Music News

[CellarDweller]

Musician B. J. Thomas passed away on 5/29/2021. 

Thomas was born in Hugo, Oklahoma, on August 7, 1942.  He grew up in and around Houston, Texas, graduating from Lamar Consolidated High School in Rosenberg. Before his solo career, he sang in a church choir as a teenager, then joined the musical group The Triumphs with Tim Griffith (lead guitar), Tom Griffith (bass), Denver "Zeke" Zatyka (keyboards), Don Drachenberg (vocal and sax), and Ted Mensik (drums). During his senior year, he made friends with Roy Head of Roy Head and The Traits. The Traits and the Triumphs held several Battle of the Bands events in the early 1960s.


In 1966, Thomas and the Triumphs released the album I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry. It featured a hit cover of the Hank Williams song "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". The single sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc.  The follow-up single, "Mama", peaked at number 22. In the same year, Thomas released a solo album of the same title on the Scepter Records label.

Thomas came back to achieve mainstream success again in 1968, first with "The Eyes of a New York Woman", then five months later with the much bigger "Hooked on a Feeling", which became Thomas's second million-selling record.  A year later, the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid featured Thomas performing the Bacharach/David song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head", which won the Academy Award for best original song that year and hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1970. Its sales also exceeded one million copies.

In 1975, Thomas released the album Reunion.  It contained "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" (the longest titled No. 1 hit ever on the Hot 100). It was Thomas's first big hit since 1972 and secured him his fourth gold record.

Thomas scored another hit, recording "As Long as We Got Each Other", the theme to the television series Growing Pains. The first-season theme was a solo for Thomas, but was re-recorded as a duet with Jennifer Warnes for the second and third seasons. It was re-recorded again for the show's fourth season with British singer Dusty Springfield, but the Thomas/Warnes version was reinstated for season five and some of season seven. Thomas first released this track on his 1985 album Throwing Rocks at the Moon.



Billboard Hot 100 singles by B J Thomas.



Year              Song Title                                                  Peak Position on Billboard Top 40 Chart

1966                    "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"                         8
1966                    "Mama"                                                          22
1966                    "Billy and Sue"                                                34
1968                    "The Eyes of a New York Woman"                     28
1968                    "Hooked on a Feeling"                                      5
1969                    "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head"                  1
1970                    "Everybody's Out of Town"                                26
1970                    "I Just Can't Help Believing"                              9
1970                    "Most of All"                                                    38
1971                      "No Love at All"                                               16
1971                    "Mighty Clouds of Joy"                                     34
1972                      "Rock and Roll Lullaby"                                     15
1975                "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song"   1
1977                    "Don't Worry Baby"                                         17


*note*   Above it notes that B J Thomas had a hit with "As Long As We Got Each Other", the theme from Growing Pains.  This song did not hit the Billboard Hot 100 chart, like the ones listed above.  However, it did reach #7 on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1987.

[Front-Ranger]

Wow, what a long career he had! I've always wondered why "Raindrops..." was in that movie. It seemed so . . . modern somehow.

[serious crayons]

Wow, what a long career he had! I've always wondered why "Raindrops..." was in that movie. It seemed so . . . modern somehow.

To me, the tone of the movie seemed modern, even if the historical setting was not.

Based on the idea of tone, I just now had a hunch, looked it up, and sure enough the screenplay was written by William Goldman. He also wrote the screenplays for All the President's Men, Marathon Man and The Princess Bride, as well as the original novels of the last two.

I was never especially enamored of TPB, but I loved MM. There's a paragraph in it where the evil Nazi who wants to sell some diamonds, stolen from Holocaust victims, ventures into the diamond district of NYC to try to make the sale. The guy walks along, hugely paranoid of course, past all these jewlery stores. X Jewelry, Y Jewelry, Z Jewelry, etc. Goldman cleverly makes a point without bringing extra attention to it.

Goldman also wrote an entertaining memoir, Adventures in the Screen Trade, which I read in the '80s. Its opening sentence, "Nobody knows anything," meaning what's going to be popular or not, has become a Hollywood maxim.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Wow, what a long career he had! I've always wondered why "Raindrops..." was in that movie. It seemed so . . . modern somehow.

In one of the appreciations that I saw on TV, it was said that Robert Redford didn't like having the song in the movie. Later he said, "Boy, was I wrong."

[CellarDweller]

ZZ Top bassist and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Dusty Hill dead at 72

Lyndsey Parker - July 28, 2021


Dusty Hill, bassist and secondary lead vocalist for legendary Southern blues-rock trio ZZ Top, has died, according to a post on the band?s official Facebook page by his bandmates of the past 52 years, Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard. Hill was 72 years old.

"We are saddened by the news today that our Compadre, Dusty Hill, has passed away in his sleep at home in Houston, Texas,? read the band?s statement. ?We, along with legions of ZZ Top fans around the world, will miss your steadfast presence, your good nature and enduring commitment to providing that monumental bottom to the ?Top.? We will forever be connected to that ?Blues Shuffle in C.? You will be missed greatly, amigo.?

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/zz-top-bassist-and-rock-roll-hall-of-fame-inductee-dusty-hill-dead-at-72-195912270.html


ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas by vocalist and guitarist Billy Gibbons. After its formation, the band underwent a few member changes before settling on its most consistent lineup for more than five decades, with the addition of Frank Beard (drums) and Dusty Hill (bass) in 1969 and 1970 respectively. Initially rooted in blues, the band's style has evolved throughout their career, with a signature sound based on Gibbons' blues guitar style and the rhythm section of Hill and Beard. Their lyrics, often embellished with sexual innuendo, focus on their Texas roots and sense of humor. Popular for their live performances and the identical physical appearances of Gibbons and Hill?who were rarely seen without their long beards, sunglasses, and Stetson hats?the group has staged several elaborate tours.

Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 singles of ZZ Top.



Year              Song Title                       Peak Position on Billboard Top 40 Chart

1975  -                "Tush"                                      #20
1980  -                "I Thank You"                            #34
1983  -                "Gimme All Your Lovin'"             #37
1984  -                 "Legs"                                     #8
1985  -                 "Sleepin' Bag"                          #8
1985  -                 "Stages"                                  #21
1986  -                 "Rough Boy"                            #22
1986  -                 "Velco Fly                                #35

[serious crayons]

Some friends and I were talking about going to see them in a couple of weeks. I heard they're still touring with a different drummer. I was on the fence anyway -- I'm not the hugest ZZ Top fan. Sad, though.

[CellarDweller]

Yes, it's sad. 

Like you, I wasn't the hugest ZZ Top fan, but I have their Greatest Hits CD, which is pretty muck my knowledge of their songs.  I knew the songs listed above, plus "Sharp Dressed Man".

After that, I don't have much knowledge of their music or career.

[CellarDweller]

only 14 days in to 2022, and it's not been a kind year for the world of music.


Musician, writer, producer James Mtume has died

James Mtume, a musician who recorded with jazz greats before leading the R&B group Mtume, has died. His son Faulu Mtume confirmed the news to Pitchfork. He was 75.

Mtume was born James Heath Jr., the son of jazz saxophonist Jimmy Heath, in Philadelphia. He was raised by his mother Bertha Forman and pianist James ?Hen Gates? Forman, who played in Charlie Parker?s band. Forman introduced the young Mtume, literally, to some of the greatest jazz musicians of all time.

?Just imagine, you?re nine, ten years old and there?s Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins,? Mtume told Red Bull Music Academy in 2014. ?I never was hip enough to know just how brilliant a situation that was, but what I did know about jazz musicians were they were an extraordinary group. Witty, funny. There was nothing like sitting around a table of jazz musicians.? In the late 1960s Mtume joined the US Organization, a Black empowerment collective that created Kwanzaa.


https://pitchfork.com/news/james-mtume-jazz-and-randb-musician-dies-at-75/


Following dozens of jazz sessions, he released Kiss This World Goodbye, the debut album of his jazz, funk, and R&B hybrid band Mtume in 1978.  The band released 1983?s Juicy Fruit. The title track became the band?s biggest hit, and it was famously sampled on the Notorious B.I.G.?s ?Juicy.? The band followed it with two more albums: 1984?s You, Me and He and 1986?s Theater of the Mind. In 1986, James Mtume composed the music for the film Native Son.

Beyond his work with the band Mtume, James was a prolific songwriter and producer. He and Reggie Lucas co-wrote Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway?s ?The Closer I Get to You? and Stephanie Mills? ?Never Knew Love Like This Before.? Mtume referred to the Mtume-Lucas sound as ?sophistifunk.?

Billboard R&B Top 40 singles of Mtume.



Year              Song Title                       Peak Position on Billboard Top 40 Chart

1980  -                "Give It On Up"                         #26
1983  -                "Juicy Fruit"                              #1
1983  -                 "Would You Like To"                  #11
1984  -                 "You, Me and He"                      #2
1984  -                 "C.O.D (I'll Deliver)"                 #20
1986  -                 "Breathles"                              #9
1986  -                 "P.O.P. Generation                    #39


Here is Mtume's biggest hit.

[CellarDweller]

Musician Calvin Simon from Parlaiment Funkadelic has died



Calvin Eugene Simon was an American singer who was a member of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 along with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.

Simon started out in the late 1950s as one of The Parliaments, a doo wop barbershop quintet led by George Clinton. In 1978, Simon (along with other original Parliaments Fuzzy Haskins and Grady Thomas), left Parliament-Funkadelic after financial and management disputes with Clinton. In 1981, the trio caused confusion when they formed a new band, and released an album called Connections & Disconnections under the name Funkadelic. In 1998, Thomas, along with original Parliaments bass vocalist Ray Davis, Haskins, and Grady Thomas, founded Original P, performing until his departure in 2007.


Billboard R&B Top 40 singles of Parliament.



Year              Song Title                       Peak Position on Billboard R&B Top 40 Chart

1971                "Breakdown"                                                             #30   
1974                "Up for the Down Stroke"                                           #10
1975                "Chocolate City"                                                        #24      
1976                "P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)"                            #33   
1976             "Tear the Roof off the Sucker (Give Up the Funk)"          #5
1976              "Mothership Connection (Star Child)"                          #26      
197 6            "Do That Stuff"                                                          #22
1977             "Bop Gun (Endangered Species)"                                #14   
1978             "Flash Light"                                                              #1   
1978             "Funkentelechy"                                                          #27
1978             "Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop)"   #1
1979               "Party People"                                                             #39   
1980             "Theme from the Black Hole"                                        #8   
1980             "Agony of DeFeet"                                                        #7   



Billboard R&B Top 40 singles of Funkadelic.

Year              Song Title                       Peak Position on Billboard R&B Top 40 Chart


1969          "I'll Bet You"                                                  #22
1970          "I Got A Thing, You Got A Thing"                     #30
1970          "I Wanna Know If It's Good To You"                 #27
1972          "A Joyful Process"                                          #38
1974          "Standing On The Verge of Getting It On"        #27
1976          "Undisco Kid"                                                #30
1978          "One Nation Under A Groove"                         #1
1979          "Not Just (Knee Deep)"                                  #1

[CellarDweller]

Ronnie Spector - Lead Singer for The Ronnettes - Has Died

Veronica Greenfield, known as Ronnie Spector, was an American singer who formed the girl group the Ronettes in 1957 with her elder sister Estelle Bennett and their cousin Nedra Talley. Bennett fronted the group while record producer Phil Spector produced the majority of their output. The two were married in 1968 and separated in 1972.

Bennett sang lead on the Ronettes' string of hits in the early-to-mid?1960s.  In 1964, she launched a solo career with the single "So Young". After 1980, she released five studio albums: Siren (1980), Unfinished Business (1987), Something's Gonna Happen (2003), Last of the Rock Stars (2006), and English Heart (2016). Bennett also recorded one extended play, She Talks to Rainbows (1999). In 1986, she experienced a career resurgence when she was featured on Eddie Money's song "Take Me Home Tonight".

Bennett was sonetimes referred to as the original "bad girl of rock and roll".  In 1990, she published a memoir, Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness, Or, My Life as a Fabulous Ronette. In 2007, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Ronettes.


Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 singles of The Ronnettes.



Year              Song Title                       Peak Position on Billboard Top 40 Chart

1963  -                "Be My Baby"                                   #2
1963  -                "Baby I Love You"                             #24
1964  -                "(The Best Part Of) Breakin' Up"        #39
1964  -                "Do I Love You"                                #34
1964  -                "Walking In The Rain"                       #23