WHERE PEACEFUL WATERS FLOW

GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS

SONGWRITER: JIM WEATHERLY

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: IMAGINATION

LABEL: BUDDAH

GENRE: POP

YEAR: 1973

 

            Gladys Knight & the Pips were an American R&B/soul/funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades.

Starting out as simply The Pips in 1952, derived from a cousin's nickname, the founding members were Gladys Knight, brother Merald "Bubba" Knight, sister Brenda Knight and cousins Eleanor and William Guest. After a couple of years performing in talent shows, the group signed with Brunswick Records in 1957, recording a couple of singles that failed to chart. Brenda Knight and Eleanor Guest eventually left the group and were replaced by another cousin, Edward Patten and a non-relative, Langston George in 1959. This lineup produced the group's first hit single, "Every Beat of My Heart". After the single was released on three different labels, they changed their name to Gladys Knight & the Pips in 1961. Langston George left the same year and Gladys Knight left in 1962 to start a family with musician Jimmy Newman. Knight rejoined in 1964 and this lineup continued until the group's disbandment in 1989.

               The group reached commercial success after signing with Motown Records in 1966. After a year and a half, the group recorded the first hit single version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" in 1967, which led to several hit singles for Motown's Soul Records label, including "Nitty Gritty", "Friendship Train", "If I Were Your Woman", "I Don't Want to Do Wrong" and the Grammy-winning "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)", before leaving the label for Buddah Records in 1973. At Buddah, they recorded the hits "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me", "I've Got to Use My Imagination", "I Feel a Song (In My Heart)" and their Grammy-winning and number-one hit single, "Midnight Train to Georgia". In 1974, they recorded the soundtrack to the successful film Claudine with producer Curtis Mayfield, which included the songs "On and On", "The Makings of You" and "Make Yours a Happy Home". Contractual difficulties with their labels forced the group to record side projects from 1977 until 1980 when they signed with Columbia Records. Later hits included "Landlord", "Save the Overtime (For Me)" and the Grammy-winning single "Love Overboard". In 1989, the group disbanded with the Pips retiring and Knight embarking on a successful solo career.

              Gladys Knight & the Pips are multiple Grammy and American Music Award winners and are inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1996 and 2001 respectively.

      Imagination is the eleventh studio album recorded by American R&B group Gladys Knight & the Pips, released in October 1973 on the Buddah label. The album, the group's first for Buddah after leaving Motown, includes their first and only Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit "Midnight Train to Georgia", which also reached number-one on the R&B singles chart.

       The album also produced other successful singles, including "I've Got to Use My Imagination" and "Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me", with both songs peaking at number-one on the R&B singles chart and top five on the Billboard Hot 100, and the moderately successful single "Where Peaceful Waters Flow". The album was also their second studio album to make the top ten on the Billboard 200 and their second of five R&B albums chart-toppers.

                                   
(Come and walk with me)
(We can go where peaceful waters flow)
 
If loneliness surrounds you
And rain clouds always hang around you
And wakin up each day gets you down (Gets you down, gets you down)
And if the life that youre leading
Seems hollow, then maybe what youre needing
Is someone to turn your world around
 
(Take my hand) Come take my hand and walk with me (And walk awhile)
(Let me teach you how to smile) Let me teach you how to smile
(And Ill show you skies ) And Ill show you skies where gentle breezes blow
(Where breezes, gentle breezes blow) Yeah, hey
 
And Ill take you where peaceful waters flow (Peaceful waters flow)
If you let me Ill take you where peaceful waters flow
(Come and walk with me) Mmm, hmm
(We can go where peaceful waters flow)
 
Now if the sunshine hurts your eyes, boy
Then its time for you to realize, boy
Beyond this moment theres
A better day (Better day), mmm, hmm (Better day)
 
And if you let me
Ill guide you, mmm
Ill always be there, right there beside you
Reaching every step of your way
 
(Come take my hand and walk) Come take my hand and walk with me awhile
(And walk awhile) Yeah, hey, hey
(Let me teach you how to smile ) Let me teach you how to smile
And Ill show you skies (Ill show you skies ) where gentle breezes blow
(Where breezes, gentle breezes blow) Hey, yeah, hey, hey, hey
 
And Ill take you where peaceful waters flow (Peaceful waters flow)
Hey, hey, if you trust me, Ill take you there where peaceful waters flow
(Come and walk with me) Mmm...hmm...
(We can go where peaceful waters flow).

SAMBA DA PERGUNTA

OS CARIOCAS

COMPOSITORES: MARCOS VASCONCELLOS & PINGARILHO(CARLOS ALBERTO VALLE PINGARILHO)

PAÍS: BRASIL

ÁLBUM: O MELHOR DE OS CARIOCAS

GRAVADORA: BLACK ROUND RECORDS

GÊNERO: BOSSA NOVA

ANO: 1989

 

               OS CARIOCAS SÃO UMA BANDA DE MÚSICA POPULAR. A BANDA FOI FUNDADA EM 1942 POR ISMAEL NETO, E CONTINUA ATÉ OS DIAS DE HOJE COM NOVOS MEMBROS. 

Ela agora

Mora só no pensamento

Ou então no firmamento

Em tudo o que no céu viaja

Pode ser um astronauta

Ou ainda um Passarinho

Ou virou um pé-de-vento

Pipa de papel de seda

Ou quem sabe um balãozinho

Pode estar num asteroide

Pode ser a estrela-D'alva

Que daqui se olha

Pode estar morando em Marte

Nunca mais se soube dela

Desapareceu. 

TAPESTRY

CAROLE KING

SONGWRITER: CAROLE KING

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: TAPESTRY

LABEL: A & M

GENRE: POP

YEAR: 1971

 

       Carole King Klein (born Carol Joan Klein; February 9, 1942) is an American singer-songwriter who has been active since 1958, initially as one of the staff songwriters at the Brill Building and later as a solo artist. She is the most successful female songwriter of the latter half of the 20th century in the US, having written or co-written 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100. King also wrote 61 hits that charted in the UK, making her the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts between 1962 and 2005.

               King's major success began in the 1960s when she and her first husband, Gerry Goffin, wrote more than two dozen chart hits, many of which have become standards, for numerous artists. She has continued writing for other artists since then. King's success as a performer in her own right did not come until the 1970s, when she sang her own songs, accompanying herself on the piano, in a series of albums and concerts. After experiencing commercial disappointment with her debut álbum Writer, King scored her breakthrough with the album Tapestry, which topped the U.S. album chart for 15 weeks in 1971 and remained on the charts for more than six years.

         King has made 25 solo albums, the most successful being Tapestry, which held the record for most weeks at No. 1 by a female artist for more than 20 years. Her record sales were estimated at more than 75 million copies worldwide. She has won four Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her songwriting. She is the recipient of the 2013 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the first woman to be so honored. She is also a 2015 Kennedy Center Honoree.

          Tapestry is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Carole King, released in 1971 on Ode Records and produced by Lou Adler. It is one of the best-selling albums of all time, with over 25 million copies sold worldwide. In the United States, it has been certified Diamond by the RIAA with more than 10 million copies sold. It received four Grammy Awards in 1972, including Album of the Year. The lead singles from the album—"It's Too Late"/"I Feel the Earth Move"—spent five weeks at number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts. In 2000 it was voted number 74 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. In 2020, Tapestry was ranked number 25 on Rolling Stone list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

My life has been a tapestry

Of rich and royal hue;

An everlasting vision

Of the ever-changing view;

A wond'rous woven magic

In bits of blue and gold;

A tapestry to feel and see;

Impossible to hold.

 

Once amid the soft silver

Sadness in the sky,

There came a man of fortune;

A drifter passing by.

He wore a torn and tattered cloth

Around his leathered hide

And a coat of many colors;

Yellow, green, on either side.

 

He moved with some uncertainty

As if he didn't know

Just what he was there for

Or where he ought to go.

Once he reached for something

Golden hanging from a tree

And his hand came down emp-ty.

 

Soon within my tapestry,

Along the rutted road,

He sat down on a river rock

And turned into a toad.

It seemed that he had fallen

Into someone's wicked spell

And I wept to see him suffer,

Though I didn't know him well.

 

As I watched in sorrow,

There suddenly appeared

A figure gray and ghostly

Beneath a flowing beard.

In times of deepest darkness

I've seen him dressed in black.

Now my tapestry's unraveling;

He's come to take me back.

He's come to take me back.

IF EVER I SEE YOU AGAIN

ROBERTA FLACK

SONGWRITER: JOE BROOKS

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: ROBERTA FLACK

LABEL: ATLANTIC RECORDS

GENRE: SOUL

YEAR: 1978

 

               "If Ever I See You Again" is the title of a 1978 hit single by Roberta Flack. The song was composed by Joseph "Joe" Brooks and served as the title song for the 1978 film If Ever I See You Again, which Brooks directed and also starred in with Shelley Hack as his leading lady. Male vocalist Jamie Carr sang the theme song on the film's soundtrack.

              Brooks' directorial debut, You Light Up My Life, had become successful largely on the strength of its title song, which as recorded by Debby Boone had spent ten weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1977. With Brooks producing, Debby Boone had subsequently recorded the If Ever I See You Again title song plus four other songs heard in the film: "California", "Come Share My Love", "It Was Such a Good Day" and "When It's Over", at the Hollywood recording studio the Record Plant in January 1978, with the track "California" being issued as Boone's follow-up single to "You Light Up My Life" in February 1978 to reach #50 on the Hot 100. Boone's version of the If Ever I See You Again title song, plus the four other songs from the film that she'd recorded, would be included on her July 1978 album release Midstream.

              Despite Boone's success with the theme song from You Light Up My Life, Brooks was hoping to place the If Ever I See You Again theme song plus other songs from the film with an established artist. According to his partner Robert K. Lifton, Brooks offered the If Ever I See You Again numbers to Arista Records president Clive Davis for Barry Manilow to record only to renege after hearing the existing tracks intended for Manilow's upcoming album, which Brooks felt were sub-par and would sink his own compositions (in fact Manilow's 1978 album release Even Now would be a triple platinum seller).

             Brooks then approached Atlantic Records president Jerry Greenberg with the intent of having the If Ever I See You Again theme song and other songs from the film recorded by Roberta Flack (Flack has stated that she had been offered "You Light Up My Life" prior to the Debby Boone recording: (Roberta Flack:)"Some people whose opinions I respect very much suggested I should do it...but the song reminded me of too many other things that I had heard or sung and I just didn't like it [although] I think [for] Debby Boone ['You Light Up My Life'] was perfect". Flack would eventually describe "If Ever I See You Again" as "a song I couldn't stand" that Greenberg insisted she record: (Roberta Flack quote:) "I had a very clever lawyer who made a huge money deal for [my recording] that song": Flack recorded "If Ever I See You Again" at A&R Recording Studios in New York City in a session produced by Brooks which also yielded Flack's versions of "Come Share My Love" and "When It's Over". With a track from Flack's 1977 Blue Lights in the Basement album: "I'd Like To Be Baby To You", as B-side, "If Ever I See You Again" was released as a single in 21 April 1978 - a month before the film's premiere - to debut the Billboard Hot 100 dated 20 May 1978 at #87 (the same chart ranked the Blue Lights in the Basement single: the Donny Hathaway duet "The Closer I Get to You" at its #2 peak for a second and final week).

               With the film If Ever I See You Again quickly proving a massive flop, Flack's single was left to fare on its own merit, and did in July 1978 spend three weeks at No. 1 on the Easy Listening chart with an eventual ranking as the #8 Easy Listening hit for the year: however, while reaching the Top 40 on both the Pop-oriented Hot 100 and the R&B chart, "If Ever I See You Again" was not on either chart afforded the impact which had previously been customary for Flack's lead singles, the Hot 100 peak for "If Ever I See You Again" being #24 with its R&B peak being #37. On the pop-oriented singles charts published in both Cashbox and Record World, "If Ever I See You Again" peaked at #38, with the single's peak on the respective magazines' R&B charts being #37 (Cashbox) and #58 (Record World)).

            "If Ever I See You Again" was included on the August 1978 album release Roberta Flack - the planned album title of If Ever I See You Again being dropped due to the single's underperformance - , that album also including the two other tracks cut with Joe Brooks at A&R Studios: "Come Share My Love" and "When It's Over", the two latter tracks being issued on a single in October 1978 with the A-side "When It's Over" reaching #82 on the R&B chart.

               From 1979 Flack would tend to rank on the R&B chart as opposed to the Hot 100, her only solo Hot 100 entry subsequent to "If Ever I See You Again" being another movie theme song: "Making Love", which peaked at #13 in 1982. However Flack did reach the Top 20 of the Hot 100 with two duets: "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" with Peabo Bryson (#16/ 1983) and "Set the Night to Music" with Maxi Priest (#6/ 1991).

I've wondered all my life

How I could ever let you go

There's not a lot of change in my life

But one thing that I know

 

If ever I see you again

Maybe this time it well work out alright

Maybe this we won't say goodbye but only goodnight

With a love that won't end

If ever I see you again

 

Warm sleepy morning working up next to you

Feeling you close by side

Nothing on earth has ever felt better

Then the feelings I've felt deep inside

Sometimes it seems that I never lost you

And that your not really gone

Cause I had this dream

This wonderful dream

It just goes on and on

 

And If ever I see you again

Maybe this time it well work out alright

Maybe this we won't say goodbye but only goodnight

With a love that won't end

If ever I see you again...