Happy Sunday! Once again, I’d like to invite you to join me on another trip with the magical music time machine. As always, we shall visit six tracks from different decades and in different flavors. Hope you’re up for some fun!
The J.J. Johnson Quintet/Angel Eyes
Let’s ease into our journey with some soothing jazz by U.S. trombonist, composer and arranger J.J. Johnson, one of the earliest trombonists to embrace bebop. After he initially had studied the piano at age 9, Johnson decided to pick up the trombone as a 14-year-old and only three years later began his professional career in 1941. He played as a sideman with Benny Carter, Count Basie and others before making his first recordings as a leader of smaller groups featuring Max Roach, Sonny Stitt and Bud Powell. By the mid-’50s, Johnson was leading his own touring groups ranging from quartets to sextets. This brings me to J Is for Jazz, an album released by The J.J. Johnson Quintet in 1956, and Angel Eyes. Composed by Matt Dennis in 1946, with lyrics by Earl Brent, the song was first featured in a 1953 drama film titled Jennifer.
Jackie Wilson/Don’t Burn No Bridges
Our next stop takes us to 1976. If you had told me the song I’m about to present was performed by The Temptations, I may have bought it. Until recently, I wouldn’t have guessed it was by Jackie Wilson, an artist I primarily had known for Reet Petite, one of his biggest international hits from 1957. But Wilson was pretty versatile and in addition to R&B and rock & roll also performed jazz, soul, doo-wop, pop and psychedelic soul. During a live performance in September 1975, Wilson suffered a massive heart attack, from which he never recovered. He passed away in January 1984 at age 49 from complications of pneumonia. From his final album Nobody But You, which was released in 1976 after Wilson had become incapacitated from his stroke, here’s the amazing Don’t Burn No Bridges featuring The Chi-Lites.
John Mellencamp/Last Chance
Time for a stop-over in the ’90s with a great tune by an artist who I trust needs not much of an introduction: John Mellencamp. In October 1991, the singer-songwriter from the heartland of Seymour, Ind. came out with his 11th studio album Whenever We Wanted, about 15 years into his recording career. It was the first released under his actual name, i.e., without the Cougar name, which had been imposed by his first manager Tony Defries who insisted Mellencamp was a name that was too hard to market. Today, more than 30 years later, he is still going strong. Here’s Last Chance.
U2/Vertigo
Let’s now pay a visit to the current century. In November 2004, Irish rock band U2 released their 11th studio album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Since the enormously successful The Joshua Tree, which appeared in March 1987, U2 had released five additional albums that topped the charts and reached multi-Platinum status in many countries. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb continued that trend, hitting no. 1 in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, as well as the UK and various other European countries and becoming another huge commercial success. With almost 10 million copies sold in 2004 alone, it was the fourth-highest-selling album of the year. Here’s one of the reasons, Vertigo, the opening track and first of four singles.
The Outfield/Your Love
One of the decades we haven’t visited yet on this trip are the ’80s. Let’s set our magical music time machine to August 1985, which saw the release of Play Deep, the first album by British pop-rock band The Outfield. It was an impressive debut, especially in the U.S. where the album climbed to no. 9 on the Billboard 200 and reached 2x Platinum status (2 million certified units), as of February 1989, making it their best-selling album there. Here’s the catchy Your Love written by the band’s guitarist John Spinks. While the group apparently never officially disbanded, their final album Replay came out in 2011. Spinks died of liver cancer in July 2014. Lead vocalist and bassist Tony Lewis passed away in October 2020, leaving drummer Alan Jackman as the only surviving member from the group’s last line-up.
The Guess Who/No Time
Once again, we need to wrap up another music time travel excursion. Our final stop takes us to Winnipeg and September 1969. That’s when Canadian rock band The Guess Who released their fifth studio album Canned Wheat, only six months after the predecessor Wheatfield Soul. Canned Wheat also has the distinction of being the second album released as The Guess Who, i.e., without the question mark, which was part of their name for the third and fourth releases. The group’s first two studio releases appeared under Chad Allan & the Expressions (Guess Who?). You may know No Time from the more popular single version, which was also included on the band’s sixth studio album American Woman, released in January 1970. But the first and longer version of the tune, co-written by Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings, appeared on Canned Wheat.
Last but not least, here’s a Spotify playlist of all the above goodies. Hope there’s something you like and you’ll be back for more music time travel.
Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube; Spotify
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