Spring is the season of renewal and rejuvenation. Sure, it has taken its sweet time getting established this year, but I think it’s finally here.
The crack of the bat means baseball is underway. Kids are out playing on jungle gyms again. The sweet smell of freshly cut grass, lilacs and dogwoods are in the air. People are out and about with big smiles plastered on their faces. Carroll Creek, Culler Lake and Market Street are alive with activity. Folks begin to grab outside tables to enjoy a dinner downtown. The thwack of tennis balls and clack of bocce balls punctuate the daily hum of activity. Windows are open at night. Butterflies and robins have returned.
And, as often is the case, the sound of music enhances this sweet atmosphere. I offer up here my top 10 picks for classic spring songs that will make you glad you made it through another tough winter.
1. “PIECES OF APRIL”
Three Dog Night, 1970
A slow and sweetly wistful song about remembering springtime and an early love.
“April gave us springtime, and the promise of the flowers, and the feeling that we both shared, and the love that we called ours.”
2. “I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW”
Johnny Nash, 1972
This reggae-infused anthem is hopeful and optimistic. Problems can now be faced squarely in the brightness of a new day.
“I can see clearly now the rain is gone. I can see all obstacles in my way. Gone are the dark clouds that made me blind. It’s gonna be a bright, bright, bright sun-shiny day.”
3. “IT’S A BEAUTIFUL MORNING”
The Rascals, 1968
Carefree and optimistic, the song perfectly captures all the possibilities of a beautiful spring day laid out before you.
“It’s a beautiful morning. I think I’ll go outside for awhile and smile.”
4. “SPRING VACATION”
Beach Boys, 2012
If you didn’t know the Beach Boys were still releasing songs in 2012, this lilting song with the unmistakable harmonies will likely leave you wanting more.
“Driving around, living the dream, I’m cruising the town, digging the scene. I’m not gonna stress, not gonna worry, doing our best, no need to hurry.”
5. “APRIL COME SHE WILL”
Simon & Garfunkel, 1966
A quiet, simple, acoustic song (with artistically-licensed grammar), comes in at under 2 minutes and reminds me of a child’s nursery rhyme.
“April come she will, May she will stay, June she’ll change her tune, July she will fly. August die she must.”
Art Garfunkel, left, and Paul Simon serenade an audience of close to one-half million in New York’s Central Park at a free concert Sept. 19, 1981.
6. “MR. BLUE SKY”
Electric Light Orchestra, 1977
This bouncy, happy-go-lucky song features an electric guitar and robotic voice. It always makes me smile.
“Sun is shinin’ in the sky. There ain’t a cloud in sight. It’s stopped raining. Everybody’s in the play.”
7. “SEASON SUITE: SPRING”
John Denver, 1972
This typical John Denver guitar song pulls me closer to nature and somehow makes me feel better about myself, too.
“Open up your eyes and see the brand new day. The clear blue sky and brightly shining sun.”
8. “A FATHER’S FIRST SPRING”
The Avett Brothers, 2012
This sweet, haunting, melancholy song proves that spring songs don’t always have to be peppy.
“Sweetest surrender of winter, she put up her flag. It is waving. The thunder of summer is rumbling in.”
9. “PRIMAVERA”
Carlos Santana, 1999
A Latin, syncopated song from this other-worldly guitar virtuoso pays homage to planet Earth at the best time of year.
“Como la Semilla, Lleva nueva vida, Hay en esta primavera, Una nueva era.”
10. “APRIL”
Deep Purple, 1969
A 12-minute, mesmerizing rock opera with a sweeping guitar intro. Lyrics finally kick in at the 9-minute mark and are not kind to April or springtime.
“April is a cruel time, even though the sun may shine and world looks in the shade as it slowly comes away. Still falls the April rain.”
Honorable Mentions: Tori Amos’ “Spring Haze,” Coldplay’s “Up with Birds,” Dawn’s “Here Comes the Spring,” Donovan’s “The Lullaby of Spring,” Jack Hartmann’s “Springtime Dance,” Elvis Presley’s “Spring Fever,” Chris Rea’s “Fires of Spring,” Carly Simon’s “Spring is Here,” Frank Sinatra’s “It Might as Well Be Spring” and Donna Summer’s “Spring Affair.”
Gary Bennett is a longtime Frederick resident who spends his time hiking, biking, volunteering and providing childcare for grandchildren. He is married and retired from his career as a nonprofit marketing executive.
Since 2016, brothers Zachary and Dylan Zmed, along with their partner and drummer Burleigh Drummond, have celebrated the pivotal music of the Everly Brothers with a heartfelt tribute.
That tribute, the Everly Brothers Experience, featuring the Zmed Brothers as the Everlys, plays at the Weinberg Center for the Arts at 8 p.m. April 20.
Presented by Key West Productions, the Everly Brothers Experience promises to be a trip down memory lane, revisiting the rich vocals and gorgeous harmonies popularized by the Everlys in the late ’50s and early ’60s.
“The music of the ’50s and ’60s are nostalgic for us,” they said in a press release. “Our parents raised us on it, and we feel that the Everlys’ contribution is greatly overlooked, especially by younger generations.”
The Zmed brothers do not try to impersonate the Everlys but honor their iconic sound by recreating the music as close to the original as possible.
I’m a little too young to remember the heyday of the Everly Brothers and other founders of rock ‘n roll as they came on the scene in the 1950s. However, it is no secret, for my generation at least, that the Everly Brothers had an outsized influence on the Beatles and many other iconic acts that came later. John Lennon and Paul McCartney made no secret of their admiration, patterning their unmistakable harmonies on the ones from “Don And Phil.”
Before the Beatles, Lennon and McCartney referred to themselves as “the British Everly Brothers” when hitchhiking to talent contests in England.
Other super groups, like the Beach Boys, Bee Gees, and Simon and Garfunkel, credit the Everlys as having a huge influence on their music.
I vividly remember my father was an avid Everly Brothers fan. He mostly enjoyed country music, especially Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, but he made an exception for the Everlys.
It was no wonder. The Everlys embraced elements of country in their music with some twangy vocals and steel-string acoustic guitars. Today, their music might be categorized as country rock. Along with Elvis, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and others, the Everly Brothers were among the pioneers of rock ‘n’ roll.
As with many stars, the Everlys were raised in a musical family. They sang with their parents on the radio during their high school years. As they gained attention, they began writing and recording their own music. Their first hit song came in 1957, the hugely popular “Bye Bye Love.” It hit No. 1 in the spring, shortly after I was born, and stayed there for four weeks. You know the chorus: “Bye-bye love/ Bye-bye happiness/ Hello loneliness/ I think I’m-a gonna cry-y.”
Huge hits would follow, like “Wake Up Little Susie,” “All I Have To Do Is Dream” (my No. 1 all-time favorite song about dreaming!), “When Will I Be Loved” (perhaps made more famous by Linda Ronstadt in 1974), “So Sad,” “Crying in the Rain” and “Problems.” Their biggest-selling single of all time, “Cathy’s Clown,” came in 1960. You know this one, too: “Here he co-o-o-omes: That’s Cathy’s clown.”
In a move that would be unheard of today, the brothers enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1961. Elvis did the very same thing. There were very few military exemptions back then, and it beat being drafted and sent to Vietnam.
But, unfortunately, unlike Elvis, the Everlys’ output and fame fell off upon their return. Their last big hit came in 1962 with “That’s Old Fashioned (That’s the Way Love Should Be).” The British Invasion took hold shortly thereafter, curtailing or ending the careers of many rock ‘n’ roll pioneers. They did, however, launch a successful touring career in the ’60s. In the ’70s, the brothers began releasing solo recordings — but no hits — and officially broke up in 1973.
They got back together for a while in the ’80s, performing periodically until Phil’s death in 2014. Don died seven years later in 2021.
In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked the Everlys as the No. 1 greatest musical duo of all time. They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 1986, along with such first-name luminaries as Elvis, Chuck, Buddy and Jerry Lee. The Everlys were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Musician’s Hall of Fame and Museum in 2019.
By all accounts, they were unaffected by their meteoric stardom. They said in 1960 at the height of their popularity, “We’re not Grand Ole Opry … we’re obviously not Perry Como … we’re just pop music.”
Gary Bennett is a longtime Frederick resident who spends his time hiking, biking, volunteering and providing childcare for grandchildren. He is married and retired from his career as a nonprofit marketing executive.
GULF SHORES, AL – JULY 11: Musician Jimmy Buffett performs onstage at Jimmy Buffett & Friends: Live from the Gulf Coast, a concert presented by CMT at on the beach on July 11, 2010 in Gulf Shores, Alabama. (Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for CMT)
Jimmy Buffett lived a life most of us can only dream of. By all accounts it was wacky, wild and wonderful.
We all know about his hugely successful music career. He recorded more than 30 albums, wrote and recorded a career-defining and endlessly entertaining song in “Margaritaville” and built a string of successful Margaritaville restaurants and resorts.
But did you know he was a best-selling author and a seaplane pilot?
He wrote three best-selling books: “Tales from Margaritaville,” “Where is Joe Merchant,” and “A Pirate Looks at Fifty.”
Piloting a seaplane was his way of escaping reality and inviting family and friends on his many adventures, fishing and otherwise, all around the Caribbean.
His early life wasn’t always easy, though.
He flunked out of college, flunked his draft physical and started a band in his 20s, but it got no traction, so it broke up soon after.
He was divorced twice, went broke once and survived not one, but two, devastating crashes: one by car and one by seaplane that he only survived due to some Navy training.
Later, he broke the same leg three times in one year, did a lot of dope and went into therapy.
But there’s no reason to focus on the negative stuff because Jimmy never did.
He spent his life looking optimistically for the next opportunity and he almost always found it. He was signed to a recording contract at ABC Records in 1973 to replace his recently deceased friend, Jim Croce.
Buffett died last year on Sept. 1 at age 76, from complications from Merkle cell carcinoma, a rare type of skin cancer.
Somehow, fittingly, he died on the last day of meteorological summer. If the “music died” when Buddy Holly died, could it be that summer died with Jimmy Buffett? We’ll have to wait and see this summer.
I was never a big Jimmy Buffett fan and certainly never a “parrothead”— the term reserved for his most loyal, diehard fans who could always be counted on to dress up in wild costumes at his concerts, perhaps with a parrot on their shoulder.
But I can appreciate the niche he carved out for himself in the music business, much to everyone’s surprise.
One can name no other artist (other than the Beach Boys) who so completely embodied a carefree, island-hopping, “strumming my six-string on my front porch swing,” summery persona.
Buffett may have described himself best when he said: “I’ve got a Caribbean soul I can barely control.” He and his Coral Reefer band toured the world for nearly 50 years, bringing joy wherever they set down.
My wife and I have been to a few of his concerts and always had a really good time.
Near the end, he wasn’t much of a singer. He was more like an affable host or a barefoot ringleader of one giant outdoor party.
Sometimes, you felt like he was phoning it in, not giving it much effort. But the more I thought about it, isn’t that the essence of Jimmy Buffett anyway, making it look easy and effortless?
Surprisingly, he started out as more of a country singer. His 1974 heartfelt ballad “Come Monday” was a big hit on both the country and pop charts. It has an unmistakable country feel to it.
But soon after, something changed. He was no longer country. He embraced what might be called tropical island or Caribbean music, with a strong influence of steel drums and simple melodies and lyrics. By all accounts, he went back to his roots.
When “Margaritaville” hit the airwaves in 1977, it was impossible not to like the song or the carefree-looking artist that penned and sang it. “Margaritaville” speaks not of a town, but of a state of mind when you use your favorite adult beverage to numb yourself to life and your inability to do much with it.
With exasperation but acceptance, Buffett sang “Don’t know the reason / stayed here all season / Nothin’ to show but this brand new tattoo. But it’s a real beauty / a Mexican cutie / how it got here I haven’t a clue.”
He then finished up plaintively “Wasted away again in Margaritaville, Searching for my lost shaker of salt. Some people say that there’s a woman to blame. But I know / it’s my own damn fault.”
To this day when I hear it, I can’t help but smile and sing along. Putting smiles on strangers’ faces — not a bad legacy to leave.
GULF SHORES, AL – JULY 11: Musician Jimmy Buffett performs onstage at Jimmy Buffett & Friends: Live from the Gulf Coast, a concert presented by CMT at on the beach on July 11, 2010 in Gulf Shores, Alabama. (Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images for CMT)
Winter is upon us once again, and unlike my friends to the south, I love it — the chill of the air and the heat of the fireplace.
I suspect many of you feel the same.
To me, real winter begins right after the holidays. I don’t even consider December to be part of winter.
On Jan. 2, family get-togethers, all the anticipation, celebrations and sparkle of the holiday season are gone. We are left with two full months (or more) of persevering and seeing what we are made of.
And, it’s absolutely invaluable.
There’s something about winter that toughens us and opens our eyes to myriad possibilities. We buckle down. We work hard. We don’t worry about vacations. Days are short. Time is of the essence. When we accomplish something, particularly outdoors, we feel good about ourselves. We feel like we can’t be deterred.
But there can be a melancholy about winter. There’s an overabundance of darkness. The other three seasons seem long ago and far away. Unfortunately, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) can rear its ugly head with some folks, causing mental and physical ailments.
Still, if you can, try to embrace the season. Embrace the cold. Embrace the melancholy. Spring will come in fits and starts and everything will be renewed again.
Here are my top 17 classic rock songs about winter (or set in the winter) to help get you through, nee, celebrate, the season.
Warm, caring loner holed up in his cabin, longing for an absent love. “The lamp is burnin’ low upon my table top, the snow is softly falling, the air is still in the silence of my room, I hear your voice softly calling.”
Sweet, poignant song about losing a love but taking it well. “It was only a winter’s tale, just another winter’s tale, and why should the world take notice, of one more love that’s failed?”
Longing for the warmth of LA during a cold winter in New York City. “All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray, I’ve been for a walk, on a winter’s day.”
Not the same tune as the Moody Blues song above, but Freddie Mercury singing gorgeously of life and beauty as both wind down. “It’s winter-fall, red skies are gleaming, sea-gulls are flyin’ over, swans are floatin’ by, smoking chimney-tops.”
Quintessential pop tune contemplating the passing of the seasons with a focus on winter. “But look around, leaves are brown now, and the sky is a hazy shade of winter.”
Song explores longing, isolation and heartbreak—the cold realities of life. “Cold is the color of crystal, the snow light, that falls from the heavenly skies, catch me and let me dive under, for I want to swim in the pools of your eyes.”
Johnny Mercer lyrics contemplating the pain of growing old and of reliving lost love. “I should be over it now, I know, it doesn’t matter much how old I grow, I hate to see October go.”
A heartwarming song trying to explain the rapture of true love when it’s cold outside. “If I put my arms around you, turn you in from the storm, from your autumn through winter, darling I’ll keep you warm.”
The wonder of glowing, snowy mountaintops at dawn and dusk. “As the winter days unfold, hearts grow warmer with the cold, peace of mind is all you know, winter’s gold, Aspenglow.”
Lovely ballad about (somehow!) a peaceful death out in the cold. “Lay your body down upon the midnight snow, feel the cold of winter in your hair, here in a world of your own, in a casing that’s grown.”
Sad story about being away and missing home. “This is my December, these are my snow-covered dreams, this is me pretending, this is all I need.”
14. “WINTERTIME LOVE” The Doors, 1968 A plea for love and warmth in the cold season. “Wintertime winds blow cold to season, fallin’ in love, I’m hopin’ to be, wind is so cold, is that the reason? Keeping you warm, your hands touching me.”
Peppy song about yearning for youth in the twilight of life. “Beneath this snowy mantle, cold and clean, the unborn grass lies waiting, for its coat to turn to green, the snowbird sings the song he always sings.”
Song bemoans the realities of the season and hopes for spring love. “And it sure been a cold, cold winter, and the wind ain’t been blowin’ from the south, it’s sure been a cold, cold winter, And a lotta love is all burned out.”
Slow, moody “acquired-taste” song that drips with sexual innuendo cloaked in seasonal comparisons. “Summer’s sweet and she brings me water, but give me winter, that old icy whore, summer lies meek and follows orders, winter cries “Me!” and pulls you through the door.”
“50 Years Gone: A Tribute to Jim Croce” will hit downtown Frederick at 3 and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 2 at New Spire Arts for two shows, one of which is already sold out. Presented by Key West Productions, the show was put together as a loving, musical tribute to the life and music of Jim Croce.
According to show producer Tom Kohlhepp, Frederick will be the first stop for this show.
The duo of Mike Schirf and Chris Masheck will take the stage and not only play all of Croce’s biggest hits, like “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” “Time in a Bottle,” “I Got a Name” and “Operator,” but they’ll also tell the great stories that Croce told during his all-too-short career.
They’ll also sing many of Croce’s lesser-known songs, like “Roller Derby Queen,” “One Less Set of Footsteps” and “Workin’ at the Car Wash Blues.”
“This night will be really [about] spending time not only listening to Croce’s music but more importantly, I think, getting to know more about the man,” Kohlhepp said. “He wrote so many of his best songs about people he actually knew and came across in life.”
Schirf will sing and play the Jim Croce parts. He is a big Croce fan, according to Kohlhepp, and includes many of Croce’s songs in his setlist when playing his own gigs.
Once Schirf and Kohlhepp decided to put this show together, they settled on Chris Masheck as the best person to accompany Schirf in Maury Muehleisen’s role. All Jim Croce fans know the impact Maury’s beautiful guitar work had on Croce’s success. It’s a testament to the producer that his part is included in the show.
It should be noted, Schirf and Masheck will not attempt to look like the original band members. “The feel and the sound are what we’re really going after,” Kohlhepp said.
Kohlhepp’s production company will also offer the “It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere” show about the life and times of the late Jimmy Buffett at New Spire Arts in February. Kohlhepp was privileged to know Buffett and has lots of interesting, little-known stories to share. “I really like doing my research and enjoy sharing these stories with anyone who wants to listen,” he said.
And if you were wondering, yes, Croce and Buffett knew each other in real life and got together a few times in the early ‘70s. Buffett was actually signed in 1974 to take Croce’s place on the roster of ABC Records’ recording artists after Croce passed.
Back in early August, in the pages of 72 Hours, Crystal Schelle wrote evocatively about the music of George Michael and Wham! and how much their music meant to her youth.
I know exactly how she feels.
For me, it was an obscure ‘70s singer-songwriter named Jim Croce that got into my soul and never left. Music has that power, somehow, to grab ahold of you and not let go. If you don’t have an artist that does that for you, I urge you to keep looking. It is one of the sweetest things in life.
Croce only reached American consciousness for one year before dying tragically 50 years ago this week in 1973. I cannot begin to tell you what his music means to me, even to this day. But, I’ll try.
Philadelphian James Joseph Croce had a mysterious knack for singing about the very things I was feeling as a teenager in the ‘70s, and he did it with a kind of carefree coolness that belied his long climb to fame. His relaxed demeanor is hard to describe but comes out clearly, I think, in photographs.
The album cover for “Have You Heard: Jim Croce Live,” for example, shows him on a stool playing his guitar in an old work shirt and boots, a cigar dangling beneath his enormous mustache. He didn’t seem to realize or care how big he was becoming. He caught the sensitive singer-songwriter craze of the early ‘70s, writing most of his own songs and producing three critically acclaimed albums.
A copy of the author’s own DVD
Croce didn’t so much burst on the scene as amble up to it. He provided some pleasant pop tunes in 1972, including his self-effacing hit “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” and the lovely but sad ballad “Operator” that spoke of getting over lost love (but not really). Both songs made the top 10. I’m almost ashamed to say that I wasn’t really aware of Croce in 1972. I honestly can’t remember either song playing on the radio. But, as an awkward 10th-grader, I wasn’t really into music yet.
Croce spent years chasing his musical dreams, occasionally giving up for a while and doing all kinds of blue-collar jobs that he reportedly loved. He was a trucker, construction worker, jackhammer operator, soldier and special education teacher, among other things. Little did we know that doing those jobs and getting to know the other workers would eventually bring us such spot-on character studies as Leroy Brown, Big Jim Walker, Rapid Roy the Stock Car Boy, Spike (aka Tuffy), the infamous Roller Derby Queen, the unnamed car wash attendant with big dreams and Speedball Tucker.
In that fateful year of 1973, however, Croce came into his own with the rollicking story-song “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” which speaks of the comeuppance of a really bad dude living in the Southside of Chicago. Croce sang, “If you go down there, you better just beware of a man name’a Leroy Brown.”
You know someone is more than just a pop artist if they add everyday lexicon to the English language. Jim Croce did that at least twice. The next time you describe a lost cause as “spitting into the wind” or a really mean person as “meaner than a junkyard dog,” you have Croce to thank.
“Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” is a funny, funky song (with a bad word thrown in there for good measure) that we all sang with abandon. It seemed like it was always on the radio during the summer of ‘73, rising to No. 1 in July and staying there for two weeks and in the top 10 for 10 weeks through late August. I can still remember driving down the road and hearing that unmistakable opening piano riff arriving unannounced on the radio and instantly singing along and going much too fast. It was up for a Grammy and brought implausible celebrity to Croce. He spoke of writing the song about a not-too-bright Army buddy who went AWOL but came back to get his paycheck.
Stardom beckoned as Croce quickly went on to host the top music shows of the day: “The Midnight Special,” “In Concert” and “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert” in August and early September of ‘73, a time where there was no MTV, YouTube or streaming services. He even guest-hosted “The Tonight Show” once.
As good of a singer as Croce was, he may have been an even better storyteller. Between songs, he seamlessly shared funny stories of playing in bars surrounded by chicken wire so he wouldn’t get hit by flying beer bottles and of being attracted to a five-foot-six, 215-pound “roller derby queen” who had a tooth removed so she could fit a cigarette up in there and keep her hands free.
Jim Croce, 1972
Sadly, just a month later, at the apex of his career, on Sept. 20, 1973, Croce and his guitar virtuoso accompanist, Maury Muehleisen, and several others in his party perished in a tragic small plane crash in Natchitoches, Louisiana, en route to a gig. The plane snagged a pecan tree on takeoff and tumbled to the ground in a ball of fire. Croce and the others were killed instantly. Pilot error was to blame.
He’s been gone 50 years now, and it seems like yesterday I was driving my dad’s Plymouth Satellite to the opening days of my junior year of high school and hearing the heartbreaking news on the radio. I literally had to stop and collect myself before going to school.
No one could have imagined what would happen next.
Instantaneously, the record-buying public couldn’t get enough of Croce. The stardom that eluded him during his life came flooding in after his death, as if we had to make it up to him somehow. His previous two albums shot to the top of the charts. A single released the very day of his death, “I Got a Name,” entered the top 10 immediately. His just-released album of the same name joined its two brethren by becoming one of the top three best-selling albums. Croce’s other two previously released albums also rose in popularity: “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim” soared to No. 1, and “Life and Times” settled in at No. 3. This trifecta has never again been matched in the music business.
Amazingly, all this happened in the span of a month or two. His albums went from sales in the 50,000 range nationwide to selling over 1 million copies each. To this day, I don’t know how they printed them fast enough to satisfy demand. I relished the chance to play his 8-track tapes every night during intermission at the drive-in theater I was working at in ’74 and ’75. We never got a complaint (as far as I know).
If all this weren’t enough, shortly after the single and album “I Got a Name” hit the charts at the time of his death, a lovely, obscure Croce deep cut from his first album called “Time in a Bottle” was being featured in a TV movie called “She Lives.”
The public demanded it be released as a single by bombarding radio stations with requests for it. It went on to become the No. 1 single in December 1973 through January 1974. You may know it as a very popular wedding song to this day.
One line in the song brought sadness to everyone (and still does for me): “There never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do once you find them.” Indeed. So true.
I tell you all this because the music industry had never seen anything like it before or since. To be sure, we had very popular artists die way too soon — Elvis, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Michael Jackson. But to some extent, all these artists had shortened their own lives due to their own actions. The murder of John Lennon in 1980 shook the world, but there was no denying his best musical days were behind him. Thirty-year-old Jim Croce was neither killing himself quickly or slowly.
You have to go all the way back to the ‘50s and the tragic death of a very young Buddy Holly in another small plane crash to come anywhere close to the outpouring of sentiment that came after Croce’s death.
Record executives have chalked up this phenomenon to the public feeling cheated that this promising new artist was gone before they really got a chance to know him. He wasn’t on the way out; he was on the way up. He was soft spoken and humble. He was a family man. His songs were somehow different. We just knew there were a lot more funny, up-tempo songs and quiet, romantic ballads coming our way from this everyman troubadour.
UNSPECIFIED – CIRCA 1970: Photo of Jim Croce Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
I believe his looks had a lot to do with his popularity, too. He doubled down on his working-man persona by sporting curly, unkept hair, a big mustache that looked like it never saw a razor, work shirts, work boots and jeans. Tattoos rounded out the look — and tattoos were not a fashion statement for young people in the ‘70s like they are today. Tattoos were reserved for sailors, convicts and really bad dudes not yet convicted. The dichotomy is that he was none of these. He looked tough, but from all reports, he was a sweet, gentle, soft-spoken guy. As far as blue-collar rockers go, he was Bruce Springsteen before there was a Bruce Springsteen.
Ahh, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Jim Croce likely would have gone on to have a similar career to those of John Denver and James Taylor — long, popular, highly respected and very near to superstar quality. He would have been a staple on TV and most probably a talk show host.
His music was hard to categorize. It was part folk, part pop and part easy-listening, I suppose. He had a very distinctive voice that was (and still is) immediately recognizable, sometimes funny and self-effacing and other times sweet and gentle. He told evocative stories of everyday people because he was one of them. To this day, his songs remain on heavy rotation on certain Sirius XM channels. They frequently pop up in movies like “Django Unchained” and series like “Stranger Things.”
I was trying to think of an analogy that might drive home the tragedy most of us felt in 1973. The best I can come up with is this: Suppose a promising young artist named Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber or Ed Sheeran, who we were just becoming aware of and whose songs were funny and different and great, was suddenly killed in a plane crash. I imagine that would be like losing Jim Croce in the ‘70s. He was becoming that big.
But time goes on and Croce is largely forgotten now. For a few of us, though, he lives on. Meeting Jim’s widow and fellow musician Ingrid Croce, at her delightful Italian restaurant in San Diego (named Croce’s, of course) was one of the happiest days of my life. She was sweet and accommodating, but I couldn’t help wondering if she had secretly activated a panic button due to my exuberance at meeting her.
Catch the live show “50 Years Gone: A Tribute to Jim Croce” at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 2 at New Spire Arts. The performance is a musical tribute to the life and music of Jim Croce. Mike Schirf and Chris Masheck will take the stage and not only play all of Croce’s biggest hits but will also tell the great stories that Croce told during his all-too-short career.
Relive the powerhouse music that shaped a generation with Neil Berg’s The 60’s: Peace, Love & Rock N’ Roll, rolling into Frederick’s Weinberg Center on April 21 at 8:00 pm. Tickets are still available.
Composer/producer/arranger/musician Neil Berg returns to Frederick with his new production that takes us on a musical trip to the stormy, counterculture 60’s. Berg and his talented troupe of musicians last wowed Frederick audiences in October 2021 with his show 50 Years of Rock N’ Roll.
In this new production, Berg recounts the 60’s through music and stories, culminating with a celebration of the historic Woodstock concert in 1969. If you didn’t make it to Woodstock like me (I was only 12) but remember all the wonderful music wafting down the hall from your big sister’s jukebox, you’ll not want to miss this rollicking evening.
Berg is privy to many behind-the-scenes stories from Woodstock due to his personal friendship with Michael Lang, the original organizer and producer of the iconic event.
“Michael brought me into his New York City office about 15 years ago to discuss the possibility of writing a Broadway musical about Woodstock—stories about unknown artists like Bert Sommer, who was in the Broadway musical Hair, and who was a solo artist at Woodstock and got the first standing ovation.”
That idea morphed into The 60’s: Peace, Love & Rock N’ Roll when Berg realized there are many more stories to tell and music to play that had nothing to do with Woodstock. Berg is not shy about sharing these tales.
Berg promises we’ll hear the story of Joni Mitchell’s song Woodstock, and her relationship to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, who were famously playing only their second concert ever in public. We’ll learn about the famous bands that were invited to play, but did not. We’ll hear about Carlos Santana playing his entire Woodstock set tripping on LSD given to him by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead.
And don’t forget the music! Berg and his merry band of Broadway performers will cover the music of Woodstock acts Richie Havens, Country Joe McDonald, The Band, Canned Heat, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Sly and the Family Stone, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Joe Cocker. (Lineup is subject to change.)
A who’s who of 60’s rockers who did not perform at Woodstock will be covered too: Bob Dylan, Four Seasons, Beach Boys, Beatles, Rolling Stones, James Brown, Tom Jones, Aretha Franklin, Monkees, Neil Diamond, Cream, Mamas and the Papas, Otis Redding, Doors, Shirelles, Tina Turner, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin and more.
For everyone who wanted to be at Woodstock but wasn’t, The 60’s: Peace, Love and Rock N’ Roll will make you feel like you are there.
Frederick welcomes another icon of ‘70s classic rock to the Weinberg Center when Three Dog Night visits on Sunday, April 16 at 6 pm. Along with recent visits from Gordon Lightfoot, The Temptations, Spinners and America, an evening of music from Three Dog Night promises to take we aging baby boomers back to our teens and 20s. Tickets are still available at https://weinbergcenter.org/.
Thinking back to the ‘70s, it seems that Three Dog Night was always on the radio. Their music didn’t have the hard-diving focus of other ‘70s rock bands like The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Black Sabbath or even Kiss. And they sure didn’t have the thoughtful lyrics and musicality of The Eagles, The Who, Chicago or Queen. They fit somewhere in the pleasant middle with other pop-oriented bands like The Guess Who and Doobie Brothers.
They were certainly commercially successful. From 1969 to 1974 they racked up 21 Billboard top 40 hits including three number ones. No other group was as successful during that span. If you came of age in the ‘70s and listened to the radio at all, chances are very good you will recognize most of Three Dog Night’s hits. Among the favorites sure to be played on April 16 are the three number ones: Mama Told Me Not to Come (#1 in 1970), Joy to the World (#1 in 1971) and Black and White (#1 in 1972).
Mama Told Me Not to Come tells the funny story of the strangest party “there could ever be.” Joy to the World is a simple song espousing the pure joy of being alive. It is known for its strange opening line “Jeremiah was a bullfrog.” Black and White is a socially-responsible song celebrating the end of racial segregation in schools.
Other top hits include my personal favorite Shambala (#3 in 1973), which uses a solid groove to tell the story of a mystical place where love and kindness abound, The Show Must Go On (#3 in 1974), An Old Fashioned Love Song (#4 in 1971), Easy to be Hard (#4 in 1969), One (#5 in 1969), Never Been to Spain (#5 in 1971), Liar (#7 in 1971) and Eli’s Coming (#10 in 1969).
One of the main appeals of Three Dog Night is that each of their songs sound so different. This is because, like the Beatles before them, they decided to feature all three lead singers pretty much equally among their songs. Lead singers Danny Hutton, Chuck Negron and Cory Wells (also the founders of Three Dog Night) had three very different voices and singing styles. Today, only Hutton remains. In 1985, Negron suffered a relapse into drug addiction and was fired from the group. Wells died in 2015 at age 74.
Unlike most of the rock bands of the ‘70s, Three Dog Night did not write their own songs. They left that work to others. This was not unusual in the music business prior to the arrival of the Beatles in the ‘60s. Instead, Three Dog Night became masters at picking out songs that were right for them and commercially appealing. They were responsible for introducing the world to many up and coming songwriters that are well known today: Randy Newman (Mama Told Me Not to Come), Paul Williams (An Old Fashioned Love Song), and Hoyt Axton (Joy to the World, Never Been to Spain).
There has always been some controversy on what Three Dog Night’s name actually means. Some believe Danny Hutton’s girlfriend suggested the name after reading about aboriginal Australians who on particularly cold nights slept with three dogs to keep warm instead of one or two. An arranger at Warner Brothers disputes this and says he came up with the name. Either way, the phrase has become part of the American lexicon to describe an especially cold night.
Hopefully, Danny Hutton will clear this up once and for all when he visits Frederick on April 6.
Valentine’s Day is here! It’s time to plug in that perfect playlist for the evening’s activities. No, no, not necessarily those activities.
But, it is nice to have the right background music when presenting your loved one with flowers, those delicious red and pink M&Ms artfully placed in a pretty candy bowl, and that little heart necklace you picked up at Kay Jewelers.
Recording artists of the ‘60s, ‘70s and ’80 provided the soundtrack of my youth so I always look to them to help with completing my playlists. Whether it’s love songs, Christmas songs or rainy-day songs, I can always count on the sensitive singer-songwriters and soft rocks bands of these earlier, gentler times to provide the ambiance I need.
So, here are my top ten classic love songs guaranteed to set the Valentine Day’s mood. Did I miss any of your favorites?
You still have time to surreptitiously create your own playlist and magically call it up on your smart speaker on Valentine’s Day. If you do, you will own the day and your loved one will never look at you the same way again. (I mean that in a good way.)
10. Glen Campbell: “Grow Old with Me” John Lennon wrote it but never got a chance to record it. Glen’s beautiful voice does justice to this simple, heartfelt tune. “Grow old along with me, whatever fate decrees, we will see it through, for our love is true.”
9. Dan Fogelberg: “Longer” A frequent wedding song that sweetly proclaims that love will last forever. “Longer than there’ve been stars up in the heavens, I’ve been in love with you.”
8. Al Green: “Let’s Stay Together” This soulful balladeer promises he’ll do whatever it takes to keep his baby. “Let me say that since, baby, since we’ve been together, ooh, loving you forever, is what I need, let me, be the one you come running to, I’ll never be untrue.”
7. Willie Nelson: “Always on My Mind” The grizzled, veteran singer struck gold with this sorrowful, love mea culpa. “Little things I should have said and done, I just never took the time, but you were always on my mind, you were always on my mind.”
6. Gordon Lightfoot: “Beautiful” The spare arrangement and simple words offer the profound emotion of love realized. “And when you hold me tight, how could life be anything but beautiful, I think that I was made for you, and you were made for me.”
5. Beatles: “Something” This timeless classic written by quiet Beatle George Harrison tells about the little things that makes love so special. “Somewhere in her smile she knows, that I don’t need no other lover, something in her style that shows me.”
4. Etta James: “At Last” This quintessential wedding song from the ‘40s proclaims love has finally arrived. It was made famous by Etta in 1961. “At last, my love has come along, my lonely days are over, and life is like a song”
3. Kenny Rogers: “Through the Years” The perfect song for a grateful man in a long-term relationship who can’t believe it has been so good. “Through the years, you’ve never let me down, you’ve turned my life around, the sweetest days I’ve found, I’ve found with you.”
2. Foreigner: “I Want to Know What Love Is” A haunting melody that shows how to look for love after it’s been lost. “I wanna know what love is, I want you to show me, I wanna feel what love is, I know you can show me.”
1. The Righteous Brothers: “Unchained Melody” This strangely titled but deeply emotional song perfectly captures the intense longing for an unwavering love. You’ll be amazed at their range in octaves. “Woah, my love, my darling, I’ve hungered for your touch, Are you still mine?”
Honorable mentions: The Association’s “Cherish,” Bee Gee’s “Run to Me,” Chicago’s “Just You ‘n’ Me,” Climax’s “Precious and Few,” Climax Blues Band’s “I Love You,” Jim Croce’s “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song,” Eagles’ “Best of My Love,” John Lennon’s “Woman,” Barry Manilow’s “Somewhere in the Night,” Paul McCartney’s “No More Lonely Nights,” Orleans’ “Love Takes Time” and Turtles’ “Happy Together.”
Not everyone loves Christmas songs, but you can put me in a special category. I love Christmas songs from classic rockers.
It couldn’t have been easy for them. I’m sure some producer or agent along the way told them they needed to do a Christmas album or at least record a few Christmas songs. It would have been easy to record a few of the old standards, and many of them did just that. But, to write and record an original track and have it turn into a standard, well, that is saying something.
Here are my top 10 original Christmas songs from classic rockers, or at least covers that have become indelibly associated with the artist. Build this playlist into your smart speaker and, if you’re about my age, you’ll be instantly transported back to your teen years when Christmas was carefree.
How’d I do? Did I miss any of your favorites?
10. Jim Croce – It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way What can I say, I’m a big fan and this is my list. But wait. Give it a chance. Listen to the unmistakably smooth voice and heartfelt sentiment. 9. Paul McCartney – Wonderful Christmas Time This one’s a bit syrupy, but come on, it’s Paul McCartney! He can do what he wants. 8. Paul Young – What Christmas Means to Me Paul is an obscure ’70s/’80s top 40 artist who somehow struck gold with this one. 7. Kenny Loggins – Celebrate Me Home This obscure song is hauntingly beautiful. Just listen. 6. Carpenters – Merry Christmas, Darling Ok, they’re not rockers but the angelic voice of Karen Carpenter offers up a true standard of aching loneliness and missing your loved one at Christmas. 5. Bryan Adams – Christmas Time I love this Canadian rocker’s voice and sentiment. Super nostalgic. Always takes me back. 4. Beach Boys – Little Saint Nick They make it seem so easy. These Hall of Famers offer their 60’s hit Little Deuce Coup with snow a-flying instead of rubber! 3. Stevie Wonder – Some Day at Christmas A pointed, political statement from someone who really cares. 2. Eagles – Please Come Home for Christmas It wouldn’t be Christmas without this bluesy and melancholy cover. 1. John Lennon and Yoko Ono– Happy Xmas (War Is Over) A political statement mixed with an unforgettable melody and simple words. A true masterpiece from an all-time great.
