Category: Rock and Roll
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Bobbie Gentry – Ode to Billy Joe
About The Song This song tells the story of the fictional Billie Joe McAllister, who kills himself by jumping off the Tallahatchie Bridge. There really is a Tallahatchie Bridge in Money, Mississippi, but Gentry made up the story.The Tallahatchie Bridge, which spans the Tallahatchie River, collapsed in 1972, but was later rebuilt. In this…
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Four Tops – Baby I Need Your Loving
About The Song Few had heard of the Four Tops before this song was released in the summer of 1964, but the public quickly became acquainted. The quartet’s debut single sold over a million copies – a feat equally impressive in today’s iTunes era – and landed just outside the Top 10. Songwriters and producers…
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Carly Simon – Nobody Does It Better
About The Song Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager wrote this song, which was the theme for the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me. Unlike all previous Bond songs, this one isn’t named after the movie, and the film isn’t even mentioned in the chorus – the only mention of the movie…
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John Denver – Annie’s Song
About The Song “Annie’s Song” was released as a single from John Denver’s album Back Home Again. It went on to become his second No. 1 song in the United States, dominating that spot for two weeks in July 1974. The song also reached No. 1 on the Easy Listening chart as well as…
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Dion – Runaround Sue
About The Song In 1961, Dion DiMucci, the prototypical doo-wop star, topped the charts with “Runaround Sue,” an extremely fun but also deeply mean-spirited song about a girl. DiMucci co-wrote the song, and while 1961 was a different time, it’s full of what we would now call slut-shaming: “She took my love, then ran around…
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Lou Rawls – You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine
You’ll never find, as long as you live Someone who loves you tender like I do You’ll never find, no matter where you search Someone who cares about you the way I do Whoa, I’m not braggin’ on myself, babyBut I’m the one who loves youAnd there’s no one else! No… one else You’ll never…
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The Archies – Sugar, Sugar
About The Song Written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim who between them have penned so many hits. Canadian born Kim later scored the multi-million selling hit ‘Rock Me Gently’. Jeff Barry on the other hand – with his wife Ellie Greenwich became the Lennon and McCartney hit-making team you’ve never heard of. The…
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Juice Newton – Queen Of Hearts
About The Song “Queen of Hearts” was written by Hank DeVito, who was primarily known for his pedal steel guitar work for The Hot Band, Emmylou Harris’ backing group. The song tells the tale of a woman who fell in love with an unreliable lover. Though she knows it’s a bad move, it’s already impossible for…
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Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons – Sherry
About The Song Frankie Valli (born Francis Casteluccio) had been hard at work trying to become a star for the better part of a decade before the Four Seasons achieved their breakthrough. They had come together as a group in several stages over the previous four years, changing their name in 1961 from the…