For ‘right,’ read ‘wrong’

After last week’s detour to mark a milestone for this series I thought I’d return to the theme I had been playing before that: songs with right in their titles. I still have several more good ones for this, so I’m going with another set of them today. It’s a little unusual for me but I don’t think I have played any of these before on a Tuesday, though the artists are all familiar visitors – apart from one.

Without any further ado, aside from a quick thanks to Felon Moron for providing the header meme, let’s get the music going. This is the debutant in this set, as to my surprise I’ve never played them before:

Blind Faith were an English rock supergroup that consisted of Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Ric Grech. They followed the success of each of the member’s former bands, including Clapton and Baker’s former group Cream,  Winwood’s former group Traffic and Grech’s time with Family, but they split after a few months, producing only one album and a three-month summer tour in 1969. The new band’s name was confirmed as “Blind Faith” by Clapton, who thought it described everyone’s self-belief that the band would be successful, no matter what happened, and that fans of their former bands would buy their record regardless. I did buy it, and really liked it, though the obligatory Baker interminable drum solo did get a little wearing after a time! Well All Right was one of my favourite tracks on it, and was written by Buddy Holly and the Crickets, who were the first to record it. The Blind Faith album, released in July 1969,  reached #1 in the UK, the US, Canada, The Netherlands, Denmark and Norway, and sold over 8m copies worldwide, so Clapton’s view was proved right.

From a first timer to a regular visitor for this next one. This clearly isn’t an official video, but when you play an album track by a band who may not be widely known it’s always good to find a fellow fan making one for them:

Oysterband released We Could Leave Right Now in 1992 on their eleventh album, Deserters. I have this in my collection – from the days when we had to buy physical copies of our music – and have always liked it. Several of its tracks, including this one, made their way onto their second compilation double album, Granite Years – another track on this album. If you want a starter for the band I highly recommend that compilation: thirty tracks, and not a dud among them.

I’m having one of those ‘is it really that long ago’ moments now:

Cat Stevens, as he was back then, playing Maybe You’re Right, which had been a track on Mona Bone Jakon, his comeback album after a long spell out with a life-threatening illness: tuberculosis and a collapsed lung. I knew of him, of course, from his early pop star days, but first came upon this song when it was included on a sampler album by Island records: that album was Bumpers, and it was a fantastic collection. I didn’t often buy the albums that were featured on the compilations but I made an exception for this one, and it began my lifetime love of Cat Stevens and his music. The album was released in April 1970, and made #63 in the UK, #25 in Australia, and #164 in the US. It also included the lovely song Lady D’Arbanville, which reached #8 as a single in the UK. He had spent much of his time whilst recuperating from his illness in writing new songs, and was keen to release them: his next album, Tea For The Tillerman, followed just seven months later, and his chart success really began to take off from there.

This next one is from another of my favourite singer-songwriters, who I have probably played less than I should have done. So this is making up for that, just a bit:

Gerry Rafferty released Right Down The Line in January 1978 on City To City, his first solo album in more than six years, after his time in Stealer’s Wheel and record company disputes that prevented him releasing solo work for several years. The album was a big success, reaching #1 in both the US and Canada, #3 in Australia and #6 in the UK. It was helped by the single of Baker Street, which peaked at #1 in Australia, #2 in the US and #3 in the UK. Right Down The Line was released as a single in the US in July 1978, and made #12 there. We didn’t get it here as a single, but I’d had the album for months by then anyway!

To close this set, how about one of the great performers. This has a spoken intro with a great punchline:

In case you weren’t aware, You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth was a track on Meat Loaf’s blockbuster album, Bat Out Of Hell, which was released in October 1977 and peaked at #1 in Australia, Ireland, The Netherlands and New Zealand, at #3 in the UK and #13 in the US. It has gone on to sell more than 43m copies worldwide, including 14m in the US, despite that apparently low chart placing, with a further 3.6m here in the UK. It is an incredible album, which I have played many times down the years, and still sounds great today. We lost one of the great stage acts when he passed in 2022, which I marked at the time with this.

That’s all for today and, for now, for right as a theme. I’ll find something new for next week – maybe wrong, as a counterpoint to this mini-series. I’ll see you again in a couple of days, so until then take care and have fun 👍

[This is my now usual reminder that I’m sharing this post to a couple of links. Firstly, Esme’s Senior Salon Pit Stop, which was kind enough to have one of my posts from last week as its #1, and also Cathy’s Monday’s Music Moves Me.  Both are worth a visit, especially if you want to find out which of my posts made Esme’s #1!]