Johnny Nash I Can See Clearly Now

It was 40 years ago this week that Johnny Nash I Can See Clearly Now was a number 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 charts for the fourth week!

Johnny Nash I Can See Clearly Now is one of the most beautiful and optimistic hit songs in Billboard history with Nash’s smooth, clear voice and a pseudo-Reggae beat. Nash recorded this song in England along with the rest of the album of the same name. Many people do not know that Nash had visited Jamaica and was introduced to the members of the Wailers. They became friends and Nash produced four unsuccessful songs with them that were recorded at the same time and location of this album. He was clearly influenced by the genre and The Wailers. He recorded several Bob Marley written songs on this album and future recordings.

Johnny Nash I Can See Clearly Now Music Video

Rhode Island Wedding DJ Johnny Nash I Can See Clearly Now

Johnny Nash I Can See Clearly Now is a great song for a professional DJ to play as a transition from slow to uptempo dance music without losing the soft feel of slow dance songs and allowing dancers smooth segue. Every Wedding DJ has played this song numerous times for a diverse audience and Brides and Grooms.

Rhode Island Wedding DJ Johnny Nash I Can See Clearly Now

 

Johnny Nash I Can See Clearly Now is a Billboard Hot 100 Chart #1 hit song, written and recorded by Johnny Nash. It was a single from the album of the same name and achieved success in the United States and the United Kingdom when it was released in 1972. It was covered by many artists throughout the years, including a 1993 hit version by Jimmy Cliff, who re-recorded it for the motion picture soundtrack of Cool Runnings, where it reached the top 20 at #18 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Rhode Island Wedding DJ Johnny Nash I Can See Clearly Now

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

DJ 70’s Soul Mix

It is fun to mix in some of the great Soul and R&B music of the 70’s. How can you not enjoy grooving to artists like Earth, Wind & Fire, Curtis Mayfield, Al Green, Bill Withers, Sly & The Family Stone, James Brown and the list goes on. DJ 70’s Soul Mix was a really fun mix to make and as is the case with all of them, still had so many more on the list I wanted to include.

DJ 70’s Soul Mix

      70's Soul Mix - DJ Mystical Michael

Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the United States in the 1950s and early 1960s, combining elements ofAfrican American gospel music and rhythm and blues.

According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is “music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funkysecular testifying.” Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps and extemporaneous body moves, are an important feature of soul music. Other characteristics are a call and response between the soloist and the chorus, and an especially tense vocal sound. The style also occasionally uses improvisational additions, twirls and auxiliary sounds.

In Detroit, producer Don Davis worked with Stax artists such as Johnnie Taylor and The Dramatics. Early 1970s recordings by The Detroit Emeralds, such as Do Me Right, are a link between soul and the later disco style. Motown Records artists such as Marvin GayeMichael JacksonStevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson contributed to the evolution of soul music, although their recordings were considered more in apop music vein than those of Redding, Franklin and Carr. Although stylistically different from classic soul music, recordings by Chicago-based artists are often considered part of the genre.

Rhode Island Wedding DJ 70’s Soul Mix History

By the early 1970s, soul music had been influenced by psychedelic rock and other genres. The social and political ferment of the times inspired artists like Gaye and Curtis Mayfield to release album-length statements with hard-hitting social commentary. Artists like James Brown led soul towards funk music, which became typified by 1970s bands like Parliament-Funkadelic and The Meters. More versatile groups like War, the Commodores and Earth, Wind and Fire became popular around this time. During the 1970s, some slick and commercial blue-eyed soul acts like Philadelphia’s Hall & Oates and Oakland’s Tower of Power achieved mainstream success, as did a new generation of street-corner harmony or city-soul groups like The Delfonics and Howard University’s Unifics.

Rhode Island Wedding DJ 70's Soul Mix

The syndicated television series Soul Train, created hosted by Chicago native Don Cornelius, debuted in 1971. The show provided an outlet for soul music for several decades, also spawning a franchise that saw the creation of a record label (Soul Train Records) that distributed music by The WhispersCarrie Lucas, and an up-and-coming group known as Shalamar. Numerous disputes led to Cornelius spinning off the record label to his talent booker, Dick Griffey, who transformed the label into Solar Records, itself a prominent soul music label throughout the 1980s. The TV series continued to air until 2006, although other predominantly black music genre such as hip hop began overshadowing soul on the show beginning in the 1980s.

Rhode Island Wedding DJ 70's Soul Mix

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

ABBA Happy New Year Song

A refreshing and more intimate ABBA Happy New Year Song for professional DJs and listeners.

ABBA Happy New Year Song Music Video

It is a treat to hear a New Year’s song that is not about drinking and partying exclusively like ABBA Happy New Year Song. For me, the passing of the years has been a period of reflection. I have found it interesting that ABBA has made a career of writing songs that have more to them than meets the ear at first listen with positive, cheerful tones. In some ways, similar to how Elton John and Bernie Taupin blended often dark or reflective lyrics to melodies acceptable for popular airplay and sales.

ABBA was a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972, comprising Agnetha FältskogBjörn UlvaeusBenny Anderssonand Anni-Frid Lyngstad. ABBA is an acronym of the first letters of the band members’ first names and is sometimes stylized as the registered trademark ᗅᗺᗷᗅ. They became one of the most commercially successful acts in the history of pop music, topping the charts worldwide from 1972 to 1982. They are also known for winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, giving Sweden its first victory in the history of the contest and being the most successful group ever to take part in the contest.

ABBA has sold over 370 million records worldwide and still sells millions of records a year, which makes them one of the best-selling music artists of all time. ABBA was the first pop group to come from a non-English-speaking country that enjoyed consistent success in the charts of English-speaking countries, including the UKIreland, the U.S.CanadaAustraliaNew Zealand, and South Africa. The group also enjoyed significant success in Latin American markets, and recorded a collection of their hit songs in Spanish.

Rhode Island DJ ABBA Happy New Year Song

Happy New Year’s to all!

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Roy Orbison Pretty Woman

Roy Orbison was one of our great voices in pop music. He grew-up listening to and playing Rockabilly and Country and Western in Texas.  Between 1960-1964, Orbison had 22 singles place on Billboards Top 40. He was elected into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; Bruce Springsteen was his presenter. Roy Orbison Pretty Woman reached #1 on Billboard and stayed there for three weeks.

Roy Orbison Pretty Woman Music Video

Roy Orbison Pretty Woman is a great song that has been covered by many artists and still is today. Roy Orbison Pretty Woman shows up in films including Dumb and Dumber and Pretty Woman, as well as a Van Halen cover in Weird Science. Roy Orbison Pretty Woman has even made its appearance in several Bollywood films.

Roy Orbison Pretty Woman from Film Pretty Woman with Julia Roberts

Roy made a comeback when teaming up with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne to form the supergroup The Traveling Wilburys. He died of a heart attack soon after that. His first wife and two of his sons died of separate accidents.

Five years after its release, in 1969, the single was awarded gold record by RIAA. Orbison posthumously won the 1991Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for his live recording of the song on his HBO television special Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night. In 1999, the song was honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award and was named one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame‘s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it #222 on their list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”

Beautiful Bride Dancing with Rhode Island Wedding DJ and Roy Orbison Pretty Woman

Believe it or not, I had the “45” of Roy Orbison Pretty Woman when I was a kid. It was not a hit any more by that time though, but as a child that did not matter to me. Now I still play Roy Orbison Pretty Woman as a professional DJ.

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ and Boston DJ

Gallery

This gallery contains 14 photos.

  DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & Boston DJ

The Highwaymen Mama’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys

The Highwaymen Mama’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys, The Highwaymen were a Country supergroup made up of four incredibly successful Country artists; Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. They also were known for popularizing the sub-genre; Outlaw Country. These legends of Country Music’s are held in high-esteem among their peers and fans for their songwriting, artistry and voices, as well as ‘The Highwayman’ attitude that they maintained.

 The Highwaymen Mama’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys Music Video

The Highwaymen Mama’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys is one of my favorite Willie Nelsons songs. His soft gentle voice contrasts so beautifully with the gritty nature of the lyrics, instrumentation and mindset of the song. The song initially recorded by Ed Bruce, written by him and wife Patsy Bruce.  Willie and Waylon’s version went #1 on The Hot Country Singles charts and won them a Grammy for Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals.

The Highwaymen Mama’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys is a great song from some great Country legends.

The Highwaymen Mama's Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys with Rhode Island DJ

The Highwaymen Mama’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys Lyrics

Cowboys ain’t easy to love and they’re harder to hold.
They’d rather give you a song than diamonds or gold.
Lonestar belt buckles and old faded levis,
And each night begins a new day.
If you don’t understand him, an’ he don’t die young,
He’ll prob’ly just ride away.

Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.
Don’t let ’em pick guitars or drive them old trucks.
Let ’em be doctors and lawyers and such.
Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.
‘Cos they’ll never stay home and they’re always alone.
Even with someone they love.

Cowboys like smokey old pool rooms and clear mountain mornings,
Little warm puppies and children and girls of the night.
Them that don’t know him won’t like him and them that do,
Sometimes won’t know how to take him.
He ain’t wrong, he’s just different but his pride won’t let him,
Do things to make you think he’s right.

Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.
Don’t let ’em pick guitars or drive them old trucks.
Let ’em be doctors and lawyers and such.
Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.
‘Cos they’ll never stay home and they’re always alone.
Even with someone they love.

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Cyndi Lauper Girls Just Want To Have Fun

Cyndi Lauper Girls Just Want To Have Fun is such a great and fun song. Cyndi Lauper is one of those artists that it is hard not to like. She is fun, talented, creative and seems to always be completely herself in whatever she does.  A true unique talent who has not veered from her own style and way of doing things.  She was very loyal to her first band that she recorded with, Blue Angel, not allowing the record companies to break them apart.  She eventually found her way as a solo artist and was the first woman to have four Top 5 hits from the same album.

Wedding Bouquet Toss DJ Cyndi Lauper Girls Just Want To Have Fun

“Lauper knew she could write songs, but the record company had a lot of material they wanted her to record. She altered a lot of the songs that were thrown her way, often changing the lyrics to suit her. An example is her Platinum-certified Cyndi Lauper Girls Just Want To Have Fun; Lauper says the original lyrics of the song dealt more with a girl pleasing a man, and therefore she changed the lyrics, wanting the song to be more of an anthem as she felt the original song seemed misogynistic.” Wikipedia

 Cyndi Lauper Girls Just Want To Have Fun Music Video

There are few songs that are more fun to dance and party to than Cyndi Lauper Girls Just Want To Have Fun. The video is hysterical and carries that fun and playful vibe throughout. It is noteworthy that Cyndi Lauper Girls Just Want To Have Fun included girls from diverse races and backgrounds in her video, something that was not yet part of the music industry.  It is very common for a professional Wedding DJ play this song during either The Bouquet Toss or Garter during a wedding reception from women of all ages.

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode

“In the 1960s and 1970s, Berry’s music was the inspiration for such groups as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Berry had a number of comeback recordings and in 1972 had the first and only #1 Pop Chart hit of his career with “My Ding-A-Ling. 1986 fittingly saw him inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the very first inductee in history. As a tribute to his pervasiveness in the realm of rock, a clip of Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode was chosen played in the Voyager I spacecraft, proving Chuck Berry and his rock legacy are truly out of this world.”  The Official Site of Chuck Berry

 

Charles Edward Anderson “Chuck” Berry (born October 18, 1926) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of Rock and Roll music.

 

Among the many bandleaders performing a backup role with Chuck Berry were Bruce Springsteen and Steve Miller when each was just starting his career.  At the request of President Jimmy Carter, Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode performed at the White House on June 1, 1979.  A pioneer of rock music, Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode was a significant influence on the development of both the music and the attitude associated with the rock music lifestyle. A statue 8 feet (2.4 m) tall of Berry, funded by donations, is being erected along the St. Louis Walk of Fame. The dedication ceremony was July 29th, 2011.

Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode Rhode Island DJ

In 1980, when I was a freshman in college working at the college radio station as a DJ and a professional Wedding DJ, I had the opportunity to see Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode perform at a small venue in Dover, NJ called The Show Place. There were maybe 100 people present at the show and it was so much fun! I was so surprised how much energy and enthusiasm he had as ‘an older man’ back then. It is amazing to me that he is still performing today!!!! That was 31 years ago.

Chuck Berry Johnny B Goode Music Video

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Billy Joel We Didn’t Start The Fire

Billy Joel We Didn’t Start The Fire. Since releasing his first hit song, “Piano Man,” in 1973, Billy Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to the RIAA.  Billy Joel has Top 40 hits in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s; achieving 33 Top 40 hits in the United States, all of which he wrote himself. He is also a six-time Grammy Award winner, a 23-time Grammy nominee and has sold over 150 million records worldwide.

 

Billy Joel attended Hicksville High School, class of 1967. However, he did not graduate from Hicksville. Due to playing at a piano bar, he was one English credit short of the graduation requirement; he overslept on the day of an important exam, owing to his late-night musician’s lifestyle. He left high school without a diploma to begin a career in music.  Upon seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, Joel decided to pursue a full-time musical career, and set about finding a local Long Island band to join.

 Billy Joel We Didn’t Start The Fire Story

“The song and music video have been interpreted as a rebuttal to criticism of Joel’s Baby Boomer generation. The song’s title and refrain mention “the fire”, an allusion to conflict and societal turmoil; Joel asserts that these can’t be blamed on his generation alone, as “the fire” has been “always burning since the world’s been turning”. Wikipedia.

 

For a list of the references throughout the song, please go to this Wiki page “We Didn’t Start The Fire” to get the info on each, it is fun!

 

The first single from the Album Storm Front, was released in September 1989 and it became Billy Joel’s third and most recent US #1 hit, spending two weeks at the top; it was also Billboard’s second-last #1 single of the 1980s.

Billy Joel We Didn’t Start The Fire Music Video

Interesting piece of trivia. 52nd Street was the first album to be released on compact disc when it went on sale alongside Sony’s CD player CDP-101 on October 1, 1982, in Japan.

Billy Joel We Didn't Start The Fire icon Rhode Island DJ

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Elvis Presley Can’t Help Falling In Love

It still amazes me to his day how much appreciation of Elvis Presley and Elvis Presley Can’t Help Falling In Love exists as there was when I first started out more than thirty years ago as a professional DJ. I assumed at some point he would have saturated the market and lost his appeal. I thought the younger generation would not feel the same about his music with the processed music they are raised with today. I was wrong. His songs are strong as ever and receive at least the same degree of enthusiasm as in the past for this professional Wedding DJ.

Elvis Presley Can't Help Falling In Love Icon

When I was a kid, I used to walk to the local 7-Eleven about a half mile away from our home for a Slurpy or a pack of baseball cards. Next to the counter there was one of those wire free-standing record racks that only contained Elvis records. This was not a surprise since he was one of the most famous people in America at the time. What did seem confusing to me was that I knew Elvis as an actor. His movies were on TV all the time and that was the medium that I was introduced to him. I obviously knew he sang, his voice was deep and rich and what he did most in all the films but did not put 1 and 1 together to figure out that he was a singer that was in movies, not an actor who sang in those movies. I remember staring at that rack trying to understand why they were selling his albums since they were not selling albums by any of the other famous actors during that period. As I got older, I eventually realized just how popular and talented a singer he was, by then he was gone. His music still lives today.

 Elvis Presley Can’t Help Falling In Love Music Video

At mostly every wedding I provide music at some point there is a request for Elvis Presley Can’t Help Falling In Love for the professional Wedding DJ. I never get tired of hearing it and seeing young and old make their way to the dance floor. It’s what a professional Wedding DJ looks forward to.

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ