My favorite 25 of the Purple One

Three days have passed and I still am having a hard time coming to grips to the fact that Prince is no longer here.

Sure, I admit I had my disagreements with The Purple One over his thoughts of pulling back his most famous songs and music videos from YouTube. I always thought he wasn't looking at the bigger picture over the future and what future generations may find with his older music.

Turns out Prince was looking at the present with his eye to the future. There are stories abound that he has thousands -- yes, thousands -- of songs he recorded at his Paisley Park studio waiting to make CDs or albums or even downloaded singles. That is simply unheard of.

But the Prince we're going to remember is the artist who we knew as Prince and who was formally Prince before he became Prince again as the 20th century became the 21st century. He was a shy, private individual as the first time most of us saw him was on the show American Bandstand when he stammered and stumbled over short answers wit host Dick Clark. Believe me, if you saw that interview, it was painful to wach.

Still, he was a musical genius, unafraid to try different things with different people. In the end, he released an exhausting 39 albums or CDs in 38 years of recording. That's simply unheard of by today's standards of recording music. Prince lived in the studio.

And he made us dance. He made us have fantasies over the opposite sex of the things he liked to do with women. And he made us think as well. Great artists who can get us to think over the lyrics of a song don't come that easy.

So it was a sad and shocking day on April 21, 2016 when Prince was found dead at his Paisley Park studios, just a month and a half short of his 58th birthday. Prince had no children and did not have a wife to leave behind, but he left us some amazing "babies" with his music that will live on for generations to come.

I remember watching that interview on Bandstand. I remember him getting booed off stage as an opening act for the Rolling Stones in 1981. But I also remember the triumph of the album "1999" and then the soundtrack and the movie Purple Rain. He was as much a superstar as Michael Jackson was. Amazing how the decade of the 1980s were about two guys -- Michael Jackson and Prince -- who were not only talented but true introverts as well. Genius comes, sometimes, from the inward nature of people.

In the 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s, I was as big a Prince fan as anyone out there. And over the years, I counted on something by Prince that would stir within me, make me think, make me dance ... or those fantasies, but not as much as I was younger.

Then again, Prince was starting to mellow out over the years. The music, though, never wavered from greatness. I have come up with a list of my 25 favorite Prince songs over his 38-year career in order from No. 25 down to No. 1, my all-time favorite and give some reason as to why I liked the song.

I hope you enjoy the list. Maybe some of your favorites are on this list, too. Without further delay, here's my list:

25. Uptown (1980, #101): If you want to hear a little of what the early Minneapolis Sound was all about, put "Uptown" on from Prince's "Dirty Mind" album and feel the groove. It's an irresistible groove that easily could have been recorded by Vanity 6. A very breezy and enjoyable beat ... and a good time had by all, that is, until the sudden ending.

24. Paisley Park (1985, album track): Side one, track one of the No. 1 1985 album "Around The World In Day" and there is where you take an acid trip into another dimension, almost as if Prince has slipped back into the psychedelic 1960s. Since this was the first piece of music we all got our hands on after the hugely successful "Purple Rain" soundtrack and movie, that first track set the tone. Prince's guitar and that drum machine were mesmerizing as the Purple One wove the tale about this imaginary park that one day he would turn into his own home and recording studio.

23. Musicology (2004, #120): Prince knew how to pay homage to those who he learned a few things from in his life, both young and old. "Musicology" is an ode to the music he grew up with and admired from such acts as James Brown, Earth, Wind & Fire and Sly & The Family Stone, who he gives shoutouts to by mentioning their hits "Hot Pants," "September" and "I Want To Take You Higher," respectively of the acts who did them. He also gives a nod to the new-school artists like Chuck D. of Pubic Enemy and the late Jam Master J of Run-DMC. No matter who does it, it's still good music in Prince's world as he sings, "Wish you had a dollar everytime someone would say, "Don't you miss that feeling gave you, back in the day.'"

22. Beautiful, Loved & Blessed (2006, promotional single): One thing Prince rarely gets credit for is how well he duets with the ladies, whether it's Sheena Easton or Sheila E. or even an unknown like Tamar Davis. From his 2006 CD "3121," Prince follows Davis the same way he politely followed Sheila E. on her hit song "A Love Bizarre." As for Prince, he reaches a lot of singing ranges, starting down near a bass and coming up to a range we're used to hearing from him, all layered in with a mid-tempo beat that doesn't feel like in any way you're intruding on what he and she are doing. It sounds like they are having a good time bouncing vocals off one another.

21. Let's Pretend We're Married (1983, #52): You've heard enough of the "1999" album to know that most of the songs are heavy on synthesizers and drum machines. Then comes this song, heavy on the synth and drum machines, and Prince is unapologetic about what he wants to do after his girl leaves. He finds the first fine-lookin' lady and he wants to ... well ... you know! As he sings in this song, "Oh darling if you're free for a couple of hours or if you ain't busy for the next seven years. Let's pretend we're married and go all night. There ain't nothin' wrong if it feels all right." He's unabashed about his feelings and that urge that got him in trouble with some folks in Washington, especially when he uses the f-word nonchalantly.

20. Delirious (1983, #8): The "1999" album was a party from start to finish and when the big hits from the album got exhausted, Prince put those people out on the dance floor and got them moving their tired bodies to "Delirious," another drum-machine delight that was irresistible in nature. Going ga-ga over a girl whenever she's near, Prince was letting us all in on those feelings while we couldn't stop moving our feet, right to the sudden end of a baby laughing.

19. Cream (1991, #1): As ooey-gooey as his hits of the 1980s and as sexually provocative as well, Prince makes it a romp with a heavy keyboard presence and a fun banter between him and New Power Generation singer Rosie Gaines. If the moaning at the start of the song to a syncopated beat didn't give the song's sexual prowess away, Prince was sure making his presence felt by telling the girl, "You're filthy, cute and baby, ya know it."

18. The Morning Papers (1993, #44): While most of his songs were heavy on the synthesizers, this one was an exception as an emotional Prince jumps behind the piano and delivers a heart-felt message in "The Morning Papers," a look inside to his budding relationship with girlfriend Mayte Garcia, who he would marry three years later. He was expressing how she would be part of his world and how tabloids would follow her every move. Prince ultimately jumps off the piano and goes to his recognizable love, his guitar. Not really your typical Prince song as it sounded more pop than funky.

17. (She's) Soft & Wet (1978, #92): From where it all began for 20-year-old Prince, the album, "For You," in which he plays every instrument (he would on his first five albums), gave us an idea of what was to come with "Soft & Wet," a funky track that made people pause because of Prince's falsetto voice -- was that a guy or a girl singing? His first sexually explicit song ... before he jumped over the line of good and evil.

16. I Wanna Be Your Lover (1980, #11): The first major moment on the charts for Prince, it's that falsetto voice that overwhelms the jam he's put down under it. He's so infatuated with the girl that not only does he want to be her lover, he wants to be her "mama and your sister to ya." He's trying to make his case and assures her by saying, "I wanna be the only one you come for ... yeah." The jam session he plays (practically by himself) takes the song out in a respectable manner that had the underlying of what the "new disco" sounded like after the sudden thud of the old disco sound in 1979.

15. Diamonds & Pearls (1992, #2): Once again, a ballad in pure Prince fashion with plenty of keyboard behind. It's a hit for Prince and his New Power Generation, but in actuality, he's duetting with backing vocalist Rosie Gaines as she highlights the song with her famous "D to the I to the A to the M ... O to the N to the D to the pearls of love." Prince sounds like he's being precise with his cadence as he sings his lines throughout in the tone of, "Da-da-dah-daaah-dum," a few seconds of silence, then "Da-da-dah-daaaah-duuuuuuum." He doesn't sound "free" to sing the way he normally does, but I loved it anyway.

14. I Can Never Take The Place Of Your Man (1988, #10): Ah yes, the "Sign O' The Times" album/CD and what was the third big hit from it. It's a romp that has Prince telling the story of a woman who leaves her man and sees Prince, but he knows he can never replace what she had and that a one-night stand was never going to work. It's fast pace makes it a unique record, but what's also interesting were that two drum machines were working at once on this one and Prince gives not one, but two guitar solos, one a bluesy piece, the other the normal solo that takes the song out.

13. My Name Is Prince (1992, #36): Outside of "Let's Go Crazy," this is probably Prince's other chaotic song he's ever done. The musical background is simply all over the place, overpowered by a pounding backbeat and a chorus backing him and his famous shriek, all the while Prince laying the law down: "My name is Prince! And I am funky!" He delivers a loud, boastful lead vocal and gets the rare rapping help on this one, delivered by Tony M. Shortly after this came out, Prince began dabbling with that unpronounceable symbol as his "name."

12. Gett Off (1991, #21): Featuring the standout flute work of Eric Leeds, a long time musician working for Prince because, in his words, "he played an instrument that Prince couldn't teach him how to do a song exactly on," this is one raunchy plow-fest, quoting from James Brown along the way, "I like 'em fat. I like 'em proud. You got to have a Mother for me," then adding, "Now move your big ass over this way so I can work on that zipper, baby. Tonight, you're a star ... and I'm the big dipper." With Rosie Gaines providing the female vocal and Tony M. doing the talkin' throughout, Prince delighted in this one, heavy on the guitar as he rode the song out. It's one dirty jam we didn't mind feeling dirty about either.

11. Controversy (1981, #70): For one of those times in his career, The Purple One seems to come off robotic in how he approaches his vocals, but yet we understand what he's saying, famously asking, "People call me rude. I wish we all were nude. I wish there was no black and white. I wish there were no rules." Those vocals are buoyed by the pairing of synthesizers and guitar and would provide a lot of what would be played when Prince's protégé band, The Time, came out shortly after this song and album of the same name came out.

10. U Got The Look (1987, #2): Prince calls this "The World Series of Love." And why not? That opening salvo sounds serious and like a competition. And with Sheena Easton singing backing vocals on this one, we're not sure if we should be peaking in on what it is they're saying to one another or how heavy the sexual tension is. Prince plays this raucous rocker out, proving once again he has the chops to lay down that lead guitar like not many others can.

9. Raspberry Beret (1985, #2): Prince made this a joyous adventure, so much so that I wish I was riding down by Ol' Man Johnson's farm. The girl had to be a knockout for Prince to just cut out on work and entertain her. Unlike a number of Prince songs, this one is filled wit strings, played on here by violinist Novi Novog and cellists Suzie Katayama and David Coleman with Wendy & Lisa of the group providing the arrangement of the strings. It's Prince at his playful best and he and those strings work beautifully together to give us one of those moments you never forget from the man musically.

8. Darling Nikki (1984, album track): Of all of Prince's songs that drip with sexual desire and being downright horny, this one from the movie Purple Rain may take the cake, especially when Tipper Gore put Prince on her hit list because of the nature of this song, part of the "Filthy Fifteen" brought upon by the Parents Music Resource Center. In the movie, this slinky, sexy, filthy, enjoyable piece of music was meant to get under the skin of Prince's protégé in the film, played by Appolonia, who is being courted by The Kid's rival, played by Morris Day, who is telling her horrible things abut Prince. It's like listening to a sex show we weren't supposed to hear.

7. Let's Go Crazy (1984, #1): It's that one song you know Prince poured every last drop of himself into. It's a powerful rocker, yet you can dance to it and never be unapologetic for it. Starting off with Prince announcing, "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life." His opening sermon sets it up for a marriage of the traditional Minneapolis Sound to that of Prince's own urge to go heavy on his guitar, especially the unforgettable solo at the end of the song. As he says at the end, "Take me away!"

6. Kiss (1986, #1): Except for the small guitar solo in the middle and the sniffs of guitar licks throughout, this one is driven by a drum machine, synthesizer and a one-toned, high-pitched Prince singing his way through this sassy piece of pop. He plays the role of the reliable guy who, no matter what the situation, will come through for her and all he wants in return is her extra time and her (muah, muah, muah, muah) ... kiss. Unlike other Prince tunes, this one was far from over the top and because of that, it was one of the most successful singles the Purple One ever had. So popular the song that two years later, the Art of Noise and Tom Jones thought highly to remake the tune.

5. When Doves Cry (1984, #1): To think we've heard this song for so many years and you realize one thing without ever knowing it -- there's no bass in the song! A simple drum machine is so effective that Prince masks the lack of a bass guitar. It's a dance tune that isn't over the top and whose melody is as memorable as that of Terence Trent D'Arby's "Wishing Well" or the J. Geils Band's "Centerfold." The song became Prince's first No. 1 song in 1984 and first release from the soundtrack and the movie Purple Rain. This song works both in its shortened version or in the longer version where Prince "yipes" through the musical backdrop.

4. Little Red Corvette (1983, #7): That Saturday night felt really awesome when it was Prince, his girl and that car. Delivering various backing vocals making it sound like he had friends singing along, it was all Prince doing the song that put him on the map for good from the "1999" album. Though the sexual overtones aren't so out there, the innuendo of what happens that night is very much spelled out. "But it was Saturday night, I guess that makes it all right and you said, 'Baby, have you got enough gas?' Oh yeah!" Prince had so many ways he could've written "Little Red Corvette." Whatever he wrote would not have been wrong. In other words, this was a bona fide smash hit.

3. Sign O' The Times (1987, #3): The world was at a crisis stage and if his fans didn't know that, Prince surely was going to have a word about it to them. He sang about the AIDS epidemic, the troubles with youth gangs and the problems of living in a world of the bomb dropping and killing millions. And his vocals were all delivered over a syncopated synthesizer and drum machine that got all too familiar with his fans.

2. Purple Rain (1984, #2): By the end of this dramatic song, you are either in tears or near tears -- especially if you saw the movie and how powerful a tune it was in the club when Prince sang it in honor of his father, played by Clarence Williams III, who was lying in the hospital with a bullet wound to the head after he tried to take his own life. Prince pours everything into this song, first singing about his father, then his girlfriend, then his band mates, The Revolution, as his guitar work help play the full version of the song out. The meaning of the song, according to the late singer, is about being with one or ones you love as the end of the world nears. Spooky indeed.

1. 1999 (1983, #12): "Purple Rain" is maybe the best song Prince has ever done. But my favorite is "1999" because it's really an enjoyable dance record with the backdrop of the world coming to an end, but as Prince sings in the song, "We could all die any day." So if the world is coming to an end, let's have a going-away party like you've never seen before! "1999" started as a late fall single release, but when it failed to hit the Top 40 as the first single from the album, Plan B was to release "Little Red Corvette." That song became a hit and so Warner Brothers tried again with "1999" as a single and this time around, it fit perfectly as a late spring release in 1983 and one of the reasons, in my humble opinion, the Summer of 1983 is still the greatest musically ever.

The AT40 Blog/April 17, 1976: The long, epic and sweet 'Rhapsody'

Roy Thomas Baker knew he was in trouble. He knew he was going to have an interesting scenario on his hands when he walked into the recording studio and Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury began playing him part of a piece of music he was putting together, something Mercury had been working on since the 1960s.

"He played the beginning on the piano, then stopped and said, 'And this is where the opera section comes in!' Then we went out to eat dinner," said Baker, Queen's producer.

Baker wasn't sure what direction Mercury was heading in, but he knew he would get an explanation that would blow his mind and change the fortunes of the band.

Mercury had ideas for his concoction – lots of ideas. He was going to make sure that everything that was pouring out of his mind was going to be put into this one record. No one knew it was going to be the equivalent of the Beatles' "Hey Jude, the classic Jimmy Webb composition "McArthur Park" or the Led Zeppelin standard "Stairway To Heaven," but by the end, "Bohemian Rhapsody" made the band Queen a household name.

The hours it took to put the song down were grueling. The dubs and overdubs and even more overdubs on top of the overdubs were practically punishing the finished work. And when it was done, it clocked in at a lengthy 5 minutes and 55 seconds, not exactly the time element radio station disc jockeys had in mind in playing a tune.

But Mercury was stubborn – it was sink or swim for the song because he never ever accepted anyone taking a razor blade to the finished product and slashing it down to three minutes or less.

Said Brian May, Queen's guitarist, of the recording: "That was a great moment, but the biggest thrill for us was actually creating the music in the first place. I remember Freddie coming in with loads of bits of paper form his dad's work, like Post-it notes, and pounding on the piano. He played the piano like most people the drums. And this song he had was full of gaps where he explained that something operatic would happen here and so on. He'd work out the harmonies in his head."

And so the song began with the band members singing, "Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality." 

Shortly after that, Mercury, playing the piano, begins to sing: "Mama ... just killed a man. Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger, now he's dead." Some surmise that this was Mercury's way of telling his family that he was coming out as a gay man, but no one really picked up on that clue for over a decade.

Recording for the song, which would be placed on the "Queen II" album, started on August 24, 1975, at Rockfield Studio 1 in Monmouth, Wales. The song itself was rehearsed for three weeks, so the band was ready to finally put the track down. But things got so complex with the recording of it, that, by the end, it took two weeks to record and to be done in four different recording studios. The only thing that was holding all the parts of the song together was a "drum click" that was making it easy to insert parts of the song into the final product.

At one point, Mercury, May and drummer Roger Taylor were singing their parts of the song continuously for 10 to 12 hours a day. And the song was placed into six parts: The intro with all four members singing with the piano in the background, the ballad where it is just Mercury singing, accompanying his own piano play, followed by May's memorable guitar solo, followed by the "opera" part that Mercury dug deep into his own religion growing up, Zoroastrianism, picking out words like "Bismillah," "Scaramouch," and "Beelzebub," which, of course, is in reference to the Devil. Once the opera hits its crescendo with all 180 dubs – that's right, 180 musical and vocal overdubs – was finished, the song goes back into a traditional rock format where May's guitar work is appreciated and Mercury's lead vocals are soaring. The song's outro finishes with Mercury lamenting, "Nothing really matters, anyone can see. Nothing really matters. Nothing really matters ... to me," ending it all with "Anyway the wind blows," followed by Taylor hitting a tam-tam (gong) to put the song to rest.

Amazingly, Baker didn't wind up in a mental hospital by the end of putting each piece of the musical puzzle together to get this magical masterpiece.

But even with Baker finishing up and the band eager to make it the first single release from "Queen II," just about everyone warned Mercury and his mates that there was no way in Beelzebub's world that "Bohemian Rhapsody" would see the light of day as a release. Even the hottest singer in the world at the time, who, too, was releasing long-winded pieces as singles, Elton John, told Queen's manager, John Reid, of the musical piece, "Are you mad? You'll never get that on the radio."

Again, though, Mercury was persistent and wanted to reward Baker for the work he did in putting this song with all those dubs and overdubs together.

So the band did the unthinkable – they went over the heads of their company's executives and of their manager and took the track to London disc jockey Kenny Everett of Capitol Radio. Everett listened to the song and Baker told him, "This isn't for release," for which Everett looked at Baker, winked at him, and said, "Yeah, I know."

At first, Everett "teased" his audience of the new Queen release by playing snippets of the song. They were intrigued to say the least. Then finally, he gave it up totally and played the full 5-minute, 55-second song. And he did it 14 times in both days of a weekend!

By that Monday morning, fans stormed record shops throughout England looking for the song to buy, only to find out that EMI Records hadn't released it, much to the fans' dismay. Meanwhile, Paul Drew, the head of RKO Radio in the United States, had heard Everett's show and heard him playing the song. He managed to get a copy of it and began to play it on his show. In the United States, Queen's record label company, Elektra Records, began to give in to pressure and have more stations play the song.

Ultimately, word got back to EMI Records that radio stations on both sides of the Atlantic were getting powerful and positive vibes from this record and finally gave in, releasing the unedited version of "Bohemian Rhapsody." In England, it was released in early November 1975. It hit the British chart at No. 47 on November 8, 1975 and pole-vaulted 30 notches to debut in the Top 40 at No. 17 the next week. After a modest eight-notch climb to No. 9 the next week, "Bohemian Rhapsody" vaulted another eight notches to land at No. 1 on November 29, 1975, where it would spend an overwhelming nine weeks at the top, tied for the longest-running No. 1 song of the 1970s with Wings' "Mull Of Kintyre" in 1977-78 and John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John's Grease movie duet, "You're The One That I Want" in 1978.

Though some critics took pot shots at the song, calling it "superficially impressive pastiche of operatic styles" and "contrived to approximate the demented fury of the Balham Amateur Operatic Society performing," others like Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson found it to be an artistic triumph and Greg Lake, whose seasonal gem "I Believe In Father Christmas" was kept from hitting No. 1 in December 1975 by Queen's opus, said he was "beaten by one of the greatest records ever made" and called it a "once-in-a-lifetime recording."

The song was enjoying its sixth week at No. 1 in the UK on January 3, 1976, when it made the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, debuting at No. 81. Unlike in England, though, the song didn't take off with meteoric force. It took chunks out of the chart, though, moving from 81-71-59-49-43 and finally debuting in the Top 40 at No. 38 on February 7, 1976. Then it began the slow riser up the countdown, going from No. 38 to 33 to 31 to 29 to 25 to 22 to 19 to 17 to 15 and then to No. 12.

Slow and steady, the song never stopped at any particular point climbing the chart. Then on the week of April 17, 1976, "Bohemian Rhapsody" jumped up another two notches to No. 10, giving Queen its first Top 10 hit in the United States, a major success. The next week, it would move to No. 9, but that's where the song would die out after 18 weeks of climbing by May 1, 1976.

It also didn't hurt that the song's success was provided by a memorable music video of the band performing the song, including the crazy operatic part. Bruce Gowers, who got the job to do the music video because he had helped to shoot promotional stuff of the Beatles doing some music videos for songs they did in the 1960s, most notably "Paperback Writer." There was also another reason why a music video was shot for the song featuring the members of the band – the highly successful BBC show Top of the Pops had the famous Pan dancers dancing to the tune and it didn't look right. And May admitted years later that the band didn't want to go on the show to "mimic" the famous opera scene, so sending the show the music video helped immensely.

Everything about "Bohemian Rhapsody" was right – the recording, the overdubs, the music video, the reception on both sides of the Atlantic, even the title of the song. "Bohemian" stood for the individual work of the "newer, fresher" Bohemian artist and "Rhapsody" represented all that was right in the art rock world. Unintentionally, "Bohemian Rhapsody" was paying homage to the art rock acts who helped pave the way for an "art rock epic" like "Bohemian Rhapsody," acts like 10cc, Genesis, Yes and David Bowie.

By 2002, "Bohemian Rhapsody," a song that was never to see the light of the day thanks to the word of the band's record executives, was voted by Guinness Book of World Records as the third-most favorite song in the UK behind John Lennon's "Imagine" and "Hey Jude."

But the record had a sad footnote to it: On November 24, 1991, Mercury passed away due to complications from the HIV virus. He was only 45 years old. As a tribute to Mercury, Parlophone Records, now owners of the song, re-released "Bohemian Rhapsody" and on December 21, 1991, "Bohemian Rhapsody" did the unthinkable – it debuted at No. 1 in the UK as a double, A-sided track along with the Mercury-penned "These Are The Days Of Our Lives." The songs would spent five more weeks at the top and to this day, "Bohemian Rhapsody" remains the only chart-topper in UK chart history to be a No. 1 hit in two separate chart runs in the same version.


While the song was ruling England and the UK all over again, in the United States, the movie Wayne's World, based on the Saturday Night Live skit created by Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey), was released. And in the opening scene, there's Wayne telling those riding along with him in Garth's car, "I think we'll go with a little Bohemian Rhapsody, gentlemen," for which Garth says, "Good call." The song is played and the guys get into it.

The hit from 1976 got a second chance to thrive in the U.S. thanks to the movie. And, wow, did it thrive – this time around, the song peaked at No. 2 in the spring of 1992, much to the band's shock and joy, learning that the music video for "Bohemian Rhapsody" from Wayne's World earned them an MTV Award for "Best Video From A Film." An emotional May accepted the honor with Taylor, saying to the audience at the show that night, "Freddie would've been tickled."

In 1977, barely a year after the song hit No. 9 on the U.S. chart, the British Phonographic Industry named "Bohemian Rhapsody," only a 2-year-old song then, as the best British single in the period between 1952-77. And in an ITV poll in 2012, on the 60th anniversary of the British music pop chart, "Bohemian Rhapsody" was named The Nation's Favourite Number One of all time, ahead of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean," Adele's "Someone Like You," Oasis' "Don't Look Back in Anger," and "Hey Jude."

Amazing that over 40 years later, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is still a favorite of pop and rock radio. It probably will be long after we're gone. And to think that EMI Records wasn't going to ever release the song because it was too bloody long!

Whatever Mercury was thinking in his head was a masterpiece that would be lauded for years to come. And producer Roy Thomas Baker thought about running the other way when Mercury mentioned something about an "operatic" part.

Good thing he stayed.

The AT40 Blog/April 12, 1980: 'Born Again' in so many ways

The spring of 1980 proved to be fruitful for two veteran singer-songwriters who had not had much in success for years.

And they could thank a one-year old soundtrack song for their success.

Billy Preston was dubbed "The Fifth Beatle" in 1969 for his work with the Fab Four on their No. 1 hit "Get Back" and the flip side of that single, "Don't Let Me Down," laying down his work as a keyboardist. At one point, John Lennon wanted to take him along to wherever the Beatles went off to for which Paul McCartney countered what his songwriting partner said by saying that it was difficult already reaching agreements with the original four guys.

Preston also worked with the Rolling Stones on five of their albums in the 1970s. The star of the Nat King Cole movie about blues man W.C. Handy, St. Louis Blues, for which he played Handy as a young boy in 1958, Preston broke through in 1972 with the No. 2 instrumental hit "Outta-Space" and hit No. 1 singing "Will It Go 'Round In Circles" and "Nothing From Nothing." He also co-wrote Joe Cocker's memorable No. 5 pop hit, "You're So Beautiful" in 1975.

But after making history as the first musical performer on the NBC show that would become Saturday Night Live, Preston left the music scene. By the late 1970s, Preston was let go by A&M Records, however he wasn't without work for long, signing with Motown Records in 1979.

While Preston was trying to find his way back with a new record label, it was on that same record label that Syreeta Wright made a name for herself. Moved into Detroit as a young child, Wright began working at Motown Records as a receptionist after graduating high school in 1964. Before long, Wright was serving as the personal secretary for Motown songwriter-producer Mickey Stevenson, just like one of his proteges, Martha Reeves of Martha & The Vandellas, had done before.

In 1966, she was found singing outside a studio by Eddie Holland of Motown's most successful songwriting partnership, Holland-Dozier-Holland. She was invited to sing the demo tapes that Diana Ross and the Supremes would sing in the studio. One of the songs she would sing was called "I Can't Give Back The Love I Feel For You." Motown CEO Berry Gordy felt so strongly about what he heard in the demo that he said that Wright should be recording the song instead of the star attraction. It didn't chart, but it did get her some attention.

When Ross left for a solo career in January 1970, Wright was considered to be her replacement. Instead, though, Motown went with Jean Terrell instead, and a year later, Gordy had some reservations about the decision he made. He reportedly looked to make the change of Wright for Terrell, but Supreme mainstay Mary Wilson told Gordy there was no way that was going to happen.

Instead of pouting, Wright started to work as a songwriter, suggested to her by fellow label mate Stevie Wonder. Wonder and Wright put the notes and words together on a number of songs: "It's A Shame" for The Spinners, and two songs that Wonder would make hits out of: "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" and "If You Really Love Me."

Before long, Wright and Wonder were falling in love and in 1970, the 20-year-old Wonder married the 23-year-old Wright. They would stay married, though, for 18 months, divorcing early in 1972. But even after the divorce, the pair would work together on a pair of Wright albums and she would work with him on his breakthrough album, "Talking Back."

Still, for whatever success she had as a songwriter and as a backup vocalist, success as a main singer eluded Wright. And as the 1970s were nearing an end, there was uncertainty if Wright would ever make it in the business in what she wanted to do.

Then fate intervened in late 1978. Wright was called into a meeting at Motown Records where she would meet newly signed Preston for the first time. There was a song awaiting the pair to record for a new movie called Fast Break, and was written by the songwriting team of Carol Connors and David Shire. Connors was born Annette Kleinbard in New Brunswick, N.J. on November 13, 1940, and at 18 years old, she sang the lead vocal on the one and only hit by the group The Teddy Bears, "To Know Him Is To Love Him," a song written and produced by group member Phil Spector. As a songwriter, Connors wrote "Hey Little Cobra" in 1964 for the Rip Chords, but her greatest success was co-writing the dramatic theme song from the Sylvester Stallone movie Rocky, "Gonna Fly Now" by Bill Conti, a No. 1 hit in 1977. Shire was the husband of actress Talia Shire, who played Stallone's wife, Adrienne, in Rocky. 

The song that was presented to Preston and Wright was "With You I'm Born Again," a gorgeous ballad that came from this movie starring Welcome Back, Kotter star Gabe Kaplan as a frustrated New Yorker with some credentials of coaching basketball, who one day gets a lucky break and a phone call to start coaching a college basketball team in Las Vegas. Soon-to-be legendary star Bernard King had a starring role in this movie, as did future Hill Street Blues star and former UCLA point guard Mike Warren.

Wright and Preston would not only get into the studio in early 1979 to record the song, but they would record other songs for the movie as well. The movie was released on March 2, 1979, but nothing came of the movie, which was a flop, or the soundtrack, where nothing got released. What was worse was the fact Wright's contract was coming up and the idea of extending it was not even on the table.

Six months later, the movie was released overseas ... and to the same bad critiques from foreign film critics. But something happened over in Europe – Motown UK released "With You I'm Born Again," and the song took off up the charts in England. By December 1979, it had reached No. 2 in the UK, kept out of the top spot by Pink Floyd's first No. 1 hit, "Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2."

Watching the song fly up the charts in England was good enough reason for Motown Records to give the song another try. With its absolutely lush arrangement and Preston's and Wright's voice flowing together magnificently, it was amazing the song was never released in the first place.

The song made its Hot 100 debut at an auspicious No. 98 on December 8, 1979, climbing to No. 94 and then No. 92 the last full week of the 1970s. Then 1980 arrived and "With You I'm Born Again" struggled to make any moves, inching up to No. 91, then holding their for a second straight week.

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to release the song as a single when the movie it was from had long been gone and no one could truly remember the premise of it, let alone who starred in it.

"With You I'm Born Again" began to gain momentum, moving into the Top 90 and moved into the No. 88 spot on January 19, 1980. Then it moved up 10 places to No. 78. Then it was a climb of 11 spots to No. 67. The next week, it was a 12-point climb to No. 55. By February 16, 1980, "With You I'm Born Again" was in the Top 50 at No. 48. A week later, it moved up to No. 44.

Then on March 1, 1980, in its 13th week on the Hot 100, "With You I'm Born Again" moved into the Top 40 at No. 36. From that point, it was nothing but going up for the Preston/Syreeta song. It moved up to No. 31, then No. 25, No. 22, No. 17 and No. 15.

On the weekend of April 12, 1980, Preston and Wright leap-frogged into the Top 10 at No. 7, moving up eight notches and acting as the biggest mover within the Top 40. A week later, the song jumped to No. 4, where it would finally wind up peaking for four straight weeks.

By the time the song finally dropped off the chart, it had spent 29 weeks on the Hot 100, also peaking at No. 2 on the adult contemporary chart.

Motown Records offered Wright a contract, which she signed, thanks to the success of a song that took a year to get any traction.

The unfortunate thing, though, for the pair was that neither would have a Top 40 hit again. Preston would eventually accept a bandleader role as the musical director for a late night talk show hosted by late funny man David Brenner. On the other hand, Wright recorded three albums for Motown, none of which made any dent for her, and left the record label after over 20 years in 1985. She recorded an album for Motorcity Records and in 1993, she took on the role as Mary Magdalene alongside two of the original members of the play Jesus Christ Superstar, Ted Neeley and fellow one-hit wonder Carl Anderson ("Friends And Lovers" with Gloria Loring in 1986).

At the turn of the century, though, Wright's health began to fail her. She contracted both breast cancer and bone cancer. She began doing chemotherapy and radiation treatments. But it was also messing up the passageways for her heart to properly functional. On July 6, 2004, Wright passed away from congestive heart failure, a side effect caused by her chemotherapy.

Meanwhile, Preston continued to record and tour and do it constantly going into the early part of the 21st century. But hypertension he was suffering finally led to him suffering bad kidneys. Preston had a kidney transplant in 2002, but it wasn't helping his health, which continued to deteriorate. He checked in for drug rehabilitation, but began to suffer from pericarditis. Finally on June 6, 2006, Presotn passed away from complications due to malignant hypertension, resulting in kidney failure and other complications. Preston was only 59 years old.

Hard to believe that a decade has passed since losing both artists, who had their own successes in the music industry. And when all was said and done, it turns out "With You I'm Born Again" was about the only thing that remained from a funny movie about basketball that either no one saw or no one remembered.

And that is remarkable in its own way considering how much direction these two artists needed after years of misfires.

The AT40 Blog/April 2, 1988: Long after Louis' passing, it was still a 'Wonderful World'

Imagine this if you will: Tony Bennett having a hit with the song, "What A Wonderful World."

The song could have been all his, but the man who made "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" a classic for generations turned the song down.

Yes -- turned it down!

Thankfully, the great Satchmo, Louis Armstrong, saw meaning in the record of hope with the song's co-writer, George David Weiss, saying that the song was really meant for Armstrong all along, mainly due to the New Orleans native's positivity and sunny outlook on life. After all, Armstrong spent his youth bouncing around homes his father, who abandoned he and his mother as a child, and his mother, who had to prostitute for money, lived in, as well as various family members, including his family.

Armstrong, who began working odd jobs as a little boy, understood the hardships of life. "What A Wonderful World" fit in for the man who always managed a smile on his face.

To show you the giving, kind man Armstrong was, he recorded this particular song and accepted just $250 for the recording, even as the lead artist for it. Why? He wanted to make sure the orchestra playing behind him got paid.

In 1967, the 66-year-old Armstrong recorded the tune and in early 1968, it was released in the United Kingdom. And no one expected what was to happen next: It shot to No. 1 in April 1968. Backed by his recording of "Cabaret," "What A Wonderful World" spent four solid weeks at No. 1 and became the No. 1 hit for the entire year of 1968 in England. Not bad for a 67-year-old man who became the oldest artist to score a No. 1 hit in the UK for 42 years (until 69-year-old Tom Jones helped out the folks for Comic Relief on a cover of the Kenny Rogers/Dolly Parton hit "Islands In The Stream" in 2009).

Surely, an American icon like Armstrong would see his No. 1 song across the ocean be released here, right? Well, yes, but in the end, no. That's because Larry Newton, the head of Armstrong's label, ABC Records, did not like the song. It did get released, but did not have the promotional marketing behind it that would have made "What A Wonderful World" a sure-fire hit. Instead, it lagged at No. 116 on the Billboard Bubbling Under chart.

The song never got the due credit it deserved, even with Armstrong's vocals on it, the legendary jazz trumpeter and cornet player who in 1964 did the impossible at the time -- knocked the Beatles out of the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 in May 1964 with his version of "Hello Dolly," making him at 62 years old the oldest artist to have a No. 1 hit on that chart, a feat he still holds even to this day.

Armstrong went on recording albums and touring. In March 1971, he suffered a heart attack after performing a two-week engagement at the Waldorf-Astroia's Empire Room in New York City, which went against his doctor's advice to slow down. He was bed-ridden in the hospital until May, where he went to his home in the Corona section of Queens, New York. But on the morning of July 6, 1971, Armstrong suffered another heart attack in his sleep. He was one month short of his 70th birthday.

He was interred at Flushing Cemetery in the Flushing section of Queens, his honorary pallbearers at his funeral some real cool cats Armstrong befriended in his time as a jazz star: Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Pearl Bailey, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Harry James, Ed Sullivan, David Frost, Earl Wilson, Alan King, Ella Fitzgerald and Johnny Carson. Longtime friend Fred Robbins gave the eulogy, Peggy Lee performed "The Lord's Prayer" and Al Hibbler sang the Armstrong classic "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen."


Armstrong's recording of "What A Wonderful World," though, carried on long after his passing. In 1978, the BBC used the track in the closing moments of the cult radio classic, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Three years later, it was used again in the television series of the same name.

The positive nature of this particular song written by Thiele and Weiss, the latter who co-wrote the Tokens' 1961 chart-topper "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," remained into the 1980s. Then the recording got the break it was looking for all along in the U.S.

Producers Larry Brezner and Mark Johnson began putting together bits and pieces for a movie they were making about the life of disc jockey Adrian Cronauer's time working for the Armed Forces Radio Services, a story Cronauer had pitched nine years earlier, but was finally coming to fruition in a movie called Good Morning, Vietnam, starring funny man Robin Williams as the famed disc jockey, who was trying to make soldiers laugh and smile, while stuck in a crappy setting far, far from home for those fighting in the Vietnam War.

And it was during that time they discovered "What A Wonderful World." Getting the permission to put the song in the soundtrack, it turned out to be the cult hit from the movie of all the songs Williams' character spun on his turntables. The song found an outlet within the movie: scenes of Vietnam drenched in sunshine and blue skies and the people who were living there while the soldiers are riding through the neighborhoods those people occupy, while little boys and girls play as the song plays in the background with Cronauer emulating Armstrong's "Ohhhhh yeeeeah" at the end.

"What A Wonderful World" had its outlet to be a hit at long last a generation later thanks to director Barry Levinson's Oscar-nominated film. Re-released, "What A Wonderful World" found a second life and on February 20, 1988, it hit the Billboard Hot 100, debuting at No. 67. It bounced up to No. 58, then into the Top 50 at No. 46. After stopping off at No. 41, "What A Wonderful World" made The Great Satchmo a Top 40 artist one last time when it came in at No. 38, 19 years and 11 months after it was a No. 1 hit in England.

The good feeling of "What A Wonderful World" being a Top 40 hit was tempered, though. After jumping to No. 33 the next week, it moved up one more notch to No. 32, where it would peak for the week of April 2, 1988. That would be it as it dropped out of the Top 40 the next week.

Over the years, "What A Wonderful World" would continue to be played on easy listening radio (occasionally on '80s radio stations) and be re-recorded by a number of artists, including Roy Clark, Rod Stewart, Anne Murray, Joey Ramone and, yes, Tony Bennett, who turned the song down originally, but has recorded it a few times, most recently in 2003 in a duet with k.d. Lang. It became a No. 1 hit all over again in the UK in 2007 when an older version recorded by the late Eva Cassidy was sung over by Katie Melua topped the chart, helping raise money for the Red Cross.

It's also been used in other movies, such as 12 Monkeys, Madagascar, Head Over Heels, New Year's Eve, Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay, Swing Girls and Back To The Sea.

"What A Wonderful World" is now recognized as a hit from the 1980s. And that's hard to believe considering the song was recorded in the 1960s and became a hit after the man who made it famous died in the early 1970s.

In reality, though, "What A Wonderful World" was a hit song for all ages.

Hard to believe, though, that Tony Bennett turned down such a song with such a message.

All it did, though, was add to the legend that was Louis Armstrong.