American R&B band Earth, Wind & Fire from Chicago had quite a distinguished career in the Seventies, but the only (original) song from them that instantly comes to mind for me is “Boogie Wonderland”, from 1979.
I guess I just didn’t listen to their kind of music that often.
Nevertheless, the band was very successful, with six Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards.
They were inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.
What I do remember is the very strong horn section, and you’ll notice it here in “Boogie Wonderland”:
Magazine is another of those UK New Wave bands whose music I first heard played by the house band (Snatch) at the Majestic Hotel in Palmerston North, New Zealand, prompting me to buy their album “Second Daylight” with songs like “Rhythm Of Cruelty”, “Believe That I Understand”, “I Wanted Your Heart”, “Talk To The Body”, “Permafrost”, “The Thin Air”, “Feed The Enemy” and “Back To Nature”.
Listening to some of the tracks now I’m not so sure why I bought it, but I think it might have been “Rhythm Of Cruelty” I heard at the Majestic (though I don’t recall the women at the pub being dressed like this…):
“Believe That I Understand” might have been another one I heard in Palmerston North:
Not sure about “I Wanted Your Heart”:
Here are some more tracks from “Secondhand Daylight”, some of them seem a bit obscure for a “post punk” band, but you might like them, so I’ll let you make up your own mind…
“Talk To The Body”:
“Permafrost”:
“The Thin Air”:
“Feed The Enemy”:
“Back To Nature”:
That last one wasn’t quite what I was expecting, think I confused it with “Slow Motion” by Ultravox…
Squeeze are a UK band (I always thought they were called UK Squeeze) who began charting in the late Seventies with songs like “Goodbye Girl”, “Cool For Cats” and “Up The Junction” and continued to record in the Eighties and Nineties.
Actually I’ve just seen that they were called UK Squeeze initially outside the UK to avoid legal conflicts with other bands in North America and Australia, this must have been the time when I first became aware of them.
I don’t know any of the songs from their first album, “Squeeze”, but I do recognise numbers from the second, “Cool For Cats”.
Two tracks from this one reached Number 2 on the UK charts, “Cool For Cats” and “Up The Junction”.
I remember the live band at the Majestic Hotel in Palmerston North, New Zealand, playing “Cool For Cats” in 1979.
Most of their other songs I know I actually taped off a live show in Germany a few years later.
Here’s the 1978 track “Goodbye Girl”:
“Cool For Cats”, from the album of the same name, went to No. 2 in the UK and 5 in Australia:
Many Squeeze songs tell a story, and the 1979 track “Up The Junction”, another No. 2 hit, is no exception (if you’ve heard of the big railway junction just south of London, you’ll get the play on words in this one) :
The following year Squeeze again had a number of singles, one of them was “Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)”, sung here live on TV a few years later in 1985:
Another Squeeze favourite from around this time is “Tempted”:
And “Black Coffee In Bed”:
“Annie Get Your Gun” is a typical Squeeze track:
And this is “Annie Get Your Gun” live in 1982:
I hear Squeeze are together and touring again, must keep an eye out for them…
The Harry Nilsson song that stands out in my mind is his version of the Badfinger song “Without You”, which went to Number 1 across the charts (U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, Ireland…) in 1971.
“Without You”
For a long time Harry Nilsson, who became close friends with the Beatles (in particular John Lennon, with whom he collaborated to produce the 1974 album Pussy Cats”, and Ringo Starr) was better known as a songwriter than a singer.
Especially among other artists, and many of his songs are more familiar in other versions, such as the Three Dog Night hit “One”.
Here is Harry Nilsson’s own version of his song “One”:
Nilsson, who died in 1994, was not only successful at providing other musicians with songs, he is also known in theatre and as a provider of film music.
Most well known here is perhaps his singing of “Everybody’s Talkin’” in the 1969 movie “Midnight Cowboy starring John Voight and Dustin Hoffman.
“Everybody’s Talkin’”:
Here are the opening scenes of “Midnight Cowboy” underscored by “Everybody’s Talkin’”:
Nilsson had actually written his Top Ten hit “I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City” as a contender for the movie:
A few years ago (2006) there was a documentary “Who is Harry Nilsson? (And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him)”.
I guess there is a reason “everybody’s talkin’” about him.
When I was about 16, I used to listen to Lobo over and over again. Songs like his big hit “Me And You And A Dog Named Boo”; “How Can I Tell Her About You” and “I’d Love You to Want Me”. Or “Stoney”, “Hope You’re Proud Of Me Girl”, “It Sure Took a Long, Long Time”, “Don’t Expect Me To Be Your Friend”, “Standing At The End Of The Line” and “Goodbye Is Just Another Word”.
Seems he had one hit after another in the early Seventies, and as I was looking through his songs, one after another came back to me.
The words, and the melodies.
I’m not going to comment on them individually, just let you listen and enjoy them one after another.
This was his first big hit, in 1971, “Me And You And A Dog Named Boo”:
“I’d Love You to Want Me”went to No. 2 on the U.S. singles charts in 1972:
“Don’t Expect Me To Be Your Friend” reached the Top Ten that year:
“It Sure Took a Long, Long Time” made it to the Top 30 the same year:
And in 1973 “How Can I Tell Her About You” did too:
In 1974 “Standing At The End Of The Line” peaked at 37:
The next three songs were album tracks –
“Stoney”:
“Hope You’re Proud Of Me Girl”:
“Goodbye Is Just Another Word”:
OK, so I did coment on (some of) them after all…
I must admit I was surprised how much I still like these songs.
