Music History Today: August 10, 2021

August 10, 2020: Split Enz hit Number 1 in their native New Zealand with the 40th-anniversary reissue of their album True Colours, knocking off Folklore by Taylor Swift, 

Split Enz found their place in new wave with True Colours, shedding the eccentricities and excesses of their past in favor of bright, highly memorable, Beatlesque pop.

Split Enz New Colours True Colours 2020

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The album also marked Neil Finn's emergence as a great song-craftsman. His infectious "I Got You" helped to push the album and the band to international success. Both the single and the album stand as high points of the new wave era. 

Read more: Allmusic

August 10, 1959: Elvis Presley's "A Big Hunk O' Love" hits Number 1 in the USA.

“A Big Hunk O’ Love” isn’t one of Presley’s better rockers. Those lyrics haven’t aged especially well, and Presley seems to be coasting more on persona than on actual vocals.

Elvis Presley

The song doesn’t evoke anything. But it’s fun, largely because of backing singers the Jordanaires, whose cartoonish exhortations push the song to another level. 

Read more: Stereogum

August 10, 1963: Stevie Wonder's "Fingertips (Part 2)" becomes the first live recording to hit Number 1 in the US.

Little Stevie Wonder

Stevie  Wonder’s first charting single was 1963’s antic, live-recorded “Fingertips Part 1 & 2,” an infectious piece of harmonica-driven R&B pitched someplace between Booker G’s “Green Onions” and the Isley Brothers’ “Shout.” The single made Little Stevie, as he was then billed, a minted commodity but also created a paradox. 

Read more: Stereogum

 

August 10, 1968:  "Magic Bus" by The Who debuted at Number  83 on the Billboard Hot 100 single chart.

“Magic Bus” is a song written by Pete Townshend at the time of My Generation in 1965, but not recorded by The Who until 1968. It is one of the band’s most popular songs and has been a concert staple. The record reached #26 in the United Kingdom and #25 in the United States. 

Read more: Best Songs Ever

 

August 10, 1979: Smokey Robinson released the single "Cruisin'" from the album Where There's Smoke...

Interview with Smokey Robinson

Many, if not most, of my hits have been written based on music by Marv Tauplin  and played on his guitar. He would give me a tape that I would listen to over and over until I got an idea for a song that went with that music. “Cruisin’” took five years to write. Some songs come quicker than others, like “Shop Around.” That was the first million seller at Motown and I wrote it in thirty minutes. 

Read more: Soul Tracks

 

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