Battle of the Sexes Soundtrack

    Songs connected to the Battle of the Sexes Soundtrack  is our subject matter this month. Our lead song is Rocket Man by Elton John and its use by Donald Trump and the current state of world affairs . The other Elton John song not used in the movie but a strong link to the story of Billy Jean King and that song is Philadelphia Freedom . Then next is What is Life by George Harrison. While our flashback song is Tommy James, Hanky Panky. Tommy James has Crimson and Clover on the Battle of the Sexes Soundtrack.

 Rocket Man 
Elton John

• The song came out around the time of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. The inspiration for Bernie Taupin's lyrics, was the short story The Rocket Man, written by Ray Bradbury. The sci-fi author's tale is told from the perspective of a child, whose astronaut father has mixed feelings at leaving his family in order to do his job. It was published as part of the anthology, The Illustrated Man in 1951. Bradbury's story also inspired the folk group, Pearls Before Swine song of the same name in 1970 and Taupin states this gave him the idea for "Rocket Man" .  In the Pearls Before Swine song, a child can no longer look at the stars after his astronaut father perishes in space. Elton John's Rocket Man was produced by Gus Dudgeon, who worked with David Bowie on his 1969 song "Space Oddity." Both songs have similar subject matter, and lots of people accused Elton of ripping off Bowie. Which apparently is'nt so.

• Trump is a fan of the song, and often played it at his campaign rallies. Speaking at the United Nations on September 19, 2017, American president Donald Trump reffered to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as "Rocket Man" because of his missile program. "Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself," Trump declared. This song immediately began trending. This wasn't the first time the phrase was used in this context in The Economist magazine they put Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il, on the cover of their July 8, 2006 issue with the headline  "Rocket Man". Kim Il sung, is considered to be the founding father of North Korea. Kim Jong un was born on January 8, 1983 in Pyongyang.

Elton John 
Rocket Man /Kim Jong-un

Battle of the Sexes Soundtrack 
 What Is Life George Harrison

What is Life /George Harrison

• What is Life was actually written for Billy Preston but George decided to do the song himself. It was produced by Phil Spector and was the B side to My Sweet Lord. Battle of the Sexes is a movie made about the 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs which became the most watched televised sports event of all time. Billie Jean was wanting equal pay for women. 
  

• Our next song this week linked to the movie is Philadelphia Freedom. The story goes, Elton John was looking to honour his friend, Billie Jean King in 1974, and so asked Taupin to write a song called "Philadelphia Freedom" as a homage to her tennis team, the Philadelphia Freedoms.

Philadelphia Freedom Live 1975

 Flashback 

• Crimson and Clover was a song, written by Tommy James when looking for a change in direction from their first hits, Mony Mony and Hanky Panky . He came up with the lyric after waking up one morning, thinking of his favorite color and his interest in clovers actually went together well lyrically. Crimson and Clover has been covered by artists like Prince and Joan Jett. Here is Tommy and the Shondeles first hit Hanky Panky pulled out of a rubbish bin by a DJ and played at his sixties club in Pitsburgh in 1965 to become a nationwide number one by 1966. 

 Hanky Panky 

Tommy James and the Shondelles 

Rocket Man 
Pearls Before Swine Song

Thunder Egyptians and Lets Stick Together

•       The new music clip for this month is Thunder by Imagine Dragons. The track is off their new album Evolve. Really enjoy their music and Dan Reynolds seems such a genuine guy ! Something genuine coming out of Las Vegas . Viva Las Vegas ! A real rock band is something  this world is missing so its great that we have a survivor, here. We're a typical band," says lead singer/
songwriter and founder Dan Reynolds, 27, a week before the Grammys. "We're not tatted-up, trying to make a statement. The spirit of rock'n'roll is not that you're living on the edge, that you're a cokehead -- those are just lifestyle choices."

•       Dan about there music choices  "We have guitars and drums and bass, so people call us a rock band," says Reynolds. "But I love big, poppy melodies. And I'm not going to apologize for that." Radioactive is still one of my favorite rock songs of recent times. It won the Grammy in 2014 for the best Rock Performance of that year.

•       Dan Reynolds on Radioactive . "When I wrote Radioactive, we'd been a band for two and a half, maybe three years," he said. "We were at that point so many bands get to - where we're playing small clubs and filling them, but to break out at that level is a difficult thing. I was questioning my own career choice. I really wanted to have a family at some point and be able to support them, and still do what I love. So it was a difficult time. I'm a really up and down person; I've always struggled with depression.""I was writing in the studio with Alex. (their producer ) " Reynolds continued. "We knew we wanted something that was heavy. I've always loved songs that present a beautiful and sensitive subject in a heavy way. So we came up with this heavy beat and instrumental that just felt like an awakening. It expressed a feeling that was happening with me, so I started to write the lyrics and the melody.""In truth, the song is about becoming self-empowered and saying, 'I'm happy with who I am, happy with the choices I'm making,'" he added. "It's about sweating off all the dust and grime of self-doubt and judgment, and embracing who you are."

    

Thunder 

Dan Reynolds and Imagine Dragons 

Susanna Hoff and her influence on Prince and Mike Myers

•      The Bangles were known as "The Bangs", but when the band accepted a record deal, an already signed band of the same name sued, so they added "les" to their name as a tribute to The Beatles. Susanna Hoffs lead singer of  The Bangles has been married to director Jay Roach since 1993. Prince and Mike Myers both had an attraction to Susanna which led to the following creations . 
• Manic Monday -- Prince first decided to give “Manic Monday” to his girlfriend Apollonia who had joined a band called Vanity 6 . Renaming themselves Apollonia 6, they recorded the track for their first album. However, just on release, Prince pulled it from the album because he’d lost interest in the group. Two years later he would offer it to Susanna under the pseudonym Christopher, which was the name of his character in Under the Cherry Moon. Rumors suggest that Prince gave the song to Susanna Hoffs in exchange for sleeping with him .
• Austin Powers -- Around 1991 Susanna and Jay Roach were in a bar when Mike Myers introduced himself because he desperately wanted to meet Susanna and telling her how much he loved The Bangles. Jay and Mike became friends, working together on the Austin Power script and two years later, Austin Powers became a reality ! 

   

 Live Music of the Month 

Susanna Hoffs Nashville Acoustic Concert 1997. 

Walk Like An Egyptian /Mrs Robinson 

Flashback Music for this Month 

Lets Work Together 

Wilbert Harrison

•        Wilbert Harrison was born Jan 5th 1929 and died Oct 26th 1994 at the age of 65. He had his first hit with Kansas City in 1959 with one of the first songs written or legally obtained, lol by the famous early rock'n'roll songwriters Leiber and Stoller in 1952. It was originally an old blues tune called KC Loving. The song stayed at number one for a couple of weeks. Let's Work Together was his own song written and released originally in 1962 but due to contractual issues was pulled and never charted until Harrison again released it in 1970 with new lyrics and title Let's Stick Together. This time made it to 32 on the billboard charts. A couple of months later, Caned Heat had success with the original song in the UK and Australia charting at number 2 in both countries. Later of course it was a huge hit worldwide for Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music

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Here is Harrisons 1970 version of  
Lets Work Together/ Let's Stick Together

 

Latest Releases

 Video of the Week

Bon Appetit
 Katy Perry 

    Released on the 28th of April as the second single from her album Witness. The video was released on 12th of May breaking records for the quickest amount of views. The follow up single has been released two days ago it is Swish Swish ft Nicki Minaj.

 New Music of the Week

Miley Cyrus and Malibu

Miley and Liam Hemsworth recently purchased a two story, two and a half million dollar Malibu mansion with Paradise Cove beach a short walk through their property.

 Live Music 

 Secrets by One Republic

The song was their second single off of their second album Waking Up it reached number 21 on the billboard charts back in 2010.

Flashback Music

Whats a Matter Baby 

Ellen Foley

        Our track this week is Whats A Matter Baby written for Timi Yuro by Joy Byers in the sixties and later covered by Ellen Foley in 1979. Joy passed away recently at the age of 82. The Nashville songwriter was married to record producer Bob Johnston and wrote many sixties hits for people like Elvis Presley, Timi Yuro,Brenda Lee, Bill Haley and many others. A housewife growing up in the fifties, she was caught up in the rock'n''roll wave. She has said how thrilled she was to have her songs recorded by people like Elvis. Some of her songs Elvis recorded ,were, Let Yourself Go, Cmon Everybody,It Hurts Me and one of my favorite movie tracks There's a Brand New Day on the Horizon from the movie Roustabout.

Picks of the Month

• Live Music Pick 

Harry Styles 

Live SNL with Sign of The Times 

Got to give credit when someone performs above your expections. Really didnt think the One Direction guys would have it in them but Harry does a good job here. His vocals may not be perfect but that is what gives this live version its authenticity. 

• New Recording Pick

Lady Gaga The Cure 

 This is the best thing Gaga has done in ages, epic song. Her album Joanne was OK and enjoyable but this song is a gem . Love It !   

• Way Back Music Pick

Billy the Kid Emerson Apron Strings 

• Trivia Song