Tag: Coincidence

Dolly Parton – “Jolene” And “I Will Always Love You”

Released in late 1973, “Jolene” by Dolly Parton became a No. 1 country hit for her in February 1974, reached Number 60 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 7 on the UK charts.

Dolly Parton also wrote and released a song later made popular by Whitney Houston, namely “I Will Always Love You”.

Dolly Parton’s own version, written and recorded in 1973, came out in 1974 and also went to the top of the country charts.

It did so again when she re-released it eight years later, this time also doing quite well on the pop charts.

Here is Dolly Parton singing “Jolene” live:

This is Dolly Parton’s rendition of “I Will Always Love You”:

I heard Whitney Houston’s version of this again recently while watching the film “The Bodyguard”, by coincidence she was in the country and in fact passed by quite closely after cancelled flights from Northern Ireland meant she had to take the ferry.

It’s one of my favourite songs, and I hadn’t realised Dolly Parton had written and sung it back when Whitney Houston was about ten.

Both versions have their own magic.

Which one do you like best?

Paul
Linda Ronstadt – “When Will I Be Loved”, “You’re No Good”, “Blue Bayou”, “It Doesn’t Matter Any More” and “First Cut Is The Deepest”

Linda Ronstadt was a name you heard a lot in the Seventies, her biggest hits included “When Will I Be Loved”, “You’re No Good” and “Blue Bayou”.

By coincidence, these are just about the only ones of her many songs I can recall…

I found a couple more that I recognise though, but I can’t say now whether it’s just the songs themselves that are familiar or Linda Ronstadt’s versions of them!

Songs like “It Doesn’t Matter Any More” and the Cat Stevens number “First Cut Is The Deepest”, best known in the Rod Stewart version.

Whatever Linda Ronstadt sings, with her powerful voice she certainly makes it her own.

Here are some of those songs –

“When Will I Be Loved”, live in 1977:

From the same concert in Atlanta, Georgia, the quieter track “It Doesn’t Matter Any More”, featuring Linda Ronstadt accompanying herself on acoustic guitar:

“You’re No Good”, on the Midnight Special (with an introduction by Jose Feliciano):

This is probably the Linda Ronstadt track I like the best, once again from that 1977 concert in Atlanta, “Blue Bayou”:

And finally, “First Cut Is The Deepest”:

“I’m going back in time…”

Paul
Janis Joplin – “Cry Baby”

“Cry Baby” was one of Janis Joplin’s iconic numbers, full of the energy and passion that characterised all her music.

Janis Joplin only just made it into the Seventies – she died 40 years ago in 1970, on October 4th, aged 27.

But her music kept her name alive through the Seventies and beyond nonetheless.

Here’s a live video from that year, “Cry Baby”, filmed in 1970 in Toronto:

My first encounter with Janis Joplin was in 1971, as a young teenager, when I heard one of the last two songs she had recorded, less than a year earlier: “Mercedes Benz” on the posthumously published album “Pearl”.

I was staying at someone’s place in Wellington, New Zealand, waiting for a lift the few hundred miles to my home – the younger brother of a friend of my parents.

Many years later I was to meet up with him again in Frankfurt, Germany, where I also lived at the time, but almost all I remember of his flat in Wellington was “Oh Lord, won’t you buy me, a Mercedes Benz, my friends all drive Porsches, I must make, amends”, and that album cover…

Janis Joplin's posthumously published album ""Pearl"

By coincidence, as I was locating this video, I discovered it was Janis Joplin’s birthday just a day or two ago (depending on where you live): January 19th.

So here’s a belated “Happy Birthday” Janis. I see you got your Porsche in the end…

Janis Joplin's Porsche 356

Paul

Tag: Coincidence

Dolly Parton – “Jolene” And “I Will Always Love You”

Linda Ronstadt – “When Will I Be Loved”, “You’re No Good”, “Blue Bayou”, “It Doesn’t Matter Any More” and “First Cut Is The Deepest”

Janis Joplin – “Cry Baby”