SLS: Make It Last All Night

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Following on from his run of Brit Awards themes, Jim is inviting us this week to share a song for SLS that was played on the British TV show The Old Grey Whistle Test, as suggested by the only deadhead in the hameau. He tells us about it in his post – Emphasis On Album Acts. This was a programme that ran from 1971 to 1988, and was the BBC’s companion piece to Top Of The Pops. TOTP was aired in the early evening on BBC1 and covered the pop singles chart, whereas OGWT was a late night show on BBC2, concentrating on albums for a more discerning (and grown up) audience, though it did later move to a mid evening slot when the likes of lunatic Janet Street Porter were in charge (and she eventually succeeded in cancelling the show). No doubt others will tell you where the name came from, as the Wikipedia page is detailed,  but I’ll add in my version: it was explained by ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris, one of the show’s presenters, as being a ‘test’ that was applied to a song that could be whistled by the ‘old grey men,’ i.e. the doormen in grey coats at New York’s Tin Pan Alley recording studios. If they could whistle it after a hearing or two, it had passed the test.

For me, this was required viewing. The aforementioned Bob Harris is a national treasure, who has been responsible for introducing me and millions of others to great music that has formed our tastes for more than fifty years, and he is still going strong. He presented the show from 1972 to 1978, and that in my view was its heyday – no one else can touch Bob in influence, and the friendships he has developed with artists who have played on his radio and tv shows are testament to how highly regarded he is.

But I digress – you came here for some music, didn’t you. There is a huge field from which I can choose, but I have somehow managed to keep this down to playing you three, discounting the theme tune at the top of the post (Stone Fox Chase, by the country rock band Area Code 615). How about this for starters:

I’m sure you don’t need them, but as this is Song Lyric Sunday here are the lyrics:

Well, she was an American girlRaised on promisesShe couldn’t help thinkin’ that thereWas a little more to lifeSomewhere elseAfter all it was a great big worldWith lots of places to run toYeah, and if she had to die tryin’She had one little promiseShe was gonna keep
 
Oh yeah, alrightTake it easy babyMake it last all night
She was an American girl
 
Well, it was kind of cold that nightShe stood alone on her balconyYeah, she could hear the cars roll byOut on 441Like waves crashin’ on the beachAnd for one desperate moment thereHe crept back in her memoryGod it’s so painfulSomething that’s so closeAnd still so far out of reach
 
Oh yeah, alrightTake it easy, babyMake it last all nightShe was an American girl
OohUh-huh-huhUh-huh-huhOh yeah
 
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Alex Drury / Bonnie Mckee / Garret Lee / Jon Asher / Oliver Goldstein
American Girl lyrics © Bucks Music Group, Concord Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
 

American Girl first appeared as the closing track on the eponymous debut album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, which was released in November 1976 and peaked at #24 in the UK after the band toured here. It didn’t take off at first in the US, but did eventually reach #55 there in 1978. This was the second single taken from the album, in February 1977: it reached #40 in the UK but wasn’t a US chart hit until a 1994 re-release got to #68. Despite that it has become one of Tom’s best known and loved songs, and was rated at #169 in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the best 500 songs of all time. It was a concert favourite, and he regularly closed his shows with it: he did so on 25 September 2017, making this the last song he ever played live before his sudden passing a week later.

My second choice for today is one where the band used their appearance to give one of their songs a new treatment:

 

If you know the recorded version of Thin Lizzy’s Don’t Believe A Word you’ll be aware that it was a faster paced tune, but they chose to play it here in a slowed down, bluesy style. I think it is fantastic: we were watching the show when it was broadcast, as Thin Lizzy were a band that both my wife and I liked: I loved this, but she felt short-changed. For me, it is the involvement of Gary Moore that really makes this – I’ve no doubt that this was done at his suggestion, as it is very much his style and his voice is ideally suited to it. For the stats fiends, the original was a track on the Johnny The Fox album, released in October 1976 – Thin Lizzy’s second album of that year. The album made #11 in the UK and #52 in the US. This track was released as a single in November 1976, peaking at #12 in the UK but it wasn’t a US hit.

I’m closing today with what was the first tv appearance of a band who went on to become huge:

That was, of course, Dire Straits playing Sultans Of Swing. They were on the 16 May 1978 edition of the OGWT, and this was released as their debut single three days later in the UK, though the US release wasn’t until January 1979. It wasn’t a hit at first, but it was re-released in the UK to coincide with the US release, as it had by then become the opening track on side two of the band’s debut album – Dire Straits. Second time around the single peaked at #8 in the UK, and did even better in the US, reaching #4. The album came out in June 1978 in the UK and October in the US: it made #5 in the UK and #2 in the US, and has gone double platinum in both.

I can still recall those days: the team I worked with was mostly guys of a similar age to me – I was 25 – and we were all very much into our music. Several of us watched that OGWT performance and were raving about the band in the office the next day, but as we were self-respecting album followers we held off on buying the single. I and one of the others bought the album as soon as it was released, and we both felt that we had found our new favourite band. As I’m sure you know, Dire Straits went on to a fantastic career with a load of great albums, selling more than 100m in the process. This is where it all began.

Thanks are due to Jim and the deadhead, as this has been one of my favourite SLS themes: it is so in tune with my musical tastes, and I hope you have got that feeling from those that I have selected from the hundreds I could have played. That’s it for today, but I’ll see you again on Tuesday for a Christmas Eve edition of my Advent Countdown, and again the next day for a Christmas Day special – an excuse to escape from anyone who might be bugging you! Until then, have fun 🤩

 

 

 

28 thoughts on “SLS: Make It Last All Night”

    • I doubt it got any coverage over there, but it was a cut above the regular tv music shows, and in my view has never been bettered. Thin Lizzy were another export that didn’t do much over there. This is a slowed down version of the song, originally a hit single at the pace they cranked it up to near the end. Glad you enjoyed them, Maddie 😊

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  4. Big fan of all three groups, particularly Tom Petty. All bring back their share of good memories. Thin Lizzy probably didn’t have the commercial success in America that the other two groups did, but I loved Phil Lynott and his bass.

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    • Thanks, Pete, I thought these would fit the bill for you too. Guitar music at its best! Thin Lizzy had reasonable album sales over there but very little success with singles, which I always thought was a pity.

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  6. It was a great show for letting you not just hear but see the new bands coming through, way before MTV and Yootoob made everything accessible at the drop of a hat, or the click of an app. Boy, kids today are so spoiled for options. (Better stop before the old man rant gets the better of me…)

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    • I think that’s why I liked it so much: a lot of the music on the show never made it anywhere near BBC radio, and this was a taste of something different. The options we have now make it very easy to find music and I enjoy that, but I do miss the thrill and sense of wonderment that OGWT gave us.

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  8. Great selection Clive and the Thin Lizzy song was new to me, so I really enjoyed that. The only deadhead in the hameau really came through suggesting this, as I am totally digging all the songs today. I am very happy that you join in every week and share your music, as your posts are always interesting to read.

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    • Thank you, Jim, that’s kind of you to say. I’m glad you enjoyed these, and it has been a good theme for music today. The Thin Lizzy one was originally taken at the speed they cranked it up to near the end, but I loved this bluesy version as well.

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    • Thank you, Christine. I’m pleased you enjoyed them. Looking at that Dire Straits clip now Mark Knopfler looks like a little boy. I don’t think we realised then how huge the band would become. That’s still one of my favourites of theirs too.

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  12. Ah, Whistle Test, lying in bed watching the show on my portable TV, hanging on every moment. What great memories…and what great videos, classic Lizzy line-up. And Mike Campbell with the Heartbreakers is for me, an underrated guitarist and song-writer. Great stuff.

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