Dance Macabre

Dance Macabre

Wednesday 25 June 2014

Some 1960's Rockers Pass On

Gerry Goffin ~ 1960's songwriter worked with (and later married and divorced) Carole King. Starting in 1959 they became one of the prolific songwriting teams working out of the Brill Building in New York City writing hit songs like;

LITTLE EVA ~ "THE LOCOMOTION";


THE VISCOUNTS ~ "WHO PUT THE BOMP";


THE ANIMALS ~ "DON'T BRING ME DOWN";


GRAND FUNK RAILROAD ~ "THE LOCOMOTION";


"Take Good Care of My Baby" (a hit for Bobby Vee), "Halfway to Paradise" (Tony Orlando, Billy Fury), "The Loco-Motion" (Little Eva, and later Grand Funk Railroad), "Go Away Little Girl" (Steve Lawrence, and later Donny Osmond), "It Might as Well Rain Until September" (Carole King), "One Fine Day" (The Chiffons and later Carole King), "Up on the Roof" (The Drifters), "I'm into Something Good" (Herman's Hermits), "Don't Bring Me Down" (The Animals), "Oh No Not My Baby" (Maxine Brown, and later The Action, Rod Stewart, Aretha Franklin and The Partridge Family), "Goin' Back" (Dusty Springfield, The Byrds), "Wasn't Born To Follow" (also The Byrds, later covered by The Sadies), "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" (Aretha Franklin), and "Pleasant Valley Sunday", "Star Collector", "Porpoise Song" (all by The Monkees, the last covered by The Grapes Of Wrath and The Church) along with a bunch of other songs by The Monkees and Drifters.

THE MONKEES ~ "PLEASANT VALLEY SUNDAY";


THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY ~ "OH NO NOT MY BABY";


He also worked with other songwriters in the 1960's on songs like "Who Put The Bomp" (by Curtis Lee & The Viscounts and later Showaddywaddy and The Boppers)

After splitting from King, Goffin released a solo album in 1973, It Ain't Exactly Entertainment, but it was not successful, and he began working with other composers, including Russ Titelman, Barry Goldberg, and then Michael Masser.[7] He and Masser won an Academy Award nomination in 1976 for the theme to the film Mahogany, sung by Diana Ross; and also wrote "Saving All My Love for You", a worldwide hit for Whitney Houston, "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love", and "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You". Goffin and Masser also received a Golden Globe nomination for "So Sad the Song" from the 1976 Gladys Knight film Pipe Dreams. He recorded another solo album in 1994 which included two collaborations with Bob Dylan. He later was an early booster for Kelly Clarkson. He died at 75

THE MONKEES ~ "STAR COLLECTOR";


THE MONKEES ~ "PORPOISE SONG";


Bobby Womack started out as a gospel singer in a group with his brothers as The Womack Brothers on Sam Cooke's SAR records in the mid 1960's. After recording a few singles ("Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray") they made the same journey Cooke himself made in moving to secular R&B under the name The Valentinos who would record the single "It's All Over Now" which was a moderate hit until it was covered by The Rolling Stones who had a major hit with it. Womack was at first angry at having his hit record undermined until Sam Cooke told him; "You'll feel differently once the royalty checks come in. This will be good for us." That turned out to be right as Womack would have to admit. He would later have solo hits with "Lookin' For a Love", "That's The Way I Feel About Cha", "Woman's Gotta Have It", "Harry Hippie", "Across 110th Street" and his 1980s hit "If You Think You're Lonely Now". Ironically he would also do covers of hits like Dylan's "All Along The Watch Tower" and John Phillips' "California Dreaming".

THE VALENTINOS ~ "IT'S ALL OVER NOW";


THE ROLLING STONES ~ "IT'S ALL OVER NOW";


BOBBY WOMACK ~ "CALIFORNIA DREAMING";


Answering the question "Can a white boy play the blues?", Johnny Winter was the whitest bluesman ever. Well, along with his brother Edgar, since they were both albinos. Beginning as teens in various garage bands in Texas as early as 1959 Johnny would later go solo and become a highly respected guitarist plying with Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, Willie Dixon, Big Walter Horton, Janis Joplin, Rick Derringer and eventually producing an album for Muddy Waters. He also battled drug addiction over the years which he eventually beat. Winter continued to play up to his death at 70.

JOHNNY WINTER, MUDDY WATERS, JOHN LEE HOOKER & FOGHAT ~ "I JUST WANNA MAKE LOVE TO YOU";


JOHNNY WINTER ~ "JUMPING JACK FLASH";


Lee Dresser ~ 50's & 60's ~ American R&R singer/guitar w/the The Krazy Kats "Beat Out My Love" (later covered by the Cramps)

LEE DRESSER & THE KRAZY KATS ~ "BEAT OUT MY LOVE";


George Hamilton IV, not to be confused with the actor, was a country and folk singer of the 1960's who scored a number of hits the biggest of which was "Abaline". Later in the decade he adopted folk music and recorded popular albums of Canadian music including hit versions of Gordon Lightfoot songs, even though he was actually not Canadian.

GEORGE HAMILTON IV ~ "ABILINE" & "FORT WORTH DALLAS OF HOUSTON";


Idris Muhammad ~ American jazz drummer w/Fats Domino, Pharaoh Sanders, Ahmad Jamal, Grover Washington jr, Hank Crawford, Johnny Griffon, Gene Ammons ~ 74

PHARAOH SANDERS;


AHMAD JAMAL ~ "DARN THAT DREAM";


Manny Roth ~ Owner of 1960's New York nightclub Cafe Wha?, a folk & comedy club where Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, The Velvet Underground, Paul Butterfield, Peter, Paul & Mary, Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Joan Rivers, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor started. Also the uncle of Van Halen singer David Lee Roth ~ 95

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO ~ "SYMPHONY OF SOUND";


THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & THE EXPLODING PLASTIC INEVITABLE;


PAUL BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND ~ "BORN UNDER A BAD SIGN";


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