How Good It Is

Mark Knopfler sees a band performing to a nearly-empty house in a South London pub, and turned the experience into Dire Straits' breakout single.

By early 1965, the Rolling Stones had scored a couple of hits, but they were still Just Another British Band Covering a Bunch of American R&B Songs. Then one night Keith Richards literally wrote something in his sleep, and it became the start of something that turned them into a worldwide phenomenon.

There was nobody named Thompson, and there weren't any Twins. But they were a part of the Second British Invasion of the 1980s, and this is how they got there.

There was nobody named Thompson, and there weren't any Twins. But they were a part of the Second British Invasion of the 1980s, and this is how they got there.

In the mid 1960s, a group called The Detergents released an album of novelty songs, and a couple of them caught on, but one did especially well, a parody of the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack." Among that group was a young man named Ron Dante.

A few years later, Dante was chosen to be the lead voice for a fictional band that was tied in with a cartoon series. That band was The Archies, and they had a short string of hits, peaking with "Sugar Sugar" in 1969. Dante provided all the male voices on "Sugar Sugar," and Toni Wine provided all the female voices. So yes, you appear to hear two women—one singing low and the other singing high—but in fact they're both Toni Wine.

Wine left the group around the time "Sugar Sugar" became a hit, and the female portion of The Archies' follow-up single was voiced by someone else. You'll just have to listen in to find out who that was.

The Archies, around the "Sugar Sugar" era. From Left to right: Toni Wine, Ron Dante, Jeff Barry, Hot Dog (taking a break from conducting), Ron Dante, Toni Wine. Heh.

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In 1969 Ron Dante had two hits in the Top Ten at the same time, and nobody knew his name.

There's no doubt that Jerry Lee Lewis was a huge influence on the early days of rock and roll. There's also no doubt that when he married an underage relative, he pretty much torpedoed his hitmaking career.

But his star burned brightly for a little while, and while the jokes continued, he did manage to restore his reputation, and his influence on the genre is undeniable. Elvis Presley once said that if he could play piano like Jerry Lee Lewis, he'd give up singing. And Elton John once said that hearing "Great Balls of Fire" was the first time he'd heard someone "beat the shit out of a piano." This time around, however, we're looking at his first hit, "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", which has a bit of a checkered past before Jerry Lee got his hands on it. Maybe that's what made it attractive to him, hm?

Jerry Lee Lewis is enshrined as one of the inaugural inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and it's a well-deserved place for him to be.

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In 1957, Jerry Lee Lewis finally broke out of his role as a session musician at Sun Records, with a song that taught pretty much everyone that there's another way to play the piano.

In November of 1975, an ore freighter broke apart and went down very suddenly in a storm on Lake Superior. Singer Gordon Lightfoot thought that the story wasn't getting enough attention and gathered some news clippings together, then used that material to write a song about the event.

This is the original article from Newsweek's November 24, 1975 article.

The song was recorded within just a few weeks of the tragedy, and was released the following summer. Just a few days after the first anniversary of the sinking, the song hit Number One on the Canadian charts, and peaked at #2 in the US. I have to admit, though, that when the song came out, 13-year-old me had no idea that it was about a recent event. I figured it was either fictional, or it had happened many years ago. Imagine my surprise!

One of the last dives. The bell has been replaced, and someone is in the pilot house, leaving a can of beer there.

Nowadays, the ship's location is considered mostly off-limits to all recreational diving and most research dives or equipment, now. It's also located in a spot in Lake Superior where the border between the United States and Canada has moved several times, now. Right now the ship is on the Canadian side.

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EDITED TO ADD: Holy cow, I can't believe I forgot to post the video of the ship's launching. There's no audio, more's the pity. If you've never seen a sideways ship launch before, you're in for a treat because it's pretty cool in general. The action starts at about three minutes in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK1eAN_o_q0

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Gordon Lightfoot found inspiration in a news story that he felt wasn't getting nearly enough attention, and it wound up being his second-biggest single.