Wednesday, April 24, 2019

FANNY- AIN'T THAT PECULIAR.





This is a 1972 BBC TV performance by the American band,  Fanny. Fanny is  said to be  the first all female rock group to hit the American Top 40. As you can see these ladies can really play-and even today rank as the one of the best female rock combos. The group's Philippine born  guitarist (June Millingon) is top notch on her instrument.  Her sister, Jean Millington played bass, Nickey Barclay played keyboards, and Alice du Buhr is in back on the drums.

Their first album came out in 1970, they had been picked up for Reprise records by renowned producer, Richard Perry, who had been looking for  a female band to produce.  He dropped the group's original  lead singer, which forced the  group to divvy up the vocals amongst all the members.  Like many other people I can't say I that ever recall having  heard of this group   before now-though perhaps I heard the name before.   Why didn't the become more renown? Well- not having a really world class singer (like say Ann Wilson of Heart) or a great songwriter (like say Joni Mitchell) in their band probably sealed their fate.  Having a stand out commercial hit song has always been the key to getting on the radio. But they never hit it big-and two groups-the Runaways and the Go-Go's generally are publicly recognized as the first major successful all female rock bands.    They may have never made it big but most of their material  is pretty solid-and I recommend checking them out.

"Charity Ball" their first hit...




A Buffalo Springfield cover.. called "Special Care"...


And this lastly, "Summer Song"


(Published March 2, 2019 by J.C.Bernhardt)

Fanny Hill, their excellent 1972 album.
Review of Fanny Hill From That Devil Music blog
Fanny rocks-official site

Originally posted March 2019 by J.C.Bernhardt

Monday, April 1, 2019

Soundalike songs- Lauren Daigle-Artists that sound similar to other acts.

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Musical artists sometimes through no fault of their own sound like other singers.  The recent hit, "You Say"  is a perfect example of the phenomena.  When your hear this song for the first time-right away you think,  "Is that a new song from Adele?"  Well no, it is the   Christian crossover artist, Lauren Daigle. The piano on the record just makes it sound  even more  like Adele-it because it sounds a  bit like the piano on Adele's "Someone Like You".




Recent  COPYCATS


A playlist of ripoffsongs...

Other copycats
When you first hear a song-you don't always know who the artist is-which makes for an interesting guessing game. The 1971 America  hit -"A Horse with No Name"  sounds a little  like Neil Young's "Heart of Gold". But it's Dewey Bunnell  of America doing the lead vocal.   The song was America's  first single-so it wasn't like  people would say, " Oh that sounds like America." Oddly enough, these two songs both hit #1 on the American charts in March 1972 one after the other.

Sometimes an artist just tries to copy an arrangement style. The most notorious  example of this is "Blurred Lines" which was a 2013 song written mostly by Pharrell Williams and performed primarily by Robin Thicke. The song is clearly inspired by Marvin Gaye's 1976 party record, "Got to Give It Up". Though to be fair, it's only the bass line and the percussion arrangement that seem to match up. But it was close  enough match that a judge awarded Gaye's estate a significant share of the profits from the song.

Here is  a TV theme inspired by the sound of  Outkast it is sung by Chaka Blackmon.
A more subtle example of the "inspired by" phenomena is Lenny Kravitz's "It Ain't Over Till It' Over". which beautifully recaptures the laid back soul  vibe of 1970's artists like Earth, Wind and Fire.

David Crosby, is a fan of Steely Dan, and his son wrote and helped him perform this perfect Steely Dan, style backing track on his 2017 song, "She's Got to Be Somewhere".


Then there is copying yourself. Using vocal devices, Lionel Ritchie recaptured his own mid 1970's Commodores  vibe  on his  1996 solo song "Don't Want To Lose You ".  John Fogarty managed  to recapture   the CCR sound with his solo record, "The Old Man Lives Down The Road". So much so that he got sued by his own (nefarious) song publisher.

During the 1960's British invasion many artists try to duplicate the Beatles vocal sound. A notable example of this is  the Dave Clark Five's "Because".

Two  final examples of the copy cat phenomena come from the 1980's.

John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown's "On the Darkside"  sounds a lot like Bruce Springsteen and the East Street Band- almost  more for the imitation of Roy Bittan's bright staccato keyboard sound then for the full throated vocals. The song was released in 1983 but didn't become a hit till 1984.


Finally comes the  George Michael soundalike record, "Don't Forget Me When I Am Gone".   It was a 1986 record by the Canadian act, Glass Tiger which features the lead vocals of Alan Frew . To further confuse matters Bryan Adams also sings on the song -and apparently the song  was actually inspired by Tears for Fears, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World". 

Why Lauren Daigle was inspired by Adele (People magazine).


originally posted February 2019 by J.C.Bernhardt