LAY DOWN SALLY

ERIC CLAPTON

SONGWRITERS: ERIC CLAPTON; MERCY LEVY & GEORGE TERRY

COUNTRY: U. K.

ALBUM: SLOWHAND

LABEL: POLYDOR

GENRE: ROCK

YEAR: 1977

 

        Eric Patrick Clapton (born 30 March 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter, widely regarded as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". He was also named number five in Time magazine's list of "The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players" in 2009.

        After playing in a number of different local bands, Clapton joined the Yardbirds in 1963, replacing founding guitarist Top Topham. Dissatisfied with the change of the Yardbirds sound from blues rock to a more radio-friendly pop rock sound, Clapton left in 1965 to play with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. On leaving Mayall in 1966, after one album, he formed the power trio Cream with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce, in which Clapton played sustained blues improvisations and "arty, blues-based psychedelic pop". After Cream broke up in November 1968, he formed the blues rock band Blind Faith with Baker, Steve Winwood, and Ric Grech, recording one album and performing on one tour before they broke up. Clapton embarked on a solo career in 1970.

        Alongside his solo career, he also performed with Delaney & Bonnie and Derek and the Dominos, with whom he recorded "Layla", one of his signature songs. He continued to record a number of successful solo albums and songs over the next several decades, including a 1974 cover of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" (which helped reggae reach a mass market), the country-infused Slowhand album (1977) and the pop rock of 1986's August. Following the death of his son Conor in 1991, Clapton's grief was expressed in the song "Tears in Heaven", which appeared on his Unplugged album, and in 1996 he had another top-40 hit with the R&B crossover "Change the World". In 1998, he released the Grammy award-winning "My Father's Eyes". Since 1999, he has recorded a number of traditional blues and blues rock albums and hosted the periodic Crossroads Guitar Festival. His most recent studio album is Happy Xmas(2018).

          Clapton has received 18 Grammy Awards as well as the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2004, he was awarded a CBE for services to music. He has received four Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the Only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist and separately as a member of the Yardbirds and of Cream.

           In his solo career, Clapton has sold more than 280 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. In 1998, Clapton, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua, a medical facility for recovering substance abusers.

Slowhand is the fifth full-length studio album by Eric Clapton. Released on 25 November 1977 by RSO Records, and titled after Clapton's nickname, it is one of his most commercially and critically successful studio albums. Slowhand produced the two hit singles "Lay Down Sally" and "Wonderful Tonight", reached various international music charts and was honoured with numerous awards and recording certifications. In 2012, a deluxe edition was released to celebrate the album's 35th anniversary. 

There is nothing that is wrong

In wanting you to stay here with me

I know you've got somewhere to go

But won't you make yourself at home and stay with me?

And don't you ever leave

 

Lay down, Sally, and rest here in my arms

Don't you think you want someone to talk to?

Lay down, Sally, no need to leave so soon

I've been trying all night long just to talk to you

 

Sun ain't nearly on the rise

We still got the moon and stars above

Underneath the velvet skies, love is all that matters

Won't you stay with me? Don't you ever leave

 

Lay down, Sally, and rest here in my arms

Don't you think you want someone to talk to?

Lay down, Sally, and no need to leave so soon

I've been trying all night long just to talk to you

 

I long to see the morning light

Color in your face so dreamily

So don't you go and say goodbye

You can lay your worries down and stay with me

And don't you ever leave

 

Lay down, Sally, and rest here in my arms

Don't you think you want someone to talk to?

Lay down, Sally, there's no need to leave so soon

I've been trying all night long just to talk to you

Lay down, Sally, and rest here in my arms

Don't you think you want someone to talk to?

Lay down, Sally, there's no need to leave so soon

I've been trying all night long just to talk to you.

YOU CAN'T CATCH ME

CHUCK BERRY

SONGWRITER: CHUCK BERRY

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: ROCK, ROCK, ROCK

LABEL: CHESS RECORDS

GENRE: ROCK

YEAR: 1956

 

        Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926–March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958). Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.

         Born into a middle-class black family in St. Louis, Berry had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. While still a high school student he was convicted of armed robbery and was sent to a reformatory, where he was held from 1944 to 1947. After his release, Berry settled into married life and worked at an automobile assembly plant. By early 1953, influenced by the guitar riffs and showmanship techniques of the blues musician T-Bone Walker, Berry began performing with the Johnnie Johnson Trio. His break came when he traveled to Chicago in May 1955 and met Muddy Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess, of Chess Records. With Chess, he recorded "Maybellene"—Berry's adaptation of the country song "Ida Red"—which sold over a million copies, reaching number one on Billboard magazine's rhythm and blues chart.

        By the end of the 1950s, Berry was an established star, with several hit records and film appearances and a lucrative touring career. He had also established his own St. Louis nightclub, Berry's Club Bandstand. He was sentenced to three years in prison in January 1962 for offenses under the Mann Act—he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines for the purpose of having sexual intercourse. After his release in 1963, Berry had several more successful songs, including "No Particular Place to Go", "You Never Can Tell", and "Nadine". However, these did not achieve the same success or lasting impact of his 1950s songs, and by the 1970s he was more in demand as a nostalgia performer, playing his past material with local backup bands of variable quality. In 1972 he reached a new level of achievement when a rendition of "My Ding-a-Ling" became his only record to top the charts. His insistence on being paid in cash led in 1979 to a four-month jail sentence and community service, for tax evasion.

       Berry was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986; he was cited for having "laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance." Berry is included in several of Rolling Stone magazine's "greatest of all time" lists; he was ranked fifth on its 2004 and 2011 lists of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll includes three of Berry's: "Johnny B. Goode", "Maybellene", and "Rock and Roll Music". Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" is the only rock-and-roll song included on the Voyager Golden Record

       Rock, Rock, Rock! is a 1956 musical drama film conceived, co-written and co-produced by Milton Subotsky and directed by Will Price. The film is an early jukebox musical featuring performances by established rock and roll singers of the era, including Chuck Berry, LaVern Baker, Teddy Randazzo, the Moonglows, the Flamingos, and the Teenagers with Frankie Lymon as lead singer. Later West Side Story cast member David Winters is also featured. Famed disc jockey Alan Freed made an appearance as himself.

         The movie has a fairly simple plot: teenage girl Dori Graham (played by then 13-year-old Tuesday Weld, with a credited Connie Francis dubbed in as Dori's singing voice) can't persuade her dad to buy her a strapless gown and has to get the money together herself in time for the prom. Jack Collins plays the frustrated dad.

    Valerie Harper made her debut in a brief appearance as an extra seated at the center table during the performance of "Ever Since I Can Remember" by Cirino and the Bowties and can be seen after the performance of Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers. This was also Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers' film debut.

          Almost every member of the cast was signed to a record label at the time, which was credited along with each star. In 1984, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication. The film's numerous musical numbers may have been copyrighted separately, however.

I bought a brand-new air-mobile

It was custom-made, it was a Flight De Ville

With a powerful motor and some hideaway wings

Push in on the button and you will hear her sing

 

Now you can't catch me, baby you can't catch me

'Cause if you get too close

You know I'm gone like a cool breeze

 

New Jersey Turnpike in the wee, wee hours

I was rolling slowly 'cause of drizzling showers

Here come a flat-top, he was moving up with me

Then come waving goodbye in a little old souped-up jitney

I put my foot in my tank and I began to roll

Moaning siren, it was a state patrol

So I let out my wings and then I blew my horn

Bye-bye New Jersey, I've become airborne

 

Now you can't catch me, baby you can't catch me

'Cause if you get too close

You know I'm gone like a cool breeze

 

Flying with my baby last Saturday night

Wasn't a gray cloud floatin' in sight

Big full moon shining up above

Cuddle up honey, be my love

Sweetest little thing I ever seen

 

I'm gon' name you Maybellene

Flying on the beam, set on flight control

Radio tuned to rock and roll

Two, three hours done passed us by

Altitude dropped to 505

Fuel consumption, way too fast

Let's get on home before we run out of gas

 

Now you can't catch me, no baby, you can't catch me

'Cause if you get too close

You know I'm gone like a cool breeze.

I’LL BE THERE

BOBBY DARIN

SONGWRITER: BOBBY DARIN

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: THINGS AND OTHER TINGS

LABEL: COLUMBIA RECORDS

GENRE: POP

YEAR: 1962

 

        Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936–December 20, 1973) was an American singer, musician, and actor. He performed jazz, pop, rock and roll, folk, swing, and country music.

        He started his career as a songwriter for Connie Francis. He recorded his first million-selling single, "Splish Splash", in 1958. That was followed by "Dream Lover", "Mack the Knife", and "Beyond the Sea", which brought him worldwide fame. In 1962 he won a Golden Globe Award for his first film, Come September, co-starring his first wife, actress Sandra Dee.

       During the 1960s, he became more politically active and worked on Robert F. Kennedy's Democratic presidential campaign. He was present on the night of June 4/5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles at the time of Robert Kennedy's assassination.

        Although he made a successful comeback (in television) in the early 1970s, following bouts of rheumatic fever in childhood. The knowledge of his vulnerability had always spurred him on to use his musical talent while still young. He died at the age of 37 after a heart operation in Los Angeles.

"I'll Be There" is a song written and originally recorded by Bobby Darin in 1960. It was first released as B-side to his single "Bill Bailey" (ATCO 6167). As such it entered the Billboard charts on July 11, 1960 and reached position 79.

I'll be there when all your dreams are broken

To answer your unspoken prayer, oh...

When the little things you're doin', ooh, don't turn out right

Don't you worry darlin' I'll be there

 

There whenever you need to know that there is someone who cares, oh yeah!

So if your new love isn't your true love

Don't you worry darlin', I'll be there

 

There whenever you need to know that there is someone who cares, oh yeah!

So if your new love isn't your true love

Don't you worry darlin', I'll be there

Don't you worry darlin', I'll be there

Don't you worry darlin', I'll be there

MY BABY LOVES TO DANCE

CHRIS MONTEZ

SONGWRITER: JIM LEE

COUNTRY:

ALBUM: CHRIS MONTEZ LET’S DANCE

LABEL: MONOGRAM RECORDS

GENRE: TWIST

YEAR: 1959

 

       Chris Montez (born Ezekiel Christopher Montañez on January 17, 1943) is an American guitarist and vocalist, whose stylistic approach has ranged from rock & roll to pop standards and Latin music. His rock sound is exemplified in songs such as his 1962 hit "Let's Dance", which reached Nº 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. When his early music's popularity began to fade, he switched to a more traditional role as a popular singer of soft ballads, scoring hits with “The More I See You” and “Call Me" in 1966. He has also recorded in Latin styles. Over the intervening years, he has continued to work in all three modes.

           "Let's Dance" is a 1962 hit single by Chris Montez, written and produced by Jim Lee.

The stomp and the bird and wautusi too

I tell you there ain't a dance she doesn't know how to do

 

My baby loves to dance

But just with me

She shakes and shakes that thing

It's quite a sight to see

 

My baby loves to dance

She goes like this

Then shimmy's up so close

And thrills me with her kiss

 

The stomp and the bird and wautusi too

I tell you there ain't a dance she doesn't know how to do

 

My baby loves to dance

A lot like you

So come on, come on and dance

And show 'em what you can do

Come on, come on, come on and dance

 

The stomp and the bird and wautusi too

I tell you there ain't a dance she doesn't know how to do

 

My baby loves to dance

But just with me

She shakes and shakes that thing

It's quite a sight to see

 

My baby loves to dance

It looks so fine

So baby you better come on

And shake it one more time

 

The stomp and the bird and wautusi too

I tell you there ain't a dance she doesn't know how to do

My baby loves to dance.