Each day, Rich Terfry and Radio 2 Drive wraps up your day with music and stories about the interesting things going on in the world. Here are the stories we're talking about today.
Rich's Pick:
In honour of International Ford Mustang Day this is my Pick
Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin "Ford Mustang"
Junk In The Trunk:
Argument with a boxer
Cool cats
Why a dumpster fire is no place for a selfie
Rear View Mirror:
Each week on Rear-view Mirror, Rich Terfry and the Radio 2 Drive team look back at a great R&B/soul song from the good ol’ days.
Listen to Rich tell you the story behind Bobby Womack!
So many talented musicians never find a break and are doomed to obscurity. Bobby Womack had the opposite problem. He couldn’t get away from the musical spotlight, even when he tried.
Womack’s father was a man named Friendly, and he was a gospel singer. Taking after his old man, Womack and his brothers formed a gospel quintet named, appropriately enough, the Womack Brothers. One night, as fate would have it, the group was spotted and heard by legendary soul singer Sam Cooke, who was blown away, and offered them a contract on his label SAR Records on the spot.
Cooke encouraged them to try their hand at secular music and the outfit’s name was changed to the Valentinos. They had a few hits, including one young Womack wrote called “It’s All Over Now.” Shortly afterward, a new young band from the U.K. scored their first hit with a cover of that song, and that band was the Rolling Stones.
Cooke passed away in December of 1964 and, having taken the Valentinos under his wing, the band’s career dwindled. They soon broke up and when Womack struggled to make headway in the business on his own, he retreated into the shadows and sought work as a session musician and songwriter.
He did quite well, to say the least. He wrote songs for Wilson Pickett and Janis Joplin and played on classic recordings by Sly and the Family Stone and Aretha Franklin. After applying his golden touch to several hit songs, Womack was pulled from the shadows and into the spotlight again in the early ’70s, close to 10 years after the death of his mentor, Cooke, and the demise of the Valentinos.
After signing a new record deal and scoring a few hits under his own name, Hollywood came calling. Womack was tapped to create the soundtrack to the critically acclaimed 1973 film Across 110th Street. The title track became one of his signature hits.
Throughout the 2000s, Womack still had a hard time escaping the spotlight. His music has been used in recent blockbuster films, TV commercials and video games. In December 2010, he became a member of Daman Albarn’s supergroup the Gorillaz, and joined them on their world tour.
Bobby Womack passed away in 2014.
Here’s some signature Womack, the classic “Across 110th Street.”
Here are some other great editions of Rear-view Mirror:
Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto/The Girl From Ipanema
Norman Greenbaum/Spirit in the Sky
Elvis Presley/Blue Suede Shoes
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles/Tracks of my Tears
Elvis Presley/Heartbreak Hotel
Bruce Cockburn/Lovers In A Dangerous Time
Bob Dylan & Jimi Hendrix/All Along The Watchtower
Phil Spector and the Ronnettes/Be My Baby
Os Mutantes/Ando Meio Desligado
Captain Beefheart/Yellow Brick Road
Elton John/Bennie and the Jets
Hank Williams/Long Gone Lonesome Blues
R.E.M./What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
Tom Waits/Jockey Full of Bourbon
Buffalo Springfield/For What It's Worth
Five Man Electrical Band/Signs
Band Aid/Do They Know It's Christmas
The Pursuit of Happiness/I'm An Adult Now
Big Joe Turner/Shake Rattle and Roll
Martha and the Muffins/Echo Beach
Wilson Pickett/In The Midnight Hour
The Band/The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
The Animals/House of the Rising Sun
Ian and Sylvia/Four Strong Winds
James Brown/Please Please Please
John Cougar Mellencamp, 'Pink Houses'
The Ramones/I Wanna Be Sedated
U2/I Still Have't Found What I'm Looking For
Janis Joplin/Me and Bobby McGee
Gordon Lightfoot "If You Could Read My Mind"
Simon and Garfunkel "The Sound of Silence"
Bill Haley and his Comets "Rock Around The Clock"
The Velvet Underground "I'm Waiting For The Man"
Johnny Cash "Folsom Prison Blues"
Bobby Fuller "I Fought The Law"
Joy Division "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
Booker T and the MGs "Green Onions"
Neil Young "Rockin' in the Free World"
The Left Banke "Walk Away Renee"
Lou Reed "Walk On The Wild Side"
The Clash "Should I Stay or Should I Go"
The Animals "We Gotta Get Out of this Place"
Dusty Springfield "Son of a Preacher Man"
Screamin' Jay Hawkins "I Put A Spell On You"
Mott The Hoople "All the Young Dudes"
New York Dolls "Personality Crisis"
George Jones "He Stopped Loving Her Today"
Bruce Springsteen "Born in the USA"
The Beatles "With A Little Help From My Friends"
James Brown, 'Hot (I Need to be loved loved loved)'
Ray Charles, 'I Don't Need No Doctor'
Curtis Mayfield, 'Freddy's Dead'
Gang Starr, 'Beyond Comprehension'
CCR, 'Have You Ever Seen the Rain'
Howlin' Wolf, 'Smokestack Lightning'
Bobby Womack, 'Across 110th Street'
Foggy Hogtown Boys, 'Man of Constant Sorrow'
Pink Floyd, 'Wish You Were Here'
Neil Young, 'Cortez The Killer'
Bob Dylan, 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'
Elvis Costello, 'Watching the Detectives'
Jimmy Cliff, 'The Harder They Come'
The Verve, 'Bittersweet Symphony'