Tag: Story Behind the Song

“It’s All In the Game”: The Hit Song Co-Written By a Vice President

It's All In the Game Charles G. Dawes served as Vice President of the United States under Calvin Coolidge during 1925-1929. At various times, he was a banker, a military general, and the co-winner of the 1925 Nobel Peace Prize (for his work on a post-World War I plan to help Germany stabilize its economy). If all that was not enough, he also co-wrote “It’s All in the Game,” the 1958 hit song recorded by Tommy Edwards.

Dawes’s Melody in A Major

Dawes wrote the music for what would become “It’s All in the Game” in 1911 while he was a banker. The amateur pianist and flautist then played his composition, “Melody in A Major,” for a musician friend who then took the sheet music to a publisher.

The tune became popular and was often played at appearances by Dawes. Below is a 1924 recording of “Melody in A Major,” featuring Carl Lamson on piano.

“It’s All in the Game”

Dawes, who was born in Marietta, Ohio on August 27, 1865 and passed away on April 23, 1951, just missed seeing his tune become a chart-topping pop standard. In the summer of 1951, not long after Dawes’s death, songwriter Carl Sigman took the melody that Dawes wrote and added lyrics to create “It’s All in the Game.”

Many a tear have to fall,
But it’s all in the game;
All in the wonderful game,
That we know as love.

Tommy Edwards Versions in 1951 and 1958

A number of artists sang “It’s All in the Game,” including Dinah Shore and Louis Armstrong. The Virginia-born R&B singer Tommy Edwards had a popular version of the song first with his 1951 recording.

But seven years later, Edwards recorded it again in 1958 in a rock and roll version.  This recording went on to top the charts, becoming the version most people recognize today.

First, here is Edwards’s 1951 version.

Now, listen to the differences between that 1951 version and Edwards’s 1958 recording of “It’s All in the Game.” The later recording illustrates the influence of rock and roll in the intervening years after Elvis Presley first recorded “That’s All Right” at Sun Studios in 1954.

Edwards also performed this version of “It’s All in the Game” on The Ed Sullivan Show on September 14, 1958 (only two years after Presley’s first appearance on the show).  Below, though, is his hit recording.

Edwards had some other minor hit songs, but he never again matched the success of “It’s All in the Game.” Edwards died on October 22, 1969 at the age of 47.

The Songwriters

As for the songwriters, Sigman wrote lyrics for other popular songs, including “(Where Do I Begin?) Love Story” (the theme from the 1970 tear-jerker movie Love Story) and “Ebb Tide,” the 1965 Righteous Brothers hit.

Sigman passed away on September 26, 2000 in Manhasset, New York.  He was 91.

The other songwriter who wrote the melody, as noted above, went on to become the only U.S. Vice President to co-author a hit song.  On top of that, he also is the only Nobel Peace Prize winner with a hit song (so far).

While you may not remember much from school about Dawes’s political career or his Nobel Peace Prize or his years as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, you likely recognize his important work on a great song that was made an American classic with some help by Carl Sigman and Tommy Edwards.

“It’s All in the Game” continues to touch people, whether in the version by Edwards or by other artists like Nat King Cole, Cliff Richard, the Four Tops, Van Morrison, George Benson, Tom T. Hall, Ricky Nelson, or Michael Buble. So, while I am still waiting for that hit song from Dick Cheney or Joe Biden or Mike Pence, for now, Charles Dawes remains the only vice president to get so many greats to sing his tune.

And that is the story behind the song.

Photo via public domain. Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    What Is “City of New Orleans” About?

    Steve GoodmanOne of the great American songs of the late twentieth century is “City of New Orleans.” The song was originally written and recorded by Steve Goodman but made famous by Arlo Guthrie.

    “City of New Orleans” was a top 20 hit for Guthrie in 1972, and numerous artists have performed and recorded “City of New Orleans.” While the song recounts the story of the Illinois Central Railroad’s City of New Orleans train, one might read a little more into the story by knowing more about the songwriter.

    Steve Goodman and “City of New Orleans”

    Goodman was born on July 25, 1948, and when he was in college, he was diagnosed with leukemia. While the disease was often in remission, Goodman always recognized he was living on borrowed time.

    Goodman died at the young age of 34 on September 20, 1984. Knowing about his diagnosis, one may see more in the sadness of the song about the end of the life of a train.

    The Real Train

    The City of New Orleans itself was a train that the Illinois Central Railroad began operating in April 1947, a little more than a year from Goodman’s birth. The overnight train had the longest daytime regularly scheduled route in the country for a time.  The train went between New Orleans, Louisiana and Goodman’s birthplace and hometown, Chicago, Illinois.

    In May 1971, though, Amtrak took over the City of New Orleans train.  The company converted it to a nighttime route, renaming it the Panama Limited.

    Goodman reportedly came up with the idea for a song about the train while riding on a trip. But it is hard not to see some heartfelt connections between Goodman’s life and the train in his most famous song.

    “Half way home, we’ll be there by morning,
    Through the Mississippi darkness. . . .
    This train’s got the disappearing railroad blues.”

    Below is Goodman performing the song live in 1972.

    Arlo Guthrie’s Version: Changed Lyrics

    While Arlo Guthrie’s famous verion of the song follows Steve Goodman’s lyrics, there is one exception. Note in the video above, Goodman sings about “passing towns that have no name.” In Guthrie’s famous version, he sings about “passing trains that have no names.”

    One commentator has explained that the difference between the two versions comes from Goodman’s knowledge of train travel.  Goodman would know that traveling on the train, one would go through many towns without seeing any signs. But perhaps Guthrie did not understand or he thought city listeners would not understand a train traveling through nameless towns.  Or maybe Guthrie just wanted to contrast regular nameless trains with the train named “City of New Orleans.”

    In this video, a young Guthrie performs “City of New Orleans.”

    “City of New Orleans” Today

    Sometimes we all forget that we have a limited time on earth to make a difference, but Goodman’s leukemia diagnosis at a young age made him want to do as much with his life as he could. And his song about a train did make a difference.

    After the song “City of New Orleans” became popular in the 1970s, Amtrak, hoping to capitalize on the song’s popularity, brought back the “City of New Orleans” train name in 1981. Thanks to Steve Goodman, you may still take a ride on the City of New Orleans today. And thanks to him, you may also sing along to one of the great American songs.

    And that’s the story behind the song.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Why Is “Unchained” In the Title of “Unchained Melody”?

    unchained melody origins

    One of the great songs of the 1960s is The Righteous Brothers recording of “Unchained Melody,” a song that has been covered by many great stars, including Elvis Presley. But The Righteous Brothers were not the first to record the song. And why is the song called “Unchained Melody” when the word “unchained” occurs nowhere in the song?

    Although The Righteous Brother version was released on July 17, 1965, “Unchained Melody” had its origins decades earlier. Songwriter Alex North worked on the music in the 1930s, and at one time Bing Crosby turned down the opportunity to record an unfinished version of the song.

    The Movie That Gave the Song Its Name

    But North did not give up on the music. In the 1950s he and Hy Zaret were contracted to write a song for a prison movie. With Zaret adding lyrics to the music, the two came up with the completed song for the 1955 film, which was called Unchained. Hence, the song from the movie became known as “Unchained Melody.”

    The movie Unchained was about an inmate who struggles with the decision of whether or not to try to escape.  Todd Duncan recorded the song on the soundtrack and he appeared in the film as a prisoner singing part of the song.

    Duncan had the chops for the song.  He was the first black singer to join the New York City Opera when he performed there in 1945. Below is the clip from Unchained with Duncan singing “Unchained Melody.”

    The Righteous Brothers Hit

    Others recorded versions of the song before The Righteous Brothers. Performers who recorded “Unchained Melody” included bandleader Les Baxter, Al Hibler, and Jimmy Young.

    Of course, the version we know best is by The Righteous Brothers.  But the original recording did not include both brothers.  It featured only Bobby Hatfield and did not include the other “brother” Bill Medley.

    After the song was a hit in 1965, it once again climbed the charts in the early 1990s after it was featured in another movie, Ghost (1990). We should be glad that the song was first featured in Unchained. Otherwise, we would be calling it “Ghost Melody.”

    And that’s the story behind the song.

    What is your favorite version of “Unchained Melody”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    What Song Did Paul Newman Sing in “Cool Hand Luke”?

    Plastic Jesus

    Paul Newman gave one of his greatest performances in the wonderful movie Cool Hand Luke (1967). In one scene, after hearing about the death of his mother, he sits on his bunk with a banjo and sings a song about a plastic Jesus statue in a car. When I first saw the film, I wondered if the song were an old folk song or if it might have been written for the film.

    Well, I don’t care if it rains or freezes,
    Long as I have my plastic Jesus,
    Riding on the dashboard of my car;
    Through all trials and tribulations,
    We will travel every nation,
    With my plastic Jesus I’ll go far.

    The Creation of “Plastic Jesus”

    The song, “Plastic Jesus,” was a real song that had been around for about a decade before Cool Hand Luke was made. Ed Rush and George Cromarty wrote the song in 1957 while they were high school students in Fresno, California.

    As kids in Del Rio, Texas, Rush and Cromarty listened to the radio and heard a Mexican border station playing a religious program that sold a wide variety of religious items to make money. One of the items was a glow-in-the-dark plastic Jesus with a suction cup the driver could stick on a car’s dashboard. The teenagers saw the humor in the selling pitch, and they giggled at a song about “the bosom of the Lord.” From there, they created the song “Plastic Jesus.”

    You can buy a Sweet Madonna,
    Dressed in rhinestones sitting on a
    Pedestal of abalone shell;
    Goin’ ninety, I’m not wary,
    ‘Cause I’ve got my Virgin Mary,
    Guaranteeing I won’t go to Hell.

    Rush and Cromarty began performing the song in college and then traveled around performing as The Goldcoast Singers. As Rush later explained, when they were playing the song around 1962, sometimes the audience reacted with hostility to the song, finding it sacrilegious.

    The Goldcoast Singers recorded the song, but their band eventually ended. Rush and Cromarty had their last performance together in 1963 when Cromarty went off to Vietnam.

    Below is the original version of “Plastic Jesus” recorded by Rush and Cromarty with a humorous introduction capturing the origins of the song.

    If you look around the Internet for the lyrics, you probably will find a long list of verses. Most of them have been added by various people, as the song has taken on a life of its own as a real folk song. Rush and Cromarty only wrote the chorus and the verse about Madonna (both above). The Paul Newman version only uses the original chorus and verse too.

    Other Versions of “Plastic Jesus”

    In addition to Paul Newman, a number of artists have performed “Plastic Jesus.” In 1971, Tia Blake included the song on the album Folksongs & Ballads with a bouncing country sound.

    The Flaming Lips included the song as a hidden track on the album Transmissions From the Satellite Heart (1993). The band mostly maintained Paul Newman’s sparse arrangement.

    “Plastic Jesus” also appears in a rock version with extra verses on Billy Idol’s Devil’s Playground (2005). Idol explained in an interview with Juice magazine that his version of the song that is about “an alcoholic who keeps his booze in his plastic Jesus on his dashboard. It’s a symphony song.”

    In addition to using additional verses, Idol changed the music from the Cool Hand Luke version, making the song more upbeat: “I just followed the meter of the words and made it less like a hillbilly song. I made it sound more religiouso.”

    Idol even made an official video for the song, featuring a plastic Billy Idol jamming with the plastic Jesus, who is pretty good at air guitar. Seriously, you have to watch Idol’s video.

    After I posted the initial version of this story actor Lucas Hare pointed out to me that Bob Dylan’s song “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” from Blood on the Tracks (1975) has music very similar to “Plastic Jesus,” and at least in one live version from 1976, the guitar solo actually plays the “Plastic Jesus” melody.

    Finally, Jack Johnson often performs the song, which appeared on Live at Boulder (2001).

    Impact of “Plastic Jesus”

    My favorite version remains Paul Newman’s version in Cool Hand Luke, where Newman adds a layer of meaning to the humorous song. The lyrics remain funny, but as Newman sings the song in his pain at losing his mother, the viewer learns a lot about the relationship between the son and the mother. Additionally, the song about Jesus underlies a movie that is full of Christ imagery.

    I’ll bet those two teenagers laughing at the radio had no idea their song would go so far. But “Plastic Jesus” was not the only time that Ed Rush and George Cromarty had a brush with movie fame. In 2013, the Coen Brothers used an altered version of The Goldcoast Singers’ 1961 song “Please Mr. Kennedy” in the film Inside Llewyn Davis (2013).

    And that is the story behind the song.

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    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Chuck Berry’s First Hit: “Maybellene”

    In 1955, a young Chuck Berry recorded “Maybellene” in Chicago and then went back to his construction job until the song got a boost from DJ Alan Freed.

    Maybellene On May 21, 1955, the relatively unknown Chuck Berry recorded “Maybellene” at Chess Records in Chicago. The 29-year-old part-time musician then returned to St. Louis and his construction job, while starting to train for a career as a hairdresser. But soon, through various circumstances, the song began climbing the charts so that Berry could pursue music full time.

    Berry got the opportunity to record “Maybellene” when, during his visit to Chicago, he approached Muddy Waters after a show for an autograph and asked for career advice. Waters suggested Berry go to his label, Chess Records. Berry did.

    Berry met with Leonard Chess at Chess Records and then auditioned, thinking Chess would like his blues music, and in particular his song “Wee Wee Hours.” But Leonard Chess noticed something else in Berry’s music. Chess liked Berry’s R&B version of the traditional country song “Ida Red,” which had been recorded by performers such as Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, who had recorded the song in the 1930s.

    So, Chess recorded Berry’s take on “Ida Red,” although by the time Berry’s song was recorded, the song had new lyrics and a new name: “Maybellene.” Reportedly, Chess thought that Berry’s title of “Ida Mae” sounded too rural, so he found inspiration for the name from a mascara box nearby (changing the spelling of the Maybelline cosmetics to avoid a potential lawsuit).

    With the new name and lyrics, the 2-minute and 18-second song was recorded, although it took 36 takes to get it right. In addition to Berry, the recording featured other musicians who would become legendary in their own right, including Johnnie Johnson on piano and Willie Dixon on bass.

    Less than a year earlier in 1954, Elvis Presley similarly had recorded a Bob Willis song as one of his first recordings for Sun Studios. Presley’s version of “Blue Moon of Kentucky” kept the name and the lyrics of the original, while bringing the same rock and roll spirit that Berry brought to his interpretation of “Ida Red.”

    In Berry’s version of his song, he not only added a driving R&B sound, he incorporated youthful energy in his lyrics. The lyrics captured the spirit of the emerging rock and roll music, connecting love and cars. In the song, the singer drives his V8 Ford seeking out his unfaithful girlfriend in her Cadillac Coupe DeVille (“Maybellene, why can’t you be true”).

    As I was motor-vatin’ over the hill,
    I saw Maybellene in a Coup de Ville;
    A Cadillac a-rollin’ on the open road;
    Nothin’ will outrun my V8 Ford.

    But Berry at first did not know what would become of “Maybellene,” which eventually was released in July with “Wee Wee Hours” as a B side. So Berry returned to St Louis.

    In the meantime, Leonard Chess in a marketing move that was not unusual at the time, gave radio DJ Alan Freed co-songwriting credit and one-third of royalties in exchange for promoting the song. In retrospect, the deal seems unfair at the least, but assistance from the legendary DJ did not hurt.

    One night on station WINS in New York, Freed played “Maybellene” for two hours straight. And the great sound of the song sent it to number ten on the pop charts and to number one on the R&B charts.

    “Maybellene” helped launch the career of Chuck Berry, one of the holy creators of rock and roll along with his yellow Gibson ES-350T guitar. Below, Chuck Berry performs “Maybellene” live in 1958.

    Although the song boosted Berry’s popularity, it also led to some hurdles for the young singer-songwriter. Some venues discriminated against Berry when they were surprised to find out the singer was not white. And, Berry had to fight for years to eventually get sole songwriting credit for the song in 1986.

    Berry, of course, persevered with a long career and other hits. But “Maybellene” was a key turning point in the history of rock and roll. “Maybellene” is now listed as the 18th greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.

    And that is the story behind the song.

    Photo via public domain. Leave your two cents in the comments.

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