Classic rock, pop, and soul songs from the '60s, '70s, and '80s
Classic rock, pop, and soul songs from the '60s, '70s, and '80s
Today’s classic song of the day is another one co-written by Paul Williams, this time with frequent collaborator Roger Nichols. (Paul did the words, Roger did the music.) The song is “We’ve Only Just Begun” and it was a huge hit for the Carpenters. Paul and Roger wrote “We’ve Only Just Begun” as a commercial jingle for California’s Crocker National…
Today’s classic song of the day with a phone number in the title is “Beechwood 4-5789.” Back in the days when there were fewer people, fewer phones, and therefore fewer phone numbers, local exchanges were known by their letters rather than their numbers. Take the first two letters of the word and that’s your exchange prefix—which you could translate into…
Today’s classic song of the day for a Monday morning is “Rainy Days and Mondays” by the Carpenters. This soft ballad was released as a single in April of 1971 and rose all the way to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Adult Listening chart. “Rainy Days and Mondays” was written by the team of Paul…
Today’s classic song where the cover performed better than the original of the day is “Superstar.” It was first recorded by Delaney and Bonnie (didn’t go anywhere), then Rita Coolidge (as part of Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour), then Bette Midler (which got more attention), then the Carpenters (a big hit). “Superstar” tells the story of a groupie…
Today’s classic song with Hal Blaine on drums of the day is “(They Long to Be) Close to You” by the Carpenters. This monster track was released in May of 1970 and shot to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, Cash Box Top 100, Billboard Adult Contemporary, and Canadian RPM charts. It won the group a Grammy Award for Best…
In honor of lyricist Toni Stern’s passing, today’s classic songs of the day are “Sweet Seasons” and “It’s Going to Take Some Time.” Ms. Stern wrote the lyrics for both of these tunes and her friend Carole King composed the music. Toni and Carole wrote “Sweet Seasons” for Ms. King’s 1971 album Music, the follow-up to her groundbreaking 1971 album,…
For the fifth of our twelve days of classic Christmas songs we have “Merry Christmas Darling” by the Carpenters. It’s a wistful little tune just perfect for Karen Carpenter’s silky smooth voice. I was in seventh grade when this single came out and I thought the Carpenters were as boring as white bread. I was wrong. “Merry Christmas Darling” has…
Today’s classic song of the day is “Please Mr. Postman” by the Marvelettes. It was one of the first big Motown hits, released in August of 1961 on the Tamla label. It went all the way to #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard’s Hot R&B Sides charts. If you’ve been following this blog you might have noticed…
Your you-thought-it-was-cheesy-but-it’s-really-not power ballad song of the day is “Goodbye to Love” by Carpenters. It was released in June of 1972 and rose to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Easy Listening chart. In the Carpenters’ procession of singles, it chronologically followed “It’s Going to Take Some Time” (#12 on the Hot 100) and immediately preceded…