Music History Today: April 15, 2022

April 15, 1989: Poison peaked at Number 10 with a cover of "Your Mama Don't Dance."

"Your Mama Don't Dance" was a hit 1972 song by the rock duo Loggins and Messina.

Poison Bret Michaels

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In 1988, the glam metal band Poison recorded a cover of "Your Mama Don't Dance." Reviewer of Record Mirror was disappointed by this single. He found it ″completely naff″ when contrasted with "Every Rose Has Its Thorn", the band's previous ″quite listenable hit″. 

Read more: Wikipedia

April 15, 1957: Jerry Lee Lewis released the single "Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On." 

Released in April 1957, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” was Lewis’s second single, following “Crazy Arms,” which had failed to chart.

Jerry Lee Lewis

But Lewis, well aware of his own potency, and his singular talent, and buoyed by producer Sam Phillips’s intuitive work in Sun Studio, brought “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” into the recording sessions confident that it could be a hit.  

Read more: Library of Congress

April 15, 1967: Aretha Franklin made it to Number 9 in the US with "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)." 

Having made her breakthrough at a crucial moment in the evolution of African-American pop’s political power, Aretha Franklin’s music has since become synonymous with feminine power and self-affirmation, refusing to fade into the background or reinforce old hierarchies.

Aretha Franklin

Many of her songs contributed to a radically shifted pop landscape, introducing soul as a genre capable of actively mirroring society’s most pressing issues. And this was well and truly cemented on Franklin’s breakthrough albums, I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You and Lady Soul, released in 1967 and 1968 respectively. 

Read more: Classic Albums Sundays

April 15, 1972: Ringo Starr  entered the American Top 40 chart with "Back Off, Bugaloo."

Ringo Starr took a greater interest in film after The Beatles, appearing both in front of and behind the camera as an actor (“200 Motels,” “Blindman”) and director (the T. Rex concert film, “Born To Boogie”). This single is sort of the musical soundtrack to that moment, featuring the Bolan-inspired “Back Off Boogaloo” on the A side and, fittingly, his song from the B movie “Blindman” on the flip side. 

Read more: Progrography

April 15, 1978: Carly Simon entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart with "You Belong to Me." 

Doobies singer Michael McDonald wrote "You Belong To Me" with Carly Simon, although they wrote their parts separately.

 

The Doobie Brothers recorded it first, with McDonald changing the line "I'd always be your girl" to "always be the one." A year later, Simon released her version on the album Boys in the Trees, with her then-husband James Taylor singing backup vocals. Simon's version was the hit, going to #6 in the US. 

Read more: Songfacts

Your Mama Don't Dance
Poison