Rock Evolution – The History of Rock & Roll - 1985 - (page 203)

The pick prompted me to rewatch some of TE's performances of this, and also to have that level of talent and not let it go to your head too, top stuff.
Was getting kicked out of pubs for being drunk , stoned and wanting to fight anybody and everybody in his early days even when he joined Dragon and they had to let him go but boy did he turn it around especially after he met Chet.
 
I have added yet more tracks:

Norman Greebaum: Spirit in the Sky
Frank Sinatra: My Way
Thunder clap Newman: There’s Something in the Air
Issac Hayes: By The Time I Get to Phoenix
Stevie Wonder: My Cherie Amour
Was going to select Thunder Clap Newman in the spirit of one hit wonders ( Accident I wouldn't class as an all time classic ) combined with the fact the band albeit they didn't last long were formed by Pete Townshend and the ill fated but brilliant producer Kit Lambert. I didn't know that Jimmy McCulloch was in the bad until many years later.

This selection IMO is a must have for the 1969 playlist.

Back to the drawing board.
 
Was going to select Thunder Clap Newman in the spirit of one hit wonders ( Accident I wouldn't class as an all time classic ) combined with the fact the band albeit they didn't last long were formed by Pete Townshend and the ill fated but brilliant producer Kit Lambert. I didn't know that Jimmy McCulloch was in the bad until many years later.

This selection IMO is a must have for the 1969 playlist.

Back to the drawing board.
Consider it yours. You’ve provided the explanation and info I didn’t know.
 
I have added yet more tracks:

Norman Greebaum: Spirit in the Sky
Frank Sinatra: My Way
Thunder clap Newman: There’s Something in the Air
Issac Hayes: By The Time I Get to Phoenix
Stevie Wonder: My Cherie Amour
great call on 'Phoenix' Issac Hayes, presume 'Hot Buttered Soul was released in 69?..seems early!
 
I have added yet more tracks:

Norman Greebaum: Spirit in the Sky
Frank Sinatra: My Way
Thunder clap Newman: There’s Something in the Air
Issac Hayes: By The Time I Get to Phoenix
Stevie Wonder: My Cherie Amour
Sine die for adding ‘My Way’.
 
I have added yet more tracks:

Norman Greebaum: Spirit in the Sky
Frank Sinatra: My Way
Thunder clap Newman: There’s Something in the Air
Issac Hayes: By The Time I Get to Phoenix
Stevie Wonder: My Cherie Amour

Does this mean I can't have the epic 12 minute Walk on By that's the A side to By The Time ? If so you are a bad man :-) I know Hayes is famous but he's still massively underrated.

Anyway, Jimmy Cliff. His eponymous album was out this year (retitled Wonderful World, Beautiful People in the US) and though it has more famous songs than my choice we can come back to one of them in 72, so I'm going with a song Bob Marley loved.

Vietnam - Jimmy Cliff
 
Consider it yours. You’ve provided the explanation and info I didn’t know.
I cannot steal your Thunder OB1 , he who hesitates is lost.

I might dig into some of my singles I collected during the seventies and I am sure one or two will be from 1969.

Been years since I flicked through them which this excellent thread will inspire me to do.
 
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"Six feet one, weigh two hundred and ten"

Redding might have gone but Steve Cropper and Booker T kept the flame burning with the posthumous releases.

Love Man - Otis Redding
To think he was taken at 26 , he carved out a career in three years or thereabouts many would have lauded had they lasted until they gracefully retired in their mature years.
 
Let's double down on the theme of "first song, first album" as Yes wasn't the only artist to venture out with a first in 1969.

Take 3 major vocalists of prior groups Buffalo Springfield, The Hollies, and The Byrds and put them together in this folk/pop/psychedelic rock supergroup, and we've just struck gold. Only one Canadian short of an "up the antee" lineup, this would do (for now).

To put into words what this collaboration was and what it meant going forward, I can think of no one other than David Crosby to sum it up as he did on the first album liner notes:

This was one of those times where everything clicked. I don't want to sound cosmic or anything, but it's almost like there was a greater force at work, and I don't just mean Ahmet Ertegun. The degree to which this all fell together was so astoundingly high you almost feel someone -- or something -- wanted to happen. Granted, all three of us were talented guys, but we also knew our combination was somehow blessed. The three of us have different voices. We have different accents. We have different attitudes. We are very different people. But the thing that happens when you put those three voices together is just amazing. As soon as we started singing together, we knew we were into some brand-new, wonderful terra incognita. There was some magic there, and you can hear that magic all over our first album.

"Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" - Crosby, Stills, & Nash
 
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Let's double down on the theme of "first song, first album" as Yes wasn't the only artist to venture out with a first in 1969.

Take 3 major vocalists of prior groups Buffalo Springfield, The Hollies, and The Byrds and put them together in this folk/pop/psychedelic rock supergroup, and we've just struck gold. Only one Canadian short of an "up the antee" lineup, this would do (for now).

To put into words what this collaboration was and what it meant going forward, I can think of no one other than David Crosby to sum it up as he did on the first album liner notes:

This was one of those times where everything clicked. I don't want to sound cosmic or anything, but it's almost like there was a greater force at work, and I don't just mean Ahmet Ertegun. The degree to which this all fell together was so astoundingly high you almost feel someone -- or something -- wanted to happen. Granted, all three of us were talented guys, but we also knew our combination was somehow blessed. The three of us have different voices. We have different accents. We have different attitudes. We are very different people. But the thing that happens when you put those three voices together is just amazing. As soon as we started singing together, we knew we were into some brand-new, wonderful terra incognita. There was some magic there, and you can hear that magic all over our first album.

"Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" - Crosby, Stills, & Nash
Good choice. One of the songs on my list of possible playlist additions.
 
My choice is The Real Thing by Russell Morris.

I am sure some of you haven't heard of him but he has been in the music business for 59 years now and has an incredible catalogue of songs written by him and others.

We are lucky to have some decent songwriters in OZ over the years and no doubt Russell Morris is one of them.

Rock ,blues even some jazz he does it all with aplomb as he embarks on his farewell tour.

This one was wasn't written by Russell Morris and was his debut single as a solo artist and what a debut it was.

Only beaten by Hey Jude in length at the time when 4 minute singles were considered too long.

It could have been downhill from this epic classic of Australian music but he was too talented for that not to be the case as many others with big debuts faded quickly in Oz in the sixties and seventies and while he had difficulties in the UK without a recording contract he moved to New York and the rest is history.

I caught a recent gig with his latest backing band and while understandably his voice has faded somewhat he still puts on a good show well worth the entry fee and then some.

Hope you all enjoy it.
 
Good things come in threes, right?

Well, we're currently enjoying the album Heartbreaker on the Album Review Club from Free, so there's one.

Throw in the Led Zeppelin single from the LZ II album that @OB1 has already well covered, and you have a standout rocking single from this year. That's two.

But did you know....?

that there was another single of "Heartbreaker" from the very same year??
Hmm, now we're talking!

I quite enjoyed hearing the previous OZ nomination of "The Real Thing" coming in at 6:19, so I'll raise the stakes to 6:35 for this lesser known single.

Back during my college days in the Detroit metro area, I heard heavy doses of regional northern midwest music that I don't recall ever hearing nearly as much of otherwise. One of those bands was a 1970's American giant from Flint, Michigan. And like other massive 1970's bands that we've already covered on this specific playlist, this hard rock band too got their start in 1969. Don Brewer on drums and vocals, Mel Schacher on bass, and the great Mark Farner on guitars and lead vocals came together to create this band that would have numerous well-known hits over the next decade.

But most don't remember this single from their very first album that preceded their bigger hits and showed that this band was right On Time.

"Heartbreaker" - Grand Funk Railroad

(side band name note: originally named as a play on words from the Michigan Grand Trunk Western Railroad, the railroad objected to their name being used and "Funk" was used instead. I think that was a win-win overall)
 
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