Blondie hit #1 with “Heart of Glass”

Heart of Glass Blondie

Writer(s): Deborah Harry, Chris Stein (see lyrics here) Released: January 3, 1979 First Charted: January 27, 1979 Peak: 11 US, 11 CB, 11 HR, 11 RR, 44 AC, 14 UK, 11 CN, 15 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 1.32 UK, 3.72 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 173.0 video, 189.9 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Blondie had been around several years, releasing nine singles from three albums before finding success with “Heart of Glass.” They’d never even charted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 when that song – the fourth single from their Parallel Lines album – took them all the way to the top. There was some backlash from fans who thought the band had sold out, but Blondie has said they liked the idea of deliberately being uncool by crafting a disco song. SF Lead singer Deborah Harry said, “I don’t think being commercial is totally derogatory.” She saw “Heart of Glass” as helping to “introduce new wave music in a more commercial way.” FB Guitarist Chris Stein said the song was added to the Parallel Lines album as “a novelty item to put more diversity into the album.” FB The band had actually performed a more funk-oriented version of the song for years. FB Harry and Stein wrote an early version called “Once I Had a Love” back in 1974-75. On the show Words and Music, she said “lyrically, it was about a stalker who was pursuing me, and Chris saved me from him.” SF In 1975, they recorded a demo with a slower, funkier sound inspired by the Hues Corporation’s “Rock the Boat.” WK When they started working with producer Mike Chapman in 1978, he asked them to play all the songs they had and he liked that one. The band re-recorded the song with a more pop-oriented, disco vibe. WK “Heart of Glass” marked one of the first uses of a Roland CR-78 drum machine, which was first introduced in 1978. WK Harry said it took more than 10 hours to get the sound down right. SF The band’s decision to combine the drum machine with actual drumming as well as synthesizers alongside guitars – made for one of the first rock/disco fusion hits. WK The song was released as a 12-inch single in December 1978. The nearly six-minute version met with reluctance from radio stations because of the line “pain in the ass” so the song was edited into a 7-inch single version released in January 1979. That version topped the charts in the U.S. and UK. Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Blondie FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 502. SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 10/31/2019; last updated 11/12/2022.

Grease soundtrack hit #1

This post has been updated and consolidated with a post about Grease opening on Broadway and the subsequent cast album. You can read that post here.

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Bob Marley & The Wailers released Kaya

Kaya Bob Marley & the Wailers

Released: March 23, 1978 Peak: 50 US, 50 RB, 4 UK, 5 AU Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.1 UK, 4.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: reggae

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Easy Skanking Kaya (2/71, --) Is This Love (2/25/78, 9 UK) Sun Is Shining Satisfy My Soul (5/78, 21 UK) She’s Gone Misty Morning Crisis Running Away Time Will Tell Total Running Time: 36:59 The Players: Bob Marley (vocals, guitar) Aston “Family Man” Barrett (bass) Carlton “Carlie” Barrett (drums, percussion) Tyrone Downie (keyboards) Alvin “Seeco” Patterson (percussion) Junior Marvin (electric guitar) Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt, Griffiths (backing vocals) Vincent Gordon (trombone) Glen Da Costa (trumpet) Winston Grennan (drums)

Rating: 3.454 out of 5.00 (average of 20 ratings)

About the Album: “Kaya continues what has become an unspoken tradition in the evolution of Bob Marley & the Wailers discography — blending western sounds and motifs with the icons and traditions from the very core of Jamaican society. In fact, the very word ‘kaya’ is synonymous with marijuana in Rastafarian culture. Likewise, the album Kaya could be easily construed as an open love letter or musical paean to the lifestyle that Marley so eagerly embraced and promoted.” AMG “Themes of commonality and unity pervade this release more so than previous albums. Likewise, the overt political stances that had become somewhat of a moniker for Marley and the Wailers are temporarily replaced by timeless compositions, such as the eternally optimistic Easy Skanking and Is This Love.” AMG “Marley had not — as some proclaimed — gone soft, however. The light, at times practically giddy, rhythms on Satisfy My Soul contrast the darker brooding sonic and lyrical images on Running Away.” AMG “The most pressings issues Marley deals with concern ever-increasing spiritual consciousness. Throughout Kaya, humble thanks is offered to, as well as guidance sought from, Jah — evidence that the spirituality that permeates the Wailers music is real and not lip service. Kaya could be considered the oasis before the political and personal eruptions that would inform and influence Marley and the Wailers next studio releases Survival and Uprising.” AMG Notes: “Kaya” and “Sun Is Shining” were first featured on Soul Revolution; “Satisfy My Soul” had also been previously recorded, but not featured on album. The 2001 "Definitive Remasters" edition of Kaya also includes "Smile Jamaica." Although initially issued as the flip side of "Satisfy My Soul," the song was recorded more than a year prior to this album.

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

Nov. 19, 1976: studio album of Evita released

First posted November 14, 2010. Last updated September 4, 2018.

Evita (studio/cast/soundtrack) Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice (composers)

Studio Album Released: Nov. 19, 1976 First Stage Production: June 21, 1978 Soundtrack Released: Nov. 12, 1996 Sales (in millions): US: 1.0 C, 5.0 S UK: 0.3 SR, 0.6 S IFPI: 2.0 S World (estimated): 1.3 C, 18.0 S Peak: US: 105 C, 2 S UK: 4 SR, 11-S Canada: -- Australia: -- SR Studio Album C Cast Album S Soundtrack

Quotable: --

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Genre: show tunes

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Album Tracks – Studio/Cast Album:

1. Cinema in Buenos Aires, 26 July 1952
2. Requiem for Evita / Oh What a Circus
3. On This Night of a Thousand Stars / Eva and Magaldi / Eva Beware of the City
4. Buenos Aires
5. Goodnight and Thank You
6. The Lady's Got Potential **
7. Charity Concert / I’d Be Surprisingly Good for You
8. Another Suitcase in Another Hall
9. Dangerous Jade *
10. A New Argentina
11. On the Balcony of the Casa Rosada / Don’t Cry for Me Argentina
12. High Flying, Adored
13. Rainbow High
14. Rainbow Tour
15. The Actress Hasn’t Learned the Lines (You’d Like to Hear)
16. And the Money Kept Rolling (In and Out)
17. Santa Evita
18. Waltz for Eva and Che
19. She Is a Diamond
20. Dice Are Rolling * / Eva’s Sonnet *
21. Eva’s Final Broadcast
22. Montage *
23. Lament

* Unique to cast album
** Unique to studio album

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Album Tracks – Soundtrack:

Disc 1:

1. Cinema in Buenos Aires, 26 July 1952
2. Requiem for Evita
3. Oh What a Circus (ANTONIO BANDERAS / MADONNA)
4. On This Night of a Thousand Stars (JIMMY NAIL)
5. Eva and Magaldi / Eva Beware of the City (MADONNA / JIMMY NAIL / ANTONIO BANDERAS)
6. Buenos Aires (MADONNA)
7. Another Suitcase in Another Hall (MADONNA)
8. Goodnight and Thank You (MADONNA / ANTONIO BANDERAS)
9. The Lady's Got Potential (ANTONIO BANDERAS)
10. Charity Concert / The Art of the Possible (MADONNA / JIMMY NAIL / ANTONIO BANDERAS) **
11. I’d Be Surprisingly Good for You (MADONNA / JONATHAN PRYCE)
12. Hello and Goodbye (MADONNA / JONATHAN PRYCE / ANDREA CORR) **
13. Peron’s Latest Flame (MADONNA / ANTONIO BANDERAS) **
14. A New Argentina (MADONNA / ANTONIO BANDERAS / JONATHAN PRYCE)

Disc 2:

1. On the Balcony of the Casa Rosada 1 (JONATHAN PRYCE)
2. Don’t Cry for Me Argentina (MADONNA)
3. On the Balcony of the Casa Rosada 2 (MADONNA) **
4. High Flying, Adored (ANTONIO BANDERAS / MADONNA)
5. Rainbow High (MADONNA)
6. Rainbow Tour (ANTONIO BANDERAS / GARY BROOKER / MADONNA)
7. The Actress Hasn’t Learned the Lines (You’d Like to Hear) (MADONNA / ANTONIO BANDERAS)
8. And the Money Kept Rolling (In and Out) (ANTONIO BANDERAS)
9. Partido Feminista (MADONNA) **
10. She Is a Diamond (JONATHAN PRYCE)
11. Santa Evita
12. Waltz for Eva and Che (MADONNA / ANTONIO BANDERAS)
13. Your Little Body Is Slowly Breaking Down (MADONNA / JONATHAN PRYCE) **
14. You Must Love Me (MADONNA) **
15. Eva’s Final Broadcast (MADONNA)
16. Latin Chant **
17. Lament (MADONNA / ANTONIO BANDERAS)

** Unique to soundtrack.

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Singles/Hit Songs:

• Don’t Cry for Me Argentina (JULIE COVINGTON) ^c (11/12/76) #1 UK
• Another Suitcase in Another Hall (BARBARA DICKSON) ^c (2/7/77) #18 UK
• Don’t Cry for Me Argentina (SHADOWS) ^c (12/78) #5 UK
• You Must Love Me ^s (11/2/96) #18 US, #10 UK, #15 AC, gold single
• Don’t Cry for Me Argentina (MADONNA) ^s (12/28/96) #8 US, #3 UK, #21 AC
• Another Suitcase in Another Hall (MADONNA) ^s (3/29/97) #7 UK

Click here for the chart codes for singles/hit songs.

Review: Like they had with Jesus Christ Superstar, Andrew Lloyd Webber presented Evita first as a studio album and then developed it into a stage production. It wasn’t a monstrous hit in the U.S. like the studio version of Superstar had been, but in the UK, it spawned a #1 hit with Don’t Cry for Me Argentina and a top 20 hit with Another Suitcase in Another Hall. R-C For the opera based on the real-life Eva Peron, Webber “naturally drew upon Latin themes, at least of an ersatz sort (On This Night of a Thousand Stars aped Pérez Prado’s 1955 hit ‘Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White’), to add to his taste in pop/rock and affection for Puccini.” R-C For his part, Rice “had a big, rich story to tell about a social-climbing peasant who achieves the highest rungs of power, only to succumb to early death.” R-C He used “the fictional Che (based on Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara), to challenge Evita’s ruthlessness. The subject matter attracted the criticism that it glamorized a fascist, but Rice’s very point was to present a cautionary tale about the deceptive appeal of such a person.” R-C “The choice of Julie Covington, who could negotiate the musical range of the title role and sing without warmth, was perfect; no stage successor matched her willingness to make Evita unsympathetic C.T. (Colm) Wilkinson's Che was her match, and the rest of the cast sang effectively.” R-C Twenty years later, Madonna took the lead in the film version. She gambled on it establishing her “as a proper movie star and respected actress.” R-S She “gives a startlingly accomplished and nuanced performance,” R-S but it “is impossible to listen to her without getting the impression that she is trying really hard to be credible.” R-S As such, the soundtrack “remains curiously unengaging,” R-S although it is “an exquisitely produced and expertly rendered” R-S “audio document of the entire film, since there is no dialogue in the movie.” R-S “Even with the faults, Evita has its merits, including the written-for-film ballad You Must Love Me, and is worth investigating. It just isn't the definitive work that it wishes to be.” R-S Review Sources: R-C William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide (cast album) R-S William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide (soundtrack)

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Awards:

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Related DMDB Link(s):

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