Some days ago I was listening to a Beatles mix on YouTube and suddenly Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” caught my attention. It was similar to something else, an oldies tune for sure. Firstly, I thought it was a cover, but then I realized it wasn’t. It was Harrison’s own creation. Listening carefully, I finally discovered what   Read More …

An interesting infogaphic studies the number and frequency of words used on the “Abbey Road” album by The Beatles. According to the data, they use 2,176 words and only 505 are unique. The most frequently used words are “you”, “me”, “sun” & “love”. Sunny album indeed! Source: Pinterest

Just like The Funk Brothers, The Andantes were a ghostly uncredited Motown band… until recently. There were especially talented, hard-working and, in the end, a hit factory, but they did not enjoy the glory and fame of their fellow Motown artists. In March 2013, the exhibit “Motown Girl Groups: The Grit, the Glamour, the Glory” at   Read More …

In the stunning documentary Beatles Stories, Brian Wilson praised Beatles’ “Rubber Soul” album: “I remember listening to Rubber Soul with my wife and some friends and we were smoking marijuana. And we were stoned. Rubber Soul just took me away! And I went to the piano and started writing Pet Sounds*. It took me to Pet Sounds.   Read More …

The alliterative phrase rocking and rolling was originally used by mariners at least as early as the 17th century, to describe the combined rocking (fore and aft) and rolling (side to side) motion of a ship on the ocean. Examples include an 1821 reference, “…prevent her from rocking and rolling…” (Richard Franck), and an 1835   Read More …

But… it’s not what you put in, is it? It’s what you leave out.  Listen to… listen to Marvin Gaye… A song like “What’s Going On.”  That single “woo” at the end of the second verse – you know that woo – that single “woo.” That’s what you remember.  The silly things, the little things…   Read More …

“People started realizing that if you can play the guitar and sing your ass off, you could be better than Superman. And that was a strong feeling for a black man in the ’50s”. “Cadillac Records” (2008) explores the musical era from the early 1940s to the late 1960s, chronicling the life of the influential   Read More …

On a cloudy Sunday, a gorgeously graceful documentary is the greatest gift one could get. Bitter-sweet and highly emotional, „Standing in the Shadows of Motown” presents the one and only Funk Brothers, the unrecognized and uncredited musical backbone who played on Motown‘s recordings from 1959 up to 1972 that had far more number 1 hits   Read More …

Needless to say, the songs of the sixties are my favourite full-time hobby. Well, it all started when I first began to chase the stories behind The Beatles’ songs. Then there were The Herman’s Hermits, Gerry and The Pacemakers, The Merseybeats, The Beach Boys, The Shirelles and many others’ songs… on repeat when the nights   Read More …