“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down“ is a song written by Robbie Robertson….and originally recorded by the Canadian-American roots rock group The Band in 1969….and released on their second album….as Levon Helm provided the lead vocals. The song is a first-person narrative relating the economic and social distress experienced by the protagonist, a poor white Southerner, during the last year of…
“Ooo Baby Baby” is a song written by Smokey Robinson and Pete Moore….which is a classic 1965 hit single by The Miracles for the Tamla (Motown) label. The song achieved its greatest commercial success when Linda Ronstadt covered it in 1978….when it reached # 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song has inspired numerous other cover versions by other artists over the…
“Farther On Up The Road” and “Further On Up The Road“ is a blues song first recorded in 1957 by Bobby “Blue” Bland…..which is an early influential Texas shuffle….and features guitar playing that represents the transition from the 1940’s blues style to the 1960’s blues-rock style….as the song became Bland’s first record chart success and one of his best-known tunes. As…
Oliver & Company is a 1988 American animated musical film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released on November 18, 1988, by Walt Disney Pictures….as the 27th Disney animated feature film….with the film being based on the classic Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist….which has been adapted many other times for the screen. In the film, Oliver is a homeless kitten who joins a gang of…
“Coyote“ is the opening song from Joni Mitchell’s 1976 album Hejira….and also the album’s first single…. albeit the song had been introduced on the tour to support 1975’s The Hissing of Summer Lawns….as “Coyote” was a significant musical departure….whereby Hissing was ornate with pianos, layered vocals and percussion….while “Coyote” was stripped down to electric and acoustic guitars and a fretless bass guitar played by virtuoso Jaco Pastorius. …
“Billie Jean“ is a song by American singer Michael Jackson, released by Epic Records on January 2, 1983, as the second single from Jackson’s sixth studio album, Thriller (1982). It was written and composed by Jackson…while being produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones….as “Billie Jean” blends post-disco, rhythm and blues, funk and dance-pop. The lyrics describe a woman, Billie Jean, who claims that the narrator is…
“Ophelia“ is a song written by Robbie Robertson of The Band….which was first released by the group on their 1975 album Northern Lights – Southern Cross…..as it was the lead single from the album. It has also appeared on several of the group’s live and compilation albums….and has been covered by such artists as Vince Gill and My Morning Jacket. The lyrics tell of the singer’s attempt…
“The Tears of a Clown“ is a song written by Hank Cosby, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder….and was originally recorded by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles for the Tamla Records label….which was a subsidiary of Motown….as it first appeared on the 1967 album Make It Happen…..when it was re-released in the United Kingdom as a single in July 1970….and it became a # 1 hit on…
Professor Ludwig Von Drake is one of Walt Disney’s cartoon and comic book characters….who was first introduced on September 24, 1961, as the presenter (and singer of “The Spectrum Song”) in the cartoon An Adventure in Color….which was part of the first episode of Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color on NBC. Said to be an uncle of Donald Duck, Ludwig von Drake is described as a scientist,…