THE HAPPY GIRLS

HELEN REDDY

SONGWRITERS: Kim Fowley; Rick Henn; Earle Mankey & Helen Reddy

COUNTRY: AUSTRALIA X U. S. A.

ALBUM: EAR CANDY

LABEL: CAPITOLIO RECORDS

GENRE: POP ROCK

YEAR: 1977

 

        Helen Maxine Reddy (25 October 1941 – 29 September 2020) was an Australian-American singer, songwriter, author, actress, and activist. Born in Melbourne, Victoria, to a show-business family, Reddy started her career as an entertainer at age four. She sang on radio and television and won a talent contest on the television program Bandstand in 1966; her prize was a ticket to New York City and a record audition, which was unsuccessful. She pursued her international singing career by moving to Chicago, and subsequently, Los Angeles, where she made her debut singles "One Way Ticket" and "I Believe in Music" in 1968 and 1970, respectively. The B-side of the latter single, "I Don't Know How to Love Him", reached number eight on the pop chart of the Canadian magazine, RPM. She was signed to Capitol Records a year later.

During the 1970s, Reddy enjoyed international success, especially in the United States, where she placed 15 singles on the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. Six made the top 10 and three reached number one, including her signature hit "I Am Woman". She placed 25 songs on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart; 15 made the top 10 and eight reached number one, six consecutively. In 1974, at the inaugural American Music Awards, she won the award for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist. On television, she was the first Australian to host a one-hour weekly primetime variety show on an American network, along with specials that were seen in more than 40 countries.

           Between the 1980s and 1990s, as her single "I Can't Say Goodbye to You" became her last to chart in the US, Reddy acted in musicals and recorded albums such as Center Stage before retiring from live performance in 2002. She returned to university in Australia, earned a degree, and practised as a clinical hypnotherapist and motivational speaker. In 2011, after singing "Breezin' Along with the Breeze" with her half-sister, Toni Lamond, for Lamond's birthday, Reddy decided to return to live performing.

Reddy's song "I Am Woman" played a significant role in popular culture, becoming an anthem for second-wave feminism. She came to be known as a "feminist poster girl" or a "feminist icon". In 2011, Billboard named her the number-28 adult contemporary artist of all time (the number-9 woman). In 2013, the Chicago Tribune dubbed her the "Queen of '70s Pop"

       Ear Candy is the ninth studio album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy, released on April 25, 1977 by Capitol Records. The album included a modern take on the doo-wop genre ("Long Distance Love"), a Cajun number that gave the Melbourne native her first and only appearance on Billboard magazine's Country chart ("Laissez les Bontemps Rouler"), and a dark self-parody on which Reddy proclaims: "I don't take no shit from nobody" ("Baby, I'm a Star" - not to be confused with the Prince song of the same name). Unprecedented for a Helen Reddy album, half of the songs recorded for Ear Candy were co-written by Reddy herself, including the second single: "The Happy Girls", Reddy's first self-penned A-side single since "I am Woman": however it was the first single: a remake of the 1964 Cilla Black hit "You're My World", which would afford Reddy a final Top 40 hit. 

And do I love you?

Well I know I really try;

Thinking of you;

Loving the sunshine in your eyes.

 

And when I falter,

Bringing you grief

Does it alter your feeling for me?

Oh baby can't you see?

 

That we're sharing,

All the ups we have in life,

While comparing,

All the downs that we've survived.

 

But how much stronger

Our love becomes.

And the longer we're living as one,

The more we'll overcome.

 

And I have lived the greatest love song,

That my singer's years have ever heard.

You make this weary woman happy.

I overflow, it's cause I know

You wouldnt trade me,

For the moon inside a jar

For you've made me

Both the moon and the stars

 

And in our twilight,

We will recall, that the highlight

For us in this world,

Was having dreams come true.

 

I'm so comfortable with you.

Jeff, you've made my dreams come true.

Here's a love song just for you.

SOUTHERN NIGHTS

GLEN CAMPBELL

SONGWRITER: ALLEN TOUSSAINT

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: SOUTHERN NIGHTS

LABEL: CAPITOL RECORDS

GENRE: CONTRY

YEAR: 1977

 

           Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, television host, and actor. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television from 1969 until 1972. He released 64 albums in a career that spanned five decades, selling over 45 million records worldwide, including twelve gold albums, four platinum albums, and one double-platinum album.

           Born in Billstown, Arkansas, Campbell began his professional career as a studio musician in Los Angeles, spending several years playing with the group of instrumentalists later known as "The Wrecking Crew". After becoming a solo artist, he placed a total of 80 different songs on either the Billboard Country Chart, Billboard Hot 100, or Adult Contemporary Chart, of which 29 made the top 10 and of which nine reached number one on at least one of those charts. Among Campbell's hits are "Universal Soldier", his first hit from 1965, along with "Gentle on My Mind" (1967), "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" (1967), "Dreams of the Everyday Housewife" (1968), "Wichita Lineman" (1968), "Galveston" (1969), "Rhinestone Cowboy" (1975) and "Southern Nights" (1977).

         In 1967, Campbell won four Grammys in the country and pop categories. For "Gentle on My Mind", he received two awards in country and western; "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" did the same in pop. Three of his early hits later won Grammy Hall of Fame Awards (2000, 2004, 2008), while Campbell himself won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He owned trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year from both the Country Music Association (CMA) and the Academy of Country Music (ACM), and took the CMA's top award as 1968 Entertainer of the Year. Campbell played a supporting role in the film True Grit (1969), which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. He also sang the title song, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

         "Southern Nights" is a song written and recorded by Allen Toussaint, from his 1975 album, Southern Nights, and later recorded by American country music singer Glen Campbell. It was the first single released from Campbell's 1977 album, Southern Nights, and reached Nº. 1 on three separate US charts. It was covered by the Chicago band Whitney in 2015.

Southern nights

Have you ever felt a southern night?

Free as a breeze

Not to mention the trees

Whistling tunes that you know and love so

 

Southern nights

Just as good even when closed your eyes

I apologize to anyone who can truly say

That he has found a better way

 

Southern skies

Have you ever noticed southern skies?

Its precious beauty lies just beyond the eye

It goes running through your soul

Like the stories told of old

Old man

He and his dog that walked the old land

Ev'ry flower touched his cold hand

As he slowly walked by

Weeping willows

Would cry for joy

Joy

 

Feel so good

Feel so good

It's frigth'ning

Wish I could

Stop this world from Fighting

La da da da da da la da da da da da da da da

 

Mysteries

Like this and many others in the trees

Blow in the night

In the southern skies

 

Southern nights

They feel so good it's fright'ning

Wish I could

Stop this world from Fighting

La da da da da da la da da da da da

Da da da da da da da da da da da. 

FOOTSTEPS

THE SKYLINES

SONGWRITERs: Geoffrey mcarthur & jonathan paul shaban

COUNTRY: u. s. a.

ALBUM: the skyliners: greatest hits

LABEL: calico records

GENRE: doo-wop

YEAR: 1987

 

           The Skyliners are an American doo-wop group from Pittsburgh. The original lineup was: Jimmy Beaumont (lead), Janet Vogel (soprano), Wally Lester (tenor), Jackie Taylor (bass voice, guitarist), Joe Verscharen (baritone). The Skyliners were best known for their 1958 hit, "Since I Don't Have You".

Hey, hey, hey

 

Footsteps, I hear, at the endin’ of the day

Your footsteps, my dear

Thought I know you’re far away

Hey, hey, hey

 

Tiptoe, alone, till they come into my heart

Those footsteps, that say

We will never stay apart

Footsteps that haunt me and seems to tell me

That they’ll be my guide, they’ll be my guide

 

And if I follow, yes if I follow

They, will lead, me to, your side

Those little footsteps, I hear

Every mornin’ noon and night

Your footsteps, my dear

Even though you’re out of sight

 

Hey, hey, hey

Hey, hey, hey, hey…

 I DROVE ALL NIGHT

ROY ORBISON

SONGWRITERS: BILLY STEINBERG & TOM KELLY

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: NINTENDO: WHITE KNUCKLE SCORIN’

LABEL: RCA VICTOR

GENRE: ROCK

YEAR: 1987

 

            Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. His music was described by critics as operatic, earning him the nicknames "the Caruso of Rock" and "the Big O". Many of Orbison's songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male rock-and-roll performers chose to project defiant masculinity. He was known for his shyness and stage fright, which he countered by wearing dark sunglasses.

         Orbison began singing in a rockabilly and country-and-western band at high school. He was signed by Sam Phillips of Sun Records in 1956, but enjoyed his greatest success with Monument Records. From 1960 to 1966, 22 of Orbison's singles reached the Billboard Top 40. He wrote or co-wrote almost all of his own Top 10 hits, including "Only the Lonely" (1960), "Running Scared" (1961), "Crying" (1961), "In Dreams" (1963), and "Oh, Pretty Woman" (1964). Beginning in the mid-1960s, Orbison suffered a number of personal tragedies and his career faltered.

          Orbison experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1980s following the success of several cover versions of his songs. In 1988, he co-founded the Traveling Wilburys (a rock supergroup) with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne. Orbison died of a heart attack in December 1988 at age 52. One month later, his song "You Got It" (1989) was released as a solo single, becoming his first hit to reach the U.S. Top 10 in nearly 25 years.

            Orbison's honors include inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989, and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2014. He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and five other Grammy Awards. Rolling Stone placed him at number 37 on its list of the "Greatest Artists of All Time" and number 13 on its list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In 2002, Billboard magazine listed him at number 74 on its list of the Top 600 recording artists.

         "I Drove All Night" is a song written and composed by American songwriters Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly and recorded by American singer Cyndi Lauper. The song was originally intended for Roy Orbison, who recorded it in 1987, the year before his death, but his version was not released until 1992, after Lauper's version became a top 10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 1989. The song has also been covered by Canadian singer Celine Dion, whose version topped the Canadian Singles Chart and reached number 7 on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart in 2003.

I had to escape, the city was stinking and cruel
Maybe I should have called you first, but I was dying to get toyou
I was dreaming while I drove the long straight road ahead
Uh-huh, yeah
Could taste your sweet kisses, your arms open wide
This fever for you was just burning me up inside
 
I drove all night to get to you
Is that all right?
I drove all night, crept in your room
Woke you from your sleep
To make love to you
Is that all right?
I drove all night
 
What in this world keeps us from falling apart?
No matter where I go I hear the beating of our one heart
I think about you when the night is cold and dark
Uh-huh, yeah
No one can move me the way that you do
Nothing erases this feeling between me and you
 
To taste your sweet kisses, your arms open wide
This fever for you is just burning me up inside
 
I drove all night to get to you
Is that all right?
I drove all night, crept in your room
Is that all right?
I drove all night.