Each day, Rich Terfry and Radio 2 Drive wraps up your day with music and stories about the interesting things going on in the world.
RICH'S PICK: "The Rite of Spring" (Danse des adolescentes) by Igor Stravinsky
JUNK IN THE TRUNK:
80 facts about the 80s:
In 1987, 25% of mattress sales were waterbeds...
How to hypnotize a cat:
REAR VIEW MIRROR:
Every week, Rich Terfry looks back in our Rear-view Mirror at a great song from the good ol’ days. This week, James Brown's "Please Please Please."
James Brown's first hit was originally released in an attempt by his spiteful label boss to prove to everyone it wouldn't be a hit!
Listen to the audio version of Rear-view Mirror by hitting the Play button
One night in 1955, legendary singer Etta James met a young man who was eager to break into the music business. She was struck by the fact that he carried an old tattered napkin with him. He said he took it with him everywhere he went. Written on the napkin were three words written by another legend. Little Richard. The three words? "Please, please, please." The young man's name was James Brown and he told Etta James he was going to take those words and turn them into a hit.
Early the next year, in 1956, James Brown and his band, The Famous Flames signed a record deal with Cincinnati-based label Federal Records. The first song the band recorded was the one James Brown crafted from Little Richard's note. When the president of his label, Syd Nathan heard the song, he hated it. He refused to release it. He said it would never be a hit. But after James Brown and other label executives fought for the song, Nathan relented. He said he would release it, if only to prove to everyone that it wasn't a hit.
He couldn't have been too upset over how wrong he was after the song became one of the biggest hits of 1956 and sold well over one million copies.
The song lives on as a classic and is regarded as one of the greatest songs ever recorded.
Here's the song that introduced the world to the man who would come to be known as "The Godfather of Soul." This is "Please, Please, Please."
Here are some other great editions of Rear-view Mirror:
Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Sweet Home Alabama"
Bobbie Gentry - "Ode to Billie Joe"
The Beach Boys - "Never Learn Not to Love"
The Kinks - "You Really Got Me"
Al Green - "Let's Stay Together"
Simon and Garfunkel - "The Boxer"
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - "Tracks of my Tears"
Elvis Presley - "Heartbreak Hotel"
Bruce Cockburn - "Lovers In A Dangerous Time"
Bob Dylan & Jimi Hendrix - "All Along The Watchtower"
Phil Spector and the Ronnettes - "Be My Baby"
Os Mutantes - "Ando Meio Desligado"
The Diamonds - "Little Darlin"
Captain Beefheart - "Yellow Brick Road"
Elton John - "Bennie and the Jets"
Hank Williams - "Long Gone Lonesome Blues"
R.E.M. - "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"
Tom Waits - "Jockey Full of Bourbon"
Neil Diamond - "Sweet Caroline"
Buffalo Springfield - "For What It's Worth"
Five Man Electrical Band - "Signs"
Band Aid - "Do They Know It's Christmas"
Bob Dylan - "Tangled Up In Blue"
The Beatles - "Norwegian Wood"
The Pursuit of Happiness - "I'm An Adult Now"
Bruce Springsteen - "Born To Run"
Big Joe Turner - "Shake Rattle and Roll"
Martha and the Muffins - "Echo Beach"
Wilson Pickett - "In The Midnight Hour"
The Band - "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"
Fleetwood Mac - "Go Your Own Way"
The Animals - "House of the Rising Sun"
Ian and Sylvia - "Four Strong Winds"
James Brown - "Please Please Please"
John Cougar Mellencamp - "Pink Houses'"
The Ramones - "I Wanna Be Sedated"
The Guess Who - "American Woman"
U2 - "I Still Have't Found What I'm Looking For"
Janis Joplin - "Me and Bobby McGee"
Gordon Lightfoot - "If You Could Read My Mind"
The Byrds - "Eight Miles High"
Simon and Garfunkel - "The Sound of Silence"
Bill Haley and his Comets - "Rock Around The Clock"
The Velvet Underground - "I'm Waiting For The Man"
Johnny Cash - "Folsom Prison Blues"
Bobby Fuller - "I Fought The Law"
Joy Division - "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
Booker T and the MGs - "Green Onions"
Neil Young - "Rockin' in the Free World"
The Left Banke - "Walk Away Renee"
Lou Reed - "Walk On The Wild Side"
James Taylor - "Fire And Rain"
The Clash - "Should I Stay or Should I Go"
Marvin Gaye - "Sexual Healing"
Radiohead - "Paranoid Android"
The Animals - "We Gotta Get Out of this Place"
Dusty Springfield - "Son of a Preacher Man"
Screamin' Jay Hawkins - "I Put A Spell On You"
Mott The Hoople - "All the Young Dudes"
New York Dolls - "Personality Crisis"
George Jones - "He Stopped Loving Her Today"
Bruce Springsteen - "Born in the USA"
The Beatles - "With A Little Help From My Friends"
James Brown - "Hot (I Need to be loved loved loved)"
Inner Circle - "Tenement Yard"
Ray Charles - "I Don't Need No Doctor"
Curtis Mayfield - "Freddy's Dead"
Gang Starr - "Beyond Comprehension"
Aretha Franklin - "Rocksteady"
Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Have You Ever Seen the Rain'
Howlin' Wolf - "Smokestack Lightning"
Bobby Womack - "Across 110th Street"
Foggy Hogtown Boys - "Man of Constant Sorrow"
Pink Floyd - "Wish You Were Here"
Neil Young - "Cortez The Killer"
Bob Dylan - "Subterranean Homesick Blues"
Elvis Costello - "Watching the Detectives"
Jimmy Cliff - "The Harder They Come"
The Verve - "Bittersweet Symphony"
Roberta Flack - "Killing Me Softly with his Song"
Rolling Stones - "Beast of Burden"
Glen Campbell - "Wichita Lineman"