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The community of Kowlagia is on Lake Martin in Alabama. It was named after the legendary aboriginal. A wooden statue was placed near the lake. The song "Kaw-Liga" was written by Hank Williams in a cabin that he owned by the lakeside. Possibly a distant

The 1969 album "Rock Salt And Nails" contains the first version of Steve Young's "Seven Bridges Road". The road also known as Woodley Road has existed for over one hundred years and is near Montgomery, Alabama. Guitarist James Burton played on the session

Bob (Relf) and Earl (Nelson) recorded "Harlem Shuffle" (Relf - Nelson) and reached number forty-four on Billboard in 1963. Barry White is on the keyboard. The Rolling Stones 1986 cover of "Harlem Shuffle" is from the album "Dirty Work". Bobby Womack is

Buddy Johnson's Orchestra introduced "A Woman, A Lover, A Friend" (Syd Wyche) in 1959 as a B side. Lee Thomas is the vocalist. "Mr. Excitement" Jackie Wilson covered "A Woman, A Lover, A Friend" in 1960 topping the R&B chart and reaching number

Big Joe Turner recorded "Chains Of Love" (A. Nugetre) in 1951 as written by Doc Pomus. Doc (Jerome Felder) sold the copyright to Ahmet Ertegun for $50.00. The single peaked at number two on the R&B chart. Apparently this was the first successful

Chicago doo-wop group The El Dorados (lead Pirkle Lee Moses Jr., Louis Bradley, Jewel Jones, James Maddox and Richard Nickens) released "At My Front Door" (J. Moore - A. Abner) in 1955 hitting the top of the R&B chart and seventeen pop. Pat Boone

Songwriter Greg Douglass on guitar with vocalist Rose Cox in concert doing "Jungle Love" (Greg Douglass - Lonnie Turner) at Sounds Like San Diego in 2015. Greg, who played with both Greg Kihn and Hot Tuna, wrote the song with the Steve Miller Band's bass

Although it may seem like an unlikely pairing Ella Fitzgerald teamed with The Ink Spots (lead vocalist Bill Kenny, Billy Brown, Hoppy Jones and Herb Kenny) and topped the charts in 1944 with "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall" (Doris Fisher - Allan

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (Bob Carpenter lead vocals, Jimmie Fadden, Jeff Hanna and Jimmy Ibbotson) included "Bless The Broken Road" (Marcus Hummon - Bobby Boyd - Jeff Hanna) on the 1994 album "Acoustic". What other band uses a washboard on occasion?

The Nairobi Trio consisting of three "gorillas" were part of The Ernie Kovacs Show in the fifties. Ernie played the cigar smoking character while a variety of others played the remaining two. Often celebrities were involved in the suits. These included

French singer, songwriter Michael Polnareff recorded "Ame Caline" (Polnareff) in 1967. He also recorded the song in English as "If You Loved Me". Yet another bit of vinyl of which I am most fond is "Soul Coaxing (Ame Caline)", a 1968 instrumental

Composer, singer, poet and playwright Labi (Afolabi) Siffre sings "It Must Be Love" from the 1972 LP "Crying, Laughing, Loving, Lying". The song was originally issued as a single in 1971 and hit the U.K. top twenty. Recording artists who covered his music

Producer, manager, singer, songwriter Keith Diamond (Alexander) sings "Suddenly" (Billy Ocean - Keith Diamond) at a private Christmas party in 1996. Keith died of a heart attack one month after this was recorded. It was Keith who produced the Bill Ocean

Screenwriter, Tin Pan Alley tunesmith and versatile songwriter Bob Merrill (Levan) wrote "Feet Up (Pat Him On The Po-Po)". When Bob started writing he could neither read music or play an instrument. Many of his songs were hits for Guy Mitchell. Former

Bob Merrill (Levan) wrote "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania", one of the many hits he wrote for Guy Mitchell including "Truly, Truly Fair", "She Wears Red Feathers" and "Sparrow In The Treetop". Bob's inspiration for the song occurred at a boxing match when the

Recorded at the Club Tequila Showroom at the Fiesta Hotel in Las Vegas this is co-writer Paul Richmond singing "Shining Star" (Paul Richmond - Leo Graham). Paul is a Grammy nominated producer, songwriter and bassist who has opened for acts like Culture

The first song by NSYNC (Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick) to hit the Billboard top ten was "(God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time On You" (Carl Struken - Evan Rogers) from their self-titled debut album. The

Here is The Supremes (Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson) demo of "Baby Love" (Holland - Dozier - Holland). At Berry Gordy's insistence the tune closely followed the formula for "Where Did Our Love Go". Mr. Gordy is one wise man. The 1964 hit

Udo Jurgens (Bockelmann) sang "Warum Nur, Warum" (Only Why, Why) (Udo Jurgens) at the 1964 Eurovision contest as the Austrian entry sung in German. The song was only moderately successful. The underrated Matt Monro (Terence Parsons) recorded the better

Shirley Ellis (Elliston, nee O'Garra) released "The Clapping Song (Clap Pat Clap Slap)" (Lincoln Chase) in 1965. The million seller reached number eight in the U.S. and number six in the U.K.. Lincoln Chase also wrote the Shirley Ellis hits "The Nitty

"The Ziegfeld Follies of 1936" saw the premiere performance of "I Can't Get Started" (Ira Gershwin - Vernon Duke) when it was sung by Eve Arden to Bob Hope. The first recording came from Hal Kemp and his Orchestra featuring vocalist Skinny Ennis when it

"Peter Cottontail" was written in 1949 by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins. This is the same writing duo that produced "Frosty The Snowman" the next year. Mervin Shiner was first to record the song and peaked at number eight on Billboard in 1950. Merv was a

Chuck (Harold) Willis had a number eight R&B hit with "Feels So Bad" (Willis) in the summer of 1954. This appears on the LP "Chuck Willis Wails The Blues". Wikipedia "he paid the band out of his own pocket without ever deducting taxes. ... When he

New York City area bandleader Gus Coletti sang the demo for "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck" (Bert Carroll - Russell Moody). Gus also sang with doo-wop group The Clusters (Henry Ferro, Joe Gugliaro, Donnie Milo, Tom Mordente and Charlie Scardina). Scotty

In the early fifties James (Hans) Last was crowned the best bassist in Germany. Later James and his orchestra sold hundreds of millions of albums through out the world. Mr. Last composed "No Words" in 1969 and it appears on his 1971 release

Smiley Lewis (Overton Lemons) hit the R&B charts at number eleven with "One Night" (Dave Bartholomew - Pearl King) in 1956. This included the lyric "one night of sin is what I'm now paying for". Smiley grew up in the same area as songwriter, producer

"I've Lost You" (Steve Barlby) was written for Iain Matthews (Ian Matthews MacDonald) by Alan Blaikley and Ken Howard using a pseudonym. Recorded in 1969 it was a track on Iain's first solo LP "Matthews' Southern Comfort". Covered in 1970 by Elvis

Tunesmiths Arthur Kent and Ed Warren wrote "Take Good Care Of Her" in 1961, the year it became number seven on Billboard's Top One Hundred, number twenty R&B for Adam (Patrick Henry) Wade. During the mid-seventies Adam was the host of the CBS

This is Jimmy Breedlove and the demo for "Hard Headed Woman" (Claude Demetrius). Jimmy was a member of The Cues (Eddie Barnes, Abel DeCosta, Ollie Jones and Robbie Kirk), a group formed to back up various singers on Atlantic Records in the fifties.

Chet Atkins produced Don Robertson singing "I'm Yours" (Don Robertson - Hal Blair) in 1968. The song was written for the wedding scene in the movie "Blue Hawaii" but it wasn't used. Elvis Presley recorded "I'm Yours" in 1961 and it appeared on his LP

Ernesto De Curtis and his brother Giambattista De Curtis were supposedly requested to write "Torna a Surriento" by the mayor of Sorrento to celebrate Prime Minister Giuseppe Zanasdelli's 1902 vacation in the area. Mario Massa was first to record the song

Merle Travis wrote the bulk of "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)" (Merle Travis - Tex Williams). Merle wrote the classic "Sixteen Tons" and "Dark As A Dungeon". Merle was also noted for his finger picking style of playing the guitar. Merle was a

"Amoureuse" was initially written and recorded by French singer, producer and songwriter Veronique Sanson for her 1972 LP of the same name. Veronique married Stephen Stills in 1973. Veronique Sanson teamed with lyricist Gary Osbourne to write and record