On this day in 1972, the Elvis Presley single “Burning Love” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #90 (August 19)
Elvis had a major hit with the song, becoming his biggest hit single in the US since "Suspicious Minds" in 1969, and his 40th and last Top 10 hit on the Hot 100.
It peaked at #2 in the US, Canada and Australia, #6 in Ireland, #7 in the UK and South Africa, and #9 in New Zealand.
Click on the link below to watch Elvis do it live:
On this day in 1978, the Kiss LP “Kiss Alive II” re-entered the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #175 (August 19)
The band had released three albums (“Destroyer”, “Rock and Roll Over”, and “Love Gun”) since the previous live outing, the 1975 release “Alive!”, so there was heaps of new material to feature on this second live offering…
The album is one of the best selling in the Kiss discography, being the band's first to be certified double platinum.
Most of the live tracks on Alive II were recorded during the band's August 26–28 shows at the Forum while on their Love Gun Tour.
The double album peaked at #5 in Canada, #7 in the US, #10 in Japan, #13 in New Zealand, #17 in Australia, and #28 in Sweden.
Click on the link below to watch “Shout It Out Loud”:
This week in 1984, the Stevie Wonder single “I Just Called To Say I Love You” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #58 (August 18)
The song went to #1 in a record 19 charts around the world, including the UK (for six weeks), the US, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, South Africa, Spain and Switzerland.
The lead single from the 1984 movie “The Woman In Red” was his only UK #1, and was Motown Records' biggest-selling single ever in the UK.
The song also won both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Original Song…
Click on the link below to watch it live:
On this day in 1995, the Deep Blue Something single “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #90 (August 19)
The catchy song originally appeared on their 1993 album “11th Song”, and was later re-recorded and released on their 1995 album “Home”.
It turned out to be the band's only hit, peaking at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and going all the way to #1 in the UK, #3 in Australia, Ireland and Denmark, #4 in Canada, #6 in Germany, #7 in Belgium, and #9 in Sweden.
Click on the link below to watch:
Happy Birthday today to GANGgajang and Riptides legend Mark ‘Cal’ Callaghan, who was born in the UK, on this day in 1957 (August 20)
Born in the UK, Mark spent a lot of his childhood in Kenya, East Africa where his father was stationed.
After his father retired from the Army in 1972 the family moved to Australia, where he grew up in Bundaberg.
Mark formed the Riptides in 1977 at the University of Queensland with a number of his fellow students.
They were originally called the Grudge, then changed their name to the Neon Steal, then to the Numbers, and finally (to avoid confusion with a Sydney band also called the Numbers), settled on the Riptides.
The band’s early singles “Sunset Strip” and “Tomorrow’s Tears” are classics of the era.
I still have my “Tomorrow’s Tears” single…
Respected Australian musicologist Ian McFarlane summarised the group's output as:
"one of the classic Australian new wave groups.
The band's blend of diamond-hard power pop, snappy surf melodies and whomping backbeat was irresistible and eminently danceable.
After becoming one of the biggest drawcards on the Australian pub circuit during the early 1980s, The Riptides called it a day in 1983."
The Riptides should have been bigger, but they weren’t.
Then in 1984, GANGgajang grew out of songwriting and performing sessions that ex-Angels Chris Bailey and Buzz Bidstrup, (his wife Kayellen Bee), and Callaghan undertook for the ABC-TV music-drama series Sweet and Sour (July–August 1984).
They were soon joined by Geoffrey Stapleton (ex-The Aliens, Rat Tat Tat) on guitar and keyboards.
Their most well-known song, "Sounds of Then (This Is Australia)" (1985), became an Australian classic, despite the fact that it only reached #35 on the charts.
In 2016 it was added to the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's curated collection, Sounds of Australia.
In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "Sounds of Then" was ranked #7.
Callaghan recalled that it started as a poem in his notebook, reflecting on the time that his family moved from England to Bundaberg in Queensland, a major culture shock for him:
"We lived half way between Bundaberg and the ocean, all around was bush scrub and cane fields.
And walking up to the top of the street to catch the school bus, one morning you turn around and there's fire.
It's one of those songs where if your goal was only to sell records, whatever it took to do it, then the song would have been called 'This is Australia'. But it's not about that.
It's a brick veneer drama.
My parents got divorced when they came to Australia, it was a horrible period of my life. And the song is actually about how smells and sounds and sensations can rekindle a memory – which is what music does so successfully for people:
‘I think I hear the sounds of then and people talking / Scenes recalled by minute movement / And songs they fall from the backing tape…'."
Mark has also managed a number of bands, worked in music retail and as a record producer.
He was an Artist and Repertoire manager at Festival records and a professional manager at Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
Mark also holds a degree in design from the University of Queensland and is a member of the Australian Music Publishers Association (AMPAL).
He still performs with the Ganggajang whenever possible, but also enjoys his solo career and writing for others in the
industry.
Click on the link below to watch the Riptides “Tomorrow’s Tears”:
OR
Click on the link below to watch GANGgajang’s “Sounds of Then”:
On this day in 1979, the Tubeway Army single “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” debuted on the Australian charts at #97 (August 20)
Gary Numan’s android vocals over the droning power synth riff was a foreboding anthem that ushered in a new age. It was the first electronic/synthesizer-based record to become a #1 hit in the post punk era.
It was also the last single release before Numan ditched the Tubeway Army name.
The Moog synthesizer was integral to Numan's sound.
He explained to Rolling Stone how he came across the instrument:
“I remember it clearly.
I had been sent to a studio by [my label] Beggars to record my first album.
It was going to be a punk album and we were going to play the songs live. But as soon as I walked into the control room, there was a mini Moog.
I had never seen one before. I just thought it was the coolest looking thing, just fantastic. Quite, quite small.
Apparently, a company was going to come pick it up but the man said I could try it out until they came to collect it but they never turned up! I had this thing for the whole day and it was the most amazing experience.
Very luckily, it had been left on that sound which had become famous: a huge big bottom bass roar.
It was just huge. I didn't know how to set it up.
All I did was press a key and the room shook! And I just thought, "F--k me! That's the most amazing thing I'd ever heard!
The power!'
Imagine, if the sound had been something that went ping!, I would've thought, 'This is rubbish' and none of this success would've ever happened to me. So much of this was luck."
Numan is still going strong, and so is the song as you can hear in this brilliant live clip…
On this day in 1983, the Madness single “It Must Be Love” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #85 (August 20)
"It Must Be Love" is a song written and originally recorded and released in 1971 by English singer Labi Siffre on his 1972 album “Crying Laughing Loving Lying”.
The Madness version was a hit, reaching #4 in the UK, #5 in Ireland, #6 in Australia, and #33 in the US, and has featured in movies and advertising campaigns around the world.
Songwriter Labi Siffre actually makes a cameo appearance in the video as a violin player.
Click on the link below to watch it:
On this day in 1983, the Elvis Costello and the Attractions single “Everyday I Write The Book” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #82 (August 20)
This is another Elvis Costello gem, with the obligatory clever lyrics and hooks.
In an interview from November 1998, Costello said "Everyday I Write the Book" was "a song I wrote in ten minutes almost as a challenge to myself. I thought, maybe I could write just a simple, almost formula song and make it mean something. I was quite happy with it and I tried to do it in a kind of lovers-rock type arrangement and I wasn't happy with it and then ended up putting this other kind of rhythm to the song, which was written originally as a kind of Merseybeat knock off...I invested less emotionally in it than any other songs from that time yet it's the one that everyone warmed to."
Costello also cited Nick Lowe and Rockpile as an influence on the song; he explained, "[Lowe] has always been a songwriter from whom I've taken cues — see his song 'When I Write the Book,' and my song 'Everyday I Write the Book'."
It eventually peaked at #20 in New Zealand, #23 in Ireland, #28 in the UK, #36 in the US, and #40 in Australia and Canada.
Click on the link below to watch:
Elvis had a major hit with the song, becoming his biggest hit single in the US since "Suspicious Minds" in 1969, and his 40th and last Top 10 hit on the Hot 100.
It peaked at #2 in the US, Canada and Australia, #6 in Ireland, #7 in the UK and South Africa, and #9 in New Zealand.
Click on the link below to watch Elvis do it live:
On this day in 1978, the Kiss LP “Kiss Alive II” re-entered the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #175 (August 19)
The band had released three albums (“Destroyer”, “Rock and Roll Over”, and “Love Gun”) since the previous live outing, the 1975 release “Alive!”, so there was heaps of new material to feature on this second live offering…
The album is one of the best selling in the Kiss discography, being the band's first to be certified double platinum.
Most of the live tracks on Alive II were recorded during the band's August 26–28 shows at the Forum while on their Love Gun Tour.
The double album peaked at #5 in Canada, #7 in the US, #10 in Japan, #13 in New Zealand, #17 in Australia, and #28 in Sweden.
Click on the link below to watch “Shout It Out Loud”:
This week in 1984, the Stevie Wonder single “I Just Called To Say I Love You” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #58 (August 18)
The song went to #1 in a record 19 charts around the world, including the UK (for six weeks), the US, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, South Africa, Spain and Switzerland.
The lead single from the 1984 movie “The Woman In Red” was his only UK #1, and was Motown Records' biggest-selling single ever in the UK.
The song also won both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Original Song…
Click on the link below to watch it live:
On this day in 1995, the Deep Blue Something single “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #90 (August 19)
The catchy song originally appeared on their 1993 album “11th Song”, and was later re-recorded and released on their 1995 album “Home”.
It turned out to be the band's only hit, peaking at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, and going all the way to #1 in the UK, #3 in Australia, Ireland and Denmark, #4 in Canada, #6 in Germany, #7 in Belgium, and #9 in Sweden.
Click on the link below to watch:
Happy Birthday today to GANGgajang and Riptides legend Mark ‘Cal’ Callaghan, who was born in the UK, on this day in 1957 (August 20)
Born in the UK, Mark spent a lot of his childhood in Kenya, East Africa where his father was stationed.
After his father retired from the Army in 1972 the family moved to Australia, where he grew up in Bundaberg.
Mark formed the Riptides in 1977 at the University of Queensland with a number of his fellow students.
They were originally called the Grudge, then changed their name to the Neon Steal, then to the Numbers, and finally (to avoid confusion with a Sydney band also called the Numbers), settled on the Riptides.
The band’s early singles “Sunset Strip” and “Tomorrow’s Tears” are classics of the era.
I still have my “Tomorrow’s Tears” single…
Respected Australian musicologist Ian McFarlane summarised the group's output as:
"one of the classic Australian new wave groups.
The band's blend of diamond-hard power pop, snappy surf melodies and whomping backbeat was irresistible and eminently danceable.
After becoming one of the biggest drawcards on the Australian pub circuit during the early 1980s, The Riptides called it a day in 1983."
The Riptides should have been bigger, but they weren’t.
Then in 1984, GANGgajang grew out of songwriting and performing sessions that ex-Angels Chris Bailey and Buzz Bidstrup, (his wife Kayellen Bee), and Callaghan undertook for the ABC-TV music-drama series Sweet and Sour (July–August 1984).
They were soon joined by Geoffrey Stapleton (ex-The Aliens, Rat Tat Tat) on guitar and keyboards.
Their most well-known song, "Sounds of Then (This Is Australia)" (1985), became an Australian classic, despite the fact that it only reached #35 on the charts.
In 2016 it was added to the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's curated collection, Sounds of Australia.
In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "Sounds of Then" was ranked #7.
Callaghan recalled that it started as a poem in his notebook, reflecting on the time that his family moved from England to Bundaberg in Queensland, a major culture shock for him:
"We lived half way between Bundaberg and the ocean, all around was bush scrub and cane fields.
And walking up to the top of the street to catch the school bus, one morning you turn around and there's fire.
It's one of those songs where if your goal was only to sell records, whatever it took to do it, then the song would have been called 'This is Australia'. But it's not about that.
It's a brick veneer drama.
My parents got divorced when they came to Australia, it was a horrible period of my life. And the song is actually about how smells and sounds and sensations can rekindle a memory – which is what music does so successfully for people:
‘I think I hear the sounds of then and people talking / Scenes recalled by minute movement / And songs they fall from the backing tape…'."
Mark has also managed a number of bands, worked in music retail and as a record producer.
He was an Artist and Repertoire manager at Festival records and a professional manager at Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
Mark also holds a degree in design from the University of Queensland and is a member of the Australian Music Publishers Association (AMPAL).
He still performs with the Ganggajang whenever possible, but also enjoys his solo career and writing for others in the
industry.
Click on the link below to watch the Riptides “Tomorrow’s Tears”:
OR
Click on the link below to watch GANGgajang’s “Sounds of Then”:
On this day in 1979, the Tubeway Army single “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” debuted on the Australian charts at #97 (August 20)
Gary Numan’s android vocals over the droning power synth riff was a foreboding anthem that ushered in a new age. It was the first electronic/synthesizer-based record to become a #1 hit in the post punk era.
It was also the last single release before Numan ditched the Tubeway Army name.
The Moog synthesizer was integral to Numan's sound.
He explained to Rolling Stone how he came across the instrument:
“I remember it clearly.
I had been sent to a studio by [my label] Beggars to record my first album.
It was going to be a punk album and we were going to play the songs live. But as soon as I walked into the control room, there was a mini Moog.
I had never seen one before. I just thought it was the coolest looking thing, just fantastic. Quite, quite small.
Apparently, a company was going to come pick it up but the man said I could try it out until they came to collect it but they never turned up! I had this thing for the whole day and it was the most amazing experience.
Very luckily, it had been left on that sound which had become famous: a huge big bottom bass roar.
It was just huge. I didn't know how to set it up.
All I did was press a key and the room shook! And I just thought, "F--k me! That's the most amazing thing I'd ever heard!
The power!'
Imagine, if the sound had been something that went ping!, I would've thought, 'This is rubbish' and none of this success would've ever happened to me. So much of this was luck."
Numan is still going strong, and so is the song as you can hear in this brilliant live clip…
On this day in 1983, the Madness single “It Must Be Love” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #85 (August 20)
"It Must Be Love" is a song written and originally recorded and released in 1971 by English singer Labi Siffre on his 1972 album “Crying Laughing Loving Lying”.
The Madness version was a hit, reaching #4 in the UK, #5 in Ireland, #6 in Australia, and #33 in the US, and has featured in movies and advertising campaigns around the world.
Songwriter Labi Siffre actually makes a cameo appearance in the video as a violin player.
Click on the link below to watch it:
On this day in 1983, the Elvis Costello and the Attractions single “Everyday I Write The Book” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #82 (August 20)
This is another Elvis Costello gem, with the obligatory clever lyrics and hooks.
In an interview from November 1998, Costello said "Everyday I Write the Book" was "a song I wrote in ten minutes almost as a challenge to myself. I thought, maybe I could write just a simple, almost formula song and make it mean something. I was quite happy with it and I tried to do it in a kind of lovers-rock type arrangement and I wasn't happy with it and then ended up putting this other kind of rhythm to the song, which was written originally as a kind of Merseybeat knock off...I invested less emotionally in it than any other songs from that time yet it's the one that everyone warmed to."
Costello also cited Nick Lowe and Rockpile as an influence on the song; he explained, "[Lowe] has always been a songwriter from whom I've taken cues — see his song 'When I Write the Book,' and my song 'Everyday I Write the Book'."
It eventually peaked at #20 in New Zealand, #23 in Ireland, #28 in the UK, #36 in the US, and #40 in Australia and Canada.
Click on the link below to watch:
