Rob Grayson

Citric acid and sodium bicarbonate react with water to produce carbon dioxide and sodium citrate. Toss in some aspirin and a healthy dose of Madison Avenue snake oil, and you have the panacea that launched some of television’s most memorable advertising campaigns.

Coming off of the biggest chart success of his career to date, “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,“ Otis Redding reeled off two 1965 singles which included songs destined to become iconic tunes, not for Otis, but for the acts which covered them later.

Isaac, David and Samuel are familiar names to biblical scholars, and not at all unfamiliar to faithful fans of the funky sound that emanated from the Stax studio on McLemore.

Sam and Dave came to Stax in an arrangement with Atlantic Records. The duo viewed it as punishment, but it would be the best thing that ever happened to their careers.

Is there any group of kids who put together a band for a high school talent show that didn’t, in the back of their minds, think they just might have a shot at, you know, the big time? And out of the few that stay together past graduation, is there any band who wasn’t secretly dying to hear a song they recorded in a garage, or, if they were lucky, in a studio, played back on the local radio station that first time?

When the Beatles came to Elvis Presley’s Bel Air home in 1965 for a meeting orchestrated by managers Brian Epstein and Colonel Tom Parker, John Lennon asked if Elvis had any ideas for his next movie project. Elvis said he would probably play a country boy with a guitar who meets a few girls and sings a few songs. Elvis couldn’t keep a straight face long after making that statement, and laughingly explained that the only time one of his films strayed from that format was the only time he came close to losing money on a movie.