Bob Marley & The Wailers released Natty Dread

Natty Dread Bob Marley & the Wailers

Released: October 25, 1974 Peak: 92 US, 44 RB, 43 UK, 98 AU Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.1 UK, 2.5 world (includes US and UK) Genre: reggae

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Lively Up Yourself (1971, --) No Woman, No Cry (8/75, 8 UK) Them Belly Full But We Hungry Rebel Music (3 O’Clock Road Block) So Jah She Natty Dread (6/75, --) Bend Down Low (4/67, --) Talkin’ Blues Revolution Total Running Time: 38:59 The Players: Bob Marley (vocals, rhythm guitar) Aston “Family Man” Barrett (bass) Carlton “Carlie” Barrett (drums, percussion) Bernard “Touter” Harvey, Jean Roussel (piano, organ, keyboards) Al Anderson (guitar) Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt, Griffiths (backing vocals)

Rating: 4.130 out of 5.00 (average of 20 ratings) Quotable: “The ultimate reggae recording of all time” – Jim Newsom, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Natty Dread is Bob Marley’s finest album, the ultimate reggae recording of all time. This was Marley’s first album without former bandmates Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston, and the first released as Bob Marley & the Wailers. The Wailers’ rhythm section of bassist Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett and drummer Carlton ‘Carlie’ Barrett remained in place and even contributed to the songwriting, while Marley added a female vocal trio, the I-Threes (which included his wife Rita Marley), and additional instrumentation to flesh out the sound.” AMG “The material presented here defines what reggae was originally all about, with political and social commentary mixed with religious paeans to Jah. The celebratory Lively Up Yourself falls in the same vein as ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ from Burnin’. No Woman, No Cry is one of the band's best-known ballads. Them Belly Full (But We Hungry) is a powerful warning that ‘a hungry mob is an angry mob.’ Rebel Music (3 O'Clock Road Block) and Revolution continue in that spirit, as Marley assumes the mantle of prophet abandoned by ’60s forebears like Bob Dylan.” AMG “In addition to the lyrical strengths, the music itself is full of emotion and playfulness, with the players locked into a solid groove on each number. Considering that popular rock music was entering the somnambulant disco era as Natty Dread was released, the lyrical and musical potency is especially striking. Marley was taking on discrimination, greed, poverty, and hopelessness while simultaneously rallying the troops as no other musical performer was attempting to do in the mid-‘70s.” AMG Notes: The 2001 Definitive Remasters edition also includes the track "Am-A-Do," which was recorded during the Natty Dread sessions but shelved until the 1991 compilation Talkin' Blues.

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Bob Marley AMG All Music Guide review by Jim Newsom First posted 3/26/2008; updated 5/10/2021.

 

Supertramp Crime of the Century released

Crime of the Century Supertramp

Released: October 25, 1974 Peak: 38 US, 4 UK, 4 CN, 15 AU, 14 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, -- UK, 4.50 world (includes US and UK), 12.45 EAS Genre: classic rock/progressive rock

Tracks: Click on a song titled for more details. School [5:35] Bloody Well Right [4:32] Hide in Your Shell [6:49] Asylum [6:45] Dreamer [3:31] Rudy [7:17] If Everyone Was Listening [4:04] Crime of the Century [5:36] Total Running Time: 44:10 The Players: Rick Davies (vocals, keyboards, harmonica) Roger Hodgson (vocals, guitar, piano) Dougie Thomson (bass) Bob Siebenberg (drums) John Helliwell (saxophone, clarinet, backing vocals)

Rating: 4.202 out of 5.00 (average of 28 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

An Uncertain Future Supertramp formed in London in 1970, releasing a self-titled album that year and Indelibly Stamped a year later. Then it came to a screeching halt. Stanley Miesegaes, a Dutch millionaire, had served as the band’s benefactor on those two albums. However, he abandoned ship, as did all of the band members aside from Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies. The pressure was on. The pair of singer/songwriters not only had to recruit a new lineup (saxophone and clarinet player John Helliwell, bassist Dougie Thomson, and drummer Bob Siebenberg) but would have to “write a masterpiece to save their A&M recording contract.” RD The Make-or-Break Third Album Luckily, Hodgson and Davies struck gold – literally – with their gold-selling third album, Crime of the Century. They retreated to “a seventeenth-century farm in West Dorset” WK where a “mammoth writing session…from November 1973 to February 1974” RD proved fruitful. “The album was recorded at several studios including Trident Studios and Ramport Studios (owned by The Who).” WK Davies and Hodgson recorded around 40 demo songs, of which eight made the album. WK They had shaped themselves as “a progressive rock band with duelling keyboards that played complex melodies.” TC “The tuneful, tightly played songs, pristine clarity of sound (courtesy of Ken Scott, who had worked on Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust), and myriad imaginative sound effects, helped create an album that Sounds magazine likened to ‘Genesis, The Beach Boys…a smattering of [Pink] Floyd.” RD Art Rock and Pop Meet Regarding the latter group, the band definitely “betrayed a a heavy Pink Floyd influence, particularly in its expansive art rock arrangements graced by saxophones, but Supertramp isn’t nearly as spooky as Floyd – they’re snarky collegiate elitists, an art rock variation on Steely Dan or perhaps a less difficult 10cc, filled with cutting jokes and allusions, best heard on Bloody Well Right. This streak would later flourish on Breakfast in America, but it’s present enough to give them their own character.” AM The album “deals loosely with themes of loneliness and mental stability.” WK “Also present is a slight sentimental streak and a heavy fondness for pop,” AM specifically with “Dreamer” and “Bloody Well Right.” “The rest of Crime of the Century is atmospheric like Dark Side of the Moon, but with a lighter feel and a Beatles bent. At times the album floats off into its own world, with an effect more tedious than hypnotic, but it’s still a huge leap forward for the group and their most consistent album outside of that 1979 masterwork, Breakfast in America.” AM “Hodgson and Davies both stated that communication within the group was at a peak during the recording of this album.” WK Siebenberg has also said he thought this album represented the band at its “artistic peak.” WK The Cover “The distinctive cover, designed (but not produced) as a gatefold sleeve, was created by graphic artist Paul Wakefield after exposure to the completed album.” RD He was invited to the studio where the band was recording and Fabio Nicoli, A&M Records’ art director, read him the lyrics. Wakefield was inspired by the line “when they haunt me and taunt me in my cage” from the song “Asylum” and pondering what would be an appropriate sentence for “the crime of the century.” WK Wakefield created an image of “a prison cell window floating in space with a person silently screaming through the bars.” WK Eventually, it became just an image of the hands clutching the bars. WK A friend made the polished aluminum bars and welded them to a stand. The hands, which were whitened with stage make-up, were those of Wakefield’s twin brother. WK “Reminiscent of Traffic’s Shootout at the Fantasy Factory, its ‘prison bars’ have become an iconic image.” RD The Songs Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.

School Supertramp

Writer(s): Rick Davies, Roger Hodgson Lead Vocals: Rick Davies, Roger Hodgson Released: Crime of the Century (10/25/1974), The Very Best of (compilation, 1990), Retrospectacle (compilation, 2005) Peak: 5 CL, 14 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 109.80 streaming About the Song: “School” wasn’t released as a single, but was a “popular track, particularly on album rock-oriented radio stations.” WK Nick DeRiso of Ultimate Classic Rock called the song a “jazz fusion-informed gem” marked by its “free-form creativity,” “plaintive lyrics,” and “stirring musical specificity.” WK Hodgson has said it is basically his song “but admits that Davies wrote both the piano solo and a good deal of the lyrics.” WK Hodgson said the song was based on his experience at boarding school. WK

Bloody Well Right Supertramp

Writer(s): Rick Davies Lead Vocals: Rick Davies Released: B-side of “Dreamer” (11/1/1974), Crime of the Century (10/25/1974), The Autobiography of Supertramp (compilation, 1986), Classics (compilation, 1987), The Very Best of (compilation, 1990), Retrospectacle (compilation, 2005) First Charted: 4/5/1975 Peak: 35 BB, 53 CB, 26 GR, 57 HR, 36 RR, 5 CL, 49 CN, 5 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 62.67 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: “Bloody Well Right” gave Supertramp their first taste of U.S. chart success. The song was released as the B-side of “Dreamer” in November 1974. While “Dreamer” was a top-15 hit in the UK, it failed to chart in the U.S. (that is, until a live version was released in 1980). However, “Bloody Well Right” found success in the United States, reaching the top 40. Author Toby Creswell included it in his book, 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time, but he wasn’t particularly complementary of the song, saying that Supertramp “reached their nadir with ‘Bloody Well Right’ simply because the hook…was so indelibly, stupid, and charmless.” TC

Hide in Your Shell Supertramp

Writer(s): Roger Hodgson Lead Vocals: Roger Hodgson Released: Crime of the Century (10/25/1974), Classics (compilation, 1987), The Very Best of (compilation, 1990) Peak: 14 CL, 17 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 27.76 streaming About the Song: Hodgson said, “I was 23 when I wrote that song, confused about life and like a lot of people are at that age, trying to hide my insecurities. I’ve always been able to express my innermost feelings more openly in song and ‘Hide in Your Shell’ came to me at a time when I was feeling very lonely – lonely both in life and within the band – with no one who shared my spiritual quest.” WK

Asylum Supertramp

Writer(s): Rick Davies Lead Vocals: Rick Davies, Roger Hodgson Released: Crime of the Century (10/25/1974) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 8.20 streaming

Dreamer Supertramp

Writer(s): Roger Hodgson Lead Vocals: Roger Hodgson Released: single (11/1/1974), single (live, September 1980), Crime of the Century (10/25/1974), The Autobiography of Supertramp (compilation, 1986), Classics (compilation, 1987), The Very Best of (compilation, 1990), Retrospectacle (compilation, 2005) B-side: “Bloody Well Right” Peak: 15 BB, 15 CB, 13 GR, 19 HR, 12 RR, 6 CL, 13 UK, 12 CN, 39 AU, 2 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 80.82 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: The “intense, keyboard-driven single ‘Dreamer’” RD is “a soaring piece of art pop that became their first big hit.” AM However, the chart peaks shown above are somewhat misleading as most are actually for the 1980 live version of the song that was released as a single in support of the band’s Paris album. Hodgson composed the song “on his Wurlitzer piano at his mother’s house when he was 19 years old. At the time he recorded a demo of the song using vocals…and banging cardboard boxes for percussion.” WK He said, “I was excited – it was the first time I laid hands on a Wurlitzer.” WK

Rudy Supertramp

Writer(s): Rick Davies Lead Vocals: Rick Davies, Roger Hodgson Released: Crime of the Century (10/25/1974), Classics (compilation, 1987), The Very Best of (compilation, 1990), Retrospectacle (compilation, 2005) Peak: 13 CL, 14 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 17.19 streaming About the Song: Hodgson has said “Rudy” “was the character on the album and was seen as somewhat autobiographical of Davies’ life at the time.” WK The sound of the train was recorded at London Paddington station. The crowd noises were taken from Leicester Square. WK

If Everyone Was Listening Supertramp

Writer(s): Roger Hodgson Lead Vocals: Roger Hodgson Released: Crime of the Century (10/25/1974), The Very Best of 2 (compilation, 1992) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 9.04 streaming About the Song: The “philosophical musings” WK of “If Everyone Was Listening” were inspired by the adage, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players.” WK The song’s message, according to Entertainment Weekly, is that “Not knowing what’s going on in everyone’s mind is just another form of not being in control. The fear comes not from the absence of knowledge of another person’s thought process, but rather from confronting the fact that we have no control over anything.” WK

Crime of the Century Supertramp

Writer(s): Rick Davies, Roger Hodgson Lead Vocals: Rick Davies Released: Crime of the Century (10/25/1974), The Autobiography of Supertramp (compilation, 1986), Classics (compilation, 1987), The Very Best of (compilation, 1990), Retrospectacle (compilation, 2005) Peak: 22 CL, 10 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 28.28 streaming About the Song: The band named the album after this song because they thought it was the strongest on the album. WK It “is a sensationalist trope which has been applied to various notorious crimes in history. Its application to more than one crime per century speaks to its hyperbolic nature.” WK Hodgson said, “I've had more people come up to me and say that that song touched them more deeply than any other. That song really came together when we were living together at Southcombe Farm, Thorncombe, and just eating, sleeping, and breathing the ideas for the album. The song just bounced between Rick and I for so many weeks before it finally took form.” WK

Resources/References: AM AllMusic.com review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Page 619. RD Robert Dimery (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited: New York, NY. Page 325. WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/21/2011; last updated 9/9/2025.

Today in Music (1964): Simon & Garfunkel Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. released

Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. Simon & Garfunkel

Released: October 19, 1964 Peak: 30 US, 24 UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, -- UK, 2.5 world (includes US + UK) Genre: folk rock

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. You Can Tell the World Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream Bleecker Street Sparrow Benedictus The Sound of Silence (acoustic version) He Was My Brother Peggy-O Go Tell It on the Mountain The Sun Is Burning The Times They Are A-Changin’ Wednesday Morning 3 A.M. Total Running Time: 31:38

Rating: 2.188 out of 5.00 (average of 6 ratings)

About the Album: Simon & Garfunkel’s debut album “doesn’t resemble any other Simon & Garfunkel album, mostly because their sound here was fundamentally different from that of the chart-topping duo that emerged a year later. Their first record together since their days as the teen harmony duo Tom & Jerry, the album was cut in March 1964, at a time when both Simon and Garfunkel were under the spell of folk music. As it had in 1957 with ‘Hey, Schoolgirl,’ their harmonizing here came out of the Everly Brothers’ playbook, but some new wrinkles had developed – Paul Simon was just spreading his wings as a serious songwriter and shares space with other contemporary composers.” BE “The album opens with a spirited (if somewhat arch) rendition of Gibson and Camp’s gospel/folk piece You Can Tell the World, on which the duo’s joyous harmonizing overcomes the intrinsic awkwardness of two Jewish guys from Queens, New York doing this repertory. Also present is Ian Campbell’s The Sun Is Burning, a topical song about nuclear annihilation that Simon heard on his first visit to England as an itinerant folksinger the year before.” BE “But the dominant outside personality on the album is that of Bob Dylan – his Times They Are A-Changin’ is covered, but his influence is obvious on the oldest of the Simon originals here, He Was My Brother. Simon’s first serious, topical song, dealing with the death of a freedom rider – and dedicated to Simon’s slain Queens College classmate Andrew Jacobs – it was what first interested Columbia Records producer Tom Wilson in Simon & Garfunkel.” BE “By the time the album was recorded, however, Simon had evolved beyond Dylan’s orbit and developed a unique songwriting voice of his own, though he still had some distance to go. His other originals betray the artifice of an English major at work, sometimes for better, as on Sparrow and the original, all-acoustic release of The Sound of Silence, and at times for worse, on the half-beautiful but too-precious title song (which he would re-write more successfully as ‘Somewhere They Can’t Find Me’).” BE “There are also a pair of traditional songs, a beautifully harmonized rendition of Peggy-O – which they probably picked up in Greenwich Village, or from recordings by Dylan or Joan Baez – and Go Tell It On the Mountain, both of which fit well into the zeitgeist of the folk revival.” BE “The record didn’t sell on its original release, however, appearing too late in the folk revival to attract much attention – Bob Dylan was already taking that audience to new places by adding electric instruments to his sound. But the seeds of the duo’s future success were planted when, months after the album had been given up for dead – and the duo had split up – the all-acoustic rendition of ‘The Sound of Silence’ started getting radio play on its own in some key markets, which possessed to producer Wilson to try and adapt it to the new sound, overdubbing an electric band.” BE

Resources and Related Links: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Simon & Garfunkel BE All Music Guide review by Bruce Eder Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 5/5/2011; last updated 10/9/2023.

 

Billy Joel’s Streetlife Serenade released

First posted 5/9/2011; updated 9/21/2020.

Streetlife Serenade Billy Joel

Released: October 11, 1974 Peak: 35 US, -- UK, 16 CN, 85 AU Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, -- UK, 1.5 world (includes US and UK) Genre: pop/rock singer-songwriter

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Streetlife Serenader Los Angelenos The Great Suburban Showdown Root Beer Rag (instrumental) Roberta The Entertainer (11/30/74, 34 US, 13 CL, 30 AC, 30 CN, 89 AU) Last of the Big Time Spenders Weekend Song Souvenir The Mexican Connection (instrumental) Total Running Time: 37:41

Rating: 3.403 out of 5.00 (average of 8 ratings)

About the Album: With his sophomore album, Billy Joel had achieved success with “Piano Man,” but it threw him. Billy Joel was driven “to deliver an album that established him as both a serious artist and a commercial contender.” AMG While critics didn’t love him, his sophomore album had delivered big with the top-25 success of “Piano Man.” Now he needed to quickly release another album to maintain a high profile, but he’d used his best stuff on Piano Man, so he was short on material. The resulting third album, Streetlife Serenade, was, therefore, “a bit of a slump.” AMG Still, “since he has skills, he's able to turn out a few winners – Roberta, a love song in the vein of Cold Spring Harbor, the mournful Streetlife Serenader, and the stomping” AMG and “vigorous Los Angelenos,” DB on which he “rocked an electric piano.” DB “Joel is attempting a grand Americana lyrical vision, stretching from the Wild West through the Depression on ‘Los Angelenos’ and The Great Suburban Showdown.” AMG “Joel’s ruminations on suburban malaise…are at their most overblown.” DB In the end, “it doesn't work, not only because of his shortcomings as a writer, but because he didn't have the time to pull it all together.” AMG “The presence of two instrumentals screamed, ‘Right – I didn’t have time to write songs for my new album.’” DB “Even if Root Beer Rag, yet another sign of The Sting’s influence, is admittedly enjoyable, they're undeniably fillers.” AMG Stylistically, it was a reiteration of its predecessor’s” AMG obsession with Elton John’s Tumbleweed Connection, “spiked with, of all things, Rockford Files synthesizers and ragtime pulled from The Sting.” AMG “It’s no coincidence that the record’s single and best song, The Entertainer, shares a title with the Scott Joplin rag that provided The Sting with a main theme.” AMG On that “astonishingly bitter” AMG song, “he not only disparages his own role, but is filled with venom over ‘Piano Man’ being released in a single edit, that made the subtext clear: he’d had enough with California, enough with the music industry, enough with being a sensitive singer/songwriter. It was time for Billy to say goodbye to Hollywood and head back home to New York.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: Billy Joel’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine DB David Browne (6/07). Blender magazine. Pages 114-5.

Olivia Newton-John hit #1 with “I Honestly Love You”

I Honestly Love You Olivia Newton-John

Writer(s): Peter Allen, Jeff Barry (see lyrics here) First Charted: August 3, 1974 Peak: 12 US, 12 CB, 14 GR, 12 HR, 16 RR, 13 AC, 6 CW, 22 UK, 11 CN, 14 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, -- UK, 2.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 4.0 radio, 7.96 video, 21.52 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Jeff Barry made a name for himself co-writing songs like the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” and the Shangri-La’s “Leader of the Pack,” as well as #1 hits for the Dixie Cups, Manfred Mann, and the Archies. He set to produce Peter Allen’s first album for A&M Records. Allen had already written some tunes, but Barry didn’t hear any hits. He had an idea for a song which the two then wrote together and then they made a demo. FB The demo was just intended for themselves, but it made its way to John Farrar. He’d been a member of the Shadows before taking up songwriting, arranging, and producing work with Olivia Newton-John. Cliff Richards, who’d been the leader of the Shadows, was also pivotal in Olivia’s career. After she won a talent contest in Australia, she got to go to England as part of the prize. She eventually landed a spot on Richards’ television series. RC Farrar played “I Honestly Love You” for Olivia and she loved it. In her 2019 memoir Don’t Stop Believin’, she recalled thinking “that everyone would be able to make those words fit in their own personal story of love and perhaps even loss.” SF She told Billboard magazine “I flipped out when I heard it…I was terrified that I would find out it had already been done.” FB Barry convinced Allen to let her record it since she was one of the world’s most popular singers. SF It proved a savvy move which helped launch Allen’s career as a songwriter, SF although he did release a version on his Continental American album which came out at the end of the year. WK She recorded the song in just three takes with vocals which were, at times, “almost a whisper,” as she said. SF Surprisingly, the label didn’t originally intend to release Olivia’s version as a single until radio demand pushed them to decide otherwise. FB Radio stations in Denver and Chicago ranked it the song of the year. WK VH1 ranked the song at #11 on its list of soft-rock songs. It also makes the DMDB’s list of the top 100 adult contemporary songs of all time. It won Grammys for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance – Female. Resources: FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 378. RC Rod Couch (2015). The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era: 1955-2015. Pages 225-6. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 10/24/2020; last updated 4/30/2024.