November 17 Music et al
Kingston Trio
In 1958, The Kingston Trio hit #1 with Tom Dooley. So? Their success and their company Capital Record’s $ucc$$ allowed the company to invest in other folk type musicians. ABC TV’s Hootenanny is less than 5 years away and Bob Dylan will be playing acoustic in New York.
November 17 Music et al
BUT…
The Beatles will arrive in the US, Shindig will replace Hootenanny, Bob will go electric and not work on Maggie’s farm no more, and the Fab Four and Bob will sit down and have an enhanced conversation about writing music. 1965 is the tipping point.
November 17, 1958: the Kingston Trio’s “Tom Dooley” hit #1 on the Billboard pop chart. Three guys with crew cuts and candy-striped shirts who honed their act not in Greenwich Village cafes, but in the fraternities and sororities of Stanford University in the mid-1950s. Without the enormous profits that the trio’s music generated for Capitol Records, it is unlikely that major-label companies would have given recording contracts to those who would challenge the status quo in the decade to come. Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, for instance, may have owed their musical and political development to forerunners like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, but they probably owed their commercial viability to the Kingston Trio. (see October 20, 1960)
November 17 Music et al
The Four Seasons, Big Girls Don’t Cry
On the same date in 1962, these Jersey boys had their typical early-1960s pop hit when “Big Girls Don’t Cry” became Billboard’s #1 pop single.
November 17 Music et al
John Lennon Double Fantasy
It was November 17, 1980, the Beatles had been gone for 15 years, and John Lennon (with Yoko) released his Double Fantasy album. It was his seventh studio album release.
At first the LP was not received very well, but 3 weeks later, when John was murdered it became a worldwide commercial success, and went on to win the 1981 Album of the Year at the 24th Annual Grammy Awards.
Rolling Stone magazine ranked John Lennon’s Double Fantasy as the 29th best album of the 1980s. (see Dec 8)
| Our life together is so precious together We have grown, we have grown Although our love is still special Let’s take a chance and fly away somewhere alone It’s been too long since we took the time Everyday we used to make it love |
Why don’t we take off alone? Take a trip somewhere far, far away We’ll be together all alone again Like we used to in the early days Well, well, well darling It’s been too long since we took the time Our life together is so precious together Starting over |