Sunday, January 30, 2011

50 years ago: The Shirelles hit #1 with “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”

Will You Love Me Tomorrow

The Shirelles

Writer(s): Gerry Goffin/Carole King (see lyrics here)


First Charted: November 21, 1960


Peak: 12 US, 12 CB, 11 GR, 2 HR, 2 RB, 4 UK, 2 CN, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.)


Sales (in millions): --


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 55.0 video, 76.46 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Carole King started as a performer, turned to songwriting, and then returned to performing. Her songwriting success was marked by her pairing with Gerry Goffin, who aspired to Broadway while she was more interested in rock music. As she said, “I wrote music for his play, which never went anywhere, and he wrote lyrics for my rock & roll songs, which did go somewhere!” TC

The two married and both worked day jobs while writing on the side for Don Kirshner’s Aldon music. She had worked up a melody one day and when he came home from work, he added lyrics. As King said, “It was as if he’d been thinking of the lyric all day at work.” TC When Kirshner heard “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” he gave them a $10,000 advance and their career took off. Goffin and King secured an office in the famous Brill Building. They “represented a new, young generation of Tin Pan Alley writers with an intuitive feel for the newly established teen market.” LW They “became the most popular songwriting team of the decade.” TC

The song focused on “female teenage sexuality, a subject difficult to put into song without pandering and almost impossible to render with this much pathos.” MA A song about virginity was risqué in 1960. Not only is it implied that the man might not have feelings for her, but that by the end of the song the girl is going to say yes. HL Author Alan Lewens asserts that it was “the first popular song to deal with emotional issues from a female perspective.” LW

It was also the first #1 for a girl group RS500 and a black group at that. It succeeds thanks to “the catchiest of melodies, a sympathetic arrangement and a sensitive lead vocal” HL from lead singer Shirley Owens, who brings a “full, woman-like sensuality” TC to the song. She initially considered the song “too countryish” RS500 but the song’s production and “gospel-based call-and-response harmonies gave the sound an exciting quality.” HL The record is “a masterpiece of early sixties New York studio craft” MA and “perhaps the most lush of all the girl group classics.” MA


Resources:


First posted 4/16/2020; last updated 11/23/2022.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Everything Old Is New Again


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I may have missed the boat on timeliness in regards to year-end best-of lists, but is it too late to reflect on the best music which 2010 had to offer? I’m going with “no” otherwise this is a really short article. In an effort to look hip, gain indie cred, and try to appear in touch with what is taking up space on the tuned-in twentysomething’s iPod, I could rave about albums like Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs. Despite going to #1 on Billboard’s album chart, the best-of lists are pretty much anointing this go-to indie darling as the album of the year.




Click photo for more about the album.


Certainly I have logged listening time with acts either on their debuts or still finding their audience. Gaslight Anthem, the Hold Steady, Band of Horses, the National, Florence + the Machine, Marina & the Diamonds, Mumford & Sons, and the XX have all made their way into my digital library. Still, some of that “new” music pre-dates 2010. It was Gaslight Anthem’s 2008 album The ’59 Sound that garnered more of my attention than their 2010 American Slang album. Also, while they may have gained attention this year, some acts – like Florence, Mumford, and the XX – technically are 2009 releases.




Click photo for more about the album.


Then again, technicality may rule out a lot of my 2010 favorites. Truth be told, many of my past year’s gems make me look 20 years older than I am. For the record, I’m 43. Some of my most-listened-to riches of the last 365 days are actually archival projects dating back to the ‘60s and ‘70s. Even new product often is dominated by artists whose careers date back 30+ years.

It probably is no accident that many of my favorite new acts are tripping over themselves to pay homage to the man behind my favorite 2010 release – Bruce Springsteen. Gaslight Anthem, the Hold Steady, and Arcade Fire have all cited The Boss as an influence; the Gaslight Anthem have made a habit of liberally quoting lyrics by the Boss within their own songs.

However, no one does Bruce like Bruce. In celebration of the reissue of his 1978 classic Darkness on the Edge of Town, Springsteen rolled out The Promise, a double-disc collection of 21 songs written and recorded in the same time frame but never released. Included are his original versions of “Fire,” which became a #2 pop smash for the R&B-oriented Pointer Sisters, and “Because the Night,” which co-writer Patti Smith turned into a #13 hit. What astonishes me is that this collection doesn’t have a dusty, from-the-vaults feel, but holds up with 1975’s Born to Run and 1978’s Darkness, the classics which bookend it.




Click photo for more about the album.


Any year brings a crop of standout archival releases, but the treasure chest seemed especially full in 2010. In a similar vein to the Bruce reissue, the Rolling Stones released a deluxe edition of their 1972 Exile on Main Street, often hailed as their best work. While not as extravagant, the package still boasted an album’s worth of material with its origins in the same sessions that produced Exile. While “Plundered My Soul” and “Following the River” aren’t “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” or “Start Me Up,” they are worthy entries into the Stones’ catalog.




Click photo for more about the album.


Bob Dylan thrust his ninth edition of the Bootleg Series (The Witmark Demos 1962-1964) upon the public, this one comprised of 47 demos from the beginning of his career. The collection offers a peak at the rough versions of many familiar tunes in his repertoire, but also digs up unreleased rarities.




Click photo for more about the album.


It is one thing for a still-working artist to dive into their boxed-up-in the-attic oldies, but it is admirable when an iconic artist disallows a little thing like death to stop his musical output. Thirty years in the ground didn’t stop Jimi Hendrix from his umpteenth trip to the well for Valleys of Neptune and being seven years gone didn’t stop Johnny Cash from his second posthumous studio effort. Heck, the Man in Black even snubbed his nose at death by titling his album Ain’t No Grave.



Click photo for more about the album.


For a list purist, these titles would generally be relegated to a special reissue top 10 list, leaving me a little light in my official list. Thankfully, there are artists out there neither digging up their pasts nor stubbornly defying the boundaries inflicted upon them by a pine box six feet under. For example, John Mellencamp put out No Better Than This, an album of completely new material. It just sounded like it was made in the ‘50s. That’s because he, along with go-to Americana producer T-Bone Burnett, crafted the new tunes with equipment and methods dating back to the roots of rock and roll. In publicity for the album, much has been made of songs recorded in the footprints of pioneers like Elvis Presley and Robert Johnson. Hype aside, Mellencamp made an album of which blues and rock pioneers could be proud.




Click photo for more about the album.


T-Bone was awfully busy this year, also helping Elton John hook up with idol Leon Russell for The Union and letting Elvis Costello strut his “I can tackle any musical genre” stuff with National Ransom.

Of course, his most celebrated work in recent years was Raising Sand, Robert Plant’s 2007 release with Alison Krauss which garnered a Grammy for Album of the Year. It was the second such award for T-Bone as a producer, following the 2000 soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou? However, with Plant’s follow-up, Band of Joy, he went with producer Buddy Miller and turned to Patti Griffin for the album’s female presence. The aim appeared the same, however, as Plant continued to prove that even the heaviest of rockers can go all folksy once their golden manes have grayed and sentimentality leads them down that “back to my roots” path.




Click photo for more about the album.


Another favorite came from Peter Gabriel, a veteran whose solo endeavors and work with prog-rock outfit Genesis give him a resume dating back to the late ‘60s. Since his album Scratch My Back consisted of covers of tunes by David Bowie, Lou Reed, Paul Simon, Neil Young, and others so it doesn’t completely feel like a “new” release though he did tap some contemporary indie faves like Arcade Fire, Elbow, Bon Iver, and Radiohead for some source material.




Click photo for more about the album.


Santana found a way to be unoriginal on two fronts. He also released a covers album (Guitar Heaven) and did so in the same format he’s relied on for more than a decade – a slew of guest vocalists. While I’ve reserved most of my comments for praise, this was a stinker. I’m pretty sure most people would rather hear Deep Purple do “Smoke on the Water” than Papa Roach’s Jacoby Shaddix backed by Carlos on guitar.



Click photo for more about the album.


Jerry Lee Lewis went down a similar path, releasing Mean Old Man, an album of covers recorded with other musical giants such as Keith Richards, Ringo Starr, John Fogerty, Robbie Robertson, and Eric Clapton. The album might have been at least a little more original if Lewis hadn’t done exactly the same thing with 2006’s Last Man Standing – which included all of the same guest artists as listed above.



Click photo for more about the album.


Speaking of Clapton, I could have also done without his latest outing. Given the painfully un-inspiring title of Clapton, the packaging suggested a career-defining retrospective, but the contents were an attempt to mix the two kinds of albums he’s made since his Unplugged days. That album gained him an adult contemporary audience while simultaneously giving Clapton more free reign than ever before to do completely blues-based albums. He’s generally jumped back and forth between the two formats since, but this time out he tried to merge them. The result is a collection of obscure covers which aren’t sure if they are trying to be blues or adult contemporary.


Click photo for more about the album.


However, some forays into the covers world were worthy of attention. Alongside the previously mentioned Plant, Cash, and Gabriel projects was another long-in-the-tooth classic songwriter, Brian Wilson, leaning on the past for inspiration. He wasn’t going for obscure, though – he turned to George Gershwin for Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin. I read one review hailing the effort as even better than the Wilson-led Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. Since that is generally seen as Wilson’s best work and has even been called the best album of all time, that would lift the Gershwin recordings to a little loftier position than I’m comfortable with, but it was an inspired work.



Click photo for more about the album.


There were other 2010-meets-the-1970s-or-before purchases which were welcome additions to my library – and didn’t even rely on cover songs. Neil Finn, who traces his musical introduction to the world back to the ‘70s with new wave outfit Split Enz, was back with Crowded House. This crew of witty pop tunesmiths had their heyday in the ‘80s, but are back with their follow-up (Intriguer) to their 2007 Time on Earth reunion album.




Click photo for more about the album.


Similarly, Chris Difford’s Cashmere if I Can consisted of new material but his beginning days with Squeeze take him back to the same musical territory tread by Finn. In fact, Difford and the rest of the current Squeeze lineup even thrust a completely unnecessary collection of re-recorded versions of their own songs upon us with Spot the Difference.



Click photo for more about the album.


It all begs one to spit out clichés like “everything old is new again” – or even go so far as to give a blog entry that lame title. However, in a year when the Boss, the Stones, Dylan, Hendrix, and Cash put out some of my favorites, I can’t help but celebrate. Why should age – of either the artist or the songs themselves – hamper greatness? Here’s hoping that 2011 will give us new John Lennon and Elvis Presley material that can stand alongside anything done in 2010.

My Top 10 of 2010:
1. Bruce Springsteen The Promise
2. The Rolling Stones Exile on Main St. (Deluxe Edition)
3. John Mellencamp No Better Than This
4. Bob Dylan The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964
5. Peter Gabriel Scratch My Back
6. Chris Difford Cashmere if You Can
7. Johnny Cash American VI: Ain’t No Grave
8. Jimi Hendrix Valleys of Neptune
9. Crowded House Intriguer
10. Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Today in Music (1811): Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 was performed for the first time

Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major (Emperor)

Ludwig van Beethoven


Composed: 1809-1811


First Performed: January 13, 1811


Peak: --


Sales (in millions): --


Genre: classical > piano concerto


Parts/Movements:

  1. Allegro
  2. Adagio un poco moto
  3. Rondo, Allegro


Average Duration: 38:40

Rating:

4.144 out of 5.00 (average of 7 ratings)


Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Work:

This work is often known as the “Emperor Concerto,” so-named by Johann Baptist Cramer, the English publisher of the concerto. WK “There is hardly an adjective that could more aptly evoke the work’s impressive scale and majesty. Despite its considerable technical demands, the ‘Emperor’ Concerto handily transcends the typical role of the concerto as a mere virtuoso vehicle. Indeed, it is virtually symphonic in conception; its E flat major key (the same as that of the ‘Eroica’ Symphony), expansive form, and sometimes martial, always grand, character grant the concerto a place among the defining works in the composer’s heroic vein.” MR

“In the Piano Concerto No. 4, Beethoven made a striking break with convention in commencing the work with a piano solo. In the opening Allegro of No. 5, he takes this idea to an extreme, providing the soloist with an extended cadenza, punctuated by tutti chords from the orchestra, that outlines in miniature the entire 20-minute movement. The main theme is marchlike and assertive; the somewhat more relaxed second theme first appears cloaked in mystery, in a minor-key version that soon gives way to the expected statement in the dominant major. The grandeur of the movement is colored by excursions to remote keys that, however, never fully thwart the powerful forward drive.” MR

This piece was Beethoven’s last completed piano concerto. WK His advanced deafness, which eventually ended his own career as a pianist, may have stirred his “lost interest in concertante works.” MR Although he performed his four previous concertos, he never publicly played this one. MR

It was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, his patron and pupil. It was first performed in Vienna at the Palace of Prince Joseph Lobkowitz with Rudolf serving as the soloist. A public concert was held in Leipzig at the Gweandhaus on 11/28/1811 with Friedrich Schneider serving as the soloist and Johann Philipp Christian Schulz as the conductor. WK

Resources and Related Links:


Last updated 4/17/2022.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Bruno Mars hit #1 with “Grenade”

Grenade

Bruno Mars

Writer(s): Bruno Mars, Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine, Brody Brown, Claude Kelly, Andrew Wyatt (see lyrics here)


Released: September 28, 2010


First Charted: October 16, 2010


Peak: 14 US, 13 BA, 15 DG, 11 AC, 3 A40, 12 UK, 13 CN, 13 AU, 12 DF (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): 10.0 US, 1.2 UK, 12.17 world (includes US + UK)


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.2 radio, 1134.4 video, 1043.39 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

“Grenade” was a pop and R&B ballad from Bruno Mars’ debut studio album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans. Originally released as a promotional single before the album, it later became the album’s official second single. It was only his second single as a solo artist, although he hit the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 twice (#1 on B.o.B.’s “Nothin’ on You,” #4 on Travie McCoy’s “Billionaire”) before his debut single, “Just the Way You Are (Amazing)” hit the summit.

Mars was the first solo male to send his first four entires to the top ten since Rick Astley did it in 1988-89. SF Mars was also the first male act since P. Diddy, 13 years earlier, to take his first two songs as a lead artist to the top. SF The song hit #1 in fifteen countries WK and was nominated for Grammys for Song and Record of the Year.

In “Grenade,” Bruno Mars assures his “hard-to-please girl” that “he would catch a grenade for her, along with other assorted foolhardy acts.” SF The video echoed that them as it depicted Mars dragging an upright piano through the streets of Los Angeles in an effort to sing to a girl about how he’d do anything for her. Mars said he got the inspiration for the song from Benny Bianco, who co-wrote the #1 songs “I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry and “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha. SF

The Smeezingtons (Mars, Phillip Lawrence, and Ari Levine) produced and wrote the song. Brody Brown, Claude Kelly, and Andrew Wyatt also received songwriting credits. The song originally had an “uptempo 1960’s surf-style sound with a jangle pop,” WK but Mars stripped it down and slowed the pace. WK That ended up being the version recorded and praised by the label. WK

Entertainment Weekly’s Leah Greenblatt called the song a “captivating masochist’s anthem” WK while Consequence of Sound’s Kevin Barber said it “showcases his Michael Jackson-esque vocal range.” WK


Resources:


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Last updated 7/20/2023.