1948

Buddy Greco the-lady-is-a-tramp

19/1/17 – Buddy Greco – August 14 1926 – January 10 2017 – Pre Dylan Lyricists /The Lady Is A Tramp – Tommy Dorsey Featuring Edythe Wright – 1937 / Sophie Tucker – 1937 / Lena Horne – 1948 / Ella Fitzgerald – 1956 / Pat Suzuki – 1958 / Frank Sinatra – 1958/1965 / Buddy Greco – 1960 / Shirley Bassey – 1966 / Diana Ross And The Supremes – 1968 / Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga – 2011

Who were the great lyricists before Dylan? Well, from the fifties into the sixties you would probably say the men that wrote the words for the musicals, writers like Lorenz Hart. Hart wrote the lyrics for The Lady Is A Tramp and My Funny Valentine and was Richard Rodgers partner till alcoholism (Hart died tragically of […]

Gayle McCormick Black and White

6/3/16 – Gayle McCormick – November 26th 1948 – March 1st 2016 / Smith – Baby It’s You – 1969 / The Shirelles – Baby It’s You – 1961/ The Beatles – Baby It’s You – 1963

Last weekend there was major record fair in Solna near Stockholm. As I was browsing (looking for Shocking Blue albums) I came across Gayle McCormick’s first self-titled solo album from 1971. I have the first Smith album so of course I bought it – tragically three days later, she died It’s A Cryin’ Shame was a […]

August 1973 --- Glenn Frey of The Eagles relaxes against  the hood of an old car.  The Eagles were the most popular band of the seventies and their reunion tour in the nineties was also very successful. --- Image by © Henry Diltz/CORBIS

23/1/16 – Glenn Frey – November 6th 1948 – January 18th 2016 / Longbranch Pennywhistle – Kite Woman / Don’t Talk Now – 1969

Anybody else out there spent their life defending why they liked the Eagles? For me it all started in the pub. When I was a teenager I used to hang out with bunch of lads and their girlfriends at The Pensby Hotel, a big old fashioned mock tudor public house between Thingwall (where I lived) and […]

Mott The Hoople Seventies Pic B:W

20/1/16 – Dale Griffin – AKA Buffin – 24th October 1948 – 17th January 2016 / Mott The Hoople – Saturday Gigs – 1974

Although another December/January Rock and Roll Death has us wondering when it’s going to stop, in Buffin’s case it wasn’t a surprise. Diagnosed with Alhzeimer’s in 2006 at the age of 58, it was never going to end well. At the Mott The Hoople reunion gigs in 2009 fellow Herefordshire drummer, Pretender, Martin Chambers stepped in […]

Twinkle 1964

8/6/15 – Twinkle – 15th July 1948 – 21st May 2015 / Terry – 1964 – Golden Lights – 1965 / Poor Old Johnny – 1965 /End Of The World – 1965 / A Lonely Singing Doll – 1965 /Days -1974

Twinkle made little impression on the world, having only one real hit with Terry reaching No.4 in the UK in 1964. But, she was a rather interesting character, not only did she write the song but it was also banned by the BBC as a”Death Song” –  plus Jimmy Page played on it, not a bad […]