Banning "The Twist" on This day in History

 

This day in History: On this day in 1962, Bishop Burke of Buffalo Catholic dioceses declares Chubby Checker's "The Twist" to be impure and banned it from all Catholic schools.

"Calling the song and accompanying dance impure, and saying it lacked a proper sense of decorum and good taste, Bishop Burke prohibited all Catholics from performing the dance. This action earned Bishop Burke the dubious nickname 'Bishop Buzzkill' in 1962." Source

Also, in 1952, the Catholic Church denounced the holiday song “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”. 

In 1957, Cardinal Stritch of the Catholic archdiocese in Chicago, prohibited all Rock 'n' Roll music from their schools, fearing that "Its rhythms encourage young people to behave in a hedonistic manner".

In 1978, "Billy Joel's 'Only the Good Die Young' was banned in Boston and New Jersey after several religious groups deemed the lyrics anti-Catholic." Source

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American Singer/Songwriter Tom Waits on This Day in History

 

Rod Stewart covers Wait's Tom Traubert's Blues/Waltzing Matilda

Today in History: American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor, Tom Waits, was born on this day in 1949. His gravelly voice is definitely an acquired taste, and has been described as:

"the sand in the sandwich", something that "sounds like it was hauled through Hades in a dredger", or that it sounded as though "it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car." Rolling Stone also noted his "rusted plow-blade voice." One of Waits's own favorite descriptions of his vocal style was "Louis Armstrong and Ethel Merman meeting in Hell." 

There are many other artists that have done covers of his songs, such as Rod Stewart above. Despite a lack of mainstream commercial success, Waits has influenced many musicians and gained an international cult following, and several biographies have been written about him. In 2015, he was ranked at No. 55 on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time". He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.

Many of his lines are quite descriptive (Waitsisms) such as: 

You got to tell me brave captain,

why are the wicked so strong,

how do the angels get to sleep,

when the devil leaves the porchlight on.

Outside another yellow moon

Punched a hole in the nighttime

Sixteen men on a dead man's chest

And I've been drinking from a broken cup

Two pairs of pants and a mohair vest

I'm full of bourbon, I can't stand up

Well, Jesus gonna be here

be here soon

he's gonna cover us up with leaves

with a blanket from the moon

with a promise and a vow

and a lullaby for my brow

Jesus gonna be here

be here soon

Ramones cover Tom Waits' I Don't Want to Grow Up

Musically, Waits was influenced by Randy Newman, and Dr. John. He regarded James Brown as one of his musical heroes, and was also a great fan of the Rolling Stones. He has praised Bob Dylan, noting that "for a songwriter, Dylan is as essential as a hammer and nails and saw are to a carpenter", as well as the country musician Merle Haggard, relating: "Want to learn how to write songs? Listen to Merle Haggard."

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Robert Miles on This Day in History

 

This day in history: Swiss-Italian record producer, composer, musician and DJ Robert Miles died on this day in 2017. His biggest accomplishment was a song called "Children." "Children" is one of the pioneering tracks of Dream house, a genre of electronic dance music characterized by dream-like piano melodies, and a steady four-on-the-floor bass drum. The creation of dream house was a response to social pressures in Italy during the early 1990s: the growth of rave culture among young adults, and the ensuing popularity of nightclub attendance, had created a weekly trend of deaths due to car accidents as clubbers drove across the country overnight, falling asleep at the wheel from strenuous dancing as well as alcohol and drug use. In mid-1996, deaths due to this phenomenon, called strage del sabato sera (Saturday night slaughter) in Italy, were being estimated at 2000 since the start of the decade. The move by DJs such as Miles to play slower, calming music to conclude a night's set, as a means to counteract the fast-paced, repetitive tracks that preceded, was met with approval by authorities and parents of car crash victims.

Miles' next single was "Fable". Part of this song was used in the theatrical trailer for the U.S. movie Ever After starring Drew Barrymore and Dougray Scott. His debut album Dreamland was released on 7 June 1996 in Europe, and released in the United States about a month later. The album included a cover of "One and One" featuring British singer Maria Nayler. This cover became very popular (it reached number 1 in the Euro Top 100 Singles Chart during the Christmas period and remained in the top spot for six consecutive weeks) and was later released as a single in Europe and the U.S.

The songs on Dreamland showcase the genius of Robert Miles who created some of the best music in that genre.

Miles died from cancer in Ibiza, Spain, on 9 May 2017 at the age of 47.

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The Singing Nun on This Day in History

 

This Day In History: The Singing Nun (Jeanne-Paule Marie Deckers) was born on this day in 1933. She had a big hit in 1963 with "Dominique" which sold millions of copies. The Singing Nun was screwed over for the money and in time committed suicide. 

In 1973, another nun, Sister Janet Mead, released a rock version of The Lord's Prayer which also sold millions of copies. She also had a bad experience with the recording industry so she withdrew from the public eye. Mead died of cancer this past January.

The entertainment industry is cruel and unforgiving and filled with broken and ugly souls. This is why so many in the industry cling to causes as if they were indulgences, in order to absolve themselves of the callous business practices they engage in.

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The Beatles Abbey Road Album on This Day in History

 

This day in history: Abbey Road, the last recorded album by The Beatles, was released on this day in 1969. There are many mysteries surrounding the album cover. Paul is barefooted, and although he is left-handed, he is holding a cigarette in his right hand. There were a lot of "Paul is dead" conspiracies at the time so this only enhanced that narrative. On the back cover, we see the band’s name written in tiles on a wall and there’s a crack running through it, symbolizing the band's break-up.

Also: "For the only time in their career, The Beatles presented the world with an album cover that didn’t feature their name, or the title of the LP at all. Designer John Kosh claimed that EMI bosses were furious, but argued: 'The biggest band in the world, you don’t have to say who they are - everyone knows who they are.'" Source

Although the album was an immediate commercial success, it received mixed reviews. Some critics found its music inauthentic and criticized the production's artificial effects. By contrast, critics today view the album as one of the Beatles' best and rank it as one of the greatest albums of all time. George Harrison's two songs on the album, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun", have been regarded as some of the best he wrote for the group.

Since its release on September 26, 1969, the Album has sold nearly 27.5 million copies worldwide.

The Beatles still sell a ton of albums. "The Liverpudlian rockers were the sixth-bestselling album artist of the past decade, selling 10.3 million “pure” albums (not including album-equivalent units derived from streaming or individual song downloads). They were also the 10th-bestselling artist of 2019 in terms of total consumption, moving 2.26 million album-equivalent units, including over 2.6 billion on-demand audio streams." Forbes

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Eccentric Pianist Glenn Gould on This Day in History

 

This day in history: Canadian classical pianist Glenn Gould was born on this day in 1932. His Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 is one of my favorite piano pieces ever. 

He was also quite eccentric: The piano had to be set at a certain height and would be raised on wooden blocks if necessary. A small rug would sometimes be required for his feet underneath the piano. He had to sit exactly fourteen inches above the floor, and would play concerts only while sitting on the old chair his father had made. He continued to use this chair even when the seat was completely worn through.

He was a hypochondriac and hated being touched. "He took many pills everyday to take care of health issues that he felt needed to be catered to; the medicines would clash with each other producing side effects that Gould would fight taking more medicines, in a vicious circle that only ended with his death." Source

He was a recluse and later in life would only communicate via letters and telephone. He was nocturnal, and was said to call his friends in the middle of the night and rant on for hours while they would fall asleep at the other end of the line.

He hated being cold so would always dress for winter. He was arrested once in Florida for dressing like that because he was suspected of being a vagrant. 

See also: The Science & Appreciation of Classical Music - 175 Books to Download

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Rocker Lita Ford on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: English-born American guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Lita Ford was born on this day in 1958. She was the lead guitarist for the all-female rock band the Runaways in the late 1970s, before embarking on a successful glam metal solo career that hit its peak in the late 1980s. The 1989 single "Close My Eyes Forever", a duet with Ozzy Osbourne, remains Ford's most successful song, reaching No. 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Lita Ford is one the top women of Rock and Roll, yet she never really makes the list of the top women of Rock and Roll. VH1 compiled a list of the top 100 women of Rock (http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/1999/vh1women.htm). Aretha Franklin was number one on this list. Aretha Franklin is without a doubt a great singer, but she is not Rock and Roll. She is known as the "Queen of Soul" for a reason. 

Joni Mitchell is number 5 on the list, but I don't consider Joni Mitchell's music as Rock. Her style is more of a mixture of folk and jazz.

Billie Holiday is number 6 on the list. Billie Holiday is Jazz and Swing, not Rock and Roll.

Madonna is number 8 on this list. Madonna performs pop, electronica and dance music, not Rock and Roll.

Patsy Cline is number 11. Patsy Cline is a great Country music singer, she is not Rock and Roll. 

I could go on. Perhaps if lists liked this narrowed their considerations for actual women in Rock, there would be room for female rockers like Lita Ford, or Lee Aaron, Lisa Dalbello, Suzi Quatro, Maria Brink, Amy Lee and Wendy O. Williams.

The King, Elvis Presley on This Day in History

Dixieland - An American Trilogy (1972)

The King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, died on this day in 1977. I still remember where I was when I heard of his death. I was building a fireplace in the Thorhild, Alberta area with my dad. 

Elvis has sold over one billion records worldwide and has had over 150 different albums and singles certified gold, platinum and multi-platinum. Elvis still holds the record for Most Top 40 hits at 114 total. He had 53 Top 40 albums on the Billboard Top 200 chart.

Elvis Presley is the only music artist to be honored with two U.S. Postal Service commemorative stamps (1993 & 2015). The 1993 stamp is still the most popular U.S. commemorative stamp of all time.

Elvis only performed in three cities outside the U.S., all in Canada: Ottawa, Vancouver and Toronto.

He also had bad eating habits, which may explain a lot in his later years:

"Elvis is famously associated with a sandwich made with peanut butter, bacon, and banana, then pan-fried in butter like an even fattier grilled cheese. It wasn’t his only extreme dietary indulgence, though: 'The King' also enjoyed deep-fried pickles and is said to have once flown from Memphis to Denver just for a massive Fool's Gold Loaf sandwich, which involves stuffing a pound of bacon, a jar of peanut butter, and a jar of jelly inside a buttery loaf of hollowed-out French bread." (Mental Floss)

Between 1977 and 1981, six of Presley's posthumously released singles were top-ten country hits.

His home, Graceland, was opened to the public in 1982. Attracting over half a million visitors annually, it became the second most-visited home in the United States, after the White House. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2006.

Presley has been inducted into five music halls of fame: the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986), the Country Music Hall of Fame (1998), the Gospel Music Hall of Fame (2001), the Rockabilly Hall of Fame (2007), and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame (2012). In 1984, he received the W. C. Handy Award from the Blues Foundation and the Academy of Country Music's first Golden Hat Award. In 1987, he received the American Music Awards' Award of Merit.

He is one of the top-earning deceased celebrities, and in 2018, Presley was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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English Soprano Sarah Brightman on This Day in History

This Day In History: English soprano Sarah Brightman was born on this day in 1960, and she has been my favorite singer since the 1990's. In 1985, Brightman recorded "Pie Jesu" which was a strong commercial success, despite the lyrics being in Latin. She gained fame starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Cats" and her pinnacle role as Christine Daaé in "The Phantom of the Opera." After parting ways with Andrew Lloyd Webber, she established herself as a classical crossover artist, and would go on to sell 30 million records and 2 million DVDs, making her the world's best-selling soprano of all time. Sarah Brightman's 1996 duet with the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, "Time to Say Goodbye", topped charts all over Europe and became the highest and fastest selling single of all time in Germany, where it stayed at the top of the charts for 14 consecutive weeks and sold over 3 million copies. It subsequently became an international success selling 12 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time. Sarah Brightman has over 180 gold and platinum sales awards in 38 different countries. In 2010 she was named by Billboard as the 5th most influential and best-selling classical artist of the 2000's decade in the US and has sold 6.5 million albums there. Brightman is the world's richest female classical performer with a fortune of £36m (about US$56m).

Joseph Haydn (and his missing skull) on This Day in History

This Day in History: Austrian composer Joseph Haydn died on this day in 1809. Known as the "Father of the Symphony" he was a friend and mentor of Mozart and a tutor to Beethoven. However, Haydn's story didn't end with his death. Much like Rene Descartes, his remains were quite active. After his death, graverobbers removed Haydn's skull so they could study it. More than ten years later, Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy II, decided to give Haydn a proper burial. During the exhumation it was discovered that the head was missing (his wig however was still there). An investigation ensued and a skull was returned to his grave. It was however the wrong skull. The people who produced the skull actually kept Haydn's skull in a special box, a box that was discovered 145 years later. That skull was reunited with the rest of the composer's bones. They didn't know what to do with the other skull so to this day Joseph Haydn's grave is buried with two skulls.

Several large chunks of Beethoven's skull were also stolen, and are presently in California. See the book, Beethoven's Hair for more.

Though buried in a pauper's grave, what is believed to be Mozart's skull was actually on display for a while 100 years ago in Salzburg, Austria.

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Heinz Schmitz

Robert Moog (and his Synthesizer) on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: American engineering physicist and pioneer of electronic music Robert Moog was born on this day in 1934. He was the founder of Moog Music and the inventor of the first commercial synthesizer, the Moog synthesizer, which debuted in 1964. This was followed in 1970 by a more portable model, the Minimoog, described as the most famous and influential synthesizer in history.

The Moog synthesizer was brought to the mainstream by Switched-On Bach (1968), a bestselling album of Bach compositions arranged for Moog synthesizer by Wendy Carlos. In the late 1960s, it was adopted by rock and pop acts including the Doors, the Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles. At its height of popularity, it was a staple of 1970s progressive rock, used by acts including Yes, Tangerine Dream, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. With its ability to imitate instruments such as strings and horns, it threatened the jobs of session musicians, and was banned from use in commercial work for a period, and in some places, the ban is still in effect.

Back in 2016, Kraftwerk had to cancel their shows in Buenos Aires because of a city-wide ban on synthesizer-based performances. 

Some of the most popular songs featuring synthesizers are:

Jump, by Van Halen

Oxygene Part 4, by Jean Michel Jarre 

Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics

Save a Prayer by Duran Duran

Take on Me by A-Ha

The Final Countdown by Europe

Lucky Man by Emerson, Lake & Palmer

and Baba O'Riley - The Who

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The Exorcist's Tubular Bells on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: Mike Oldfield's song "Tubular Bells" hits #7 on the Billboard charts on this day in 1974. Tubular Bells is the debut studio album by English musician Mike Oldfield, released on 25 May 1973 as the first album on Virgin Records. Oldfield, who was 19 years old when it was recorded, played almost all the instruments on the mostly instrumental album.

The album initially sold slowly, but gained worldwide attention in December 1973 when its opening theme was used for the soundtrack to the horror film The Exorcist. This led to a surge in sales which increased Oldfield's profile and played an important part in the growth of the Virgin Group. It stayed in the top ten of the UK Albums Chart for one year from March 1974, during which it reached number one for one week. It peaked at number three on the US Billboard 200, and reached the top position in Canada and Australia. The album has sold over 2.7 million copies in the UK and an estimated 15 million worldwide.

"On the surface or in standalone listening, Mike Oldfield’s 1973 Tubular Bells is light and carefree really – cheerful even. But matched with the sinister story of a 12-year-old girl overtaken and inhabited by the Devil himself – with incredibly bad language and snarls aplenty to match – the music takes on a much more foreboding and weighty mood. Yep, let’s face it: The Exorcist made that previously pretty unassuming piano motif creepy as anything." Source

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Eric Carmen and the Raspberries on This Day in History

 

American rock group the Raspberries disbanded on this day in 1974 (or 1975). They had a run of success in the early 1970s music scene with their pop rock sound, which AllMusic later described as featuring "exquisitely crafted melodies and achingly gorgeous harmonies."

I playing their records at a party in Edmonton in 1978 and I remember people liking the music so much they were asking who they were. Read the Youtube comments in the video above...they were that great of a band, and perhaps too much forgotten.

Their best known songs include "Go All the Way", "Let's Pretend", "I Wanna Be with You", "Tonight", and "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)".

After the group broke up, lead singer Eric Carmen would go on to a successful solo career, from the mega-hit All By Myself to the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. He also wrote "Almost Paradise" (performed by Mike Reno and Ann Wilson for Footloose, 1984), as well as songs that were made major hits by Shaun Cassidy ("That's Rock & Roll" and "Hey Deanie").

His songs were also covered by Olivia Newton-John, Franki Valli, Bay City Rollers, John Travolta, Patti Labelle, Celine Dion, Diana Ross...and Mötley Crüe.

A few years back I followed Eric Carmen on Twitter and he followed me back. That really never happens with other celebrities. He is a conservative and a Trump supporter and left Twitter after the election. 

I miss him.

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German Band Leader James Last on This Day in History

 

Games That Lovers Play

This Day in History: German composer and big band leader James Last was born on this day in 1929. You may not have heard of him, but you may have heard his music. Last sold 200 million albums worldwide in his lifetime, and he was the most commercially successful bandleader of the second half of the 20th century. 

His trademark "happy music" made his numerous albums best-sellers in Germany and the United Kingdom, with 65 of his albums reaching the charts in the UK alone. His composition "Happy Heart" became an international success in interpretations by Andy Williams and Petula Clark.

His song "Games That Lovers Play" has been covered over a hundred times, and he played at the  Royal Albert Hall 90 times, more than any other performer besides Eric Clapton.

James Last still has millions of views on Youtube, including his rendition of the Orange Blossom Special