I'll tell you someone who was a terrific performer who is generally overlooked when considering the great guitar men - Rory Gallagher. How he didn't make Rolling Stone magazine's top 100 guitarists of all time beats me.
Rory Gallagher (pronounced "Ro-ree Gall-a-her") (born Liam Rory Gallagher, 2 March, 1948– died 14 June, 1995) was an Irish blues/rock guitarist. Born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland, he grew up in Cork City in the south of the country. He is best known for his solo albums, and for his tenure in the band Taste during the late 1960s. A multi-instrumentalist who gained a reputation as a gifted and charismatic live performer, Rory Gallagher's albums have sold in excess of 30 million copies worldwide.
Bullfrog Blues is a 'traditional' blues rock tune for which Gallagher is recognised as having the best version. The following are audio only. I picked them because they are the best versions I could find.
No cover version tonight. I'll post a few videos of the remarkable Rory Gallagher.
Rory Gallagher (born Liam Rory Gallagher, 2 March, 1948– died 14 June, 1995) was an Irish blues/rock guitarist. Born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland, he grew up in Cork City in the south of the country. He is best known for his solo albums, and for his tenure in the band Taste during the late 1960s. A multi-instrumentalist who gained a reputation as a gifted and charismatic live performer, Rory Gallagher's albums have sold in excess of 30 million copies worldwide.
"Get It On" (retitled "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" in the U.S.) was the second UK number one song for the British rock group T. Rex. It was released from their best-known album, Electric Warrior.
While it only spent four weeks at the top in the UK, starting July 24, 1971 ("Hot Love" was number one for six weeks from March-May), it was the group's biggest hit overall, selling nearly a million copies in the UK. It peaked on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at number ten in January 1972, becoming the band's only major U.S. hit. The song reached #12 in Canada in March 1972.
The Hollywood and Vine version has had less than 200 views on Youtube but it's actually a pretty good version and the girls have really good voices.
Bang A Gong (Get It On) - Terrific live version
Power Station - what was Robert Palmer (R.I.P.) thinking?
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is a rock ballad written by George Harrison for The Beatles on their double album The Beatles (also known as The White Album). The song was ranked #135 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. The song was also ranked #7 on "Rolling Stone"'s list of the 100 greatest guitar songs of all time.
"Money (That's What I Want)" is a 1959 hit single by Barrett Strong for the Tamla label, distributed by Anna Records. The song was written by Tamla founder Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford, and would become the first hit record for Gordy's Motown flagship label.
Anna Records was operated by Gwen Gordy, Anna Gordy and Billy 'Roquel' Davis. Gwen and Anna's brother Berry Gordy had just established his Tamla label (soon Motown would follow), and had the ANNA label in 1960 distribute nationally this single to meet the demand which was a resounding success in the Midwest. The song features Strong curtly demanding that money is what he needs, more than anything else. The single became Motown's first hit in June, 1960, making it to #2 on the US R&B charts and #23 on the US pop charts.
The song has been covered by a plethora of artists, including Buddy Guy, The Beatles, John Lennon during his solo career, Dave Matthews Band, The Kingsmen (US pop #16), The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Pearl Jam, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Flying Lizards, Shonen Knife, Scissor Sisters, Secret Machines, The Sonics, The Smashing Pumpkins, Hanson, Cheap Trick, Josie and the Pussycats, Great White, RC Succession, The Blues Brothers, The Avengers, and Motown labelmates The Supremes, Jr. Walker & the All Stars, The Miracles, Etta James, Jimmy Barnes, Boyz II Men and The Pretenders.
The song was also featured in the movie Animal House in which it was performed by John Belushi. When the Blues Brothers band covered the song 18 years later on their Blues Brothers & Friends: LIVE! From Chicago's H.O.B album it was performed by John's brother Jim Belushi in the role of Brother Zee Blues along with Elwood Blues and Sam Moore.
Also, the song was used in the Beatles biopic Backbeat performed by a band composed of alt-rock musicians (including REM's Mike Mills, and Nirvana's Dave Grohl. It was mimed in the film by the actors playing the Beatles.
The British film The Bank Job featured the song as covered by The Storys, who were also featured as the wedding band in an early scene.
The song was listed as #288 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
"Come On Feel the Noize" is a hard rock song originally released by Slade in 1973. Written by Jim Lea and Noddy Holder and produced by Chas Chandler, "Cum On Feel the Noize" was Slade's fourth number one single in the UK and their first to enter straight at number one. As a single from Slade it was a follow-up to "Gudbuy t'Jane", a #2-hit in the U.K., kept off the top notch by Chuck Berry's novelty single "My ding-a-ling" and later again by another novelty hit, "Long haired lover from Liverpool" from 9 year old Little Jimmy Osmond.
"Cum On Feel the Noize" entered at the top slot in the U.K.charts, was quite a rare feat at the time and was the first time this had happened since The Beatles with "Get Back" in 1969. It went on to spend four weeks at the top of the chart in March 1973. Typical of Slade's releases at the time, it fared less well in the USA where it would only peak at #98 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song actually inspired Kiss to create their popular trademark rock anthem "Rock and Roll All Nite".
"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" is a song written by Neil Diamond, whose recording of it on Bang Records reached #10 on the U.S. pop singles chart in 1967.
The song first appeared on Diamond's album Just for You, which came out the same year. The mono and stereo versions of this song differ slightly. On the mono "Just For You" LP as well as on the 45, the strings do not come in until the second verse. It also has a slightly longer fade. The stereo "Just For You" LP version has a shorter fade and the strings come in on the first chorus.
"Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" garnered a second life span when it appeared on the 1994 Pulp Fiction soundtrack, performed by rock band Urge Overkill. Other versions have been done by Cliff Richard (1968), Gary Puckett and the Union Gap (1969), the Biddu Orchestra (1978), and 16 Volt (1998).
“Proud Mary” is a song written by American singer and guitarist John Fogerty. It was first recorded by rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival (in which Fogerty played lead guitar and sang lead vocals) on the 1969 album Bayou Country. Released as a single in January 1969, it became the band’s first top ten hit on the U.S. Pop chart, peaking at number two, or number one according to some charts. It was the first of five singles that the band released that would reach that peak on the chart, though the group never had a single reach number one, giving them the record for most No.2 singles for a group without a No.1.
The song was written on a steamboat called the “Mary Elizabeth” owned by the Grafton family.
Stylistically, the song merges elements of several genres, including rock and roll, blues, gospel, and soul. Nevertheless, it contains many of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s most characteristic elements, including a repeated guitar riff, “down-home” lyrics, and a guitar solo Fogerty said was influenced by Steve Cropper of Booker T. & the MGs.
The second line of the second verse has generated considerable confusion, and can be considered a type of mondegreen. Listeners have variously interpreted it as “pumped a lot of pain” and “pumped a lot of ’pane”, referring to propane, which is commonly used as a fuel. The controversy was further fueled by Ike & Tina Turner’s cover, in which Tina sings “pumped a lot of ’tane,” referring to octane, the grading scale and chemical in gasoline. The author, Fogerty, finally laid the confusion to rest, saying, “Sometimes I write words to songs because they sound cool to sing. Sometimes the listener doesn’t understand what I’m singing because I’m dedicated to singing the vowel, having fun with the word sounds coming out of my mouth. ‘Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis, pumped a lot of pain down in New Orleans,’ is a good example. I think Tina Turner sang '`tane' instead of 'pain,' as in a contracted form of 'octane'. But I knew what she meant.”
"Hey Joe" is an American popular song from the 1960s that has become a rock standard, and as such has been performed in a multitude of musical styles. Diverse credits and claims have led to confusion as to its authorship and genesis. It tells the story of a man on the run after shooting his wife. The earliest known commercial recording, and the first hit version, is the late 1965 recording by the Los Angeles garage band, The Leaves, although currently the best-known version is the The Jimi Hendrix Experience's 1966 recording, their debut single. The song title is sometimes given as "Hey Joe, Where You Gonna Go?" or similar variations.
While claimed by some to be a traditional song, or often erroneously attributed to the pen of American musician Dino Valente (who also went by the names Chester or Chet Powers, and Jesse Farrow), "Hey Joe" was registered for copyright in the US in 1962 by Billy Roberts.[2]. Roberts is the author, and the song may have been written by him earlier. Scottish folk singer Len Partridge has claimed that he helped write the song with Roberts when they both performed in clubs in Edinburgh in 1956.[3] Another source (singer Pat Craig), claims[2] that Roberts assigned the rights to the song to his friend Valente while Valente was in jail, in order to give him some income upon release.
Shocking Blue was a Dutch rock band from The Hague formed in 1967. Their biggest hit, "Venus," went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1970, and the band had sold 13.5 million discs by 1973, but the group disbanded in 1974.
The group charted a world-wide hit with the song "Venus," which reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in February 1970. Initially the disc was a big hit in the Netherlands, where it reached #3 in the summer of 1969. It subsequently sold 350,000 copies in Germany, and topped the U.S. chart for three weeks, becoming the Netherlands first American #1 hit. It sold over one million copies there by January 1970, and received a gold disc awarded by the Recording Industry Association of America. Global sales exceeded five million copies.
Before the breakthrough of "Venus," the group had a minor hit in 1968 with "Lucy Brown Is Back In Town". Once Mariska Veres took over the vocals two bigger hits followed, "Send Me A Postcard" in 1968/69 and "Long and Lonesome Road" (often mistakenly named as Long Lonesome Road) in 1969. "Hot Sand", the flip-side of "Venus" was also heavily plugged on Dutch radio.
The Original - Shocking Blue
Cover version - the execrable Bananarama (was a big hit for them)
"Born to Be Wild" is a rock song written by Mars Bonfire and made famous by the Canadian rock band, Steppenwolf. It is often used in popular culture to denote a biker appearance or attitude. The song is sometimes described as the first heavy metal song ever written and is also said to have inspired the name of the emerging heavy metal genre; although these claims are disputed, the song's second verse (which refers to "heavy metal thunder," though it is either a reference to the weight of the motorcycle or a powerful car) contains the first recorded reference to "heavy metal" in the context of rock music.
Although initially offered to other bands – the Human Expression, for one – Born to Be Wild was first recorded in 1968 by Steppenwolf. (Under an earlier stage name, Dennis Edmonton, Mars Bonfire was previously a member of the Sparrows, the predecessor band to Steppenwolf). "Born to be Wild" was the band's second and most successful single, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine placed "Born to be Wild" at #129 on the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. In 2009, it was named the 53rd best hard rock song of all time by VH1.
The song was initially released in 1968, but it was subsequently included in many compilation albums and soundtracks. The first of these was the soundtrack for the movie Easy Rider (1969). Unlike the album or single version, the song on this soundtrack is accompanied by the sounds of motorcycles as an introduction. (Another Steppenwolf song from their first album, "The Pusher" was also used in the film.) When the movie was in production, Born to Be Wild was used simply as a placeholder, since Peter Fonda had wanted Crosby, Stills and Nash to do the movie's soundtrack. Eventually, it became clear that the song was well suited for the movie. At least in part because of its prominence in this movie, Born to Be Wild is probably the song that is most closely associated with motorcycles. If you don't have Slade Alive in your collection then you're missing out on one of the great live albums, as well as their fantastic version of this song.
"The Final Countdown" is a rock song written by Joey Tempest for the Swedish rock band Europe. It was the first single released from the band's third studio album, The Final Countdown, in 1986. It is one of Europe's most recognizable and popular songs. The song reached No. 1 in 25 countries, including the United Kingdom. In the United States the song peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and 18 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The single was certified Gold in the United Kingdom in 1986.
I've never understood why The Final Countdown has been so derided; it seems a pretty good song to me even if it does represent the height of European Pomp Rock. When I said I was doing cover versions on Sunday night I never said they'd be good covers and this one is so bad as to be a classic in its own right, which is demonstrated by the fact it's had over a million views on YouTube...!
The Original - Europe (Live)
The Cover - Some School Band (also live, unfortunately)
"Tainted Love" is a song composed by Ed Cobb, formerly of The Four Preps, which was originally recorded by Gloria Jones. It attained worldwide fame after being covered by Soft Cell in 1981, reaching number one in the UK Singles Chart, and has since been covered by numerous other groups and artists.
Soft Cell's record label chose to release "Tainted Love" on July 7, 1981 as the band's second single (their first was "Memorabilia", which did not chart). The label implied that this single would be Soft Cell's final release if the single did not sell. Produced by Mike Thorne, the track was recorded in a day and a half with the first of two vocal takes being ultimately used on the record. Buoyed by the then-dominant Synthpop sound of the time and a memorable performance on Top of the Pops it rapidly reached number one on the UK singles chart, eventually repeating the feat in 17 territories. The following year it charted in the US. Although it took a record-breaking 19 weeks to crack the US Top 40, the song eventually reached #8 and spent a then-record breaking 43 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.
Most people will only ever have heard Soft Cell's version of Tainted Love not realising that it's actually a cover of the song by Gloria Jones, which was terrific, especially given it was recorded in 1964 and not the electronic 80s.
"My Way" is a song with lyrics written by Paul Anka and popularized by Frank Sinatra. The melody is based on a French song "Comme d'habitude" composed by Claude François and Jacques Revaux. Anka's English lyrics are unrelated to the original French by Claude François and Gilles Thibaut and Anka is credited as a co-composer of "My Way" because he largely re-wrote the song. The lyrics of "My Way" tell the story of a man who is nearing death. As he reflects on his life, he has no regrets for how he lived his life, saying that, until the end, he did things his way.
Paul Anka heard the original 1967 French pop song, Comme d'habitude performed by Claude Francois with music by Jacques Revaux and lyrics by Gilles Thibault, while on holiday in the south of France. He flew to Paris to negotiate the rights to the song. In a 2007 interview, he said: "I thought it was a shitty record, but there was something in it." He acquired publishing rights at no cost and, two years later, had a dinner in Florida with Frank Sinatra and "a couple of Mob guys" at which Sinatra said he was "quitting the business. I'm sick of it, I'm getting the hell out".
Back in New York, Anka re-wrote the original French song for Sinatra, subtly altering the melodic structure and changing the lyrics: "At one o'clock in the morning, I sat down at an old IBM electric typewriter and said, 'If Frank were writing this, what would he say?' And I started, metaphorically, 'And now the end is near.' I read a lot of periodicals, and I noticed everything was 'my this' and 'my that'. We were in the 'me generation' and Frank became the guy for me to use to say that. I used words I would never use: 'I ate it up and spit it out.' But that's the way he talked. I used to be around steam rooms with the Rat Pack guys - they liked to talk like Mob guys, even though they would have been scared of their own shadows." Anka finished the song at 5am. "I called Frank up in Nevada - he was at Caesar's Palace - and said, 'I've got something really special for you.'"Anka claimed: "When my record company caught wind of it, they were very pissed that I didn't keep it for myself. I said, 'Hey, I can write it, but I'm not the guy to sing it.' It was for Frank, no one else."
"Mad World" is a song by the British band Tears for Fears. Written by Roland Orzabal and sung by bassist Curt Smith, it was the band's third single release and first chart hit, reaching #3 on the UK Singles Chart in November 1982. Both "Mad World" and its b-side, "Ideas As Opiates", would turn up on the band's debut LP The Hurting the following year. The song would eventually become Tears for Fears' first international success, reaching the Top 40 in several countries between 1982 and 1983.
Two decades later, the song made a popular resurgence when it was covered by composers Michael Andrews and Gary Jules for the soundtrack to the movie Donnie Darko. This version reached no.1 in the UK in December 2003.
Tears For Fears were really a very good band. Songs like Mad World, Shout and Change set them apart from other artists in the 1980s - rock music's 'lost decade'.
"Mr. Tambourine Man" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home, produced by Tom Wilson. After Dylan wrote it, he produced a demo in December of 1964, which The Byrds' version is based on. It was a number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 by The Byrds, recorded on January 20, 1965, before the release of Dylan's own version. The single arrived in the shops on April 12, 1965, and was later included on their debut album, Mr. Tambourine Man, released around the time the single topped the charts. The album brought the folk rock sound into mainstream American consciousness.
The song as sung by The Byrds is #79 on Rolling Stone's list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. As sung by Bob Dylan it is listed as #106 on the same list. It was one of three songs to place twice, with "Walk This Way" by both Aerosmith and Run-DMC with Perry and Tyler, and "Blue Suede Shoes" by both Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley.
"Hallelujah" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen originally released on his 1984 studio album Various Positions. A live recording of the song from 1988, containing additional lyrics, appears on the 1994 album, Cohen Live.
Hallelujah has now been recorded more than 180 times for release and has been featured in the soundtracks of numerous movies and television shows
"Hallelujah" was originally written and composed over the course of a year, and is said to have been a frustrating and difficult process for Cohen. Cohen says he wrote at least eighty verses, filling two notebooks - discarding most of the verses in the process of crafting the song.
Cohen first recorded the song at Quadrasonic Sound, New York in June 1984, working with producer John Lissauer. The next recording of this song by Leonard Cohen was captured live in Austin, Texas on October 31, 1988 with production by Leanne Ungar and Bob Metzger.
"Hallelujah", in its original studio version, is a 4 minute 39 second song in C major. The released live version, with its different lyrical content, clocks in at 6:54. On the song's melody, Rufus Wainwright has commented that "It's an easy song to sing. The music never pummels the words. The melody is almost liturgical and conjures up religious feelings. It's purifying." In the section of the lyrics "the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift", the chords move as described in the lyrics as follows: F ("the fourth", in the tonality of C major), G ("the fifth"), Am ("the minor fall"), F ("the major lift").
"All Along the Watchtower" is a song written and recorded by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It initially appeared on his album John Wesley Harding. It has been covered by other artists in different genres, most notably by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
The song was recorded by the artist as a quiet three-chord Folk song on November 6, 1967, at Columbia Studio A, Nashville, Tennessee. Accompanying Dylan, who played acoustic guitar and harmonica, were Charlie McCoy on bass guitar and Kenneth Buttrey on drums. The producer was Bob Johnston, who had been Dylan's producer since Highway 61 Revisited in 1965.
Carlos Augusto Santana Alves (born July 20, 1947 in Jalisco, Mexico) is a Grammy Award-winning Mexican rock musician and guitarist. He became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which created a highly successful blend of rock, salsa, and jazz fusion. The band's sound featured his melodic, blues-based guitar lines set against Latin percussion such as timbales and congas. Santana continued to work in these forms over the following decades. He experienced a sudden resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. Carlos Santana has been known as "The Carlos". Rolling Stone also named Santana number 15 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2003.
