Song 181 - Long Tall Sally by Little Richards

Happy Fathers' Day to one of all.  As well as being Fathers' day, it is also Sir Paul McCartney's 75th Birthday today and I thought I would do a song by Little Richards as he is someone who influenced the Beatles in their early days as the Quarry Men. Also Long Tall Sally is reported to be the first song Paul McCartney performed in public. What's the connection to Fathers' day you may ask, well Paul McCartney is the same age as my dad and my dad is one of my greatest sources of inspirationsin my life but he hasn't written a hit single so he doesn't really fit into a music blog! However, he has got a fantastic sense of musicality and has introduced me to many a good tune over the years.

Release in March 1956, Long Tall Sally by Little Richards is a 12 bar rock and roll song. It is also one of his biggest hits. Little Richards himself, is one of the most influential rock/pop stars in the world as his style in the 1950s laid the foundation for Rock and Roll. Born in 1932, he was discovered in 1947 by Sister Tharp. From that moment on, his life would be about performing music and it took him 8 years to secure a recording deal with Specialty Records, who signed him as their version of Ray Charles. Little Richard's first single release would be  Tutti Fruit, which was followed up by Long Tall Sally, which became his first number 1 on the R&B chart in 1956.  At the time when racial tensions were strong due to segregation laws in the USA, it is said that Little Richard's music brought race together and broke through the tensions.   Tutti Fruit & Long Tall Sally were the first two hit singles for Little Richards and in the space of 3 years he had secured 18 hit singles and was a millionaire. His music was being covered by stars like Elvis Presley and Eddie Cochran and he was invited to guest star in popular films at the day.

The association between Little Richards and The Beatles came in the early 1960s when Brian Epstein approached him to see whether his band could be one of his supporting acts when he was touring Europe in 1962.  They opened for him in Brighton and Hamburg to name two of his venue. During the time the band spent with Little Richards, he taught them how to sing his songs. This would lead to the Beatles covering the song in 1964, for the Long Tall Sally EP.

When I listen to the track, it makes me want to dance and own a vintage 50s dress so I can dance a Teddy Boy all night long.  Listen to it now but promise me you'll listen to it full blast. If you are able to be with your dad today, have a dance with him!

Listen to Long Tall Sally Here:
Long tall song

Written by: Entrois Johnston, Robert Blackwell and Robert Penniman (Little Richards' real name)
Year released: 1956

Song 129 - Celebrating George Martin with some Beatles

Being a huge Beatles fan, it wouldn't have been right to pass over the death of George Martin, one of the most influential record producers of the 20th century, just because he didn't necessary sing on any hits. His death was announced today,  aged 90, and since then there has been an out pouring of tributes to the man, who in Paul McCartney's words was the fifth Beatle.

Picture the scene when in 1962, Brian Epstein told the Beatles that he had secured him a deal with EMI. This statement turned out to be a lie and the Beatles had been invited to audition with record producer, George Martin and to be honest, Martin wasn't that impressed by what he heard to begin with but he recognise something in their music which eventually led to him giving them a record deal on June 6. Although he did suggest that band made some changes and he was often blamed as the person who sacked Pete Best, the original drummer of the group.

When Paul McCartney paid tribute today to Martin, he talked about him as a second father who was able to guide, promote and challenge the fab four. Introducing elements like strings to tracks of a rock and roll band, Martin  had the vision to help them translate their musical ideas and songs into the masterpieces we love today. He wrote the string section part of Eleanor Rigby and the electric backing to I am the Walrus. Perhaps, now-a-day, with the advancement of music equipment and computer, we perhaps take for granted the basic equipment used to create some of the iconic sounds of the Beatles' songs. When it came to recording St. Peppers' Lonely Hearts Club, Martin devised a technique whereby a number of tracks were recorded and then mixed down on to one single track, giving the flexibility of a modern multi-tracked studio. At the time EMI had only four- track tape machines. He also made much use of recording different tracks at various speeds to change the texture of the final sound.

In the later stages of the Beatles' career, the band themselves became much more knowledgeable on producing records, however, Martin remained a critical part of the band's makeup and after their break-up  continue to work with the band members independently.

But it is important to recognise that although George Martin was most famous for being the producer of the Beatles, his career far outstretched the fab four and with a career spanning 6 decades, he produced over 700 records, wrote film scores and worked with a variety of artists including Matt Munro, Dire Straits, Elton John, Shirley Bassey, Pete Townsend, Cilla Black to name but a few. His talents will shine throughout the history of pop music for generations to come and his name will never be out of tune with the music world. RIP George Martin and have fun with the musical talent in heaven.

Here are just a number of iconic songs that Martin brought to our ears:

1. Love me do, performed by the Beatles, from Please Please Me, 
Love me do

2. Eleanor Rigby, performed by the Beatles, from Revolver, 
Eleanor Rigby

3. A day in the life, performed by the Beatles, from St. Peppers' Lonely Hearts' Club Band, 
A day in the life

4. Rain, performed by the Beatles
Rain, performed by the Beatles

5. I am the Walrus, performed by the Beatles, from Magical Mystery Tour 

I am the Walrus

6. Strawberry Fields forever, performed by the Beatles, from Magical Mystery Tour
Strawberry fields forever

7. Right said Fred, performed by Bernard Crippins
Right said Fred

8. Diamond Dust, performed  by Jeff Beck
Diamond Dust

9. From Russia with love, performed by Matt Munro
From Russia with love

10. Ticket to heaven, performed by Dire Straits, from On Every Street, 1991
Ticket to heaven

Song 101 - Abbey Road by the Beatles

Never ask me to name my favourite Beatles song, but my favourite Beatles Album is Abbey Road. Released in September 1969, for me, there is not one track on that album which isn't worthy of being part of the jukebox and here's why:

In the autumn of 1990, when I was 13, my family was involved in  putting on the local village pantomime Dick Whittington and it was decided that Octopus Gardens would make a great song for when Dick is traveling to the palace to get rid of the rats. To get the music for the track, we borrowed the album from a family friend and being a Beatles fan back then, I tapped the whole album and from that moment, my appreciation for the Beatles took a whole new level.  I think up to this point, my knowledge of Beatles music was mainly due to a tape of their 1962-1964 music.

Where do I start with what makes it so fantastic? One,  the album contain tracks written and song by all four of them, you have Harrison's Something and Here's comes the sun,  Starky's Octopus gardens; together with Lennon and McCartney's classics as Come together, Because and You never give me your money. Two, the second side is a melting pot of magical melodies that weave into each other, it isn't an album to put onto a random mix as you miss the sheer beauty of the composition. Three are the characters in the songs, you have the series killer in Maxwell's Silver Hammer; Mean Mr Mustard, Polythene Pam; and the man in Come Together who has to be good looking cause he is so hard to see. Then outside the characters there is a mixture of heart warming and heart breaking songs, which perhaps reflect the mind state of four friends who had reached the end of their time together. For a 13 year old girl with an over active imagination, it had everything and it has never failed to inspire me and I am a wee-bit older now. Have I sold it to you yet?

Lets go through the tracks: Side 1.

Come together 
A brilliantly simple track sung by John Lennon, it is its simplicity that makes it perfect. Having listened to this album so many times, this song for me strikes a happy chord. A number of other artists have covered this, and it was on the HELP album for the War Child Charity where Paul McCartney played with Paul Weller and Oasis on the cover. You can't help thinking that John Lennon would have been part of that album too if he had been around. It was released as a double A-side single with Something, which is track two on the album.

Come together, sung live by John Lennon in New York

Something
Possibly the best song George Harrison wrote whilst he was a Beatles, this love song refers to the relationship with his first wife Patti Boyd, who he had met on the film A Hard Day's night. Boyd would go on to be the inspiration for the song Wonderful Tonight, Layla and Bell Bottom Blues written by Eric Clapton, her second husband. Something gave the Beatles their 18th number one in the US surpassing Elvis Presley and won an Ivor Novella award for Best song musically and lyrically in 1969.

Something by the Beatles

Maxwell's Silver Hammer
Sung by McCartney, all you have to do is listen to the lyrics of this song and they tell you the story of Maxwell.  Paul described Maxwell's Silver Hammer as "my analogy for when something goes wrong out of the blue, as it so often does, as I was beginning to find out at that time in my life. I wanted something symbolic of that, so to me it was some fictitious character called Maxwell with a silver hammer."

Maxwell's Silver Hammer

Oh! Darling
Another song sung by McCartney, he worked for a week to make sure his voice wasn't too clear on the track. This track is heavy influenced by the Rhythm and Blues music of New Orleans.

Oh! Darling by the Beatles

Octopus's Garden
Ringo would normally get to be lead vocal on one track of an album, Octopus Gardens was performed and written by him after taking a two week holiday with his family and developing an interest in Octopus. Sometimes the inspiration is easy to see.

Octopus Garden, live version sung by Ringo Starr

I want you (She's so heavy)
For the last track of side one, Lennon takes back the lead vocal role for this gritty number. I actually miss my taped version of this song as you could hear the needle lift of the record right at the end of the music. Lennon wrote this number about his love for Yoko Uno and is one of the longest Beatles tracks ever lasting 8 minutes and containing only 14 words. Touching on the world of heavy metal, it one of the last track the Beatles recorded together as a band in September 1969.

I want you (she's so heavy) The Beatles

Side 2

Here comes the sun
Another perfect number for George Harrison and you can imagine yourself being in the back garden with a drink, which is actually where he wrote it in the back gardens of his friend's, Eric Clapton, house. You can hear Harrison's india influence coming through on the track and McCartney sings backing vocals. By putting this as the opening track of the second side, it shows the diversity between the heavy metal style to folk rock.

Here comes the sun - The Beatles

Because
Keeping it mellow, Lennon's vocal on Because, follows on fantastically. The voices of Lennon, Harrison and McCartney are dubbed trice so it sounds as though there is a nine part harmony on the track.  Cited as the favourite track of Lennon and McCartney on the album, it took them more than 5 hours of recording to get the track to a level they were happy with. Much is said about the unhappiness and the tension of recording this album, but there was still a level of dedication to creating the best material they could. I can't find a link to the Beatles' recording on You Tube.

The Medley: You never give me your money, Sun King, Mean Mr Mustard, Polythene Pam, She came through the bathroom window, Golden slumbers, Carry that weight and The End.

Staring with You never give me your money, the medley was put together by George Martin and Paul McCartney. It was an attempted by George Martin to get Lennon and McCartney to think about their music seriously. The first track inspired by the Band's disputes with Alan Kein, leads into Lennon's Sun King, which follows the same vein as Because & Here's come the Sun.  Using the nine-part harmonies with their voices, you could put these three tracks as singles on their own album. As you are starting to feel chilled and the heat from an Indian Summer, The Sun King gives way for Mean Mr. Mustard, a character that was inspired by a news article John Lennon read when he was in India and is another great example of characters The Beatles created in their songs, Mean Mr. Mustard gave way to Polythene Pam, another Lennon's character inspired by a real person he met in Jersey. She's came through the bathroom window, written by McCartney, was also inspired by  a fan who gained entry to his flat through the said window.

You never give me your money

Sun King, Mean Mr Mustard, Polythene Pam, She came in through the bathroom window

The last two tracks, Golden Slummers & The End, for me anyway maybe suggests the end of the band and the fact that these four friends have simply moved in different directions. Although the later years of the band became more difficult with the death of Brian Epstein, the legal fights, I like to think of them as made it very, very big. Perhaps because I have always being able to listen to album in the cultural history surrounding it, has made me think that they they all knew that it was over by the end of the record for the Beatles, and too much is made of the arguments surrounding this album and not enough about the brilliance of it.

Golden Slummers, Carry that weight, The End

Hidden track: Her Majesty
Lovely little track about the Queen.

Her Majesty by The Beatles

I urge you to go out and listen to this album. It maybe three years shy of being 50th year old, but it is fantastic for its age.