Today in Music (1969): Arlo Guthrie “Alice’s Restaurant” charted

Alice’s Restaurant Arlo Guthrie

Writer(s): Arlo Guthrie (see lyrics here) Released: October 1967 (album cut) First Charted: December 13, 1969 Peak: 97 BB, 12 CL, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 14.9 video, 14.10 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Arlo Guthrie, the son of famous folk singer Woody Guthrie, grew up in New York but graduated from Stockbridge School in Massachussetts in June 1965. After spending just a few weeks at a liberal arts college in Billings, Montana, Guthrie returned to the east coast to try his hand at music. He attended a gathering of friends at Alice and Ray Brock’s Trinity Church on Thanksgiving Day in 1965. He and a friend volunteered to haul off some debris from the sanctuary and dumped the trash down a hillside embankment when they found the local dump closed. After getting arrested by Chief-of-Police William J. Obanhein (aka “Officer Obie,” the “semi-exaggerated authoritarian figure gently lampooned in the song” NRR) the two men paid a $50 fee and were sentenced to pick up the garbage. Arlo paired the incident with his experience with physical and mental examinations for potential military draft in the 18 ½ minute, mostly spoken-word, comic story of “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” also known as “Alice’s Restaurant.” The “song” was anchored by the “tossed off, catchy, musical ‘advertisement’” NRR “You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant.” He penned the line after learning of Alice’s plan to open The Back Room, a luncheonette in Stockbridge, NRR although it was never used to advertise the restaurant, which closed in the summer of 1966. NRR It all resulted in “one of the single funniest songs of its era.” DT The New York Times called it an “amusing but pointed spoken monologue on the vagaries of law enforcement, the selective service draft and their relation to the war in Vietnam.” NR The song “pricks a lot of hypocritical bubbles, not least of all the discovery that a convicted litterbug might not be considered moral enough to napalm women and children.” DT Resources: NRR National Recording Registry essay by Hank Reineke DT Dave Thompson (2011). 1000 Songs That Rock Your World. Krause Publications: Iola, WI. Page 154. Related Links: First posted 11/23/2025.

Alabama Shakes “Hold On” released

Hold On Alabama Shakes

Writer(s): Brittany Howard (see lyrics here) Released: February 6, 2012 First Charted: February 18, 2012 Peak: 93 BB, 33 A40, 11 AA, 17 MR, 81 CN, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 0.50 US, -- UK, 0.54 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 73.10 video, 213.81 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The blues-rock band Alabama Shakes formed in 2009 in Athens, Alabama. Singer/guitarist Brittany Howard approached bassist Zac Cockrell in a high school psychology class about meeting to write songs. They recruited drummer Steve Johnson, who worked at a local music store. Guitarist Heath Fogg rounded out the band. SF They released an EP in September 2011 and then got signed to a record deal. They released their first album, Boys & Girls, in 2012. It “was a significant revitaliser of Southern soul with tha added appeal of modern rawness and authenticity.” FO The band were nominated for Grammys for Best New Artist and Best Performance, the latter for the album’s lead single “Hold On.” Howard was only in her early 20s when she recorded the song, but she sounds like a seasoned blues singer. He performance is “rich and sultry, almost like a more delectable reincarnation of all our favourite folk and soul musicians combined.” FO “The explosiveness of Howard’s vocals holds such brevity that it’s difficult to imagine them not coming as a natural attachment to the instrumental arrangements.” FO Fogg and Cockrell created the original riff on which the song was based FO and then Howard made up words on the fly when the band were performing one night at The Brick in Decatur. SF The lyrics “appear bleak as Howard sings about the surprise of growth, but she once explained that this wasn’t the central meaning.” FO As she told NME, “when you’re younger…you can’t imagine yourself ever being grown.” FO The song is “perhaps the pinnacle of her thunderous artistic expression and unwavering dedication to the art.” FO It tapped into something bigger. She said, “You’re holding on, but at the same time, you’re tired of waiting for things to get better.” FO Resources: FO Far Out magazine (4/17/2024). “The Story Behind the Song: The improvisational process of Alabama Shakes’ ‘Hold On’” by Kelly Murphy SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/23/2025.

Beck “Lost Cause” charted

Lost Cause Beck

Writer(s): Beck Hansen (see lyrics here) First Charted: December 15, 2002 Peak: 3 AA, 36 MR, 41 UK, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 8.90 video, 39.26 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The singer/songwriter known as Beck was born Bek David Campbell in 1970 in Los Angeles. In his teens he started performing a blend of hip hop and folk music at coffeehouses and clubs. In 1989, he moved to New York City but he returned to Los Angeles in the early ‘90s. He had his commercial breakthrough in 1993 with “Loser,” a top-ten Billboard hit from his third album, Mellow Gold. His 1996 album Odelay went double platinum and became one of the most critically acclaimed album of all time, ranking as one of the top 100 albums of all time according to Dave’s Music Database. He gained a reputation as a chameleonic musician, following the “ironic funk-disco of [1999]s] Midnite Vultures” AS with the folk-rock Sea Change in 2002. The album “resulted from the bleakness Beck felt following the end of his nine-year relationship with Leigh Limon.” ASIt was Beck’s first top-ten album and was named album of the year by Rolling Stone. AmericanSongwriter.com called it “a heartbreaking masterpiece.” AS It featured the promo-only singles “Guess I’m Doing Fine” and “Lost Cause.” MTV.com described the latter as “driven by a folksy guitar passage and soft, sedated vocals and embellished with soft brush drumming.” WK The “minimalist folk” AS style of the song matches its melancholic exploration of a man left devastated by a failed a relationship, “starting at the world around him in utter futility.” AS “The saddest part of ‘Lost Cause’ isn’t its gloom, it’s the resignation.” AS Author Dave Thompson said it “might well be the cruelest kiss off ever set to music.” DT Resources: AS AmericanSongwriter.com (4/17/2025). “The Meaning Behind Beck’s Saddest Song, ‘Lost Cause’” by Thom Donovan DT Dave Thompson (2011). 1000 Songs That Rock Your World. Krause Publications: Iola, WI. Page 238. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/22/2025.

Cat Stevens “Wild World” charted

Wild World Cat Stevens

Writer(s): Cat Stevens (see lyrics here) Released: September 1970 First Charted: February 10, 1971 Peak: 11 BB, 18 CB, 10 GR, 16 HR, 21 AC, 7 CL, 52 UK, 14 CN (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.60 UK, 0.85 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 65.70 video, 830.46 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Singer/songwriter Cat Stevens was born Steven Demetre Georgiou in 1948 in London, England. He started performing in 1965, signing a publishing deal that same year. After releasing two albums, his career was derailed by a bout with tuberculosis. He came back in 1970 with Mona Bone Jakon, which eventually went gold in the United States. Before the end of the year, he released another album, Tea for the Tillerman. It reached the top 10 in the U.S. and sold three million copies, largely because of the success of “Wild World,” his first Billboard Hot 100 hit. Wikipedia asserts that the song was about his relationship with actress Patti D’Arbanville, specifically the end of their romance. WK Some critics, like Ellen Willis, have deemed the song condescending and misogynistic, suggesting that if the roles were reversed it is “hard to imagine a woman sadly warning he ex-lover that he’s too innocent for the big bad world out there.” WK However, Stevens said, “It was not me writing about somebody specific, although other people may have informed the song, but it was more about me. It’s talking about losing touch with home and reality – home especially.” SF He wrote the song while recovering from tuberculosis. His near-death experience with the disease prompted a lot of soul searching about how he wanted to live his life. SF The song has also been a hit for several other hits. Jimmy Cliff actually took it to #8 in the UK three months before Stevens released his version. Cliff said, “I felt an affinity with Cat Stevens…They tried to market him as a rock act and like me, he was more than that and one day I went to the publisher and he played me this demo of ‘Wild World.’” SF Cliff loved the song, they called up Stevens, and Cliff recorded a version with Stevens and backing singer Doris Troy playing on the song. SF It was later a hit for Maxi Priest (#25 BB, 1987) and Mr. Big (#27 BB, 1993). Resources: SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/22/2025.