Banjos on the pop charts - a challenge
Bruce Duncan
it to popular mainstream radio. I started compiling a mental list, going
back to the 60's and could come up with only the ones listed below.
Challenge to the list: I wonder whether the collective memory and brain
power of this group can come up with, say, 25 instances of banjo on the pop
charts?
1.Tom Dooley - Kingston Trio
2. MTA - Kingston Trio
3. Hello Dolly - Louis Armstrong
4. Washington Square - Village Stompers
5. Duelling banjos
6. Mrs Brown You've got a lovely daughter - Herman's
Hermits - (I'm not really sure if it was a banjo).
7. Sweet City woman - the Stampeders ( This was a medium sized hit in Canada
and may not have been aired anywhere else. A unique instance of a banjo
(tenor or plectrum) in a rock number.
8. Flowers on the Wall - Statler bros. This was mainly a C and W song but
also crossed over to the mainstream charts.
BD
Ken Blake
news:J6wO7.12151$6a.1...@read1.cgocable.net...
> I was thinking the other day how seldom we hear a banjo in
music that makes
> it to popular mainstream radio. I started compiling a mental
list, going
> back to the 60's and could come up with only the ones listed
below.
It goes back farther than the sixties, but the Weavers recordings
of "Goodnight Irene" and "Tzena, Tzena" in the fifties, with Pete
Seeger on Banjo, were big hits.
--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup
mhofer
You're qualifiying this as from the 60s on, so
heres a few not on your list I remember.
Lazy Crazy Hazy Days of Summer ( not sure who sang this probably Mitch
Miller lol)
Ballad of Jed Clampett in 62 first bluegrass song to hit number 1 in
America.
Take It Easy ( Eagles?)
( seems there was another soft rock song too I cant remember was it
Caroline? something like that)
Gentle on My Mind ( Hartford wrote it Campbell recorded it)
Rainbow Connection ( Kermit the Frog)
EastBound and Down ( Jerry Reed - one of those
Smokey and Bandit songs)
Im sure there were a few more, but there werent many.
good pickin to you
Michael
http://banjobasics.virtualave.net/
"Bruce Duncan" <bdun...@home.com> wrote in message
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RicK Hayes
much like "Washington Square". I'm thinking it might have had banjo, but
I might be just hearing the latter "in my head". Anybody remember for sure?
Lloyd
banjo in them (Maybe someone can name some of his hits). It sounded really
well with the horns in my opinion.
Lloyd
"Bruce Duncan" <bdun...@home.com> wrote in message
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Bruce Duncan
hit single by the same name. All of the cuts sound like WS - banjo lead for
a couple of verses and then dixieland group a couple time's around and then
fade out. Midnight in Moscow was one of the cuts and it followed this
format. I never realized that it was also played as a single. By the way, I
owned the WS album years ago and picked it up at a garage sale last year for
24 cents.
As for Lazy Hazy Crazy days of summer - wasn't that Nat King Cole?
I also thought of another one - Those Were the Days - name of the British
female artist escapes me.
BD
"RicK Hayes" <hay...@optonline.net> wrote in message
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NoBody
'Don't cross the River'
At least that is what I think it was called.
Roy
Dale Roller
morning...
"Sweet City Woman" was a hit here in America. I heard it alot on the radio
and even saw those guys on some music show of the time doing it, and then
they were gone.
There was "Carolina In The Pines" by Michael Martin Murphy (still calling
himself Michael Murphy), who also had Wildfire as his biggest hit.
How about The Who's "Squeezebox" with Pete Townsend on banjo? In fact, Pete
started on the banjo in the 50's and then became a somewhat more famous
guitarist. ;-)
I don't remember what songs Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass had as hits.
My parents had a number of their albums and they had lots of banjo on them.
I remember a brass version of Foggy Mt. Breakdown. Many of their albums had
Curtis McPeake playing fine banjo on them. I even saw them live once in the
early 70's at a county fair.
Jerry Reed used a fair amount of banjo in his live shows in the 70's. Buddy
Blackmon was the banjoist when I saw them in '79. He also spent a good bit
of stage time playing guitar.
Sure sounded like a 4-string banjo to me on the Herman's Hermits tune.
Take care. I learn so much from this newsgroup.
Dale Roller
"Bruce Duncan" <bdun...@home.com> wrote in message
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JimLowther
Stephen Stll's "Bluebird" with the Buffalo Springfield featured Charlie Chin of
Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys on banjo.
The Eagles, "Take It Easy."
How pop does pop have to be? In my local area at the time New Grass Revival's
cover of "With Care from Someone" got lots of air play on the local rock
station (as did "Must be the Prince of Peace Returning"), which kind of "woke
me up" to banjo and bluegrass.
Best wishes,
Jim Lowther
Andrew Diamond
Paramount Jazzmen. Probably had a tenor banjo as it was done at the height
of the trad jazz revival of the late '50s.
Also "In the Summertime" by Mungo Jerry. Massive hit here in about 1970.
Currently Travis are in the top 10 with "Sing". It's got what sounds like a
5 string backing - but they were using a guitar banjo on Top of the Pops
last week.
"Those Were The Days" was by Mary Hopkin. Don't remember it having a banjo
though.
res0ase9
Jon Black
"Dale Roller" <dmroller@TAKE_ME_OUThotmail.com> wrote in message
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Bruce Duncan
Been a long time since I heard Those Were the Days, but I'm almost certain
there was a four string banjo figuring fairly prominently (just voice and
banjo as the speed picked up) in one of the last two choruses.
Thought of another:
Old Man by Neil Young
BD
"Andrew Diamond" <andrewUNDERSCO...@lineone.net> wrote in
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OhBeeg1
"... Would "Sin Wagon" by the Dixie Chicks count? ..."
Absolutely...at least in my book. Emily got off a pretty good scald on that
one, too - didn't she? <g>
OhBeeg1
remove NOSPAM for email
Sean
Night Runners or something like that) the guy was strumming a banjo. Don't
know if it's on the actual record or not. Funny thing is, I had no idea
about that til maybe a month ago, when I happened to catch one of those ads
for "Real 80s" or something, and saw that video.
Sean
"Bruce Duncan" <bdun...@home.com> wrote in
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Banjo Power
How about any number of Dixie Chick songs? It's not exactly pop, but
what's on the country charts these days isn't far from it; and it
certainly is popular!
--
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Brittles
<< Been a long time since I heard Those Were the Days, but I'm almost certain
there was a four string banjo figuring fairly prominently (just voice andbanjo
as the speed picked up) in one of the last two choruses.>>
I believe it was an sythesized "electronic tenor banjo" - it had a very
distorted, heavy chorus/reverb feel to it.
(Or else WAS a real banjo - with distorted, heavy chorus/reverb added to it)
Best-
Ed Britt
Please Remove *UNSPAM* from my address, to e-mail me.
Steve Wheeler
"Bruce Duncan" <bdun...@home.com> wrote in message
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Traveling Prayer - Billy Joel
Misty - Ray Stevens?
- wheels
Joseph Scott
"Those Were The Days" has a real banjo (and a cymbalom and a guitar).
Joseph Scott
sundog
makes
> it to popular mainstream radio. I started compiling a mental list, going
> back to the 60's and could come up with only the ones listed below.
>
> Challenge to the list: I wonder whether the collective memory and brain
> power of this group can come up with, say, 25 instances of banjo on the
pop
> charts?
Jon Colin Leonard
Already Gone - Eagles
Take it Easy - Eagles
Old Man - Neil Young
NoBody wrote:
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J. Colin Leonard
Director of Marketing
CRANE Environmental
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Dave Douglass
Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road - Louden Wainwright III
Country Road - John Denver
Grandma's Feather Bed - John Denver
Thank God I'm A Country Boy - John Denver
Some of Shelly's Blues - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
I'll Give You A Daisy A Day - Judd Strunk
Dave
"sundog" <sun...@portup.com> wrote in message news:<zFwP7.78$yd2....@newsfeed.slurp.net>...
NoBody
The Streak !!!!
Roy
WhyteLaydi
song featuring rather prominent banjo accompaniment, which has received a fair
amount of airplay on popular music stations recently. They have a website
which, if I recall correctly, discusses their choosing to use a banjo.
But finding twenty-five such songs? A challenge indeed....
-Adam Hurt
Bart Veerman
Colours by Donovan
Dear Mrs. Appleby by David Garrick
The Hollies, some of their tunes.
tinnitus, custom compensated bridges,
5 string tabs, midis: www.haruteq.com
banjo MP3's: www.mp3.com/bartveerman
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