Bloggerhythms

Doc Severinsen made dozens of albums with various outfits while working for Johnny Carson and leading The Tonight Show Band from 1967 until Carson retired in 1992, but it took the trumpeter until 1986 to take his TV band into the studio to record a very good album, The Tonight Show Band With Doc Severinsen . Severinsen led a large, high energy group of nineteen musicians if you count the boss who was the primary soloist on nine of the thirteen tracks. While Severinsen and his men didn't break any new ground, much of the CD is loaded with extremely well-played, modern arrangements of old 30s and 40s big band standards, including instrumental hits of trombonist Tommy Dorsey ("I'm Getting Sentimental Over You"), clarinetist Artie Shaw ("Begin The Beguine"), and vibraphone player Lionel Hampton ("Flying Home"). The set also includes three Benny Goodman classics, "King Porter Stomp," "Don't Be That Way,...

In 1996, Spacehog, a British one-hit wonder formed in New York City had a #32 hit with "In The Meantime," their very first single. The track was the group's commercial peak and they never came close to the top 40 again. It was also their highest charting single in their native UK. Resident Alien , the debut CD "In The Meantime" was pulled from was just moderately successful too, rising only as high as #49 on the US album chart. Each of Spacehog's two succeeding albums failed to make the top 100 and by 2002 the band was over except for a shortlived reunion in 2013 that produced a final album that earned little recognition. In a 2018 interview  composer and lead singer Royston Langdon discussed the single's opaque lyrics with Songfacts , "It's me trying to reach people. It's using some kind of metaphor of a worldly or inner-worldly search for the end of isolation, and the acceptance of one's ...

The R & B world seems to produce all-star level talent who should be legends but instead perform for many years - often decades - in undeserved obscurity. Many never found an audience even among the genre's own fans. Such is the case with hard luck Arthur Alexander who died in 1993 before Lonely Just Like Me could make him a star. Alexander's resume contained a few minor hit records in the early 60s but he is mostly known for one song. Beatles fans will surely recognize him as the composer of "Anna" a song they covered on their very first album, Please Please Me , all the way back in 1963 before America and their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show . Lesser known is "Soldier Of Love" a Beatles cover that only appears on their  Live At The BBC double set. The Rolling Stones released "You Better Move On" as part of  their 1964 eponymous EP and "Sally Sue Brown" was reworked by Bob Dylan for his 1988 album, Down In Th...

Billy Joel has been a constant presence on the arena rock scene all during the 21st Century highlighted by his monthly, ten year residency at Manhattan's Madison Square Garden that is coming to an end in 2024. On the other hand, hearing new music from the mega-star has become extremely rare. Joel's last full album of pop-rock music was the mediocre River Of Dreams in 1993. After that, he composed a dozen, classical piano pieces for Fantasies & Delusions , a CD featuring solo performances played by Richard Joo that was released in 2001. Since then, the rocker has only delivered two additional songs: "All My Life" in 2007 - a love song to his third wife, Katie Lee - and " Christmas In Fallujah " a tune he wrote but never recorded and gave to a young singer-songwriter, Cass Dillon , to record. After those two efforts Joel released nothing for seventeen years. Happily, the drought has ended with the song he performed recently...

Some bands have unusual backstories. People! - yes, the exclamation point is part of their name - could be the only rock band in history that suffered from serious personnel issues due to religious differences. People! were a one-hit wonder from San Jose, CA who had a #14 hit with "I Love You," a cover of a Zombies song written by the British Invasion band's bass player, Chris White. Lead singer Larry Norman - already a devout Christian - joined the psychedelic rock sextet in time to add his vocals to this fun single released on Capitol Records. It's success allowed People! to record a full album that included a song he brought to the band, "What We Need is a Lot More Jesus and a Lot Less Rock & Roll" written by country singer Wayne Rainey that was also covered by Linda Ronstadt. The LP was not a hit. Just as "I Love You" was gaining momentum - a year after the Summer of Love - most of the group became devotees o...