My grandparents lived next door to Noel & were good friends with him during the late 70s, before they moved to New Zealand. they said he was a great guy & super friendly. When he came to New Zealand for a show they said they went backstage & he was still super down to earth. What a player
The lesson that I learn from this channel is that the 1960s wasn't just one big chunk of time with a great music scene. It was broken into all sorts of small pieces of an explosion of great and or innovative sound. Noel Redding had his hands full with this selection but handled it like a champ.
There was so much great music, but also heaps of not-so-great. You had to separate the wheat from the chaff. The album chart featured is a fair indication of what radio played back then, at least in Australia.
Also saying that Champion Jack Dupree sounds anything like Howlin' Wolf, who perhaps had the most distinctive and recognizable voice in Blues history. Very hard to mistake anyone for him
Yeh he didn't have a wide knowledge of music...but he was a working musician. Back then it was MUCH harder to hear stuff. But yes absolutely, not recognising Elvis!!!!... Man he had serious gaps in his knowledge.
Noel mentioned how The Jimi Hendrix Experience played "Sunshine of Your Love." They did a recording of it, recorded when Noel was still in the band, that appeared on the posthumous album Valleys of Neptune that released in 2010. Their take on the song & the rest of the album is absolutely killer, too. The posthumous Hendrix records don't get enough love or credit, from what I've seen. As a huge fan, I think it's some of Hendrix's finest work, even if Hendrix himself didn't really seem to agree.
@@vicvega3614 I did mean Both Sides lol, my homie was talking & said, "beyond," while I was typing that so my brain got confused. I really love Neptune, but Sky had some stuff I've been jamming to on TH-cam for years I never thought would actually be officially released.
His positivity is great; he really loved music of all sorts. Also love the way you've been putting American charts up after the British ones - I usually remember twice as many of the songs there (was 15 at the time in NY), and it's always been interesting to see the differences between countries just based on the British charts and singles reviewed.
I usually count how many songs I recognize on the charts, this time got 11 out of 30 on the Brit charts and all 10 of 10 on the US. Was 12 at the time also in NY, great times with a great soundtrack from the a.m. radio.
@@YesterdaysPapers I would love to find an early 80s version of your channel, when New Wave started happening with all the fanzines, the weeklies and Smash Hits!
I was just 19 - Stones at number one. Dylan's Nashville Skyline in the charts - and I had just bought Stand Up by Jethro Tull. God was in his heaven and all was right with the world!
I was 21, stationed in Iceland with the Navy. Was frequently able to take free military hops for 2 or 3 day trips back to Boston. Spent most of the time hitting the music venues. Saw lots of great bands that year. My favorites were The Velvet Underground and Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, saw both of them multiple times at The Boston Tea Party.
There has been blind reviews by other musicians who can hear the distinctions between American vs British produced music. I would love to see YP, through examples, demonstrate what distinguishes an American and British recording or style in playing.
Tim Hardin used to be extremely popular in the 60's. Now he's almost forgotten. I remember walking into Sam's in Toronto and seeing a stack of all of his albums in prime location. You bring back all the music that was part of my growing up years in the 60's. I turn 73 in mid July. So you can guess the music that formed my development. I used to look back to the 20's and couldn't understand. Now I understand better. Thank you for your contribution
Boy, was Jethro Tull gonna explode in a big way. That wasn’t their strongest song on the album, but if you listen to the whole album, one of the most rewarding early albums by the band
Quite bizarre that The 5th Dimension did a version of Sunshine Of Your Love. As Noel said, The Jimi Hendrix Experience did a great live instrumental version of that.
Sunshine was covered a lot and in some strange ways. Ella Fitzgerald does a big band version and Spanky Wilson does a great funk version. Might want to check them out
Amazing Noel couldn't identify Elvis. Love this channel, saw on your top 20 list at the end, a song by Donovan and Jeff Beck. Being a great Beck fan, it was something I never knew. Just listened to it😂😂🙏
@@terryenglish7132 No, only Page and JPJ were on the record. Bonham drumming on that track is a myth, doesn't sound remotely like him, even compared to his earliest recordings.
@@zachjacobs3337 Thanks, sure enough. I just noticed the drums being bombastic, which is a Bonham trademark, so I never really thought about whether the style was off.... Supposedly Donovan actually had Hendrix in mind, but they didn't hook up.
I always love it when an artist on here says "it's too much", or "too much" when talking about a track. I don't know why, but it cracks me up every time.
Noel was once on the Howard Stern show and said Paul McCartney (they were good friends) would occasionally cheat his strict vegetarian diet and secretly eat a cheeseburger once in a while.
@@kennethmarshall306 Elvis was not a "one-trick-pony" like many people think. Even in the early days he sounded so differently on his records: Baby let's play house, Love me tender. Chuck Berry, Fats Domino & Co. always sounded the same but there were always many shades of Elvis - sore throat or not 🙂
@@2009framat I am 56 and, I promise you, I have heard the ones that you list. Many times. But I had never heard the one being reviewed here. And like the reviewer, (I’ll admit I hadn’t heard of him!) it caught me out. I still can hardly believe that I didn’t recognise Elvis after the hundreds of hours I have spent listening to him.
There's a wonderful irony inherent in The Fifth Dimension cover of Sunshine Of Your Love. Back in the 50s you would have an artist like Pat Boone covering Little Richard records in a much "whiter", more "palatable" style for the white American audience. Then in the 60s you had British acts like Clapton/Cream doing stuff like Sunshine Of Your Love that was obviously influenced by black American blues and done in a much more "authentic" manner than Pat Boone was capable of. And then things come full circle with The Fifth Dimension, a black American group, covering the Cream song but in a much "whiter", more mainstream pop style than the original.
And before that you had Louis Armstrong covering Hoagy Carmichael and George Gershwin, while playing European instruments using a European harmonic system. It’s almost as if music has no actual inherent race or something
@@subg8858 No need to get your hackles up. Of course you're correct in that music has no inherent race, I would never suggest otherwise. Terms like "blacker" and "whiter" sounding music were in common usage back then even by the musicians themselves, but they were never meant to be taken too literally as though the music itself somehow had a skin color. It was more about acknowledging cultural and historic differences. There's no denying for example that early blues records were overwhelmingly made by black American artists, and then that style eventually became popularized in America in the 60s by white artists, many from the UK. There's also no denying that great black American artists in the 50s faced hurdles that their white counterparts didn't have to, or at least not to the same degree. Finally, while I admit this is subjective, if you examine the difference in sound and style between the recordings of The Fifth Dimension (a group I love by the way) and black American artists of the same period like James Brown or Sly and the Family Stone it's not just a question of the differences there being arbitrary but a reflection of the cultural differences I mentioned. I think it's also a question of the marketplace to some degree, a group like The Fifth Dimension were clearly aiming more towards a different audience than the others I mentioned.
Pat Boone was a white imitator of black music? I'm shocked. I had no idea!! And Cream were influenced by Black music ?? Holy s*hit!! Tell me your kidding!! You mean Eric Clapton? Hey, everybody, the guys from Cream were into black music!!! Are there any other pearls of wisdom you'd like to share. And everything came "full circle" with the Fifth Dimension? Really?...The Fifth Dimension? Because Nat King Cole had been singing pop music since the forties when the member of the Fifth Dimension were still children. And blacks had been singing pop music for years by that point. And if I'm not mistaken, The Fifth Dimension had music theater backgrounds and were perfectly suited to work with Jimmy Webb. Are you surprised there was a black singing group capable of singing that kind of music?
Well, the idea of a song belonging to one performer is kind of a recent one. Before the 70s you had a million covers of every hit. And your example just echoes a larger fact about the 60s: people of every color were covering the Beatles, every day.
My dad gave me his old copy of Fat Mattress back when I was a kid. I've always thought a couple tunes were cool, like "Walking Through A Garden" and "The Magic Forest"
I met Noel at a Hendrix convention in 1984 along with biographer Nona Hattay who I think was writing Noel's biography. He signed my copy of Axis Bold As Love. I'd no idea The Fifth Dimension recorded the Cream song, it's excellent! The Elvis song sounds incredibly rocky and out of character and is great. The Bonzo's were on prime time kids telly and were blindingly brilliant.
Tim Hardin recorded so many beautiful songs and albums,you cannot go wrong with his stuff,Suite for Susan Moore and Damion: We Are One, One, All in One is my favourite Another superb upload and Noel sounds so upbeat about the music he is reviewing.
Not everyone agreed. On one tour they opened for the Allman Brothers, and in his autobiography Greg Allman called FM "the most awful band I ever heard."
@@thomasbell7033 Of course it's a subjective matter. But for all of us who are in this channel (Y.P.) I believe that the F.M. are a fine (not so known) band to listen.
Funny. I was just reading an interview from 1981 between McCartney and Hunter Davies where Paul said John said a lot of things that hurt him, one of them being that Paul sings like Engelbert Humperdinck. Then Noel reviews the Fortunes tune and says it reminds him of a McCartney tune, and says better than Humperdinck. Was interesting to see that comparison with McCartney again.
'Simple Song of Freedom' by Tim Hardin was ubiquitous on the airwaves when it was out, but then was a complete cipher on oldies stations thereafter, which I thought was kinda strange
I was going on 11 that year my mets won the world series. my two older brothers went to Woodstock before their trip to Vietnam and Germany respectively. My eldest brother just came home from the army. 1969 was an interesting year.
It mek by Desmond Dekker was so great. The only reggae song that was a big hit in the US was his classic Israelites. I guess you could count Johnny Nash’s Hold Me Tight too. The only ska song that crossed over in the US was My Boy Lollipop by Millie Small.
He was he mistook me for a taxi driver when me and some mates went into a Greek restaurant after the pubs shut and ended up playing the hoover hose along with the Greek band that was playing he was delightfully hilarious. He joined us and smoked some dope , great carefree times
One of my old record trading buddies took lessons from Noel. said he was a good bloke. And you can tell from " Am I doing all right? I'm very nervous about doing this sort of thing." A little surprised he didn't recognize Elvis' voice. Gotta give props to the 45 buying public this week. You can be sure that Max Romeo's Wet Dream was not on the American charts, at this or any time.. But a bit surprised Elvis' Flaming Star is #! .That is quite an accomplishment. Here in America it just touched #85. Only 2 songs from the actual movie soundtrack are on the album. (As a side note--Elvis seldom had first class directors for his films, IMO, but with Flaming Star he had Don Siegel, a terrific director.) And what's going on with so much of the top 20 Brit LP's? Glen Miller, Frank Sinatra, Ray Coniff, Mantovani. The old folks homes had so much buying power in 1969?
Yeah, the singles chart is great but the album chart is pretty dreadful. I guess older people were all buying the same records and that's why they charted. "The Sound of Music" wasn't in the Top 20, though!
@@YesterdaysPapers Yeah, I looked for that and when I didn't see it It was kinda like losing an old friend. Really. I've grown accustomed to her being there.
@@YesterdaysPapers The more affluent (for the under 25 set) youngish Americans were buying albums rather than singles by late '68, and it shows in the US singles chart. I'd bet that a top twenty albums chart would have a lot more 'interesting' music on it. I was buying singles for my frat's jukebox in the late sixties and finding danceable tunes was getting pretty hard to find. Most record stores no longer carried 45s. Just another step in a changing technological world.
Love the new vid, was wondering if you could maybe cover the Byrds tour to South Africa in the 60's and maybe the South African 60's scene in general :) Would be an ensightful vid
Maybe Tim Hardin was returning the favor to Bobby Darin. Darin recorded Hardin’s composition “If I Were A Carpenter” in ‘66 and when Tim moved to Columbia Records in ‘69 he recorded Bobby’s song. Simple Song of Freedom was a very modest hit for Tim Hardin here in the US. Tim would get more recognition as a songwriter soon there after when the Carpenters and Rod Stewart recorded his composition Reason To Believe.
I think I actually own two Fat Mattress albums…. I’m not sure why I like to tell people I used to do drugs in a 60s but now I do it any temperature… great love your content keep it up
Some useless info, American Blues musician, Champion Jack Dupree sang ‘ l Want To Be A Hippy’, but he didn’t bother going to San Francisco. He lived in Halifax, Yorkshire for many years.
I was just starting at High School that month. To my mind, none of these releases were hits? I may have known that Fat Man was a single, but if so, I’d forgotten. Nice to hear the 5th Dimension; I like everything they did.
In hindsight, it's possible to pinpoint when Jethro Tull lost lots of popularity. The eighties were never as kind to their album sales as the seventies were. Hopefully they invested well.
I wonder if he was putting them on with Elvis. Not recognizing that voice would be weird. Never understood why Noels bass playing was so maligned, sure he was no Jaco Pastorius, but I thought he was adequate and served his purpose in the band.
Was watching Manson family documentaries just before seeing this. August 1969 was not a particularly pleasant month for those in the entertainment business in Cali during that time.
One of the few guys in this series that has the sense to not be harshly critical. These guys are artists, they shouldn’t be putting anyone else’s work down. Doesn’t help them in the slightest. Leave that to the critics and nincompoops. Most of the artist interviewed for this come off pretty badly in retrospect
What was weirder: The 5th Dimension butchering Sunshine of Your Love or ....the Best of Glen Miller 5 spots ahead of Led Zeppelin on the top 20 album charts? 1969 you were a strange year indeed.
There were over 70 million Baby Boomers but the counterculture was made up of less than 2% of the generation. The "Greatest' generation, those born from 1900 to 1927 was 1.33 million strong. Most Baby Boomers were listening to the same music as their parents (the Greatest gen), it was this group that was buying Glen Miller. The counterculture didn't have the same buying power as their parents and the other Boomers but that changed towards the beginning of the 1970's..
@Jonathan Birch In '69 the term "supergroup" wouldn't have applied to Zep, that descriptor was used to label groups with members who came together from previous, mostly well known, mostly defunct groups, like CSN&Y and Blind Faith. There weren't a lot of supergroups in 1969. At that time, Zep was very well known and highly regarded within the counterculture, which was their listening base. No one outside of the counterculture mattered - at all! The majority of Boomers were still listening to their parents music and AM radio crap back then.
@@YesterdaysPapers Well, I was 8, and my dad was a WWII bomber pilot. He liked Glen Miller (for obvious reasons) but it is still amazing that his greatest hits would be outselling LZ...30 years after he crashed into the ocean. My older siblings were born in the 50's and I guarantee they were buying more albums than my parents were...and they were not buying Glen Miller.
@Jonathan Birch No, JPJ wasn't "well known" at the time Zep was formed and one famous member does not constitute a "supergroup". Again, there weren't "dozens of supergroups" in 1969 and at that level of musicianship, there is no such thing as one group overshadowing another group. You're just reading crap on the internet, written by someone who probably read it on the internet themselves! Led Zeppelin most certainly was popular in 1969, I saw them at the Fillmore East in May '69 and at the Shaffer Music Festival in Central Park and at the Boston Garden and at MSG - twice!
who told the 5th dimension to cover cream? cool how once noel heard the flute he knew it was tull hearing noel praise neil innes makes me smile he was right....the bonzo's shouldve had a tv show.. anyone going to see the baz luhrmann elvis? i think im gonna skip it interesting that noel felt nervous reviewing other people's stuff...he shouldve been told there are no wrong answers and just to chill
Chris Squire told a story at the Experience Music Project museum about hearing the Experience rehearse and meeting Jimi while he was in The Syn. Chris said Noel couldn't remember how the bassline to Purple Haze went but Jimi himself was very pleasant to have a conversation with. Chris said he was surprised that Jimi was willing to talk for so long cause in his words lead guitarists usually aren't willing to talk to bassists.
@@kevhead1525 I doubt it. Mitch had straight hair when he auditioned. His perm came later. Apparently Mitch was chosen over Dunbar on the toss of coin.
I'm curious about the circumstances of the typical Blind Date, because almost everybody sounds a bit confused. "Who is this? Is it ______? Is it an American record? What is this room? Who are you people? What is that translucent substance that allows me to see though the wall?"
Hahaha! Most of these Blind Dates took place backstage at Top of the Pops, before or after many of these artists and bands filmed their appearances on the show.
Tull takes, at least for those reviewed. 5th dimension version better than expected. Summer of '69, Honky Tonk Woman got a lot of play time. I see that Led Zeppelin's first (cover!) album came out. The US hits were quite good that month. As far as Noel goes, didn't look like Jimi & he got along so well by that time.
As big as some of these artists are, they seem to find it difficult to critique there fellow song writers & musicians, he stated " Am I doing alright, don't like this sort of thing"..
Interesting that he didn't recognise Elvis, or even tell if he was American or English. But appeared to like the song anyway. Though an Elvis fan, I wasn't familiar with 'Wearin' That Loved On Look' th-cam.com/video/mtv3chIAjug/w-d-xo.html
My grandparents lived next door to Noel & were good friends with him during the late 70s, before they moved to New Zealand. they said he was a great guy & super friendly. When he came to New Zealand for a show they said they went backstage & he was still super down to earth. What a player
Who was Noel playing with?
@@wellsy1954 I have no idea sorry!
@@xdef1ne No worries. I was just curious because the JHE didn't tour south of the Equator.
@@wellsy1954 oh no this was decades after the JHE. It was most likely in the 2000s.
@@xdef1ne Thank you.
The lesson that I learn from this channel is that the 1960s wasn't just one big chunk of time with a great music scene. It was broken into all sorts of small pieces of an explosion of great and or innovative sound. Noel Redding had his hands full with this selection but handled it like a champ.
There was so much great music, but also heaps of not-so-great. You had to separate the wheat from the chaff. The album chart featured is a fair indication of what radio played back then, at least in Australia.
Btw. Noel had already left The Experience when this interveiw was published. His last gig with Jimi was on 29 June 1969 at The Denver Pop Festival.
I couldn’t believe he couldn’t recognize Elvis Presley’s almost eerily distinctive voice!
Also saying that Champion Jack Dupree sounds anything like Howlin' Wolf, who perhaps had the most distinctive and recognizable voice in Blues history. Very hard to mistake anyone for him
Yeh he didn't have a wide knowledge of music...but he was a working musician. Back then it was MUCH harder to hear stuff. But yes absolutely, not recognising Elvis!!!!... Man he had serious gaps in his knowledge.
He had so, so, so many imitators at that time
He had so, so, so many imitators at that time
Noel mentioned how The Jimi Hendrix Experience played "Sunshine of Your Love." They did a recording of it, recorded when Noel was still in the band, that appeared on the posthumous album Valleys of Neptune that released in 2010. Their take on the song & the rest of the album is absolutely killer, too. The posthumous Hendrix records don't get enough love or credit, from what I've seen. As a huge fan, I think it's some of Hendrix's finest work, even if Hendrix himself didn't really seem to agree.
Valleys of Neptune is absolutely amazing, the version of Hear my train comin on that album is spine chilling. The whole album is just awesome 👌
@@vicvega3614 Yup. It's one of my favs. What did you think of Beyond the Sky?
@@BaldPerspective do you mean both sides of the sky? Its also great, great version of lover man on that, overall i think neptune is my favorite
@@vicvega3614 I did mean Both Sides lol, my homie was talking & said, "beyond," while I was typing that so my brain got confused. I really love Neptune, but Sky had some stuff I've been jamming to on TH-cam for years I never thought would actually be officially released.
His positivity is great; he really loved music of all sorts. Also love the way you've been putting American charts up after the British ones - I usually remember twice as many of the songs there (was 15 at the time in NY), and it's always been interesting to see the differences between countries just based on the British charts and singles reviewed.
I usually count how many songs I recognize on the charts, this time got 11 out of 30 on the Brit charts and all 10 of 10 on the US. Was 12 at the time also in NY, great times with a great soundtrack from the a.m. radio.
"His positivity is great" - that was my first thought here!
Noel Redding sounds like a sweet and kind guy. Generous - and willing to admit he has gaps in his musical knowledge, as we all do.
Totally agree with you!
This is my absolute favorite channel on TH-cam. Never disappoints and stirs up memories of "back in the day" every time. Fantastic job!
Thanks!
@@YesterdaysPapers I would love to find an early 80s version of your channel, when New Wave started happening with all the fanzines, the weeklies and Smash Hits!
I was just 19 - Stones at number one. Dylan's Nashville Skyline in the charts - and I had just bought Stand Up by Jethro Tull. God was in his heaven and all was right with the world!
17 for me. Agreed!
Yep. I was just shy of 14, in a tiny town in East Texas, and those two albums were exactly my Nos. 1 and 2 just then. A wonderful time to be young.
I was 21, stationed in Iceland with the Navy. Was frequently able to take free military hops for 2 or 3 day trips back to Boston. Spent most of the time hitting the music venues. Saw lots of great bands that year. My favorites were The Velvet Underground and Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, saw both of them multiple times at The Boston Tea Party.
I like how Noel gets right to the point. He also can tell the difference between British and American artists.
There has been blind reviews by other musicians who can hear the distinctions between American vs British produced music. I would love to see YP, through examples, demonstrate what distinguishes an American and British recording or style in playing.
Except when the artist is Elvis.
Tim Hardin used to be extremely popular in the 60's. Now he's almost forgotten. I remember walking into Sam's in Toronto and seeing a stack of all of his albums in prime location. You bring back all the music that was part of my growing up years in the 60's. I turn 73 in mid July. So you can guess the music that formed my development. I used to look back to the 20's and couldn't understand. Now I understand better. Thank you for your contribution
Boy, was Jethro Tull gonna explode in a big way. That wasn’t their strongest song on the album, but if you listen to the whole album, one of the most rewarding early albums by the band
"Living in the Past" was already on the UK chart at this point; it didn't become a hit over here until 3 years later. Well worth the wait.
I love that song, "Fat Man".
Metallica has left the chat.
Tull are really hip cats !
Jethro Tull "Stand Up"-such a great album.
Haha. Noel sounds like an old Brit lady going off on tangents while sipping tea and chomping on biscuits. Love it.
Hahaha!
Jimi used to call Noel "Bob Dylan's Grandma" or something... 🤣
As it turned out, life was not kind to Noel. RIP
@@thomasbell7033 Unkind? I'd say that being part of JHExperience was more than kind. Didn't he die because of alcohol?
@@kaspafischer He did. At Monterey Pop Festival. Mitch Mitchell was "Queen Bee".
"Stand Up" is one great album. My favorite from JT.
Wow , the music from then to now ! Can't believe what passes for music nowadays 🥺
This is by far my favorite channel, I am in love with it and watch every video you upload, amazing work!!
Thank you very much!
Noel was spot on about Tull. p.s. America's rock and roll hall of fame is a joke.
The hall of shame is all about political bs and everyone knows it sutch a sham ! Cheers from LA
Quite bizarre that The 5th Dimension did a version of Sunshine Of Your Love. As Noel said, The Jimi Hendrix Experience did a great live instrumental version of that.
Sunshine was covered a lot and in some strange ways. Ella Fitzgerald does a big band version and Spanky Wilson does a great funk version. Might want to check them out
Amazing Noel couldn't identify Elvis. Love this channel, saw on your top 20 list at the end, a song by Donovan and Jeff Beck. Being a great Beck fan, it was something I never knew. Just listened to it😂😂🙏
Hurdy Gurdy man is Led Zepplin w Donovan instead of Plant ! No Cream or Hendrix collaboration, tho
@@terryenglish7132 No, only Page and JPJ were on the record. Bonham drumming on that track is a myth, doesn't sound remotely like him, even compared to his earliest recordings.
@@zachjacobs3337 Thanks, sure enough. I just noticed the drums being bombastic, which is a Bonham trademark, so I never really thought about whether the style was off.... Supposedly Donovan actually had Hendrix in mind, but they didn't hook up.
I always love it when an artist on here says "it's too much", or "too much" when talking about a track. I don't know why, but it cracks me up every time.
Noel was once on the Howard Stern show and said Paul McCartney (they were good friends) would occasionally cheat his strict vegetarian diet and secretly eat a cheeseburger once in a while.
Nice to hear Noel's thoughts on a few things. Thanks.
I really like this channel. Brings back a lot of memories.
Gotta love that “Best of Glenn Miller” album at #7 on the British charts.
He was really, really big in England. Put a pair of glasses on a guy and the Brits will love him forever. Like Buddy Holly.
@@daveconleyportfolio5192 😂 too funny, so true!
Let's hear it for Bob Dylan's Grandma!
I love that line from Jimi during his Monterey Pop performance, boy did Noel look miffed.. lol
I can't believe Noel couldn't identify Elvis' unmistakable voice upon hearing that track!! 😃
Proably he was really nervous like he mentioned and only knew his early hits.
@@2009framat True...
It sounds like Elvis had a sore throat. I don’t think that I would have realised it was him either 😟
@@kennethmarshall306 Elvis was not a "one-trick-pony" like many people think. Even in the early days he sounded so differently on his records: Baby let's play house, Love me tender. Chuck Berry, Fats Domino & Co. always sounded the same but there were always many shades of Elvis - sore throat or not 🙂
@@2009framat I am 56 and, I promise you, I have heard the ones that you list. Many times. But I had never heard the one being reviewed here. And like the reviewer, (I’ll admit I hadn’t heard of him!) it caught me out. I still can hardly believe that I didn’t recognise Elvis after the hundreds of hours I have spent listening to him.
There's a wonderful irony inherent in The Fifth Dimension cover of Sunshine Of Your Love. Back in the 50s you would have an artist like Pat Boone covering Little Richard records in a much "whiter", more "palatable" style for the white American audience. Then in the 60s you had British acts like Clapton/Cream doing stuff like Sunshine Of Your Love that was obviously influenced by black American blues and done in a much more "authentic" manner than Pat Boone was capable of. And then things come full circle with The Fifth Dimension, a black American group, covering the Cream song but in a much "whiter", more mainstream pop style than the original.
And before that you had Louis Armstrong covering Hoagy Carmichael and George Gershwin, while playing European instruments using a European harmonic system. It’s almost as if music has no actual inherent race or something
@@subg8858 No need to get your hackles up. Of course you're correct in that music has no inherent race, I would never suggest otherwise. Terms like "blacker" and "whiter" sounding music were in common usage back then even by the musicians themselves, but they were never meant to be taken too literally as though the music itself somehow had a skin color. It was more about acknowledging cultural and historic differences.
There's no denying for example that early blues records were overwhelmingly made by black American artists, and then that style eventually became popularized in America in the 60s by white artists, many from the UK. There's also no denying that great black American artists in the 50s faced hurdles that their white counterparts didn't have to, or at least not to the same degree.
Finally, while I admit this is subjective, if you examine the difference in sound and style between the recordings of The Fifth Dimension (a group I love by the way) and black American artists of the same period like James Brown or Sly and the Family Stone it's not just a question of the differences there being arbitrary but a reflection of the cultural differences I mentioned. I think it's also a question of the marketplace to some degree, a group like The Fifth Dimension were clearly aiming more towards a different audience than the others I mentioned.
Gordy Berry saw how popular the Mamas and the Papas were and wanted to emulate that with a Motown group.
Pat Boone was a white imitator of black music? I'm shocked. I had no idea!!
And Cream were influenced by Black music ?? Holy s*hit!! Tell me your kidding!! You mean Eric Clapton?
Hey, everybody, the guys from Cream were into black music!!!
Are there any other pearls of wisdom you'd like to share.
And everything came "full circle" with the Fifth Dimension? Really?...The Fifth Dimension?
Because Nat King Cole had been singing pop music since the forties when the member of the Fifth Dimension were still children. And blacks had been singing pop music for years by that point.
And if I'm not mistaken, The Fifth Dimension had music theater backgrounds and were perfectly suited to work with Jimmy Webb.
Are you surprised there was a black singing group capable of singing that kind of music?
Well, the idea of a song belonging to one performer is kind of a recent one. Before the 70s you had a million covers of every hit. And your example just echoes a larger fact about the 60s: people of every color were covering the Beatles, every day.
My dad gave me his old copy of Fat Mattress back when I was a kid. I've always thought a couple tunes were cool, like "Walking Through A Garden" and "The Magic Forest"
Outstanding! Always a good day when YP uploads!🤙
Very tame top twenty album chart considering the time. Jim Reeves, Glenn Miller, Val Doonican etc. Great video as usual. 👍
I met Noel at a Hendrix convention in 1984 along with biographer Nona Hattay who I think was writing Noel's biography. He signed my copy of Axis Bold As Love.
I'd no idea The Fifth Dimension recorded the Cream song, it's excellent!
The Elvis song sounds incredibly rocky and out of character and is great.
The Bonzo's were on prime time kids telly and were blindingly brilliant.
What a great era
Saw Tull do Fat Man in Memphis early 80s.
Best song of the night
The Blind Date record review is my favorite feature of this channel, keep up the good work!
Tim Hardin recorded so many beautiful songs and albums,you cannot go wrong with his stuff,Suite for Susan Moore and Damion: We Are One, One, All in One
is my favourite
Another superb upload and Noel sounds so upbeat about the music he is reviewing.
I was 17 and now looking forward to listening to Jimmy Hendrix at the old peoples home sing along hour ✌
I love it. Great. You got it. I am turning 73 in mid July.
What a lovely band Fat Mattress they were.
"All night drinker" from their 1st LP, is one of my favourites!
Great Video once again!
I really love Mr Moonshine.
Naturally, their single, was one of mine.
Not everyone agreed. On one tour they opened for the Allman Brothers, and in his autobiography Greg Allman called FM "the most awful band I ever heard."
@@thomasbell7033 Of course it's a subjective matter.
But for all of us who are in this channel (Y.P.) I believe that the F.M. are a fine (not so known) band to listen.
Funny. I was just reading an interview from 1981 between McCartney and Hunter Davies where Paul said John said a lot of things that hurt him, one of them being that Paul sings like Engelbert Humperdinck. Then Noel reviews the Fortunes tune and says it reminds him of a McCartney tune, and says better than Humperdinck. Was interesting to see that comparison with McCartney again.
Comes across as a very modest guy given his talents and connections.
'Simple Song of Freedom' by Tim Hardin was ubiquitous on the airwaves when it was out, but then was a complete cipher on oldies stations thereafter, which I thought was kinda strange
I was going on 11 that year my mets won the world series. my two older brothers went to Woodstock before their trip to Vietnam and Germany respectively. My eldest brother just came home from the army. 1969 was an interesting year.
Ina Gadda Da Vida BABY! Just saw Iron Butterfly that year graduated HS and going to ETSU for college in the fall. Awesome memories.
appreciate the respect paid to (the) Cream by other heavy hitters of the day. I'm sure I never saw "the" anywhere on their LP covers.
I see- It Mek - by Desmond Dekker in the top 10. Great track. Reggae never caught on in the states like it did in England.
It mek by Desmond Dekker was so great. The only reggae song that was a big hit in the US was his classic Israelites. I guess you could count Johnny Nash’s Hold Me Tight too.
The only ska song that crossed over in the US was My Boy Lollipop by Millie Small.
I loved the Bonzo Dog Band. Glad to see that someone else thought Viv Stanshall was a genius!
"Viv Stanshall is a genius." Good call, Noel!
He was he mistook me for a taxi driver when me and some mates went into a Greek restaurant after the pubs shut and ended up playing the hoover hose along with the Greek band that was playing he was delightfully hilarious. He joined us and smoked some dope , great carefree times
Keep these coming and any post 1970
Definitely Grooving On The 5th Dimension version of Sunshine Of Your Love ! 😎 & I ❤️ Miss Ewe !
One of my old record trading buddies took lessons from Noel. said he was a good bloke. And you can tell from " Am I doing all right? I'm very nervous about doing this sort of thing." A little surprised he didn't recognize Elvis' voice.
Gotta give props to the 45 buying public this week. You can be sure that Max Romeo's Wet Dream was not on the American charts, at this or any time.. But a bit surprised Elvis' Flaming Star is #! .That is quite an accomplishment. Here in America it just touched #85. Only 2 songs from the actual movie soundtrack are on the album. (As a side note--Elvis seldom had first class directors for his films, IMO, but with Flaming Star he had Don Siegel, a terrific director.)
And what's going on with so much of the top 20 Brit LP's? Glen Miller, Frank Sinatra, Ray Coniff, Mantovani. The old folks homes had so much buying power in 1969?
Yeah, the singles chart is great but the album chart is pretty dreadful. I guess older people were all buying the same records and that's why they charted. "The Sound of Music" wasn't in the Top 20, though!
@@YesterdaysPapers Yeah, I looked for that and when I didn't see it It was kinda like losing an old friend. Really. I've grown accustomed to her being there.
@@YesterdaysPapers kids mostly bought singles...their parents bought the albums
@@YesterdaysPapers The more affluent (for the under 25 set) youngish Americans were buying albums rather than singles by late '68, and it shows in the US singles chart. I'd bet that a top twenty albums chart would have a lot more 'interesting' music on it. I was buying singles for my frat's jukebox in the late sixties and finding danceable tunes was getting pretty hard to find. Most record stores no longer carried 45s. Just another step in a changing technological world.
Love the new vid, was wondering if you could maybe cover the Byrds tour to South Africa in the 60's and maybe the South African 60's scene in general :) Would be an ensightful vid
Love “A Way of Life” by Family Dogg. The record did nothing in the US but I’m glad it was a hit in the UK.
Has to be a UK chart as Honky Tonk Woman stalled at No. 2 in the USA. It couldn't dethrone the mighty Archies' tune 'Sugar Sugar'
That says it all about the 45 buying public here Stateside.
Maybe Tim Hardin was returning the favor to Bobby Darin. Darin recorded Hardin’s composition “If I Were A Carpenter” in ‘66 and when Tim moved to Columbia Records in ‘69 he recorded Bobby’s song. Simple Song of Freedom was a very modest hit for Tim Hardin here in the US. Tim would get more recognition as a songwriter soon there after when the Carpenters and Rod Stewart recorded his composition Reason To Believe.
Noel didn’t know much. Jimi H. used to call Fat Mattress, ‘Thin Pillow’ due to their lack of material. He was right.
Thin Pillow. That's hilarious, I didn't know that.
@@YesterdaysPapers True. ‘Thin Pillow’ with Noel used to open for The Experience so Jimi got to hear and see them a lot unfortunately.
I think I actually own two Fat Mattress albums…. I’m not sure why I like to tell people I used to do drugs in a 60s but now I do it any temperature… great love your content keep it up
@@Cream1968 Fortunately they only made 2. The first is better but still not great.
@@BigSky1 there wasn’t a lot there. The only reason I bought it was because of Hendrix you know the routine.😉
That Redding cat sure had a wild Do man !
The Tull tracks are classic
Some useless info, American Blues musician, Champion Jack Dupree sang ‘ l Want To Be A Hippy’, but he didn’t bother going to San Francisco. He lived in Halifax, Yorkshire for many years.
That was a very good week.
I was just starting at High School that month. To my mind, none of these releases were hits? I may have known that Fat Man was a single, but if so, I’d forgotten. Nice to hear the 5th Dimension; I like everything they did.
Most of these songs didn't chart. These were just singles or album tracks that were released that week.
"Oh! A flute! It's Jethro Tull!" lol
The "Flaming Star" Album by Elvis was on top of the charts? Wow
Simply Great
The Fat Mattress album is great, particularly Mr Moonshine. Good ol Noel.
Great job with the channel. I really like the sounds. Are they a group? Oh, it's The Facebooks. We were mates in Hamburg.
Well done! 👏
2001 soundtrack 3rd album … wow, I had no idea it ranked that high, it ain’t easy listening
In hindsight, it's possible to pinpoint when Jethro Tull lost lots of popularity. The eighties were never as kind to their album sales as the seventies were. Hopefully they invested well.
His book is worth a read.
Ah, the days when Zeppelin and Kubrick topped the album charts ...
Nice Stones cover on the outro.
I wonder if he was putting them on with Elvis. Not recognizing that voice would be weird. Never understood why Noels bass playing was so maligned, sure he was no Jaco Pastorius, but I thought he was adequate and served his purpose in the band.
for most of the 60s, elvis had become a joke, doing all those crap movies....this was him trying to break from the colonel
Was watching Manson family documentaries just before seeing this. August 1969 was not a particularly pleasant month for those in the entertainment business in Cali during that time.
the Fortunes song sounded like the kinks, or bowie
I agree, it kinda sounded like early 70s Bowie. And if you listen to the full song, the chorus sounds very Bowie as well.
To much name dropping, it was doing my head in. Three Apple Records in the Top 20 and a song called Wet Dreams
Elvis in first, Zeppelin I and Sinatra My Way tied at at 10th place. I guess the demographics back then skewed towards the oldies in the album charts.
Where was that first footage of The Experience from? I found that on YT a while back but it seems to have disappeared.
Brilliant
One of the few guys in this series that has the sense to not be harshly critical. These guys are artists, they shouldn’t be putting anyone else’s work down. Doesn’t help them in the slightest. Leave that to the critics and nincompoops. Most of the artist interviewed for this come off pretty badly in retrospect
I wonder what NR really meant with that “too much” reply to hearing Tim Hardin considering their mutual acquaintance ? Was it “take it off” or “wow” ?
Wow.
What was weirder: The 5th Dimension butchering Sunshine of Your Love or ....the Best of Glen Miller 5 spots ahead of Led Zeppelin on the top 20 album charts?
1969 you were a strange year indeed.
I guess older people were still buying more LPs than young people.
There were over 70 million Baby Boomers but the counterculture was made up of less than 2% of the generation. The "Greatest' generation, those born from 1900 to 1927 was 1.33 million strong. Most Baby Boomers were listening to the same music as their parents (the Greatest gen), it was this group that was buying Glen Miller. The counterculture didn't have the same buying power as their parents and the other Boomers but that changed towards the beginning of the 1970's..
@Jonathan Birch In '69 the term "supergroup" wouldn't have applied to Zep, that descriptor was used to label groups with members who came together from previous, mostly well known, mostly defunct groups, like CSN&Y and Blind Faith. There weren't a lot of supergroups in 1969. At that time, Zep was very well known and highly regarded within the counterculture, which was their listening base. No one outside of the counterculture mattered - at all! The majority of Boomers were still listening to their parents music and AM radio crap back then.
@@YesterdaysPapers Well, I was 8, and my dad was a WWII bomber pilot.
He liked Glen Miller (for obvious reasons) but it is still amazing that his greatest hits would be outselling LZ...30 years after he crashed into the ocean. My older siblings were born in the 50's and I guarantee they were buying more albums than my parents were...and they were not buying Glen Miller.
@Jonathan Birch No, JPJ wasn't "well known" at the time Zep was formed and one famous member does not constitute a "supergroup". Again, there weren't "dozens of supergroups" in 1969 and at that level of musicianship, there is no such thing as one group overshadowing another group. You're just reading crap on the internet, written by someone who probably read it on the internet themselves! Led Zeppelin most certainly was popular in 1969, I saw them at the Fillmore East in May '69 and at the Shaffer Music Festival in Central Park and at the Boston Garden and at MSG - twice!
“ Wearin’ that loved on look” from Presley is not very good… is Outstanding! Great review
who told the 5th dimension to cover cream?
cool how once noel heard the flute he knew it was tull
hearing noel praise neil innes makes me smile
he was right....the bonzo's shouldve had a tv show..
anyone going to see the baz luhrmann elvis? i think im gonna skip it
interesting that noel felt nervous reviewing other people's stuff...he shouldve been told there are no wrong answers and just to chill
Boy, seems like just anyone could get a record out back in the day.
But could anyone get everyone to buy it?
How Noel got the gig with H and stayed there I’ve no idea!
Jimi liked his hair--seriously, that's why he was initially chosen for the band.
@@FawleyJude thank you Jude yes I had read that but what about his bass playing?
Chris Squire told a story at the Experience Music Project museum about hearing the Experience rehearse and meeting Jimi while he was in The Syn. Chris said Noel couldn't remember how the bassline to Purple Haze went but Jimi himself was very pleasant to have a conversation with. Chris said he was surprised that Jimi was willing to talk for so long cause in his words lead guitarists usually aren't willing to talk to bassists.
I may be wrong but I think the hair is also how he chose Mitch Mitchell over Aynsley Dunbar. couldn't have gone wrong either way.
@@kevhead1525 I doubt it. Mitch had straight hair when he auditioned. His perm came later. Apparently Mitch was chosen over Dunbar on the toss of coin.
Elvis Presley singing
"I don't know who he is"
Not well up on my blues? Did he really say that?
Is it a group or a singer? Good question where Jethro Tull/Ian Anderson are concerned.
I'm curious about the circumstances of the typical Blind Date, because almost everybody sounds a bit confused. "Who is this? Is it ______? Is it an American record? What is this room? Who are you people? What is that translucent substance that allows me to see though the wall?"
Hahaha! Most of these Blind Dates took place backstage at Top of the Pops, before or after many of these artists and bands filmed their appearances on the show.
What’s the song playing at 0:15 ??
What's the opening song at 0:09?
Tull takes, at least for those reviewed. 5th dimension version better than expected. Summer of '69, Honky Tonk Woman got a lot of play time. I see that Led Zeppelin's first (cover!) album came out. The US hits were quite good that month. As far as Noel goes, didn't look like Jimi & he got along so well by that time.
As big as some of these artists are, they seem to find it difficult to critique there fellow song writers & musicians, he stated " Am I doing alright, don't like this sort of thing"..
Flaming Star was the #1 album? That movie was nine years old.
It was not the movie soundtrack. It was a compilation featuring songs from 1960 to 1968. It was released after Elvis' 68 Comeback Special.
Yes, it was a budget RCA Camden album. I owned it. The songs on it were quite mediocre.
'69 ? Noel's brain must've been totally fried...doesn't recognise Elvis!? 😅
I guess he didn't expect Elvis recording some decent material after his awful soundtracks from the 60s.
Is he American? Didn't recognize Elvis Presley 🤨
i LOVE the 5th dimension!
Interesting that he didn't recognise Elvis, or even tell if he was American or English. But appeared to like the song anyway. Though an Elvis fan, I wasn't familiar with
'Wearin' That Loved On Look'
th-cam.com/video/mtv3chIAjug/w-d-xo.html
0:08 who is it?
Yeah! What’s that track?!?!?
I know "too much" is a good thing, but I'm not familiar with "down a storm"...
Go down a storm = To have great success, especially with an audience
@@YesterdaysPapers I figured as much
"Is it American or English"? Good question.