May 15 – Their Voyage Continued Into Their Third Decade

Starting their voyage to the top again on this day in 1981, Moody Blues release perhaps their most successful album, Long Distance Voyager. It was their tenth studio album and it became their second #1 in the U.S. and Canada, spending 10 full weeks atop the charts in the latter where it went triple platinum.

At home, although it did make #7, the reception was cooler and it was their lowest charting album in a full decade there in the UK. The prog-rockers were by that point already “veteran cosmic rockers”; having been on the scene since 1965. However, there was a sense of renewal on this record, the first they were able to record in their own English studio (they also released it on their own Threshold Record label.) It was also noteworthy for being the first without the band’s legendary keyboardist Mike Pinder, who’d quit after the previous album; his place was filled quite well though by newcomer Patrick Moraz.

The album contained two of their most enduring, and upbeat singles “Gemini Dream” and “The Voice”. The former became their second #1 hit in Canada and got to a respectable #12 in the U.S., “The Voice” also made the Canuck top 10 and American top 20 (a third single, “Talking Out of Turn” was a hit in Canada but nowhere else.) Strangely, they didn’t even make the British charts which at the time were beginning to be very dominated by new wave sounds, which makes the album’s quality and popularity surprising.

As allmusic note, “progressive rock bands stumbled into the ’80s” which made this 4-star record “impressive.” they particularly singled out “The Voice” as a “sweeping and majestic call to adventure.” Rolling Stone ranked it as one of the 20 best albums of the year, saying “no new twists, but this is exactly how it should be…dignified, eloquent and like a good sherry, should warm the hearts of…their fans and any others who choose to listen with fresh ears.”  That it did, that it did.

In 2018 the Moodies were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame which point out how their “new sound (in the ’60s) influenced an entire generation of musicians, including Yes and Genesis.” Sadly they also called it quits that year, with Graeme Edge retiring; he and Mike Pinder (the last of the original members) have both passed away since.

April 26 – Eddy’s Guitar Was Quite The Rebel Rouser

Happy birthday to a guitarist once so popular he beat out Elvis Presley as Britain’s favorite international musician. The “Titan of Twang”, Duane Eddy, turns 86 today. His name might not be instantly recognizable, but his sound most certainly is.

Although he was born and spent his childhood in New York, his family moved to Arizona in his teen years and he quickly fit in there and found a way of incorporating the wide open spaces of the desert into his guitar work, which was something he’d been working on since he was a pre-schooler. At 16, he bought a Gretsch guitar and the rest is history, as they say. He soon formed a duo called Jimmy & Duane in Phoenix and put out a single called “Soda Fountain Girl” in 1955. It was a minor hit in the city, and the pair became popular in the area playing country music. Around that time, Duane started to play his trademark “twangy” sound, concentrating on the lower, bass strings on his guitar (and later, at times even using a six-string bass). when he signed a record deal, the producer, Lee Hazlewood, decided it needed more echo so he bought a 2000-gallon tank for Eddy to play in to really add reverb!

The sound took off and in 1958 he had his first real hit, “Rebel Rouser” which hit #6 in the U.S. and earned him a gold single. He’d go on to have a dozen top 30 hits by 1963 including “Because They’re Young” and “Dance With the Guitar Man.” He was even more popular across the ocean, with 18 top 30s there by the mid-’60s. By that time he’d sold over 12 million records. So well-known and loved was he there that in 1960, the NME named him the favorite international musician, ahead of Elvis. As the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame would say, some 30 years later when he was inducted, “twang came to represent a walk on the wild side…the sound of revved-up hot rods made for rebels with or without a cause.”

Eddy’s now best-known for his take on a somewhat obscure TV show’s theme. Peter Gunn was a bete-noire type detective show around the end of the ’50s. Henry Mancini composed the theme for it, recalling it “derives more from rock and roll than jazz” and using a tense piano and guitar in unison sound to make it “sinister.” Eddy put his guitar sound to it and made it into a British top 10 hit… twice. First in 1959, then later with the band Art of Noise who redid it in 1986.

The Beatles of course changed the sound of pop dramatically around 1963, which coincided with when Duane’s hot streak petered out. He turned to acting for much of the rest of the decade, and in the ’70s produced some country records, and showed up here and there on other records, like B.J. Thomas’ “Rock & Roll Lullaby” which he played guitar on. Still, in those few short years he racked up quite a string of hits and influenced a whole generation of young guitarists including Bruce Springsteen, Dave Davies of the Kinks, Mark Knopfler and even George Harrison. No wonder he was an early entrant into the Rock Hall… and only the second winner of Guitar Player‘s “Guitar Legend” designation. The first was Les Paul, putting Eddy in pretty good company. And like Paul, there is a guitar named for Duane… the Gretsch “Duane Eddy” 6120DE.

Although he’s seemed to be laying low of late, Eddy was still touring as recently as 2018, when he had an 80th birthday tour!

March 20 – After Running Away From Runaways, Joan Jett-ed To Top

If you’re gonna be a One Hit Wonder, it helps if your hit is so big it makes you a household name 40+ years later…and makes Mattel issue a doll in your image. Ok, truth be told Joan Jett wasn’t a one hit wonder, but mostly, we just remember her for the smash “I Love Rock & Roll”… a song which hit #1 in the U.S. this day in 1982.

Jett has always been “exhibit A” for the case against those who say “women don’t rock.” Though she was born and spent her early years around Philadelphia, her family moved to southern California when she was a “tween”, which was around when she got her first guitar. The “tomboy” learned to play it quickly and started up the Runaways (which also included future member of the Bangles Micki Steele) when she was just 17. Although they didn’t sell much here, they had a loyal following and hit it quite big in Japan. After the Runaways broke up in 1979, Jett went solo. She signed in Europe to Ariola Records, a division of BMG, but after her initial record fizzled, no American company was interested in putting out her music. So, she and her friend Kenny Laguna, a record producer, decided to start their own record company, Blackheart, to do so. Her 1981 debut in North America drew a tiny bit of interest, and they recorded her next album, with a trio of supporting musicians they dubbed The Blackhearts.

“I Love Rock & Roll” was a song written in 1975 by a couple of members of Brit band The Arrows. Allan Merrill, one of the writers, said he wrote it as “a knee jerk reaction to the Rolling Stones ‘I Know, It’s Only Rock’n’Roll.” They recorded it but their version, rather a bit pop-pish compared to the Jett one, fell flat on British ears and didn’t chart. However, Jett happened to see them play it on TV while the Runaways were on tour in Europe and loved the tune. She recorded it in ’79 with Steve Jones and Paul Cook, recently out of the Sex Pistols. Likewise, it failed to draw much attention.

However, when putting together her ’82 album with The Blackhearts, she decided to re-do it and make it the title track. While she wrote several of the ten songs, her best-received were cover versions, including the follow-up single to this, Tommy James “Crimson and Clover.” Jett played rhythm guitar and of course, added her characteristic broken-glass mezzo-soprano delivery to the words.

Well, turns out third time’s the charm, or it was for this song. As journalist Santhi Sivanesan points out, “its raw chords, raunchy lyrics and anthemic chorus stood out I a year where hits wore their glossy production on their sleeves.” That could have been the reason, or maybe it was just a simple but catchy rock song. Either way, it pushed the album to platinum status in the States and Canada and the song quickly went to #1. It spent seven weeks on top in the U.S., and also topped charts in Canada (where it ended up as the year-end biggest-seller), Australia, New Zealand and several other lands…in the UK, it got to #4, not as huge as here but far more popular than their homegrown original!

“Crimson and Clover” made the North American top 10 as well, but after that hits were hard to buy for Joan. In fact, she only scored one significant other one, “I Hate Myself For Loving You” in 1988.

But her reputation (a bad one perhaps?) follows her still. She made one hugely influential fan in Dave Grohl. Grohl managed to name-check her in the speech he gave when Nirvana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and devotes much of a chapter in his book, Storyteller to her. When shopping in London with his little girls, he found a Joan Jett Barbie – “red Converse Chucks, leather pants, sleeveless black T-shirt and a white Gibson Les Paul junior slung around her shoulder.” Needless to say, he bought it… and showed it to her when she visited his house, by which point his daughters were singing along to the chorus. Even young girls love rock and roll, it seems.

And while not a “one hit wonder” anyway, even though that moniker follows her, it was also enough to get her inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame back in 2015. If you wonder if she still loves rock & roll, you can find out this summer when she has a number of shows in the southern States booked with another rockin’ lady – Alanis Morissette.

January 23 – Rockhall’s First Class Grads

Although the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was an idea conceived in 1983 “to honor those who “influence and (were of) significance to the development and perpetuation of rock and roll” its physical building didn’t open until 1995. That didn’t stop the Hall from taking shape and honoring some of rock’s pioneers long before ground was even broken in Cleveland though. This day in 1986 was a monumental one for it. It marked the first induction ceremony, then held in New York City. The initial inductees were rock pioneers, including Elvis Presley, Chuck Barry, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, James Brown, Sam Cooke, the Everly Brothers and early Blues guitar great Robert Johnson plus non-performers including DJ Alan Freed (the Cleveland jock who is credited with first using the term ‘rock and roll’), John Hammond (a talent scout who found and signed Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen to the Columbia label) and Sun Studios owner Sam Phillips.

Freed’s work in Cleveland helped the committee choose Cleveland over Memphis, New York and Detroit for the building; a $65 million grant from the city to help its building didn’t hurt either! Among the highlights of the ceremony were Julian and Sean Lennon together inducting “The King”, with Lisa Marie Presley accepting for her deceased dad, Elvis, Billy Joel inducting Fats Domino and Keith Richards honoring Chuck Berry and admitting “I’ve lifted every lick he ever played,” to which Richard responded “Dy-no-mite!”

In case you’re wondering, The Beatles made it in in 1988, the third “class”, along with the Supremes and Bob Dylan. Presumably this didn’t reflect a lack of respect from the Hall but rather a reflection of their rule that at least 25 years should pass between an artist putting out their debut and them being inducted in. The Rock Hall reports it’s expanding, all the better to give room to their ever-expanding list of honorees, it would seem. Willie Nelson and George Michael headlined their newest list of inductees, last year.

December 29 – The Other Half Of Rock’s Power (Chord) Couple

Being happily married for 40+ years is quite a feat; doing so while working with your spouse in entertainment all the while is extraordinary. Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz have done so with the Talking Heads, and today’s birthday boy has done so backing his famous wife. So happy 68^th birthday to Neil Giraldo, aka Mr. Pat Benatar. Anyone doubting their love or his importance in her career should note that she insisted he be listed with her when they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year and that the Hall calls them “among the most formidable power couples in rock history.”

Giraldo (whose name was actually mispelled on early editions of her first record) grew up in Cleveland, part of a musical Italian family. He was given a guitar at age six and soon found himself playing in church with his sister, who played accordion. By 14, he’d learned piano as well and played that and the guitar behind his singing uncle in local bars. During that time period, he listened to both jazz and rock. He loved Count Basie and jazz pianist Jay McShann, but also British invasion groups like the Yardbirds and The Who. His favorite guitarist was Jeff Beck but he told Guitar World recently “as much as I loved Jeff Beck, I never wanted to be him. I wanted to be Pete Townshend. I wanted to be the writer. I wanted to play chords.” He’d soon get that chance.

His first foot in the door in rock was joining Rick Derringer’s band in ’78. He played guitar on the Guitars & Women album. It flopped commercially, but was heard by producer Mike Chapman who was impressed with Neil and got him to play guitars on the debut for a young rock singer with an operatic voice – Pat Benatar. He did indeed play on the debut, In the Heat of the Night, and got to be the writer too, writing “We Live for Love”, which was a top 10 hit in Canada. By the follow-up album, he got to write four songs and they’ve never looked back. Not only has he played on each of her records since, he produced a couple of them. But more importantly to them, they quickly fell in love and married by 1982. They have two daughters and when they were young, arranged tours around the kids school schedules. “For Patricia and I to have had the kind of success we’ve had, so many things have had to be aligned,” he says, “it’s almost sits on a metaphysical level.”

He’s been linked to Pat (or Patricia as he calls her) throughout her career but has done a few outside jobs as well, producing an album for John Waite, working on a few other artists records including Kenny Loggins and most noteworthily, playing guitar on another hit album, Rick Springfield’s Working Class Dog, which included the #1 hit “Jesse’s Girl”...which Neil played the guitar on and may or may not have produced. A bit of a disagreement it seems between what Neil says and what the record company put on the liner notes. What isn’t in dispute is that Benatar’s “You Better Run” was only the second video played on MTV and with Neil playing in it, he was the very first guitarist shown to the MTV Generation!

Also not in dispute is the couple are believers of trying to give back to the community. Both are strong advocates for children’s charities and in 2016, they were given an Artistic Award of Courage for their work in that area. Giraldo also built a recording studio for an arts-promoting school in Oakland and has worked on behalf of various homeless charities in California. But that doesn’t mean he won’t sit back and have a bit of fun at the end of a day – he also started a bourbon company, Three Chord Bourbon, in Michigan! So, we raise a glass to you today, Neil!

December 4 – A Bit More Rock History For Cleveland

Today, another event that would turn into a somber milestone, unbeknownst to the people present. It was on this day in 1988 that the great Roy Orbison would perform for the last time. He was playing a concert near Cleveland at the Front Row Theater, a great intimate venue for about 3000 fans with a revolving stage.

Orbison, as we know, was one of the great voices of rock and roll. Bruce Springsteen said, while inducting Roy into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 (Orbison was among the second group of inductees to the new hall, along with the likes of Smokey Robinson and B.B. King) “I wanted to sing like Roy Orbison. Now everyone knows that no one sings like Roy Orbison.” Indeed, few in pop music have matched his ability to span three or more octaves with emotion that made Dwight Yoakam suggest created “the cry of an angel falling backwards through an open window.”

Orbison signed to Elvis Presley’s label, Sun Records at age 19 in 1956 and put out his first record, “Ooby Dooby”, with his then-band Teen Kings that year and while it didn’t attract much notice, by the mid-’60s he was established as one of the kings of rock and pop, with hits like “Crying” and “Oh Pretty Woman,” his first gold single. Nevertheless, two decades later, although still active in the music biz, he seemed merely a dusty figure from rock’s ancient history. Then things began to change for the better for him – and all of us.

He was announced as going into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame right around the same time he re-recorded his big 1961 hit “Crying” as a duet with k.d. lang, then an up-and-coming country singer.

George Harrison was thinking about a real comeback (which resulted in Cloud Nine) and toyed with the idea of having Roy add some background vocals to the record. That resulted in a lunch with the ex-Beatle, and E.L.O. mastermind Jeff Lynne, who was producing Harrison’s record. That led to them popping by Tom Petty’s house to borrow a guitar and… quick as you can say “Fab!”, the Traveling Wilburys were created. Their record, with Orbison’s distinctive voice prominent, was rising up the charts in late-’88, as Roy was feeling re-energized. Musically. He’d written a number of new songs and was finishing up his first album in a decade – Mystery Girl. All the while he was busy touring to crowds that were a mix of his oldtime fans of the ’60s and newbies, sometimes the old ones’ kids, who’d found out about him through k.d. or the Wilburys.

If musically he felt reborn, the same wasn’t true physically. Although he’d seemingly gotten into better shape for his tour, he had chest pains on and off through the fall and was described as looking ill. He played the show in northern Ohio, which consisted of all old tunes (curiously, he didn’t mix in any of his forthcoming, new songs) . He then went home to Tennessee to relax for a few days before planning to jet off to Europe for shows. Alas, he never made it, dying of a heart attack at home Dec. 6 at age 52.

Mystery Girl was released posthumously in 1989 and became his biggest solo album, hitting #2 in the UK and being top 5 and platinum in North America. It also helped him have his final top 10 hit, “You Got It”, his first big radio hit in over twenty years. He also pulled off an unusual trifecta unlikely to be duplicated at the Grammy Awards – he won Grammys three consecutive years in 3 different musical genres. In 1988 he won a country one for his duet with lang; in 1989 a rock one for his work with the Wilburys and in 1990 a pop one for his solo album. If you’re wondering about the final show, it was released on CD by the small Eagle Records label in 2010.

For all that Roy was, one thing he wasn’t surprises people – blind. His trademark dark, thick glasses were prescription and while his eyesight was poor, he could see. We hope he can “see” how much his music has lived on beyond him.

November 28 – Randy Stands Tall Among Hollywood Musicians

Happy 80th birthday to a man who according to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is “one of pop’s secret hidden weapons”- Randy Newman. The L.A. native has brought a lot of happiness to tall people and children with his music through the years.

Randy studied music at UCLA and was a successful songwriter while still in his teens (in the ’60s he penned songs for the likes of Gene Pitney, Dusty Springfield and the O’Jays; in the early ’70s Nilsson did an entire album of his work – Nilsson Sings Newman –  and Three Dog Night had a #1 hit with his “Mama Told Me Not To Come”) . In the ’70s he began to record some of his own work, typically to little notice- with two exceptions. There was his perhaps-less-than-flattering ode to his hometown, “I Love L.A.” Despite not hitting the top 100 as a single, it’s become well-known by being played by sports teams like the Dodgers and Lakers at home games and its use in ad campaigns for the area.

And there was his biggest hit… “Short People.” It was meant to be a satirical look at “lunatics” who are overtly prejudiced, however his humor was lost on many who were outraged by it’s negative take on vertically-challenged people! Maryland even tried, unsuccessfully, to have it banned on radio. for all the controversy, the tune hit #2 in the U.S. and Canada, and pushed the album it was on, Little Criminals, to gold status (his only one). Now though, Newman now calls it a “bad break” because he’s remembered for little else by many. Which is a shame,because his real prowess has been movie music.

It would be little surprise a musician with three uncles and four cousins who work as film score composers would get into that line of work, and thus Randy set about it in earnest in the ’70s. He’s done over 20 film soundtracks including all the Toy Story ones, Awakenings, The Natural, Pleasantville and Monsters Inc. He’s been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score eight times (over four decades; he’s enduring as well as prolific) and has won a pair of Academy Awards for Best Original Song, “If I Didn’t Have You” from Monsters Inc. and “We Belong Together” for Toy Story 3. His 2010 song “You’ve Got a Friend In Me”, from Toy Story, has gone platinum even though it didn’t hit the charts.

In 2013 he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall, and set off another controversy, declaring his love of disco. “I like Donna Summer,” he noted, “and what the Bee Gees did was kind of great!”. Hard to argue with that, and that’s the long and short of it! By the way, if you were wondering, Randy stands an un-short 6-feet tall.

November 26 – Think Mason Not A Big Talent? Well, We Just Disagree

One of those names we hear more than we hear the music of is Dave Mason. When we do hear his name, it’s often in the context of “One Hit Wonder”…but that’s not quite fair. Anyway, Dave got as close to a major hit of his own as he’d get this day in 1977, sitting at #12 on Billboard with “We Just Disagree.”

Mason’s reputation and respect in the music world seem to outpace his commercial success – despite putting out 13 solo albums, this song was his only significant hit single. Mason was famous as the bassist and a guitarist for ’60s band Traffic (which also featured Steve Winwood) in which he wrote and sang the song “Feelin’ Alright,” which did well a little later for Joe Cocker . Traffic did moderately well, but overall, appealed more to critics than record-buyers. They are inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, an indication of the critical praise they receive.

Around the same time he hung out with both The Beatles and the Stones, playing woodwind and drums on the Stones’ hit “Street Fighting Man” and in 1970 helping George Harrison both in concert and on his great All Things Must Pass. Not to mention he added guitar to Jimi Hendrix’s classic “All Along the Watchtower” and would do session work for Wings and Michael Jackson.

“We Just Disagree” was from Mason’s seventh solo album, Let It Flow which is his only platinum one in the States. He plays 12-string guitar on the hit which was written by his bandmate Jim Krueger. Krueger played guitar on it as well and did the backing vocals. Mason said Krueger played the song for him and he said right away “’Yeah, that’s the song.’ Just him and a guitar, which is how I usually judge.” He describes the tune as “timeless”, and since we’re talking of it over 40 years later, he might be right!

Mason has kept making solo records on and off and briefly joined Fleetwood Mac in the ’90s. Today he still creates music, saying he plays 100 shows per year still and during the pandemic, he briefly joined up with Mick Fleetwood, Sammy Hagar, Michael McDonald and members of the Doobie Brothers to form a one-off group called the Quarantines, who performed the Traffic song “Feelin’ Alright” remotely . For some time owned a guitar company, too,  RKS.

October 14 – Brothers Woke Up Teen Ears

The rock had really started rolling by this time 66 years ago. Not only had Elvis Presley become a phenomenon who dominated the charts and jukeboxes, the Everly Brothers had their first-ever #1 hit on this day in 1957 – “Wake Up, Little Susie.” And that came just two weeks after Buddy Holly and the Crickets had hit #1 with “That’ll Be the Day.”

Phil and Don Everly were born and initially raised in Kentucky but they both learned guitar, realized they could sing well (Don having the slightly deeper baritone voice) and they moved south to Tennessee. There they fit in with the country crowd, but were taking note of what was happening in popular music and how rockabilly and even rock & roll were beginning to appeal to the kids. By 1956 (at which time they were still in their late teens), they signed to Cadence Records and put out their first single. Their second one, “Bye Bye Love”, had been a biggie earlier in ’57, but got to #2 in the States. “Wake Up Little Susie” did it one better, and also went to #1 on country music charts as well as in Canada, and #2 in Britain.

Like their previous hit, it had been written by the husband and wife team of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, who’d also pen their later “Love Hurts.” Although, as Rolling Stone (which pegs it as the 318^th greatest song of all-time) correctly point out, it “sounds quaint today”, at the time it was pretty racy stuff that scared parents and made the Fonzi’s hanging out at Arnold’s Soda Shop excited. It dealt with a teen couple going to the drive-in, falling asleep and waking up at 4AM worrying about what their parents would do and friends might think! What might they have been up to in the backseat of that ’56 Bel Air, after all? A few radio stations banned it, which probably only increased its popularity. Besides the brothers, who both played acoustic guitars on it, there’s only one other musician credited on it, Floyd Chance on the stand-up bass.

The song earned the pair a gold record and ended as one of the 20 top songs of the year. They’d remain very popular into the early-’60s but then the double hit of them entering the Marines and the British Invasion quickly changing tastes rendered them all but forgotten as hit-makers by 1963, although they would record well beyond that. They’d go on to have two more #1s, “All I Have To Do Is Dream” and “Cathy’s Clown”, and tally 15 top 20 singles, but all by the end of 1962.

From the charts they were gone, but they certainly weren’t forgotten. They were among the inaugural group of inductees at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which said they “reign supreme among music’s great musical partnerships” and had “enormous influence on Simon & Garfunkel and the Beatles.” Which seems to be true, Paul McCartney and Paul Simon have both praised them highly , with Simon calling them “the most beautiful-sounding duo I’ve ever heard”. He and Art Garfunkel paid them back by doing this song in a concert which, released as a single, hit the U.S. top 40 in 1982. Among its other fans is a former President… probably. George W. Bush told Oprah Winfrey that his all-time favorite song was in fact, “Wake Up Little Susie”. But he thought it was by Buddy Holly.

September 16 – Lucille, And Her King

Before there was “the King of Pop,” Michael Jackson, or his father-in-law, “The King”, Elvis, there was a guy who influenced them…and a good chunk of the pop and rock musicians before and since. Today, we’re rembering the birth of the “King of the Blues” 95 years ago today – Riley “B.B.” King.

King grew up poor, raised largely by his grandma, in rural Mississippi and honed his singing skills as well as learned the guitar at the local Pentecostal church. However, his early life was spent picking crops, but when he heard some “Delta blues” on the radio as a teen, he decided that was the life for him. By the early-’40s he’d moved to Memphis and built up a following as “Beale Street Blues Boy”, later “Beale Boy” or BB. By 1949 he’d signed with Sam Phillips (who later started Sun Records) and began his lengthy, legendary career. By 2008 he’d put out 43 studio and 16 live albums and was still often performing 200 or more shows a year and he’d eventually win 15 Grammys.

Although he had a string of hits on R&B charts, starting with “3 O’clock Blues” in ’51, and gained a considerable following, widespread recognition of his “voice that groaned and bent the weight of lust, longing and lost love” and guitars which married “country, blues and big city rhythms” (in the words of the New York Times) didn’t come until a couple of decades later. A high-profile show at the Fillmore for “long-haired white people” in ’68, followed by opening for the Rolling Stones on a ’69 tour led him to the mainstream, and his biggest hit, “The Thrill is Gone” in ’70. Remarkably he didn’t really score a significant “hit” album until 2000’s Riding With The King (a top 5 and 2X platinum in the States), his influence was huge. He was one of the first inductees of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame which called him “the King of the Blues and the genre’s most recognizable and influential artists.” He never learned to read music and hence played “Lucille” (his name for his Gibson ES345 guitar) by plucking and bending strings rather than strumming or playing complicated chords.

King got to play for president Obama at the White House in 2012 not long before he passed away from complications of both dementia and diabetes at age 89. Upon his passing, Eric Clapton called him a “dear friend and an inspiration,” while even country star Brad Paisley noted that “I loved his music and his spirit. He changed music forever.”