles Chart at #61 (December 17)
The song written by Alice Cooper, Dick Wagner, and longtime Elton John collaborator Bernie Taupin, appeared on Alice’s album “From the Inside”, which was a concept album about Alice’s time in a New York asylum due to alcoholism.
He has more of a reputation for his hard rock songs, but gee, Alice could really deliver a ballad too.
This one’s no exception…
Great track that peaked at #9 in Australia and the Netherlands, #12 in the US, #16 in Canada, and #19 in New Zealand.
The UK didn’t take to it though, as it’s debut position was also its peak - #61.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1983, the Paul Young single “Love of the Common People” was at its peak of #2 on the UK Singles Chart (December 17)
The cover of the 1967 song written by John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins, was first released by The Four Preps.
In 1982, Paul Young released his interpretation of "Love of the Common People" as a single, but initially it failed to chart…
Only after the success of his first and second solo hits in 1983, with "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)" and "Come Back and Stay", and the single's re-release, did it become successful.
The cover went to #1 in the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland, #2 in the UK, Top 5 in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, and Top 10 in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
The song features Paul Young’s excellent backing singers The Fabulous Wealthy Tarts (Marilyn "Maz" Roberts and Kim Lesley), and a trombone solo by ska and reggae legend Rico Rodriguez…
Click on the link below to watch:
In 1966, while Jimi Hendrix was experimenting with a more rock-focused sound in New York City with his band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, he frequently performed the Billy Roberts rock classic “Hey Joe,” which had been popular in the early 60s.
Chas Chandler, the former bass player for the Animals, was scouting for musical acts to produce when he came across Hendrix. By coincidence, the first song Hendrix played for Chandler was “Hey Joe,” a track Chandler was keen to promote.
Impressed, Chandler decided to take Hendrix to England in September 1966, where the exceptional guitarist quickly rose to fame.
Released in December 1966, Hendrix’s rendition of “Hey Joe” became a hit in the UK, peaking at #6 on the UK Singles Chart.
The single was released a few months later in the US on May 1, 1967 with the B-side "51st Anniversary", but failed to chart.
Hendrix’s “Hey Joe” was listed at #201 on Rolling Stone magazine's The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2010.
In 2000, Total Guitar magazine ranked it as the 13th greatest cover version of all time, and in 2009 it was named the 22nd greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1.
"Hey Joe" was the last song Jimi performed at the Woodstock festival in 1969 and as such, it was also the final song of the whole festival…
Click on the link below to watch Hendrix do it live:
On this day in 1978, the Gloria Gaynor single “I Will Survive” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #87 (December 16)
“First I was afraid, I was petrified….”
The song with the memorable opening line (and dramatic piano intro) has an interesting back story:
The main songwriter Dino Fekaris worked for Motown Records for seven years as a staff writer.
But he didn’t write this song there.
You see, Dino was fired from Motown, and it was his dismissal from the music production giants that provided the inspiration for “I Will Survive”.
The story goes that depressed and jobless, Dino turned on the tv, and the theme song he had written for a movie happened to be playing.
He took it as a good omen, and jumped up and down on the bed saying, "I'm going to make it. I'm going to be a songwriter. I will survive!".
Fekaris teamed up with his collaborator Freddie Perren, another former member of the Motown production team, to write the song; however, the song remained unrecorded for two years as no suitable singer was available.
Later, in 1978, Perrin was asked to produce "Subsitute" for Gloria Gaynor, which he agreed on the understanding that he could also produce the B side.
When Gaynor was asked what kind of songs she liked, she said she liked "songs that are meaningful, have good lyrics, and touch people's hearts."
The producers then handed her the song lyrics of "I Will Survive" scribbled on a piece of brown paper.
Gaynor recognized the song as a hit immediately.
According to Robert "Boogie" Bowles who played guitar on the song, in the three-hour recording session, the session musicians spent most of their time recording the A side, "Substitute".
As a result, they only had 35 minutes to record the B side "I Will Survive".
They also did not even know the song title or the melody of the song, but they were fairly relaxed recording it in the belief that the B side would likely not be played.
Based only on the chord changes and a few notes, they improvised freely much of the backing track, and Bowles filled in the bare bone of the tune with jazzy blues licks.
Although Gaynor was convinced that "I Will Survive" would be a hit and tried to persuade the label to release it as the A side, the label refused to entertain the idea and it was released as the B-side to "Substitute".
Studio 54 DJ Richie Kaczor loved it though, and played it at the popular venue.
Other disc jockeys in discos and radio stations soon followed and played that side of the record instead.
The popularity of "I Will Survive" with the DJs then finally led to the label releasing the song as an A side.
It went to #1 in the US, the UK and Ireland, and was Top 5 in a host of other countries around the world, including Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands.
The song is also often used as a symbol of female empowerment.
Rolling Stone ranked it #492 in their List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004.
Billboard placed it at #97 in their ranking of The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs.
In 2016, the Library of Congress deemed Gaynor's original recording to be "culturally, historically, or artistically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Recording Registry.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1993, MTV aired the Nirvana “MTV Unplugged” session for the first time (December 16)
The acclaimed acoustic set was recorded for the television series the month before, on November 18, at Sony Music Studios in New York City
The resulting album “MTV Unplugged in New York” was released almost a year later, debuted at #1 on the US Billboard 200, and was certified eight-times multiplatinum by the RIAA in 2020.
It also went to #1 in Australia, the UK, Spain, Ireland, Canada, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, New Zealand, and France.
The album won Nirvana the Best Alternative Music Performance at the 1996 Grammy Awards, Nirvana's only Grammy Award win, and it has since been ranked one of the greatest live albums of all time.
It was the first Nirvana release after the suicide of Kurt Cobain seven months prior.
Unlike many artists who appeared on the show, Nirvana filmed the entire performance in a single take…
Click the link below for their acoustic version of “About a Girl”:
On this day in 1979, the Fleetwood Mac single “Tusk” peaked on the Australian charts at #3 (December 17)
The song written by Lindsey Buckingham from the 1979 double LP of the same name, came from a rehearsal riff that Buckingham used for sound-checks.
Mick Fleetwood recalled that the band played the riff the same way every night with the intention of developing it further in the studio.
At the request of Fleetwood, the band recruited the University of Southern California's Trojan Marching Band to play on the single.
The idea came to Fleetwood while he was a on a vacation in Barfleur in France, when he was woken up by a local brass band playing outside.
He recalled:
“I saw the entire village dancing in the streets. They were following the band...I grabbed the remainder of my bottle of Beaujolais from the night before and went down to join in...That joyous, irresistible cacophony is what I heard when I listened to that loop of the riff.”
The song went to #3 in Australia, #4 in New Zealand, #5 in Canada, #6 in the UK and Austria, #7 in Germany, #8 in the US, and #10 in the Netherlands.
Click on the link below to watch:
Thirty-eight years ago this month, the Pseudo Echo single “Funkytown” went to #1 on the Australian charts (December 1986)
With Brian Canham out front, Pseudo Echo established themselves as Australia’s premier 1980s synth-based new wave band, with slick singles like "Listening", "A Beat for You", and Don't Go".
But their version of the 1980 Lipps Inc. classic from the “Love an Adventure” LP was their biggest hit, also showing record-buying punters that Canham also knew his way around a guitar, smashing out a memorable solo half way through the song.
It was even a Top 10 hit in America, reaching #6 on the US Billboard Hot 100, making it Pseudo Echo’s only US Top 40 hit (same as Lipps Inc.)
In addition to topping the charts in Australia, it was also a hit around the world, going all the way to to #1 in Canada and New Zealand, #2 in South Africa, Top 10 in the UK and Sweden, #11 in Switzerland, #12 in Ireland, #13 in Austria, and #16 in Germany.
It became a dance floor staple of the day, just like the original…
To watch it again, click on the link below:
On this day in 1979, the Rupert Holmes single “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” debuted on the Australian charts at #87 (December 17)
“If you like piña coladas…
And gettin' caught in the rain…”
But those famous lyrics weren’t the ones that were originally written…
Rupert Holmes recalled that the original lyrics referenced “Humphrey Bogart” as opposed to “piña coladas”:
“The original lyrics said, ‘If you like Humphrey Bogart and getting caught in the rain.’…
As I was getting on mic I thought to myself, I’ve done so many movie references to Bogart and wide-screen cinema on my earlier albums, maybe I shouldn’t do one here.
I thought, What can I substitute? Well, this woman wants an escape, like she wants to go on vacation to the islands.
When you go on vacation to the islands, when you sit on the beach and someone asks you if you’d like a drink, you never order a Budweiser, you don’t have a beer.
You’re on vacation, you want a drink in a hollowed-out pineapple with the flags of all nations and a parasol.
If the drink is blue you’d be very happy.
And a long straw.
I thought, What are those escape drinks? Let’s see, there’s daiquiri, mai tai, piña colada… I wonder what a piña colada tastes like? I’ve never even had one.
I thought that instead of singing, ‘If you like Humphrey Bogart,’ with the emphasis on like, I could start it a syllable earlier and go, ‘If you like piña-a coladas.’”
It seemed to work a treat!
The lead single from his “Partners in Crime” LP eventually made it to #3 in Australia, but went all the way to #1 in the US and Canada, #4 in New Zealand, #10 in Ireland and Belgium, #11 in South Africa, and #13 in the Netherlands.
And Holmes said in 2019 that he still doesn’t drink piña coladas!
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1978, the Alice Cooper single “How You Gonna See Me Now” debuted on the UK Singles Chart at #61 (December 17)
The song written by Alice Cooper, Dick Wagner, and longtime Elton John collaborator Bernie Taupin, appeared on Alice’s album “From the Inside”, which was a concept album about Alice’s time in a New York asylum due to alcoholism.
He has more of a reputation for his hard rock songs, but gee, Alice could really deliver a ballad too.
This one’s no exception…
Great track that peaked at #9 in Australia and the Netherlands, #12 in the US, #16 in Canada, and #19 in New Zealand.
The UK didn’t take to it though, as it’s debut position was also its peak - #61.
Click on the link below to watch:
On this day in 1983, the Paul Young single “Love of the Common People” was at its peak of #2 on the UK Singles Chart (December 17)
The cover of the 1967 song written by John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins, was first released by The Four Preps.
In 1982, Paul Young released his interpretation of "Love of the Common People" as a single, but initially it failed to chart…
Only after the success of his first and second solo hits in 1983, with "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)" and "Come Back and Stay", and the single's re-release, did it become successful.
The cover went to #1 in the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland, #2 in the UK, Top 5 in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, and Top 10 in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
The song features Paul Young’s excellent backing singers The Fabulous Wealthy Tarts (Marilyn "Maz" Roberts and Kim Lesley), and a trombone solo by ska and reggae legend Rico Rodriguez…
Click on the link below to watch:
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