The first interracial kiss on broadcast television is often cited as having occurred in a Star Trek episode “Plato’s Stepchildren.” The episode featured a kiss between Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura and William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk.
Maybe they were able to break this new ground because the alien Platonians used their telekinetic powers to force the two to kiss. This scene aired on television on November 22, 1968.
In this video, Nichols explains how the kiss caused some controversy on set and how Shatner becomes a hero of the story. While making the episode, NBC forced the actors to do the scene again without the kiss so they would have options in what they used. Shatner, however, ensured the kiss would be used by intentionally screwing up other takes without the kiss.
Was it really the first interracial kiss on television? Other sources cite an interracial kiss on a British television show in 1964 between the characters Dr. Mahler (Joan Hooley) and Dr Farmer (John White) on the show Emergency Ward 10. Some also note that Our Gang segments had played on TV where the character Buckwheat, played by Billie Thomas, had kissed white girls.
But even if Star Trek was not the first in the world, it was groundbreaking at the time, as was the role of Lt. Uhura. Even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at one point told Nichols that she played an important role as an officer where her race and gender were not an issue.
What is your favorite rule-breaking scene from Star Trek? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In this video, director Brian Billow imagines how Kiss might have come to write their hit song “Beth” from their 1976 Destroyer album. Bob Winter, executive creative director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, had the idea for the story. Check out this “historically inaccurate tale of the song’s inspiration.”
[2015 Update: If the video does not work for you, it is also available on Vimeo.]
The video, however, is not as “historically inaccurate” as it claims. Guitarist and songwriter Stan Penridge wrote a version of “Beth” while he was in the band Chelsea, which future Kiss drummer Peter Criss joined for awhile. In the song’s original version, the title name was “Beck” after Becky, Chelsea bandmate Mike Brand’s wife, who often called during practices.
Penridge later explained that the genesis of the song is not that far from Billow’s funny video. Penridge stated that the lyrics came “almost word for word, from Mike Brand’s responses to his wife’s constant calls that interupted our rehearsals. It got to the point where I wrote down his remarks over a period of 3 or 4 days . . . ”
Although I have always heard “Beth” as a love song, Penridge explained that one might see the song as “a hen-pecked hubby’s remarks to his nagging wife.” While in David Leaf’s and Ken Sharp’s book KISS: Behind the Mask Penridge acknowledges that the song was “basically written as a joke,” he also appreciates that the song evolved into something different that he also likes.
There are some questions about how much writing credit for the final version of “Beth” should be given to Criss, who sings lead on the Kiss recording of “Beth” and is listed as a co-writer with producer Bob Ezrin. Although sources name Criss as one of the co-writers of the final version, band co-founder Gene Simmons claims that the song was written only by Penridge and Ezrin. Simmons and Criss on not on the best terms, but Penridge seemed to confirm Simmons’s version in a 2000 interview (“Another poorman’s copyright by me in ’70”).
Still, Criss’s relation with the song goes back before Kiss. After Criss was in Chelsea and even before he was in Kiss, he recorded “Beck” with a band called Lips.
The name of the song was later changed to “Beth” so it would be a more recognizable woman’s name. Here is a Kiss version of the song we all know from the 1978 TV-movie Kiss Meets in Phantom of the Park.
After “Beth” was recorded, nobody realized it would become such a big hit. Some band members did not want it on the album, and it was initially released not as a single but as a B-side to “Detroit Rock City.” But then “Beth” became Kiss’s first gold record and one of their most recognizable songs.
No matter what role he played in the lyrics, Criss’s great vocals on the recording certainly helped make it a hit. Others have sang the song too. Eric Singer has rotated in and out and back into Criss’s seat behind the drums with Kiss, so Singer also has performed “Beth.”
There are a number of covers of “Beth,” including a nice one by Adam Lambert when he was on American Idol in 2008. Not surprisingly, the Glee cast performed the song too. Perhaps the most unusual cover appears in the movie Role Models (2008), where Paul Rudd wins back his girlfriend named Beth by making up some new lyrics to the song.
I have not been able to find what happened to Mike Brand and “Becky,” the two who inspired the song. But I hope they are still together and that she still calls him at work after all these years. It would make a great love song.
What is your favorite version of “Beth”? Leave your two cents in the comments. Note: This post was updated March 2014 to include Gene Simmons’s comments about the writing of the song.
The success of the Detroit Tigers in making it to the World Series gives us several options for this year’s edition of World Series Songs featuring songs related to the championship team’s name or locale. There are several famous songs with Detroit in their title, such as “Detroit Rock City” by Kiss. Other songs mention the city, like Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” (“Just a small town boy, livin’ in South Detroit”). For today’s feature, we go with another song set in Detroit about the city’s most famous industry: “One Piece at a Time,” made famous by Johnny Cash’s 1976 recording.
In “One Piece at a Time,” the singer tells us he left Kentucky in 1949 “An’ went to Detroit workin’ on an assembly line.” The product, of course, is cars, and since the worker is making Cadillac cars, we know that the employer is General Motors. Realizing that he could never afford the cars he was making, the singer decides to take parts home “one piece at a time” in his lunchbox and a friend’s motor home to assemble his own car. Eventually he begins assembling his car from the stolen parts, realizing that all of the pieces are from different models. But he perseveres and assembles his odd car (“Well, it’s a ’49, ’50, ’51, ’52, ’53, ’54, ’55, ’56 ’57, ’58’ 59′ automobile. It’s a ’60, ’61, ’62, ’63, ’64, ’65, ’66, ’67 ’68, ’69, ’70 automobile”).
“One Piece at a Time,” which was Johnny Cash’s last number one song on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, was written by performer and songwriter Wayne Kemp. Kemp’s other songs include “I’m The Only Hell (My Mama Ever Raised)” and “Love Bug.” But his “One Piece at a Time” may be the only song that has inspired a new type of car.
Although it is not unusual, Detroit Tigers owner Mike Ilitch put together the 2012 team from different sources, keeping some players, getting some players in trades, getting some through free agency, etc. For example, in the winter he signed Prince Fielder to a nine-year, $214-million contract. You might say the Tigers were put together one piece at a time. And while you may be surprised to see them in the World Series, the combination of the random pieces may be enough to take them down the road to the world championship.
What is your favorite song about Detroit? Leave your two cents in the comments. Also, check out our past Super Bowl Songs.
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