Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Music History Today: June 2, 2021

June 2, 1973: "Daniel" by Elton John peaked at Number 2, kept from the top spot when My Love by Paul McCartney started a 4-week run in the top spot. 

“Daniel” is a track from Elton John, one of the world’s best-selling musical artists, and arguably one of the most well-known. Appearing in John’s 1973 album “Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player”, “Daniel” is the first track from the record, written by both John and his lyricist Bernie Taupin. Taupin explained the meaning of the song: 

Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player album cover

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“The story was about a guy that went back to a small town in Texas, returning from the Vietnam War. They’d lauded him when he came home and treated him like a hero. But, he just wanted to go home, go back to the farm, and try to get back to the life that he’d led before. I wanted to write something that was sympathetic to the people that came home.” 

Read more: Story of Song

June 2, 1962:  Ray Charles' "I Can't Stop Loving You" hit Number 1 for the first of five weeks.

Ray Charles recorded a full-on country album in 1962, when he was at the absolute top of his game. 

Ray Charles
Ray Charles

This was the king of cosmopolitan pop-leaning R&B music jumping with both feet into a genre of music that was very racially coded, and doing it at the height of the Civil Rights struggle. And it’s not just that Ray Charles made a country album. It’s that he made a country album right. Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music is a total end-to-end burner, an album so great that it’s earned Charles a place on any serious greatest-country-singers-ever list. 

Read more: Stereogum 

June 2, 1973: "Hocus Pocus" by Focus broke into the US top 10 at Number 9.

Although Dutch- based rock band Focus’s “Hocus Pocus” has to be one of the most unconventional songs out there, these guys rock harder than anyone we know. Yes, there is yodeling and screaming, but some of the killer electric solos have a serious effect on our blood pressure and we love it. Considered an “instrumental,” “Hocus Pocus” eventually hit #(9) on Billboard Charts in 1973 and became the band’s only successful hit. 
Read more: Society of Rock

 

June 2, 1979: Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff" went to Number 1 in the US, where it stayed for three weeks.

Donna Summer wanted to sing a rock song. That was the idea. 
Donna Summer

Summer was the reigning queen of disco, and that had made her one of the most popular recording artists in America. But Summer, like much of the rest of America, was starting to get sick of disco. So Donna Summer sang a rock song — a rock song that still sounded a whole hell of a lot like a disco song. 
Read more: Stereogum

 

June 2, 1990:  "Do You Remember" by Phil Collins moved into the Number 1 slot on the Adult Contemporary chart.

"Do You Remember?" is a single performed by Phil Collins released in 1990 from his album ...But Seriously. 

Phil Collins

The song had minor success in European countries but went to number one on both the Canadian and US Adult Contemporary charts. It was written by Collins and produced by Collins and Hugh Padgham. Singer-songwriter Stephen Bishop is a backing vocalist on the track. The song's lyrics are from the perspective of a man whose relationship is failing, due to his lover's neglect. 

Read more: Wikipedia

 

Daniel
Elton John

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