Category Archives: Music of the 60s

Music et al, Music of the 60s

Righteous Brothers Lovin Feelin

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Righteous Brothers Lovin Feelin

Righteous Brothers Lovin Feelin

Billboard #1

February 6 – 19, 1965: “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” by the Righteous Brothers #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Righteous Brothers Lost Lovin Feelin
You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’
Righteous Brothers Lovin Feelin

Songfacts

The Songfacts site has this to say about this great song:

According to BMI music publishing, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” was played on American radio and television more times than any other song in the 20th century. It got over 8 million plays from the time it was released until 2000. Note that this includes all versions of the song, not just The Righteous Brothers’.

The husband and wife songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil wrote this song at the request of Phil Spector, who was looking for a hit for an act he had just signed to his Philles label: The Righteous Brothers.

Before signing with Spector, the duo had some minor hits on the Moonglow label such as “Little Latin Lupe Lu” (#49) and “My Babe” (#75).

Righteous Brothers Lovin Feelin

“Little Latin Lupe Lu“

 
Righteous Brothers Lovin Feelin

Mann & Weil

Mann and Weil listened to these songs to get a feel for their sound, and decided to write them a ballad. Inspired by “Baby I Need Your Loving” by The Four Tops, they came up with this song about a desperate attempt to rekindle a lost love.

The title “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” was just a placeholder until they could think of something better, but Spector thought it was great so they went with it. With most of the song written, Mann and Weil completed the song at Spector’s house, where Phil worked with them to compose the famous bridge (“Baaaby… I need your love…”).

Wrecking Crew

Musicians for the song include members of the Wrecking Crew: Don Randi on piano, Tommy Tedesco on guitar, Carol Kaye and Ray Pohlman on bass, and Steve Douglas on sax. Also Barney Kessel on guitar and Earl Palmer on drums.  

The background singers were mainly the vocal group The Blossoms [Fanita James, Jean King, and Darlene Love] and Cher, who did a lot of work with Spector early in her career. She can also be heard on background vocals near the end of the song.

Acolades

The song was the first Righteous Brothers release on Philles, and it shot to #1, giving both the duo and the songwriting team of Mann & Weil their first #1 hit.

In 2001, the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts ranked the recording at No. 9 in the list of Songs of the Century.

In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine  ranked it at 34 in its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

In 2005,  the Songwriters Hall of Fame awarded Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil  the Towering Song Award for “the creators of an individual song that has influenced the culture in a unique way over many years.”

In 2015, the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, which each year selects from 130 years of sound recordings for special recognition and preservation, chose the Righteous Brothers recording of the song as one of the 25 recordings that has “cultural, artistic and/or historical significance to American society and the nation’s audio legacy“.

In addition to it being the most played song of the 20th century, it remains the most-played song ever having accumulated almost 15 million airplays in the US by 2011. Today that honor belongs to Sting’s “Every Breath You Take.”

Righteous Brothers Lovin Feelin
Music of the 60s, Rock venues, Today in history

Fillmore Auditorium San Francisco

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Fillmore Auditorium San Francisco

Jefferson Airplane at the Fillmore Auditorium (photo from Wolfgang’s Vault)
Fillmore Auditorium San Francisco

Chet Helms

In 1966 Chet Helms (friend of Janis Joplin and the one who connected her with Big Brother and the Holding Company) teamed up with a commune  called Family Dog and started putting together a series of  shows at the Fillmore Auditorium. Family Dog and Bill Graham, new to the world or rock venues, hosted events on  alternating weekends. The two promoters would lock horns many times over the years, and it was always a contrast in styles. Bill Graham had a reputation as an aggressive, no-nonsense business man, whereas others saw Helms as a more down-to-earth guy who was less interested in money and more focused on throwing a great party. His lack of business skills is one of the reasons Chet never made a much money in the music business, but he was never short on ideas.

The Fillmore Auditorium had been used in December 1965 by Bill Graham in his first foray as a rock promoter.

Fillmore Auditorium San Francisco

SF Mime Troupe

Fillmore Auditorium San Francisco
Mime Troupe benefit ad

The Grateful Dead had performed there as part of Ken Kesey’s January 8, 1966 Acid Test (a very interesting recording of the Dead at that event)

…then the first rock shows as just rock shows (February 4, 5, and 6, 1966) were held at the Fillmore Auditorium.

Fillmore Auditorium San Francisco

Jefferson Airplane

Fillmore Auditorium San Francisco
poster from first show (“Jefferson airplane fillmore poster 1966” by Bill GrahamUploaded by We hope at en.wikipedia – eBay itemimageTransferred from en.wikipedia by SreeBot. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jefferson_airplane_fillmore_poster_1966.jpg#/media/File:Jefferson_airplane_fillmore_poster_1966.jpg)
Fillmore Auditorium San Francisco

Matrix

The Fillmore Auditorium was not the first rock venue in San Francisco. The Matrix had opened six months earlier on August 13, 1965 showcasing the Jefferson Airplane, which singer/founder Marty Balin had put together as the club’s “house band.”

On October 16, 1965, the Family Dog had put on a dance and concert a the Longshoremen’s Hall with the Jefferson Airplane, the Charlatans, and the Great Society. 

Fillmore Auditorium San Francisco

Bill Graham

Bill Graham kicked off his 1967 Summer Series with an incredible lineup at the Fillmore. Headlining the show were Rock and Roll’s biggest new stars, the Jefferson Airplane whose album, Surrealistic Pillow, was climbing the American pop charts. Last on the bill behind Jazz guitarist Gabor Szabo was a relatively unknown guitar player named Jimi Hendrix.
“Jimi first came to San Francisco right after Monterey Pop. …He opened and then Gabor Szabo and then the Airplane. That was the first night. Afterward, the Airplane asked him if they could open the show. Jimi took the town by storm.” Bill Graham (poster from Wolfgang’s Vault site)
Fillmore Auditorium San Francisco

Pinnacle

From the Fillmore site: The Fillmore represented the pinnacle of creative music making in the late 1960s. From December 10, 1965, when Bill Graham produced a San Francisco Mime troupe benefit (Jefferson Airplane with Great Society and Mystery Trend; the Warlocks, later the Grateful Dead, kicked off the show), until July 4, 1968, The Fillmore audiences experienced a 2 1/2 year musical and cultural Renaissance that produced some of the most innovative, exciting music ever to come out of San Francisco. The careers of the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Moby Grape, the Butterfield Blues Band, and countless others were launched from The Fillmore stage. The most significant musical talent of the day has appeared there: Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Cream, Howlin’ Wolf, Captain Beefheart, Muddy Waters, The Who – well, you get the picture. Or you’ve heard the stories. If you’re lucky, you were there.

In July, 1968, the Fillmore Auditorium morphed and moved to the Fillmore West, a west coast counterpart to Graham’s already-opened Fillmore East in New York City.

The site remained basically the same and has been a venue under different names at various times since. Today it is again the Fillmore.

References:

Fillmore Auditorium San Francisco
Birthdays, Music et al, Music of the 60s, Woodstock Music and Art Fair

Jefferson Airplane Marty Balin

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Jefferson Airplane Marty Balin

Remembering Marty Balin
January 30, 1942 – September 27, 2018
Jefferson Airplane Marty Balin
Marty Balin (photo from http://imgbuddy.com/marty-balin.asp)

Born Martyn Jerel Buchwald in Cincinnati, Ohio, on January 30, 1942, parents Joe and Jean Buchwald raised Marty in in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Jefferson Airplane Marty Balin

In 1962 Marty renamed himself Marty Balin and began recording with Challenge Records, releasing the singles “Nobody But You” and “I Specialize in Love.”

Balin was the lead for the folk music quartet called The Town Criers, followed by a brief stint with the Gateway Singers in 1965.

On July 25, 1965, Dylan famously “went electric” at the Newport Folk Festival.  Deciding to do the same but getting refusals from the folk clubs, Balin opened the San Francisco Matrix night club on August 13, 1965 featuring his new band Jefferson Airplane. The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Big Brother and the holding Company, and Steve Miller all performed there. The Airplane and the Matrix helped create the San Francisco scene.

In August 1969, the Airplane famously played their sunrise set at Woodstock.

Jefferson Airplane Marty Balin

For personal, personnel, and musical reasons, Marty left the Airplane in April 1971. In a 1993 interview with Jeff Tamarkin of Relix Balid said “I don’t know, just Janis’s death. That struck me. It was dark times. Everybody was doing so much drugs and I couldn’t even talk to the band. I was into yoga at the time. I’d given up drinking and I was into totally different area, health foods and getting back to the streets, working with the American Indians. It was getting strange for me. Cocaine was a big deal in those days and I wasn’t a cokie and I couldn’t talk with everybody who had an answer for every goddamn thing, rationalizing everything that happened. I thought it made the music really tight and constrictive and ruined it. So after Janis died, I thought, I’m not gonna go onstage and play that kind of music; I don’t like cocaine.” (click >>> Relix interview)

Balin joined Airplane’s reconstructed Jefferson Starship in 1975 and remained with them until 1978. Afterward, he returned to his solo career, though he did join the band for reunions in 1989 and 1996

He released 12 solo albums.

In 1996, Jefferson Airplane was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Grace Slick was absent due to medical reasons). Most in jackets and ties, they performed “Volunteers” with Balin on lead vocals.

Marty died on September 27, 2018. [Rolling Stone story]

References: Marty Balin site
Jefferson Airplane Marty Balin