Tag: music

Beatles dominance

The cast of Glee, the TV show, is considered an artist, and has had multiple songs on the charts simultaneously,


As most Beatles obsessives know, it was 50 years ago this week, on the Billboard charts of April 4, 1964, that the Fab Four held the top FIVE singles on the Billboard music charts and a dozen songs in the top 100. I wrote about this five years ago.

What I want to ponder now is, Could it ever happen again? It’s unlikely that an artist would be appearing on multiple labels, as the Beatles did.

For the purpose of the charts, the cast of Glee, the TV show, is considered an artist and has had multiple songs on the charts simultaneously, though NONE of them have gone to #1, and only a handful in the top 10. Still, it’s a model for potential chart dominance.

The closest anyone has come to the Beatles record is 50 Cent, who placed three titles simultaneously – “Candy Shop” (No. 1), the Game’s “How We Go,” on which he guested (No. 4), and “Disco Inferno” (No. 5) – in the top five on the charts dated March 12 and 19, 2005. So it’s possible that a VERY popular rapper could guest on a bunch of other artists’ tracks and break the record.

Now that YouTube views will now count towards Billboard Hot 100, it seems possible that someone will create a whole slew of brilliant videos and dump them on an unsuspecting world simultaneously, wowing the country with its awesomeness. But probably not.

Even if the Beatles’ record is matched or exceeded, it is unlikely that the group’s impact will ever be eclipsed.

Fridays in Lent: Adagio in G Minor, attributed to Albinoni

Arlene Mahigian was like my choir mom, taking my robe home to wash it every summer, though I never asked her to,

AlbinoniI remember quite well the first time I heard Adagio in G Minor, presumably by “the 18th century Venetian master Tomaso Albinoni, but in fact composed almost entirely by the 20th century musicologist and Albinoni biographer Remo Giazotto.”

I was a member of the choir of my former church, and we were preparing to sing the Mozart Requiem in March of 1985. A beloved member of our choir, our soprano soloist, Arlene Mahigian, had been struggling with cancer. She was like my choir mom, taking my robe home to wash it every summer, though I never asked her to, and the like. She was clearly not going to be able to sing the Mozart. But she did make the performance, in a wheelchair.

The opening number was the Adagio, performed by her husband Leo, who was, for a time, concertmaster of the Albany Symphony Orchestra, on violin, and their son, Peter, on organ. Arlene died about three weeks later, and I saw her in the hospital a day or two before she passed, when she squeezed my hand to let me know she knew I was there.

Here’s Adagio in G Minor, which made me cry then and it still does, especially at about the seven-minute mark.

Diana Ross is 70, tomorrow

Diana Ross’s first single, and its a waltz?

Also used for Round 15 of ABC Wednesday.

diana-ross-diana-rossI suppose it was inevitable that when the billing went from The Supremes to Diana Ross and… that she would eventually leave the group, and she did. In many ways, I preferred the songs of those first two solo albums of hers, which I bought, to the Supremes albums that came out just before she left the group. Still, I never bought any of her other solo albums. Didn’t see her in any of her movies, not even the Oscar-nominated Lady Sings the Blues, though I did see snippets of The Wiz on television.

At some level, I thought that what felt like Berry Gordy’s favoritism towards her made me cranky. It wasn’t until much later, when I was watching the soap opera Another World in the late 1990s, and discovered actress Rhonda Ross was the biological daughter of Ross and Gordy, did I discover they had had a romantic relationship.

Of course, I watched her on the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007, and she was most deserving. I did hear her on the radio a lot, and, finally, bought her greatest hits collection, from which I am picking my favorites from her solo career. LISTEN to all.

7. Upside Down, from Diana, 1980. Some dance beat drivel that I found annoyingly infectious. Went to #1.

6. My Mistake (Was To Love You), from Diana & Marvin, 1973. Marvin was always good in those duets. Went to #19.

5. Touch Me In The Morning (from Touch Me in the Morning, 1973). Another #1 song. I don’t always like Diane’s voice, but I love it here.

4. I’m Coming Out, from Diana. I NEVER heard this song, I believe, until I bought the CD. Anthemic, and I understand she often starts her shows with this song.

3. Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To), from Diana Ross, 1976. Theme from the movie. I just noticed she had albums called Diana!, Ross, Diana, Ross, and TWO called Diana Ross; this is from the second one.

2. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, from Diana Ross, 1970. The song was the motif for the Black History Month performance that my sister Leslie, a couple of others and I organized and performed for a high school assembly. It’s amazing how Diana took that tune, a hit for Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, and made it her own #1 song.

1. Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand), from Diana Ross, 1970. The first single, and it’s a waltz? Went only to #20.

K is for the Kinks: Muswell Hillbilles

For WAY too long, I used to go around saying, “Why is life so COM-Plicated?”

Kinks_-_Muswell_HillbilliesThe Kinks, commercially, went from being a rather successful rock band, to not so much, several times in its career arc. One of the latter was the 1971 album Muswell Hillbillies, “named after the Muswell Hill area of North London, where bandleader Ray Davies and guitarist Dave Davies [his younger brother] grew up and the band formed in the early 1960s.” I have alluded to this album so often I figured I must have written about it before, but I had not.

It was their ninth album, but their first for RCA. It was also the first one I ever bought. Even though it came from a particularly English POV, there was something quite universal about the feelings of alienation. It’s also sonically quite diverse.

Also in the band at that time were original drummer Mick Avory, bassist John Dalton (who had replaced Peter Quaife off and on for years), and pianist John Gosling, who joined the band in 1970, a year before the album’s release. Also new, the brass section, “The Mike Cotton Sound, which included Mike Cotton on trumpet, John Beecham on trombone and tuba, and Alan Holmes on clarinet.”

Side one starts with 20th Century Man [LISTEN], “I’m a 20th century man, but I don’t want to be here.” That’s followed by Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues

But it’s five of the next six songs that really sold me. A more eclectic bunch of songs I’ve seldom heard: the out of time Holiday [LISTEN]; the swing of Skin and Bone [LISTEN] (“stay away from carbohydrates”); Alcohol [LISTEN] (a boozy “Oh, demon alcohol”); and Complicated Life [LISTEN]. For WAY too long, I used to go around saying, “Why is life so COM-plicated?”

Side two starts with Here Come the People in Grey, and that’s followed by the very proper-sounding Have a Cuppa Tea [LISTEN]; my sister sells teas currently, and that’s a bonus for my enjoyment. After Holloway Jail comes Oklahoma U.S.A., which I DID write about before. Then Uncle Son and the title song. The 1998 CD re-issue bonus tracks were Mountain Woman and Kentucky Moon, which did not particularly enhance the enjoyment for me.

There was a 2CD extended package that came out in 2013, which I won’t get because what I already have is just perfect.

More about the Kinks and some of the Kinks’ better-known songs around June 21, when Ray Davies turns 70.

ABC Wednesday – Round 14

J is for the Jackson 5ive

When the group moved from Motown to Columbia/Epic, Jermaine stayed at Motown, largely because he was married to Motown boss Berry Gordy’s daughter Hazel for a time. Little brother Randy replaced him as the group became The Jacksons.

L-R: Tito, Marlon, Michael, Jackie, Jermaine
L-R: Tito, Marlon, Michael, Jackie, Jermaine

My sister Leslie, who’s a little younger than I, had each of the first four non-Christmas LPs of the Jackson Five (or Jackson 5ive, as Motown sometimes cutely designated the group). I wanted to write them off as a silly piece of “bubblegum soul”. The problem with that was twofold:
1) I rather liked many of the songs, and
2) I discovered that my vocal range was quite compatible with Jermaine, who had the second lead on many of the songs (Tito sang low harmonies, Jackie high harmonies, and Marlon somewhere in the middle)

Oh, there was a third thing:
3) that preteen Michael was pretty darn good

The first album had I Want You Back [LISTEN], a #1 hit in 1970, but also Who’s Lovin’ You [LISTEN], a cover of a Smokey Robinson song that, when I listened to it, I thought, “How old IS this guy?” He was an old soul.

The second album included both ABC [LISTEN], the title song, and The Love You Save [LISTEN], both of which went to #1 for two weeks in 1970. The imaginatively titled Third Album contained I’ll Be There [LISTEN], #1 for FIVE weeks in 1970. I was always a sucker for Maybe Tomorrow [LISTEN], the title song from the fourth album, which only went to #20 in 1971. They had other hits, most notably Dancing Machine [LISTEN], #2 in 1974.

I won’t necessarily admit to having watched their animated series, which is now available on DVD.

When the group moved from Motown to Columbia/Epic, Jermaine stayed at Motown, largely because he was married to Motown boss Berry Gordy’s daughter Hazel for a time. Little brother Randy replaced him as the group became The Jacksons. Their first hit was Enjoy Yourself [LISTEN], #6 in 1977.

Michael, who had done some solo work even with Motown, had some subsequent massive albums on his own, with Off the Wall, and Thriller. But the brothers, including Jermaine, got together for the 1984 Victory album and tour. Michael, of course, went on with his own career arc.

The group never broke up officially, but they haven’t recorded an album since 1989, though Tito, Jackie, Jermaine, and Marlon did appear in some bizarre reality show back in 2009, which ended up including their reactions to brother Michael’s death.

 

ABC Wednesday – Round 14

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