TERRY HOKNES - MY FAVORITE SONGS OF ALL TIME ! hoknes@hotmail.com
|
361 |
STAN KENTON |
AND HER TEARS FLOWED LIKE WINE |
1944 |
|
362 |
CROSBY STILLS & NASH |
COLD RAIN |
1977 |
|
363 |
ZAGER AND EVANS |
CANDY MACHINE |
1970 |
|
364 |
ARTIE SHAW |
FRENESI |
1940 |
|
365 |
SPIRIT |
HOLY MAN |
1975 |
|
366 |
BADFINGER |
ISLAND |
1974 |
|
367 |
BANGLES |
SOME DREAMS COME TRUE |
1988 |
|
368 |
BEATLES |
FLYING |
1967 |
|
369 |
DELLS |
AGATHA VAN THURGOOD |
1969 |
|
370 |
GLASS FAMILY |
THE MEANS |
1968 |
|
371 |
MARILYN FAYE PARNEY |
EARLY SNOW |
1997 |
|
372 |
SPIRIT |
SILKY SAM |
1968 |
|
373 |
STARS ON 45 |
ABBA MEDLEY (ALBUM VERSION) |
1981 |
|
374 |
TERRY HOKNES |
HIT SONG |
1992 |
|
375 |
A-HA |
TAKE ON ME |
1985 |
|
376 |
SPIRIT |
WHY CAN'T I BE FREE |
1970 |
|
377 |
BEATLES |
LOVE YOU TO |
1966 |
|
378 |
JEFFREY GAINES |
HEADMASTERS OF MINE |
1992 |
|
379 |
PAUL McCARTNEY |
BALLROOM DANCING |
1982 |
|
380 |
TERRY HOKNES |
CAN ? |
2005 |
| STAN KENTON - AND HER TEARS FLOWED LIKE WINE (1944) In 1993 I had a weekly radio show called History Lesson Goes To War where I spent an hour each week teaching the history of pop music and playing all the 78 rpm records that CFCR FM had still in the studio and I focused on all the hit songs and news events of the 1940's. This is possibly my favorite 1940's hit.
And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine" is a
popular song and
jazz standard first published in
1944.
The lyrics were written by Joe Greene, with music composition by Stan Kenton and Charles Lawrence. Probably the best known version of the song was recorded in 1944 by Anita O'Day along with Kenton's orchestra. A version was also recorded by Ella Fitzgerald the following year. It was also performed in part by Lauren Bacall in the 1946 movie The Big Sleep. The lyrics used by Anita O'Day and Lauren Bacall differs substantially (more tough) from the lyrics used by Ella Fitzgerald.
Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton (December 15, 1911 –
August 25, 1979) was a
pianist,
composer, and
arranger who led an innovative, influential, and often
controversial
American
jazz
orchestra. In later years he was active as an educator.
Stan Kenton was born in Wichita, Kansas, and raised first in Colorado, then in California. He learned piano as a child, and while still a teenager toured with various bands. He attended Bell High School, in Bell, California, where he graduated in 1930. In June 1941 he formed his own band, which developed into one of the best-known West Coast ensembles of the 1940s. In the mid-1940s, Kenton's band and style became known as "The Wall of Sound", a tag later used by Phil Spector. |
| CROSBY STILLS & NASH - COLD RAIN (1977) Album: CSN (1977) A great haunting song which reminds me of a song I had written years earlier called "It Is Cold". I learned this song from the CSN box set. I saw Crosby Stills & Nash in concert in 1991 and 2003 in Saskatoon, SK, Canada. August 20th 2003 it became my #1 favorite song for 37 days. It was my favorite song the day I moved into my very first house at 2449 Eastview in Saskatoon at age 32. CSN is a Crosby, Stills & Nash album released in 1977, the third album by the group, and the first without Neil Young since his entry into the band. It peaked at #2 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart; two singles taken from the album, Nash's "Just A Song Before I Go" and Stills' "Fair Game" peaked at #7 and #43 respectively on the Billboard Hot 100. |
| ZAGER AND EVANS - THE CANDY MACHINE (1970) Album: Zager And Evans (1970) I discovered Zager and Evans through their major #1 song In The Year 2525. They were one-hit wonders but I had an album by them which did not include that song. So it turned out to be their 2nd album but wow I just loved it enough that I have boosted the album up my charts at least 3 different years. April 1987 and May 1988 - one of my favorite songs as I boosted this album 2 years in a row. One of the greatest dreamy psychedelic songs ever.
Zager & Evans was a
Lincoln, Nebraska,
rock-pop
duo of the late 1960s and early 1970s named after its
two members,
Denny Zager and
Rick Evans. "In the Year 2525", with lyrics by
Evans and music by Zager, warned of the dangers of
technology, portraying a future in which the
human race was destroyed by its own technological and
medical innovations. The last stanza of the song suggests
mankind undergoes a continuing cycle of
birth,
death and
rebirth.
"In the Year 2525" hit number one on the Hot 100 in 1969. It claimed the #1 spot for six weeks. It also topped the charts in the UK. It was number one on July 20, 1969, in the United States, the date of the first manned moon landing, by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. It continued to top the charts while the Woodstock Festival was going on, forever cementing "2525" in the minds of a generation. It was nominated for a special Hugo Award that same year. It sold over four million copies by 1970 and was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in July 1969. RCA thought they were onto the "The Next Big Thing", but follow-up singles, such as "Mr. Turnkey" (a song about a rapist who nails his own wrist to the jail wall as punishment for his crime) went largely unnoticed by the public. "In the Year 2525" was their only Hot 100 entry. |
| ARTIE SHAW & ORCHESTRA - FRENESI (1940) This is a classic WW2 era #1 pop hit featuring the clarinet of Artie Shaw. Unique arrangement with full orchestra and different tempo and style changes. November 5th 1989 - my #2 favorite daily song for 6 days at age 18 while living in the monastery at Muenster, SK taking 1st year University.
Frenesi" is a musical piece originally composed by
Alberto Dominguez for the
marimba, and adapted as a
jazz standard by Leonard Whitcup and others. The word "frenesi"
is the Spanish equivalent of "frenzy".
A hit version recorded by Artie Shaw (with an arrangement by William Grant Still) reached number one on the Billboard pop chart on December 21, 1940. Other performers who have recorded the song include Les Brown, Dave Brubeck, June Christy, Betty Carter, Tommy Dorsey, The Four Freshmen, Eydie Gorme, Woody Herman, Earl Hines, Harry James, Billy May, Glenn Miller, Anita O'Day, Perez Prado, Cliff Richard, Linda Ronstadt, Frank Sinatra, and Caterina Valente. World War II flying ace Major Thomas Hayes named his P-51 "Frenesi" after the song. He said it was a tribute to his wife Louise, for the song they listened to. He believed the song's name translated to "Love Me Tenderly".
Arthur Jacob Arshawsky (May 23, 1910 –
December 30, 2004), commonly known by his
stage name, Artie Shaw, was an
American
clarinetist,
composer, and
bandleader. Also an author, Shaw wrote both
fiction and non-fiction writings.
Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest
clarinetists", Shaw led one of the United
States' most popular
big bands of the in the late 1930s through
the early 1940s. Their signature song, a 1938
version of
Cole Porter's "Begin
the Beguine", was a wildly successful single
and one of the era's defining recordings.
Musically restless, Shaw was also an early
proponent of
Third Stream, which blended classical and
jazz, and recorded some small-group sessions
that flirted with
be-bop before retiring from music in 1954.
|
|
361 |
SPIRIT |
HOLY MAN |
1975 |
|
362 |
BADFINGER |
ISLAND |
1974 |
|
363 |
BANGLES |
SOME DREAMS COME TRUE |
1988 |
|
364 |
BEATLES |
FLYING |
1967 |
|
365 |
DELLS |
AGATHA VAN THURGOOD |
1969 |
|
366 |
GLASS FAMILY |
THE MEANS |
1968 |
|
367 |
MARILYN FAYE PARNEY |
EARLY SNOW |
1997 |
|
368 |
SPIRIT |
SILKY SAM |
1968 |
|
369 |
STARS ON 45 |
ABBA MEDLEY (ALBUM VERSION) |
1981 |
|
370 |
TERRY HOKNES |
HIT SONG |
1992 |
| SPIRIT - HOLY MAN (1975) Album: Son Of Spirit (1975) September 16th 1990 - my #1 favorite daily song for 15 days at age 19 while in 2nd year University.
Son of Spirit was the second album
that
Spirit released through
Mercury Records. It was released in October
1975. Unlike
Spirit of '76, however, it did not make
the national charts. Though some of the
album's tracks were from the same sessions that
produced Spirit of '76, it also features
several
Randy California solo demos that have been
augmented by a
rhythm machine. It was
originally reissued on CD in the early 1990s,
and it was remastered and reissued (on a CD that
also included
Farther Along) in 2004 by Beat Goes On.
Spirit was an American jazz/hard rock/progressive rock/psychedelic band founded in 1967, based in Los Angeles, California
In early 1975, the group was supposed to be the
opening act for
Ten Years After at a show in
Florida, but when Ten Years After backed out
at the last minute, Spirit was granted
permission to take over the theatre for the
evening. After going around to local radio
stations to promote the show and setting a low
($3) ticket price, Spirit managed to sell out
the 3,000 seat theatre. Using the profits from
the show, they blocked out as much time as they
could at a
Tampa
studio, "Studio 70". After
recording a huge amount of material at the
studio, their manager at the time,
Marshall Berle (the nephew of
Milton Berle), offered the material to
Mercury Records. On the basis of the
material, the group was offered a contract, and
a double-album entitled
Spirit of '76 was culled from the
material and released in May 1975. The album
garnered a bit of
FM
airplay, so they quickly followed it up with
Son of Spirit, released early the next
year and featuring many songs taken from the
same sessions
|
| BADFINGER - ISLAND (1974) Album: Shine On (1974) May 3rd 1989 - my #3 favorite daily song for 1 day at age 18 a year after highschool. December 25th 2011 - my #2 favorite daily song for 50 days including Xmas 2011 and my 41st birthday. Badfinger is the fifth album by rock band Badfinger. The album was recorded in autumn 1973 and released in 1974 on Warner Bros. Records. It was the first of two albums released by the band on the Warner label. The cover art for the album is a woman wearing a riding outfit and hat from the 1920s and smoking a cigarette in a cigarette holder.
As Badfinger was completing work on its last album for
Apple,
Ass, Badfinger's manager, Stan Polley, signed the
band to a three-year, six-album deal with Warners. As a
result, shortly after the band and producer
Chris Thomas completed recording of Ass, they
found themselves back in the studio making a new album for
Warner.
Although the album is technically untitled, it is referred to as Badfinger as this is its only identification outside its matrix number. The intended title, For Love Or Money, was rejected by the label at the time of production and was never used. The intended title referred to Badfinger's label change from Apple Records to Warner Brothers. Like Ass, Badfinger received weak reviews in the influential American music magazine Rolling Stone upon its release. A UK single released prior to the album, "Love Is Easy", failed to chart. A subsequent single released in the US, "I Miss You", also failed. The album only reached #161 in the Billboard Hot 200, making it Badfinger's lowest charting album. Part of the reason for the poor chart performance was that, due to litigation with Apple Records, this album and Ass came out within months of each other; in fact, in the UK, Badfinger actually came out before Ass. |
| THE BANGLES - SOME DREAMS COME TRUE (1989) Album: Everything (1988) I got this cassette tape for Xmas 1988 at age 17 and one of my favorites on the album would become a future single. January 20th 1989 - my #1 favorite daily song for 7 the week of turning 18. Their only #1 song on my chart. The Bangles are an American all-female band that originated in the early 1980s, scoring several hit singles during the decade
Everything is a 1988
album by
The Bangles.
Just like its predecessor, Everything also produced a #5 hit ("In Your Room"), and a #1 single, "Eternal Flame," which became a chart-topper in almost every major chart around the world, among its released singles. |
| THE BEATLES - FLYING (1967) Album: Magical Mystery Tour (1967) I first saw the movie for free on a Saturday afternoon showing at age 10 at Frances Morrison public library. I doubt I had heard the album yet but not positive - I propably did have the album by late 1981 or Xmas 1981. Flying" is an instrumental by The Beatles which first appeared on the 1967 Magical Mystery Tour release (two EP discs in the United Kingdom, an LP in the United States). It is one of the very few songs written by all four of The Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.
Their first instrumental since "12-Bar
Original" in 1965, this was the first song to be
credited as being written by all four members of the band
with the writing credits of
"Harrison/Lennon–McCartney/Starkey". It was recorded on 8
September 1967 with
mellotron, guitar, bass, maracas, drums, and tape loops
overdubs on 28 September.
"Flying" was originally titled "Aerial Tour Instrumental", The end of the recording originally included a fast-paced traditional New Orleans jazz-influenced coda, but this was removed and replaced with an ending featuring tape loops created by John Lennon and Ringo Starr during the 28 September session. The loops initially made the song last 9 minutes 38 seconds, but the track was cut down to only 2 minutes 17 seconds. Part of the loops were used alongside an element of the ending jazz sequence to make "The Bus", an incidental piece used at various points, for the TV movie On the track as recorded and officially released, Lennon plays the main theme on mellotron, accompanied by McCartney and Harrison (both on guitars, plus a later bass overdub) and Starr (on maracas and drums). All four Beatles sing the melody sans lyrics of any kind, and the track fades in an assortment of tape effects created by Lennon and Starr. This released version is identical to that heard on the soundtrack of the Magical Mystery Tour film; the music is accompanied in the film by colour-altered images of landscape in Iceland taken from an aeroplane |
| THE DELLS - AGATHA VAN THURGOOD (1969) Album: Musical Menu (1969) May 9th 1989 - my #9 favorite daily song for 1 day at age 18 while taking extra high school classes the year after graduating. The Dells are an American R&B and crossover musical group. Their successful recordings spanned more than four decades. Formed in 1952 after attending high school together, the Dells' repertoire has included doo-wop, jazz, soul, disco and contemporary rhythm and blues. Unlike many of their contemporaries, the group's lineup did not change much from 1960 and consisted, until 2009, of falsetto leader Johnny Carter (died August 21, 2009), baritone lead singer Marvin Junior and background singers Mickey McGill, Verne Allison and Chuck Barksdale. The Dells are 2004 inductees into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame the same year. One of the longest-running groups in music history, the Dells recorded and performed for almost 50 years without a single change in personnel |
| THE GLASS FAMILY - THE MEANS (1968) Album: Electric Band (1968) April 6th 1988 - my #3 favorite daily song for 7 days at age 17 in Grade 12. I had found a sealed copy of this 20 year old album for $2.00 at the local trendy record shop (possibly HMV) a block east of Midtown Plaza. One of my all time favorite albums with great variety from this unknown forgotten band. April 9th 1989 - my #2 favorite daily song for 1 day at age 18 after graduating high school. The sole and rare album by this Los Angeles trio emerged from a
short-lived contemporary songwriting workshop, and originally appeared
in February 1968. A superb mix of trippy pop-rock songs and ballads, it
sold poorly at the time but has earned a major cult reputation since.
The album starts with a killer track "House of Glass" with dirty vocals,
distorted acid guitar and swirling organ and it keeps on rocking.
The cover shows the three man band in front of a house with "family"
members all over the place, a reference to the commune hippie lifestyle
of this time. |
| MARILYN FAYE PARNEY - EARLY SNOW (1997) This is a demo that I produced and played all the instruments on at age 26. The song was co-written by Terry Hoknes and Marilyn Faye Parney. Marilyn released her debut CD in 1993 and I joined her 2nd band lineup starting in July 1993 at age 22 We toured constantly Western Canada as a full band from 1993 to 1996 before switching to a duo to be more financially rewarding for the two of us. We played certain songs off her debut CD for a full decade promoting her original music. We also recorded demo's of songs we wrote together. We recorded a Christmas cassette titled Rose Country Christmas along with Doug Hergott at his home studio in 1994. Marilyn recorded her 2nd official CD in Vancouver in 1998 titled Unbridled Heart. In 2002 we co-wrote all the songs together for a new CD Sultry Summer Nights engineered by Neil Meckelborg. As a duo we toured western Australia in Oct-Dec 1997 - I had cut my long hair right before we went on that tour. We also performed at the huge Mirande, France country music festival in July 2001 and we met David Soul (Starsky and Hutch) who was the MC for the event. At the SCMA (Saskatchewan Country Music Awards) Marilyn and I were nominated for many categories including 17 best musician nominations I received and Marilyn won Saskatchewan Entertainer of the Year in 1997. We were a couple from 1993 to 2003 and we lived together in Dalmeny, SK from 2000-2003. |
| SPIRIT - SILKY SAM (1968) Album: The Family That Plays Together (1968) I discovered Spirit in February 1988 at age 17 when I took a chance picking up a copy of their album 12 Dreams of Dr Sardonicus for $2.00 at Tramps record store downtown. They would go on to have more influence on my songwriting and overall varied taste in music as an adult than any other group. The great thing to note is that my entire journey discovering their music has been documented from day 1 as I was already listing my daily favorite group, album and song by 1987. September 22nd 1988 - my #1 favorite daily song for 6 days at age 17 the fall after graduating high school. I had given this album heavy rotation only 6 months later but gave it full rotation again.
The Family That Plays Together, the second of
four albums released by the original
Spirit lineup, was marketed by
Ode Records in 1968. Unlike its predecessor,
Spirit, their self-titled and surreal debut, The
Family That Plays Together evinces more greatly the
band's ability for playing beyond the genre of
psychedelic rock than within it. Tracks "It Shall Be"
and "Silky Sam" demonstrate the ease with which the ensemble
can incorporate
jazz into their idiosyncratic form of rock, while
"Jewish" and "Aren't You Glad" evidenced the band's
competence in exploiting, to their advantage, both
world music and
jam rock respectively. "Poor Richard," "Jewish," and
"All the Same" feature glorious double track lead breaks
from guitarist California. The inspiration behind entitling
The Family was derived from the stepson-stepfather
relationship guitarist
Randy California and percussionist
Ed Cassidy shared. The album's arrangements
were created by
Marty Paich, who likewise arranged and conducted
Spirit's eponymous debut album, as well as
Model Shop (the soundtrack to a film
of the same name, which was recorded after "Family" but
not released until 2004) as well as "Clear".
|
| STARS ON 45 (STARS ON) - ABBA MEDLEY - ALBUM VERSION 8 MINUTES (1981) Album: Stars On Long Play 2 (1981) March 11th 1990 - my #1 favorite daily song for 4 days at age 19 while living at the Monastery at St Peters College in Muenster, SK for 1st year University. I performed this song live with Marilyn Parney from about 1996 to 2003. This group may be the reason I became an entertainer. The first time I performed singing in front of an audience of strangers was in the summer of 1981 at age 10 singing along with their entire 15 minute Beatles medley which I had memorized as I was in full gear as a Beatles fanatic after John Lennon died. At the time I created a fictional band called The Recorders which consisted of myself, my sister Leslie and my best friend Zender Millar who were all members who in an alternative world we recorded all The Beatles songs ourselves in their place. I designed all the album covers and song lists at that time. I loved the 3 Stars On Long Play albums and bought them all immediately when they were released. It was also a great learning experience to hear many classic songs for the first time before I had even heard the originals.
Stars on 45 was a
Dutch novelty
pop act that was briefly very popular in the
United Kingdom, throughout Europe, the
United States and
Australia in the early 1980s. The group later shortened
its name to Stars On in the U.S., while in the U.K.
and Ireland it was known as Starsound. The band,
which consisted solely of studio session musicians under the
direction of Jaap Eggermont, formerly of
Golden Earring, popularized the
medley, by recreating hit songs as faithfully as
possible and stringing them together, with a common tempo
and relentless underlying drum track. The point was to
provide a danceable
disco record which used familiar tunes—a technique that
was also used in the
Hooked on Classics series of recordings released by
RCA Records and K-Tel Records.
|
| TERRY HOKNES - HIT SONG (1992) Opus #786 In 1992 age 21 I went and packaged up very first official release album on cassette called COOL ALL OVER. It featured all my original songs and a weird bunch of genres. It was reviewed in an issue of the SOMA newspaper in 1992 by Brent Pomeroy. He liked the musicianship but thought the vocals need work. The album was recorded primitively on a new 4 track cassette tape recorder I had bought and recorded this album while renting at 314 Cumberland Ave I wrote my first song in 1982 at age 11 in Grade 6. I would sporadically write 18 few songs over the next 4 years. Starting with my 19th song (Opus #19) I began writing on a very regular basis starting in December 1986 in Grade 11 at Aden Bowman. This included writing over 58 songs with my best friend Nels Krauss over the period of 1986-1992. I wrote 97 songs in 1987 and then 215 songs in 1988. By the time I graduated high school at age 17 I was up to Opus #268. I wrote another 178 songs in 1989. By the time I celebrated my 19th birthday I was up to Opus #524. At that time I was in first year University living in Muenster, SK in residence at St Peters College at the monastery. I met a poet from New York named Philip Murray who I collaborated with writing music to his words 91 songs in total. I wrote my 1000th song the week I turned 25 in January 1996. |
| A-HA - TAKE ON ME (1985) hit #1
Take on Me" is a song by the Norwegian
pop band
A-ha. Written by the band members, the song was produced
by
Alan Tarney for the group's first studio album
Hunting High and Low, released in 1985. The song
combines
synthpop with a varied instrumentation that includes
acoustic guitars,
keyboards, and
drums. The original "Take on Me"
was recorded in 1984, and took three releases to chart in
the United Kingdom, reaching number two on the
UK Singles Chart in November 1985. In the United States,
the song reached the top position of the
Billboard Hot 100 in October 1985, due in no
small part to the wide exposure of its memorable and
cutting-edge
music video on
MTV,
directed by
Steve Barron. The video features the band in a
pencil-sketch animation called
rotoscoping, combined with live action.
At the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards, the video for "Take on Me" won six awards—Best New Artist in a Video, Best Concept Video, Most Experimental Video, Best Direction, Best Special Effects, and Viewer's Choice—and was nominated for two others, Best Group Video and Video of the Year. It was also nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Video at the 13th American Music Awards in 1986.
"Take on Me" was originally released in 1984, and was mixed by Tony Mansfield, but failed to make an impact in the United Kingdom. The group re-recorded the song with the help of producer Alan Tarney, releasing the new version in late 1984: this release peaked at number three in Norway but failed to reach audiences abroad. In the United States, Warner Bros. invested in the revolutionary second video for "Take on Me," which used Tarney's version of the song. The new video was released to dance clubs and television a month before the record was available in stores or played on the radio. Wide exposure on MTV made the song quickly soar to the top position of the Billboard Hot 100 on 19 October 1985. It remained on the chart for twenty-three weeks, and ended up at the tenth position of the 1985 year-end chart. |
| SPIRIT - WHY CAN'T I BE FREE (1970) Album: 12 Dreams Of Dr Sardonicus (1970) February 16th 1988 - my #6 favorite daily song for 6 days at age 17 when first discovering them with this album in Grade 12 March 2nd 1989 - my #6 favorite daily song for 1 day at age 18 the year after graduating high school. March 12th 2003 - my #8 favorite daily song for 70 days at age 32 living at Grandmas short term before I bought my first home at Eastview. Performing music on the road with Marilyn now for 10 years. The Beatles, Spirit and Yes are my 3 favorite bands of all time. I discovered Spirit in February 1988 at age 17 when I took a chance picking up a copy of their album 12 Dreams of Dr Sardonicus for $2.00 at Tramps record store downtown. They would go on to have more influence on my songwriting and overall varied taste in music as an adult than any other group. I discovered Spirit later than I had with The Beatles and Yes. The great thing to note is that my entire journey discovering their music has been documented from day 1 as I was already listing my daily favorite group, album and song by 1987. Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus is the fourth album by the American psychedelic rock group Spirit. It was produced by David Briggs, who is best known for his work with Neil Young. The original LP was released in 1970 by Epic. It peaked at #63 on the Billboard 200 in February 1971 -- the band's lowest charting album to that point -- and spent 14 weeks on the chart. However, with strong catalog sales it also became the band's only album to be certified Gold in the U.S., achieving that status in 1976 |
| THE BEATLES - LOVE YOU TO (1966) Album: Revolver (1966) I first heard this song on the US version of Revolver but have no recollection of buying this album in either 1981/1982 at about age 10.
Love You To" is a song by
The Beatles from the album
Revolver. It is sung and written by
George Harrison and features North Indian classical
instrumentation;
tabla, a pair of hand-drums,
sitar and a
tambura providing a
drone. "Love You To" was the first Beatles' song that
seriously attempted to incorporate
Indian classical music and has even been hailed as the
first pop song to emulate a non-western form in structure
and instrumentation. As such, it first introduced Western
pop music fans to the eastern, Indian music that Harrison
would promote for the rest of his career.
As Harrison seldom had titles for his songs the working title was "Granny Smith." Lewisohn states that the first basic tracks of the song were set down in Abbey Road studio two on Monday 11 April 1966 in sessions between 2.30pm-7pm and 8pm-12.45am. They initially involved George singing to his own acoustic guitar accompaniment, with Paul supplying backing vocals. The sitar came in at take three and again as an overdub onto take six along with a tabla, bass and fuzz guitar. Lewisohn specifically states: "George played the sitar but an outside musician, Anil Bhagwat, was recruited to play the tabla." Harrison had been practising the sitar since he used it to record Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) in October 1965 (he was soon to do so from its leading exponent Ravi Shankar) and Lavezzoli writes that "His playing throughout the song is an astonishing improvement over Norwegian Wood. In fact Love You To remains the most accomplished performance on sitar by any rock musician." The tabla player on the Song (Anil Bhagwat) made no mention of any other Indian musicians but stated: "A chap called Angardi called me and asked if I was free that evening to work with George. I didn't know who he meant — he didn't say it was Harrison. It was only when a Rolls Royce came to pick me up that I realised I'd be playing on a Beatles session. When I arrived at Abbey Road there were girls everywhere with Thermos flasks, cakes, sandwiches, waiting for the Beatles to come out. "George told me what he wanted and I tuned the tabla with him. He suggested I play something in the Ravi Shankar style, 16-beats, though he agreed that I should improvise. Indian music is all improvisation. Ringo Starr is the only other Beatle who plays on the song, contributing tambourine. Paul McCartney originally recorded backing vocals for the song but these were left out of the final mix. |
| JEFFREY GAINES - HEADMASTERS OF MINE (1992) Album: Jeffrey Gaines (1992) I won a national music trivia contest in Canada in 1992 and in the batch of prizes included a copy of this CD. It quickly became one of my all time favorites! He opened for Melissa Etheridge in 1993 and I bought a ticket so I could see him open as a solo act just him and his acoustic. September 14th 1992 - my #3 favorite daily song for 15 days in 4th year University at age 21 after moving back to grandma's house after living on my own for 5 months on Cumberland Ave during my "anorexic" stage. December 25th 2011 - my #8 favorite daily song for 40 days over Xmas 2011 and my 41st birthday livingat Ave M South now married 4 years to Valerie and Nicholas is 5.5 years old. This entire album is deep and and serious in music and lyrical content. The song first became my #1 favorite on September 14th 1992 the month I entered 4th year University. It was the first of 2 #1 songs for me by Jeffrey Gaines. This album has returned to #1 numerous times over the years.
Jeffrey Gaines is an American
singer-songwriter and
guitarist. Born in
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he was signed to the
Chrysalis Records label in 1990 and released his debut
album, Jeffrey Gaines, in 1992.
The first single off the critically acclaimed Jeffrey Gaines was "Hero In Me". Gaines performed that song live on Good Morning America and the song received some radio and MTV airplay |
| PAUL McCARTNEY - BALLROOM DANCING (1982) Album: Tug Of War (1982) This was the first McCartney album I ever bought as a brand new release in the summer of 1982 at age 11 just entering Grade 7 for my last year at Open School at Victoria School. I had also listened to this album at Bible Camp in Outlook? that I went for a week that summer with my friend Aaron Holowaychuk. October 6th 2011 - my #2 favorite daily song for 42 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.
Tug of War is the fourth solo
studio album by
Paul McCartney, released in 1982. It is the
follow-up to the 1980 album
McCartney II, and his first official
solo album after the dissolution of
Wings in April 1981. The recording sessions
for the album reunited McCartney with producer
George Martin. Tug of War was also
McCartney's first album after the
death of his former Beatles bandmate John Lennon.
In March 1982, McCartney's duet with Stevie Wonder, "Ebony and Ivory", was released to broad acclaim. It reached #1 in many countries and did much to restore McCartney's critical reputation after what was viewed as a lean period for him. Consequently, when Tug of War appeared in April, it was an immediate worldwide #1, selling several million copies and was received strongly by the public, even being nominated for the "Album of the Year" Grammy in 1983. The follow-up single "Take It Away" was a US Top 10 entry as well. |
| TERRY HOKNES - CAN ? (2005) Opus #788 - written in 1992 at age 21 As the new century began a new chapter in songwriting where the focus was more on recording polished songs but writing way less and very sporadic. I had written 500 songs by the age of 19 and had hit 1000 songs by the age of 25. But since then I can go over a year at a time without writing a song but really focusing in most cases on a more commercial type of polished song however I still venture into all possible genres. I continue to play and sing every part on all my songs and recordings. I hired Neil Meckelborg of Audio Art to record my songs in 2001. We started out recording a full album at their location downtown behind the Bus depot but eventually worked on recordings at Neil's private studio. In total we recorded 3 full albums of material of my songs and a full length album of songs I wrote with Marilyn Parney that I produced. Neil and I also worked on a Trooper hit song karaoke CD in 2001. I spent 18 months recording with Neil and over 40 songs and over $10,000.00 in studio bills I paid at that time to record the best quality audio ever on my songs. Neil had used Sonar Cakewalk so I learned how to use it and have used that now for a decade in my own studio. |