Articles by John Twang

Produced by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, this is the original "Fox on The Run" from the 1974 U.K./European RCA label edition of "Desolation Boulevard" by Sweet (Brian Connolly, Steve Priest, Andy Scott and Mick Tucker). Eventually this became the first single issued by the group that was composed by the band. In the U.S. "Desolation Boulevard" was released on Capitol Records in 1975 with a shorter track list and a re-recorded synthesizer version of "Fox On The Run". The pop single was produ…

Beale Avenue has been a tourist attraction for the city of Memphis for over a century. The area is now filled with great food, music and if you take the time, great characters. In 1916 William Christopher Handy wrote "Beale Street Blues" and that influenced the establishment to change the designation of the "avenue" to "street". A wise move. One of the earliest renditions of "Beale Street Blues" was recorded by Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band (Earl Fuller, Walter Kahn, Ted Lewis, John Lucas and H…

Marion Cletus "Chuck" Cannon Jr. was born and raised in South Carolina and moved to Nashville to attend Belmont University. Within just a few years he was signed to a songwriting contract. As his career progressed he and Toby Keith starting working together with success including the Billboard Country Song Of The Year in 2000 with "How Do You Like Me Now" (Toby Keith - Chuck Cannon). This was recorded at a live 2011 performance in Billings, Montana. The Toby Keith (Covel) hit "How Do You Lik…

Scotty Emerick wrote "As Good As I Once Was" with Toby Keith. Scotty performs this with the appropriate audience yells at the 2012 Key West Songwriters Festival. Scotty has written dozens of songs with Toby Keith and has played with Toby overseas and on several tours nationally. Toby Keith (Covel) included "As Good As I Once Was" on his 2005 LP "Honkytonk University". The single with Scotty Emerick playing acoustic guitar topped the Country chart and peaked at number twenty-eight on the Bill…

British actor, singer and songwriter Anthony Newley recorded several releases of "What Kind Of Fool Am I" (Anthony Newley - Leslie Bricusse). This is simply one of the many. Anthony sang the song in the musical "Stop The World, I Want To Get Off" and won the 1963 Grammy for Song Of The Year. Anthony was married to Joan Collins for years. Legendary master showman, Grammy and Emmy winner Sammy Davis Jr. released his version of "What Kind Of Fool Am I" in 1962 and peaked at number seventeen on…

Geoffrey Turton sang with Britain's Rockin' Berries and The Fortunes during the sixties. As a solo Geoff changed his name to "Jefferson" and was the first to issue "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" (Tony Macaulay - Barry Mason). Geoff found success in North America later with a cover of The Paper Dolls song "Baby Take Me In Your Arms" in 1969. Session singer Tony Burrows sang lead on "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Grows)" as a member of a studio group. The tune became a hit so the writer…

Johnny Marvin and his ukulele with a small orchestra conducted by Nat Shilkret were first to record the vaudeville classic "'Deed I Do" (Fred Rose - Walter Hirsch) in 1926. For a quarter of the century Johnny recorded under various monikers: Honey Duke, Billy Hancock, Jack Lane, Jimmy May, Elton Spence, Ukulele Luke, George Thorne and Ken Wallace. Cotton Club singer, dancer, activist and actor Lena Horne took "'Deed I Do" to number twenty-six in 1948. Lena gave us what may have been the best…

"Never Tear Us Apart" (Andrew Farriss - Michael Hutchence) started out as a blues piece as witnessed in this demo. Kirk Pengilly is on saxophone. This is from the INXS twenty-fifth anniversary release of "Kicks". Australia's INXS (lead vocalist Michael Hutchence, Garry Beers, Tim, Andrew and Jon Farriss and Kirk Pengilly) included "Never Tear Us Apart" on the 1988 top ten and six times platinum album "Kicks". The single peaked at number seven on Billboard and in the U.K. charted at number tw…

When she was just eighteen years old in 1961, attending her first year at university in Nashville, when Carla Thomas recorded "Gee Whiz (Look At His Eyes)" (Carla Thomas) in just one take. The single from her album of the same name hit number five R&B and number two on the Top One Hundred. Carla is the daughter of Rufus Thomas. From her 1980 self-titled debut LP Bernadette Peters (Lazzara) covered "Gee Whiz" and peaked at number three on the Adult Contemporary chart while reaching thirty-one…

Country singer and songwriter Merle Kilgore composed "More And More". "The Tall Texan" featured Sonny James on the fiddle on this 1954 Dallas made recording. Merle has co-written "Ring Of Fire", "The Folk Singer" and "Wolverton Mountain". About three months later Webb Pierce released "More And More" in 1954. The single spent weeks at the top of the Country chart and peaked at number twenty-two on the pop listing. When included in the 2006 horror flick "The Hills Have Eyes" the song had a cre…

The standard "Just Friends" (Sam M. Lewis - John Klenner) was introduced to the world by Red (William) McKenzie and His Orchestra in 1931. For some reason the single went virtually unrecognized. Red was a talent scout and an actual jazz comb player in the twenties. In 1931 Russ Columbo (Ruggiero Colombo) recorded "Just Friends" with the Leonard Joy Orchestra and the song became a hit when it peaked at number fourteen. Russ was killed in an accidental shooting. It's said that he and actress C…

Here is the demo recording of the Phil Collins hit "In The Air Tonight". It's been revealed that Phil wrote this while grieving his 1980 divorce. The first solo single from Phil Collins was "In The Air Tonight". This was the lead single from the 1981 LP "Face Value". Even though this peaked at number nineteen on Billboard it was a top ten hit in many European markets, Australia and in the U.K.

At the time of the home recording of "Misunderstanding" the title had not been assigned and the track was simply labelled "D Minor Swing" by Phil Collins. The lyrics were written by Phil later. The tune was meant for Phil's debut solo album but eventually came to light on the next Genesis LP. The 1980 LP "Duke" by Genesis (lead vocalist Phil Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford) received the most love in Canada where the single "Misunderstanding" peaked at number one. On Billboard the sin…

Loleatta Holloway recorded "Our Love" (Chuck Jackson - Marvin Yancy) on her 1973 debut album "Loleatta". This was produced by her husband, Floyd Smith. Natalie Cole goes through some vocal exercises on her cover of "Our Love" from the 1977 album "Thankful". The million selling single topped the R&B chart and peaked at number ten pop on Billboard.

Mark Weitz and Ed King of Thee Sixpence came up with an instrumental that eventually became the chart topping "Incense And Peppermints". Wikipedia "Thee Sixpence members expressed a dislike for the song lyrics (which John S. Carter wrote, relying on a rhyming dictionary for the purpose), so the lead vocals were sung by a friend of the band, Greg Munford, who was attending the recording session as a visitor. The regular vocalists in the band were relegated to providing background and harmony voca…

Jerry Butler and The Impressions (Curtis Mayfield, Sam Gooden, brothers Arthur and Richard Brooks) reached number eleven on the Billboard pop and number three R&B charts in 1958 with "For Your Precious Love" (Arthur Brooks - Richard Brooks - Jerry Butler). In 1963 Garnet (Garrett) Mimms and The Enchanters (Sam Bell, Charles Boyer and Zola Pearnell) reached number twenty-six on Billboard with "For Your Precious Love". Produced by Chips Moman, Oscar Toney Jr. covered "For Your Precious Lov…

Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn wrote "I Fall In Love Too Easily" for the 1945 Oscar winning Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Gene Kelly musical comedy movie "Anchors Away". The Chairman of the Board sang the song as heard in this clip from the soundtrack. Wikipedia "Sammy Cahn has said of the conception of the sixteen-bar song: "This song was written one night in Palm Springs. When I sang the last line, Jule Styne looked over at me and said, 'So. That's it.' I knew he felt we could have written on, bu…

Personal favourite and uniquely talented successful writer, cartoonist and story teller Shel Silverstein wrote "The Unicorn", "Sylvia's Mother", "Corner Of The Rolling Stone", "Marie Laveau" and some of the best country songs ever including "A Boy Named Sue". Legendary Johnny Cash had one of his biggest hits with "A Boy Named Sue" recorded at San Quentin Prison in 1969. It's here without the beep. The single reached number two on the Top One Hundred while topping both the Country and Adult C…