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Post by kds on Jul 26, 2023 12:16:44 GMT
I find it very annoying in those rock documentaries how they make it seem like rock and roll came along and completely wiped all the "old fogie music" off the charts. Clearly, many old school crooners were still making the charts on a regular basis. Of course, the same shows make it seem like, once Led Zep, Cream, and other heavy rock came along in the late 60's, no one ever listened to sunshine pop or basic rock and roll again. "You'll never hear surf music again!" I think there is a variation on that theme involving every new genre's emergence. I suppose it makes a better story: "and from the day [song/album] was released, the music industry changed. Everybody's radio was tuned to [whatever]." Not just the ones you mentioned, but disco killing rock and roll, punk killing bloated rock and roll, grunge killing hair metal, rap killing rock...none of the "dead" genres ever actually goes away, and the extent they do seems mostly to depend on people's willingness to go along with the story and pretend they agree. The disco killing rock is one that always makes me chuckle. Rock music was doing pretty well in the late 70s. It might not have been the type of rock music that critics / elitists preferred (there were a lot of AOR / Arena Rock bands doing extremely well).
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 26, 2023 12:23:16 GMT
I think there is a variation on that theme involving every new genre's emergence. I suppose it makes a better story: "and from the day [song/album] was released, the music industry changed. Everybody's radio was tuned to [whatever]." Not just the ones you mentioned, but disco killing rock and roll, punk killing bloated rock and roll, grunge killing hair metal, rap killing rock...none of the "dead" genres ever actually goes away, and the extent they do seems mostly to depend on people's willingness to go along with the story and pretend they agree. The disco killing rock is one that always makes me chuckle. Rock music was doing pretty well in the late 70s. It might not have been the type of rock music that critics / elitists preferred (there were a lot of AOR / Arena Rock bands doing extremely well). And really almost simultaneously you had punk killing rock. As you just said, there were massive AOR and arena rock groups doing well at that same time, no to mention plenty of disco acts still at it, the NWOBHM coming on, countrypolitan...
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 26, 2023 13:00:13 GMT
“Little Star” is my all-time favourite Italian-American doo-wop song, recorded back in the days when atmosphere and enthusiasm counted more than hitting the right notes every time.  I have mixed reactions to that idea. It seems that I disagree with everyone who says something about it! People championing atmosphere and enthusiasm over the right notes, historically, I want to tell to go take a lesson or practice some more. (This was the big line through the '90s, beginning with grunge and continuing through what they were calling alternative at the time.) But people obsessing over perfection, I want to tell to relax, have a drink, and just enjoy making music--that rock and roll isn't rocket science. (This goes for my older brother, a metal and virtuosos-of-various-genres fan whose favorite music is absurdly technical and, to me, entirely lacking in any emotion.)
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Post by kds on Jul 26, 2023 13:22:43 GMT
“Little Star” is my all-time favourite Italian-American doo-wop song, recorded back in the days when atmosphere and enthusiasm counted more than hitting the right notes every time. I have mixed reactions to that idea. It seems that I disagree with everyone who says something about it! People championing atmosphere and enthusiasm over the right notes, historically, I want to tell to go take a lesson or practice some more. (This was the big line through the '90s, beginning with grunge and continuing through what they were calling alternative at the time.) But people obsessing over perfection, I want to tell to relax, have a drink, and just enjoy making music--that rock and roll isn't rocket science. (This goes for my older brother, a metal and virtuosos-of-various-genres fan whose favorite music is absurdly technical and, to me, entirely lacking in any emotion.) I think there's a healthy middle ground. I never liked that line with punk or grunge because, frankly, I don't think the songs are good enough to overcome that lack of musical or singing talent. Then, you have a band like Kiss who, admittedly, were not the best singers and players in the world, but happened to write great songs.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jul 27, 2023 11:17:08 GMT
An unreleased demo. A cappella. This is really good!
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Jul 27, 2023 16:39:39 GMT
A good song that has mostly been lost to time. Can't say I ever remember hearing it on our oldies station. Only 4.5 million streams on Spotify. That's going to be a similar story with a lot of these songs, though.
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 27, 2023 18:45:45 GMT
"It's All In The Game," Tommy Edwards
The month of September 1958 belonged to Domenico Modugno and his "Volare," which bumped The Elegants from the #1 spot in the Sept. 1 chart and held it for four straight weeks, which was of course a record tenure at the top on the young charts.
The record did not last long. And the journey of the song to knock it from the perch and set the new record is an interesting one that took 47 years to play out.
In 1911, a Chicago bank president and amateur musician named Charles G. Dawes wrote an instrumental tune. His friend took it to a publisher, and shortly thereafter, Dawes was surprised to see himself in a State Street window, his portrait on the sheet music that was for sale. Dawes had become a professional composer. Co-writing what later became a #1 single was not Dawes's primary claim to fame. This would either be that he was Vice President of the United States under Calvin Coolidge in his first term, or that he won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on what became known as the Dawes Plan to help finance the reconstruction of Europe after WWI. He is, it should go without saying, the first and only Vice President or Nobel Peace Prize winner to top the Hot 100.
It took 40 years for someone--Carl Sigman--to put lyrics to the tune. He did, and the new song was recorded several times in that year (1951): Dinah Shore, Sammy Kaye, Carmen Cavallaro, and Tommy Edwards each recorded versions. Edwards's was the first to be released, and it was a modest hit, reaching #18 on the Billboard Records Most Played by Disk Jockeys chart. (Famed arranger Gordon Jenkins produced versions for Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole in the subsequent years.)
Another seven years went by, and Edwards was down to the final session on his MGM recording contract. With stereo newly viable and rock and roll increasingly popular, they cut a new version of his 1951 hit, "It's All In The Game," using both a slightly more rock and roll oriented arrangement and stereophonic sound. That version, released in July 1958, climbed to the top of the charts by September 29, 1958, and remained there for a new record of six weeks.
1951 version:
1958 #1 Hit version:
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Post by jk on Jul 27, 2023 19:36:41 GMT
Fascinating account there, Cap’n. What a history that record has...
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Post by jk on Jul 27, 2023 20:18:08 GMT
Fascinating account there, Cap’n. What a history that record has... I just gave the two versions a spin. Both do something for me—I guess it’s just a strong song—although the second with its “redundant piano triplets” is more up my street. What a brilliant idea for a thread!
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jul 28, 2023 12:03:05 GMT
"It's All In The Game" is a classic! How many people played the record (45), heard the song on the radio, slow danced to it, and related to it. And, how many 50s comps did it appear on? I'm sure it appeared in a few movie soundtracks, too. It's hard to compile a doo-wop/late 50s playlist and not include "It's All In The Game". Many a tear has to fall...
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 28, 2023 12:12:58 GMT
I thought this was going to be yet another tune I didn't know, because neither artist nor title meant anything to me. But immediately upon listening to that first line, I knew I'd heard it 100 times. I really enjoyed this song, and particularly the 1958, #1 version.
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Post by kds on Jul 28, 2023 12:56:36 GMT
I'm a little surprised that I don't think I've ever heard this song before. I know I'm a novice at best when it comes to late 50s music, but I did know a lot of the hits. I like it though.
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 28, 2023 13:03:42 GMT
I just can't get over the song's history. Written by a future VP and Nobel Prize winner!? That's hilarious to me. The only song by a politician of our era that comes to my mind is this wonderfully terrible one by former Missouri senator and governor and US Attorney General John Ashcroft.
I'm just thinking of what songs by Al Gore, Dick Cheney, Joe Biden, Mike Pence, or Kamala Harris might sound like...
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jul 28, 2023 13:27:01 GMT
It isn't the same thing - and I'm not implying that it is - but in the early 1960s there was a comedian named Vaughn Meader who impersonated President John F. Kennedy. Not only did Meader impersonate Kennedy in his nightclub act and on TV, but he also released an album, The First Family, that sold about 8 million copies and won a Grammy. President Kennedy actually liked the album and made one-liners about Meader and the album at press conferences. When JFK was assassinated in 1963, Meader's career quickly faded.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jul 28, 2023 13:42:44 GMT
Not a songwriter (I don't think) but a pretty good bass player. Rock on, Mike Huckabee (with FireHouse)!
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