Boston's self-titled debut released

Boston Boston

Released: August 25, 1976 Peak: 3 US, 11 UK, 7 CN, 16 AU Sales (in millions): 17.0 US, 0.1 UK, 28.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: classic rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. More Than a Feeling [4:45] (9/11/76, 5 US, 4 CB, 4 HR, 2 RR, 1 CL, 22 UK, 4 CN, 11 AU) Peace of Mind [5:02] (5/7/77, 38 US, 33 CB, 39 HR, 1 CL, 41 CN) Foreplay/Longtime [7:48] (1/22/77, 22 US, 12 CB, 13 RR, 1 CL, 9 CN) Rock and Roll Band [2:50] (2 CL) Smokin’ (Delp/ Scholz) [4:20] (3 CL) Hitch a Ride [4:12] (6 CL) Something about You [3:48] (7 CL) Let Me Take You Home Tonight (Delp/ Scholz) [4:13] (6 CL) All songs written by Tom Scholz unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 37:08 The Players: Tom Scholz (guitars, organ, bass, clavinet, etc.) Brad Delp (vocals, acoustic guitar) Barry Goudreau (guitar) Fran Sheehan (bass) Sib Hashian, Jim Madea (drums)

Rating: 4.190 out of 5.00 (average of 26 ratings) Quotable: “Boston is essential for any fan of classic rock” – Vik Iyenyard, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Nearly every song on Boston’s debut album can still be heard on classic rock radio today due to the strong vocals of Brad Delp and unique guitar sound of Tom Scholz.” VI “This masterwork of studio-happy, high-school-parking-lot music” RW is now one of the best-selling albums of all time and second only to Guns N’ Roses Appetite for Destrcution as the best-selling debut by an American rock band, WK but it wasn’t an overnight success. Scholz told The Vinyl Guide he’d worked on the album roughly six years, getting rejected from two dozen record companies along the way. VG “Because of the rise of disco and punk, FM rock radio seemed all but dead until the rise of acts like Boston, Tom Petty, and Bruce Springsteen.” VI Scholz did most of the recording in his home recording studio in his basement at night while holding down a day-job with Polaroid. VG He has become legendary – or infamous, depending on your perspective – for self-designed equipment such as 12-track recording devices VI and studio perfectionism. He said he didn’t set out to do most of the work himself, but ended up doing it that way because it was the only way to get the sound he wanted. VG Eventually the demos attracted the attention of Epic Records, but they wanted the songs re-recorded in a “professional” studio. Scholz was determined to re-cut the songs on his own and Epic producer John Boylan helped “create a diversion” with a band making new studio recordings of the songs in Los Angeles while Scholz continued to redo the recordings in his home studio. WK Epic Records coined the slogan “Better music through science” to promote the album. Scholz hated the term, because it implied that he’d crafted the music with keyboards and synthesizers when, in fact, he hadn’t used them at all. VG He created “an anthemic ‘arena rock’ sound before the term was even coined. The sound was hard rock, but the layered melodies and harmonics reveal the work of a master craftsman.” VI He “fine-tuned his overdubbed guitar orchestra to a pitch that a thousand subsequent album-rockers couldn’t resist.” RW “While much has been written about the sound of the album, the lyrics are often overlooked. There are songs about their rise from a bar band (Rock and Roll Band) as well as fond remembrances of summers gone by (More Than a Feeling).” VI “The pseudo-cosmic ambience invites scoffs…but it’s really just part of the disc’s charm.” RW “Boston is essential for any fan of classic rock, and the album marks the re-emergence of the genre in the 1970s.” VI Even the album cover became iconic. Initially, though, the creative team sent Scholz potential covers of a head of Boston lettuce, a slice of Boston crème pie, and a pot of Boston baked beans. VG On The Vinyl Guide podcast, Scholz mused, “Did they even listen to the music?” VG He pondered if the record company was “confused in between selling records and selling produce.” VG Scholz suggested a guitar-shaped spaceship and Roger Huyssen ended up creating the artwork based on that idea.

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Boston VI Vik Iyengar, All Music Guide VG Vinyl Guide podcast (8/23/2021). “Ep. 297: Tom Scholz – 45 Years of Boston” VG Vinyl Guide podcast (8/26/2021). “Ep. 298: Tom Scholz – Being Analog in a Digital World” WK Wikipedia RW Rickey Wright, Amazon.com Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 2/19/2008; last updated 8/25/2021.

100 years ago: Wagner's Ring Cycle completes its first full performance

Der Ring Des Nibelungen (The Ring Cycle) Richard Wagner (composer)

Composed: 1848-1876 First Performed as a Cycle: August 13-17, 1876 Peak: -- Sales (in millions): -- Genre: classical > opera

Works/When Composed (w)/When First Performed (p)/Average Duration: Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold), opera, WWV 86a (w. 1853-54, p. 9/22/1869) [148:00] Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), opera, WWV 86b (w. 1854-56, p. 6/26/1870) [220:00] Siegfried, opera, WWV 86c (w. 1856-71, p. 8/16/1876) [235:40] Die Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), opera, WWV 86d (w. 1869-74, p. 8/17/1876) [259:10]

Rating: 3.477 out of 5.00 (average of 7 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Work: Stretched out over 15 hours, Wagner’s Ring Cycle comprises “one of the most extended of all artistic creations.” AMG His series of four operas, created over a quarter century, are sometimes performed separately, but Wagner intended them as a series. The first opera, Das Rheingold, is the shortest, typically running about two and a half hours, while Götterdämmerung , the last of the four, can run five hours. WK He eventually premiered the full cycle from August 13-17 in 1876 WK at his Festival Theater in Bayreuth. TM1 The four-day event was seen by audiences as comparable to visiting a shrine. To this day, the staging and attending of the full Ring Cycle is considered “the most significant events in the lives of both opera companies and opera-going fans.” AMG The story centers around characters based on the Norse sagas, following three generations of protagonists. Alberich is a dwarf who, with gold stolen from the Rhine maidens in the river Rhine, fashions a magic ring which gives him the power to rule the world. WK Wotan, the chief of the gods, oversees the existing world order ruling through adherence to contracts, which he keeps on a spear. AMG He schemes to regain the ring and also sacrifices an eye to gain the hand of Fricka, the goddess of marriage. AMG Alberich and Wotan are opposites, in that one has sacrificed love for power and the other sacrifices for love. AMG Musically, there are suites of motives headed by the Ring which are marked by a simple pair of chords while “an imposingly-rhythmed downward major scale” AMG marks the motives ruled by the Spear. Nature, a third force from the beginning of the opera which represents the power between Man and Gods, “is represented by a single chord, unwound into a slow upward arpeggio.” AMG “The music of the cycle is thick and richly textured and grows in complexity as the cycle proceeds. Wagner wrote for an orchestra of gargantuan proportions, including a greatly enlarged brass section with new instruments such as the Wagner tuba, bass trumpet and contrabass trombone” WK and minimal use of a chorus. WK In the first opera, Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold), greed and the lust for power are beginning to corrupt the world. The Ring, Wotan’s spear, and the renunciation of love are introduced. Wotan’s human children, Siegmund and Sieglinde, and the Valkyrie, Brünnhilde, inherit situations brought on by a series of “gods, nymphs, giants, and dwarves.” TM1 The second opera, Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), is the one most often performed separately and is arguably Wagner’s best-loved work. The story focuses on the incestuous love between Siegmund and Sieglinde “and the father-daughter relationship of Wotan and Brünnhilde.” TM2 Wagner halted work on Siegfried, the third opera, in 1857 when the Ring project hit financial obstacles. Wagner moved on to other works, including Tristan and Die Meistersinger, before finally returning to the Ring in 1869, TM3 during which time Wagner moved from his initial intent to make Siegfried as the drama’s hero to a greater exploration of Wotan. He also developed a more pessimistic stance in which greed and corruption could not be overcome by the power of love alone. TM3 As the longest of the four operas, Die Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) is “one of the longest evenings of opera in the standard repertory.” TM4 “‘Siegfried’s Rhine Journey’ probably comprise the longest continuous stretch of music heard in any operatic work.” TM4 “Despite this, the drama is so compressed that events seem almost to race to their cataclysmic end.” TM4 “Musically, Wagner has gained such mastery of his drama and musical motives, that he treats both with superb fluidity.” TM4 Wagner completed the entire opera on November 21, 1874. TM4

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Richard Wagner AMG All Music Guide TM1 Theresa Muir All Music Guide (The Rhine Gold) TM2 Theresa Muir, All Music Guide (The Valkyrie) TM3 Theresa Muir, All Music Guide (Siegfried) TM4 Theresa Muir, All Music Guide (Twilight of the Gods) WK Wikipedia Last updated 4/17/2022.

Elton John & Kiki Dee hit #1 with “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”

Don’t Go Breaking My Heart Elton John & Kiki Dee

Writer(s): Elton John & Bernie Taupin (as Ann Orson & Carte Blanche) (see lyrics here) Released: June 21, 1976 First Charted: July 2, 1976 Peak: 14 US, 13 CB, 15 GR, 15 HR, 17 RR, 11 AC, 1 CL, 16 UK, 13 CN, 11 AU, 3 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 1.1 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 62.7 video, 366.71 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Elton John and Bernie Taupin proved to be one of the most reliable, hit-making songwriting teams in the 1970s, landing #1 songs with “Crocodile Rock,” “Bennie and the Jets,” “Philadelphia Freedom,” and “Island Girl.” “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” was the pair’s fifth trip to the top in the United States, but their first time in the UK. Technically, it isn’t credited to them since they wrote it under the pseudonyms Ann Orson and Carte Blanche. Billboard ranked it the #2 song of 1976 behind Paul McCartney & Wings’ “Silly Love Songs.” When Elton John launched Rocket Records in the mid-‘70s, Kiki Dee was the first artist signed to the new label. Elton said, “It just seemed natural that we should try and write something for her – she really is an incredible singer.” KL However, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” was reportedly offered first to Dusty Springfield, but she was too ill at the time and had to decline. WK Kiki explained that she and Elton were big fans of Motown duets by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell and “thought we’d do one ourselves.” KL They considered covering a Motown song, “Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever” by the Four Tops, SF but opted for an original instead. Elton recorded the song in Toronto, SF singing Kiki’s parts in a high-pitched voice, and then sent it to her in London. KL The song was recorded during sessions for Elton’s Blue Moves, but didn’t appear on that album. The two made a video where they just sang the song together around the microphone. Kiki said of the piano man, “I don’t think Elton’s ever recorded standing up and I don’t think he quite knew what to do with his hands. When you consider all the cross-cutting in today’s videos I think our video is quite sweet. It’s just us in a TV studio.” KL Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Elton John FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 440. JA David A. Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 49. KL Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh (2005). 1000 UK Number One Hits: The Stories Behind Every Number One Single Since 1952. London, Great Britain: Omnibus Press. Page 222. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 4/3/2021; last updated 11/26/2022.