John Lennon “Just Like Starting Over” hit #1

Just Like Starting Over John Lennon

Writer(s): John Lennon (see lyrics here) Released: October 20, 1980 First Charted: October 24, 1980 Peak: 15 US, 15 CB, 14 GR, 15 HR, 12 RR, 17 AC, 1 CL, 1< sup>1 UK, 17 CN, 14 AU, 5 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.5 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 1.0 radio, 20.2 video, 27.96 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: After John Lennon’s 1975 retirement from music to become a house-husband and stay-at-home dad, he triumphantly returned in 1980 with Double Fantasy. The album emerged out of a vacation to Bermuda during which he started writing again. All the songs were completed within three weeks. TB Sadly, the release of the album and lead single “Just Like Starting Over” at year’s end were tragically overshadowed when Mark David Chapman shot and killed John Lennon on December 8, 1980 in front of Lennon’s New York City apartment. “Starting Over” had already reached the top 10 the week of Lennon’s murder; it would go on to top the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks. Similarly, Double Fantasy would posthumously top the album chart for eight weeks and take home the Grammy for Album of the Year. The “pleasantly breezy love song” SG was, as its title implies, “supposed to mark a new beginning in Lennon’s public life, not an end to it.” SG However, it took on deeper meaning in the wake of Lennon’s death. Now it was about “a happy middle-aged guy looking forward to a life that he would never get to live.” SG “He does a hiccupy and gimmicky rockabilly-revival thing” SG with his voice while the music is built on “a rock ‘n’ roll rhythm that takes the listener back to the days when John himself was just starting out.” DT Lennon said, “It was a 1950s sound because I’d never really recorded a song that sounded like that period, although that was my period, the music I identified with.” HL Indeed, “shades of Sun rockabilly, Roy Orbison, and the Beach Boys can be heard in the arrangement.” HL He also cited Elvis Presley, Gen Vincent, and Jerry Lee Lewis as influences. SG Resources: HL Michael Heatley and Spencer Leigh (1998). Behind the Song: The Stories of 100 Great Pop & Rock Classics. Blandford Books: London, UK. Page 34. Jasen ( SG Stereogum (4/15/2020). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan DT Dave Thompson (2011). 1000 Songs That Rock Your World. Krause Publications: Iola, WI. Page 246. TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 192. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 4/9/2023.

Eagles “Seven Bridges Road” released

Seven Bridges Road (live) Eagles

Writer(s): Steve Young (see lyrics here) Released: December 15, 1980 First Charted: December 20, 1980 Peak: 21 US, 27 CB, 31 HR, 18 RR, 17 AC, 55 CW, 7 CL, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 7.7 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: American musician Steve Young wrote and recorded “Seven Bridges Road” in 1969 for his Rock Salt & Nails album. It refers to Woodley Road, a rural two-lane road in Montgomery, Alabama. The road features three pairs of wooden bridges and a seventh about a mile south. Young described the area as almost like an old Disney scene or something, with these high bank dirt roads and trees hanging down, old cemeteries, and so on.” WK His friend, Jimmy Evans, said, “I thought it was the most beautiful place around Montgomery that I’d ever seen.” WK Evans also shared that Young wrote the song one night when there was a full moon and they were driving around in Evans’ Oldsmobile. They got out and sat there a while and Young started writing down the words. WK Young said, “I still don’t understand why it was so successful…I [just] wrote a song about a girl and a road in south Alabama” WK where he and his friends used to go “carousing around.” WK British singer Iain Matthews recorded “Road” as a multi-part harmony song for his August 1973 album Valley Hi. Producer Michael Nesmith says the Eagles lifted their “arrangement absolutely note for note for vocal harmony” WK when they recorded it for their 1980 Eagles Live concert album. The Eagles’ Don Felder says the group would warm up before concerts by singing the song in the locker room. Then they started opening concerts with it and, as he says, the five members singing a capella into one microphone blew audiences away. WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Eagles WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 6/10/2022; last updated 10/28/2022.

AC/DC chart with “Back in Black” single

Back in Black AC/DC

Writer(s): Brian Johnson, Angus Young, Malcolm Young (see lyrics here) First Charted: December 13, 1980 Peak: 37 US, 39 CB, 54 HR, 1 CL, 51 AR, 27 UK, 65 AU (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 3.0 US, 0.6 UK, 4.05 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 612.0 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: After five successful albums in their native Australia, AC/DC were finally being embraced by an international market with 1979’s Highway to Hell, an album which went top 10 in the UK and top 20 in the U.S. Then tragedy struck. Rock singer Bon Scott died on February 19, 1980. On his death certificate, the official cause was listed as acute alcohol poisoning. The group considered disbanding, but on the advice of their producer, Mutt Lange, brought in Brian Johnson for an audition. Scott himself had seen him perform with his former band Geordie back in 1973 and talked up the singer to the rest of the band. SF By the end of March, he had the job as the new singer for AC/DC. Among the new songs recorded by the group was a song called “Back in Black,” which was a tribute to Scott. Guitarist Malcolm Young already had the main guitar riff down and the group already had the idea for the title before it had any words. SF Johnson recalled that the band asked him to write the lyrics, saying “it can’t be morbid – it has to be for Bon and it has to be a celebration.” WK Johnson responded with words such as “Forget the hearse, ‘cause I never die” and what he considered “mumbo jumbo” lines like “Nine lives. Cats’ eyes. Abusing every one of them and running wild.” The band, however, told Johnson “they saw Bon’s life in that lyric.” WK While the song wasn’t a big hit from a chart standpoint, its iconic opening guitar riff made it into what The Guardian called “a classic metal anthem.” WK Metal Hammer magazine said, “There are rock songs that appeal to metal fans. And there are metal songs that appeal to rock fans. Then there is ‘Back in Black’ – a rock song and metal song that appeals to everyone…and it all hangs on that monumental, no-nonsense, three-chord monster of a riff.” WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Robert John “Mutt” Lange SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 10/24/2020; last updated 8/3/2022.

Journey’s Dream after Dream released

First posted 10/12/2008; updated 9/11/2020.

Dream After Dream Journey

Released: December 10, 1980 Recorded: date Charted: date Peak: -- US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, 0.5 world (includes US and UK) Genre: classic rock

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Destiny Snow Theme Sand Castles A Few Coins Moon Theme When the Love Has Gone Festival Dance The Rape Little Girl Total Running Time: 35:22 The Players: Steve Perry (vocals) Neal Schon (guitar, backing vocals) Gregg Rolie (keyboards, backing vocals) Ross Valory (bass, backing vocals) Steve Smith (drums)

Rating: 3.976 out of 5.00 (average of 7 ratings)

About the Album: Dream after Dream was a soundtrack album for the Japanese fantasy film Yume, Yume No Ato. Because the music was by Journey, who’d become a well-known rock band thanks to their three previous Steve Perry-led affairs, the soundtrack received much more attention than the movie. Still, the music was a departure from Journey’s more current sound. Instead, it was a throwback to the more progressive rock beginnings of their first three albums before Perry joined. Most of the soundtrack consists of instrumentals, meaning Steve Perry makes minimal contributions to the album. Two songs have sparse vocals – Destiny and Sand Castles. JM The only “true vocal track” JM is on “the lovelorn ballad Little Girl, easily making it the highlight of the album.” AMG It resurfaced later as the B-side to 1982’s “Open Arms” and was featured on Journey’s box set, Time 3. These components made this “one of the most overlooked albums in Journey’s catalog.” AMG While it certainly didn’t fit the tastes of the arena-rock fanbase the group had developed over the last three albums, it “is a fine example of Journey’s underrated musicianship, and recommended to devoted fans.” AMG The album is also noteworthy for featuring Gregg Rolie’s final work with the band.

Resources and Related Links: Journey’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry AMG All Music Guide JM JourneyMusic.com WK Wikipedia

 

Alan Parsons Project “Games People Play” charted

 

Games People Play The Alan Parsons Project

Writer(s): Alan Parsons, Eric Woolfson (see lyrics here) First Charted: December 6, 1980 Peak: 16 US, 18 CB, 13 HR, 12 RR, 8 CL, 9 CN, 95 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 5.3 video, 20.98 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The Turn of a Friendly Card came at roughly the mid-point of the Alan Parsons Project’s career. It was their fifth of ten albums released between 1976 and 1987. An argument could be made that it was also their peak. They did have a couple of other albums which were bigger chart successes; 1977’s I, Robot and 1982’s Eye in the Sky hit the top 10 while Card peaked at #13, but all three achieved platinum status. However, the real kicker was that Card was the only album of the Project’s career to produce two top-20 hits. In fact, the only other album to generate even two top-40 hits was 1984’s Vulture Culture. The only bigger singles for the Project were 1984’s “Don’t Answer Me” (#15) and “Eye in the Sky” (#3). As the lead single from Card, “Games People Play” their fourth top-40 hit and, more importantly, a song which has become a staple on album-rock radio. It is what Songfacts.com calls “one of the most high tempo, rock-style songs that this progressive group recorded.” SF The song also arguably does a better job of conveying its album’s theme than any other Project song. Each of the group’s ten albums was wrapped around a concept, but the message wasn’t always clear. However, the themes behind Card about gambling and playing with others’ emotions were readily apparent on “Games.” Parsons explained that they were living in Monte Carlo at the time and that “it’s very linked to the content of the album…which was all about gambling, gamblers, the problems of gamblers, and games people play.” SF The song features Lenny Zakatek on vocals. He also stepped up to the mike on two of the band’s previous top-40 hits – 1977’s “I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You” and 1979’s “Damned if I Do.” Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Alan Parsons DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Eric Woolfson SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 7/7/2022; last updated 10/30/2022.

 

50 years ago: Red Nichols charted with “I Got Rhythm”

I Got Rhythm Red Nichols

Writer(s): George Gershwin/ Ira Gershwin (see lyrics here) First Charted: December 6, 1930 Peak: 5 US, 16 GA, 6 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.04 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “I Got Rhythm” was originally written for 1928’s Treasure Girl, but didn’t get used. SB George Gershwin took the initial slower melody and upped the tempo. TY1 The song surfaced again in the 1930 show Girl Crazy, featuring a 21-year-old Ethel Merman TM in her Broadway debut. MM “With a clarion contralto that could shatter glass and shoo away the blues,” TM she made the song into a “perky spirit rouser in the first year of the Great Depression.” TM Merman also reportedly stole the limelight from Ginger Rogers, who was featured in her first leading role singing two of the show’s other classics, “Embraceable You” and “But Not for Me.” SB Merman would serve as the “sassy muse” in Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun, and Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim’s Gypsy. TM Red Nichols, who led the show’s all-star orchestra including Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, and Glenn Miller, SB also charted with the song, taking it to #5. Ethel Waters and Louis Armstrong each took the song to #17. The Happenings revived it in 1967 with their #3 DJ million-selling version. SB Others to tackle it include Bobby Darin, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Erroll Garner, Lena Horne, Django Reinhadt, Sarah Vaughn, Fats Waller, Roger Williams, and Teddy Wilson. MM The song is “probably the most widely heard Gershwin song and the one most commonly recorded by instrumentalists.” SB It is “a standout for jazz performers” DJ who “must know intuitively its changes and its plain AABA architecture, a matrix for improvisation as essential as the twelve-bar blues.” MM Jazz artists Sidney Bechet, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker all used variations of the song’s rhythm changes for improvisation. SB Will Friedwald, author of Stardust Melodies, says, “It would be impossible to name a melody or set of chord sequences that has withstood more interpretations and variations.” SB Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Red Nichols DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 84. MM Max Morath (2002). The NPR Curious Listener’s Guide to Popular Standards. New York, NY; Penguin Putnam Inc. Page 164. SB Songbook1.wordpress.com TM Time magazine (10/24/2011). “All Time 100 Songs” TY1 Don Tyler (1985). Hit Parade 1920-1955. Quill: New York, NY. Page 55. Related Links: Last updated 4/10/2023.