Sammy Davis, Jr. was an American singer, entertainer and actor. He was a diminutive little fella who had the energy of a frantic. He was part of the famous “Rat Pack” which included Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. His big hit was “Candy Man”.
Last night I checked out a movie titled Salt & Pepper starring Sammy and another rat packer Peter Lawford. A comedy with lots of tunes involving murder and espionage, it was somewhat enjoyable. The best part was Sammy doing a slam bam pop cut with sexy dancers on the stage of his club.
The flick is so 1960’s. With all the groove and crazy clothes. Everybody in the movie smokes cigarettes.
Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), better known as Little Richard, was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. An influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades, he was nicknamed “The Innovator”, “The Originator”, and “The Architect of Rock and Roll”. Penniman’s most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when his charismatic showmanship and dynamic music, characterized by frenetic piano playing, pounding backbeat and raspy shouted vocals, laid the foundation for rock and roll. His innovative emotive vocalizations and uptempo rhythmic music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. He influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues for generations to come.
Gonna tell Aunt Mary ’bout Uncle John
He claims he has the music
But he has a lot of fun
Oh baby
Yes baby
Wooh baby
Havin’ me some fun tonight, yeah
Well, long tall Sally
She’s really sweet
She got everything that Uncle John need
Oh baby
Yes baby
Wooh baby
Havin’ me some fun tonight, yeah
Well, I saw Uncle John with bald head Sally
He saw Aunt Mary comin’
And he jumped back in the alley
Oh baby
Yes baby
Wooh baby
Havin’ me some fun tonight, yeah
Well, long tall Sally
She’s built for speed
She got everything that Uncle John need
Oh baby
Yes baby
Wooh baby
Havin’ me some fun tonight, yeah
Well, I saw Uncle John with bald head Sally
He saw Aunt Mary comin’
And he jumped back in the alley
Oh baby
Yes baby
Wooh baby
Havin’ me some fun tonight, yeah
We gonna have some fun tonight
Have some fun tonight, wooh
Have some fun tonight
Everything’s all right
Have some fun
Have me some fun tonight
Barbara Lynn (born Barbara Lynn Ozen, later Barbara Lynn Cumby, January 16, 1942) is an American rhythm and blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. She is best known for her R&B chart-topping hit, “You’ll Lose a Good Thing” (1962). In 2018, Lynn received the National Heritage Fellowship.
She was born in Beaumont, Texas, and attended Hebert High School. She played piano as a child, but switched to guitar, which she plays left-handed. Inspired by blues artists Guitar Slim and Jimmy Reed, and pop acts Elvis Presley and Brenda Lee, and winning several local talent shows, she created an all-female band, Bobbie Lynn and Her Idols.
She began performing in local clubs in Texas. Singer Joe Barry saw her and introduced Lynn to producer Huey P. Meaux, who ran SugarHill Recording Studios and several record labels in New Orleans. Her first single, “You’ll Lose A Good Thing”, co-written by her and Meaux, was recorded at Cosimo Matassa’s J&M studio with session musicians including Mac Rebennack (Dr. John). Released by Jamie Records, it was a number 1 US Billboard R&B chart hit and Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit in 1962. The song was later recorded by Aretha Franklin and became a country hit record for Freddy Fender. Reggae artist Mikey Dread also based the melody of his 1989 single “Choose Me” on this song. Lynn also released an album, also titled You’ll Lose A Good Thing, which featured ten of her compositions.
The greatest punk band in history only released one song, but “I Hate the Bloody Queen” remains a classic.
In 2011, Rolling Stone asked readers to name their favorite punk bands of all time, with thousands of fans anointing the Ramones, the Clash, the Sex Pistols, Green Day and others as the best the genre has to offer.
They were all wrong.
There is only one right answer: The greatest punk band of all time is the Queenhaters. Formed (and disbanded) on March 18th, 1983, the British punk group, comprised of Martin Short, John Candy, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty and Andrea Martin, appeared on Mel’s Rock Pile, a show also hosted by Levy that was a regular bit on Canadian cult sketch-comedy show SCTV. As the perpetually nerdy “Rockin’” Mel Slirrup, Levy hosted an American Bandstand–esque segment that sometimes featured actual musicians like Roy Orbison. But now, it was the punks’ turn to take over.
“How many kids here are into ‘punk music’?” Slirrup asks to a sea of boos. The children want to boogie. They will not today. After interviewing clueless students — “Although I have a powerful command of the English language, I can neither read nor write,” says Short. “I still firmly believe that Italy is nestled between Australia and New Zealand and that my morning glass of milk comes from cats.” — Slirrup welcomes the Britpunks to perform their enduring contribution to the canon: “I Hate the Bloody Queen,” a song about hating the bloody queen.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty [Former version:] That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed [Latter version:] That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early
The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
Then later that night when the ship’s bell rang
Could it be the north wind they’d been feelin’?
The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
When the wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too
‘Twas the witch of November come stealin’
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashin’
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind
When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck
Saying, “Fellas, it’s too rough to feed ya.” [Former version:] At seven PM a main hatchway caved in [Latter version:] At seven PM it grew dark, it was then
He said, “Fellas, it’s been good to know ya.”
The captain wired in he had water comin’ in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay
If they’d put fifteen more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man’s dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below, Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered
[Former version:] In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed [Latter version:] In a rustic old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral
The church bell chimed ’til it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early
If you think Nickelback, Smashing Pumpkins, Limp Bizkit and The Bare Naked Ladies are funny mindless band names, you haven’t heard anything yet. The mind altering drugs these characters were on when they thought up these names either revved up the creative juices or blocked stimulation to the cerebral cortex vortex.
I play the street life
Because there’s no place I can go
Street life
And it’s the only life I know
Street life
And there’s a thousand parts to play
Street life
Until you play your life away
You let the people see
Just who you want to be
And every night you shine
Just like a super star
That’s how the life is played
A ten cent Masquerade
You dress, and walk, and talk
You’re who you think you are
Street life
You can run away from time
Street life
For a nickel and a dime
Street life
But you better not get old
Street life
Or you’re gonna feel the cold
There’s always love for sale
A grown-up fairy tale
Prince charming always smiles
Behind a silver spoon
And if you keep it young
Your song is always sung
Your love will pay your way
Beneath the silver moon
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