If you never got to see Ray Charles live, you may find some solace in watching this outstanding complete performance from 1981. Apparently, Charles gave this performance at Edmonton’s Jubilee Auditorium on January 27, 1981. The show features the Edmonton Symphony backing up Charles.
After the opening song, “Riding Thumb,” the setlist includes songs such as “Busted,” “Georgia On My Mind,” “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” and “What’d I Say” before closing with “America the Beautiful.” 2024 UPDATE: Unfortunately, the entire concert video is no longer online, but you can check out Charles performing “Take These Chains From My Heart” from the same concert.
Loretta Lynn has released a new album to glowing reviews, Wouldn’t It Be Great (2018). To promote the album, Lynn has released a video for one of the new songs she wrote for the album, “Ain’t No Time to Go.”
The album highlights Lynn’s skills as a songwriter, as she shows herself in wonderful voice at the age of 86. In addition to new songs by Lynn, the album also features new recordings of “God Makes No Mistakes” (from Lynn’s album Van Lear Rose) and Lynn’s classic “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”
Lynn’s daughter Patsy Lynn Russell and Johnny Cash’s son John Carter Cash produced the album. Russell also co-wrote “Ain’t No Time to Go” with Lynn.
The video for “Ain’t No Time to Go,” by director and photographer David McClister, features Loretta Lynn on a country porch contemplating mortality. But it is a happy contemplation, featuring laughter and dancing. Check it out.
Following an odd grassroots campaign to get Weezer to cover Toto’s hit song “Africa,” Weezer now has its first Hot 100-charting single in twelve years. To help promote and celebrate the band’s unlikely cover, Weezer has produced a video with “Weird Al” Yankovic leading the band.
In the video, Yankovic portrays Weezer front man Rivers Cuomo. And he busts out his accordion near the end of the song for a solo. Check it out.
The “Toto” video may look familiar to Weezer fans. The look copies Weezer’s own video for “Undone (The Sweater Song).” Here is the video for that song.
Toto, flattered by Weezer’s cover of their classic “Africa,” returned the favor earlier this year. They covered Weezer’s song, “Hash Pipe.”
What song would you like to hear Weezer cover next? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In 1963, boxer Cassius Clay, who soon would become known as Muhammad Ali, recorded the album titled, I Am the Greatest. The title may not really describe the great boxer as a singer. But Ali was aided on one of the songs by one of the world’s greatest singers, Sam Cooke.
In this short interview, Cooke explains to Dave Clark that he had been working with some young singers. And the subject of his song with Ali, “The Gang’s All Here” comes up.
The combination of the music star and the rising boxer garnered some attention, with The New York Times covering the recording session of the song, which was arranged by Horace Ott. During the session, according to Peter Guralnik’s biography of Sam Cooke, Cooke provided guidance while keeping everyone’s spirits up. And Ali played around on the drums and recited poetry.
While Ali and Cooke were working on the song for the album, Harry Carpenter interviewed Ali for the BBC sports TV show, Grandstand. During the interview, Cooke showed up and exchanged some quips with his friend Ali. Then, the two sang a segment of the song they recorded together, “The Gang’s All Here.”
Here is the recording of “The Gang’s All Here” from the album. The tune add some tweaks but is based on the old classic “Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here,” which was written in 1917.
The original song features lyrics by D. A. Esrom based on a tune written by Arthur Sullivan for the 1879 show The Pirates of Penzance. Check out Muhammad Ali’s take on the song.
Six months after releasing I Am the Greatest, Ali lived up to the title of the album. The twenty-two year-old boxer became champion of the world by beating Sonny Liston in the ring on February 25, 1964.
(Note: In Peter Guralnick’s excellent and well-researched biography of Cooke, Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke, he describes that the above Grandstand interview with Cooke and Ali took place after the Liston fight in 1964. But in the video, Ali says that he and Cooke are working on the song, which was released in 1963. So it seems more likely that the Grandstand interview above took place after Ali fought Harry Cooper. That fight took place in 1963 at Wembley Stadium, Wembley Park.)
“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” is one of those rare songs with two definitive hit versions. The song, written by Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson in 1966 became a hit in 1967 as a duet for Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. Then, the tune climbed the charts again in 1970 in a solo version by Diana Ross.
“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” features typical pop love song lyrics about loving someone using hyperbole and grand images. But the lyrics work, especially lifted by the music going from the verse into the rousing joyful chorus.
Remember the day I set you free, I told you, you could always count on me darling; From that day on, I made a vow; I’ll be there when you want me, Some way, some how.
‘Cause baby there ain’t no mountain high enough, Ain’t no valley low enough, Ain’t no river wide enough, To keep me from getting to you babe.
The Gaye-Terrell version hit the top twenty on the pop charts on the Tamia label, which was a division of Motown. Originally, Dusty Springfield wanted to record the song, but Ashford and Simpson held out because they wanted to be on Motown. They got their wish when Gaye and Terrell recorded the song.
Interestingly, Gaye and Terrell did not record this classic duet together. Terrell recorded her part by herself, and Gaye’s vocals were added later. The two, however, did get together for the video.
For fans of sports movies, you might remember that this version appears in Remember the Titans (2000). I have seen that movie so many times, I no longer can hear the song without thinking of the Titans.
The Gaye-Terrell version also appears in Stepmom (1998). Below, Susan Sarandon introduces her movie kids to the beauty and joy of the recording.
As an uplifting duet, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” makes a great movie bonding song.
Before making her own solo hit recording of the song in 1970, Diana Ross in 1968 recorded a version of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with the Supremes on a crossover group recording with the Temptations.
The 1968 version with the Supremes and the Temptations features a production very similar to the hit version by Gaye and Terrell. Check it out.
Supposedly, Ross was reluctant to record the song again when asked to do so as a solo artist. But she did so anyway for Motown in March 1970, giving the song a new sound. Her gospel-sounding recording also featured the songwriters Ashford & Simpson singing background vocals.
Ross’s 1970 solo version also features a segment of Ross talking instead of singing. Reportedly, Motown head Barry Gordy was not a fan of the talking part of the song, but listeners loved the recording. It went to number one on the pop and R&B charts in the United States.
Other artists have since covered “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” And Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye had great success with other songs that everyone knows. Yet, you might wonder why you may not know much about Tammi Terrell.
Terrell did have other successful songs, such as another duet with Gaye on “Your Precious Love.” But on October 14, 1967, the same year “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” was released, she collapsed onstage into the arms of her friend Gaye. She was subsequently diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, and she died on March 16, 1970, the same week Diana Ross was recording her version of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”
Regarding the mountain of the song, TMZ recently caught up with Valerie Simpson to ask her if she had a certain mountain in mind when she wrote the song. She replied, perhaps with tongue in cheek, that she was thinking of tall buildings in Manhattan.
What is your favorite version of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough? Leave your two cents in the comments. Photo via Fair Use.
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