Tag: #MusicMondays

#MusicMonday Steve Winwood playlist

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Man, I had it bad for Steve Winwood. Fortunately, my family indulged me. Dad actually took me to see Traffic in concert. Later, he mounted a poster of Steve Winwood next to bed. My brother tracked down the three Spencer Davis Group LPs that were released in the U.S. for me to add to my collection. He also took me to another Traffic concert.

Here’s a YouTube playlist of Steve Winwood’s music and interviews with him that I put together:

Steve Winwood playlist

In the 1980s, Steve Winwood had major hits with “While You See a Chance”, “Higher Love”, and many more. Quite frankly, I lost interest in him once he became a chart-topping MOR performer. When people talked about Steve Winwood, I sniffed and I thought to myself “I knew him when … ”

Maybe I put together this playlist out of nostalgia.

Then, there was his marriage to his wife Eugenia. Oh, Steve, why didn’t you wait for me?? I consoled myself with the idea that I wasn’t his type. Eugenia is blonde, as was his previous wife Nicole … and I was a brunette.

#MusicMondays “Charity Ball” Fanny

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Fanny was an all-female rock group active in the early to mid 1970s. The group was founded by sisters June Millington (guitar) and Jean Millington (bass), who moved from the Philippines to California in the early 1960s.

The Millington sisters joined Wild Honey, an all-female rock band founded by drummer Alice de Buhr. Wild Honey planned to disband after one final open-mic appearance at the Troubadour Club in 1969. However, the secretary of prominent music producer Richard Perry spotted Wild Honey at this gig.

Perry convinced Warner Bros. Records to sign the group to Reprise Records. The label signed Wild Honey without hearing them play, as it regarded them as a novelty act. Prior to recording their first album, the band recruited keyboardist Nickey Barclay. Wild Honey was renamed Fanny for their first album Fanny.

Here is Fanny performing the title cut from their second album Charity Ball on the Sonny & Cher TV show.

As you can see, the members of Fanny were crack musicians. So why didn’t these women get the fame that they deserved for their musicianship? I’ve read comments on their YouTube videos and some blame anti-Asian hate due to the Millington sisters’ Filipino origins.

I think that the reason that Fanny didn’t get the fame and accolades that they deserved is that they were considered a novelty act and people weren’t ready for a hard rocking all-female band. Remember, this was before The Runaways, The Go-Gos, and The Bangles.

Sources:

Charity Ball. (2015). [Video]. Retrieved 7 June 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD9NjN5_nxQ.

Fanny (band) – Wikipedia. En.wikipedia.org. (2021). Retrieved 7 June 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_(band).

PS You can find other videos of Fanny on the Beat Club YouTube channel. Unfortunately, I can’t embed the Beat Club videos in my blog. 😔

#MusicMonday Keely Smith “When Day is Done”

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Three months ago, I promised a feature on Keely Smith, who died on December 16, 2017.

 

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Keely Smith

 

This video is taken from the Frank Sinatra show in 1958. It starts with wise-cracking between Sinatra and Keely Smith’s then husband Louis Prima. Keely sings “When Day is Done.”

 

While she put away the crinolines, she wore the same haircut throughout her life. 🙂

#MusicMondays Alma Cogan “Hello, Young Lovers”

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On our long trip home from India, I whiled away the hours by listening to music on the in-flight entertainment system.  I looked over the playlists and played some of the Leonard Cohen playlist (natch!), but what piqued my curiosity was a playlist featuring Alma Cogan.  Who is Alma Cogan?  Never heard of her.

Here’s what I found out:  Alma Cogan was Britain’s highest paid female entertainer in the 1950s.  In the 1960s, she got swept away by the Beatles and was considered passé.  There are, however, unsubstantiated rumors that she had an affair with John Lennon. She died young, at age 34, in 1966.

For our #MusicMondays feature, here is Alma Cogan singing “Hello Young Lovers”:

What do you think about that dress? I love it. Alma Cogan studied fashion design, and she might have designed those hoop dresses herself.

Alma Cogan - I Love to Sing
Alma Cogan – I Love to Sing