In an interview, SRV said it was “A Prayer” and on an Austin City Limits performance, Stevie introduced this by saying it was “This one goes out for all the people still suffering out there tonight”.

Done in one magic take, the recording session was the stuff of legends. Producer Jim Gaines recalls:

Stevie told me he had an instrumental he wanted to try, and I said that I only had nine minutes of tape left,”  “He said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s only four minutes long.’ We dimmed the lights and the band started playing this gorgeous song, which went on to six minutes, seven minutes, seven-and-a-half… The performance was absolutely incredible, totally inspired, dripping with emotion—and here we were, about to run out of tape. “I was jumping up and down, waving my arms, but everyone was so wrapped up in their playing that no one was paying me any mind. I finally got Chris’ attention and emphatically gave him the cut sign. He started trying to flag down Stevie, but he was hunched over his guitar with his head bent down. Finally, he looked up, and they brought the song down just in time. It ended, and a few seconds later the tape finished and the studio was silent, except for the sound of the empty reel spinning around.

It has been said by those who knew Stevie best that he considered this to be his masterpiece, as it is his soul that your hearing not just notes and chords. Stevie called it “The King Tone”—the bell-like, crystalline timbre of a Fender Strat played clean, warm and in the in-between (out-of-phase neck-middle and bridge-middle) pickup positions. And he put it to extraordinary use on “Riviera Paradise,” one of his rare but unforgettable forays into the world of Wes Montgomery–inspired jazz blues.

It was the last song he played at what would be his last show, a show that he opened up for Eric Clapton.

After his performance he received a standing ovation that lasted for what seemed like an extended period of time going much longer than what would be considered normal. As he was finishing his bows of gratitude to the crowd you can see Clapton, who also is giving a standing ovation to Stevie. As Stevie was finishing his bow’s of gratitude to the crowd you can see Clapton also giving a standing ovation near the back of the stage. He greeted Stevie as he was leaving the stage and told him that his song was beautiful, powerful, something special. The song pulled him (Clapton) out of his dressing room, that he had to come see this being played, that he was just like the people in the crowd, he was blown away by it. When Clapton took the stage he even told the crowd he was taken by the song and it was the first time in a very long time that he didn’t know what to open with saying how do you even follow that performance.

Stevie took Clapton’s seat on the flight out, he was trying to beat the bad weather said to be coming and there wasn’t room for the two of them, Clapton was being nice and trying to help when he offered up his seat to Stevie. Before Stevie left he told the members of his crew/band that he received what he considered to be the greatest compliment in the history of his life tonight from someone he looked up to since he was a child. It meant so much to him to hear that from Eric Clapton, someone he considered to be one of the all time greatest guitarist in the world. That flight crashed, killing everyone onboard. Clapton was devastated when he learned of the crash and Stevie’s untimely death, he later again talked about Stevie’s performance that night and how he (Clapton) was just like the people in the crowd and was so taken by that beautiful, powerful piece of music, calling it a masterpiece by anyone’s standards and like the artist something special that should be remembered for eternity.

Hits: 93

While traveling on his tour bus with the Four Tops on May 15, 1969, Four Tops member Renaldo “Obie” Benson witnessed an act of police brutality and violence committed on anti-war protesters who had been protesting at Berkeley’s People’s Park in what was later termed as “Bloody Thursday”. A disgusted Benson later told author Ben Edmonds:

I saw this and started wondering ‘what was going on, what is happening here?’ One question led to another. Why are they sending kids far away from their families overseas? Why are they attacking their own kids in the street?

Returning to Detroit, Motown songwriter Al Cleveland wrote and composed a song based on his conversations with Benson of what he had seen in Berkeley. Benson sent the unfinished song to his bandmates but the other Four Tops turned the song down. Benson said:

My partners told me it was a protest song. I said ‘no man it’s a love song, about love and understanding. I’m not protesting. I want to know what’s going on.’

Benson and Cleveland offered the song to Marvin Gaye when they met him at a golf game. Returning to Gaye’s home in Outer Drive, Benson played the song to Gaye on his guitar. Gaye felt the song’s moody flow would be perfect for The Originals. Benson, however, felt Gaye could sing it himself. Gaye responded to that suggestion by asking Benson for songwriting credit of the song. Benson and Cleveland allowed it and Gaye edited the song, adding a new melody, revising the song to his own liking, and changing some of the lyrics, reflective of Gaye’s own disgust. Gaye finished the song by adding its title, “What’s Going On”. Benson said later that Gaye tweaked and enriched the song, “added some things that were more ghetto, more natural, which made it seem like a story and not a song … we measured him for the suit and he tailored the hell out of it.” During this time, Gaye had been deeply affected by letters shared between him and his brother after he had returned from service over the treatment of Vietnam veterans.

Gaye had also been deeply affected by the social ills that were then plaguing the United States at the time, even covering the track, “Abraham, Martin & John”, in 1969.

Gaye cited the 1965 Watts riots as a pivotal moment in his life in which he asked himself, “with the world exploding around me, how am I supposed to keep singing love songs?” One night, Gaye called Berry Gordy about doing a protest record while Gordy vacationed at the Bahamas, to which Gordy chastised him, “Marvin, don’t be ridiculous. That’s taking things too far.”

Reuniting at their parents’ suburban D.C. home, Marvin’s brother Frankie discussed the events of his tenure at Vietnam, detailing experiences that sometimes left the two brothers consoling each other in tears. Then after Frankie explained witnessing violence and murder before he was to depart back to the states, he recalled Marvin sitting propped up in a bed with his hands in his face. Afterwards, Marvin told his brother, “I didn’t know how to fight before, but now I think I do. I just have to do it my way. I’m not a painter. I’m not a poet. But I can do it with music.”

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Marvin Gaye discussed what had shaped his view on more socially conscious themes in music and the conception of his eleventh studio album:

In 1969 or 1970, I began to re-evaluate my whole concept of what I wanted my music to say … I was very much affected by letters my brother was sending me from Vietnam, as well as the social situation here at home. I realized that I had to put my own fantasies behind me if I wanted to write songs that would reach the souls of people. I wanted them to take a look at what was happening in the world.

Worldwide surveys of critics, musicians, and the general public have shown that “What’s Going On” is regarded as one of the landmark recordings in pop music history, and one of the greatest albums of the 20th century. This song was ranked number 4 on Rolling Stone’s 2003 list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.

Hits: 10

This often covered classic evolved from a number of artists and songwriters. It is notable as the first Motown song to reach the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. The single achieved this position in late 1961; it hit number one on the R&B chart as well. “Please Mr. Postman” became a number-one hit again in early 1975 when the Carpenters’ cover of the song reached the top position of the Billboard Hot 100.

The song began it’s life the fall of 1960 when the group that would become the Marvelettes formed at Inkster High School in Inkster, Michigan by fifteen-year-old glee club member Gladys Horton. Horton enlisted older glee club members Katherine Anderson, Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart, and Georgia Dobbins (already a high school graduate) to join her. The members struggled to come up with a name for their new act until one of the members jokingly took a stab at their own singing abilities, saying “we can’t sing yet.” Horton altered the saying to “The Casinyets”.

In 1961, the quintet, now called the Marvels, entered a talent show contest on the behest of their teacher and ended up finishing in fourth place. Though only the first three winners were offered a trip to audition for the fledgling Motown label, two of the girls’ schoolteachers advised that they be allowed to audition too. Upon auditioning for Motown executives including Brian Holland and Robert Bateman, they had a second audition with bigger staff including Smokey Robinson and the label president and founder, Berry Gordy, who while impressed with their vocal styles advised them to come back with their own composition. Returning to Inkster, Georgia Dobbins contacted a local musician named William Garrett, who had an unfinished blues composition titled “Please Mr. Postman”; Garrett allowed Dobbins to use it as long as he received songwriting credit if the song became a hit. Despite having no previous songwriting experience, Dobbins took the song home, kept only the title as inspiration, and reshaped it overnight to reflect the teenage sound of doo-wop.

I was waiting for the postman to bring me a letter from this guy who was in the Navy. That’s how I came up with the lyrics. Then I made up the tune. I just hummed it over and over and changed it to the way it should be. I improvised.

Songwriting credits for “Please Mr. Postman” seem to have changed over the years. The original Tamla 45 single for the Marvelettes’ version credits “Dobbins/Garrett/Brianbert” as the songwriters, and credits “Brianbert” (Brian Holland and Robert Bateman) as producer. The original “With the Beatles” album cover credited it to just Brian Holland. The 1976 Beatles discography book “All Together Now” credits the songwriting to Holland, Bateman, and Berry Gordy (who frequently required credit even when he had nothing to do with a songs creation). The 1992 Motown boxed set “Hitsville USA: The Motown Singles Collection” credits Dobbins, Garrett, Holland, Bateman, and Gorman as the composers. The Songwriters Hall of Fame credits “Please Mr. Postman” to just Holland, Bateman, and Gorman. EMI Music Publishing, the current music publisher of the song, list all five writers in their catalog.

Prior to returning to Motown, Georgia Dobbins left the group due to her growing family and her father, who advised her not to continue her career in show business. Dobbins’ departure left Gladys Horton in full charge of the group. To replace her, Horton asked another Inkster graduate, Wanda Young, to replace Dobbins. When the group returned and performed their composition, Berry Gordy agreed to work with the group but under the advice that they change their name. Gordy renamed them The Marvelettes and signed the act to Motown’s Tamla division in July 1961. The following month, the group recorded “Please Mr. Postman”, which was polished by Brian Holland, Robert Bateman and Freddie Gorman, another songwriting partner of Holland (before Holland became part of the Holland–Dozier–Holland team), who moonlighted as a mailman, as well as the song “So Long Baby”, sung by Wanda. Tamla issued “Please Mr. Postman” on August 21, 1961. The song then climbed to the top of the singles chart, reaching #1 that December. making them the first Motown act to have a #1 hit on the Hot 100.

The backing artists on the record were the Motown session musicians, the famous Funk Brothers, including a 22 year-old Marvin Gaye on drums.

The song’s second milestone – after its climb to the top of the Billboard charts – was when John, Paul, George and Ringo chose it for their second U.K. album, “With The Beatles”. The group had already put the song into their live set, performing it regularly at the Cavern Club; then it became one of three Motown covers recorded for that 1963 album, delivered to an even wider audience worldwide than the original. Sung by John Lennon, they played it at many of their early concerts. The song was one of three Motown cuts, along with “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me” and “Money (That’s What I Want)” that The Beatles released on the Beatles’ second album. Motown head Berry Gordy agreed to a lower rate for use of the songs, as he was thrilled to have The Beatles recording tracks from his roster.

The third accomplishment for the song occurred when a hit cover of “Please Mr. Postman” was recorded by the Carpenters, whose version took the song again to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1975. The Carpenters’ version resembles an old 1950s rock & roll song. The single was released in late 1974, reached number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts in January 1975, and was the duo’s 10th and final million-selling single.

Due to their success, the Marvelettes had to leave school in order to perform and despite the promise of tutors to help with their schooling, they were never granted any. Due to their young ages and Gladys Horton being an orphaned ward of the courts, they eventually were taken in by Esther Gordy Edwards, who bused them to Motortown Revue shows. After several successful Top 40 recordings the group was shortened to a quartet when Juanita Cowart opted to leave the band citing a mental breakdown -- caused by stress from performing on the road and a mistake she made in describing the group’s background during an appearance on American Bandstand.

By 1964, the majority of American vocal groups, especially all female bands such as the Shirelles and the Ronettes, started struggling with finding a hit after the arrival of British pop and rock acts. In the meantime, other Motown girl groups such as Martha and the Vandellas and the Supremes were starting to get promoted by Motown staff with the Vandellas becoming the top girl group of 1963. By the end of 1964, Georgeanna Tillman, a longtime sufferer of sickle cell anemia was diagnosed with lupus. By early 1965, struggling to keep up with their stringent recording sessions and touring schedules and her illnesses, a doctor of Tillman’s advised her to leave performing for good. The rest of the Marvelettes carried on as a trio from then on.

Late in 1970 the group disbanded with Katherine Anderson settling briefly as a staff writer for Motown. After Motown moved to Los Angeles in 1972, Anderson and Rogers left the business altogether returning to Michigan with Anderson settling in her hometown of Inkster while Rogers moved to Southfield, Michigan. Meanwhile, Gladys Horton had moved to Los Angeles where she raised her three sons. Over the years since, there has been a few groups touring under the name the Marvelettes, but they contained no original members.

In 1995, they were honored with the Pioneer Award at the Rhythm & Blues Foundation. In 2004, the group was inducted to the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. In 2005, the group was awarded with two gold plaques for their biggest hits, “Please Mr. Postman” and “Don’t Mess with Bill” after the RIAA had certified the singles as million-sellers. In 2007, the Marvelettes were voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. The Marvelettes were nominated for 2013 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They became eligible for induction in 1987. Although they did not garner enough votes for induction, they made the ballot a second time for induction in the year 2015.

Hits: 18

“Good Vibrations” was composed by Brian Wilson with words by Mike Love. Characterized by its complex soundscapes, its episodic structure, and its subversions of pop music formula, it was the most costly single ever recorded at the time of its release. “Good Vibrations” later became widely acclaimed as one of the greatest masterpieces of rock music. Most of the song was developed as it was recorded. Its title derived from Wilson’s fascination with cosmic vibrations, after his mother once told him as a child that dogs sometimes bark at people in response to their “bad vibrations”. He used the concept to suggest extrasensory perception, while Love’s lyrics were inspired by the Flower Power movement that was then burgeoning in Southern California.

The making of “Good Vibrations” was unprecedented for any kind of recording, with a total production cost estimated between $50,000 and $75,000 (equivalent to $370,000 and $550,000 in 2016). Building upon the multi-layered approach he had formulated with the “Pet Sounds” album, Wilson recorded the song in different sections at four Hollywood studios from February to September 1966, resulting in a cut-up mosaic of several musical episodes marked by disjunctive key and modal shifts. Band publicist Derek Taylor dubbed the unusual work a “pocket symphony”. It contained previously untried mixes of instruments, including jaw harp and Electro-Theremin, and it was the first pop hit to have a cello playing juddering rhythms.

Virtually every pop music critic recognizes “Good Vibrations” as one of the most important compositions and recordings of the entire rock era, and it is regularly hailed as one of the finest pop productions of all time. For the song, Wilson is credited with further developing the use of the recording studio as an instrument, as Phil Spector had pioneered. Both were advocates of recording in mono instead of stereo. The single revolutionized rock music from live concert performances to studio productions which could only exist on record, heralding a wave of pop experimentation and the onset of psychedelic and progressive rock. Although it does not technically feature a theremin, it is frequently cited for having one, which led to the instrument’s revival and to an increased interest in analog synthesizers.

The Beach Boys leader, Brian Wilson, was responsible for the musical composition and virtually all of the arrangement for “Good Vibrations”. His cousin and bandmate Mike Love contributed the song’s lyrics and its bass vocalization in the chorus. During the recording sessions for the 1966 album “Pet Sounds”, Wilson began changing his writing process. Rather than going to the studio with a completed song, he would record a track containing a series of chord changes he liked, take an acetate disc home, and then compose the song’s melody and write its lyrics. For “Good Vibrations”, Wilson said

I had a lot of unfinished ideas, fragments of music I called ‘feels.’ Each feel represented a mood or an emotion I’d felt, and I planned to fit them together like a mosaic.

Most of the song’s structure and arrangement was written as it was  recorded. Engineer Chuck Britz is quoted saying that Wilson considered the song to be “his whole life performance in one track”. Wilson stated:

I was an energetic 23-year-old. … I said: ‘This is going to be better than [the Phil Spector production] “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'”.

Brian said that the song was inspired by his mother:

[She] used to tell me about vibrations. I didn’t really understand too much of what it meant when I was just a boy. It scared me, the word ‘vibrations.’ She told me about dogs that would bark at people and then not bark at others, that a dog would pick up vibrations from these people that you can’t see, but you can feel.

Brian first enlisted Pet Sounds lyricist Tony Asher for help in putting words to the idea. When Brian presented the song on piano, Asher thought that it had an interesting premise with the potential for hit status, but could not fathom the end result due to Brian’s primitive piano playing style. Asher remembers:

Brian was playing what amounts to the hook of the song: ‘Good, good, good, good vibrations.’ He started telling me the story about his mother. … He said he’d always thought that it would be fun to write a song about vibes and picking them up from other people. … So as we started to work, he played this little rhythmic pattern—a riff on the piano, the thing that goes under the chorus.

Brian wanted to call the song “Good Vibes”, but Asher advised that it was “lightweight use of the language”, suggesting that “Good Vibrations” would sound less “trendy”. The two proceeded to write a lyric for the verses, later to be discarded, in what was then the most basic section of the song.

Wilson thought of the theremin as “a woman’s voice or a violin bow on a carpenter’s saw”. From the start, Wilson envisioned a theremin for the track. AllMusic reviewer John Bush pointed out: “Radio listeners could easily pick up the link between the title and the obviously electronic riffs sounding in the background of the chorus, but Wilson’s use of the theremin added another delicious parallel—between the single’s theme and its use of an instrument the player never even touched.” “Good Vibrations” does not technically feature a theremin, but rather an Electro-Theremin, which is physically controlled by a knob on the side of the instrument. It was dubbed a “theremin” simply for convenience. Britz speculates: “He just walked in and said, ‘I have this new sound for you.’ I think he must have heard the sound somewhere and loved it, and built a song around it.” Brian has credited his brother and bandmate Carl for suggesting the cello as an instrument to use. He also stated that its triplet beat on the chorus was his own idea.

Mike Love submitted the final lyrics for “Good Vibrations”, claiming to have written them on the drive to the studio. Love reacted upon hearing the unfinished backing track:

[It] was already so avant-garde, especially with the theremin, I wondered how our fans were going to relate to it. How’s this going to go over in the Midwest or Birmingham? It was such a departure from ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.’ or “Help Me, Rhonda”.

Feeling that the song could be “the Beach Boys’ psychedelic anthem or flower power offering”, he based the lyrics on the burgeoning psychedelic music and Flower Power movements occurring in San Francisco and some parts of the Los Angeles area. He described the lyrics as “just a flowery poem. Kind of almost like ‘If you’re going to San Francisco be sure to wear flowers in your hair.'”

Capitol Records executives were worried that the lyrics contained psychedelic overtones, and Brian was accused of having based the song’s production on his LSD experiences. Brian clarified that the song was written under the influence of marijuana, not LSD. He explained:

I made ‘Good Vibrations’ on drugs; I used drugs to make that. … I learned how to function behind drugs, and it improved my brain … it made me more rooted in my sanity.

In Steven Gaines’s 1986 biography, Wilson is quoted on the lyrics: “We talked about good vibrations with the song and the idea, and we decided on one hand that you could say … those are sensual things. And then you’d say, ‘I’m picking up good vibrations,’ which is a contrast against the sensual, the extrasensory perception that we have. That’s what we’re really talking about.”

“Good Vibrations” was voted number one in the Mojo’s “Top 100  Records of All Time” and number six on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, and it was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the recording the song.

Hits: 19

Jack Leroy Wilson Jr. was a tenor with a four-octave range and was nicknamed “Mr. Excitement”. He was a prominent figure in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul and was considered a master showman, and one of the most dynamic singers and performers in pop, R&B, and rock & roll history. Although he had a rising career before, he was instrumental in the beginning of Motown Records and the “Detroit Sound”.

Wilson’s powerful, electrifying live performances rarely failed to bring audiences to a state of frenzy. His live performances consisted of knee-drops, splits, spins, back-flips, one-footed across-the-floor slides, removing his tie and jacket and throwing them off the stage, and a great deal of basic boxing steps (advance and retreat shuffling, and one of his favorite routines, getting some of the less attractive women in the audience to come up to the stage and kiss him. Wilson often said:

If I get the ugliest girl in the audience to come up and kiss me, they’ll all think they can have me and keep coming back and buying my records.

“Lonely Teardrops” was written by the Detroit songwriting team who wrote Wilson’s first several hits -- the duo of Tyran Carlo (the pen name of Wilson’s cousin Roquel Davis) and a pre-Motown Berry Gordy Jr., along with Gwendolyn Gordy (Berry’s sister). It was originally intended by Gordy to be recorded as a ballad. After recording it, Wilson and Brunswick Records executives felt the song lacked something. It was then given to veteran Decca Records arranger Dick Jacobs who re-arranged it into the smash hit it became. They co-wrote and produced six other songs for Wilson. At the time, Gordy was a struggling songwriter, but this song -- his first Top-10 hit as a songwriter -- gave him the confidence to rent a building in Detroit and start the Tamla label, which would become Motown.

The first of these hits written by the trio and which became a modest R&B success (many years later, an international smash hit) was “Reet Petite” in 1957.

Jackie Wilson gained initial fame as a member of the R&B vocal group Billy Ward and His Dominoes. Wilson went solo in 1957 and scored over 50 chart singles that spanned the genres of R&B, pop, soul, doo-wop and easy listening, including 16 R&B Top 10 hits, in which six R&B of the repertoire ranked as number ones. On the Billboard Hot 100, Wilson scored 14 top 20 pop hits, six of which reached the Top 10. Jackie Wilson was one of the more important and influential musical artists of his generation.

Wilson dropped out of high school at age 15, having been sentenced to detention in the Lansing Corrections system for juveniles twice. During his second stint in detention, Wilson learned to box and began competing in the Detroit amateur circuit at age 16. After his mother forced Jackie to quit boxing, Wilson was forced by her father to marry Freda Hood, and he became a father at age 17. It is rumoured that Wilson had fathered at least 10 other children before marrying Freda. He began working at Lee’s Sensation Club as a solo singer, then formed a group called the Falcons that included cousin Levi Stubbs, who later led the Four Tops.

The 1940s Blues singer Roy Brown was a major influence on him; and Wilson grew up listening to the Mills Brothers, the Ink Spots, Louis Jordan and Al Jolson. Jackie Wilson’s stagecraft in his live shows inspired James Brown, Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley, as well as a host of other artists that followed. Presley was so impressed with Wilson that he made it a point to meet him, and the two instantly became good friends. In a photo of the two posing together, Presley’s caption in the autograph reads “You got you a friend for life”. Wilson was sometimes called “The Black Elvis”.

After his string of early 1960’s hits, his career and sales experienced a lull. In 1966, Jackie Wilson scored the first of two big comeback singles with the established Chicago soul producer Carl Davis with “Whispers (Gettin’ Louder)” and “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher”, ( No. 6 pop hit in 1967, became one of his final hits); followed by “I Get the Sweetest Feeling”.

A key to Jackie Wilson’s musical rebirth was Chicago soul producer Carl Davis insisting that Wilson no longer record with Brunswick’s musicians in New York; instead, he recorded with legendary Detroit musicians normally employed by Motown Records and also Davis’ own Chicago-based session players. The Detroit musicians, known as the Funk Brothers, participated on Wilson’s recordings due to their respect for Davis and Jackie Wilson.

By 1975 Wilson had continued to record singles that found success on the R&B chart, but found no significant pop chart success.

On September 29, 1975, Jackie Wilson was one of the featured acts in Dick Clark’s “Good Ol’ Rock and Roll Revue”, hosted by the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He was in the middle of singing “Lonely Teardrops” when he suffered a massive heart attack. When he collapsed on stage, audience members applauded as they initially thought it was part of the act. Clark sensed something was wrong, then ordered the musicians to stop the music. Cornell Gunter of the Coasters, who was backstage, noticed Wilson was not breathing. Gunter was able to resuscitate him and Wilson was then rushed to a nearby hospital.

Medical personnel worked to stabilize Wilson’s vital signs, but the lack of oxygen to his brain caused him to slip into a coma. He briefly recovered in early 1976, and was even able to take a few wobbly steps but slipped back into a semi-comatose state. Wilson was deemed conscious but incapacitated in early June 1976, unable to speak but aware of his surroundings. Wilson was a resident of the Medford Leas Retirement Center in Medford, New Jersey, when he was admitted into Memorial Hospital of Burlington County in Mount Holly, New Jersey, due to having trouble taking nourishment, according to Wilson’s attorney John Mulkerin.

Jackie Wilson died on January 21, 1984, at age 49 from complications of pneumonia. He was initially buried in an unmarked grave at Westlawn Cemetery near Detroit. In 1987, a fundraiser by a Detroit radio station collected enough money to purchase a headstone.

In 1999, Wilson’s original version of “Higher and Higher” and “Lonely Teardrops” were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame; “Higher and Higher” (#246) and “Lonely Teardrops” (#315) are both are on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. “Lonely Teardrops” became an across-the-board national Top 10 Pop smash (#7) and a #1 hit on the R&B charts. It is ranked as the 57th biggest U.S. hit of 1959.

In 2005, Jackie Wilson was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame and on August 17, 2013 Jackie Wilson was inducted into the Official R&B Music Hall of Fame.

Hits: 17

The Cascades were born in 1960 aboard the U.S.S. Jason AR-8; a ship home-ported in San Diego and when overseas, in Sasebo, Japan. This group, then known to many of the servicemen and the local inhabitants as The Silver Strands were playing at local venues all around town. Their friend, John Gummoe, also aboard the Jason was their biggest fan and soon began acting as their manager. John had the band playing 5 nights a week before long and had also been working up some duets with Dave Wilson which the group eventually had David and John do on stage as part of their performance. This was the beginning of a group which would soon go on to be The Cascades (inspired by a box of dishwashing detergent) and they would eventually have this third largest selling record in the world in 1963.

After a short time, they changed their name to The Thundernotes. A few members left the group, Gummoe joined as lead singer, and the others were Eddie Snyder (guitar), David Szabo (keyboards), Dave Stevens (bass) and Dave Wilson (drums). While their first recordings were mostly instrumentals, they were influenced by the Beach Boys, and became more interested in vocal harmony.

“Rhythm of the Rain” was written by John Gummoe, who told the story in October 2008:

I wrote “Rhythm of the Rain” over a period of time, but the lyrics began while I was serving in the U.S. Navy aboard the U.S.S. Jason AR8. I was standing a mid watch on the bridge while we were underway to Japan. We were sailing up in the north pacific and it was raining heavily and the seas were tossing. The title came to me first and I liked the ‘ring’ of it, the way it flowed, and that night I wrote down most of the lyrics. It was like the rain was talking. It was producer Barry De Vorzon who came up with the idea of opening the song with that famous burst of thunder.

This was recorded at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, with engineer Stan Ross who was the technical know-how behind the famous Phil Spector “wall of sound”. Some of the elite west coast studio musicians played on this song, including the legendary session drummer Hal Blaine and guitarist Glen Campbell. The song arrangement features distinctive use of a celesta, which looks similar to an upright piano, albeit with smaller keys and a much smaller cabinet. The keys connect to hammers that strike a graduated set of metal (usually steel) plates or bars suspended over wooden resonators, and produces a sound that is similar to that of the glockenspiel, but with a much softer and more subtle timbre.

The Cascades continued to record, produced an album and several additional singles, but did not match the charm or success of their big hit. The group was active, played local San Diego clubs like The Cinnamon Cinder, and at other times, toured widely. In 1967, The Cascades appeared onscreen in the Crown International Pictures teen comedy adventure film, Catalina Caper, which included their version of a song written by Ray Davies of the Kinks, “There’s A New World Opening For Me.”

Gummoe left the group in 1967 to pursue a solo career and later formed the band Kentucky Express. The Cascades stayed together until about 1975 and Dave Wilson and Eddy Snyder were still a part of the group when it disbanded. Eddy continues to tour the west as Eddy Preston doing a “one man band” show in many popular resorts. David Wilson, the original drummer lives in the north-west U.S. with his wife, Terri. John Gummoe lives in southern California and continues to compose and record in his own home studio.

Hundreds of artists have covered this song, including Lawrence Welk, Bobby Darin, Dan Fogelberg, Jan & Dean, Gary Lewis & the Playboys, Neil Sedaka and Jerry Jeff Walker. A huge worldwide hit, BMI named “Rhythm of the Rain” the 9th most performed song of the 20th century. In March, 1963, the song was a top 5 hit in the United Kingdom and, in May that same year, was a number 1 single in Ireland. In Canada, the song was on the CHUM Chart for a total of 12 weeks and reached number 1 in March 1963. Billboard ranked the record as the number 4 song of 1963.

Hits: 16

The first thing to notice about this song is the question mark in the title. Written and performed by Traffic guitarist and sitarist Dave Mason, he explained:

Basically it’s an unrequited love song. It’s ‘feeling alright’ with a question mark; the song’s really about not feeling too good about myself – I wasn’t feeling alright! That was what it was about.

In fact, this wasn’t even one of Traffic’s highest charting hits. It took Joe Cocker covering it to get a higher placing on the charts. It was released as a single by Traffic, and it reached #123 on the US charts but failed to chart in the UK. Joe Cocker’s version reached #69 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and in a 1972 re-release, it reached even higher to #33.

When Traffic was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, they performed this song with a few friends. Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill of ZZ Top, Keith Richards, Kid Rock, Tom Petty, Jackson Browne, the Temptations, and Jeff Lynne.

It’s rather surprising, at least to me, that Traffic didn’t garner a wider audience considering the immense talent of each of the original members. It’s likely a result of them writing and performing the music the way they wanted to, instead of the commercial considerations of the record companies. Of course, they had to make a few concessions along the way, such as the title of this song. It was originally titled “Not Feelin’ Too Good Myself”, which is more accurate in terms of the song’s meaning, but less marketable.

Traffic was formed in Birmingham, England in April 1967 by Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason. They began as a psychedelic rock group and diversified their sound through the use of instruments such as keyboards like the Mellotron and harpsichord, sitar, and various reed instruments, and by incorporating jazz and improvisational techniques in their music. They’ve been labelled as Jazz Rock and Progressive Rock, neither of which record companies believe they can make a large profit off of. Traffic still stands as an important and influential group in the evolution of rock.

Winwood, Capaldi, Mason, and Wood met when they jammed together at The Elbow Room, a club in Aston, Birmingham. After Winwood left the Spencer Davis Group in April 1967, the quartet formed Traffic. Capaldi came up with the name of the group while the four of them were waiting to cross the street in Dorchester. Soon thereafter, they rented a cottage near the rural village of Aston Tirrold, Berkshire, England to write and rehearse new music.

Traffic signed to Island Records label (where Winwood’s elder brother Muff, also a member of the Spencer Davis Group, later became a record producer and executive), and their debut single “Paper Sun” became a UK hit in mid-1967 (#4 Canada).

Traffic’s singer, keyboardist, and guitarist Steve Winwood was the lead singer for the Spencer Davis Group at age 14. The Spencer Davis Group released four Top Ten singles and three Top Ten albums in the United Kingdom, as well as two Top Ten singles in the United States. Drummer/vocalist/lyricist Jim Capaldi and guitarist/sitarist Dave Mason had both been in the Hellions and Deep Feeling, while woodwinds player Chris Wood came out of Locomotive.

Early in Traffic’s formation, Winwood and Capaldi formed a songwriting partnership, with Winwood writing music to match Capaldi’s lyrics. This partnership was the source of most of Traffic’s material, including popular songs such as “Paper Sun” and “The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys”, and outlived the band, producing several songs for Winwood and Capaldi’s solo albums.

Steve Winwood, primarily a vocalist and keyboardist, also plays the Hammond organ, bass guitar, drums, acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin, violin, and other strings. Over Traffic’s history, Winwood performed the majority of their lead vocals, keyboard instruments, and guitars. He also frequently played bass and percussion, up to and including the recording sessions for their fourth album. Winwood was a key member of The Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith, Go, and part of the one-off group Eric Clapton and the Powerhouse. He also had a successful solo career with hits including “While You See a Chance”, “Valerie”, “Back in the High Life Again” and two US Billboard Hot 100 number ones: “Higher Love” and “Roll with It”.

Jim Capaldi’s career spanned more than four decades. Capaldi has performed with Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Alvin Lee, Cat Stevens, and Mylon LeFevre, and wrote lyrics for other artists, such as “Love Will Keep Us Alive” and “This is Reggae Music”. As a solo artist he scored more than a half dozen chart hits in various countries, the most well-known being “That’s Love” as well as his cover of “Love Hurts”. At 16 he took an apprenticeship at a factory in Worcester, where he met Dave Mason. In 1963 he formed the Hellions, with Mason on guitar. The Spencer Davis Group were staying at the same hotel as the Hellions during a tour and it was there that Steve Winwood befriended Capaldi and Mason. Later, in Birmingham, Capaldi would occasionally join his friends Mason, Winwood, and Chris Wood for after-hours impromptu performances at The Elbow Room club on Aston High Street. Early in 1967 they formalised this arrangement by forming Traffic. After several albums of varying commercial success, Capaldi, as well as the other members, would go on to do solo ventures while still supporting and appearing on each others releases. He remained professionally active until his final illness prevented him from working on plans for a 2005 reunion tour of Traffic. He died of stomach cancer in Westminster, London, on 28 January 2005, aged 60.

Over the course of his career, Dave Mason has played and recorded with many notable pop and rock musicians, including Paul McCartney, George Harrison, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Steve Winwood, Fleetwood Mac, Delaney & Bonnie, Leon Russell and Cass Elliot. One of Mason’s best known songs is the title song of this article “Feelin’ Alright”. As with the other members of Traffic, Mason’s tenure with Traffic was disjointed. He co-founded the group, but left following the recording of their debut album, Mr. Fantasy (1967), only to rejoin halfway through the sessions for their next album, Traffic (1968), after which he left again. In his brief spells with the group, Mason never quite fit in; Steve Winwood later recalled:

We all [Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood] tended to write together, but Dave would come in with a complete song that he was going to sing and tell us all what he expected us to play. No discussion, like we were his backing group.

After Traffic, Mason pursued a moderately successful solo career. For a brief period in the 1990s, Mason joined Fleetwood Mac and released the album “Time” with them in 1995. In 1997 Mason was scheduled to be a member of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band but he was dropped from rehearsals before the tour started. As of 2005, Mason was performing about 100 shows a year with the Dave Mason Band across the U.S. and Canada. As of 2018, Mason was continuing to perform in the US.

Chris Wood had an interest in music and painting from early childhood. Self-taught on flute and saxophone, which he commenced playing at the age of 15, he began to play locally with other Birmingham musicians who would later find international fame in music. Aged 18, Wood joined the Steve Hadley Quartet, a jazz/blues group in 1962. His younger sister Stephanie designed clothes for the Spencer Davis Group, and it was through her that Wood was first introduced to fellow Birmingham native Steve Winwood. A well-known Birmingham club – the Elbow Room – was an after-hours haunt of local bands and musicians and it was here that Wood used to meet up with Winwood and Jim Capaldi. In Traffic, Wood primarily played flute and saxophone, occasionally contributing keyboards, bass and vocals. Wood also co-wrote several of Traffic’s songs, particularly during the earlier period of the band’s recording career. His most notable contribution is as the co-writer (with Winwood and Capaldi), of “Dear Mr. Fantasy”. Wood introduced the 17th century traditional song “John Barleycorn” to the band. It became the title song of their 1970 album, “John Barleycorn Must Die.” Wood played with Jimi Hendrix in 1968, appearing on “Electric Ladyland”. When Winwood temporarily formed supergroup Blind Faith in 1969, Wood, Mason and Capaldi joined Mick Weaver (known as Wynder K Frog) to become Mason, Capaldi, Wood and Frog. He then went on to tour the United States with Dr. John. Wood remained with Traffic from the time of its 1970 reformation until its 1974 breakup. Through much of his life, Wood suffered from addiction to drugs and alcohol, which were initially attributed to a fear of flying. In 1983, Wood died of pneumonia at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England.

Over the years, as noted, the members of Traffic came and went, while still supporting each other in their solo projects. They left a great repertoire of inspired, artful music which progressed many rock artists and their music. It would be a pleasant and worthwhile venture to seek out their various albums.

The four original members of Traffic were inducted for their contributions in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 15 March 2004. Winwood, Capaldi, Mason, and Stephanie Wood (standing in for her late brother Chris) all attended the ceremony.

Hits: 14

This song is indeed one of the threads that ties the tapestry of Rock N Roll, Rock, Heavy Metal, et al, together. It has started some of the biggest names playing together and remains a seminal work in the history of music. Those are fairly strong statements, so let’s explore the story of this song.

Written by Tiny Bradshaw and first recorded by his band in 1951, the lyrics are based on “Cow-Cow Boogie”, a 1942 song about a singing cowboy. Bradshaw rewrote lines, such as “a ditty he learned in the city” and “get along, get hip little doggies, and he trucked ’em on down the old fairway”, to meet his new scenario. Although the King Records single lists “Bradshaw-Mann” as the songwriters, reissues and subsequent recordings of “The Train Kept A-Rollin'” credit Tiny Bradshaw, Lois Mann (a pseudonym of King Records’ owner Syd Nathan), and Howard Kay. BMI, the performing rights organization, lists the songwriters/composers as “Myron C. Bradshaw, Sydney Nathan, and Howard Kay”. According to music historian Larry Birnbaum, “Mann’s name was plainly added to allow Syd Nathan to siphon off a share of the publishing royalties, as label owners routinely did in those days; as for Kay, his identity remains a mystery”.

In 1956, Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio reworked Bradshaw’s song using a rockabilly/early rock and roll arrangement. The Trio’s version features guitar lines in what many historians consider to be the first recorded example of intentionally distorted guitar in rock music, although blues guitarists, such as Willie Johnson and Pat Hare, had recorded with the same effect years earlier.

The song continued to be played by many groups for the next nine years until, in 1965, the Yardbirds decided to record their version and introduce it into the early days of Rock. It is based on Johnny Burnette’s adaptation, with the Yardbirds’ lead guitarist Jeff Beck, who is a fan of early rockabilly, said that he introduced the song to the group: “They just heard me play the riff, and they loved it and made up their version of it”. Giorgio Gomelsky, the group’ first producer, states that Sonny Boy Williamson II’s use of blues harp to imitate train sounds during his 1963 UK tour with the Yardbirds also inspired the band’s adaptation of the song. Two combined takes of Keith Relf’s vocal were overdubbed with some differences in the lyrics.

In June 1966, bassist Samwell-Smith left the Yardbirds to become a record producer. His initial replacement, well-known studio guitarist Jimmy Page, soon switched to guitar with second guitarist Dreja taking over on bass. With both Beck and Page on board, the Yardbirds had one of the first dual lead guitar teams in popular rock. Movie director Michelangelo Antonioni saw the group’s September 23, 1966, performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London and, being impressed with their version of the song, requested that they perform “Train Kept A-Rollin'” for his upcoming film “Blowup”. Unable to secure the movie performance rights from the song’s publisher, singer Keith Relf wrote new lyrics, renamed it “Stroll On”, and included credits to the five band members. The Yardbirds also introduced an updated arrangement to go with the new lyrics.

Shortly after Keith Relf and Jim McCarty left the Yardbirds in mid-1968, Jimmy Page searched for new musicians for a successor band. When the future members of Led Zeppelin rehearsed together for the first time in 1968, the first song they played was “Train Kept A-Rollin'”. In “When Giants Walked the Earth”, biographer Mick Wall quotes Page:

[W]e did ‘Train’ … It was there immediately. It was so powerful that I don’t remember what we played after that. For me it was just like, ‘Crikey!’ I mean, I’d had moments of elation with groups before, but nothing as intense as that. It was like a thunderbolt, a lightning flash – boosh! Everyone sort of went ‘Wow’.

In an interview with Q Magazine January 2008, John Paul Jones recalls this was the first ever song he played with Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Bonham after joining Led Zeppelin:

I can remember the first song I played with Led Zeppelin in a tiny basement room in Soho in 1968, with wall-to-wall amps. That was ‘Train Kept A-Rollin’,’ the Yardbirds song, which I didn’t know at the time. But I knew immediately, ‘This is fun.’

They never recorded it in the studio but played it frequently during tours.

In 1974, Aerosmith brought “Train Kept A-Rollin'” into the hard-rock mainstream. Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Tom Hamilton had performed the song prior to joining Aerosmith. Perry recalled,

“Train Kept A-Rollin” was the only song we had in common when we first got together. Steven’s band had played ‘Train’ and Tom and I played it in our band … It’s a blues song, if you follow its roots all the way back … I always thought if I could just play one song, it would be that one because of what it does to me”. Perry’s band began performing the song regularly after he had been moved by the performance of “Stroll On” in Blowup;

Tyler recalled his band opened for the Yardbirds in 1966:

I had seen the Yardbirds play somewhere the previous summer with both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page in the band … In Westport [at their supporting gig on October 22, 1966] we found out that Jeff had left the band and Jimmy was playing lead guitar by himself. I watched him from the edge of the stage and all I can say is that he knocked my tits off. They did ‘Train Kept A-Rollin” and it was just so heavy. They were just an un-fuckin’-believable band.

“Train Kept A-Rollin'” was included on Aerosmith’s second album “Get Your Wings”. It consisted of two different versions of the song. The first part was slower, “more groove-oriented”, while the second was a spirited rocker. To give the second part more of a live sound, producer Jack Douglas overdubbed crowd noise from “The Concert for Bangladesh” recordings. Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, who worked with Lou Reed and Alice Cooper, were brought in to record the guitar parts. According to Hunter:

We [Wagner and I] wanted to keep the solos equal so we’d sit down … and go through the material so it was totally even … We didn’t want it to look like there was a rhythm guitar player and a lead guitar player, because that’s what we both did.

Hunter later elaborated:

Aerosmith was in Studio C of The Record Plant and I was doing work with Bob Ezrin in Studio A. I had a long wait between dubs and was waiting in the lobby. Jack Douglas popped his head out of Studio C and asked ‘Hey, do you feel like playing?’ I said sure, so I grabbed my guitar and went in … I had two run thru’s [sic], then Jack said ‘great that’s it!’ That turned out to be the opening solos on ‘Train Kept A Rollin’.

The Johnny Burnette Rock and Roll Trio rendition of “Train Kept A-Rollin'” is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s exhibit of the 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Music historian Larry Birnbaum notes the song’s lasting appeal and discusses renditions by Jeff Beck, Dread Zeppelin, Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, Foghat, Guana Batz, Haymarket Square, Colin James and the Little Big Band, Riot, Métal Urbain, Hanoi Rocks, Motörhead, Nazz, Shakin’ Stevens and the Sunsets, Skid Row, Screaming Lord Sutch, Sugarloaf, The Tragically Hip, Twisted Sister, and the Up. He sums up the various influences and versions:

As it evolved from ragtime through jazz, boogie-woogie, big-band swing, small combo rhythm-and-blues, rockabilly, blues-rock, acid rock, heavy metal, punk, thrash, psychobilly, and points beyond, ‘Train Kept A-Rollin” became increasingly wild and dissonant, as if each performer were trying to surpass the intensity of the previous one. Through all the transformations, the essence of Bradshaw’s original survives — a semblance of the melody, a smattering of the lyrics, and the immortal refrain ‘The train kept a rollin’ all night long’, a cogent sexual metaphor for power and endurance.

Hits: 67