Zero to 180 – Three Minute Magic
“It’s country music with a sort of massive Ray Charles feeling,” explained Buddy Killen in Billboard‘s August 2, 1969 edition for a news item entitled “Budden Killen Cuts Black Chorus in Country Album“: NASHVILLE — A chorus of 40 voices from predominately Negro Tennessee A & I State University were
From Wax of Stacks — David Bottoms‘ expansive history of Cincinnati’s record labels including, most prominently, King — we learn that recording engineer Lee Hazen generously provided the author a copy of an audio recording of a meeting that had been convened at King Records‘ Cincinnati headquarters by its founder/owner,
<LINK to related Spotify playlist: . Merry Clayton Steals The Show> From Terri Gross‘s 2013 interview on NPR’s Fresh Air radio program, we learn that it was Bobby Darin who had signed Merry Clayton to Capitol Records when the New Orleans-born vocalist was barely fifteen years old. And yes, it
The week ending January 27, 1968 — just days before Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces launched the Tet Offensive, a “watershed” moment” history would later show as having “played an important role in weakening U.S. public support for the war in Vietnam,” according to the U.S. State Department —
Sixteen-year-old Janis Ian, for her third single for Verve Forecast, bravely tackled the subject of suicide — currently the second leading cause of death for people ages 10-14 as well as 20-34, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The DJ/promo version of this November 1967 single includes
This full-page ad in Billboard‘s “World of Country Music” special edition gives every indication that 1967 promised to be a break-out year for Molly Bee: Billboard October 28, 1967 The previous year, inside the gatefold sleeve of 1966’s Freak Out – the groundbreaking debut double album by Frank Zappa‘s Mothers
Browsing Nina Simone‘s early single releases on Bethlehem Records — Gus Wildi‘s jazz label, whose control and eventual ownership would ultimately be given over to Syd Nathan of King Records — my eyes are immediately drawn to the instrumental B-side, “African Mailman,” a fairly radical and oblique song title for
In 1963, Buffy Sainte-Marie had the courage to speak out against an undeclared war in which the United States had conscripted 16,000 troops to serve as “advisors,” and consequently, was banned from singing “The Universal Soldier” on US radio and TV until 1965. It is curious to see which countries
As George Lipsitz points out in the introduction to Johnny Otis‘s memoir Upside Your Head! Rhythm and Blues on Central Avenue, Otis was a central organizing figure in the Los Angeles rhythm & blues scene of the late 1940s and early 1950s — thus, a shrewd move on Syd Nathan’s
Billboard‘s special October 19, 1968 issue devoted to ‘The World of Country Music‘ includes a 2-page article by Bill Williams – “Ladies in the Driver’s Seat” – that highlights a number of Nashville’s powerful female executives who worked without fanfare behind the scenes within the country music industry. Williams devotes
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