On February 14th 1977 US singer songwriter Janis Ian received 461 Valentine’s day cards after indicating in the lyrics of her song ‘At Seventeen’, she had never received any. The particular line from the song which produced this rather kind gesture was “To those of us who knew the pain of valentines that never came“. 461 cards is a lot, but obviously I receive thousands every year. It really is hard being this handsome and charming!
If you have enjoyed this article, feel free to follow the blog.You can also follow us onInstagram, Bluesky, and Linkedin.
Are you interested in writing and reviewing for With Just A Hint Of Mayhem? If so then please get in touch via EMail.
On February 8th 1981 R.E.M. made their first ever-recording sessions at Bombay Studios in Smyrna, Georgia. Not India, obviously! The tracks they recorded that day included “Gardening At Night”, “Radio Free Europe” and “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville.” None of these three recordings were hits. But the band rerecorded “Radio Free Europe” in 1983 and then it reached the heady heights of number 78 in the US Billboard chart.
If you have enjoyed this article, feel free to follow the blog.You can also follow us onInstagram, Bluesky, and Linkedin.
Are you interested in writing and reviewing for With Just A Hint Of Mayhem? If so then please get in touch via EMail.
On 4th February 1978 “Up Town Ranking” by Althea and Donna was at Number 1 on the UK singles chart. It was the duo’s only hit, making the teenage girls one hit wonders. This song is most definitely one of my favourite one hit wonders and favourite reggae songs. At the time of their huge hit Althea Forrest and Donna Reid were 17 and 18 years old respectively. The pair returned to music in 2000 and played their last gig in 2018 at Rebel Salute in Jamaica. Althea now lives in Florida and Donna in New York. But seriously, how can that song be 47 years old?????
If you have enjoyed this article, feel free to follow the blog.You can also follow us onInstagram, Bluesky, and Linkedin.
Are you interested in writing and reviewing for With Just A Hint Of Mayhem? If so then please get in touch via EMail.
On February 2nd 2014 Skinny Puppy sent the US government an invoice after finding out their music was used as a torture device in Guantanamo Bay. They said they had never envisioned their music being used in such a way. They were asked how they felt about their songs allegedly being used in the detention camp for torture, singer cEvin Key replied: “Not too good. We never supported those types of scenarios. … Because we make unsettling music, we can see it being used in a weird way. But it doesn’t sit right with us.” I wonder if the US government had the same complaint from Barney The Dinosaur? Other artists whose music was used in this scenario include Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against The Machine, David Gray, Eminem and Metallica.
If you have enjoyed this article, feel free to follow the blog.You can also follow us onInstagram, Bluesky, and Linkedin.
Are you interested in writing and reviewing for With Just A Hint Of Mayhem? If so then please get in touch via EMail.
Filed under: On This Day — justwilliam1959 @ 11:57 pm
On February 1st 1967 Pink Floyd spent the day recording parts for the Syd Barrett songs “Arnold Layne’ and “Candy And A Current Bun” at Sound Techniques Studios, Chelsea, London. The Floyd also turned professional on this day after signing a deal with EMI Records.
If you have enjoyed this article, feel free to follow the blog.You can also follow us onInstagram, Bluesky, and Linkedin.
Are you interested in writing and reviewing for With Just A Hint Of Mayhem? If so then please get in touch via EMail.
On 23rd January 1990, David Bowie announced his Sound And Vision world tour. This tour would run from March 4th until September 29th that year. During the tour, he invited each local audience to decide on a ‘greatest hits’ running order. This was organised through local radio stations. The tour surpassed Bowie’s previous Serious Moonlight (1983) and Glass Spider (1987) tours’ statistics. It visited 27 countries. The tour included a total of 108 performances.
At the time Bowie looked forward to retiring his old hits. He said of the tour “It’s time to put about 30 or 40 songs to bed and it’s my intention that this will be the last time I’ll ever do those songs completely, because if I want to make a break from what I’ve done up until now, I’ve got to make it concise and not have it as a habit to drop back into. It’s so easy to kind of keep going on and saying, well, you can rely on those songs, you can rely on that to have a career or something, and I’m not sure I want that.” Having seen him a few times after the Sound and Vision tour he didn’t entirely retire all of them!
Cheekily and rather amusingly the NME ran a spoof campaign, in response to the telephone poll called ‘Just Say Gnome’. This was a great attempt to have “The Laughing Gnome” included in the set-lists. Apparently Bowie had considered playing “The Laughing Gnome” in the style of The Velvet Underground until he found out the voting had been perpetrated by the NME. Hearing it played that way would have been quite interesting in my opinion. As a footnote, during his A Reality Tour, Bowie performed “The Laughing Gnome” with his band during a November 2003 soundcheck at Wembley Stadium.
I saw him on that tour at the Milton Keynes Bowl on 4th August. The set list that day was:
“Space Oddity” “Rebel Rebel” “Ashes to Ashes” “Fashion” “Life on Mars?” “Pretty Pink Rose” “Sound and Vision” “Blue Jean” “Let’s Dance” “Stay” “Ziggy Stardust” “China Girl” “Station to Station” “Young Americans” “Suffragette City” “Fame” “Heroes” The four song encore consisted of: “Changes” “The Jean Genie” “White Light/White Heat” “Modern Love”
The support acts that day were Two Way Street (whatever happened to them?), The Men They Couldn’t Hang, Gene Loves Jezebel and Kim Wilde.
If you have enjoyed this article, feel free to follow the blog.You can also follow us onInstagram, Bluesky, and Linkedin.
Are you interested in writing and reviewing for With Just A Hint Of Mayhem? If so then please get in touch via EMail.
On January 21st 1982, American blues guitarist B.B. King made a generous contribution. He donated his entire record collection of over 20,000 records to Mississippi University’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture. King was born Riley B King in 1925 and died aged 89 in 2015. The B.B. in B.B. King’s name stands for “Blues Boy.” He acquired the name while working as a DJ in Memphis, Tennessee. In his youth, he sang gospel in church choirs. His first charting single, “3 O’clock Blues,” reached Number 1 on the Billboard R&B charts in 1951. He recorded with Tony Bennett, Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton and U2 to mention just a few!
If you have enjoyed this article, feel free to follow the blog.You can also follow us onInstagram, Bluesky, and Linkedin.
Are you interested in writing and reviewing for With Just A Hint Of Mayhem? If so then please get in touch via EMail.
On 20th January 1967 the Monkees TV show was shown for the first time in the UK. The band was created for the TV show and consisted of Davy Jones, Peter Tork, Mike Nesmith and Mickey Dolenz. They sold more than 75 million records worldwide and had international hits, including “Last Train to Clarksville”, “Pleasant Valley Sunday”, “Daydream Believer'”and my favourite “I’m a Believer”.
If you have enjoyed this article, feel free to follow the blog.You can also follow us onInstagram, Bluesky, and Linkedin.
Are you interested in writing and reviewing for With Just A Hint Of Mayhem? If so then please get in touch via EMail.
On January 15th 1972 Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog” made its debut on the US singles chart. It was released in December 1971 and eventually reached number 15. The band famously never released singles, certainly not in the UK anyway. Not including promotional singles this was the band’s fourth single. The song’s title refers to a nameless, black Labrador retriever. This dog wandered around the Headley Grange studios during recording. The previous singles were “Good Times, Bad Times” and “Whole Lotta Love” both released in 1969. The latter reached number 4 in the US singles chart. This was their highest placing in the US singles chart. It made it to the top of the pile in Australia, Denmark and Germany. Then came “Immigrant Song” in 1970. All of these releases made it into the lower reaches of the UK chart on import sales.
If you have enjoyed this article, feel free to follow the blog.You can also follow us onInstagram, Bluesky, and Linkedin.
Are you interested in writing and reviewing for With Just A Hint Of Mayhem? If so then please get in touch via EMail.
On January 12th 1981, it was reported that the White House had expanded its record library. The library added albums by Bob Dylan, Kiss, and the Sex Pistols. I think I would bet money that the incoming president a.k.a. the orange moron will not be listening to any of those. Although “Liar” from the Sex Pistols ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’ album would be appropriate! Trump’s a “YMCA” fan, right?
If you have enjoyed this article, feel free to follow the blog.You can also follow us onInstagram, Bluesky, and Linkedin
Are you interested in writing and reviewing for With Just A Hint Of Mayhem? If so then please get in touch via EMail
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 