I was eating lunch at Five Guys the other day and the song playing on their sound system was SuperTramp - "Take the Long Way Home." It occurred to me that it is probably the best known harp song of all time worldwide.
At the next table were two teenage guys singing along. They were maybe fifteen years old and dressed like they'd be more into Warped Tour than classic rock. And they Knew The Words!
But ya gotta admit it: The song has a good groove and hook. It is memorable. And it has a signature harp lick.
What do you think is the best known harp recording of all time?
What's a tyne? I was kidding about the Harmonicats, but some of that Charlie McCoy stuff, if you push it into the pentatonic scale, can turn out to be some pretty cool blues licks.
Nate, Five Guys rocks. It is what In-n-Out Burgers wants to be.
Little Walter's recording of "Juke" was the only harmonica song to ever make it to #1 on the Billboard R&B charts.
In this thread I'm thinking about recordings that had a recognizable harp part and are well known by a wider audience, not just R&B or blues.
"Love Me Do" certainly qualifies, and so does just about anything by Bob Dylan. But the memorable harp lick in "Take The Long Way Home" has a definite blues quality, and that song is monster hit for millions of people spanning at least two generations.
And.... the harp player on the song is named Rick Davies. ;-)
Rick says: "I was eating lunch at Five Guys the other day and the song playing on their sound system was Supertramp - "Take the Long Way Home." It occurred to me that it is probably the best known harp song of all time worldwide." "The best known harp song of all time worldwide." Great claim. And I´ve never heard it. (And I´m not going to listen to it.) Something tells me Rick is an American, since these kind of pronouncements, with an ethnocentric slant, are fairly common in the US (where you have "world series" in sports with only American teams participating). I know Supertramp was a British band (an awful one) although I think they enjyoed greater success in the US -- but "best known (...) worldwide"? Was Supertramp popular in China, population of roughly one billion? How about Little Walther? "Of all time"? Supertramp? Compared to, say, The Beatles, with several songs with recognizable harmonica parts?
Incidentally, I´ve never heard of Five Guys either, but I aint big on American food.
Yes, probably ‘Love me do’ owing to the massive, worldwide popularity of The Beatles.
I’d like to think that (in the UK anyway) a rather more praiseworthy contender, namely Charlie McCoy, would be in the running as Area Code 615’s recording of Stone Fox Chase kicked off a great music show in the UK called ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’ which ran from 1971 to 1987. Everyone knew that snippet of harmonica and it was a song that really kept my motivation to play the harp going.
Here’s a bit of trivia from Wicki about the show and the derivation of the show title:-
The Old Grey Whistle Test (usually abbreviated to Whistle Test or OGWT) is an influential BBC2 television music show that ran from 1971 to 1987. According to presenter Bob Harris, the programme derived its name from a Tin Pan Alley phrase from years before. When they got the first pressing of a record they would play it to people they called the old greys—doormen in grey suits. The songs they could remember and whistle, having heard it just once or twice, had passed the old grey whistle test.
The show's focus on "serious" rock music rather than chart hits was emphasised by a lack of showbiz glitter: bands would often perform their songs in front of either the bare studio walls or plain wooden boards (actually the backs of set walls from other programmes filmed in the same studio). As with many BBC productions, this was (initially at least) as much a matter of money as of style; other late night shows of the time, having only 'minority' appeal, also had to be content with spartan sets. Another factor was that the programme was originally made in a studio known as "Pres B", which had been originally intended for in-vision continuity. The studio was only 32 by 22 feet (10 m × 7 m)[2] feet (a little under 10 × 7 metres) which left little room for a set once the cameras and band were in.
Here's Freddie King performing on the show in 1973. Funky.
@Rick: Using that purblind premise will certainly provoke debate ... and that´s all right, I´m not particularly upset or anything. It was just Supertramp "all time, world wide" the seemed like a bit too much of spontaneous ethnocentrism and I replied to that, twit-y or not.
@Ray: OK I didn´t rise to the occasion, but "Love me do" and even "Miss you" will outrun anything by Supertramp by a country mile. So will "Peg of my heart".
Martin, I guess you missed the rather obvious whimsy in the thread title. Too bad.
And I can't remember the last time I overheard a couple of teenagers hummin' along with "Peg o' my Heart." Maybe the places you hang are a bit more, uh, creaky. It sounds as if you are judging another culture solely by the values and standards of your own odd culture. Again, that is too bad.
The Harmonicats' 1947 recording of "Peg O' My Heart" spent 21 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at #1, and sold over one million copies by 1950.
"Love Me Do" spent 14 weeks at #1 on the same chart.
"Low Rider" reached number one on the Billboard R&B charts and peaked at number seven on the Pop Singles chart.
tit- To answer your question, the SuperTramp album containing this song has sold more that 20 million copies. It won two Grammy Awards in 1980, and holds an RIAA certification of quadruple platinum.
I wouldn't say this is the "best known evah" but the song that lit my fire early in my illustrious harp career was the harp solo in The Doobie Brothers "Long Train Running". I must had played that solo a million times.
I do agree with Rick that "Take the Long Way Home" deserves some attention. Like it or not, but you have to say that Billy Joel's "Piano Man" is very well known and there was this guy named Dylan that sort of played the harp didn't he? ---------- Tom Halchak www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com
@Rick: again "world wide" and "all time" is not a question of American teenagers humming along TODAY. It´s all ages all over the world, creaky or not. As I said, I´ve never heard that Supertramp song. I´m 55 now, living in Sweden and thus maybe outdefined from your all time world wide inclusion by being too "odd", I don´t know. In my younger days I occasionally had to listen to Supertramp, so I´m quite familiar with them, but since I developed self defence skills it hasn´t happened anymore.
A million copies of "Peg" sold in 1950 (in the US) + radio play = quite a lot of humming in quite a few years. And "Love me do" has been hummed for more than 50 years now.
"Last Dance With Mary Jane" always has people wanting to hear a little harp at the jams I go to. As a result I learned to do it. I also learned the guitar solos on harp, just in case there is not a lead that can't handle it present. It sure gets folks dancing and having a good time. I can't speak for the folks in Sweden, but in California it's hot. ;)
Last Edited by MJ on Apr 04, 2013 10:25 AM
Very, very fond of Super Tramps music - I was coming of age listening to their music and it holds some good memories...Always LOVED the harp on that classic tune of theirs too :)
Best evah? Well, that's hard. When I first read the caption, all I could think of was the first songs I heard that had a harp that made an impression on me.
The first song that came to mind was John Mayall's "Room to Move." Second song was Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35."
Last Edited by 6SN7 on Apr 04, 2013 10:53 AM
6SN7, Thanks for that reminder. "Room To Move" was a song that also caught my fancy. I was able to play a poor imitation of it when I first began fiddling with the harp back in the late 60's
MJ, a friend of mine was so inspired by the harp line in "Mary Jane" that he asked me to teach him to play it so he could sit in with another friends band.
Clint Black is/was an enormously popular country music artist. He sold more than 12 million albums while signed to RCA in the 90s, and later created his own label and sold more. He was a BIG star back when country was huge. He played harp on a lot of his recordings. Pretty good, too. I bet there are country music fans who'd add some Clint Black songs to the list. Charlie McCoy's "Orange Blossom Special" (as noted earlier) should be there, too.
@Frank: Jesus Christ, Frank, you have problems! Well well, I can remember a time when I thought Cat Stevens was hot shit. But isn´t it strange that music to such a great extent has become (qualitatively) connected to ones coming of age? I think that for instance in the pictorial arts and literature we tend to accept that we made lousy and immature judgements ´cause we were young and stupid and ignorant -- but people hold on their music. (Well now, that´s another topic, don´t mean to hijack this.)
Ryan, it's odd that the suicide blond video has a picture of a bunch of women getting their hair dyed in a salon. Suicide blond was supposed to be a pun on 'dye by your own hand' home coloring. :)
Nate you crack me up. I'm a recent Five Guys convert - their burgers are the BOMB - and there's one 1/2 block away from the theatre where our weekly pro jam is - so after setup and before the show, that's where I am.
I love that SuperTramp tune and have to agree it is right up there with Love Me Do. I also agree that this is age-sensitive - at 56 I'm a little too young to have appreciated Peg of my Heart in its prime.
But there's one that has them all beat in terms of recognizability. Little known fact - the harp player was none other than Toots Thielemans.
Wow this is great!! I'm compelled to contribute.... Music is many things and is largely a personal journey throughout our lives. Modern music ( or at least that which has 'occurred' within the lifetimes or thereabouts of everyone on this forum ) varies considerably from one demographic to the next. The point I'm tyring to make is that one guys 'best evah'..is anthers WTF! I grew up in 1970s suburban Sydney, and i was 'Supertramped' by older siblings....It definitely aided & abetted my harmonica passion..( I'm not doin' ST covers these days ha) but as much as I recognise their fame and slice of rock history,( and importance in the lives of may late baby boomers/ early gen x (me)) I wouldn't put them on this list. My vote....too hard....OK, maybe Sesame st or heart of gold or love me do or many others....yeh too hard! yikes---------- One of Rubes's bands, DadsinSpace-MySpace Old Man Rubes at Reverbnation
Last Edited by Rubes on Apr 06, 2013 3:25 AM
Rick, you brought up 'Take the Long Way Home' as one of the best harp recordings ever. How many bands can do a decent cover of this song? The Verve Pipe has a harpist, Craig Griffith, that nails it perhaps better than the original. I seen him live and he tore the place up. I can not find a good recording that gives him his due but these are on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WpmkLMcm6Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfOxHfM0m4I
Last Edited by Train-train on Apr 06, 2013 11:34 AM