The Rolling Stones hit #1 with “Brown Sugar”

Brown Sugar The Rolling Stones

Writer(s): Mick Jagger, Keith Richards (see lyrics here) Released: April 16, 1971 First Charted: April 24, 1971 Peak: 12 US, 2 CB, 3 GR, 13 HR, 1 CL, 2 UK, 13 CN, 5 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.45 UK, 0.45 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 3.0 radio, 36.9 video, 149.06 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: In 1971, the Rolling Stones launched their own label. “Once reviled as too scruffy and dirty for decent folk, they became the ruling rock elite, gentlemen of leisure, members of the international jet set.” FB They rolled out a new “immediately identifiable image” FB of a red mouth with a tongue sticking out as their logo. Their new album, Sticky Fingers, sported one of rock history’s most famous covers – an Andy Warhol-designed close-up shot of the crotch of a man’s jeans complete with a zipper. The first song released under this new incarnation was “Brown Sugar.” It is “a muscular rock song made special by [Bobby] Keys’ and [Keith] Richards’ driving riffs and [Mick] Jagger’s steamy lyrics.” LW It was their sixth trip to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and reached #2 in the UK. The song was written in 1969 and recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama that December. They debuted it live at the infamous Altamont Speedway concert in which a fan was stabbed to death. The lyrics are about “slaves from Africa who were sold in New Orleans and raped by their white masters. The subject matter is quite serious, but the way the song is structured, it comes off as a fun rocker about a white guy having sex with a black girl.” SF The song understandably generated controversy for misogyny and racism. WK In his book Up and Down with the Rolling Stones, Tony Sanchez suggests “all the slavery and whipping is a double meaning for the perils of being ‘mastered’ by Brown Heroin or ‘Brown Sugar.’” SF Mick Jagger said the song was a “dual combination of drugs and girls.” WK It was “essentially a pastiche of…taboo subjects, including slavery, rape, interracial sex, cunnillingus, sadomasochism, lost virginity, and heroin.” WK In a 1995 Rolling Stone interview, he said it was “a mishmash [of] all the nasty subjects in one go…I never would write that song now.” WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for The Rolling Stones FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 292. LW Alan Lewens (2001). Popular Song – Soundtrack of the Century. Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 132. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 2/10/2021; last updated 11/22/2022.

Marvin Gaye released What’s Going On

First posted 3/18/2008; updated 12/1/2020.

What’s Going On Marvin Gaye

Released: May 21, 1971 Peak: 6 US, 19 RB, 56 UK, 37 CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.3 UK, 1.3 world (includes US and UK) Genre: R&B

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. What's Going On (1/21/71, 2 US, 1 RB, 69 UK) What’s Happening Brother Flyin’ High in the Friendly Sky Save the Children (12/11/71, 41 UK) God Is Love Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) (6/10/71, 4 US, 1 RB, 34 AC) Right On Wholy Holy Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) (10/9/71, 9 US, 1 RB) Total Running Time: 35:38

Rating: 4.688 out of 5.00 (average of 24 ratings) Quotable: “The most important and passionate record to come out of soul music.” – John Bush, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “A masterful stylist of sophisticated soul, Marvin Gaye helped promote the Motown sound throughout the 1960s.” NRR However, “Motown Records – which introduced the concept of the assembly line to pop music – had no interest in giving its artists creative control, much less in venturing into territory that was explicitly political.” BN “Late in 1970, Gaye decided to record a song that the Four Tops’ Obie Benson had brought him, What’s Going On. When [Motown founder] Berry Gordy decided not to issue the single, deeming it uncommercial,” AMG then Gaye, “the label’s greatest pure vocalist,” TL “refused to record any more material.” AMG “Gordy finally, grudgingly caved to Gaye’s artistic ambitions” TL “after the [single’s] tremendous commercial success in January 1971.” AMG Gaye “recorded the rest of the album over ten days in March.” AMG “Finally free to speak his mind and so move from R&B sex symbol to true recording artist,” AMG Gaye created what “was far and away the best full-length to issue from the singles-dominated Motown factory.” AMG His “self-written, self-produced, concept album” NRR was more than just a peak for Motown; it was “the most important and passionate record to come out of soul music” AMG and “one of the defining albums of its time,” TL allowing Gaye to explore “deeply held spiritual beliefs and social commentary on cultural events of the day.” NRR “Conceived as a statement from the viewpoint of a Vietnam veteran (Gaye’s brother Frankie had returned from a three-year hitch in 1967),” AMG “What’s Going On chronicled a multitude of societal ills.” BN It “isn’t just the question of a baffled soldier returning home to a strange place, but a promise that listeners would be informed by what they heard (that missing question mark in the title certainly wasn’t a typo).” AMG “Gaye meditated on what had happened to the American dream of the past – as it related to urban decay, environmental woes, military turbulence, police brutality, unemployment, and poverty. These feelings had been bubbling up between 1967 and 1970, during which he felt increasingly caged by Motown’s behind-the-times hit machine and restrained from expressing himself seriously through his music.” AMG “Alternately depressed and hopeful, angry and jubilant, Gaye saved the most sublime, deeply inspired performances of his career for Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology), Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler), and Save the Children.” AMG What’s Going On “catapulted Marvin Gaye into superstardom.” BN It was his “masterwork, the most perfect expression of an artist’s hope, anger, and concern ever recorded.” AMG It “not only kicked off an era of unprecedented social consciousness in R&B, it also introduced a whole new style of making records.” TL “Marvin overdubbed his voice multiple times, creating a one-man vocal group,” BN and layered “rhythm tracks into mellow, hypnotic grooves that made the hard-nosed message…utterly irresistible.” TL The resulting sound of the album “was like no other record heard before it: languid, dark and jazzy, a series of relaxed grooves with a heavy bottom, filled by thick basslines along with bongos, conga, and other percussion.” AMG “Fortunately, this aesthetic fit in perfectly with the style of long-time Motown sessionmen like bassist James Jamerson and guitarist Joe Messina. When the Funk Brothers were, for once, allowed the opportunity to work in relaxed, open proceedings, they produced the best work of their careers (and indeed, they recognized its importance before any of the Motown executives). Jamerson’s playing on ‘Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)’ functions as the low-end foundation but also its melodic hook, while an improvisatory jam by Eli Fountain on alto sax furnished the album’s opening flourish.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: Marvin Gaye’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry AMG All Music Guide review by John Bush BN Barnes & Noble review by Rob Bowman NRR National Recording Registry TL Time Magazine’s All-TIME 100 Albums by Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light (11/13/06).

50 years ago: Hank Williams “Cold Cold Heart” hit #1 on country chart

Cold, Cold Heart Hank Williams

Writer(s): Hank Williams (see lyrics here) Released: February 2, 1951 First Charted: March 17, 1951 Peak: 27 US, 2 HP, 1 CB, 11 CW, 17 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 2.0 radio, 13.2 video, -- streaming

Cold, Cold Heart Tony Bennett with Percy Faith’s Orchestra

Released: July 2, 1951 First Charted: July 28, 1951 Peak: 16 US, 2 HP, 1 CB (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 2.0 radio, -- video, -- streaming

Awards (Williams): Click on award for more details.

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Awards (Bennett):

About the Song: Hank Williams was only 29 years old when he died on New Year’s Day 1953. Thanks to hard living, “he could have passed for 50.” LW In his short life, however, he “set the parameters of country music.” LW He was “a master of the three-chord song” LW and “the spirit and the look of country music, all cowboy hat and rhinestones.” LW “He had a gift of sounding as though he lived in his songs, and…he probably did.” LW He is “one of a handful of performers who have shaped the music of the [21st] century.” LW “The inspiration for the song which would really open Hank Williams’s music to the whole world was born in a hospital.” AC His wife, Audrey, was suffering from an infection brought on by a self-performed abortion, unbeknownst to Hank. WK He went to visit her, offering up a mink coat to apologize for the problems he caused. His drinking drove a wedge between them, but he thought he could make it clear “he loved her even more than he loved his vices.” AC When his housekeeper asked about how Audrey was doing, Williams said “she’s got the coldest heart I’ve ever seen.” AC That night he wrote down his thoughts, crafting what “would become his personal favorite of the more than one hundred songs he wrote.” AC The melody was adapted from “You’ll Still Be in My Heart,” a song written by Ted West in 1943 and recorded two years later by T. Texas Tyler. WK Williams recorded the song on December 21, 1950. “This is the song which reveals not only what Hank most wanted, but how helpless he was in trying to obtain it.” AC Williams had other songs which topped the country charts for more weeks, but “Cold, Cold Heart” “lingered on radio station playlists for forty-six weeks.” AC It has become “one of country music’s most beloved songs.” AC Crooner Tony Bennett recorded the song with an orchestra and took it to the top of the pop charts. “Many critics credit this single with fully establishing Bennett as a star.” AC It also paved “the way for country stars to make inroads into the lucrative pop market.” WK “Real country music by real country performers had crossed over.” LW Resources: AC Ace Collins (1996). The Stories Behind Country Music’s All-Time Greatest 100 Songs. New York, NY; The Berkley Publishing Group. Pages 74-75. LW Alan Lewens (2001). Popular Song – Soundtrack of the Century. Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 93. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/22/2022.