Sound + Vision | The Blog

  • Joan Jett & The Blackhearts’ I LOVE ROCK 'N ROLL

    by Frank Shankly
    I LOVE ROCK ’N ROLL was originally recorded and released by The Arrows in 1975 on Rak Records, featuring Alan Merrill on lead vox and guitar, with ...

  • The Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs of Johnnie Taylor

    by Frank Shankly
    Three things to know about Johnnie Taylor: 1. When Sam Cooke left the Soul Stirrers, Johnnie was chosen to be his replacement. But after an auto ac...

  • Vonda Van Dyke’s DAY BY DAY

    by Frank Shankly
    Vonda Van Dyke was Miss America 1965. That same year, she starred in the B-movie Teenage Diary. Here is a great review of the film, "...a color Chr...

  • C.B. Victoria’s COME AND SEE MY MAN

    by Frank Shankly
    In 1965, young Canadian emigre Edwin Coppard joined The Deacons, which evolved into the Hollywood Shockers. Eventually, they shortened their name t...

  • Ella Washington’s THE BALLAD OF ARTHUR MCDUFFIE

    by Frank Shankly
    In 1979, Arthur McDuffie, a Black insurance salesman and Marine Lance Corporal, was beaten to death by four Miami police officers after a traffic s...

  • LaVerne Tripp & The Family’s JESUS LOVES COWBOYS

    by Frank Shankly
    LaVerne Tripp started singing in front of crowds when he was just two and a half years old.  When he was a student, he sang at local churches and e...

  • R.I.P. Marianne Faithfull

    by Frank Shankly
    From the AP: One of the first songs written by Jagger and Keith Richards, the melancholy “As Tears Go By,” was her breakthrough hit when released ...

  • TRUTH's WOULD YOU BELIEVE IN ME

    by Frank Shankly
    TRUTH is an acronym for Trust, Receive, Unchangeable True Happiness in Jesus.  Founded by John Roger Breland in 1971, the group performed its first...

  • Anthony Grant On Music And Growing Up In The '80s.

    by Frank Shankly
    Most days I’d play outside until the sun went down. My friends and I would find things to keep ourselves occupied throughout the day. The Bronx in ...

  • Rusell Rogers On Discovering College Radio

    by Frank Shankly
    "When I was a teenager in the late 1970’s, FM radio was still a new thing. If you bought a new car people would ask you what kind of radio it had a...

  • Tim Buckwalter On The Perfect Record Store

    by Frank Shankly
    I’ve always been a 45s guy.My first memory of records is sitting on my bedroom floor, at age three, endlessly playing Peter Pan Read-A-Long 7” disk...

  • Deirdre White on Bands That Start with B

    by Frank Shankly
    People don’t believe me when I tell them that the Bay City Rollers were my first rock concert. It was 1977,  I was still a kid, but my older sister...