On The Records

What American bands were the best?  What British bands were the biggest in the U.S.?

We’ll take a look at some official rankings first.  The Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA) certifies sales in the U.S.  The numbers for international sales are estimates that can vary wildly…so we’ll stick with the certified numbers.  America is the largest market for U.S. & U.K. bands, so it’s a good representation of their accomplishments.

It’s not a surprise that the Eagles are the biggest selling American band, since they have the #1 and #3 best-selling albums in history…Eagles Greatest Hits & Hotel California.  In fact, their sales are almost double the #2 band, Aerosmith.  Are the Eagles also the best American band?

In an opinion piece I saw recently, The Beach Boys were selected as the best, and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers were #2.  Those are two of my favorite bands, so I can understand the choices.  However, despite Brian Wilson’s genius arrangements and productions, the amazing catalog of recordings by the Eagles qualifies them as the best.  Their songwriting, recordings, and performing are all stellar.  The public sure thinks so.  Compare the best albums from both groups…Hotel California has sold about 40-million copies, and Pet Sounds has sold about 2-million.  How the public reacts to a band’s music (sales and concert attendance) definitely should factor into the “best” band debate, especially when the gap is so huge.

So where are Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers?  The problem is that some of their albums were considered Tom Petty solo albums, even though they all had a minimum of three Heartbreakers on each of them.  Here are the numbers when Petty’s albums are all put together.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers move into the top-selling groups when their work is taken as a whole.  The 31.5-million total puts them into 7th place on the top sales list.  Petty’s style of music certainly fits America.  It’s a mix of Rock & Roll, Country, R&B, and even the British Invasion.  They were often compared to The Byrds, which was a very influential American band.

There’s another band that was left out, and there were a couple reasons.  Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young have their sales numbers unfairly divided.  Young came and went, and he only contributed 10 songs to their official studio recordings.  CSN’s sales shouldn’t be separated simply because CSN sometimes added the Y.  Here’s a look at their total sales when considered one band.  It includes none of their numerous solo recordings.

The second problem for the group is that Graham Nash is from England, and Neil Young is from Canada.  Both are now American citizens.  Still, CSN is a group that started in the U.S. and remained here.  Compare that with Fleetwood Mac being considered a British Band, even though they moved to America, added two key American musicians, and then had their greatest success.

The “Best” (not-only-sales) ranking of American bands for me is fairly close to the other opinion piece.  1. Eagles  2. Beach Boys 3. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers  4. Crosby Stills Nash & Young  5. Creedence Clearwater Revival.  If all of the solo work by Crosby Stills Nash & Young could be included, they would be my #1.

Here’s how British bands did in America.

To no one’s surprise, the band that opened the British Invasion, The Beatles, are #1.  You can see this lineup of British bands is especially high quality, and the top ones would also rank high on a combined American/British chart.  American music was originally the greatest influence on British musicians.  They then added their own interpretations and original songs.  That in turn influenced all the other artists who emerged after hearing the British bands.

The “Best” (not-only-sales) British bands for me are the top five in sales, but shuffled.  1. The Beatles  2. Pink Floyd  3. Fleetwood Mac. 4. The Rolling Stones  5. Led Zeppelin.

Okay, let’s also look at what happens when we open up the certified sales rankings to all Rock & Pop artists.

Of the eleven artists listed, four are from England, and one from Australia (AC/DC).  Extra points to you if you predicted Pink Floyd and Barbra Streisand would be tied.  You might notice that out of the six U.S. artists on the list, the only American Band is the Eagles.

As we assess the songs of our best songwriters, what is more important, the lyrics or the melody?

We’ll start with the man and the woman often mentioned as our greatest songwriters…Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell.

Bob Dylan has been a masterful songwriter for decades, but his most iconic and popular songs are from the 1960s (as you’ll see below).  Those songs include “Blowin’ In The Wind”,  “The Times They Are A -Changin’”, “Mr. Tambourine Man”, “Like A Rolling Stone”. and “Positively 4th Street”.  Of course Dylan writes excellent melodies, but he’s mostly recognized for his lyrics.  He’s influenced generations of artists as he expanded topics and styles of songwriting.

So how have his songs fared on the “Top 10” singles chart on Billboard?  (As shown on Google)

Of all the songs written by Bob Dylan, only one ever made #1…”Mr. Tambourine Man” as recorded by The Byrds.  His Top 10 writing total is actually 8 songs, because Google missed “It Ain’t Me Babe” #8 by The Turtles in 1965.

In our family, Dylan spans generations.  I started collecting Dylan albums in the 60s, our son (who was born in the 70s) is a big Dylan fan, and on a recent day trip to the coast with our grandkids, Eddie (18) and Samantha (15), Eddie was free to choose any music from my collection, and we all enjoyed listening to Bob Dylan for much of the drive.

Joni Mitchell is extremely well thought of as a writer, singer, and innovative guitarist.  Her albums Blue, For The Roses, and Court & Spark are treasures.  Her songs include “Both Sides Now”, “The Circle Game”, “Big Yellow Taxi”, “River”, and “Help Me”.  She’s influenced female and male songwriters with her very personal style of lyrics, and her blending of musical  genres.

Like Bob Dylan, her brilliance didn’t significantly translate to the Billboard chart (according to Google information).

Music critics rightfully love the lyrical prowess of Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, and it seems almost crazy that more of their songs we love didn’t translate into more commercial success.  By the way, I looked up two more artists I love, CSN&Y and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.  I own nearly everything they recorded (group & solo), but neither artist had much impact on the Billboard Top 10.

Now we move on to a couple songwriters who are known to be two of our greatest melody writers…Paul McCartney and Carole King.

Paul McCartney has written some of the best known and most recorded songs in the history of popular music.  They include “Let It Be”, “Yesterday”, “Hey Jude”, “Blackbird”, “Michelle”, and “Here There and Everywhere”.  Those particular songs are ones McCartney basically wrote himself while he was in The Beatles.  We’re now over sixty years since Beatlemania, and McCartney is universally recognized as an amazing melody writer.  His lyrics can be impressive too.

So, how have McCartney’s songs performed on the Billboard chart?

That’s a record 32 #1 songs, and a total of 57 Top 10 hits…too numerous to include all the titles here.  McCartney’s greatest chart success was in the 60s, 70s (he was the top artist that decade on the singles chart) and 80s, and his run of writing or co-writing hits that made the Top 10 in the U.S. spans seven decades, 1964 through 2023.

Carole King was actually known for her very impressive songwriting before she became a performer.  It’s important to give credit to her main lyricist, Gerry Goffin, but it was Carole King who wrote the melodies.  Check out the list of hits she wrote.

That’s a total of seven #1 songs (two of them were #1 twice for separate artists), and two of them were her own recordings.  A total of 19 recordings of Carole King’s songs made the Top 10.

Music critics naturally focus on lyrics, because they’re much easier to write about than trying to describe a melody.  The statistics seem to show the melodies are more important with the public, as long as the lyrics satisfyingly work for the composition.

Overall, the songwriters in this article are skilled at writing both the words and music, so let’s pose the question another way.   When we attempt to rank the best songwriters, should we give more weight to their ability to write the lyrics, or the melodies?

it looks like the person who can write the melodies and perform the songs is the one who becomes famous.

Bonus:  Looked up more songwriters, so you don’t have to.

Paul Simon is known for both his lyrics and melodies.

Additionally, Paul Simon won the Grammy Award for Album Of The Year three times, second only to Taylor Swift’s record four times.

Brian Wilson was like Carole King, he wrote the melodies and almost always used a lyricist.  Of course he was also known for his arranging and production.

And we conclude with the top hits written by Don Henley, who is well known for the quality of his lyrics (among other musical talents).

What happened when John Lennon and Paul McCartney each wrote a song about the same subject?  One song was clearly better, but that wasn’t the end of the story.

In 1968, John, Paul, George, & Ringo decided to go to India to study with the Maharishi Yogi.

It was partially successful.  The Beatles appreciated some of the teachings, but they were also ultimately disillusioned by some of the Maharishi’s personal actions.  Meanwhile, it was an unusual opportunity for The Beatles to slow down their pace of living.  It gave them time for resting and songwriting.

At one point, John and Paul were each inspired to write a song about nature.

John’s song was titled “Child Of Nature”, and Paul’s was “Mother Nature’s Son”.  Both artists recorded demos prior to the sessions for The White Album.

Here’s John’s demo (listen to at least 53-seconds to get the idea):

You can hear that it’s a good melody, but it doesn’t really work with the lyrics about nature.  The line “I’m just a child of nature, I’m one of nature’s children” is extremely redundant for a writer of John’s ability.  It’s stilted, like he’s trying too hard to make it all fit together.

Here’s Paul’s demo:

It’s obvious this demo has a better feel and flow.  You can imagine the singer sitting in a field singing as he plays his guitar.  It all works.  “Mother Nature’s Son” made the cut for the album.

A year later, 1969, John Lennon briefly tried to rework “Child Of Nature” with a different title and lyrics during the Let It Be sessions, but to no avail.  John didn’t give up.  Finally, in 1971 the song became “Jealous Guy”.  Here it is:

”Jealous Guy” is considered one of the best song’s on Lennon’s #1 album, Imagine.

And here’s the beautiful finished version of MCartney’s “Mother Nature’s Son”.  Notice the subtle orchestration.

John and Paul were great co-writers, but they were also competitive.  In this case it was win-win.

The wait is finally over!  After years of expecting the Rubber Soul box set to be released, it’s coming out October 2nd, 2026.  The full album and extra tracks are remixed by Giles Martin and Sam Okell.

The vinyl version has five albums and the “We Can Work It Out” & “Day Tripper” single that was released on the same day as the original album.  Plus there’s an 88-page hardcover book.

The CD box set has four discs, and the two tracks of the single are included.  It also has the full-size hardcover book.

The box sets include the British album in remixed stereo, an album of 26 outtakes from the recording sessions, the British album in original mono, and the U.S. album in original stereo.

Below are the extra session tracks as shown on the CD version (click or zoom to enlarge).  The only completely new song is John Lennon’s demo of “Little Girl”.

If you don’t want to spring for a box set, there are 2-disc and 1-disc versions available.

The best bargain is probably the two CD version with a 40-page booklet.  One CD is the new remixed album, and the other has 16 highlights from the session outtakes.

A Blu-ray version is also available.  It has the new Dolby Atmos and Stereo remixes of the original album, plus videos of “We Can Work It Out” and “Day Tripper”.  It’s priced at $36.

There’s even an unusual single vinyl album picture disc for sale on The Beatles website.

We’ve waited a long time, but soon we’ll have the fully remixed version of Rubber Soul and its outtakes.  I’ve already ordered my box set.

Extra:  For the story of Rubber Soul and the different U.S. & U.K. versions, here’s the link:

https://ontherecords.net/2019/04/the-beatles-rubber-soul-two-versions/

Recently, there were two articles about which Beatles songs were most recorded by other artists.  Here’s a combined graphic from the two articles, and as you can see there are some differences.  We’ll also do an analysis of the songs artists have chosen.

First, you’ll notice that the songs are in a different order, even though they start out the same with “Yesterday” and “Eleanor Rigby”.  All eight of the songs in the shorter list also appear in the top nine of the longer list.  So they’re not that different.  As for the order, it’s likely the list with 14 songs (actually 15, because of the tie at the end) is the more accurate one, because other similar rankings show “Let It Be” is very popular with musicians, as are “Something” and “Hey Jude”.

Obviously, the lists are from two different sources, and they may have been from two different times as well.  Here’s what I got today when I asked Google.

That top five is a strong group.  All five had Paul McCartney as the lead songwriter.  In fact, Paul McCartney was the main songwriter on 10 of the top 15 on the long list.  John Lennon has two non-single tracks from the Rubber Soul album…“Norwegian Wood” at #10 and “In My Life” at #13, plus “Come Together” at #11.  George Harrison has “Something” at #4 on that list, and “Here Comes The Sun” (another non-single) at #12.  Half of McCartney’s ten songs were also non-singles.  That means that only seven of the top 15 Beatles cover songs were hits, which speaks highly for the quality of their album tracks.

“Yesterday” is not just the most covered Beatles song, it’s the most recorded song ever written.  The music and lyrics are solely by Paul McCartney, and he’s the only Beatle on the recording.

Beatles songs have been around for over half-a-century, so there’s been time for a clear perspective of their quality.  Beatles fans all love John, Paul, George, and Ringo, but when it comes to songwriting, time has proven that Paul McCartney’s melodies stand out the most.  That doesn’t lessen the amazing level of John Lennon’s or George Harrison’s songwriting and performances, it simply confirms the reality of McCartney’s talent.

Just when you think an audio format is dying, it makes a comeback!

it happened with vinyl albums, and now it’s happening with Compact Discs.

(Some of my CD’s in natural light, reflecting colors.)

Ever since auto manufacturers stopped putting CD players in vehicles, computer manufacturers stopped including CD drives, and most importantly streaming music took over, CD sales have seen an overall decline.  But they started a comeback in 2021, and are making another move up this year.

According to the research firm Luminate, CD sales have gone up faster than vinyl…16% the first half of 2026.  That compares with a 2.4% increase in vinyl sales.  Vinyl still leads in physical sales at 21.8 million units, with CD’s at 16.3 million, and cassettes are still around, with 205 thousand units sold the first six months this year.  Overall, sales of music on physical media went up 7.8%.

So why the increases?  Music fans want physical souvenirs of their favorite artists, and enjoy actually owning the music.  CD’s are the more affordable way to own music, with vinyl albums often priced at about $25, and CD’s normally priced at less than half as much.

Here are some booklets from a few of my Classic Rock CD’s, and they do make good keepsakes, as well as provide extra information about the albums.

The fact that CD’s are digital means the songs can easily be loaded into our computers.  If you don’t have a CD drive, this will do the job:

It’s an inexpensive Apple CD/DVD drive that lets you play & input CD’s, and also lets you burn songs from your computer onto recordable CD’s.  It’s small, not much bigger than a CD case, and the CD’s just slide in the front.

Another indicator that CD’s are making a comeback is the increasing number of players that are now available.  They range from high-quality component players to inexpensive little portable players like the one below.  It was made to look like a turntable, and the CD on it was made to look like a record (click to enlarge).

CD collecting will probably never return to a time when music fans will own a large number of CD’s, like we did at the turn of the century.

As you can see on the right side of this old photo, my floor-standing CD case held hundreds of CD’s.

Before we moved half way across the country to Oregon, we sold most of our albums and CD’s.

Today, we just have a small collection of CD’s and box sets, but we own a large collection of digital songs (many from all those old CD’s & albums), and we can listen to what we want from our streaming service.  I still buy a small number of CD’s when there are special releases…like those Beatles and CSNY box sets.  For more current artists, I tend to buy digital albums.

The New York Times asked their readers to name the top living American songwriters, and the list they came up with is impressive.  Here are the Top 10.

Of course it would be easy to shuffle around these ten a bit (like moving Carole King up to #3), but overall the public chose some great songwriters.  The fact that they had to be living means we miss out on artists like Brian Wilson and Tom Petty, and of course the top songwriters prior to the 1960s.  Also, they couldn’t include the great songwriters Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, because they were born in Canada.

The artists chosen are mostly toward the end of their careers.  Bob Dylan is 85, Paul Simon 84, Bruce Springsteen 76, Carole King 84, Billy Joel 77, Stevie Wonder 76, Taylor Swift 36, Dolly Parton 80, James Taylor 78, and Willie Nelson 93.  Taylor Swift is the only exception, with her age being less than half of any of the other songwriters.

It’s cool to see the public come up with a list that includes artists who are actually popular, versus critics who like to rank niche artists into higher slots than they likely deserve.  As a consumer, I’ve purchased music from all ten of these performers.

The listing of songwriters went all the way to 100.  The differences in the artists’ ranking become less significant down the list; however, it’s still fun to check out the next 20 (click to enlarge).

Again, we could debate the order, but the quality of their talent is obviously high.  It’s nice to see some songwriters who are not known for their performing, such as the Motown team of Brian & Eddie Holland.  They, along with the deceased Lamont Dozier, were writers of an unbelievable number of hits.  You may remember seeing the songwriters listed as Holland-Dozier-Holland on some great Motown albums.

The 25,000 New York Times readers’ top two certainly are American treasures.  The best songs written by Bob Dylan and Paul Simon will become a permanent part of the American Songbook.

Apparently too many years have passed for our classic artists to be well known.  It’s crazy how two diametrically opposed articles on one band could come out this week.

The first article listed Badfinger as one-hit wonders.  Just as strange, the article claimed their one hit was “Without You”.  That’s a song written by the group, but it wasn’t their hit single, rather the song was a major cover hit by Harry Nilsson…“Can’t live, if living is without you.”

Anyone who knows Badfinger, or even bothers to look them up, would know they had several hits of their own…“Come And Get It” #7, “No Matter What” #8, “Day After Day” #4, and “Baby Blue” #14.  So…not one-hit wonders!

The other article was accurate.  Badfinger has been recognized for their “Power Pop” writing and arranging.  Most of their credibility is through their album Straight Up, which has been called a “Power Pop Masterpiece”.

Above is my CD version of their album, and it includes bonus tracks produced by Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick that are mostly better than the versions used on the original release.

Another way to get to know Badfinger is with one of their collections.

You can pull out a CD or album, or pull up a playlist.  Either way, you’ll hear that Badfinger is definitely not a band that’s a one-hit wonder!

A new documentary film about Peter Asher covers his time in Peter & Gordon and his transformation into one of the world’s most successful music producers.

The film has been screened at special events, and will expand to wide release in theaters on June 26th.  Peter Asher will have turned 82 four days earlier.

Besides some time as a child actor, the public became aware of Peter Asher when he and his singing partner, Gordon Waller, released the #1 hit “World Without Love” in 1964.  We soon learned that the song was written by Paul McCartney, who was dating Peter’s sister, Jane.

Peter & Gordon had a short but successful career with 10 Top-40 hits, including “True Love Ways”, “Woman” (another McCartney song), “Lady Godiva”, and “I Go To Pieces”.  Here’s the picture sleeve from their single I bought in 1965.

Peter & Gordon disbanded in 1967, but Peter embarked on an even more successful career path.  He was developing talent for Apple Corp when he signed James Taylor.  That eventually led to Asher becoming one of the world’s leading music producers.  His biggest clients were James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt.

The above photo was taken by Annie Leibowitz for the cover of the Rolling Stone.  By that time, both Taylor and Ronstadt had a series of multi-platinum albums produced by Peter Asher.  Here’s the cover with the photo they chose.

Peter Asher’s production skills were in high demand by many other performers.  That’s why the title of the film is the reverse of The Beatles’ song “Nowhere Man”.

That’s the basis of the film, and we’ll hear a long list of celebrities share their stories about Peter Asher.  I’ll add a review of the documentary when it’s available.

Paul McCartney promised he’d have a new album this year, and it was released May 29th.

The album is The Boys Of Dungeon Lane.  The title refers to a road near where McCartney grew up in Liverpool.

The first single from the album is “Days We Left Behind”.

Here’s the audio:

The first single is a good song, and definitely nostalgic.  Paul says the album includes a lot of memories of his life in Liverpool.  You can hear Paul’s voice is showing his 83 years of living, and nearly 70 years of performing.

The album track “Home To Us” features Ringo Starr drumming and trading vocal lines with Paul.  Having Paul & Ringo’s voices together makes it the most Beatles-sounding track on the album.  It was released as a single on May 8th.  Here it is:

Here are the two sides of the album’s inner sleeve filled with historic photos (as shown on McCartney’s official site).

Most of the reviews of the album have been very positive.  Having listened to the entire album, my first impression is that you need to be a McCartney fan, and understand an 83-year-old simply can’t sing the way he used to.  The songs are good overall, but Paul’s voice is now thin.  McCartney plays almost all of the instruments himself, and he’s still an impressive musician.  The album is definitely worth checking out.  I’ll add some more specifics after I’ve had time for repeated listening.

Update:  Getting to know the album has improved my appreciation for McCartney’s latest work.  For my own playlist, I started with the best songs that fit the nostalgia portion of the album.

1. Lost Horizon
2. Salesman Saint
3. Days We Left Behind
4. Down South
5. Home To Us
6. We Two
7. Ripples In A Pond
8. Life Can Be Hard
9. Mountain Top
10. Come Inside (My Mind)

“Lost Horizon” would be a perfect album opener since it salutes both the old and the new.  It includes the lyrics… “Take me back to the lost horizon, where every memory we shared brought us closer together.”

Then, placing the songs in historical chronological order:   “Salesman Saint” is about Paul’s father (Salesman) and mother (Saint), as they worked through World War II to survive and provide for their family.  It has a cool horn arrangement that recalls the Big Band music of the time.  “Days We Left Behind” tells about the early days of the Liverpool lads, including a reference to meeting John Lennon.  Paul’s aging voice is actually appropriate for the song.  “Down South” is a straight-forward acoustic guitar song about Paul and George Harrison getting to know each other as they hitchhiked in the south of England.  And, we end the nostalgic songs with “Home To Us”, which is Paul & Ringo Starr singing about their youth in Liverpool.

Another line from “Lost Horizon” provides a link to the rest of the album… “Make every moment count.  You’ve got to live for now, along the lost horizon.”

The best of the “now” songs are “We Two”, “Ripples In A Pond”, “Life Can Be Hard”, “Mountain Top”, and “Come Inside (My Mind)”.  There are good songs on Paul’s previous two albums, McCartney III and Egypt Station, but The Boys Of Dungeon Lane is better than both of those albums.

Bonus:  The melody that stuck in my head is from the beginning of Paul’s old fashioned song… “Life Can Be Hard”:

If you catch the line…“no food in the larder.”…you need to know a “larder” is a pantry.  By the way, Paul introduced a portion of this song in his 2021 documentary, McCartney 3, 2, 1.

Update:  And here’s how the album charted, according to Google..