Christmas time tends to be one of the most inspitational moments of the year for the musicians. From 1930's to our days, from Judy Garland to George Michael artists all over the world felt that they had to sing about the Christmas and the way they saw it.
Merry Christmas everyone ... and enjoy it.
10. Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt
Madonna brought this one out of obscurity in 1987 for the Very Special Christmas album, and it's become a holiday standard for any diva who craves a special sugar daddy this time of year. Eartha Kitt's original helped make the future Catwoman a star.
9. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Judy Garland
Garland was much more than Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. In 1944 she starred in the film Meet Me In St. Louis, which featured this song. It was a big hit with soldiers fighting overseas during World War II.
8. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Darlene Love
Phil Spector wrote this for his 1963 Christmas album, which had the misfortune of being released on November 22, 1963 - the day US president John F. Kennedy was shot and killed. The album was pulled, but the song eventually became a Christmas classic, thanks in no small part to U2's cover in 1987 for A Very Special Christmas.
7. Wonderful Christmastime - Paul McCartney
A rare Elctro-Pop Christmas song, McCartney used a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 synth, which you also hear in Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes" and the Doobie Brothers' "What a Fool Believes." All four members of The Beatles released Christmas songs as solo artists.
6. Father Christmas - The Kinks
This isn't your typical Christmas song, it's about a kid who gets mugged by performing as St. Nick, then asks for a machine gun and a job for his dad for Christmas. Where the Kinks come from, Santa Claus is known as "Father Christmas."
5. Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
Written by the same guy who wrote "Holly Jolly Christmas" and "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer," Lee was 13 when she recorded this song in 1958. Something not a lot of people think about - Christmas songs are usually recorded in the summer. That was the case here, as Lee recorded it on a hot July day in Nashville. Her producer turned up the air conditioning and set up a Christmas tree to get her in the mood.
4. Do They Know It's Christmas? - Band-Aid
The first big group charity song, this was organized by Bob Geldof to raise money for famine relief in Africa. The next year, Geldof got much more ambitious, organizing "We Are The World" and Live Aid. Appearing on this song, in order: Paul Young, Boy George, George Michael, Simon Le Bon, and Bono. The chorus included David Bowie, Phil Collins, and Paul McCartney.
3. You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch - Thurl Ravenscroft
Written for the 1966 Dr. Seuss TV Holiday Special How The Grinch Stole Christmas, this is one of those songs that you gotta love even if you're burned out on Christmas music. Ravenscroft was the voice of Tony the Tiger, who said of Frosted Flakes cereal: "They're Great." In 2000, the movie was remade, and this song recorded by Jim Carrey and Busta Rhymes.
2. Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley
Originally recorded by Ernest Tubb in 1950, Elvis sang the definitive version in 1957. After all, you can't have a White Christmas without that special someone, and who better than Elvis to express the pain of longing?
1. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon
In 1969, John and Yoko bought billboard advertisements in major cities around the world that said, "War is over! (If you want it)." Two years later they turned the slogan into this Christmas song with an anti-war message. This is the second entry on the list produced by Phil Spector, who also worked on Lennon's "Instant Karma." Listen at the beginning as John and Yoko whisper to their children Kyoko and Julian.
and two special ones: Nat King Cole - The Christmas Song and Wham - Last Christmas
This is the song that became the name of the band. They were using the name "Earth" when they realized another band had the same name. They liked the name of this song so they used it for their band. From Black Sabbath: The Ozzy Osbourne Years: "While rehearsing new material, the band formerly known as Earth experienced a supernatural experience. Geezer and Tony were playing new riffs for Ozzy and Bill when, much to everyone's surprise, they both strummed the same notes at the same tempo – although neither had ever before heard the other one play the piece! Convinced that this was an omen, Geezer christened the song and the group Black Sabbath (after the 1964 Borris Karloff's movie.)."
"Black Sabbath" was the first song on the first Black Sabbath album. The album cost $1200 to make and took about 8 hours to record.
As a result of the title, many fans associated the band with Satanism, an image they played up throughout their career. The song is actually about anti-satanism, or at least expresses a healthy fear of the devil. Godsmack lead singer Sully Erna describes this as "The darkest song ever." Godsmack got a big break when they were invited on the 1999 Ozzfest tour.
During a July, 2001 interview with Geezer Butler, Guitar World magazine explained that "having borrowed a 16th century tome of black magic from Osbourne one afternoon, Butler awoke that night to find a black shape staring balefully at him from the foot of his bed. After a few frightening moments, the figure slowly vanished into thin air." Geezer continued to describe how he "told Ozzy about it. It stuck in his mind, and when we started playing 'Black Sabbath', he just came out with those lyrics. . . It had to come out, and it eventually did in that song – and then there was only one possible name for the band, really!"
This has been covered by Vader, Widespread Panic, Dance or Die, Flower Travellin' Band, Amber Assylum, Jello Biafra (with Ice T), Acheron, Mistress, and Cryptal Darkness. Type O Negative covered this, except they changed the lyrics so that the song is from Satan's point of view. The song was called "Black Sabbath (from The Satanic Perspective)." It was on the albums Nativity in Black: Tribute To Black Sabbath and Type O Negative's The Least Worst of Type O Negative.
This picture is best known as the "Back Catalogue" and perfectly emphasizes the entire album art work history of Pink Floyd. When you look at this picture you hear Pink Floyd. The story of this picture is very interesting, as it is said by Storm Thorgerson in his book "Mind Over Matter: The Images Of Pink Floyd".
After remastering of the whole band's discografy was finished in 1995, transformig the original vinil sets into cd's didn't came out as expected from the point of view of the album art work. And Pink Floyd was and still is famous for not only the music but also for the beautiful and meaningfull cover sleeves of all of their albums. More exactly the record companies back then, simply adapted the original vynil covers for the cd's and squeezed it roughly into two or for page booklet. After realising that, the producers decided to design proper cd booklets with full lyrics, carefully scaled down original art and photos added.
The ideea of this picture came from the need of the record companies of properly advertising the Pink Floyd's catalogue. Five ideas of promoting the projects came out but only two were considered to be feasible. The first one contained no music and showed foreign art lovers commenting on the band's covers. The languages used were Islandic, Hindi, Japanese and Italian.
The second ideea contained a slow side track across a group of naked boys and girls sitting chatting on the edge of a swimming pool. On their 
back were painted fascimile copies of selected Floyd covers from the catalogue. The designs were not projected nor computer designed, but were directly brilliantly and preciselly painted by Phyllis Cohen - so as to follow body curves and reflect the lightning. The record company liked this second idea but as a poster and containig only women. It was Storm Thorgerson who decided that the poster should contain only women, as he belived that the backs represented album covers and should therefore be the same generically - all men or all women; the women shape is of course more elegant and sensitive.
The albums choosen to be apart of the famous poster are:
Read also:
Although they were one of the very biggest rock & roll groups of the 1960s, the Four Seasons -- unlike, say, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, or the Byrds -- don't excite virtually automatic respect from listeners and critics. A big factor is their most distinguishing trademark, the shrill falsetto vocals of their lead singer, Frankie Valli. Many also find their material -- gently moralistic, romantic tunes with tightly arranged group harmonies that updated doo wop ethos into the 1960s -- too cornball and clean-cut.
Whatever your feelings about the group, though, there's no denying their considerable importance. No other white American group of the time save the Beach Boys boasted such intricate harmonies, though the Four Seasons were much more firmly in the Italian-American doo wop tradition. Their uptown production values were contemporary and, in certain respects, innovative. The R&B influence in their music was large, and some of their early singles enjoyed success with the R&B audience; in fact, some listeners thought that the Four Seasons were black when the group landed their first hits. And they were immensely successful, making the Top Ten thirteen times between 1962 and 1967 with hits like "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Dawn," "Rag Doll," and "Let's Hang On."(AMG)
"December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" was written by original Four Seasons keyboard player Bob Gaudio and his future wife Judy Parker, produced by Gaudio, and included on the group's 1975 album Who Loves You.
This single was released in December 1975 and hit number one on the UK singles chart on February 21, 1976. It repeated the feat on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on March 13, remaining in the top spot for three weeks and one week on
According to the co-writer and longtime band member Bob Gaudio, the song was originally set in 1933 with the title "December 5th, 1933," and celebrated the repeal of Prohibition. Neither lead singer Frankie Valli nor co-writer (and Gaudio's wife) Judy Parker were thrilled about the lyrics - and Valli objected to parts of the melody - so Gaudio redid the words and Parker redid the melody until all were content with the finished product. It ended up being a nostalgic love song.
The Four Seasons had a series of hits from 1962-1968. In 1975, they returned to the charts with "Who Loves You," which hit #3 in the US. This was the follow-up to that song.
The lead singer on the first verse was not Frankie Valli (he comes in on the second verse): drummer Gerri Polci shared the lead in "December 1963" and provided all of the lead vocal in the group's third hit from the She Loves You LP, "Silver Star," which hit #38 in the US.
This was used in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump, and the song was re-released as part of the soundtrack. It once again entered the charts, and became the longest-running single in the Billboard US chart's history, with over 50 weeks total.
Read also:
- Winter - The Rolling Stones
- Ottis Redding - (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay
- Soft Rock
- Abbey Road Cover Art - The Beatles
Usually when I post I gather information from my mentioned sources and I put it toghether, according of cource to what I know and I belive about that certain song/album cover etc... But when it comes to some singers/bands I tend to become much more subjective: i just listen to that song and try to give it a meaning.
"Maybe" from Janis Joplin is more than one simple hit from one of the most successful women and artists of all times. It involves her power of attracting the listeners from the first second. I tried to find a video version of this song in which the begining is at its best: Big Brother and the Holding Company with powerfull trompet instruments making the entrance of their favourite lady.
It is said that Janis Joplin is the only female singer to be compared with the black singers. She could do the blues.
She died at 27 when she has allready made history...
- to be continued -
Read also:
"Winter" is one of the most beloved balads Rolling Stones ever sang. In fact this was a rare ballad for The Stones. It was the first song they recorded in Jamaica for Goats Head Soup. Producer Jimmy Miller was not happy with any of Mick Jagger's 4 takes, recorded on the island; Jagger refused to do any more, preferring to enjoy Jamaica instead. Interesting is that Keith Richards does not play on this piece. The guitar solo is Mick Taylor's. (songfacts).
Mick Taylor was a member of The Rolling Stones from 1969 to 1974. He replecade the funding member of the band - Brian Jones, because of the emotional instability and law problems the latter had; Taylor unexpectally left the band in 1969 because he considered he didn't get enough credits: he lacked from the credit list from the record sleeves of the new LP and somne of the hits he had co-written "Till the Next Goodbye" and "Time Waits for No One" with Jagger. (wiki)
Read also:
During the taping of a VH1 Storytellers performance, lead singer of Counting Crows Adam Duritz talked about the song:
"In the middle of December of '95 my friend Jennifer got run over by a car, just creamed; and I spent that whole month, while we were just beginning the record and most of January and February in the hospital. Each morning and early afternoon then I'd go to the studio, the house where we were recording, and we'd play all afternoon and all night . It was a very weird time because there is a lot of stress, not that it's a big deal being a second album, but any album.
They're just not that easy to make. It's a very stressful process, especially when you're first starting out. I spent a lot of time in the hospital which is pretty weird. But one day I just left the studio about 2 in the morning, and I went to my friend Samantha and Tracy's house which is Hillside Manor, that's what we call it anyway, it's just a little house and I sat there talking with them. I woke them up, got them out of bed and made them talk to me for a couple hours, then I went home to my house. I wrote this song between about 4 and 6 and then went to the hospital the next day, and came to the house and I played it for the guys before dinner and taught it to them after dinner. We played it about 6 or 7 times. It was take number 6. We just stopped, that was it.
We recorded the song, it was done. We all went into the kitchen and had a cold beer, I grabbed Brad our engineer and ran back out about 5 minutes later, had him play the tape three times, just recorded all the harmonies, and we've never touched it since, that was it. It's a completely live song except for the harmonies. It's a song about looking back on your life and seeing changes happening, and for once for me, looking forward and thinking, ya know, things are gonna change for the better - 'maybe this year will be better than the last' - and so, like a lot of songs on the end of an album it's not about everything turning out great, but it at least it is about hope... and the possibilities..." (Songfacts)
Read also:
Who's who and where
