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One of the great unsolved mysteries of rock & roll is the death of Bobby Fuller (2nd from left) who led the Texas quartet that bears his name. Some investigators claim the up-and-coming star was murdered, others insist he committed suicide. Either way, his body was found face down in his unlocked car with gasoline poured all over his body and an empty gas can next to him on the front seat. If you're interested in more of the seedy details you can find all that you want here on an archived version of the prolific blog, Forgotten Hits .  Virtually a one-hit wonder, Fuller is almost exclusively known for "I Fought the Law," a 1966, #9 hit appropriately covered by The Clash and less so by pseudo-punkers Green Day. The Dead Kennedys released a version of it too. Covers recorded by these irreverent rockers shouldn't surprise anyone when the famous song in question has lyrics like  "I fought the law and the law won."   The Best Of The Bobby Fuller Four is a s...

Together, Crosby Stills and Nash (and sometimes Young) had more chart success than The Traveling Wilburys, but based on their prior fame - and all of their earlier critical and commercial accomplishments - you would have to admit The Wilburys were the most super of all of the super groups. What a sensational lineup! If you don't already know, The Wilburys were Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. Sadly, only Dylan and Lynne are still with us today. For most of The Wilburys their days of reaching the coveted top spot on the Hot 100 were long over. Still, you would expect a much better chart performance for a great song like "Handle With Care" than only peaking at #45. It did better in Britain (#21), and in Canada the single made it all the way to #2. Fortunately, the debut CD from which it came hit #3 on the Billboard album chart, so it's possible the album's success may have actually hurt the single's sales. The band was started b...

A week before its actual screening on August 16, 2022 I bought tickets online to see Elvis - the first film I saw in a theater in at least two and a half years. At the time of my purchase, I had no idea that date eerily coincided with the 45th anniversary of the day Elvis Presley died way back in 1977. It's a day I remember well. My wife picked me up at the train station after work that day and told me the tragic news while driving home. Needless to say, I was shocked. The death of the King of Rock & Roll at age 42 is the epilogue to director Baz Luhrmann's excellent film about Presley, a man who has now been gone from us longer than he was alive.  The long, over two-and-a-half hour movie discusses all of the events that turned a shy, polite, mama's boy into someone who at one point was probably the most famous man in the world. Despite its length, the movie is fast paced so it holds your interest. It helps if you know something about P...

Big band -  A large dance  or jazz band  of ten musicians or more, usually featuring improvised solos by lead players but otherwise playing orchestrated music . When most people think of big bands today they often conjure up faded, black and white images of Glenn Miller, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Stan Kenton, Count Basie and Woody Herman. Those men led some of the more popular outfits whose heyday was during the latter part of The Great Depression and the Second World War - approximately 1935 to 1946. It's the only time in history that jazz was at the forefront of American popular music. As a kid I became a fan of these large ensembles through my Mother's old, scratchy, breakable, 78 RPM records. My fascination with big bands continued into my early adulthood and was a significant influence in giving birth to any interest I have in jazz today. Despite the fact he r...

A few months ago I wrote about the most recent album   by the highly regarded country duo of  Michael Weston King   and his wife, Lou Dalgleish, of Birmingham, UK. Together, they're known as My Darling Clementine . That CD,  Country Darkness , is a thirteen song tribute to tribute to Elvis Costello.  King is a busy man these days because in addition to his day job he recently released his fifth career solo record.  It's his first one in ten years. (Dalgleish lends vocal support on one track.) The album,  The Struggle , is a lot more folk than country, but elements of both are readily apparent throughout the set.  The Struggle is actually named for a hill trail in England's Lake District, but given the serious lyrical content of the songs it could also be describing the singer-songwriter's view of the world. An indication of that is King credits Dalgleish in the CD's liner notes as being "the strength in my struggle."  On "Weight of the World...

It's hard to top the beautiful harmonies given to us by Michelle Phillips, Mama Cass Elliott,  Denny Doherty , and vocal arranger and composer, Papa John Phillips - four singers known to the world in the second half of the 1960s as The Mamas & The Papas. Almost sixty years later many of the quartet's songs are indelibly etched into our brains, and is there anyone who doesn't love " California Dreamin' ?" All of that said, People Like Us  is an album that probably never should have been made. It was recorded in 1971 by the group only to fulfill a contractual obligation to their record company - ABC Dunhill - after they split up late in 1968. After The Mamas & The Papas went their separate ways their label discovered they were contractually obligated to release one more album. If they didn't comply each member could have been sued $250,000 for breach of contract. Years later - in the liner notes for a Mamas & Papas compilation CD - Michelle Phil...