Oh Happy Day

No visual, but here is Big Momma Thornton's live recording of "Oh Happy Day".

Jerry Leiber (1933-2011)

A post to mark the passing Monday of lyricist Jerry Leiber. With music composer Mike Stoller, he was half of one of the most successful songwriting duos in the middle part of the 20th Century.

My 10/1/10 post contained what was their first big hits, Big Mama Thornton's original recording of "Hound Dog". Below are a couple more songs by Leiber and Stoller.

Elvis Presley later had a big hit with "Hound Dog", so, to give Elvis his due, here is his version of "Jailhouse Rock"



"Stand By Me" performed by Ben E. King




"Is That All There Is" performed by Peggy Lee

Janis Joplin

Today is the 40th anniversary of the death of Janis Joplin, who died on October 4, 1970 at the age of 27. So a post in tribute to her.

My last post was on Big Mama Thornton, who was a big influence on Joplin. One of Joplin's biggest successes was "Ball & Chain", a song Big Mama wrote, and was included in my last post.



Joplin had another hit with this song that Kris Kristofferson wrote, "Me and Bobby McGee"



Here Joplin performs George Gershwin's classic "Summertime"



Finally, "Mercedes Benz" a song Joplin co-wrote with the poet Michael McClure and Bob Neuwirth

Big Mama Thornton

I am doing this post on Big Mama Thornton in anticipation of a post I will be doing next week. She was a great singer and songwriter, who made the first recording of the song "Hound Dog", later made famous by Elvis Presley. Here are a couple videos.

"Ball 'n' Chain" a song she wrote.



"Hound Dog"



Playing harmonica on "Down Home Shakedown"



Later in life Big Mama was not so big, but she could still "Rock Me"




If you like this, try these previous posts:

Homemade Jamz' Blues Band - September 1, 2009

B.B. King - September 13, 2009

Howlin' Wolf - September 14, 2010