“Tighten Up was written by Archie and Billy Buttier. It was originally meant to be the B-side of the record, but when Bell’s promoter pushed the A-side and nothing happened, they decided to turn it over and “Tighten-Up” went to number one on both the Hot 100 on Billboard and the R&B charts. Bell could not repeat the feat, however. His second hit was “I Can’t Stop Dancing” which did a respectable number 9 on the Hot 100, but their third effort “There’s Gonna Be a Showdown” peaked at number 21 and that was the end of Archie Bell & The Drells. The group had splt up by the 80’s.

If you don’t remember this one, here’s a link to YouTube where you can listen to it again: Archie Bell & The Drells

Nick Ashford

Nick and his wife Valerie Simpson wrote some of Motown’s greatest hits. Like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” which was recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. It only reached number 19 on the Billboard charts, but almost anyone in this country would recognize it when they heard it. They also did “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” which was also done by Gaye. They wrote “Reach Out and Touch Somebosy’s Hand”, recorded by Diana Ross and “I’m Every Woman” recorded by Chaka Khan. Ashford and Simpson also recorded a few albums under their own name. They hit the Top 40 with “Found a Cure’ in 1979 and “Solid” in 1985.

More recently, they collaborated with Amy Winehouse on her tune “Tears Dry On Their Own” which contains a sample of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”. They were great songwriters and will be missed. I don’t know if Valerie Simpson will keep writing without her husband, but I hope so.

Here is a short youtube video that summarizes what Ashford and Simpson have done for modern American music: Nick Ashford video.

Jerry Leiber

As I was growing up, one of my favorite groups was the Coasters. They were labeled a novelty group and did songs like “Charlie Brown”, “Yakety Yak”, “Searchin”, and “Poison Ivy”.  All of these, I believe were written by the writing team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

Leiber and Stoller have written over 200 songs and I’ll bet you would recognize most of them. Let’s start with “Hound Dog” which was originally written for Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton in 1952. It was a hit on the R&B charts but nobody outside the black community heard it. The Elvis Presley recorded it in 1956 and it was a number one hit. Leiber also wrote “jailhouse Rock”, one of Elvis’ best and most well known songs.

Leiber also wrote for The Drifters and Ben E King and many others. A true icon of early American rock and roll.

Here is a short video honoring Jerry Leiber on his death at 78: Jerry Leiber video.

Leiber and Ashford should rightly be honored, in their own different ways, as two greats of American popular songwriting.

So, I decided to write an e-book about the Everly Brothers. Now, since I don’t know the Everly Brothers and really have no way to contact them personally, I compiled all the data I could find on the web and wrote up a biography of their lives up to this point. It’s not very long, but it’s cheap. And I think you will find out just about all you need to know about the Everly Brothers.

If you’d like to buy the book from Amazon, you can go to this page: Legends of Rock & Roll - The Everly Brothers and download it for your Kindle.

As a teaser, here is the first chapter of the book. There is much more in the actual Kindle book.

Introduction

The Everly Brothers were one of the most important and influential of the early rock and roll bands. They set the standard high with close two-part harmonies and were the first of the rockers who combined country with rock and roll and, surprisingly, impressed both sides of the fence.

When I was a boy in High School, the Everly Brothers were one of my favorite groups. Like most teenagers in those days, rock and roll was the center of my life, and the Everly Brothers were at the center of that movement; at least for me. The Everly Brothers were different in that the kids liked them, but so did the parents. Most parents in those days hated Rock and Roll, but the Everlys were mellow enough that my Mom, at least, liked them too.

I remember when you could go into a record store and actually play a record. They were 45 rpm in those days, (the record with the big hole in the middle). The store had little rooms that were like telephone booths. You could take the record into the booth and listen to it on a turntable, something that doesn’t happen anymore.

When “All I Have to Do Is Dream” came out in 1958, I listened to it in the record store and bought it immediately. It has since become one of my all-time favorite songs. This is the kind of song that you would put on a desert island list. You know the kind of list I mean, if I could take a hundred records to a desert island, which ones would I take. “All I Have to Do Is Dream” would definitely be on that list for me. I took it home and immediately called my girlfriend. We were not going steady (yet), but we both had a love of music and so I played the song on a little 45 rpm turntable I had. I held the receiver of the phone up to the speaker of the record player. She thought it was a great song. It was especially great dancing with her to “All I Have to Do Is Dream” at the next school dance. That song eventually became a number one song for the Everly Brothers.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. You picked up this book to learn about the Everly Brothers. So, let’s get into their life and music.

Here is a grainy old black and white video of the Everlys singing “All I Have to do Is Dream” and “Cathy’s Clown”. The link is to YouTube.

Anyway, last night, we saw the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City. They are celebrating 100 years of recording music. Their first recording, which was recorded on a wax cylinder was recorded in 1910, just 100 years ago. They are the longest running recording performers in the world.

One song they did last night which is also my favorite by them was “Battle Hymn of the Republic”. This song did not reach number one (which is what this blog is all about and why I’m saying I may not stick strictly to that standard anymore). It peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959. The significant thing about this song was it was the first song (and may be the last, I’m not sure) that is considered classical to hit the pop charts.

The other record it broke (and still holds), was that this is the largest group of people singing on a record to have hit the charts. At the time the choir was made up of 375 people. It was then conducted by Richard Condie. He died in 1985. The choir goes on today with the longest continuously running radio chow in history. They showed a film of some of the early days of the choir and showed a picture of an album they did in the last 40’s called “The Lord’s Prayer”. I leaned over to my wife and said “I have that album!”.

It was a great concert. We enjoyed it very much and hope the choir can go for many years to come. If you haven’t heard this lately, here is an opportunity thanks to YouTube:

A headline in a Michigan paper for that day says “Congressman is indicted on $154,000 Conspiracy Charge”. It doesn’t look like some things have changed all that much. The paper cost 7 cents. A lumber yard is offering to build a complete 2-bedroom ranch style home (on your lot) for $3950.00. Coffee was 69 cents a pound. Popular comics in the paper were “Priscilla’s Pop” and “Freckles and His Friends”, not to mention “Alley Oop” and “Captain Easy”.

The term “Rock and Roll” is pretty much attributed to Allen Freed, a New York disk jockey who later made several cool Rock and Roll movies and was later indicted in the famous “payola” scandals that hit the late 50’s.

Bill Haley never wanted to be a rock singer. He started out as a country singer and had several groups in the late 40’s and early 50’s. The group that eventually became the Comets were called the Saddlemen up until 1952 when they officially became the Comets. His first hit under the new name was “Crazy, Man, Crazy” in 1953, but “Rock Around the Clock” in 1955 was his only number one.

If you haven’t heard the song lately, here is a link to an audio of the song over some scenes from the movie American Graffiti,  Bill Haley “Rock Around the Clock”

The O’Jays were a trio in 1973. They had been in business for over ten years by this time and had struggled to make it in the competitive world of pop music. Finally they released “Back Stabbers” which didn’t hit number one, but was a big hit for them. After a short time, they decided to release “Love Train” and it became their one and only number one hit.

The O’Jays went on to a great career, however, with songs like “Put Your Hands Together”, “For the Love of Money” and “I Love Music”. Their last hit was in 1980, but I just listened to “Love Train” and it sounds as good as it did 35 years ago. It’s still one of my favorites.

In 1973, Nixon was President. The Vietnam War was pretty much over, but Nixon had new problems: Watergate. He was still trying to talk his way out of that. We all know how that ended. The Viet Cong were still holding American prisoners and we were negotiating for their release. On TV, people were definitely into comedy. One one night you could watch “Bridget Loves Bernie”, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “The Bob Newhart Show”. For the country fans, “Hee Haw” was still going strong. Some of my favorite comic strips were still being published. “Steve Canyon”, “Rib Kirby” and “The Phantom” being three examples. I really love “story” comic strips. They are few and far between these days.

A quick check of the newspaper of 1973 find that your money still went a relatively long way. You could get a turkey dinner at a diner for $1.66 and a four piece dinette set at a furniture store for $49.95. A three bedroom “starter” home could be had in the low 20’s. Keep in mind this was only 35 years ago. How far we have fallen.

Here’s a chance to hear The O’Jays and “Love Train” one more time.

Wooley grew up on a ranch in Oklahoma and did everything a cowboy does. But, music was his first love, even though he was not that successful at it. He first auditioned for the president of MGM records and sang all of his ballads. MGM didn’t think much of them and asked if he had anything else. He reluctantly brought out “Purple People Eater”. Three weeks later it was number one where it stayed for 6 weeks. Truly one of the great novelty songs of the fifties.

Sheb Wooley never again had that kind of success on the charts, but he became a fairly big actor. He’s most known for his role on “Rawhide” which starred a very young Clint Eastwood.

“Purple People Eater” hit number one on Jun 9, 1958. Of all the years of the 20th Century, I think 1958 is my favorite. This was the summer between my Sophomore and Junior years in high school. Eisenhower (Ike) was president and Khrushchev was in charge of Russia. You remember him and his banging his shoe on the table at the U.N. That happened later during Kennedy’s reign, I think. I saw a cool story from the week of Jun 9, 1958.

“Britain’s girl soldiers were up in arms today because the army says holding hands with boy soldiers is illegal. Members of the Women’s Royal Army Corps at Camp Hounslow, complaining that the army has cracked down on kissing and cuddling on or off the camp premises, cited the case of a girl lance-corporal and her soldier boy friend. They were court-martialed for kissing. She was demoted to private and transferred. He spent 14 days in the stockade. “It’s not fair,” the girls claim.”

I’d love to see a story like that today. In 1958, food was a little cheaper than today. Coffee was 79 cents a pound. Butter was 67 cents a pound and hot dogs could be bought for 39 cents a pound. Does anybody remember the Studebaker. A car that advertised 33.9 miles per gallon and this was when a gallon of gas cost about a quarter. You could buy a Studebaker for $1795. It was an automatic (which had to be mentioned in those days when everything was stick) and would easily hold 6 people.

There were only 16 teams in all of baseball. 8 in the National League and 8 in the American League. In June of 1958, San Francisco and the New York Yankees were number one in their respective leagues. Pogo, Joe Palooka and Mark Trail were comics that we read in the paper. And, of course, one of my favorites, Capt Easy was solving crimes and saving the world. On TV, we watched Wyatt Earp, Combat and Sergeant Bilko. I love the fifties and I particularly love 1958.

Here’s Sheb Wooley:

“Car Wash” was the theme from the movie by the same name. It was about a day in the life of a L.A. Car Wash, the men who worked there and the crazy customers who came to have their cars washed. Written by Norman Whitfield, the song took about 3 months to get to number one. Whitfield worked for Motown and wrote and produced songs for the Temptations, Marvin Gaye and Edwin Starr.

Rose Royce started out as an eight man ensemble, when Whitfield decided to add a woman, Gwen Dickey, to the mix. She ended up singing lead for the group. The song hit the top of the charts on January 29, 1977. Car Wash was the only number they had, but they had a decent run on the charts during the late seventies.

I just realized that I was in the hospital when Rose Royce hit number one. I remember that month very well. The main show on TV was “Roots”. I watched the entire thing. Weather was a major story that week as a major winter storm blasted through the east killing at least 54 people. President Jimmy Carter was said to be thinking about a 4-day work week in order to save fuel. Thirty years later, the state of Utah makes the news by doing that very thing. Progress is indeed slow.

Bad news that we all remember was the actor Freddie Prinze star of the TV show “Chico and the Man” died on this January day after a self-inflected gun shot. A sad day for the fans of that show. Besides “Roots”, we were watching “Little House on the Prairie”, “The Captain and Tennille”, whose number one song we will cover in this blog and “The Jeffersons”, among others.

In the grocery store, chicken could be bought for 39 cents a pound. Bananas were 12 cents a pound. You could get four cans of Del Monte vegetables for a dollar. A 25 pound of dog chow was $4.99. At the movie theater “Rocky” was doing a great run. Clint Eastwood was Dirty Harry in “The Enforcer” and Barbara Streisand stared in “A Star is Born”.

Put your dancing shoes on for “Car Wash” by Rose Royce.

Hayes was only the third person to to win a Academy Award with a number one song. The song, of course, “Theme from Shaft”. He also won a Grammy for the song. Isaac Hayes had been in the business since he was hired by Stax Records in Memphis in 1964. He wrote and co-wrote songs for years, doing work for Otis Redding and Sam and Dave, among others. It wasn’t until he put out an album called “Hot Buttered Soul” that he became known nationally. He was actually up for the role of Shaft in the movie, but eventually lost the role to Richard Roundtree. He went on to compose the theme for the movie and, as they say, music history would never be the same.

Some say Hayes was the Father of Disco, but I’m not sure he would have agreed with that. He certainly couldn’t be called the Father of Soul, since soul had been around for years, but he did his part to keep it alive. We’re about 20 years too soon, but if anything could be said for Isaac Hayes, it might be that he was the father of Rap. (”Shut Your Mouth!”) “Theme from Shaft” hit number one on November 20, 1971 and stayed there for two weeks. It was the only number one he ever had.

The news story I liked the best from this week in history was this “Foothills Combed for Parachuting Hijacker”. A hijacker who apparently knew precisely what he wanted to do and how to do it had vanished
after bailing out of a commandeered jet airliner with $200,000. This was, of course, D.B.Cooper. Authorities held out little hope, however, that the hijacker would be found soon. “He’s probably long gone,” a Clark county, Wash., sheriff’s deputy said.

In late November of 1971, Christmas Sales were starting. You could get a men’s white dress shirts for $5.00 and a tie to go with it for $3 or $4. Have a flat? Get a new tire as low as $12.00 and running as high as $35.00 depending on your size and where you shopped. You could get an 8-track player for your car for only $48.88 installed. I wish I still had one of those, they still sell on eBay. Not everything was cheaper. A 23 inch color TV made by Zenith cost $497 (with trade). On TV, we were watching “Ironside”, “The Flip Wilson Show”, “The Dean Martin Show” and Johnny Carson was at the top of his game on the Tonight Show.

I would have loved the comics back then. We still had “Lil Abner”, “Steve Canyon”, “Buz Sawyer” and many other great story comics. I used to love reading them, as I’ve mentioned in other posts.

Here is a cool version of “Theme from Shaft”. We will always remember Isaac Hayes. Enjoy…

I told my wife as we were leaving the theater that I could turn right around and go watch it again, right that minute. I hardly ever want to see movies twice - usually only after several months have gone by. And I must comment on Pierce Brosnan’s singing. Every review of this movie I read said that Brosnan shouldn’t have been in the movie since he couldn’t sing. I’m here to tell you that I think he does a decent job. It’s obvious he’s not a trained singer, but he was on key and pleasant to listen to. I think he did an outstanding job for someone who doesn’t sing for a living.

But this blog is about music, so let’s talk about ABBA for a minute. The name is from a combination of the first letters of their names, Anni-Frid (Frida), Benny (married for a time), Bjorn and Agnetha (also married for a time). They are the biggest selling quartet in music history. They are in fourth place for number ones in Britain (behind the Beatles, Elvis and Cliff Richards). It was said they were Sweden’s largest money maker. They were responsible for more money being brought into Sweden than any other commodity.

“Dancing Queen” was number one for just one week in April of 1977. It was the start of the disco era and that song fit right in. Jimmy Carter was President and his brother Billy was brewing beer. (Man, I wish I had a couple cans I could put on eBay.) We picked up a Russian fishing boat for violating the 200 miles limit that foreign boats were to stay away from our shores.

As regular readers know, I love to look at prices in the past. Well, in 1977, you could buy a Lazy Boy Chair for $118. Dillard’s was selling a Slow-cooker for $9.99. And, you won’t believe this but while researching this article, I discovered a “Mama Mia” restaurant in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Now how’s that for a cool coincidence. On TV we watched “Police Story” and “Kojak” and “Gunsmoke” which by this time had been on about a million years.

Go see “Mamma Mia” at your local theater. And while you’re waiting, here’s Abba: