Neil Sedaka died today at age 86. This is the CNN obituary.

It should be remembered that Neil was a great friend of John Lennon.

It is well known that in the early days of Beatlemania, there were several songs about the Beatles that hit the charts. One of the most remembered of these songs is the novelty song “Ringo, I Love You” by 17 year-old Bonnie Jo Mason which was released in March 1964. Bonnie Jo Mason was actually named Cherilyn Sarkisian but producer Phil Spector wanted all of his artists to have American sounding names, so Sarkisian issued her first single under the name Bonnie Jo Mason; soon she would drop Bonnie Jo Mason and simply go by the name “Cher”. However, there is only one song about an ex-Beatle that was intended to help his legal battles. The 1975 song “The Immigrant” by Neil Sedaka was written about John Lennon’s immigration difficulties.

On his Facebook page, Sedaka made a post on May 9, 2013 in which he wrote, “I wrote this song for my friend John Lennon during his immigration battles in the 1970’s. I’ll never forget when I called to tell him about it. Overwhelmed by the gesture, he said, ‘Normally people only call me when they want something. It’s very seldom that people call you to give you something. It’s beautiful.” He left a video of a live performance of “The Immigrant” on the Facebook post.

John Lennon and Neil Sedaka had a common friend in Elton John, the most popular recording artist of the 1970’s who gave both veteran artists a boost. Elton John performed backing vocals and lent his keyboard talents on John’s “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night”, which topped the charts for one week beginning on November 16, 1974. It was the ex-Beatle’s first number one hit in the U.S., making him the last of the four ex-Beatles to top the charts; ironically, this song was Lennon’s only number one song during his lifetime as “(Just Like) Starting Over” hit number one three weeks after his murder on December 8, 1980 and stayed on top for five weeks. Believe it or not, Ringo had two number one hits before John had his first one; “Photograph” hit number one for one week on November 24, 1973 and “You’re Sixteen” topped the charts for one week on January 26, 1974.

Around the same time, Elton John helped Neil Sedaka top the charts for two weeks in October 1975 with the song “Bad Blood”. Sedaka had recently signed with Elton’s new label, Rocket Records, in hopes of overcoming a career slump of almost twelve years. Written by Sedaka and Phil Cody, “Bad Blood” was practically a duet of Sedaka and Elton, but Elton insisted on giving Sedaka the sole billing and staying in the background. Signing with Rocket Records catapulted Sedaka back into both prominence and up into the top of the charts. Ironically, “Bad Blood” was knocked out of the top position on the charts by Elton’s “Island Girl“, which stayed in the number one position for the first three weeks of November 1975.

Sedaka and songwriting partner Howard Greenfield were among the famed “Brill Building” songwriting teams which included Carole King/Gerry Goffin, Burt Bacharach/Hal David, Barry Mann/Cynthia Weill, Doc Pomus/Mort Shuman and a few others. Sedaka and Greenfield wrote “Where the Boys Are”, which became Connie Francis’ signature song. As a solo performer, Sedaka scored thirteen songs in the Top 40 between 1958 and 1963, which included six top ten hits and the 1962 number one hit “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do”. His 1959 song “Oh! Carol”, written for singer/songwriter Carol King, hit # 2 while the 1960 # 4 hit “Calendar Girl” has been frequently used in commercials over the years.

A rough period of eleven years was ended after he signed to Elton John’s Rocket Records in the hopes of breaking the streak of bad luck. His first single to chart, “Laughter in the Rain”, landed on top of the charts for one week in February 1975, which was followed a couple of months later by his John Lennon tribute “The Immigrant”, peaking at number 22 and staying in the Top 40 for five weeks. Another song, “That’s When the Music Takes Me”, charted and reached number 27 prior to the success of the “Bad Blood”, which topped the charts for two weeks in October 1975. This incredible comeback on the part of Neil Sedaka received more steam when an old Sedaka/Greenfield song, “Love Will Keep Us Together”, was recorded by The Captain and Tennille and topped the charts for four weeks in June/July 1975, in between the two Sedaka number one hits that year. The title of the Sedaka comeback album was Sedaka Is Back, and as the song “Love Will Keep Us Together” is fading out, Toni Tennille sings “Sedaka is back”. This upswing in Sedaka’s career featured three more Top 40 hits in 1976, the most notable of which was a slower version of his 1962 number one hit “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” which reached number 8.

After such success with “Love Will Keep Us Together”, Captain and Tennille lost no time in recording another Sedaka tune. Sedaka wrote and recorded “Lonely Nights (Angel Face)” for his The Hungry Years album. The Captain and Tennille version was released in January 1976, and reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100. When Sedaka was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on January 24, 1975 in the show’s inaugural season, he performed “Lonely Nights (Angel Face)”.

Sedaka’s own immigrant background was that of having a Sephardic Jewish father of Turkish origins and an Ashkenazic Jewish mother from Poland. Sedaka was a first cousin to late Grammy-winning singer Eydie Gorme, who was born Edith Garmezano in New York City to Sephardic Jewish immigrant parents from Sicily and Turkey.

John Lennon’s problems with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service are well known. The Nixon Administration denied him status as an important artist, a legal battle ensued, which was finally resolved on October 9, 1975, a day that marked both John’s 35th birthday as well as the birth of his son Sean. In the 1983 book The Book of Rock Lists by Dave Marsh, there is a list of ten celebrities who signed a petition that was sent to the I.N.S. on Lennon’s behalf. They were: 1) Fred Astaire 2) Saul Bellow 3) Leonard Bernstein 4) Bob Dylan 5) Lawrence Ferlinghetti 6) Allen Ginsberg 7) Jack Lemmon 8) Henry Miller 9) Virgil Thomson 10) Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

However, there was only one song written about Lennon’s immigration problems that charted on The Billboard Hot 100 !

 

The Christmas season has officially begun as yesterday I heard “Wonderful Christmastime” for the first time of the year. As is the case each year during the holiday season, Paul’s Christmas song “Wonderful Christmastime” is in heavy rotation on the airwaves. This McCartney solo song was recorded in 1979 during the recording of McCartney II, with Paul laying down all the tracks himself at the home studio on his farm. Though not a Wings single, all of the members of the final configuration of Wings appeared in the video which was filmed at The Fountain Inn in Ashurst, West Sussex.

To say that it is a McCartney “solo” song is an understatement. He both wrote and produced the song in addition to providing vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, guitars, bass, and drums.

“Wonderful Christmastime” reached # 6 on the UK Singles Chart, but did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. Since its debut during the 1979 holiday season, it was estimated by Forbes magazine that the song has earned Paul $30 million dollars. Each holiday season the song rakes him in excess of $600,000.

Beatles fans will remember that McCartney performed “Wonderful Christmastime” on Saturday Night Live on December 15, 2012.

In addition, Beatles fans will remember that there was never an official Christmas song released by the Fab Four. However, members of the official Beatles Fan Club received a record of Christmas song in 1967 that was not released commercially. “Christmas Time Is Here Again” lived on in bootleg records and became more accessible with the advent of YouTube.com.

Ironically, Paul can be heard on Side B of the monstrously successful 1984 charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by Band Aid. This song knocked out Wings’ “Mull of Kintyre” from having the distinction of being the biggest selling single in the history of the UK. It was on top of the UK Singles Charts in Christmas 1977. For whatever reason, “Mull of Kintyre” was a flop in the U.S., only reaching # 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 and cracking the Top 40 for only that one week. “Mull of Kintyre” was a massive international hit that topped the charts in countless countries. Paul has never performed the song in a concert in the U.S. due to its bad performance there; however, there have been instances over the years in which he does a concert one night in the U.S. without performing “Mull of Kintyre” and then two nights later adds it to the playlist for a concert in Canada. “Mull of Kintyre” still remains the biggest selling non-charity single in UK history. In 1984 people were urged to buy multiple copies of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” to support African famine relief, so “Mull of Kintyre” retains its unique place in history.

Check out the songs below…….

George Harrison has the unique distinction of being both the first and the last ex-Beatle to score a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100. “My Sweet Lord” reached the top slot on December 26, 1970, and stayed there for four weeks; “Got My Mind Set on You” hit number one on January 16, 1988, for one week.

Paul was the next former Beatle to follow George to the top of the charts as “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”, which was credited to Paul & Linda Cartney, as well as written and produced by the husband-and-wife combo, topped the charts for one week on September 4, 1971. The next former member of the Fab Four to reach the coveted plateau was Ringo, who scored with “Photograph” for one week on November 24, 1973, a song written by Ringo and George Harrison, and produced by Richard Perry. Finally, John had his first number one hit with “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night”, a song he wrote and produced, which stayed in the top slot for one week beginning on November 24, 1974.

“My Sweet Lord” entered the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 on December 5, 1970, and stayed there for 13 weeks. The single was released in the U.S. prior to the release of the triple album All Things Must Pass whereas in the UK the single was released six weeks after the release of the album.

Of course, “My Sweet Lord” was the target of a copyright infringement lawsuit but that complicated issue is a whole blog post in itself. The March 6, 1971, issue of Billboard stated that royalty payments to Harrison had been halted all over the world until settlement of the dispute. Of course, the situation sparked the song “This Song” on George’s 1976 album Thirty Three and 1/3, which spoofed the whole plagiarism case.

In the summer of 1963, the four members of The Beatles had a two week vacation that saw George visit his sister Louise in the U.S. While there he bought an album by James Ray, which included a song written by Rudy Clark “Got My Mind Set on You”. The song stuck in Harrison’s memory bank.

“Got My Mind Set on You” was the second number one song by an ex-Beatle to have been written by someone else. The first was when Ringo topped the charts in January 1974 with “You’re Sixteen”, which was written by Richard Sherman and Robert Sherman.

With “Got My Mind Set on You” topping the charts in January 1988, it set a record for the longest gap between number one hits for an artist or group, as Harrison’s previous number one record was “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” which reached the top slot on June 30, 1973. However, that record was broken months later when the Beach Boys scored a number one with “Kokomo” on November 5, 1988, some 22 years after their last number one hit o “Good Vibrations” topped the charts on December 10, 1966.

Two videos were made for the song, both of which were directed by Gary Weis. The second video, which shows Harrison playing guitar in a haunted house while various things around him come alive, definitely became the most popular one.

“Take It Away” has a lively history. Originally among a group of songs that Paul wrote to give to Ringo, he decided he wanted to keep it for himself. It was originally slated to be recorded for the last Wings album, it was a holdover that appeared on Paul’s 1982 album Tug of War, his third solo album.

The song spent 16 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, including a strange five consecutive week stay in the number ten position in late July through August. The song entered the Top 40 on July 17, 1982, and stayed there for eleven weeks. The song reached # 15 on the UK charts.

“Take It Away” was released on the heels of the end of the reign at #1 on the charts of “Ebony and Ivory”, Paul’s duet with Stevie Wonder, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks in the U.S. and was a number one hit in countless other countries. It was Paul’s first collaboration with a major artist and foreshadowed his future collaborations with Michael Jackson.

The song represented a mini-Beatles reunion of sorts as it was produced by George Martin, who also played electric piano on the track, and Ringo played drums on the track.

George Martin and Ringo both appeared in the video for the song as members of the band, as did Linda McCartney and Eric Stewart, who played on the track. Barbara Bach appeared in the video, which was directed by John Mackenzie.

The video for “Take It Away” was unique. Coming less than a year after the start of the MTV network on August 1, 1981, it was the first ever video to feature a paid actor. BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated actor John Hurt, the most popular actor in the UK at the time, stars as the entertainment mogul. Of course, having paying big movie stars to appear in high-profile music videos would become popular as the 1980’s evolved.

The show “Happy Days” debuted on ABC as a midseason replacement show on January 15, 1974, and was an instant hit. Nostalgia of the 1950’s was popular in 1974 with shows like “Happy Days” and the movie American Graffiti leading the way. Coincidentally, the kind of music associated with that time period was what John Lennon was featuring on his upcoming album Rock ‘n’ Roll, which was still in production when “Happy Days” debuted to rave reviews. Lennon’s fifth solo album featured his doing cover versions of rock standards of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, the music of his Liverpool youth. Naturally, Lennon was an instant fan of “Happy Days”.

Recently, the website Slashfilm.com published an article titled “One Of The Beatles Was a Happy Days Fan, And He Made Sure To Let The Cast Know“, which tells how John Lennon, May Pang and a young Julian Lennon visited the set of “Happy Days” in Los Angeles during the show’s first season in 1974.

The article also tells how ten years later in 1984 when Julian Lennon appeared on the show “Solid Gold” to promote his hit song “Valotte“, he appeared at Henry Winkler’s dressing room, which was on the next set, and asked “The Fonz” if he remembered him.

The forthcoming Rock ‘n’ Roll album, which was still in production at the time of Lennon’s visit to the “Happy Days” set, would have many songs which would be of the era evoked by the nostalgic tv show, such as “Be-Bop-a-Lula”, “Stand By Me”, “Ain’t That a Shame”, “Do You Want to Dance”, “Sweet Little Sixteen”, “Peggy Sue” and “Ya Ya.”

Generally, I do not post links to articles outright for a post, but today I will as two articles that I saw today stood out for me.

On the website MentalFloss.com the article “When Muhammad Ali Tried to Reunite The Beatles” was brought to my attention this afternoon. Of course, as is well known, the four boys met Muhammad Ali on their first trip to the U.S. in Miami Beach and the famous photo was taken of the four of them standing in a straight line and Ali landing a straight punch to the four of them.

Actually, Muhammad Ali and The Beatles have common ethnic heritage. Three of the four Beatles have great-grandparents from Ireland. On his father’s side, all of John Lennon’s great-grandparents were from Ireland, mainly County Derry and Dublin. George Harrison had great-grandparents from Ireland, from Dublin and County Wicklow. Paul McCartney’s great-grandfather James McCartney was from Ireland, as well as his maternal grandfather, Owen Mohin from County Monaghan. Muhammad Ali also had a great-grandfather who was an Irish immigrant, Abraham Grady, from the town of Ennis in County Clare. This October 30, 2024 article on Irish Central, “The Story of Muhammad Ali’s Irish Roots“, details how Abraham Grady immigrated to Kentucky and married a freed slave. The couple’s great-grandson was Cassius Clay, who later would change his name to Muhammad Ali.

The second article is in today’s Guardian, and is making the rounds both in the tabloids and throughout the world. The title is “Julian Lennon – “I’m not part of the Beatles’ inner circle – I never have been.” A very introspective and enlightening article.

The Beatles were not the first British act to top the Billboard Hot 100. Some 20 months before the Fab Four monopolized the U.S. charts in February 1964 and ushered in the British Invasion, clarinetist Acker Bilk scored a # 1 hit on May 26, 1962 with the instrumental song “Stranger on the Shore”, which stayed in the top slot for one week.

Originally titled “Jenny” after his young daughter, the song was to be used as the theme song for a new BBC television show “Stranger on the Shore”, so the title of the song was changed to match the name of the show. The instrumental song is an unlikely forerunner to the British Invasion and was Bilk’s only hit in the U.S.
Seven months later, on December 22, 1962, the second British act to hit number one in the U.S., and the first British group, The Tornadoes, topped the charts for three weeks with “Telstar”, another instrumental.

Written and produced by Joe Meek, “Telstar” was performed by The Tornadoes, a band that producer Meek had put together himself and had started out by backing up singer Billy Fury.

Named after the Telstar communications satellite, which was launched into orbit on July 10, 1962, the record sold five million copies worldwide. In 2007, Tim Wheeler of Ash wrote that “Telstar” was one of the earliest pop songs influenced by science fiction, and that “for its time it was so futuristic, and it still sounds pretty weird today.”

The Tornadoes had a few more hits in Britain, but “Telstar” was their only hit in the U.S.

My favorite Beatles song of all time is “September in the Rain”, a song which was never officially released by The Beatles. It was performed by the band during their famous unsuccessful audition for Decca Records at Decca Studios in North London on January 1, 1962. Of course, the songs performed on the audition have long lived on in the bootleg world; five of the songs – “Searchin’”, “Three Cool Cats”, “The Sheik of Araby”, “Like Dreamers Do”, and “Hello Little Girl” – were officially released for the first time in 1995 on Anthology 1. As was noted in the media at the time, the release of these five songs from the Decca sessions, along with five other tracks, represented the first official Beatles releases with Pete Best on drums, and hence the first time that Best made financial gain as a Beatle albeit more than thirty years later. Well deserved! As is well known, almost nine months after the ill-fated Decca audition, on August 16, 1962, drummer Pete Best was fired from the band and replaced with Ringo Starr. Starr had been the drummer with rival Liverpool band Rory Storm & The Hurricanes, who almost two years before had simultaneously played in the same Hamburg club, the Kaiserkeller, with The Beatles. On the occasions that Pete Best would not show up for the gigs for whatever reasons, Ringo Starr would be forced to do double duty and stay on stage when his sets with Rory Storm were over and sit in with The Beatles for their entire sets. He fit in cohesively with the three lads in terms of personality, something that Pete Best did not exactly achieve.

“September in the Rain” was written by Harry Warren and Al Dubin. Warren (1893-1981), born Salvatore Antonio Guaranga, is noted as the first major American songwriter to have written primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song eleven times and won three Oscars for “Lullaby of Broadway”, “You’ll Never Know” and “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe.” Harry Warren wrote over 800 songs in his career, and many hits. Some of his hit songs were “I Only Have Eyes for You”, “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby”, “Jeepers Creepers”, “The Gold Diggers’ Song (We’re in the Money)”, “That’s Amore”, “Chattanooga Choo Choo”, and countless other hits. “Chattanooga Choo Choo” was the first song to be awarded “gold record” distinction in the music industry.

“September in the Rain” was introduced by James Melton in the 1937 film Melody for Two, an American musical starring Melton, Patricia Ellis and Marie Willis. It would go on to be recorded by many and varied artists over the decades. Among the extensive list of artists who have recorded the song are Guy Lombardo, Julie London, Teresa Brewer, Lionel Hampton, Joe Williams, Willie Nelson, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Bing Crosby, and Jools Holland.

Both John and Paul were big fans of show tunes. “September in the Rain” was a favorite of Paul’s, and he certainly did a great job of belting out the lead vocals.

We recently commemorated the 60th anniversary of The Beatles famous debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and how it launched Beatlemania in the U.S. Well, it wasn’t only young people who were affected. Writers of sitcoms in the U.S. jumped on the bandwagon as three shows wrote in Beatles-like scenarios into episodes.

Almost a year to the day after the appearance with Ed Sullivan, the highly rated sitcom “The Dick Van Dyke Show” ran episode titled “The Redcoats Are Coming” on February 10, 1965 which played into the Beatles hysteria reminiscent from “The Ed Sullivan Show”. The 30 minute show centered upon Rob Petrie, the character played by Dick Van Dyke who is the head writer of the popular show “The Alan Brady Show” which is a weekly show somewhat similar to “The Ed Sullivan Show”, who has to hide a popular British pop duo at his home for a night before they appear on “The Alan Brady Show”. However, the “catch” was that Rob Petrie and his wife Laura, played by Mary Tyler Moore, were sworn to secrecy and could not tell anyone for fear that it could set off a Beatlemania-like frenzy.

The British pop duo was the fictitious “Fred & Ernie”, who were played by the real life Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde who performed under the name “Chad & Jeremy”. Fans of modern day British television know Jeremy Clyde for his high-profile acting roles on series like “Downton Abbey” and “Inspector Morse”. It made for an interesting episode of the famous “Dick Van Dyke Show” and was obviously inspired by recent events of Beatlemania.

On December 9, 1965, the CBS show “Gilligan’s Island” followed suit with an episode titled “Don’t Bug the Mosquitoes” when a popular American British Invasion-like band called The Mosquitoes, a name obviously taken to emulate The Beatles, wash up on the desert island in the show’s second season. The members of the rock group are Bingo, Bango, Bongo and Irving. They perform their hit songs “Don’t Bug Me” and “He’s a Loser”, complete with the Beatle-esque format of two guitarists and a bass player upfront and a drummer in back, as well as shaking their heads of hair like The Beatles. The goal of the castaways is to make life miserable on the island for the band members so they will want to leave, and hence take the castaways with them back to the mainland.

The Mosquitoes were played by Les Brown, Jr. and the folk group The Wellingtons. Later in the episode, the three women castaways on the island – Ginger, Mary Ann, and Mrs. Howell – form their own pop trio called The Honey Bees and perform their original song “You Need Us”. As was the case in every episode of “Gilligan’s Island” when a visitor or visitors come to the island, The Mosquitoes leave the inhabitants on the island without rescuing them.

Only a week after appearing on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” as fictitious British Invasion stars, Chad & Jeremy appeared on “The Patty Duke Show” as the duo “Nigel & Patrick” in the episode title “Patty Pits Wits, Two Brits Hits”. Cathy Lane, one of the two “identical cousins” characters played by Patty Duke, was doing a classical musical show on a local radio station and meets up with the struggling duo Nigel & Patrick. She becomes determined to help get them signed to a contract to make a record. She finds them and agent and a record is made en route to success. The duo sings the Chad & Jeremy hits “A Summer Song” and “Yesterday’s Gone” on the show, and of course there is a happy sitcom ending.

In all three of these sitcom episodes, Beatlemania was the undisputed undercurrent. Needless to say, while these shows aired, television executives were already in the planning stages of a thirty minute sitcom entirely based on The Beatles and Beatlemania. “The Monkees” debuted on September 12, 1966

Of course, there have been many songs in the Top 40 that have mentioned The Beatles. In the early days of Beatlemania, there were several novelty songs, the most famous of which was “We Love You Beatles”, the 1964 novelty song by The Carefrees.

Countless other mentions of The Fab Four have been noteworthy. Some of them have been Mott The Hoople’s “All the Young Dudes” with the lyrics “….and my brother back at home with his Beatles and his Stones.” Another memorable mention can be found in the 1970 Temptations’ song “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World is Today)” with the lyrics “Unemployment rising fast, the Beatles’ new record’s a gas”. Other prominent mentions can be found in the 1985 hit “Life in a Northern Town” by Dream Academy, and in the 1989 number one hit “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel. There are many more examples.

“Never Been to Spain” was a # 5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 for Three Dog Night in 1971, appearing on their album Harmony. It was released after their top ten hit “An Old Fashioned Love Song” and before their single “Family of Man”. Prior to “Never Been to Spain”, Three Dog Night had two number one hits under their belt, “Mama Told Me (Not to Come) in 1970 and “Joy to The World” in 1971. Their third and final number one, “Black and White”, would top the charts in 1972. Between 1969 and 1975, Three Dog Night had twenty Top 40 hits and eleven Top Ten hits.

“Never Been to Spain” was written by Hoyt Axton,and picked up by Three Dog Night. The lyrics go: “Well, I never been to England/ But I kinda like the Beatles”.

The song consists of Axton citing places he has never visited with commentary on the speculative cultural highlights of those locales. He discusses his own travels, making comparisons to more worldly venues.
The final verse is:

Well, I’ve never been to heaven
But I’ve been to Oklahoma
Well, they tell me I was born there
But I really don’t remember

Hoyt Axton also wrote Three Dog Night’s biggest hit, “Joy to the World”, which topped the Billboard charts for six weeks in April and May 1971. Axton has songwriting in his genetics because he was the son of famed songwriter Mae Boren Axton, who was famously known as the “Queen Mother of Nashville”. Mae Boren Axton’s most famous song writing credit is the wildly popular song “Heartbreak Hotel” which she wrote for a young Elvis Presley. She also had the distinction of strategically introducing an unknown Elvis Presley to Colonel Tom Parker. Hoyt Axton also had a famous first cousin, David Boren. David Boren served as Governor of Oklahoma from 1974 to 1974, and then served three terms in the U.S. Senate from 1979 to 1994.

Ironically, the two other number one songs scored by Three Dog Night were also written by songwriters who have famous relatives. Their first number one hit, “Mama Told Me (Not to Come)” was written by Randy Newman. It stayed on top for two weeks in July 1970. The song has the unique distinction of being the number one song on the very first edition of Casey Kasem’s “American Top 40” on the weekend of July 40, 1970. Randy Newman, an accomplished singer/songwriter himself, is the nephew of famed composers Alfred, Emil and Lionel Newman; all three worked on film scores in Hollywood. Alfred Newman won nine Academy Awards, more than any composer in Oscar history. Emil Newman worked on over 200 films and tv shows, earning an Oscar nomination in 1941. Lionel Newman’s career with 20th Century Fox spanned 46 years and 200 movies. He wrote several classic tv themes such as “Dobie Gillis” and “Daniel Boone”. It is no surprise that since the 1980’s Randy Newman has concentrated on writing film scores.

The third and final chart-topper for the band was “Black and White”, which stayed in the top position for one week in September 1972. It was co-written by David Arkin in the 1950’s. David Arkin is the father of actor Alan Arkin and the grandfather of actor Adam Arkin. Alan Arkin received two Oscar nominations for Best Actor, and one for Best Supporting Actor. He won his first and only Oscar for the 2006 movie Little Miss Sunshine for Best Supporting Actor.

Hoyt Axton also wrote the Ringo Starr hit “No No Song” which reached # 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974, giving the Fab Four drummer his seventh top ten hit in the U.S. In his acclaimed 1991 biography Ringo Starr: Straight Man or Joker, author Alan Clayson wrote of Axton: “To Ringo, he gave a Jamaican-flavoured litany that warned of the horrors of whiskey, cocaine and so forth against the oaradise of total abstinence. Unreleased as a British 45 for fear of Radio One programmers getting the wrong – or right – end of the stick. “No No Song” came within an ace of duplicating the feat of ‘You’re Sixteen’ in the States.”

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