Johnny Rivers - 1969 - I Can't Help Myself

I Can't Help Myself/Memphis/Do You Want To Dance/The Way We Live



 Rivers was born as John Henry Ramistella in New York City, of Italian ancestry. His family moved from New York to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Influenced by the distinctive Louisiana musical style, Rivers began playing guitar at age eight, taught by his father and uncle. While still in junior high school, he started sitting in with a band called the Rockets, led by Dick Holler, who later wrote a number of hit songs, including "Abraham, Martin and John" and the novelty song, "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron".

Ramistella formed his own band, the Spades, and made his first record at 14, while he was a student at Baton Rouge High School. Some of their music was recorded on the Suede label as early as 1956. On a trip to New York City in 1958, Ramistella met Alan Freed, who advised him to change his name to "Johnny Rivers" after the Mississippi River, which flows through Baton Rouge. Freed also helped Rivers gain several recording contracts on the Gone label. From March 1958 to March 1959, Johnny Rivers released three records which did not sell well.

Rivers returned to Baton Rouge in 1959, and began playing throughout the American South alongside comedian Brother Dave Gardner. One evening in Birmingham, Rivers met Audrey Williams, Hank Williams' first wife. She encouraged Rivers to move to Nashville, where he found work as a songwriter and demo singer. Rivers also worked alongside Roger Miller. By this time, Rivers had decided he would never make it as a singer, and song writing became his priority.

In 1958, Rivers met fellow Louisianan, James Burton, a guitarist in a band led by Ricky Nelson. Burton later recommended one of Rivers' songs, "I'll Make Believe", to Nelson who recorded it. They met in Los Angeles in 1961, where Rivers subsequently found work as a songwriter and studio musician. His big break came in 1963, when he filled in for a jazz combo at Gazzarri's, a nightclub in Hollywood, where his instant popularity drew large crowds.

 

 In 1964, Elmer Valentine gave Rivers a one-year contract to open at the Whisky a Go Go, on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. The Whisky had been in business just three days when the Beatles song "I Want to Hold Your Hand" entered the Billboard Hot 100. The subsequent British Invasion knocked almost every American artist off the top of the charts, but Rivers was so popular that record producer Lou Adler decided to issue Johnny Rivers Live at the Whisky A Go Go, which reached #12. Rivers recalled that his most requested live song then was "Memphis", which reached #2 on the US Hit Parade in July 1964. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc. According to Elvis Presley's friend and employee, Alan Fortas, Presley played a test pressing of "Memphis" for Rivers that Presley had made but not released. Rivers was impressed and, much to Presley's chagrin, Rivers recorded and released it, even copying the arrangement (Fortas writes: "After that, Johnny was on Elvis's shit list" and was persona non grata from then on). Rivers' version far outsold the Chuck Berry original from August 1959, which stalled at #87 in the US.

 Rivers continued to record mostly live performances throughout 1964 and 1965, including Go-Go-style records with songs featuring folk music and blues rock influences including "Maybellene" (another Berry cover), after which came "Mountain of Love", "Midnight Special", "Seventh Son" (written by Willie Dixon), plus Pete Seeger's" Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", all of which were hits.


In 1963, Rivers began working with writers P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri on a theme song for the American broadcast of a British television series Danger Man, starring Patrick McGoohan. At first Rivers balked at the idea but eventually changed his mind. The American version of the show, titled Secret Agent, went on the air in the spring of 1965. The theme song was very popular and created public demand for a longer single version. Rivers' recording of "Secret Agent Man" reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1966. It sold one million copies, also winning gold disc status.

In 1966, Rivers switched gears and began to record ballads that mixed his soulful voice with smooth-sounding backing vocalists. He produced several successful hits including his own "Poor Side of Town", which would be his biggest chart hit and his only #1 record. He also started his own record company, Soul City Records which included the 5th Dimension, whose recording of "Wedding Bell Blues" was a #1 hit for the new label. In addition, Rivers is credited with giving songwriter Jimmy Webb a major break when the 5th Dimension recorded his song "Up, Up, and Away". Rivers also recorded Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix". It was covered by Glen Campbell, who had a major hit with it.

Rivers continued to record more hits covering other artists, including "Baby I Need Your Lovin'" released by the Four Tops, and "The Tracks of My Tears" by the Miracles, both going Top 10 in 1967. In 1968, Rivers put out Realization, a #5 album that included the #14 pop chart single "Summer Rain", written by a former member of the Mugwumps, James Hendricks. The album included some of the psychedelic influences of the time and marked a subtle change in Rivers' musical direction, with more introspective songs including "Look To Your Soul" and "Going Back to Big Sur".

 In the 1970s Rivers continued to record more songs and albums that were successes with music critics, but did not sell well. L.A. Reggae (1972), reached the LP chart as a result of the #6 hit "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu," a cover version of the Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns song. The track became Rivers' third million seller, which was acknowledged with the presentation of a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America (R.I.A.A.) on January 29, 1973. Other hits from that time period were 1973's "Blue Suede Shoes," (recorded in 1955 by Carl Perkins), that would reach the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Help Me Rhonda" in 1975, (originally a #1 hit for the Beach Boys), on which Brian Wilson sang back-up vocals.

Rivers' last Top 10 entry was his 1977 recording of "Swayin' to the Music (Slow Dancing)" originally released by Funky Kings and written by Jack Tempchin. Rivers' last Hot 100 entry, also in 1977, was "Curious Mind (Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um)," originally released by Major Lance and written by Curtis Mayfield. In addition, Rivers recorded the title song for the late night concert-influenced TV show The Midnight Special.

Simon & Garfunkel - 1966 - Sounds Of Silence WAVE

Sounds of Silence/I Am A Rock/Kathy's Song/A Most Peculiar Man




Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of singer-songwriter Paul Simon and singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music groups of the 1960s and became counterculture icons of the decade's social revolution, alongside artists such as the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and Bob Dylan. Their biggest hits—including "The Sound of Silence" (1964), "Mrs. Robinson" (1968), "The Boxer" (1969), and "Bridge over Troubled Water" (1970)—reached number one on singles charts worldwide.

Their often rocky relationship led to artistic disagreements, which resulted in their breakup in 1970. Their final studio record, Bridge over Troubled Water (released in January of that year), was their most successful, becoming one of the world's best-selling albums. Since their split in 1970 they have reunited several times, most famously in 1981 for, "The Concert in Central Park", which attracted more than 500,000 people, the seventh-largest concert attendance in history.

The duo met as children in Queens, New York, in 1953, where they learned to harmonize together and began writing original material. By 1957, under the name Tom & Jerry, the teenagers had their first minor success with "Hey Schoolgirl", a song imitating their idols The Everly Brothers. Afterwards, the duo went their separate ways, with Simon making unsuccessful solo records. In 1963, aware of a growing public interest in folk music, they regrouped and were signed to Columbia Records as Simon & Garfunkel. Their début, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., sold poorly, and they once again disbanded; Simon returned to a solo career, this time in England. In June 1965, their song "The Sound of Silence" was overdubbed, adding electric guitar and a drumkit to the original 1964 recording. This later version became a major U.S. AM radio hit in 1965, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

They reunited, releasing their second studio album Sounds of Silence and touring colleges nationwide. On their third release, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (1966), the duo assumed more creative control. Their music was featured in the 1967 film The Graduate, giving them further exposure. Bookends (1968), their next album, topped the Billboard 200 chart and included the number-one single "Mrs. Robinson" from the film.

After their 1970 breakup following the release of Bridge over Troubled Water, they both continued recording, Simon releasing a number of highly acclaimed albums, including 1986's Graceland. Garfunkel also briefly pursued an acting career, with leading roles in two Mike Nichols films, Catch-22 and Carnal Knowledge, and in Nicolas Roeg's 1980 Bad Timing, as well as releasing some solo hits such as "All I Know".

Simon & Garfunkel won 10 Grammy Awards and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, and their Bridge over Troubled Water album was nominated at the 1977 Brit Awards for Best International Album. It is ranked at number 51 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.  "The Sound of Silence", originally "The Sounds of Silence", is a song by the American music duo Simon & Garfunkel. The song was written by Paul Simon over a period of several months in 1963 and 1964. A studio audition led to the duo signing a record deal with Columbia Records, and the song was recorded in March 1964 at Columbia Studios in New York City for inclusion on their debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M..

 Released in October 1964, the album was a commercial failure and led to the duo breaking apart, with Paul Simon returning to England and Art Garfunkel to his studies at Columbia University. In spring 1965, the song began to attract airplay at radio stations in Boston, Massachusetts, and throughout Florida. The growing airplay led Tom Wilson, the song's producer, to remix the track, overdubbing electric instrumentation. Simon & Garfunkel were not informed of the song's remix until after its release. The single was released in September 1965.

The song hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending January 1, 1966, leading the duo to reunite and hastily record their second album, which Columbia titled Sounds of Silence in an attempt to capitalize on the song's success. The song was a top-ten hit in multiple countries worldwide, among them Australia, Austria, West Germany, Japan and the Netherlands. Generally considered a classic folk rock song, the song was added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important" in 2013 along with the rest of the Sounds of Silence album.

Herman's Hermits - 1966 - Hold On No2 FLAC

Leaning On The Lamp Post/All The Things I Do For You Baby/Where Were You When I Needed You/Wild Love


Hold On! by Herman's Hermits is the band's third album and was released in the United Kingdom by EMI/Columbia

It is the soundtrack album to a 1966 film featuring Herman's Hermits and Shelley Fabares, Hold On!

The producers had recruited Fred Karger, a Hollywood composer who had served as music director of the group's previous movie, When the Boys Meet the Girls, to write the songs for the movie. In an interview on a television documentary on The British Invasion, Peter Noone recalled that the original title of the film was There's No Place Like Space, for which Karger had written the theme song. However, the group and their manager Mickie Most agreed that the song wasn't right for them and, instead, asked co-star Shelley Fabares' then-husband, record producer Lou Adler, for help. Adler recommended songwriter P.F. Sloan to compose the title track for the film. Sloan's recollection was that the film was to be renamed A Must to Avoid, and he wrote a song for that title, with some contributions from his writing partner Steve Barri. When the studio vetoed that title, the film was then retitled Hold On! after another one of Sloan's songs.

Ultimately, the ten-song US soundtrack album included five songs written by Karger, including the lone song sung by Fabares, four songs written by Sloan/Barri, and one Hermits cover of a 1937 British music hall song. The six-song UK EP used all four Sloan/Barri songs and just two of the Karger songs.

"A Must to Avoid" and a re-recorded version of "Leaning on a Lamp Post" both reached the Billboard Top 10 as singles in the US, and "Hold On!" was a B-side. "A Must to Avoid" was also a top 10 hit in the UK. "Leaning on a Lamp-post" is a popular song written by Noel Gay and best known in the version by George Formby. A version by Herman's Hermits, credited as "Leaning on the Lamp Post", reached No. 9 on the US Hot 100 in 1966. 

Chantays - 1965 - Pipeline

Pipeline/Move It/Runaway/Sleep Walk


The Chantays are a surf rock band from Orange County, California, USA, known for the hit instrumental, "Pipeline" (1963). Their music combines electronic keyboards and surf guitar, creating a unique ghostly sound.

The Chantays were formed in 1961 when five high-school friends decided to start their own band. Bob Spickard, Brian Carman (co-writers of "Pipeline"), Bob Welch, Warren Waters and Rob Marshall were all students at Santa Ana High School in California, when a local group called the Rhythm Rockers inspired the five to form the Chantays. In December 1962, the group recorded and released "Pipeline", which eventually peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1963. The track also peaked in the UK Singles Chart in 1963 at No. 16. The Chantays recorded their first album in 1963, also titled Pipeline, which included "Blunderbus" and "El Conquistador". Their follow-up album was Two Sides of the Chantays in 1964.

 The Chantays toured Japan and the United States, joining the Righteous Brothers and Roy Orbison on a few occasions, and they were the only rock and roll band to perform on The Lawrence Welk Show.

"Pipeline" (published as sheet music in 1962 by Downey Music Publishing) has become one of several surf rock hits. The tune has since been covered by Bruce Johnston, Welk (on the Dot album Scarlet O'Hara), Al Caiola (on the United Artists album Greasy Kid Stuff), the Ventures, Takeshi Terauchi & Blue Jeans, Agent Orange, Hank Marvin, Lively Ones, Pat Metheny, Dick Dale with the help of Stevie Ray Vaughan (Grammy Nominated), by the thrash metal band Anthrax, Bad Manners, and Johnny Thunders. "Pipeline" has also been featured in many films, television programs and commercials. It also appears on numerous compilation albums.

The Chantays have been honored for their contributions to music. Some of the highlights include being honored on April 12, 1996 by Hollywood's Rock Walk, that was founded to honor individuals and bands that have made lasting and important contributions to music. "Pipeline" is listed as one of the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Along with Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers and Diane Keaton, the Chantays were honored by the City of Santa Ana, California, and Santa Ana High School when they named a street after them, Chantays Way. OC Weekly Magazine also named the Chantays as one of the Best Orange County Bands.

 Today, the Chantays are still playing. Original members Bob Spickard and Bob Welch are joined by longtime members Gil Orr, Ricky Lewis, and Brian Nussle. More recent albums include The Next Set (live recording) and Waiting for the Tide. Some of the tracks are new songs "Crystal T" and "Killer Dana", along with remakes of "Pipeline", "El Conquistador" and "Blunderbus".

Brian Carman died at his home in Santa Ana, California from complications of Crohn's disease on March 1, 2015. He was 69.

Supremes - 1969 - Love Child FLAC

Reflections/Forever Came Today/Time Changes Things/Love Child


The Supremes were an American female singing group and the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s. Founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and are, to date, America's most successful vocal group with 12 number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Most of these hits were written and produced by Motown's main songwriting and production team, Holland–Dozier–Holland. At their peak in the mid-1960s, the Supremes rivaled the Beatles in worldwide popularity, and it is said that their success made it possible for future African American R&B and soul musicians to find mainstream success.

Founding members Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross, and Betty McGlown, all from the Brewster-Douglass public housing project in Detroit, formed the Primettes as the sister act to the Primes (with Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks, who went on to form the Temptations). Barbara Martin replaced McGlown in 1960, and the group signed with Motown the following year as the Supremes. Martin left the act in early 1962, and Ross, Ballard, and Wilson carried on as a trio.

 During the mid-1960s, the Supremes achieved mainstream success with Ross as lead singer. In 1967, Motown president Berry Gordy renamed the group Diana Ross & the Supremes, and replaced Ballard with Cindy Birdsong. Ross left to pursue a solo career in 1970 and was replaced by Jean Terrell, at which point the group's name reverted to The Supremes. After 1972, the lineup changed more frequently; Lynda Laurence, Scherrie Payne, and Susaye Greene all became members of the group during the mid-1970s. The Supremes disbanded in 1977 after 18 years.


"Reflections" is a 1967 song recorded by The Supremes for the Motown label. It was the first Supremes record released under the new billing, Diana Ross & the Supremes, and is among their last hit singles to be written and produced by Motown's main production team Holland–Dozier–Holland (H–D–H). The song is also among the final singles to feature Florence Ballard, who recorded vocals for this song during one of her last studio sessions before she was fired on July 1. It peaked at number-two on the United States Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart and number-five on the United Kingdom UK Singles Chart in September 1967. 

This single, released at the height of the Summer of Love of 1967 and the Vietnam War, was the first Supremes' release to delve into psychedelic pop; H–D–H's production of the song, influenced by the psychedelic rock sounds of bands such as The Beatles and The Beach Boys, represented a shift in Motown's pop sound during the latter half of the 1960s. The psychedelic influence is apparent in the song's arrangement, which featured relatively early use of synthesizers on a popular record.
Release and reception

"Reflections" peaked during the late summer and early fall of 1967. Making the highest debut on US Billboard pop chart the week of August 6, the song reached #2 the week ending September 9, 1967. Verging on being the group's 11th American number-one single, "Reflections" stalled at the penultimate position for two weeks behind Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe," which Diana Ross rerecorded as a solo for the Reflections album. The single also peaked concurrently in the UK at #5.

The first nationally televised performance to feature Ballard's replacement, Cindy Birdsong, as a member of The Supremes on American television, now billed "Diana Ross & the Supremes," was on the ABC variety program The Hollywood Palace, airing Tuesday, September 26, 1967.

 "Love Child" is a 1968 song released by the Motown label for Diana Ross & the Supremes. The second single and title track from their album Love Child, it became the Supremes' 11th (and penultimate) number-one single in the United States.

The record took just three weeks to reach the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart, which it then topped for two weeks, November 30—December 7, 1968, before being dethroned by an even bigger Motown single, Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine". "Love Child" also performed well on the soul chart — where it spent three weeks at number two (stuck behind Johnnie Taylor's "Who's Making Love") — and paved new ground for a major pop hit with its then-controversial subject matter of illegitimacy. It is also the single that finally knocked the Beatles' "Hey Jude" off the top spot in the United States after its nine-week run. The Supremes debuted the dynamic and intense song on the season premiere of the CBS variety program The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday, September 29, 1968. In Billboard's special 2015 chart of the Top 40 Biggest Girl Groups of All Time on the Billboard Hot 100, "Love Child" ranked highest among the Supremes' six entries.

 The public responded immediately to "Love Child" when it was released as a single on September 30, 1968, rising to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming the third biggest selling Supremes' single behind "Baby Love" and "Someday We'll Be Together." The feat was repeated in Canada, where it also reached number one in the RPM 100 national singles chart. In the UK singles chart, the song peaked at number 15, and number three in Australia. "Love Child" became the title track of Diana Ross & the Supremes' Love Child album, released on November 13, 1968.

Cr{{d{nce Cle@rw@ter Rev!v@l - 1969 - Gr{{n R!ver FLAC

Green River/Commotion/Bootleg/Good Golly Miss Molly




"Green River" is a song by American rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival. The song was written by John Fogerty and was released as a single in July 1969, one month before the album of the same name was released.

The song "Green River" was based on a vacation spot for John Fogerty.  In an interview Fogerty gave to Rolling Stone in 2012, Fogerty stated:

    What really happened is that I used a setting like New Orleans, but I would actually be talking about thing from my own life. Certainly a song like "Green River" – which you may think would fit seamlessly into the Bayou vibe, but it's actually about the Green River, as I named it – it was actually called Putah Creek by Winters, California. It wasn't called Green River, but in my mind I always sort of called it Green River. All those little anecdotes are part of my childhood, those are things that happened to me actually, I just wrote about them and the audience shifted at the time and place.

Fogerty added that the "actual specific reference, 'Green River,' I got from a soda pop-syrup label... My flavor was called Green River

"Green River" was certified gold (500,000 units sold) by the Recording Industry Association of America on December 13, 1990.

Len Barry - 1966 - Like A Baby

Like A Baby/Happiness/Will You Love Me Tomorrow/Don't Throw Your Love Away




 Born and raised in Philadelphia, Barry had little thought of a show business career while still in school. Instead, he aspired to become a professional basketball player upon his graduation. It was not until he entered military service and had occasion to sing with the US Coast Guard band at Cape May, New Jersey, and was so encouraged by the response of his military audiences, that he decided to make music a career.

Upon his discharge from military service, Barry returned home to Philadelphia and formed the Dovells, he was their lead singer. His is the lead voice on all their best selling records "Bristol Stomp", "Hully Gully Baby", and "You Can't Sit Down", among others. "Bristol Stomp" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a RIAA gold disc. As a Dovell, he also toured with James Brown. Barry also made film appearances with the Dovells in films such as Don't Knock the Twist, toured the UK with the Motown Revue. Barry also had guest appearances on US television on "Bandstand" and later American Bandstand, Shindig, and Hullabaloo. Soon after leaving the group, Barry recorded his first solo single "Lip Sync". 

As someone who sang rhythm and blues, he recorded hits in 1965 and 1966 for Decca Records in the US and released by Brunswick Records: "1-2-3", "Like a Baby", and "I Struck It Rich", a song he wrote with Leon Huff of the Philadelphia International Records producers, Gamble and Huff.

His first two hits also made the Top Ten of the UK Singles Chart. "1-2-3" reached number three. Those songs also peaked at number 2 and 27 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart respectively. "1-2-3" sold over four million copies, and gave Barry his second RIAA gold disc and a Grammy Award nomination for Contemporary Rock & Roll Male Vocal Performance. Both "1-2-3" and "Like a Baby" were composed by Barry, John Madara, and David White (musician).

He has performed at the Apollo Theatre in New York; the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C.; The Regal Chicago, Chicago; Illinois; The Fox Theatre (Detroit) in Detroit, Michigan; and The Uptown (Philadelphia), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He also toured with Sam Cooke, The Motown Revue in the United Kingdom, and appeared on Top of the Pops.

 He became a major singing star in The United Kingdom. Highlights of his European tour included featured performances at the London Palladium and Royal Albert Hall as well as numerous appearances throughout England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Barry's respect of the Native American culture led him to write and produce the instrumental "Keem-O-Sabe". The song went to number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969.

He also did writing and production work with WMOT Productions. With Bobby Eli he helped write the hit singles "Zoom" for Fat Larry's Band, and "Love Town" for Booker Newberry III.

In May 2008, Barry reinvented himself as an author with the publication of novel, Black-Like-Me. The storyline involved a pair of Caucasian siblings growing up in a largely African-American neighborhood, accepted by some, rejected by others.

D@vid B0w!e - 1977 - Heroes FLAC

Heroes/Heros [French]/Helden [German]/V-2 Schneider



"'Heroes'" is a song by the English musician David Bowie, written by Bowie and Brian Eno. Produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti, it was recorded in July and August 1977, and released on 23 September 1977. A product of Bowie's "Berlin" period, the track was not a huge hit in the UK or US at the time, but has gone on to become one of Bowie's signature songs. In January 2016, following Bowie's death, the song reached a new peak of number 12 in the UK Singles Chart. "'Heroes'" has been cited as Bowie's second-most covered song after "Rebel Rebel".

Inspired by the sight of Bowie's producer / engineer Tony Visconti embracing his girlfriend by the Berlin Wall, the song tells the story of two lovers, one from East and one from West Berlin. Bowie's performance of "Heroes" on June 6, 1987 at the German Reichstag in West Berlin was considered a catalyst to the eventual fall of the Berlin Wall, similar to that of Bruce Springsteen's concert at Radrennbahn Weissensee a year later. Following Bowie's death in January 2016, the German government thanked Bowie for "helping to bring down the Wall", adding "you are now among Heroes".

"'Heroes'" has received numerous accolades since its release, as seen with its inclusion on lists ranking the 'greatest songs of all time' compiled by the music publications; Rolling Stone named the song the 46th greatest ever, and NME named it the 15th greatest. Bowie scholar David Buckley has written that "Heroes" "is perhaps pop's definitive statement of the potential triumph of the human spirit over 
adversity".

""Heroes"" was released in a variety of languages and lengths ("a collector's wet dream" in the words of NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray). In contrast to the bewildering audio situation, the video (directed by Stanley Dorfman) was a stark and simple affair, the singer captured performing the song in what appeared to be a single take with multiple cameras, swaying in front of a spotlight that created a monotone and near-silhouette effect. Despite a large promotional push, including Bowie's first live Top of the Pops appearance since 1973, ""Heroes"" only reached number 24 in the UK charts, and failed to make the US Billboard Hot 100.

In Italy, the song was certified gold by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry.

Writing for NME on its release, Charlie Gillett slated the record saying: "Well he had a pretty good run for our money, for a guy who was no singer. But I think his time has been and gone, and this just sounds weary. Then again, maybe the ponderous heavy riff will be absorbed on the radio, and the monotonous feel may just be hypnotic enough to drag people into buying it. I hope not."

Later assessments were more favourable. In February 1999, Q Magazine listed ""Heroes"" as one of the 100 greatest singles of all time as voted by the readers. In March 2005, the same magazine placed it at number 56 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. In 2004, Rolling Stone rated ""Heroes"" number 46 in its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It was included in 2008's The Pitchfork Media 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present. John J. Miller of National Review rated ""Heroes"" number 21 on a list of "the 50 greatest conservative rock songs" due to its anti-Soviet political context, despite its status as a gay anthem. Uncut placed ""Heroes"" as number 1 in its 30 greatest Bowie songs in 2008.

New link added 26.11.2018

Dionne Warwick - 1967 - The Windows of The World

 The Windows of The World/Walk Little Dolly/I Never Knew What You Were Up To/Blowin' In The Wind



 "The Windows of the World" is a song written by Burt Bacharach (music) and Hal David (lyrics) which was a hit single for Dionne Warwick in 1967.

The track was recorded in a 13 April 1967 session produced by Bacharach and David with Bacharach as conductor and arranger.

Bacharach and David had scored a number 7 hit in 1965 with Jackie DeShannon's message song hit "What the World Needs Now is Love" but "The Windows of the World" was unique in the composers' canon in being a protest song. Inspired by such songs as "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" and "Blowin' in the Wind", Hal David wrote lyrics for "The Windows of the World" which overtly but gently lament U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War (an especial concern to David, who had two young sons, one of them almost of eligible age for the draft). The arrangement for "The Windows of the World" has a subtle Asian flavor featuring strings plucked in the style of a koto and also finger cymbals the latter evoking the sound of raindrops on a window.

"The Windows of the World" represented a thematic departure for Warwick who had built her career as a romantic balladeer and had passed on the chance to introduce "What the World Needs Now is Love" (although her stated objection to the last-named was not its theme but rather that it sounded "too country"). Released in July 1967, "The Windows of the World" was not one of Warwick's biggest hits, reaching number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 27 on the R&B charts.  "The Windows of the World" was also a minor hit on the Easy Listening chart, where it peaked at number 32. However, Warwick stated in 2002 that "The Windows of the World" was her favorite of all of her singles.

Crash Craddock - 1960 - Crash FLAC

Sweetie Pie/Am I to Be the One/Lulu Lee/Ah, Poor Little Baby



Billy Wayne "Crash" Craddock (born June 16, 1939) is an American country and rockabilly singer. He first gained popularity in Australia in the 1950s with a string of rockabilly hits, including the Australian number one hit "Boom Boom Baby".












After an aborted career as a '50s teen idol, Billy "Crash" Craddock returned to his first love, country music, and earned the nickname "Mr. Country Rock" with a string of popular hits during the '70s. Born in Greensboro, NC, in 1939, Craddock earned his nickname as a running back on his high-school football team, and grew up a huge fan of the Grand Ole Opry.


He signed with Columbia in the late '50s, but instead of marketing him as a country singer, the label tried to make him a teen idol, and had him record a mix of Elvis-style rockabilly tunes and pop ballads. Craddock did manage to land three hit singles in Australia, but none in his home country, and aside from a lone album for King in 1964 (I'm Tore Up), he was largely missing-in-action afterwards.

 That all changed in 1971, when Craddock signed with Cartwheel Records -- this time as a country artist. His first five singles -- a remake of "Knock Three Times," "Dream Lover," "You Better Move On," "Ain't Nothin' Shakin' (But the Leaves on The Trees)," and "I'm Gonna Knock on Your Door" -- all made the country Top Ten over 1971-1972. He subsequently moved to ABC and scored his first chart-topper with 1974's "Rub It In," which also crossed over to the pop Top 20. More hits followed, including a second number one in 1975 with a remake of the Drifters' "Ruby Baby," and a third in 1977's "Broken Down in Tiny Pieces." All told, Craddock landed in the country Top Ten a total of 18 times from 1971-1979, with his final entry being "If I Could Write a Song as Beautiful as You." He recorded for Capitol during the late '70s and early '80s, by which time his commercial momentum had finally slowed.

Robin Ward - 1968 - Wonderful Summer

Wonderful Summer/Moon River/I Could Have Danced All Night/Dream Boy



Jacqueline McDonnell was born in 1941 to a military family in Hawaii (her father served in the US Navy) and raised in Nebraska. Her first public singing performances were with her two sisters in a Nebraska church - she was eight years old at the time. After the trio won a national talent search run by Horace Heidt, they moved to Los Angeles to look for work in the music industry.

At the age of 13 she was hired by television station KTLA to sing on a Your Hit Parade-like program, Bandstand Revue, in which she sang popular hits for four years as part of the house singing ensemble. After she parted ways with KTLA, she started a career of singing in demo recordings for various LA-based songwriters and session singing for several California-based record companies and producers. One result of her session work was the recording for her voice singing the "La la la" parts in Pat Boone's last million-selling single, "Speedy Gonzales", in 1962 (Elton John stated that the "hook" in his best-selling single "Crocodile Rock" was inspired by his listening to Ward's vocal on "Speedy Gonzales").
"Wonderful Summer"

In 1963, songwriter-producer Perry Botkin, Jr. needed a session singer to make a demo recording of "Wonderful Summer", a song that he wrote with his co-writer and co-producer, Gil Garfield. Botkin may have been looking for a Lesley Gore sound-alike, and he found her in Jackie. A now-married Ward agreed to record it in Gold Star Studios. After an experiment in which Botkin sped up the recording by wrapping splicing tape around the capstan of the recorder, he and Ward agreed that the finished recording (with bird and surf sound effects added) would not be just a demo but a recording to be released as a 45 revolutions-per-minute single. 

The "altered" recording resulted in the then 21-year-old woman sounding like a high school girl; so Ward suggested changing her first name on the record label to that of her daughter, Robin. That fall, "Wonderful Summer" was released on Dot Records. Sales were over one million copies in the United States, propelling the recording to the #14 position on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in November 1963.

An album followed, to limited success, before a duet with Wink Martindale, another Dot artist. "Wonderful Summer" remains the only hit for Ward on the Hot 100.

In 1964 Ward released the single "Winter's Here", which reached #123 on the Billboard chart.
Session singing for television

While Ward was disappearing from the record charts, her session singing career was becoming quite lucrative. In the early to mid-1960s she was one of the stable of singers for The Red Skelton Show; at roughly the same time, she performed the same job for The Danny Kaye Show, and later, The Carol Burnett Show. In the 1970s she worked similarly for The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.

Her voice is heard in dozens of television theme songs, including Flipper; Batman; Love, American Style; Maude (with Donny Hathaway providing the lead vocal); and The Partridge Family. She has sung in hundreds of television commercials, most notably those for Rice-a-Roni ("The San Francisco treat").

The theme song was not the only recording that she did for The Partridge Family: she was one of a group of four background vocalists—herself, brothers John and Tom Bahler, and Ron Hicklin—to record all the music for television play and record releases while "posing" as the Partridge Family (only two members of the TV series—Shirley Jones and David Cassidy—recorded with them).

 By her own estimate, Ward's voice can be heard in "maybe 800" films. Some of the more notable instances include her voice being dubbed over Natalie Wood's singing for the Academy Award nominated song "Sweetheart Tree", from The Great Race as well as Inside Daisy Clover, doing the same for Janet Leigh in American Dream, and providing the singing voice for Cindy Bear in Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!, and the Singer in Charlotte's Web.

In the 1965 movie Beach Blanket Bingo, she sang two songs off-screen, "New Love" and "Fly Boy", which were lip-synched by Linda Evans onscreen.

After "A Wonderful Summer", she kept busy with not only television and motion picture session work, but hundreds of recordings for the music industry, including backing Barbra Streisand on "Stoney End"; broadcast recordings of Hair, Grease, Annie, and Hello Dolly; and backup singing for dozens of major recording artists, including Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Gordon Lightfoot, the Carpenters, Cass Elliot, and Joan Baez. Ward also sang alto as a member of vocal groups the Anita Kerr Singers, the Ron Hicklin Singers and the Ray Conniff Singers, having recorded several lead and solo vocals on a few of Conniff's albums. Ward sang a duet with Allan Sherman on his song Here's To the Crabgrass from his 1963 comedy album My Son The Nut

Tr@ffic - 1967 - P@per Sun and A H0le In My Sh0e FLAC

Paper Sun/Smiling Phases/Hole In My Shoe/Giving To You



Traffic were an English rock band, formed in Birmingham. The group formed in April 1967 by Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason. They began as a psychedelic rock group and diversified their sound through the use of instruments such as keyboards like the Mellotron and harpsichord, sitar, and various reed instruments, and by incorporating jazz and improvisational techniques in their music. Their first three singles were "Paper Sun", "Hole in My Shoe", and "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush".

After disbanding in 1969, during which time Winwood joined Blind Faith, Traffic reunited in 1970 to release the critically acclaimed album John Barleycorn Must Die. The band's line-up varied from this point until they disbanded again in 1975. A partial reunion, with Winwood and Capaldi, took place in 1994. Traffic was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

"Paper Sun" was the British band Traffic's debut single, released in May 1967. It was a number 5 hit in the United Kingdom and peaked at number 70 on the Cash Box Top 100 chart in the United States. The song is famous for its time-typical sitar riff, played by Dave Mason, and its vocals by composer Steve Winwood. It was also released in an edited version on the U.S. version of the band's debut album, Mr. Fantasy (briefly re-titled Heaven Is in Your Mind).

The single's B-side, "Giving to You", features an opening vocal section with lyrics sung by Winwood. The original B-side version was later released as a bonus track on a CD reissue of Mr. Fantasy. The song was later issued in a modified version (4:20) on Mr. Fantasy. The album version begins and ends with overdubbed spoken parts (probably by Chris Wood).

"Hole in My Shoe" is a song by English rock band Traffic which as a single release reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart and number 22 in the German charts, in 1967 B-side is    "Smiling Phases". Composed by guitarist Dave Mason, it was disliked by the other three members of the group who felt that it did not represent the band's musical or lyrical style.

The brief monologue, over the mellotron passage, is spoken by Francine Heimann, the stepdaughter of Island Records' owner Chris Blackwell.

(reedence (learwater Reviv@l - 1970 - Tr@velin' B@nd FLAC

Travelin' Band/Gloomy/Who'll Stop The Rain/The Working Man




 "Travelin' Band" is a song written by John Fogerty and originally recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival. It was included on their 1970 album Cosmo's Factory. Backed with "Who'll Stop the Rain", it was one of three double sided singles from that album to reach the top five on the U.S. Pop Singles Chart and the first of two to reach the #2 spot on the American charts, alongside "Lookin' Out My Back Door". "Travelin' Band" was also a hit in the UK, reaching number eight on the UK Singles Chart.

The song was inspired, both musically and for Fogerty's vocal delivery, by 1950s rock n' roll songs, particularly those by Little Richard. In October 1972, the company that held the publishing rights to Richard’s "Good Golly, Miss Molly" felt that "Travelin' Band" bore enough similarities to warrant a plagiarism lawsuit that was later settled out of court. The lyrics of the song describe what life is like for a musician on the road. The opening line "Seven-thirty-seven coming out of the sky" refers to the Boeing 737, then coming into service on short-to-medium range routes.

Creedence Clearwater Revival, often informally abbreviated to Creedence or CCR, was an American rock band active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The band consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty, his brother rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford. Their musical style encompassed the roots rock, swamp rock, and blues rock genres. Despite their San Francisco Bay Area origins, they played in a Southern rock style, with lyrics about bayous, catfish, the Mississippi River, and other popular elements of Southern United States iconography, as well as political and socially-conscious lyrics about topics including the Vietnam War. The band performed at 1969's famed Woodstock Festival.

After four years of chart-topping success, the group disbanded acrimoniously in late 1972. Tom Fogerty had officially left the previous year, and his brother John was at odds with the remaining members over matters of business and artistic control, all of which resulted in subsequent lawsuits between the former bandmates. Fogerty's ongoing disagreements with Saul Zaentz, owner of their label Fantasy Records, created further protracted court battles. As a result, John Fogerty refused to perform with the two other surviving former members at CCR's 1993 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Creedence Clearwater Revival's music is still a staple of U.S. radio airplay; the band has sold 26 million albums in the United States alone. Rolling Stone ranked the band 82nd on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.

Johnny And The Hurricanes - 1964 - Vol. 2 FLAC

James Bond Theme/The Hungry Eye/Rough Road/Kaw Liga


 Johnny and the Hurricanes were an American instrumental rock and roll band from Toledo, Ohio, that had a number of hits, especially in the UK, in the 1950s and early 1960s.

They began as the Orbits in Toledo in 1957. Led by saxophonist Johnny Paris (born 29 August 1940 as John Matthew Pocisk, Walbridge, Ohio, died 1 May 2006, Ann Arbor, Michigan), they were school friends who played on a few recordings behind Mack Vickery, a local rockabilly singer.

They signed with Harry Balk and Irving Micahnik of Twirl Records, which led to national engagements in 1959. Johnny and the Hurricanes recorded "Crossfire" in a vacant cinema to provide echo. It became a nationwide U.S. hit, and ranked No. 23 in the U.S. chart in the summer of 1959.

Johnny and the Hurricanes followed with "Red River Rock", an instrumental version of "Red River Valley", on Warwick Records, that became a top ten hit on both sides of the Atlantic (No. 5 in the U.S., No. 3 in the UK), and sold over a million copies. The musicians in the band then were Paris on saxophone, Paul Tesluk on a Hammond Chord organ, Dave Yorko on guitar, Lionel "Butch" Mattice on bass, and Bill "Little Bo" Savich on drums.

They specialised in versions of old tunes with a rock and roll beat. They chose these songs because they were well recognized and easier to accept with the beat. Tunes were credited to 'King, Mack' and usually one other name: King and Mack were in fact pseudonyms for Harry Balk and Irving Micahnik, the band's managers. In 1960, they recorded the United States Army bugle call, "Reveille", as "Reveille Rock", and turned "Blue Tail Fly" into "Beatnik Fly". Both tunes made the Top 40 achieving number 15 and 25 respectively. The band also recorded "Down Yonder" for Big Top Records. In the same year, they recorded "When The Saints Go Marching In" as "Revival", but it ranked in the charts for just one week, peaking at No. 97. The record was flipped over in the UK, where "Rocking Goose" reached No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart.

 The band developed a following in Europe. In 1962, they played at the Star-Club in Hamburg, where the Beatles, then a little-known band, served as an opening act. Johnny and the Hurricanes cut records until 1987, with "Old Smokie" (their cover of "On Top of Old Smokey"), and an original tune, "Traffic Jam", both on Big Top Records, being their last releases to chart in America. Johnny Paris, the only constant member of the band, continued to tour with his Hurricanes in Europe and the United States until his death.

Johnny Paris and his band toured Europe occasionally until the end of 2005. He died on 1 May 2006 at the University Clinic of Ann Arbor, Michigan, of hospital-borne infections after an operation. Paris's second wife and widow, the German journalist, novelist and vocalist Sonja Verena (Reuter) Paris, took over his business (Atila Records, Sirius 1 Music and Johnny and the Hurricanes Incorporated) and the rights to his songs and trademarks. Paris claimed that over 300 musicians played in the band in its fifty-year existence.

 The band inspired the song "Johnny and the Hurricanes" on the album How I Learned to Love the Bootboys, by the band the Auteurs. They were also namechecked in the Kinks' 1973 song "One of the Survivors", and in "Bridge in Time" on the 1990 Burton Cummings album Plus Signs.

Drummer Bill "Little Bo" Savich died on 4 January 2002. Bassist Lionel "Butch" Mattice died on October 16, 2006. Guitarist David Yorko died on 17 February 2017 at the age of 73.

Rascals - 1968 - A Beautiful Morning FLAC

A Beautiful Morning/Rainy Day/My World/Silly Girl



"A Beautiful Morning" is a song written by Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati and recorded by The Rascals. Coming out in early 1968, it was the group's first single released under that name rather than The Young Rascals. The first album on which the song appeared was Time Peace: The Rascals' Greatest Hits. It continued the theme of carefree optimism that had distinguished the previous year's "Groovin'". The song was a big hit in the United States, reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and also reaching number 36 on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart. It was RIAA-certified as a Million Seller on June 28, 1968. "A Beautiful Morning" charted in Australia at      #36. The song had an introductory sound of mystical wind chimes and bells.


A Beautiful Morning was used in advertisements for the drug Vioxx produced by Merck & Co., for Bounce fabric softener, and in the early 1990s for the Days Inn hotel chain. The song also featured in a Scrubs episode, at the start of a season 6 episode with Zach Braff who plays J.D. dancing to it. It was also featured at the end of a second season episode of The Greatest American Hero in which Ralph had to disarm a nuclear missile. It was also featured in the movie Kingpin immediately following the scene that shows how Roy got his rubber hand. The song was featured during the 1969 college graduation scene in The First Wives Club. The song was also used in the 1993 movie A Bronx Tale opening the racetrack scene, as well as on Arrow at the end of the eighteenth episode of the fifth season, titled "Disbanded."Renée Geyer covered the song on her album Dedicated (2007).

Blue Mink - 1971 - Melting Pot FLAC

Melting Pot/Our World/Good Morning Freedom/Blue Mink (Instrumental)



 Roger Coulam (keyboards) formed the band in the autumn of 1969, with Madeline Bell (vocalist), Roger Cook (vocalist), Alan Parker (guitarist), Herbie Flowers (bassist), and Barry Morgan (drummer). Most of the songs were written by Cook and Roger Greenaway.

Flowers, Morgan and Parker all worked with Coulam at London's Morgan Studios. The four of them recorded several backing tracks, with which Coulam approached Bell and Greenaway, (who had been half of David and Jonathan), as vocalists. Greenaway declined, but put forward Cook (the other half of David and Jonathan).



The band's debut single "Melting Pot", written by Cook and Greenaway, was recorded with this line-up and released on 31 October 1969 on the Philips label (catalogue BF1818), with the B-side "Blue Mink" (penned by Alan Parker); it peaked at No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart. An American cover version entitled "People Are Together" by soul singer Mickey Murray proved too radical for American radio and failed to get any meaningful airplay.

 An album of the same name was released early in 1970, at the same time as the second single, "Good Morning Freedom", which reached No. 10 in the chart. The track did not feature on the first release of the LP, but was added to subsequent pressings.

The members continued with their session work despite the success of the band. In March 1970, Cook, Bell, Parker and Morgan appeared on Elton John's eponymous first solo album; Elton John covered "Good Morning Freedom" (written by Albert Hammond) anonymously on the Deacon Records budget compilation album Pick Of The Pops. In April, Cook and Greenaway played briefly in Currant Kraze, and together they continued to write songs such as "You've Got Your Troubles", "I've Got You On My Mind" and "I'd Like To Teach the World To Sing". Other side projects included: involvement with Parker's band The Congregation; Herbie Flowers' contributions to Lou Reed's Transformer album; and the involvement of Flowers, Morgan and Parker in sessions with Pete Atkin in March 1971, that later appeared on his Driving Through Mythical America album.

The band's second album and their third single released on Philips in September 1970 were entitled Our World (the album was released as Real Mink in the US). The band's next single release was "The Banner Man" on Regal Zonophone in the spring of 1971. It reached No. 3 in the UK chart, equalling the success of the debut single and notable for its use of a brass band. The members' other projects now took priority until January 1972 when Blue Mink played two weeks at The Talk Of The Town club in London. Recordings from this engagement were released that March as the album Live at the Talk Of The Town simultaneously with the studio album A Time Of Change (renamed from Harvest to avoid confusion with Neil Young's new LP).

Ray Cooper (drums) and Anne Odell (keyboards) joined the band that summer and played on the single "Stay With Me" co-written by Herbie Flowers, which charted at No. 11 in November 1972. By the time of Blue Mink's fourth album, Only When I Laugh, glam rock was supplanting the lighter pop sound of the previous few years. The associated single, "By The Devil (I Was Tempted)", written by Guy Fletcher and Doug Flett, only reached No. 26 and the Top 10 single "Randy" in June 1973 was their last success.

Their final album, Fruity, (January 1974) and the singles "Quackers" (January 1974) and "Get Up" (July 1974) failed, and the band split up that autumn after a farewell tour of the United States. Elton John was among the celebrities present to say goodbye, introducing the band onstage at The Troubadour in Los Angeles.

The band reformed in 1976 featuring Mike Moran. They recorded a few singles on the Target Records label that was owned by Cook and Greenaway. The best known of their three releases was "Where Were You Today", written by Greenaway and Dundas, previously "Come and C&A", a television and radio commercial jingle theme for the department store C&A.

When Capital Radio, one of the UK's first two independent local radio stations took to the air in London in 1973, the station's identity jingles were written by Cook and Greenaway, performed by Blue Mink and orchestrated by George Martin. Madeline Bell had also sung the original jingles for Radio Caroline, the offshore pirate station that first went on-air in 1964, in the end successfully challenging the BBC's monopoly of British radio broadcasting.

Since the band's demise, each of the members maintained a presence in the world of session musicianship and songwriting. The Rimshots covered Blue Mink's "Get Up", retitled as the disco single "7-6-5-4-3-2-1 (Blow Your Whistle)" in 1976, and had a hit.

In 1994, Cook, Bell and Flowers were re-united for a television rendition of their hit "Melting Pot" on the Michael Barrymore show.