I just heard on the radio station WFUV that Richie Havens passed away today of a heart attack at the age of 72. Chimesfreedom previously wrote about Havens’s landmark opening performance at Woodstock when he sang “Freedom (Motherless Child).” Below is a 1971 performance of “Here Comes the Sun.”
Last year, Havens had announced that he was stopping touring because of health concerns. At the moment, there is not much information about his passing on the Internet, but The Roots Agency, his agent, has a statement on their webpage, where they note, “Havens used his music to convey passionate messages of brotherhood and personal freedom.” He also was one of the great interpreters of great songs. For example, in addition to his Beatles interpretation above, below he covers two other great songwriters singing Van Morrison’s “Tupelo Honey” and Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman.”
Nobody will ever have a voice like Richie Havens. RIP.
What is your favorite Richie Havens song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
The song “I’ll Take You There” by the Staples Singers originated out of a songwriter grieving his murdered brother.
Cleotha “Cleedy” Staples, the eldest daughter of Roebuck “Pops” Staples who sang in the Staple Singers, passed away February 21, 2013. Cleotha, who had Alzheimer’s, was 78.
The Staple Singers — which also included Cleotha’s sisters Mavis, Pervis and Yvonne — started in the 1940s and recorded many memorable songs like “Respect Yourself” and “Uncloudy Day.” But when most people hear the name of the group, the first song that comes to mind is the classic “I’ll Take You There.”
The song first appeared on the album Be Altitude: Respect Yourself (1972). In 1972, “I’ll Take You There” went to number one on both the Billboard R&B Singles chart and the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In this TV performance excerpt, you can see Mavis Staples to your right singing lead while Cleotha is on your far left of the singers. Pops is playing guitar.
The uplifting song comes from a tragic story. Stax vice-president Al Bell began writing “I’ll Take You There” after attending the funeral of his second brother who was murdered.
According to Bell, after returning from the funeral, he sat on the hood of a bus in his father’s back yard and began hearing the bass line and then the words. He then gave the song to the Staple Singers, who were a gospel act at the time.
Regarding the music, Wikipedia points out that the opening to “I’ll Take You There” comes from a Jamaican instrumental reggae tune from Harry J All Stars called “The Liquidator.” The tune is now often used before football matches (that’s “soccer” for us in the states). Check it out.
It is a cool opening riff that helped make “I’ll Take You There” so memorable. But it is also the blending of the voices of the Staple Singers including Cleotha Staples that explains why we still listen to the song more than forty years later. RIP Cleotha Staples. What is your favorite song by the Staples Singers? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Tony Sheridan, a British singer-songwriter forever linked to The Beatles, passed away on February 16, 2013 at the age of 72 in Germany. While Sheridan recorded through his later years, he is best-known for his brief work as lead singer on what was essentially the first album by the Beatles.
Sheridan knew the Beatles when they consisted of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Pete Best. And he worked with them through Sutcliffe’s and Best’s departure and Ringo Starr’s arrival in 1962.
In 1961, a German producer signed Sheridan and the Beatles as the back up band. Under the name Sheridan and the Beat Brothers, the group recorded nine songs in 1961-1962 with Sheridan singing on seven of them. According to Sheridan’s website, the reason they used “Beat Brothers” instead of “Beatles” is because the latter name did not translate into German “except as a slang term for the male sex organ.” Sheridan also claimed that he brought Ringo to the Beatles too.
When the first single “My Bonnie” was released in Liverpool, fans mobbed record shops. The reaction to the single with Sheridan led one record store owner to seek out the Beatles. That record store owner, Brian Epstein, would then go on to manage the Beatles as they rose to super-stardom. Here is “My Bonnie”:
In this 30-minute video, Sheridan looked back on his experience with the Beatles and on music in the early 1960s:
After the Beatles went on to massive fame, Sheridan continued to perform, and in the 1960s spent a lot of time entertaining troops in Viet Nam. For his devotion to the soldiers, the U.S. Army made him an honorary captain. Sheridan also met Elvis Presley when Elvis was stationed in Germany.
The Beatles themselves maintained a friendship and fondness for their one-time front-man, whose last album was 2002’s Vagabond. Paul McCartney had nicknamed Sheridan “The Teacher” because of how he influenced the band by introducing them to R&B artists like Little Richard. Similarly, Ringo Starr once said he learned from Sheridan “all I know about rock and roll.” So, while Sheridan may not be a household name, he is certainly an important part of the history of rock music.
What is your favorite Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Leroy “Sugarfoot” Bonner, guitar player and front man for the classic lineup of the Ohio Players, passed away on Friday at the age of 69. If you were around in the 1970s you could not have missed their huge funk hits like “Fire.”
As a kid in Ohio at the time, I heard them a lot too. I remember looking through my older sister’s record collection and seeing this strange Ohio Players album with a woman firefighter. I am not sure what I expected to hear when I put the album on the record player, but from the band’s name and their roots in nearby Dayton, I did not expect what I heard. It sounded nothing like anything else in my sister’s collection of heartfelt singer-songwriters, and it was my first exposure to this strange new sound that I would later hear in their other songs like “Love Rollercoaster” (later covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers).
I had not kept up with the members of the Ohio Players for a long time. In later years after their heyday in the 1970s, Bonner had put together his own spin-off band, Sugarfoot’s Ohio Players. And I never really knew much about their background beyond their music. But this interesting documentary about the Ohio Players tells more of their story. (Thanks to @WWedlock for pointing me to the documentary.) [2016 Update: Unfortunately, the documentary Unsung is no longer available on YouTube.]
What is your favorite Ohio Players song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Patti Page, who was born in Oklahoma as Clara Ann Fowler, passed away at the age of 85 on 2013’s New Year’s Day. While her most famous song and my favorite is probably “Tennessee Waltz,” that is not the first song of hers that comes to my mind.
When I think of Patti Page, I think of one of the first songs I remember hearing as a child: her endearing recording of the song, “(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window?“
“(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window?”
“(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window?” was recorded in December 1952, awhile before I was born. But my parents had the 1957 Patti Page Sings 1, 2, 3 album with the song on it. On this album, Page also told a story with the song about a dog named Arfie. Years later when we got a dog, I strongly advocated for naming our dog “Arfie,” but I lost.
I also remember that the dog story and the song used to creep me out. For some reason, the tale about the dog, who was threatened with being sent back to the pound, and about the attempted home invasion by burglars made me feel less secure.
UPDATE: The recording with the story doesn’t seem to be available on YouTube currently. But it still creeps me out.
“Tennessee Waltz”
On the other hand, “Tennessee Waltz” is a beautiful song for adults about losing a love. Although Cowboy Copas first released the song in 1947, it is Patti Page’s version from 1950 that we remember because of the way her voice captures the sadness in the song.
Few singers and few songs capture lost love the way Page does here. It is not surprising that Page’s version of “Tennessee Waltz” was No. 1 on the pop, country and R&B charts.
On Film
It was not until I read the obituaries, though, that I was reminded that Page also starred in Elmer Gantry (1960) with Burt Lancaster. In the film, you get to hear her singing a hymn, “Let Jesus Come Into Your Heart.”
Well, Ms. Page, I never got a dog named “Arfie.” But your recordings gave me warnings about some of the scary parts of life, like lost pets, threats to a sense of security, and the tragedy of lost love. So I am thankful for the warnings. Rest in peace.
What is your favorite Patti Page song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
I just heard on the radio station WFUV that Richie Havens passed away today of a heart attack at the age of 72. Chimesfreedom previously wrote about Havens’s landmark opening performance at Woodstock when he sang “Freedom (Motherless Child).” Below is a 1971 performance of “Here Comes the Sun.”
. Paul McCartney had nicknamed Sheridan “
