Early years



It all started with a man named Neil Bogart and his partners, Cecil Holmes, Larry Harris (Bogart’s cousin) and Buck Reingold.  The company had a rough start, but it quickly found the sound of the 70’s and became the label of both disco and excess, churning out hit after hit. 



Until September 1973, Bogart had overseen the Buddah record label that was owned by Viewlex Corporation. He tired of conforming to Viewlex’s requirements and left the company to start his own record label. Initially he used his relationships at Warner Bros. Records to obtain and arrange funding for his new venture. He brought with him his cousin, Larry Harris, along with a few other friends and colleagues from Buddah, Cecil Holmes (who would also go on to found the Casablanca subsidiary...

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There are so many words that we could use to describe the remarkable life and accomplishments, and true legacy of singer and songwriter Eddie Money. He was truly gifted, but his path to stardom was a bit rocky in the beginning.



Edward Joseph Mahoney was born into a large Irish-Catholic family in Long Island, NY. He started singing on the streets at age 11 and played in numerous rock bands “mostly to get chicks,” as he later stated. After struggling in high school, he finally graduated and at age 18, he tried to follow in the footsteps of his police officer grandfather, father, and brother as a NYC police department trainee. However, much to his father’s dismay, he soon found that wasn’t the path for him, and he left to pursue a career in music. “I couldn’t see myself in a police uniform for 20 years of my life, with short hair,” he later said, referring to the department policy that then stated, “no long hair”.



In 1968...

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Baker Street and Me



When you ask me who my favorite artist is, I normally respond with which of a thousand ones? However, we all those artists who not only are favorites but who we also feel speak to us. Then, there are those few, those very few, who speak for us.



It was early 1978, I was   a 12-year-old listening to the old Los Angeles AM pop radio station, KHJ, when I first heard Baker Street. It was a kick to the heart and the guts, it coalesced in my soul, and affected me like few other songs ever have. A few weeks later, Right on Down the Line, entered the soundtrack of my...

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On March 2, 2021, the documentary, “Tina Turner,” debuted at the Berlin Film Festival where it received a very favorable rating.  The Oscar winning documentary duo, Dan Lindsay and T. J. Martin, went on to watch HBO release in the U.S. on March 27, and saw it garner the largest HBO audience for a documentary since the 2019 release of “Leaving Neverland.”



Born Anna Mae Bullock 1939, Tina Turner was destined to be a star. Her childhood was tragic, both parents abandoned her. She met Ike Turner, who was more a father figure at first than a husband but married him anyway out of fear and desperation. All she knew was he was her key to success.



The documentary opens with Tina singing and performing. And Tina dances like no one else – wild, sensual, truly feeling the music, on the greatest legs ever to hit the planet. Seriously, the best legs ever. In this film, she immediately addresses the 1981...

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When you think of the greatest female voices of the 70s, Linda Ronstadt should, very rightfully so, be at the top of that list.



From the very start of this Dolly Parton produced documentary, you just know this film is going to be something very special. Ronstadt announces in the first 5 minutes that she has Parkinson’s disease, as did her grandmother. Tragically, this disease is what has silenced Ronstadt on stage since 2011 – in her own words “I can no longer sing a note.”



Ronstadt grew up in Tucson, AZ to a musical family, was raised on radio, and she loved singing. Her first gig was with her older brother and sister, performing around Tucson. After trying her hand at various venues, she went to Los Angeles in 1964 at age 18 as a solo artist. She and good friend Bobby Kimmel, along with guitarist Kenny Edwards formed the Stone Poneys. They started making the open-mike rounds, and quickly homed in on the Troubadour (which was an up-and-coming club at that time) that focused...

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Inspiration comes from many places, but in this case, I was inspired in the identical fashion of my last offering about the eerie similarities of the suicide scene of the group Boston’s Brad Delp and a fictional suicide from the television show Twin Peaks. If you haven’t read it, give it a read as it comes highly recommended, if I do say so myself. So once again, I found myself watching Netflix to cope with the boredom of my self-imposed isolation during the Covid-19 crisis.



Desperate for something to watch, I stumbled onto one of my personal comedy favorites. Up inSmoke was Cheech & Chong‘s first and unquestionably best movie. It can easily be termed a classic. Contrary to popular misconception, you don’t have to be a pot-laden stoner to find it funny...

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Originally formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977, coming out of Sydney, Australia, the rock band INXS demonstrated early on that they were something truly special and unique. However, their journey to stardom was not an easy one and they would have to prove themselves to both fans and critics alike. The band consisted of founding members, Andrew Farriss, main composer/keyboardist, Jon Farriss, drummer, Tim Farriss, guitarist, Garry Gary Beers, bassist, Michael Hutchence, lead singer/main lyricist, and Kirk Pengilly, guitarist/saxophonist.



For twenty years, INXS was fronted by Hutchence, whose sultry good looks and...

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Set in 1996, the movie is the story of an assassin who returns to his 10-year high school reunion in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. John Cusack stars as Martin Q. Blank, who sets out to win back his high school sweetheart Debi Newberry, played by Minnie Driver, after he stood her up for their senior prom because he left to join the Army. Once in the military, his tests revealed he had a propensity for “moral ambiguity” and he is recruited by the CIA to become an assassin. He eventually becomes a contract killer for hire. He returns home to the reunion because it coincides with a hit he has been hired to complete, but he doesn’t know the target yet, and he decides to win his high school sweetheart back in the process. While the twists and turns are a lot of fun to talk about, I’ll hold off for those who have yet to see the movie or want to watch it again. I will share that there is an awesome scene where Cusack finds himself in the gun fight, with his erstwhile girlfriend, Driver, is...

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When you mention “The Troubadour” (or “The Troub” as many call it), most locals and people in the music industry know you mean West Hollywood’s iconic bar and restaurant since the late 50s. Located on Santa Monica Boulevard, where Beverly Hills and West Hollywood meet; Doug Weston initially opened The Troub as a coffee house in 1957 where it was originally located on La Cienega Boulevard that would later become known as “Restaurant Row,” he moved the club to its current location in 1961.



The club by the mid-60’s the club had become known for helping singer/songwriters in particular and new artists in general get their start. Among the beneficiaries of the exposure that Weston’s Troub brought them were Elton John, Carole King, Jackson Browne, The Byrds, the Eagles, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Linda Ronstadt, J.D. Souther, James Taylor, and Tom Waits; among many others. It was a major center for...

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It explains 80% of the reason I venture into the Wild West-Meets-Idiocracy world that is Twitter: @Super70sSports. Featuring a hilarious mix of sports clips, ads and a mélange of pop-culture references from the 1960s-to roughly the mid-1990s, the account, started by Moraine Valley Community College, sociology professor Ricky Cobb, is simply the best follow on the Twitter device.



Cobb built a cottage industry out of an account that conservatively, is good for at least four or five laughs a day. It’s a must-follow for anyone who remembers Howard Cosell and the Battle of the Network Stars, the American Basketball Association, Newport cigarette ads, 1980s video games and William...

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The recent passing of Ric Ocasek left all of us reeling. Especially since it happened just days after we lost Eddie Money. Their respective music was the soundtrack of our youth for many of us. Ric showed us he had so many more facets than we ever dreamed possible. He was a singer, songwriter, musician, record producer and painter, as well as husband and father.



Born Richard Theodore Otcasek in Baltimore MD, he was always interested in music. A forced move to Ohio when he was 16 proved most fortuitous for Ric, because soon after that was when he met Benjamin Orr.  The two met when Ric saw Ben perform with another band, when they were just out of high school. They became friends but would not form a band together until some years later. In 1968, they formed a band called...

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Forever known as “the quiet Beatle”, George Harrison was more an observer, a thinker, an innovator, and a man who was truly unafraid to try new things. George was also the youngest Beatle but was very much an old soul.



Harrison’s love of music started in the womb, with his mother playing music from Radio India. Biographer Joshua Green said, “Every Sunday she tuned in to mystical sounds evoked by sitars and tablas, hoping that the exotic music would bring peace and calm to the baby in the womb.” This form of music would figure heavily in his music later in life.



Harrison first became part of The Quarrymen with Paul McCartney and John Lennon, which would later become The Beatles. In March 1958, he auditioned for them, but Lennon felt that Harrison, having just turned 15, was too young to join the band. Not to be denied, McCartney arranged a second meeting, during which Harrison impressed Lennon by performing the lead...

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The year was 1983, a time that saw the birth of the moonwalk, the final episode of MASH and the debut of Fraggle Rock. As far as where women stood in 1983, the seedlings of a new “revolution” of sorts had been planted. Gloria Steinem was emerging as a prominent voice on the scene with the publication of her book Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions. And then, you have Cyndi Lauper…



What has been reflectively touted as a feminist anthem for the 80s, Lauper’s hit song Girls Just Want to Have Fun tells a story and as seen in the video, a rather animated one at that. But can we legitimately call this hit a “feminist anthem”? Knowing what we know now, having soldiered through #MeToo, having butted up against glass ceilings and gender disparity in general, how should we interpret Cyndi Lauper’s musical/video plea for women to let their hair down and feel free to be, well, free?



The Great Lyric Flip



Many may not be aware that the original song was actually written and...

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The mixtape, a staple of the Gen X love arsenal in that when pledging your undying teenage devotion to the object of your affection, you would record all of the quintessential romantic ballads onto one tape. You’d then sheepishly present this tape to the person you adored. The labeling of said tape was just as important as the songs it contained. Clever mixtape titles along the alliterative lines of “Songs for Sarah,” “Barb’s Ballads,” or the more direct and simply put: “Mixtape for My Love.”



Some of the standard mixtape go-tos…You have the 80s hair band ballads of course. What mixtape would be complete without Bon Jovi’s iconic I’ll Be There for You or Motley’s Crue’s Without You. Then there is the lighter musical fare, Lionel Ritchie’s Hello and pretty much anything by REO Speedwagon or Air Supply.



The Mechanics of the Mixtape



Believe it or not actually creating this mixtape was a fairly in-depth process. Prior to the development of the dual cassette boombox...

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Hollywood and films are both synonymous and iconic, and truly a collection of tall tales and urban legends as well. Some are myths – purely conjecture, and it’s always astonishing to hear the rumors – Stallone once did porn, footage of Brandon Lee’s fatal shooting can be seen in the final cut of The Crow, James Dean’s death Porsche claimed more victims after him, Richard Gere has a gerbil fetish – the list of completely rubbish untruths is miles long.



But beyond the glittering lights, there are many true Hollywood stories. Long the center of the world’s movie industry, there are always salacious tales that go along with that infamy. Let’s explore one of the more fascinating ones.



One of the most interesting that comes to mind is the Peg Entwistle story. Millicent Lilian ‘Peg’ Entwistle...

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The 1980s: the decade when Halloween wasn’t necessarily the happy-go-lucky, relatively sheltered (by way of a parent still dotingly accompanying you in your tween years) experience that it is today. At least not my childhood Halloweens anyway. No, mine were of the sweat and suffocate in a plastic Gold Circle-purchased costume (no Walmart in our neck of the woods yet) variety, and then upon returning home, mom and dad would do their due diligence by inspecting every piece of “suspect” candy. For what…why, razor blades of course.



Now certainly, if you google Halloween in the 80s, overwhelmingly, nostalgia driven pieces will turn up. Happy pieces. Best-decade-ever-for-Halloween pieces. I am not ashamed to say that I am a Halloween hater, and I attribute 90% of that to the 80s.



Early Halloweens (Ages 5 to 7)



Disclaimer: after age 5 I did not go again until I was 8.



My mother tries to fit me with one of those plastic smocks bearing some semblance of Wonder Woman and...

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What do you get when you cross a sweet, young, newly engaged couple with a house full of raving mad lunatics? You get one of the greatest cult classic films of all time!



Rocky Horror Picture Show is a campy, musical spoof on the haunted-castle horror movie, encompassing a ’70s glam-rock world of androgyny with characters that are more than offbeat. Adults have been gathering at ritualistic midnight showings of Rocky Horror across the country since its 1975 debut, contributing to it becoming a cult classic.



Made from a hit stage show, the premise of the movie is this – the young couple get lost and stumble across a mad transvestite doctor and his minions from the planet Transsexual. He is in the midst of unveiling Rocky Horror, a humanoid creation who unfortunately spurns the doctor’s advances, much to his annoyance. The film follows Brad and Janet’s descent into the world of Dr. Frank N. Furter and his minions. And what delightfully transpires after that is pure kitsch...

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Photography used with permission, courtesy of Suzanne Allison Photography.



When you hear the name “Bee Gees,” many automatically (and erroneously) think “disco.” However, the Brothers Gibb truly were anything but, and this new HBO documentary proves beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the Bee Gees were massively underestimated. But the music journey of Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb was a tumultuous one, and How Can You Mend A Broken Heart lays it all on the line.



They’ve sold an estimated 220 million records and had six consecutive US number ones during their late-’70s phase. This achievement alone begs the question – how come the Bee Gees still remain rather underrated?



Producer/director Frank Marshall weaves an intricate tapestry of the Brothers Gibb and their lives, from their humble beginnings in the Isle of Man, to their first successes in London, to their astronomical success in Saturday Night Fever, to...

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There is usually quite an interesting story behind hit songs like Do They Know It’s Christmas?”



This particular story starts in early October 1984 in England, where Bob Geldof of Boomtown Rats fame, was watching television, and saw a BBC news report about the horrible famine in Ethiopia. This disaster had resulted from a very severe drought, and as Geldof watched, he felt compelled to do something. But the question was what could he do?



He then contacted his good friend, Midge Ure, lead singer of Ultravox, and after tossing around several ideas, they then decided their best option was to collaborate on a benefit single to be released during the rapidly approaching holiday season. Ure stated, “We knew if we made it a Christmas song, we would pull at the purse strings as well as the heartstrings”.  Since time was of the essence, the two quickly...

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Born in Ireland on October 5, 1951, Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof KBE (aka Bob Geldof) is a man who wears many hats, a singer-songwriter, author, political activist, even occasional actor, and also, a devoted father.



Geldof first achieved fame as the lead singer of the Irish rock band, the Boomtown Rats, in the late 1970s, who realized their popularity in the time of the growth of the punk rock movement. The band had UK number one hits with the songs Rat Trap and I Don’t Like Mondays.



While acclaimed for his music, Geldof is most widely recognized for his activism, especially anti-poverty efforts in Africa. In 1984, he and Midge Ure founded the charity supergroup, Band Aid, to raise money for famine...

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Marc Bolan was a singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and poet. He was the lead singer of the band T. Rex and was one of the pioneers of the glam rock movement of the 1970s.



Born Mark Feld, Bolan was given a guitar by his father at age 9. He formed a skiffle band, and during lunch breaks at school, he would play his guitar in the playground to a small audience of friends. At 15, he was expelled from school for bad behavior.



Bolan briefly joined a modelling agency and became a “John Temple Boy“, appearing in a clothing catalogue for the menswear store. He modeled suits for their catalogs and for the window displays. It was suggested that Bolan was in fact bisexual according to those in the music scene. When asked about his sexuality during an interview in 1975, Bolan confirmed that he was, indeed, bisexual.



The Who’s Pete Townshend stated in an...

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Formed in 1974 in Melbourne Australia, Little River Bandworked through many obstacles, and numerous band member changes, to finally achieve the success they craved, only to lose it due to personality conflicts.



In late 1974, using the band name Mississippi, Beeb Birtles, Graeham Goble, Derek Pellicci and Glenn Shorrock met with newly hired talent manager Glenn Wheatley. They had initially tried to break in through the UK market, but that idea was quickly scratched. After much discussion, and also due to the indifferent reception they had each received in the UK, they ultimately decided their new band would need to establish itself in the United States.



As for the name change, Birtles later stated in his autobiography, “Shorrock and I were sitting in the back seat of a car driving down Princes Highway to play a gig at The Golf View Hotel in Geelong. As we passed the Little River exit sign, Shorrock said ‘Little River, that’d be a good song title.’ Within a split second he...

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Peter Frampton knew he wanted to be a musician very early on in life. At the young age of 7, discovered his grandmother’s banjolele in the attic, and taught himself to play it. Not satisfied with just that, he also taught himself to play guitar, piano, and organ as well. By the time he was 8, he was enrolled in classical music lessons to immerse himself further in his chosen passion.



Frampton played in his first band, The Little Ravens, at age 12, and was classmates with David Jones A.K.A. David Bowie. Frampton’s band played on the same bill at school as Bowie’s band, George and the Dragons, and Peter and David would spend lunch breaks together, playing Buddy Holly songs, despite the 3 year difference in age.



By 14, he was also a successful child singer, in a band called the TruBeats, then in another called The Preachers, both produced and managed by Bill Wyman of Rolling Stones fame. In 1969, when Frampton was 18 years...

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What do you get when you make a movie about the insane disco craze of the 70s? You get music, dancing, and a whole lot more that could have been left on the cutting room floor. Ironically, it’s the numerous and heavily choreographed musical sequences that have failed to stand the test of time.



John Travolta portrays the angry, bitter young man from Queens named Tony Manero whose one true passion is to dance. Travolta is truly mesmerizing in every scene, carrying the film despite some woeful performances from the supporting cast. Naturally, his dancing is etched on the culture’s collective consciousness, but it was his dramatic work which earned him an Oscar nomination for his performance.



This movie is full of strong language, sex, and violence. The characters take part in gang fights, as well as racist and sexist behavior, and there’s a truly disturbing gang rape scene in the back of a car. The male characters drink, smoke, and talk about sex with wild abandon, and misogyny...

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Beastie Boys were an American hip hop and rap rock group from New York City formed in 1978. During the height of their popularity, the group was composed of Michael “Mike D” Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam “MCA” Yauch (vocals, bass) and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz (vocals, guitar).



Starting as a punk band, Beastie Boys were formed out of members of the experimental hardcore punk band the Young Aborigines in 1978, with Diamond as vocalist, Jeremy Shatan on bass guitar, guitarist John Berry and Kate Schellenbach on drums. Shatan left in 1981, Yauch replaced him on bass and the band changed their name to Beastie Boys. Berry left shortly thereafter and was replaced by Horovitz.



They quickly changed gears in 1983, after achieving success with the experimental hip hop song Cooky Puss. They toured with Madonna in 1985, and a year later, released their debut album, Licensed to Ill, the first rap record to top the Billboard 200 chart, and spawned the huge mega hit, You Gotta...

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