Hi, everyone. Welcome to this week’s edition of Music Monday.
(Image found online. Original source unknown.)
Just a quick reminder: With the festive season upon us, Music Mondays will be preempted for the next four weeks because starting December 1st, my annual Christmas music daily feature will begin. I hope you will stay for that & share some of your favorite holiday songs with me as well. I also want to wish all of you celebrating Thanksgiving this week-however you are choosing to celebrate-a day that is happy & safe.
American musician & singer Lee Michaels was born 80 years ago on November 24, 1945 in Los Angeles, California. His professional career started in 1967 when he was signed to A&M Records. But his breakthrough came with his fifth album, aptly titled 5th, released in 1971. It included a cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Can I Get A Witness” that made it to #39 that year, but Michaels’ true claim to fame came from the first single which peaked at #6. By the end of the 1970’s he basically retired from music and by 1988, he pivoted into a new endeavor. He opened the restaurant chain, Killer Shrimp, in Marina Del Ray in 1988 which he still owns today and runs with his family. But Michaels’ legacy as the voice behind a 1970’s rocking tune endures.
Lee Michaels circa 1971. (Image found online. Original source unknown.)
This year I featured several of the #1 Songs of 1975 (see Part 1 and Part 2). For the final look at that year’s top hits, I will start with Tejano singer Freddy Fender. He reignited a stalled career from the 1960’s and crossed over into country music with a song that hit the #1 spot on May 31, 1975 for one week. He sang the track primarily in English, then repeated the first verse in Spanish for a Tex-Mex blend on a beautiful sentiment set to music. The song has been covered by multiple artists in & out of the country genre and it was featured in the 1991 movie, Rush”.
Freddy Fender circa 1974. (Image found online. Original source unknown.)
In one week of August 1975, Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds had the #1 song in the country with a track that has the definitive 1970’s soft rock vibe. Their debut single-“Don’t Pull Your Love”-was a #4 hit in the summer of 1971 thanks to its catchy hook and overall fun feel. After a lineup change in the group at the end of 1972 when Reynolds left, the trio kept the name intact, signed to a new label & recorded the song that would bring them their biggest hit, co-written by lead vocalist Dan Hamilton.
Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds’ 1975 album. (Image found online. Original source unknown.)
There are two songs from 1975 that may not have been #1 hits, but I think they deserve honorable mentions. In April of that year, the Scottish group Pilot released a single in the U.S. from an album that came out in the UK the year before. The song became an international hit, reaching #1 in Canada and #5 in the U.S. in the summer of 1975. Sadly, as has became the fate of too many songs that bring back great memories, the track is now used in a TV ad for medication, which in this case, is Ozempic.
Pilot’s debut album was released in 1974. (Image found online. Original source unknown.)
In May 1975, 10cc released a song that would peak at the number #2 spot in the country two months later on July 26, 1975. And two years after that-in April 1977-the group reached the #5 position with “The Things We Do For Love”. Two members of the group who left in 1976-Kevin Godley and Lol Creme-not only became a musical duo but a cutting edge directing team as well which began with the release of their own innovative video for their 1985 song, “Cry”.
10cc circa 1975 (L-R): Lol Creme, Kevin Godley, Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman. (Image found online. Original source unknown.)
The Ghost of Tom Joad was released 30 years ago on November 21, 1995. It was Bruce Springsteen’s 11th studio album and another acoustic effort similar to 1982’s Nebraska.
If you are a fan of writer John Steinbeck, you know that the record’s title is a nod to the protagonist in his 1939 novel, “The Grapes of Wrath”. It was made into a movie 85 years ago starring Henry Fonda as Tom Joad. Like the book, the film tells the story of his family who were poor sharecroppers who lost what little they had in Oklahoma in the 1930’s due to the Dust Bowl so they traveled west to California to find work and, hopefully, a better life. But with so many families in the same situation, the workers in the west are exploited by the corporate farmers paying them low wages. Some of the laborers attempt to unionize which leads to tragic consequences.
Springsteen has long been known as the guy who tells the story of those less fortunate, so his take on the modern day Tom Joads of the world not only make sense, it was expected because regardless of those who prosper in life-like Springsteen himself, who rose from the streets of New Jersey to achieve international fame in the mid 1980’s and won his first Oscar in 1994-his blue collar roots were always in his rear view mirror, reminding him of those who lived the antithesis of his success. The ones who struggle day to day just to make ends meet, the ones who are alone because love never found them, the ones without any hope because too many of their dreams died along the way and those “waiting for a moment that just don’t come”. Springsteen does not take for granted that he is the exception to the rule and not the rule itself and continues to showcase the voice of the latter, even today.
(Image found online. Original source unknown.)
Lee Michaels: “Do You Know What I Mean” (1971, written by Lee Michaels).
Freddy Fender: “Before The Next Teardrop Falls” (1975, written by Vivian Keith and Ben Peters).
Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds: “Fallin’ In Love” (1975, written by Ann Hamilton and Dan Hamilton).
Pilot: “Magic” (1975, written by Billy Lyall and David Paton).
10cc: “I’m Not In Love” (1975, written by Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart).
Bruce Springsteen: “The New Timer” (1995, written by Bruce Springsteen).
Stay safe & well.
Lilacs & Rust 