Great Music & Milestones

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Tuesday, 22 February 2011 18:31

Written by Lloyd Carroll

There are a number of milestones that occurred recently that should be of interest to a lot of Baby Boomers.

At the annual Toy Fair, held last month at New York City's Javits Convention Center, Ohio Art celebrated the 50th anniversary of Etch-A-Sketch -- which, for a lot us, was our first introduction to drawing.

Also at Toy Fair, Discovery Bay Games introduced its "Saturday Night Live" trivia board game (an iPad version is expected later in the year) in honor of SNL’s 35th birthday. The first show aired October 11, 1975 with guest host George Carlin, and musical guests Janis Ian and Billy Preston.

Herb Alpert & Lani Hall
I Feel You
(Concord Jazz)
Trumpeter Herb Alpert has never received the critical praise accorded to Miles Davis or Chet Baker because he made no apologies about aiming for mainstream pop instead of the snootier jazz market. Ironically, both Davis And Baker were big fans of his.

Alpert turns 76 this year, and he shows no signs of slowing down. Having sold A&M Records -- the company he and his partner, Jerry Moss, founded in 1962 -- to Universal Music Group back in the ‘90s, he has been able to dedicate himself to making music without distractions.

"I Feel You" is a rare chance for Herb to work with his wife of 38 years, Lani Hall, who was the expressive lead singer for Sergio Mendes and Brasil ‘66. ("Mas Que Nada," "Pretty World," "Fool On The Hill," and "Night and Day" should help jar some memories).

A&M Records is part of Alpert’s DNA, and he revisits some of the label’s early history by recording a pair of Chris Montez hits, "Call Me" and "There Will Never Be Another You" with Hall and him sharing lead vocals. He also pays tribute to his old backing group, the Tijuana Brass, with an updated, more somber version of "What Now My Love."

The two best tracks are covers of the Beatles’ "Here Comes The Sun" (whose lyrics are all the more poignant given the lousy winter we’ve endured) and Van Morrison’s "Moondance" which gets a Sergio Mendes-style samba facelift thanks to Alpert and Hall.

I Feel You is classy stuff, which, sadly, is getting harder to find in what is left of the record business.

The Ronettes
Very Best Of
(Sony Legacy)
It is somewhat ironic that as Phil Spector is serving his sentence in California for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson, Legacy Records has begun to re-release the great records he produced in the 1960s.

While Spector was associated with a number of artists, such as the Righteous Brothers and Darlene Love, there is little doubt that his greatest success was with a family vocal trio from Washington Heights, New York: sisters Veronica and Estelle Bennett and their cousin, Nedra Talley, better known as The Ronettes.

Yes, hits as the overplayed "Be My Baby," "Do I Love You?" and "The Best Part of Breakin’ Up" are here, as well as "Walking In The Rain," "Baby, I Love You" and "I Can Hear Music" (which turned out to be bigger hits -- and rightfully so, for Jay & The Americans, Andy Kim, and the Beach Boys).

But what makes this collection special is the number of tracks that have stayed in the vaults for 40 years as "Here I Sit," "Everything Under The Sun" and "You Came, You Saw, You Conquered."

SOS Band
Icon
(Tabu/UME)
Before producers Jimmy "Jam" Harris and Terry Lewis hit it big with Janet Jackson and Alexander O’Neal, their pet project was the Atlanta-based SOS Band. Led by lead singer Mary Davis, the SOS Band was able to merge catchy hooks and intelligent lyrics to create infectious dance records as "Take Your Time (Do It Right)," "Just Be Good To Me," "The Finest," "Sands Of Time," "Just The Way You Like It" and "Weekend Girl."
Icon is a reminder of how the SOS Band has never gotten their due.

Various Artists
Rock & Roll Playground
(Putumayo)
Putumayo is a record company whose primary market is young people, but the company has always found a way to entertain adults as well with their albums. A good case in point is Rock & Roll Playground.

There are some familiar tunes, such as blues guitarist Taj Mahal’s take on Johnny Otis’s "Willie and the Hand Jive" (a tune that was also a hit for Eric Clapton in 1974), Rosie Flores’ rendition of Bobby Darin’s "This Little Girl’s Gone Rocking," and Uncle Rock’s (songwriter/actor Robert Burke Warren’s spoof of Kid Rock) cover of Steppenwolf’s "Magic Carpet Ride."

Toss in uptempo originals as Dan Zanes’ "Let’s Shake," Billy Harley’s "Sleep The Whole Day Through" and Brady Rymer’s "Jump Up," and you have a CD that does both kids and rock proud.

One of the more memorable TV commercials in the 1960s was the Starkist Tuna ads that starred Charlie the Tuna, who was voiced by the late Herschel Bernardi. A few weeks ago, Starkist held an event in Times Square to honor that animated Fish with Good Taste on his 50th birthday. Yes, Charlie did get his AARP card.