Jackson said that “Billie Jean” was based on groupies he and his brothers encountered while they performed as the Jackson 5. “They would hang around backstage doors, and any band that would come to town they would have a relationship with, and I think I wrote this out of experience with my brothers when I was little. There were a lot of Billie Jeans out there. Every girl claimed that their son was related to one of my brothers.”
According to Jackson’s biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli, “Billie Jean” was inspired by letters Jackson received in 1981 from a woman claiming he was the father of one of her twins. Jackson, who regularly received letters of this kind, had never met the woman and ignored those claims. However, she continued to send letters stating that she loved him and wanted to be with him, asking how he could ignore “his own flesh and blood”. The letters disturbed him so much that he began to suffer nightmares.
Eventually, Jackson received a parcel containing a photograph of the fan, a gun, and a letter instructing him to die at a particular time. The fan would do the same once she had killed “their” baby, so they could be together in the “next life”. The Jacksons later discovered that the fan had been sent to a psychiatric hospital.
The Age of Aquarius is the fourth album by the American pop group the 5th Dimension, released in 1969. It was the group’s biggest commercial success in the United States, peaking at number two on the Billboard pop albums chart and the R&B albums chart.
As one of the most famous protest songs of the Vietnam War era, “Fortunate Son” revives this timeless message with the snarl and swagger of the 1960s righteous rock and roll.
Julie Nixon was hanging around with David Eisenhower, and you just had the feeling that none of these people were going to be involved with the war. In 1968, the majority of the country thought morale was great among the troops, and eighty percent of them were in favor of the war. But to some of us who were watching closely, we just knew we were headed for trouble.
As explained by John Fogerty, this song is the birthchild in a time of extreme distrust for executive authority. John describes the callousness of then president Richard Nixon and his arrogance towards young people. I have included this short video through which John Fogerty summarizes the reasons for this song’s creation.
“Away in a Manger” is a beloved Christmas carol with a mysterious American origin, falsely attributed for years to Martin Luther, but research shows it emerged in the U.S. in the mid-1800s, possibly by a German Lutheran in Pennsylvania, with its first two stanzas appearing in American songbooks before gaining popularity, and a third stanza added later by Charles H. Gabriel. Its two most common tunes were composed by James Ramsey Murray (1887) and William J. Kirkpatrick (1895).
I went to a private school as a child. It was small…the year I graduated there were only 54 students in the entire school…2 in my graduating class…myself, and Tommy Hicks.
The 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades were all in the same classroom.
It was the homeroom of Mrs. Hopewell, our math teacher (we always called her the H-Bomb). She was a massive woman…not fat, mind you, but, tall…towering…big boned…almost masculine…and, good grief, was she intimidating! I don’t think there was a person in school who wasn’t terrified of her, and that included the teachers.
I can’t think back on those years without smiling every time I think about her…she loved Christmas….and she loved the song, Silent Night.
She would have us sing it at the end of the school day during the holidays. We would sing the first stanza, and then we would hum the next. She openly wept. It always amazed me that this giant, ‘hard’, feared woman would become mush at the sound of all those innocent voices…the gentle humming of that wonderful song. It, actually, brings a tear to my eye as I think about it now…
The origin of the Christmas carol we know as Silent Night was a poem that was written in 1816 by an Austrian priest called Joseph Mohr.
Throughout the world, “Silent Night”, which has been translated into more than 200 languages, is an anchor for Christmas celebrations. Its lullaby-like melody and simple message of heavenly peace can be heard from small town street corners in mid-America to magnificent cathedrals in Europe and from outdoor candlelight concerts in Australia to palm thatched huts in northern Peru.
The song was sung simultaneously in English and German by troops during the Christmas truce of 1914, as it was one of the few carols that soldiers on both sides of the front line knew. The event is depicted in the 1997 Garth Brooks song “Belleau Wood”.
“Belleau Wood”
Oh, the snowflakes fell in silence
Over Belleau Wood that night
For a Christmas truce had been declared
By both sides of the fight
As we lay there in our trenches
The silence broke in two
By a German soldier singing
A song that we all knew
Though I did not know the language
The song was “Silent Night”
Then I heard my buddy whisper,
“All is calm and all is bright”
Then the fear and doubt surrounded me
‘Cause I’d die if I was wrong
But I stood up in my trench
And I began to sing along
Then across the frozen battlefield
Another’s voice joined in
Until one by one each man became
A singer of the hymn
Then I thought that I was dreaming
For right there in my sight
Stood the German soldier
‘Neath the falling flakes of white
And he raised his hand and smiled at me
As if he seemed to say
Here’s hoping we both live
To see us find a better way
Then the devil’s clock struck midnight
And the skies lit up again
And the battlefield where heaven stood
Was blown to hell again
But for just one fleeting moment
The answer seemed so clear
Heaven’s not beyond the clouds
It’s just beyond the fear
No, heaven’s not beyond the clouds
It’s for us to find it here
Silent Night is the most famous Christmas carol of all time, and it happens to be my all time favorite.
Please remember to pray for our troops, and their loved ones, this Holiday season, and throughout the year…May they all come home soon.
“The Greatest Love of All” is a song written by Michael Masser, who composed the music, and Linda Creed, who wrote the lyrics. It was originally recorded in 1977 by George Benson, who made the song a substantial hit, peaking at number two on the US Hot Soul Singles chart that year, the first R&B chart top-ten hit for Arista Records. The song was written and recorded to be the main theme of the 1977 film The Greatest, a biopic of the boxer Muhammad Ali, and is performed during the opening credits.
Benson’s original recording was released in 1977 in the United States, Japan, France, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Italy, Brazil, Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Thailand, on an extended play (EP). He officially recorded the song four times; in addition to the studio single, Benson also recorded three live versions, the last time in a duet with Luciano Pavarotti in 2001. Since 1977, a great number of artists have recorded this song, including Shirley Bassey, Oleta Adams, Alexandra Burke, Deborah Cox, Ferrante & Teicher and Kevin Rowland.
John Denver, then a relatively unknown 23-year old musician in the Los Angeles folk scene, wrote the song during a layover at Washington National Airport in 1966.
In one of his BBC Radio specials, Denver said about the song:
This is a very personal and very special song for me. It doesn’t conjure up Boeing 707s or 747s for me as much as it does the simple scenes of leaving. Bags packed and standing by the front door, taxi pulling up in the early morning hours, the sound of a door closing behind you, and the thought of leaving someone that you care for very much. I was fortunate to have Peter, Paul and Mary record it and have it become a hit, but it still strikes a lonely and anguished chord in me, because the separation still continues, although not so long and not so often nowadays.
Though not written about the Vietnam War, the Peter, Paul and Mary cover of the song was interpreted by at least one writer to be a protest song about a soldier’s impending deployment.
In 1969, folk group Peter, Paul and Mary‘s version hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100, their most successful single. It also reached number one in Canada and number two in the United Kingdom.
