Four of the eight nominees — Cher, Foreigner, Peter Frampton and Kool & the Gang — were on the ballot for the first time.

Mary J. Blige, Cher, Ozzy Osbourne, A Tribe Called Quest and Foreigner get into Rock Hall

The Birds And The Bees - Jewel Akens

Say the name Redbone and only one song comes to mind for most: Come & Get Your Love, a Top 10 hit in 1974.

But it turns out that wasn't the song the history-making Native American group wanted the public to hear. It came at a time when what were then termed "Indians" were in the midst of a battle at Wounded Knee, a seminal event in Indigenous history in the U.S. Their choice was a protest song called "We Were All Wounded At Wounded Knee," a protest song that CBS Records refused to release in America. 

So the more gentle "Come & Get Your Love" was chosen instead and it became the only real hit for brothers Pat and Lolly Vegas.  But when it came to 'come and get your royalties,' that was a source of fraternal friction. 

"As Pat Vegas tells it, he and his brother worked on "Come and Get Your Love" late one night in Philadelphia, where they were performing a series of gigs. It was finished the next day.

"In his memoir, Pat claims that the song was co-written by the two of them, but that Lolly claimed sole credit for it with the label. He writes that while he was "appalled" and "furious" with his brother, he chose to stay silent, believing that raising a stink would hurt Redbone's reputation. When I asked how the disagreement affected their relationship, he says, "We got over it."

50 years ago, 'Come and Get Your Love' put Native culture on the bandstand

Remember Los Bravos, a near one-hit wonder with "Black Is Black?" They became one of the only groups from Spain to ever reach the charts in a big way around the world. (It soared to #4 in the U.S. and #1 in Canada.) 

The lead singer was a guy named Mike Kennedy and while he was born in Germany, he only achieved fame when he moved to Spain. He was a huge star there and made a lot of money. But as the article linked below indicates, he lost it all due to a narcissistic behaviour that led him to throw away his fame and growing fortune, leaving him near destitute and living in a long term care centre in his adopted country. 

He just turned 80 and is looking back at a life that should have gone very differently. A really interesting story on a guy who, while you know the voice, I'm betting most of us couldn't even name. 

The extraordinary life of Los Bravos singer Mike Kennedy, a genuine musical rebel

The Four Seasons lead singer has brought a lot of joy with his music, but behind closed doors, this must be breaking his heart.

Frankie Valli’s ‘heartache’ at drug addict son who ‘threatened to kill him’

Happy Eclipse Day - from my heart.

“It’s a takeoff on our own stuff,” Cooper says. “Instead of ‘I'm Eighteen,’ it's ‘I'm Thirteen.’ 'School's In.' And ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy' is 'Now, I'm Mr. Nice Guy.' It’s kind of a positive take on the stuff we used to do.”

The album [is] titled "Solid Rock Revival"...

Rob Halford, the voice of Judas Priest, is featured on a song called “Pleasant Dreams” about overcoming your fear of the dark, while Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of Run-DMC has reimagined Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour” as a hip-hop children’s song called “Midday Hour.”

How Alice Cooper reimagined 'I'm Eighteen' and 'School's Out' for a kids album

The secretary-turned-singer credits her early and accidental position with Motown for giving her the chance to prove what she could do.

And she's in good company as she's dancing in this street. 

"Reeves' star is near those honoring [Stevie] Wonder and the Motown groups The Supremes, The Temptations and The Miracles."

Walk of Fame Star honoring Martha Reeves unveiled

It sounds amazing and if you have Disney+, you'll be able to see it starting May 24th. 

"The documentary traces the band from humble family beginnings and features never-before-seen footage and all-new interviews with The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, David Marks and Bruce Johnston, plus other luminaries in the music business, including Lindsey Buckingham, Janelle Monáe, Ryan Tedder, and Don Was."

Archive footage will make sure both Carl and Dennis Wilson are included, too.
 
‘The Beach Boys’ Doc Sets Disney+ Premiere Date

The good news is if you want to see this show, you can watch it online on the TVO website. If you're outside of the country, you'll need a VPN tuned to Canada. Otherwise, it's completely free. 

Watch here.

One of the key musicians behind The Zombies, Rod Argent, claims the boys in the band were simply too young and inexperienced to realize they were being mishandled by record company and music executives. And it's why their careers were cut short. 

Also worth noting: most of the still very young group had no idea what a "Zombie" even was. But they took the name anyway. 

They also resented being sold to the public as "the intellectual rock group."

"...we were very badly managed, [notes Argent.] We’d only just left school and we’d made “She’s Not There” which everybody loved, and they said, you’ve got to have a press profile. So this photographer took some pictures that we hated, even at the time. And the press needed a story to write. They’d ask, ‘What have you done?’ And we’d say that we haven’t done anything, we had just left school...

"So they put this whole thing out about us being so academic and with these [terrible] pictures, which followed us around. A lot of newspapers, being lazy, would always use the same picture when they did articles on us. Later we had fantastic pictures made but they were never used. Sometimes, even today, some very kind newspaper will dredge up these old pictures and we’ll say, “Aaaahha!”

Despite that, many of the surviving members of the group - including Argent - are still touring and still making music. 

The Time Of The Zombies

My local radio board is highlighting a new format I've never heard of before. The station plays the usual "Greatest Hits," but ICON Radio (aka CKAY-FM) in the Vancouver area does something before those hits get played. 

Announcers and often the artists themselves come on to tell the stories behind most of the songs that are about to be played, offering insights about how or why they were written, what happened when they were recorded or performed in concert, how the groups formed or other tales behind the tunes. 

It's not for everyone, but I have to admit to some curiosity about it - I love learning "behind the scene" details I never knew about some of my favorite songs and this is what the station is all about for almost every record they play. 

If you're curious what this sounds like, you can check it out online here. 

An unfortunate story I never heard before. 

The Rolling Stones And The Beach Boys Haven't Always Gotten Along, And Fans Didn't Love Their Beef

This is from Rolling Stone Magazine and is bound to cause the usual arguments. But boy, for the most part I definitely do not agree with their Top 10 choices and certainly not #1!

The 100 Best Beatles Solo Songs

Skip To The Top 10