Mick has discovered an excellent book - “The Number Ones – Twenty chart-topping hits that reveal the history of pop music” by Tom Breihan (Hachette Books, NY) - one of the best books ever written on how songs get, or don’t get, to the top of the charts.
A great story in the book is how Vanilla Ice came to be the first artist to lose all their earnings from a hit through lawyers suing them for copyright infringement. In a story with more twists than an Agatha Christie novel, all the profit from the first “rap” single to top the charts was gobbled up by lawyers, after Vanilla Ice sampled "Under Pressure" without clearance from Bowie or Queen.
Other gems in the book include:
Our album you must hear before you die (with thanks to Robert Dimery) is The Pogues’ “Rum, Sodomy and the Lash” from 1985. The title is based on Winston Churchill’s quote that “English Naval tradition was nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.” Elvis Costello, who produced the album, saw his role as capturing the Pogues’ “dilapidated glory”, with the band heavily influenced by alcohol, and their name meaning, in Gaelic, “Pogue mahone”, or “up your arse”!
Musical gems abound on the album, not least in Ewan MacColl’s “Dirty Old Town”, and Eric Bogle’s “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” (listed as one of the 30 Greatest Australian songs of all time). We love The Pogues, and you should, too.
Jeff has uncovered some gems from the mind of Donald Trump and his supporters, as well as discovering that the man has an ego bigger than the most deranged rock star.
Another jam-packed episode!
_______________________________________________________________
Books
“The Number Ones. Twenty chart-topping hits that reveal the history of pop music”, Tom Breihan, Hachette Books, New York
Mick has discovered an excellent book - “The Number Ones – Twenty chart-topping hits that reveal the history of pop music” by Tom Breihan (Hachette Books, NY) - one of the best books ever written on how songs get, or don’t get, to the top of the charts.
A great story in the book is how Vanilla Ice came to be the first artist to lose all their earnings from a hit through lawyers suing them for copyright infringement. In a story with more twists than an Agatha Christie novel, all the profit from the first “rap” single to top the charts was gobbled up by lawyers, after Vanilla Ice sampled "Under Pressure" without clearance from Bowie or Queen.
Other gems in the book include:
Our album you must hear before you die (with thanks to Robert Dimery) is The Pogues’ “Rum, Sodomy and the Lash” from 1985. The title is based on Winston Churchill’s quote that “English Naval tradition was nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.” Elvis Costello, who produced the album, saw his role as capturing the Pogues’ “dilapidated glory”, with the band heavily influenced by alcohol, and their name meaning, in Gaelic, “Pogue mahone”, or “up your arse”!
Musical gems abound on the album, not least in Ewan MacColl’s “Dirty Old Town”, and Eric Bogle’s “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” (listed as one of the 30 Greatest Australian songs of all time). We love The Pogues, and you should, too.
Jeff has uncovered some gems from the mind of Donald Trump and his supporters, as well as discovering that the man has an ego bigger than the most deranged rock star.
Another jam-packed episode!
_______________________________________________________________
Books
“The Number Ones. Twenty chart-topping hits that reveal the history of pop music”, Tom Breihan, Hachette Books, New York