Music
HISTORY OF CAROL OF THE BELLS: FROM A UKRAINIAN FOLK SONG The favorite Christmas song, Carol of the Bells, is based on a Ukrainian folk song that initially had nothing to do with Christmas and was, in fact, popular in pre-Christian Ukraine. How did this folk song become such a popular American Christmas carol, and…
Read More
HISTORY OF A SACRED ORATORIO The genteel reception accorded the original debut performance stood in marked contrast to the savage hostility that greeted the work less than a year later in the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, London. The English aristocracy and churchmen began an unrelenting campaign against the work and its creator. They…
Read More
HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS MUSIC You’re listening to Christmas music already, right? We’re past Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Even though the Advent season doesn’t officially start until next Sunday – it’s shorter this year – let’s kick off the Christmas holiday series with some fun articles starting this week: Today: Christmas Music Tomorrow: Sacred Oratorio Tuesday: Carol of the…
Read More
History of September 21: Earth, Wind & Fire When the band Earth, Wind & Fire released the feel-good song September in 1978, it broke into the Top 10 and has been one of their biggest commercial successes. However, it was originally released on November 18 of that year as a new song on the album “The…
Read More
HISTORY OF BLUE MOON “Do you see that full moon in the sky tonight? That happens once in a blue moon.” Scientifically, this happens 7 times in 19 years or about once in 3 years. I first wrote about this on July 31, 2015. We had blue moons in January and March 2018 and…
Read More
HISTORY OF WOODSTOCK August 15 marks the anniversary of the “3 Days of Peace & Music” held in 1969 at Max Yasgur’s 600-acre dairy farm in the rural town of Bethel, New York, southwest of the village of Woodstock. This outdoor music event, despite thundershowers, gave voice to the counterculture youth generation of its time.…
Read More
HISTORY OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON Alexander Hamilton has gained new popularity in recent years, mainly due to the 2015 Broadway musical “Hamilton” by Lin-Manuel Miranda. What’s the real story behind this enigmatic Founding Father?
Read More.jpg?fit=300%2C260&ssl=1)
HISTORY OF ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE, BY THE BEATLES On June 25, 1967, The Beatles released the song “All You Need Is Love.” At that time, they participated in the Our World TV show, which used the recently constructed communication satellite system and broadcast their performance across the globe. Beatles drummer Ringo Starr said…
Read More
HISTORY OF THE SUMMER OF LOVE — 1967: PART 4, ROCK & ROLL It was twenty years ago today Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play They’ve been going in and out of style But they’re guaranteed to raise a smile Rock & Roll in the late ’60s was exemplified when The Beatles…
Read More
HISTORY OF THE WHO’s TOMMY Fifty-four years ago today, on May 23, 1969, the British rock group The Who released the double-album rock opera Tommy. Commercially the record went Gold in the UK and Double Platinum in the US. Several songs were released as singles that charted in the Top 20 in the UK and…
Read More
HISTORY OF AMAZING GRACE, part 2: William Wilberforce As I mentioned in my first article on the History of Amazing Grace, this is the story of the lives of two men and that one song. In the first part, we discussed the life of the song’s author, John Newton. However, the 2007 film “Amazing Grace”…
Read More
HISTORY OF AMAZING GRACE, part 1 On February 23, 1807, the British parliament passed a bill banning the nation’s slave trade. In these two articles, we’ll explore the lives of two men and one song that played a significant role in that effort. John Newton‘s devoted Christian mother dreamed that her only son would grow…
Read More