Hi, everyone. Welcome to this week’s edition of Music Monday.
(Image found online. Original source unknown.)
Sixty-five years ago in 1961, Sam Cooke released two albums, both produced by Brill Building songwriters & producers, Hugo Peretti & Luigi Creatore (their most well known hit is Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love”, also released in 1961).
Swing Low, Cooke’s sixth studio album, was released February 1961. The first single-a song he wrote himself-was released in July 1960 and peaked at #2 three months later that October. Of Cooke’s four career Top Ten hits, this song was his highest charting single. The other three were “Twistin’ The Night Away” (peaked at #9 in March 1962), “Another Saturday Night” (reached #10 in May 1963) and “Shake” (peaked at #7 in February 1965). Cooke’s first hit, “You Send Me” reached #1 for two weeks in December 1957.
His seventh album, My Kind of Blues, was released in October 1961. Nearly all 12 tracks were covers of mostly standards by songwriters like Rodgers & Hart, the Gershwin brothers and Irving Berlin.
(Image found online. Original source unknown.)
(Image found online. Original source unknown.)
Several albums by Stevie Wonder are celebrating milestone anniversaries this year, including his 1976 masterpiece which produced two of his ten #1 hits in his nearly 65 year career (he also has 28 Top Ten hits to date).
Sixty years ago he released two albums. His fifth, Up-Tight, which features the title track and a Bob Dylan cover amongst the 12 tracks, came out on May 4, 1966.
(Image found online. Original source unknown.)
Later that year on November 16, 1966, Wonder released his sixth album, Down To Earth, featuring the hit he co-wrote (“Hey Love”), the Holland-Dozier-Holland penned “My World Is Empty Without You” and another Dylan cover.
(Image found online. Original source unknown.)
On April 9, 1971 Wonder’s 13th album, Where I’m Coming From, was released. Her co-wrote all of the songs with his first wife, Syreeta Wright.
(Image found online. Original source unknown.)
His 1976 triple album, Songs in the Key of Life, was released 50 years ago on September 28, 1976. It was Wonder’s 18th studio album and included the hits “I Wish” (#1 for one week in January 1977) and “Isn’t She Lovely” which was about the birth of his daughter, Aisha Morris. My favorite lyric is from “Sir Duke” (#1 for three weeks in May 1977):
“Music is a world within itself with a language we all understand“.
(Image found online. Original source unknown.)
Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, the English rock band formed in 1971, released their seventh studio album, The Roaring Silence, 50 years ago in August 1976. The first single-a cover of a Bruce Springsteen song from his debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.-reached the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week on February 19, 1977. It was the second of three songs MMEB covered by Springsteen & all three songs were taken from his first album. Their 1975 release, Nightingales & Bombers, has a cover of “Spirit In The Night” (altered to “Spirits In The Night”) while their 1980 album, Chance, has a cover of “For You”.
(Image found online. Original source unknown.)
Sam Cooke: “Chain Gang” (1961, written by Sam Cooke).
Sam Cooke: “But Not for Me” (1961, written by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin).
Sam Cooke: “Since I Met You Baby” (1961, written by Ivory Joe Hunter).
Stevie Wonder with Clarence Paul: “Blowin’ in the Wind” (1966, written by Bob Dylan).
Stevie Wonder: “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” (1966, written by Henry Cosby, Sylvia Moy and Stevie Wonder).
Stevie Wonder: “A Place In The Sun” (1966, written by Ron Miller and Bryan Wells).
Stevie Wonder: “Hey Love” (1966, written by Morris Broadnax, Clarence Paul and Stevie Wonder).
Stevie Wonder: “If You Really Love Me” (1971, written by Stevie Wonder and Syreeta Wright).
Stevie Wonder: “Sir Duke” (1976, written by Stevie Wonder).
Stevie Wonder: “I Wish” (1976, written by Stevie Wonder).
Manfred Mann’s Earth Band: “Blinded By The Light” (1976, written by Bruce Springsteen).
Stay safe & well.
