Featured Songs Saturday 7 November 2009

* - songs played in regular Coast playlist
*Elvis Presley – Suspicious Minds US#1, 1 November 1969

Stevie Wonder – You Haven’t Done Nothin US#1, 2 November 1974


Abba
The Name Of The Game. UK#1(4) from 5 November 1974 and Aust #13 from 2 November 1977
Polydor 847 365 Abba The Songbook, Australian Chart Hits

The Rolling Stones * more a 'Hauraki' song
GET OFF OF MY CLOUD, UK#1(3) from 4 November and US#1(2) from 6 November 1965 Big Hit in N.Z.
The 2nd successive #1 recorded by the boys in Hollywood a number one on both sides of the Atlantic.

*Johnny Nash – I Can See Clearly Now US#1(4) from 4 November 1972
*Anne Murray – You Needed Me. US#1, 4 November 1978

Jimmy Dean
Big Bad John US#1(5) from 6 November 1961 (16 weeks in Top 100), 2nd Top No 1 of 1961 and a HUGE HIT in N.Z.
The 1st million-seller for country and western artist, Jimmy Dean, with his own composition. Signed to Columbia Records in 1957, this was his first pop success and became the winner of the N.A.R.A.S Award for Best Country-and-Western Recording for 1961.



Joe Cocker (Not sure this suits the 'Coast sound')
*With A Little Help From My Friends. UK#1, 6 November 1968, US#68 (6 wks in Top 100 from 16 November) 1968 and NZ#12 in early 1969. Ex gas fitter John Cocker (b. Sheffield 20 May 1944) had formed his first band, an R&B outfit called Vance Arnold & The Avengers, 1963. The following year he cut his first single, a Beatles song, “I’ll Cry Instead” using the name Joe Cocker. Working with numerous musicians he became well known on the London club circuit, gaining the attention of Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. Having a mildly successful single with “Marjorine”, Cocker decided to record the stage favourite “With a Little Help From My Friends”. As the Guiness book of UK No 1 Hits said, “Few could have turned this singalong track from the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper LP into a souful ballad.”

The 5th Dimension
WEDDING BELL BLUES Soul City [USA] US#1(3) from 6 November 1969 Monster Hit in N.Z. at NZ#3 and UK#16 in 1969
Released in September 1969 and taken from the group’s enormously successful album ‘Age of Aquarius’, this lovely soft song by Laura Nyro not only made US#1 (with 15 weeks in the Top 100) but sold a million by 5 December 1969 with Gold Disc award from R.I.A.A.

Cher
Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves US#1(2) from 6 November 1971 * in NexGen
Written by Bob Stone (or Wikipedia suggests it was, Shel Silverstein) and released in the US September and in Britain in November 1971, where it peaked at #3 and spent 12 weeks in the UK Top 50. It was the first big hit as a solo artist for Cher, with a million sale in the US, earning the R.I.A.A. Gold Disc award, 19 November 1971. It sold 250,000 in the UK.
After Sonny & Cher initial success in the mid sixties, the duo became somewhat quiet in the acid rock period, making an anti dope film for children in 1968. From 1969 to 1970 there was a lull in their fortunes, but in 1970 they went into nightclubs and cabaret circuit. In 1971, they got a CBS TV show and were back in popularity, with the success of the one-hour TV series. Cher subsequently divorced Sonny in 1974 and started a solo career with Kapp Records, and became a fashion queen working for Vogue etc. In 1975 Cher embarked on a stormy, on-off marriage to Greg Allman (of the Allman Brothers) and recorded with him (Allman and Woman, 1977).
The video for "Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves" was Cher's first music video and was a recorded performance of the song on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour in 1971. Throughout the video Cher is singing in front of a house wagon and in front of a fire. A second video was made, but it was very similar to the original. In the second video, clips of dancing female gypsies were shown.

Steve Miller – Rock’n Me. US#1, 6 November 1976

*The Foundations - Baby Now That I’ve Found You. UK#1(2) from 8 November 1967 and US#11 early 1968 (13 weeks in Top 100 from 23 December 1967)

David Bowie – Space Oddity. UK#1(2) from 8 November 1975


Conway Twitty
IT’S ONLY MAKE BELIEVE
US#1(2) from 10 November 1958 and a MONSTER HIT in N.Z.
Superstar Country singer who charted 40 #1 Country hits. Born Harold Lloyd Jenkins 1 September 1933 in Friars Point, Mississippi and raised in Helena, Arkansas. Died of an abdominal aneurysm on 5 June 1993.