With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

Music reviews, gig reviews, fun trivia and extra added random stuff!

Rolling Back The Years With Mayhem – 1960 April 10, 2024

Filed under: Rolling Back The Years — justwilliam1959 @ 11:38 pm
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This is the second in what I hope will be a very long-running series. I have decided to look at the most popular songs from every year I have existed. There will be some artistic licence on my part as I will always seek to include at least a few of my favourites from each year. The format will be a top ten for each year and will cover the music and songs I grew up with, came of age with, and achieved my greatest success alongside music that comforted me in bad times. This second top ten goes back to the year of my first birthday, 1960, I know it is very hard to believe but I really am that old! Obviously, I don’t remember actually hearing these songs back in 1960, but I have heard them all many times over the years. I have focused on the UK charts and this time the US bestseller does feature in my list. It is “Theme From ‘A Summer Place'” by the Percy Faith Orchestra. It is one of my favourite pieces of music. My Dad’s favourite singer Brenda Lee is in the top ten at number 10. So here is the second Rolling Back The Years With Mayhem Chart, for 1960. It has quite a few good tunes I reckon. Please get on board the Time Machine now! If you are too scared to enter the Time Machine, click here for the playlist! The chart for 1961 will follow soon.

1 Apache – The Shadows
2 Running Bear – Johnny Preston
3 Three Steps To Heaven – Eddie Cochran
4 Tell Laura I Love Her – Ricky Valance
5 Shakin’ All Over – Johnny Kidd & The Pirates
6 Only The Lonely – Roy Orbison
7 Theme From ‘A Summer Place’ – Percy Faith
8 When Will I Be Loved – The Everly Brothers
9 Save The Last Dance For Me – The Drifters
10 I’m Sorry – Brenda Lee

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“You sigh, the song begins, you speak and I hear violins” November 21, 2017

Filed under: Obituary — justwilliam1959 @ 12:22 am
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Today I heard of the death of American jazz, pop, gospel (and many other genres) singer  and actress Della Reese. She was 86 years old and I have been a fan for many years. The reason I became a Della Reese fan is down to my sadly departed father who as it turns out was born just three months after Della. Anyway during his years in the Royal Navy, a submariner no less, my Dad collected quite a few records mostly Elvis Presley, Brenda Lee and Della Reese. I no longer have any of the original vinyl that he had but in recent years I have managed to get hold of a few rather excellent Della Reese vinyl albums.

della-reese

At 13 she became a backing singer for legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson and her first tour was with Nat King Cole. She worked with many jazz legends including Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. She made a staggering 17 appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show, her first was in 1957. She had her own American TV show ‘Della’ which aired from 1969 to 1970. As an actress she starred in US TV series ‘Touched By An Angel’, she also made an appearance in the Eddie Murphy film ‘Harlem Nights’. In the 1980s she became an ordained minister. She will, I am sure be very sadly missed. My thoughts are with Della’s family, friends and fans. Della Reese RIP.

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“Little things I should’ve said and done, I never took the time” December 5, 2010

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:00 am
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It’s already December 5th, just less than three weeks before the bearded weirdie arrives on his sleigh, and those little cardboards doors on my UK Christmas Number Ones Advent Calendar a falling like dominoes. Today brings you a veritable treat from the 80s and regular readers will know that’s a decade that is my least favourite in musical terms!

Chris and Neil make a blatant bid for a hit in Russia, either that or they were on the FIFA committee that just awarded the 2018 World Cup to them

Ladies and gentlemen and those gender or species uncertains amongst you I give you the Pet Shop Boys. Their cover of the classic “Always On My Mind” was number one at Christmas 1987 where it stayed for four weeks. Incidentally my daughter Lauren was born that year so that was her first Christmas and just like then she is always on my mind now, even though she may not think so.

Initially the Pet Shop Boys bricked it when asked to cover an Elvis song, but once they had 'Lego' of their anxieties they were fine!

The duo first played the song earlier in the year as part of a TV show to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley. It was so well liked that they decided to record it and release it as a single and the rest as they say, is history! Elvis recorded his version in 1972 shortly after the song had been released as an US single by Brenda Lee. She was one of my Dad’s all time favourite singers. It is believed that the song has been recorded by at least 300 different acts. In addition to Elvis, Brenda Lee and the Pet Shop Boys, my favourite version is probably that by Willie Nelson. His cover was released in 1982 and reached the top spot on the US Country Chart that year.

Th boys prepare, rather badly in fact, for their cover of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers"

The Pet Shop Boys version was the third of their four UK number ones, they only reached number one in the US chart once. That was with “West End Girls” which was their first UK number one. They did however reach the summit of the US Dance Charts some nine times between 1984 and 2009. Finally, for the record, the group’s name has absolutely nothing to do with hamsters, guinea pigs, cardboard tubes and insertion into bodily orifices. They were originally known as West End and Chris and Neil felt that the nickname of their two friends who worked in a pet shop would work better than that!

Enjoy the Pet Shop Boys video for the song from 1987 below

Here is the excellent Willie Nelson version

Followed by the former Little Miss Dynamite, Brenda Lee

And finally it’s Elvis Aaron Presley‘s version