Don Cornelius, who created Soul Train in 1971 and continued as its host until 1993, was found dead this morning, February 1, 2012. He apparently took his own life. May he rest in peace. I think we all can feel just like his closing line of the show, “as always in parting, we wish you [...]
It is with saddest to hear of the death of Nick Ashford, the Ashford of the Ashford and Simpson song writing team. Nick Ashford has pass away after a battling throat cancer. He was 70. The songwriting team of Ashford and Simpson are Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. They meet in 1963 and recorded as [...]
40 years ago, as I was looking forward to Christmas, I was just a pre-teen. Just a few months earlier I had celebrated my 12th birthday. While I did have a portable AM radio and listened to it, I wasn’t a regular listener. Most of my music experience was from Movie Musicals, Saturday Morning Cartoons, [...]
September of 1970. I had just turned 12 and the new television season was beginning. With it the Partridge Family debuted on Friday September 25th. The show, based loosely on the family group the Cowsills, was to show the adventures of a family who came together to be pop stars. Shirley Jones was the Mom [...]
Top 10 Albums that were released in the 1970s. Based on total sales since release. As of July 2009 10 – Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon (22) 9 – Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti (20) 8 – The Beatles – 1967-1970 (The Blue Album) (19) 7 – Elton John – Elton John [...]
A year ago, July 27, 2008, this site published its first post. At the time it was a WordPress.com blog and moved to a stand alone site a few weeks later. In this first year there has been 100 posts or one just about every third day. Not too bad considering. Thank you all for [...]
It seems as if nearly everyone has a single year that stands out as the one the produced their favorite songs. Or maybe I should say a year that produced more of their favorite songs than any other. For me that year was 1971. It was the year that I became a teenager and listened [...]
Michael Joseph Jackson * August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009
The musical Hair is without a doubt a musical of the 1960s. The musical is one of the first that could be considered a Rock Musical. The book and lyrics are by James Rado and Gerome Ragni with music by Galt MacDermot. One thing for sure this musical did help usher in the 1970s. Four [...]
Many artists of the 1970s were influenced by the Beatles. By the beginning of 1970 they were no longer performing as a group, but they sure should be seen as part of the decade of the 70s. The rooftop concert was held on January 30, 1969. This was their last public performance together as a [...]
The decade of the seventies were full of songs featuring the voice of Karen Carpenter. While her brother Richard was playing the keyboards, Karen was a drummer. This clip features many performances of her playing the drums. And as you can see from the huge smiles on her face as she’s playing she looks as [...]
At the end of the 1970′s Disco may have begun to fade, but it was still very popular in 1979. The Number 6 top song of the decade was one that turned into an anthem for women. I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. Donna Summer was the Queen of Disco and 1979 was one of [...]
Norman Whitfield, a Motown producer and composer, died on September 16, 2008. He will always be remembered as one of the principal creators of psychedelic soul. Some of Whitfield’s hit songs were I Heard It through the Grapevine, Ain’t Too Proud to Beg, Cloud Nine, War, Papa Was a Rolling Stone, Smiling Faces Sometimes and [...]
Paper Lace’s next release was The Night Chicago Died, a fictionalized account of the Chicago East Side during the gangster age of the 1920′s. This is a tribute that someone put together to the song and Paper Lace. Wasn’t able to find a live version performed by Paper Lace themselves.