MediaAceStar's Blog

Madonna's Summer Song -- Holiday

An artist’s first hit!  For some it’s also their last hit.  For some talented artists, it’s the first of many.  But, there’s a lot that the first hit often tells you about the artist.  Consider Madonna’s first hit “Holiday”.  Madonna was living in New York and frequented nightclubs to get disc jockeys to play her demo songs.  Mark Kamins a DJ at Danceteria (and friend of Madonna) arranged a meeting for her with Seymour Stein of Sire Records (part of Warner Brothers). He gave her a three single deal, with an option for an album.  Her singles cracked the top 10 in Billboard’s “Hot Dance Club Songs” chart. With that success, Warner Brothers hired a producer and they began to cobble together the album that would become her first, the self-titled “Madonna”.  

Madonna was unhappy with the way the album was progressing and the way the songs were moving away from the sparser beat-based form of the original demos. This is the fork in the road where things changed. As a New York dance club aficionado Madonna asked John Benitez the DJ from The Fun House to do some remixing of the tracks.  The Fun House was a 26th Street Manhattan dance club, with a decidedly anti-Studio 54 club vibe, full of younger less affluent clientele.  Benitez knew the pulse of the city’s youth. Nicknamed “Jellybean” because of his initials, he remixed her singles “Burning Up”, “Borderline” and “Lucky Star”. They needed one more song for the album and “Jellybean” knew of the song “Holiday” written by Curtis Hudson and Lisa Stevens-Crowder for their own musical act Pure Energy. They refused at first, but agreed after meeting with Madonna.  Again, another game changing moment. Benitez then produced the track.

Southern California Rock's Spark

In a small complex of bungalows in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Echo Park in the early seventies three future Rock and Roll Hall of Famers lived side-by-side.  Linda Ronstadt at the time was living with JD Souther, who lived next door to Glenn Frey, who lived above Jackson Browne.  Jackson’s basement apartment was only 35 dollars a month!  As Linda says in her autobiography “Jackson was younger…but he was a little smarter, a little further evolved in this thinking, a little more refined in his writing practice.  He was 16 when I met him, but he had already written [the song] “These Days”. 

Living above Jackson proved to be fruitful to Glenn Frey.  He credits listening to Jackson pound away on the piano perfecting the same verse over and over…and he realized:  “So that’s how you do it… elbow grease… time… thought… persistence.” One of the first songs Glenn wrote was helping Jackson finish “Take It Easy”.  And, he did help, because according to Jackson Browne, he didn’t even know what a “flatbed Ford” was…so Glenn added a bit of Midwestern grit to Jackson’s California cool.  

One night at the Troubadour for Hoot Night, Linda went scouting for musicians to back her up.  Linda was impressed by the drummer on stage; she recalls “They were playing my arrangement of ‘Silver Threads and Golden Needles’…and they were playing it really well.”  His “unfussy”, “bluegrass style” won her over.  And his name was Don Henley.  With the drummer set, Linda asked Glenn Frey if he could also join her for the next few shows she had booked in Washington DC at the Cellar Door.  On the road, rooms had to be shared…and future Eagle bandmates Glenn and Don shared a room.  A friendship was struck, a new band was planned by the two and they got to writing and rehearsing.  Linda and JD offered to let them and two other bandmates (Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon) rehearse in their living room while they were at the movies, when Linda came back, she says, “a few hours later, they sounded fantastic.  They had worked out a four-part-harmony arrangement of a song Bernie and Don wrote…with only acoustic guitars and four really powerful voices, the sound was huge and rich.”  The song was “Witchy Woman” and Linda knew it was a hit.  

Wah-Wah -- "You Made Me Such A Big Star"

The “wah-wah” pedal – a small piece of guitarist gear – created a wild stir when it hit its commercial stride back in 1968, as Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child” first burst through the world’s transistor radios. But how did it come about and how did a project that began in an effort to make one four dollar switch into a thirty cent part go on to weave itself into almost every corner of rock music for decades?

Often referred to as the cry pedal for it’s almost human sound the “wah-wah” effect was first heard in recorded music in the late 50s when country artist Chet Atkins was using a self designed device. 

In the sixties, the British Amp maker Vox was looking for ways to capitalize on ‘Beatlemania’ and on the cusp of the psychedelic era in 1965 was looking for something new. In a crazy accidental “mash-up” of the Vox Organ and the Vox Super Beatle Guitar Amp a “once in a lifetime moment” occurred. Warwick Electronics – who also owned the Thomas Organ Company – were in the throes of knocking out a new product line, the Vox Amplifonic Orchestra.  Vox assigned Brad Plunket – who was a junior electronics engineer there at the time – to replace an expensive –four-dollar – “mid-range boost” switch somehow.

Well Plunket came up with a “sweepable” EQ switch – that cost 30 cents – which variably cut or boosted the base and the treble.   Plunket had guitarist John Glennan plug it in to his guitar as a test.  It sounded “sweet” but a guitarist would need three hands to work it and the guitar.  So then Plunket grabbed a volume control pedal from a nearby Vox Organ.  The resulting sound and ease of use produced a “eureka” moment…with some swear words that Plunket chooses to not repeat. This unique ‘Cry Baby’ sound was something that guitarists the world over would want a piece of… 

The “wah-wah” pedal has been used to wondrous effect by many of our most loved rockers and bands; Cream, Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Led Zeppelin, Living Colour and of course through base guitar Metallica’s Cliff Burton. 

John Fogerty -- Back In Centerfield 

After the dissolution of Clearance Clearwater Revival in the early 70s, John Fogerty “spent some time in the Mudville Nine, watching it from the bench”.  But, as he said in this video of him and The Grateful Dead playing the song Centerfield in 1989, “They sent me down and I learned to hit a curve real good. So, I wrote a song about what it might be like to get back.” 

First the clapping and then the familiar guitar riff…John Fogerty’s Centerfield quite simply blasts out of the speakers with a the universal “feel good “ belief that YES I’M GOOD ENOUGH, “put me in coach!”  His years as the front man for Clearance Clearwater Revival nearly a decade in the past, Centerfield is a great title track for an album that welcomed Fogerty back to the music business in 1985. Yes, he was good enough (by far) and yes, he belonged on the largest stage again. 

Combining Fogerty’s two passions rock and roll and baseball, he was a bit worried others might not find it “rock” enough.  But it’s universally loved and played at nearly every major and minor league ballpark in America, as well as at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Growing up in California, his team was the New York Yankees, because of San Francisco native Joe DiMaggio in centerfield. 

You’re Wrong About -- Karen Carpenter

When you mention Karen Carpenter there’s always a bit of a wince.  She died young.  She died of a disease that is difficult to understand. Her music was a little “soft AC”, which is not everyone’s bag. But, there’s an exceptional two-part episode of the podcast “You’re Wrong About” on Karen Carpenter. The host (Sarah Marshall) and musician (Carolyn Kendrick) get into all the tragic details.  

As you might expect, there’s not an easy answer to “what went wrong”.  According to the Mayo Clinic, one of the “risk factors” for eating disorders is stress, which they define this way:

“Stress. Whether it's heading off to college, moving, landing a new job, or a family or relationship issue, change can bring stress. And stress may increase the risk of an eating disorder.”

Carolyn takes the listeners on Karen’s journey that could be considered “all of the above”. Karen and her older brother Richard were from a tight knit family, whose mom could be judged to be demanding and controlling. Richard was the golden boy, of whom much was expected.  But it was Karen’s inclusion in their band that jump started their acceptance into popular music. In Richard and Karen’s early adulthood they continued to live with their parents. Even after buying two houses for their parents, mom and dad wanted to continue to live with them.

Like a slow motion 20-car pile-up, you’ll hear about Karen’s stage shyness and being taken from her drums and forced out-front. Karen then bungles relationships, but also has one sabotaged. Then she cuts a new solo album with Phil Spector in the late-70s.  Her record label and brother Richard reject it and the album is “shelved”, only to be released after her death.

Carolyn gives credit to the author Randy Schmidt who wrote the book “Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter”. Check out Randy’s book as well as Sarah and Carolyn’s excellent two-part podcast about Karen Carpenter.  

Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting, by Elton John

Elton John’s 1973 album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is the pivotal album in Elton John’s career. The band recorded the masterpiece in Chateau D’Herouville just outside Paris. Lyricist Bernie Taupin says Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting is intended to be an American style rocker, that takes place in Britain.  It was inspired by his fistfight filled nights as a teenager in his local pub, the Freeman Arms in Grimsby.

During the two-week recording session for the album, breakfast would be served in the morning, a grand piano sitting in the corner of the room. Elton would begin playing and writing immediately and one-by-one the band would walk over and join in. They would have rehearsed and recorded two tracks before lunch.

Savana Santos – Singer, Songwriter & Producer Who Nailed the Pandemic Vibe

Three years ago, March 12th 2020, is remembered by many as the day the “once-in-a-century” global pandemic became real. It was the day after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. NCAA cancelled March Madness. Major League hockey, soccer, baseball and golf hit pause on their seasons and/or pre-seasons. And Tom Hanks and his wife announced that they were diagnosed with the coronavirus.

It wouldn’t be until late June that year that a relatively unknown Nashville band called Avenue Beat quietly loaded F2020 to TikTok. They went to sleep and as the lead singer Savana Santos says, the song “popped off”, with 4.5 million views by the next morning.  The lyrics hit hard…and hit in a place that everyone could feel.

Yo, my cat died and a global pandemic took over my life And I put out some music that nobody liked So, I got really sad and bored at the same time And that's why I'm like Lowkey f**k 2020

About producing F2020 Savana explains that “vocals are everything, I just stack until I can’t stack no more”. Her “vocal wall-of-sound” would make Phil Spector envious. The New York Times would go on to call F2020 the “Song of The Year”, saying “It’s delivered with a droll, self-conscious shrug, airy harmonies and twitchy percussion.”

Avenue Beat would later release an album (The Debut Farewell Album), with some fantastic songs including Woman and This Is Goodbye.  If you are a sucker for “end of an era” songs like George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass and Green Day’s Good Riddance (Time of Your Life), then you’ll get the vibe on This is Goodbye.  

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

I'm a fan of the early days of rock 'n' roll, which this early eighties song really replicates. The song “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” was written by Freddie Mercury in 1979 and appeared on their 1980 album The Game. According to Freddie, the song took him “five or ten minutes” to write, using a guitar. He explained “I was restricted, knowing only a few chords. I simply had to write within a small framework.” That accounts for the simplistic 1950s feel…along with Freddie’s respect for Elvis and the pre-Beatles British rock-star Cliff Richards.

Gimme Three Steps

YouTube Reaction Podcasts – Rob Squad Reactions

As reported by Ariel Shapiro last year on TheVerge.com “Luminate surveyed 3,000 US podcast listeners 13 and older for its Podcast 360 Report, and shared exclusively with Hot Pod that YouTube is the most-used platform for podcasts. Of those aware of the platform, 78 percent said they have used the free version of the streamer to consume a podcast.  That puts it ahead  of heavyweights like Spotify and Apple Podcasts.”

One of the most powerful video-podcast types is the “reaction podcast”.  This is where someone watches a television series (e.g. - Brad Evans did for Bridgerton, 549K views) or movie (e.g. - Monica Catapusan for Encanto, 3.2M views). As a music / radio guy I’m currently really enjoying Rob Squad Reactions videos.  This is where Oklahomans Jay and his wife Amber listen to and react to music…cutting a wide swath through many classic rock super hits. Jay admits to being a big rap and heavy metal fan.  He and Amber know a lot about music…but come completely naively to what many rock fans consider “five-note familiar classics”.

There’s something smile inducing that allows you to watch them experience The Beatles, The Mommas and The Poppas, Sheryl Crow, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and Journey for the first time. Usually prefaced by “I’ve never heard of this person…or this song.”  They show surprise that The Beatles could rock (Revolution), Denny Doherty’s big voice (California Dreaming), Sheryl Crow’s rasp (If It Makes You Happy)…and then their shock as they look at each other when “Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.”  

Jay and Amber comment on vocal ability, instrumentation and lyrics. Jay had to hear back John Lennon’s opening riff to Revolution and Amber wanted to hear Paul McCartney’s scream again. Jay’s favorite female voice is Amy Winehouse, proclaimed  immediately after his first listen to Valerie.

Just a sample of some of the lyrics that hit them hard were:

Janis Ian’s Seventeen – “To those of us who knew the pain, of valentines that never came. And those whose names were never called, when choosing sides for basketball.” An arrow to the heart for Jay when the basketball reference came…and Amber’s voice cracked a bit as she remembered there were guys in high school that weren’t allowed to date her because of her race.

Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues –  “Twenty years of schoolin’ and they put you on the day shift.” They had to hit pause after that one. And Amber said…”I want to listen to this five times, every time he hits me with a really cool line…then I miss the three things he said after that.” We can all relate Amber.

Sheryl Crow’s If It Makes You Happy – “If it makes you happy, then why the hell are you so sad?” As Amber said, “Does anybody else feel that chorus to their core?”

So, in short, check-out Rob Squad Reactions. But for those of us in the podcast business, “You don’t need a weather man to know which way the wind blows.” We must utilize YouTube to its fullest extent and realize that these cool reaction videos are delivering tons of impressions, which are extremely valuable to advertisers and agencies.  

Brass in Pocket, The Pretenders

The Pretender’s break-out hit, Brass in Pocket was written by bandmates James Honeyman-Scott and Chrissie Hynde. Hynde explained to American Songwriter that the Brass in Pocket vibe “is that you're supposed to be kind of cocky and sure of yourself.”  It was an attitude she felt was important to project on-stage…although the song lyrics and the accompanying video (one of the first 10 to air on MTV) certainly emphasized a cockiness in the relationship sense.

Speaking of the lyrics…Hynde indicates that she has many fine attributes including, arms, legs, style and imagination.  But, perhaps the most difficult to decipher is “I got bottle, I’m gonna use it.”  Chrissie explains that according to Cockney rhyming slang. It means bottle and glass. Which means she has something that rhymes with the word “glass”.  I’ll let you figure it out.

The Wallflowers’ One Headlight

Movie director Judd Apatow told Variety why The Wallflower’s song One Headlight came to be included in the film The King of Staten Island.  Said Judd “When [my wife] Leslie and I drove to Ralphs to buy pregnancy kits -- when we discovered Maude was coming -- that was the song we heard on the radio.”  And, “that song was very popular when Pete [Davidson] was young, and he would listen to it in the car with his dad all the time. [So], it is a very special song to him.”

The King of Staten Island was a somewhat autobiographical film by the writer and comedian Pete Davidson…it mirrors Pete’s life, where his firefighter father passed away way too early. And the lyric from One Headlight “That's when they said I lost my only friend” surely resonated with Pete.

The sing-a-long to One Headlight in the bar is a bit of a comical scene, because not everyone is clear on the all of Jacob Dylan’s lyrics.  But they do nail the chorus:  Hey, come on try a little / nothing is forever / got to be something better than in the middle

The Story of “Woke Up This Morning”

Track:  Woke Up This Morning, by Alabama 3

The beat kicks in and James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, reaches out and grabs the – now defunct – New Jersey Turnpike ticket. It’s a perfect pairing of music and drama.  The song Woke Up This Morning is from the British band Alabama 3.  It was on their 1997 album “Exile on Coldharbour Lane” and was co-written by bandmates including Rob Spragg.  It was based on the 1996 second trial of British woman Sara Thornton for the 1989 murder of her husband.  

Already, sentence to “life”, the second trial occurred because Thornton's case was taken up by “Justice for Women”. That group believed that her case had not been handled correctly due to the domestic violence she suffered throughout her marriage.