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date & photographer unknown
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Showing posts with label Santa Esmeralda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Santa Esmeralda. Show all posts
December 17, 2023
February 14, 2018
Casablanca Records ~ Disco Daze 3
Casablanca record sleeve
photo by Styrous®
Casablanca Records was an American recording label owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Republic Records. It was
founded in 1973 by former Buddah Records executive Neil Bogart, who named the label in homage to the classic film, Casablanca, and was based in Los Angeles in Southern California, The label became most successful as a disco label in the 1970s and
currently operates as an electronic dance music label under the
direction of Tommy Mottola.
The Casablanca Label launched the careers of KISS, Donna Summer*†, Meco*†, Parliament, The Funkadelics*†, Angel and the Village People. It also recorded Cher, The Sylvers, Buddy Miles, Giorgio Moroder*†, Santa Esmeralda*† and many others.
Kiss was the first group to be signed by Casablanca. It released three albums by the group: Kiss (1974), Hotter Than Hell (1974), and Dressed to Kill (1975), but all failed to make an impact on the charts, however, the glam rock band did amass a following. However, it was NOT a disco album.
Although the band's studio albums had not been strong sellers, the band had a reputation for performing exciting live shows. Casablanca decided to try to capitalize on that reputation by releasing the double-live Alive! (1975) album. It became both Casablanca's and Kiss's first top ten album, being certified gold.
vinyl LP cover
cover photo by Joel Brodsky
photo of album cover by Styrous®
Although the band's studio albums had not been strong sellers, the band had a reputation for performing exciting live shows. Casablanca decided to try to capitalize on that reputation by releasing the double-live Alive! (1975) album. It became both Casablanca's and Kiss's first top ten album, being certified gold.
The Kiss follow-up studio albums to Alive! were better sellers than its previous studio albums. Destroyer (1976), Rock and Roll Over (1976), and Love Gun
(1977) were all certified platinum in the United States. The band would
release several more albums, with its last studio album on Casablanca
being Creatures of the Night (1982).
In 1975, Casablanca signed a new artist named Donna Summer and released her album entitled Love to Love You Baby which was certified gold. I will never forget this song; it was my introduction to the world of DISCO!
The title song, written by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, is over 17 minutes long, and Casablanca released the song in
its entirety as a single (a shorter version was also promoted for
radio). In releasing the 17 minute version as a single, Casablanca would
help make popular a format that would become known as the 12 inch.
The song, featured Summer seductively moaning and groaning, it was banned by some American radio stations (as it was in Europe)
but made its way to #2 on the US Hot 100. Summer had several gold and platinum albums on Casablanca from 1975–1979, and
became the label's most successful act on the singles chart. At one
point, she scored eight US top 5 singles within a 19-month period.
Summer had 10 gold singles (1 million), 2 went platinum (2 million) and a
gold maxi-single while with Casablanca.
In 1979 Lipps Inc., with Steven Greenberg as writer, producer, and musician, and Cynthia Johnson on lead vocals, signed with Casablanca. Soon the single Rock It was released, followed by the album Mouth to Mouth. The album included the #1 smash hit Funkytown. A totally bubble-gum tune, it's one of my all-time favorite hits.
Lipps Inc. - Mouth To Mouth
photo of album cover by Styrous®
Parliament with group leader George Clinton was signed to the Casablanca label in late 1973.
Their first official release for the label was in 1974 with the album Up for the Down Stroke.
The title song from the album gave Parliament its first top ten R&B hit. Their next album, Chocolate City sold approximately 150,000 albums in the Washington, D.C. area alone. But it would be their next release, Mothership Connection,
that would give the group its first gold and, eventually, platinum
album. Parliament would achieve either gold or platinum status with each
album release up until 1980, as well as scoring hit singles with Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker), Flash Light (Casablanca's first R&B #1 hit) and Aqua Boogie (A Psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop). The success of Parliament allowed George Clinton to develop another P-Funk spin off act known as Parlet.
vinyl LP cover
cover photo by Leandro Correa
photo of album cover by Styrous®
Casablanca also financed the various extravagant P-Funk stage shows, including the "Mothership Connection/P-Funk Earth Tour" of 1976-77; as well as the Motor Booty Affair underwater tour of 1979. Parliament were later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Parliament also gave Casablanca Records a much needed presence in the R&B/Soul market.
The Casablanca film division produced the films, The Deep, Midnight Express*†, Foxes and The Hollywood Knights. Casablanca Records was purchased by PolyGram after which the label went into decline. Visit the Casablanca website to see more Casablanca Records videos. Be warned, however, it takes forever to get the pages to open.
KISS
Record Labels
Santa Esmeralda
Donna Summer
Village People
Net links:
Styrous® ~ Wednesday, February 14, 2018
December 8, 2014
101 Reel-to-Reel Tapes 86: Eric Burdon & The Animals ~ Winds of Change & San Franciscan Nights
reel-to-reel tape
photo by Styrous®
In
addition to my vinyl LP record collection I'm selling, I have hundreds of reel-to-reel, pre-recorded tapes as well. This is an entry about one of
them that will be for sale on eBay (see link below) in January of 2015. Interested? Contact me by email, please, not by a comment.
~ ~ ~
Winds of Chnnge is an album released in 1967 by Eric Burdon & The Animals. It contains one of my all time favorite songs, San Franciscan Nights. I remember when it came out, I was in my late twenties and just about to have an experience that would devastate my life but I didn't know it at the time; I was in love and the glory that was San Francisco in those years was completely captured in the feeling, if not the message of the song.
reel-to-reel tape
photo by Styrous®
In spite of it's anti-war lyrics and having been written in the spring; San Franciscan Nights has the sensual feeling of the city in the sixties in the autumn when the days are hot and the nights warm; the still air is filled with the scent of flowers and romance is everywhere. It was a pleasure to experience those warm, voluptuous nights and I'll always treasure them.
The song was composed by Eric Burdon, Vic Briggs, John Weider, Barry Jenkins, and Danny McCulloch. It was written as a protest song against the Vietnam War. It opens with the Dragnet theme followed by a spoken word dedication by Burdon, "To the city and people of San Francisco, who may not know it but they are beautiful and so is their city." And it was so true; we didn't know how beautiful it and we were. It's only in looking back that we can fully understand and appreciate what we had.
San Franciscan Nights was the band's biggest hit; It reached a peak position of number 1 on the Canadian RPM charts, number 9 on the U.S. pop singles chart, and number 7 on the UK pop singles chart.
The Animals were a British band of the 1960s, formed in Newcastle upon Tyne
during the early part of the decade. The band moved to London upon
finding fame in 1964. The Animals were known for their gritty, bluesy sound and deep-voiced front man Eric Burdon, as exemplified by their signature song and transatlantic No.1 hit single, The House of the Rising Sun, as well as by hits such as We Gotta Get out of This Place, It's My Life, I'm Crying and Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (during the Disco Craze, Santa Esmeralda did a sensational cover of it).
The band balanced tough, rock-edged pop singles against rhythm and blues-oriented album material. They were known in the US as part of the British Invasion.
reel-to-reel tape box detail
detail photo by Styrous®
The Animals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. In 2003, the band's version of The House of the Rising Sun ranked No. 123 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. Their 1965 hit single We Gotta Get out of This Place was ranked No. 233 on the same list. Both songs are included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
Track listing
All songs written by Eric Burdon, Vic Briggs, John Weider, Barry Jenkins, and Danny McCulloch, except where noted.Side 1
- "Winds of Change" (4:00)
- "Poem by the Sea" (2:15)
- "Paint It, Black" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) (6:00)
- "The Black Plague" (6:05)
- "Yes I Am Experienced" (3:40)
Side 2
- "San Franciscan Nights" (3:24)
- "Man - Woman" (5:25)
- "Hotel Hell" (4:53)
- "Good Times" (2:50)
- "Anything" (3:20)
- "It's All Meat" (2:05)
Personnel
- Eric Burdon - Vocals [2]
- Vic Briggs - Guitar, Piano and Arrangements [2]
- John Weider - Guitar and Violin [2]
- Danny McCulloch - Bass[2]
- Keith Olsen - "stepped in on some tracks to deputise on bass after Danny McCulloch broke his wrist" [2008 Rev-Ola CD booklet notes]
- Barry Jenkins - Drums [2]
| Released | September 1967 |
|---|---|
| Recorded | March [1967] at TTG Studios in Los Angeles |
| Genre | Psychedelic rock |
| Length | 44:29 |
| Label | MGM |
| Producer | Tom Wilson |
songs from Winds of Change on YouTube:
Winds of Change
Poem by the Sea
Paint It, Black
The Black Plague
Yes I Am Experienced
San Franciscan Nights
Man - Woman
Hotel Hell
Good Times
Anything
It's All Meat
other music on YouTube:
The Animals - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Santa Esmeralda - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
other reel-to-reel tapes on eBay
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