Search among John Twang's articles

This is Stevie Nicks playing guitar on the 1975 demo for "Leather And Lace". Should you have the opportunity to see Stevie in concert she often displays ribbons, chiffons, beads scarves, stuffed toys and roses on her microphone stand. Steve Nicks of

In the summer of 1966 "Your Good Thing (Is About To End)" (Porter - Hayes) was first recorded by Mable John on the legendary Stax label. Mable was Little Willie John's sister and spent years as a Raelette. The song inched onto the Top One Hundred at

Freddy Cannon is playing guitar on The G-Clefs (brothers Chris, Ilanga, Teddy and Tim Scott with friend Ray Gipson) 1956 "Ka-Ding-Dong" (R. Jordan - J. McDermott). Their first hit peaked at twenty-four on Billboard. The band kept the original members

The Danleers (Willie Ephraim, Johnny Lee, Roosevelt Mays, Nat McCune and lead vocalist Jimmy Weston) became a one-hit wonder with their debut single "One Summer Night" (Danny Webb) in 1958. The million seller peaked at number seven pop and number four on

The group Bama consisted of the composers, part of the Muscle Shoals, Alabama studio session musicians. They released "Touch Me When We're Dancing" (Terry Skinner, J.L. Wallace and Ken Bell) as a single in 1979. They released an album of the same name

This tune is now correctly referred to as a jazz standard. In 1917 the Original Dixieland Jass Band (Edwin Edwards, Dominick LaRocca, Henry Ragas, Larry Shields and Tony Sbarbaro) recorded "Tiger Rag". They changed the band name to jazz later and

Before the film "Star Spangled Rhythm" was issued, the song "That Old Black Magic" was released by Judy Garland and the Gordon Jenkins Orchestra. Apparently Johnny Mercer composed the lyrics for Judy specifically. The 1942 movie "Star Spangled Rhythm"

The Fleetwoods (Gary Troxel, Gretchen Christopher and Barbara Ellis) recorded "Before And After (Losing You)" (McCoy) in January of 1965 as a single and eventually the title track to their album. Chad (Stuart) and Jeremy (Clyde) with "Before And After"

The 1972 LP "Cymbal And Clinger" included the track "Rock Me Baby" (Johnny Cymbal - Peggy Clinger) by Johnny Cymbal and Peggy Clinger who also wrote "Mary In The Morning". Johnny Cymbal is well represented on this site while Peggy Clinger of The Clinger

Lyricist Jimmy Kennedy wrote "Red Sails In The Sunset" after watching a yacht with red sails off the coast of Ireland. British pianist, arranger and bandleader Lew Stone and his Orchestra were first to record "Red Sails In The Sunset" (Hugh Williams -

This is producer Liam Sternberg's 1984 demo of "Walk Like An Egyptian" (Liam Sternberg) featuring Marti Jones on vocals. Liam worked with talents like Kirsty MacColl, Ratt and Devo. Liam wrote the theme for television's "21 Jump Street" while Marti Jones

The first single release of "Love Hangover" (Pamela Sawyer - Marilyn McLeod) in 1976 came from the 5th Dimension (lead vocalist Marilyn McCoo, Bill Davis Jr. LaMonte McLemore, Florence LaRue and Ron Townson) just before the group broke apart. The

Diana Ross recorded "Love's Lines, Angels And Rhymes" (Dorothea Joyce) on her 1970 self-titled debut solo LP. Following the success of the track "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" the album title was changed to reflect the popularity of that number one

Five Man Electrical Band (Les Emmerson lead vocals, Rick Belanger, Vern Craig, Ted Gerow and Brian Rading) issued "Signs" (Les Emmerson) as a B side and ending up having their greatest success. The single is from the 1970 LP "Goodbyes And Butterflies".

Barney Bigard and his Jazzopaters first recorded "Caravan (Juan Tizel) in 1936 with just one writing credit on the label. Barney Bigard and the Jazzopaters (Barney Bigard, Harry Carney, Duke Ellington, Sonny Greer, Billy Taylor and Cootie Williams) were

Here is an edited version of Evelyn "Champagne" King's "Shame" (John H. Fitch Jr. - Rueben Cross) simply because the instrumental opening lasts for a minute. This is from Evelyn's 1977 debut LP "Smooth Talk". Sam Peake is featured on the sax. The single

When he was seventeen in 1966 Kenny Loggins wrote "House On Pooh Corner". The duo of (Kenny) Loggins and (Jim) Messina included the song on the 1971 debut LP "Sittin' In". Following their 1976 parting of ways Kenny went on to much success while Jim, a

Barry Gibb sings the demo of "What Kind of Fool" (Barry Gibb - Albhy Galuten) from the album :"Guilty Demos". Co-writer Albhy Galuten is a Grammy winning producer, composer and musician who produced the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack and the first

Tennessee's Jessi Alexander performs "It's The Climb" (Jessi Alexander - John Mabe) during the CMA Songwriter Spotlight at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival ASCAP Music Cafe. First recorded for "Hannah Montana: The Movie" this is the 2009 hit with Billy

Boyd Bennett and His Rockets with the original "My Boy - Flat Top" (Bennett - Young) from 1955. This was the follow up to the similar "Seventeen" and peaked at number thirty-nine. Dorothy Collins (Marjorie Chandler) reached number sixteen on Billboard

Charles Fox sings "Happy Days" (Norman Gimbel - Charles Fox). The team also wrote the Grammy winning "Killing Me Softly With His Song" and the themes for "Love Boat", Laverne & Shirley", "Love, American Style" and "Wonder Woman". (Truett) Pratt And

This is composer Charles Fox at the piano singing "I Got A Name" (Norman Gimbel - Charles Fox). This was the theme for the 1973 Jeff Bridges film "The Last American Hero" and the first single from Jim Croce's album of the same name. Jim Croce wrote the

"Du Kannst Nicht Treu Sein" (Hans Otten - Gerhard Ebeler) English translation, "You Can't Be Faithful" by Die Metropol-Vokalisten (Wilfried Sommer, Günter Leider, Peter Purand, Richard Westemeyer and Kurt Bangertof) was a big hit in Germany in 1935. In

Wham! or Wham! featuring George Michael (Panayioyou) with the 1983 version of "Careless Whisper" (George Michael - Andrew Ridgeley). The song was written when both were seventeen. This first version of the hit was produced by Jerry Wexler in Muscle

After Gene Pitney refused to record it, composer Burt Bacharach was first to record "Trains And Boats And Planes" (Burt Bacharach - Hal David). The session singers were known as The Breakaways (Betty Prescott, Margot Quantrell and Jean Ryder) who were

The first single from the 1974 Barry White (Carter) LP "Can't Get Enough" was "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe" (Barry White). The single topped both the Top One Hundred and the R&B charts. Taylor Dayne (Leslie Wunderman) covered the tune as the

This is the way the camp television show was introduced with Neal Hefti's composition of "Batman Theme" performed by the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. The Ron Hicklin Singers (Ron Hicklin, Tom Bahler, John Bahler, Gene Morford, Sally Stevens and Jackie Ward)

"Alone" was first recorded by the composers as a project. They used the name i-Ten (Billy Steinberg and Thomas Kelly) on the 1983 LP "Taking A Cold Look". This duo gave us "True Colors" "Eternal Flame", "Like A Virgin", "I Drove All Night" and "So