Professor Eddy

C-Heads / Nessa Pullman As I wrote earlier, around the mid-70s popular off-shore pirate stations that used the AM dial on the radio, disappeared one by one, due to government decisions in Europe. The more sophisticated and technically better FM radio stations were willing to play album tracks and longer songs from bands like Electric Light Orchestra and Steely Dan. Those bands used the improved studio techniques and possibilities to a full extent. Eventually FM radio became the new standard worldwide. Especially in the United States AOR artists came to full bloom on the FM dial. After winning the television talent show Opportunity Knocks, Candlewick Green signed to Decca Records, and had a hit single with the song Who Do You Think You Are? , written by Des Dyer and Clive Scott of the band Jigsaw. The single reached number 21 on the UK singles chart and number 25 on the Dutch Top 40 in the early spring of 1974. Both Bo Donaldson and The Heywoods and Saint Etienne later covered the ...

Ethan Jones Like so many artists elsewhere, a lot of Dutch bands and musicians were influenced by the West Coast sound too. As my fellow Smooth Operator , Martijn Soetens, once wrote on his blog: “In the Netherlands an umbrella and a sweater are necessary almost any time of year. So it's quite natural that we need sunny music to get our vitamin D.”  Dutch duo (although born in South Africa) Rob and Ferdi Bolland are best known for their work with Austrian singer Falco. They wrote, produced and sang on the Billboard number one Rock Me Amadeus in 1986. In the 1970s they started as a folk duo, sounding like Seals & Crofts, but by the end of the decade they tried several other styles, like disco and the West Coast sound. Free In L.A. is the b-side of their single Music Man , which did not make the Dutch charts at the time. “I can’t get enough Of that West Coast stuff” ( Free In L.A. / Bolland & Bolland) The duo also wrote and produced Presidential Suite by Tiffany (not to b...

Pexels Enjoy part 49 of this long lasting Eddy's 80s Grooves series ! One of the representatives of City Pop, Miki Matsubara was quite popular in Japan in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Around 2020 she was rediscovered, because Stay With Me became hugely successful on TikTok. Unfortunately, she did not experience that reappraisal herself, because she died of cancer in 2004. Four years prior she stopped all music activities and disappeared from the spotlight altogether. She burned all her cherished sheet music and records. In an e-mail sent to her cousin at the time, she wrote: "Please forget all the times in the past when I was singing and composing." Next up is a Mixcloud Exclusive for subscribers only, followed by a new Sunshine Radio show for everyone. Tracklist: Chaka Khan – What Cha' Gonna Do For Me (1981) Gary Taylor - Just What I Have In Mind (1983) New Horizons – Your Thing Is Your Thing (1983) Ronnie Jones – You And I (1982) Miki Matsubara – Stay Wit...

Pexels Enjoy part 5 of the series sunny breeze from the West Coast : mostly light-hearted pop music influenced by the Californian vibe of the late seventies and early eighties. “Pacific waves take my mind away When the sun sets on the ocean” (California 1 / Con Funk Shun) Like most touring musicians, Al Stewart spent a lot of time in hotel rooms, so it was no surprise that there were two songs about hotels on his album Year Of The Cat : Midas Shadow and Broadway Hotel . About the latter, he told his biographer Neville Judd: "It's a song about trying to understand people who live in hotel rooms, people who are rich and can afford houses but prefer to live in a hotel room. That’s like living with no past, nothing tangible you can attach them to." Next up is part 49 of Eddy's Eighties Grooves ! Tracklist: Niko Bokos – Watchu Doin’ Tonight (2024) Carter & Chanel – Don’t Let Love Go (1981) Homi & Jarvis – Love’s Taken Over (1983) Erik Tagg – Fancy Meeting You...

Diana Ross & Marvin Gaye Enjoy this weekend's Billboard soul top 20 from 1974, counting down from 20 to 1! 😊 It is a special year to me, because 1974 was the year that I discovered pop music.  The Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart from exactly 50 years ago mainly contains a lot of classic (Motown) soul, with some early disco here and there. Only some lyrics are no longer acceptable in 2024. For instance, Bobby Womack mainly wants a woman to clean the house and prepare delicious food for him and Leon Haywood seems to justify domestic violence by stating that problems should be kept indoors. Ecstasy Pleasure & Pain, Spinners, Billy Paul and MFSB are the representatives of The Sound Of Philadelphia, or Philly Soul for short, the sound that would start the disco craze in years to come.  The sessions for Diana & Marvin , a duets album by then super stars Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye, started in 1971 and took until the beginning of 1973. Diana Ross told in an early 1973 ...