Beech Tree News Network

Oh, You didn’t know?

I will not finish that phrase, as it’s from ‘90’s WWE and not exactly family friendly.  In this case, however, it pertains to some music information of which you may not be aware.  Some of them surprised me.  For instance, the Rolling Stones’ “Harlem Shuffle” from their 1986 album Dirty Work is a cover.  I knew the song sounded older.  The original by Bob & Earl which was released 1967 was sampled by rap group House of Pain for their 1992 self-titled album.  Listen to the Bob & Earl track (online or on the Baby Driver soundtrack) and you’ll immediately notice the beginning of the song.

I learned a little bit about Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion. First from the VH1 Top Ten show and I fact-checked it.  Turns out, it’s true.  To get that sound at the beginning, Steven Tyler shook a sugar packet to substitute missing maracas.  This one might blow you away.  Remember the song “Hungry Eyes” from the soundtrack to the movie Dirty Dancing? That song was sung by Eric Carmen. He also sang “All By Myself”.  Carmen is no stranger to the music business.  He was lead singer of the ‘70’s group the Raspberries.  He was in the ‘70’s group the Raspberries, whose signature hit was “Go All The Way”.  That’s some staying power!

The Cookies were formed in 1954 in Brooklyn, New York.  Their original members were Dorothy Jones, Darlene, McCrea and Dorothy’s cousin Beulah Robertson.  Robertson was replaced in 1956 by Margie Hendricks. One of their big hits was “Don’t Say Nothin’ Bad About My Baby”.  The group was introduced to Ray Charles through their session work for Atlantic Records.  That’s right, they were originally The Ray-lettes.

Ronnie Van Zandt’s  request to “Turn It Up” at the beginning of “Sweet Home Alabama” wasn’t planned.  It was the singer’s request to hear the melody better in the recording studio.  They kept it in the song.  Onto another wild but true story: on December 4, 1971, the small town of Montreux, Switzerland became a place forever linked to rock history,  A fire at the Montreux casino during a concert by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention inspired Deep Purple’s classic “Smoke On The Water”.  Someone shot off a flair gun during the performance.  The flare hit the wooden roof and quickly spread. 

Roy Orbison tried to get Elvis to record “Only The Lonely”.  That wasn’t even the original title. Orbison said in an interview that he went through three titles.  Orbison didn’t know because he never listened to the radio, as he himself said.  “On the way(to dropping the song off) I stopped by Elvis’ around 6 in the morning.  I was going to hang around if it was too early.  I was going to sing him the song in hopes he’d record it”.  Elvis sent a note to meet him in Nashville.  “I sang it for Phil Everly. He wasn’t blown away by it.  If you want to hear the rest of the interview, go to https://www.elvis.com.au/presley/roy-orbison-talks-about-elvis-presley-and-only-the-lonely.shtml