"Frampton Comes Alive" and "Rumours" set worldwide album sales records. "I'm in You" and "Tusk" prompted massive record biz lay-offs. "What the hell happened?" has been asked for decades.
It's interesting to hear a music-as-business take on that moment. For me, of course, it was about the music. Like many, I liked the Frampton album for its fresh take on guitar-centric rock. But I didn't need more of that--sort of the way the first Boston album was a unique sound but all the rest sounded the same. The elephant in the room was Fleetwood Mac. I loved the Danny Kirwan-Christine McVie-Peter Green FM; I hated Buckingham-Nicks FM, and had to listen to my college roommate play it constantly. Rumours was worse, and I thought Tusk was simply awful. To me, the transformation of FM symbolized the end of whatever was left of 60's magic. It's actually shocking to compare the Billboard top 50 from 1968 vs. the top 50 from 1972--it's like popular music got a lobotomy. In 1968 the great stuff (Beatles, Cream, Doors, Hendrix, etc.) WAS the popular stuff. But then it was "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head", and the best stuff went underground--who even knew about Velvet Underground or Patti Smith? By 1976 the patient was terminal. I was just happy for Mick Fleetwood and John McVie that they finally got to cash in on all their years working in the mines. (For me, the defibrillator was the B-52's on Saturday Night Live. But that is a whole new topic and a new world of music!) Sorry for the rant, and thanks for the Recommendation!
Thanks, Charles, and never apologize for "ranting"---you're commenting on one of my rants!! We "rant"---it's what we do....quite well, I might add! You're more than welcome for the Recom--well-earned, yo!✌
I was fascinated by the biz end, because so much of what orbited the music was caused by/influenced by, and even ALLOWED TO EXIST because of the biz end of it all! FMac doesn't enter a studio unless the label of The Bunny LETS them!
The FMac history is one I love citing, much like the Doobies, Journey, and Steely Dan...all of whom had early days known by few, especially if eventual mega-hits towered mightily over anything that came before their first over-the-top smash.
In each case, also, you have vastly different iterations (Dan's lead singer/rock era turning into a duo of jazzy studio denizens, FMac's blues beginning turned pop stars, Doobies pre- and post-McDonald, and the pre-Perry Journey, or as I like to call them Weather Report 2.0)!
Thanks again! It's great to have your historic perspective grace the FR&B pages!🎼🎶🎵😊👍
Much appreciated. Another Jekyll and Hyde case was Boz Scaggs, going full Disco! Wow. So, to your point about the labels controlling the fate of bands: youtube and streaming were supposed to open things up, and in fact they did. But the labels seem to be doing just fine, while the artists are getting kicked in the teeth. The horrible irony is that the biggest case of an independent "artist" successfully using youtube to sidestep the corporates is Bieber. WTF? What do you think it all means?
Boz is a great example, too! From his Miller days to Atlantic, and an earlier-than-I-thought relationship with Columbia. It took CBS 5 years and 5 albums to finally build momentum for him, as well as hit on the right mix of producer and material to finally hit with "Silk Degees."
Comparing today's record biz with, say, the '70s-era I became intimately involved with, is impossible to do. I even recoil when confronted with people in person who want to debate one with the other....it's like comparing a brachiosaurus with a poodle. One no longer exists.
I've heard interviews with older, big name artists, who lament today's biz, and they openly feel sorry for the "kids today" who want to write/record...the pennies they may get streaming today is a pathetic pittance compared to the millions of $s flowing around an artist 50 years ago! That's as close as I dare get to "what it all means!"😉
Well, my son says that human musicians are about to be replaced by AIs (there are already signs of this in electronica, ambient etc., and in the Japanese virtual idol scene). I find it morbidly fascinating.
Your son may be solidly on the right track. There are certainly no musical or cultural hints that it might be going in the OTHER direction! That's why we need to squeeze all the info out of those like us who remember (trite phrase warning!) the good ole days!
And, that's why you and I (and Stephen!) were called here by the Substack insignia in the sky...to help the citizens of Gotham!🦇
Really interesting post, Brad. I'm not sure the story of the music industry in the US has ever really changed. I don't have first-hand experience (as you do), but from what I've read, it's always been a bit of a wild west and rife with conflicts of interest, backroom deals, bribes and payoffs, and various forms of corruption. The practice of charging every expense they can get away with against the artist or band is an outrage -- as the label execs live it up, charge ridiculous overhead and marketing charges, outfit some buddy's studio, etc etc.
I've read about artists and bands in the late 60s and 70s coming off a successful album and tour actually owing the record company a lot of money. Some guys in very successful groups couldn't even afford rent and were sleeping on friends' couches. The only ones who did really well seemed to have been the ones with a stream of songwriting royalties, because the labels couldn't mess with that (although Chris Dalla Riva suggests that songwriting royalties are all messed up now too). I remember one artist calling it legalized slavery and saying there was no way to escape. Of course he turned to drugs, and you have to wonder how many artists did the same when they realized that they'd make a deal with the devil.
I guess my point being that the record companies have always been driven by greed rather than putting out excellent product or taking care of their key assets (the artists). And it only seems to have gone rapidly downhill with the streaming giants. I'm quite upset on behalf of the musicians, who face an insane uphill battle these days, but also on our behalf as music consumers and lovers. Not sure what the answer is, but we all deserve better!
Thanks, Ellen......Generally, everything you're saying is/was true. Careful, though, not to paint with too broad a brush, as we're talking about many decades, tens of thousands of artists, and they all couldn't have been ripped off. There were some historically shady labels, true, and some that were the gold standard where artists would hope to get signed to, where rip-offs were few and far between.
As for songwriters, very true...back in the day, not only did they see the intrinsic value in songwriting royalties (tempting some bands' members to "try their hand at this songwriting thing" that shouldn't have!), but that revenue stream was not lost on the label suits, either! Each label had a rather fat publishing arm solidly attached.
I always like using CBS/Columbia Records at a front-and-center example of a label "all-in" on publishing: Their Job 1A was signing ground-breaking, PROLIFIC songwriters who also brought in cash as recording artists: Dylan, Springsteen, Cohen, Elvis Costello, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, the landmark signings of James Taylor and Paul McCartney (obviously with the cache of fame attached, granted, for both, but oh, the publishing!), Elliott Murphy, and so many more!
As for Chris and this century, I've heard all the horror stories, but have no personal experience, of course, but it sounds like it's a definite hardship these days for creators of all kinds!
Point taken on over-generalizing and interesting take on the ascension of the singer-songwriter. You've piqued my interest in reading more about the evolution of the industry.
The record industry evolution is fascinating, no doubt! A huge chunk to bite off, but endlessly fascinating, and I know how you love music and its makers! It's that same drive and interest that made me, early on, go....."WHOA! THAT (whatever...name it) can really happen?!"
The record biz in the '50s was, granted, rife with cigar-chomping "tell ya what I'm gonna do" movers and shakers, many of them crooked as a country road....very similar to the shenanigans that ran thru the TV industry in the same decade: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950s_quiz_show_scandals
Believe it or not (warning.....veiled Tune Tag reference ahead!), it's the threads and links of the record biz that fascinated me....the consistent and persistent appearance of this player or that, or this exec or that, and A) how long they stay in a group or at a label and B) the meandering path these folks take when they DO go elsewhere, and what are the similarities in why they went from there to here!
This one example (you may have heard me mention before, but his is the epitome of a riveting, broad ...and fun...career!): Ted Templeman, member of the '60s sunshine poppers, Harper's Bizarre (on Warner Bros.). At some point in the early '70s, he leaves to go work for the label to which they were signed!
As A&R/producer, he hears and summons WB prez, Mo Ostin, to also hear a little ole band from Pasadena, Van Halen, at the Starwood in W. Hollywood in '77. I just discovered Van Morrison's guitarist was key in alerting WB/Templeman to VH in the first place, prompting Templeman to check 'em out!
Ostin scribbles details of a proposal on a napkin backstage....within a week (it's not far at all from Pasadena to Burbank, WB home!), they all meet at a local diner, and finalize the deal!
To me, Templeman's was a dream career, performing and paying it forward, as it were! And, there are so many similar stories in the rock'n'roll firmament! Happy digging, Ellen!
That's a great story and example! I'm reading recording engineer/producer Glyn John's autobiography at the moment and so many criss-crossing paths and weird trajectories in there too. It makes my head spin. But also makes it a lot of fun, and as you say endlessly fascinating.
I do remember the film "Quiz Show" about that scandal, and not surprised to hear there were similar shenanigans by cigar-chomping music folks as well. Looking forward to the referenced Tune Tag!
Peter Frampton wasn't really my thing back in the late 70s as I was still listening to Disco and some Country, but I will never forget my aunt's obsession with "Frampton Comes Alive". She would talk about how much she loved that record decades later.
"Comes Alive" seemed like standard issue back in the day! Same with "Rumours," "Back in Black," and "Eagles Greatest Hits"! As in: "Excuse me, are you a living, breathing human? Yes? Fine...here are the albums you'll need to function here in the US!"
I actually dug disco back in the day, too (now it can be told)! But, like punk, I enjoyed more the first "wave" of each, before the money-grabbers came in and diluted each genre.
I was also in on some country, thanks to the "Urban Cowboy" scare of the late '70s! Some pop/country I enjoyed, like Ronnie Milsap and Eddie Rabbitt.
Plus, my mom was managing Dale McBride from the '70s to early '90s. You might enjoy his pleasant, Glen Campbell-like country-pop. He's on Spotify, plus his kid, Terry, was in McBride and the Ride in the '90s (and they've re-formed), and Terry has been a successful Nashville songwriter, as well!
Thanks for tuning in and checking in, Mark! Always a pleasure!
Yep, all 'standards' as far as I remember and with good reason. There was some -good- music coming out of them.
I never was big into punk, but I was just discovering my musical likes back in those days and had grown up with Country, so that's what I knew best. Loved Milsap and Rabbitt, as well.
I've heard of Dale McBride but not sure if I ever heard any of his music. I will have to look him up on Spotify.
Thanks for the compliment, Mark! Dale was one of the good guys, and gone too soon...around '91 of a brain tumor (or brain cancer)...can't recall. A great performer, as well...he did several impersonations, and had a great sense of humor! He once did the first line of Campbell's "Gentle on My Mind," changing it to, "It's knowin' that your door is always open and your furniture is gone..." just for laughs!
He was on a little label out of Nashville, Con-Brio Records, owned by Bill Walker, who was Music Director of all the Johnny Cash TV specials in the '60s.
Dale was actually "discovered" by Dean Martin performing in a club, mid-'60s, and got him signed to Reprise Records (Warners sister label), Sinatra's label, of course, where Dino and Sammy were, as well! They only released one Dale single (no album), and that was it...but, when you think about it, what is Frank's label gonna know about country, however pop-leaning?! I think you'll like his tunes!
Thanks, Paul! It suddenly occurred to me I was in the hurricane's eye, to a degree, of a slice of record biz history that little has been written about (and few have lived thru)! The ship was righted in time, of course (for the biz writ large) by the advent of MTV, CDs (with the $$ ka-ching realization labels could now charge a lot for cheaply made discs, not to mention the double-selling of product they've already sold, now in a new format!), and the eventual realization of the threat of hair bands, and the list goes on!
No, we dasn't shed a tear for Pete, the Mac, or the biz! Pete's career, however, was radically altered, but he perseveres today! 3 more albums for A&M followed "I'm in You," each charting lower than the one before. One album for Virgin in '86 led him to my favorite by him, '89's "When All the Pieces Fit," his only album for Atlantic. See if you dig: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tac_Gppxn6E&list=OLAK5uy_m30Ds-pR1z7_bv12Ccfim3THuSm89lNe8
A fave of mine because he's got Danny Wilde, not only writing songs, but singing back-up. Danny's one of my favorite un-sung singers: From early '70s, he was lead singer for The Quick to Great Buildings for one album on CBS in the mid-'70s to joining forces with Phil Solem in the '80s to form The Rembrandts, with a highlight being their singing the theme song for a little TV show I like to call "Friends," called "I'll Be There for You"!
I've already started a mini-"Audio Autopsy" for ya, Paul, so here's more: Also singing and writing on the "When All the Pieces Fit" album is B.A. Robertson, whom FR&B readers will recall being mentioned (and shown interviewing Dave Edmunds in the video!) prominently in our recent "Inside Tracks" article on "Girls Talk"! https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/inside-tracks-4-dave-edmunds-girls
See, all the pieces DO fit!!! Cheers, Paul, and again........thanks!🎵🎶🎹🎸😊👍
And, Stephen, for cryin' out loud! His articles are like a who's who of the R'n'R HOF, and session cats aplenty, and songwriters of songs you hum daily! The public doesn't know Stephen Michael Schwartz's name, but the industry knows who he is and that he has been a top-notch songwriter/singer/guitarist for decades!
Paul (and new FR&B readers), if you've not traveled thru Stephen's canon of '70s rock'n'pop adventures, it's as riveting as binging Game of Thrones, minus (most of) the dragons! Start here:
It's interesting to hear a music-as-business take on that moment. For me, of course, it was about the music. Like many, I liked the Frampton album for its fresh take on guitar-centric rock. But I didn't need more of that--sort of the way the first Boston album was a unique sound but all the rest sounded the same. The elephant in the room was Fleetwood Mac. I loved the Danny Kirwan-Christine McVie-Peter Green FM; I hated Buckingham-Nicks FM, and had to listen to my college roommate play it constantly. Rumours was worse, and I thought Tusk was simply awful. To me, the transformation of FM symbolized the end of whatever was left of 60's magic. It's actually shocking to compare the Billboard top 50 from 1968 vs. the top 50 from 1972--it's like popular music got a lobotomy. In 1968 the great stuff (Beatles, Cream, Doors, Hendrix, etc.) WAS the popular stuff. But then it was "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head", and the best stuff went underground--who even knew about Velvet Underground or Patti Smith? By 1976 the patient was terminal. I was just happy for Mick Fleetwood and John McVie that they finally got to cash in on all their years working in the mines. (For me, the defibrillator was the B-52's on Saturday Night Live. But that is a whole new topic and a new world of music!) Sorry for the rant, and thanks for the Recommendation!
Thanks, Charles, and never apologize for "ranting"---you're commenting on one of my rants!! We "rant"---it's what we do....quite well, I might add! You're more than welcome for the Recom--well-earned, yo!✌
I was fascinated by the biz end, because so much of what orbited the music was caused by/influenced by, and even ALLOWED TO EXIST because of the biz end of it all! FMac doesn't enter a studio unless the label of The Bunny LETS them!
The FMac history is one I love citing, much like the Doobies, Journey, and Steely Dan...all of whom had early days known by few, especially if eventual mega-hits towered mightily over anything that came before their first over-the-top smash.
In each case, also, you have vastly different iterations (Dan's lead singer/rock era turning into a duo of jazzy studio denizens, FMac's blues beginning turned pop stars, Doobies pre- and post-McDonald, and the pre-Perry Journey, or as I like to call them Weather Report 2.0)!
Thanks again! It's great to have your historic perspective grace the FR&B pages!🎼🎶🎵😊👍
Much appreciated. Another Jekyll and Hyde case was Boz Scaggs, going full Disco! Wow. So, to your point about the labels controlling the fate of bands: youtube and streaming were supposed to open things up, and in fact they did. But the labels seem to be doing just fine, while the artists are getting kicked in the teeth. The horrible irony is that the biggest case of an independent "artist" successfully using youtube to sidestep the corporates is Bieber. WTF? What do you think it all means?
Boz is a great example, too! From his Miller days to Atlantic, and an earlier-than-I-thought relationship with Columbia. It took CBS 5 years and 5 albums to finally build momentum for him, as well as hit on the right mix of producer and material to finally hit with "Silk Degees."
Comparing today's record biz with, say, the '70s-era I became intimately involved with, is impossible to do. I even recoil when confronted with people in person who want to debate one with the other....it's like comparing a brachiosaurus with a poodle. One no longer exists.
I've heard interviews with older, big name artists, who lament today's biz, and they openly feel sorry for the "kids today" who want to write/record...the pennies they may get streaming today is a pathetic pittance compared to the millions of $s flowing around an artist 50 years ago! That's as close as I dare get to "what it all means!"😉
Well, my son says that human musicians are about to be replaced by AIs (there are already signs of this in electronica, ambient etc., and in the Japanese virtual idol scene). I find it morbidly fascinating.
Your son may be solidly on the right track. There are certainly no musical or cultural hints that it might be going in the OTHER direction! That's why we need to squeeze all the info out of those like us who remember (trite phrase warning!) the good ole days!
And, that's why you and I (and Stephen!) were called here by the Substack insignia in the sky...to help the citizens of Gotham!🦇
The good news is that kind of music isn't dead, it's just being made in other parts of the world. That's a major theme of my column!
Really interesting post, Brad. I'm not sure the story of the music industry in the US has ever really changed. I don't have first-hand experience (as you do), but from what I've read, it's always been a bit of a wild west and rife with conflicts of interest, backroom deals, bribes and payoffs, and various forms of corruption. The practice of charging every expense they can get away with against the artist or band is an outrage -- as the label execs live it up, charge ridiculous overhead and marketing charges, outfit some buddy's studio, etc etc.
I've read about artists and bands in the late 60s and 70s coming off a successful album and tour actually owing the record company a lot of money. Some guys in very successful groups couldn't even afford rent and were sleeping on friends' couches. The only ones who did really well seemed to have been the ones with a stream of songwriting royalties, because the labels couldn't mess with that (although Chris Dalla Riva suggests that songwriting royalties are all messed up now too). I remember one artist calling it legalized slavery and saying there was no way to escape. Of course he turned to drugs, and you have to wonder how many artists did the same when they realized that they'd make a deal with the devil.
I guess my point being that the record companies have always been driven by greed rather than putting out excellent product or taking care of their key assets (the artists). And it only seems to have gone rapidly downhill with the streaming giants. I'm quite upset on behalf of the musicians, who face an insane uphill battle these days, but also on our behalf as music consumers and lovers. Not sure what the answer is, but we all deserve better!
Thanks, Ellen......Generally, everything you're saying is/was true. Careful, though, not to paint with too broad a brush, as we're talking about many decades, tens of thousands of artists, and they all couldn't have been ripped off. There were some historically shady labels, true, and some that were the gold standard where artists would hope to get signed to, where rip-offs were few and far between.
As for songwriters, very true...back in the day, not only did they see the intrinsic value in songwriting royalties (tempting some bands' members to "try their hand at this songwriting thing" that shouldn't have!), but that revenue stream was not lost on the label suits, either! Each label had a rather fat publishing arm solidly attached.
I always like using CBS/Columbia Records at a front-and-center example of a label "all-in" on publishing: Their Job 1A was signing ground-breaking, PROLIFIC songwriters who also brought in cash as recording artists: Dylan, Springsteen, Cohen, Elvis Costello, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, the landmark signings of James Taylor and Paul McCartney (obviously with the cache of fame attached, granted, for both, but oh, the publishing!), Elliott Murphy, and so many more!
As for Chris and this century, I've heard all the horror stories, but have no personal experience, of course, but it sounds like it's a definite hardship these days for creators of all kinds!
Point taken on over-generalizing and interesting take on the ascension of the singer-songwriter. You've piqued my interest in reading more about the evolution of the industry.
The record industry evolution is fascinating, no doubt! A huge chunk to bite off, but endlessly fascinating, and I know how you love music and its makers! It's that same drive and interest that made me, early on, go....."WHOA! THAT (whatever...name it) can really happen?!"
The record biz in the '50s was, granted, rife with cigar-chomping "tell ya what I'm gonna do" movers and shakers, many of them crooked as a country road....very similar to the shenanigans that ran thru the TV industry in the same decade: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950s_quiz_show_scandals
Believe it or not (warning.....veiled Tune Tag reference ahead!), it's the threads and links of the record biz that fascinated me....the consistent and persistent appearance of this player or that, or this exec or that, and A) how long they stay in a group or at a label and B) the meandering path these folks take when they DO go elsewhere, and what are the similarities in why they went from there to here!
This one example (you may have heard me mention before, but his is the epitome of a riveting, broad ...and fun...career!): Ted Templeman, member of the '60s sunshine poppers, Harper's Bizarre (on Warner Bros.). At some point in the early '70s, he leaves to go work for the label to which they were signed!
As A&R/producer, he hears and summons WB prez, Mo Ostin, to also hear a little ole band from Pasadena, Van Halen, at the Starwood in W. Hollywood in '77. I just discovered Van Morrison's guitarist was key in alerting WB/Templeman to VH in the first place, prompting Templeman to check 'em out!
Ostin scribbles details of a proposal on a napkin backstage....within a week (it's not far at all from Pasadena to Burbank, WB home!), they all meet at a local diner, and finalize the deal!
To me, Templeman's was a dream career, performing and paying it forward, as it were! And, there are so many similar stories in the rock'n'roll firmament! Happy digging, Ellen!
That's a great story and example! I'm reading recording engineer/producer Glyn John's autobiography at the moment and so many criss-crossing paths and weird trajectories in there too. It makes my head spin. But also makes it a lot of fun, and as you say endlessly fascinating.
I do remember the film "Quiz Show" about that scandal, and not surprised to hear there were similar shenanigans by cigar-chomping music folks as well. Looking forward to the referenced Tune Tag!
Peter Frampton wasn't really my thing back in the late 70s as I was still listening to Disco and some Country, but I will never forget my aunt's obsession with "Frampton Comes Alive". She would talk about how much she loved that record decades later.
"Comes Alive" seemed like standard issue back in the day! Same with "Rumours," "Back in Black," and "Eagles Greatest Hits"! As in: "Excuse me, are you a living, breathing human? Yes? Fine...here are the albums you'll need to function here in the US!"
I actually dug disco back in the day, too (now it can be told)! But, like punk, I enjoyed more the first "wave" of each, before the money-grabbers came in and diluted each genre.
I was also in on some country, thanks to the "Urban Cowboy" scare of the late '70s! Some pop/country I enjoyed, like Ronnie Milsap and Eddie Rabbitt.
Plus, my mom was managing Dale McBride from the '70s to early '90s. You might enjoy his pleasant, Glen Campbell-like country-pop. He's on Spotify, plus his kid, Terry, was in McBride and the Ride in the '90s (and they've re-formed), and Terry has been a successful Nashville songwriter, as well!
Thanks for tuning in and checking in, Mark! Always a pleasure!
Yep, all 'standards' as far as I remember and with good reason. There was some -good- music coming out of them.
I never was big into punk, but I was just discovering my musical likes back in those days and had grown up with Country, so that's what I knew best. Loved Milsap and Rabbitt, as well.
I've heard of Dale McBride but not sure if I ever heard any of his music. I will have to look him up on Spotify.
I enjoyed the article, thanks!
Thanks for the compliment, Mark! Dale was one of the good guys, and gone too soon...around '91 of a brain tumor (or brain cancer)...can't recall. A great performer, as well...he did several impersonations, and had a great sense of humor! He once did the first line of Campbell's "Gentle on My Mind," changing it to, "It's knowin' that your door is always open and your furniture is gone..." just for laughs!
He was on a little label out of Nashville, Con-Brio Records, owned by Bill Walker, who was Music Director of all the Johnny Cash TV specials in the '60s.
Dale was actually "discovered" by Dean Martin performing in a club, mid-'60s, and got him signed to Reprise Records (Warners sister label), Sinatra's label, of course, where Dino and Sammy were, as well! They only released one Dale single (no album), and that was it...but, when you think about it, what is Frank's label gonna know about country, however pop-leaning?! I think you'll like his tunes!
Quite enjoyed this piece Brad! But I don’t feel too bad for Frampton or ‘Mac not hitting back to back grand slams😉!
Thanks, Paul! It suddenly occurred to me I was in the hurricane's eye, to a degree, of a slice of record biz history that little has been written about (and few have lived thru)! The ship was righted in time, of course (for the biz writ large) by the advent of MTV, CDs (with the $$ ka-ching realization labels could now charge a lot for cheaply made discs, not to mention the double-selling of product they've already sold, now in a new format!), and the eventual realization of the threat of hair bands, and the list goes on!
No, we dasn't shed a tear for Pete, the Mac, or the biz! Pete's career, however, was radically altered, but he perseveres today! 3 more albums for A&M followed "I'm in You," each charting lower than the one before. One album for Virgin in '86 led him to my favorite by him, '89's "When All the Pieces Fit," his only album for Atlantic. See if you dig: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tac_Gppxn6E&list=OLAK5uy_m30Ds-pR1z7_bv12Ccfim3THuSm89lNe8
A fave of mine because he's got Danny Wilde, not only writing songs, but singing back-up. Danny's one of my favorite un-sung singers: From early '70s, he was lead singer for The Quick to Great Buildings for one album on CBS in the mid-'70s to joining forces with Phil Solem in the '80s to form The Rembrandts, with a highlight being their singing the theme song for a little TV show I like to call "Friends," called "I'll Be There for You"!
I've already started a mini-"Audio Autopsy" for ya, Paul, so here's more: Also singing and writing on the "When All the Pieces Fit" album is B.A. Robertson, whom FR&B readers will recall being mentioned (and shown interviewing Dave Edmunds in the video!) prominently in our recent "Inside Tracks" article on "Girls Talk"! https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/inside-tracks-4-dave-edmunds-girls
See, all the pieces DO fit!!! Cheers, Paul, and again........thanks!🎵🎶🎹🎸😊👍
Thank you! It's incredible to me the names of the artists you have met, and would know your name. Awesome...
And, Stephen, for cryin' out loud! His articles are like a who's who of the R'n'R HOF, and session cats aplenty, and songwriters of songs you hum daily! The public doesn't know Stephen Michael Schwartz's name, but the industry knows who he is and that he has been a top-notch songwriter/singer/guitarist for decades!
Paul (and new FR&B readers), if you've not traveled thru Stephen's canon of '70s rock'n'pop adventures, it's as riveting as binging Game of Thrones, minus (most of) the dragons! Start here:
https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/career-chord-change-stephen-michael
Have fun!