The blogger in 1965
For this week’s Throwback Thursday playlist, Tunes du Jour revisits the year 1965.
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Old Time Rock & Roll Xmas, With Jews!
In 1958, 13-year-old Brenda Mae Tarpley went into a recording studio with famed producer Owen Bradley and cut “Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree,” written by Johnny Marks (Jew!). Released as a single for that year’s holiday season, it bombed. That really isn’t surprising. Tarpley, better known by her stage name, Brenda Lee, was virtually unknown at the time.
In 1959, her record label reissued the single. It bombed. That really isn’t surprising. Lee hadn’t dented Billboard’s Hot 100 all year.
In 1960, her record company released it yet again. Third time lucky. Coming off two #1 singles, “I’m Sorry” and “I Want to Be Wanted,” plus two other top ten hits, “Sweet Nothin’s” and “That’s All You Gotta Do,” Lee’s Christmas record peaked at #14.
For years the hits kept coming for Lee. She placed 55 songs on Billboard’s Hot 100, including twelve top tens. These days she is perhaps best-remembered for “Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree,” a holiday staple.
Johnny Marks, the Jew who wrote the song, also wrote “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Holly Jolly Christmas,” and “Run Rudolph Run.”
He’s not the only Jew to have written Christmas standards. Also written by chosen people? “White Christmas,” “Silver Bells,” “Winter Wonderland,” “Santa Baby,” “Sleigh Ride,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” Let It Snow Let It Snow Let It Snow,” “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire),” “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” and “Give the Jew Girl Toys.” Oy gevalt!
Today Brenda Lee turns 70 years old. Our playlist today includes her classic version of “Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree” as well as nineteen other holiday tunes from the early days of rock and roll, before The Beatles took over the United States in 1964. Some were written by Jews, some were not. Some get a lot of radio airplay this time of year, some deserve more (specifically “Christmas in Jail” and “Trim Your Tree.”). All put me in the mood to rock around my menorah.
More holiday music can be found here, here, here, here, and here.
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Chuck Berry’s Ding-A-Ling
Rock-and-Roll Hall-of-Famer and one of the original architects of the music form, Chuck Berry, has given the world several undeniable classics. “Johnny B. Goode,” which peaked at #8 on the Billboard pop charts in 1958, was ranked as the seventh greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, who also placed it at #1 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs. “Johnny B. Goode” is also included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll, a list which also includes Berry’s first hit single, “Maybellene” (#5, 1955), a song about which Rolling Stone said “Rock and roll starts here,” and “Rock and Roll Music” (#8, 1957, and later a top ten hit for The Beach Boys). “Roll Over Beethoven” (#29, 1956) was #97 on the Rolling Stone Greatest Songs of All Time list and is included in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry. Like “Rock and Roll Music,” it was later remade by The Beatles. “Sweet Little Sixteen,” whose music formed The Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” peaked at #2, “School Day” peaked at #3, “No Particular Place to Go” peaked at #10, and “Back in the U.S.A.” peaked at #37. During his entire career, the legendary Chuck Berry had only one #1 single, and it was a song about his dick.
In 1972, after eight years without a top 40 hit, Chuck Berry unleashed “My Ding-a-Ling,” a song which sounded an awful lot like Berry’s 1966 recording “My Tambourine.” Compare the first line of each song.
“My Tambourine”:
“When I was a little bitty boy my grandmother bought me a cute little toy.”
“My Ding-a-Ling”:
“When I was a little bitty boy my grandmother bought me a cute little toy.”
Do you see the similarities? Grandma Berry was a giver, showering little Chuck with things with which he could play.
Little Chuck loved his ding-a-ling. He played with it at school and held it while swimming a creek and climbing a wall.
Though the lyrics pretend to be about a toy, many radio stations knew it was about Berry’s dick. They tried to give him the shaft by refusing to play the song, but they couldn’t keep Chuck’s ding-a-ling down. Up it went, getting bigger and bigger, constantly growing, a rock solid hit shooting up the charts, climaxing on October 21, 1972, when it knocked Michael Jackson’s “Ben” from #1.
Just as Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” is about more than a big butt – it’s about black pride – so is “My Ding-a-Ling” about more than Chuck Berry’s dick. On the album The London Chuck Berry Sessions, from which this live recording is taken, Berry introduces it as “a beautiful song about togetherness.”
He performs the number as a sing-along, instructing the women in the audience to sing “my” and the men to sing “ding-a-ling” whenever the chorus rolls around. While complimenting the audience on their participation, he points out one guy singing “my” and says “That’s alright, brother. Yessir. You got a right, baby. Ain’t nobody gonna bother you.” Equality and togetherness – that’s what the song is about. By the way, the album version of the song goes on for nearly twelve minutes. That’s a long ding-a-ling. I can get together with that.
There is some controversy as to who wrote this ditty. Dave Bartholomew claims he wrote it. He recorded “My Ding-a-Ling” in 1952. Chuck Berry credits himself as the song’s sole writer; however, in the introduction to the song, he says it’s a song he learned back in the fifth grade.
To date, “My Ding-a-Ling” stands as not only Chuck Berry’s sole #1 single, but it’s also the only #1 single about Chuck Berry’s penis.
Today Tunes du Jour celebrates the 88th birthday of Chuck Berry and his penis. Here is “My Ding-a-Ling” and 19 other Berry recordings that should have been as big as his ding-a-ling.
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The Ronettes – “Be My Baby”
Ronnie Spector turns 71 years old today. Along with her sister Estelle and cousin Nedra, Ronnie, then Veronica “Ronnie” Bennett, formed The Ronettes, one of the classic girl groups of the sixties.
The trio was signed to Colpix Records, but none of their singles performed well. Then they met Phil Spector, who signed them to his label, Philles.
The first track Spector recorded with the trio was “Why Don’t They Let Us Fall in Love?,” which, though the girls liked it, Spector held from release.
With Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, Phil Spector wrote “Be My Baby,” with the intention of having Ronnie Bennett, the woman he wanted to be his baby, record it.
The resulting record had a classic Spector wall of sound production and Phil recorded more than 40 takes. It took Ronnie three days to get the lead vocal down.
The other Ronettes don’t sing on “Be My Baby.” Background vocals were provided by Darlene Love, Nino Tempo, Sonny Bono, who did promotion for Phil Spector, and Bono’s girlfriend, Cher.
In 1963, The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” rose to #2 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Since that time it has made many lists of the greatest recordings. Among its biggest fans is Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, who named it is favorite single of all-time, saying “This is a special one for me. What a great sound, the Wall of Sound. Boy, first heard this on the car radio and I had to pull off the road, I couldn’t believe it. The choruses blew me away; the strings are the melody of love. It has the promise to make the world better.”
Ronnie Bennett married Phil Spector in 1968. They divorced in 1974.
Today’s playlist consists of twenty tracks embodying the classic girl groups sound, with an emphasis on The Ronettes.
Bad Songs I Love – “I Write The Songs”
The earliest known song in recorded history was performed by Eve. Not the rapper-actress whose hits include “Let Me Blow Your Mind” and “Gotta Man,” but a different Eve with no last name, the one who called the Garden of Eden home. Her song was “The Only Girl in the World,” later a hit for Rihanna. The song was written by Barry Manilow, as were “Let Me Blow Your Mind” and “Gotta Man.”
In 1976 the scientific community was rocked when Barry Manilow, in his #1 hit “I Write the Songs,” sang “I’ve been alive forever and I wrote the very first song.” A glance at his album cover photos allays any doubt as to the first part of that claim. “But how did you write that first song?,” the skeptics asked. Manilow replied “I put the words and the melodies together,” which was enough evidence to silence any doubters. He then proclaims “I am music.” He presents his case that he, Barry Manilow, wrote every song that has ever been written. Songs that make the whole world sing. Songs of love and special things. Things like a duck that loves disco and a heart that’s both achy and breaky.
In the song’s bridge Manilow sings how his “music makes you dance,” and really, who doesn’t get down to “Mandy?” He also says he “wrote some rock-and-roll,” referring to his hit “Can’t Smile Without You,” which rocks harder than anything by The Carpenters or Air Supply.
Then we get the one-two punch of “Music fills the heart / Well, that’s a real fine place to start” followed by “It’s from me, it’s for you / It’s from you, it’s for me / It’s a worldwide symphony.” Granted, those aren’t the greatest lyrics, but the man wrote 623,524,325 songs, so cut him some slack!
Now is a good time to mention that Barry Manilow did not write “I Write the Songs.” As a matter of fact, Barry Manilow did not write any of his three number one singles, the other two being “Mandy” and “Looks Like We Made It.” Manilow did write a acne medication jingle, a toilet cleaner jingle, and “Copacabana.”
“I Write the Songs” was written by Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys. He recorded the tune into a cassette and submitted it to a Japanese music festival, who rejected it as being unsuitable.
Undeterred, Johnston played the tune for a couple of friends who worked with The Beach Boys, Daryl “The Captain” Dragon and Toni Tennille. The Captain & Tennille included the song on their 1975 debut album Love Will Keep Us Together.
That same year Johnston produced an album for David Cassidy entitled The Higher They Climb, on which Cassidy took a stab at the song. (I know – Barry Manilow, The Captain & Tennille and David Cassidy! This is a glorious Bad Music I Love trifecta!) Cassidy’s version hit #11 on the UK singles chart in August of ’75.
That summer, Clive Davis, the chief of Arista Records, Manilow’s label, was in London and heard the Cassidy record on the radio. He suggested the song to Manilow. Manilow liked the song but was reluctant to record it. As he wrote in his autobiography Sweet Life, “The problem with the song was that if you didn’t listen carefully to the lyric, you would think that the singer was singing about himself. It could be misinterpreted as a monumental ego trip.”
I listened to the lyrics very carefully and can tell you that based on my multiple listens (and an interview with Bruce Johnston I read), the “I” in “I Write the Songs” is God. See that? The song is someone claiming to speak for God. Nothing egotistical about that! God wrote all the songs that make the whole world sing. This leads to the profoundly earth-shattering realization that God wrote “My Humps.” Praise be Him!
“I Write the Songs” won Johnston the 1976 Grammy Award for Song of the Year over such worthwhile nominees as “Afternoon Delight,” “Breaking is Hard to Do” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” The Beach Boys never won a Grammy. The man who wrote most of the songs for The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, won his first Grammy in 2005 – Best Rock Instrumental Performance for “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow.” Was that his most award-worthy contribution to popular music? The “I” of “I Write the Songs” has the answer to that question, but He’s not telling. I guess God only knows.
Today the man(ilow) who claims to have been alive forever turns 71. Here are some of my favorites from his oeuvre.
Wild Honey
Stevie Wonder is dating a girl he likes a lot, but his mother doesn’t approve, so he says to her ….
That’s how Beach Boy Mike Love explained the lyrics to the group’s hit “Wild Honey,” named after something sold in Beach Boy Brian Wilson’s health food shop.
The lead singer on this track is the late Carl Wilson, whose birthday is today.
An Atheist Jew’s Guide To Christmas Music, Part 3
You may have heard that last week on Fox Megyn Kelly said the real title of the song “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” is “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town and He’s White and Just Because It Makes You Feel Uncomfortable Doesn’t Mean It Has To Change.” She also said “Here Comes Santa Claus” is actually “Here Comes Santa Claus and He’s White and Just Because It Makes You Feel Uncomfortable Doesn’t Mean It Has To Change.” She was fine with “White Christmas.”
Kelly, who is white and just because that makes you feel uncomfortable doesn’t mean it has to change, will enjoy today’s playlist. It’s part 3 of An Atheist Jew’s Guide to Christmas Music. (Click to listen to parts 1 and 2.) She may take issue with an atheist Jew selecting Christmas songs, but she’ll be happy I’m white, just like Santa and Jesus and Frosty and Rudolph. Artists on today’s playlist include such great white folks as Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, James Brown, The Jackson 5, The Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, Rufus Wainwright, The Supremes, Eagles, Whitney Houston, The Temptations, Paul Simon, Pearl Jam, Boy George, Elvis Presley and Joan Jett, among others. There are classic songs and some you may not have heard before. I doubt Kelly is familiar with Pansy Division’s “Homo Christmas” and she may not like what the band suggests one does with a candy cane, but just because that makes her feel uncomfortable doesn’t mean it has to change. Besides, Pansy Division is white, just like everyone is at Christmas time.
Enjoy! May your days be merry and bright and may all your Christmases be white with a capital W.
A Shelfie On Keith Richards’ Birthday
The Guardian asked its readers to put aside the selfie and send in a shelfie – a photo of your bookshelves. As Tunes Du Jour is a music blog I figured it makes me sense to take a shelfie of some of my music collection:
One act that takes up a fair amount of shelf space is The Rolling Stones. In fifth grade my music teacher, Mrs. Matzot, played the group’s Hot Rocks for us in class. She knew the secret is to hook ‘em when they’re young. I became a Stones fan that day.
Some of my rarer Rolling Stones CDs, all of which are authorized releases
Today Tunes Du Jour celebrates the 70th birthday of Keith Richards.