Song 194 - The White Album - The Beatles

Today is the 50th Anniversary of The Beatles’ - The Beatles album, affectionately known as The White Album, and there is no better other way to regenerate the jukebox than by starting with this album. The trouble is where do you start with this album? It is a feast of musical masterpieces, which starts with Back in the USSR and ends with Number Nine, and shows off the extraordinary talents of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison & Starr. If anything, this for me, this is their sad album because it is the individual talent that shines throughout the tracks and signals that this supergroup is outgrowing each other. 

There is no way I can do this album justice in one blog post so, over the next four weeks, I am going to cover some of the songs on this remarkable album. If I had to pick one song and discard all the others, the one song I would keep is Blackbird. I know it’s the obvious choice, but it is one of the most beautiful songs I think that has ever been written. For years, I’ve listened to this song, without fully appreciating its true meaning. For those, who may not know, Blackbird is not only a reference to the bird but also to the race relations and the plight of African-American Women at that time.  1968 was a poignant year for America as only months earlier  Martin Luther King had been assassinated.

Recorded as a solo performance on the album with McCartney playing a Martin D 28 acoustic guitar, the lyrics brings goosebumps whenever I listen to it. It is a standard out song that captures a moment of history. The tune itself was based on Bach’s Bourée in E Minor, a tune Paul & George tried to teach themselves at school. 

But anyone who listened to the album will know that Blackbird isn’t the only creature to appear on the album, with Rocky Racoon and Piggies both appearing on the album and there’s the reference to the walrus in Glass Onion.  I remember the first few times I heard these songs and how visual the lyrics were in describing these characters.  As I writer and lover of music, I love musicians who can tell a character’s story as strongly as the Beatles.

Listen and enjoy the first four tracks and look out for more over the coming weeks

Blackbird

Piggies

Rocky Racoon

Glass Onion

Tracks from The Beatles

Written by: Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, Starr

Released: 22nd November 1968

Song 184 - Love me tender by Elvis Presley

If anyone ever learnt to play a keyboard in the 1990s, they probably learnt how to play Love Me Tender in volume 2 of the music books that went with them. I remember learning and hearing my mum play Love Me Tender on the keyboard. I also remember the afternoon I spilt tea all over the keyboard,  that definitely wasn't a tender moment between mother and child! Anyway, let's get back to Elvis.

Love Me Tender replaced Hound Dog as a number one hit in 1956. Adapted from a Civil War song, Aura Lee, which dates back to 1861, Elvis is jointly credited with writing the song with Ken Darby, who wrote under the name of his wife Vera Matson.  However, this joint accreditation was more to do with the publishing deal that Elvis's record label had which entitled him to 50% credit for the song production if he recorded it.  However, I don't think this affected the relationship between Elvis and Darby, as the latter would talk about Elvis's brilliance and his ability to be able to take a song and make it his own. Darby, himself, was a magnificent musician and composer in his own right. Having read about him in relation to this song, he belongs in my jukebox in his own right. 

Elvis first performed Love Me Tender on the Ed Sullivan Show on September 9th 1956, shortly before the single was released and a month before the film was released.  The single debuted at number 2, the first time a song had debuted on a chart in this position and would take the top spot from Hound Dog, staying at the top for five weeks.   The song reached number 11 on the UK Chart. The succession of number ones meant the Elvis was top of the charts for 16 years, a record that stood until 2004. 

Like many of Elvis's timeless hits, the song has been recorded by many artists since Elvis's recording. For me, the song stood out in the film Backbeat, which is an adaptation of the Beatles'early years in Hamburg and tells the story of the untimely death of Stuart Sutcliffe. If I hear the song at the right moment, tears will glisten in my eyes as there is something authentic in Elvis's voice and you feel the love & passion in his voice.

For me, out of all Elvis's songs, this is the one I wanted to put in the jukebox on the anniversary of his death.  When his death was announced 40th year ago,  it shocked the world so much that 40 years of conspiracy theories and sighting of Elvis has kept the King alive in so many people's hearts. I didn't really understand why people were so disbelieving in death. But now, having lost people central to my universe, I can understand it better now. To have one more day....

To hear Love Me Tender 

Love Me Tender by Elvis Presley

  

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 165 - Maggie May by Rod Stewart

Arise Sir Rod! With the 90th Queen's birthday honours list being announced yesterday, the news that Rod Stewart had been knighted for services to music made me really happy; and for me Maggie May is the iconic hit that I always think of when I think about Rob, as well as one of my oldest friends, who has always been one of the biggest Rod Stewart's fans that could possible be.

Written in 1971 by Stewart and Martin Quittenton, Maggie May was originally the B side to the single Reason to Believe  until many radio stations in the USA started to play the B side instead of the intended single. Promoters weren't fools and they reversed the single; allowing Maggie May to be released  as a single in October; where it reached number 1 in the charts of both the UK and the US. A feet that has only been achieved by a number of bands including The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel. The song would remain at the top of the UK chart for six weeks and was voted as one of 500 Greatest songs of all time by Rolling Stone magazine in 2004.

In an interview with Q magazine, Stewart confirmed that the song was written about his first encounter with a woman at a jazz festival in 1961, and the lyrics reflects the conflicting emotions of a 16 year old boy's feeling towards his older lover. Interestingly enough the name Maggie May comes from an old Liverpool Folk song about a prostitute who robbed a sailor at the docks, the folk song is known right around the world and The Beatles did their own version of it on their last studio album Let it be in 1970. (Honestly, I don't plan all these Beatles references.)

Maggie May comes from Rod Stewart's third solo Album Every Picture Tells a Story, also release in 1971. The album gained critic success when it was first released and had stayed one of the most important albums of his career. Featuring a mixture of rock, blues, country, solo and pop, the album took the number 1 slot in both the UK and the US. As well as the single Maggie May, Rod also included covers of That all right (Mamma) (The first single that Elvis released) and Tomorrow is a long time (Bob Dylan) and shows the range of Rod's voice.

With a career that dates back to 1961, it is perhaps no surprise that he has been knighted for his services to music. I recently caught up with my friend, the Rod Stewart fan, who had just purchased a vintage record player and is currently building up a record collection of vintage Rod Stewart's album, and we muse at the success of this music legend, and his ability to develop his style of music to fit the age of his voice, and having sold over 100 million records worldwide, whatever his formula is, it is obviously working.

When I heard the news of the knighthood, I thought back a moment of madness, we had as  children, when my friend asked our local record store if she could have the promotional material they had used to for the new Rod Stewart album and after they agreed taken it back to her bedroom so she could proudly hang it from her celling (I think it was a cupboard spanner). We all thought she was a bit bonkers with her loyalty to Rod Stewart back then, but I think now, she had an appreciation for a music icon that we stupidly didn't get. I should have realised sooner that there was something in her choice of music especially as, for her, Rod supports the wrong Scottish football team.

Enjoy Saturday's choice of music:
Maggie May by Sir Rod Stewart

Written by Rod Stewart and Martin Quittenton
Released: October 1971
Album: Every Picture tells a Story

Song 163 - Birthday by the Beatles

It might be an obvious song for me today but this song is relevant to somebody every day of the year, and if you have ever created a birthday mega mix for a friend, this was a great opening track.
Written, of course, by John Lennon and Paul McCartney it was the first song on the third side of their double album, The Beatles, which is more commonly known as the White Album. The White Album was recorded on the 18 September 1968 during a recording session and sees a return to traditional rock and roll style of the early Beatles' music. An interesting fact about this track was credited equally between John and Paul, at a time when, individually, they were all moving in their own musical direction. There has been some debate on whether this is true.

Birthday was never released as a single for the band; but would eventually be released by Paul McCartney as a live track in 1990 and it reached number 29 in the UK chart. Birthday is probably one of the more minor tracks of the Album, which includes tracks like Back in the USSR, Glass Onion, Julia, Blackbird, Honey Pie, and I will.  The list is endless. The White Album was the 9th studio album released by the Beatles in 1968, which followed Sgt. Pepper's Loney Hearts Club Band. The album shows the development of all four member of the band as individual musicians who were beginning to break away from each other. When you look at the album's credits names like Eric Clapton, Pattie Harrison, Mal Evans, Yoko Uno and Maureen Starky, you can see why sometimes the studio seemed very full when they were they were recording between May and November 1968. Most of the songs were written in India and you can hear its influence especially in George Harrison's music.

I remember, for a very long time, I didn't have this album on CD due to the expense and then I was given it for my birthday by my sister and brother-in-law as I had been apparently dropping hints about owning it, but I wasn't aware that I had been doing this.  Then friends of mine gave me a book all about the the album, which is just a perfect companion to the album. I think I now have three copies of the albums, both in Mono and Stereo. If you have the chance to listen to this album do as this it is a remarkable piece of art; but I will bet that you'll know songs from the album without even listening to it.

Listen to the Birthday track here

Cheers to everyone who has a birthday today.