Saturday, September 12, 2020

Music History Today: September 13, 2020

September 13, 1974: With "Fulfillingness' First Finale" atop Billboard's album chart, Stevie Wonder kicks off his first tour since an accident left him in a coma for four days last year. 

The cover of Fulfillingness’ First Finale depicts a staircase of keyboards rising to the sky. It’s remarkably apt, for the careers of few performers in popular music have been such uninterrupted ascents. 

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Nothing, not even a brush with death, has interrupted Wonder’s progress toward ever higher ground, and FFF is a new plateau. As its title declares, the album is a culmination of what has come before, but it is by no means a final destination.
Read more:  Rolling Stones

September 13, 1958: "To Know Him Is To Love Him" by the Teddy Bears cracks the Billboard Top 40. 

Harvey Phillip Spector was a Los Angeles high school student when he wrote “To Know Him Is To Love Him” for his vocal group the Teddy Bears. He was 18 when he scraped together the money to have the song recorded. 

You can’t hear anything like the symphonic majesty of Spector’s early-’60s productions on “To Know Him Is To Love Him.” Instead, it’s a simple, lovely song, recorded with a hymn-like reverence.
Read more: Stereogum

September 13, 1965: Simon & Garfunkel released the single "The Sound Of Silence." 

Simon & Garfunkel's acclaim is now universal, but their 1964 debut LP Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. flopped. Its highlight was "The Sounds of Silence," a Simon composition recorded in 1964.

Simon and Garfunkel

Simon wrote "The Sounds of Silence" while living with his parents. “The main thing about playing the guitar was that I was able to sit by myself and play and dream,” Simon later told Playboy. “
Read more:  Ultimate Classic Rock

September 13, 1971: Cat Stevens released the single "Peace Train."

"Peace Train" is a 1971 song by Cat Stevens, taken from his album Teaser and the Firecat. 

The song climbed to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the week of November 6, 1971, becoming Stevens' first US Top 10 hit. The song also spent three weeks at No. 1 on the adult contemporary chart.  
Read more: Wikipedia

September 13, 1976:  Rod Stewart released the single "Tonight's The Night."

“Tonight’s The Night” held the number 1 position for eight weeks — longer than any hit since the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” eight years earlier. 

The song was also the biggest-selling single of 1977 — the year after it came out. And this is a song that initially didn’t get radio play because nobody could argue that it was anything other than a song about f***ing.    
Read more:  Stereogum

You Haven't Done Nothing
Stevie Wonder

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