The great Jackie Wilson gives two electric performances of Higher and Higher, circa 1974. His mindboggling gifts are on full display throughout; it’s as if time/space were suspended.
Month: April 2020
We have here a modest collection of some of the most brilliant, gifted vocalists ever: Peggy Lee, Chris Connor, Anita O’Day, Lulu, Billie Eilish, and Dusty Springfield.
Addendum: also Marilyn McCoo, Irene Krall, and Dinah Washington. And Edith Piaf.
The extraordinary, powerful, and, upon its 1965 release, highly controversial composition Eve of Destruction is performed live by vocalist Barry McGuire on the Hullabaloo show. McGuire, after being introduced by Jerry Lewis, delivers an emotionally charged rendition that made ripples—more like tsunami—across the US.
Composer P.F. Sloan recalls a few fascinating and unlikely (as in, almost credulity-straining…yet not) details: during the studio recording session, “Barry was reading it for the first time off a piece of paper I had written the lyric on! Okay. McGuire’s record is released but ‘Eve’ is the B-side. Somewhere in the Great Midwest of America a DJ played the wrong side by mistake!”.
Banned and denounced as unpatriotic, Eve only became more and more popular, most likely benefiting from all the wild, incorrect accusations and censure. Its creator and performer were not so fortunate, however; Sloan: “It ruined Barry’s career as an artist and in a year I would be driven out of the music business too.”.
Bideodromage 