Have I the Right? Beats me?!

Have I the Right to Hold You?

What a great question.   This is the title of a 1964 song by The Honeycombs, an English group formerly known as The Sheratons.  The group was founded by Martin Murray, who played the rhythm guitar.  Murray was a hair stylist and he brought into the group his assistant, Honey Lantree, who played the drums.   Honey never had lessons and was pioneer in her field at the time.  There were very few female drummers.  It was her name (Honey) and profession (salon assistant) that led to the  inspiration for the group's name, as in, "HONEY COMBS" hair for a living.  Get it

Conspicuous in "Have I the Right?" is the prominence of the drums, whose effect was enhanced by members of the group stamping their feet on the wooden stairs to the studio. Meek recorded the effect with five microphones he had fixed to the banisters with bicycle clips. For the finishing touch someone beat a tambourine directly onto a microphone. The recording was also somewhat sped up.

 
Take a listen and let me know what you think.

Until next time, keep singing.

Kimmie

It'll Be Alright...

So says B J Thomas in 'Rock and Roll Lullaby'. This is one of his lesser known songs but is a really great one. The melody, the lyrics, and, of course, his voice. All make for perfect music.

 "Rock and Roll Lullaby" is a song written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil that was a 1972 hit single performed by B. J. Thomas. "Rock and Roll Lullaby" reached number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was Thomas's third number one on the Easy Listening chart, where it spent one week in March 1972. The song was a smash-hit in Brazil, because of its appearance as love theme in the soap opera Selva de Pedra.

The song is sung in a first-person narrative of an adolescent or adult raised by single teenage mother since birth during the early years of rock-and-roll. Despite the bleakness of their situation, whenever the child cries, the mother sings him to sleep with a 'sha-na-na-na-na-na-na, it'll be all right...sha-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na, just hold on tight'. In the second verse, the narrator calls attention that despite hardships, they'd 'dream of better mornings when Mama sang her song', and that while it didn't make sense to try to recall the words, the loving meaning beneath them was all that mattered. 



Take a listen:

Hey, Baby, they're playing our song!

Hi there, lovers of all music.

I've missed you.  I have had a lot of major life events that have prevented me from continuing my blog and my All You Need is Love Facebook page.  I won't bore you all with the details....we all have 'stuff' in our lives, right?   It seems that I had more than my fair share, but who's to say?

I'm hoping that better days are ahead and I'm able to get back to sharing one of my hobbies, listening and sharing great music, like this one.

Hey, Baby, They're playing our song, by the Buckinghams!