TGIF Rock-n-Roll Oldies: Donovan 1966

Donovan (Donovan Philips Leitch 5.10.46) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music in a way that had substantial commercial appeal. 

Donovan appeared in the UK early in 1965 with a series of live performances on the pop TV show Ready Steady Go!... and his popularity quickly spread from there.

After signing with the British label Pye Records in 1965, he recorded a handful of singles and two albums in the folk music vein with leading independent record producer Mickie Most, scoring a string of international hits.

His successful records in the 1960s included the UK hits "Catch the Wind" and "Colours" in 1965, while the next year "Sunshine Superman" went all the way to top the chart at #1 in the US.

Donovan was one of the leading British recording artists as he put-out a series of hit albums and singles between 1965 and 1970, and he even schooled Lennon and McCartney when he taught them his finger-picking guitar style in 1968...

Other classics from Donovan include "Atlantis", "In the Morning", "Jennifer Jupiter", and of course "Mellow Yellow".

Alas, Donovan's commercial fortunes waned after he parted ways with Mickie Most in 1969, and he left the music industry for a time. But he did continue to perform and record sporadically in the 1970s and 1980s.

But the musician enjoyed a bit of a revival in the 90s with the advent of the British 'rave' scene. He later in the decade did the '96 album Sutras with producer and long-time fan Rick Rubin and in 2004 released the all-new album Beat Cafe.

Donovan was last year nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2011... but seriously, what took them so long?

Donovan: Sunshine Superman - 1966

Donovan Official Site   Wikipedia

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TGIF Rock-n-Roll Oldies: The Animals - 1965

The Animals were an influential English rock group from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, formed in the early 60s. They later in the decade relocated to the bustling London scene.

Known for their gritty, bluesy sound and deep-voiced frontman Eric Burdon, the band is best known for timeless classics such as "The House of the Rising Sun", "We Gotta Get Out of This Place", and "It's My Life" (below).

The Animals presented a unique blend of rock-oriented pop hits along with R&B material to fill out the albums.  Considered in the U.S. as part of the British Invasion, The Animals underwent numerous personnel changes over the years and like so many others of the era, suffered from poor business management. 

Later -under the name Eric Burdon and the Animals- they moved to California and yet again achieved commercial success, this time as a psychedelic rock band.  Hits of this era include "San Franciscan Nights" and "Sky Pilot". Guitarist Andy Summers was with the band in this period, who later went on to found The Police along with Sting and Stewart Copeland.

The band broke up in 1969, with the cover of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" released subsequently.

The original Animals lineup had a brief reunion in 1977 and then again in 1983. There have been several partial regroupings since then under various names, along with legal wrangling over the rights. The Animals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994...

The Animals: It's My Life - 1965

Wikipedia

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TGIF Rock-n-Roll Oldies: The Troggs - 1966/67

The Troggs are an English rock band from the 60s known for timeless hits "Wild Thing", "Love Is All Around" and "With a Girl Like You", all million-selling singles.

The Troggs were from the town of Andover in southern England (originally The Troglodytes). The band formed in 1964, and were discovered by The Kinks' manager Larry Page the next year. 

The most famous hit was surely the single "Wild Thing", #2 in the UK and #1 in the United States in July 1966. Its combination of a simple heavy guitar riff and flirtatious lyrics helped it to quickly become a garage rock standard. It was recorded in one complete take at Olympic Studios in London. Oddly -and due to a dispute over US distribution rights- "Wild Thing" was released (along with the first album of the same name) on two seperate labels: Fontana and Atco. 

The band's success in the US was limited by not touring there until 1968, but they continued with a number of other hits such as "With a Girl Like You" (a UK #1 in July 1966, US#29) and "I Can't Control Myself" (UK #2 in September 1966).

Then came "Anyway That You Want Me" (UK #10 in December 1966), "Night of the Long Grass" (UK #17 in May 1967), and "Love Is All Around" (UK #5 in October 1967 and US number 7 in May 1968). 

With further chart success eluding the band, they split up in March 1969. But after a couple solo efforts, the band reformed with a cover version of the Beach Boys hit "Good Vibrations" that  unfortunately did not catch-on. Then, a reggae version of "Wild Thing" also failed to chart.

In 1991, The Troggs recorded Athens Andover, an eleven-song collaboration between themselves and three members of R.E.M., released in March 1992. The Troggs then tried to make the most of the new exposure with bizarre collaborations on new versions of "Wild Thing", milking it dry with actor Oliver Reed, English snooker player Alex Higgins, then yet anther version the following year featuring Wolf from the TV show Gladiators, which actually reached #69 in the UK.

Today, The Troggs are considered a highly influential band whose sound was one inspiration for garage rock and punk rock. Iggy Pop, The Buzzcocks, and American trailblazers The Ramones all cite them as a significant influence.

Jimi Hendrix also famously covered "Wild Thing" during their appearance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, introducing it as the British/American joint "national anthem", and climaxing with Hendrix burning his guitar... an iconic moment.

The Troggs:  Love is All Around - 1967

The Troggs: Wild Thing - 1966

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TGIF Rock-n-Roll Oldies: Johnny Rivers 1966

Johnny Rivers (born John Henry Ramistella @ NYC 11.07.42) is an American rock and roll singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer.... styles include folk songs, blues, and revivals of old-time rock 'n' roll songs in addition to some of Rivers' original material. 

Johnny Rivers's greatest success came in the mid-to-late 1960s with sequence of top US and international  hits such as "Seventh Son", "Poor Side of Town", "Summer Rain", "Secret Agent Man" -theme to the TV show- then in the early 70's with a great cover of Jerry Lee Lewis' "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie-Woogie Flu" that went to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, his third million-selling single.

Rivers continues to record and perform to the present in 2010... love that voice, and the guy can play a guitar:

Johnny Rivers: Secret Agent Man- 1966

 

Johnny Rivers.com   Wikipedia   

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TGIF Rock-n-Roll Oldies: The Band 1968

The Band was a highly-acclaimed and influential 60s-70s rock music group originally consisting of Canadians Rick Danko , Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, and Robbie Robertson along with American drummer/singer Levon Helm . All five were notable musicians in their own right, and three lead singers symbolic of the group's bountiful talent.

Original members of The Band first worked together as they joined Toronto-based rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins' backing group -The Hawks- from 1958-63  then onto The Levon Helm Sextet/Levon and the Hawks. They also released a single under the name Canadian Squires, but returned as Levon and the Hawks for a recording session later in 1965. 

At about the same time, Bob Dylan recruited Helm and Robertson for two concerts, then the entire group for his '65 US tour/'66 world tour. With Dylan, they played a tumultuous series of concerts marking Dylan's final transition from folkie to full-electric-rocker.

These historic appearances were also met with the heckling of folk purists. The Band was used to an audience looking to have a good time, so being rejected on principle was a bizarre, unexpected experience. Levon Helm was so affected by the negative reception that he left the tour within three months and sat out the rest of that year's concerts, as well as the world tour in 1966... then spending much of this period working on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

Dylan with The Band 1966

 Then in July of 1966 while on a break from touring, Bob Dylan was injured in a motorcycle accident, and retired into semi-seclusion in Woodstock, New York. For a while, the Hawks returned to the bar and roadhouse touring circuit, sometimes backing other singers (including a brief stint with Tiny Tim). Dylan invited the Hawks to join him in Woodstock, where they recorded a much-bootlegged and influential series of demos, subsequently released on LP as The Basement Tapes. 

Because they were always "the band" to various frontmen, Levon Helm said the name "The Band" worked well when the group began recording their own material. They created two of the most acclaimed albums of the late 1960s: their 1968 debut Music from Big Pink (featuring the single "The Weight"- featured below) and then 1969's The Band. 

The music fused classic country music and early rock and roll with a rhythm section reminiscent of a Motown beat. Every member was a multi-instrumentalist. There was little instrument-switching when they played live, but when recording, the musicians could make up different configurations in service of the songs. 

Their rich harmonies blended together not sweetly but in an informal, flowing manner that gave them a unique sound, and their image and lyrics -steeped in traditional American culture- was also unusual, running counter to the hippie and psychedelic themes of the day. Levon Helm's drumming was often praised: critic Jon Carroll famously declared that Helm was "the only drummer who can make you cry."- and along with The Byrds this trailblazing group created a genre for later country-rock superstars like The Eagles.

Trivia: 70s Scottish hard-rockers Nazareth (Love Hurts, This Flight Tonight) named their own band from the first line of this song, "The Weight"... a favorite of theirs, and definitely one of mine, here performed live at Woodstock in the Summer of '69...

The Band: The Weight

Wikipedia   AllMusic.com

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TGIF Rock-n-Roll Oldies: The Box Tops 1967

The Box Tops were a Memphis rock group active in the mid-to-late 1960s. Known for such hits as The Letter (below), Neon Rainbow, Soul Deep, I Met Her in Church, and Cry Like A Baby, the band is historically significant as a major "blue-eyed soul" group of the period. 

They performed a mixture of current soul music songs by artists such as James and Bobby Purify and Clifford Curry, pop tunes such as A Whiter Shade of Pale by Keith Reid, Gary Brooker and Matthew Fisher of Procol Harum, and songs written by their producers, Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, and Chips Moman. 

The Box Tops' music combined elements of soul music and light pop. Their records are prime examples of the styles made popular by Moman and Penn at American Sound Studio in Memphis.

Vocalist Alex Chilton went on to front the powerpop band Big Star and to launch a career as a solo artist, during which he occasionally performed songs he had sung with the Box Tops...  

The Box Tops: The Letter 1967

Wikipedia

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TGIF Rock-n-Roll Oldies: The Byrds 1965

The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. This pioneering group underwent numerous personnel changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (aka Jim McGuinn) remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973, while also featuring David Crosby for three seperate stints.

Although they only managed to attain the commercial success on the scale of contemporary greats like The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Rolling Stones for a fairly brief period (1965–66), time has treated their work well... as The Byrds are today considered to be one of the most influential bands of the 60s. 

Initially, they pioneered the musical genre of folk rock, melding the influence of The Beatles and other British Invasion bands with contemporary and traditional folk music. As the 1960s progressed, the band were also influential in originating psychedelic rock, raga rock, and country rock.

The Byrds' signature blend of clear harmony singing and McGuinn's jangly twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar has continued to be influential on popular music up to the present day. The Byrds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Byrds #45 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time

Among the band's most enduring songs are their electric-cover versions of folk greats Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man and Pete Seeger's Turn! Turn! Turn!, along with the self-penned originals, I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better, Eight Miles High, So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star, Ballad of Easy Rider and Chestnut Mare.

They covered quite a number of Dylan tunes in electric actually, bringing a lot to the material with variations of their own signature sound... like my own lifelong favorite, lip-synched here on the
Ed Sullivan Show...

The Byrds: Mr Tambourine Man- 1965

Wikipedia   Google Video

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Rock-n-Roll Oldies: The Moody Blues 1965

The Moody Blues are an English rock band, perhaps most famous for the international mega-hits Knights in White Satin and Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood.

Among numerous innovations was a fusion with classical music, most notably on 1967 album Days of Future Passed- inspiring others such as ELO to do the same. And The Moody Blues are a towering commercial success, selling in excess of 50 million albums worldwide while being awarded 14 platinum and gold discs.  Today -in 2010- they remain active.

I myself saw the band play outdoors in 1979, in the midst of a commercial comeback... great show, one of those greats you feel blessed to have seen at least somewhere near their prime...

The Moody Blues: Go Now- 1965

Wikipedia

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