1st Album-1st Song-Great Debut

Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Posts
1,796
Reaction score
246
The Flirtations- Nothing But A Heartache (1968)

You can call them a one-hit wonder, but this persistent girl-group delivered a veritable classic of it's genre.
They began as The Gypsies in New York City in 1962 with Lestine Johnson along with the Pearce sisters, Ernestine and Shirley. After 2 non-charting singles they changed their name to The Flirtations. They headed off to England for a change in fortune. Hey-It worked for Jimi Hendrix, so why not?

A tour with Tom Jones, some decent sales in The Netherlands and then a record deal with Deram Records. In late 1968 their signature song hit the airwaves and they finally had a Top 20 hit.

Which they could never replicate even though they continued to release singles and toured throughout the 70s and 80s.

Their first album was released in 1969 due to their hit single. To ensure recognition, the LP was also titled Nothing But A Heartache and the first track was Nothing But A Heartache. Maybe every track should have been Nothing But A Heartache.

Art Bell on his popular overnight radio show Coast To Coast AM would play this tune every night. KFC Chicken also used it in an advertising campaign, Here's Music Mike in the video introducing the song:

 
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Posts
1,796
Reaction score
246
Electric Flag- Killing Floor (1967)

Mike Bloomfield was already the highly regarded guitarist for the Paul Butterfield Blues Band as well as his session work on Bob Dylan's Highway 61 album. He wanted to form his own band, inspired by The Blues as well as the Stax Records soul groups. He was interested in combining horns into the blues/funk/rock mix (This was even before Al Kooper attempted the same with the first Blood, Sweat & Tears album)

Bloomfield enlisted a fantastic lineup of musicians for The Electric Flag:
Barry Goldberg (Keyboards)
Buddy Miles (Drums
Harvey Brooks (Bass)
Nick Gravenites (Rhythm Guitar)
Stemzie Hunter (Sax)

The first album, A Long Time Comin', was released in March 1968. Although critically hailed it disappointed saleswise. And as would occur throughout the rest of Mike Bloomfield's life, drug issues and a hatred of touring would lead him to quit the band within the year. Barry Goldberg would leave as well leading to Buddy Miles assuming leadership for one more album in late 1968 before the group permanently disbanded

Still, that first album was highly influential as attested by the amount of horn-driven rock groups that came soon after (BS&T, Chicago, Lighthouse, Cold Blood, Chase etc.)

First track: Killing Floor- A Howlin' Wolf cover with an intro by then- U.S. President Lyndon Johnson

 
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Posts
1,796
Reaction score
246
Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show- Sylvia's Mother (1971)

A parody of teenage tragedy tunes, an iconic telephone song and one of the all-time best c*ckblocking songs ever recorded. No wonder it had to be placed first on the first album and then released as a single which climbed to #5

The Dr. Hook crew came out of New Jersey and with one of it's key players, singer/guitarist Ray Sawyer sporting an eye-patch, they were going to grab some attention. It helped with have humorist/poet Shel Silverstein writing the bulk of their early works.

Dr. Hook never sold huge numbers of albums but racked up plenty of Top 20 singles during the 1970's (8 all told) including the classic "The Cover Of The Rolling Stone". Members and fame drifted apart by the early 1980's but we will always have this tune although in this day of texting and cellphones it can seem quite antequated


Sylvia's Mother
Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show

Sylvia's mother says "Sylvia's busy, too busy to come to the phone"
Sylvia's mother says "Sylvia's trying, to start a new life of her own"
Sylvia's mother says "Sylvia's happy so why don't you leave her alone?"
And the operator says
"Forty cents more, for the next three minutes"
Please Mrs. Avery, I've just got to talk to her
I'll only keep her a while
Please Mrs. Avery, I just want to tell her
Goodbye
Sylvia's mother says "Sylvia's packing, she's gonna be leaving today"
Sylvia's mother says "Sylvia's marrying, a fellow down Galveston-Way"
Sylvia's mother says "Please don't say nothing to make her start crying and stay"
And the operator says
"Forty cents more, for the next three minutes"
Please Mrs. Avery, I've just got to talk to her
I'll only keep her a while
Please Mrs. Avery, I just want to tell her
Goodbye
Sylvia's mother says "Sylvia's hurrying she's catching the nine o'clock train"
Sylvia's mother says "Take your umbrella, 'cause Sylvia it's starting to rain"
And Sylvia's mother says "Thank you for calling and sir won't you come back again"
And the operator says
"Forty cents more for the next three minutes"
Please Mrs. Avery, I've just got to talk to her
I'll only keep her a while
Please Mrs. Avery, I just want to tell her
Goodbye
Tell her goodbye
Please, tell her goodbye

Songwriters: Shel Silverstein
Sylvia's Mother lyrics © T.R.O. Inc.

dr._hook_the_medicine_show-sylvias_mothernatural.jpg
 
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Posts
1,796
Reaction score
246
The Cowsills- The Rain, The Park And Other Things (1967)

4 pre-pubescent brothers began singing Beatles songs at local Canton, Ohio carnivals. They made the local news (Slow news day at Canton) and appeared on a local TV variety show in 1965. Mom and Dad decide to manage the brothers and throw in the rest of the young family. A local record company cuts some failed singles with them but MGM thought they looked cute and invited them to New York City for a recording session. Thats when Mama Cowsill decided to join the band herself.

The result was a first album and a lead-off track that would sell a million copies as a single. 3 more Top 25 songs would follow before the decade was through (Hair, Indian Lake, We Can Fly)

Of course fame and fortune led to in-fighting as well as accusations of parental abuse (Papa Cowsill was jailed when Billy Cowsill quit). Before the end came in 1971, The Cowsills were approached to star in their own TV situation comedy show. Screen Gems Productions insisted a real actress (Shirley Jones) would portray Mama Cowsill. The real Mama Cowsill refused that arrangement so The Partridge Family show was developed instead and went on for a 4-year run

The Cowsill siblings all went their separate ways and would never reunite until the funeral of Mama Cowsill in 1985. Little Barry Cowsill would later die during New Orleans's Hurricane Katrina. Half of The Cowsill children as well as Mom and Pop are no longer with us

Kind of a bummer story for a Sunshine-Pop group

 
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Posts
1,796
Reaction score
246
Badfinger- Come And Get It (1970)

One of Rock 'N Roll's tragic stories, Badfinger was originally known as The Iveys .Ray Davies of the Kinks was impressed enough to record some demos of them. Those demos were played to The Beatles who also were impressed enough to sign them to their new record label, Apple Records. The band's name was changed to Badfinger to avoid confusion with another group named Ivy League. Paul McCartney gave Badfinger a demo of his own from a Beatles session, a song written for a Peter Sellers movie named The Magic Christian.

So there we have Badfinger's first single and first track from their first album Magic Christian Music which shot into the Top 10 both in the UK & USA. Their 2nd album had the hit No Matter What. Their 3rd album Straight Up had multiple hits (Day After Day and Baby Blue) and was their biggest commercial seller yet. And then everything went sour.

Apple Records imploded, delaying a followup album and they lost commercial momentum. Being saddled as The Next Beatles was a heavy cross to bear. A business manager they hired, Stan Polley, absconded with their money advances and royalties. Warner Brothers, their new record label, lost faith in the group.

3 years after their commercial apex, Badfinger's lead member, Pete Ham, hung himself blaming the business manager in his suicide note. Badfinger was finished and 8 years later a 2nd member, Tom Evans, committed suicide over the same missing money issues. Stan Polley was ultimately found guilty on a swindling charge in an unrelated case in 1991. He never served time in jail and never paid back any money owed

 
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Posts
1,796
Reaction score
246
Asia- Heat Of The Moment (1982)

Certainly the most commercial prog-rock album of the 1980's, the self-titled debut album from Asia spent 9 weeks in the #1 slot and sold 10 million copies. The original members were:

John Wetton-Bass (King Crimson)
Carl Palmer-Drums (Emerson,Lake & Palmer)
Steve Howe-Guitar (Yes)
Geoff Downes-Keyboard (Yes)

Subsequent albums never came close to the debut's sales and members came and went and came back again. Even naming all their 20th Century albums with the letter "A" couldn't replicate the success of the beginning.


 
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Posts
1,796
Reaction score
246
Al Di Meola-The Wizard (1976)

Back up the alphabetical scale by performer's first name

Al Di Meola was born in 1954 in New Jersey. Hearing The Beatles and The Ventures led him to pick up the guitar and play at least 8 hours a day. He soon got fascinated with jazz and jazz/rock due to guitarists George Benson, Kenny Burrell and especially Larry Coryell. Tapes of a local jazz fusion band 19 year-old Di Meola played on found it's way to Chick Corea who then invited Al to join his group Return To Forever. The 3 albums Al Di Meola played on were the most commercially successful of that groups' output.

Return To Forever disbanded in 1976 and Al Di Meola began began his solo carreer with the album Land Of The Midnight Sun. Over 20 albums and many collaborations later he is still going strong.

Al Di Meola is a phenomenal guitarist , at first lightning fast but still employing complex technique. He has evolved, exploring flamenco and latin guitar styles, world music and acoustic. But he has never abandoned fusion and even returned to The Beatles with his 2013 album All Your Life with his 14 interpretations of Beatle classics. Over the course of his career, he has also worked and recorded with Phil Collins, Carlos Santana, Steve Winwood, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Herbie Hancock, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Milton Naciemento, Egberto Gismonti, Stevie Wonder, Les Paul, Jimmy Page, Steve Vai, Frank Zappa and Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba.

Right from the start of his first album, I became a fan of Al Di Meola

 
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Posts
1,796
Reaction score
246
Brian Wilson- Love And Mercy (1988)

Brian Wilson-Leader of The Beach Boys. Chief songwriter and the man in charge of their recordings. Evolving from simple and catchy pop songs to more complex arrangements as evidenced by the 1966 album Pet Sounds. Spoke frequently that his 1967 Beach Boys album Smile would be his magnum opus and as evidence the preceding single Good Vibrations was widely hailed across the music community

Then came a nervous breakdown during the 6 months of recording sessions. This was followed by increased alcohol , LSD and cocaine use, withdrawal from Beach Boy activities, refusal to tour and long bouts of depressive seclusion. Under the care of controversial therapist Eugene Landry. Brian would alternate between seeming to recover or falling deeper into mental illness. Landry became more controlling in all aspects of Brian's life and kept him doped up until the Wilson family intervened

But then, working in bits and pieces for several years, 1988 saw the release of the first Brian Wilson solo album. The self-titled album came out with minimum fanfare and was widely praised as an amazing comeback

Love and Mercy was the lead track. It's also the title of a 2014 biopic I really need to see starring Paul Dano as young Brian and John Cusack as present-day Brian

 
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Posts
1,796
Reaction score
246
Chris Bell- I Am The Cosmos (1978)

Forgive me, another Rock Tragedy story. Chris Bell (1951-1978), guitarist/singer/songwriter, played for various Memphis bands in the 1960's and was very much influenced by The British Invasion groups. he wound up teaming with Alec Chilton, former lead singer of The Box Tops, to form the early 1970' group Big Star. Bell and Chilton shared the songwriting credits and the first album was released called #1 Record. It was critically praised and Big Star became very influential to later bands. However the album did not sell well and Chris Bell quit after that one album, suffering depression and feeling overshadowed by the more-famous Chilton.

Chris Bell would spend the balance of his life in the studios and never would see a solo album released. He died in a car crash, age 27, in 1978. 14 years later Rykodisc released his studio work on a CD named I Am The Cosmos with that track as the lead off. The song has been covered numerous times including by The Posies, The Gigolo Aunts, Beck, The Jayhawks and more

 

Find member

Forum statistics

Threads
30,658
Posts
1,064,896
Members
6,353
Latest member
edmerka

Members online

Top