Treasured Music

CHICAGO - another Saturday in the park

Saturday in the Park, 24 or 6 To Go, Beginnings, Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?, Colour My World…just to name a few of Chicago’s musical hits. Is it rock? Is it instrumentals? Does it bring back memories? Yes!

“The band was formed when a group of DePaul University music students began playing a series of late-night jams at clubs on and off campus.(ref)” They put out their first album in 1969 and their latest was released in 2006. During the early 1970s, Chicago’s albums were simply numbered by Roman Numerals denoting its sequence.

The late 1970s saw some changes and a death of band member, Terry Kath. In 1985, Peter Cetera left to go solo.

March 21, 2006 saw their release of Chicago XXX. A landmark for any band. Enjoy your own memories listening to these.

Tags: band, Bill Champlin, Chicago, Danny Seraphine, James Pankow, Jason Scheff, Lee Loughnane, peter cetera, Robert Lammn, Terry Kath, Walter Parazaider

Badfinger - following the Beatles at the Apple Record Label

“Badfinger originated with guitarist/keyboardist Pete Ham and a group called The Panthers formed in 1961, then The Black Velvets and The Wild Ones. Ham, Ron Griffiths (bass guitar) and David ‘Dai’ Jenkins (guitar) went on to form The Iveys, named after a street in Swansea, Wales. By March of 1965, Mike Gibbins had joined as the drummer and the band began playing locally with such groups as the Spencer Davis Group, The Who, The Moody Blues and The Yardbirds. [1] The Iveys moved their base to London in 1966, performing both for David Garrick (a local singer) and as a solo act, and reportedly opening for Pink Floyd on occasion. The following year, Jenkins was asked (more…)

Tags: apple record label, Badfinger, beatles, rock and roll

1970s Soul Music

This music is the stuff I like to listen to while running, driving, or during the little free-time I have these days on youtube. It picks me up and brings back a flood of terrific memories from the early 1970s when things were simpler (at least at my age), the magic of your first kiss, and trying to find meaning in music. I think you either like this type of music or you don’t - and I do! In that way it’s sort of like the movie, “The English Patient”, which I thought was the best movie ever made.

With groups like The Dramatics, Delfonics, Bloodstone, Stylistics, Al Wilson, (more…)

Tags: Al Wilson, Bloodstone, Delphonics, Stylistics, The Dramatics, Tower of Power

The Quess Who

The Guess who was the first Canadian rock band to have a #1 hit in the U.S. The band started out as (Chad) “Allan and the Silvertones”, then morphed into “Chad Allen & the Expressions”. Later “in an attempt to build a mystique around the record, Quality Records credited the single only to “Guess Who?“.

In 1965, Burton Cummings joined the group to immediate success. Cummings and Randy Bachman became the band’s main writers and went on to many hits including:

• - These Eyes
• - American Woman
• - Wild One

In the early 1970’s, Randy Bachman left the band and formed a band with former Guess Who leader Chad Allen, that would later be known as Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Cummings left the band in 1975 to go solo. In 1978 Cummings released an album destined to become Canada’s biggest hit to date.

Most of the original band members toured (more…)

Tags: buron cummings, guess who, randy bachman

Shirley Bassey - “The Female Tom Jones”

Why the tag, “The Female Tom Jones”? Both were born in Wales, U.K. Both have very powerful voices. Both are considered sensual performers…Johnny Carson said so.

Shirley Veronica Bassey was born in Wales in 1937 to a Nigerian Father and British mother, and the youngest of seven children. In 1954, “had become disenchanted with show business, and had become pregnant at 16 with her daughter Sharon, so she went back to waitressing in Cardiff. However, in 1955, a chance recommendation of her to Michael Sullivan, a Streatham-born booking agent, put her firmly on course for her destined career. He saw talent in Bassey, and decided he would make her a star. She toured various theatres until she got an offer of the show that put her firmly on the road to stardom, Al Read’s Such Is Life at the Adelphi Theatre in London’s West End. While she starred in this show, Philips A&R and record producer Johnny Franz spotted her on television, was impressed, and offered her a record deal. (ref)”

During the 1960s through the 1980s, she had many hits. However, I think she is best know outside of Britain as a prolific singer of James Bond theme songs. These included Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, and Moonraker.

Shirley Bassey was “created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE)” in 1999. She was “also awarded France’s top honour, the Legion d’Honneur.”

Enjoy these videos clips of Dame Shirley Bassey:
Diamonds Are Forever
Where Do I Begin (Love Story)

Tags: Diamonds Are Forever, Order of the British Empire, Shirley Bassey, siner, Where Do I Begin

Ladies and gentlemen…The Beatles!

The indelible mark on music the Beatles left will last many, many years. There is no superlative that encapsulates the depth and breadth of their talents. As singers, song writers, actors, musicians, and activists they changed pop culture, which ultimately changes history in some form.

- They had more than 40 different singles, albums, and EPs that reached number one
- The Beatles were the best-selling musical act of all time in the United States
- Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Beatles #1 on its list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time(ref)

The group consisted of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. Who was considered the “fifth Beatle”? Billy Preston? I thought so until I found there were many considered to be a candidate for the “fifth Beatle” during (more…)

Tags: rock and roll, the beatles, the beatles albums, the beatles songs

Tom Jones

Tom Jones was first kown as Tommy Woodward in the early 1960’s when fronting for “The Senators”, a band in South Wales, U.K. Now, he is Sir Thomas Jones Woodward, O.B.E.

The late 1960’s were very, very good to Tome Jones:

- In 1965 he had his first top single with “It’s Not Unusual.” Much like Elvis, his moves were considered too provocative for early television.
- It was in that same year that Tom Jones also released the musical theme to the James Bond movie, Thunderball.
- If that were not enough, he was awarded the Grammy Award for Best New Artist for the same year.
- This was followed with several years of performing in Las Vegas and New York afterwards was then successful in TV called This is Tom Jones from 1967 through 1971.

After this, his career continued but not at the same rate it had. It wasn’t until 1999 that his career took off again with a record, “Reload,” of duets with (more…)

Tags: help yourself, it's not unusual, thunderball, Tom Jones, what's new pussycat

Steve Howe - multidimensional guitarist

Steve Howe has been known as the one of the, if not THE, best guitarist in the world by several ratings. I first notice his work when he was the band “Yes”. More specifically a song called, “Roundabout” where guitar harmonics are used in a dramatic opening riff.

In college, my roommate introduced and taught me to play to his song, “Mood For A Day,” a remarkable classical guitar piece. A classical guitar piece written by a rock guitarist? That’s when, perhaps late in life, I realized great musicians are multidimensional, transcendent of genre or labels.

He cites several influences from his parents’ record collection including Les Paul and the group Tennessee Ernie Ford who had Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant playing guitar. In addition, Howe listened to classical guitar and jazz, citing Barney Kessel [1] as a primary influence, “his playing was a remarkable mixture of ’single line’ and ‘chords’, ya know, which inspired me to believe that any guitarist who doesn’t understand chords won’t be able to play much in the single line because they relate so much”. Howe also credited Chet Atkins, who he first heard in 1959, as a major inspiration. Howe said he took from Atkins, “the idea that one guitarist could play any kind of guitar style.” (reference)

I think the videos below (more…)

Tags: guitarist, nood for a day, roundabout, Steve Howe, yes

Frank Sinatra - Chairman of the Board

“The Chairman of the Board”, as Frank Sinatra was sometimes known, was born in 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey to first generation Italian immigrant parents.

He sang in different groups but was picked up by Harry James in 1939 for $75 a week. He soon joined Tommy Dorsey’s band. The 1940’s saw him acting in several movies and continuing to sing. In 1953 Frank Sinatra won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for the movie, “From Here To Eternity” which helped turn his career around.

The 1960’s saw Frank Sinatra with the “Rat Pack” (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop), playing the Sands Casino in Las Vegas, and recording some of his most memorable work. He retired in the early 1970s then came out of (more…)

Tags: Frank Sinatra, frank sinatra biography, frank sinatra music, frank sinatra singer, frank sinatra songs

Elvis - The King of RocK & Roll

The man who needs only one name, Elvis. I saw Elvis in concert twice. His vocal power is truly not captured on film or recordings. He’s just cool, that’s all there is to say, and he drove women crazy at concerts.

Elvis Presley was born in January of 1935 in a two room house his father built. With roots in gospel, country and hillbilly, Elvis made his first recording at Sun records in 1953, some say as a gift to his mother. (ref)

With Colonel Tom Parker as his manager, Elvis scored a huge recording deal in 1955 but 1956 would be be his breakthrough year. His appearances helped record sales and the snowball started tumbling. He was drafted into the Army in 1958 and honorably discharged in 1960.

“In the 1960s, Presley made the majority of his thirty-three movies—mainly poorly reviewed musicals. In 1968, he returned to live music in a television special and thereafter performed across the U.S., notably in Las Vegas. Throughout his career, he set records for concert attendance (more…)

Tags: Elvis, Elvis Presley, elvis presley music, elvis presley songs, elvis presley video, king, rock and roll, tom parker