August 21, 2020 —– Chart #53
Hello Musical Friends,
It’s Friday again! Time for another Chart of the Day, number 52. The chord structure in today’s selection is a simple three chord format. Sounds simple unless you want to really sound like the original feel that Eric Clapton delivered for this awesome sing along choice. Duplicating that shuffle beat with quirky bluesy guitar picking is an artform. Lay Down Sally was a big hit from Eric Clapton’s Slowhand album released in 1977. On that same album you will find “Cocaine”, “The Core”, and “Wonderful Tonight”. Not bad. And by the way, Slowhand went gold in US, UK, Japan, Canada and New Zealand.
“Lay Down Sally” was written by Clapton, Marcella Detroit (as Marcy Levy, the diminutive form of her birth name), and George Terry. It reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The Tulsa, Oklahoma oriented band behind this album produced a great sound for Clapton, an important element in the success of multiple hits. Lets look at the band members behind the music:
Marcella Detroit – vocals. Marcella Levy (born June 21, 1952), known professionally as Marcella Detroit, is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She co-wrote the 1977 Eric Clapton hit “Lay Down Sally” and released her debut album Marcella in 1982. She joined Shakespears Sister in 1988 with ex-Bananarama member Siobhan Fahey. Their first two albums, Sacred Heart (1989), and Hormonally Yours (1992), both reached the top 10 of the UK Albums Chart. Detroit sang the lead vocals on their biggest hit, “Stay”, which spent eight consecutive weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart in 1992. Detroit left the band in 1993 and had a UK top 20 hit with “I Believe” in 1994. She formed the Marcy Levy Band in 2002, and finished third in the 2010 ITV series Popstar to Operastar.
Yvonne Elliman – vocals. Yvonne Marianne Elliman (born December 29, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress who performed for four years in the first cast of the stage musical Jesus Christ Superstar. She scored a number of hits in the 1970s and achieved a US #1 disco hit with “If I Can’t Have You”; the song was also #9 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Her cover of Barbara Lewis’s “Hello Stranger” went to #1 on Adult Contemporary chart, and “Love Me” was also #5, giving her 3 top 10 singles. After a long hiatus in the 1980s and 1990s, during which time she dedicated herself to her family, she made a comeback album as a singer-songwriter in 2004. Elliman’s singing career began in 1969 in London, where she performed at various bars and clubs. At the time she did not like what she was singing. “I hated the music then,” she recalled in a 1973 interview, adding “I did it for the bread. I was into drugs and all that, and thought Grace Slick and the Jefferson Airplane was it.” While still an unknown, she was discovered by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, who asked her to sing Mary Magdalene’s part for the original audio recording of Jesus Christ Superstar featuring Ian Gillan singing as Jesus. After its release as an album in 1970, they invited her to join the stage show’s traveling cast, which she did for four years. She had her first Billboard Hot 100 hit single in 1971 with the ballad “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from Jesus Christ Superstar.
George Terry – Guitar. George Terry (born 1950) is an American blues rock and rock and roll guitarist. He did live and studio work with Eric Clapton during the 1970s and studio work with a number of other artists, including ABBA, the Bee Gees, Joe Cocker, Andy Gibb, Freddie King, Diana Ross, Stephen Stills, and Kenny Rogers. Some of this work came through Terry’s association with Bee Gees member Barry Gibb. Prior to joining Clapton’s band, Terry was a South Florida guitarist and session musician who had played with several bands including “GAME” who released two albums in 1970 and 1971. Terry was the group’s featured lead guitarist and bassist, and wrote several songs on both albums. Terry was a songwriter for Clapton, including co-author of the 1977 song “Lay Down Sally”. In 1979 he played guitar for Italian singer Ivano Fossati on the album “La Mia Banda Suona Il Rock”, recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami.
Carl Radle – electric bass. Carl Dean Radle (June 18, 1942 – May 30, 1980) was an American bassist born in Tulsa, Oklahoma who toured and recorded with many of the most influential recording artists of the late 1960s and 1970s. He was posthumously inducted to the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2006. Radle was best known for his long association with Eric Clapton, starting in 1969 with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends and continuing in 1970 with Derek and the Dominos, recording with drummer Jim Gordon, guitarist Duane Allman, and keyboardist Bobby Whitlock. In 1970 Radle joined Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour. He worked on all of Clapton’s solo projects from 1970 until 1979 and was a member of Clapton’s touring band, Eric Clapton & His Band, from 1974 to 1979. Radle was instrumental in facilitating Clapton’s return to recording and touring in 1974. During Clapton’s three-year hiatus, Radle furnished him with a supply of tapes of musicians with whom he had been working. Dick Sims and Jamie Oldaker were the core of Clapton’s band during the 1970s. Radle served as more than a sideman, acting also as arranger on several songs, notably “Motherless Children”. Radle earned credit as an associate producer of Clapton’s album No Reason to Cry. Radle was a session musician for many of the most famous blues rock and rock and roll artists in the 1970s, including Rita Coolidge and Kris Kristofferson. He appeared in the film The Concert for Bangladesh; recordings from that concert were released as an album in 1972. Over the two-year period before the release of the album The Concert for Bangladesh, Radle recorded albums with Dave Mason, J.J. Cale, George Harrison, Joe Cocker, Leon Russell, and Buddy Guy, among others. He was the bass player in Gary Lewis & the Playboys when they appeared on the Mike Douglas Show. He can be seen in Martin Scorsese’s 1978 film The Last Waltz, which documented the final concert of The Band, held in 1976.
Dick Sims – electric piano. Dick Sims (born 1951 in Tulsa , Oklahoma; died December 8, 2011) was an American keyboardist and session musician . He has worked with musicians such as Eric Clapton, Vince Gill, JJ Cale, Stephen Stills, Carlos Santana, Perry Farrell, Peter Tosh, Yvonne Elliman and Joan Armatrading and achieved his greatest fame as a member of Eric Clapton’s band. Dick Sims grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma and started playing clubs regularly from the age of 12. He toured with Phil Driscoll and Yurmama from 1968 to 1972, and performed on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1971 . In 1972 he recorded the album Back in ’72 with Bob Seger and Jamie Oldaker ; including an interpretation of the title Turn the Page . Sims went back to Tulsa with Jamie Oldaker to form the Tulsa County Band. In 1974 the two and Carl Radle were recruited for Eric Clapton’s band. Sims is among others on the albums 461 Ocean Boulevard , Backless and Slowhand and played on the hit singles Wonderful Tonight , Lay Down Sally and Cocaine .
Jamie Oldaker – drums. James Oldaker was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. One of the first bands that he was a member of was called the Rogues Five, who saw regional success in the mid-1960s and opened for other more popular bands such as the Doors at the Tulsa Convention Center. Oldaker and the Rogues Five were a regular band on local Tulsa television station KOTV’s teen dance show: Dance Party. After a stint in Bob Seger’s band (on the album Back in ’72), he then was with Leon Russell’s band when he was asked by Eric Clapton to participate in the recording of 461 Ocean Boulevard. Oldaker remained a member of Clapton’s studio and touring bands through 1979, when the entire band was dismissed. Oldaker would return to the Clapton band in 1983, playing on Clapton’s Behind the Sun album, released in 1985, and performing with Clapton at Live Aid that same year, before leaving in 1986. Oldaker appears on the blues side of the live recording 24 Nights from 1990 and 1991. Not long after leaving Clapton’s band, Oldaker briefly became a member of Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley’s project, Frehley’s Comet, appearing on the 1988 album Second Sighting. He was also a onetime member of the alt country band, The Tractors. Oldaker recorded with musicians such as the Bellamy Brothers, Asleep at the Wheel, Peter Frampton, Stephen Stills, Leon Russell, Ace Frehley, Freddie King, and the Bee Gees. In August 2005, Oldaker released Mad Dogs & Okies on Concord Records, a collection celebrating the music and musicians of Oklahoma, which he produced. Collaborators include Eric Clapton, Vince Gill, J. J. Cale, Willie Nelson, Ronnie Dunn, and Bonnie Bramlett. Mad Dogs & Okies/Survivors was re-released in 2019 under Jamokie Productions.
Here is a fun one from the 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival with Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, Albert Lee, Keb’ Mo, Earl Klugh and James Burton:
If you’re not singing the chorus of this song, take a day off and breathe deep. You need to reconnect with your music soul! “I’ve been tryin’ all night long just to talk to you”.
Keep rockin’,
Stan