for those who never gave up their turntables
IT WAS JUST ANOTHER DAY on Medium when I found the article, “Embarrassing Songs By Major Artists.” Written by Alex Markham for The Riff, its tagline was “Even the biggest music superstars had moments when taste deserted them.” He could have written “every music superstar” and substituted “intelligence” for “taste” and I would have agreed! [Continue reading]
IN THE FINAL WEEKS OF 1965, Top 40 stations around the country started playing a new record by a not-so-new duo with the oddly intriguing name of Simon & Garfunkel. (At least it was odd if you weren’t Jewish or didn’t live on the East Coast.) The record was The Sounds Of Silence. [Continue reading]
DOES JACKIE DeSHANNON belong in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Making an argument for her or any artist is not easy for two reasons. First, the Hall does not have any set of criteria by which fans can assess potential candidates. Each year each vote appears to be a reflection of the mood of the nominators and voters of that year. [Continue reading]
I MOVED TO CALIFORNIA from Pennsylvania in June 1978. I naively believed I would find some semblance of “the sixties” hidden away in San Francisco. But in only a few years, most of it had been blotted out. There were still a lot of hand-painted Victorian houses and a few hip coffee shops and bookstores.
I LEFT WIKIPEDIA ALONE for the past few months, even though critiquing their entries is like shooting fish in a barrel. When it comes to “definitions” of persons and terms regarding popular music, Wikipedia’s theme song seems to be a well-known song by Elvis: “If you’re looking for trouble, you’ve come to the right place. [Continue reading]
THIS IS THE TENTH in a series of ten articles listing and addressing the #1 records of the year as they appeared on Cash Box magazine’s Top 100 chart from 1960 through 1969. It was originally published as “Someday We’ll Be Honky Tonk Women Together” on my publication Tell It Like It Was on Medium on October 1, 2019. [Continue reading]
THIS IS THE SEVENTH in a series of ten articles listing and addressing the #1 records of the year as they appeared on Cash Box magazine’s Top 100 chart from 1960 through 1969. It was originally published as “You Keep Me Hanging On The Poor Side Of Town” on my publication Tell It Like It Was on Medium on July 5, 2019. [Continue reading]
THIS IS THE SIXTH in a series of ten articles addressing the #1 records of the year on Cash Box magazine’s pop chart from 1960 through 1969. It was originally published as “Let’s Hang On To Our Ticket To Ride” in my publication Tell It Like It Was on Medium back on June 2, 2019. [Continue reading]
THIS IS THE FIFTH in a series of ten articles listing and addressing the #1 records of the year as they appeared on Cash Box magazine’s Top 100 chart from 1960 through 1969. It was originally published as “I Want To Hold Your Louie Louie” on my publication Tell It Like It Was on Medium on April 14, 2019. [Continue reading]