Tuesday, March 14, 2023

Music History Today: March 15, 2023

March 15, 1958: "March From the River Kwai and Colonel Bogey" by Mitch Miller and His Orchestra and Chorus moved into the top 40 section of Billboard's Hot 100.

he Bridge on the River Kwai movie poster

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"The River Kwai March" was composed by Malcolm Arnold in 1957 as an orchestral counter-march to the "Colonel Bogey March," which is whistled by the soldiers entering the prisoner camp in The Bridge on the River Kwai and again near the film's end when the bridge is formally dedicated. 
Read more: Wikipedia
March 15, 1955: Ray Charles peaked at Number 2 on the US R&B charts with the "I Got A Woman."
"I Got A Woman" is a re-worked, secular version of a gospel song called "My Jesus Is All the World to Me." It was the first hit song to use secular lyrics in a gospel style. Some people consider this fusion of R&B, gospel, and jazz the origin of soul music. Ray Charles wrote this with his bandleader Renald Richard after hearing a spiritual on the radio while his band was on the road. 
Read more: Songfacts

March 15, 1971: Neil Diamond released "I Am... I Said."
Neil Diamond told Mojo magazine in July 2008 that "I Am... I Said" came from a time he spent in therapy in Los Angeles. He said: "It was consciously an attempt on my part to express what my dreams were about, what my aspirations were about, and what I was about. And without any question, it came from my sessions with the analyst." 
Read more: Songfacts

March 15, 1975: The Doobie Brothers had a Billboard Number 1 hit with "Black Water."
The Doobie Brothers' guitarist, Patrick Simmons, wrote "Black Water" and sang lead. It has the Louisiana swamp rock feel of earlier Doobie Brothers songs like "Toulouse Street" and "Black Eyed Cajun Woman." The song is about the Mississippi River, with lyrics likely inspired by Mark Twain's books Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, which tell stories about rafting down the river. 
Read more: Songfacts

March 15, 1980: Dan Fogelberg peaked at Number 2 in the US with "Longer."
Like many of Dan Fogelberg's songs, "Longer" is about everlasting love. In a radio interview to promote his 1981 album The Innocent Age, Fogelberg mentioned this as his most memorable song. "It's just a classic love song," he said. "Every songwriter always dreams of writing a classic love song that will be up there with the Cole Porter songs and 'Yesterday' and that stuff. That's the stuff that's gonna last. People are gonna sing them at weddings and really mean it, for a long time, and that's wonderful." 
Read more: Songfacts

March From the River Kwai
Mitch Miller & His Orchestra


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