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Soul II Soul is a British musical collective formed in London in 1988.

They are best known for their two major hits; 1989's "Keep On Movin'", and its follow-up, "Back to Life".

They have won two Grammy Awards, both came in 1990. They won for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for their song Back To Life & they won for Best R&B Instrumental Performance for the song Africa Dance.

There have been a lot of members of this group of musicians & there are even more that have been touring members, but not recording members.

This song comes from the album called Volume II - 1990 A New Decade. The album landed at #21 on the top 200 & has been certified as a Gold record. There were a lot of people involved in this album, too many to list. There were 3 singles released in the states, but the best any of them did was a #54 chart position. They released their most recent album back in 1997, but according to their biography pages they are still touring.

The Rolling Stones released 2 albums in 1967. In February they gave us Between The Buttons & that was followed up in December with Their Satanic Majesties Request. It was their 6th UK album & their 8th in the US. It is their 1st to be released in identical versions in both countries.

The band experimented with a psychedelic sound on Satanic Majesties, incorporating unconventional elements such as Mellotron (played by Brian Jones), sound effects, string arrangements, and African rhythms. The band produced the album themselves as their manager/producer Andrew Loog Oldham had departed. The prolonged recording process was marked by drug use, court appearances, and jail terms by members of the band.

But, despite all that, the album landed at #2 in the US & has been certified Gold.

The album had 2 singles. 1st was In Another Land which became 1 of just 3 songs written for the band by Bill Wyman, it landed at #87.

This song was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it also appeared as the B-side to the 2nd single "She's a Rainbow which hit #25. All the Stones play on the song & Nicky Hopkins adds the piano part.

Mick reportedly wrote the lyrics in Brixton prison following his conviction on drug charges in June 1967. Until 1997, when "She's a Rainbow" was also added to the band's stage repertoire, this was the only track from Satanic Majesties that the band had performed in concert.

T. Rex (originally Tyrannosaurus Rex) was an English rock band, formed in 1967 by singer-songwriter and guitarist Marc Bolan, who was their leader, frontman and only consistent member. Marc died in a car wreck in 1977, he was just 29. After that the group disbanded.

The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020.

The T. Rex discography consists of four "Tyrannosaurus Rex" and 10 "T. Rex" studio albums, 11 live albums, 28 compilation albums, 21 box sets, 1 remix album, 18 extended plays, 7 "Tyrannosaurus Rex" singles and 39 "T. Rex" singles.

The band charted multiple top 10 & #1 singles in the UK where they were really popular, but they had just 1 Top 40 hit in the US. Get It On hit #10 in 1971. Other than that, they never got any higher than #72 here in the states.

This song was released as a single in the UK in 1973 after the band had shortened their name. The song was not released in the US, nor was it ever included on an album until it was added on a 1985 re issue of the album called Tanx.

According to Marc Bolan, the lyrics are based on quotes taken from notable celebrities such as Muhammad Ali. This can be heard in the line "sting like a bee", which is taken from one of Ali's 1969 speeches.

You can color me shocked on this one. I had no idea Michael Bolton was in a band before he became Michael Bolton.

Blackjack was a rock band, active from 1979–1980, featuring Michael Bolton (who was performing under his real name, Michael Bolotin), Bruce Kulick, Sandy Gennaro and Jimmy Haslip.

The band got together in late 1978 after Bruce Kulick had come off the road touring with Meat Loaf behind the Bat Out of Hell album. Kulick and his older brother Bob had done a show backing up Michael Bolton, at a club show in Connecticut. Afterwards both Kulick brothers were invited to join Bolton in a proper band. While Bob declined, Bruce accepted. The band's manager Steve Weiss, also an attorney for Led Zeppelin, brought drummer Sandy Gennaro and bassist Jimmy Haslip into the fold to complete the line-up.

After their breakup, the members went on to join other groups Sandy Gennaro replaced Tommy Aldridge in the Pat Travers Band. Jimmy Haslip would re-team with members of the Robben Ford Band under the name Yellowjackets who issued their self-titled debut album in 1981. After turning down a touring gig with Billy Squier in favor of staying with Blackjack, Kulick recorded Great American Music with The Good Rats in 1981 and also played guitar on Michael Bolton's eponymous 1983 debut album for Columbia Records before joining Kiss in 1984. And of course, Michael Bolton went on to big doings in his solo career.

The band released just 2 albums, the self-titled Blackjack in 1979 and Worlds Apart in 1980. This song comes from that 1st album. The album charted at #127 & this song was released as a single & came in at #62.

When it comes to writing songs about a particular time of day, I don’t believe anything comes close to Midnight. Here is the 1st of many such songs that mention it.

Lou Gramm, is a singer and songwriter from Rochester, New York. His real name is Louis Andrew Grammatico. He will turn 74 next May.

He is best known as the lead vocalist of Foreigner from 1977 to 1990 and again from 1992 to 2003. Their first eight singles cracked the Billboard Top 20, making them the first band since The Beatles to achieve this milestone. Lou was lead vocalist on all of their hits including "Urgent", "Juke Box Hero", "Break It Up", "Say You Will", and "I Don't Want to Live Without You". He co-wrote most of the band's songs, including the hit ballads "Waiting for a Girl Like You", which spent ten weeks at #2 on the 1981/82 Hot 100, and "I Want to Know What Love Is", which was a number one hit in eight countries.

In April 1997, he was diagnosed with a type of brain tumor called a craniopharyngioma. Although the tumor was benign, the resulting surgery damaged his pituitary gland. In addition, the recovery program caused him to gain weight, and likewise affected his stamina and voice. But as of 2023, he is back on tour with his band the Lou Gramm Allstars.

This song comes from Ready Or Not. It was his 1st solo album & it came out in 1987. The album charted at #27. This song was the 1st single released, it hit #5 on the Hot 100 but got to the top of the Mainstream Rock Charts. It is still his highest charting single as a solo artist.

The Grass Roots is a rock band that charted frequently between 1965 and 1975.

Sorry if this is a bit too long, but this band had one of the more convoluted histories of the era.

They began in 1965 as the name of a band project by LA songwriter and producer duo P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. Sloan and Barri had written several songs in an attempt by their record company, to cash in on the folk rock movement, but there was no actual band.

When moderate interest in their music arose, Sloan and Barri went to look for a group that could use the Grass Roots name & perform the music live. They found one in The Bedouins, a San Francisco band that won a Battle of the Bands at a Teenage Fair in San Mateo, California.

The group's third – and by far most successful – incarnation was finally found in a Los Angeles band called The 13th Floor (not to be confused with the 13th Floor Elevators). This band consisted of Creed Bratton (vocals, guitar), Rick Coonce (drums, percussion), Warren Entner (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Kenny Fukomoto (vocals, bass) and had formed only a year earlier. Entner, who had been attending film school at UCLA alongside future Doors members Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek, was drifting through Europe in the summer of 1965 singing and playing on street corners when he met fellow busker and American Creed Bratton in Israel. The two moved on individually, though, and ended up back in LA by 1966, where they formed the 13th Floor and submitted a demo tape to Dunhill Records. After Fukomoto was drafted into the army, the group went through two replacements before the label found and installed singer Rob Grill, who had a voice that P.F. Sloan regarded as the perfect vehicle to convey his songs in a more commercially accessible manner than Sloan could with his own singing. Grill only played guitar, but had to quickly learn the bass to fill that vacancy in the lineup. In 1967 the band was offered the choice to go with their own name or choose to adopt a name that had already been heard of nationwide. Obviously, they chose wisely & went with The Grass Roots.

And that is the lineup that was featured on the song linked to here. The song was produced/engineered by Steve Barri with the horn section's arrangement by Jimmie Haskell. The instrumentation was recorded by the group of LA studio-musicians known as The Wrecking Crew, including Carol Kaye on bass, Larry Knechtel organ, Hal Blaine drums, Mike Deasy lead guitar & Plas Johnson on sax. Strangely enough after all that, this song was not written by PF Sloan. It was written by a guy named Lou Josie.

This song was released as a single in 1968. It was their 2nd top 10 hit & by landing at #5 was the biggest hit of their career. Even though it was their biggest hit it was never included on any of their studio albums. It was on their first compilation album, Golden Grass, and has since been included on many of their other compilations.

Duke Ellington hit the charts for the 1st time in 1927 when his song East St. Louis Toodle – Oo landed at #10. He charted at #30 with a song called Boo Dah in 1953. In the 26 years between those hits there were almost 70 others that hit the top 40.

The song linked to here was the “B” side to a song called Jack The Bear. The sides were released in 1940. I don’t see any evidence of either side hitting the charts.

Gloria Gaynor is a singer from Newark, New Jersey. She just turned 80 in September.

She is best known for the disco era hits "I Will Survive", "Let Me Know (I Have a Right)", "I Am What I Am", and her version of "Never Can Say Goodbye".

During her career she has released 20 studio albums, 2 live albums, 10 compilation albums, and 49 singles. This was the title song to her 1st album, released in 1975. The album charted at number 25 in the top 200 chart, and at number 21 in the US R&B chart.

The song was released as a single and landed at #9. It was actually the 3rd version of the song to become a hit following The Jackson 5 #2 & Isaac Hayes #22, both in 1971.

Jamie Woon is a British singer, songwriter, and record producer from New Malden, Kingston Upon Thames, London. He will be 41 next March.

He gained widespread acclaim in 2010 for his single "Night Air". His sound and style is described as soul inflected vocals backed by samplers and programming, or a single guitar track. He describes his music as "... R&B, it's groove-based vocal-led music.

He has released just 2 albums with the most recent one coming in 2015. This song comes from his debut album called Mirror Writing from 2011. The song linked to here was his 1st single. Neither the album, nor the single charted here in the states.

put the bass on Night Air, off this Casio keyboard my mate found in a skip. It just had this real gnarly, smooth, glidy bass. It was really nice to find a way of injecting weight into the tune without it being aggressive, that was exciting. That locked that track together. It was the first track where the mood and the sentiment fitted with the sound of the song, it was working as a whole.

Bob Marley OM was a singer, musician, and songwriter from Nine Mile, Jamaica. In July 1977, he was diagnosed with a type of malignant melanoma under his right great toe. He died on 11 May 1981, aged 36, due to the spread to his lungs and brain.

He is considered one of the pioneers of reggae, he fused elements of reggae, ska, and rocksteady.

He was Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 & Awarded Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. He was one of the first inductees into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004.

This song was included on his Rastaman Vibration collection. It was his 8th studio album & was released in April 1976. It was his 1st record to reach the top 10 on the Billboard 200 chart (peaking at number eight).

At this point in the career of the band, the Wailers on this album were: Earl "Chinna" Smith – guitar, percussion, Al Anderson – guitar, Carlton Barrett – drums, Aston Barrett – bass guitar, & Tyrone Downie – keyboards.

This was another one of those groups that were not treated right by their record label.

Their 1961 hit single, "The Duke of Earl" was credited only to their lead singer, Gene Chandler, who left the group after it was re-released on another label. One of the most popular groups on Chicago's south side, the Dukays consisted of Gene Chandler, Shirley Jones (tenor/soprano), James Lowe (second tenor), Earl Edwards (baritone), and Ben Broyles, the unforgettable bass on "Duke of Earl."

As appeasement, Vee Jay signed the group to a separate deal and reissued their second single "Nite Owl." Charles Davis replaced Chandler and Margaret "Cookie" Stone took over for Shirley Jones, who quit. Vee Jay issued three singles by the Dukays, two in 1962 and one in 1963, but none of them clicked.

This song was released as a “B” side in 1962 to a song called Festival Of Love. This side hit #73, the A side did not chart.

New Riders of the Purple Sage is a country rock band. The group emerged from the psychedelic rock scene in San Francisco in 1969 and its original lineup included several members of the Grateful Dead including Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart & Phil Lesh & Spencer Dryden of Jefferson Airplane was also a member.

The band took a break between 1997 – 2005 but are back at it as of now.

This song comes from their 9th studio. It was called Marin County Line & was released in 1977. It was the second of two albums to feature Stephen Love on bass guitar, he wrote all of the songs on side one of the LP, including the song linked to here. It was also the band's first album with Patrick Shanahan who had recently replaced Spencer Dryden as their drummer, and Dryden had become the band's manager. Love and Shanahan were both former members of Rick Nelson's Stone Canyon Band.

The Byrds went through many different lineup changes during their career. The original five-piece lineup of the band consisted of Roger McGuinn (lead guitar, vocals), Gene Clark (tambourine, vocals), David Crosby (rhythm guitar, vocals), Chris Hillman (bass guitar, vocals), and Michael Clarke (drums).

This version of the band was relatively short-lived and by early 1966 Gene Clark had left due to problems associated with anxiety and his increasing isolation within the group. The band continued as a quartet until late 1967, when David Crosby was fired and Michael Clarke also departed. Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman decided to recruit new members, including country rock pioneer Gram Parsons, but by late 1968, Hillman and Parsons had also exited the band.

In 1991, the Byrds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an occasion that saw the five original members performing together for the last time. Gene Clark died of a heart attack later that year, while Michael Clarke died of liver failure in 1993. David Crosby died in 2023. McGuinn and Hillman remain active.

This song was included on their Sweethearts Of The Rodeo album. It was released in 1968. By this time the lineup was down to 4 members including Roger McGuinn - vocals, acoustic guitar, banjo, Chris Hillman - vocals, electric bass, mandolin, acoustic guitar, Gram Parsons - vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, organ, & Kevin Kelley - drums. The album reached number 77 on the Billboard Top LPs chart. There were 2 singles released but neither one charted.

This song was written by Gram Parsons. Unfortunately, Gram overdosed on barbiturates September 19, 1973. He was declared dead on arrival at the hospital. He was just 26.