The Music Video Vault Podcast

27/12/2020

Remember this video? Don’t Worry Be Happy stars Bobby McFerrin, Robin Williams, and Bill Irwin. Check out our new episode!

20/12/2020

The Concert for Bangladesh was release on this day in 1971. The concert itself was held on August 1st 1971 at New York's Madison Square Garden. It was an all-star lineup with George Harrison at the helm. But Bob Dylan, Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Leon Russell and Eric Clapton we’re also along for the ride.

The shows were a pioneering charity event, in aid of the homeless Bengali refugees of the Bangladesh Liberation War, and set the model for future multi-artist rock benefits such as Live Aid and the Concert for New York City. The event brought Harrison and Starr together on a concert stage for the first time since 1966, when the Beatles retired from live performance, and also represented Dylan's first major concert appearance in the US in five years.

Co-produced by Phil Spector, the album features his Wall of Sound approach in a live setting. Besides the main performers, the musicians and singers include Badfinger, Jim Horn, Klaus Voormann, Alla Rakha, Jim Keltner, Jesse Ed Davis and Claudia Lennear. Minimal post-production was carried out on the recordings, ensuring that the album was a faithful document of the event. The box set's packaging included a 64-page book containing photos from the concerts; the album cover, designed by Tom Wilkes, consisted of an image of a malnourished child sitting beside an empty food bowl. The album was delayed for three months due to protracted negotiations between Harrison and two record companies keen to protect their business interests, Capitol and Columbia/CBS.

On release, The Concert for Bangladesh was a major critical and commercial success. It topped albums charts in several countries and went on to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

20/12/2020

The Music Video Vault podcast is back with an all-new episode. Remember this video? If not, you probably aren’t the only one. So check out our new deep-dive to find out if this The Big Money is a big hit or a big miss.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-music-video-vault/id1535415513 =439eb16d-5cf5-41df-9b43-303486f572af

18/12/2020

The Beach Boys released “Wild Honey” on this day in 1967. They rebounded from the 'Smile' / 'Smiley Smile' mess with an R&B album, made to shoot down critics who referred to them as "ball-less choir boys." They even cover Stevie Wonder. Carl Wilson's wonderfully frayed voice anchors the title song and "Darlin'," the album's best tracks, but there's lots more here to like.

Brian WIlson didn't produce (the whole group gets that credit), but he did co-write almost all of the songs with Mike Love. He didn't return full-time to that kind of role for another 10 years.

16/12/2020

The Beatles’ Fourth Christmas Record – Pantomime: Everywhere It’s Christmas was sent to members of The Beatles’ UK fan club on this day in 1966.
The audio had been recorded on 25 November 1966, and mixed and edited on 2 December.

Side one: Song: Everywhere It’s Christmas; Orowanya; Corsican Choir And Small Choir; A Rare Cheese; Two Elderly Scotsmen; The Feast; The Loyal Toast.

Side two: Podgy The Bear And Jasper; Count Balder And Butler; Felpin Mansions (Part Two); The Count And The Pianist; Song: Please Don’t Bring Your Banjo Back; Everywhere It’s Christmas; Mal Evans; Reprise: Everywhere It’s Christmas.

“I drew the cover myself. There’s a sort of funny pantomime horse in the design if you look closely. Well I can see one there if you can’t.” - Paul McCartney

14/12/2020

So What, released on this day in 1974, is the third studio album by Joe Walsh.

It contains hard rock classics such as "Welcome To The Club" and a remake of the Barnstorm track, "Turn To Stone".

It also contains more introspective material such as "Help Me Through the Night" and "Song For Emma".

On a few tracks, Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and Randy Meisner of Eagles contributed backing vocals. Over a year and a half later, Walsh would be drafted into the Eagles to replace founding member Bernie Leadon, playing on their best-selling studio album Hotel California.

13/12/2020

Badfinger released Straight Up, their 4th album, on this day in 1971. It included the iconic “Day After Day” and “Baby Blue”, which was a hit at the time and most recently was featured in the Scorsese film, The Departed.

They preceded the recording of their third album, Straight Up, with the well-received No Dice (1970),and a series of acclaimed shows at Urgano's in New York that helped establish the group in America.

Out of appreciation for the band's contributions to his first post-Beatles solo album, All Things Must Pass, George Harrison introduced Badfinger on their opening night at Urgano's, about which Janis Schacht of Circus reported: "For a while, most people watched George Harrison watching Badfinger, then everyone noticed how good Badfinger were – good enough to draw attention away from a former Beatle."

While attractive to American audiences, the association with the Beatles, partly through Badfinger being an Apple Records act, continued to hinder the band's attempts to forge their own identity. Having already tired of playing their debut hit song, the Paul McCartney-written "Come and Get It", Badfinger would experience similar artistic compromises during the production of Straight Up. In other areas of the group's operation, all four members signed a management deal with American agent Stan Polley in November 1970. This deal would ultimately end up playing an infamous and devastating role in the demise of the band.

12/12/2020

Ringo Starr’s “Blast From Your Past” was released on this day 45 years ago in 1975. Notable for being Starr's first compilation LP and his final release under his contract with EMI. It was also the last album to be released on the Beatles' Apple label until it was revived in the 1990s.

11/12/2020

Plastic Ono Band, released 50 years ago on this day in 1970 and was more than John Lennon's kiss-off to the Beatles. It was his demolition of everything the previous decade stood for, a hard-eyed confrontation with the demons that hounded him and a piercing cry for whatever love remained.

The album was shaped in no small way by Lennon and wife Yoko Ono's therapy experiences with Dr. Arthur Janov, an American psychotherapist who taught that repressed pain from childhood experiences could be released through primal screams. It led to one of rock's most confrontational, brutally honest and harrowingly personal albums.

There would be no such inhibitions here. Lennon added anguished cries for his late mom on the album-opening "Mother," then shredding his vocal chords in defiance of end-of-the-'60s ennui on "Well Well Well." He made clear his billowing disillusion on "I Found Out," framed his struggle to find something real to hang on to in "Working Class Hero," got lost for a moment in the comforts of a relationship in "Love." Then, in the album's most important statement, he blithely pushed aside fallen idols – from Bob Dylan to religion to, yes, his old band – on "God," declaring flatly that "the dream is over."

Plastic Ono Band was recorded – along with a tandem solo album by Ono – in a manner very much in keeping with the Beatles' troubled Get Back project, over the course of roughly a month beginning in September 1970 at Abbey Road and Ascot Sound Studios. The lean core group of Lennon, bassist Klaus Voormann and drummer Ringo Starr was augmented only by nominal producer Phil Spector on piano for "Love" and Billy Preston on piano for "God."

10/12/2020

Bark at the Moon is the third studio album by British heavy metal vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, originally released on this day in 1983. A commercial success, Bark at the Moon peaked at number 19 on the Billboard album chart and within several weeks of release was certified gold for over 500,000 sales in the United States.

To date, it has sold over 3,000,000 copies in the United States. In the UK, it was the third of four Osbourne albums to attain silver certification (60,000 units sold) by the British Phonographic Industry, achieving this in January 1984.

The album was remastered on CD in 1995 and again (with a different mix) in 2002. This is Osbourne's first album to feature guitarist Jake E. Lee after the untimely and tragic loss of Randy Rhoads. It is the only studio album to feature drummer Tommy Aldridge.

10/12/2020

Fresh Cream, the debut album from Cream was released on this day in 1966.

In 2012, the album was ranked number 102 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of all time (The highest-ranking album by Cream on the list). Uncut describes the songs as "all about playing in a band and relaxing, the joy of being young, and they walk it like they talk it, being jumping-off points for wonderful spur-of-the moment improvisations". Writing for the BBC, Sid Smith notes that "blues, pop and rock magically starts to coalesce to create something brand new". Stephen Thomas Erlwine of AllMusic believes the record to be "instrumental in the birth of heavy metal and the birth of jam rock".

08/12/2020

“Hotel California” was released by the Eagles on this day in 1976.

Described by Don Henley as “a concept album”, Hotel California was, on the deepest level, a critique of modern America. More simply, it is an album full of great songs (Wasted Time, Life In The Fast Lane, The Last Resort), The Eagles’ masterpiece, and arguably one of the greatest rock albums ever made.

The band’s biggest-selling original studio album, selling more than 16 million in the US, Hotel California topped the Billboard chart for eight weeks and reached No.2 in the UK. It also yielded two US No.1 singles in the bitter-sweet New Kid In Town, and a mythic title track built on a reggae groove and capped with the mother of all lead guitar codas.

07/12/2020

Creedence Clearwater Revival’s sixth LP, Pendulum, was released 40 years ago on this day in 1970.

Pendulum stands out as the band’s most sonically layered album as well as Fogerty’s most obvious tribute to his Stax Records heroes. John not only wrote, sings and plays guitar on every track, he also overdubbed organ and horns (which he played himself) on many of the songs. When the more adventurous sound works, ‘Pendulum’ showcases the band at its best: the sweet church organ that floats through "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?," the honking sax on the charging "Molina."

However, when Fogerty overreaches, CCR sounds unremarkable (the overcooked yacht rock of "Sailor’s Lament") or even worse, untethered (the half-baked prog exercise "Rude Awakening #2").

That said, it’s more than just a collection of songs. Although hits such as "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" and "Hey Tonight" and the overlooked ballad "It’s Just a Thought" all easily rise to the top.

06/12/2020

The Rolling Stones released Beggars Banquet on this day in 1968.

It was a top-ten album in many markets, including a number 5 position in the US—where it has been certified platinum—and a number 3 position in the band's native UK. It received a highly favorable response from music critics, who deemed it a return to the band's best sound. While the album lacked a "hit single" at the time of its release, songs such as "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Street Fighting Man" became rock radio staples for decades to come.

Being one of their most acclaimed albums, it is considered as the beginning of the band's enduring reputation as the "Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World".

05/12/2020

Band on the Run by Paul McCartney and Wings, was released on this day in 1973.

There’s a lot to say about it but the bottom line is that it was a big deal at the time and has only grown in stature since.

It was the album Paul needed to keep him relevant. It’s crazy to think so, but he’d had a couple recent duds and critics and fans were on the verge of ignoring him.

However, he came through and this album has several classics on it. The title track, and Jet were the big hits, but Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five and Let Me Roll It are two deeper cuts that elevate it.

04/12/2020

Beatles for Sale was released on this day in 1964. It’s regarded as their weakest album but still has standouts like “No Reply”, Baby’s in Black”, “Eight Days a Week” and “I’m A Loser”. Definitely one of the more underrated albums in their discography.

03/12/2020

The Beatles released the legendary album, Rubber Soul, on this day in 1965.

The album is widely viewed as the first pop album to make an artistic statement through the quality of its songs,a point that was reinforced by its artsy cover photo.

Referring to the praise afforded the band, particularly the songwriting partnership of Lennon and McCartney, by Newsweek in early 1966, Michael Frontani writes: "The Beatles had a foothold in the world of art; in the months that followed, their efforts would lead to the full acceptance and legitimization of rock and roll as an art form."

Paul Williams launched Crawdaddy! in February 1966 with the aim of reflecting the sophistication brought to the genre by Rubber Soul and Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home – the two albums that, in music journalist Barney Hoskyns' description, "arguably gave birth to 'rock' as a more solid concept than 'pop'".

According to Sculatti, Rubber Soul was "the definitive 'rock as art' album, revolutionary in that it was a completely successful creative endeavor integrating with precision all aspects of the creative (rock) process – composition of individual tracks done with extreme care, each track arranged appropriately to fit beside each other track, the symmetrical rock 'n' roll album".

Christopher Bray describes it as "the album that proved that rock and roll could be suitable for adult audiences", "the first long-playing pop record to really merit the term 'album'" and the LP that "turned pop music into high art".

02/12/2020

Today marks the 40th anniversary release of “9 To 5 and Odd Jobs”, which is Dolly Parton’s 23rd album. In addition to five Parton compositions, the album contained a number of folk and country classics, including work by Woody Guthrie, Mel Tillis and Merle Travis.

A 1983 reissue on cassette omitted the tracks "Detroit City" and "Dark as a Dungeon," and moved the song "Sing For The Common Man" to the end of Side 2. However, a 2009 reissue of the album included all ten of the album's original tracks, as well as a remixed version of "9 to 5", and a previously unreleased cover of Sly & the Family Stone's 1969 hit "Everyday People" as bonus cuts.

The album stayed at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart for 10 consecutive weeks and ended up being certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

AllMusic retrospectively rated this album four-and-a-half out of five stars. William Ruhlmann, who reviewed the album, stated that due to RCA's practice of "shoving poorly organized products onto the market, most of Parton's albums are hard to recommend", but that "[the songs are] enough to put it a notch above most of Parton's RCA catalog."

01/12/2020

Aerosmith’s fifth album, Draw the Line, was released on this day in 1977.

Contemporary reviews were quite negative. Billy Altman of Rolling Stone called the LP "a truly horrendous record, chaotic to the point of malfunction and with an almost impenetrably dense sound adding to the confusion." Robert Christgau considered the album the product of a band "out of gas".

Retrospective reviews are more positive. Kerrang! magazine listed the album at No. 37 among the "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time" for its "high energy", although it never touches heavy metal as a genre, concluding with the comment "sleaze was never so classy."

According to Greg Prato of AllMusic, "the band shies away from studio experimenting and dabbling in different styles," returning "to simple, straight-ahead hard rock" and releasing "the last true studio album from Aerosmith's original lineup for nearly a decade." Another AllMusic reviewer stated that, "although some fans see Draw the Line as the beginning of a decline for Aerosmith, it still offers up some strong hard-rock tunes. One of its best moments is the title track, one of the group's most relentless rockers."

Draw the Line went platinum its first month of release, entering the music charts on December 24, 1977, peaking at No. 11 on the US Billboard 200, and eventually being certified 2x multi-platinum nearly a decade later. Even so, it marks the band's first slowdown in album sales of their 1970s era, after their initial rise with the albums Toys in the Attic and Rocks.

30/11/2020

Thriller was released on this day in 1982 and became Jackson's first #1 album on the Billboard charts. It spent a record 37 weeks at the top, from February 26, 1983 to April 14, 1984. The singles were “The Girl Is Mine", "Billie Jean", "Beat It", "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' ", "Human Nature", "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)", and "Thriller" and they all reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, setting the record for the most top 10 singles from an album, with "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" reaching number one.

Following Jackson's performance of "Billie Jean" in Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, where he debuted his signature moonwalk dance, the sales of the album significantly increased, selling one million copies worldwide per week.

The "Thriller" music video was premiered to great anticipation in December 1983 and played regularly on MTV, which also increased the sales of the album.

With 32 million copies sold worldwide by the end of 1983, Thriller became the best-selling album of all time. It was the best-selling album worldwide of 1983, and was also the first album to become the best-selling in the United States for two years, in 1983 and 1984.

It was among the first to use music videos as promotional tools; the videos for "Billie Jean", "Beat It" and "Thriller" are credited for transforming music videos into a serious art form. The album's success set the standard for the music industry with its songs, music videos and promotion strategies influencing artists, record labels, producers, marketers and choreographers.

Thriller remains the best-selling album of all time, with sales of 66 million copies worldwide.

29/11/2020

Guns N’ Roses releases “G’N’R Lies” on this day in 1988. In a 4 out of 5 star review, stated "Given that Guns N’ Roses could probably release an album of Baptist hymns at this point and go platinum, it would be all too easy to dismiss G n’ R Lies as a sneaky attempt by the band to throw together some outtakes and cash in on the busy holiday buying season... The good news is that Lies is a lot more interesting than that... The calm folk-rock melodies of these four acoustic songs reveal yet another welcome facet of Guns n’ Roses. They should also end any further mutterings from the doubting Thomases out there who are still making snide comments about the band’s potential for longevity.". Allmusic, in a 3.5 out of 5 review, criticized some of the songs on the acoustic side, stating "Constructed as a double EP, with the "indie" debut Live ?!*@ Like a Su***de coming first and four new acoustic-based songs following on the second side, G N' R Lies is where the band changed from genuine threat to joke. Neither recorded live nor released by an indie label, Live ?!*@ Like a Su***de is competent bar band boogie, without the energy or danger of Appetite for Destruction. The new songs are considerably more problematic. "Patience" is Guns N' Roses at their prettiest and their sappiest, the most direct song they recorded to date. Its emotional directness makes the misogyny of "Used to Love Her (But I Had to Kill Her)" and the pitiful slanders of "One in a Million" sound genuine.

In a 2014 review Metal Hammer dissected the controversy around the album, stating "Conceived as a stop-gap release, the second Guns N’ Roses album remains a remarkable one-off – in every sense.

28/11/2020

Released on this day in 1969, Let It Bleed reached number 1 in the UK (temporarily demoting the Beatles' Abbey Road) and number 3 on the Billboard Top LPs chart in the US, where it eventually went 2× platinum.

In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone magazine, music critic Greil Marcus said that the middle of the album has "great" songs, but "Gimme Shelter" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" "seem to matter most" because they "both reach for reality and end up confronting it, almost mastering what's real, or what reality will feel like as the years fade in."

Robert Christgau named it the fourth best album of 1969 in his ballot for Jazz & Pop magazine's annual critics poll.[37] In later commentaries, he has said the album "still speak[s] to me with startling fullness and authority", and despite some "duff moments" on side two, every song "stands up".

Let It Bleed was the Stones' last album to be released in an official mono version, which is rare and highly sought-after today.

In a retrospective review, NME magazine said that the album "tugs and teases" in various musical directions and called it "a classic". In his 2001 Stones biography, Stephen Davis said of the album "No rock record, before or since, has ever so completely captured the sense of palpable dread that hung over its era."

This album is in the middle of what many critics have said is the greatest four- album run by any artist: Beggar’s Banquet (1968), Let it Bleed (69), Sticky Fingers (70) and Exile on Main St (72).

27/11/2020

Two classics released on this day, three years apart.

The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour was released on this day in 1967 and was number 1 on Billboard's Top LPs listings for eight weeks at the start of 1968 and remained in the top 200 until 8 February 1969. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1969.

All Things Must Pass was released by George Harrison on this day in 1970 as a triple album. It was Harrison's first solo work after the break-up of the Beatles in April that year. It includes the hit singles "My Sweet Lord" and "What Is Life", as well as songs such as "Isn't It a Pity" and the title track that had been overlooked for inclusion on releases by the Beatles. The album reflects the influence of Harrison's musical activities with artists such as Bob Dylan, the Band, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends and Billy Preston during 1968–70, and his growth as an artist beyond his supporting role to Lennon and McCartney. All Things Must Pass introduced Harrison's signature slide guitar sound and the spiritual themes present throughout his subsequent solo work. The original vinyl release consisted of two LPs of songs and a third disc of informal jams titled Apple Jam.

All Things Must Pass was ranked 79th on The Times' "The 100 Best Albums of All Time" in 1993, while Rolling Stone placed it 368th on the magazine's 2020 update of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 2014, All Things Must Pass was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

26/11/2020

26/11/2020

Eric Clapton’s Slowhand was released on this day in 1977. In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, John Swenson found Clapton's playing more subtle than before but his songs sobering and interesting psychologically, especially "Next Time You See Her", as they showed him "in touch with the horrible moral power and long-suffering self-righteousness that is the essence of the blues". Robert Christgau was less enthusiastic, lamenting how most of the record's best guitar solos were played by George Terry and feeling Clapton had regressed as a singer, "sounding like he's blown his voice. Doing what, I wonder."

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that the confident, virtuosic quality in the band's playing and the diversity of the songwriting made Slowhand "rank with 461 Ocean Boulevard as Eric Clapton's best albums".

24/11/2020

Thirty Three & ​1⁄3, released on this day in 1976, is the seventh studio album by George Harrison. It was Harrison's first album release on his Dark Horse record label. The album contains the US top 30 singles "This Song" – Harrison's satire on the “He’s So Fine/My Sweet Lord” lawsuit and the notion of plagiarism in pop music – and "Crackerbox Palace". Despite the problems associated with the album, many music critics recognized Thirty Three & ​1⁄3 as a return to form for Harrison after his poorly received work during 1974–75, and considered it his strongest collection of songs since 1970's acclaimed All Things Must Pass.

23/11/2020

The Spaghetti Incident? was released by Guns and Roses on this day in 1993 and debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. However, it only sold 190,000 albums in its first week of release, which was significantly fewer than their previous releases. The album was certified platinum on January 26, 1994.

The title references an incident Steven Adler had in 1989 while the band was temporarily staying at an apartment in Chicago. In his lawsuit against the band, Adler's lawyer asked the band to "tell us about the spaghetti incident," which the band found amusing and used as the title of the album.

In his review for AllMusic, music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that, "As punk albums go, "The Spaghetti Incident?" lacks righteous anger and rage. As Guns N' Roses albums go, it's a complete delight, returning to the ferocious, hard-rocking days of Appetite for Destruction."

22/11/2020

With the Beatles was released on this day in 1963. The album became the first Beatles album released in North America when it was released in Canada under the augmented title Beatlemania! With the Beatles. For the United States release, the original running order of With the Beatles was unevenly split over the group's first two Capitol albums: nine tracks were issued on Meet the Beatles! (the eight original compositions plus "Till There Was You"), while the remaining five songs, all cover versions, were placed on The Beatles' Second Album.

The LP had advance orders of a half million and sold another half million by September 1965, making it the second album to sell a million copies in the United Kingdom, after the soundtrack to the 1958 film South Pacific. With the Beatles remained at the top of the charts for 21 weeks, displacing Please Please Me, so that the Beatles occupied the top spot for 51 consecutive weeks. It even reached number 11 in the "singles charts" (because at the time UK charts counted all records sold, regardless of format). No other group or singer has achieved 51 consecutive weeks at number 1 in the album charts. However, the soundtrack for the South Pacific movie did achieve 70 consecutive weeks at number one in the album charts.

21/11/2020

Duran Duran released Seven and the Ragged Tiger on this day in 1983. Hits included The Reflex. Nothing says “80’s” like Duran Duran!

20/11/2020

But Seriously is the fourth solo studio album by English drummer and singer-songwriter Phil Collins and was released on this day in 1989. After he finished touring commitments with Genesis in 1987 the group entered a four-year hiatus. By the spring of 1989 Collins had written material for a new solo album which addressed more serious lyrical themes like socio-economic and political issues as opposed to his previous, the dance-oriented No Jacket Required (1985).

The album reached No. 1 in the UK and the US for 15 and 4 non-consecutive weeks, respectively. It was the best selling album of 1990 in the UK, eventually selling 2.75 million copies there and 4 million in the US. The lead single "Another Day in Paradise" won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year.

19/11/2020

Achtung Baby was released by U2 on this day in 1991. Thematically, Achtung Baby is darker, more introspective, and at times more flippant than their previous work.

The album and the subsequent multimedia-intensive Zoo TV Tour were central to the group's 1990s reinvention, by which they abandoned their earnest public image for a more lighthearted and self-deprecating one.

It remains one of U2's most successful records, debuting at number one on the US Billboard 200 Top Albums, while topping the charts in many other countries. Five songs were released as commercial singles, all of which were chart successes, including "One", "Mysterious Ways", and "The Fly". The album has sold 18 million copies worldwide and won a Grammy Award in 1993 for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Achtung Baby has since been acclaimed by writers and music critics as one of the greatest albums of all time.