LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MARCH 12, 2019…BILLY JOEL RELEASED AN ALBUM ON THIS DATE IN 1980 THAT RESULTED IN JOEL TOPPING THE ALBUM CHARTS FOR 6 WEEKS ! THE ALBUM WAS ‘GLASS HOUSES’ AND IT WAS THE 41ST BEST SELLING ALBUM OF THE 1980’S. THAT’S RIGHT, FOR THE DECADE ! ‘GLASS HOUSES’ HAS SOLD OVER 8 MILLION COPIES WORLD WIDE.

THE SINGLE ‘IT’S STILL ROCK AND ROLL TO ME’ WAS JOEL’S FIRST # 1 HIT RECORD. IT SOLD OVER 2 MILLION COPIES.

AROUND THE TIME OF THIS ALBUM, JOEL WAS OFTEN RAKED OVER THE COALS IN THE MUSIC PRESS AS A PROVIDER OF MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD

DRECK. MOST ARTISTS CHOSE TO IGNORE GETTING RIPPED BY THE CRITICS. BUT JOEL RESPONDED WITH THIS SONG. ACCORDING TO JOEL:

The lines, “It doesn’t matter what they say in the papers, ’cause it’s always been the same old scene” and “There’s a new band in town, but you can’t get the sound from a story in a magazine,” were specifically written to attack the press that was bringing him down. While you can real all you want about a singer or band, the only way you’ll really know what they sound like is by listening.

“Sometimes the press gave me a hard time, and (I) liked giving them a hard time back,” Joel told Howard Stern in 2014. “In my neighborhood, somebody hits you, you hit them right back.”

IN 1981 JOEL WON A GRAMMY AWARD FOR ‘BEST MALE ROCK VOCAL PERFORMANCE” FOR HIS WORK ON ‘GLASS HOUSES’

IT WAS SHORTLY AFTER THIS ALBUM, JOEL STARTED BANGING CHRISTIE BRINKLEY, SO HE GETS MAD PROPS FROM ME !

HERE’S BILLY JOEL WITH THE OFFICIAL VIDEO FOR ‘IT’S STILL ROCK AND ROLL TO ME’. CHECK OUT THE HAIR !! CLASSIC

ANOTHER BIG HIT FROM THE ALBUM WAS ‘YOU MAY BE RIGHT’

LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MARCH 12, 2019…TWELVE YEARS AGO TODAY THE GROUP VAN HALEN WAS INDUCTED INTO THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME, AND OF COURSE IT CAME WITH CONTROVERSY.

AT THE TIME OF THE INDUCTION, MICHAEL ANTHONY HAD JUST BEEN KICKED OUT OF THE BAND BY THE VAN HALEN BROTHERS, TO MAKE WAY FOR EDDIE’S SON WOLFGANG TO PLAY IN THE GROUP. VAN HALEN WAS ALSO PLOTTING A REUNION TOUR, WITH DAVID LEE ROTH, BUT THAT COULDN’T HAPPEN UNTIL EDDIE COMPLETED REHAB.

THERE WAS SO MUCH DRAMA, NO CURRENT MEMBER OF THE GROUP SHOWED UP. DAVID LEE ROTH WAS IN TALKS TO SHOW UP, BUT HE WASN’T HAPPY ‘VELVET REVOLVER’ WAS GOING TO INDUCT THE BAND AND PERFORM !

IN THE END, ONLY SAMMY HAGAR AND MICHAEL ANTHONY SHOWED UP.

HERE’S THE VAN HALEN INDUCTION VIDEO PART 1 ( YOU’LL LOVE THIS BECAUSE THERE ARE CLIPS OF SAMMY AND THE VAN HALEN BROTHERS TALKING ABOUT HOW MUCH RESPECT THEY HAVE FOR EACH OTHER)

HERE’S VAN HALEN ACCEPTING THE AWARD. GREAT SPEECH FROM MICHAEL ANTHONY AND SAMMY PLUS THE JAM SESSION FEATURED THE GUYS PLAYING WITH ‘VELVET REVOLVER’ AND MEMBERS OF ‘THE DAVID LETTERMAN LATE NIGHT BAND’

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LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MARCH 11, 2019…TWENTY SIX YEARS AGO QUIET RIOT RELEASED THEIR THIRD STUDIO ALBUM, AND IT WOULD PROVE TO BE A GROUND BREAKER FOR METAL BANDS.

THE ALBUM WAS ‘METAL HEALTH’ AND IT WAS A GROUNDBREAKER BECAUSE IT WAS THE FIRST EVER HEAVY METAL ALBUM TO TOP THE BILLBOARD ALBUM CHARTS. ‘METAL HEALTH’ KNOCKED ‘SYNCHRONICITY’ BY THE POLICE OUT OF THE NUMBER ONE SPOT IN NOVEMBER OF 1983. THE ALBUM’S COMMERCIAL SUCCESS WAS FUELED BY 2 HIT SINGLES , ‘CUM ON FEEL THE NOIZE’ AND THE TITLE TRACK ‘METAL HEALTH’. NOW THIS MIGHT GET CONFUSING BECAUSE THE SINGLE ‘METAL HEALTH’ WAS THEN RETITLED ‘BANG YOUR HEAD (METAL HEALTH)’ AFTER THE ORIGINAL PRESSING.

THE ALBUM ENDED UP SELLING OVER 6 MILLION COPIES.

BTW, SOME GREAT TRIVIA ON THE ‘BANG YOUR HEAD (METAL HEALTH) VIDEO.

IT WAS A STAPLE ON MTV, BUT WAS MADE ON THE CHEAP BY THE BAND, BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T HAVE ANY MONEY TO RECORD AN ELABORATE VIDEO. SO THEY MADE A DEAL WITH A LOCAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE AND RECRUITED STUDENTS TO FORM THE CROWDS FOR THE STAGE SCENES.

HERE’S THE OFFICIAL VIDEO

LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MARCH 11, 2019…IN 1985 ERIC CLAPTON RELEASED THE ALBUM ‘BEHIND THE SUN’. MANY PEOPLE REFER TO THIS AS HIS COMEBACK ALBUM. IT WAS CLAPTON’S FIRST COLLABORATIVE PROJECT WITH PHIL COLLINS, AND THE RECORD WAS VERY WELL RECEIVED BOTH CRITICALLY AND COMMERCIALLY.

THE MAKING OF THE ALBUM CAME AS AN ESCAPE TO CLAPTON, WHO WAS GOING THROUGH A TRIAL SEPARATION AT THE TIME WITH HIS WIFE PATTIE BOYD. HIS TROUBLED MARRIAGE BECAME THE SUBJECT OF MOST OF THE ORIGINAL CLAPTON MATERIAL ON THE PROJECT. THE TWO BIG HITS FROM THE ALBUM WERE ‘SHE’S WAITING’ AND ‘FOREVER MAN’

IN SUPPORT OF THE RECORD, CLAPTON PLAYED WITH PHIL COLLINS AT THE BENEFIT ‘LIVE AID’. HERE’S A LIVE VERSION OF ‘SHE’S WAITING’