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Thought I'd join the party and post my top 20 singles.
They are in no particular order, more just the singles I listen to the most for varying reasons.
1st up - Rag Doll - The Four Seasons.
According to songwriter Bob Gaudio, the recording was inspired by a dirty-faced little girl, about 5 years old, dressed in ragged clothes. At stop lights in the neighborhood children would run into the street and clean windshields for spare change, but this little girl could only reach high enough to clean the driver's side mirror of his automobile. When Gaudio reached into his wallet, all he had were notes, none smaller than $20. He gave the girl a twenty-dollar bill (Gaudio has also said it was a $5 or a $10). Her astonishment stayed in Gaudio's mind as he approached the recording studio. "Rag Doll", with a few tweaks by Bob Crewe, was the result.
I think it would be safe to say for many they were one of the sounds of the sixties...and what lad hasn't tried to hit that high note just once in their life.
The song, released during the peak period of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, is not explicit in its criticism of that war in particular, rather, it "speaks more to the unfairness of class than war itself," according to its author, John Fogerty. "It's the old saying about rich men making war and poor men having to fight them. In 2015, while on the television show The Voice, he also said:
The thoughts behind this song - it was a lot of anger. So it was the Vietnam War going on... Now I was drafted and they're making me fight, and no one has actually defined why. So this was all boiling inside of me and I sat down on the edge of my bed and out came "It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no senator's son!" You know, it took about 20 minutes to write the song.
According to his 2015 memoir, Fogerty was thinking about David Eisenhower, the grandson of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who married Julie Nixon, the daughter of President Richard Nixon in 1968, when he wrote "Fortunate Son.
'Fortunate Son' wasn't really inspired by any one event. Julie Nixon was dating David Eisenhower. You'd hear about the son of this senator or that congressman who was given a deferment from the military or a choice position in the military. They seemed privileged and whether they liked it or not, these people were symbolic in the sense that they weren't being touched by what their parents were doing. They weren't being affected like the rest of us.
Thanks Fender, much appreciated. Another good song on the Nam conflict although Barry Mcguires Eve of Destruction is still my personal pick.
The Animals We've gotta get out of this place used to be my fav but having paid a small fortune to get the record off air after days of being played non stop in Aden, that one went off most of our song lists forever and ever.
CCR and John Fogarty like many groups parted ways and although there has been stuff from both you always wonder considering the talent what there music would have achieved had they stayed together. JF came across as a bitter man so maybe he feels the same.
This was live in 2004 at the Princes Trust.
I feel this is one of the best live renditions of a studio track ever. Debi Doss & Linda Allen (who sadly died in 2015) did the original back up vocals 25 years previous to this, and still sound great. Linda is the one in the green top and Debi to her right.
This track sounds superb on headphones, where you realise just how good it was.
This was live in 2004 at the Princes Trust.
I feel this is one of the best live renditions of a studio track ever. Debi Doss & Linda Allen (who sadly died in 2015) did the original back up vocals 25 years previous to this, and still sound great. Linda is the one in the green top and Debi to her right.
This track sounds superb on headphones, where you realise just how good it was.
I have always loved that song, I have no idea why but when it's played, i can't help but sing along to it. Wow! 1980.