70's, 80's 'Feel Good' Music

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Simply Red - Holding Back The Years

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"Holding Back the Years" is the seventh track on Simply Red's debut studio album Picture Book (1985). It remains their most successful single, having reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the UK Singles Chart. It is one of two Simply Red songs (the other being their cover of "If You Don't Know Me by Now") to reach number one in the US. It also reached number four on the Adult Contemporary chart. "Holding Back the Years" had initially been released in the UK the year before, reaching number 51. The song was nominated in the category of Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 29th Annual Grammy Awards.
Frontman of the group Mick Hucknall wrote the song when he was 17, while living at his father's house. In a 2018 interview, Hucknall said the song was inspired by a member of teaching staff at Manchester School of Art, where Hucknall was a fine-art student: the lecturer suggested the greatest paintings are produced when the artist is working in a stream of consciousness, which Hucknall then tried to apply to songwriting – "Holding Back the Years" was the second song he wrote using this method.

Simply Red - If You Don't Know Me By Now
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The song's writing credits are shared between Hucknall and Neil Moss, a friend and member of Hucknall's first group, the Frantic Elevators. However, according to Hucknall, Moss did not co-write the song, but the credit was added "to remember the great times we had" as the pair had written so many other songs together. The song was first performed by the Frantic Elevators. The song's "I'll keep holding on" chorus was not added until many years later, after the band had split and Hucknall had formed Simply Red.
Hucknall's mother left the family when he was three: the upheaval caused by this event inspired him to write the song. However, according to Hucknall, he did not realise what the song was about until it was finished: he characterised it as a song "about that moment where you know you have to leave home and make your mark, but the outside world is scary. So you’re holding back the years". He said that the line "Strangled by the wishes of pater" was inspired by arguments he had with his father: according to Hucknall, the two clashed often during his teenage years "because there was no woman to act as referee".
The music video focuses on Mick Hucknall, who, while singing the song, walks through the English countryside and Whitby Abbey carrying luggage and thinking about his childhood memories and the difficult relationship he had with his father. The other members of Simply Red (except for Fritz McIntyre, who plays a one-man band) play local cricketers who greet Hucknall who passes by. In the last part of the song, Hucknall is seen riding a train, the scenes for which were filmed at and around Goathland railway station on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.



https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/165842/Mick-Hucknall-regrets-bedding-1-000
Mick Hucknall regrets bedding 1,000
SEX crazed singer Mick Hucknall has said sorry to 1,000 women he has bedded and binned.

The Simply Red star confessed having sex with up to three a day at the height of his fame in the 80s.
But Mick, 50, now a happily-married dad, insisted he was not proud of what he now believes was a sex addiction.
He said: “I regret the philandering. In fact, can I issue a public apology?
“A red-headed man is not generally considered to be a sexual icon. But when I had the fame it went crazy.
“Between 1985 and 1987 I would sleep with about three women a day, every day.
“I never said no. This was what I wanted from being a pop star.
“I was living the dream and my only regret is that I hurt some really good girls.
“They know who they are and I’m truly sorry.’’

Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mick Hucknall

The Mancunian singer, who shot to stardom with hits such as Holding Back The Years, has always been linked to beautiful women, including actresses Catherine Zeta-Jones, 41, and Martine McCutcheon, 34, and model Helena Christensen, 41. But he settled down and married Gabriella Wesberry, 39, mum of his three-year-old daughter Romy, in May.
Hucknall blames his addiction on a desperate search for love after he was abandoned by his mum at three.
He said: “I wanted love from every single woman on the planet because I didn’t have my mother’s love.
“It took me to my darker period from 1996 to 2001 when I really came close to the gutter. I was more into drinking than seducing.”
In the end he got bored with his sex adventures “as I never really got the emotional contact I craved”.
Hucknall, who sold more than 50million albums in 25 years, made his public apology as he retired the band name Simply Red.

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A Bit of a Classic: Donna Summer – MacArthur Park (1978)
POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 24, 2018 BY MICHIELVMUSIC

In A Bit of a Classic, A Bit of Pop Music takes you back in time to relive a pop release we definitely should not forget about. On the 24th of September it is exactly 40 years ago that Donna Summer graced us with the irresistible disco cover of ‘MacArthur Park’. Let’s go back to 1978!

Donna Summer - MacArthur Park "Suite"
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Donna Summer was in the midst of the disco peak in her career when her producer and long time collaborator Giorgio Moroder asked her to record a cover version of ‘MacArthur Park’, a track written by Jimmy Webb and originally performed by Richard Harris. Moroder had been looking for a 60s track to give a disco makeover for a good while when he heard ‘MacArthur Park’ on the radio and decided it would be a perfect fit for Summer. Summer at that stage just had major success with singles like ‘Last Dance’ and ‘I Feel Love’.

Richard Harris - MacArthur Park
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‘MacArthur Park’ became one of the bigger hits in Donna Summer’s impressive career, hitting number 1 in the US and Canada and reaching top 10 in numerous other countries, outperforming the original in the charts. Summer recorded the song in a couple of different versions, the original being over 8 minutes long, but a more radiofriendly version about half the length made sure that the track became the hit it deserved to be.

Interestingly enough, ‘MacArthur Park’ although being a hit in different versions, has been heavily criticized too and more than once voted as one of the worst songs ever written. It is safe to say that the lyrics are to blame for that. Webb wrote the track about the end of his relationship, which flourished with the time he and his partner spent in MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. He wrote about the scenes he saw in said park, including a cake in the rain which arguably received a bit too big of a role lyrically. Now in the end in Donna’s version, this is not a problem in the slightest, because you could have made her sing the telephone directory and it would still have sounded gorgeous. Moroder outdid himself here too with a vivacious instrumentation that takes the composition straight to disco heaven! The song had another peak in popularity when Donna Summer passed away in 2012, with Laidback Luke remixing the track for a tribute album.

Donna Summer - MacArthur Park [Laidback Luke Remix]
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Goin' Coconuts soundtrack was released on vinyl, cassette tape and 8-track tape by Polydor Records in October 1978. It earned platinum status, despite the film doing poorly at the box office.
The first and only single release, "On the Shelf", was a U.S. Top 40 hit during November 1978 (Billboard #38, AC #25). The song also charted in Canada, reaching #60 on the pop singles chart and spending two weeks at #14 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The album also included "May Tomorrow Be a Perfect Day", which the Osmonds sang to close each episode of their TV series.

Donny & Marie Osmond - "On The Shelf"
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"All Right Now" is a single by the English rock band Free. The song, released in 1970, hit #2 on the UK singles chart and #4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. "All Right Now" originally appeared on the album Fire and Water, which Free recorded on the Island Records label, formed by Chris Blackwell. In 1991, the song was re-released, reaching #8 on the UK singles chart.
"All Right Now" was a #1 hit in over 20 territories and was recognised by ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) in 1990 for garnering 1,000,000 plus radio plays in the U.S. by late 1989. In 2006, the BMI London awards included a Million Air award for 3 million air plays of "All Right Now" in the USA
According to drummer Simon Kirke, "All Right Now" was written by Free bassist Andy Fraser and singer Paul Rodgers in the Durham Students' Union building, Dunelm House. He said: "'All Right Now' was created after a bad gig in Durham. We finished our show and walked off the stage to the sound of our own footsteps. The applause had died before I had even left the drum riser. It was obvious that we needed a rocker to close our shows. All of a sudden the inspiration struck Fraser and he started bopping around singing 'All Right Now'. He sat down and wrote it right there in the dressing room. It couldn’t have taken more than ten minutes." Fraser has agreed largely with this history

Free - All Right Now

Andy Fraser in 2013

How I wrote ‘All Right Now’ by Free’s Andy Fraser
PUBLISHER
on 2 December 2013 at 3:24 pm

Free’s bassist and songwriter recalls how the band’s biggest hit had its genesis in a less than successful live gig
Formed in 1968 as part of the Great British blues bloom that also spawned Cream, Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After and Jethro Tull, Free released their first two albums, Free and Tons Of Sobs, to critical acclaim but little commercial success. That changed when the single All Right Now helped drive their third long-player, Fire And Water, to No 2 in the UK charts and No 17 in the US in 1970.


The next few years saw them at the very top of the rock tree, but by 1973, it was all over: guitarist Paul Kossoff succumbed to his drug addiction and died in 1976, while vocalist Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke continued to find success with Bad Company. Bassist Andy Fraser, meanwhile, moved to the US and concentrated on songwriting for others. He recently released a new solo album called On Assignment, but here he recalls the writing of Free’s 1970 breakthrough hit.


“All Right Now was basically written because of this terrible gig we did at a college in Durham. We’d driven up there on a rainy Tuesday, it was cold and miserable and we got there in a pretty foul mood to be honest. And then we saw the audience… it was a venue that could hold 2,000 people, but there were only about 30 people there. And those 30 were all off their heads on Mandrax… it was pretty grim. But of course we went on anyway.

“Now usually, we could get up there on stage and it didn’t matter who was watching or whether they were getting into it… we’d just play for ourselves, basically, and have a good time. But this night, it just wasn’t happening… we absolutely sucked. And the audience were too out of it to even notice, which just made it all the more depressing, really.

“Afterwards, in the dressing room, there was just this horrible silence… a really bad atmosphere. So to try and alleviate the tension, I just started singing… y’know, ‘All right now, baby it’s all right now,” over and over, kind of like a parent trying to gee their kids along! But it worked, the rest of the band started tapping along and so I thought, we’re onto something here.

“The chords of the song were basically me trying to do my Pete Townshend impression… I actually wrote the riff on piano and then Kossoff transposed the chords to guitar, and he did a helluva job because that’s not always easy. Basically the chorus wrote itself, the chords took me about 10-15 minutes and then Paul [Rodgers] came up with the verses while he was waiting for a lift to a gig the next day.


“We really thought it was just kind of something light and throwaway – y’know, at last we’ve got an uptempo song, was basically all we were thinking! Because we were very serious boys you see, we liked to write songs we felt had some kind of depth, whereas All Right Now is just pure fantasy, really. And then [Island records boss] Chris Blackwell said he wanted to put it out as a single and we said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding’! Well, that was one of the few arguments we had with Chris that he won, and of course in the long run he was right.

“I still play the song today… I have to, I don’t think audiences would let me off the stage if I didn’t! It’s the same with Paul – he even has to sing it when he’s playing with Queen. And there are good and bad things about that… you try singing the same song for 40 years and you’ll see what I mean. But these days I just change the lyrics around a bit and have some fun with it.

“I don’t know if it’s actually the song I’d like to be remembered by, though. Every Kind Of People, which was one of the first songs I wrote when I moved to the States and which my dear, much-missed friend Robert Palmer, who I’d known from even before the Vinegar Joe days, ended up performing… that’s one I’m particularly proud of. And then of course there’s Heavy Load, Be My Friend, Soon I Will Be Gone, Sail On… I still love a lot of those old Free songs. That band’s music still really stands up for me… as I’m glad to say it seems to for other people, too!”

https://www.songwritingmagazine.co.uk/how-i-wrote/all-right-now-free-andy-fraser

 

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[Leongsam]

Where is administration?
It is about advertisement on your website.
Thanks.

What do you want to advertise?

 

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"Rock 'n' Roll Is King" is a song written and performed by Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) released as a single from the 1983 album Secret Messages. With this song the band returned to their rock roots. It features a violin solo by Mik Kaminski.
The song went through many changes during recording and at one point was going to be called "Motor Factory" with a completely different set of lyrics. The single proved to be ELO's last UK top twenty hit single, and reached no. 19 in the US in August 1983.
In an interview in the King of the Universe fanzine, Dave Morgan, who was with ELO at the time, described his involvement with the recording as such:[2]

I sang on quite a few tracks, I sang on 'Rock 'N' Roll Is King'. I played on that one, but it wasn't called that, it was something about something about working at Austin Longbridge! It was full of car plant sounds, you could hear it going clank, clank, clank, like somebody hitting a lathe with a hammer, and Jeff went away and made it into 'Rock 'n' Roll Is King', wiped off everything we'd done, no, there was still some backing left in there, It was much better how he finished it off than it was before.

Electric Light Orchestra - Rock n' Roll Is King​

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Electric Light Orchestra - Last Train to London (Official Video)​

It was nine twenty-nine Nine twenty-nine, back street, big city The sun was going down There was music all around, it felt so right It was one of those nights One of those nights when you feel the world stop turning You were standing there There was music in the air I should have been away But I knew I had to stay Last train to London Just heading out Last train to London Just leaving town But I really want tonight to last forever I really wanna be with you Let the music play on down the line tonight It was one of those nights One of those nights when you feel the fire is burning Everybody was there, everybody to share It was so right There you were on your own Looking like you were the only one around I had to be with you Nothing else that I could do I should have been away But I knew I had to stay Last train to London Just heading out Last train to London Just leaving town But I really want tonight to last forever I really wanna be with you Let the music play on down the line tonight Underneath a starry sky Time was still but hours must really have rushed by I didn't realize But love was in your eyes I really should have gone But love went on and on Last train to London Just heading out Last train to London Just leaving town But I really want tonight to last forever I really wanna be with you Let the music play on down the line tonight But I really want tonight to last forever I really wanna be with you Let the music play on down the line tonight

 

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Edward Thomas Rabbitt (November 27, 1941 – May 7, 1998) was an American country music singer and songwriter. His career began as a songwriter in the late 1960s, springboarding to a recording career after composing hits such as "Kentucky Rain" for Elvis Presley in 1970 and "Pure Love" for Ronnie Milsap in 1974. Later in the 1970s, Rabbitt helped to develop the crossover-influenced sound of country music prevalent in the 1980s with such hits as "Suspicions", "I Love a Rainy Night" (a number-one hit single on the Billboard Hot 100), and "Every Which Way but Loose" (the theme from the film of the same title). His duets "Both to Each Other (Friends and Lovers)" with Juice Newton and "You and I" with Crystal Gayle later appeared on the soap operas Days of Our Lives and All My Children.

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Rabbitt was born to Irish immigrants Thomas Michael and Mae (née Joyce) Rabbitt in Brooklyn, New York, in 1941, and was raised in the nearby community of East Orange, New Jersey. His father was an oil-refinery refrigeration worker, and a skilled fiddle and accordion player, who often entertained in local New York City dance halls. By age 12, Rabbitt was a proficient guitar player, having been taught by his scoutmaster, Bob Scwickrath. During his childhood Rabbitt became a self-proclaimed "walking encyclopedia of country music". After his parents divorced, he dropped out of school at age 16. His mother, Mae, explained that Eddie "was never one for school [because] his head was too full of music." He later obtained a high-school diploma at night school.
Rabbitt worked as a mental hospital attendant in the late 1950s, but like his father, he fulfilled his love of music by performing at the Six Steps Down club in his hometown. He later won a talent contest and was given an hour of Saturday night radio show time to broadcast a live performance from a bar in Paterson, New Jersey. In 1964, he signed his first record deal with 20th Century Records and released the singles "Next to the Note" and "Six Nights and Seven Days". Four years later, with $1,000 to his name, Rabbitt moved to Nashville, where he began his career as a songwriter. During his first night in the town, Rabbitt wrote "Working My Way Up to the Bottom", which Roy Drusky recorded in 1968.[6] To support himself, Rabbitt worked as a truck driver, soda jerk and fruit picker in Nashville. He was ultimately hired as a staff writer for the Hill & Range Publishing Company for $37.50 per week. As a young songwriter, Rabbitt socialized with other aspiring writers at Wally's Clubhouse, a Nashville bar; he said he and the other patrons had "no place else to go."

Rabbitt became successful as a songwriter in 1969, when Elvis Presley recorded his song "Kentucky Rain". The song went gold and cast Rabbitt as one of Nashville's leading young songwriters. Presley also recorded Rabbitt's song "Patch It Up", featured in the concert film "Elvis: That's the Way It Is". And a lesser known Presley song called "Inherit the Wind "on the Album Elvis Back in Memphis. While eating Cap'n Crunch, he penned "Pure Love", which Ronnie Milsap rode to number one in 1974. This song led to a contract offer from Elektra Records.

Rabbitt signed with Elektra Records in 1975. His first single under that label, "You Get to Me", made the top 40 that year, and two songs in 1975, "Forgive and Forget" and "I Should Have Married You", nearly made the top 10. These three songs, along with a recording of "Pure Love", were included on Rabbitt's 1975 self-named debut album. In 1976, his critically acclaimed album Rocky Mountain Music was released, which included Rabbitt's first number-one country hit, "Drinkin' My Baby (Off My Mind)". In 1977, his third album, Rabbitt, was released, and made the top five on Country Albums chart. Also in 1977, the Academy of Country Music named Rabbitt "Top New Male Vocalist of the Year". By that time, he had a good reputation in Nashville, and was being compared by critics to singer Kris Kristofferson. In 1977, at Knott's Berry Farm, Rabbitt appeared at the Country Music Awards and sang several of his songs from Rocky Mountain Music. He won the Top New Male Vocalist of the Year award.

Rabbitt, a longtime smoker, died on May 7, 1998, in Nashville from lung cancer at the age of 56. He had been diagnosed with the disease in March 1997 and had received radiation treatment and surgery to remove part of one lung. His body was interred at Calvary Cemetery in Nashville on May 8, 1998.

No media outlets reported the death until after the burial at the family's request. The news came as a surprise to many in Nashville, including the performer's agent, who "had no idea Eddie was terminal" and had talked to him often, remarking that Rabbitt "was always upbeat and cheerful" in the final months of his life. Although he was widely believed to have been born in 1944 (this year can still be found in older publications and texts), at the time of his death, he was revealed to have been born in 1941.

ORIGINAL NAME	Edward Thomas Rabbitt
BIRTH	27 Nov 1941 Brooklyn, Kings County (Brooklyn), New York, USA
DEATH	7 May 1998 (aged 56) Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee, USA
BURIAL	Calvary Cemetery Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee, USA Show Map
PLOT	Rest-15-235-8

 

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George Baker Selection - Paloma Blanca​

 

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Phyllis nelson-Move Closer​

 

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Mr Telephone Man - New Edition​

 

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If I Could Turn Back Time​

 

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Bertie Higgins - "Key Largo"​

 

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Nick Van Eede (born Nicholas Eede, 14 June 1958) is an English musician, producer and songwriter. He is best known for singing and writing the 1986 No. 1 power ballad, "(I Just) Died in Your Arms" for his band Cutting Crew, which saw international success including a top 10 placing on the UK Singles Chart.

2014

Cutting Crew - (I Just) Died In Your Arms​

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While working as a hospital orderly in the late 1970s, Van Eede was discovered playing by ex member of the Animals, Chas Chandler, who sent him on a tour of Poland as support for Slade. Van Eede was only 18 when sent on the road. He recalls, "I went with a kazoo and an acoustic guitar and opened for Slade in amphitheatres in front of 18,000 people. I went down as a storm and had the loudest kazoo in Europe, because Slade took their own PA on the road!" His career continued with tours supporting headliners like David Essex, Hot Chocolate and Alan Price.
During that time, Van Eede released five solo singles on Barn Records between 1978 and 1980, but none of them charted on the UK Singles Chart. The first three were "Rock 'n' Roll Fool" b/w "Ounce of Sense", "All or Nothing" b/w "Hold on to Your Heart" and "I Only Want to Be Number One" b/w "Dicing".
Van Eede formed The Drivers with friends Mac Norman and Steve Boorer. In the early 1980s, they signed with a record label in Canada. They had a couple of hits there with "Tears on Your Anorak" and "Talk All Night", plus an album, Short Cuts. They had a support band called Fast Forward, whose line up included guitarist Kevin MacMichael. Van Eede was so impressed with MacMichael's guitar playing that the former asked MacMichael to form a new band with him; however, MacMichael could not commit at that time. After a final single release with "Things", a Bobby Darin cover, The Drivers split in 1983.
Whilst Kevin MacMichael was with Fast Forward, the band was involved in a car crash which left all of the members except MacMichael unable to continue touring. Ready to begin working with Van Eede, MacMichael moved from Toronto to London, where the two of them gave themselves one year to sign a recording contract. They recruited drummer Martin "Frosty" Beedle, previously a member of the cabaret band on the QE2, and bass player Colin Farley, a session musician living in Spain. Van Eede came up with the band's name after reading an article in the British rock magazine Sounds, which described the band Queen as a "cutting crew", meaning a band that does not play concerts and instead stays in the studio recording new songs.
In 1985, Cutting Crew staged a showcase at a London recording studio for representatives from numerous record labels, and signed a recording contract with Siren Records, part of Virgin Records.
The first single to be released by the band was "(I Just) Died in Your Arms" b/w "For the Longest Time", released in the UK in August 1986. After an appearance on the BBC Television show Top of the Pops, with the song being regularly played on the radio and its music video shown on TV, the single shot up to number 4 in the UK Singles Chart and in May 1987 was number 1 in America for two weeks (Virgin's first number one single in America). In total, the song went to No. 1 in nineteen countries. This would be their biggest hit single. Van Eede came up with the title and concept for "(I Just) Died in Your Arms" after making love with his then-girlfriend. "I actually remember saying that," he admitted, and promptly jotted a note on a pad he always kept close at hand.
The next single, "I've Been in Love Before" b/w "Life in a Dangerous Time" failed to break the UK in its first release in November 1986 but was quickly released again to reach No. 50 in the charts. The album Broadcast was released shortly, which reached 41 on the UK Albums Chart.