Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell (1969)

We have something very special for you for this week's LCM Classic. We travel back to 1969 for the beautiful and heartfelt song 'Both Sides Now' from the always wonderful Joni Mitchell. Written by Joni but originally recorded by Judy Collins, the song first appeared on the U.S. singles chart during the fall of 1968. The next year it was included on Joni's album 'Clouds' (which was named after a lyric from the song). It has since been covered by dozens of artists, including Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson and Herbie Hancock. Joni re-rerecorded the song with an orchestral arrangement, on her 2000 album 'Both Sides Now'.

In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked "Both Sides, Now" at #171 on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Joni wrote "Both Sides, Now" in March 1967, inspired by a passage in Henderson the Rain King, a 1959 novel by Saul Bellow. "I was reading Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King on a plane and early in the book Henderson the Rain King is also up in a plane. He's on his way to Africa and he looks down and sees these clouds. I put down the book, looked out the window and saw clouds too, and I immediately started writing the song. I had no idea that the song would become as popular as it did.'

Clouds

By Joni Mitchell

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You Don't Have To Say You Love Me - Dusty Springfield (1966)

We head back to 1966 for this week's LCM Classic. 'You Don't Have To Say You Love Me' was a UK No.1 hit for the great Dusty Springfield. The song also reached No.4 on the Billboard Hot 100 making the song Dusty's most successful hit single. It was originally based on a 1965 Italian song by Pino Donaggio and lyricist Vito Pallavicini entitled 'Io che non vivo (senza te)" or 'I, who can't live (without you)'

Dusty Springfield, who participated at the 1965 Sanremo Festival, was in the audience when Donaggio and Miller performed "Io che non vivo (senza te)" and despite having no awareness of the lyrics' meaning the song moved Dustry to tears. She obtained an acetate recording of Donaggio's song, but allowed a year to go by before actively pursuing the idea of recording an English version.

On 9 March 1966, Dusty had an instrumental track of Donaggio's composition recorded at Philips Studio Marble Arch: the session personnel included guitarist Big Jim Sullivan and drummer Bobby Graham. Dusty still lacked an English lyric to record. Eventually Dusty's friend Vicki Wickham, the producer of Ready Steady Go!, would write the required English lyric with her own friend Simon Napier-Bell who was the manager of the Yardbirds. Neither Wickham nor Napier-Bell had any discernible experience as songwriters: according to Napier-Bell, he and Wickham were dining out when she mentioned to him that Dusty hoped to get an English lyric for Donaggio's song and the two lightheartedly took up the challenge of writing the lyric themselves: "We went back to [Wickham]'s flat and started working on it. We wanted to go to a trendy disco so we had about an hour to write it. We wrote the chorus and then we wrote the verse in a taxi to wherever we were going." Neither Wickham or Napier-Bell had any understanding of the Italian lyrics of the original song: according to Wickham they attempted to write their own lyric for an anti-love song to be called "I Don't Love You"; when that original idea proved unproductive it was adjusted first to "You Don't Love Me" and then "You Don't Have to Love Me" which was finalized as "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" to fit the song's melody. Napier-Bell was later to title his first book (an autobiographical account of the British music scene of the 1960s) 'You Don't Have to Say You Love Me' after the song.

Dusty recorded her vocal the next day: unhappy with the acoustics in the recording booth she eventually moved into a stairwell to record. She was not satisfied with her vocal until she had recorded 47 takes.

Released on 25 March 1966 in the UK, the single release of her recording became a huge hit and remains one of the songs most identified with her. When Dusty died from breast cancer in March 1999, the song was featured on Now 42 as a tribute.

The song proved so popular in the US that Dusty's 1965 album 'Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty' was released there with a slightly different track listing, and titled after the hit single (the B side of the US single, "Little by Little" was issued in the UK as a separate A side and reached No.17 there). In 2004, the song made the Rolling Stone list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time at No.491.

Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty

By Dusty Springfield

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Waiting On The World To Change - John Mayer (2006)

We have a modern LCM classic for you this week. First released in 2006 'Waiting For The World To Change' was the first single from John Mayer's multi Grammy award winning album 'Continuum'. The song received a Grammy award as well. Other excellent songs on the album include 'Slow Dancing In a Burning Room' and 'Gravity', The music video for this song was directed by Philip Andelman and features John Mayer walking along the East River while  commissioned graffiti artists Futura, Tats Cru, and Daze spray paint messages relating to the song's content on New York City billboards.

The lyrics resonate the same ways some twelve years later.

Now we see everything that's going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it

It's not that we don't care,
We just know that the fight ain't fair

Lindsay Ell is currently working on a complete cover album of Continuum, so watch out for that one later in the year. 

Northern Lights - Renaissance

For our LCM Classic this week we travel back to 1978 and 'Northern Lights' by the progressive folk-rock band Renaissance. It's taken from their album 'A Song for All Seasons' and was the band's only hit single.

'Northern Lights' entered the UK singles charts on 15 July 1978 and remained there for 11 weeks, peaking at No. 10. There is no actual reference to the Aurora Borealis in the lyrics; it is merely a play on words in the title. The first verse begins with: "Destination outward bound, I turn to see the northern lights behind the wing..." Lead singer Annie Haslam commented "The song is about leaving the Northern Lights of England... and Roy Wood behind, when I was working over in the U.S"

Roy Wood is known for having been a founding member of The Move, the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), and Wizzard. Annie Haslam and Roy Wood had a four-year relationship. Lyricist Betty Thatcher-Newsinger wrote about the feelings of loneliness and separation Annie was experiencing whilst she was on tour, based on the personal conversations between the two. Hence, the lines "though it's hard away from you" and "I'm missing you near me" accentuate the theme. Earlier songs such as "Ocean Gypsy" and "Trip to the Fair" were similarly founded in Annie's life experiences and friendships, the latter also involving Roy Wood.

How Come You Don't Call Me - Alicia Keys (2001)

We head back to 2001 for our next LCM Classic track by the wonderful Alicia Keys. 'How Come You Don't Call Me' was one of the lead tracks from Alicia's debut album 'Songs In A Minor'. It's one of my favourite albums from that period and I played it on repeat when it was first released. I still think it is the perfect Sunday late morning album. Try it and see :) Alicia is one of the very few artists that gives me goosebumps live...I think she is a very special and multi talented singer-songwriter with a stunning voice. Our classic today was originally written by Prince, but I love Alicia's version with it super piano melody hooks and tight driving percussion added to her powerful R&B/gospel vocals.

The song's music video, directed by Little X. It contains references to Japanese popular culture such as San-X's Buru Buru Dog and Cardcaptor Sakura's Kero-chan, besides Korean character Mashimaro. It starts with Alicia waking up in the morning and following her daily routine throughout the video, ending with a performance on stage. The video ends with a phone call from her supposed "boyfriend" making an excuse about why he hasn't called her, and she hangs up on him, laughing. The 'boyfriend' is played by actor-comedian Mike Epps.

Love Hurts - Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris (1974)

Our LCM classic this week is a great cover of 'Love Hurts' by Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris released in 1974 as part of Gram's 'Grievous Angel' album. The song was written and composed by the American songwriter Boudleaux Bryant and first recorded by The Everly Brothers in July 1960. You might remember that Roy Orbison also covered it in 1961.

After Gram's sad death from an overdose in 1973, Emmylou made the song a staple of her repertoire and has included it in her concert set lists from the 1970s to the present. She has since re-recorded the song twice.

For the recording of Grievous Angel Gram Parsons again convened with his singing partner Emmylou Harris, various members of Elvis Presley's "Hot Band", including James Burton and Glen Hardin and the occasional guest (such as Bernie Leadon and Linda Ronstadt) to record his second solo album for Reprise Records. 

The sessions for Grievous Angel took place at Wally Heider Studio 4 in Hollywood with Gram Parsons producing. Lacking much-needed new material, Gram quickly wrote two songs during the sessions ("Return of the Grievous Angel", with lyrics by Boston-based poet and Parsons fan Thomas Brown, and "In My Hour Of Darkness", arranged by Harris) and looked to songs rejected from previous albums and to standard country songs to fill out the album. In regards to the original material, "Brass Buttons" dated from Parsons' brief stint as a Harvard-based folksinger in the mid-1960s; "Hickory Wind" had already been recorded with The Byrds; "$1000 Wedding", about Parsons' aborted plan to wed the mother of his daughter in ostentatious style, had been recorded in a plodding arrangement with the Flying Burrito Brothers circa 1970; "Ooh Las Vegas" had been rejected from GP. "Medley Live from Northern Quebec" is a fake live recording featuring canned applause and ersatz concert ambiance which combines the Louvin Brothers's "Cash on the Barrelhead" with his own "Hickory Wind." Writing in Twenty Thousand Roads, David Meyers praises Harris's increased role on the album, noting that the duet "Love Hurts" contains "a lovely high whine, a mourning, keening reach for the suffering in the song. Neither overdoes it, they feel the pain, they show it to us, they make us feel every bit, but never go too far. Their sustain on the final "love hurts" demonstrates how far they'd come together in emotion and technique."

In spite of the lack of new material, the album took what its predecessor had presented and expanded the format of "Cosmic American Music". After mixing the album at the Capitol tower in Hollywood, Gram set off for Joshua Tree, California, where he would fatally overdose on September 19, 1973.

If You Could Read My Mind - Gordon Lightfoot (1970)

Our LCM Classic this week is the beautiful "If You Could Read My Mind" by Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot. It reached number one on Canadian music charts and number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in February 1971. Later in the year it reached number 30 in the UK. The song first appeared on Gordon's 1970 album 'Sit Down Young Stranger', which was later renamed 'If You Could Read My Mind' following the song's success. We love the lyrics and it's one of our favourites by Gordon.

Gordon has cited his divorce for inspiring the lyrics, saying they came to him as he was sitting in a vacant Toronto house one summer. At the request of his daughter, Ingrid, he performs the lyrics with a slight change now: the line "I'm just trying to understand the feelings that you lack" is altered to "I'm just trying to understand the feelings that we lack." He has said in an interview that the difficulty with writing songs inspired by personal stories is that there is not always the emotional distance and clarity to make lyrical improvements such as the one his daughter suggested.

You Learn - Alanis Morrissette (1996)

To commemorate Alanis heading to the UK on tour in July, our LCM Classic this week 'You Learn' one of lead singles from her third studio album 'Jagged Little Pill' released in 1996. It's one of the best selling albums of the 1990's and one of the best selling albums of all time. The album was released in June 1995, yes that's almost 23 years ago (no I can't believe it either). Jagged Little Pill was nominated for nine Grammy Awards, winning five, including Album of the Year, making Alanis the youngest artist in history to win the honor, a record she held until 2010, when Taylor Swift won this prize with Fearless (2008). 

"You Learn" is a mid-tempo self-help rock song, the song features Alanis giving out the very sage advice; "Ditch the fear, open your heart, speak your mind, and when the going gets tough, walk around the house naked."

Another question raised in the video would be 'Why would you take a horse to a basketball game......and why is nobody bothered when she does?' Just asking for a friend

The song was written by Alanis and Glen Ballard, who also produced the entire album. Maverick and Warner Bros. Records released the song as the album's fifth single. Musically, the song speaks of the importance of poor decision making in life by explaining that these decisions can teach valuable lessons. The album title is taken from the line "Swallow it down (what a jagged little pill)". The song received generally positive reviews from most music critics, many highlighting the song as an album standout. The song was a commercial success globally, only charting in North America and the Oceanic regions. A music video was shot for the single, showing Alanis walking through the streets, which could picture daily things that Alanis regrets and makes up for it, similar to the theme of the song's lyrical content.

Everyday - Buddy Holly (1957)

Our LCM classic this week 'Everyday' first released in 1957, is our special tribute to Buddy Holly who sadly lost his life in a plane crash on February 3rd, 1959. Rock and roll musicians Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson together with pilot Roger Peterson were also killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa. The event later became known as "The Day the Music Died", after singer-songwriter Don McLean referred to it as such in his song "American Pie" in 1971.

At the time, Buddy Holly and his band, consisting of Waylon Jennings, Tommy Allsup, and Carl Bunch, were playing on the "Winter Dance Party" tour across the United States Midwest. Rising artists Valens and Richardson had joined the tour. The long journeys between venues on board the cold, uncomfortable tour buses adversely affected the performers, with cases of flu and even frostbite. After stopping at Clear Lake to perform, and frustrated by such conditions, Buddy chose to charter a plane to reach their next venue in Moorhead, Minnesota. Richardson, who had the flu, swapped places with Jennings, taking his seat on the plane, while Allsup lost his seat to Valens on a coin toss. Soon after takeoff, late at night and in poor, wintry weather conditions, the pilot lost control of the light aircraft, a Beechcraft Bonanza, which subsequently crashed into a cornfield. The event has since been mentioned in various songs and films. A number of monuments have been erected at the crash site and in Clear Lake, where an annual memorial concert is also held at the Surf Ballroom, the venue that hosted the artists' last performance.

"Everyday" is a song written by Buddy Holly and Norman Petty, recorded by Buddy Holly and the Crickets on May 29, 1957, and released on September 20, 1957, as the B-side of "Peggy Sue". On the original single the Crickets are not mentioned, but it is known that Buddy plays acoustic guitar; drummer Jerry Allison slaps his knees for percussion and typewriter; Joe B. Mauldin plays a standup acoustic bass; and producer Norman Petty's wife Vi Petty plays the celesta aka celeste (a keyboard instrument with a glockenspiel-like tone, used in such classical pieces as "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy" from The Nutcracker). The song is a very economical 2 minutes and 5 seconds long. It is ranked number 238 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Mas Que Nada - Sergio Mendes + Brasil 66 (1966)

Our LCM Classic this week is the big smash hit "Mas, que Nada!" a song written and originally performed in 1963 by Jorge Ben Jor on his debut album, which also became the Sérgio Mendes' signature song in his 1966 cover version. It was voted by the Brazilian edition of Rolling Stone as the 5th greatest Brazilian song and it was inducted to the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame in 2013

Brazilians use 'Mas Que Nada' (or just que nada) colloquially to disagree with someone. A fitting English translation might be a sarcastic "Yeah, right!"

Smokestack Lightning - Howlin' Wolf (1956)

Our LCM Classic this week is the blues masterpiece 'Smokestack Lightning' recorded by Chester Arthur Burnett better known as Howlin' Wolf in 1956. It became one of Wolf's most popular and influential songs. Delta bluesman Wolf, was one of the most influential and imposing musicians of the post-World War II era.

Wolf had performed "Smokestack Lightning" in one form or another at least by the early 1930s, when he was performing with Charley Patton in small Delta communities.The song, called "a hypnotic one-chord drone piece", draws on earlier blues, such as Tommy Johnson's "Big Road Blues" (1928, Victor 21279), the Mississippi Sheiks' "Stop and Listen Blues" (1930, OKeh 8807), and Charley Patton's "Moon Going Down" (1930, Paramount 13014). Wolf said the song was inspired by watching trains in the night: "We used to sit out in the country and see the trains go by, watch the sparks come out of the smokestack. That was smokestack lightning." In 1951, he recorded the song as "Crying at Daybreak". It contains the line "O-oh smokestack lightnin', shinin', just like gold, oh don't you hear me cryin'", similar to the Mississippi Sheiks' lyric "A-ah, smokestack lightnin', that bell shine just like gold, now don't you hear me talkin'".

In Chicago in January 1956, Howlin' Wolf recorded "Smokestack Lightning". The song takes the form of "a propulsive, one-chord vamp, nominally in E major but with the flatted blue notes that make it sound like E minor", and lyrically it is "a pastiche of ancient blues lines and train references, timeless and evocative". Longtime Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin is credited with the distinctive guitar line. Howlin' Wolf sang and played harmonica, backed by pianist Hosea Lee Kennard, guitarists Willie Johnson and Hubert Sumlin, bassist Willie Dixon, and drummer Earl Phillips.

In 1956, "Smokestack Lightning" reached number 11 in the Billboard R&B chart. When it was released by Pye International Records in the UK in 1964, it peaked at number 42 in the singles chart. It was later included on the albums 'Moanin' in the Moonlight' and 'The Howlin' Wolf Album'.

"Smokestack Lightning" received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999, honoring its lasting historical significance. It is ranked number 291 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 1985, the song was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in the "Classics of Blues Recordings" category. It is also included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame list of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll". In 2009, "Smokestack Lightning" was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress.