Saturday, March 4, 2017

Another blast from my musical past


I was catapulted back to musical memories of the early 1970's yesterday, when I came across this video clip.  How many of you remember Albert Hammond?





Not really any enduring musical value, but he certainly caught the zeitgeist of those days in his music.





'The Peacemaker' reached the top of the hit parade in South Africa.  Hammond is still performing, many decades after his peak years.  Here he is in 2012 with a live version.




And I bet this one got some wishful replays during the Oroville dam crisis a couple of weeks ago!





Hammond also wrote this rather... strange number for The Pipkins, who were a one-hit wonder with it in England in 1970.





Ah, yes . . . days of relative innocence, the early 1970's.  I sometimes wonder where that innocence went . . . then I remember.

Peter

9 comments:

Old NFO said...

Interesting songs! Only one that I actually remember hearing!!! :-)

Tal Hartsfeld said...

The Pipkins was Tony Burrows.

Of course I remember Albert Hammond and his single hits from the 70s.
He also wrote GIMME DAT DING as well as LITTLE ARROWS, FREEDOM COME FREEDOM GO, THE AIR THAT I BREATHE, 99 MILES FROM L.A., and others.

I do wish THE FREE ELECTRIC BAND did better on the charts, but he did at least score on the (U.S.) singles chart with IT NEVER RAINS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (campy stereotypical lyrics and all) in late 1972.

Tal Hartsfeld said...

Note:
LITTLE ARROWS was from 1968 (Leapy Lee)

thinkingman said...

Hammond wrote The Air that I Breathe? And all this time I was thinking that it belonged to The Hollies, who had a BIG hit with that one.

Glen said...

The DJ/Host on your fourth video surely left a more notorious legacy than the performer.

Anonymous said...

+1 thinkingman

One of my favorites!

Gerry

drjim said...

Our innocence went up in smoke...

So to speak....

Jim said...

Oh great. Now that last tune is stuck in my head.

Gerald said...

I was in the Air Force. Seems like ages ago.