Tag: Twofer Tuesday

Music Blog

Twofer Tuesday 5.21

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Originally released by The Everly Brothers, “Love Hurts“, written in 1960 by Boudleaux Bryant, is a song that delves into the pain and anguish experienced when love goes wrong. The emotional depth conveyed through the lyrics and the haunting melody have made it a beloved and enduring piece of music.

The song’s popularity can be attributed to its universal theme of heartbreak. Love is usually portrayed as a beautiful and uplifting experience, but “Love Hurts” acknowledges the dark side of love, where heartache and emotional turmoil take center stage. This raw honesty has struck a chord with listeners of all generations. “Love Hurts” was never released by the Everly’s as a single and can be found on their album A Date With The Everly Brothers.

The song has been recorded as a duet by Greg Parsons and Emmylou Harris, by Roy Obison in 1961 as the B side to “Running Scared”, by English singer-songwriter Jim Capaldi whose version reached #4 in the UK charts and by the Scottish hard rock band, Nazareth.

Performed as a ballad by Nazareth, “Love Hurts” became the most popular version of the song and the only rendition to become a big hit single, reaching #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1976.

I’d love to play all the versions of this great song but it is Twofer Tuesday and we can’t have pandemonium erupting on WordPress. After all this time together on The Elephant’s Trunk, I think you can guess which cover I chose to feature today.

This is the wondrous original version of “Love Hurts” by the Everly Brothers.

And this is what it sounded like when Nazareth recorded it:

That’s today’s Twofer Tuesday!

See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2024

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.

Music Blog

Twofer Tuesday 5.14

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Whether solo or with Roxy Music, this is one of the few Bryan Ferry tracks that cracks a wide smile, sending up his jet-set image while celebrating it at the same time. Originally recorded by soul singer Dobie Gray, “The “In” Crowd” often gets confused for a Motown number, thanks to the label’s arranger Gene Page, who gave the single the Motown touch. Before Ferry tackled the tune, Ramsey Lewis Trio recorded a live instrumental version in 1964; later, Cheap Trick performed a cover of Ferry’s cover. Confused yet?

In the US, Gray’s powerful version, complete with brass section, reached #11 on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart and #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 on February 20, 1965. Outside the US, “The “In” Crowd” went to #25 on the UK Singles Chart and #8 in Canada.

Bryan Ferry’s 1974 singles release reached #13 on the UK Singles Chart. His album cover for “Another Time, Another Place”, which featured “The ‘In’ Crowd”, is one of the coolest in a James Bond kind of way.

By Dobie Gray in 1964, here is the original “The “In” Crowd”.

And this is what it sounded like when Bryan Ferry recorded it.

And just because it’s my post and I can do whatever I like 😄 this is the Ramsey Lewis Trio showing us how to do jazz right.

That’s today’s Twofer Tuesday plus one! Thanks for stopping by!

See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2024

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.

Music Blog

Twofer Tuesday 4.30

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

While Johnny Cash’s cover of Trent Reznor’s “Hurt” gets all the press, this Neil Diamond tune is just as good. The 1966 Diamond version was about young adult heartbreak, while Cash’s rendition is about going through life and never getting over it. It remains not only one of Cash’s best cover songs, but one of his finest moments on the American Recordings albums.

“Solitary Man” was Neil Diamond’s debut single as a recording artist, having already had moderate success as a songwriter for other artists. By July, the track had become a minor hit, rising to No. 55 on the US pop singles chart. It would then be included on Diamond’s first album, The Feel of Neil Diamond, which he released in August 1966.

The song is a ballad of a loner looking for love; the theme of the song has been closely identified with Diamond himself. In the lyrics, the singer lists some of his relationships and how they each ended. He laments “I know it’s been done, having one girl who loves you.” But he doubts it will happen for him. Indeed, Diamond himself would tell interviewers, “After four years of Freudian analysis, I realized I had written ‘Solitary Man’ about myself.“

Johnny Cash used “Solitary Man” for the title track of his third album under the American Recordings label, American III: Solitary Man, in 2000, featuring guest backing vocals by Tom Petty. The recording received a Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance.

From 1966, this is the amazing Neil Diamond with “Solitary Man”.

And this is what it sounded like when Johnny Cash released it 34 years later.

That’s today’s Twofer Tuesday! Thanks for stopping by.

See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2024

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.

Music Blog, Seventies, Sixties

Twofer Tuesday 4.23

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

In 1964 The Kinks came out with a song with a killer riff, so it only made sense that 14 years later guitar genius Eddie Van Halen would take the tune and make it a showcase for his brand of guitar pyrotechnics. Singer David Lee Roth, meanwhile, perfectly laid bare each and every emotion that may have been buried beneath a previous generation’s decency.

The song, of course, is “You Really Got Me”, written by Kinks’ frontman Ray Davies. Lead guitarist Dave Davies performs the song’s famous guitar solo, although it was long rumored that Jimmy Page had performed the solo …. hearsay that Page himself denied.

“You Really Got Me” was originally released in the UK on August 4, 1964 as The Kink’s third single and reached #1 on the Record Retailer chart the following month, remaining there for two weeks. Van Halen’s cover of the song was released as their first single and peaked at #36 on the Billboard Hot 100.

This is the fabulous 1964 original version of “You Really Got Me” as recorded by The Kinks.

And this is what it sounded like when Van Halen recorded it 14 years later.

That’s today’s Twofer Tuesday! Thanks for stopping by.

See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2024

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.