At 12:22 on Monday May 4, 1970, 29 members of a group of 77 National Guard troops from A Company and Troop G fired shots towards a group of students at Kent State. 13 seconds and about 67 shots later it ended. Some shots were in the air as warnings, others to induce injury and [...]
The song One Tin Soldier was written by the songwriting team Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter. It was recorded in late 1969 by the Canadian group The Original Caste and was a minor hit in the United States, but a big hit, reaching Number 1, in Canada. Most people will remember the version of the [...]
Boogie Oogie Oogie was the first single from the self-titled debut album, A Taste of Honey. It was their biggest hit single spending three weeks at Billboard’s Single Chart at Number 1. The group formed in Los Angeles, California, and originally consisted of Janice Marie Johnson (vocals, bass), Hazel Payne (vocals, guitar), Perry Kibble (keyboards) [...]
Depending on where you were in 1979, We Are Family by Sister Sledge may be a song that you would rather forget. The Pittsburgh Pirates used this song as their theme song during the summer of 1979. They beat the Baltimore Orioles in seven games to win the World series all with this song playing [...]
From their 1974 double album Chicago VII. In some ways Chicago VII brings back a feeling of their first three albums where there are a number of instrumentals along with the rock arrangements. The first disk is mostly made of up Jazz favor instrumentals. Mongonucleosis is one of these instrumental pieces and was composed by [...]
Bohemian Rhapsody was the first single released from Queen’s fourth album A Night at the Opera. It’s a strange song, which I suppose gives it the uniqueness. It consists of a number of sections including operatic segments, an a cappella passage, and a heavy rock solo put together by Queen’s lead singer Freddie Mercury. Even [...]
1969 is technically not the 70s, but every once in awhile I like to include some of the songs from that year since in some ways there is little difference between 1969 and 1970. At least in my opinion. Rich Evans, the Evans of the duo, wrote the song in 1964 and it was originally [...]
Liar was Three Dog Night’s single release after their chart topping song of 1971, Joy To The World. The song peaked at number 7. The song was on their 1970 album Naturally and was the third and last single released off of the album. Liar originally recorded by the group Argent and was written by [...]
Ann and Nancy Wilson and Heart was one of the great Rock and Roll Bands of the late 70s at a time when many of the hits of the day were dance flavored Disco. Little Queen was the title of their second album as well as the second single. It followed the popular Barracuda and [...]
It was the summer of 1970 and everyone around the world was singing this little tune written by Ray Dorset and just thinking about the joys and the carefree days of summer. The song was a Number 1 hit in their home county of England and peaked at Number 3 in the United States. The [...]
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 [...]
When Tito Puente composed Oye Como Va in 1963 it was considered Latin Jazz. Carlos Santana turned it into Latin Rock when he included the song on his group’s 2nd album Abraxas. The song was their second single release from the album, the album was number 1 on the album charts in October and November [...]
Eric Burdon was one of many that arrived in the United States during the British invasion of 1964. He was the lead singer of the Animals, later called Eric Burton and the Animals and later with a new band of musicians as Eric Burton and the New Animals. By the end of the decade he [...]
Chic may have began as a black rock band, but they became an act that helped define the Disco Era. In 1978 they recorded what would become the most popular disco song of the era. The signature line, ‘Aaaaahh, freak out!’ came because the writers Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards couldn’t use their original idea [...]