Gregory Lenoir Allman (born December 8, 1947 in Nashville, Tennessee), known as Gregg Allman (sometimes spelled Greg Allman), is a rock and blues singer, keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter, best known as a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. He was inducted with the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, and personally received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2006.
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The Allman Brothers Band is an American rock band once based in Macon, Georgia. The band was formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman (slide guitar and lead guitar) and Gregg Allman (vocals, organ, songwriting), who were supported by Dickey Betts (lead guitar, vocals, songwriting), Berry Oakley (bass guitar), Butch Trucks (drums), and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson (drums).
While the band has been called the principal architects of Southern rock, they also incorporate elements of blues, jazz, and country music, and their live shows have jam band-style improvisation and instrumental songs.
The band achieved its artistic and commercial breakthrough in 1971 with the release of At Fillmore East, featuring extended renditions of their songs "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" and "Whipping Post" and often considered one of the best live albums ever made. George Kimball of Rolling Stone magazine hailed them as "the best damn rock and roll band this country has produced in the past five years."
A few months later, group leader Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident. The group survived that and the death of bassist Oakley in another motorcycle accident a year later; with replacement members Chuck Leavell and Lamar Williams, the Allman Brothers Band achieved its peak commercial success in 1973 with the album Brothers and Sisters and the hit single Ramblin' Man. Internal turmoil overtook the band soon after; the group dissolved in 1976, reformed briefly at the end of the decade with additional personnel changes, and dissolved again in 1982.
In 1989, the group reformed with some new members and has been recording and touring since.
A series of personnel changes in the late 1990's was capped by the departure of Betts. The group found stability during the 2000s with Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks, the nephew of their drummer, serving as its guitarists, and became renowned for their month-long string of shows in New York City each spring. The band has been awarded eleven gold and five platinum albums between 1971 and 2005 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.
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Whipping Post is a song by The Allman Brothers Band. Written by Gregg Allman, the five-minute studio version first appeared on their 1969 debut album The Allman Brothers Band. But the song's full power only manifested itself in concert, when it was the basis for much longer and more intense performances.
This was captured in a classic take on the Allman Brothers' equally classic 1971 double live album At Fillmore East, where a 23-minute epic rendition takes up the entire final side.
It was this recording that garnered Whipping Post a spot the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana (b. July 20, 1947) is a Mexican-American rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960's and early 1970's with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa, and jazz fusion. The band's sound featured his melodic, blues-based guitar lines set against Latin and African rhythms featuring percussion instruments such as timbales and congas not generally heard in rock music. Santana continued to work in these forms over the following decades. He experienced a resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990's.
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Evil Ways is a song by Santana from their 1969 album Santana. It was written by Clarence (Sonny) Henry and recorded by jazz percussionist Willie Bobo in 1968 on his album of the same name. The song is in simple verse form. Next year it was recorded by Santana.
Released as a single in late 1969, it became the band's first top forty and top ten hit in the U.S., peaking at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Gregg Rolie performs the lead vocals and plays a Hammond organ solo in the middle section. The double-time coda includes a guitar solo performed by Carlos Santana.
Evil Ways is about a girl who is spiteful. "You've got to change your evil ways, baby/Before I stop lovin' you." She tries to make her boyfriend jealous by associating with her friends. "You hangin' 'round, baby/With Jean and Joan and-a who-knows-who."
Some radio stations play edit versions of the song, cutting a few bars from the introduction, parts of the organ instrumental portion in the middle, and the coda, shortening the guitar improvisation by fading the song out earlier, part of this reason is to make it more for AM radio use, than for progressive rock use.
Song was also covered by Cal Tjader (Willie Bobo was a former member of Tjader's band) with vocals by Carmen McRae on his 1982 album "Heat Wave", released on CD in 1990.
On first pressings of both Santana's debut album and the single release, the songwriting credit was originally given to Jimmie Zack, a Midwestern rockabilly musician, who recorded a different song with the same name.
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Ian Scott Anderson, MBE (b. August 10, 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work as the leader of British rock band Jethro Tull.
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Jethro Tull are a British rock group formed in 1967.
Their music is characterised by the lyrics, vocals and flute work of Ian Anderson, who has led the band since its founding, and the guitar work of Martin Barre, who has been with the band since 1969.
Initially playing blues rock with an experimental flavour, they have also incorporated elements of classical music, folk music, jazz and art rock into their music.
One of the world's best-selling music artists, the band has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide in a career that has spanned five decades.
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Stand Up (1969) is the second album by Jethro Tull. Prior to this album, the band's original guitarist Mick Abrahams had left the band due to musical differences with Ian Anderson. Abrahams wanted to stay with the blues-rock sound of This Was, while Anderson wished to branch out into other musical forms.
Stand Up represents the first album project on which Anderson was in full control of the music and lyrics. The album also marks the first appearance of guitarist Martin Barre who appeared on every Jethro Tull album from this point on. The album goes in a different direction from Ian Anderson's earlier work, revealing influences from Celtic music, folk and classical music. The instrumental "Bourée" (one of Jethro Tull's better-known songs) is a re-working of "Bourrée in E minor" by J.S.Bach.
The album reached #1 on the British charts. The gatefold album cover, in a woodcut style designed by artist James Grashow, originally opened up similar to a child's pop-up book, so that a cut-out of the band's personnel stood up — linking into the album's title. Stand Up won New Musical Express's award for best album artwork in 1969.
The album was re-issued in 1973 by Chrysalis Records and again in 2001 as a digital remaster. The album was reissued on Oct 5th, 2010. The deluxe reissue includes six "bonus tracks" on disc one, and two additional discs of live material recorded at Carnegie Hall in 1970, including a DTS surround mix.
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Aqualung is the fourth studio album by the rock band Jethro Tull, released in 1971. It was their first album with John Evan as a full-time member, their first with new bassist Jeffrey Hammond, and last album featuring Clive Bunker on drums.
The first side of the LP contains a series of six character sketches, including two sketches of people of questionable repute (title character Aqualung and Cross-Eyed Mary) and two autobiographical tracks including "Cheap Day Return," written by band leader Ian Anderson while going for a visit to his critically ill father.
Aqualung has sold over 7 million units worldwide, and is thus Jethro Tull's best selling album. In 2003, the album was ranked number 337 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In the Q & Mojo Classic Special Edition Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock, the album came #7 in its list of "40 Cosmic Rock Albums."
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James Carter "Jimmy" Pankow (b. August 20, 1947) is an American trombone player, songwriter and brass instrument arranger best known for being a founding member of the rock band Chicago.
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Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The band began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had a steady stream of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Second only to The Beach Boys in terms of Billboard singles and albums chart success among American bands, Chicago is one of the longest running and most successful pop/rock and roll groups.
Chicago re-teamed with producer Phil Ramone in October 2010 to begin work on a new album.
According to Billboard, Chicago was the leading U.S. singles charting group during the 1970's.
They have sold over 38 million units in the U.S., with 22 gold, 18 platinum, and 8 multi-platinum albums.
Over the course of their career they have charted five No. 1 albums, and have had 21 top ten hits.
Colour My World" is a song written by James Pankow of the rock band Chicago. Part of Pankow's Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon song cycle/suite, it was recorded for their second album Chicago II (1970). Terry Kath performed the lead vocal, and Walter Parazaider performed the highly recognizable flute solo.
The song was initially released as the B-side to "Make Me Smile" in March 1970. It was re-released in June 1971 as the B-side to the re-release of "Beginnings"; this second single reached #7 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
"Colour My World" became a popular 'slow-dance' song at high school proms and university dances during the 1970s.
Chicago continues to perform the song, either on its own, or as part of the Ballet. Since Kath's death in 1978, the vocal has been performed by Bill Champlin until 1991, and currently by Robert Lamm. It has also been recently performed by trumpeter Lee Loughnane
Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson (b. June 5, 1947) is an American experimental performance artist and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s. Throughout the 1970s, Anderson did a variety of different performance-art activities. She became widely known outside the art world in 1981 when her single "O Superman" reached number two on the UK pop charts. She also starred in and directed the 1986 concert film Home of the Brave.
Anderson has invented several devices that she has used in her recordings and performance art shows. In 1977, she created a tape-bow violin that uses recorded magnetic tape on the bow instead of horsehair and a magnetic tape head in the bridge. In the late 1990s, she developed a talking stick, a six-foot-long batonlike MIDI controller that can access and replicate different sounds.
On April 12, 2008, Anderson married longtime companion Lou Reed in a private ceremony in Boulder, Colorado.
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Big Science is the 1982 debut album by avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson and the first of a 7-album deal she signed with Warner Bros. Records. It is best known for the 8-minute epic "O Superman", which reached #2 in the UK. The album is minimalist and monochrome in sound, and like a great deal of Anderson's work is based largely on spoken word. It is a selection of highlights from her eight-hour production, United States Live, which was itself released as a 4-LP box set and book in 1984. United States Live was originally a performance piece, in which music was only one element. After Big Science music played a larger role in Anderson's work.[1] Although considered her debut album, Anderson had previously recorded one side of a 2-LP set titled You're the Guy I Want To Share My Money With, a collaboration released on Giorno Poetry Systems with William S. Burroughs and John Giorno. She had also contributed two pieces to a 1977 compilation of electronic music.
A newly remastered version of the album was released on June 18, 2007 by Nonesuch/Elektra Records with new liner notes, and, in the data portion of the CD, the bonus track "Walk the Dog" (B-Side of the original "O Superman" single) and the "O Superman" video.
The album has been sampled in a number of hip hop songs.
All tracks by Laurie Anderson.
"From the Air" – 4:29
"Big Science" – 6:14
"Sweaters" – 2:18
"Walking & Falling" – 2:10 "Born, Never Asked" – 4:56
"O Superman (For Massenet)" – 8:21 "Example #22" – 2:59
Laurie Anderson – vocals, vocoder, farfisa organ, percussion, Oberheim OB-Xa, sticks, violins, electronics, keyboards, handclaps, whistling, marimba Roma Baran – farfisa bass, glass harmonica, sticks, handclaps, casiotone, accordion, whistling Perry Hoberman – bottles and sticks, handclaps, flute, sax, piccolo, backing vocals Bill Obrecht – alto sax Peter Gordon – clarinet, tenor sax David Van Tieghem – drums, rototoms, timpani, marimba, percussion [edit]Additional personnel Rufus Harley – bagpipes on 3 Chuck Fisher – alto sax on 7, tenor sax on 7 Richard Cohen – b-flat clarinet on 7, e-flat clarinet on 7, bass clarinet on 7, bassoon on 7, bari sax on 7 Leanne Ungar – backing vocals on 7 George Lewis – trombones
Elton Hercules John (b. Reginald Kenneth Dwight, March 25, 1947) is an English pop/rock singer, composer, and pianist.
In his four-decade career, John has been one of the dominant forces in rock and popular music, especially during the 1970's. He has more than 50 Top 40 hits including seven consecutive #1 U.S. albums, 59 Top 40 singles, 16 Top 10, 4 #2 hits, and nine #1 hits. He has won five Grammy awards and one Academy Award. His success has had a profound impact on popular music and has contributed to the continued popularity of the piano in rock and roll.
Some of the characteristics of John's musical talent include an ability to quickly craft melodies for the lyrics of songwriting-partner Bernie Taupin, his former rich tenor (now baritone) voice, his classical and gospel-influenced piano, the aggressive orchestral arrangements of Paul Buckmaster (among others), and his flamboyant fashions, outlandishly excessive eyeglasses, and on-stage showmanship (especially evident during the 1970's).
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Michael John Kells "Mick" Fleetwood (b. June 24, 1947) is a British musician and actor best known for his role as the drummer and namesake of the blues/rock and roll band Fleetwood Mac. His surname, combined with that of John McVie, was the inspiration for the name of the originally Peter Green-led Fleetwood Mac.
Aside from his work as a drummer, he also helped form the different incarnations of his band Fleetwood Mac, and is the sole member to stay with the band through its ever-changing lineup. In 1974, he met and invited Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks to join Fleetwood Mac.
Buckingham and Nicks contributed to much of Fleetwood Mac's later commercial success, while Fleetwood's determination to keep the band together was essential to the group's longevity.
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Fleetwood Mac is a British-American rock band formed in 1967 in London.
The only original member present in the band is its namesake drummer, Mick Fleetwood.
Despite band founder Peter Green naming the group by combining the surnames of two of his former bandmates (Fleetwood, McVie) from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, bassist John McVie played neither on their first single nor at their first concerts. The keyboardist, Christine McVie, has, to date, appeared on all but two albums, either as a member or as a session musician. She also supplied the artwork for the album Kiln House.
The two most successful periods for the band were during the late 1960s British blues boom, when they were led by guitarist Peter Green, and from 1975 to 1987, with more pop-orientation, featuring Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, and Stevie Nicks. The band enjoyed more modest success in the intervening period between 1971 and 1974, with the line-up including Bob Welch, and also during the 1990s which saw more personnel changes before the return of Nicks and Buckingham in 1997, and more recently, the departure of Christine McVie.
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Rumours is the eleventh studio album by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac. Largely recorded in California during 1976, it was produced by the band with Ken Caillat and Richard Dashut and was released on 4 February 1977 by Warner Bros. Records. The record peaked at the top of both the United States Billboard Top LPs & Tapes and the United Kingdom Albums Chart.
Go Your Own Way,
Don't Stop,
Dreams, and You Make Loving Fun were released as singles. A Grammy Award winner, Rumours is Fleetwood Mac's most successful release with sales of over 40 million copies worldwide.
The band wanted to expand on the commercial success of the 1975 record Fleetwood Mac, but struggled with relationship breakups before recording started. The Rumours studio sessions were marked by hedonistic behaviour and interpersonal strife between Fleetwood Mac members; these experiences informed the album's lyrics. Influenced by pop music, the record's tracks were recorded using a combination of acoustic and electric instruments. The mixing process delayed the completion of Rumours, but was finished by the end of 1976. Following the album's release in 1977, Fleetwood Mac undertook worldwide promotional tours.
Rumours garnered widespread critical acclaim. Praise centred on its production quality and harmonies, which frequently relied on the interplay among three vocalists. The record has inspired the work of musical acts in different genres. Often considered Fleetwood Mac's best release, it has featured in several publications' lists of the best albums of the 1970s and the best albums of all time. In 2004, Rumours was remastered and reissued with the addition of an extra track and a bonus CD of outtakes from the recording sessions.
[8947 Laurie Anderson / 8947 John / 8947 John Adams]
Donald Thomas "Tom" Scholz (b. March 10, 1947) is a American rock musician, songwriter, guitarist, inventor, and mechanical engineer, best known as the founder of the hard rock band Boston. He is also the inventor of the Rockman guitar amplifier. As noted by Allmusic, he is 'a notoriously "un-rock n' roll" figure who never enjoyed the limelight of being a performer' but instead concentrated almost exclusively on his music. After achieving commercial success with Boston, Scholz has spent much of his time working with charities.
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Boston is an American rock band from Boston, Massachusetts that achieved its most notable successes during the 1970s and 1980s. Centered on guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, and producer Tom Scholz, the band is a staple of classic rock radio playlists.
Boston's best-known works include the songs More Than a Feeling, Peace of Mind, Foreplay/Long Time, Rock and Roll Band, Smokin', Don't Look Back, and Amanda. They have sold over 31 million albums in the United States, of which 17 million are their self-titled album and 7 million are their second album, Don't Look Back.
I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky (1995)
Overture: I Was Looking at the Ceiling....
Mike's Song About Arresting a Particular Individual
Song About the On-Site Altercation
Dr. Atomic (2005)
John [Coolidge] Adams (b. February 15, 1947) is an American composer with strong roots in minimalism. He is best known for his opera Nixon in China (1985–87), recounting Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China. His choral piece On the Transmigration of Souls (2002), commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003.
David Bowie (b. David Robert Jones, January 8, 1947) is an English musician, actor, producer, arranger, and audio engineer. Active in five decades of rock music and frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is regarded as an influential innovator, particularly for his work through the 1970's.
Although he released an album and numerous singles earlier, David Bowie first caught the eye and ear of the public in the autumn of 1969, when his space-age mini-melodrama "Space Oddity" reached the top five of the UK singles chart. After a three-year period of experimentation he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era as a flamboyant, androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust, spearheaded by the hit single "Starman" and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The relatively short-lived Ziggy persona epitomised a career often marked by musical innovation, reinvention, and striking visual presentation.
In 1975, Bowie achieved his first major American crossover success with the number-one single "Fame" and the hit album Young Americans, which the singer identified as "plastic soul." The sound constituted a radical shift in style that initially alienated many of his UK devotees.
He then confounded the expectations of both his record label and his American audiences by recording the minimalist album Low -- the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno. Arguably his most experimental works to date, the so-called "Berlin Trilogy" nevertheless produced three UK top-five albums.
After uneven commercial success in the late 1970's, Bowie had UK number ones with the 1980 single "Ashes to Ashes" and its parent album, Scary Monsters. He paired with Queen for the 1981 UK chart-topper "Under Pressure," but consolidated his commercial -- and, until then, most profitable -- sound in 1983 with the album Let's Dance, which yielded the singles "China Girl," "Modern Love," and the title track.
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Peter Noone (b. Peter Blair Denis Bernard Noone, 5 November 1947, Davyhulme, near Manchester) is an English singer, songwriter, guitarist, pianist and actor, best known as "Herman" of the successful 1960s rock group Herman's Hermits.
The son of an accountant, Noone attended Wellacre Primary School in Flixton, Urmston and Stretford Grammar School near Manchester. He played a number of acting roles on television, including that of Stanley Fairclough in the soap opera Coronation Street.
Noone studied voice and drama at St Bede's College, Manchester and Manchester School of Music, where he won the Outstanding Young Musician Award.
Early in his career, he used the stage name Peter Novak. At the age of 15, he became the lead singer, spokesman, and frontman of Herman's Hermits. As "Herman", the photogenic Noone appeared on the cover of many international publications, including Time Magazine.
After leaving Herman's Hermits, Noone recorded 4 singles for UK Rak, 1 single for UK and US Philips, and several singles for the small UK Bus Stop label. His first RAK single, Oh! You Pretty Things, was a hit in the UK; it was written by David Bowie, who also played piano on the track. In 1974 he scored a #15 US AC and #101 US BUBBLING UNDER with "Meet Me On The Corner Down At Joe's Cafe" on the Casablanca label. In 1989 he had a #19 US AC hit with his solo recording of "I'm Into Something Good" from the movie The Naked Gun.
Noone has a brother Damon Noone who is also a musician and a parliamentary candidate for United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).
During the 1970s, Noone also starred in various stage, TV and film productions, including ABC's musical version of The Canterville Ghost, the lead in Pinocchio, (1968 TV programme) and Hallmark Hall of Fame's presentation of Pinocchio). He starred in three films for MGM: Mrs Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter, Hold On! and When the Boys Meet the Girls. He received favourable reviews in the lead role of Frederic in several Broadway theatre productions of The Pirates of Penzance during the 1980s. Also in the 1980s, Noone fronted a new-wave band called the Tremblers, and released a solo album, One of the Glory Boys.
He was the host of VH1's My Generation from 1989 to 1993, and in 2001 he was voted "VH1's Sexiest Artist. The Viewers' Choice award". He now lives in Santa Barbara, California, USA. One of his neighbors is Dennis Miller, and Noone occasionally appears on his radio programme.
He still tours with a group called Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone. Noone appeared on the televised singing show American Idol on 20 March 2007 as a mentor for male contestants on the show. He performed "There's a Kind of Hush" on American Idol on 21 March 2007. Noone has a fan base of self-proclaimed "Noonatics". Many of his fans follow him from city to city, with concert venues often containing several dozen colorfully dressed and vocal Noonatics.
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Herman's Hermits is an English beat or pop band, formed in Manchester in 1963 as Herman & The Hermits. The group's manager and producer, Mickie Most (who controlled the band's output), emphasized a simple, non-threatening and clean-cut image, although the band originally played R&B numbers.
This helped Herman's Hermits become hugely successful in the mid-1960's but hampered the band's creativity, relegating Noone, Hopwood, Leckenby and Green's original songs to quickly recorded B-sides and album cuts.
Their first hit was "I'm Into Something Good" (written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King), which reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart and No. 13 in the US in 1964. They never topped the British charts again, but had two US Billboard Hot 100 No. 1's with "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter" (originally sung by Tom Courtenay in a 1963 British TV play) and "I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am" (a British music hall song by Harry Champion dating from 1911). These songs were aimed at a US fan-base, with Peter Noone exaggerating his Manchester accent; the band was not fond of either song and they were never released as singles in Britain.
They were on the MGM label, a company which often featured the musical performers they had signed to record deals in films. The Hermits appeared in several MGM movies, including When the Boys Meet the Girls (1965) - and Hold On! (1966). They also starred in the film Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter (1968) and were one of the performers in Pop Gear (1965).
Herman's Hermits had three Top 3 hits in the U.S. in 1965, with the aforementioned #1 hits, as well as "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat" (U.S. #2). They had the hits "A Must to Avoid" (U.S. #8), "Listen People" (U.S. #3), George Formby, Jr.'s "Leaning on a Lamp Post," from Me and My Girl (U.S. #7), and "Dandy" (U.S. #3) in 1966; "There's a Kind of Hush" was a Top 10 hit for them the following year. They appeared on the The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dean Martin Show and The Jackie Gleason Show. Commercial success proved elusive after the late '60s. The group had recorded their final album of the sixties, "Rock N Roll Party". This however was eventually shelved by MGM, and Peter Noone and Keith Hopwood left the band in 1971. The band reunited in 1973 to headline a hugely successful British invasion tour culminating with a standing-room-only performance at Madison Square Garden and an appearance on The Midnight Special (without Hopwood). Later a version of the band featuring Leckenby and Whitwam opened for The Monkees on a couple of reunion tours. Noone declined an offer from tour organizers to appear but later appeared with Davy Jones on a successful teen idols tour.
Original members were Keith Hopwood (guitar, vocals), Karl Green (guitar, vocals), Alan Wrigley (bass guitar, vocals), Steve Titterington (drums), and Peter Noone (lead vocals). Although the youngest of a remarkably young group, fifteen-year-old Noone was already a veteran actor, with experience on the British soap opera, Coronation Street. Derek "Lek" Leckenby (guitar, vocals), and Barry "Bean" Whitwam (drums) (born Jan Barry Whitwam, 21 July 1946, in Prestbury, Cheshire), joined later from another local group, The Wailers, Whitwam replacing Titterington, Karl Green switching to bass guitar to replace Wrigley, and Leckenby effectively taking Green's position. After Leckenby joined, the group obtained a deal with producer Mickie Most and signed to EMI's Columbia Graphophone label in Europe and MGM Records in the United States.
The band played on many singles including "I'm Into Something Good", "Listen People," "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat," "Leaning on the Lamp Post," "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter" (1965),"A Must to Avoid," "You Won't Be Leaving" and "I'm Henry VIII, I Am." The last was said at the time to be "the fastest-selling song in history."
Leckenby played the solo on "Henry," while Hopwood contributed the rhythm guitar on "Mrs. Brown."
Despite the group's competent musicianship, some of their subsequent singles employed some session musicians, including Big Jim Sullivan, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Vic Flick with contributions from the band, although the role of session players on Herman's Hermits records has been exaggerated in the rock media and in inaccurate liner notes on the recent ABKCO Retrospective, which fails to credit the Hermits' playing. Mickie Most did use session musicians on many of the records he produced, including on a number of Hermits singles, as was his (and, for that matter, industry) practice at the time, a practice that continues today. Even The Yardbirds were forced by Most to make do with session musicians (except for Jimmy Page) on their Most produced recordings. (see Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zepplin Saga by Stephen Davis). Continuing acrimony between former members of Herman's Hermits has increased the misinformation about the group's role on their records. Leckenby in particular was a gifted guitarist. Most commented on VH1's My Generation: Herman's Hermits episode that the Hermits "played on a lot of their records and some they didn't." The group did play on all their US and UK Number One hits as well as on most of their top ten US singles and on number of other singles and most album cuts. According to Peter Noone, Lek Leckenby played the muted lead on "This Door Swings Both Ways" (Noone Interview: Herman's Hermits Listen People DVD-Reeling in the Years 2009), The riff in the song "Silhouettes" has been variously credited to Jimmy Page, Big Jim Sullivan and Vic Flick, however, according to Keith Hopwood and Karl Green interviewed in the previously referenced DVD, Derek Leckenby replaced Vic Flic in the studio and actually played the signature riff under direction from Mickie Most. According to interviews of Hopwwod, Green and Noone in the same DVD, Jimmy Page did play on the single "Wonderful World," although Big Jim Sullivan lists the song as part of a session he played. Likely, both may have added to the backing track. A number of writers have claimed that session players played on "I'm Into Something Good" but according to the surviving band members interview in the 2009 Listen People DVD, the song was recorded on a two track recorder with only a piano player adding to the Hermits.
For a brief time the group rivalled the Beatles on the charts, and was the top-selling pop act in the U.S. in 1965 (see Billboard charts for verification). On the The Beatles Anthology video, there is brief interview shown with a young girl in the audience attending The Beatles second appearance at Shea Stadium, when asked why The Beatles didn't sell out the stadium this time, she stated that The Beatles were not as popular as Herman's Hermits. Green once said he preferred harder rock but was grateful for the hand he was dealt.
Moreover, while the band's singles were written by top songwriters of the day, Noone, Leckenby, Hopwood, and Green contributed numerous songs such as "My Reservation's Been Confirmed," "Take Love, Get Love," "Marcel's," "For Love," "Tell Me Baby," "Busy Line," Moon Shine Man," "I Know Why," "GasLite Street," and others. "I Know Why" even made limited appearance as an "A" side.
The group was nominated for two Grammy awards in 1965, both for "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter". According to Noone and Hopwood, the song was recorded as an afterthought in two takes, using two microphones, with Hopwood on guitar, Green on bass guitar, and Whitwam on drums. Noone and the band deliberately emphasized their English accents on the record, which was never intended to be a single. Hopwood recalls playing a Gretsch Country Gentleman guitar in the studio, with its strings muted in order to create the distinctive sound. When playing the song live, Hopwood often used a Rickenbacker guitar with a rag under the bridge to duplicate the sound-this technique can be seen clearly in old performance clips. The 1967 album Blaze garnered critical acclaim, but barely made the Top 100 in the U.S., and was not released in the U.K. Highlights included original songs by Leckenby, Hopwood, Green, and Noone, including "Ace King Queen Jack" and the psychedelic "Moon Shine Man." Ray Davies of the Kinks wrote "Dandy," which was a #5 hit for Herman's Hermits, and appears on their greatest hits album.
Mark Alburger (b. 1957, Upper Darby, PA) is an award-winning, eclectic ASCAP composer of postminimal, postpopular, and postcomedic sensibilities. He is Music Director of San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra and San Francisco Cabaret Opera, Editor-Publisher of 21st-Century Music and New Music, and Professor Emeritus in Music Theory and Literature at Diablo Valley College. His principal teachers were Gerald Levinson, Joan Panetti, and James Freeman at Swarthmore College (B.A.); Jules Langert at Dominican University (M.A.); Christopher Yavelow at Claremont University (Ph.D.); and Terry Riley. Dr. Alburger has composed 406 major works over the past 48 years, including chamber music, concertos, oratorios, operas, song cycles, and symphonies. His complete catalogue is being issued on discs from New Music. Alburger's multiple blogs include: markalburger.blogspot.com,
markalburger2022.blogspot.com,
markalburgerworks.blogspot.com, markalburgerevents.blogspot.com, markalburgermusichistory.blogspot.
com, 21st-centurymusic.blogspot.com
