K’s Choice “Not an Addict” charted

Not an Addict K’s Choice

Writer(s): Gert Bettens, Sarah Bettens (see lyrics here) Released: July 1995 First Charted: March 29, 1997 Peak: 56 US, 5 MR, 6 CN, 22 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 10.6 video, 22.32 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: K’s Choice formed in the mid-1990s in Antwerp, Belgium. The core of the alternative-rock group was guitarist, keyboardist, and singer Gert Bettens and his sister Sarah, the lead singer and guitarist who later came out as a transgender man. They released their first studio album, The Great Subconscious Club, in 1994. The follow-up, 1996’s Paradise in Me, reached the Billboard album chart, thanks to the top-5 success of “Not an Addict” on the modern rock track chart and the release of six singles from the album. “Not an Addict” was first released in Belgium as a single in July 1995 but didn’t chart in the United States until March 1997. It won a Belgium ZAMU Award for Best Single in 1995. “Not an Addict” is “sung in the first person with a voice of desperation and denial.” SF The narrator explains the initial exhileration of heroin use and subsequent unwillingness, and eventual reluctance, in recognizing it as a problem. It reflected on Sarah/Sam’s actual experiences with drugs and substance dependence. He never tried hard drugs like heroin, but said he was addicted to cigarettes and had experimented with acid and mushrooms. He asserted that the song wasn’t pro-drug or anti-drug. WK Music Week called it “a brooding, bass-heavy torch song overlaid by breezy atmospheric vocals.” WK Music & Media magazine declared “Not an Addict” a single of the week in December 1996, saying “it is possible to overlook the latest gem out of this small country. To pass up on K’s Choice would be a major mistake…Singer/co-writer Sarah Bettens is obviously inspired by U.S. alternative rock queens…[and] a little bit of Bangles pops up at the end, but the guitars remain loud and clear.” WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for K’s Choice SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia First posted 2/8/2023.

Muddy Waters compilation, His Best 1947-55, released

The Best of/His Best 1947-55 Muddy Waters

Released: April 1958 B, March 25, 1997 H Recorded: 1948-54 B, 1947-55 H Peak: -- Sales (in millions): -- Genre: blues B The Best of H His Best 1947-1955

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. I Can’t Be Satisfied (9/18/48, #11 RB) B I Feel Like Going Home (9/18/48, B-side of “Satisfied”) Train Fare Home (1948) Rollin’ and Tumblin’ (1950) Rollin’ Stone (1950) B Louisiana Blues (1/13/51, #10 RB) B Long Distance Call (4/14/51, #8 RB) B Honey Bee (7/14/51, #10 RB) B Still a Fool (11/24/51, #9 RB) B She Moves Me (2/23/52, #10 RB) B Standing Around Crying (1952) B Mad Love (I Want You to Love Me) (11/21/53, #6 RB) B Baby Please Don’t Go (1953) Hoochie Coochie Man (3/13/54, #3 RB) B I Just Want to Make Love to You (6/5/54, #4 RB) B I’m Ready (10/23/54, #4 RB) B Mannish Boy (6/30/55, #5 RB) Young Fashioned Ways (1955) Sugar Sweet (1955) Trouble No More (1955) All of the above tracks are featured on His Best 1947-1955 (H). Tracks featured on Best of are noted by B

Rating: 4.398 out of 5.00 (average of 11 ratings) Quotable: “Perfect country blues” – Ken Hohman, Amazon.com Awards H: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Muddy Waters was born McKinley Morganfield in 1913 in Mississippi. He grew up on a plantation and learned to play guitar and harmonica. In 1941, Alan Lomax recorded him for the Library of Congress. Two years later, Waters moved to Chicago to become a full-time professional musician, first recording with Aristocrat from 1947 to 1950 and Chess from 1950 to 1971. He became known as the “father of modern Chicago blues.” His first chart appearance came in 1948 when I Can’t Be Satisfied reached #11 on the R&B chart. After signing with Chess, he landed fourteen top-ten hits on that chart from 1950 to 1958. In 1958, Chess Records released a Muddy Waters’ greatest hits collection simply entitled The Best of Muddy Waters. It compiled a dozen songs which were initially issued as singles from 1948 to 1954. Most appeared on Billboard magazine’s R&B charts. It was the first Muddy Waters album and only the third album released by Chess on the LP (long-playing) format. WK In 1983, it was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. Nearly 40 years later, as part of their 50th anniversary series, Chess released a new compilation (His Best 1947-55) JH which covered all the songs on the original Best of collection plus another eight songs. This includes ten of his songs which reached the top-ten on the R&B chart. These songs represent Waters from his formative years through his peak. Listeners are “in for a lot of terrific bottleneck slide guitar work as well as electric Chicago blues.” KH These “tracks are spare, haunting and, quite frankly, perfect country blues.” KH “I Can’t Be Satisfied, Rollin’ and Tumblin’, I’m Ready, and Mannish Boy are simply beyond reproach.” KH The latter song and “Hoochie Coochie Man have sparked endless imitations over the years – and…nobody has played them better since.” KH

Resources and Related Links: KH Ken Hohman, Amazon (His Best) WK Wikipedia (Best of) Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 9/7/2018; last updated 3/17/2024.

50 years ago: Brigadoon opened on Broadway

Brigadoon Alan Jay Lerner (music), Frederick Loewe (lyrics)

Cast Album

Stage Debut: March 17, 1947 Charted: June 14, 1947 Peak: 4 US Sales (in millions): -- Genre: show tunes

Soundtrack

Charted: November 13, 1964 Peak: 8 US Sales (in millions): -- Genre: show tunes

Songs on Cast Album: Song Title (Performers) [time] Overture / Once in the Highlands /Brigadoon Down on MacConnachy Square Waitin’ for My Dearie I’ll Go Home with Bonnie Jean The Heather on the Hill Come to Me, Bend to me Almost Like Being in Love There But for You Go I My Mother’s Weddin’ Day From This Day On / Brigadoon Songs on Soundtrack: Song Title (Performers) [time] Brigadoon: Main Title (MGM Studio Orchestra) [1:30] Once in the Highlands (Dick Beavers & MGM Studio Chorus) [0:52] Brigadoon (MGM Studio Chorus) [2:06] Down on MacConnachy Square (Villagers with MGM Studio Chorus) [3:13] Waiting for My Dearie (Carol Richards, Bonnie Murray, Anne Biggs, Betty Allen, & MGM Studio Chorus) [5:46] I’ll Go Home with Bonnie Jean (John Gustafson, Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, Paul Roberts & MGM Studio Chorus) [5:17] Come to Me, Bend to Me (outtake) (John Gustafson) [2:59] Heather on the Hill (Gene Kelly) [6:36] Almost Like Being in Love (Gene Kelly) [4:21] Talk to the Dominie (MGM Studio Orchestra) [2:29] Till the End of Our Days (MGM Studio Orchestra) [1:14] There But for You Go I (outtake) (Gene Kelly) [4:13] Two Hundred Years Later (MGM Studio Orchestra) [4:43] The Wedding Dance (MGM Studio Orchestra) [4:08] The Chase (John Gustafon, Bill Reeve, Ernie Newton, & MGM Studio Orchestra & Chorus) [3:48] Fiona’s Search (MGM Studio Orchestra) [1:01] From This Day On (outtake) (Gene Kelly & Carol Richards) [4:17] Heather on the Hill (New York – Reprise) (Carol Richards) [2:19] Even Miracles (MGM Studio Orchestra) [1:35] Brigadoon – Finale & End Credits (MGM Studio Chorus) [1:01] Dinna Ye Know, Tommy (outtake) (Carol Richards) [0:25] Come to Me, Bend to Me (outtake) (Carol Richards) [0:56] Heather on the Hill (instrumental reprise) (MGM Studio Orchestra) [3:43] Singles/Hit Songs: As was common in the pre-rock era, songs from musicals were often recorded by artists not associated with the musical and released as singles. Here are some of the most notable hit singles resulting from the show: “Almost Like Being in Love” – Frank Sinatra (#20, 1947), Mildred Bailey (#21, 1947), Mary Martin (#21, 1947), Michael Johnson (#32, 1978)

Rating: 4.096 out of 5.00 (average of 10 ratings for cast album and soundtrack combined) Awards (Cast Album and Soundtrack): (Click on award to learn more).

About the Show: Brigadoon was the fourth time Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe collaborated on a musical. The first one, Life of the Party, didn’t make it past tryouts but the next two had moderate success. Inspired by the success of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! and Carousel, Lerner & Loewe wrote Brigadoon with a serious love story for the main plot and a lighter romance as a subplot. The story deals with two American tourists who stumble across the mysterious Scottish village of Brigadoon which only appears one day every 100 years. A tourist named Tommy falls for Fiona from Brigadoon. The village was fictional, but named after the Scottish bridge Brig o’ Doon. The music incorporated elements of traditiona Scottish folk dance. The original production opened on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theatre on March 13, 1947, and ran for 581 performances. It starred David Brooks (Tommy), Marion Bell (Fiona), George Keane (Jeff), James Mitchell (Harry), and Pamela Britton (Meg). The musical opened on April 14, 1949, at Her Majesty’s Theatre on London’s West End and ran for 685 performances. The New York Daily Mirror’s Robert Coleman called it “an unconventional musical show of marked originality” WK and The New York Sun’s Ward Morehouse called it “a stunning show.” WK In the New York Herald Tribune, Howard Barnes called it “a scintillating song and dance fantasy.” WK Richard Watts Jr. wrote in the New York Post “I have seen other musical comedies that I enjoyed more, but few for which I have a deeper admiration.” WK In 1954, Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse starred in a film version of Brigadoon. A television broadcast aired on ABC on October 15, 1966, and won five Primetime Emmy Awards. It starred Robert Goulet (Tommy), Peter Falk (Jeff), Sally Ann Howes (Fiona), Edward Villella (Harry), and Marlyn Mason (Meg).

Resources and Related Links: WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 12/21/2021; last updated 12/23/2021.

 

Jonny Lang “Lie to Me” charted

Lie to Me Jonny Lang

Writer(s): Bruce McCabe, David Z (see lyrics here) First Charted: March 8, 1997 Peak: 15 AA, 12 AR, 12 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 25.25 video, 17.52 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Blues singers and guitarists are stereotypically viewed as grizzled, old black men from the Mississippi Delta. Their music felt weary and withered because the performers themselves were. They’d been beaten down by love and life and poured their battered souls into their art. Even the most successful musicians of the genre – B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf – never achieved a lot of mainstream, commercial success. Blues took a surprise hold on some of Britian’s biggest rock acts in the 1960s and ‘70s when white acts like Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin incorporated it into their sound, even covering traditional blues songs and playing with some of the genre’s most notable performers. In the 1980s, America embraced Stevie Ray Vaughan, a white singer and guitarist who took up the mantle as possibly the most visible blues artist in the world until a tragic helicopter accident ended his life at only 35 years old. Then along came Jonny Lang. He was anything but a grizzled, old black man from the Mississippi Delta. He was a FIFTEEN-year-old white kid from Fargo, North Dakota when his big-label debut, Lie to Me, was released. He started playing guitar when he was 12 and after his father took him to see the Bad Medicine Blues Band, one of Fargo’s few blues bands, Lang started taking guitar lessons from Ted Larsen, the band’s guitarist. Several months later, Lang joined the band. He got signed to A&M Records in 1996 after independently releasing the album Smokin’ when he was 14. Lie to Me came out in 1997 at a time when other white blues artists were gaining attention as well. Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Corey Stevens had both released their debut albums in 1995 and sophomore albums in 1997. All Music Guide called him “a technically gifted blues guitarist, capable of spitting out accomplished licks and riffs at an astonishingly rapid rate” AMG but said the album didn’t have “much emotional weight,” AMG which could probably be attributed to a teenager trying to sing world-weary songs. The title cut from Lang’s album was about “a guy so distraught over his crumbling relationship that he asks his girl to tell him lies so he can believe everything will be as it was.” SF In an interview 20 years later, Lang said, “I don’t think I related to any of the songs until I was in my 20s, as far as life experience goes.” SF Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Jonny Lang AMG All Music Guide SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia First posted 1/15/2023.