MERRY CHRISTMAS, DARLING

THE CARPENTERS

SONGWRITERS: FRANK POOLER & RICHARD LYNN CARPENTER

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT

LABEL: A & M RECORDS

GENRE: SOFT

YEAR: 1978

 

           The Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo consisting of siblings Karen (1950–1983) and Richard Carpenter (b.1946). They produced a distinct soft musical style, combining Karen's contralto vocals with Richard's harmonizing, arranging and composition skills. During their 14-year career, the Carpenters recorded ten albums, along with numerous singles and several television specials.

        The siblings were born in New Haven, Connecticut, and moved to Downey, California, in 1963. Richard took piano lessons as a child, progressing to California State University, Long Beach, while Karen learned the drums. They first performed together as a duo in 1965 and formed the jazz-oriented Richard Carpenter Trio followed by the middle-of-the-road group Spectrum. Signing as Carpenters to A&M Records in 1969, they achieved major success the following year with the hit singles "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and "We've Only Just Begun". Subsequently, the duo's brand of melodic pop produced a record-breaking run of hit recordings on the American Top 40 and Adult Contemporary charts, and they became leading sellers in the soft rock, easy listening and adult contemporary music genres. The Carpenters had three number-one singles and five number-two singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and fifteen number-one hits on the Adult Contemporary chart, in addition to twelve top-10 singles. They have sold more than 90 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling music artists of all time. The duo toured continually during the 1970s, which put them under increased strain; Richard took a year off in 1979 after he had become addicted to Quaalude, while Karen suffered from anorexia nervosa.

           Their career together ended in 1983 when Karen died from heart failure brought on by complications of anorexia. Extensive news coverage surrounding these circumstances increased public awareness of eating disorders. Though the Carpenters were criticized for their clean-cut and wholesome conservative image in the 1970s, their music has since been re-evaluated, attracting critical acclaim and continued commercial success.

            "Merry Christmas Darling" is a Christmas song by the Carpenters (music by Richard Carpenter, lyrics by Frank Pooler), and originally recorded in 1970. It was first available on a 7-inch single that year (A&M Records 1236), and was later re-issued in 1974 (A&M 1648) and again in 1977 (A&M 1991). The single went to number one on Billboard's Christmas singles chart in 1970 (and did so again in 1971 and 1973) and peaked at number 41 in Cashbox.

                In 1978, the Carpenters issued their Christmas Portrait album, which contained a new version of "Merry Christmas Darling". The original 1970 mix continued to be used for all single releases, however. The major difference between the 1970 and 1978 versions is a newly recorded vocal by Karen Carpenter on the latter, which was done at her request. Richard Carpenter himself calls the original recording one of his sister's very best. The original single version of the song can be found on the compilation albums From the Top and The Essential Collection: 1965–1997.

Greeting cards have all been sent

The Christmas rush is through

But I still have one wish to make

A special one for you

Merry Christmas, darling

We're apart, that's true

But I can dream

And in my dreams

I'm christmasing with you

Holidays are joyful

There's always something new

But every day's a holiday

When I'm near to you

The lights on my tree

I wish you could see

I wish it every day

The logs on the fire

Fill me with desire

To see you and to say

That I wish you merry

Christmas

Happy new year too

I've just one wish

On this Christmas eve

I wish I were with you

I wish I were with you

Merry Christmas, darling.

ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER

BOB DYLAN

SONGWRITER: BOB DYLAN

WHERE: AT THE CONCERT FOR THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: JOHN WESLEY HARDING

LABEL: COLUMBIA RECORDS

GENRE: FOLK ROCK

YEAR: 1967

 

                Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author and visual artist. Widely regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture for more than 50 years. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and anti-war movements. His lyrics during this period incorporated a range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences, defied pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture.

                Following his self-titled debut album in 1962, which mainly comprised traditional folk songs, Dylan made his breakthrough as a songwriter with the release of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan the following year. The album features "Blowin' in the Wind" and the thematically complex "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall". For many of these songs, he adapted the tunes and phraseology of older folk songs. He went on to release the politically charged The Times They Are a-Changin' and the more lyrically abstract and introspective Another Side of Bob Dylan in 1964. In 1965 and 1966, Dylan drew controversy when he adopted electrically amplified rock instrumentation, and in the space of 15 months recorded three of the most important and influential rock albums of the 1960s: Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966). Commenting on the six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" (1965), Rolling Stone wrote: "No other pop song has so thoroughly challenged and transformed the commercial laws and artistic conventions of its time, for all time."

             In July 1966, Dylan withdrew from touring after a motorcycle accident. During this period, he recorded a large body of songs with members of the Band, who had previously backed him on tour. These recordings were released as the collaborative álbum The Basement Tapes in 1975. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dylan explored country music and rural themes in John Wesley Harding (1967), Nashville Skyline (1969), and New Morning (1970). In 1975, he released Blood on the Tracks, which many saw as a return to form. In the late 1970s, he became a born-again Christian and released a series of albums of contemporary gospel music before returning to his more familiar rock-based idiom in the early 1980s. Dylan's 1997 album Time Out of Mind marked the beginning of a renaissance for his career. He has released five critically acclaimed albums of original material since then, the most recent being Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020). He also recorded a series of three albums in the 2010s comprising versions of traditional American standards, especially songs recorded by Frank Sinatra. Backed by a changing lineup of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour.

               Since 1994, Dylan has published eight books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. He has sold more than 100 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He has received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, ten Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award. Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Pulitzer Prize Board in 2008 awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power". In 2016, Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition" 

             "All Along the Watchtower" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. The song initially appeared on his 1967 album, John Wesley Harding, and it has been included on most of Dylan's subsequent greatest hits compilations. Since the late 1970s, he has performed it in concert more than any of his other songs. Different versions appear on four of Dylan's live albums.

           Covered by numerous artists in various genres, "All Along the Watchtower" is strongly identified with the interpretation Jimi Hendrix recorded for the album Electric Ladyland with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The Hendrix version, released six months after Dylan's original recording, became a Top 20 single in 1968, received a Grammy Hall of Fame award in 2001, and was ranked 47th in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004.

There must be some way out of here

Said the joker to the thief

There's too much confusion

I can't get no relief

 

Business men they drink my wine

Plow men dig my Earth

None of them along the line

Know what any of it is worth

 

No reason to get excited

The thief he kindly spoke

There are many here among us

Who fell that life is but a joke?

 

But you and I, we've been through that

And this is not our fate

So let us not talk falsely now

The hour is getting late

 

All along the watchtower

Princes kept the view

While all the women came and went

Barefoot servants too

 

Outside in the distance

A wild cat did growl

Two riders were approaching

The wind began to howl.

MIDNIGHT RAMBLER

THE ROLLING STONES

SONGWRITERS: KEITH RICHARDS & MICK JAGGER

COUNTRY: U. K.

ALBUM: LET IT BLEED

LABEL: DECCA RECORDS

GENRE: BLUES ROCK

YEAR: 1969

 

                 The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. As a diverging act to the popular pop rock of the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, heavier-driven sound that came to define hard rock. The band's first stable line-up consisted of bandleader Brian Jones (guitar, harmonica, keyboards), Mick Jagger (lead vocals, harmonica), Keith Richards (guitar, vocals), Bill Wyman (bass guitar), Charlie Watts (drums), and Ian Stewart (piano), the last of whom was removed from the official line-up in 1963, but continued to work with the band as a contracted musician until his death in 1985. The band's primary songwriters, the partnership of Jagger and Richards, assumed leadership after Andrew Loog Oldham became the group's manager. Jones left the band less than a month before his death in 1969, having already been replaced by Mick Taylor, who in turn left in 1974 and was replaced in 1975 by Ronnie Wood, who has since remained. Since Wyman's departure in 1993, Darryl Jones has served as bassist. The Stones have not had an official keyboardist since Stewart's departure in 1963, but have employed several additional musicians in that role, including Jack Nitzsche (1965–71), Nicky Hopkins (1967–82), Billy Preston (1971–81), Ian McLagan (1978–81), and Chuck Leavell (1982–present).

                  Rooted in blues and early rock and roll, the Rolling Stones started out playing covers and established themselves at the forefront of the British Invasion of bands that became popular in the United States in 1964, also being identified with the youthful and rebellious counterculture of the 1960s. The band found more success with their own material; songs such as "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "Paint It Black" became international hits, and Aftermath (1966) – their first entirely original album – has been considered the most important of the band's formative records. After a short period of experimentation with psychedelic rock in the mid-1960s, the Stones returned to their 'bluesy' roots with Beggars Banquet (1968), Let It Bleed (1969), Sticky Fingers (1971) and Exile on Main St. (1972). In 1969 they were first introduced on stage as 'The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World'.

              The band continued to release commercially successful albums through the 1970s and early 1980s, including Some Girls (1978) and Tattoo You (1981), the two best-sellers in their discography. During the 1980s, infighting curtailed their output, and they kept a low profile for the rest of the decade. Their fortunes changed when they released Steel Wheels (1989), promoted by a large stadium and arena tour, the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour. Since the 1990s, new material has been less frequent. Despite this, the Rolling Stones continue to be a huge attraction on the live circuit. By 2007, the band had four of the top five highest-grossing concert tours of all time: Voodoo Lounge Tour (1994–95), Bridges to Babylon Tour (1997–98), Licks Tour (2002–03) and A Bigger Bang (2005–07). In 2012, the band celebrated their 50th anniversary. Their latest album, Blue & Lonesome (2016), became their twelfth UK number-one album. The group continues to sell out venues, with their recente No Filter Tour running for two years and concluding in August 2019.

The Rolling Stones' estimated record sales of 240 million makes them one of the best-selling music artists of all time. The band have been awarded three Grammy Awards and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004. They have released 30 studio albums, 23 live albums and numerous compilations. Let It Bleed (1969) marked the first of five consecutive No. 1 studio and live albums in the UK. Sticky Fingers (1971) was the first of eight consecutive No. 1 studio albums in the US. In 2008, the Stones were listed 10th on the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists chart, and in 2019 Billboard magazine ranked them second in their list of the "Greatest Artists of All Time" based on US chart success.

            "Midnight Rambler" is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on their 1969 album Let It Bleed. The song is a loose biography of Albert DeSalvo, who confessed to being the Boston Strangler.

              Keith Richards has called the number "a blues opera" and the quintessential Jagger-Richards song, stating in the 2012 documentary Crossfire Hurricane that "nobody else could have written that song."

Did you hear about the midnight rambler

Everybody got to go

Did you hear about the midnight rambler

The one that shut the kitchen door

He don't give you a hoot of warning

Wrapped up in a black cat cloak

He don't go in the light of the morning

He split the time the cock'rel crows

 

Talkin' about the midnight gambler

The one you never seen before

Talkin' about the midnight gambler

Did you see him jump the garden wall

Sighin' down the wind so sadly

Listen and you'll hear him moan

Well, talkin' about the midnight gambler

Everybody got to go

 

Did you hear about the midnight rambler

Well, honey, it's no rock 'n' roll show

Well, I'm talkin' about the midnight gambler

Yeah, the one you never seen before

 

Oh don't do that, oh don't do that, oh don't do that

Don't you do that, don't you do that (repeat)

Oh don't do that, oh don't do that (repeat)

 

Well you heard about the Boston...

It's not one of those

Well, talkin' 'bout the midnight...sh...

The one that closed the bedroom door

I'm called the hit-and-run raper in anger

The knife-sharpened tippie-toe...

Or just the shoot 'em dead, brainbell jangler

You know, the one you never seen before

 

So if you ever meet the midnight rambler

Coming down your marble hall

Well he's pouncing like proud black panther

Well, you can say I, I told you so!

Well, don't you listen for the midnight rambler

Play it easy, as you go

I'm gonna smash down all your plate glass windows

Put a fist, put a fist through your steel-plated door!

 

Did you hear about the midnight rambler

He'll leave his footprints up and down your hall

And did you hear about the midnight gambler

And did you see me make my midnight call

 

And if you ever catch the midnight rambler

I'll steal your mistress from under your nose

I'll go easy with your cold fanged anger

I'll stick my knife right down your throat, baby

And it hurts!

KNOCK ME A KISS

ELLA FITZGERALD

SONGWRITERS: RAZAF ANDY & JACKSON MIKE

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: ELLA SWINGS LIGHTLY

LABEL: VERVE RECORDS

GENRE: JAZZ

YEAR: 1958

 

            Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the First Lady of Song, Queen of Jazz, and Lady Ella. She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.

          After a tumultuous adolescence, Fitzgerald found stability in musical success with the Chick Webb Orchestra, performing across the country but most often associated with the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Her rendition of the nursery rhyme "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" helped boost both her and Webb to national fame. After taking over the band when Webb died, Fitzgerald left it behind in 1942 to start her solo career.

             Her manager was Moe Gale, co-founder of the Savoy, until she turned the rest of her career over to Norman Granz, who founded Verve Records to produce new records by Fitzgerald. With Verve she recorded some of her more widely noted works, particularly her interpretations of the Great American Songbook.

            While Fitzgerald appeared in movies and as a guest on popular television shows in the second half of the twentieth century, her musical collaborations with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and The Ink Spots were some of her most notable acts outside of her solo career. These partnerships produced some of her best-known songs such as "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "Cheek to Cheek", "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)".

               In 1993, after a career of nearly 60 years, she gave her last public performance. Three years later, she died at the age of 79 after years of declining health. Her accolades included fourteen Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

             Ella Swings Lightly is a 1958 studio album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, recorded with the Marty Paich Dek-tette. Ella also worked with Marty Paich on her 1967 album Whisper Not. The album features a typical selection of jazz standards from this era, songs from musicals like Frank Loesser's If I Were a Bell, and a famous jazz instrumental vocalised by Ella, Roy Eldridge's Little Jazz.

            This album won Ella the 1960 Grammy award for the Best Improvised Jazz Solo.

Knock me a kiss hey baby

Knock me a kiss I'm in maybe

That's what I want from you really baby

Honey

 

I like cake and no mistake but baby if you insist

I'll cut out a cake just for your sake

Baby come on and knock me a kiss

 

I like pie

I hope to die just get a load of this

When you get high doggone the pie

Baby come on and knock me a kiss

 

When you pressed your lips to mine

It was then I understood

They taste like candy brandy and wine

Peaches bananas and everything good

 

I love jam and no film flam

Scratch that off my list

This ain't no jam

The jam can scram

Baby come on and knock me a kiss

 

I like cars and big cigars but baby they won't be missed

If everyday I hear you say

Baby come on and knock me a kiss

I crave sights like title fights but if you should insist

I cancel nights and title fights

Baby come on and knock me a kiss

 

Yes it's wise to compromise in such cases as this

There's nothing world

The light in your eyes

What can compare with the thrill of your kiss?

 

Scotch and ride are tops with me

But i promise this

If you say so I'll drink ice tea

Baby come on and knock me a kiss

Oh baby oh baby

Baby come on and knock me a kiss.