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Hardly a soul exists in a developed country that hasn’t heard some Steve Lukather guitar playing at one time or another, and many have no awareness that what they’re listening to is his playing. He worked in the late 70s and 80s mostly as a session player for too many names to list but two of the big ones are Cher and Michael Jackson. He also got together with his session player buddies to form a band called Toto. Since 1989 he has also put out a variety of solo work. More recently, he’s been a part of Ringo’s all star band

I have listed this post as incomplete, because I have listened to a rather small amount of Toto’s catalogue, only 2 of their 14 studio albums. I found out about Toto while working at a grocery store. I would hear Hold the Line on the store radio and liked it. I later looked it up and that was the first time I heard the name Toto. I believe I’ve heard Rosanna on those “hits of the 80s” type CDs being advertised on TV in the 90s. In 2012 I found out that some guy called Steve Lukather was going to be playing a Joe Satriani’s G3 that year. My reaction was, “Who the hell is that?” So that actually got me to check out his solo records starting with 2008’s Ever-changing Times. Since then I have been meaning to give Toto a chance and only did so about half a year ago. I also recently finished reading Lukather’s book, so some of the information here is coming from that. He likes to go buy Luke as a result of knowing too many Steves like Steve Porcaro for example, so I’ll refer to him as Luke from here on.

What I remember from the book is that during the 70s Luke had a little high school band going. He did a little bit of session work, but somewhere along the way he got picked up by Boz Scaggs to be his touring guitarist not long after he was out of high school. He ended up doing two solos on Scaggs’s eighth studio album, Down Two Then Left.

This is a very Lukather-esque solo that works as a good representation of his style.

This was a one take solo that helped establish his session player career. Word tended to make its way around the music community of L.A. when something like that was down. I honestly prefer the A Clue solo to this one. It was also not long after that the his session player buddies decided to form Toto with him.

I’ve been thinking about how odd a band Toto is. All of the musicians in the band are really, really good but at the same time there’s a complete lack of the coolness factor in their music. They are a group of music nerds doing really great music but nobody is going to think you’re one of the cool kids (or cool, uhh, older guy) if they hear you listening to Toto. Some true rocker types might even put you down for it. So anyway, let’s start with:

The typical Toto approach was shared vocal duties, and Luke takes the lead on this one. I honestly find the sound of his voice to be quite good. He’s a baritone and no legendary singer, but he’s got a pleasant, natural tone to his voice. That’s actually Cheryl Lynn singing the “Georgy porgy” chorus. In this video you might also notice how dorky the members of Toto look. Totally not cool at all. Jeff Porcaro, the drummer, could play some drums but those glasses look so terrible. Anyway, Luke is bringing some nice slide guitar at 2:00 with an oddly-placed solo in the middle of the song.

Not surprisingly, this song started as a piano song, and Luke added that complementary guitar riff on top of the piano foundation. This is an excellent example of the kind of thing Luke (probably most members of Toto as well) did. He has an excellent ability to add a complementary guitar track that enhances a song and makes it even better. Some of Luke’s best work is not his soloing or lead guitar, but his additions to what end up being rather full mixes with a lot of instruments doing a lot of work.

Again, he’s singing on this one, and I find his voice quite pleasant. I love those two notes he plays in the transition from the softer sections to the rockin’ part (1:57).

After a pretty successful first album based off the success of “Hold the Line,” they decided to go for more rock credibility with their next effort, Hydra.

There’s a short transition solo at 1:20 and a much longer solo found at 2:19. He nailed it on both of them, and then there’s another sort of solo squeezed in there during the transitional section at 3:08 and outro soloing to take us home at 4:04. All well done.

I don’t have a solo to point you to here, but what I love about his song is his complementary rhythm playing that starts at 0:40 and repeats several times throughout the song. I’m assuming this was another Hold the Line type piano song that he added guitar on top of.

Yes, that famous song. Luke got to sing the verse and the higher stuff was done by Bobby Kimball, the tenor. The hardest rockin’ parts of the song are created by Luke’s guitar and makes the song more complex and interesting than the piano pop ditty it is in most places. He starts soloing at 3:13 and does the outro solo thing later on.

My knowledge of Toto stops there.

I do know the Luke is the one playing rhythm guitar and bass on MJ’s Beat It. He also contributed guitar work and solos to 80s/90s hits like (Solo at 2:17):

In 1989 Luke released his first solo album. I recall reading about how he got shafted as far as it being released in the USA. So he didn’t really have much success with it. The first two tracks might have had some radio success. The first one features an unlisted Eddie Van Halen in there. I’m not sure what he did on the track.

I haven’t listened to 1994’s Candyman much, but I enjoyed his 1997 release entitled Luke.

Songs like this reveal Luke is more than just a guitar player. He really did a great job on the lyrics and vocals here. I really like the continuous vocal drops during the chorus that mimic a slide guitar or other instrument that goes between the notes. His solo here does not disappoint either (3:16).

In 2003 he released a Christmas album called Santamental. Which features a lot of guests, so it’s listed as Steve Lukather and Friends. One of those guests is Eddie Van Halen on the first track.

After an instrumental presentation of the song, there’s a long soloing section featuring alternating solos between Luke and Eddie for a total of 6. This is probably the coolest and craziest version of Joy to the World you’ll ever hear.

I’m including this song, because it’s actually a modern, original Christmas song that perfectly mimics that traditional Christmas feel. Honestly, I thought it was a traditional Christmas song until I read in his book that he wrote it with help from a friend.

In 2008 he released Ever-Changing Times. Overall it is a good collection of rock songs and ballads, but I can’t choose a song that really stands out.

In 2010 he released All’s Well That Ends Well, which is a similarly excellent piece of work.

Again, Luke brings it as more than just a guitar player but as a singer and lyricist as well. He also got excellent keyboard work done. That additional guitar track at 0:46 was a brilliant addition. He starts a solo at 2:43 and just kills it. Another great solo in a great song.

He’s got himself a nice little riff going on this one with some masterful soloing starting at 2:56.

Finally, his solo career stops in 2013 at this point with an album simply named Transition. This guy puts out great stuff now and this is another overall great effort. The nine-track album starts off with 3 negative songs. The first two are about all the hate spewed on the internet by keyboard warriors, and the third about getting divorced. It’s followed up by a song called Right the Wrong and then the title track, Transition. There are then two positive songs and a love song written by a friend who gave him permission to use it. Finally, it ends on an instrumental cover of Charlie Chaplin’s Smile. I leave you with the opening track.

I kept my coverage of the solo albums pretty brief. I’m sure I left out some great work and great solos, and really, I would recommend checking out the full albums from 2008 to 2013 if you like a wide variety music with excellent musicianship. If you know more about Toto than me, you can contribute some Toto songs and moments I haven’t heard yet.

Hits: 8

As much as this song is an example of the great “Girl Groups” tracks released in the 1960’s, the history of this particular song has as much to do about the people involved. Who actually sang the song and how Phil Spector was involved makes this rather involved. Let’s see if we can sort this out.

Musicians on this track include Barney Kessel and Tommy Tedesco on guitar, Larry Knechtel and Leon Russell on piano, and Steve Douglas on saxophone. Douglas was also the contractor for the session, meaning he assembled the musicians. According to Douglas, his sax solo on this song was one of his favorites, but Phil Spector was going to put vocals over it. Douglas convinced him to leave it alone, and it became one of the most famous saxophone solos of the era.

Let’s start with Phil Spector who, at 21 years old, was quickly becoming a major influence in the way records were being produced. This record was one of his initial starts in what was to become famously known as the “Wall Of Sound” technique. Multi-track recording, and stereo, was a way to record different instruments and vocals separately and combine them later into a final track, and was on its beginnings to become the norm for producers. Spector, and incidentally Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, didn’t care much for this technique. They both prefered the sound of mono recording to have the full sound come from both speakers to embellish it. Spector recorded this song at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, packing all the musicians into a room that measured just 19 x 24 feet. Spector was meticulous about microphone placement, especially when it came to the drums. He recorded the song in mono, which meant that every instrument was coming out of both speakers at full force, eschewing the nuance of stereo for the power of a single track.

Spector wasn’t big on editing or post-production, so he spent a lot of his studio time having the musicians run through the track before he would roll tape. Typically, he would have the guitarists play for a while while he worked out the song, then bring in pianos, bass, and drums. Vocals were recorded in an echo chamber located behind the control room at Gold Star.

Add in the personality of Phil Spector to the mix and his “dictatorship” of how he used and controlled the groups he recorded, the story of his life (he was convicted of the 2003 murder of actress Lana Clarkson and is currently in prison) makes it remarkable he was able to accomplish as much as he did. He would frequently use a group name, change who the members were, and release records that made it hard to know who sang which one. That leads us to the next part of this records history.

This song was written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector. Barry and Greenwich (later married and divorced) had written several other hits, including (but not only) “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”, “Then He Kissed Me”, “Be My Baby”, “Chapel of Love”, and “River Deep -- Mountain High” (also written with Phil Spector); “Leader of the Pack” (written with Shadow Morton); and “Sugar, Sugar”. They also recorded songs as a duo known as The Raindrops, as well as a version of this song.

The song was composed over two days in Spector’s office in New York. The refrain of “Da Doo Ron Ron” came from nonsense syllables they stuck in as filler for lyrics later, but it was exactly what Phil Spector was looking for, since he didn’t want a cerebral lyric getting in the way of his massive production and the tidy boy-meets-girl story line. The rhymes of the opening lines, “I met him on a Monday and my heart stood still … Somebody told me that his name was Bill” was inspired by Bill Walsh, a friend of Spector who happened to visit Spector while the three were writing the song. Sonny Bono, who was also a record producer at the time and was hanging out at the sessions, recalls Spector asking if the song was “dumb enough,” meaning is was accessible to the teenagers who were the target audience. Spector knew he had a hit with this one, telling Bono on playback, “That’s solid gold coming out of that speaker.”

The Crystals were one of the legendary girl groups in music history despite their short career, 1961-1964, and the different line-ups that recorded under the group name. The original Crystals were signed to Phil Spector’s Phillies label during 1961. Barbara Alston, Mary Thomas, Delores Kenniebrew, Patsy Wright, and Mema Girard formed the group in Brooklyn where they came to the attention of Spector. They quickly produced two top 20 hits, “There’s No Other (Like My Baby)” and “Uptown.” The Crystals regrouped in 1963 without Mary Thomas and added Dolores “La La” Brooks as lead singer. Meanwhile in California, The Blossoms with Darlene Love also came to the attention of Phil Spector. When it became inconvenient to bring The Crystals to California for a recording session, he used The Blossoms to fill in. The result was the number one hit “He’s A Rebel” and “He’s Sure The Boy I’m Gonna Marry” with the lead vocal by Darlene Love. Upon closer examination, however, it turns out that (as mentioned) “He’s a Rebel” and “He’s Sure the Boy I Love” weren’t sung by the real Crystals at all, while two other songs (i.e., “Tonight I Met the Boy I’m Gonna Marry” and “Look in My Eyes”) are generally credited not to the Crystals but to Darlene Love in the case of the first song and the Chantels (a pioneering girl group that had no connection whatsoever with Phil Spector), in the second. Neither song is listed in any Crystals’ discography found, but it’s likely they recorded their own, little known, versions of both. And that likely lets you know just how difficult untangling the true facts can be.

As for “Da Doo Ron Ron”, who actually sang the lead vocals is contested and even the subject of a lawsuit. Darlene Love, who was featured in the 2013 documentary “20 Feet From Stardom”, has said that she was the lead singer on this song, which was recorded at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles. Love sang lead on The Crystals’ previous hits “He’s A Rebel” and “He’s Sure the Boy I Love” because Phil Spector called in her group The Blossoms to record those songs when The Crystals couldn’t make it to Los Angeles. The songs were still credited to The Crystals, and Love claims that she expected her own single release to follow.

Love has given various accounts of her side of the story, telling Katie Couric that she sang lead on “Da Doo Ron Ron,” but backing off that claim in later interviews, saying that her lead vocals were wiped out and replaced by Crystals lead singer Dolores “La La” Brooks in retaliation by Spector when she asked him for an artist’s contract. When the movie “20 Feet From Stardom” -- which featured Love -- was released in 2013, The New York Times ran a story about the film that claimed Love sang lead on the song. Two weeks later, they ran a correction, stating: “While she did sing, it was as backup, not as the lead.”

Whether she appeared on the song at all is in dispute. The person who can best answer that question is Phil Spector, but since he was in jail when “20 Feet From Stardom” was released, journalists couldn’t use him to fact check Love’s claims. La La Brooks, however, has her own account, which includes a phone call Spector made to his wife, Rachelle, who married him while his trial was going on. Brooks’ friend, Roger L. Chemel, provided an account with a photo of Brooks, Rachelle Spector, and Art Cohen (Brooks’ manager), taken where this conversation took place. Here’s the account:

On August 27, 2012, La La Brooks and Art Cohen, La La’s manager, met with Rachelle Spector after an attendance at the David Letterman Show in New York City. As the three of them joined to have dinner together at a local restaurant, Phil Spector called his wife Rachelle from the prison where he is incarcerated. La La recalls telling Rachelle to say “hi” to Phil. After the conclusion of this telephone call, La La Brooks explained the situation with Darlene Love claiming to have sung the original track of “Da Doo Ron Ron.”

Rachelle Spector tells La La Brooks and Art Cohen that she was flying back to California on August 28, 2012; and that she would explain the situation to Phil Spector. Rachelle Spector flies back to California for her allowed once a month visit on that date, and Rachelle explains to Phil what Darlene Love is saying. Phil Spector tells his wife that Darlene Love did not record a track of DDRR; that Darlene Love never sang background; and that Darlene Love was never a Crystal. Phil told Rachelle that he thought Darlene Love’s voice was too mature and gospely for DDRR and never considered Darlene at all for the song. Rachelle called La La Brooks that day and told her what she found out from Phil Spector.

In an interview with La La Brooks by Songfacts, she talked about recording this song:

When I went to the studio to do ‘Da Doo Ron Ron,’ Phil had taught me the song. When I walked in the studio, all the musicians were there, and after they finished putting down the track, I sat there for hours. Me and Cher went out to get something to eat. We come back, they’re still putting down the track. All of the sudden, when the track is finished, Phil says, ‘La La, go in the booth and put down the song now.’ I went in there, put down the song. I had trouble with (singing) ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.’ I had trouble with that because he liked my ending, because it was my ending in my head, and he said, ‘I want that again.’ I had to double it, and it was hard for me to double it, because I couldn’t get together with the ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,’ and then (in lower voice), ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.’ It was confusing. He said, ‘La La, try it again.’ And that’s how we recorded it.

La La Brooks also recalled the recording of the song to Mojo magazine November 2011:

I sang Da Doo Ron Ron over and over. Phil was sort of a perfectionist with that one. And I remember being pooped in the studio (laughs). I wanted to run out that door so fast but he kept going over and over. Thirty, 40 takes. I would say, “When are you gonna get it, you know?”

To best sum this all up, Michael H. Little put it well:

In closing, I will reiterate; trying to untangle the incestuous threads that tied the recording histories of the girl groups of the early sixties together is an exercise in frustration, if not outright futility. Producers used band names and considered band members interchangeable, so that I’m still not convinced, for example, that the Crystals ever recorded a version of Darlene Love’s “Today I Met the Boy I’m Gonna Marry.” Lala Brooks recorded a version; could this be the one credited to the Crystals? I don’t know. What I do know is that in a world where “He’s a Rebel” is still credited as a Crystals’ song, anything is possible. Me, I think the Crystals deserve a hallowed place in the rock pantheon for “Then He Kissed Me” alone. It makes me swoon, and not many songs can do that. As for the rest, I’ll let the serious rock historians ferret out the truth. I simply don’t have the patience.

In 2004, the Crystals’ song was ranked number 114 on Rolling Stone’s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”. It was, however, removed from the same list in the 2010 update, being the highest-ranked of the 27 songs that were removed. It was listed at number 528 by Q Magazine in their list of “The 1001 Best Songs Ever”, published in 2003. Berlin Media listed the song at number 43 on their list of “The 100 Best Singles of All Time” list published in 1998. It was also recognized by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the “500 Songs That Shaped Rock”. Billboard named the song #55 on their list of “100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time”. The song has been recorded by many, including but not limited to, Mike Love of the Beach Boys (as well as The Beach Boys themselves), Bette Midler, The Searchers, and bootlegged studio recordings by Bob Dylan, and The Rolling Stones.

Hits: 52

Running just 1:38 this is the shortest song ever to hit #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. But “Stay” is exactly as long as it needs to be. It’s fast and grimy and irresistible, firing off hooks in all directions and then ending as soon as it started. Despite it’s brevity, it still tells a story and while Williams sang the first part of this song, the soaring falsetto that overtakes him was group member Shane Gaston. That section is a huge part of the song’s success and lends itself well to falsetto singers.

This was written by Williams in 1953 when he was 15 years old at his home in Lancaster, South Carolina. He had a beautiful 15-year-old girl over, but it was 10 O’clock at night, and he tried to convince her to stay. He lost the argument, but as he was to relate years later, “Like a flood, the words just came to me.” Her parents were very strict about her curfew, so Williams could only watch as her brother picked her up and drove off.

In 1960, the song was put on a demo by Williams and his band, the Zodiacs. Maurice Williams’ first experience with music was in the church, where his mother and sister both performed. By the time he was six, Williams was performing regularly there. With his childhood friend Earl Gainey, Williams formed the gospel group the Junior Harmonizers. As rock and roll and doo-wop became their primary interest, the Junior Harmonizers changed their name to the Royal Charms. Williams finished high school and while on the road with the band, their station wagon broke down in Bluefield, West Virginia. The band came across a British-built Ford car known as the Zodiac and changed their name. Shortly thereafter, Henry Gaston replaced Earl Gainey.

In the spring of 1959, Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs performed at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. Around that time, the group split and reformed. The members were Williams, Gaston, Wiley Bennett, and Charles Thomas. Later, Little Willie Morrow and Albert Hill were added. One month later, in the early summer of 1959, the band recorded in a Quonset Hut on Shakespeare Road in Columbia. The recording engineer, Homer Fesperman, recorded several tracks that the band had hoped would fetch them a hit. One of the last tracks that they recorded that day was “Stay”.

The group barely dented the Billboard Hot 100 after “Stay”. Their only other entries were “Come Along” (#83) and “Here In My Heart” (#86), both in 1961. The only other hit for Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs was the Williams-written song “Little Darlin'” which was a #11 hit on the R&B chart in 1957, but did not break into the Billboard Hot 100‘s Top 40. However, when it was covered by the Canadian group the Diamonds, it moved up to #2. That recording also capitalized on a falsetto hook and a bass-spoken verse, an oft used feature of Doo-Wop at the time.

There have been numerous covers, including versions by The Four Seasons, Jackson Browne (a much longer version), and The Hollies. “Stay” was also featured in 1978 movie “Dirty Dancing”, which also increased the song’s popularity.

The Four Seasons version was first released on their June 1963 album “The 4 Seasons Sing Ain’t That a Shame and 11 Others”; it was later released as a single in December 1963. Vee Jay originally released it as the B-side of “Peanuts” in December, but when disc jockeys started to “turn the single over” to play “Stay” on the air, the record company superseded the single with a new one with “Stay” as the A-side and “Goodnight My Love” as the new B-side. It peaked at number 16 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in April.

In August 1963, the song was released by the Hollies on their debut album “Stay With The Hollies”, and then took it to number eight in the UK Singles Chart. Their version is slightly longer, adding a guitar solo, and wastes no time getting started.

A version of the song with revised lyrics is the last track on Jackson Browne’s 1977 album “Running on Empty”. The song, which follows on the heels of Browne’s “The Load-Out” begs the audience to stay for an encore and includes an extensive playout. It includes backing contributions from David Lindley and Rosemary Butler. Browne, Butler and Lindley each contribute a similar verse in turn in ascending vocal ranges. It was released as a single and reached number 20 in the U.S. as well as number 12 in the UK.

Maurice Williams continued recording, touring, and releasing music through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. He is still active in the music industry, residing in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2010. He also made several performances for the PBS “Doo Wop 50” show series in 2001.

Hits: 86

With its Eastern-sounding, feedback-laden guitar solo and anti-war/pro-environmental lyrics, several music writers have identified it as the first popular psychedelic rock song. It is built on musical elements contributed by several group members in three different recording studios in the US and was the first Yardbirds’ composition to become a record chart hit.

The song features Jeff Beck’s musical use of feedback, which he learned to control by finding the guitar’s resonant points and bending the strings. Music writers have called his work groundbreaking and cited its influence on Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix. Several live Yardbirds recordings with Beck and later with Jimmy Page have been released. In 1968, Beck reworked it for the lead track on his debut album “Truth”, with Rod Stewart on vocals. According to Beck, vocalist Rod Stewart suggested that they record the song and Beck added, “let’s slow it down and make it dirty and evil” The new arrangement, along with other album tracks, has been described as a precursor of heavy metal.

By the end of 1965, the Yardbirds had released three albums and several singles. However, except for a few B-sides, their material was adapted from older blues and rhythm and blues songs or composed by songwriters not associated with the group. According to drummer Jim McCarty, the Yardbirds were experimenting with their sound, but had yet been unable to translate it into a hit song:

We were really coming from not trying to create a sort of a 3-minute piece of music, it was just something that seemed natural to us. We started with the rhythm, we used a bass riff that came from a jazz record, got a groove going with that and then added a few other bits from elsewhere, other ideas that we’d had. And I think it was a great success for us, it was a good hit record that wasn’t really selling out. And it was original.

Beck confirmed McCarty’s account and added, “Somebody’d say, ‘Let’s do something modern and exciting; we know we can get a good blues sound, so let’s spread it out a little bit.’ It was all spur of the moment, man”. Over two days at Chess Records, a backing track was completed and the Yardbirds continued their American concert tour. Shortly after arriving in Hollywood, the group resumed recording at Columbia studios on 7 January and at RCA studios on 10 January 1966. Singer Keith Relf contributed lyrics and a melody for the song.

Although Beck had been impressed with the Chess studio’s history and sound, he had been unable to complete a guitar solo to his satisfaction.

I kept changing guitar sounds all the way through. So we did two or three takes of my guitars and blended them all together. But the solo on “Shapes of Things” was pretty honest up until that feedback note that comes in over it”, he recalled. During the recording, “there was mass hysteria in the studio when I did that solo. They weren’t expecting it and it was just some weird mist coming from the East out of an amp. Giorgio was freaking out and dancing about like some tribal witch doctor.

Beck played the solo on one string , using a 1954 Fender Esquire guitar he had purchased before the tour. Relf also benefitted from multi-tracking—two vocal tracks were recorded, allowing him to harmonise the vocal line.

Yardbirds’ biographer Gregg Russo describes the song “a quantum leap in their development …[it] proved at once progressive and commercial—the perfect marriage of socially conscious lyrics and a driving rhythm”. Unterberger also saw the group moving into the area of social commentary that had begun with an earlier song, “You’re a Better Man Than I”. Beck biographer Martin Power describes the lyrics as pro-environmental or anti-war, while McCarty feels that it reflected the opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War. The actual lyrics are subject to interpretation:

Now the trees are almost green
But will they still be seen
When time and tide have been
Fall into your passing hands
Please don’t destroy these lands
Don’t make them desert sands

“Shapes of Things” is credited to bassist Paul Samwell-Smith, Relf, and McCarty. Samwell-Smith, who is also listed as the song’s musical director, believed that Beck should have also received a composer’s credit for his contributions to the song’s development.

According to music writer Keith Shadwick, their arrangement follows a “simple and economical form that allowed its message to unfold naturally, inviting the sound enhancement at which Beck and bassist Paul Samwell-Smith were quickly becoming expert”. McCarty recalled that Samwell-Smith got an idea for a bass line from a song by jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck (identified as “Pick Up Sticks” from the 1959 “Time Out” album) to which he added a marching-style drum beat.

As they started to develop the rhythm, chords were added – “G and F, and then resolving it in D, each verse.” For the middle section guitar solo, the beat shifts into double-time and the instrumentation heightens the tension. This rhythmic device, originally used in jazz improvisation, was the Yardbirds’ signature arrangement. Dubbed a “rave-up”, it was a feature of several of their songs.

A key feature of the song is Beck’s innovative guitar playing. Shadwick comments it “suited Beck’s taste for shaping and sculpting guitar sounds through the control and manipulation of sustain and, on occasion, feedback”. Beck recalled he began incorporating feedback into his guitar solos after he realised that he could control it, adding “I started finding the resonant points on the neck where it came in best. I loved it because it was a most peculiar sound that contrasted wildly with a plucked string, this round trombone-like noise coming from nowhere. In addition to feedback, Beck’s uses a musical scale and bent notes variously described as Eastern, Indian, or raga sounding. Critics and biographers have called the solo “monumental[ly] fuzz-drenched”, “explosively warped”, and “climaxed with a solitary, gigantic burst of feedback”. For many, the song represents the Yardbirds’ creative peak, including Beck. He commented, “‘Shapes of Things’ was the pinnacle of the Yardbirds” and added “if I did nothing else, that was the best single”.

When Jimmy Page supplanted Beck in the Yardbirds, they continued playing this song in their live sets.

“Shapes of Things” is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame list of “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll”. Q magazine placed the song at number 61 in its March 2005 list of the “100 Greatest Guitar Tracks Ever!”. Several artists have recorded renditions of the song, including David Bowie, Jeff Healey, Nazareth, Rush, and the Scorpions, with Led Zeppelin occasionally including a portion of the song in medleys during early concert performances.

Hits: 42

Prior to recording for Vee-Jay Records, John Lee Hooker was primarily a solo performer or accompanied by a second guitarist, such as early collaborators Eddie Burns or Eddie Kirkland. However, with Vee-Jay, he usually recorded with a small backing band, as heard on the singles “Dimples”, “I Love You Honey”, and “No Shoes”. Detroit pianist Joe Hunter, who had previously worked with Hooker, was again enlisted for the recording session. Hunter brought with him “the cream of the Motown label’s session men, later known as the Funk Brothers”: bassist James Jamerson, drummer Benny Benjamin, plus guitarist Larry Veeder, tenor saxophonist Hank Cosby, and baritone saxophonist Andrew “Mike” Terry. They have been described as “just the right band” for “Boom Boom”. Hooker had a unique sense of timing, which demanded “big-eared sidemen”.

Even playing solo, John Lee shows why this song has become a Blues-Rock standard.

Hooker told Bruce Pollock how the song originated:

I used to play at this place called the Apex Bar in Detroit. There was a young lady there named Luilla. She was a bartender there. I would come in there at night and I’d never be on time. Every night the band would beat me there. Sometimes they’d be on the bandstand playing by the time I got there. I’d always be late and whenever I’d come in she’d point at me and say, ‘Boom Boom, you’re late again.’ And she kept saying that. It dawned on me that that was a good name for a song. Then one night she said, ‘Boom boom, I’m gonna shoot you down.’ She gave me a song but she didn’t know it.

I took that thing and I hummed it all the way home from the bar. At night I went to bed and I was still thinking of it. I got up the next day and put one and one together, two and two together, trying to piece it out -- taking things out, putting things in. I finally got it down right, got it together, got it down in my head. Then I went and sang it, and everybody went, Wow! Then I didn’t do it no more, not in the bar. I figured somebody would grab it before I got it copyrighted. So I sent it to Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress, and I got it copyrighted. After I got it copyrighted I could do it in the bar. So then if anybody got the idea to do it I had them by the neck, because I had it copyrighted. About two months later I recorded it. I was on Vee-Jay then. And the record shot straight to the top. Then, after I did it, the Animals turned around and did it. That barmaid felt pretty good. She went around telling everybody I got John Lee to write that song. I gave her some bread for it, too, so she was pretty happy.

The song is one of Hooker’s most identifiable and enduring and “among the tunes that every band on the early 1960s UK R&B circuit simply had to play”. Just three years after Hooker released “Boom Boom,” it got swept up in the British Invasion when London rockers the Animals took it on. Their version reached an audience that might never have heard Mississippi-born bluesmen like Hooker, and it helped cement the song’s place as a blues-rock classic.

“Boom Boom” was the first studio recording by Eric Clapton, who recorded it as a demo with the Yardbirds in 1963, and which was released as a single in the Netherlands and Germany in 1966.

When “Boom Boom” was released by Hooker as a single in May 1962, the song became a hit. It entered the Billboard R&B chart on June 16, 1962, where it spent eight weeks and reached number 16. The song also entered the Billboard Hot 100, where it reached number 60, making it one of only two Hooker singles to enter the pop chart. It was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of “The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll”. It was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 2009 in the “Classics of Blues Recording” category. A Detroit Free Press poll in 2016 ranked the song at number 37 in “Detroit’s 100 Greatest Songs”.

Hits: 16

This song, and the band itself, has a rather convoluted history that Mark S. Weitz, who was the original keyboard player of the Strawberry Alarm Clock, helped sort out. Prior to the release of “Incense and Peppermints” the Strawberry Alarm Clock had already issued four singles on All-American Records under the name Thee Sixpence. None of those charted, even though they did a version of “Hey Joe”. “Hey Joe” was copyrighted in 1962 by folk singer Billy Roberts and has been recorded by many artists including the Standells, the Surfaris, the Byrds, and of course Jimi Hendrix.

Weitz says:

It went from Thee Sixpence right into the Strawberry Alarm Clock. I was instrumental in coming up with the name. I borrowed the Strawberry from Strawberry Fields Forever and then right down to the noisy Baby Ben electric alarm clock (in my bedroom/guest house where we used to rehearse) that we hooked up with name Strawberry to come up with the new name. We were asked by [producer] Frank Slay to come up with a new name because when we did a name check to clear it for label printing, Thee Sixpence was already used somewhere by another band at the time and there would be too much confusion.

The writing credits of “Incense and Peppermints” are listed as John Carter and Tim Gilbert, who were not part of the band, and based on an instrumental idea by band members Mark Weitz and Ed King, the group’s guitarist. (In 1970, an unknown band called Lynyrd Skynyrd opened some shows for The Strawberry Alarm Clock, and King got to know them. In 1973 King joined Skynyrd on guitar, ultimately writing the riff for “Sweet Home Alabama”).

Weitz gave this account of how the song was written:

I came up with the idea and actual music to the then untitled song that ultimately evolved into the #1 national hit, ‘Incense and Peppermints.’ I wrote the intro (the oriental sounding riff), the verses, and the ending (the major sevenths) while Ed King, at my request for some help on completing the song, co-wrote the bridge (the F # part) and of course the lead guitar parts. At the time when the music was recorded at Art Laboe’s ‘Original Sounds’ studio in Hollywood, there was only a temporary title to the song, and lyrics had not yet been written. Our producer Frank Slay decided to send the fully mixed music track (recorded on 8 tracks of mono!) to John Carter; a member of the band The Rainy Daze, who Slay also produced at the time. John Carter was solely responsible for conjuring up the lyrics and the controversial melody line extracted out of the finished musical track. Frank Slay ultimately credited that melody line solely to the writing team of John Carter and Tim Gilbert. To this day, they have received 100% of the royalties.

The lead vocalist on this track was also not a member of the group. It was Greg Munford, a 16-year-old singer with a group called The Shapes, who sang lead. Bassist/rhythm guitarist George Bunnell explained:

That’s a whole other ridiculous story. One of those things where nobody thinks that at the moment, what you’re doing is going to be successful. The song wasn’t fitting anybody. Greg Munford happened to just be sitting there in the session, and Greg also had the same manager and producer. He was doing his own project simultaneously. They asked him to try it, and it was right in his wheelhouse. So he did it and it was exactly how you hear it. He was not in the band, and then the song started to have success. Then they asked Greg Munford if he wanted to be in the band and he didn’t. He had his own thing.

King, Weitz, guitarist Lee Freeman, bassist Gary Levetro, drummer Randy Seol were relegated to playing the instruments and singing harmonies and backup vocals. Steve Bartek, a non-member at the time, played flute on the song. Levetro left the group shortly after recording the song with Bunnell taking over on bass.

When the band did the song live, drummer Randy Seol sang the lead vocal — or lip-synched to Munford’s vocal on television appearances (as in the opening video of this article). According to George Bunnell, they were trying to sound British when they sang this, but their fake English accents ended up sounding trippy, which ended up working very well.

A good example of the genre that came to be known as “Psychedelic” music, which was very popular at the time. Many of these songs had a drug influence, and that may have been the case here. Says Weitz:

When the music was written by myself in early ’67 at my home in Van Nuys California, with my request for some help on the bridge of the song from Ed King, it was mid day, and no drugs were involved whatsoever. I came up with this musical idea and chord progressions that evolved that afternoon in a short time to what basically was recorded with some minimal editing to cut down the almost 5 minute original down to 3 minutes and change. As for the lyrics, that was the brainchild of John Carter. And there are many stories to how he came about those lyrics, but I can’t substantiate any of it.

Originally released as the B-side with “The Birdman of Alkatrash” released as the A-side by All-American Records, before long disc jockeys had discovered the B-side and began playing it on the radio instead. MCA Records also heard it and decided to pick up the distribution, re-releasing the single in May 1967 on its Uni subsidiary. It took a while, but “Incense and Peppermints” finally entered the singles chart at the end of September. By the week ending Nov. 18, it had reached #1, and became 1967’s #23 biggest hit overall.

Although they are known largely as a one-hit wonder today, Strawberry Alarm Clock stuck around long enough to place three further singles on the chart. Their “Incense and Peppermints” album itself rose to #11 largely on the strength of the hit single. They constantly underwent lineup changes during its brief reign — Steve Bartek and George Bunnell, a guitarist and bassist, joined the group after the “Incense” sessions and the latter became one of the group’s main songwriters. The group managed to release three further albums into 1969, none of which cracked the chart.

As of 2017 Strawberry Alarm Clock, with most of the 1967 members, were still performing.

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