July 16, 2021 —– Chart #100
Hello Musical Friends,
I can’t believe #100 has finally arrived. Wow, 100 charted songs over the past 15 months. I had to think long and hard to choose number 100, but I finally settled on a winner. Welcome to Friday and the 100th edition of Chart of the Day. Woo Hoo! Well I am stuck in 1972 again, but what a great musical year it was. Today’s Chart of the Day is a song written by Greg Lake and performed by the progressive rock trio Emerson, Lake & Palmer. It was released on their 1972 album Trilogy. It hit #39 in the United States and was their highest charting single there. “From The Beginning” is a fine example of the genius of Greg Lake, guitarist for the band. The song was written in the key of A minor. It is driven by an acoustic guitar line with layers of electric guitar (both rhythm and lead), electric bass guitar, and sung by Lake, with some backing on drums (played by Carl Palmer with congas, tympani mallets and without cymbals), and with a distinctive closing synthesizer solo from Keith Emerson, accompanied by overdubbed synthesizer sounds. This song was originally intended for King Crimson’s debut album In the Court of the Crimson King, but band leader Robert Fripp didn’t think it would fit into the album’s context.
Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP) were an English progressive rock supergroup formed in London in April 1970. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards), Greg Lake (vocals, bass, guitar and producer) and Carl Palmer (drums and percussion). With nine RIAA-certified gold record albums in the US, and an estimated 48 million records sold worldwide, they were one of the most popular and commercially successful progressive rock bands in the 1970s, with a musical sound including adaptations of classical music with jazz and symphonic rock elements, dominated by Emerson’s flamboyant use of the Hammond organ, Moog synthesizer, and piano (although Lake wrote several acoustic songs for the group).
The band came to prominence following their performance at the Isle of Wight Festival in August 1970. In their first year, the group signed with E.G. Records (who distributed the band’s records through Island Records in the United Kingdom, and Atlantic Records in North America), and released Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1970) and Tarkus (1971), both of which reached the UK top five. The band’s success continued with Pictures at an Exhibition (1971), Trilogy (1972), and Brain Salad Surgery (1973, released on ELP’s own Manticore Records label). After a three-year break, Emerson, Lake & Palmer released Works Volume 1 (1977) and Works Volume 2 (1977). After Love Beach (1978), the group disbanded in 1979.
The band reformed partially in the 1980s as Emerson, Lake & Powell featuring Cozy Powell in place of Palmer. Robert Berry then replaced Lake while Palmer returned, forming 3. In 1991, the original trio reformed and released two more albums, Black Moon (1992) and In the Hot Seat (1994), and toured at various times between 1992 and 1998. Their final performance took place in 2010 at the High Voltage Festival in London to commemorate the band’s 40th anniversary. Both Emerson and Lake died in 2016, leaving Palmer as the only surviving member of the band.
And here is Greg Lake performing live (very cool): https://youtu.be/A8AP-kobAtg
Keep rockin’ my friends,
Stan