Tuesday Tunes 262: Hot

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After last week’s trip to the Moon I thought I’d go back to the list I have compiled of songs about summer, sunshine etc. Only this time there is a bit of a difference: all of today’s tunes have hot in their title, but none of them is about the weather! You’ll soon get the idea, I’m sure.

There are some big names in this week’s selection, and they don’t come much bigger than the guys opening the set, with a minute or so of spoken intro:

That concert performance by Led Zeppelin of Hot Dog was in August 1979, as the album to which Robert Plant refers, In Through The Out Door, was released that month. It was their eighth album, and the last one before the death of drummer John Bonham in September 1980, after which they disbanded. It got to #1 in the UK, the US and Canada, going Platinum in the UK and 6x Platinum in the US, as well as 2x Platinum in Australia, where it peaked at #3. Hot Dog was worked up in the band’s pre-production rehearsals, where they warmed up by playing a series of old Elvis Presley and Ricky Nelson covers. In his book about the band, the author Dave Lewis calls it a “rockabilly country hoe-down” that “owes much to the state of Texas and to the state of a particular female in Texas.” Sounds fair to me, and they seemed to be enjoying themselves playing it.

Another of my usual suspects is up next, another long time favourite. I’m going with the audio version, as there are only a few live videos on YouTube and their sound quality is appalling:

John Mellencamp released Hot Dogs And Hamburgers on his ninth album, The Lonesome Jubilee, in August 1987. The album made #1 in Canada, #2 in Australia, #3 in New Zealand, #6 in the US, and #31 in the UK: I was among the select group of Brits who bought it! Four singles were taken from it, two of which made the US top ten and another reached the top twenty, but this track wasn’t one of them. The album sold well, and has earned 3x Platinum status in the US for 3m sales, and 6x Platinum in Canada for 600k. Like everything he has done I loved the album, and never understood why he wasn’t the success here that he was elsewhere. No accounting for taste, is there!

This next one is a cover version, by the guy who recorded the song in the first place:

John Fogerty first released Hot Rod Heart in May 1997 on his fifth solo album, Blue Moon Swamp. It was a huge success in Scandinavia, reaching #1 in Finland and Sweden, and #3 in Norway, but fared less well in bigger markets. It peaked at #37 in the US – still good enough for a Gold Disc for 500k sales, but only got to #182 here in the UK. The version I am playing dates back to the pandemic days of 2020 when John ran a series of videos revisiting his back catalogue with his children, Shane, Tyler and Kelsy. These were compiled into an album under the name he used for the videos – Fogerty’s Factory – and released in November 2020, getting to #63 in the US. To be honest, the beauty of these was really in the videos, though, as you’ll have seen from this one. They were fun, and eagerly awaited each week by many like me, who needed some musical distractions from the horror of those times.

My penultimate tune for today goes back a bit further – to 1978, in fact:

That was, of course, Foreigner with Hot Blooded, which was released both as a single and the opening track on their second album, Double Vision, in June 1978. The album made #3 in both the US and Canada, and #31 in the UK, and has sold more than 7m copies in the US, earning 7x Platinum status. The single also reached #3 in the US, and a rather lowly #42 in the UK. Considering that the band comprised three members each from the US and the UK we took our time getting into them! This song was co-written by Lou Gramm, the lead singer, and Mick Jones, lead guitarist – that’s one from each side of the pond. Wikipedia quotes Lou as saying

“We used to work at Mick’s apartment and he would just keep playing one guitar riff after another. Just playing whatever came into his mind. When he started playing that riff, I remember saying, “Wait! Stop! What’s that?” Mick said it was just another riff. So, I started singing along to it. We eventually got the idea of what the chorus would be and then started working on the verse lyrics. Once they were put together it naturally led to the Hot Blooded verbal line. I remember we were jumping off the walls when we cracked the title of the song.”

So that’s how a hit record comes about, though other songwriting methods are available.

I’m closing today with a real gem of a video, and the song isn’t half bad either:

The Rolling Stones with She Was Hot, which was a track on their November 1983 album Undercover, and then became a single in January 1984. The album got to #1 in Sweden and The Netherlands, #2 in Canada, #3 in the UK and #4 in the US: it sold a million in the US and 100k here. The single wasn’t a huge success, only making #42 in the UK and #44 in the US, but I still love the video. The role of the temptress was played by Anita Morris, an actor who had risen to fame in Broadway musicals. I think she was a very good choice for it!

That’s all for today: a distinctly louder and rockier set than sometimes, fitting my current mood, and I hope you’ve enjoyed them. I’ll see you again in a couple of days with my monthly review – this time I’m trying out a new format, so I hope you drop in on it. Until then, take care and have fun 😊

 

50 thoughts on “Tuesday Tunes 262: Hot”

  1. Yes, it is HOT, though none of these had to do with the heat. LOL! Fun compilation. Brad knew them all except the last one. He likes all of them. 🙂 He wonders if you know the song, “Hot,Hot,Hot”?

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  2. When I read the title, I immediately associated it with temperature before I read your post.
    Thank you for linking to SSPS 371.  See you again Monday

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  3. Pingback: A New View Of July | Take It Easy

  5. It’s a little shocking that I had never heard the Fogerty and the Rolling Stones’ tunes until today, given their worldwide appeal. Normally, I would say the Foreigner song was my favorite because I love that band, but they have so many other tunes that I prefer over this one. Mellencamp gets my vote today as the best of five good ones.

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  6. All good ‘n’ hot numbers today. I tend to forget how good a song ‘Hot Blooded’ is. The Stones song is as fine a display of subtle innuendo as I’ve seen. Eye popping to say the least.

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  9. Thank you so much for a bit warmth! We have temperatures below 20°C for days and the won’t rise until the end of next week. But therefore we have lots of rain… so, again, thank you, Clive 🔥

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    • I was going for non-weather ‘hot’ songs today, but I did play Martha Reeves a few weeks ago so I haven’t forgotten her Heatwave song. Irving Berlin would be very unlikely to feature here though 🤣

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  13. Great choices, Clive! Nice to see John Fogerty’s kids (and dog) in that video. The Stones vid cracks me up; I wonder if that’s Mick’s house … could be. Speaking of hot, it’s 9AM and already 85ºF in NY which is 29.4ºC … and that’s even the city! We are not stepping foot outside today. 🥵

    How is your sweet little grandbaby? 💕

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    • Thank you, Nancy, glad you liked them. There are loads more Fogerty’s Factory videos if you haven’t seen them, some with more animals! That Stones video is great, isn’t it, and it seems a lot of fun was had by all.

      That’s far too hot for me – staying indoors sounds a good choice!

      Thank you for asking. Sirena is on a further course of antibiotics as a precaution, and they are hoping her feeding will improve while she is still in hospital. Fingers crossed 🤞

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    • They were all great, weren’t they. They were among several musicians who kept me going during the pandemic with shows from home: others included Kate Rusby, Caroline Jones, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Sarah Darling. I almost miss those days!

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