Saturday, April 28, 2018

Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger (1975)

“Red Headed Stranger” by Willie Nelson (1975)
Release Date: May 1975
Produced by Willie Nelson
Genre: Country, Outlaw Country
Label: Columbia

Chart Positions: #28 (US), #88 (Australia), #90 (Canada), #1 (US Country), #7 (Canadian Country)
Certifications: 2xPlatinum (US), Gold (Canada)
Awards: Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance for “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain”

Singles and Chart Positions: “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain” #21 (US), #40 (Canada), #57 (Australia), #1 (US Country), #12 (US Adult Contemporary), #2 (Canadian Country), #9 (Canadian Adult Contemporary), “Remember Me” #67 (US), #78 (Canada), #2 (US Country), #6 (Canadian Country)
 “Singles Certifications: N/A
Other Charting Tracks: N/A
Best Tracks: “Time of the Preacher,” “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain,” “Red Headed Stranger,” “O’er The Waves,” “Hands On The Wheel,” “Bandera”



“Red Headed Stranger” is Willie Nelson’s 18th studio album and his first for Columbia Records. A concept album, Red Headed Stranger is about a fugitive on the run from the law after killing his wife and her lover. The content consists of songs with brief poetic lyrics and arrangements of older material such as Fred Rose's "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain", Wolfe Gilbert's "Down Yonder" and Juventino Rosas' "O'er the Waves". Despite Columbia's doubts and the limited instrumentation, Red Headed Stranger was a blockbuster among country music and mainstream audiences. It was certified multi-platinum, and made Nelson one of the most recognized artists in country music. The cover of "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," released as a single, previous to the album’s full release became Nelson's first number one country music hit. The title of the album would become a lasting nickname for Nelson. The song also won the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance. Also nominated that year were; "Country Boy (You've Got Your Feet In L.A.) by Glen Campbell, "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" by John Denver, "Before The Next Teardrop Falls" by Freddy Fender, "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" by Waylon Jennings and Misty" by Ronnie Milsap.

The concept for the album was inspired by the "Tale of the Red Headed Stranger", a song that Nelson used to play as a disk jockey on his program in Fort Worth, Texas.

In 1973 Nelson signed a contract for $25,000 per year with Atlantic Records, the first country artist signed by the label. His first album with Atlantic was the critically acclaimed Shotgun Willie, which was followed by one of the first concept albums in country music, Phases and Stages. Due to the success of these recordings, Nelson signed with Columbia Records, and was given complete creative control.

During his return to Austin, after a ski trip in Colorado, Nelson was inspired by his then-wife, Connie Koepke, to write a western concept album. Koepke suggested the inclusion of Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith's "Tale of the Red Headed Stranger", which Nelson sang during his radio shows on KCNC in Fort Worth and previously, to his children at bedtime. Nelson decided to write a complete story that included details of events prior to the ones described in the song. As he spontaneously composed the songs, Koepke wrote down the lyrics. With his original writings, Nelson included on the story, Fred Rose's "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain", Wolfe Gilbert's "Down Yonder", Juventino Rosas' "O'er the Waves", Hank Cochran's "Can I Sleep in Your Arms?", Eddy Arnold's "I Couldn't Believe it Was True", and Billy Callery's "Hands on the Wheel". When he arrived in Austin, Nelson recorded a demo of the songs on a tape recorder accompanied with his guitar at his ranch in Fitzhugh Road.

"Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain" (1975)

Red Headed Stranger's critical success cemented Nelson's outlaw image, and made him one of the most recognized artists in country music. Rolling Stone writer Paul Nelson wrote: "Red Headed Stranger is extraordinarily ambitious, cool, tightly controlled.... Hemingway, who perfected an art of sharp outlines and clipped phrases, used to say that the full power of his composition was accessible only between the lines; and Nelson, on this LP, ties precise, evocative lyrics to not quite remembered, never really forgotten folk melodies to create a similar effect, haunting yet utterly unsentimental. Meanwhile, music critic Chet Flippo wrote in a Texas Monthly article entitled "Mathew, Mark, Luke and Willie: Willie Nelson's latest album is more than a good country music; it's almost Gospel": "The difference between Nelson's Red Headed Stranger and any current C&W album, and especially what passes for a soundtrack for Nashville, is astounding. What Nelson has done is simply unclassifiable; it is the only record I have heard that strikes me as otherworldly. Red Headed Stranger conjures up such strange emotions and works on so many levels that listening to it becomes totally obsessing".

Prior to the success of "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," Nelson had enjoyed widespread success primarily as a songwriter, with such songs as "Crazy" (Patsy Cline) and "Hello Walls" (Faron Young). As a performer, meanwhile, Nelson had hit the Top 10 of the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart just twice; it had happened in 1962, once as a solo artist ("Touch Me") and again as part of a duet with Shirley Collie ("Willingly"). Thereafter, Nelson had approached the Top 20 on occasion, but went 13 years without a Top 10 hit.

In October 1975, the song became Nelson's first #1 country music hit as a singer, and at year's end was the third-biggest song of 1975 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. In addition, the song gained modest airplay on Top 40 radio, reaching #21 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" #302 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Billboard Magazine Review (June 14, 1975):
One of country's all-time great writers and performers and a man whose material is equally well known to the pop world ("Funny How Time Slips Away," "Night Life," "Crazy," "Hello Walls") comes up with a concept LP that is already receiving strong pop FM play. Lots of instrumental work and particularly fine piano from Bobbie Nelson and the usual distinct highly stylized Willie Nelson vocals. Best Cuts: "Red Headed Stranger," "Can I Sleep In Your Arms," "Remember Me," "time of the Preacher."



Willie Nelson (1975)



Saturday, April 14, 2018

Celia Cruz and Johnny Pacheco - Celia and Johnny (1974)

“Celia & Johnny” by Celia Cruz and Johnny Pacheco (1974)
Release Date: March 26, 1975
Produced by Jerry Masucci
Genre: Salsa, Guaracha, Bolero
Label: Vaya Records, Fania

Chart Positions: N/A
Certifications: N/A

Singles and Chart Positions: “Quimbara,” “Toro Mata,” El Pasa Del Mullo”
Singles Certifications: N/A
Other Charting Tracks: N/A/
Best Tracks: “Quimbara,” “Toro Mata,” “El Paso,” “Lo Tuyo Es Mental,” “No Mercedes”


“Celia y Johnny,” undoubtedly the most important album in Celia Cruz’s career, opened the doors of success for the famous Cuban singer with the force of a raging bull.

The singer had been fighting to break out onto the salsa scene since her arrival to the United States in 1962. Her career had been lethargic during the era of the boogaloo. In the early 1970s, a series of commercial flights were hijacked to Cuba, becoming a weekly event. Fearing she might board a flight that was hijacked to Cuba, Cruz decided to stop flying altogether. This, combined with disagreements with the Tico label over the direction of her career, kept her isolated from the beginnings of the salsa movement that took shape under the Fania label.

After Celia’s participation in the Carnegie Hall stage concert of “Hommy”,  with the Fania All Stars, it was time for Cruz to record a full-length album that would showcase her interpretive skills. “Celia y Johnny” proved just the trick. Pacheco wasn’t the first to use the term salsa to describe music, but Fania Records made it nationally popular, and Celia & Johnny was its first breakout hit.

Johnny Pacheco had been enjoying a long and successful music career. Since his early days as a percussionist in the Xavier Cougat Orchestra, the Dominican had learned a lot about style and rhythm. His unique sound known as the “Pacheco Groove” had turned him into a favorite, particularly among New York dancers, and among lovers of Afro-Caribbean music in general.

Pacheco, a founding member of the Fania label, had noticed that Cruz’s early recordings on the Tico label with the Tito Puente Orchestra tended to limit her impressive voice, which he felt was not reaching its potential against the enormous sound of Puentes big band. Pacheco sad, “Let me put it to you this way: Celia sounds good with a stick banging against a can, she didn’t need all those instruments.”

Singers such as Melón, Pete El Conde Rodríguez, and later, Héctor Casanova, achieved great success and acceptance in combination with the Pachecho sound. Pacheco understood that his resounding style would help to highlight Cruz’s incomparable voice.

Paired with the Pacheco groove, the Queen of Rumba evolved, unleashing two of her greatest hits: “Toro Mata” and “Quimbara.” Both received wild acclaim among dancers, who immediately accepted her as the favorite on the growing salsa market, which was about to take the world by storm.

The first single to make a splash was “Quimbara”, a high energy rumba song which immediately showcased Celia’s vocal talent and stage energy immediately became an enormous and explosive hit.

“Quimbara,” written by Junior Cepeda (a talented young Boricua was killed by his live-in girlfriend at the age of 22), became Celia’s new signature song, and “Celia & Johnny” still had a lot more to offer. The “guaracha” “Lo Tuyo es Mental” became another hit, along with a Salsa version of the Peruvian folk song “Toro Mata”.

The Johnny Pacheco groove and the charming essence of Celia Cruz forged a bond that took control of the most important period in the history of salsa. This period has now gone down in history as The Golden Age of Salsa. This album is an intensely important one within the historical, political, and social context that marked the time.

"Quimbara" (1974)

Celia Cruz and Johnny Pacheco (1974)







Celia and Johnny