Music Reviews: Doc Pomus Demos, plus Lindsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks, the Third Mind, and the Brothers Comatose Back in the so-called Brill Building era, before acts like Bob Dylan and the Beatles rewrote the rules and started penning their own material, a large percentage of the hits on Billboard’s charts were composed not by […]
Actual romances have served as the inspiration for countless songs. Here are some of the most commercially successful ones. Peak positions are from Billboard’s Hot 100 pop charts. “Layla” by Derek and the Dominos 1972, peak Billboard position: 10 Eric Clapton famously co-wrote this song (with drummer Jim Gordon) after falling in love with George […]
Continue Reading
Music Reviews: ‘The JFK Inauguration: Hot 100 5th August 1957,’ plus Mike Zito, Vanessa Peters, and Lance Cowan According to conventional wisdom, rock experienced a fallow period from around the time we lost Buddy Holly in January 1959—“the day the music died,” according to Don McLean’s “American Pie”—until Bob Dylan and the Beatles caught on […]
Continue Reading
Early Rockers Darlene Love, Dion, Clyde McPhatter, & Charlie Feathers This month has witnessed the rerelease of music from four important voices from rock’s early days. Let’s start with Darlene Love, whose Live 1982—a vinyl album from 1985—just debuted on CD and standard-definition DVD. Love, one of Phil Spector’s greatest vocalists, was a one-woman hit […]
Continue Reading