Nov 26th in Pop History
(Thanksgiving threw off my posting sequence so this entry applies to yesterday - 11/25)
On this day, November 25th, (yesterday) in…
(1971 • 50 years ago)
Carly Simon released Anticipation.
Singer-songwriter Carly Simon was born on June 25, 1945, in New York City. She won a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1971. Her first Top Ten single in the Summer of 1971 was That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be. In 1972, she had her hit single, You're So Vain. That same year she married fellow musician James Taylor. They had two children, but divorced in 1983. She was the first artist to have won three major awards — Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe — for a single track, hers being in 1988 for the song Let the River Run. In 2008, she released the album This Kind of Love.
Simon was one of the most popular singer-songwriters of the 1970s. She had her first # 1 single in 1973 with You're So Vain, a song that has stirred up years of debate as to whom she was singing about. After decades of mystery, Simon admitted in 2015 that the second verse of the song was about actor Warren Beatty, but that two other unnamed men inspired the rest of the song. (People have speculated that the mystery men could be James Taylor, Mick Jagger, Cat Stevens, or Kris Kristofferson — all of whom she had been involved with previously).
In 1973 Simon released another hit single, The Right Thing to Do and the following year found instant success with the album Hotcakes. She released The Best of Carly Simon greatest hits album in 1975, which turned triple platinum in the U.S. After experiencing a slump for a couple years, Simon soared back with her James Bond-themed song Nobody Does It Better, which became an international hit and garnered her Grammy nominations.
She released Boys in the Trees (1978) and secured her platinum record-making status once again. Simon's career took a bit of a downturn for most of the '80s, but towards the latter half of the decade, she rebounded with the album Coming Around Again (1987), with its title track featured in the film Heartburn and garnering a Grammy nomination. During this time, Simon contributed to many films and television scores.
Here’s some of her stuff to enjoy.
Carly Simon on Spotify:
Anticipation
Carly Simon’s Greatest Hits
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Also, on this day, November 25th, in…
• 1967 - Incense and Peppermints by The Strawberry Alarm Clock hits the top of the Billboard Pop chart. The recording was initially intended as a 'b-side' and the lead vocal is actually that of a friend of the band, 16 year old Greg Munford, who was just hanging around during the session. Munford was not even a regular band member, but ended up singing a tune that would become a Rock and Roll standard and sell over a million copies. Despite this success, Munford never actually joined the original group and drummer Randy Seol sang the song in concert
• 1968 - The Beatles (known as The White Album), was released in the US. Notable for the eclectic nature of its songs, the album has sold over 30 million copies worldwide, and was listed at # 10 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” list. The album features: Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Dear Prudence, Helter Skelter, Blackbird, Back In The USSR and George Harrison’s While My Guitar Gently Weeps. The album spent 101 weeks (Yes 101 weeks!) on the US chart peaking at # 1
• 1984 - Band Aid • Members of pop acts like Bananarama, Duran Duran, Culture Club and Spandau Ballet joined singers like George Michael, Phil Collins and Bono to record Do They Know It’s Christmas, as Band Aid. The single, which was released Dec. 3, 1984, raised millions for famine relief in Africa
• 2000 - The Beatles’ album simply titled "1", a collection of their UK and US chart toppers, reaches number one in Great Britain. It will top the US chart a week later and will become the best selling album in a total of 28 countries worldwide
In courtrooms: On this date in 2015
Casey Kasem's (he hosted American Top 40 for many years) three children and his brother filed a $250,000 wrongful death lawsuit against his widow, Jean Kasem, claiming that elder abuse led to his death in 2014. Earlier in the year, prosecutors declined to lay criminal charges, a decision that led to the family launching the civil case
Here’s a sample Casey Kasem show from the week of September 8, 1984:
