Classic Pop Hits!
Didn't buy these when they came out but boy are they in the pop canon now? Ear worms anyone?SUPERTRAMP
On this day in music history: March 29, 1979 - “Breakfast In America”, the sixth album by Supertramp is released. Produced by Peter Henderson and Supertramp, it is recorded at The Village Recorder in Los Angeles, CA from May - December 1978. Following their previous album, “Even In The Quietest Moments” featuring their first US top 40 single “Give A Little Bit” (#15 Pop), the British progressive rock band begin work on the follow up in April 1978, recording demo versions before the start of tracking sessions in May. Close collaborators for many years before this, Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies begin to go their separate ways. The pair end up writing on their own, which had begun during the “Moments” album. Adding to the underlying tension is Davies’ wife, who has also driven a wedge between the two friends. The matter is complicated further, as she is also the band’s personal manager. In spite of this, it does not slow or hinder Hodgson or Davies’ creative muses. Continuing where the previous album left off, they begin to craft material that is more pop oriented and radio friendly, which further expands their audience, winning over a huge new fan base. Upon its release, it is a huge critical and commercial success, spinning off three singles including “The Logical Song” (#6 Pop), “Goodbye Stranger” (#15 Pop) and “Take The Long Way Home” (#10 Pop). The albums now iconic cover artwork (featuring actress Kate Murtagh dressed as a waitress posed as the Statue Of Liberty, with a mock up of the island of Manhattan behind her made entirely of boxes, plates, cutlery, and bottles spray painted white) is designed by graphic artists Mick Haggerty and Mike Doud. The cover wins a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package in 1980. The album earns a second Grammy for Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical, as well as being nominated for Album Of The Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus. Remastered and reissued on CD in 2002, “Breakfast” is also released as double disc Deluxe Edition in 2010, with the second disc featuring previously unreleased live performances from Supertramp’s 1979 tour. In 2013, it is issued as a high resolution Blu-ray audio disc, and by Universal Japan as an SHM-CD. It is also remastered and reissued as a hybrid SACD and 180 gram LP by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab in 2018. Also in 2018, The Sound Of Vinyl reissues “Breakfast” as a limited edition LP, pressed on orange vinyl. “Breakfast In America” spends six weeks at number one (non-consecutive) on the Billboard Top 200, and is certified 4x Platinum in the US by the RIAA.
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another that is indelible and stuck in the head so so much the ear worm and does anybody not know this song . . . . . . . a bit more of a one hit wonder but it is up there . . . . . no?
On this day in music history: March 29, 1986 - “Rock Me Amadeus” by Falco hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 3 weeks. Written by Falco, Rob Bolland and Ferdi Bolland, it is the biggest hit for the Austrian pop singer born Johann Holzel. Having previously scored a sizable hit on the US Dance charts with his original version of the song “Der Kommissar” in early 1983, Falco’s own version is bested on the Hot 100 by a cover version from British pop band After The Fire whose version peaks at #5 in April of 1983. When his second album “Junge Roemer” fails to yield any hits outside of his native Austria, he soon regroups, setting his sights on breaking through on a worldwide basis with his third album. Falco is inspired to write “Rock Me Amadeus” after seeing the Oscar winning film “Amadeus”, about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The US single of the song contains two different mixes, “The American Edit” and the “Canadian Edit”, the latter features a narrator reciting a timeline of the life of the famed Austrian classical composer. Entering the Hot 100 at #79 on February 8, 1986, it climbs to the top of the chart seven weeks later. “Rock Me Amadeus” is the first German language single to hit number one in the US, also topping the charts in the UK, Canada, and New Zealand. In the US, A&M Records releases two different 12" singles of the track. The first is an extended version of the “American Edit”, and a second titled the “Salieri Mix” (packaged in a picture jacket), incorporates elements of the “Canadian Edit” including the timeline of Mozart’s life. Another remix is issued in foreign territories closely mirroring the original album version, but with an extended running time. In the years since its worldwide chart success, “Amadeus” is sampled, covered and parodied numerous times including on an episode of “The Simpsons” animated series, when the song is re-written as “Dr. Zaius”, after one of the main characters from the “Planet Of The Apes” film series. Falco scores one more US top twenty single with the follow up “Vienna Calling” (#18 Pop) in June of 1986. After moving from A&M to Sire Records in late 1986, he continues to be successful in Europe, but his American chart run is over by then. Sadly, Falco is killed in a car accident while on vacation in the Dominican Republic on February 6, 1998, less than two weeks shy of his forty first birthday. He is laid to rest in his birthplace of Vienna, Austria.
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