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Singer Lionel Richie turns 70

He has sold over 90 million records worldwide

Lionel Richie grew up on the campus of Tuskegee Institute where his grandfather worked. He attended the Alabama school on a tennis scholarship.

I knew him initially as a member of the soul group the Commodores. Early on, their songs were quite danceable. But eventually, Richie wrote and sang more sometimes syrupy ballads. It was probably inevitable that he’d become a solo artist in 1982, and he became even more commercially successful.

“Over the course of his musical career, Richie has sold over 90 million records worldwide, making him one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time. He has won four Grammy Awards including Song of the Year in 1985 for ‘We Are the World’ which he co-wrote with Michael Jackson…”

He composed “Lady” for Kenny Rogers, which hit #1 pop and CW in 1980 and he wrote and produced “Missing You” for Diana Ross (#10 Pop, #1 RB) in 1984.

“In 2016, Richie received the Songwriters Hall of Fame’s highest honor, the Johnny Mercer Award.” He received one of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2017, which he threatened to boycott if the White House resident attended.

I haven’t watched American Idol for over a dozen years. Yet I’m oddly pleased that he has been one of the judges for the past couple seasons. He is still touring; his “epic 33-date Hello Tour across North America” started May 10th and runs through August.”

Lionel Richie turns 70 on June 20.

Commodores

Brick House – #5 pop, #4 RB in 1977
Easy – #4 pop, #1 RB in 1977
Three Times A Lady – #1 pop AND RB for two weeks in 1978

Solo

Endless Love, with Diana Ross – #1 for nine weeks pop, #1 for seven weeks RB in 1981
All Night Long – #1 for four weeks pop, #1 for seven weeks RB in 1983
Hello – #1 for two weeks pop, #1 for three weeks RB in 1984
Say You, Say Me – #1 for four weeks pop, #1 for two weeks RB in 1985, won the Oscar for Best Song, from the movie White Nights
Dancing on the Ceiling – #2 for two weeks pop, #6 RB in 1986

Plus

We Are The World – USA for Africa, #1 for four weeks pop, #1 for two weeks RB in 1985, sold over four million copies in the US

TD Ameritrade TV Commercial, ‘All Evening Long’

His official website

(RB – soul/rhythm and blues; CW – country; stats from US Billboard charts)

Some songs I like from the 1970s

I could link to the entire oeuvre of Stevie Wonder or Paul Simon from the decade.

Songs I like from the 1970s I’m going pick a few tunes from the 1970s, the decade far most represented in my record collection, the physical manifestation of which I still own.

The caveat is that I wrote nearly a dozen posts just about the music of 1971 not long ago. I’m trying to avoid folks I’ve written about relatively recently, such as Fleetwood Mac or David Bowie.

I could link to the entire oeuvre of Stevie Wonder or Paul Simon from the decade. It always makes me laugh to recall Paul thanking Stevie for not releasing an album that year in his Grammy acceptance speech for Still Crazy After All These Years.

Loves Me Like a Rock – Paul Simon (#2 in 1973). My favorite solo P Simon song.
As – Stevie Wonder (#36 pop AND soul, 1977). My favorite Stevie song
Tell Me Something Good – Rufus (#3 pop AND soul, 1974). Written by Stevie Wonder.
Staple Singers – Respect Yourself (#12 pop, #2 RB in 1972). “If you don’t respect yourself…”

Lucky Man – Emerson, Lake and Palmer (#48 in 1971 and #52 in 1973). When I was in college, I used to be able to do, just with my mouth, a fair representation of the synthesizer at the end of this song.
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway – Genesis (1974). I heard this song on WQBK-FM in Albany a lot, six or seven years after it was released.

Dirty Work – Steely Dan (1972). David Palmer, lead vocal.
More Than a Feeling – Boston (#5 in 1976). Yes, I did buy that eponymous album.

Gloria – Patti Smith (1975). Lead song from the Horses album.
Uncontrollable Urge – DEVO (1978). The first cut on “Q. Are We Not Men…”
A Message to You, Rudy – The Specials (1979, #10 in the UK)

The final song from the 1970s is The Jungle Line -Joni Mitchell (1975). It’d be easy to pick something (or EVERYTHING) from Blue or Court and Spark. I opted for this cut from The Hissing of Summer Lawns. It was an album a Joni fan I knew did not particularly enjoy. I told her, “Well, then give the album to me!” She did not.

Leon Redbone (Dickran Gobalian), RIP

He crossed the delta for that beautiful shore at the age of 127

As far as I know, the first time I ever heard of Leon Redbone was when I bought one of those Warner Brothers Loss Leaders album, either Desert Blues (Big Chief Buffalo Nickel) from THE WORKS or more likely, Polly Wolly Doodle from THE PEOPLE’S RECORD.

The music had a timeless quality. The VOICE was always intriguing. A Rolling Stone article in the early 10970s, before he even had a recording contract, “described his performances as ‘so authentic you can hear the surface noise [of an old 78 rpm].'”

His whole persona was a mystery. “‘It is with heavy hearts we announce that early this morning, May 30th, 2019, Leon Redbone crossed the delta for that beautiful shore at the age of 127,’ said a statement from Redbone’s camp.” He was 69 when he died, according to most sources. His own family never got an explanation of his nom de musique.

“According to a Toronto Star report in the 1980s, he was once known as Dickran Gobalian [of Armenian origin], and he came to Canada from Cyprus in the mid-1960s and changed his name via the Ontario Change of Name Act… His parents lived in Jerusalem but moved in 1948 to Nicosia, Cyprus, where Redbone was born. By 1961, the family had moved to London, England, and by 1965 to Toronto…”

“Redbone usually dressed in attire reminiscent of the Vaudeville era, performing in a Panama hat with a black band and dark sunglasses, often while sitting at attention on a stool, with a white coat and trousers with a black string tie.”

He was never the guy with the big hit on the charts. Seduced got all the way to #72 on the US Billboard charts. But he was a working concert performer who also appeared in several commercials as well as in movies and TV.

His Top 5 Greatest Hits (!)

Seduced

Polly Wolly Doodle

Mississippi Delta Blues

Just You And I

Or spend a bunch of time on his Tribute Channel

John Beaudin tribute

Pop hits of Doris Day and… Peggy Lipton?

The Doris Day Show , The Mod Squad both on 1968-1973

Every obituary I saw and read mentioned the singing career of Doris Day. At least one noted that of Peggy Lipton, who died in the same three-day span in May 2018.

Doris Day had numerous top 40 hits between 1947 and 1958. Growing up, I knew her better for her 1968-1973 sitcom on CBS.

Peggy Lipton, of course, was on ABC’s The Mod Squad, which I watched religiously at least in the first three seasons, during that very same time period. Her music career was somewhat less successful.

Doris Day –

Love Somebody (with Buddy Clark), #1 for five weeks in 1948

It’s Magic, #2 in 1948, from the film Romance on the High Seas

My Darling, My Darling (with Buddy Clark) – #7 in 1948, from the Broadway musical Where’s Charlie

Again, #2 for two weeks in 1949, from the movie Roadhouse

Shanghai, #7 in 1951

A Guy is a Guy, #1 in 1952 – originated as a British song, “I Went to the Alehouse (A Knave Is a Knave),” dating from 1719. During World War II, soldiers sang a bawdy song based on “A Knave…” entitled “A Gob Is a Slob.” Oscar Brand cleaned up the lyrics, and wrote this song based on it. Accompanied by Paul Weston’s orchestra

Sugarbush (with Frankie Laine), #7 in 1952. Featuring the Norman Luboff Choir and Carl Fischer’s orchestra

Secret Love, #1 for four weeks in 1954, from the film Calamity Jane

If I Give My Heart To You (with the Mellomen), #3 in 1954

Peggy Lipton –

Stoney End, #121 in 1968

Lu, #102 in 1970

Wear Your Love Like Heaven, #108 in 1970

But I discovered that Peggy Lipton had a role in a significant recording. On the commentary track for Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the late Rod Templeton noted that he had written the “rap” for the title song.

He was trying to get a “name” artist such as Vincent Price to do the bit on the song. Quincy Jones told him that Q’s then-wife, Peggy Lipton was actually friends with Price. So the collaboration came to pass.

Michael Jackson: erase performers?

Jackson 5.Diana Ross Presents.1969 The ever-inquisitive Arthur asked about a recent post:
About your Rolf Harris song [Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport] – it raises a question: Are we under any obligation to erase performers or songs we once liked because it later turns out that they were either allegedly or actually terrible humans or allegedly or actually did terrible things, like Rolf?

I should note that I was totally oblivious to the charges against the singer. “Harris was convicted of 12 indecent assaults at London’s Southwark Crown Court in June 2014, one on an eight-year-old autograph hunter, two on girls in their early teens, and a catalogue of abuse against his daughter’s friend over 16 years.”

That’s mighty disturbing. Had I known that, I might have passed on that particular song for the list, not as a way of rewriting history but rather not wanting to be perceived as condoning pedophilia. Am I going to go back and delete that musical link? No, because I didn’t know at the time.

Arthur continues: After Leaving Neverland aired on TV here, radio stations announced they were banning Michael Jackson’s music (despite the fact that many of them never played it, anyway, because the music they played was completely different genres or eras). It seems to me that the three reactions are to join the mob, defy the mob and continue to like whoever it is, or to just keep quiet about liking whatever it is or whoever the person is—cowed into silence by the mob. What do you think?

Now you’ve really hit a nerve. I haven’t seen Finding Neverland, and I don’t know that I will. But I do not dismiss the allegations out of hand.

I was writing a post about what songs I would singing karaoke to, a post I haven’t had a chance to finish because of the lack of time. Clearly, though, the songs would include the early works of the Jackson Five. If I were to pick one, it’d be The Love You Save, but ABC and I Want You Back would also be appropriate.

In the day, I was right in Jermaine’s vocal range. Even now I’d join in with anything that Michael, and Jackie, who also hit some really high notes, weren’t singing. For The Love You Save, in addition to harmonies, I’d sing, e.g.:

Those other guys will put you down
As soon as they succeed!

and

The way they talk about you
They’ll turn your name to dirt, oh!

Am I going to stop singing along with Jermaine because of something that Michael reportedly did? Nah. For that matter, will I cease playing Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall album, which I believe is better than Thriller? Absolutely not.

If I were DJing a wedding – unlikely, but I did so once – would I play J5 or MJ? I don’t think so, but only out of an overabundance of caution about offending others.

But where would it stop? I could name any number of musicians who were/are schmucks, and who are on the radio daily right now. Where the line is from which one can erase performers – an ahistoric action I’m most uncomfortable with – I just don’t know.

What if Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” had been recorded in the thirties? Wayne Brady and Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox answer that musical question