Throwback Thursday 26.01.17

Party like it's 1969. This week we're venturing back 52 years to the year of Space Oddity...

David Bowie's official star-studded 70th birthday bash rolled into Los Angeles last night as musicians and fans gathered to remember the man, myth and legend. Throughout the singer's life he explored a variety of different sounds, but perhaps his most memorable was his new wave track, Space Oddity.

David Bowie - Space Oddity

The song about the launch of Major Tom, a fictional astronaut, was released during a period of great interest in space flight. The United States' Apollo 11 Mission would launch five days later and would become the first manned moon landing another five days after that.

The Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup

The song written by Mike d'Abo and Tony Macaulay, was released by The Foundations in 1968 with Colin Young singing lead vocals. Young had replaced Clem Curtis during 1968 and this was the first Foundations hit on which he sang.

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Proud Mary

Before Tina Turner turned this tune into the ultimate karaoke classic we know and love today, it was performed in 1969 and Creedence Clearwater Revival. The jam was arranged from parts of different songs, one of which was about a washerwoman named Mary. The line "Left a good job in the city" was written following the song's writer, John Fogerty's discharge from the National Guard, and the line "rollin' on the river" was from a movie by Will Rogers.

Marvin Gaye -I Heard It Through the Grapevine

By 1966, Barrett Strong, the singer on Motown Records' breakthrough hit, Money (That's What I Want), had the basics of a song he had started to write in Chicago, where the idea had come to him while walking down Michigan Avenue that people were always saying "I heard it through the grapevine".

The Archies - Sugar Sugar

originally recorded by the Archies, a bubblegum pop band formed by a group of fictional teenagers in the television cartoon series The Archie Show. It reached number one in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1969 and stayed there for four weeks

#TheArchies #MarvinGaye #CreedenceClearwaterRevival #TheFoundations #DavidBowie