In 1982, The Clash released their fifth studio album Combat Rock - the album was their most successful and was the last to feature the band's classic lineup. The albums biggest hits were Rock The Casbah and Should I Stay Or Should I Go. The later was released as a double A-side single with the album track Straight To Hell. That song had reportedly been written at the Combat Rock recording sessions in New York City. Joe Strummer recalled writing the song in 1981, the night before the band had a New Years Eve flight out of New York City at the end of their two months of recording sessions. The original recording of Straight To Hell was 7 minutes long, and it was shortened to 5:30 when the album was drastically edited down to a single album, rather then the originalyl planned double album. In 2007, Straight To Hell's distinctive riff was sampled by M.I.A. (and co-writer/producer Diplo) on her massive hit Paper Planes. The song fittingly gives writing credits to Clash band members.
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Grant Green was was an influential jazz guitarist and composer that appeared on many Blue Note recordings as both the lead artist and as a sidekick. Throughout his life and busy career he was quite underrated, but after his death he came to be known as "the father of acid jazz." In 1970, he released his first live recording - Alive. The funky jazz album features his cover of the song Sookie Sookie, which was famously sampled for the basis of Us3's 1993 hit song Tukka Yoot's Riddim. The song was originally recorded in 1966 by songwriter and singer Don Covay. Before Grant Green, the song had been covered by Steppenwolf, and later it was covered by Iggy Pop, The Smashing Pumpkins and others. Ophlin Russell, better known as Sister Nancy, is a Jamaican dancehall DJ and singer best known for her 1982 reggae anthem Bam Bam. As the younger sister of DJ and singer Brigadier Jerry (Robert Russell), Sister Nancy was drawn into the music business as a teenager. The young singer was the first female dancehall DJ to be considered a major act, and she paved the way for a generation of female Jamaican DJ's and singers. In 1982, the 20 year old singer was one of many Jamaican artists that copied the 1966 Toots And The Maytals song Bam Bam. The first of these "dancehall style" versions of Bam Bam was recorded by Yellowman and Fathead a few weeks before Sister Nancy recorded her notorious version. Rather then using the Taxi riddim, as Yellowman did, Sister Nancy recorded her version of Bam Bam over the Stalag riddim - an instrumental track introduced in the 1973 song Stalag 17. In 1982, there were numerous other singers that recorded their own versions of Bam Bam, all inspired by Toots Hibbert's catchy novel phrase and song. Although Toots held the copyright to Bam Bam, he was never compensated for the slew of Bam Bam records he inspired, or the later songs that sampled Bam Bam. In fact, it wasn't until sometime after 2014 that Sister Nancy herself received any credit or royalties for her own hit song - which has been one of the most sampled reggae songs ever. After recording Bam Bam for her One, Two album, Sister Nancy was unaware of the immense popularity her song had outside of Jamaica - where it wasn't so heavily played. In 1998, the popular song was featured prominently in the film Belly. In 2014, after her daughter reported seeing Bam Bam used in a Reebok commercial on TV, Sister Nancy suddenly realized the album's elusive producer had been cashing in on her recording for 32 years. With guidance and representation she was soon able to obtain 50% of the songs rights and royalties, as well as retroactive compensation for the last 10 of 32 unpaid years from the song. In 1978, Glenn Frey and Don Henley wrote and released Funky New Year for the b-side of the Eagles special Christmas 7" vinyl release of Charles Brown's holiday classic Please Come Home For Christmas. The record made it to #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 that year. Funky New Year's only official release was on this now rare 7" until the band's release of their Live at the Millennium Concert. That live recording from the 1999 into 2000 show at Staples Center is a beautifully mastered live recording from a very special and joyous concert. In 1987, fourteen-year old Vanessa Paradis recorded the unintentional international pop hit Joe Le Taxi. The singer/actress/model confided in recent years that the song that launched her stardom was never meant to be a pop song, but was just "a very simple rhumba". The song about a Parisian taxi driver was written for her by Franck Langolff and Etienne Roda-Gil. Joe Le Taxi soared to number one on the singles chart in France, and spent eleven weeks there. The song hit number one in over a dozen other countries. In 1988, a Portuguese-language version recorded by Brazilian child star Angelica topped the Brazilian pop charts. Vou De Taxi became an instant Brazilian classic and increased the popularity of that popular Brazilian singer, actress and TV personality. see video for Vou De Taxi - HERE In 1965, influential reggae artist Phillip Thomas - better known as Cutty Ranks - was born in Clarendon Parish, Jamaica. His career as a singer started at the age of eleven, and before long the young toaster had joined the Gemini sound system - a famous Jamaican reggae artist collective. He later worked with Tony Rebel, and also with the legendary Killamanjaro sound system - where he worked alongside a young Super Cat and others. In the 1980's, Cutty Ranks continued to record with popular sound systems in Jamaica, and spent some time recording in Miami with Super Cat and Nicodemus. When he was recruited by London-based Fashion Records in 1991, Cutty Ranks recorded his first major international hit, The Stopper. Later that year he released his debut album (of the same name) and a second album on Fashion Records. Cutty Ranks' popularity in the 1990's was influential in the boom of 1990's reggae hip-hop, and later was also influential in drum & bass and jungle music. Many of his classic vocals have been sampled and used in songs by electronic artists such as Goldie, and many others. The Beach Boys recorded Good Vibrations in 1966 - at the time it was the most expensive pop song ever recorded. Brian Wilson became obsessed with the song while composing it, and lead singer Mike Love wrote the flowery lyrics. Good Vibrations was recorded in over 17 recording sessions in six different studios over a two-month period. The final version of the song was the first pop hit to be pieced together from fragments of different recording sessions. The Beach Boys hired top session musicians in Los Angeles, and played no instruments on the recording. Among the musicians who recorded the song was Glen Campbell on lead guitar. Brian Wilson was originally the only songwriter given credit on the song. Mike Love went to court to get writing credits for this and 34 other Beach Boys songs. In 1994, the courts awarded him the song writing credits that he had been denied. Jamiroquai's 1997 song Virtual Insanity was a warning about the threats of technology, and it's destructive control over humanity. The song was written by the group's frontman Jason Kay and keyboardist Toby Smith. The ground-breaking music video was directed my Jonathan Glazer, and it won four of it's ten MTV music video nominations in 1997. In 1977, Bernard Edwards and Nile Rogers had success producing music for others, and they had a hit with their band Chic's new single Dance Dance Dance (Yowsah Yowsah Yowsah). The song was popular at the legendary club Studio 54 and other disco clubs. On New Years Eve in 1977, Edwards and Rogers were invited to studio 54 by Grace Jones - who wanted them to do some production work for her. They showed up sharply dressed to celebrate the new year, but they denied entry into the club. After exhausting every attempt to get in, the two walked off and immediately composed a song called "Fuck Off". When they came around to recording the song they decided that they should drop the cursing, so "Ahhhh, Fuck Off!" became "Ahhh Freak Out. The single was Atlantic Record's best selling record of all-time - selling 2 million copies in the US. In 1954 film star Rosemary Clooney introduced screenwriter/composer Bob Merrill's apparently suggestive song Mambo Italiano. The song - based on a traditional Italian folk-like dance song - had been composed on a napkin in an Italian restaurant. When the song was released it was banned by New York's WABC radio. The station didn't understand the lyrics and assumed them to be suggestive. In an attempt to convince the station that the songs lyrics were not suggestive, Clooney's record label provided statements from a Catholic priest and a professor of romantic languages. |
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