Music History Today: August 8, 2022

August 8, 1981: Rick James entered Billboard's Hot 100 at Number 74 with "Super Freak."

Rick James' friend, the music director of KACE-FM in Los Angeles Alonzo Miller, heard an early version of “Super Freak” while the Motown star was recording the vocals.

Rick James

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Miller said radio stations would be unlikely to play the song because of its risqué lyrics. James sat down with him to change the words. The result was a more radio-friendly song – and a ten percent share of the song for Miller. 

Read more: Classic Motown

August 8, 1953: "Vaya con Dios (May God Be with You)" by Les Paul and Mary Ford hit the top of the charts for 11 non-consecutive weeks.

August 8, 1964: "We'll Sing In the Sunshine" by Gale Garnett entered the US Top 100 music chart. It reached Number 4.

In the song "We'll Sing In the Sunshine" by Gale Garnett, a woman tells her would-be lover that she does not believe in long-term relationships. She'll give him a year, then leave him. Garnett's sole Top 40 hit, it won the Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording in 1965.  

Read more: Wikipedia

August 8, 1970: Alive N Kickin' topped out at Number 7 in the US with "Tighter, Tighter." 

August 8, 1987: U2 topped the US music chart with "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was released in 1987 on The Joshua Tree, an album inspired by the band's experience of America, both as a real place and as a mythic idea. 

U2 1987

U2's lead singer and songwriter, Bono, has referred to it as "a gospel song with a restless spirit." To understand where that restless spirit came from, it helps to know the depth of the band's religious roots.  

Read more: NPR

Super Freak
Rick James