Tuesday Tunes 277: Fire!

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Although our Bonfire Night is now behind us – apart from the neighbourhood twat still letting off fireworks late on Sunday night – I have collected many songs with fire in their title and, not wanting to be wasteful, I thought I’d play another set of them this week. I have probably played most of them before but they are all worthy of another airing, so here we go.

This looks like a re-created video but the song is still a classic to get us off to a great start:

I’m sure you don’t need reminding that Great Balls of Fire goes all the way back to 1957, when it was #1 in the UK and #2 in the US, a few months before his UK tour was cancelled after just three shows when it came out that his third wife (at the age of just 22!) was only 13, and was a first cousin once removed (don’t ask, I’ve never understood that either). I suspect that even after all these years, that might happen nowadays too. It doesn’t seem to have done any long term damage to his career, though!

I’m going back a few years for my next tune, too:

That is a fairly recent video for the song, which actually dates back to early 1965. Play With Fire was the B-side of The Last Time single (UK #1, US #9), and was also included on the US version of the Rolling Stones’ album from later in 1965, Out Of Our Heads, though not on the UK release – we were expected to buy the single too! It subsequently appeared on several compilation albums in the US, but we had to wait until 1971 before we got an album version here. To me, none of that matters: it is still a great song.

While I’m in slow mode, how about this one:

That still sounds as magical and beautiful to me now as it ever has, more than fifty years since I first heard it. Fire And Rain was a track on James Taylor’s second album, Sweet Baby James, released in February 1970, peaking at #3 in the US and #6 in the UK. It became the second single from the album, released in August 1970, and also reached #3 in the US, but only #42 here in the UK. There is a timeless quality to James’ music, I think: beautiful songs and his lovely, warm voice. And that BBC In Concert series was a treasure trove of great music, which also featured the likes of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell.

This week’s outlier, by virtue of being much more recent, is from a singer-songwriter whose albums I love. She has been incredibly successful, and I think you can see why from this:

Is that just stunningly good, or what! Set Fire To The Rain was a track on 21, Adele’s second album, which was released in January 2011. Wikipedia shows it as having been #1 in thirty countries, including both the US and the UK (where it was at #1 for 23 weeks), it has won countless awards, including a Brit and two Grammys, it was the best selling album in the world in both 2011 and 2012 and has so far sold more than 31m copies worldwide, making it the fourth best seller of all time by a solo artist. I think that counts as a success, doesn’t it? Just for good measure, this song was the third single taken from the album, in July 2011. Although it somehow only reached #11 here in the UK, it made the top ten in many countries and was #1 in several more, including the US, where it was her third successive #1. Despite that relatively low peak placing, the song spent 56 weeks on the UK singles chart and has sold more than 2.4m copies here. It has also sold more than 5m in the US and over 2m in the rest of the world. Not bad for a lass from Tottenham!

In previous fire selections I have played the UK hit version of today’s final tune, by Julie Driscoll and the Brian Auger Trinity, but I fancied a change, so I’m going with the first version of the song that I knew:

The Band, with This Wheel’s on Fire. Considering that this video is 55 years old, I think it has stood the passing of time well, with the help of a little AI enhancement. It shows what a good live band they were, though I never got to see them – very few bands of their stature came anywhere near Dover (Kent, UK, the original), where I lived at the time! The song was co-written by Rick Danko and Bob Dylan – The Band had previously been his backing musicians. The album it was on, Music From Big Pink, was their debut, released in July 1968 and it peaked at #30 in the US but didn’t make our charts – it is still a great album to me, though. So much talent there, and I played that album to bits!

That’s it for my second set of fire songs. If you like these I still have more than enough for another set, so maybe I’ll run this theme again? Let me know what you think, or if I have missed any of your favourites (Pointer Sisters, Springsteen, Arthur Brown…).

I’ll see you again in a few days, but until then I hope you have a good week and better weather than I’m getting! Take care 😊

49 thoughts on “Tuesday Tunes 277: Fire!”

    • I think we all had that crush! Good to know you also liked that Band album, as it didn’t do too well here.

      I’ve played Arthur before and he’s among the candidates for a third set 👍

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  4. I knew them all for a chnage. Adele is my favorite of the ones you played. I’m not sure you will like this one by Pat Benatar, but she has always been one of my favorites. She has been married to guitarist Neil “Spyder Giraldo since 1982. He handles most of the solo riffs in the band. Interestingly, she was married at 19 to a guy named Dennis Benatar, and still uses his name.

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    • I went mainstream this week, didn’t I! Adele is always a standout, she is just so good.

      I’ve played that Pat Benatar one before and it is on the list of possibles for a third post. I prefer others of hers, but they don’t fit this theme!

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  5. Adele’s song will be stuck in my head again, but that’s okay. She is an amazing singer!
    Great balls of fire always reminds me of the Top Gun movie and the scene of them at the piano singing the song. 🙂
    Glad you did a second post for the theme. Are you saving Blackmore’s Night song for your third post? 😉

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    • I agree on Adele, such a great voice and she writes good songs too.

      I don’t recall that scene – many years since I saw the movie!

      They are one of several possibilities for a third post so, maybe…

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      • You will have to watch it again now. 😃
        Goose is the one that sings the song while playing the piano. Funny how some scenes just stay in my mind yet there is always some item I forget ro buy at the grocery store! 🤣

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      • Haha!

        It never fails! I had to laugh because the man ahead of me in line at the checkout was looking at the lady”s groceries in front of him and said out loud how she had two items that he forgot. Then he saw my eggs and said how he forgot them too. 🤣 He looked younger than me!

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  18. A really great post everyone a winner especially The Stones and James Taylor.. though not a Jerry Lee Lewis fan I have to admit he was seminal to the progression of music.

    As for Set Fire to the rain the only version for me is….. Yup you got it 😀

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  19. In a public setting at the moment and forgotten my earphones so can’t listen to the Stones and The Band yet but know all the others and fine choices. James Taylor’s voice is timeless isn’t it, he sounds the same as when he was 21. Beautiful song. And agree with everything you’ve said about Adele, masterful, perfect song-writing on 21 particularly.

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    • Thank you for dropping in, even if you can’t listen to them yet! I’m glad you like my choices, but are you really saying you don’t know either the Stones or Band ones? If so, I’m amazed, but I think you’ll like them. James and Adele both have wonderful voices, in their different ways, and I can listen to them for ages.

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