On February 27th, 1980, The Doobie Brothers' "What a Fool Believes" won both Song of the Year and Record of the Year honors at the Grammy Awards. It was also a Number 1 hit. It took a writing session with Kenny Loggins to turn a cool piano riff and lyrics written on a napkin into a hit song. Former Doobie Brothers singer and keyboardist Michael McDonald says that "What a Fool Believes" was "nothing more than a piano riff for the first year of its life." He recalls how the events unfolded to get it from there to a completed song.
"I kept playing this piano groove for Ted Templeman, and he kept saying, 'God, you’ve got to finish that song. I tell you, that’s a hit!' I kept saying, 'Well, I just can’t think of anything else to do with it.' And then on an airplane ride, I came up with some lyrics, and wrote them on a napkin. But I didn’t really write the song until I got together with Kenny Loggins. We were going to get together for the first time to co-write, and he was outside my door, and I was playing that riff thinking, 'Well, maybe I’ll play him this. Maybe he’ll help me make a song out of this.' And the doorbell rang, and when I answered it, he didn’t even say hello or anything. He goes, 'Whatever you were just playing, let’s work on that!'"
Hey Jude, a compilation made up of cuts The Beatles had previously failed to release on an album in the U.S., including "Paperback Writer," came out on February 26th, 1970. Paul came up with the idea on a drive to the studio and then thought of forming the song as a letter. Its first appearance on an album was on the 1966 British compilation A Collection of Beatles Oldies, but didn't appear in the U.S. until the 1970 album Hey Jude. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two non-consecutive weeks. Paul McCartney explains how he developed the idea for "Paperback Writer" on the way to Abbey Road Studios.
“I had a long drive out there, so I'd start writing on my way out, start thinking, anyway. I remember I had the whole idea. That was just one that I had. Often John had one. But with 'Paperback Writer', I just had the whole thing. And I virtually came in, had the bowl of corn flakes and said, 'Hey, listen, how's about if we write it like a letter? Dear sir or madam, and then comma, next line, paragraph.' And I just wrote it all out on a little piece of paper. And John just sort of sat there and said, 'Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's good.' That just kind of flowed, and I sort of wrote that."
Today (February 25th) is the 40th anniversary of the release of Bob Seger's Against the Wind album. To date, it's his only number-one album on the Billboard 200. When he wrote it, he thought he was too old back then. Bob Seger was 35 years old when he wrote "Against the Wind." Now that he's more than double that age, he looks back on the song and still relates to it.
"I felt like I made it so late in life. But when I was 35, I had the feeling it could, heck, end at any minute. This is unusual and I'm older now and still running against the wind. I'm older now and still racing sort of against time."
Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti album was released 45 years ago today (February 24th). The song "Kashmir" was inspired by a trip to Southern Morocco about a place in the Northern Himalayas that no one in the band had ever visited. Robert Plant has said that "Kashmir" is one of his contributions to the Led Zeppelin catalog that he's most proud of. He tells how it came about.
“‘Kashmir’ was written from my angle. It was written on the road to Tan-Tan in southern Morocco, just off the Atlantic coast. And it’s a place where your mind can really dance and where your imagination is way open. After a while, all the stuff you’ve ever thought about is gone and you got this whole different place that’s giving you a sort of door into a whole different you.”
Finally the question can be answered. It was always suspected but now there is proof. In the Elton John song "The Bitch Is Back" Who is the "bitch" Well, Bernie Taupin reluctantly thanks an ex-wife for coming up with the title. Yes, Elton John was the inspiration for "The Bitch Is Back" -- or at least his behavior on a particular day inspired a song with that title. His lyricist, Bernie Taupin, tells how it came about.
“I don’t really want to give credit to one of my former wives for that title, but I suppose I have to. Elton had just come back from a trip somewhere and we were sitting in his house and he came in and he was just bitching and bitching about something. And my ex-wife just said, “Ugh, the bitch is back.’ And I went, ‘Mmm, good title. Thank you, I’ll take that.’”
The late Walter Becker of Steely Dan was born on February 20th, 1950. The song "Kid Charlemagne" on the Royal Scam contains the stupidest line ever written in a song -- at least according to one New York cabbie. Donald Fagen and the late Walter Becker have said their lyrics to "Kid Charlemagne" were inspired by the adventures of LSD chemist Owsley Stanley. But that's not what Walter wanted to talk about.
“I was in a cab in New York City and the cab driver picked me up in front of the rehearsal hall, so he knew who I was, right? And he started telling me, ‘Yeah, those Steely Dan, y’know, those guys wrote the stupidest line of any song I ever heard.’ And I said, ‘No kidding, what was that?’ And he said, ‘Y’know, in “Kid Charlemagne” where the guy goes “Is there gas in the car?/Yes, there’s gas in the car.”’ I guess that’s quite a distinction for us, to have written the stupidest line in any song that’s ever been written.”
Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi celebrates his birthday on February 19th. He recalls that they recorded their first couple of albums so fast that it's actually hard to recall specifics about the making of a classic cut like "Iron Man." Their self-titled first album was completed in a single day, and the second, Paranoid, took just four days in the studio. So it's not surprising that his memories of recording “Iron Man” are barely distinguishable from those of laying down the song “Paranoid.”
“It was on the same session, you know. We done it very quick. All the Paranoid album was nothing memorable, as far as doing each track. What I did remember was we were so pleased when we done that album. We really enjoyed that album, as we did the first one. And, of course, it went in England straight to number-one, so for us we were, like, thrilled.”
Original Styx singer and keyboardist Dennis DeYoung celebrates his 73rd birthday today (February 18th) The song "Lady" was on Styx's second album, but they'd already released their fourth when it broke nationally. It peaked at number-six on the Billboard Hot 100 DeYoung recalls writing it.
“I wrote it in my garage on a Wurlitzer electric piano, and it was the first song I had written by myself for an album. It was my first attempt to be a writer on my own. That's my recollection. And it did pretty good”
On February 17th, 1975, John Lennon released the follow-up to his chart-topping Walls and Bridges, an album of early rock and roll covers simply titled Rock 'n' Roll. The John Lennon song "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" Apparently according to Yoko it was clever enough to go to number-one. And it was Lennon's only number 1 solo single. So she was right. Here she explains:
”Very clever song -- very. And, in fact, it’s the kind of song that would go to number-one, you know, hit number-one. And it did.”
Original Heart guitarist Roger Fisher was born on February 14th, 1950. Since it's Valentine's Day Heart's most romantic song is "Love Alive" from the album Little Queen. Ann Wilson just laid her lyrics over an acoustic guitar instrumental Nancy had already recorded. "Love Alive" is a perfect Valentine's Day song, Ann Wilson explains how it came together in a 1980's interview.
“I just liked the way the title sounded and also Nancy had this really great acoustic thing she was working on. She had the music all finished acoustically. It was going to be an acoustic guitar solo, but then I got this idea for the title ‘Love Alive’ and some words and they just fell in right on top of each other.”
