Thanks, again, Tim!
What makes a "hit song" is a combination of factors, very few of them under the control of the artist. Many performers go on to long lasting careers, doing the occasional crowd pleasing museum piece but often prefering their later work. Here are a few CDs from former chart toppers.
Pete Townshend smashed his guitars on stage while writing songs about Tommy, the deaf dumb and blind kid who plays a mean pinball. In addition to his work with The Who, he released several solo albums. "Autumn 1970, Townshend started on Lifehouse. A multi-media piece with a movie script about The Who, its audience, and a science fiction plot concerning virtual reality, alternative reality, experience suits, and Sufi spirituality" says the web site, which goes on to say, "In 1993, Tommy opened on Broadway to become an eventual Tony winner. Townshend released the album PsychoDerelict based, in part, on the science fiction plot of Lifehouse." Lifehouse might have been groundbreaking in 1970, but the science fiction isn't very good in 1993 and the reason to pick up PsychoDerelict is the music. Horribly packaged (the lyric sheet is worse than useless) and the little plot dialogs are not banded separately so I've had to snip the aiff files to make them playable. Still, several of the songs are great. Now and Then (about falling in love) and Meher Baba (about virtual reality) are my picks. You can get the CD and others by Townshend here.
Dion DiMucci is simply Dion to most who remember him from his 1950s rocker days with the Belmonts. He's continued touring and writing songs and has several CDs. I confess I picked up 1989's Yo Frankie because of the guest stars: Dave Edmunds, Bryan Adams, k.d. lang, Lou Reed, Paul Simon and more. But there are no star turns and no personality gets in the way of the music. A bunch of good rockers got together for some good old fashioned rock; no gimmicks, no nostalgia, just a driving beat.
Steve Mariott goes back to the British band Small Faces where he had hits like Tin Soldier and Itchycoo Park, then in 1969 joined Humble Pie and wrote Natural Born Woman. He kept going, through reuinions and a solo career. This latter produced 30 Seconds to Midnight, which (according to the web bio) he doesn't like for the production elements, but I think is a pretty solid blues/rock album. Mostly covers (which is probably why the songwriter Marriott is a bit down on it), he and a tight band do very creditable versions of songs by Curtis Mayfield, Donovan, David Byrne and Bob Marley. My favorites are the non-reggae version of Get Up, Stand Up ("fight for your rights, don't give up the fight"), the driving rock of One More Heartache and the electronic blues version of You Rascal You which may be so far over the top that Louie Armstrong wouldn't recognize it.
Harry Belafonte's 1956 album Calypso is one of the great albums of all time, a massive hit that helped spark an interest in island music that continues to this day with reggae and ska and beyond and helped launch the multifaceted career of Belafonte which also continues to this day. Classic songs like Day-O and Jamaica Fairwell have stood the test of time and the test of different artists' arrangements. Of the 11 songs on the albums, eight are written or co-written by "Lord Burgess". That turns out to be the stage name of Irving Burgie, who among many songs wrote the national anthem for his native Barbados. Forty years after Calypso, Burgie released his own CD of many of his songs made famous by Belafonte in Island in the Sun. Alas, neither the years nor the charts have been kind to Burgie. The songs (can't really call them covers) are pale imitations of the best versions. His Day-0 is a gentle ska and Jamaica Fairwell is richly arranged and he brings an earthy tempered enthusiasm that doesn't really overcome his weakened voice. I'm very glad to see that he's still around and still working, but this album is not the best introduction to his work. I can't find it new on the net, but amazon has it used, if you want to hear how the original writer handles his own songs in gentle, upbeat arrangements.
Dave Romm is a conceptual artist with a radio show and a web site and a very weird CD collection. He reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E here.
Thanks (again), Dave!
