What are you listening to right now?

Johnny Otis was a singer, musician, composer, bandleader, record producer, and talent scout from Vallejo, California. His real name was Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes. He died in 2012 at the age of 90.

In his role as a talent scout he discovered Etta James, who was then 13 years old, at one of his talent shows. He produced and co-wrote her first hit, The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry). In 1952, while in Houston, he auditioned the singer Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton. He produced, co-wrote, and played drums on her 1953 recording of "Hound Dog" (the first recording of the song); he and his band also provided the backup "howling" vocals. He also discovered numerous young singers who later became successful, including Jackie Wilson, Hank Ballard, and Little Willie John.

He founded his own band in 1945 & had his 1st hit single on the R&B charts in 1948 when That’s Your Last Boogie landed at #10. Willie & The Hand Jive was his 1st pop hit, it got to #9 in 1958.

This song was included on an album called The Johnny Otis Show Live At Monterey. It was originally Released 1971.

Led Zeppelin was formed in London in 1968. The group was vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham.

They have sold over 200 million albums worldwide according to some sources, while others state that they have sold in excess of 300 million records, including 111.5 million certified units in the United States. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, they are the third-highest-selling band, the fifth highest selling music act in the US, and one of only four acts to earn five or more Diamond albums.

They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2006. They are also the recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

Four of their recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame including albums Led Zeppelin & Led Zeppelin IV & the songs Stairway To Heaven & Whole Lotta Love.

This song comes from Led Zeppelin IV, which is also The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. The album got to #2 in the US & has been certified as selling over 24 million copies in the states alone.

The song includes Robert Plant on vocal, acoustic guitar by Jimmy Page and mandolin by John Paul Jones. John Bonham is absent. Jimmy wrote the music; Robert wrote the words.

Joni Mitchell was an inspiration behind the song: "Plant makes a clear reference to 'I Had a King', the opening song from Mitchell's debut album, 1968's Song to a Seagull: 'To find a queen without a king', he quietly offers in the final verse. 'They say she plays guitar, cries and sings.'" In an interview for Spin magazine, Plant admitted that it "might be a bit embarrassing at times lyrically, but it did sum up a period of my life when I was 22."

The Mighty Flea, was a trombonist and singer born in Birmingham and raised in New Orleans. His real name was Eugene Conners. He died in 2010 at the age of 79.

Following a stint in the Navy during WW2 he played with Johnny Otis’ band; his nickname was given to him by Bardu Ali while he was in Otis's band.

He moved to Europe, living in France, Denmark, and Germany, playing in swing jazz, Dixieland, and blues groups.

In 2008, he was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.

This song comes from his 1973 album called Let The Good Times Roll featuring Mickey Baker.

Mickey Baker was a guitarist, best known for his work as a studio musician and as part of the recording duo Mickey & Sylvia. During his career as a studio musician he played sessions with Doc Pomus, The Drifters, Ray Charles, Ivory Joe Hunter, Ruth Brown, Big Joe Turner, Louis Jordan, Coleman Hawkins, Dion and numerous other artists. He died in France in 2012 at the age of 87.

Peter Frampton is a English-American guitarist, singer and songwriter born in Beckenham, Kent, UK. He turned 73 this year.

He had quite the history with a lot of contacts who would also become pretty famous, before he broke big with the Frampton Comes Alive album.

By the age of 12, he was in a band called the Little Ravens. Both he and David Bowie, who was three years older, were pupils at Bromley Technical School where Frampton's father was Bowie's art teacher. The Little Ravens played on the same bill at school as Bowie's band, George and the Dragons. Peter and David would spend lunch breaks together, playing Buddy Holly songs.

At the age of 14, he was playing with a band called the Trubeats followed by a band called the Preachers, who later became Moon's Train, produced and managed by Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones.

He became a successful child singer, and in 1966 he became a member of the Herd. He was the lead guitarist and singer, scoring several British pop hits. He was named "The Face of 1968" by teen magazine Rave.

In 1969, when he was 18, he joined Steve Marriott of the Small Faces to form Humble Pie.

During his career he has released 18 studio albums, 4 Live albums & 27 singles.

This song comes from Breaking All The Rules. It was his 7th studio album & was released in 1981. The album got to #43 in the US but seemed to have no singles. Steve Lukather on guitar & Jeff Porcaro on drums, both members of Toto, play on the album.

Roger Waters is a musician, singer, songwriter from Great Bonham, England. Roger will turn 80 in just 2 weeks.

In 1965, he was a founding member of Pink Floyd as the bassist, an instrument which he has admitted he never liked playing.

Following the departure of Syd Barrett from early Floyd in 1968, Roger became Pink Floyd's lyricist, co-lead vocalist and conceptual leader until his departure in 1985.

Of course, his biggest successes came with Pink Floyd but as a solo artist he has released 5 studio albums, 4 Live albums & 24 singles. He also has contributed to 2 Soundtrack albums.

This song was never included on an album but was released as the “B” side to a single called Radio Waves from his 1987 album called Radio K.A.O.S. The song hit #12 on the Mainstream Rock Songs Chart. The album landed at #50 on the top 200.

Point Blank was a rock band from Irving, Texas, formed in 1974.

The recorded six albums between 1974 and 1982. All their albums were recorded in Memphis with engineer/producer Terry Manning. Their sound was southern rock and boogie.

Talk about a hard luck band, bass player Phillip Petty died from cancer on June 7, 2010. Guitarist Kim Davis died on October 18, 2010, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, aged 58. The studio musician Michael Hamilton, who played keyboards for the group died, also from cancer, on May 13, 2011. James Russell Burns, better known as Rusty Burns, died in Denver from lung cancer on February 19, 2016, aged 63. The singer and a founding member, John O'Daniel, died from cancer on November 17, 2018, he was 70. The surviving founding member, drummer Peter "Buzzy" Gruen, passed away on April 5, 2023. The last surviving band member from 1974 is Richard Heaton.

This song comes from their 6th & final album before dissolving. It was called On a Roll & came out in 1982.

Supertramp was a British rock band that formed in London in 1970.

They were initially a prog-rock group, but starting with its third album, Crime of the Century (1974), it began moving towards a more pop-oriented sound.

The band reached its commercial peak with 1979's Breakfast in America, which included the international top 10 singles "The Logical Song", "Breakfast in America", "Goodbye Stranger", and "Take the Long Way Home".

This was the 1st song on side 1 from that album. It was their 6th. It  hit #1 in most countries around the world & seemed to do no worse than a #5 showing in Argentina. It has been certified as 4X Platinum here in the states & has sold over 20 million copies worldwide.

The album won the Grammys in 1980 for Best Recording Package & Best Engineered Album, but lost out on Album Of The Year to 52nd Steet by Billy & Best Pop Performance by a Duo Or Group (Minute By Minute by The Doobie Brothers won that one).

Jet is an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 2001.

For most of the band's history it has consisted of Cameron Muncey (lead guitar and vocals), Mark Wilson (bass), and brothers Nic (vocals, rhythm guitar, piano) and Chris Cester (drums, vocals).

The group has sold 6.5 million albums worldwide, releasing three studio albums in its initial run: 2003's Get Born, 2006's Shine On and 2009's Shaka Rock. The band dissolved in 2012, reformed in 2016 for a run of shows and then split again at the end of 2019. They reunited for a second time in 2023 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Get Born.

This song comes from their 3rd & final album. It was released in 2009 & was called Shaka Rock. The album hit 27 here in the states on the top 200 & went to #11 on the Top Rock Albums Charts.

Joe Beck was a jazz guitarist from Philadelphia. He died of complications from lung cancer in 2008 at the age of 62.

By the time he was 18, Stan Getz had hired him to record jingles, and in 1967 he recorded with Miles Davis. By 1968, at age 22, he was a member of the Gil Evans Orchestra.

He worked as a sideman or session guitarist with a wide variety of well-known musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Miles Davis, Maynard Ferguson, Howard Roberts, Tommy Tedesco, Larry Coryell, John Abercrombie, Tom Scott, Jeremy Steig, and Gábor Szabó.

This comes from the 1st of his 20 solo albums. It was called Nature Boy & it was released in 1969.

This guy is pretty incredible if this song is a good representation. Dude can play!

Robbie Dupree is a singer, songwriter from Brooklyn. He will be 77 in December.

He is best known for his hit songs "Steal Away" (No. 6 on the Hot 100) and "Hot Rod Hearts" (No. 15).

In 1981, he received a Grammy nomination as Best New Artist, but lost out to Christopher Cross.

During his career he has released 11 albums with the most recent one coming in 2012.

This song was included on his 3rd album. It was called Walking On Water & was released in 1993.

Counting Crows is a rock band from the San Francisco area formed in 1991.

The band name is derived from "One for Sorrow", a British divination nursery rhyme about the superstitious counting of magpies, which are members of the crow family. Singer Adam Duritz heard the rhyme in the film Signs of Life, which starred his close friend, actress Mary-Louise Parker.

They have been nominated for 2 Grammy Awards, but didn’t win either. They lost Best New Artist in 1995 to Cheryle Crow & they lost Best Performance by a Rock Group, also in 1995, for Round Here, to Aerosmith for Crazy.

They have released 7 studio albums, 1 extended play, 2 compilation albums and 5 live albums.

This song comes from their 4th studio album. It was called Hard Candy & was released in 2002. It hit #5 & has been certified Gold. The album included the singles American Girls #24 on the Hot 100 but #1 on Adult Alternative Songs Chart, Miami #9 on the AAS, their cover of Joni Mitchells' Big Yellow Taxi #42 on the Hot 100 but #2 on the AAS & #5 on the Adult Pop Airplay Chart, & If I Could Give My Love which did not chart.

Barbara Morrison was a jazz singer born in Ypsilanti, Michigan. She died of cardiovascular disease on March 16, 2022, at the age of 72.

In 1973 when she was 23, she moved to Los Angeles and sang with Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson's band. Between the mid-1970s and early 1990s, she recorded several albums with Johnny Otis.

During her career she also sang with Gerald Wilson, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, Ron Carter, Etta James, Esther Phillips, David T. Walker, Dr. John, Kenny Burrell, Terence Blanchard, Joe Sample, Cedar Walton, Nancy Wilson, Joe Williams, Tony Bennett, Keb' Mo, Count Basie Orchestra, Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra and Doc Severinsen.

This was included on a compilation album called The LA Treasures Project released in 2014. Evidently the entire album was recorded LIVE in a music store in San Pedro. It includes The Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra.

Amanda McBroom is a singer-songwriter and actress from Woodland Hills, Ca. She just turned 76 last month.

Notable among the songs she has written is "The Rose", which Bette Midler took to #3 in 1980.

Amanda starred in the New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and European productions of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, and she made her Broadway debut in the Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields musical Seesaw.

As an actress, she has had guest-starring or recurring roles on such television series as Starsky & Hutch, Star Trek: The Next Generation ("The Measure of a Man"), Hart to Hart, Taxi, Charlie's Angels, Remington Steele, Hawaii Five-O, Magnum, P.I., M*A*S*H, Lou Grant, Gunsmoke, Dance Your Pants Off! and Love, American Style.

This song was included on The Amanda Albums: Growing Up In Hollywood Town | West Of Oz, released in 2007

Someone evidently cut our internet cable during a construction event yesterday, so I am playing catch up today.

Betty Davis was a singer, songwriter, and model from Durham, N.C. She passed away last year at the age of 77. Her real name was Betty Gray Mabry.

She was known for her controversial sexually oriented lyrics and performance style and was the second wife of trumpeter Miles Davis. Her AllMusic profile describes her as "a wildly flamboyant funk diva with few equals ... [who] combined the gritty emotional realism of Tina Turner, the futurist fashion sense of David Bowie, and the trendsetting flair of Miles Davis".

She released 4 albums during her career, but the last one was released in 2009 after a 34 year hiatus. The album was actually recorded in 1976.

This song comes from an album called Crashin' From Passion, recorded in 1979, but not released until 1995. Evidently it was an unofficial album.

Unofficial or not, she has some pretty nice help. Martha Reeves & The Pointer Sisters sing backing vocals & Herbie Hancock is on keyboards.