SOMETHING SO STRONG

CROWDED HOUSE

SONGWRITERS: NEIL MULLANE FINN & MITCHELL FROOM

COUNTRY: AUSTRALIA

ALBUM: CROWDED HOUSE

LABEL: CAPITOL RECORDS

GENRE: POP ROCK

YEAR: 1987

 

       Crowded House are a rock band, formed in Melbourne in 1985. Its founding members were New Zealander Neil Finn(vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter) and Australians Paul Hester (drums) and Nick Seymour (bass). Later band members included Neil Finn's brother, Tim Finn, and Americans Mark Hart and Matt Sherrod. The current line-up includes Finn's sons Elroy and Liam and the American keyboard player Mitchell Froom. Neil Finn and Nick Seymour have been the sole constant members of the group since its formation.

        Originally active from 1985 to 1996, Crowded House had consistent commercial and critical success in New Zealand and Australia and international chart success in two phases, beginning with a self-titled debut album that reached number 12 on the US Album Chart in 1987 and provided the Top Ten hits "Don't Dream It's Over" and "Something So Strong". Further international success came in the UK, Europe and South Africa with their third and fourth albums (Woodface and Together Alone) and the compilation album Recurring Dream, which included the hits "Fall at Your Feet", "Weather with You", "Distant Sun", "Locked Out", "Instinct" and "Not the Girl You Think You Are". Neil and Tim Finn were each awarded an OBE in June 1993 for their contributions to the music of New Zealand.

          In June 1996, Crowded House announced that it would disband. The band played several farewell concerts that year, including the "Farewell to the World" concerts in Melbourne and Sydney. On 26 March 2005, Hester died by suicide, aged 46. In 2006, the group re-formed with drummer Matt Sherrod and released two further albums (in 2007 and 2010), each of which reached number one on Australia's album chart. After several years of inactivity, it was announced a revised line-up of Crowded House would tour the UK in 2020. The new line-up features Neil Finn, Nick Seymour, Mitchell Froom, and Finn's sons Liam and Elroy. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the band's planned 2020 concerts were postponed.

       As of 2021, Crowded House have sold over 15 million albums worldwide. In November 2016, the band was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.

           "Something So Strong" is a rock song written by Neil Finn and Mitchell Froom and performed by Crowded House for their eponymous debut album(June 1986). The track was released as the album's fifth and final single in April 1987. The single peaked at Nº 18 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart, Nº 3 in New Zealand, Nº 7 in the United States Billboard Hot 100, and Nº 10 on the Canadian RPM 100.

          The track lends its title to the book, Crowded House: Something So Strong(1997), by Australian biographer Chris Bourke, which details the band's career from forming to just after their breakup in 1996. According to Bourke, "Something So Strong", was the first song written by Finn specifically for Crowded House. However while in the studio, producer, Froom, and Finn reworked parts of the song and as such, Froom is credited as a co-writer. Demos of this song have been linked to Finn's earlier band Split Enz, from the 1984 See Ya 'Round period, potentially making the timeline earlier on this track.

Love can make you weep

Can make you run for cover

Roots that spread so deep

Bring life to frozen ground

 

Something so strong

Could carry us away

Something so strong

Could carry us today

 

Turning in my sleep

Love can leave you cold

A taste of jealousy

Is like a lust for gold

 

Something so strong

Could carry us away

Something so strong

Could carry us today

 

I've been

Feeling so much older

Frame me

And hang me on the wall

I've seen

You fall into the same trap

This thing

Is happening to us all, yeah

 

Something so strong

Could carry us away

Something so strong

Could carry us today

 

Something so strong

Something so strong

Something so strong

Something, something so strong.

THERE MUST BE AN ANGEL

ANNIE LENNOX(EURYTHMICS)

SONGWTITERS: LENNOX ANNIE & TEWART DAVID ALLAN

COUNTRY: SCOTLAND

ALBUM: BE YOURSELF TONIGHT

LABEL: RCA VICTOR

GENRE: SYNTH-POP

YEAR: 1985

 

           Ann Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician Dave Stewart went on to achieve international success in the 1980s as Eurythmics. Appearing in the 1983 music video for "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" with orange cropped hair and wearing a man's business suit, the BBC states, "all eyes were on Annie Lennox, the singer whose powerful androgynous look defied the male gaze". Subsequent hits with Eurythmics include "There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)" and "Here Comes the Rain Again".

          Lennox embarked on a solo career in 1992 with her debut album, Diva, which produced several hit singles including "Why" and "Walking on Broken Glass". The same year, she performed "Love Song for a Vampire" for Bram Stoker's Dracula. Her 1995 studio album, Medusa, includes cover versions of songs such as "No More 'I Love You's'" and "A Whiter Shade of Pale". To date, she has released six solo studio albums and a compilation album, The Annie Lennox Collection(2009). With eight Brit Awards, which includes being named Best British Female Artist a record six times, Lennox has been named the "Brits Champion of Champions". She has also collected four Grammy Awards and an MTV Video Music Award. In 2002, Lennox received a Billboard Century Award; the highest accolade from Billboard. In 2004, she received the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Into the West", written for the soundtrack to the feature film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

         "There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)" is a song by the British musical duo Eurythmics, released as the second single from their fifth studio album, Be Yourself Tonight(1985). It features a harmonica solo by American musician Stevie Wonder. The song became a worldwide success; most notably in Ireland, Norway and the United Kingdom, where it remains the duo's only chart-topper.

          The song has been covered by several musical artists, including Brittany Murphy, Fantastic Plastic Machine, Leningrad Cowboys, Luciano Pavarotti, Kylie Minogue, Jessica G. Pilnäs and, most noticeably, German girl group No Angels, who scored their second number-one single in Austria and Germany with their rendition for the reissue of their album Elle'ments in August 2001.

No one on earth could feel like this

I'm thrown and overblown with bliss

There must be an Angel

Playing with my heart

I walk into an empty room

And suddenly my heart goes boom

It's an orchestra of Angels

And they're playing with my heart

 

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

 

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

 

No one on earth could feel like this

I'm thrown and overblown with bliss

There must be an Angel

Playing with my heart

And when I think that I'm alone

It seems there's more of us at home

It's a multitude of Angels

And they're playing with my heart, yeah

 

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

 

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

Must be talking to an Angel

 

I must be hallucinating

Watching Angels celebrating

Could this be reactivating

All my senses dislocating?

This must be a strange deception

By celestial intervention

Leaving me the recollection

Of your Heavenly connection

 

I walk into an empty room

Suddenly my heart goes boom

It's an orchestra of angels

They're playing with my heart, yeah.

CALL ME THE BREEZE

J. J. CALE

SONGWRITER: JOHN J. CALE

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: NATURALLY

LABEL: SHELTER RECORDFS

GENRE: BOOGIE ROCK

YEAR: 1971

 

          John Weldon "J. J." Cale (December 5, 1938 – July 26, 2013) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and sound engineer. Though he avoided the limelight, his influence as a musical artist has been widely acknowledged by figures such as Mark Knopfler, Neil Young and Eric Clapton, who described him as "one of the most important artists in the history of rock". He is considered to be one of the originators of the Tulsa sound, a loose genre drawing on blues, rockabilly, country, and jazz.

         In 2008, Cale and Clapton received a Grammy Award for their album The Road to Escondido.

Naturally is the debut studio album by J. J. Cale released on October 25, 1971.

           Cale, who was raised in Oklahoma, first tasted success in 1964 when singer Mel McDaniel scored a regional hit with Cale's composition "Lazy Me". From there Cale moved to California and worked at Leon Russell's home studio as a chief engineer and began performing at places like the Whisky a Go Go. With Johnny Rivers already performing there regularly, club co-owner Elmer Valentine rechristened Cale as J.J. Cale to avoid confusion with the John Cale in the Velvet Underground. In 1966, Cale cut an unsuccessful single for Liberty Records called "Slow Motion", but it was the B-side, "After Midnight", that would have long-term ramifications for Cale's career when Eric Clapton recorded the song and had a Top 20 hit. Cale, who was languishing in obscurity at the time, had no knowledge of Clapton's recording of "After Midnight" until it became a radio hit in 1970. Cale recalled to Mojo magazine that when he heard Clapton's version playing on his radio, "I was dirt poor, not making enough to eat and I wasn't a young man. I was in my thirties, so I was very happy. It was nice to make some money." Cale's friend and producer, Audie Ashworth, encouraged Cale to record a full album in order to capitalize on the success of his song.

They call me the breeze,

I keep blowing down the road

They call me the breeze,

I keep blowing down the road

I ain't got me nobody,

I ain't carrying me no load

 

Ain't no change in the weather,

Ain't no change in me

Ain't no change in the weather,

Ain't no change in me

 

I ain't hidin' from nobody,

Ain't nobody hidin' from me

I got that green light, babe,

I got to keep moving on

I got that green light, babe,

I got to keep moving on

I might go out to California,

Might go down to Georgia,

Might stay home.

IF YOU LEAVE ME NOW

CHICAGO

SONGWRITER: PETER CETERA

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: CHICAGO X

LABEL: COLUMBIA RECORDS

GENRE: SOFT ROCK

YEAR: 1976

 

           Chicago is an American rock band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1967. The group was initially billed as The Big Thing before calling themselves the Chicago Transit Authority in 1968, and then shortening the name in 1969. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" blended elements of classical music, jazz, R&B, and pop music. They produced numerous top-40 hits over two decades, and continue to record and perform live.

                Growing out of several Chicago-area bands in the late 1960s, the line-up consisted of Peter Cetera on bass, Terry Kath on guitar, Robert Lamm on keyboards, Lee Loughnane on trumpet, James Pankow on trombone, Walter Parazaider on woodwinds, and Danny Seraphine on drums. Cetera, Kath, and Lamm shared lead vocal duties. Laudir de Oliveira joined the band as a percussionist and second drummer in 1974. Kath died in 1978, and was replaced by several guitarists in succession. Bill Champlin joined in 1981, providing vocals, keyboards, and rhythm guitar. Cetera left the band in 1985 and was replaced by Jason Scheff. Seraphine left in 1990, and was replaced by Tris Imboden. Although the band's lineup has been more fluid since 2000, Lamm, Loughnane, and Pankow have remained constant members. Parazaider retired in 2017, but is still a band member.

     The band's first album, Chicago Transit Authority(1969), a sprawling double album filled with experimental rock songs, initially failed to produce a hit single upon its release. Their second album, another double album simply titled Chicago(1970) (later retroactively titled Chicago II), continued with the format of experimental rock, and produced two top-10 singles, "Make Me Smile", which peaked at 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "25 or 6 to 4", which peaked at 4. Several singles from the first album were subsequently released or re-released in 1970 and 1971, with two additional songs charting in the top-10. The band would continue to produce hit albums based on the formula established with their first two records until 1978, when Kath died of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound. The band changed sounds as the 1980s began, where Peter Cetera and producer David Foster took the band in a less progressive direction, producing a number of soft rock and easy listening hits, including "Hard to Say I'm Sorry"(1982) from Chicago 16 and "You're the Inspiration"(1984) from Chicago 17, the band's biggest selling album in their career. Cetera left to pursue a solo career in 1985, but the band continued to produce hit singles under Foster's direction, including "Will You Still Love Me?"(1986), featuring lead vocals from new bassist Jason Scheff, and the band's best selling single of all time, "Look Away"(1988), with vocals by Bill Champlin. While the band failed to produce any hit songs from the 1990s onward, they continued to release albums and tour, including several highly successful co-headlining tours with fellow horn-based band Earth, Wind, and Fire. Their most recent album is Chicago XXXVII: Chicago Christmas from 2019.(…)

              "If You Leave Me Now" is a song by the American rock group Chicago, from their album Chicago X. It was written and sung by bass player Peter Cetera and released as a single on July 31, 1976. It is also the title of a Chicago compilation album released by Columbia Records (Columbia 38590) in 1983.

            The single topped the Billboard Hot 100 on October 23, 1976, and stayed there for two weeks, making it the first number one hit for the group as well as hitting number one on the Easy Listening charts. "If You Leave Me Now" was also Chicago's biggest hit internationally, topping the charts in other countries such as the UK, Australia, Ireland, Canada, and Netherlands. In the UK it maintained the number one position for three weeks. It was one of five "non-disco" songs to make it to number one in the US in a nine-month period of 1976. According to writer Zachary Houle of PopMatters, "The song was so pervasive on radio upon its release that, reportedly, those tuning in in New York could hear the song playing on four different stations, each with varying formats, simultaneously."

       The song won Grammy Awards for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) (strings) for arranger Jimmie Haskell and producer James William Guercio and Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus, the first Grammy Award won by the group. It also received a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year. In addition, by August 1978 it had sold 1.4 million copies in the United States alone. It has been certified gold and platinum by the RIAA. In an article from June 2020, The Guardian listed "If You Leave Me Now" as number 73 on its list of "The Greatest UK No 1s: 100–1", noting, "It’s impossibly lush and beautifully written, but its sadness is pervasive and affecting."

          In 2010 Chicago teamed with the American Cancer Society and offered the opportunity to bid on the chance to sing their hit, "If You Leave Me Now" with them on stage live at their concerts, with proceeds going to the American Cancer Society to fight breast cancer. The fund raising effort has continued in succeeding years.

If you leave me now

You'll take away the biggest part of me

Ooh-ooh, no, baby please don't go

And if you leave me now

You'll take away the very heart of me

Ooh-ooh, no, baby please don't go

Ooh-ooh, girl, I just want you to stay

 

A love like ours is love that's hard to find

How could we let it slip away?

We've come too far to leave it all behind

How could we end it all this way?

When tomorrow comes and we'll both regret

The things we said today

 

A love like ours is love that's hard to find

How could we let it slip away?

We've come too far to leave it all behind

How could we end it all this way?

When tomorrow comes and we'll both regret

The things we said today.

 

If you leave me now

You'll take away the biggest part of me

Ooh-ooh, no, baby please don't go

 

Ooh, girl, just got to have you by my side

Ooh-ooh, no, baby please don't go

Ooh, my, my, I just got to have your loving (hey, hey).