Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “In The Summertime” by Mungo Jerry Today’s Song Of The Day topped the charts in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland and the U.K. upon its release in 1970, however it only climbed to the #3 position on the Billboard Singles Chart in the U.S. It is also one of the most-played and recognizable summer songs of all time, selling well over 30 million copies worldwide. Yet, most people know little to nothing about Mungo Jerry, the artist who recorded it in 1970. Mungo Jerry was a British good-time blues, skiffle and jug band that had an ever-changing lineup right from their...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Knowing When To Leave” by Dionne Warwick “Walk On By,” “Anyone Who Had A Heart,” “You’ll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart),” “Message To Michael,” “Alfie,” “”Do You Know The Way To San Jose,” “I Say A Little Prayer” — the list goes on and on, making an argument for the notion that the songwriting partnership of Burt Bacharach and Hal David was one of the most important in the history of pop music on par with Lennon and McCartney. Add the sophisticated stylings of Dionne Warwick into the mix and you got recordings that resulted in pure pop perfection. It was a marriage made in heaven, but...

    Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Did You See?” by John Simon John Simon’s 1970 first album for Warner Brothers, called John Simon’s Album, was a culmination of the many album projects he produced over the two years it took to record. While a staff producer at Columbia Records, Simon produced such classics as Simon & Garfunkel’s Bookends, Big Brother & The Holding Company’s Cheap Thrills, Leonard Cohen’s Songs By Leonard Cohen, Blood Sweat & Tears’ Child Is Father To The Man, The Electric Flag’s self-titled debut album and The Cyrkle’s Paul Simon-penned hit “Red Rubber Ball.” Simon met Albert Grossman through his work with Peter Yarrow on the soundtrack and film You Are What...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Lordy” by Neil Diamond If ever an album was ripe for reissue and expansion, it would be Neil Diamond’s 1970 live album Gold. While most people reach for their copy of the Hot August Night when they want a live fix of Neil Diamond, his Gold album finds him sweating it out backed by a small group in front of an intimate audience, and is a far more satisfying listen. The album was recorded live at The Troubadour in Hollywood, California on July 15, 1970. Diamond’s small but powerful backing band included Carol Hunter on guitar, Randy Sterling on bass and Eddie Rubin on drums. While the band was small...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Watch What Happens” by Lena Horne & Gabor Szabo A funny thing happened when jazz and pop vocalists like Lena Horne fell on the wrong side of the generation gap during the late 1960s. Suddenly, older classics like “Stormy Weather” and “Love Me Or Leave Me” began to sound hopelessly out of date to a younger generation of listeners, who didn’t give artists like Horne the time of day, or worse, the time on their turntables. Changes would have to be made, and many of the artists began recording popular songs of the day and augmenting their once jazz or orchestral recordings with electric guitars, electric bass, organ and drums....

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#828 in the Series) is Three Dog Night, Naturally Three Dog Night was a band that essentially consisted of three vocalists, Danny Hutton, Chuck Negron, and Cory Wells, and four musicians, Michael Alsup on guitar, Floyd Sneed on drums, Joe Schermie on bass, and Jimmy Greenspoon on keyboards, seven separate fools as we would later discover.  Performing for the most part other peoples songs, the band, named after the number of wild dogs it took to keep yourself warm if you happened to find yourself stuck overnight in the Australian Outback on a cold winters evening, and who hasn’t, was the quintessential Classic Rock cover band before the term “Classic Rock” even...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Jumping Jack Flash” by Ananda Shankar East certainly met West on Ananda Shankar’s eponymously titled first album from 1970. Ananda Shankar was first exposed to Western sounds when he traveled with members of his famous family, as they performed on concert stages across America during the 1960s. Shankar’s father was the Indian choreographer, Uday Shankar, while his more-famous uncle was the master sitar player, Ravi Shankar. Although, he Ananda also became famous for playing sitar, he did not study under his uncle, but rather studied traditional Indian music with Lalmani Misra at Banaras Hindu University. The concept for his debut album was simple, meld Western rock sounds with the traditional...

    Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Hit Or Miss” by Odetta Odetta! Voice of the Civil Rights Movement? Roots mama? Gospel great? Soul queen? Hip hop hottie? The answer, of course is yes! Actually, most people don’t remember who Odetta was. But if you are of a certain age (which is certainly older than I am) and was a fan of folk music, Odetta was your hero. She was an activist, actress and an influence on any folk singer worth his weight in salt…including Dylan, Baez, Belafonte, Ochs, Neil and numerous others. She was in the thick of things, right there at the March onWashingtonin 1963. Martin Luther King dubbed her “The queen of American...

  We now have confirmed from two sources that drummer Ed Cassidy of Spirit has passed away this morning, December 6th from prostate cancer in Los Angeles. Mr. Cassidy formed the band Spirit in the late 60s with his stepson Randy California and others.  Mr. California preceded him in death in 1997. Here’s a piece we did on their great album Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus.  ———————————————————————- Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#132 in The Series) is Spirit, Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. It’s a shame you don’t hear Spirit on the radio. They were an outstanding band in their time. Let by the late Randy California and his stepfather Ed Cassidy, Spirit released fourteen albums between 1968 and 1996. Twelve...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#768 in the Series) is Attila, Attila Close the door. Make sure you lock it too, and then turn your speakers up to 10. Attila is an underrated masterpiece. Consisting of Billy Joel on organ, Jon Small on drums, this album has remained long out of print since its release in 1970. It still has not gotten a proper reissue. Some people love it, some people don’t. Billy Joel himself has called it “Psychedelic bullshit.” I am one of those people who enjoys this album, and it just might be one of the most underrated albums in progressive rock history, simply because not a lot of people know it. But, if you...