Articles by John Twang

The Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers 1928 musical "Present Arms" introduced "You Took Advantage Of Me". Two years later it appeared in the movie "Leathernecking" which was an adaption of the play. This is composer Richard Rodgers at the piano and vocalist Deane Janis with the composer's version. Paul Whiteman's Orchestra with vocalists Bing Crosby, Jack Fulton, Charles Gaylord and Al Rinker had the hit of "You Took Advantage Of Me" later the same year. Wikipedia "The song was a particular favor…

This is Canadian Steven Lee Olsen singing "Blue Ain't Your Color". Steven wrote this with Hillary Lindsey and Clint Lagerberg. Steven is now, after more than a decade, being recognized as a songwriter, singer after leaving Newmarket, Ontario for Nashville. To continue with the Commonwealth theme, New Zealand born, Australian raised and American accepted country singer Keith Urban released the 2016 top ten LP "Ripcord" and the single "Blue Ain't Your Color" during that summer. The Grammy nomi…

Singer, songwriter and guitarist Bob King wrote "It Must be Jesus" and sang lead with his group The Southern Tones on this 1954 release. When the group broke up Bob joined The Soul Stirrers as their first guitarist. Bob passed of kidney failure a year later. Ray Charles and his uncredited trumpet player Renald Richard rewrote the lyrics and Ray had his first big hit with "I've Got A Woman". This combining of the Blues and Gospel, as Ray did later with "What'd I Say" became known as soul musi…

In 1966 The Beatles released "Eleanor Rigby" from the LP "Revolver". According to Paul McCartney ""I was sitting at the piano when I thought of it. The first few bars just came to me, and I got this name in my head ... "Daisy Hawkins picks up the rice in the church". I don't know why. I couldn't think of much more so I put it away for a day. Then the name "Father McCartney" came to me, and all the lonely people. But I thought that people would think it was supposed to be about my Dad sitting kni…

"Sweet Love" (Gary Bias - Louis A. Johnson - Anita Baker) is performed by co-composer Gary Bias and The Jackson Garrett Band on April 17, 2011 at The Annenberg Theater in Palm Springs, California. Gary is the long time saxophonist for Earth Wind and Fire. Anita Baker recorded "Sweet Love" for the 1986 LP "Rapture". The single peaked at number two R&B, three Adult Contemporary and number eight on the Top One Hundred while reaching thirteen in the U.K. The next year it won the Grammy for Best…

The 1930 Fred and Adele Astaire musical "Smiles" included "You’re Driving Me Crazy!" (Walter Donaldson). The song was issued before the musical came into being. Rudy Vallee and His Connecticut Yankees were first to release the song to the public. This is edited to include the vocal. Nick Lucas (Lucanese) covered "You're Driving My Crazy" and peaked at number three in 1931. Nick's career lasted for decades. The Roaring '20s was a decade for nicknames, so Lucas was dubbed "The Crooning Troubad…

Martin Gore was the principal songwriter and founding member for England's Depeche Mode. He went into the studio with this first take of "Enjoy The Silence" recorded at his home studio in 1989. Fellow Depeche Mode member Alan Wilder insisted on recording the tune up-tempo. The 1990 Depeche Mode (lead vocalist David Gahan, Andrew Fletcher, Martin Gore and Alan Wilder) album "Violator" hit the top ten on Billboard. The second single issued from the LP was "Enjoy The Silence", it peaked atop th…

The tunes "Thrills That I Can't Forget", "I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes" and "The Great Speckled Bird" provide the basis for "Wild Side Of Life". Jimmie Heap and His Melody Masters (vocalist Houston "Perk" Williams, Horace Barnett, Arlie Carter, Bill Glendining and Louie Rincon) were first to record "Wild Side Of Life" in 1951 but with little chart action. Hank Thompson's version of "Wild Side Of Life" (Arlie Carter - William Warren) with His Brazos Valley Boys (various members throug…

The Van Passel Brothers (Eddy and Danny) recorded an unreleased demo of "If We Can Start All Over" in 1993. Following in excess a decade regarding plagiarism the Brussels Supreme Court ruled that at least three quarters of "If We Can Start All Over" can be heard in "You Are Not Alone" so the entirety of all rights are due to the brothers. The twins are authors, composers, producers and music publishers. R. (Richard) Kelly contributed "You Are Not Alone" to the Michael Jackson repertoire at M…

Extraordinary musician, producer, songwriter, guitarist for Sam Cooke and lead singer of The Valentinos, Bobby Womack included "If You Think You're Lonely Now" on the 1981 LP "The Poet". As a 1982 single the song peaked at number three on the Soul chart, just one of the highlights from a six decade music career. The soundtrack to the 1994 Jada Pinkett film "Jason's Lyric" helped K-Ci (Cedric) Hailey's version of "If You Think You're Lonely Now" reach number eleven R&B and number seventeen on…

In 1912 Charles "Luckey" Roberts composed the ragtime "Ripples Of The Night". The tune was extremely fast and needed a master to play it, Luckey did that with very large and wide hands. James Price Johnson was considered such a master but even he couldn't complete the tune with precision, neither could the legendary George Gershwin. For this reason Luckey slowed it down and called it "Moonlight Cocktail". The big band recording of "Moonlight Cocktail" with lyrics added by Kim Gannon came fro…

The songwriting dream team of Diane Warren and Albert Hammond wrote "I Don't Wanna Live Without Your Love". Diane has won a ton of ASCAP Awards, a Golden Globe, Grammy, Billboard Music Award and an Emmy. Albert is in The Songwriter's Hall Of Fame, received the Order Of The British Empire, won an Ivor Novello award and an Emmy. The song was written specifically for the 1988 LP "Chicago 19". This was the first single issue to have Bill Champlin on lead vocals. Chicago's (Bill Champlin, John Pa…

OBE songwriter extraordinaire, pianist, guitarist and Emmy winner Albert Hammond contributed to "I Need To Be In Love" (Richard Carpenter - Albert Hammond - John Bettis). This track is from the 2012 LP "Legend ll". There is a tonnage of Albert Hammond material in this blog. The Carpenters take on "I Need To Be In Love" was on the 1976 album "A Kind Of Hush". The single reached number twenty-five on the Top One Hundred and was The Carpenters fourteenth release to top the Easy Listening chart.…

Robert Tepper performed at the Chinese food/music room Genghis Cohen in Los Angeles in 2012. Robert co-authored "Into The Night". Robert wrote and sang "No Easy Way Out" that hit the top forty after it was used in the 1985 movie "Rocky lV". Mr. Tepper also wrote "Angel Of The City", the main song for Sylvester Stallone's 1986 "Cobra". All this happened before he joined "Iron Butterfly" for a number of years. Benny Mardones recorded "Into The Night" with Robert Tepper on backing vocals for th…

Composer, son of a cantor, actor, pianist and Academy Award winner Sammy Fain (Feinberg) sings "You Brought A New Kind Of Love To Me" (Sammy Fain - Irving Kahal - Pierre Norman) written for the 1930 film "The Big Pond". Maurice Chevalier sang "You Brought A New Kind Of Love To Me" in the movie he starred with Claudette Colbert and had a successful chart showing. A French version of the film called "La Grande Mare" was shot simultaneously. Former vocalist with the Harry James and Benny Go…

Former lead singer for Boy Howdy, Jeffrey Steele (LeVasseur) and former lead guitarist for NRBQ, Al Anderson wrote "Unbelievable". Jeffrey sings his version of the Country hit. Wikipedia "Jeffrey Steele wrote a song, 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home' about the returning veterans from the Gulf war, Curb signed Boy Howdy but made them change their group name to 'New Frontier' they went to appear on 'Nashville Now' hosted by Ralph Emery who liked the band name Boy Howdy this helped convince Curb re…

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform "Light Of Day'" (Bruce Springsteen) during a May, 1988 concert at New York City's Madison Square Garden. Bruce wrote the song specifically for the movie. "Light Of Day" was introduced by Michael J. Fox and Joan Jett as The Barbusters in the 1987 film of the same name. As part of the soundtrack LP the single peaked at number thirty-three on the Billboard Top One Hundred.

"It's A Man's World" (James Brown - Betty Jean Newsome) was recorded in Chicago in 1964. Lead vocalist Betty Jean Newsome was a backing singer and dancer for James Brown. Recorded in just two takes at the NYC studio in 1966 "It's A Man's, Man's World" by James Brown and the Famous Flames (his touring band and studio players here) topped the Billboard R&B charts and peaked at number eight on the Top One Hundred. Ironic that his co-writer and one time girlfriend Betty Jean Newsome accused Jame…