On this day in 1972, the Elton John LP “Honky Château” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #110 (June 17)
The album was named after the 18th century French chateau where it was recorded, Château d'Hérouville.
It eventually went all the way to #1 in the US, the first of Elton’s seven consecutive US #1 albums.
“Honky Château” also went to #1 in Spain, #2 in the UK, #3 in Canada, #4 in Australia, #5 in Italy, #8 in Norway, and #9 in the Netherlands.
The album produced two hit singles, "Rocket Man" and "Honky Cat", and 2020 it was ranked #251 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Click on the link below to watch “Rocket Man”:
On this day in 1978, The Cars single “Just What I Needed” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #90 (June 17)
The lead single from their self-titled, debut LP went to #17 in the UK, #27 in the US, and #96 in Australia.
The Cars’ debut single sung by Benjamin Orr and written by Ric Ocasek set the standard for the synth-driven power pop new wave genre that swept in on the coat tails of punk, and continued to influence bands throughout the 80s (and also into the 90s and 00s with bands like “Fountains of Wayne”)
Classic fat analogue synth riff from keyboard player Greg Hawkes…
Click on the link to watch it live:
On this day in 1958, Eric Reed Boucher (aka Jello Biafra) was born in Boulder, Colorado (June 17)
Lead singer and songwriter with US punk band Dead Kennedys, Biafra’s unique quavering voice, high energy, and humorous socio-political lyrics helped propel the band to legendary status.
Post DK’s he became a spoken word artist.
I must say, I find it amusing that Jello shares a birthday with Barry Manilow…
Peas in a pod?
Here’s one of his best Dead Kennedys tracks live….
On this day in 1972, the Don McLean song “Vincent” went to #1 on the UK Singles Chart (June 17)
His first UK #1.
Acclaimed by many as one of the most beautiful songs ever written, inspired by and written about the artist Vincent Van Gogh, it remains arguably as much a masterpiece as the artwork Van Gogh himself created.
McLean recalled,
"In the autumn of 1970 I had a job singing in the school system, playing my guitar in classrooms. I was sitting on the veranda one morning, reading a biography of Van Gogh, and suddenly I knew I had to write a song arguing that he wasn't crazy. He had an illness and so did his brother Theo. This makes it different, in my mind, to the garden variety of 'crazy' – because he was rejected by a woman [as was commonly thought].
So I sat down with a print of Starry Night and wrote the lyrics out on a paper bag."
This poignant live acoustic rendition by McLean is simply superb…
On this day in 1973, the Helen Reddy single “Delta Dawn” debuted on the Australian charts (June 18)
The song written by former child rockabilly star Larry Collins and songwriter Alex Harvey, was a 1972 Top 10 country hit for Tanya Tucker before it topped the charts for Helen Reddy in 1973, but the first recording of "Delta Dawn" was made by Harvey for his self-titled LP released in November 1971.
Melbourne-born Helen Reddy’s version also topped the charts in the US and Canada.
Click on the link below to watch:
Singer, songwriter, musician and entertainer Peter Allen passed away on this day in 1992 (June 18)
Allen was born Peter Richard Woolnough in Tenterfield, New South Wales, Australia, in 1944.
He was known for his flamboyant stage presence, but was also a brilliant songwriter, with many of his songs becoming hits for others, like “Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" by Christopher Cross, which he co-wrote and won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1981.
He also wrote “I Honestly Love You" which became a hit for Olivia Newton-John, and reached #1 in the US and Canada, winning two Grammy Awards, for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and co-wrote “Don't Cry Out Loud" which was a hit for Melissa Manchester.
His patriotic song "I Still Call Australia Home", has been used extensively in advertising campaigns, and was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry in 2013.
“Countdown” viewers in Australia will also remember him performing his hit “I Go To Rio” on the famous Countdown white piano.
In his early life, his father became a violent alcoholic after returning from World War II, and took his own life when Allen was fourteen.
He tells the story of his early life in his 1972 song "Tenterfield Saddler", named after his grandfather George Woolnough.
In 1967, Allen became the first husband of actress, singer and dancer Liza Minnelli.
He also starred in his own one-man revue on Broadway.
A stage musical based on his life, also titled “The Boy from Oz”, opened in Australia in 1998.
The production starred Todd McKenney as Allen and Christina Amphlett of Divinyls as Judy Garland.
In 2003, the musical opened on Broadway, becoming the first Australian musical ever to be performed there.
In this production Allen was played by Hugh Jackman, who won a Tony Award for his portrayal in 2004.
Jackman performed this role again two years later when the show toured large arenas in Australia under the title “The Boy from Oz: Arena Spectacular”.
Allen was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1993.
He passed away due to complications from AIDS on 18 June 1992, aged just 48.
Peter Allen’s partner Gregory Connell had passed away from the disease eight years prior.
He was not openly public about his sexuality, which was common for performers back in the day, but neither did he deny being gay.
He explained, "I was as out as a not-out celebrity could be then."
Click on the link below to watch his wonderful song “Tenterfield Saddler”:
On this day in 1971, the Carole King LP “Tapestry” went to #1 on the US Billboard 200 Albums chart (June 17)
“Tapestry” was a massive commercial success.
It spent 15 consecutive weeks at #1 on the US Billboard 200, and to date, Tapestry still holds the record for most consecutive weeks at #1 by a female solo artist.
The album also spent almost an astonishing 6 years on the US Billboard 200 (318 weeks), in which it spent 302 consecutive weeks.
Second only to Pink Floyd's 724 weeks with “The Dark Side of the Moon”.
For more than 40 years, Tapestry held the record for the longest charting album by a female solo artist in the US until Adele's 21 broke the record in 2017.
“Tapestry” was also very successful across the world.
In Canada, it spent 9 weeks at #1, and also topped the charts in Japan and Spain, peaking at #3 in Australia, and #8 in Norway.
The album also went to #4 in the UK, and spent 136 weeks in the Top 100.
It has sold an estimated 25 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time.
in 2020, it was ranked #25 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Along with being selected Album of the Year, it also received Grammys for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Record of the Year ("It's Too Late"), and Song of the Year ("You've Got a Friend"), making King the first solo female artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, and the first woman to win the Grammy Award for Song of the Year.
“Tapestry” was added to the National Recording Registry to be preserved in the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important."
The classic cover photograph was taken by A&M staff photographer Jim McCrary at King's Laurel Canyon home.
It shows her sitting in a window frame, holding a tapestry that she'd hand-stitched herself, with her cat Telemachus at her feet.
The lead singles from the album—"It's Too Late" and "I Feel the Earth Move"—spent five weeks at #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts, and it also contains songs like “You've Got a Friend", “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?", and “You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman".
Click on the link below to watch a great live version of “It’s Too Late”:
On this day in 1972, the David Bowie LP “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #196 (June 17)
Bowie's breakthrough album, and a real watershed record in his burgeoning career…
The record is a loose concept album based around the character Ziggy Stardust, a fictional androgynous rock star who is sent to Earth as a saviour before an impending apocalyptic disaster.
The title track is about Stardust growing too conceited: "Making love with his ego, Ziggy sucked up into his mind."
Stardust's band, The Spiders From Mars, consequently plan to get revenge on the egotistical front man: "So we bitched about his fans, and should we crush his sweet hands?"
Bowie said that the song is "about the ultimate rock superstar destroyed by the fanaticism he creates."
In 1993, Bowie discussed the “look” he was going for:
“The idea was to hit a look somewhere between the Malcolm McDowell thing with the one mascaraed eyelash and insects. It was the era of Wild Boys, by William S. Burroughs ... [It] was a cross between that and Clockwork Orange that really started to put together the shape and the look of what Ziggy and the Spiders were going to become ... Everything had to be infinitely symbolic.”
According to Songfacts, Bowie later said that his Ziggy alter-ego "wouldn't leave me alone for years. That was when it all started to go sour ... My whole personality was affected. It became very dangerous.
I really did have doubts about my sanity..."
The Ziggy Stardust sessions featured the musicians who would later become known as the Spiders from Mars – legendary guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder, and drummer Mick Woodmansey.
In 1987, as part of their 20th anniversary, Rolling Stone ranked it #6 on "The 100 Best Albums of the Last Twenty Years".
In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it #40 on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
In March 2017, the album was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the United States National Recording Preservation Board, which designates it as a sound recording that has had significant cultural, historical, or aesthetic impact in American life.
The album peaked at #2 in Spain, #5 in the UK, #11 in Australia, #59 in Canada, and #75 in the US.
A re-release after Bowie’s death in 2016 saw the album back in the charts, this time peaking at #21 in the US.
The famous album cover shows David Bowie (dressed as Ziggy Stardust) standing outside the furriers, K. West, which was located at 23 Heddon Street, London.
In March 2012, a plaque honoring Ziggy Stardust was installed where the K. West sign once hung, which is the one of the few in the UK dedicated to a fictional character…
Click on the link below to watch a brilliant live performance from 50 years ago:
The album was named after the 18th century French chateau where it was recorded, Château d'Hérouville.
It eventually went all the way to #1 in the US, the first of Elton’s seven consecutive US #1 albums.
“Honky Château” also went to #1 in Spain, #2 in the UK, #3 in Canada, #4 in Australia, #5 in Italy, #8 in Norway, and #9 in the Netherlands.
The album produced two hit singles, "Rocket Man" and "Honky Cat", and 2020 it was ranked #251 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Click on the link below to watch “Rocket Man”:
On this day in 1978, The Cars single “Just What I Needed” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #90 (June 17)
The lead single from their self-titled, debut LP went to #17 in the UK, #27 in the US, and #96 in Australia.
The Cars’ debut single sung by Benjamin Orr and written by Ric Ocasek set the standard for the synth-driven power pop new wave genre that swept in on the coat tails of punk, and continued to influence bands throughout the 80s (and also into the 90s and 00s with bands like “Fountains of Wayne”)
Classic fat analogue synth riff from keyboard player Greg Hawkes…
Click on the link to watch it live:
On this day in 1958, Eric Reed Boucher (aka Jello Biafra) was born in Boulder, Colorado (June 17)
Lead singer and songwriter with US punk band Dead Kennedys, Biafra’s unique quavering voice, high energy, and humorous socio-political lyrics helped propel the band to legendary status.
Post DK’s he became a spoken word artist.
I must say, I find it amusing that Jello shares a birthday with Barry Manilow…
Peas in a pod?
Here’s one of his best Dead Kennedys tracks live….
On this day in 1972, the Don McLean song “Vincent” went to #1 on the UK Singles Chart (June 17)
His first UK #1.
Acclaimed by many as one of the most beautiful songs ever written, inspired by and written about the artist Vincent Van Gogh, it remains arguably as much a masterpiece as the artwork Van Gogh himself created.
McLean recalled,
"In the autumn of 1970 I had a job singing in the school system, playing my guitar in classrooms. I was sitting on the veranda one morning, reading a biography of Van Gogh, and suddenly I knew I had to write a song arguing that he wasn't crazy. He had an illness and so did his brother Theo. This makes it different, in my mind, to the garden variety of 'crazy' – because he was rejected by a woman [as was commonly thought].
So I sat down with a print of Starry Night and wrote the lyrics out on a paper bag."
This poignant live acoustic rendition by McLean is simply superb…
On this day in 1973, the Helen Reddy single “Delta Dawn” debuted on the Australian charts (June 18)
The song written by former child rockabilly star Larry Collins and songwriter Alex Harvey, was a 1972 Top 10 country hit for Tanya Tucker before it topped the charts for Helen Reddy in 1973, but the first recording of "Delta Dawn" was made by Harvey for his self-titled LP released in November 1971.
Melbourne-born Helen Reddy’s version also topped the charts in the US and Canada.
Click on the link below to watch:
Singer, songwriter, musician and entertainer Peter Allen passed away on this day in 1992 (June 18)
Allen was born Peter Richard Woolnough in Tenterfield, New South Wales, Australia, in 1944.
He was known for his flamboyant stage presence, but was also a brilliant songwriter, with many of his songs becoming hits for others, like “Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" by Christopher Cross, which he co-wrote and won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1981.
He also wrote “I Honestly Love You" which became a hit for Olivia Newton-John, and reached #1 in the US and Canada, winning two Grammy Awards, for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and co-wrote “Don't Cry Out Loud" which was a hit for Melissa Manchester.
His patriotic song "I Still Call Australia Home", has been used extensively in advertising campaigns, and was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry in 2013.
“Countdown” viewers in Australia will also remember him performing his hit “I Go To Rio” on the famous Countdown white piano.
In his early life, his father became a violent alcoholic after returning from World War II, and took his own life when Allen was fourteen.
He tells the story of his early life in his 1972 song "Tenterfield Saddler", named after his grandfather George Woolnough.
In 1967, Allen became the first husband of actress, singer and dancer Liza Minnelli.
He also starred in his own one-man revue on Broadway.
A stage musical based on his life, also titled “The Boy from Oz”, opened in Australia in 1998.
The production starred Todd McKenney as Allen and Christina Amphlett of Divinyls as Judy Garland.
In 2003, the musical opened on Broadway, becoming the first Australian musical ever to be performed there.
In this production Allen was played by Hugh Jackman, who won a Tony Award for his portrayal in 2004.
Jackman performed this role again two years later when the show toured large arenas in Australia under the title “The Boy from Oz: Arena Spectacular”.
Allen was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1993.
He passed away due to complications from AIDS on 18 June 1992, aged just 48.
Peter Allen’s partner Gregory Connell had passed away from the disease eight years prior.
He was not openly public about his sexuality, which was common for performers back in the day, but neither did he deny being gay.
He explained, "I was as out as a not-out celebrity could be then."
Click on the link below to watch his wonderful song “Tenterfield Saddler”:
On this day in 1971, the Carole King LP “Tapestry” went to #1 on the US Billboard 200 Albums chart (June 17)
“Tapestry” was a massive commercial success.
It spent 15 consecutive weeks at #1 on the US Billboard 200, and to date, Tapestry still holds the record for most consecutive weeks at #1 by a female solo artist.
The album also spent almost an astonishing 6 years on the US Billboard 200 (318 weeks), in which it spent 302 consecutive weeks.
Second only to Pink Floyd's 724 weeks with “The Dark Side of the Moon”.
For more than 40 years, Tapestry held the record for the longest charting album by a female solo artist in the US until Adele's 21 broke the record in 2017.
“Tapestry” was also very successful across the world.
In Canada, it spent 9 weeks at #1, and also topped the charts in Japan and Spain, peaking at #3 in Australia, and #8 in Norway.
The album also went to #4 in the UK, and spent 136 weeks in the Top 100.
It has sold an estimated 25 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time.
in 2020, it was ranked #25 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Along with being selected Album of the Year, it also received Grammys for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Record of the Year ("It's Too Late"), and Song of the Year ("You've Got a Friend"), making King the first solo female artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, and the first woman to win the Grammy Award for Song of the Year.
“Tapestry” was added to the National Recording Registry to be preserved in the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important."
The classic cover photograph was taken by A&M staff photographer Jim McCrary at King's Laurel Canyon home.
It shows her sitting in a window frame, holding a tapestry that she'd hand-stitched herself, with her cat Telemachus at her feet.
The lead singles from the album—"It's Too Late" and "I Feel the Earth Move"—spent five weeks at #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts, and it also contains songs like “You've Got a Friend", “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?", and “You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman".
Click on the link below to watch a great live version of “It’s Too Late”:
On this day in 1972, the David Bowie LP “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” debuted on the US Billboard 200 Albums Chart at #196 (June 17)
Bowie's breakthrough album, and a real watershed record in his burgeoning career…
The record is a loose concept album based around the character Ziggy Stardust, a fictional androgynous rock star who is sent to Earth as a saviour before an impending apocalyptic disaster.
The title track is about Stardust growing too conceited: "Making love with his ego, Ziggy sucked up into his mind."
Stardust's band, The Spiders From Mars, consequently plan to get revenge on the egotistical front man: "So we bitched about his fans, and should we crush his sweet hands?"
Bowie said that the song is "about the ultimate rock superstar destroyed by the fanaticism he creates."
In 1993, Bowie discussed the “look” he was going for:
“The idea was to hit a look somewhere between the Malcolm McDowell thing with the one mascaraed eyelash and insects. It was the era of Wild Boys, by William S. Burroughs ... [It] was a cross between that and Clockwork Orange that really started to put together the shape and the look of what Ziggy and the Spiders were going to become ... Everything had to be infinitely symbolic.”
According to Songfacts, Bowie later said that his Ziggy alter-ego "wouldn't leave me alone for years. That was when it all started to go sour ... My whole personality was affected. It became very dangerous.
I really did have doubts about my sanity..."
The Ziggy Stardust sessions featured the musicians who would later become known as the Spiders from Mars – legendary guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder, and drummer Mick Woodmansey.
In 1987, as part of their 20th anniversary, Rolling Stone ranked it #6 on "The 100 Best Albums of the Last Twenty Years".
In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it #40 on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
In March 2017, the album was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the United States National Recording Preservation Board, which designates it as a sound recording that has had significant cultural, historical, or aesthetic impact in American life.
The album peaked at #2 in Spain, #5 in the UK, #11 in Australia, #59 in Canada, and #75 in the US.
A re-release after Bowie’s death in 2016 saw the album back in the charts, this time peaking at #21 in the US.
The famous album cover shows David Bowie (dressed as Ziggy Stardust) standing outside the furriers, K. West, which was located at 23 Heddon Street, London.
In March 2012, a plaque honoring Ziggy Stardust was installed where the K. West sign once hung, which is the one of the few in the UK dedicated to a fictional character…
Click on the link below to watch a brilliant live performance from 50 years ago:
