Tag Archives: Paul McCartney
Nina Simone (1992)
“I don’t think I’m difficult. Not at all.”
The prospect of interviewing Nina Simone was thrilling.
And slightly terrifying.
Scotty Moore
“I didn’t get rich, but it was better than picking cotton…”
We can debate who invented rock and roll, but there is no question that it was Elvis Presley who turned it into an earth shaking phenomenon. He also did something equally revolutionary at the same time: He made the guitar the most popular instrument in the world. After Elvis, sales of pianos and accordions would never be the same.
Elvis’s role in the ascension of the guitar is somewhat overlooked now and not without reason. While it was an essential part of his act and image, it was for the most part a prop in his hands. The man responsible for the electric guitar sound that drove the kids wild was Scotty Moore. When Moore released his first solo album in 1964 with the title “The Guitar That Changed the World,” it was not overstating the case.
Richard Addrisi: “Never My Love”
“If people tell me they’ve never heard “Never My Love,” I say, ‘That means you’ve never been in an elevator or a supermarket.’ You can’t escape the song. It’s just there.“
March 11, 2002
By phone from his home in Los Angeles
In 2002, a press release from BMI, the performing rights organization that represents songwriters, informed that the ballad “Never My Love” was ranked as the second most played song of the 20th century, behind “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” and ahead of “Yesterday.” I might have tossed the press release in the wastebasket but for one fact: “Never My Love” was written by Don and Dick Addrisi, two brothers born and raised near Boston. Local boys.
