by Robert Wilkinson
There were two musical birthdays that happened February 11 featuring one of the early greats and one of the current greats!
Our first set celebrates the birthday of the legendary Gene Vincent (February 11, 1935 – October 12, 1971), early rock and roller who gave the world one of the first giant rock and roll hits, lived fast and died young!
Here’s his first big one! Delivered live on the Town Hall Party television show in 1958, here’s Gene and the Blue Caps grinding out the monster hit “Be Bop A Lula”
He appeared on the same show three times in 1958! Here’s another with Gene rocketing through the classic “Rip It Up”
And here’s the third from the Town Hall Party! Gene takes on Chuck Berry and cranks out a respectable rockabilly version of “Roll Over Beethoven”
From 1957, the video is not of this song, but it’s great classic footage while we get the studio version of this early hit! “Lotta Lovin’”
From November 1957 on The Ed Sullivan Show, a classic performance of “Dance to the Bop” (which he also performed in the movie Hot Rod Gang.)
Here’s some VERY early footage with Gene in a black leather jacket cranking out “Race With the Devil”
From a 1958 hot rod movie called Hot Rod Gang, Gene rockin’ out and getting down with “Dance in the Streets Tonight.” From the same movie, the scene where Gene and the “hoods” perform “Baby Blue” (which is a borderline ripoff of “Heartbreak Hotel.”)
Here’s another from that movie, but audio-only. “Lovely Loretta”
A period do-wop piece resembling a thousand other songs of the time, “In My Dreams”
From Italy in 1960, a live tv performance of “Bluejean Bop” and “Sexy Ways”
A REAL score! It’s Gene and his long time good friend Eddie Cochran on Town Hall Party giving us full sets of their hits! This is a solid hour of prototypical rockabilly at the beginning, including “Be Bop A LuLa” and “Summertime Blues” done by the originals! Recorded between late 1958 and late 1959, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran – Legends in Concert
We’ll close this short set with a couple of his versions of Little Richard classics! First, here’s an audio-only version of the electrifying “Good Golly Miss Molly” and then from 1963 in Brussels, a kinetic performance of “Long Tall Sally”
For our encore, his final song, recorded October 1, 1971, 11 days before he died. “Distant Drums”
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We’ll finish this early show by sending up a big happy to birthday girl Sheryl Crow (February 11, 1962), the multiple Grammy award winning singer, songwriter, and actress. I had the unexpected pleasure of seeing her open for James Taylor a while back when Bonnie Raitt unexpectedly fell ill. She put on a GREAT show. While this is a short set, we’ll dance to some of her best from her early period between 1994 and 2002!
An early one! Her live performance on The Late Show with David Letterman in 1994 has disappeared. Instead, from the same time period on JSS, Sheryl performs “Leaving Las Vegas.”
After that one, she hit BIG with the next one! Here’s the official music video for “All I Wanna Do,” and here’s a really good live 2010 performance of “All I Wanna Do.”
She moved between 1994 and 1995 with the next two big ones! Here’s a live 1995 acoustic version of “Strong Enough” and a 1994 live unplugged performance of “Can’t Cry Anymore.”
We’ll now follow those with a few from her second album! First up, the music video of “If It Makes You Happy”
From Austin in 2004, a great performance of “A Change Would Do You Good”
Here’s the official video of “Every Day is A Winding Road”
From Top Of The Pops in 1997, a tune she wrote for the James Bond movie “Tomorrow Never Dies”
Here’s her 1998 hit, performed live with Eric Clapton! “My Favorite Mistake”
Here’s the music video from her 1999 release, “Sweet Child O’ Mine”
We’ll finish this brief set with the music video for her 2002 hit “Soak Up the Sun”
For the encore, her version of the Cat Stevens classic “First Cut is the Deepest” and here’s her 2003 Farm Aid performance of “First Cut is the Deepest”
For our second encore, a live 1998 performance on TOTP of “My Favorite Mistake.”
Here’s her official website, where you can find out what’s going on! Sheryl Crow.com
© Copyright 2024 Robert Wilkinson
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