On November 3, 1962, the song “He’s a Rebel” hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The single listed the song’s singers as The Crystals, and that is the name you will still see next to the song today.
But the famous recording was actually made by another group.
Recording of “He’s a Rebel”
Back in the early 1960s, producer Phil Spector rushed to have one of his groups record “He’s a Rebel.” He was in a hurry because a competing artist planned to record the song too.
But at the time, Spector was in Los Angeles and The Crystals were in New York. So, Spector’s other option was to produce the song with another group. He arranged for recording the song with the unknown group The Blossoms, headed by Darlene Love.
The record, though, was credited to the better-known Crystals. The song became a hit for The Crystals, which led to them having to lip synch to Darlene Love’s voice on national TV.
The Real Crystals
The Crystals continued to record using their own voices, scoring big hits with songs like “Da Doo Ron Ron (When He Walked Me Home)” and “Then He Kissed Me” in 1963.
Darlene Love
Darlene Love did okay on her own too. Spector produced her singing one of the greatest Christmas songs of all time, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” Until the show ended, Love annually sang the song on David Letterman’s show.
Love eventually became a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame too. Here Love sings “He’s a Rebel” in 2010 with the cast of the play Million Dollar Quartet, showing she still has the voice.
What is your favorite girl group song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Paul McCartney recently released his video for the song “Queenie Eye,” which appears on his new album New (2013). The title of the song comes from a childhood game, and the video features a number of famous folks, including Maryl Streep and Johnny Depp. Check it out.
Is “Queenie Eye” another McCartney classic or just so-so? Leave your two cents in the comments.
The legendary Lou Reed passed away today at the age of 71. His catalog of music with Velvet Underground and by himself and others like Metallica includes a number of classics, such as “Sweet Jane” and “Walk on the Wild Side.” One of my favorite Lou Reed songs is “Dirty Boulevard,” which appeared on his 1989 album New York.
In the following clip, he performs “Dirty Boulevard” on saxophonist David Sanborn’s short-lived NBC TV series, Night Music, in 1989.
A new short montage, “Dancing and Cool in Movies,” was compiled by MovieCool.Final2. The video does a good job of exploring how “cool” is expressed in movies though dancing scenes. Movies discussed include Jailhouse Rock (1957), Grease (1978), and Pulp Fiction (1994). For a full list of the movies in the video, head over to Slate.
Update: Unfortunately, that video is no longer available for embedding, but here is another montage of dancing in movies:
Onscreen dances are used to convey other messages besides cool, of course. I find it hard to select a favorite dance scene from a film, although it is hard to top Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain (1952). Few movie scenes have conveyed the happiness of being in love as well.
Another film uses dance to show a different type of happiness. When the cast of The Big Chill (a film that had a recent anniversary) begin moving to the Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” one cannot help but smile. Of course, “older” people dancing to the music from their younger days is the antithesis of the “Dancing and Cool in Movies” theme exploring the intersection of hippness and dance. But, like Gene Kelly’s dance, the dance creates a great expression of joy.
What is your favorite dance scene in a movie? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On October 21 in 1967, one of the most significant signs of public disgruntlement with the Vietnam conflict began. Nearly 100,000 people showed up in D.C. to protest the U.S. role in the war.
The March on the Pentagon to Confront the War Makers started near the Lincoln Memorial, and approximately 50,000 of the protesters then went to the Pentagon, where many remained until October 23 and where some participated in acts of civil disobedience. Author Norman Mailer captured many of the events of the protest in his novel, Armies of the Night.
That year there were other protests around the country, as polls showed that the support for the war had dropped below 50%. All of those factors led President Lyndon Johnson’s administration to respond with a public relations campaign in support of the war.
But the protest, and complaints after the Tet offensive in early 1968, illustrated that many Americans would continue to raise their voices to end the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
Music Reflects the Protests Against the War
At the time, one might have noticed from the music that something was in the air. The year 1967 began with the Rolling Stones appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show in January. At the show’s request, the band famously changed the title lyrics of “Let’s Spend the Night Together” to the less sexy “Let’s Spend Some Time Together.” But by September, the Doors appeared on the same show after also agreeing to alter the lyrics to their song, “Light My Fire.” But Jim Morrison captured the growing youth rebellion by going ahead and singing the offending line “Girl we couldn’t get much higher.”
In other 1967 music news, Buffalo Springfrield released “For What It’s Worth” in January. In February, Aretha Franklin recorded “Respect.” In March, the Who performed for the first time in the U.S. In June, the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Also in June, the Monterey Pop Festival brought young people together to hear such artists as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Otis Redding. Redding soon would write and record “(Sitting on) the Dock of the Bay.”
John Lennon in How I Won the War
Then, on October 18, three days before the Washington protest, the first issue of Rolling Stone magazine came off the presses with a cover photo of John Lennon from the film How I Won the War. The film was a comedy where Lennon first appeared with his famous round glasses.
Phil Ochs Declares the War is Over
Of course, there was music at the protest in D.C. too. One of the performers at the protest was Phil Ochs. He performed his recent song that imagined a future without the war, “The War is Over.”
In the song at the protest, Ochs proclaimed “This country is too young to die,” so “I declare the war is over.” He concludes, “You only are what you believe.”
Below is a video of a different live performance of “The War is Over.”
The U.S. eventually withdrew its troops from Viet Nam, but it would be nearly six more years before the war was actually over for the U.S. soldiers and their loved ones at home.
On November 3, 1962, the song “He’s a Rebel” hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The single listed the song’s singers as The Crystals, and that is the name you will still see next to the song today.
