Digging through his collection of rock and roll music, Larry Nevels prepares another edition of Classic Monday. Each week he sends out a free email filled with news, trivia, facts, and songs from the golden age of rock and roll. Photo by Phil Houseal
Details:
To sign up to receive Larry Nevels’ free Classic Monday email, send him a note at lnevels@austin.rr.com.
Also Of Note:
What is Japanese for fiesta? It’s matsuri and that is the pulsating theme for the world-renown Yamato Drummers, who return this week to kick off the 2009 season for the Kerrville Performing Arts Society at the Cailloux Theater. The Fredericksburg High School Drumline will perform pre-concert on Thursday. For information and tickets: 830-896-9393, www.kpas.org.
| Do you have a musical artist, event, or topic you would like featured in this column? I love to hear from readers. Send comments to: phil@ fullhouseproductions.net. To be included in the free listing of live music events, send details to: Articles published weekly in the Permission granted to reproduce articles and photos with credit to: |
Classic Monday
by Phil Houseal
Oct 14, 2009
Ever want to know all the hit songs that have a day of the week in their titles? The best bubble gum songs of all time (I hope that was a short list)? Or the lyrics to Louie Louie?
If you had been on Larry Nevels’ Classic Monday email list, you would know the answers to all these, as well as the most-played song in history and the name of the very first song ever recorded.
Every Monday, Nevels - who is retired from the Navy and has lived in Fredericksburg since 1989 - sends out an informative email with tons of trivia and history from the annals of classic rock and roll. In the past few weeks, he’s traced the history of girl groups from the Andrews Sisters to the Supremes; selected the top patriotic songs; and listed every hit written by Carole King.
It’s arcane, it’s profound, it’s fascinating. And he can’t help doing it.
“They say there are two types of people in the world; those who put things in categories, and those who don’t. Which tells you what kind of person I am.”
This project started several years ago when Nevels developed a lesson plan for a course he planned to teach on the history of rock and roll. During his research, he came across hundreds of stories about different songs. He wrote them all down, catalogued the songs, and created a playlist of the top hits for each year from 1950 to the present. He estimates his music collection includes 17,000 songs in the form of CDs, records, tapes, and digital files.
Yet despite this rich American musical history, Nevels noticed that oldies radio stations weren’t giving this music its due.
“If you listen to radio, you realize they play the same 200 to 300 songs over and over again,” he said. “I thought that a lot of good music that’s out there just doesn’t get air time.”
So he started sending it out himself, mainly to family and friends. A typical Classic Monday email includes a short description of a theme, accompanied by biographies of the artists or songwriters, music trivia, and an attached song to demonstrate his point.
Like the Louie Louie lyrics.
“When it came out, people were burning the record. There was an urban myth that it had bad language.” Nevels came up with the actual lyrics, which were pretty banal. “It was about some sailor lamenting to a bartender named Louie, that he is out sailing on the sea and his girl is far away.”
His bubble gum list includes Lollipop, Sugar Time, and “anything by the Spice Girls. the Monkees, or ABBA.”
So why does he do this?
“It has no commercial value,” he admitted. “I just like to find the songs that people haven’t heard in a while. I find clever stories behind the music. I tell some stories like ‘where are they now?’”
Mainly, Nevels just loves rock and roll.
“I built a crystal radio set as kid and went to sleep every night listening to Elvis, the Everly Brother, and Carl Perkins. I consider 1950 through the 1970s as the golden age of rock and roll. I don’t have too many songs from the 1980s and 90s - that’s not my favorite music. I have a hard time thinking of someone being 80 years old and a Guns & Roses tune comes on and they say, honey, they’re playing our song.”
Nevels listens to every genre of music, including classical, country, even rap and hiphop. But nothing electrifies him like a good old rock and roll song from the 50s.
“World War II was over, things were going pretty good, it was a special time and a unique sound. It was such a new sound that it really took the world by storm in very short period of time. I think classic rock and roll will be around a long time.”
So what are some songs with days of the week in their titles?
Monday, Monday
Ruby Tuesday
Saturday Night Fever
Sunday Morning Coming Down
The most played song?
You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling by the Righteous Brothers.
The first song ever recorded?
Sign up for Classic Monday and find out.