by Kevin Burton One of my beep baseball coaches called me “the answer man.” This time, I struck out. My wife asked me “What is a groove?” I am an amateur musician and somewhat of a historian. You would think that question would be right in my wheelhouse. I gave perhaps the …
Category Archives: music
Wedding Bells Are Music To My Ears
by Kevin Burton Songwriters Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich were married in 1962. The next year they wrote “Chapel Of Love,” perhaps the most famous pop song about a wedding. In 1964 The Dixie Cups took Chapel of Love to number one on the Hot 100, where the song enjoyed a three-week honeymoon. …
Rock Music Followed Where Fats Domino Led
by Kevin Burton There is a case to be made for Fats Domino as the main creator of rock and roll, but he rarely gets that credit, or even gets into that conversation. Yesterday we began to look at why that might be, what causes rock historians to not give him full credit …
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Domino Overlooked, Ain’t That A Shame?
by Kevin Burton The best song I didn’t fit into my Flying Colors series about songs with a color in the title is “Blueberry Hill” by Fats Domino. This is not the first time he has been overlooked. His “Blue Monday” did make number 6 on my list, so I didn’t ignore him …
Neil Young Takes A Stand – Again
by Kevin Burton Neil Young has always put his money where his mouth is. He took on the Nixon White House during the Vietnam War. Now he is taking on a popular podcaster who he says propagates dangerous lies about Covid 19. By pulling his music from Spotify, the world’s largest …
The Look Of Love, The Sound Of Sominex
by Kevin Burton All love to the singer and to the composers, maybe not so much to this particular song. The late, great purveyor of blue-eyed soul Dusty Springfield took the Burt Bacharach-Hal David song “The Look of Love” to number 22 on the American chart in 1967. That gets the song a …
“Rescue Me” Imitated The Detroit Sound
by Kevin Burton From the heart of the Motown era came a million-selling hit that typified the Detroit sound. But the song has been doubly mistaken through the years, shortchanging the artist whose vocal command made it a classic. That song was “Rescue Me,” and it was a bit of a rescue …
Is Burton Cummings Rock’s Best Vocalist?
by Kevin Burton He croons, he growls, he soars, he swoops, he screams, he quivers. Burton Cummings has a voice made for rock and roll. He grabs a song and will, not, let it go. So glad he took up music rather than whatever else he could have pursued as a high …
Karen Carpenter, Born 72 Years Ago Today
by Kevin Burton No rock and roll artist discussion can make me more happy, but at the same time more sad and more angry than that of Karen Carpenter. None of my other favorites, from Steely Dan to Gerry Rafferty, Motown to the Beatles, to Supertramp, Billy Joel, Elton John, Flans from Mexico, …
“The Immigrant” Didn’t Fit John Lennon
by Kevin Burton For about three minutes and fifty seconds a tidy story unfolds from the pen of lyricist Phil Cody and the voice of the great Neil Sedaka. Attempt to read between the lines though and you have a mess on your hands, especially with Sedaka dedicating the song to ex-Beatle John …
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