Time To Make Some Music – Alphabetically!

I love music, and thanks to my friend “Beetley Pete” from England, there’s a great way to celebrate – one letter at a time! Pete did this “letter by letter” look at music, and I’ve been doing it as well – a fun way to focus on music and musicians based on a letter of the alphabet!

How it works is simple:I choose either a song that begins with the letter “A” – or a band with that letter, like this:

ABBA – “When I Kissed The Teacher”:

The band name begins with “A” – so check out the pop majesty of this quartet from Sweden, who by the way spoke no English!

Yes, ABBA is terrific, and their music lives on decades later…and if the band’s name doesn’t begin with “A”, then the song must:

The Beatles – “All You Need Is Love”

You get the idea – and if you’ve never seen the fab four singing this song live, here you go – a video broadcast live to the entire world:

The Beatles – All You Need Is Love from Hector Garcia on Vimeo.

A timeless classic, even if Pete doesn’t like The Beatles!. Of course, you can see all of The Beatles’ promo videos like this on their blu-ray collection – check out the list of great moments here:

https://johnrieber.com/2015/09/18/the-beatles-exclusive-new-release-incredible-beatles-music-videos-the-beatles-1-is-here/

Another “A-List” song comes from one of my favorite bands:

Aerosmith – “Dream On!”

Aerosmith announced their arrival with this “immediately iconic” song – check out a live version of their first smash hit “Dream On”:

Time to look at a Singer/Songwriter who had some huge smash hits – for others! She wrote big hit singles for Barbra Streisand, The Fifth Dimension, Three Dog Night and Blood, Sweat & Tears!

Laura Nyro wrote the classic song “And When I Die” – check it out, a much more raucous, joyous version than the hit single released by Blood Sweat & Tears:

Nyro was a muse to Todd Rundgren, who wrote such smash hits as “Hello It’s Me”, “Can We Still Be Friends” and the joyous “Bang On The Drum” – and he has discussed Laura’s influence on his music many times – see the story here:

https://johnrieber.com/2013/10/25/brilliant-laura-nyro-todd-rundgrens-muse-their-beautiful-musical-history-together/

As A Todd Rundgren fan, I can share with you one of his most beautiful songs:

“A Dream Goes On Forever” – Todd Rundgren:

He may be one of the most overlooked Artists of his time, but Todd Rundgren has an incredible catalog of songs like this one:

“A million old soldiers will fade away
But a dream goes on forever
I’m left standing here, I’ve got nothing to say
All is silent within my dream…”

Here is Todd’s beautiful ballad, performed live:

This song is from his terrific album “Todd” – see more about that album, and hear more of his beautiful music, by clicking on my story here:

https://johnrieber.com/2016/04/25/todd-another-four-sided-plastic-waffle-todd-rundgrens-eclectic-gem/

As I said, one of Todd’s greatest songs was “Hello It’s Me” and guess what? Adele wrote her own version with opened with those words:

Adele – “Hello”

Adele’s hauntingly beautiful song begins this way:

“Hello, it’s me
I was wondering if after all these years you’d like to meet
To go over everything
They say that time’s supposed to heal ya, but I ain’t done much healing
Hello, can you hear me?”

Beautiful lyrics – here is her video:

Adele is one of the great singers of our time.

Time now to take you back to a decade that featured this look:

“Antmusic” – Adam And The Ants

Well, who can argue with those outfits! Adam And The Ants had a nice run of hits in the 80’s but their debut song is the one I love the best, with some of my favorite lyrics ever:

“So unplug the jukebox
And do us all a favor
That music’s lost its taste
So try another flavor
Antmusic!”

Check out the video:

If you love this stuff, click here to see more 80’s music from such classic Artists as A Flock Of Seagulls!

https://johnrieber.com/2016/01/20/classic-80s-brit-pop-animal-style-flock-of-seagulls-adam-ant-bow-wow-wow/

If you are a fan of British music, try the band Athlete – I used to joke that they were for people who found Coldplay too hard-edged…actaully, they are terrific, and here is proof –

Athlete “Shake Those Windows”:

This London band was together for more than a decade before going on hiatus in 2013 – I used to joke that they were for people who thought Coldplay to TOO HARD-EDGED!

Seriously, they make intelligent melodic like “Shake Those Windows” – here is the band performing this hit live:

Yes, it starts a bit mellow, but I love how it builds to a huge crescendo, and I think they were one of the great “Smart” Brit bands – here is a look at other “one word” band from England I love, like Elbow, Doves and more!

https://johnrieber.com/2014/09/21/the-new-british-invasion-keane-athlete-doves-elbow-kasabian-long-live-rock/

There you go, some great “music with an A!”

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Categories: Art, Books / Media, Classic Rock, Music, Obscure Music, Pop Culture, Talent/Celebrities, Todd Rundgren

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