Up Up And Away Song The Pop History Dig
Music Player “MacArthur Park”-1968 [ lyrics below later, scroll down ] https://pophistorydig.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/MacArthur-Park.mp3 “MacArthur Park” is actually a love song – or rather, a lament over love lost – though it might not convey that message to all listeners at first impression. The song’s lyrics, arrangement, and structure are somewhat unusual and may seem a bit confounding. But given a chance, say its fans, the song will grow on you. And indeed, in 1968 the song did grow on a great many listeners, defying the odds on several levels, as it sold more than a million copies and would win a Grammy. It would also spawn more than 100 cover versions.
More on that later. But initially, in the music business of its day, “MacArthur Park” was a hard sell and went nowhere. First, it ran more than 7 minutes at a time when 2-to-3 minutes was more the norm for pop radio play. Secondly, it was a pretty complex song musically. Third, its lyrics were baffling, confounding and/or distracting for some, and would later draw long-lived critique and parody. And fourth, it was not sung by a mainstream pop music star.
Still, “MacArthur Park” rose above those supposed handicaps and became a hit in its day and would also become a hit for several other artists in later years. But added to this song’s musical and lyrical features, and perhaps more importantly, are its cast of interesting characters and storyline – including its inspiration, rejection, successful release, surprising range of covers, and its... The song’s genesis sprang from a romance between then unknown and aspiring songwriter Jimmy Webb and his girlfriend at the time, Susan Horton. Webb, who would later become a quite famous songwriter with dozens of successful songs and albums to his credit, was just starting out in 1965. MacArthur Park is located in the Westlake area of Los Angeles, near downtown. The park’s origins date to the late nineteenth century and earlier names, but by the 1940s became MacArthur Park, named for the famous military man, General Douglas MacArthur.
The park has a small lake and walking paths, fronting on L.A.’s Wilshire Boulevard, and in the mid-1960s also had paddle boats and ducks. "Up, Up and Away" is a 1967 song written by Jimmy Webb and recorded (as "Up–Up and Away") by US soul-pop act the 5th Dimension with backing from members of The Wrecking Crew.[2] Their... 7 on Billboard's Hot 100 in July 1967 and no. 9 on its Easy Listening chart,[3] and number one in both Canada and Australia. In 1999, Webb's song placed 43 on BMI's "Top 100 Songs of the Century".[4] A canonical example of sunshine pop, themed around images of hot air ballooning, it cleaned up at the 10th Annual Grammy Awards in 1968, winning for Record of the Year, Song of the Year,...
The five Grammy wins was a standalone record for most Grammys received by a single song until 2025 when Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" tied it at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards. In 2003, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[5] The musical backing was dominated by members of The Wrecking Crew,[6] including trumpeter Tony Terran.[citation needed] According to the AFM contract sheet, the following musicians laid down the initial instrumental track on February 22, 1967:[7] Two other session players featuring prominently in the final mix were Al Casey (acoustic guitar) and Bud Shank (piccolo).[8] There really is a Girl From Ipanema.
Her name is Helo Pinheiro, and she would walk "Like a samba" past the bar the songwriters frequented, providing the inspiration. The Men Without Hats lead singer wrote "The Safety Dance" after getting kicked out of a bar for dancing too aggressively. The song is literally about being safe to dance if you want to. Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca" was the first #1 hit created entirely in Pro Tools. Creedence Clearwater Revival's first single was a cover of a rockabilly song called "Susie Q." When it became a hit, group leader John Fogerty went into a songwriting frenzy so they wouldn't be one-hit... "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is an English version of a Zulu hunting song from the 1930s.
If judged by our verbal expressions, we are obsessed with the impossible. Take, for instance, the saying “that went down like a lead balloon.” The phrase originated in a Mom ’n Pop comic strip written by Loren Taylor in 1924 in which Pop’s stock investment “was about to go up as fast as a lead balloon.” It entered... The rock band Led Zeppelin turned the expression into an ironic name. After all, lead balloons can’t fly, right? Jim Birkett, a chemist at the consulting firm Arthur D.
Little disagreed. While doodling at his desk in 1977 the idea of a lead balloon crossed his mind. After some quick calculations he determined that an extremely thin sphere of lead foil filled with helium would rise as long as it was at least 6 feet in diameter. He organized a company contest to find the best lead-balloon designs and set a launch date for the competition. The highest flyer would win. Birkett’s inspiration did not materialize out of thin air.
Arthur D. Little’s eponymous founder had upended a similar expression in 1921 when he challenged the company’s chemists to create a “silk” purse from a sow’s ear. That adage had existed since at least 1738, when it was popularized by Jonathan Swift’s Polite Conversation. The Boston-based company believed that scientific progress had left Swift’s expression by the wayside. Building on advances in the synthetic-fiber industry, Arthur D. Little had 100 pounds of sows’ ears reduced to glue, which the company’s chemists then dissolved, filtered, and finally turned into fiber.
The “silk” fiber was woven into two small purses that resemble the kind used by French nobility in the Middle Ages. Today one purse is stored at the National Museum of American History, while the other is at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tributes to the Artists of the Most Influential Decade in Pop Music History Another fun post, Leah. I bought the Millenium album when it first came out (don't think the phrase 'Sunshine Pop' had been coined yet.) It was actually played quite a lot on local FM radio (DJs hadn't yet... The first time I heard it was at a tiny coffee house underneath 'Rochdale College', an educational experiment in Toronto that went from funky hippie 'free education' seminars to biker drug dens (sadly within...
Love Millenium. Soent a bit too much on an 8 cd set whilst in Japan (a mecca for Sunshine pop fans) but it has 2 x Boettcher/2 x Salisbury albums and plenty of other good stuff. That and the 3 cd 'Magic Time' set is so much music thankfully spinning out of a group that unfortunately only released one album.I should have been more patient citing the lack of Association... I appreciate the feedback, Poncho! I love hearing from other Sunshine Pop fans. I hope to get back to posting more regularly this fall.
Thanks for reading! [sc_embed_player fileurl=”http://brandedskies.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/TWA-UpUpAndAway.mp3″ title=”Trans World Airlines: “Up Up and Away””] There was a time when TWA was actually a pretty cool airline. It inhabited a pretty cool airport terminal. Thanks to its association with Howard Hughes, and his association with Hollywood, it flew pretty cool passengers. And for a brief moment, in 1967, it had a pretty cool — and ultimately notorious — jingle.
This is the first installment of what I hope will be a weekly series of posts about airline jingles. Jingles are a dying art in advertising; perhaps a dead one. Yet for decades, the airwaves were full of them. And airlines had some of the best. This one is a case in point. “Up up and away” was a part of TWA’s branding for perhaps a year.
But ask people what they remember about TWA — if they remember it at all — and chances are they’ll mention this song. It stuck. It even outlasted the airline itself.
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Music Player “MacArthur Park”-1968 [ Lyrics Below Later, Scroll Down
Music Player “MacArthur Park”-1968 [ lyrics below later, scroll down ] https://pophistorydig.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/MacArthur-Park.mp3 “MacArthur Park” is actually a love song – or rather, a lament over love lost – though it might not convey that message to all listeners at first impression. The song’s lyrics, arrangement, and structure are somewhat unusual and may seem a bit confounding. ...
More On That Later. But Initially, In The Music Business
More on that later. But initially, in the music business of its day, “MacArthur Park” was a hard sell and went nowhere. First, it ran more than 7 minutes at a time when 2-to-3 minutes was more the norm for pop radio play. Secondly, it was a pretty complex song musically. Third, its lyrics were baffling, confounding and/or distracting for some, and would later draw long-lived critique and parody. A...
Still, “MacArthur Park” Rose Above Those Supposed Handicaps And Became
Still, “MacArthur Park” rose above those supposed handicaps and became a hit in its day and would also become a hit for several other artists in later years. But added to this song’s musical and lyrical features, and perhaps more importantly, are its cast of interesting characters and storyline – including its inspiration, rejection, successful release, surprising range of covers, and its... The s...
The Park Has A Small Lake And Walking Paths, Fronting
The park has a small lake and walking paths, fronting on L.A.’s Wilshire Boulevard, and in the mid-1960s also had paddle boats and ducks. "Up, Up and Away" is a 1967 song written by Jimmy Webb and recorded (as "Up–Up and Away") by US soul-pop act the 5th Dimension with backing from members of The Wrecking Crew.[2] Their... 7 on Billboard's Hot 100 in July 1967 and no. 9 on its Easy Listening chart...
The Five Grammy Wins Was A Standalone Record For Most
The five Grammy wins was a standalone record for most Grammys received by a single song until 2025 when Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" tied it at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards. In 2003, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[5] The musical backing was dominated by members of The Wrecking Crew,[6] including trumpeter Tony Terran.[citation needed] According to the AFM contract sheet, th...