Elvis Presley

This tag is associated with 2 posts

Interview: Don McLean


Don McLean’s epic song “American Pie” laments “the day the music died” – the 1959 plane crash which killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper – and also tells a beautifully cryptic story about the subsequent evolution of rock ‘n’ roll and society. An enduring classic, it spent four weeks at Number One in 1972, and in 2017 was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress.

But McLean wasn’t a one-hit wonder. The American Pie album also included the hit song “Vincent”, a meditation on Vincent van Gogh and his masterpiece painting “Starry Night”. Other notable Don McLean songs include “Dreidel”, “Wonderful Baby”, “Since I Don’t Have You”, “Castles in the Air”, and a hit cover of Roy Orbison’s “Crying”. His most recent album was last year’s Botanical Gardens.

This interview was for a preview article for noozhawk.com for the 8/16/19 Don McLean concert at the Libbey Bowl in Ojai, California. It was done by phone on 7/10/19. (Publicity photo)

Interview: Wanda Jackson

Wanda Jackson is often referred to as the “Queen of Rockabilly”, and for good reason. After some success as a country singer, Elvis Presley himself encouraged her to try singing rockabilly, resulting in a string of hot tracks including “Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad”, “Mean, Mean Man”, “Fujiyama Mama” (which hit No. 1 in Japan), “Funnel of Love”, and “Let’s Have a Party” (which was a Top 40 hit in the U.S.) She blazed the trail for women in rock ‘n’ roll, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. Not content to rest on her laurels, earlier this year she released an album of smoking covers called The Party Ain’t Over, which was produced by and featured the guitar of Jack White. (L. Paul Mann photo)