From the category archives:

Instrumental Grooves

“Games People Play” Performed by Joe South & King Curtis (1969)

February 4, 2010 · 0 comments

Song writer, singer and session musician Joe Souter, known professionally as Joe South, had written and played on many hits for other artists — but  his composition “Games People Play” was his first chart topping hit at #12 on the Billboard Top 100: plus it won him not one but two Grammys as songwriter!

The 1969 Grammy for Song of the Year went to “Games People Play” written by Joe South.

The 1969 Grammy for Best Contemporary Song went to “Games People Play written by Joe South :-)

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Last but not least the 1969 Grammy for Best R&B Instrumental Performance went to “Games People Play” performed by King Curtis. Curtis, Born  Curtis Ousley,  was both a  renowned soloist and session musician on his tenor sax.

So there you have it — one awesome song and three Grammy wins!

Trivia: South  was inspired to write this award winning song by Dr. Eric Berne’s 19   book “Games People Play:
The psychology of human relationships”

More Trivia: King Curtis and Duane Allman were both session players and great friends. They played together often and both Curtis and Allman are playing in the GPP track above.

Musically Yours,

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Filed under: Capitol Records, Games People Play, Grammy Gold, Instrumental Grooves, Joe South, Joe South Composer, Magnificent Male Vocalists, Pop, Pop/Jazz, Sixties

"Hold it Right There" – Performed by The Ramsey Lewis Trio (1966)

August 22, 2008 · 0 comments

[audio http://boxstr.com/files/3246822_tykke/Hold%20It%20Right%20There.mp3] Ramsey Lewis Trio – Hold It Right There [1966]

As promised this song was the third R&B Grammy given out in 1966.  “Hold It Right There”, as recorded by The Ramsey Lewis Trio, won in the newly created category Best Rhythm and Blues Group, Vocal or Instrumental 1966

This was the second Grammy in a row for The Ramsey Lewis Trio. The Trio had won the 1965 Best Jazz Performance – Small Group or Soloist with Small group for “The In Crowd”: Check out my earlier post to hear the song.

“Hold it Right There”, composed by Richard Evans, came from that smash LP “Wade in the Water”. The title song, IMHO, was the best cut on that LP.  I find it odd that the title song did not win the Grammy Award,  but Grammy is a wierd animal.

The “WITW” LP went #2 Billboard R&B and #16 Billboard Pop. I vividly recall it being played just about everywhere I went in my community in 1996.

Its also bit odd that this song won In the R&B category since it is performed in Mr. Lewis’ traditional Jazz/pop style. But as I have said before,  the Grammys took a long while to get it right and it still isn’t all that it can and should be. I think that is why so many other music awards shows eventually sprang up –  to try to correct the perceived wrongs of the Grammy Academy.

Please keep the oldies alive and thank you for visiting.

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Filed under: Bands, Cadet, Grammy Gold, Hold It Right There, Instrumental Grooves, Jazz/Instrumental, Pop/Instrumental, Pop/Jazz, Richard Evans, Sixties, The Ramsey Lewis Trio

"Tequila" – Performed by The Champs (1958)

August 1, 2008 · 2 comments

Let’s welcome in the last month of summer, August, on this bright and beautiful Friday morning.

I think I will stick with changing the musical theme monthly for a while longer on this blog, and this month I will be concentrating on “Grammy Gold” — specifically the R&B category since the last few months have been Pop oriented.

There are many, many music awards now in the 21st century, but the first was The Grammy! As defined at the Official Grammy.com web site:

“The recording industry’s most prestigious award, the GRAMMY, is presented annually by The Recording Academy. A GRAMMY is awarded by The Recording Academy’s voting membership to honor excellence in the recording arts and sciences. It is truly a peer honor, awarded by and to artists and technical professionals for artistic or technical achievement, not sales or chart positions (GRAMMY Awards Process). The annual GRAMMY Awards presentation brings together thousands of creative and technical professionals in the recording industry from all over the world.”

The first Grammy Awards were presented by The Recording Academy in 1958. There was only ONE category for R&B music and that was Best Rhythm and Blues Performance of 1958 with the Grammy going to the performing artist.  The first winner was “Tequila” as performed by The Champs. Yes I know you are saying the same thing I am — “Shouldn’t this have been in the instrumental pop category?” or “Isn’t this Mexican Rock and not R&B?”

Well no matter what we may think in 2008 — the Academy called it R&B fifty years ago in 1958. Guess they got off to a somewhat rocky start. Eh?

[audio http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/1653152_im0a3/03.Tequila-Champs.mp3] The Champs – Tequila  [1958]

The Champs were an instrumental Latin/R&B quintet formed in Los Angeles in 1957 made up of Challenge Records executive Dave Burgess on guitar and session players Buddy Bruce on guitar, Chuck Rio (born Daniel Flores) on saxophone, Cliff Hills on bass, and Gene Alden on drums.

Tequila was the B-site for The Champs single release “Train To Nowhere”  for the label Challenge Records.

Personally I never heard the A-side but we all know that the B-side went on to top both the Pop and R&B charts in 1958 at #1and stayed there for 19 weeks! This song was written in the studio, by Chuck Rio, after the A-side was recorded and the players realized they needed something to put on the other side of the record. Shouting “Tequila” was just to fill up the “gaps” in the musical sequences.

After 1958 the group had many personnel changes and never a hit as big as “Tequila”. You may read more detail about the group’s transitions over the years at “The Champs (1958-1965) Page” and “The History of Rock.com”

I appreciate your visit.

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Filed under: Bands, Challenge Records, Fifties, Grammy Gold, Instrumental Grooves, R&B/Instrumental, Tequila, The Champs

Cast Your Fate To The Wind as Performed by The Vince Guaraldi Trio (1962)

February 29, 2008 · 0 comments

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[audio http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/1021578_djut0/rFateToTheWind-VinceGuaraldi.mp3] Cast Your Fate To The Wind – Vince Guaraldi Trio (1962)

“Cast Your Fate to the Wind” is an American pop standard written by Vince Guaraldi, which won a Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition in 1963. The song has been extensively covered, often by easy listening groups such as Sounds Orchestral (who scored a US Top Ten hit with the tune) and the West Coast folk-rock band We Five and was a track on Guaraldi’s album featuring his versions of music from the film Black Orpheus. (Source) Specifically it was the 1962 album entitled “Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus.” Composed by Guaraldi, the song charted #22 .

The songs also garnered Mr. Guaraldi the 1962 Grammy for Best Original Jazz Composition.

In addition to the interesting information about jazz pianist Guaraldi that can be found at the link above — the talented musician, best know as the creator of the “Charlie Brown Sound,” :-) ? has a very informative site here -> “The Official Vince Guaraldi Site”.

Incidentally, if you have never seen the Academy Award winning 1959 French/Brazilian film “Black Orpheus” I suggest you put it at the top of you “To Do List.” It is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen in my life!

Thanks for visiting.

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Updated post 8/08/08 with Grammy information & icon.

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Filed under: Cast Your Fate to The Wind, Fantasy/OJC, Grammy Gold, Instrumental Grooves, Jazz/Instrumental, Sixties, Vince Guaraldi, Vince Guaraldi Trio

Also Sprach Zarathustra as Performed by Deodato (1972)

February 27, 2008 · 3 comments

[audio http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/1021580_9yj8d/eodato-AlsoSprachZarathustra.mp3] Also Sprach Zarathustra – Deodato (1972)

Also Sprach Zarathustra, op. 30 is a tone poem by Richard Strauss, composed in 1896 and inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s book Also sprach Zarathustra. The composer conducted its first performance in Frankfurt.

The introduction is one of the most recognisable pieces of music ever written, mainly because Stanley Kubrick used it as the key musical motif repeated three times during his 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

A funk arrangement by Eumir Deodato won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 1974. It charted in the top ten in both the US and UK, and was also used in the film Being There. (Source)

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Now on a more personal note, ASZ (fondly know as the disco version of “The Theme From 2001 A Space Odyssey”) from Deodato’s first lp is what whet my appetite for classical music. Of course I had to play the “Three Bs” in my piano lessons as a youngster, but I only listened to Popular music on my record player. But after hearing Deodato’s jazzy takes on the classics I became interested in both classical music and jazz. After purchasing Deodato 2 (pictured left) I became even more interested in Jazz of all typed and have loved the genre ever since. Thank you for broadening a young girl’s musical horizons Mr. Deodato.

Before signing off I wanted to share this brief clip of the original version intro to ASZ as written and as found in this YouTube video clip. Enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by.

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Filed under: Also Sprach Zarathustra, Deodato, Epic, Instrumental Grooves, Jazz/Instrumental, Richard Strauss, Seventies

Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band as Performed by Meco (1977)

February 25, 2008 · 2 comments

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[audio http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/1021577_7x1qp/14.StarWarsTheme-Meco.mp3]  - Meco – Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band

Great song from a movie that I have never seen before. Sure I am probably the only one in the world who has never seen it, but it just goes to show you I am an Independent Woman that does not follow the crowd! :-)

Now this version is not to be confused with the original score composed by the great John Williams. This is ftom the lp “Star Wars and Other Glalactic Funk” which contains the disco versions of themes and songs from the Original Star Wars Soundtrack. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 1 in 1977, holding on to the spot for two weeks.

According to WIKI:

“The single from the album “Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band” is the biggest-selling instrumental single in the history of recorded music, being the only instrumental single ever to be certified platinum (2 million units) by the RIAA. In addition to the normal 3:32 version the album contains a full 15-minute version of the tune. As the 1977 animated cinema advert said: “It’s the one you can dance to!”

I really hope that you are enjoying the instrumentals this month. This week will be two more movie themed instrumentals for you listening pleasure before we got to a new theme for March. Have a great week readers and thanks for stopping by.

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Filed under: Disco/Instrumental, Domenico "Meco" Menardo, Instrumental Grooves, John Williams, Millennium Records, Seventies, Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! as Performed live by The Cannonball Adderly Quintet (1966)

February 22, 2008 · 0 comments

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[audio http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/999163_i6hth/allAdderly-Mercy_Mercy_Mercy.mp3] Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! – Cannonball Adderley Quintet (1966)

This live recorded set, released in 1966 as “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at ‘The Club’” by Cannonball Adderley Quintet, became the 1967 Grammy winner for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Small Group or Soloist with Small Group.

The group musicians were:

Cannonball Adderley – Alto saxophone, leader
Nat Adderley – Cornet
Joe Zawinul – Piano, electric piano
Victor Gaskin – Bass
Roy McCurdy – Drums

The song “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! became a hit reaching #11 on the Billboard charts.

Written by Joe Zawinful, this song has been covered often — but with the following lyrics. Thought I would reprint them here just in case you wanted to sing along: I always do when I hear this original instrumental version. :-)

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
(Williams, Watson and Zawinul)

My baby she may not a-look
Like one of those bunnies out of a Playboy Club
But she got somethin’ much greater than gold
Crazy ’bout that girl ’cause she got so much soul

I said she got the kind of lovin’
Kissin’ and a-huggin’
Sure is mellow
Glad that I’m her fellow and I know
That she knocks me off my feet
Have mercy on me
‘Cause she knocks me off my feet
There is no girl in the whole world
That can love me like you do

My baby when she walks by
All the fellows go, ooooooo, and I know why
It’s simply ’cause that girl she looks so fine
And if she ever leaves me
I would lose my mind

She got the kind of lovin’
Kissin’ and a-huggin’
Sure is mellow
Glad that I’m her fellow and I know
That she knocks me off my feet
Have mercy on me
‘Cause she knocks me off my feet, hey
There is no girl in the whole world
That can love me like you do

Yeah, everybody in the neighborhood
Will testify that my girl she looks so good
And she’s so fine
She’d give eyesight to the blind
And if she ever leaves me I would lose my mind

She got the kind of lovin’
Kissin’ and a-huggin’
Sure is mellow
Glad that I’m her fellow and I know
That she knocks me off my feet
Have mercy on me
‘Cause she knocks me off my feet
There is no girl in the whole world
That can love me like you do

Baby, yeah, you got that soulful feel
Yeah, it’s all right
Mercy, mercy

Julian Edwin “Cannonball” Adderley (September 15, 1928 ? August 8, 1975), was a jazz alto saxophonist of the small combo era of the 1950s and 1960s. Originally from Tampa, Florida, he moved to New York in the mid 1950’s.

The nickname “Cannonball” was a childhood nickname for the portly saxophonist, a corruption of “cannibal”. An articulate speaker with an easy manner, Cannonball educated, amused, and informed his audiences in clubs and on television about the art and moods of jazz (he was a music teacher before beginning his jazz career). (Source)

From Florida music teacher — to a member of the Miles Davis Sextet — to a band leader in his own right — Adderly had an impressive music career and left a lasting musical legacy. You can read more about him at the Source link above. And a great fan site can be found here.

In addition, more details about the making of “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! At the Club” release can be found here.

I hope you enjoyed your visit. I am glad you stopped by.

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Filed under: EMI, Grammy Gold, Instrumental Grooves, Jazz/Instrumental, Joe Zawinul, Live Performances, Mercy Mercy Mercy!, Sixties, The Cannonball Adderley Quintet

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