"Emotional Healings and Gospel Feelings" Great songs of the past. Another Blogger Blog Brought to by Poetry Writes & Other Stuff from Sinbad the Sailor Man
This
is part one of a 30 minute program promoting The Statler Bros. Random
Memories, by Harold and Don Reid. The program is hosted by Harold and
Don's sons, Wil and Langdon Reid respectively and members of the duo
Grandstaff. Part one features Grandstaff's (Wil and Langdon) video
tribute, "The Statler Brothers Song." Harold and Don discuss how and why
they wrote the book.
The Statler Bros. Random Memories Part Two
Uploaded on Feb 15, 2009
Part
Two of a 30 minute program advertising The Statler Bros. Random
Memories, a book by Harold and Don Reid. In Part Two, Don reads from the
book's first chapter detailing his emotions prior to taking the stage
for the last time in Salem, VA. Harold talks about a stressful period in
the group's career and they both explain how they wrote the book. This
program is hosted by Wil and Langdon Reid of Grandstaff.
The Statler Bros. Random Memories Part Three
Uploaded on Feb 16, 2009
This
is part three of a program advertising The Statler Bros. Random
Memories, a book by Harold and Don Reid, founding members of the Statler
Brothers. The program is hosted by their sons, Wil and Langdon Reid of
the duo Grandstaff. In part three Don shares a story about one of their
heroes, Roy Rogers; and Harold explains how he spent time in a Canadian
jail. Don closes the segment with information about how Lester "Roadhog"
Moran was born.
Statler Brothers.... "We Got Paid by CASH"
Published on Feb 1, 2013
The Statler Brothers paying respect to their Dear Friend and Mentor...
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The Statler Brothers (sometimes referred to in country music circles as simply The Statlers) were an American country music, gospel, and backing vocal group for Johnny Cash. The quartet was founded in 1955 in Staunton, Virginia.
Originally performing gospel music at local churches, the group billed themselves as The Four Star Quartet, and later The Kingsmen.[1]
In 1963, when the song "Louie, Louie" by the garage rock band also called The Kingsmen
became famous, the group elected to bill themselves as The Statler
Brothers. Despite the name, only two members of the group (Don and
Harold Reid) are actual brothers and none have the surname of Statler.
The band, in fact, named themselves after a brand of facial tissue they had noticed in a hotel room (they joked that they could have turned out to be the Kleenex Brothers).[2]
DeWitt died on August 15, 1990, of heart and kidney disease, stemming from complications of Crohn's disease.[4]
The band's style was closely linked to their gospel roots. "We took
gospel harmonies," said Harold Reid, "and put them over in country
music."[1]
The group remained closely tied to their gospel roots, with a
majority of their records containing at least one gospel song.
They
produced several albums containing only gospel music and recorded a
tribute song to the Blackwood Brothers, who influenced their music.
The Statler Brothers also wrote a tribute song to Johnny Cash, who discovered them. The song was called "We Got Paid by Cash", and it reminisces about their time with Cash.[1]
The group disbanded and retired after completing a farewell tour on
October 26, 2002.
Balsley and the Reid brothers continue to reside in
Staunton, while Fortune has relocated to Nashville,
where he is continuing his music career as a solo artist.
He has
released three albums as a soloist. The Statlers continue to be the one
of the most awarded acts in the history of country music.[15]
Since the Statlers' retirement in 2002, Don Reid has pursued a second
career as an author. He authored or co-authored three books: Heroes and Outlaws of the Bible, Sunday Morning Memories, and You'll Know It's Christmas When.... He and Harold Reid co-wrote a history of the Statler Brothers titled Random Memories released in February 2008.
Source: Wikipedia.org Somebody Come and Play In the Traffic With Me! Earn as You Learn, Grow as You Go!
Somebody Come and Play in "Traffic" with me. If you would like to "Join" A Growing Biz Op! Here is Your Chance to get in an Earn While You Learn to Do "The Thing" with us all here at Traffic Authority.
The group debuted in 1965 with "Flowers on the Wall",
a number 2 country and number 4 pop hit. Although they never made top
40 on the pop charts again, The Statler Brothers continued to chart on Hot Country Songs
until 1990, reaching number one with "Do You Know You Are My Sunshine"
in 1978, "Elizabeth" in 1983, "My Only Love" in 1984 and "Too Much on My
Heart" in 1985.
The Statler Brothers (sometimes referred to in country music circles as simply The Statlers) were an American country music, gospel, and backing vocal group for Johnny Cash. The quartet was founded in 1955 in Staunton, Virginia.
Originally performing gospel music at local churches, the group billed themselves as The Four Star Quartet, and later The Kingsmen.[1]
In 1963, when the song "Louie, Louie" by the garage rock band also called The Kingsmen
became famous, the group elected to bill themselves as The Statler
Brothers. Despite the name, only two members of the group (Don and
Harold Reid) are actual brothers and none have the surname of Statler.
The band, in fact, named themselves after a brand of facial tissue they had noticed in a hotel room (they joked that they could have turned out to be the Kleenex Brothers).[2]
DeWitt died on August 15, 1990, of heart and kidney disease, stemming from complications of Crohn's disease.[4]
The band's style was closely linked to their gospel roots. "We took
gospel harmonies," said Harold Reid, "and put them over in country
music."[1]
The group remained closely tied to their gospel roots, with a
majority of their records containing at least one gospel song. They
produced several albums containing only gospel music and recorded a
tribute song to the Blackwood Brothers, who influenced their music.
The Statler Brothers also wrote a tribute song to Johnny Cash, who discovered them. The song was called "We Got Paid by Cash", and it reminisces about their time with Cash.[1]
Career
Very early on in the group's history, before the name The Statler Brothers was established, Joe McDorman was a member.[5]
The Statler Brothers started their career at a performance at Lyndhurst Methodist Church near their hometown of Staunton.[1]
In 1964, they started to become Johnny Cash's backing vocal for an eight and a half year run as his opening act.[2]
This period of their career was memorialized in their song "We Got Paid
by Cash". They were featured regularly on Cash's hit show The Johnny Cash Show on ABC.
The show ran from 1969-1971. Due to their expanding career the Statlers
left Cash's entourage around the mid 1970s to pursue their own careers.
They left Cash on good terms.
In the 1980s, the Statlers were a mainstay on The Nashville Network (TNN), where their videos were shown regularly. Also on TNN, between 1991 and 1998, they hosted their own show, The Statler Brothers Show, a weekly variety show which was the channel's top-rated program for its entire run.[6][7]
Throughout their career, much of their appeal was related to their
incorporation of comedy and parody into their musical act, thanks in
large part to the humorous talent of Harold Reid; they were frequently
nominated for awards for their comedy as well as their singing.
They
recorded two comedy albums as Lester "Roadhog" Moran and the Cadillac
Cowboys, and one-half of one side of the album Country Music Then and Now was devoted to satirizing small-town radio stations' Saturday morning shows.
The Statler Brothers purchased and renovated their former elementary
school in Staunton, and occupied the complex for several years. The
complex consisted of offices for the group, a small museum and
auditorium, as well as an adjacent building which served as office space
for unrelated businesses.
A garage was built to store the two tour
buses that the group had used for many years. The group has since sold
the building which has been converted back into a school.[citation needed]
In 1970, the group began performing at an annual Independence Day
festival in Gypsy Hill Park in Staunton. The event, known as "Happy
Birthday USA", lasted for 25 years and included many country music
figures including Mel Tillis, Charley Pride
and many others.
The event drew as many as 100,000 fans each year. The
group also honored their hometown with the song "Staunton, Virginia" on
their 1973 album Do You Love Me Tonight.
Source: Wikipedia.org
Somebody Come and Play In the Traffic With Me! Earn as You Learn, Grow as You Go!
Somebody Come and Play in "Traffic" with me. If you would like to "Join" A Growing Biz Op! Here is Your Chance to get in an Earn While You Learn to Do "The Thing" with us all here at Traffic Authority.
"Downtown" is a pop song composed by Tony Hatch which, as recorded by Petula Clark in 1964, became an international hit, reaching No. 1 in Billboard Hot 100 and No. 2 in UK Singles Chart. Hatch received the 1981 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.[1]
Tony Hatch had first worked with Petula Clark when he assisted her regular producer Alan A. Freeman on her 1961 No. 1 hit "Sailor".
In 1963 Freeman had asked Hatch to take over as Clark's regular
producer: Hatch had subsequently produced five English-language singles
for Clark none of which had charted.
In the autumn of 1964 Hatch had made his first visit to New York
City, the purpose being to seek material from music publishers for the
artists he was producing. Hatch would recall: "I was staying at a hotel
on Central Park and I wandered down to Broadway and to Times Square and,
naively, I thought I was downtown.
Forgetting that in New York
especially, downtown is a lot further downtown getting on towards
Battery Park. I loved the whole atmosphere there and the [music] came to
me very, very quickly".[2] According to Hatch he was standing on the corner of 48th St waiting for the traffic lights to change, looking towards Times Square when "the melody first came to me, just as the neon signs went on."[3]
It has been alleged that Hatch gave Julie Grant the opportunity to record "Downtown" which Grant turned down[5]
but this does not accord with Hatch's statement that he played
"Downtown" for Petula Clark within a few days of conceiving the melody
and only completed the song's lyrics after Clark had asked to record it:
also Hatch has said that prior to Clark's expressed interest in
"Downtown" "it never occurred to me that a white woman could even sing
it."[4]
Within a few days of his New York City junket Hatch visited Paris to
present Clark with three or four songs he'd acquired from New York
publishers for Clark to consider recording at a London recording session
scheduled for 16 October 1964 which was roughly two weeks away: Hatch –
"she was not very enthusiastic about [the material] and asked me if I
was working on anything new myself.
Reluctantly (because the song was
still so unfinished)"[6] – according to Clark besides the title lyric Hatch had only written "one or two lines"[7]
– "I played her the tune of my New York inspiration and slipped in the
word 'Downtown' in the appropriate places. 'That's the one I want to
record,' she said"[6]
– "'Get that finished. Get a good lyric in it. Get a great arrangement
and I think we’ll at least have a song we’re proud to record even if it
isn’t a hit.'" [8]
"Downtown" was recorded 16 October 1964 at the Pye Studios in Marble Arch.
Thirty minutes before the session was scheduled, Hatch was still
touching up the song's lyrics in the studio's washroom. Of his
arrangement for the session Hatch would recall: "I had to connect with
young record buyers...but not alienate Pet[ula]'s older core
audience...The trick was to make a giant orchestra sound like a rock
band."[3]
The session personnel for the recording of "Downtown" who were
assembled in Studio One of Pye Recording Studios – Hatch insisted that
all session personnel on his productions be recorded performing together
– included eight violinists, two viola players and two cellists, four
trumpeters and four trombonists, five woodwind players with flutes and
oboes, percussionists, a bass player and a pianist: also playing on the
session were guitarists Vic Flick, Jimmy Page and Big Jim Sullivan and also drummer Ronnie Verrell, while the Breakaways served as vocal chorale.
Hatch's assistant Bob Leaper acted as conductor.[8]
According to Petula Clark, the session for "Downtown" consisted of three takes
with the second take ultimately chosen as the completed track [yet,
elsewhere, an "extended" version, instrumental+backing vocal track, most
likely from a session tape makes claims questionable].[9]
Impact
Tony Hatch would recall playing the completed "Downtown" track for Pye Records
executives saying: "Nobody knew what to make of it and no release date
was set.
Then Pye's general manager called and said Joe Smith – Warner Bros.' head of A&R
– was in London looking for British material. When Joe heard Pet[ula]'s
record, he loved it and scheduled the single for urgent release in the
[United] States".[3]
When Hatch, surprised by Smith's enthusiasm for releasing "Downtown" in
the US, asked if Smith didn't consider "Downtown" to be a "very English
record" Smith replied: "It's perfect.
It's just an observation from
outside of America and it's just beautiful and just perfect."[2]
In the wake of Smith's interest "Downtown" was released in the UK in
November 1964.
It entered the UK Top 50 dated 14 November 1964, ending a
virtual two-year UK chart absence for Clark; of the ten singles she'd
had released in the UK during that period only one, "Chariot",
had appeared in even the lower charts (#39 the spring of 1963).
"Downtown" rose to #2 UK in December 1964, remaining there for three
weeks, kept out of the #1 position by the Beatles' "I Feel Fine".
Certified a Gold record for sales in the UK of 500,000, "Downtown" also reached #2 in Ireland
and #1 in Australia, New Zealand, Rhodesia and South Africa, and was
also a hit in Denmark (#2), India (#3), the Netherlands (#3) and Norway
(#8).
But "Downtown" had its greatest significance in the reception it was
afforded in the United States, where it was released by Warner Bros. in
November 1964: after early regional break-outs, notably in Detroit,
Miami, and Washington D.C., "Downtown" debuted at #87 on the Hot 100 chart in the Billboard
issue dated 19 December 1964.
Despite the Christmas season typically
being the worst time to break a new hit, "Downtown" shot up to #41 in
its second week on the Hot 100 chart ascending in its third and fourth
charting weeks to respectively #12 and #5; then after a subsequent
single point advance to #4 "Downtown" leapt to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated 23 January 1965, retaining that position a further week before being overtaken by the ascendancy of the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'".
The song became the first #1 hit for the year 1965.[10]
Petula Clark thus became the first UK female artist to have a US #1 hit
during the rock and roll era and the second in the annals of US charted
music, Vera Lynn having hit #1 US with "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart" in 1952.
"Downtown" also made Clark the first UK female artist to have a single certified as a Gold record
for US sales of one million units. "Downtown" would be the first of
fifteen consecutive hits Clark would place in the US Top 40 during a
period when she'd have considerably less chart impact in her native UK,
there reaching the Top 40 eight times.
Petula Clark, who had been playing to her French speaking fans in
small venues in Quebec when "Downtown" entered the US charts, swiftly
cut non-English versions of the song for the markets in France, Italy
and Germany; the absence in each region's language of a two-syllable
equivalent of "downtown" necessitated a radical lyric recasting for the
versions aimed at France ("Dans le temps")
Italy ("Ciao Ciao", winning
the Festivalbar,
a juke-box contest) and Spain ("Chao Chao") which respectively charted
at #6, #2 and – for three weeks – #1: "Dans le temps" also reaching #18
on Belgium's French-language chart.
The title and lyric "Downtown" was
retained for an otherwise German version which was the most successful
foreign-language version, reaching #1 in Germany, #3 in Austria, and #11
on the charts for the Flemish region of Belgium.
"Downtown"
served as the album's second single release in April 1984 reaching No.
36 on the Billboard C&W chart and crossing over to No. 80 on the Billboard
Hot 100 pop chart: to date "Downtown" marks Parton's final solo Hot 100
appearance.
Parton's version altered some of the lyrics: "Listen to the
rhythm of a gentle bossa nova"
became "Listen to the rhythm of the music that they're playing". Petula
Clark has described Parton's take on "Downtown" as "cute, because she
didn’t even try to sound like my recording."[15]
BBC News announced 20 October 2006 that Emma Bunton would record a remake of the Petula Clark hit "Downtown" to be the 2006 official BBC Children in Need
single, with Bunton quoted as saying: "I've always loved
'Downtown'...and I'm really looking forward to putting my own stamp on
it. The track's good fun and one everyone will know."[16]
Bunton, whose admiration for Petula Clark was evident on the 2004 Free Me album, recorded "Downtown" at AIR Studios (Lyndhurst) with Simon Franglen producing; the orchestra for the track was recorded at Angel Studios
with Gavin Wright conducting.
The track was released on 13 November
2006 and Bunton premiered her version of "Downtown" on the 2006 Children in Need telethon which began broadcast 17 November 2006.
Although Bunton would allege knowing "Downtown" composer Tony Hatch "quite well",[17] Petula Clark would state that neither she [i.e. Clark] nor Hatch had prior knowledge of Bunton's remake.[18]
Clark also stated that she considered Bunton's remake to be an "outright copy"[15] of Clark's original recording: "I could ask: 'What's the point'...but Emma's recording is wonderful and...for a great cause"[18] (i.e. Children in Need).
"Downtown" by Emma Bunton debuted on the UK singles chart 25 November 2006 at #24. Centralfm.com
noted Bunton's chart debut, declaring "Downtown" "the song she was born
to cover...
One of the all time great pop songs, ['Downtown'] was long
overdue for a revival and Emma Bunton pays it the respect it deserves.
"
Centralfm predicted "Downtown" would rise to the Top 3 in its second
week and the single did indeed jump to No. 3 on the chart for 2 December
2006 having sold 30,582 units in the relevant week: the mid-week stats
had ranked "Downtown" at #2 behind "Patience" by Take That but on the chart for the full week Bunton was bested not only by Take That at No. 1 but by the previous week's No. 1 "Smack That" by Akon which outsold "Downtown" by 57 copies.[19]
While affording Bunton her highest charting single since her No. 1 solo debut "What Took You So Long?"
in 2001, "Downtown" would prove to have little staying power, spending
only three weeks in the Top 20, performances by Bunton on a Christmas
Day broadcast of Top of the Pops and New Year Live failing to significantly buoy its popularity.
Total UK sales for "Downtown" by Emma Bunton were tallied at 77,039 units.
Source: Wikipedia.org Somebody Come and Play In the Traffic With Me! Earn as You Learn, Grow as You Go!
Somebody Come and Play in "Traffic" with me. If you would like to "Join" A Growing Biz Op! Here is Your Chance to get in an Earn While You Learn to Do "The Thing" with us all here at Traffic Authority.
