Peppered with unforgettable melodies and tongue-twisting songs, The Pirates of Penzance is one of the most popular operettas ever written. Opera Australia's new production is an effervescent smash hit with a national tour and jubilant sellout seasons everywhere.
While mostly accurate, dismissing Never Mind the Bollocks as merely a series of loud, ragged midtempo rockers with a harsh, grating vocalist and not much melody would be a terrible error. Already anthemic songs are rendered positively transcendent by Johnny Rotten's rabid, foaming delivery. His bitterly sarcastic attacks on pretentious affectation and the very foundations of British society were all carried out in the most confrontational, impolite manner possible. Most imitators of the Pistols' angry nihilism missed the point: underneath the shock tactics and theatrical negativity were social critiques carefully designed for maximum impact. Never Mind the Bollocks perfectly articulated the frustration, rage, and dissatisfaction of the British working class with the establishment, a spirit quick to translate itself to strictly rock & roll terms. the Pistols paved the way for countless other bands to make similarly rebellious statements, but arguably none were as daring or effective.
Linda Ronstadt's generically titled four-CD, five-hour, 86-track box set retrospective attempts with considerable success to encompass the many types of music she's sung from the mid-'60s to the late '90s. The album is divided into five unequal parts, with 31 tracks given over to an "Album Retrospective," followed by seven tracks from "The Nelson Riddle Sessions," her three albums of classic pop, then five songs "En Español," drawn from her three Spanish language albums. That takes up the first two discs, with the third disc consisting of 20 "Collaborations" and the fourth 23 "Rarities".
Michael: The last studio I worked in was a supertech palace in upstate New York and it was minus ten outside. So here I am in a shed with a sod roof, annoying wildlife and helicopters in the warmth of a Cornish spring and miles from my comfort zone. We are so different, the two of us: a perfectionist and a gambler, a planner and a chancer. We might need a referee. This record has been meticulously planned, but I haven’t even heard the songs. I like it that way. The precision and sophistication of the writing and playing blows me away. I am so glad to be involved.
Maureen McGovern was a secretary when she was hired by Russ Regan to sing the theme from the movie The Poseidon Adventure in 1973. It was a #1 hit. The following year, McGovern sang the theme from The Towering Inferno, "We May Never Love Like This Again," which was not a hit, though it did win an Academy Award. McGovern went on to other movie themes, then distanced herself from such work, appearing on Broadway in The Pirates of Penzance. She built a reputation as a sophisticated pop singer to the point that she was able to headline at Carnegie Hall by the '90s, singing show music and standards by George Gershwin and other songwriters