Fifty five years ago the Yardbirds released their follow up to "Shapes of Things",  "Over, Under, Sideways, Down",   The original featured Jeff Beck on guitar. Here is the band performing live with his replacement, Jimmy Page. Of their enduring hits, it was always the hardest to find in the vinyl and early CD eras.

In the year before the release of Pet Sounds , 55 years ago this past week, Brian Wilson produced a number of songs - mostly deep cuts - that show where he was taking the music. For the most part, the songs are from Today!  and Summer Days (And Summer Nights)   with one non-album single. Some have the complex arrangements and instrumentation that would fit in on Pet Sounds . Other cuts have a similar fullness of sound, even if their structures are tied to doo wop or Chuck Berry.  The biggest hit here, "California Girls", uses a "Happy Trails" bum-ba-dee-dah which is similar to that used in "Wouldn't It Be Nice". "The Little Girl I Once Knew" may have been too progressive for its time.  The dead stops in the middle may have cost it some airplay, while the introductory arpeggios anticipate the guitar solos of the 1970's, from Ace Frehley to Hotel California.  Some of the songs are of a sort with their earlier material - sun and fun. Others ...

There was a time when I would've scoffed at Carol King's induction...hard to take seriously.  Sure, she wrote "Don't Bring Me Down" for the Animals, and "Pleasant Valley Sunday". The Beatles covered one of her songs on their debut. The Byrds  put a couple of songs on Notorious Byrd Brothers - their best album. There were two songs on Head - two songs that one would take seriously if one didn't know they were by the Monkees. Even the Trashmen - or their handlers - got the word. Nevertheless, I'd always filed her under either Brill building pop or singer/songwriter, until I saw her on Letterman, backed by the band and Slash.

On this day in 1956, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones - the Miles Davis Quintet - went into the Rudy Van Gelder Studio and recorded fourteen tracks to help meet Miles's contractural obligations with Prestige.   Twelve of those tracks would later comprise the better parts of the  Workin'   and   Steamin' With the Miles Davis Quintet  albums, the other two rounded out the   Relaxin'  album. Pretty good for a day's work.