40 Year Itch : Let the Mountains Tumble

Slade : Nobody's Fool

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"The album is why we went to the States, not for tax reasons, folks! We wanted to get fresh ideas, we felt we were getting a bit stale living in England." 
                                          -Noddy Holder to Slade Fan Club Newsletter


   On March 5,1976 Slade released Nobody's Fools, an album recorded in America with -gasp!-back up singers. With hopes of a Beatles-like breakthrough, Noddy and the boys had spent the past year in the USA touring with bands like Aerosmith, Black Sabbath and ZZ Top where they developed a love for country and soul music.

   Apparently the band also learned how to spell.

   Despite two #11 hits ( the Beatlesque "In For a Penny" and the glam rocker "Let's Call it Quits") it all added up to just enough of a deviation from their sound for some long time fans to call Slade "sell-outs" and the band never recovered until nostalgia fueled a revival in the UK in the 1980s.

40 Year Itch: Nobody's One and Only

Dan Penn : Raining in Memphis

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By writing songs like "Dark End of the Street" and The Box Tops "Cry Like A Baby", Dan Penn can claim to have invented the country soul sound. Not that he would. This modest, self deprecating man told Mojo Magazine he made his brilliant solo debut album because he didn't have anything else to do.

Dan Penn and Alex Chilton

 Alex Chilton would eventually cover the title track but the song was written for Elvis.

Penn may sing with an unadorned down in the mouth soul sound, but check out the inventive instrumental arrangements, especially on "Raining in Memphis".

 

 "Burt Bacharach meets Paul Buckmaster" ?

   The album didn't sell well.

The only Dan Penn record on the charts at that time was Ronnie Milsap's cover of "I Hate You", a Top 10 country hit in September of 1973.