King Harvest: "Dancing in the Moonlight" (1973)

This a  very keyboard oriented happy song from the '70's. The Wurlitzer electric piano is right up front on this one.  In fact, King Harvest had three keyboard players in the band, all of whom had been doing session work prior to forming the band.Ron Altback, Sherman Kelly and Davy ‘Doc’ Robinson(all on keyboards), plus Ed Tuleja (guitar), Tony Cahill (bass), Rod Novak (saxophone) and David Montgomery (drums).

According to the band's MySpace page, King Harvest formed in 1970 after four Cornell students met in Ithaca. They would go to Paris. and rode the circuit, even opening for B.B. King. They released "Dancing in the Moonlight" in Europe and it Flopped. They came back to New York and got a contract with a small label called Perception. The first cut released was "Dancing in the Moonlight" which some say was written by Altback and Robinson, but other sources say it was written by Sherman Kelly, the brother of a one time drummer in the band and himself a member of a previous iteration of the band. The soulful pop entry rose to to #13 in the U.S., and stayed on the charts for 20 weeks. They would never really chart again with the exception of "A Little Bit of Magic", which hit #91 the same year. To hear it, you would assume it would be a nice flip side to "Dancing in the Moonlight."They would disband mid-decade.

In 1976, the Beach Boys members Mike Love and Carl Wilson helped them get a record deal with A & M, but no hits came out of the effort.

We get it almost every night
When that moon is big and bright
It's a supernatural delight
Everybody's dancin' in the moonlight

Everybody here is out of sight
They don't bark, and they don't bite
They keep things loose, they keep 'em tight
Everybody was dancin' in the moonlight

Dancin' in the moonlight
Everybody's feelin' warm and bright
It's such a fine and natural sight
Everybody's dancin' in the moonlight

No fewer than 17 bands would cover this song. Of these, the British band Toploader covered the song and it reached #7 on the English charts in 2000. The version has the same happy, party and we're all friends feel, and again, keyboards are integral to the song. No evidence of it having been released in the U.S. We are submitting it as well for your consideration.

Liza Minelli covered the song in 1973 and it is as schmaltzy as you might expect. Good luck getting through that version!

Boyce Avenue: "Locked Out of Heaven" (2013)

You would have to have been living in a cave to not be aware of the  Bruno Mars (Peter Gene Hernandez) version of "Locked Out of Heaven". The recording, part of his latest release called  Unorthodox Jukebox, is a great album with a startling number of diverse offerings. The lead single from the album, "Locked Out of Heaven" has reached number one in the US Billboard Hot 100 and Canada and the top ten in several countries worldwide. The album's second single, "When I Was Your Man", has reached the top ten of fifteen countries, including number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

In researching "Locked Out of Heaven", we stumbled upon this beautifly stripped down acoustic cover version performed by Boyce Avenue. Since you can go anywhere on the net and read about Bruno Mars, let's talk about this band.

Boyce Avenue, consists of the three brothers, Alejandro, Fabian, and Daniel Manzano. The brothers first came together as a band in 2004 when Alejandro (lead vocals, guitar, piano), Fabian (guitar, vocals), and their older brother Daniel (bass, percussion, vocals) reconnected after pursuing their respective educational goals. Daniel graduated from Harvard, then joined his other two brothers who were attending the University of Florida. They started playing arounf Gainsville and wrote original music. They would go on to record videos which helped the band get traction via YouTube. Several albums are available through their site, Itunes or Amazon. A new album is expected soon. They have played some great venues in the United States and have a large international following. 

Some of the first few videos they posted included acoustic versions of songs such as Justin Timberlake’s “LoveStoned”, Rihanna’s “Umbrella”, and Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida”, among many others. The videos resonated instantly with YouTube viewers. And to date, the band has over 300,000,000 views on YouTube and over 700,000 subscribers to their channel, making theirs one of the most frequented channels worldwide on YouTube.

From their own website: Early on, the band wanted to set itself apart from other acts that had achieved success online by taking its music straight to the people, live. Believing firmly in the strength of their online fans, and in its music, the band booked a stand-alone show in New York City in January of 2009, for their first ever performance in the city. Surprising label and industry folks alike, the show – perceived by others as a gamble – was an enormous sellout and success. Since then, the band has been steadily touring the world over with similar results.

Here is the Bruno Mars original, followed by the acoustic version by Boyce Avenue:

  

Bizarre Song Spotlight: Sadler and Young-"Dominique" (1966)

No, this does not count as a Song of the Week, but it may well factor in the 2013 Worst Song Ever category.

HOW I HEARD IT

I have CD's, flash drives and radio in the car. As always, I encourage staff to flip any rock they can find to discover something worth featuring on this blog. My flash drive was corrupted, I was tired of my cd's in the car and it was a tough day with lots of traffic going home. I went with the radio search button and came upon WKTZ, which apparently has been "proudly broadcasting beautiful music in Jacksonville, Florida".Well I'm cool with that, something for everyone and so forth.

The first song was "Mack the Knife". Hey, no problem there, a classic. Second song was a violin arrangement of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", O.K., fine. I still wanted to kill the guy driving in front of me but this WAS calming. Then what I think was a Jerry Vale version of " Up, Up and Away" came on. Hysterical! If you made me listen to it several times in interrogation, I would crack. My finger was on the preset when...

WHAT I THOUGHT I WAS HEARING
 
I heard the singer doing a sultry version of "Dominique"

I heard the singer doing "Dominique," which, upon hearing the version by "The Singing Nun" is normally a license to slam your car into a tree, but I was in tight traffic (for Jacksonville) at that point. I almost thought it had a Hawaiian quality to it so I hung. Maybe a ukulele might come in. After the first verse, someone harmonizing started singing "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" in a Barry White voice? Oh no, it doesn't stop there, the guy keeps singing "Dominique" as the other bottom voice goes into "Down By the Riverside," "When the Saints Go Marching In", etc. Wow...

I played this song for staff member Suzi Suarez, who promptly got into her car and drove right through the garage door without opening it. Haven't seen her for days...but hey, listen for yourself. Please ask some one you know to hide your keys first.



SO WHO ARE THESE GUYS AND WHY THIS SONG?

According to Allmusic.com: One sang in French, the other in English, and that, in a nutshell, was easy listening vocal duo Sandler and Young's gimmick. Although they didn't approach every number that way, it became the formula for which they were best known...  and a delightful French version of Johnny Cymbal's "Mr. Bass Man." (which we listened to as well, causing Mike Yasich to stick a fork in his ear). Back to Allmusic.com... Sandler & Young may have been a pair of hopelessly square lounge singers, but for a while they mined a vein of light intellectual pop that provided them with a successful album career.

Perhaps all this comes as a Civil Rights Act tribute. The song actually charted on the easy-listening list in 1966. Also, Dominique means "Lord" in French and was perhaps a base for the spirituals sung in the background.

We think their greatest hits album would make a wonderful gift for someone you want to weird out.

Eddie Cochran: Twenty Flight Rock (1957)

Eddie Cochran (Ray Rdward Cocharn) was born in Albert Lea Minnesota in 1938, but always said he was from Oklahoma (his parents were from there). As a kid, like many other rock stars, he would learn guitar by playing along with the radio. He moved to California and dropped out of high school to perform professionally.
He connected with Hank Cochran(not related) and began to record and write, but his first break came in the movies.

Eddie had co- written a song with Nelda Fairchild called "Twenty Flight Rock". He was asked to perform the song in a movie called "The Girl Can't Help It". This would lead to another movie appearance and his only album released during his lifetime called "Singin' to My Baby".

He would go on to write and perform some highly regarded and influential songs like "Summertime Blues" and "C'mon Everybody". Both are great songs that charted, but we like Twenty Flight Rock and a must have Cochran song. The amped up rockabilly piece tells the story of a frustrated teen who is "too tired to rock" once he climbs up to her 20th floor apartment, all because the elevator doesn't work:

When she calls me up on the telephone
Said c'mon over honey, I'm all alone
I said baby, you're mighty sweet
But I'm in the bed with a achin' feet
This went on for a couple of days
But I couldn't stay away

So I walked one, two flight, three flight, four
Five, six, seven flight, eight flight more
Up on the twelfth I'm ready to drag
Fifteenth floor I started to sag
Get to the top, I'm too tired to rock

Says guitar legend Brian Setzer, who would play Eddie Cochran in the movie "La Bamba":
“Eddie Cochran. He’s my biggest inspiration, when I saw a picture of him I said, ‘I want to look like that guy,’ then when I heard his music, ‘I want to pattern myself after this guy.’ I wanted to sound like him and look like him and it evolved from there."


Eddie was great friends with Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper  (Jiles Perry "J.P. Richardson)who would both die together in a plane crash. Eddie became obsessed with his own death, thought his number was up and wanted to quit traveling. The road was the only way to earn money so he toured England in 1960. He along with his fiancee and Gene Vincent, hopped into a cab driven by someone named George Martin (hmmm).
Martin blew a tire at high speed and the ensuing crash killed Eddie.


The number of people and bands who covered Eddie Cochran's songs are too numerous to mention here. One example, (other than The Who doing "Summertime Blues") was Paul McCartney. When asked by John Lennon to play something for him, he played "Twenty Flight Rock". This would lead to his joining The Quarrymen, later to become the Beatles...

The first version is from his single released on the Liberty label. The second is from the movie mentioned previously called "The Girl Can't Help it".

Aretha Franklin: "Don't Play That Song (You Lied)" (1970)

Aretha Franklin is one of the most recognizable singers in history. Born in Memphis, both of her parents were gospel singers but her mother abandoned the family and later died while Aretha was very young. Her dad would become a famous pastor in Detroit and Aretha sang in church and recorded gospel at 14. Smokey Robinson knew the family. and introduced her to Berry Gordy Jr. at Motown. The result? Eighteen Grammy's, Seventeen top ten (Hot 100) hits and Twenty no. 1 hits on the R & B charts. Aretha was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"Don't Play That Song (You Lied)" is a song written by Ahmet Ertegün and Betty Nelson and first recorded by soul singer Ben E. King in 1962. It would reach as high as  #2 on the U.S. R&B singles chart and #11 on the pop chart. The songwriter Ahmet Ertegun may ring a bell with you as he was the founder of Atlantic Records and established the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Aretha Franklin (The Queen of Soul) covered the song for her twenty-first album, Spirit in the Dark, released on Atlantic Records. Her version, performed with the Dixie Flyers, was released as a single in 1970. Franklin's version was certified gold with sales of over a million copies. In the United Kingdom it reached #13. This was the first of two covers Franklin did of songs made popular by King. The other was her cover of "Spanish Harlem" in 1971.

"Don't play that song for me 
'Cause it brings back memories 
Of days that I once knew 
The days that I spent with you 
Oh no, don't let him play it
It fills my heart with pain 
Please stop it right away 
I remember just-a what he said"

This song is powerful and you can feel Aretha's anguish throughout the song. This really comes through towards the end of the song. The horns give it a rousing lift and by the time she starts shouting "You lied!", you want to find whoever did this to her and slap them. Of all her songs, this is the one you hear the least, despite it being one of her best...

Other acts who have recorded or performed the song include Adriano Celentano (in 1977) and Mariah Carey. It was also performed to great acclaim on American Idol by Kelly Clarkson---the eventual winner---in the first season. More recently Sam Moore duetted the song with Bekka Bramlett on his 2006 album Overnight Sensational.

Here is Aretha showing her piano chops in performing the song live on the Cliff Richards Show. Note that she is crossing her legs and beating time with her left leg as she plays the pedals with her right...




An additional note: Staff at Monahan's Song of the Week believe some of her finest performances are on her completely overlooked album "Aretha Sings the Blues". You can find it on Amazon for $5.99. Buy it! We give it a 5M rating!

Lennon and Maisy Stella:"Telescope" (2012)

Introducing Maisy and Lennon Stella, from the television show Nashville, in a country/folk pared down version of the song Telescope.  The same song was also performed on the show by Hayden Panitierre, the song itself about staying one step ahead of your man's wandering eyes. Both versions are quite good, but we are featuring this version with these two young sisters singing it.  They are amazing, and have already performed at the Grand Old Opry, at 9 and 13 years-of-age!  The earlier songs on You Tube by these sisters begin when the younger of the two (Maisy) was 7.  And yes, the elder sister really is playing that guitar.

You may have first seen the sisters on the talent how scene on the first Season of Nashville. Reportedly Maisy sang for the audition to be part of the cast and they loved her. She told the creators she had and older sister whom she sang with and that was that, both sisters were placed in the roles of sisters. 

Monahan's Song staffer Susan Spinella nailed this one early. The two sisters went viral on YouTube with a vocal only cover of "Call Your Girlfriend" by Robyn. They use a plastic bowl to tap out a beat. Between that video and Telescope, they have become a video sensation and the number of views are pushing 10 million.

Most recently, they did a cover of "Ring of Fire" to commemorate what would have been Johnny Cash's 81st birthday. It was recorded in the Ryman Auditorium.

We think the future is bright for the Stella Sisters. Here we are including "Telescope", but also "Call Your Girlfriend". There is a Nashville soundtrack if you want to own some of these tunes...


 

Follow-up: First Rock Song Ever...

We received a lot of input on the first rock and roll song with "Rock Around the Clock"( the top vote getter by far followed by "Rocket 88"), but is that the end of the story? Of course not! We tracked down some articles generated by experts, music professors and other academia to muddy the waters... (like that?)

Bill DeMain, in a post on mental_floss.com maintains that "if we define rock ‘n’ roll as the collision of blues, country and Tin Pan Alley pop, with a manic spirit and, as Chuck Berry put it, a backbeat you can’t lose, then the following are all leading contenders for the song that changed popular music forever." He makes a good case in his explanations, picking the following five songs:

1. "That's All Right, Mama" -Arthir "Big Boy" Crudup (1946)


2. "Good Rockin' Tonight"- Wynonie Harris (1948)


3. "Rock This Joint" - Jimmy Preston and His Prestonians (1949)


4. "Saturday Night Fish Fry" - Louis Jordan and the Tympany Five (1949)


5. "Rocket 88" Jackie Brentson and  His Delta Cats (1951)

Look for a great comment on this list from Nate who said: "I am 76 years old and have been listening to R&B all my life, no matter what other names people try to give it. Wyonnie Harris as well as the Ink Spots were doing R&B and no one cared. The only difference I ever noticed was if white people sang it, it was called "rock and roll".

Robert Fontentot, in an About.com article on the topic, feels differently, stating that the older songs..."don't measure up in terms of musical cross-pollination, most of these songs work in one style, boogie or jump blues, usually. The Elvis and Haley discs, for better or worse, sound like new musical forms, although there will always be those who say that this is only because both men are white. However, hot on Elvis' heels was a young man named Chuck Berry who was about to transform an old country tune called "Ida Red" into a boot-stomping bluesy workout named Maybellene. More proof that good music sees no color, and that rock and roll has always been bigger than any one person. Bigger than all of us, in fact."

But just a minute, Mark Wallace, in a post on his blog WallaceThinks Again, he maintains (as do many others) that the very term "rock and roll" was created and popularized by Alan Freed and "The term "rock and roll" was invented by black Americans as a slang word for dancing and sex. The musical style that later became known as rock and roll was invented by black musicians by mixing influences from various genres (blues, jazz, country, folk, gospel, r ‘n’ b) in a way that involved only a slight variation on a number of earlier precursor songs from those genres.

Ike Turner's "Rocket 88" was the first recorded song to feature these variations. Recorded in early 1951 by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, it featured Turner’s band under a different name with Brenston singing. Brenston received the song writing credits although the tune was probably primarily Turner’s."

Southeastern Louisiana University rock historian Joseph Burns, who also hosts a weekly radio program called "Rock School", announced that Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's "That's All Right Mama" is the first rock song as it contains the first guitar break ever.  According to Burns : "

 “That’s All Right Mama” was the first song to contain all of the elements that he says are associated with rock and roll:

• It’s music that draws heavily from blues and country in a hit form that’s often danceable.
• There should be hints of jazz, gospel or folk influence.
• There should also be some technology influence.

“It’s a lot to ask of one song,” he said. “Few fit the bill.”

Burns is convincing in this great article by Jennifer Viegas and posted on Discovery.com.

So what does the Monahan's Song of the Week staff think? The argument will go on forever and that is in itself fun. We love "Rocket 88", but Crudup's entry sounds WAY ahead of it's time having been recorded in 1946. Anyway, all the choices would make for great party music, so let's just enjoy them all!

Here is "That's All Right, Mama" -Arthir "Big Boy" Crudup (1946), followed by "Rocket 88" Jackie Brentson and His Delta Cats (1951).