This Month in Music (1968): Love “Alone Again Or” released

Alone Again Or Love

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Today in Music (1846): “Jimmy Crack Corn” published

Jimmy Crack Corn traditional

Writer(s): traditional/credited to Daniel Decatur Emmett (see lyrics here) First Published: January 20, 1846 First Charted: July 31, 1948 Peak: 24 BB (Burl Ives) (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 3.71 video, 0.73 streaming (multiple versions)

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “Jimmy Crack Corn,” also known as “The Blue Tail Fly,” was first published by F.D. Benteen of Baltimore on January 20, 1846. JF It became popular as a blackface minstrel song performed by Daniel Decatur Emmett’s Virginia Minstrels. WK Emmett is generally credited with the song, although he may have simply arranged and published an African-American song that already existed. WK The opening notes are similar to “Miss Lucy Long,” published in 1842. JF The song grew out of the experience of slaves in the American South and their use of music and storytelling to connect and express emotions. AN It “reflects the hostility of slave towards master in Southern plantation society.” BA It “is a lively and spirited song that has endured over time as a testament to the creativity and resilience of African American culture.” AN “Cracking corn” was a phrase that referred to sitting around and gossiping. AN The song starts out with the singer, a house slave, being expected to protect his master and his horse from a blue-tailed fly. When he fails, the master is thrown from the horse and killed. The singer is charged with the death but eventually gains his freedom when the death is blamed on the blue-tail fly. WK The song isn’t without controversy as it is perceived as offering a simplistic view of slavery and that slaves were happy and carefree despite the oppression against them. AN The song has been viewed both as the slave lamenting over his master’s death and celebrating it. WK Abraham Lincoln is said to have requested the song be played at Gettysburg, where he delivered his famous address in November 1863. WS It was reportedly a favorite of his that he may have even played on harmonica. TR The song experienced a revival in the 1940s as a folk song and Burl Ives charted with it in 1948. It became a popular children’s song and campfire favorite. Big Bill Broonzy, Bob Dylan, Lead Belly, Tom Lehrer, and Pete Seeger are among those to record and perform the song. WK In 1959, Johnny & the Hurricanes recorded a instrumental version of the song called “Beatnik Fly” and reached #15 in the US and #8 in the UK. Resources: AN AllNurseryRhymes.com BA BalladOfAmerica.com JF James J. Fuld (2000). The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk. Dover Publications: Mineola, NY. Dover Publications: Mineola, NY. Page 312. TR Theodore Raph (1986). The American Song Treasury: 100 Favorites. Dover Publications, Inc.: Mineola, NY. Page 109. WS William Studwell (1997). The Americana Song Reader. The Haworth Press, Inc.: Binghampton, NY. Page 53. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 12/18/2025.

 

Today in Music (1965): The Byrds “Turn! Turn! Turn!” hit #1

Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season) The Byrds

Writer(s): Pete Seeger (see lyrics here) Released: October 1, 1965 First Charted: October 22, 1965 Peak: 13 US, 11 CB, 11 GR, 12 HR, 1 CL, 26 UK, 3 CN, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 3.0 radio, 38.47 video, 143.16 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The Byrds emerged in 1965 as the poster children for folk rock with their #1 rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man.” By year’s end, they’d churned out another chart-topping cover originally written by another folk legend – Pete Seeger. His song, “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)” boasts “being the number one single with the most ancient lyrics” FB as he adapted the words from the Bible’s Book of Ecclesiastes in 1959. His only original contributions were the title of the song and the last line, “A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late.” RC He said the melody came together in roughly fifteen minutes. SG It was first released in 1962 as “To Everything There Is a Season” by the Limeliters. A year later, Judy Collins recorded an arrangement of the song by Roger McGuinn. The future Byrds’ frontman also played guitar on the song. Once he was in the Byrds, he started playing the song while on a tour bus. David Crosby added his twist and the group came up with a new arrangement for the song. FB McGuinn said it took them more than 50 takes to get the song right. RC They ended up recording the song “in that chiming, droning, vaguely Beatlesque way that had become the Byrds’ signature sound.” SG As McGuinn said, “I changed the chord structure…and we changed the beat…We put a kick, that Phil Spector beat…to it.” SS The group figured out how “to interweave those guitar jangles” SG with their three-way harmonies into a “straight-up smash during that very early psychedelic era.” SG The Byrds released their version just as “the Vietnam War was just startint to rip open the United States’ generation gap,” SG was embraced by kids as a “pro-peace anthem.” SG However, it was difficult to view a song which quoted the Bible as countercultural so it had appeal to older generations as well. SG Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for The Byrds FB Fred Bronson (2007). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (4th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 188. RC Rod Couch (2015). The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era: 1955-2015. Pages 165-6. SG Stereogum (8/21/2018). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 403-4. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 7/13/2023; last updated 4/25/2024.

Today in Music (1965): Bob Dylan “The Times They Are A-Changin’” single released

The Times They Are A-Changin’ Bob Dylan

Writer(s): Bob Dylan (see lyrics here) First Recorded: October 24, 1963 Released (album cut): January 13, 1964 Released (single): March 8, 1965 First Charted: March 27, 1965 Peak: 2 CL, 9 UK, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 0.2 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 24.80 video, 220.05 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Bob Dylan’s 1962 self-titled debut didn’t make waves, but his second album, 1963’s The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, featured early classics like “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” “Masters of War,” “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” and -most significantly – “Blowin’ in the Wind.” A cover of the latter by Peter, Paul & Mary reached #2 and “cast Bob Dylan into the …role of a spokesman for his generation.” SS Dylan said, “one man, the lone balladeer with the guitar, could blow an entire amry off the stage if he knew what he was doing.” SS The follow-up album, The Times They Are A-Changin’, wasn’t quite as loaded, but still featured “such socially conscious songs as ‘With God on Our Side’ and ‘The Ballad of Hollis Brown’” SS and, of course, the title song. It was “a song designed as an anthem.” SS He said “I wanted to write a big song, some kind of theme song…This is definitely a song with purpose.” TC Critic Michael Gray called it “the archetypical protest song.” WK “The phrase ’the times they are a-changin’ went quickly into the vernacular as one of the catch-phrases of that decade.” TC It was “a manifesto that implicated his elders in slowing the progress of the world.” TC “Not only is Dylan anticipating the coming troubles, he lays the blame on the shoulders of the older generation.” TC It “was inspired in part by U.S. Senate filibusters over civil rights legislation, and expanded in scope with Biblical allusions including a phrase adapted from the Serom on the Mount.” SS The song’s melody was partly adapted from “The Dreary Black Hills,” an 1872 song warning about the hard life of South Dakota. SS The song was influence by Irish and Scottish ballads. WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Bob Dylan TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Pages 544-5. SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 314-5. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 5/23/2024.