“Love Will Keep Us Together” Is Pop Perfection

by Kevin Burton     Did you know the 1975 smash “Love Will Keep Us Together” by Captain and Tennile is actually a breakup song?    Hey, I was there. Yes it is, a breakup song!    Well, sort of.    Fifty years ago today it was in the beginning of a four-week run at the …

Songwriter Cynthia Weil Turns 82

by Kevin Burton    Happy 82nd birthday to a great American songwriter you may not know much about, Cynthia Weil.     If her name doesn’t ring a bell, her music sure will.  She and her husband Barry Mann formed one of the most important songwriting teams of the 60s. They were contemporaries of writers you …

Did Gilbert O’Sullivan Launch Disco Era?

by Kevin Burton    There have been many theories to explain the rise and fall of disco music. Here’s a new one for its rise:    Disco music exploded in the mid-70s as a direct result of “Alone Again Naturally” by Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O’Sullivan.    OK, so I can’t prove I’m right, but you …

“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 …

Sedaka’s “Bad Blood” Still A Favorite

by Kevin Burton    The night my beloved Cincinnati Reds became world champions for the first time in my lifetime, “Bad Blood” by Neil Sedaka was the number one song in the nation.    It was number one for three weeks, then slid off the charts as all songs do.  But it never did fall …