In 1983, Irish rock band U2 released War - their third album, and their most political album. The album opens with Sunday Bloody Sunday, and it is followed by Seconds, which is followed by New Year's Day. The album and it's title were inspired by the global unrest in 1982, and the looming threat of a nuclear war. U2's War album was the band's first number one album in the UK, achieved after knocking Michael Jackson's Thriller off the top of the charts. War only reached number 12 on the US charts, however it was their first gold-certified album there. The song Seconds marked the first recording of The Edge singing lead vocals - which he only does for seconds on the first verse of the song. Not only was it unusual for The Edge to sing lead on the verse - "it takes a second to say goodbye" - it was also unusual that The Edge wrote the lyrics for that line. The rest of the song was written by Bono, as usual, who had asked The Edge to help on this song. U2 has not performed the song live in concert in almost 40 years - since July 7, 1985.

In April 1967, soon after being signed to Stax Records, Tennessee-based instrumental funk band the Bar-Kays released their first single - Soul Finger. The song peaked at number 3 on the  Billboard R&B Singles chart, and the B-side Knuckelhead hit number 23. Within a few months the band was back in the studio recording nine more tracks that, along with their first 2 songs, would complete their debut album. The first song on the album gave the album it's name - Soul Finger. During the time their debut single and album were released, the band had just begun working as Otis Redding's backup band. On December, 10th 1967, while on tour with Otis Redding, four of the band members died with Redding in a tragic plane crash. The only survivor of the crash was trumpeter Ben Cauley. The only other surviving band member was bassist James Alexander, who had flown separately because the was no more room on Redding's plane. Soon, the band was re-formed by Cauley and Alexander, and they continued working as a backup band for Stax Records, recording on dozens of classic Stax releases. Soon after Cauley left the band in 1971 the Bar-Kays changed direction musically, and they went on to build a solid reputation as a hit-making funk band. In 1974, when Alexander had a son, he named him Phalon - named after Phalon Jones , the group's saxophonist who died in the 1967 plane crash. Today, his son Phalon is better known as rapper and producer Jazze Pha.

In 1959, Belgian singer songwriter Jacques Brei released his biggest hit - Ne Me Quitte Pas (translation: Do Not Leave Me). The famous French cabaret performer was well known for his very emotional performance of this song, which he had written while breaking up with his pregnant mistress Suzanne "Zizou" Gabriello. At the time he wrote the song, Brel was refusing to acknowledge that he was the father of the child Zizou was pregnant with. Ultimately, she had the pregnancy aborted, and in response to the song Zizou declared "this is not a love song, but a song about the cowardice of men." Brei's heart-wrenching hit song borrow's a part in it's melody straight out of the Romantic Era with a piece of Franz Liszt's classical composition Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6. The song has been performed by countless artists and in dozens languages. The English version of the song, known as If You Go Away, was recorded by Nina Simone for her 1965 album I Put A Spell On You. On the recording, Simone's vocal hits the note E2 - it is considered the lowest voice recording by a woman. In more recent years the song has been covered by Cyndi Lauper, Celine Dion, Lauryn Hill and others.

In 1968, French pop icon Serge Gainsbourg released his notorious gangster ballad Bonnie and Clyde. The song is an interpretation of a 1930's poem titled The Trail's End, written by Bonnie Parker. The poem was written by Bonnie weeks before her and her outlaw partner Clyde Barrow, were famously gunned down. Gainsbourg's provocative hit was performed with Bridgette Bardot, and in 1968 it was released on two albums, on a solo album by Gainsbourg and on the compilation album he released with Bardot (which featured just two tracks performed together). Bonnie and Clyde was recorded early on in the pop icon and sex symbol's short-lived love affair. This song, and his signature hit Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus, were written by Gainsbourg as an effort to impress his new love. After an unimpressive first date, Gainsbourg was determined to write the "most beautiful love song ever" for Bardot - and so he did. By mid-1968 Gainsbough left Bardot after falling in love with singer and actress Jane Birkin. Their relationship would last 10 years. In 1969, Gainsbourg and Birkin released an album together, and in 1976 Birkin starred in Gainsbourg's controversial film Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus.

Money (That's What I Want) was written in 1959 by Motown founder Barry Gordy and Janie Bradford. The song was first recorded by 18 year old Barrett Strong that same year, with Gordy on piano, and it was released on Gordy's newly formed Tamla label. To increase the reach of the popular song it was also released on Gordy's short-lived Anna label. In April 1960 Gordy formed Motown Records, and he merged Tamla with Motown. In June of 1960 Money (That's What I Want) peaked at #2 on the Hot R&B charts - it was the first big hit for the Motown enterprise. Over the years, there have been many hit recordings of the song, including by The Beatles in 1963, and by UK New Wave band the Flying Lizards in 1979. Reportedly, Money (That's What I Want) came together in a spontaneous recording session with Gordy and Strong. Although Strong was originally given writing credit for the song, his name was removed 3 years after the song's release. When the copyright was renewed in 1987 Strong's writing credit was restored, only to be removed again the following year due to what Gordy claimed was a clerical error. Strong has disputed the label's writing credits for the song, and has always maintained that he co-wrote it with Gordy and Bradford. Ironically, being omitted from the songs credits, and royalties, must have had Strong thinking: "Money, That's What I Want." In the following years, Strong proved to be a brilliant songwriter for Motown Records, and he has been credited with co-writing many songs, such as: I Heard It Through the Grapevine, War, Smiling Faces Sometimes, Ball of Confusion, Papa Was a Rolling Stone, and many other hits. 

Bob Marley released the original drum machine-driven No Woman, No Cry on his 1974 Natty Dread album. The following year Marley's stunning performance of the song at London's Lyceum Ballroom was captured for his Live album - this recording of the song became Marley's breakthrough pop hit. The deep and relaxed live version of the song was twice the length of the original 3 minute 46 second long studio version. Outside of Jamaica the song's title is often misunderstood. It doesn't mean the absence of a woman means there is no reason to cry, rather it is telling a struggling woman "no, don't cry." The song reflects on Marley's struggles and hardships growing up in the Trenchtown ghetto. "The Government Yard in Trenchtown" refers to the common area between the housing structures people would gather. "We Had hard times but there was love and friendship and hope. Some of us were lost, they are remembered. Some survived and thrived. It's a glorious celebration of life in the face of hardship. Don't cry, we must live on." An apparent example of the song's sentiment was a hometown hero of Bob Marley's - Vincent Ford. In the area just around the Government Yard, Ford ran a soup kitchen, providing many, including Marley himself, with free meals. Ford was a paraplegic who lost his legs when he was young due to untreated diabetes. Marley credited several of his songs to Vincent Ford - the publishing royalties from the songs repayed him for his generousity, and enabled him keep feeding people. No Woman, No Cry, one of Marley's biggest hits, is one of the song's Marley credited to Vincent Ford. 

In 1940 jazz icon Billie Holiday recorded her most popular and well-known song, God Bless The Child, which she had written with frequent collaborating composer Arthur Herzog Jr. The song was inspired by a clash she had with her mother. When she was a child, Billie's mother was in and out of her life, and she was mostly in the care other other family members. By the time she was a teenager, young Billie had a career singing in Harlem nightclubs. In 1940, now 25, she was in desperate need of money and asked her mother to help her with a loan. Over previous years she had given her mother thousands of dollars to help with her mother's restaurant. Then, after having been fired from touring with Count Basiie's crew, she found herself struggling financially. Despite her popularity, as she had just introduced her dark hit Strange Fruit, she needed some cash. Billie's mother refused to help her, and as the story goes, her mother exclaimed "God bless the child that got his own." The song began to form after the upsetting argument. At the beginning of the song, Billie seems to be responding directly to the bible (Matthew 25-29) when she says: "Them whose got shall get, them whose not shall lose. So the bible says, but it still is new."  In 1976, God Bless The Child was honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame award.

If you are not familiar with Leon Thomas' albums, indulge here:
Spirits Known and Unknown (1969) > HERE
The Leon Thomas Album (1970) > HERE
Leon Thomas in Berlin (1971) > HERE
Gold Sunrise on Magic Mountain (1971) > HERE
Blues and the Soulful Truth (1972) > HERE
Full Circle (1973) > HERE

Pata Pata was the signature song of South African pop singer Miriam Makeba. She hit number 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1967 with the Xhosa-language international hit song. The song and it's name (which means Touch Touch) were inspired by a style of dance popular in Johannesburg. A couple years before her massive international hit she became the first African to win a Grammy Award, which she won alongside Harry Belefonte for their 1965 album An Evening With Belefonte/Makeba. Makeba is considered to be one of the first African musicians to achieve worldwide popularity, and she was well-known as a symbol of the anti-apartheid movement. She was born in Johannesburg, and was singing professionally there by the early 1950's when she around 20 years old. In 1956 she had a solo hit single in South Africa with Angel Eyes - the song  was also released in English and became the first South African song to chart on the US Billboard Hot 100. In 1959 she briefly appeared in the anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa, which led to concert engagements in London and New York City. In 1960 she moved to New York, and she recorded her first two solo albums there that year. Later that year when she tried to return to South Africa for her mother's funeral the government refused her entry. Makeba had originally recorded Pata Pata in the 1950's with her girl group The Skylarks, but her most popular and well-known version of the song was released in the United States on her 1967 studio album of the same name. The following year, in 1968, exiled Makeba married Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Black Panthers Party, which brought on a backlash in the United States. Before long, when she was traveling outside of the US, her visa was revoked, causing her and Carmichael to settle down in Guinea. In her remarkable life she had numerous marriages, including to famous South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela. In 2008, just after performing Pata Pata in Italy, the 76-year old anti-apartheid and civil rights icon collapsed on stage and died after an apparent heart attack.

In 1969 Jamaican singer and musician Jimmy Cliff wrote and recorded Many River To Cross. The 21-year old musician's song told the story of his struggles to find success as a singer after moving to the UK. Cliff began writing songs when he was in primary school, and by the time he was fourteen he had his first hit single in Jamaica, and he had adopted the stage name Jimmy Cliff. He moved to the UK as a teenager, and he expected it would be easier for him to "make it." He wrote this song out of frustration. In the song, when exclaims "wandering I am lost, as I travel along the White Cliffs of Dover" he is referring to the many times he traveled to the mainland and back across the Strait of Dover (between England and France) chasing gigs in France and Germany. At the time, he felt his dreams were fading away. He had written the song while working on his second album for Island Records. The song was included on that album, which was originally released as Jimmy Cliff. The album was later retitled Wonderful World, Beautiful People, taking it's name from the album's single that scored a US release. Meanwhile, less-noticed Many Rivers To Cross made it into the movie and soundtrack of the 1972 film The Harder They Come - a film starring Jimmy Cliff, portraying a character based on notorious real-life Jamaican criminal Rhyging. The influential movie is credited with bringing worldwide attention to reggae music, and sparking a breakthrough for reggae music in the United States. Although the movie is in English, the heavy "Patois" accent in the film required subtitles for the films release in the US. It was the first time an English-language film was released with English subtitles.