Late night hits with Mat

09/09/2025

Rick Davies, co-founder, vocalist, keyboardist, and steady hand behind Supertramp’s piano-driven sound, died Saturday, September 6, 2025, at his home on Long Island after a more than decade-long battle with multiple myeloma. Full story below ⬇🔗

16/01/2025

12/01/2025

08/01/2025

Folk singer Peter Yarrow — writer of the timeless classic "Puff the Magic Dragon" and one-third of the legendary 1960s trio Peter, Paul and Mary — died Tuesday, a family representative said.

He was 86.

Yarrow died in New York City, publicist Ken Sunshine confirmed to NBC News, years after a bladder cancer diagnosis.

“Our fearless dragon is tired and has entered the last chapter of his magnificent life. The world knows Peter Yarrow the iconic folk activist, but the human being behind the legend is every bit as generous, creative, passionate, playful, and wise as his lyrics suggest,” daughter Bethany Yarrow said in a statement.

04/11/2024

BREAKING: Quincy Jones, the multi-talented music titan whose vast legacy ranged from producing Michael Jackson's historic "Thriller" album to writing prize-winning film and television scores and collaborating with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and hundreds of other recording artists, has died at 91. https://trib.al/DxRhkHu

18/09/2024

Singer, songwriter, and actor JD Souther has passed away, aged 78 (September 17, 2024)

Souther co-wrote some of the biggest hits for Eagles, including "Best of My Love", “Heartache Tonight", and "New Kid in Town".

Other compositions co-written by Souther that appeared on Eagles albums included “Victim of Love,” “James Dean,” “Doolin-Dalton,” “The Sad Cafe,” “You Never Cry Like a Lover,” “Teenage Jail” and “Last Good Time in Town.”

He was the sole writer of “How Long,” a cover the Eagles released in 2007 of a song Souther had first put out as a solo artist in 1972.

Souther met musician and songwriter Glenn Frey after moving to Los Angeles in the late 1960s,.
They became roommates and musical collaborators, and briefly performed as a folk duo using the name Longbranch Pennywhistle, releasing a self-titled album.

His friendship with Don Henley extended to co-writing that artist’s classic “The Heart of the Matter” and several other tracks on Henley’s solo albums.

Souther dated Linda Ronstadt in the 1970s and co-produced her “Don't Cry Now” album. He also wrote songs for several of her multi-platinum albums, including "Faithless Love" from “Heart Like a Wheel” and "White Rhythm and Blues" on “Living in the USA”.

Souther also released a number of solo albums, and scored his biggest solo hit with the 1979 song "You're Only Lonely" from the album of the same name, which reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and held the #1 spot on the Adult Contemporary chart for five consecutive weeks.

JD just missed making the Top 10 again when the 1981 single “Her Town Too” — a duet with longtime friend James Taylor — peaked at #11 on the Hot 100.

He also performed as a backup singer for various prominent artists, including Christopher Cross on his multi Grammy award-winning self-titled LP, Warren Zevon on his critically acclaimed “Excitable Boy” LP, and Joe Walsh on his album “So What”.

JD Souther was still performing to the very end, and was about to go out for joint concert dates this fall with Karla Bonoff, another veteran of the 1970s Southern California singer-songwriter scene, and had performed as recently as five days ago.

R.I.P.

14/09/2024

28/08/2024

On this day in 1977, the live Jackson Browne single “Running on Empty” was recorded at a concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland (August 27)

One of the rare hit songs where the live recording is the actual single, as opposed to a studio track…

Browne wrote the song while driving to the studio each day to make “The Pretender”, according to Rolling Stone magazine: "I was always driving around with no gas in the car," Browne is quoted. "I just never bothered to fill up the tank because — how far was it anyway? Just a few blocks."

The song peaked at #4 in Canada, and #11 in the US, making it one of Jackson Browne’s most successful singles.

The song was featured prominently in the 1994 film Forrest Gump as the main theme for a running montage in which the title character treks across the United States on foot.

Rolling Stone ranked it at #496 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Click on the link below to watch:

https://youtu.be/LNmIbSre7Tw

16/08/2024

😢

Greg Kihn was best known for the hits The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em) and Jeopardy

17/07/2024

Singer, songwriter and guitarist Harry Chapin passed away on this day in 1981 (July 16)

Chapin recorded a total of 11 albums from 1972 until his death in 1981, and 14 singles he released became hits on at least one national music chart, including his 1972 hit “Taxi”, and the 1974 classic “Cats in the Cradle”.

In 2001, Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" was ranked # 186 of 365 on the Recording Industry Association of America list of Songs of the Century.

On the afternoon of July 16, 1981, Chapin was en route on the Long Island Expressway to perform at a free benefit concert at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, New York that evening.

At 12:27 PM, Chapin was fatally injured in a fiery traffic collision with a semi-trailer truck outside Jericho, New York.
Passersby managed to help the unconscious Chapin out of his engulfed 1975 Volkswagen Rabbit and he was immediately taken by helicopter to the nearby Nassau County Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 1:05 PM due to internal bleeding.

On December 7, 1987, on what would have been his 45th birthday, Chapin was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his campaigning on social issues, particularly his highlighting of hunger around the world and in the United States.
He was one of the most politically and socially active performers of the 1970s.

In 2011 he was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Click the link below to watch Chapin perform “Cats in the Cradle”, with a touching intro from his wife and son:

https://youtu.be/etundhQa724

03/05/2024

On this day in 1934, the great Frankie Valli was born Francesco Stephen Castelluccio in New Jersey (May 3)

One of the greats…

As singer and frontman of the Four Seasons and also as a solo artist, he racked up no less than 39 Top 40 hits.

Legendary songs like 60s hits “Sherry”, “Stay”, “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, “Walk Like A Man”, “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”, and 70s classics “December 1963 (Oh What A Night)”, “My Eyes Adored You”, “Who Loves You” and “Grease”...

The musical “Jersey Boys” has helped keep the hype going in the 2000s, but man, what a voice!

Click on the link below to watch “Big Girls Don’t Cry”:

https://youtu.be/DAgQIb77UhU

13/04/2024

On this day in 1969, the Simon and Garfunkel single “The Boxer” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #51 (April 12)

The follow-up single to “Mrs Robinson” was included on their “Bridge Over Troubled Water” LP, and went on to peak at #2 in Austria and the Netherlands, #3 in South Africa and Canada, #5 in Sweden, #6 the UK, #7 in the US and Ireland, #8 in Australia, and #9 in Norway and New Zealand.

It was a bit of an autobiographical song by Paul Simon who identified with the boxer after taking some hits from critics at the time.

He was also a bit embarrassed as a songwriter for not being able to come up with any appropriate words for the “lie-la-lie” chorus part.

He later conceded though that the essentially wordless chorus gave the song more of an international appeal, as it was universal, and as he said, “the rest of the song has enough power and emotion, I guess, to make it go, so it's all right.”

It turned out more than all right.

Rolling Stone ranked the song #106 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Click on the link below to watch their live version from the famous concert in Central Park:

https://youtu.be/6JUbFj0BIc4