“Mardi Gras Mambo” and “Iko Iko”
Ah, Fat Tuesday. A day of indulgence on every level. Celebrated the day before Ash Wednesday, it’s the last big blowout before Lent kicks in and fasting begins. And of course, Mardi Gras and music go together like floats and parades, jazz bands and beads, purple, gold and green. Songs get stirred up in the [...]
On Valentine’s Day
A little James Taylor to celebrate Valentine’s Day: “Beneath the tide the fishes glide, fin to fin and side to side. For fishy love has now begun, fishy love, finny fun.”
“Strawberry Fields Forever” & “Penny Lane”
In Feb. 1967 the Beatles released a double-A side single of “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” which opened the doors to the wonders of Sgt. Pepper. Here’s the story.
Happy Birthday, Sheryl Crow!
Fifty years ago Sheryl Crow was born in Kennett, Mo., to a trumpet-playing father and piano-playing mother. After college, she worked as a music teacher before a burgeoning sideline career singing commercial jingles emboldened her to make the move to L.A. in 1986. Work as a background singer for Michael Jackson and Don Henley led [...]
George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” Copyright Case
“Every time I put the radio on, it’s ‘Oh My Lord,’” John Lennon said in December 1970. “I’m beginning to think there must be a God.” Lennon wasn’t alone. As his former bandmate George Harrison’s debut single blanketed the airwaves, a struggling New York publisher, Bright Tunes Music, must’ve heard divine intervention in the melody [...]
Happy Birthday, Carole King!
Born Feb. 9, 1942, in Brooklyn, N.Y., Carole King (née Klein) started playing piano when she was four years old. By high school, she was writing her first songs and leading a vocal quartet called the Co-Sines. At 17, she was singing demos for publishers along with her childhood friend Paul Simon. This led to [...]
Graham Nash “Our House”
Here is the story—in Graham Nash’s own words—behind the classic “Our House,” one of the sweetest love songs ever written while he was living with Joni Mitchell.
Lydia Goes to NAMM: Postgame Highlights
After attending almost 40 NAMM shows over the past 22 years, this most recent one—held from January 19-22 in Anaheim, Calif.—somehow turned into my favorite. It had been three years since my last visit, and this time I just got to have fun visiting with old friends and take my time seeing all the new [...]
Happy Birthday, Sarah McLachlan!
Every once in a while an artist like Sarah McLachlan comes along who not only creates great and lasting music, but also great and lasting change. It’s the kind of change that happens with an inordinate amount of personal investment, sacrifice, good will and the ability to lead. When Sarah founded Lilith Fair in 1997, [...]
Happy Birthday, Neil Diamond!
Songwriting is a sanctuary for Neil Diamond, just as it was when he first put pen to paper as an intense, sensitive teenager at Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn. Scarcely had he learned his first chords on the guitar his parents gave him as a 16th birthday present than the songs began to pour [...]
Richie Havens’ 1969 Woodstock Performance
Over four decades and 25 albums, Richie Havens has used his music to convey messages of brotherhood and personal freedom. Cutting his teeth on the fertile ’60s music scene of Greenwich Village and interpreting tunes by Bob Dylan, he gained even more notoriety after opening the Woodstock festival on August 15, 1969. The festival was [...]
Happy Birthday, Dolly Parton!
“Without a doubt, songwriting is my greatest source of joy and the best outlet for my creativity,” says Dolly Parton, who since penning her first tune at age 5, has published over 3,000 songs, including country classics such as “Put It Off Until Tomorrow,” “Joshua,” “Jolene,” “Coat Of Many Colors,” “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” “My [...]
Martin Luther King: Oh, You Beautiful Fool
“Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.” Beautiful Fool By Don Henry Martin Luther who did you think that you were? Appointed by some higher up Merely mortal, your plans were unaffordable No one wants to pay for love Oh you beautiful fool Swimmin up stream, kickin’ up waves Dreams weren’t [...]
David Bowie Tells the Stories Behind His Songs
David Bowie shares the stories behind his songs “Space Oddity,” “Heroes,” “Rebel Rebel” and “Fame” in this interview with Performing Songwriter.
Happy Birthday, Stephen Stills!
“I’m one of the laziest people I know,” declares Stephen Stills. “But when I catch on fire, I get obsessive.” That obsessiveness shows up in his intense passion and restless curiosity about the creation of music, helping sustain a career that now stretches back more than four decades. The Texas native made his name in [...]
Performing Songwriter’s 10 Favorite CDs of 2011
Looking back, 2011 was a stellar year for music. No matter what your tastes—from Americana to Rap, R&B to Country—artists were delivering some of their best work, and independents led the pack. With their originality, direct-to-fan marketing and good old hard work, they’ve found a fertile place to flourish while enjoying devoted fan bases. The [...]
Happy Birthday, Patti Smith!
Looking back over the past 35 years, it’s hard to imagine what the rock ’n’ roll landscape would look like were it not for the impact of Patti Smith. Her most obvious contribution has been to blaze a path for other powerful female voices, but in truth her influence cuts across gender, genre and generations. [...]
Frank Sinatra: The Stories Behind His Songs
When Francis Albert Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915, the world was given the greatest friend a song and songwriter would ever know. Starting out as a saloon singer in musty little dives (he carried his own P.A. system), he eventually got work as a band singer, first with The Hoboken Four then [...]
Tom Waits’ Quotes & Quips
Tom Waits is as much of a character as any of the hundreds of freaks, carnies and people waiting for salvation at the bottom of a glass that he creates in his songs. It was in 1973 that Waits launched his whiskey-soaked persona with the release of Closing Time, an album of bluesy ballads of [...]
Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” Video Turns 28
On December 2, 1983, Michael Jackson’s 14-minute video, “Thriller,” was released and became what the National Film Registry has called “most famous music video of all time.” The film was directed by John Landis (Animal House, Blues Brothers, Beverly Hills Cop among his credits) and co-starred Jackson and 1980 Playboy centerfold Ola Ray. It also [...]
Revival: A Folk Music Novel
One of the first rules for a novelist is to write what you know, and Scott Alarik knows folk music better than anyone. For the past 25 years he has been the most influential folk writer in the country as a music critic for the Boston Globe, the editor of the New England Folk Almanac, [...]
Randy Newman’s Songs and Characters
Dancing bears, racist rednecks, junkies in love, prodigal sons, chauvinists, homophobes, theologians, politicians, little criminals, good old boys and God. These are just of few of the fascinating characters in Randy Newman’s richly populated musical world. His songs can be frightening or funny, absurd or heartfelt. But his characters always present some flash of surprising, [...]
Paul Simon’s ‘René and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War’
Belgian painter René Magritte’s was born Nov. 21, 1898, and went on to become a part of the surrealist movement along with André Breton, Salvador Dali and other artists and writers. He married his creative muse, Georgette Berger, in 1923 and reveled in the ire his art drew from the critics and conservative art crowd. [...]
Happy Birthday, Neil Young!
Neil Young was born in Toronto, Canada on November 12, 1945. By the time he settled in Los Angeles in 1966 he had been performed as both an acoustic folkie and a grungy guitar rocker, so he was primed and ready for his roles as a solo artist as well as the pioneering Buffalo Springfield, [...]
