The albums I listened to while working on the Feb. 3 edition of The Island News:
Aaron Neville — The Best of Aaron Neville
George Harrison — The Best of George Harrison
Grace Potter & The Nocturnals — Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
Crystal Gayle — Classic Crystal
Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ — Mystery Road
Kasey Chambers — Barricades & Brick Walls
The Commodores — 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection
Hoyt Axton’s 1975 album Southbound.
I bought a couple of used records last week by Hoyt Axton.
I’m not sure if most of you guys know who he is, but his mother Mae wrote Heartbreak Hotel.
Axton wrote Three Dog Night‘s Joy To The World — you know, “Jeremiah was a bullfrog! It was No. 1 for 6 weeks — and Never Been To Spain. He wrote Steppenwolf‘s The Pusher.
He had a top-10 country duet with Linda Ronstadt in 1974 called “When the Morning Comes.” And he had minor hits of his own, most notably Boney Fingers and Della and the Dealer.
(More trivia … he is the man who sang the Busch Beer jingle in the 1980s … And he was the father in Gremlins, among his many film appearances.)
Anyway, enough dawdling, Axton was mostly known for folk-country that was a bit outside the mainstream. He had a few hits and wrote a few for others.
So I look at the liner notes of the Southbound album from 1975 and it says, “Piano — George Clinton.” I was like WTF!?!?
So, I looked it up and sure enough, it was THAT George Clinton. So if anyone ever asks you, you can wow them with the knowledge that George Clinton actually played on a country album.
And don’t forget Hoyt Axton sang the Busch Beer jingle.
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