July 25, 1980: AC/DC released Back In Black, their first album without lead singer Bon Scott, who died five months earlier.
When a popular band loses its singer, it rarely bounces back to reach the level of success it had prior to the lineup shift.
(sign up to follow by email)
The most remarkable exception to this rule is Australian powerhouse AC/DC, which released the legendary album Back in Black on July 25, 1980. The album was dedicated to the band’s late vocalist Bon Scott, who died on February 19, 1980, after a night of heavy drinking.
July 25, 1965: At the Newport Folk Festival, Bob Dylan played an electric set for the first time, horrifying folkies everywhere.
On this day in 1965, Bob Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival, performing a rock-and-roll set publicly for the very first time while a chorus of shouts and boos rained down on him from a dismayed audience.
Bob Dylan
Six weeks earlier, Bob Dylan had recorded the single that marked his move out of acoustic folk and into the idiom of electrified rock and roll. "Like A Rolling Stone" had only been released five days before his appearance at Newport, however, so most in the audience had no idea what lay in store for them.
Newport Folk Festival
Handbill - 1965
With guitarist Al Kooper and The Paul Butterfield Blues Band backing him, Dylan took to the stage with his Fender Stratocaster on the evening of July 25 and launched into an electrified version of “Maggie’s Farm.” Almost immediately, the jeering and yelling from the audience grew loud enough nearly to drown out the sound of Dylan and his band.
July 25, 1964: "Rag Doll" by the Four Seasons was Number 1 for a second week. "Memphis" by Johnny Rivers peaked at Number 2 the week before and slid to 4 on this day.
"Memphis, Tennessee," sometimes shortened to "Memphis," is a song by Chuck Berry, first released in 1959.
Johnny Rivers
In the UK, the song charted at #6 in 1963; at the same time Decca Records issued a cover version in the UK by Dave Berry and the Cruisers, which also became a UK Top 20 hit single. Johnny Rivers' version of the song was a number two US hit in 1964.
July 25, 1966: The Monkees recorded "Last Train To Clarksville."
“Last Train To Clarksville” was a Beatles ripoff in just about every conceivable way. Bobby Hart, who co-wrote the song with Tommy Boyce, came up with the title after thinking he heard the phrase “take the last train” on the Beatles’ “Paperback Writer.”
The Monkees
The song copped the jangly, hazy guitar tone of “Paperback Writer,” and its “no no no” bit is a direct response to the Beatles’ “yeah yeah yeah.”And yet “Last Train” has enough of its own personality that it can stand up to a whole lot of Beatles records.
July 25, 1981: "Jessie's Girl," by Australian rocker Rick Springfield, was the top-selling single in America. It was named Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 1982 Grammy Awards.
Rick Springfield revealed the origins of his classic song “Jessie’s Girl,” explaining that it began life as “Gary’s Girl” then became “Randy’s Girl” before acquiring its final title.
Rick Springfield
Speaking in a new episode of the AXS TV series Mixtape, Springfield said the 1981 song, which appeared on his hit album Working Class Dog, was inspired by a real-life experience of being interested in a woman who didn’t want to know him.
No comments:
Post a Comment