Bobbi Martin - 1969 - Harper Valley PTA @320

Harper Valley PTA/Empty Arms/She'll Have To Go/Be Mine



Bobbi Martin (November 29, 1943 – May 2, 2000) was an American country and pop music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She grew up and began her singing career in Baltimore, working her way up from local venues onto the national nightclub circuit.

Martin recorded for Coral Records for several years before releasing her debut album, Don't Forget I Still Love You. The title track was a hit in the U.S., peaking at No. 2 on the Easy Listening (adult contemporary) chart and No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100. A follow-up single "I Can't Stop Thinking of You", first introduced on the nationally televised Dean Martin Show won her the Cashbox Disc Jockey Poll as Most Promising Female Vocalist of 1965. While popular at nightclubs in Miami Beach, New York, Las Vegas and Puerto Rico, and on TV appearances with the Jackie Gleason, Ronnie Dove, Tonight, and Dean Martin Shows, it would be 5 years before she scored another hit with "For the Love of Him", from the album of the same name. This song went to No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart and No. 13 on the Hot 100. The singer charted many smaller regional, Bubbling Under Hot 100 and Easy Listening chart records up to 1972.

Martin died of cancer on May 2, 2000 at the Brighton Wood Knoll medical facility in Baltimore. Martin had one daughter, Shane Clements.

B.J. Thomas - 1969 - Hooked On A Feeling @320

Hooked On A Feeling/Smoke Gets In Your Eyes/Mr. Businessman/ I've Been Down This Road Before



Billy Joe Thomas (born August 7, 1942) is an American popular singer. He is particularly known for his hit songs of the 1960s and 1970s, which appeared on the pop, country, and Christian music charts. His best-known recordings are the Burt Bacharach and Hal David song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" and the original version of the Mark James song "Hooked on a Feeling".



Thomas was raised in and around Houston, Texas, graduating from Lamar Consolidated High School in Rosenberg. Before his solo career, he sang in a church choir as a teenager, then joined the musical group The Triumphs with Tim Griffith (guitar and keyboards), Denver "Zeke" Zatyka (bass), Don Drachenberg (sax) and Ted Mensik (drums). During his senior year he made friends with Roy Head of Roy Head and The Traits. The Traits and the Triumphs held several Battle of the Bands events in the early 1960s.
 

 B.J. Thomas and The Triumphs released the album I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Pacemaker Records). It featured a hit cover of the Hank Williams song "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". The single sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc. The follow-up single, "Mama", peaked at No. 22. In the same year, Thomas released a solo album of the same title on the Scepter Records label.


 Thomas came back to achieve mainstream success again in 1968, first with "The Eyes of a New York Woman", then five months later with the much bigger "Hooked on a Feeling", which featured the sound of Reggie Young's electric sitar and was first released on the album On My Way (Scepter Records). "Hooked on a Feeling" became Thomas's second million-selling record.
 

A year later Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid featured Thomas performing the Bacharach/David song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head", which won the Academy Award for best original song that year and hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1970. Sales of it also exceeded one million copies, with Thomas being awarded his third gold record. The song was also released on an album of the same title. Other hits of the 1970s were "Everybody's Out of Town", "I Just Can't Help Believing" (No. 9 in 1970, covered by Elvis Presley), "No Love at All", "Mighty Clouds of Joy", and "Rock and Roll Lullaby".




 Thomas's earlier hits were with Scepter Records, his label for six years. He left Scepter Records in 1972 and spent a short period, in 1973 and 1974, with Paramount Records, during which time he released two albums, Songs (1973) and Longhorns & Londonbridges (1974).

 In 1975, Thomas released the album Reunion on ABC Records, which had absorbed the Paramount label; it contained "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" (the longest titled No. 1 hit ever on the Hot 100). It was Thomas's first big hit since 1972 and secured him his fourth gold record.

In 1976, Thomas released Home Where I Belong, produced by Chris Christian on Myrrh Records, the first of several gospel albums. It was the first Christian album to go platinum, and Thomas became the biggest contemporary Christian artist of the period.

On MCA Records, Thomas and Chris Christian recorded what would be his last Top 40 hit single, "Don't Worry Baby", on his last pop album, which also included the Adult Contemporary hit "Still the Lovin' Is Fun".

During the 1980s, his success on the pop charts began to wane, but many of his singles reached the upper regions on the country singles chart, including two 1983 chart toppers, "Whatever Happened to Old-Fashioned Love" and "New Looks from an Old Lover" (see 1984 in music), as well as "Two Car Garage", which reached No. 3 on the country charts. In 1981, on his 39th birthday, Thomas became the 60th member of the Grand Ole Opry.

Thomas scored another hit, recording "As Long As We Got Each Other", the theme to the television series Growing Pains. The first season theme was a solo for Thomas, but was re-recorded as a duet with Jennifer Warnes for the second and third seasons. It was re-recorded again for the show's fourth season with British singer Dusty Springfield, but the Thomas/Warnes version was reinstated for season five and some of season seven. Thomas first released this track on his 1985 album Throwing Rocks at the Moon (Columbia Records).

 Thomas has also written two books including the autobiography Home Where I Belong, and starred in the movies Jory and Jake's Corner. Several commercial jingles including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Bell, have featured his singing voice and music. On December 31, 2011, Thomas was the featured halftime performer at the 2011 Hyundai Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. On April 2, 2013, Thomas released The Living Room Sessions, an album with acoustic arrangements of well known hits. It features guest appearances with established and emerging vocalists accompanying Thomas on seven of twelve tracks. On December 3, 2013, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced that his 1969 single "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" would be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

J0e C0cker - 1970 - Delt@ L@dy FLAC

Delta Lady/She's So Good To Me/She Came In Through The Bathroom Window/Change In Louise



Born in England in 1944, Joe Cocker was one of rock's most distinctive singers. He first rose to fame in the late 1960s with his cover of the Beatles' song "With a Little Help From My Friends." Cocker performed at the legendary Woodstock music festival in 1969. The following year, he released the live album Mad Dogs & Englishmen, which included such hits as "The Letter." More successful singles soon followed, including "Cry Me a River" and "Feeling Alright." Cocker won a Grammy Award in 1982 for "Up Where We Belong," his duet with Jennifer Warnes. An Academy Award for Best Original Song followed the next year. Some of Cocker's later albums include Hard Knocks (2010) and Fire It Up (2012). Cocker died in 2014.



Born on May 20, 1944, in Sheffield, England, singer Joe Cocker counted Ray Charles and Lonnie Donegan among his early influences. He made his singing debut with his brother Victor's skiffle band when he was only 12 years old. Several years later Cocker became a drummer and harmonica player for a band called the Cavaliers. Before long, however, Cocker took his rightful position at the front of the stage as a singer, working a day job as a gas fitter for the East Midlands Gas Board while he tried to make it as a performer.
 
 Cocker tried his hand at pop music, performing as Vance Arnold and releasing a single on Decca Records in 1964. When it flopped, Decca dropped Cocker and he dropped his stage name, performing briefly with a new group before taking a break from music altogether. He returned in 1966 by forming the Grease Band, eventually landing a minor hit in the United States with the song "Marjorine."
 
Cocker landed his first number-one single in his native England in 1968 with his rendition of the Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends." His cover of the iconic song was later featured as the theme song for the television series The Wonder Years. His album of the same name featured such guest performers as Jimmy Page and Steve Winwood. In 1969, Cocker hit the British charts again with "Delta Lady." This rough yet soulful singer also toured the United States that same year. His time in America included a career-boosting performance at the famed Woodstock music festival. Cocker started to attract a quite following with his bluesy rock sound. He also became known for his unpredictable way of dancing on stage. 

 With the 1970 live album Mad Dogs & Englishmen, Cocker rose to the top 10 of American pop charts with "The Letter." The album proved to be a huge success and also included several other hit singles, such as "Cry Me a River." Over the next few years, he made the charts a few more times with such songs as "High Time We Went" and "Feeling Alright." As the 1970s progressed, however, Cocker's substance abuse began to affect his performances, though in 1975 he did manage to make it back into the charts with the smash hit "You Are So Beautiful."


 In the 1980s Cocker had a career renaissance. His duet with Jennifer Warnes, "Up Where We Belong," was the title track for the Richard Gere-Debra Winger drama An Officer and a Gentleman. The ballad became a number-one hit and earned the pair a Grammy Award win for best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal in 1982 and the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1983. At the close of the decade, Cocker returned to the pop charts again with "When the Night Comes." 

 In his later years, Cocker remained active on the music scene. He kept recording, releasing Have a Little Faith (1994), Hymn for My Soul (2007) and Hard Knocks (2010), among many others. In 2012, Cocker put out his 23rd album, Fire It Up, which also proved to be his last. He died in Crawford, Colorado, on December 22, 2014, from complications relating to lung cancer. The legendary singer was survived by his wife Pam, his stepdaughter Zoey and two grandchildren.

Many members of the music world mourned Cocker's passing. Ringo Starr was just one of the people who took to Twitter to express their sadness, tweeting "Goodbye and God bless to Joe Cocker from one of his friends."