"All I Could Do Was Cry..."

A singer with great vitality and the ability to modify her style as musical trends changed, Etta James remained a favority of rhythm & blues followers for decades. Born Jamesetta Hawkins in January 25, 1938, Los Angeles California, like dozens of other soul stars, she was brought to the limelight by Johnny Otis who had seen her playing the Fillmore in San Francisco in the early 1950's. While getting her financial feet on the ground, Etta stayed with Otis and his girlfriend where she penned "Roll With Me Henry" which became a hit when released by Modern Records.
During the mid-1950's Etta became one of the most popular members of Johnny Otis' show and had two more hits on Modern.
At the start of the 1960's, she signed a contract with Chess Records and began a new and more rewarding phase of her career. It was during this time that she had such hits as "All I Could Do Was Cry", "My Dearest Darling", and "At Last", all of them are featured here, in this first volume of those early years with Chess. From this time on her singing would have a more gospel and blues content rather than the rough, strident inflections of old-time R&B.

Etta James ranks with Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick for the number of hits in the 1960's.
And she's a real survivor: several years of her career came under the influence of heroin. Addiction was not uncommon to major artists during this time. She sobered up and just added the painful emotions to her singing.
Etta was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

DUSTY 3

LOS MUSTANG: XEROCOPIA

DENY E DINO: ANTOLOGIA (1966-1970)

No final da década de 1950, apresentaram-se em programas de rádio e boates com o nome Os Boas Pintas. Em 1965 começaram a se apresentar como a dupla vocal Deny e Dino. Em 1966, apresentaram-se no programa de televisão de Hugo Santana e gravaram seu primeiro compacto, com as músicas "Coruja"e "O estranho homem do disco voador", de autoria da dupla. Devido ao sucesso da primeira, foram convidados a se exibirem no programa da Jovem Guarda e lançaram no mesmo ano o LP "Coruja". Em 1967 lançaram compacto simples com "A catedral" e "Eu só quero ver". No mesmo ano lançaram o LP "Ciúme" e em 1969, "Shut up". Na década de 1970, gravaram vários compactos, obtendo sucesso com "Cantem comigo", de 1973, e "O maior golpe do mundo", dois anos depois. Mesmo com a morte do parceiro, em 1994, Deny continuou com a dupla, colocando outro cantor no lugar de Dino, tendo participado, no ano seguinte, dos shows e gravações relativos à comemoração dos 30 anos de Jovem Guarda. Ainda nesse ano, lançou o CD "Essencial", com regravações de antigos sucessos mescladas a músicas novas. Atualmente apresenta programas de rádio sobre o rock das décadas de 1950 e 1960.

ERASMO CARLOS 67

Erasmo estava no meio do drama profissional causado pelo processo de corrupção de menores e ficou por alguns meses sem poder tocar no Rio de Janeiro. Olmir Stocker, o "Alemão", era guitarrista dos Wandecos - grupo que acompanhava Wanderléa - e havia mostrado sua música "O Caderninho" a Erasmo, que imediatamente decidiu gravá-la. Wilson Simonal ouviu e quis muito gravá-la, insistindo bastante até, mas a versão de Erasmo fez sucesso em São Paulo e em outros centros. Enquanto isso, o estreante cantor paulista Arturzinho tocava nas rádios cariocas a sua versão, que acabou vendendo até mais que Erasmo. A gravação do Tremendão, porém, acabou prevalecendo na história e foi precursora da chamada Pilantragem, movimento musical baseado em temas com palmas e tilintar de teclados. O "Alemão" acabou assinando mais três músicas neste disco, gravado no ano em que Erasmo e Roberto se afastaram por causa de intrigas fofoqueiras. Do Rei entrou tão somente a versão de "Mellow Yellow", do cantor escocês Donovan, mas houve o resgate de "Brotinho Sem Juízo" (de Carlos Imperial, bossa que havia sido a primeira gravação de Roberto Carlos na CBS em 1960) - aqui em versão com acompanhamento de César Camargo Mariano e seu Som Três. O repertório também trazia uma inédita da promissora cantora e compositora Martinha e uma regravação do clássico popular "Não Me Diga Adeus".

DOPE, SEX, AND CHEAP THRILLS

CHEAP THRILLS
BIG BROTHER & THE HOLDING COMPANY
(Columbia KCS 9700 – 1968, July)
«What we're trying to do in our music is just get back to old-time havin' a good time, jumpin', gettin' stoned.» Janis Joplin, 1968

“DOPE, SEX, AND CHEAP THRILLS”, that’s what Big Brother & The Holding Company wanted to call this album. Somewhere along the way to their skyrocketing fame in the 1960s they picked that phrase as their unofficial motto. Five words that captured, with characteristic humor, the San Francisco rock-and-roll ethic of the City by the Bay’s most off-the-wall band.
Janis was all for it. Clive Davis, then president of Columbia Records, huddled with his advisers and nixed it. No way we’re going to approve dope and sex on our album covers, came the edict from on high. Big Brother was adamant. When Janis was adamant about something, she could reduce men in suits to quivering yes-men. Gingerly, with misgivings, the powers at Columbia approved Cheap Thrills.The album was released in July 1968. It sold a million copies, and it had legs. Three months after its release, Cheap Thrills topped out at Nº 1 on Billboard’s Top 100 albums chart.

Cheap Thrills, the major-label debut of Janis Joplin, was one of the most eagerly anticipated, and one of the most successful, albums of 1968. Joplin and Big Brother had earned extensive press notice ever since they played the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967, but their only recorded work was a poorly produced, self-titled Mainstream album, and they spent a year getting out of their contract with Mainstream in order to sign with Columbia while demand built.

Joplin, with her ear- (and vocal cord) - shredding voice, was the obvious standout. Nobody had ever heard singing as emotional, as desperate, as determined, as loud as Joplin's, and Cheap Thrills was her greatest moment. Big Brother's backup, typical of the guitar-dominated sound of San Francisco psychedelia, made up in enthusiasm what it lacked in precision. But everybody knew who the real star was, and Joplin played her last gig with Big Brother while the album was still on top of the charts. Neither she nor the band would ever equal it. Heard today, Cheap Thrills is a musical time capsule and remains a showcase for one of rock's most distinctive singers.

(William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)

Cheap Thrills' critical reputation rests on the theatrical grandeur of Janis Joplin's raw, visceral vocals. Blending traditions and influences through a hippy Haight haze, Joplin's perfomances here transcended contemporary discussions about whether a white Texan female could sing the blues. If you can wring more emotion out of these songs, it ain't gonna happen on this planet.

There are plentiful reminders of late-Sixties Haight-Ashbury. Its strengths can be seen in the iconic strip-cartoon cover art by Robert Crumb, which blew the photo of Joplin onto the back cover, and also in the exuberance with which the band adopt a range of black music styles - notably doo-woop, soul, and blues. The limitations of genre are also clear: the sometimes leaden quality of the band's solos and rhythms restrain them from taking off with Joplin; it's her pleading, ecstatic, mighty voice that stays with you.

Given this fact, it is not surprising that she quit Big Brother (along with guitarist Sam Andrew) while the album still topped the charts - sadly, she never found another musical context that really nurtured her.

(Max Reinhardt in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die")

SEE SOME SELECTED VIDEOCLIPS:

- Tribute Photo Collage

- "Summertime/I Need A Man To Love"

- "Summertime" (1969)

- "Ball And Chain" (Woodstock)

THOSE CLASSIC GOLDEN YEARS 14

SEE SOME SELECTED VIDEOCLIPS:
- "The Happening", by The Supremes
- "Every Little Bit Hurts", by Alicia Keys
- "Love Is All Around", by The Troggs
- "Love Is All Around", by Wet Wet Wet
- "Sunshine Superman", by Donovan
- "And I Love You So", by Don McLean

THOSE CLASSIC GOLDEN YEARS 13

SEE SOME SELECTED VIDEOCLIPS:
- "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" in concert, by Ennio Morricone
- "Games People Play", by Joe South
- "You Can Close Your Eyes", by James Taylor
- "Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday, by Stevie Wonder
- "Always Something There To Remind Me", by All Saints
- "The Pied Piper", by Crispian St Peters
- "I Want Candy", by Bow Wow Wow
- "Memo From Turner", by Mick Jagger & Ry Cooder
- "Summertime Blues", by The Who
- "We're Gonna Take It/Summertime Blues", by The Who (from "Woodstock")

EMMERSON NOGUEIRA CANTA BEATLES

This is a brazilian singer who recorded these classic Beatles songs back in 2004. I think they are very good covers, and some of them will appear in the next volumes of Rato's Beatles Tribute Collection. But here you have the complete album to judge about (and to comment it, if you are kind enough).

"A Long Long Time Ago..."

Original Released as LP Mercury 61325 (US, November 1970) and as LP Mercury 6338-041 (UK, April 1971)

Ten years younger than Shirley Bassey, today is also birthday time for David Bowie (and if alive, Elvis Presley would be 72 this same day). So let's remember the third album from Mr. Bowie, released only a few months after that one of Shirley.

Lurid, technicolor electric rock that explodes in the listener’s mind, The Man Who Sold The World is a great leap from the man-in-the-moon precocity of “Space Oddity” and its weakly whelped psychedelic litter. David Bowie had flirted with science fiction on his last album, but he consummates the relationship here by bedding such strange animals as supermen, madmen, gunmen, mountainmen and, of course, the man who sold the world. Safe inside his hallucinatory asylum, the artist throws out the rock & roll rule book and follows a map of his own making into uncharted territory. In other words, it’s here that the world bid welcome to the real Mr. Jones.

Glam rock, but with some bluesy guitar pyrotechnics and art rock influences. Mick Ronson rocks hard while David Bowie adds drama and decadence, singing about insanity, sexuality, war, and of kilter science fiction fantasies. There's a certain rock power to the album that's irresistible. Ronson knows how to take a riff and use it to full effect, with line after line of chord crunching sweetness. And Bowie knows how add as much arty prog rock and dramatic vocalizations as needed without threatening the 'rock out' factor.

"Yesterday When I Was Young..."

ORIGINAL RELEASED AS LP UNITED ARTISTS UAS 29100 (UK, AUGUST 1970)

Shirley Bassey, Britain’s most successful female recording artist ever, celebrates today her 70th birthday!
Rato Records salutes Miss Shirley by sharing one of her most popular albums, Something, original released in August 1970.
Not only did the album quickly become the most successful of Shirley’s career, it was also notable for a radical new musical approach that presented the Welsh singing star in an entirely new recording light, after 14 years from her beginnings. Previously, Shirley’s albums had mainly been a mix of big ballads and well-known show songs. However this new album would see her tackling contemporary rock and pop material.

During an interview at her home in Switzerland in 1976, Shirley admitted:
«The recording of Something was the real turning point for me, I suppose you could even say that it made me a pop star, and yet it seemed such a natural change.»
«I just went into the studio one evening with these songs, including “Something” which I had first heard sung by Peggy Lee on the Ed Sullivan show in the States. I didn’t even know that The Beatles had done it! I just caught the end of Peggy’s perfomance and I was so knocked out that I started ringing people up, asking if they knew the name of the song that she had sung. About two weeks later I found that it had been written by George Harrison.»

THE BEAT OF THE POPS 8

SEE SOME SELECTED VIDEOCLIPS:
- "Girl Don't Come", by Sandie Shaw
- "Bye Bye Love", by The Everly Brothers
- "Hello Josephine", by Fats Domino
- "I Should Have Known Better", by The Beatles
- "Baby Let Me Take You Home", by The Animals
- "Since I Fell For You", by Jose Feliciano
- "Since I Fell For You" - a Grace Kelly Tribute
- "Do You Remember", by Cliff Richard
- "Good Vibrations", by The Beach Boys
- "All I Really Wanna Do", by Bob Dylan

"You Can Close Your Eyes..."

... and pretend the years didn't have passed by. 'Cause Carly Simon's wonderful voice didn't changed at all. The kids have growned up and they can now join mama singing, but that is just a little detail.

All this album is magnificent. Like we used to say in the old days, there's no need to take up the needle. With 14 tracks covering different genres and lot of them bringing you memories from another places and another times: the fifties (Everly Brothers' "Devoted To You/All I Have To Do Is Dream"), some classic movies (Judy Garland's "Over The Rainbow" from "The Wizard Of Oz", Luiz Bonfa's "Manhã de Carnaval" from "Black Orpheus" or Simon & Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair" from "The Graduate"), the sixties (Beatles' "Blackbird") and even Carly's personal story, when she was married with James Taylor ("Oh Susannah", "You Can Close Your Eyes").

After the comeback of Cat Stevens, it's comforting to know that old generation's voices are not dead. In fact, they are even more necessary in nowadays, where the good music is so hard to find.

THE GIRLS OF DUANE

Original Released as LP JAMIE JLP703019 (US, 1961)

THE SONGS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD 9

number nine... number nine... number nine... number nine... number nine... number nine... number nine... number nine... number nine... number nine... number nine... number nine... number nine... number nine... number nine... number nine...