Jesus Christ Superstar is a 1970 rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. The album musical is a musical dramatisation of the last week of the life of Jesus Christ, beginning with his entry into Jerusalem and ending with the Crucifixion. It was originally banned by the BBC on grounds of being "sacrilegious."

The album's story is based in large part on the Synoptic Gospels and Fulton J. Sheen's Life of Christ, which compares and calibrates all four Gospels. However, greater emphasis is placed on the interpersonal relationships of the major characters, in particular, Jesus, Judas and Mary Magdalene, relationships that are not described in depth in the Gospels.

The album reached #1 on the Billboard chart in 1971 and served as a launching pad for numerous stage productions on Broadway and in the West End. The original 1970 boxed-set issue of this 2-record set was packaged in the U.S. with a special thin brown cardboard outer box which contained the 2 vinyl records and a 28-page libretto. It is also the sixth most successful album of all time in Norway, peaking at #3 and staying on the charts for 87 weeks.

Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American rock and roll musician Elvis Presley. It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. His first number-one pop record, "Heartbreak Hotel" topped Billboard's Top 100 chart, became his first million-seller, and was the best-selling single of 1956. It was written by Tommy Durden and Mae Boren Axton.

The single topped Billboard's Top 100 chart for seven weeks, was number one on the Country and Western chart and reached number five on the R&B chart, becoming Presley's first million-seller, and the best-selling single of 1956. It would eventually be certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Presley had first performed "Heartbreak Hotel" during a live show in December 1955 during a tour of the Louisiana Hayride, but the song gained strong popularity after his appearance on Stage Show in March 1956. It became a staple of Presley's repertoire in live appearances, last performed by him on May 29, 1977 at the Civic Center in Baltimore, Maryland.

In 1995 "Heartbreak Hotel" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and in 2004 Rolling Stone magazine named it one of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". That year it was also included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll". A rock and roll standard, since its original release "Heartbreak Hotel" has been covered by several rock and pop acts, including Willie Nelson and Leon Russell, who recorded a duet version that topped the Country charts in 1979.

Twelve Thirty" a.k.a. "Twelve-thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon)", the song's main refrain, is a song by The Mamas & the Papas, which was the lead single from the album The Papas & The Mamas. The song peaked at number 20 in the US, but failed to chart in the UK.

The song was written by John Phillips shortly after the band had relocated to Southern California in 1965. It is often cited as the band's last great single.

Jim Ward of Rolling Stone, said "Twelve Thirty" was "the last recording of the self-proclaimed 'Golden Era'", he added, "It's probably the best realized song the group has recorded."

The song was inspired by Laurel Canyon, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.

"Twelve-thirty" was covered by Autoliner on their debut album, Life on Mars (1999).

The Mamas & the Papas (credited as The Mama's and the Papa's on the debut album cover and sometimes shortened to Mamas & Papas) were an American/Canadian vocal group who came to prominence in the 1960s (Denny Doherty was from Canada). The group recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968 with a short reunion in 1971, releasing five albums and 11 Top 40 hit singles. They have sold nearly 40 million records worldwide.

Their signature sound was based on four-part male/female vocal harmonies arranged by John Phillips, the band's songwriter, who managed to "leave the folk music behind" and blend his writing with the new "beat" sound in an unprecedented mode

Valleri" is a song written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart for The Monkees, who had a #3 on Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on Cash Box with it in early 1968. The song also rose to #12 in the UK.

Responding to Screen Gems president and music supervisor Don Kirshner's early-morning request for a "girl's-name song" to be used in the Monkees's television series, Boyce and Hart improvised "Valleri" on their way to Kirshner's office, after pretending over the telephone that the song was already finished. Nonetheless, Kirshner was pleased with their work, and "Valleri" took its place on the Monkees recording schedule, with Boyce and Hart producing the original sessions in August 1966.

The original recording (with instrumental backing by the Candy Store Prophets, plus session musician Louie Shelton contributing a flamencoesque guitar solo) was featured in the show's first season in 1967; a staged performance showed Michael Nesmith copying Shelton's guitar licks, and singer Davy Jones appearing to physically outgrow his bandmates, through forced perspective and camera trick shots. While the first version of "Valleri" went unreleased, a few off-air recordings received radio airplay (thanks to DJs taping the audio directly from the video), and later surfaced on bootleg recordings.

By the end of 1967, the Monkees had gone from only singing on their records (to meet their filming, recording, and appearance schedules) to also playing, to a mix of both. More importantly, they had gone from having no say over the music production to being in near-complete creative control. Their fifth album, The Birds, The Bees & the Monkees, rounded out the selection of songs from the show to appear on record, with the second season (1967–1968) being its last. Assuming both performing and producing roles, the Monkees remade both "I'll Be Back Up On My Feet" and "Valleri", duplicating the latter as closely as possible to the original, to the point of bringing back the Candy Store Prophets and Louie Shelton to perform. Boyce and Hart were not pleased that their production was not being used, but understood the reasons, and still collected writer's royalties. Mike Nesmith had been reluctant to remake the song, and adamant against it being released as a single, declaring it the "worst record ever", but he was overruled by Colgems Records.

When Lester Sill of Colgems heard the track, he felt it needed something extra, and had a brass section overdubbed. The remade "Valleri", released on March 2, 1968, made it to Number Three in the US, and was to be the band's last top ten hit of the 1960s.

I Can Help" is a song written and performed by Billy Swan. Released in September 1974, the song was a big crossover smash, reaching #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Country Singles charts late that fall.    Although Swan had other charting singles on both the Hot 100 and country charts, the song is generally recognized as being Swan's only major hit single release. However, Swan had continued success as a songwriter for other artists and as a session musician.

Two versions of the song exist:

• In the album version, applause can be heard as the final note is held for several seconds. The song ends with a reprise of the final musical bridge and more applause. However, it still does not end there; Swan plays still another reprise of the final musical bridge as the song fades out. Stories abound about the applause being due to Billy completing the take, despite his dog tugging his pant leg.
• The single edit immediately fades out after the aforementioned applause begins.

In addition to being a No. 1 country and pop hit, "I Can Help" reached No. 6 on Billboard's Hot Adult Contemporary Singles chart and No. 6 on the United Kingdom's Record Retailer chart. In addition, the song was a hit throughout most of Europe and also reached #1 in Australia. "I Can Help" was so successful in Norway that it charted for 37 weeks on the Norwegian charts (VG-lista Top 10), making it the 4th best-performing single of all time in that country.  "I Can Help" is certified gold for sales of 1,000,000 units by the Recording Industry Association of America. In U.K., it has "Silver" certification, and in France, it has sales about 700,000

William Martin "Billy" Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American pianist, singer-songwriter, and composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man," in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to the RIAA. He also has the third best-selling album in the United States with his Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & 2.

Joel had Top 40 hits in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, achieving 33 Top 40 hits in the United States, all of which he wrote himself. He is also a six-time Grammy Award winner, a 23-time Grammy nominee and has sold over 150 million records worldwide He was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame (1992), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999), and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (2006). In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's 50th anniversary, with Billy Joel positioned at No. 23. With the exception of the 2007 songs "All My Life" and "Christmas in Fallujah," Joel stopped recording pop/rock material after 1993's River of Dreams, but he continued to tour extensively until 2010

Golden Blunders" is a song by the American alternative rock band The Posies, released as the first single released from its major label debut album Dear 23 in 1990.   Ringo Starr covered the song for his 1992 critically acclaimed comeback album, Time Takes Time

AMERICA - ALL NIGHT (1979)

Album: Silent Letter (1979)

Silent Letter is the eighth original studio album by American folk rock duo America, released by Capitol Records in June, 1979   The album did not do well in the US, only reaching number 110 on the Billboard album chart. It produced three minor hit singles: "Only Game In Town" reached 107 on the Billboard singles chart; and "All My Life" which hit number 48 on the Adult Contemporary chart and was a big hit in Asia; and "All Around" 45 on the Adult Contemporary chart.  This was the first America studio album following the departure of Dan Peek, the first America release on the Capitol Records label, and the last to feature George Martin as producer. It was also the first album since their debut which had a title beginning with a letter other than H. "Silent Letter" may refer to a "dropped H", as features in some English regional accents  

America is an English-American folk rock band that originally consisted of Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and Dan Peek. The three members were barely out of their teens when they became a musical sensation during 1972, scoring No. 1 hits and winning a Grammy for best new musical artist. Their recording success stretched throughout the 1970s; some of the band's best known songs are "A Horse with No Name", "Sister Golden Hair" (both of which reached No. 1), "Ventura Highway", "Tin Man", "Daisy Jane", and "Lonely People". George Martin produced seven of their albums.  The band suffered a heavy blow when Dan Peek quit the group in 1977, right at the bottom of a steep decline in their popularity, but Beckley and Bunnell returned to the top 10 as a duo with "You Can Do Magic" in 1982. Continuing to tour, America maintains a loyal fan base and performs over 100 shows per year

Boy Krazy was a New York City-based girl group that saw brief fame in 1993 with their hit single "That's What Love Can Do".   The group was put together through auditions by a management company in New York. Boy Krazy featured female singers Kimberly Blake, Josselyne Jones, Johnna Lee Cummings, Renée Veneziale, and Ruth Ann Roberts (a former Miss Junior America). Their signature Pop song "That's What Love Can Do", written and produced by British mega music trio Stock Aitken & Waterman, was released in 1991, but it failed to become a hit. Shortly after the release of the single, Veneziale left the band.

Carrying on as a foursome, the group released their second single "All You Have To Do" in 1992, but it also failed to chart. That same year, "That's What Love Can Do" started gaining success in clubs and discothèques across America and substantial airplay on radio stations. The song was remixed and re-released, becoming a hit in the US, reaching the Billboard Hot 100 Top 20 in early 1993, peaking at #18. It also reached #1 in Pop airplay on the Radio & Records CHR/Pop chart. In the liners from their self-titled album the group credited KQKS/Denver, Colorado for breaking the latter after one of the staffers played a version of the track in December 1992.   The album Boy Krazy was released in 1993, and also included the follow-up single "Good Times With Bad Boys", which also hit the Billboard Hot 100.   Main lead singer Cummings left the band in late 1993. The remaining members tried to develop a new album unsuccessfully and the group split shortly after. Additionally, they were supposed to release "Love is a Freaky Thing" as their fourth single, but it was never released. It failed to chart anyway. 

Good Night" is the final song by The Beatles on their 1968 album The Beatles (also known as The White Album). It is sung by Ringo Starr, the only Beatle to appear on the song. The music is provided by an orchestra arranged and conducted by George Martin.

John Lennon originally wrote the song as a lullaby for his son Julian when he was five years old.

George Martin's arrangement is excessively lush, and intentionally so. Lennon is said to have wanted the song to sound "real cheesy", like a Gordon Jenkins-esque Old Hollywood production number. The musicians play the following instruments: twelve violins, three violas, three cellos, one harp, three flutes, one clarinet, one horn, one vibraphone, and one string bass. The Mike Sammes Singers also took part in the recording, providing backing vocals.

Starr became the third member of the group (after Paul McCartney and George Harrison) to record a song credited to the group without the other members performing (Lennon was the fourth with "Julia"). The song ends with Starr whispering the words: "Good night... Good night, everybody... Everybody, everywhere... Good night."

Hunting High and Low is the debut album by Norwegian new wave band A-ha. Released on 1 June 1985 through Warner Bros. Records, the album was a huge commercial success selling more than 10 million units worldwide, peaking at #15 in the United States Billboard 200 and reaching high positions on charts worldwide. The album was recorded at Eel Pie Studios in Twickenham, produced by Tony Mansfield, John Ratcliff and Alan Tarney.

In all, five singles from the album were released, though not all were released internationally: "Take on Me", "Love Is Reason", "The Sun Always Shines on T.V.", "Train of Thought" and "Hunting High and Low". The group was nominated for best new artist at the Grammy Awards in 1986, making A-ha the first Norwegian band to be nominated for a Grammy.

"The Dean and I" is a song by the art rock/pop band 10cc, from their 1973 eponymous debut album, written by Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. The song was released as the third single from the album in August 1973 and peaked at #10 on the UK Singles Chart, making it the lowest of the singles from the album which charted in their own right. The single reached the top of the Irish Singles Chart on 20 September 1973.

The album version of the song is slightly longer than the single version. Most of the material cut for the single release is from the introduction where the lyric on the album "Humdrum days and a humdrum ways" is sung repeatedly. The single version of the song can be found on the compilation Greatest Hits ... And More (2006)

The song is written from the perspective of an American father telling his children about how he met and fell in love with their mother, with the first real line of the song being "Hey, kids, let me tell you how I met your mom. We were dancing and romancing at the senior prom". The epic poem Paradise Lost by John Milton is mentioned in the lyrics. The later part of the lyric tackles the grim realities of middle-aged married life "...when the paint is peeling, and all the chips are down..."

The song is a parody of 1960s commercial pop music notably of the Beach Boys where the line "And then I kissed her" is sung in a style similar to the band's 1967 hit single "Then I Kissed Her". High School Confidential by Jerry Lee Lewis was said to be an inspiration for part of this song.

A notable 1974 performance of the song appears on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert.

Waterloo is the second studio album by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was originally released in Sweden on 4 March 1974 through Polar Music. The album's title track won ABBA the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest. Waterloo was first released on CD in Sweden in 1988; a West German CD release followed in 1990 (later released internationally). The album has been reissued in digitally remastered form three times; first in 1997, then in 2001 and again in 2005 as part of The Complete Studio Recordings box set. It was also released as a special 30th Anniversary edition in 2004, celebrating 30 years of the group's victory in the Eurovision Song Contest.

The original 1974 Polar Music edition of the album opens with the Swedish version of the title track and closes with the English language version. The American version of the album, released through Atlantic Records, closes with a 1974 remix of "Ring Ring". In the United Kingdom/Ireland and several other European markets, the original 1973 version of "Ring Ring" was added as track 6 on side 2. The cover features the sub-title "Bjorn, Benny, Agnetha & Frida" although some editions replaced 'Agnetha' with 'Anna' – by which Agnetha Fältskog was known in some countries.

Waterloo peaked at the top of the charts in Sweden and Norway, charting highly in many other countries as well. In 2004, it was certified platinum in Germany, thirty years after its release.

Waterloo was the group's first album released in most countries outside Scandinavia, and the first to be credited to "ABBA" (the band was originally referred to as "Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid". However, to avoid confusion, they were called "ABBA (Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Frida)". The "Honey, Honey" single was the first release to refer to the group as ABBA and nothing else.

Not a Second Time" is a song by John Lennon (credited to Lennon–McCartney) performed by The Beatles on their second United Kingdom album, With The Beatles. Lennon said he was "trying to write a Smokey Robinson or something at the time."   This song inspired a musical analysis from William Mann of The Times, citing the "Aeolian cadence" (Aeolian harmony) of Lennon's vocals as the song draws to a close, and noting that the same chord progression appears at the end of the final movement of Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde". Lennon, years later, remarked: "To this day, I have no idea what [Aeolian cadences] are. They sound like exotic birds." The actual meaning of the term "Aeolian cadence" is when a major key song resolves on the VI chord, which is the tonic chord of the relative minor key. The term derives from the fact that the Aeolian mode is rooted on the sixth step of the major scale.

Dominic Pedler considers the 'Aeolian cadence" moment to occur at the end of this line: (Am) "You hurt me then. You're back again. No/(Bm) no no/(D7) not a second time"/(Em). Pedler writes: "We are expecting the D7 chord, the dominant in the key of G, to return to the G major tonic" however in replacing it with an Em chord supporting an isolated E note on "time" we have an interrupted cadence or dominant to relative sub-minor (V7 to vi) shift. The major key of the song is G, but it appears to resolve on the Em (VI) chord. As Allan Moore puts it "Mann would argue that it is not the same thing as a "V-vi" Interrupted or Deceptive cadence because- at that precise point in the song- the role of the E minor as a "vi" is being questioned and is veering towards tonic status."   Pedler notes that another interesting moment in the song is that George Martin's piano part alternates not between G and E minor, but G and E major, the presence of the piano's extra G# (the major 3rd of the E chord) creating a "grating, tense colouring" in comparison to a G natural of the guitar's Em chord. Pedler's discussion with musical experts about the comparison between this Beatles song and Mahler's "Song of the Earth" revealed that none found anything relevant, except perhaps that Mahler's Farewell movement involves various shades of a C major chord and ends after a flute B-A drop (the A chord being a VI in the chord of C) with the "final sonority" of a C6 (where the C, E and G notes are from the trombones and lower strings and the A from oboe and flute)  (this final C6 chord seeming to be "printed on the atmosphere" as Benjamin Britten terms it).

Spanky and Our Gang was an American 1960s folk-rock band led by Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane. The band derives its name from Hal Roach's popular Our Gang comedies of the 1930s (known to modern audiences as The Little Rascals). The group was known for its vocal harmonies.

The group's first album, simply titled Spanky and Our Gang, was released by Mercury Records on August 1, 1967, and included three popular songs that were released as singles. These were "Sunday Will Never Be the Same" (their biggest hit, which reached number No. 9 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in the summer of 1967), followed by "Making Every Minute Count" (reached No. 31) and "Lazy Day" (reached No. 14). Both "Sunday Will Never Be The Same" and "Lazy Day" sold over one million copies. "Sunday Will Never Be the Same" was written by Terry Cashman and Gene Pistilli. In an interview by Cashman with the Songfacts website, he revealed that the song was originally written as a ballad. However, Cashman said the group "changed it, and they added the vocal, 'Ba-da-da-da-da,' which was a great hook."  Their second album, Like to Get to Know You, was released in April 1968. Two singles were released: "Sunday Mornin'" in the spring, which reached No. 30, and "Like to Get to Know You", which reached No. 17 in the Summer 1968. The single's B-side, "Three Ways From Tomorrow", also received considerable airplay. The album included their rendition of "Stardust", and a version of "Everybody's Talkin'", best known as a hit single for Harry Nilsson and the theme song for the movie Midnight Cowboy.

Gayle McCormick was born in St. Louis on 26 November 1948. McCormick attended Pattonville High School in Maryland Heights, Missouri near St. Louis and sang high soprano with the Suburb Choir, a 150-voice unit that performed annually with the St. Louis Symphony. Her recording and performing career stretched from 1965 to 1976. McCormick started her career singing songs by Tina Turner and Etta James before joining Smith.

In 1967 she was the lead singer in a band called the Klassmen and released a single called "Without You" which had success in Missouri.

In 1969 Smith was formed in Los Angeles, California, their first album entitled "A Group Called Smith," featured McCormick as the primary vocalist. Smith mainly played and recorded covers of pop and soul songs and made the top five with a remake of "Baby It's You", charting higher than the previous hit version by the The Shirelles. The Smith's version was also featured in Quentin Tarantino's film Death Proof, part of the Grindhouse double feature..

After the group disbanded, McCormick went on to record three solo albums, "Gayle McCormick", "Flesh And Blood" and "One More Hour". In the fall of 1971, her performance of "It's A Cryin' Shame" charted at #44.  She lives in suburban Saint Louis today.