1st Album-1st Song-Great Debut

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Nancy Sinatra- As Tears Go By (1966)

You would think that daddy Frank would be the most responsible for Nancy's success during the 1960's. Not really. Well for sure he helped at the very beginning, donating ***** and getting her an appearance on a TV special of his in 1960 when she was 20 years old. And then she was signed to his record company, Reprise, and got her first singles distributed. The first 11 all bombed and Nancy was about to be dropped from her contract.

Then along came Lee Hazlewood, writer and singer, who wrote her a song about her footwear and everything changed. From then on they were music partners and she racked up 10 Top 40 hits between 1965-1967, some duets and others written for her

Her first album, Boots, was released in 1966 and the lead track was a haunting bossa nova styled version of The Rolling Stones' As Tears Go By. Marianne Faithful also had a hit with this song but I believe this is superior to hers

I'd be remiss if I didn't post the 1st album's namesake

One more, a cult classic Sinatra/Hazelwood collaboration-Some Velvet Morning

 

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A 1st Album-1st Song-Great Debut Bulletin

Due to technical difficulties, i.e. laptop issues, I finally missed a day of posting. But hooray, hooray, my laptop is back from the fix-it shop. However, everything was set back to factory original settings and now begins the tedious task of customizing everything again. So for the next few days it's installing all those damn Microsoft Updates, installing new programs, adding favorite sites, etc etc

Will be back soon to pick up with the first initial "O" but in the meantime feel free to add any comments of your own

 

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Otis Redding-Pain In My Heart (1962)

Born in Dawson, Georgia in 1941 Otis was a gifted singer and sang in church choirs as well as amateur radio contests as a youngster. Otis cited Little Richard and Sam Cooke as his biggest influences. By age 15 he left school and supported himself with odd jobs as well as some paying gigs singing for the group Pat T. Cake & The Mighty Panthers. The band would tour throughout the segregated South. A few singles cut for local record labels occurred in the early 60's. Finally Otis Redding was signed to Stax Records in 1962

These Arms Of Mine and Pain In My Heart were his early Stax Singles and did quite well on the R&B charts. They were collected along with other recordings for his 1964 LP Debut titled Pain In My Heart. That song was also chosen to kick off the disc

Otis would continue on with 5 more studio albums during his lifetime. He was a gifted writer as well as singer as witness his creation of classics such as "Respect", "I've Been Loving You To Long" (co-written w/ Jerry Butler), and his final masterpiece "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay"

The sky seemed the limit for Otis as the 1960's rolled on. He was gaining in sales and recognition. He was invited to perform for the iconic 1967 Monterrey Pop festival where he blew the audience away. But on December 9, 1967 his plane crashed 4 miles away from it's destination.

"Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay" was released, both single and album, right after the tragedy. The song became the first single to reach #1 posthumous. The album became #1 as well. Otis was just 26 years of age when death claimed him

The farewell single

 

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Paul Simon- I Am A Rock (1965)

I'm sure most people assume that the first Paul Simon solo album came out in 1972, 2 years after the Simon & Garfunkel partnership dissolved. That's the LP with "Mother And Child Reunion", "Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard" and other memorable songs. Wrong.

After the first Simon & Garfunkel LP in 1964, Paul Simon went to Europe on his own to perform in Paris, Copenhagen and London. Playing clubs and appearing on the BBC, he decided to cut an solo LP for the British division of Columbia Records, CBS, during the summer of 1965. It would be folk oriented and recorded stripped down, just Paul and one microphone for his voice and guitar.

Titled The Paul Simon Songbook, the LP was not released in the USA until 1969 and then for just a few days since Paul objected. It was re-released in 1981 as part of a box set and then finally on it's own CD in 2004.

Most of the songs on the Paul Simon Songbook would be re-recorded with a Art Garfunkel for the pair's 2nd LP that came out 6 months later.

I Am A Rock was the kick-off track on the Paul Simon LP. See below for that version, sounding a bit like a demo, and following is the Simon & Garfunkel version with the jingle-jangle electric guitar and backing band which obtained #3 on the USA Pop Charts

 

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Quincy Jones-Pogo Stick (1955)

Producer,arranger,composer,conductor,pianist,trumpeter-pickings are slim with the letter Q for the first name but Quincy fits in admirably.

Known mostly for his work in the jazz,r&B and MOR field, Quincy also has made his mark in the pop arena. His most known work was with Michael Jackson on Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad but the list of artists he collaborated with is damn astounding:Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Donna Summer, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett, George Benson, Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, Peggy Lee, Little Richard, Billy Preston, Sarah Vaughn, Dinah Washington and on and on. Let's not forget the 6 albums with Leslie Gore during the height of her career. Oh..and all those sountracks

His career began in the jazz arena, composing and leading his own group. His first LP appearance was in 1955 on the album Jazz Abroad. It was actually a split album, one side Quincy and one side drummer Roy Haynes' group

First cut for Quincy was "Pogo Stick" which he wrote and includes Art Farmer on trumpet

 

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Robert Plant-Burning Down One Side (1982)

From Robert Plant's first solo album, Pictures At Eleven and his first post-Led Zeppelin project

I'll forego my usual bio recap and instead offer up an opinion

With Led Zeppelin's demise, the career paths between Robert Plant and Jimmy Page seem like complete opposites. Robert Plant has been fairly prolific producing 11 studio albums. Quite a few in the hard rock/blues tradition but also excursions into world music (Mighty Rearranger & Lullaby and the Ceaseless Roar) as well as bluegrass/Americana with his partnership with Allison Krause (Band Of Joy) and his last studio album Carry Fire. Not everything has been successful but I give him props for not repeating the same old-same old

Jimmy Page on the other hand has been mediocre and basically uninspired, mining the same territory with his work in the group The Firm and his solo album, Outrider. Most of his time seems dedicated to remastering Led Zep music over and over. Creatively he's at a dead end and would just be happy touring as Led Zep again with Robert Plant and doing his old stuff. And since Plant would rather try new things, Page had to enlist The Black Crows instead. A real shame for Page was such a great and inspired guitarist in the 60's and 70's

Rant over-Burning Down One Side (which, ironically, sounds like it belongs on a Led Zeppelin album)

 

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Stephen Stills- Love The One You're With (1970)

Stephen Stills, born in Dallas,Texas, migrated to New York City's Greenwich Village by the mid-sixties to play solo at well known clubs such as The Cafe Au Go-Go and Gerdes' Folk City. By 1966 he moved out to California where he became one of the central figures in Rock for the balance of the decade. To wit:

1-Stills, along with Neil Young, Richie Furay,Dewey Martin and Bruce Palmer formed The Buffalo Springfield. Stills wrote the iconic "For What It's Worth" among other gems
2-After the group dissolved in 1968, Stills next appeared on the album Super Session with Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield. This album of instrumental blues/rock jams eaked at #12 and stayed on the Top 100 album lists for almost 2 years. A classic of it's kind
3-Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young was formed in 1969, a Woodstock-era supergroup whose 2 studio albums are all-time classics. Stills wrote Suite:Judy Blue Eyes, Carry On and other tunes for the group
4-Finally, to conclude Stephen Stills prime era, comes his first solo album, self-titled and released in late 1970.
Love The One You're With kicks off the disc and was played to death on radio and jukeboxes. The album itself was excellent but there is one thing that really distinguishes it:

The Only Album That Jimi Hendrix And Eric Clapton Both Appear On. Wowzah

Old Times Good Times features Jimi Hendrix and is the 4th track on side 1

Immediately following that is Eric Clapton on Go Back Home

Yeah, Stephen Stills produced some other great songs on later solo albums and CSNY reunion discs but it never got better than his 1966-1970 peak

Thankfully he failed the audition to be cast on The Monkees TV show. Supposedly it was his need of dental work that denied his chance

 

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Tom Waits- Ol' 55 (1973)

From California, raspy-voiced Tom Waits got gigs at San Diego folk clubs (working at a pizza parlor was his day job)and wound up with a record contract with Asylum Records. His 1973 debut album was titled Closing Time.

Tom Waits albums never sold well but his reputation grew with the number of cover versions done from his songs. Plus once you heard his voice, you'd remember him.

I'll fess up: I have yet to listen to any of his albums completely.I do own 15 of them in my to-listen-pile that I still intend to get to. Never saw a live concert performance of his as well though I recall watching him as the musical guest star on Saturday Night Live when the original cast starred. He has appeared in about 2 dozen movies, many which I have seenaradise Alley, Wolfen, One From The Heart, The Outsiders, The Cotton Club, Ironweed, The Two Jakes, The Fisher King, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mystery Men, The Last Castle, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The Book Of Eli, Seven Psychopaths. I'll get to those albums soon.

Debut song on the first album was Ol' 55. Covered a bunch of times, most notably by The Eagles with the On The Border LP

I got through a somewhat embarrassing confession. Now I have some tough upcoming letters for initials of first name artists with solo albums

 

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I've been limiting my performer selections to those I actually own their music in my collection but try as I could, I was unable to find any solo artist whose first name begins with the letter U who released an LP. Well, there is a female artist named Uffie but I'm not going there. Best I could do is a bit of a cheat so here is..

Uncle Kracker- Better Days (2000)

I have 2 of his 5 LPs but haven't gotten around to listening as yet so no opinions. Seems to be a artist who blends rock/hip hop and country music. Kid Rock invited him in 1994 to play turntables for his band during live shows. By Kid Rock's 3rd album, Uncle contributed vocals on the recordings.

Uncle Kracker's debut album in 2000 titled Double Wide went platinum. The albums that followed sold reasonably well and his singles have registered on the Pop Charts as well as Adult Contemporary and Country charts.

Better Days is the lead off song after a brief intro (I hate intros and outros on albums-so overdone and pretentious). For what it is, it's not a bad song and the melding of genres seems interesting. I need to give his albums from my library a spin

 

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Van Morrison- Brown Eyed Girl (1967)

Van Morrison is a 1960's survivor, still releasing relevant music 50 years later. First as vocalist for the r&b/rock group Them from 1964-1966, he was the voice for classics like "Gloria", "Mystic Eyes" and 'Here Comes The Night". He signed a contract with Bang Records to go solo. Too trusting with his Them-producer Bert Berns and not reading the contract, Van discovered he had signed away all rights to his recordings. Van went to the studios to cut what he thought would be some singles and instead Bang Records released them as an album with what Van thought was a hideous album cover.

Blowin' Your Mind was the LP title and the lead track,"Brown Eyed Girl" shot up to #10 on the charts. Van still hated how the album was slapped together without his control. However Bert Berns died by the end of 1967 and Warner Brothers came to Van's rescue and bought out his contract with Bang Records. Van has gone on to record 38 more studio discs. Personally I think his 5 albums between 1968-1972 are among the best runs for a solo performer