Classic rock, pop, and soul songs from the '60s, '70s, and '80s
Classic rock, pop, and soul songs from the '60s, '70s, and '80s
Paul Simon was Paul Simon’s first post-Simon and Garfunkel solo album, and it and Here Comes Rhymin’ Simon are not only his two best (sorry, Graceland lovers) but also two of the overall best albums of the 1970s, period. The album was released in January of 1972 and immediately found a place on my GE portable turntable. It got very…
The Lovin’ Spoonful bring us today’s classic song of the day, “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice.” Released as a single in November of 1965, this nice little slice of folk-rock peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #11 on the Cash Box Top 100. The Spoonful’s bassist, Steve Boone, wrote this one along with the group’s…
Today’s classic song of the day is a pretty much totally forgotten late-70s power pop tune. It’s “Back of My Hand” by The Jags, and don’t be embarrassed if you’ve never heard it. Described by some as “one of the best records that Elvis Costello didn’t write,” the track very much sounds like an Elvis record from that time period—and…
Today’s classic song of the day is a nearly-forgotten pop song by Connie Francis, “Don’t Ever Leave Me.” The song was released in October of 1964 on MGM Records and peaked at #42 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #37 on the Cashbox Top 100. “Don’t Ever Leave Me” was written by the legendary Brill Building songwriting team of Ellie…
Singer Carly Simon brings us today’s classic song of the day, “Haven’t Got Time for the Pain.” Included in her album, Hotcakes (the one with a pregnant Carly on the cover), the single was released in April of 1974 and peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100, #7 on the Cash Box Top 100, and #2 on Billboard’s Adult…
“It’s Not Unusual” was the big breakout hit for Welsh singer Tom Jones, and it’s today’s classic song of the day. Released in January of 1965 in the UK (March in the U.S.), this track went to #10 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100, and #3 on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart. The song went all…
I’ve written often in this blog about Todd Rundgren’s 1972 album, Something/Anything? and featured several songs from that album as classic songs of the day, including “I Saw the Light,” “It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference,” and “Hello It’s Me.” Well, here’s another one. Today’s classic song of the day is “Couldn’t I Just Tell You.” This is yet another…
For some reason I think of Neil Diamond primarily as a 1970s artist. (Probably because that’s when I started listening to top 40 radio.) That ignores Mr. Diamond’s many, many hits in the 1960s and then on into the 1980s. Case in point is today’s classic song of the day, “Thank the Lord for the Night Time.” Released in July…
“My Old School” is an early one from Steely Dan, and today’s classic song of the day. Included on their second album, Countdown to Ecstasy, “My Old School” was released as a single in October of 1973 and went all the way to #63 on the Billboard Hot 100. Not one of their bigger hits, to be sure, but a…
“Stairway to Heaven” is one of the most famous and most popular rock songs of all time, and it’s today’s classic song of the day. Believe it or not, this eight-minute-long epic was never released as a single, appearing only as the last cut (track 4) on the first side of the group’s untitled 1971 album, informally known as Led…