Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 9-15-22

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Today’s playlist celebrates the September 15 birthdays of Cannonball Adderley, Night Ranger’s Kelly Keagy, and Jimmy Gilmer; the September 16 birthdays of Wire’s Colin Newman, B.B. King, Built To Spill’s Doug Martsch, Elastica’s Justine Frischmann, T La Rock, The Long Blondes’ Kate Jackson, Babybird’s Stephen Jones, The Bellamy Brothers’ David Bellamy, Marc Anthony, Hinds’ Ana Perrote, The Mock Turtles’ Martin Coognan, The Prisoners’ Graham Day, and Little Willie Littlefield; and the September 17 birthdays of Naughty By Nature’s Vin Rock, Hank Williams, The Prodigy’s Keith Flint, Doug E. Fresh, Five Man Electrical Band’s Les Emmerson, Brand Nubian’s Lord Jamar, The Mystics’ Phil Cracolici, The Tubes’ Fee Waybill, Flo Rida, Anastacia, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin’s Jonn Penney, Bill Black, and Dorothy Loudon.

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The Last Dance

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Jerome Felder was born on June 27, 1925. Stricken by polio at age six, Felder spent the rest of his life getting around with the help of crutches or a wheelchair.

He set out to be a blues singer, going by the stage name Doc Pomus, but hadn’t much success.

He married a tall, beautiful Broadway actress named Willi Burke. Due to his physical disability, he was unable to dance with her at their wedding. This inspired him to write a song on the back of his wedding invitation in which the narrator tells his lover that she can dance with any guy who asks her to; however, “If he asks if you’re all alone, can he take you home, you must tell him no. Don’t forget who’s taking you home and in whose arms you’re gonna be. So darling, save the last dance for me.”

Set to music by Pomus’ songwriting partner Mort Shuman, “Save the Last Dance for Me” was recorded by The Drifters in May of 1960. Atlantic Records released as the b-side to the single “Nobody But Me.” Dick Clark played “Save…” on American Bandstand and a hit was born. In October of 1960, the song went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it spent three weeks.

Pomus died in 1991, but his legacy lives on with his collection of great songs. Here are twenty of them.


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Ten Facts About Little Richard

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1) Mojo magazine’s list of “The 100 Records that Changed the World” placed Little Richard’s “Tutti-Frutti” at #1.
2) Pat Boone, who made a career of recording new tracks by African-American acts and sanitizing them for white audiences, covered Little Richard’s “Tutti-Frutti” in 1956 and had a bigger hit with it than Richard did. To avoid a repeat of this, Richard and his producer, Bumps Blackwell, rehearsed the follow-up single, “Long Tall Sally,” until Richard could sing it as fast as possible, with the thinking that Boone wouldn’t be able to sing it as fast. Little Richard’s version became his first top ten pop hit and the biggest-selling single in the history of Specialty Records. Unfortunately, Pat Boone also enjoyed a top ten hit with his version.
3) Richard wrote a song about a female impersonator from his hometown who was called Queen Sonya. He changed Sonya to Lucille, which became the song’s title. It became Richard’s longest-charting hit in 1957.
4) While on tour in 1957 Richard decided to give up rock & roll and enter the ministry. He left the tour ten days early. The original flight on which he had been scheduled to return home crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
5) In 1962 Richard returned to performing secular music while touring Europe. Sam Cooke was his opening act.
6) Later in 1962 Little Richard’s opening act was The Beatles. Richard taught Paul McCartney how to sing like he does.
7) In 1963 The Rolling Stones opened for Richard. Said Mick Jagger: “I couldn’t believe the power of Little Richard onstage. He was amazing.”
8) Members of Little Richard’s band at times include Jimi Hendrix and Billy Preston. This line-up can be heard on the track “I Don’t Know What You’ve Got (But It’s Got Me),” the last single released by Vee-Jay Records.
9) Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The Greatest Artists of All Time has Little Richard at #8.
10) Today is his 81st birthday.

Enjoy this playlist inspired by one of rock and roll’s originators, Little Richard.