I like YouTube for many reasons. I can watch movies, I can look at silly videos, and most importantly, I have the opportunity to watch concerts, and old music footage. I can look at any band from my past and go down memory lane any time of the day and this got me thinking…

There were some great bands that I grew up with and believe me there is nothing like some of these all time greats today.  The one that caught my eye today and took me down memory lane was Eric Burdon and the Animals. This great band was called the animals because of their crazy stage act. However, when I watch them on YouTube they do seem to be tame animals.

Many people called this band, which was part of the British invasion, a psychedelic rock band, but for me as a kid growing up, I just called it good! It was a little different for me. I was a musician at a very young age, and I knew it was not traditional rock; it had a little rhythm and blues sound, it was just different and I liked it. What was more powerful than the music was the voice of Eric Burdon. It was deep, bluesy, and when he sang I would stop dead in my tracks and say, Wow. He was so young and his voice so deep.

This band had their first hit in 1964 with House of the Rising Sun. They had a total of ten Top Twenty hits in both the UK and the USA and some of the songs included San Franciscan Nights, We Gotta Get Out of This Place, It’s My Life, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, When I was Young and one of my favorites, Sky Pilot. So great was this band that they were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame as well as the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Some of you may remember Eric Burdon playing with War in the Song Spill the Wine, Love is All Around, Tobacco Road, and Spirit, yet another incarnation of Burdon and his musical talents. Today Eric Burdon still performs with a band he now calls the Animals. I listened to a concert from a few years back and he may be grey, and not the skinny young man he once used to be, but he is belting out the songs with soul and his energy on stage is still that of the Eric Burdon I grew up with. Do you recall Eric Burdon and the Animals?

I try to get a portion of my news from the internet. It seems like it comes in quickly on the net and I like getting caught up on the news and events quickly, however,  last week I read some news that made my heart drop, yet filled my head with memories and it got me thinking….

How many people have fond memories of the song by Etta James, At Last? I know I have several memories that make my heart flutter and the death of Etta James I have no doubt, has many people looking at old memories. James voice was her instrument of choice, and so diverse was she as a singer she was categorized as jazz, R&B, gospel, Doo-Wop pop, blues, and rockabilly.

Etta James was born in 1938 and originally was a gospel singer. In fact, some said she was a “gospel prodigy” and sang in her church choir at the young age of five. Too young to be a singer? Well by the time James was 12 she was singing in a trio with Johnny Otis the bandleader. She sang with a variety of people and in 1955 she went solo.

Etta James hit the charts as a solo artist with such hits as All I Could Do Was Cry, Trust in Me, Tell Mamma, Something’s Got a Hold On Me, Losers Weepers, and her big hit At Last. So great were her hits that she won six Grammys and 17 Blues Music Awards. I never realized until I started researching Etta James that in 1978, she was the opening act for The Rolling Stones. Sadly, she disappeared after that for over ten years and she began to fight a heroin and alcohol addiction.

Like all strong women, Etta came back and she came back bigger, better and stronger. In fact so strong was her return James was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as well as the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Now that is saying a great deal for this singer. She started over 60 years ago and made history with her accomplishments as a singer.

So this past week, the world mourned this wonderful singer, but what she has left us with a mind full of music and a soul  filled with memories that only Etta could have given us. So here’s to you Ms. James and may you rest in peace.

I could not help but read the news yesterday that there is another soap opera that will be going off the air. Some of the soap operas that are going off the air are ones I recall my mother watching and they are still on.  I was reading in the paper how upset people were that some of these long-lived soap operas are going and it got me thinking…

When we think of soap operas many of us think of the long running TV shows like One Live to Live, General Hospital, As the World Turns. Truth is, for those who might not have known, soap operas did not originate on television rather they had their start in radio. That’s right, back then it was called “domestic radio dramas” which I must say I love the way that sounds. So popular where these radio dramas that by the early 40s, these radio shows dominated the air waves and were responsible for over 90% of commercially-sponsored daytime broadcast.

So where did the term soap opera come from? The term came from soap manufacturers who were prominent sponsors to these dramatic shows like Tide, Duz, and Ivory. In fact, Procter and Gamble, maker of several soap products, produced the first network soap opera for TV in 1950. It was called The First hundred years and lasted only two years and would be replaced by The Guiding Light. Search for Tomorrow soon followed.

In 1956 As the World Turns hit TV stations and yep, it was Procter and Gamble once again along with CBS that were involved. They were smart and knew who to target. That’s right the homemakers because they knew that in the 50′s the husband did not buy soap!  Don’t think that radio soaps went off the air completely though as that did not happen until 1960.
In 1963, the medical soaps launched and General Hospital and the Doctors came on the air.

Soaps were taking the country by storm. Women from the age of 18-49 were glued to the TV. I recall my mother watching the soap operas, though I suspect to this day the only soap she will claim she watched was Dark Shadows, and I must admit, I too would run home from school to watch this vampire soap. I loved that show! I recently watched old Episodes on Netflix and giggled a bit because as a child it scared me, as an adult I wonder what spooked me so much? Still I loved the show.

The bottom line is soaps come and go. There have been a variety of soaps like Search for Tomorrow, Love of Life, The Guiding Light, As the World Turns, Secret Storm, and The Edge of Night, One Life to Live, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, The Bold and the Beautiful, All My Children, The Young and the Restless and Ryan’s Hope to name a few.

One needs to give credit to the soap opera as they have really made TV history. Alas, like all good things, there is an end. I think more and more people are growing tired of the soap opera genera and networks are losing money. What will replace this 60 some odd year television genera? Will it be more cooking shows? Will it be more reality shows? Will it be more magazine or talk shows? Stay tuned to find out…