TERRY HOKNES - MY FAVORITE SONGS OF ALL TIME !  hoknes@hotmail.com   

321

GRAPEFRUIT

DEAR DELILAH

1969

322

JOHN KONGOS

HE'S GONNA STEP ON YOU AGAIN

1971

323

RINGO STARR

A MAN LIKE ME

1978

324

PAUL McCARTNEY

JUNK

1970

325

MASON WILLIAMS

BAROQUE A NOVA

1968

326

PAUL McCARTNEY

WATERFALLS

1980

327

MARGARITA SHAMRAKOV

HIGHER GROUND

2005

328

TEGAN AND SARA

FEEL IT IN MY BONES

2010

329

BILLY JOEL

HONESTY

1978

330

BOSTON

ROCK AND ROLL BAND

1976

331

RINGO STARR

GOODNIGHT VIENNA REPRISE

1974

332

MADONNA

SORRY

2005

333

PAUL MAURIAT

EN BANDOULIERE

1967

334

PAUL McCARTNEY & WINGS

NO WORDS

1973

335

STRAWBS

AUTUMN

1974

336

YES

REMEMBERING

1973

337

JERMAINE JACKSON

ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE ANT MEN

1984

338

SECRETIONS

BEATEN BY THE SOCIAL GRACES

1995

339

BRENDA RUSSELL

THIS TIME I NEED YOU

1988

340

KISS

BLACK DIAMOND

1974
    GRAPEFRUIT - DEAR DELILAH (1969)

Album: Around Grapefruit (1969)

This would have been a masterpiece if The Beatles had recorded it as it sure sounds like it could have fit on the Magical Mystery Tour album but instead Grapefruit recorded this amazing powerful pop song from a perfect 60's album.   I picked up this album at a garage sale in the mid 80s and it became one of my all time favorites and I have "boosted" this album on my charts 4 different occasions.

November 21st 1988 - my #3 favorite daily song for 5 days at age17 after finishing high school.

Grapefruit was a London-based British band of the late 1960s. Their brand of music was a typical late 1960s blend of rock, which they often fused with psychedelic effects such as phasers and vocoders, or classical arrangements.  Grapefruit's recording career spanned only two years, from late 1967 to the end of 1969. They released two albums (around in 1968, Deep Water in 1969) and several singles, none of which made a significant impact on the charts. Their best-known track is probably the Terry Melcher-produced "Dear Delilah", which was released in early 1968, and peaked at #21 in the UK Singles Chart, while their single "Deep Water" did crack the German Top 20, peaking at #19. Toward the end of their career, following the new material being written by Alexander (with some inclusions by Wale) Grapefruit shifted from melodic pop to more of a rock-based sound, referred to as "Soft Rock" in a full-page Billboard ad for the album "Deep Water".     
    JOHN KONGOS - HE'S GONNA STEP ON YOU AGAIN (1971) hit #4 in UK

I was given a copy of this album sealed by my best friend Zender Millar's uncle August who had about 10 copies of this album sealed in his vast record collection which was very impressive to me at the time in about spring 1984 when I was 13.   Zender was also given a copy as well the same day and I think it might be because we perhaps had helped babysit one of his kids that night at August's house.

October 10th 2004 - my #3 favorite daily song for 32 days at age 33 while living with Michelle/Brianna. My sister Jennifer had hired me to drive out to Edmonton to play piano for a function and I had picked up a CD version of this album called "Tokoloshe Man" which got me back into this album again.

He's Gonna Step On You Again" (aka "Step On") was a hit single, co-written by Christos Demetriou and performed by John Kongos in 1971.

It is cited in the Guinness Book of Records as being the first song to have used a sample,[citation needed] however, according to the sleeve note of the CD reissue of the Kongos album, it is actually a tape loop of African drumming, and the use of tape loops and instruments using prerecorded samples such as the Mellotron and Optigan were well established by this time. It is likely that this record was confused with Burundi Black by Mike Steiphenson, which sampled "Ensemble du Tambours" from the album "Musique du Burundi" due to it being released in the same year and spending the same amount of time in the charts.

On 22 May 1971, the song entered the UK Singles Chart, reached Number 4, and spent 14 weeks on the charts (the follow-up release in the same year, "Tokoloshe Man", also peaked at number 4). It was released on the Fly Records label.    The song was featured on the Soundtrack of the 2006 video game Test Drive Unlimited.
    RINGO STARR - A MAN LIKE ME (1978)

Album:  Bad Boy (1978)

I bought this album likely in 1983 used at age 12.

July 29th 1988 - my #7 favorite daily song for 6 days at age 17 two weeks after Nanny died and a month after graduating from high school.  I started up my own monthly music magazine called Yesterday And Today that I would put in local music shops every month for the next 3 years.  Celebrating Ringo's 48th birthday.

July 16th 1992 - my #1 favorite daily song for 13 days at age 21 living on my own at Cumberland with sister Leslie during our "anorexic phase".  Celebrating Ringo's 52nd birthday before entering 4th year University.   I stood in line overnight for 10 hours to get great seats to see Ringo in concert in Saskatoon but overall sales were low and the show was cancelled.

Bad Boy is the seventh album by Ringo Starr, released in 1978 during a period where his musical career was sliding into freefall after several years of solo success. Although Bad Boy was meant to reverse this trend, Starr's fortunes dwindled further.

After the critical and commercial disaster of Ringo the 4th (1977), Starr and his musical partner, Vini Poncia, decided to create a less campy album and streamline the sound to lose the disco qualities and excesses that marred the previous release. With Poncia taking the production reins, Starr mostly relies on other people's songs, with no celebrity guests to be found. The album was recorded, for tax purposes, in Vancouver, Toronto, and The Bahamas. It was completed within ten days of sessions in November 1977, with the exception of some orchestral overdubs done on 8 March 1978 under the direction of James Newton Howard
    PAUL McCARTNEY - JUNK (1970)

Album:  McCartney (1970)

I probably had this album by 1983 at age 12.  I have owned a lot of copies of this album in every possible format.   I have been recording albums my entire life playing all the instruments as a one man project.

August 30th 2011 - my #9 favorite daily song for 37 days at age 40 spending a year long period listening to all of Paul's recordings chronologically living at Ave M South with Valerie now married 4 years and  Nicholas is 5.

Junk" is a song written by Paul McCartney in 1968 while The Beatles were in India.  It was originally under consideration for The Beatles (also known as the White Album). It was passed over for that LP, as it was for Abbey Road. It was eventually released on McCartney's debut solo album McCartney in 1970. The version McCartney played for the rest of the Beatles, in May 1968, it was among other songs demoed at George Harrison's Kinfauns home, before the recording of The Beatles was released on Anthology 3 on 22 October 1996. The song's working title was "Jubilee", and also known as "Junk in the Yard
McCartney (1970) is the debut solo album by Paul McCartney. Apart from Linda McCartney's vocal contributions, McCartney performed (and recorded) the entire album solo. Featuring loosely arranged (and in some cases, unfinished) home recordings, McCartney further explored the "back-to-basics" style which had been intended for The Beatles' Let It Be. The album was reissued on 13 June 2011 as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection.

McCartney shot to number 1 in the United States for three weeks, eventually going double platinum. This was despite the fact that it had neither an accompanying single released nor a video clip or tour to promote it, and that critical reaction was far from positive. In the United Kingdom, it was only denied the top spot by the best-selling album of 1970, Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water, which stayed at number 1 for 33 (non-consecutive) weeks. There, McCartney debuted straight at number 2, where it remained for three weeks.

 
    MASON WILLIAMS - BAROQUE A NOVA (1968)

March 6th 1988 - my #4 favorite daily song for 8 days at age 17 in Grade 12 at Nutana, I started a 2 year project to listen and learn every 45 rpm I owned this included the A and B sides of 1000 singles I owned.  This is why I learned such a large varied odd collection of songs from 1988-1991 but discovered many gems like this song.

June 19th 1989 - my #6 favorite daily song 1 day at age 18 the summer before entering 1st year University in Muenster, SK.

Mason Williams (born August 24, 1938) is an American guitarist and composer, best known for his guitar instrumental "Classical Gas". He is also a comedy writer, known for his writing on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and Saturday Night Live. He is also an eclectic poet and lyricist who has published several books.   In 1968 Williams won two Grammy Awards for his guitar instrumental "Classical Gas". Together with Nancy Ames he wrote Cinderella Rockefella, a 1968 number one hit for Esther and Abi Ofarim in the United Kingdom.   "Classical Gas" was released as a single from The Mason Williams Phonograph Record in 1968. "Classical Gas" won three Grammys that year for "Best Instrumental (theme) Composition", "Best Instrumental (theme) Performance", and "Best Instrumental Orchestra Arrangement", Mike Post, arranger. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. He also wrote songs for The Kingston Trio. For both Handmade and Sharepickers, Mason received two more Grammy nominations for "Best Album Cover Design".
    PAUL McCARTNEY - WATERFALLS (1980)

Album:  McCartney II (1980)

A few weeks after John Lennon died on December 8th 1980 my Beatles kick was in full gear and my grandpa borrowed The Beatles Sgt Pepper and McCartney II from the Frances Morrison public library on vinyl and I listened to them for the first time in January 1981 at age 9.  This was the very first time I ever heard any songs by Paul McCartney and the first time I heard any of the songs from Sgt Pepper.

October 6th 2011 - my #4 favorite daily song for 42 days at age 40 spending a year listening to all of Paul's recordings in chronological order living at Ave M South with Valerie now married 4 years.

Waterfalls" is a Paul McCartney ballad from his first solo album after Wings, McCartney II. The song has a stripped-down sound, with McCartney only playing a Fender Rhodes electric piano and a synthesizer and singing. It was released as a single with "Check My Machine" as its B-Side and reached chart position #9 in the UK. In the US, however, it was his first single ever to miss the Billboard Hot 100 chart, only reaching number 106 despite being the follow-up to the number one hit "Coming Up".

When questioned on singles he wished were more successful, McCartney stated, "There's quite a few, actually...'Waterfalls', I think is nice." He also commented that TLC's single "Waterfalls" carries elements of his song.

Sloan recorded a more uptempo version of the song on the McCartney tribute album Listen To What The Man Said

 
    MARGARITA SHAMRAKOV - HIGHER GROUND (2005)

Album:  Tragedy (2007)

I joined a unique website in November 2005 called www.garageband.com which was for unsigned music acts that wanted to get online critiques from their fellow unsigned peers.   To get your songs critiqued you had to first critique 20 other songs by unknown acts.  They would only play the song for you and not give you any bio or info about the act itself.  I first heard What Is The Meaning Of Life by Margarita Shamrakov on the site and gave it rave reviews. 

I liked all her music so much that I contacted her and we would write back and forth periodically for the next 6 years. I was impressed in all the self promotion she had done online including getting 146,000 views on her myspace page.  She had won a John Lennon songwriting contest and had met Yoko Ono in person. My wife Valerie and I went to New York in April 2011 and got to meet up with Margarita for supper.   There is something amazing about Margarita's songs that intrigue me with their dark melodies, great hooks, piano riffs and unique chord structures.

December 7th 2005 - one of my favorite daily songs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GarageBand.com

http://www.myspace.com/margarita

 
    TESTO featuring TEGAN & SARA - FEEL IT IN MY BONES (2010)

Album:   Kaleidoscope (2009)

My favorite Canadian content song during 2010 which received lots of airplay here and I watched the video many times online.   Great catchy unique verses and the techno music behind made the song stand out.

May 1st 2010 - my #1 favorite current Canadian top 40 song for 7 weeks.

May 30th 2010 - my #1 favorite daily song for 38 days making it my #6 favorite daily song of 2010.

Feel It In My Bones" is a song recorded by Dutch trance artist Tiësto featuring Canadian band Tegan and Sara. It was released as the third single from Tiësto's fourth studio album Kaleidoscope on September 7, 2009. It was given a full single release on June 4.  The music video for "Feel It In My Bones" premiered on Tiësto's official YouTube channel on January 13, 2010.   The song hit #29 nationally in Canada in 2010.
    BILLY JOEL - HONESTY (1978)

Album:  52nd Street  (1978)

September 26th 1989 - my #4 favorite daily song for 2 days at age 18 in the monastery at Muenster SK

August 31st 2009 - my #4 favorite daily song for 39 days at age 38 while putting together my Billy Joel tribute show.

"Honesty" is a song by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel. Columbia Records released the song as the second single from his album sixth studio album 52nd Street (1978) in 1979. "Honesty" was solely written by Joel, while production was handled by Phil Ramone. The song was not included on any of Joel's US released compilation packages; however, it appears on the Dutch edition as well as the aforementioned Japanese edition of Greatest Hits Volume 2, instead of "Don't Ask Me Why" (1980). "Honesty" is a piano ballad that talks about the inherent lack of same.

The song received mostly positive reviews from music critics who generally praised its lyrics and the piano instrumentation. It also received comparisons to other songs by Joel. It reached number twenty-four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US, becoming the album's third consecutive top forty hit. It was certified gold by Recording Industry Association of Japan for ringtone download sales of over 100,000 units. Joel performed the song live several times along with Elton John and later with Bryan Adams. "Honesty" has been covered and sampled by various artists, most notably by American R&B recording artist, Beyoncé Knowles
    BOSTON - ROCK AND ROLL BAND (1976)

Album:  Boston (1976)

My all my time favorite male lead vocalist Brad Delp of Boston singing.  Such a rocking catchy song with big harmonies and big guitars.   I saw them live in 1988 at SaskPlace in Saskatoon and it was the greatest concert I had ever been to and that record held for 14 years.   Tom Scholz created this big perfect studio clean production of big distorted guitars with big harmonies that is possibly my favorite "sound".   

Brad Delp's high pitched harmonies at their best on this one.  Holy cow does he go up !

December 17th 1988 - my #9 favorite daily song for 5 days at age 17 the week I saw Boston in concert. 

Rock and Roll Band" is a song written by Tom Scholz and first released by the rock band Boston on the band's eponymous debut album. It is one of six songs Scholz worked on in his basement in 1974 and 1975 before Boston got its record contract, five of which eventually appeared on the Boston album However, Scholz had begun writing the song years earlier, in the early 1970s. The drum parts of this and other early Boston songs were developed by Jim Masdea, but this is the only song on the Boston album on which Masdea plays drums. Scholz plays clavinet and all the guitar parts, including bass guitar, and Brad Delp sings the vocals

Billy Baker of the Boston Globe called "Rock and Roll Band" "one of the biggest rock anthems of the 1970s. Boston Globe's Sarah Rodman credited "Rock and Roll Band" as one of the songs that helped drive sales of Boston to over 17 million copies. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide called "Rock and Roll Band" a "cleaned-up boogey crowd pleaser..." Jamie Reno of San Diego Magazine called the song an "infectuous flick-your-Bic staple." MTV's Gil Kaufman noted that the song is a "rock-radio staple." Entertainment Weekly writer Chris Willman noted that, like all the other songs from Boston, "Rock and Roll Band" "received sizable FM radio airplay" upon its release, and that as of 2007 the song is "still all over the [radio] bandwidth." Willman did claim that he considers the song's lyrics to be cringe-worthy. In 2011, the radio station Q107 rated "Rock and Roll Band" as the #439 song of all time
    RINGO STARR - GOODNIGHT VIENNA REPRISE (1974)

Album: Goodnight Vienna (1974)

I bought this album at a garage sale on 11th Street west of Victoria School in 1982 at age 11.

Goodnight Vienna is the fourth album by Ringo Starr. It was recorded in the summer of 1974 in Los Angeles, and released later that year. Goodnight Vienna followed the commercially successful predecessor Ringo, and Starr used many of the same players, including Billy Preston, Klaus Voormann, Robbie Robertson, Harry Nilsson, and producer Richard Perry. The title comes from an English slang phrase meaning roughly, "It's all over".

While all three other Beatles had contributed to Ringo, only John Lennon contributed to Goodnight Vienna. Besides writing and playing piano on the title track, Lennon also suggested Starr cover The Platters' hit "Only You (And You Alone)" and provided the acoustic guitar. Lennon's friend Elton John also contributed a track.

Song starts playing at 2:22 on the video clip
    MADONNA - SORRY (2005)

February 18th 2006 - my #1 favorite current hit on the MuchMoreMusic countdown for 9 weeks

February 18th 2006 - my #1 favorite current hit on the Much Music countdown for 5 weeks

February 18th 2006 - my #1 favorite current hit on the Canadian Top 40 countdown for 2 weeks

March 28th 2006 - my #4 favorite daily song for 46 days at age 35 living at Eastview dating Valerie for 2 months and Tasha 8 months pregnant.

Sorry" is a song by American singer-songwriter Madonna from her tenth studio album Confessions on a Dance Floor. It was written and produced by Madonna and Stuart Price and released as the second single from the album on February 28, 2006. It later appeared on Celebration, her 2009 greatest hits album. An uptempo dance song, " It achieved commercial success: topping the singles charts in Italy, Spain, Romania and the United Kingdom, where it became Madonna's twelfth number one single. Elsewhere, the song was a top ten hit. However, in the United States, the song did not perform well due to an underplay on radio but was able to reach the top of Billboard's dance charts and became one of the decade's most successful dance hits
In the United States, "Sorry" debuted at number seventy on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the issue dated March 11, 2006 and reached a peak of fifty eight the following week. The same week it reached a peak of forty-six on the Pop 100 chart. Its low chart performance in America was attributed to limited radio airplay. A petition was signed by about 3,300 fans at petitionline.com. Known as the "End the Madonna U.S. Radio Boycott," it was addressed to Clear Channel Communications CEO Mark P. Mays. Message boards at Entertainment Weekly and VH1, were filled with everything from support for Madonna to conspiracy theories about why she was not played on radio. The song, however, reached the top of the Hot Dance Club Play chart for two weeks, as well as Hot Dance Airplay chart for five weeks. As of April 2010, the song has sold 358,000 digital units in the United States.
    PAUL MAURIAT & ORCHESTRA - EN BANDOULIERE (1967)

Album:  More Mauriat (1967)

My favorite instrumentalist and orchestra ever.  I discovered Paul Mauriat age 15 in 1986 with his #1 album Blooming Hits which featured the #1 top 40 hit Love Is Blue.  His recordings feature the lushest thick string sections that I love to listen to on any recording.  No chart data for original plays pre-1987.

Paul Mauriat (4 March 1925 – 3 November 2006) was a French orchestra leader, conductor of Le Grand Orchestre de Paul Mauriat, who specialized in the easy listening genre. He is best known in the United States for his million selling remake of André Popp's "Love is Blue", which was #1 for 5 weeks in 1968. Other recordings for which he is known include El Bimbo, "Toccata" and "Penelope."   During World War II, Mauriat started his own dance band and toured concert halls throughout Europe. In the 1950s he became musical director to at least two well-known French singers, Charles Aznavour and Maurice Chevalier, touring with them respectively   
In 1968 his cover of the Andre Popp/Pierre Cour tune “L’Amour Est Bleu” (“Love Is Blue”) became a number 1 hit in the U.S.. The song spent five weeks at the top of the charts. Two other Mauriat singles also made the charts in the U.S - “Love in Every Room” and the title theme from the movie "Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang". “Love Is Blue” was the first instrumental to hit number 1 on the Billboard charts since the Tornados hit with “Telstar” in 1962 and the only American number-one single to be recorded in France. The success of the song and the album on which it appeared, Blooming Hits, established Mauriat as an international recording star.    In 1969, Mauriat started his first world tour with his Grand Orchestra, visiting countries like the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Brazil and other Latin American countries.
 
    PAUL McCARTNEY & WINGS - NO WORDS (1973)

Album:  Band On The Run (1973)

I had this album by 1983 at the latest at age 12 in Grade 8 but played along this album when I took the bass guitar seriously in 1984.   

June 24th 1990 - my #3 favorite daily song for 1 day at age 19 after finishing 1st year University and celebrating Paul's 48th birthday

August 30th 2011 - my #8 favorite daily song for 37 days at age 40 spending a year listening to all of Paul's songs chronologically living at Ave M South with Valerie now married 4 years. 

Band on the Run is an album by Paul McCartney & Wings, released in 1973. It was Wings' third album. It became Wings' most successful album and remains the most celebrated of McCartney's post-Beatles albums. It was 1974's top-selling studio album in the United Kingdom and Australia, and revitalised McCartney's critical standing.

In 2000 Q magazine placed it at number 75 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2012, Band on the Run was voted 418th on Rolling Stone magazine's revised list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time A contemporary review by Jon Landau in Rolling Stone described the album as "with the possible exception of John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band, the finest record yet released by any of the four musicians who were once called The Beatles."  It was the last McCartney album issued on the Apple Records label.

Band on the Run was issued to mostly positive reviews. The commercial reaction was slow, with the album gradually inching its way up the charts, but by the spring of 1974, bolstered by the hits "Jet" and the title track "Band on the Run", Band On The Run was a major success. It reached #1 in the US on three separate occasions, and eventually went triple platinum. In the UK, it spent seven weeks at the summit that summer, becoming the top selling British album of 1974. Its lingering success was also beneficial in allowing Wings the time to find a new guitarist and drummer, and to integrate them into the band before beginning new recordings. 
    THE STRAWBS -  AUTUMN (1974)

Album:  Hero And Heroine (1974)

January 1st 1990 - my #4 favorite daily song for 1 day at age 18 while celebrating the 5th anniversary of first becoming a fan of The Strawbs while I was in 1st year University living in Muenster, SK at St Peters College.  I first learned this song in 1984 on The Best Of Strawbs cassette tape.

I became a fan of The Strawbs in December 1984 at age 13 after borrowing The Best Of Strawbs cassette tape from the JS Wood Library due to their connection to my favorite band at the time Yes which they both shared keyboardist Rick Wakeman.  The Strawbs would be one of the most important groups to me from 1984 to 1991 in my teenage years.    I bought this album used possibly around 1986.

Strawbs (or The Strawbs) are an English rock band founded in 1964. Although the band started out as a bluegrass group they eventually moved on to other styles such as folk rock, glam rock and progressive rock. They are best known for their hit Part of the Union, which reached number two in the UK charts in February 1973, and for touring with Supertramp in their Crime of the Century Tour, doing their Hero and Heroine Tour, which drew musical similarities and themes. 

Autumn" is a three part song by English band Strawbs featured on their 1974 album Hero and Heroine. The final part "The Winter Long" was released as a single in 1974 under the title "Hold on to Me (The Winter Long)."  Heroine's Theme The first part of the three part song is an instrumental written by keyboardist John Hawken. It was later released as a single in the United States due to demand from black radio stations. The music begins with a menacing riff played on a Moog synthesizer, gradually builds to a climax and then segues into the much quieter second part of the song.   "Deep Summer Sleep" is written and sung by Dave Cousins.   The Winter Long is written by Dave Cousins but sung by Dave Lambert. It was released as a single in the UK in 1974. Several overseas releases followed
    YES - THE REMEMBERING (1973)

Album: Tales From Topographic Oceans (1973)

After dedicating all of 1980-1983 to The Beatles I discovered Yes in 1984 and that year at age 13 bought every single one of their albums due to their new fame with Owner Of A Lonely Heart but it was their 2nd new single Leave It that had my intrigued.  So I learned their first 15 years of material all in 1984 just as I was entering high school.  Yes would quickly become my 2nd favorite band of all time.   I saw Bill Bruford live in concert in 1992 and chatted with him for a moment.  My wife bought tickets to see Yes in 2008 in Toronto but the concert was cancelled due to Jon Anderson's vocal problems.  We flew to New York in 2011 to see Jon Anderson solo in concert.  Members of Yes are my favorite musicians ever including Rick Wakeman, Trevor Rabin, Steve Howe and Chris Squire.   My high school best friend Nels Krauss and I also bonded through our connection of Yes and playing music and we enjoyed jamming on Yes songs in the mid 1980's.

Tales from Topographic Oceans is the sixth studio album from the English progressive rock band Yes, released in 1973 on Atlantic Records. Presented as a double album with one track on each side, its concept is based on singer Jon Anderson's interpretation of four Shastric scriptures from a footnote in Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda. It is the first studio album to feature drummer Alan White who replaced Bill Bruford in 1972.   Tales from Topographic Oceans became the first album in the UK to earn a gold certification prior to its release. It reached number-one on the UK Albums Chart for two weeks and peaked at number 6 on the Billboard 200

Yes are an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their progressive, art and symphonic style of rock music. Regarded as one of the pioneers of the progressive genre, Yes are known for their lengthy songs often with complex instrumental and vocal arrangements, mystical lyrics, elaborate album art, and live stage sets. Seventeen musicians have been a part of the band's line-up, which currently comprises singer Jon Davison, bassist Chris Squire, guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White, and keyboardist Geoff Downes. Yes have sold 13.5 million certified units in the United States
    JERMAINE JACKSON - ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE ANT MEN (1984)

Album:  Dynamite (1984)

September 20th 1987 - my #1 favorite daily song for 3 days at age 16 in Grade 12.  Our dog Chewie was now about 4 months old and we were living at Ruth Street while I switched this month to Nutana Collegiate after 3 years at Aden Bowman.

Jermaine Jackson/Dynamite is an album by Jermaine Jackson, released in 1984. It was his debut for Arista Records after reuniting with his brothers The Jacksons and leaving Motown. It features one of his famous hits, "Do What You Do", its B-Side "Tell Me I'm Not Dreamin' (Too Good to Be True)" (a duet with his brother Michael Jackson that was released to US dance clubs and topped the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for three weeks), "Sweetest Sweetest", as well as other participations from The Jacksons on "Escape from the Planet of the Ant Men" and Whitney Houston (the duet "Take Good Care Of My Heart"). The album's title track appeared in the 1984 movie Beverly Hills Cop.   Later issues also featured as a bonus the hit song "When the Rain Begins to Fall", a duet with Pia Zadora, which served as the soundtrack to the 1984 movie Voyage of the Rock Aliens. It was positioned as track #5, therefore at the beginning of the second part of the album on LP and Cassette releases.
    THE SECRETIONS - BEATEN BY THE SOCIAL GRACES (1995)

Album: Homegrown '95 (1995)

The Secretions was comprised of 3 singer/songwriters: Dale Enns (vocals,guitar), Dan Hicks (vocals,guitar,harp) and Curtis Cooper (vocals,harp,guitar). These three had jammed together for over a decade but the band under this name began with adding Keith Read (drums,vocals) and Terry Hoknes (bass,vocals). This original lineup performed a few shows around 1995/1996.

We recorded a song for 2 different compilation albums of Saskatoon local talent.  This song written by Dale Enns.   Keith Read and I sang the high vocals.  I have the highest note of the harmony and I am playing bass guitar.

Dan Hicks son is the guitarist for One Bad Son, a hard rock group from Saskatoon, SK signed to 604 Records run by Chad Kroeger of Nickelback. I was an original member of the group but I did not play on this album. I have played these songs with them before and after the album was recorded. 
    BRENDA RUSSELL - THIS TIME I NEED YOU (1988)

Album: Get Here (1988)

March 14th 1989 - my #1 favorite daily song for 3 days at age 18 the year after graduating high school

August 15th 2007 - my #5 favorite daily song for 30 days at age 36 while engaged to Valerie

December 8th 2010 - my #2 favorite daily song for 65 days at age 39 living at Ave M South now married to Valerie for 3 years and Nicholas was 4.5 years old.

Get Here is the fourth studio album by the American singer/songwriter Brenda Russell. Released in 1988, it is Russell's most successful album to date and includes her hit single "Piano in the Dark".

After the release of her third album, Two Eyes (1983), Russell moved to Stockholm, Sweden and began writing songs for her fourth album in 1984. Working with several producers and recorded at ten different studios in Stockholm and Los Angeles, the album was ultimately released in 1988 and saw Russell return to the A&M Records label that had released her first two solo albums in 1979 and 1981 (her 1983 album had been released via Warner Bros.). The album peaked at #49 on the US Billboard 200 and #20 on the Billboard R&B chart.

The first single from the album was the ballad "Piano in the Dark", released in February 1988. The single, which featured vocals by Joe "Bean" Esposito, became (and remains) Russell's biggest hit, peaking at #6 on the US Billboard 100 and was also a Top 30 hit in the UK (#23), as well as earning Grammy nominations for "Song of the Year" and "Best Pop Duo Performance" (Russell would also garner a nomination for "Best Pop Female Vocal" for Get Here). Other singles from the album include "Le Restaurant" (featuring David Sanborn on saxophone) and the dance track "Gravity". The title track of the album was also released as a single and was a minor R&B hit. It was later recorded by Oleta Adams and became a huge transatlantic hit for her in 1991 (US #5, UK #4).
    KISS - BLACK DIAMOND (1974)

Album: Kiss (1974)
I first bought the album "The Originals" in about 1983/1984.   I had bought Kiss bubblegum cards during original release in 1978 at age 7 but never knew what they sounded like at that time.

April 29th 1999 - my #8 favorite daily song for 53 days at age 28.  I spent a full year playing every Kiss album in order on a year long Kiss promotion.
Black Diamond" is a Kiss song written by the band's rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley.

The song appears as the closing track on the band's eponymous first album, Kiss, released in 1974. It begins with an acoustic opening sung by Stanley before entering in furious riff with Peter Criss in lead vocals and fading out with Ace Frehley's solo, in a sort of studio trick. The song is also characterized by its noticeable use of chorus, and its ending. The taped studio version was slowed down almost to a standstill. The live version is usually sped up in tempo, combined with stage pyrotechnics and a rising drum platform.

The band would often play "Black Diamond" to close their concerts. Even after Criss left the band the song was still performed in concerts, featuring his replacements Eric Carr and Eric Singer on lead vocals during their respective tenures with the band.

Kiss is the debut album by American rock band Kiss, released on February 18, 1974. Much of the material on the album was written by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, as members of their pre-Kiss band Wicked Lester. Simmons estimated that the entire process of recording and mixing took three weeks, while co-producer Richie Wise has stated it took just thirteen days