by Kevin Burton Yesterday I plucked ten of my favorites from a Billboard list of the 40 biggest duets ever. Today I’ll list ten of my favorites that didn’t make their last. Pulling from that list was easy. Now I’m picking from every other duet ever released. Chances are quite high that I …
Tag Archives: Motown
Christmas Top 40: Up On The Housetop
by Kevin Burton We don’t have Santa images at my house. For us, Christmas is about Jesus. But there is one Christmas song I have always loved that doesn’t fit that mode. Hundreds of artists have recorded it. Possibly the most famous version was made by Gene Autry in 1953. It was …
A Scientific Study Of Groove In Music
by Kevin Burton As a consumer of popular music for more than 50 years I thought I knew exactly what a groove was, until I tried to define it. I have no trouble feeling the groove in “Ain’t That Peculiar,” by Marvin Gaye for example. But how to define it? The website …
“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 …
The Sounds They Were A-Changin’
by Kevin Burton Musical eras, like chocolate bars or ice cubes, are fluid before they are solid, shaped by the temperature of the times. We can’t always distinguish them day to day. Historians declare them later, according to their differing standards. But for me there is something momentous about looking at the …
Smokey Robinson, The Heart Of Motown
by Kevin Burton I have always said there is no substitute for Smokey. When you want that sound, it just can’t be found anywhere else. Beyond that, if you love Motown, you need to understand how crucial Smokey Robinson was to the company’s success. even to the launch of it. This is my 10th album …
Page 7 