From the start, The Beatles second movie, Help!, is wildly different from their initial offering, A Hard Day’s Night. It’s from the same director, Richard Lester, and John, Paul, George, and Ringo star in this full-color, wild and crazy farce. The basic plot of Help! is the group struggling to record their new album while trying to protect Ringo from a sinister cult and a pair of mad scientists, all of whom are obsessed with obtaining a ring.



It seems Ringo is the proud owner of a sacred giant ruby ring, but it’s never really explained how? He’s stalked by a fanatical religious cult, who...

Click to expand...

Richard Lowenstein’s long-awaited documentary Mystify: Michael Hutchence arrived in July 2019 after a decade in the works. It’s no surprise that Lowenstein seems to struggle a bit to determine the best path to take to frame Hutchence’s story; after all, they were close friends. That being said – it was definitely worth the wait.



Mystify is not your standard rock documentary. There are no talking heads, and there’s no narrator. Instead, Lowenstein relies entirely on archival footage – much of it shot by the singer himself, or by his intimate friends and partners – with his story told as an off-camera oral history by associates and lovers in particular, INXS’s United States manager, Martha...

Click to expand...

What do the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic and Blind Faith all have in common? The brilliant and amazing singer and songwriter Steve Winwood, for starters.



Winwood began playing piano at 4 years old and started playing drums and guitar soon after. His first live performance came when he was 8 years old, but he had to play incognito. His Brother, Muff, said that when Steve began playing regularly with his father and brother in their band in licensed pubs and clubs, the piano had to be turned with its back to the audience to try and hide him, because he was so obviously underage.



He began playing with the Spencer Davis Group at age 14, where his very vocal style and high voice drew comparisons to Ray Charles. The group signed with Island Records in 1964 when Steve was 16. Founder/producer Chris Blackwell said of Winwood “He was really the cornerstone of Island Records. He’s a musical genius and because he was with...

Click to expand...

Show creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman were good friends and roommates in New York City in their 20s. Their lives, loves and friends are the material they utilized to create the epic television show, FRIENDS, that captured the hearts of millions all over the world. But the story behind it is so much more. The 2-hour reunion show gives us a glimpse of exactly what it was like to create, cast, and film the iconic original series.



Friends is a hit television sitcom, created by Crane and Kauffman, aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, and lasted ten seasons. During the height of its popularity, the show ran in over 100 countries, and was the #1 rated nighttime comedy show for 6 seasons. In the U.S alone, 52.5...

Click to expand...

Canadian siblings Sid & Marty Krofft are truly master puppeteers. Born in Quebec, Canada, they spent many years honing their craft before their television career began in earnest.



In the 1940s, Sid created his one-man puppet show, The Unusual Artistry of Sid Krofft, and performed it all over the world, with his father. Marty stayed in New York, where he started using his older brother’s puppets to earn money by staging performances. By the 1950s, the Krofft brothers were working together, and in the late 50s, they developed Les Poupées de Paris, a puppet show for more mature audiences.



In the late 60s, they designed the characters and sets for Hanna-Barbera’s The Banana Splits on NBC. The Kroffts’ producing career began in 1969...

Click to expand...

Almost every hit song has a really great tale behind it, and this one definitely has one worth telling. This is the story of the making of “We Are the World”.



The USA for Africa project began with an idea that actor, singer and activist Harry Belafonte had for a benefit concert, after hearing of the UK effort Band-Aid’s success with “Do They Know It’s Christmas.”


Formation and Songwriting
In late December 1984, looking for people willing to participate, Belafonte called his friend, manager Ken Kragen, who oversaw an impressive roster of talent. Kragen loved the idea and convinced Belafonte that they could raise more money and...

Click to expand...

On January 1, 1985, MTV’s parent corporation launched a new music video network aimed at building upon what the original music channel had created, but it focused on a slightly older demographic. When VH1 first came into existence, it was all about music videos and music shows. Favorites like “Behind the Music”, “VH1 Legends”, “Best Week Ever”, and “Pop-Up Video” kept us up long past our bedtime. The anticipation of what was to come was always such a thrill to us music lovers. “Behind the Music” in particular, was truly the forerunner to today’s biopics about the people and bands we loved from the 60s to the 90s, and beyond.



A brief history on the show: “Behind the Music” came to be after Paul Gallagher and George Moll produced a...

Click to expand...

When you read the endless list of accomplishments of Todd Rundgren, it’s nearly overwhelming. He has done nearly everything in the music industry and done it very well.



Rundgren grew up in Philadelphia and taught himself to play guitar at a very young age. He developed a love for music that grew first from his parents’ music collection, then added in his own tastes from the Beatles and the Stones to the Philadelphia sound of bands like the O-Jays.



His own personal brand of music has been called “sophisticated” and “unorthodox,” however the term “unique” seems to fit best. His stage shows are often lavish, and he was one of the earliest to adapt to technology such as the internet as a means of music distribution in the late 90s.



He was one of the first acts to be prominent as both...

Click to expand...

In the early 90s, Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray were looking for new ideas and watched a 70s show on PBS called “An American Family.” It was a chronicle of the daily life of the Louds, an upper middle-class family in Santa Barbara, California, but ended up documenting the break-up of the family when the parents separated and divorced during filming.



That documentary prompted Bunim and Murray to create a similar show, reflective of the popularity of other 90s shows like Beverly Hills 90210 and Dawson’s Creek.  That idea spawned the massive hit reality show “The Real World” on MTV.  It was originally billed as “This is the true story of seven strangers, picked to live in a house, and have their lives taped, to find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.” Originally designed as a ‘one-off’ experiment, the show grew into a monster almost overnight, and to date, has spanned 33 seasons...

Click to expand...

Let It Be is a 1970 British documentary film directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. featuring the Beatles as themselves. The film memorializes the rehearsing and recording of songs for the album Let It Be, in January 1969. Released just after the album dropped in May 1970, Let It Be is the final original Beatles release. The film also shows the unannounced rooftop concert by the group, the legendary last public performance of the four together.



The production is more of a fly-on-the-wall view, rather than your typical documentary format. No interviews, no narration, just the band rehearsing, with them discussing improvements to the songs. Billy Preston is also there, accompanying several of the songs. However, it’s crystal clear from the outset that McCartney is trying to dominate the proceedings.



On closer inspection, the cracks are visible. It’s seemingly more like Paul is desperately trying to get John’s attention, or at...

Click to expand...

The Monkees was conceived in 1965 by television producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneide as a situation comedy series about a pop/rock band. Their original line-up consisted of actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork and British actor/singer Davy Jones. Their music was initially supervised by record producer, Don Kirshner, and backed by the songwriting duo of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. But their appeal and massive success was something no one saw coming.



The four actor/musicians were initially allowed only limited roles in the recording studio for the first few months of their career as “the Monkees,” however they quickly proved their mettle in both performing and songwriting. They fought for and won the right to...

Click to expand...

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...

Click to expand...

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...

Click to expand...

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...

Click to expand...

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...

Click to expand...

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...

Click to expand...

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...

Click to expand...

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...

Click to expand...

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...

Click to expand...

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...

Click to expand...

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...

Click to expand...

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...

Click to expand...

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...

Click to expand...

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...

Click to expand...

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...

Click to expand...