Ah, the weather’s so nice I think we should have class outside today. It’ll give us a chance to observe nature. We’ll touch on Ornithology, draw pictures of Sunshine Superman in a velvet fog, and find out who’s the greatest dancer. Oh yeah, and when we’re done, we’ll crank some Van Halen. Pencils up, playas!!
Every Tuesday and Thursday, former Warner Bros. Records executive and industry insider Stan Cornyn ruminates on the past, present, and future of the music business.
Since its beginning moments, Atlantic’s heads had loved the sound of black artists. They signed them, and created their new Atlantic records label to make records just like the records they’d heard on black radio, bought in black record stores, loved more than chicks, and played to death.
Or to put it less reverently, “rhythm and blues” was Atlantic’s total cliché.
Ahmet had even grown adept at creating new songs in that mode. That proved useful to this new label being run by two white guys. (Being a small label, Atlantic hardly got first choice of new songs from the big publishers. Little Atlantic came in maybe next-to-last with publishers when it came to fresh tunes to record, and left-over songs rarely sold.)
So Ahmet (using the spelled-backwards writer name of “Nugetre”) started writing his own R&B tunes for Atlantic’s Clyde McPhatter, Joe Turner, Ben E. King, Ray Charles. And his feel for R&B records made him, as they would say, “hip to the tip.”
Atlantic had moved to floors four and five of a building above Patsy’s Restaurant (234 W. 56th, Mid-town).
Up on Floor Five, Atlantic’s two heads, Ahmet and Herb, held the faith. Hits like hits they’d heard before. Black ones.
Today we celebrate the birthday of the talented musician and actor, Bobby Darin. Here he is singing his classic hit "Beyond the Sea":
Follow R.E.M. through the years with our latest gallery. R.E.M.'s GREEN: 25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION is now available from Amazon and iTunes. Check it out.
GREEN. It was R.E.M.'s global breakthrough. To celebrate the album’s 25-year anniversary, we've released GREEN: 25TH ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION. This two-disc set features the remastered original album, coupled with a disc of live performances taken from the band’s penultimate show from their 130-date Green World Tour. All 21 songs were recorded in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1989, just miles from where the quartet had their very first recording session.
Happy birthday Darius Rucker, better known as the vocalist and guitarist of the band Hootie & the Blowfish. It's "Time" for us to celebrate by watching the video below:
