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Some great Hammond organ songs
We know, Whiter Shade of Pale, 96 Tears, Time of the Season. Here are some more. Any suggestions? 🎹
Boston
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HuLpztWyFA
Brooker T & The MG’s
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0E5krom__M
Tommy Guerrero (2021!)
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56 Replies
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How about this chart topper from 1959? According to Wikipedia it’s a Hammond B3.
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Not sure I ever heard this before. Dave ‘Baby’ Cortez was from Detroit.
https://michiganrockandrolllegends.com/index.php/legendary-michigan-songs/142-129-the-happy-organ
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Great ones!
Steve Winwood is great on the Hammond. Here he’s with Clapton and Baker, Blind Faith at Hyde Park
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That is a great vid. I’m sitting here wondering how it is that I’ve never seen it before(?). So I type “Blind Faith” into Google, and it shows me the DVD this came from!
Hmmm, I still have the song playing on YouTube, and Google already knows to show me this? That’s a pretty tight coordination between the two biggest websites on the planet, the two biggest flavors of Alphabet soup.
Ginger Baker was a great drummer. Always thought he was a bit busy, and a bit busy here too.
Clapton doesn’t really look like Clapton, but he sounds like him. What is he playing? I would guess a Tele, just based on the pickups.
Winwood recorded “I’m a Man” in ’67 when he was 19, so that would make him 21 here? Still looking really young.
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Clapton (signature sourpuss expression) is playing a telecaster with a strat neck (from his brownie strat). I believe there was a Custom Shop version of it.
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Thanks, I thought you would know the answer. Interesting, I never looked at Custom Shop before, I just took a look.
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Anything Deep Purple did with John Lord on organ.
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Is this during the recording/rehearsing of Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! ? Definitively, Sgt. Pepper time.
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This is one that is by a Canadian band in 1970. They were only around for about 2 years. Hit #1 in Canada and top 40 in the US. As The Years Go By by Mashmakhan.
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Here’s another ELP great (there are MANY!), Hoedown live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0FuFfcCZiE
And the studio version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTAy3ugeuo8
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Organissimo is a Michigan based jazz B3 trio. Okay, yes, I used the J word there, but one of their albums is called “B3tles”. Available at a YouTube near you.
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First link is Barbara Dennerlein and Rhonda Scott beating the heck out of the keys. I love Barbara’s playing and have about 6-8 CDs and digital albums of her work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra4kYAYCdeI
Second link is of her talking about the B3 (in German I believe) and playing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H03lQhqxVo&list=RDEMNbAVLHNYxGSRt56p-misXA&index=10
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Thanks Dave for the Barbara Dennerlein link. I, too, am a jazz guy, but I hadn’t heard of her. The links were very impressive. In turn, have you heard Joey De Francesco, who died just last August. Also a jazz B3 player. Wikipedia shows he played with a large who’s who from the jazz world, including Diana Krall, and Van Morrison.
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Joey played at the Detroit International Jazz Festival a number of times, and not too long ago. I saw him there, but didn’t know much about him otherwise.
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Len and Chris
Love Joey and Barbara. Never saw either live. Barbara has done a few CDs on pipe organs which I really enjoy.
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<div>Billy with his mentor – Nat King Cole
</div><div>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxSHBIXfFPE
</div>
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Billy sure looks completely comfortable. Sings, plays, does the choreography, the whole 9 yards. And looks like a pro doing it.
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Wow, that’s quite something. What a performance for a 11 year old!
According to Ringo, Billy was the greatest Hammond organ player.
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Tribute to Ray Charles… Billy Preston, BB King and … Bruce Willis??
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I’d like to add the intro to Three Dog Night’s “An Old Fashioned Love Song” to this list, but I can’t confirm whether it was played on a Hammond. Anyone know?
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Most likely, yes. Jimmy Greenspoon was a great Hammond player. There might be a Wurlitzer in there too.
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https://bsumc.blogspot.com/2013/06/rockin-with-hammond-organ.html
That link says it was a B-3. fwiw.
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Thanks for confirming that, Chris!
I noticed that Light My Fire was also on that list. I had thought of that one, but since no one here mentioned it I assumed it was a different type of organ.
That makes me wonder whether there are any other similar-sounding organs used in pop music that are NOT Hammonds. Or do you always know it’s a Hammond when you think you hear one?
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I think you can tell it’s a B-3/C-3 by the sound. I mean, if it was easy to imitate that sound, why would anyone want to mess with a box that weighs 400 pounds?
But this was for music from the ’50s to the ’70s. In the ’80s the first polyphonic synths and samplers came out. Synths can generate a sound that sounds organish, and samplers use recordings of the real thing. So then it’s harder to be sure of what you’re listening to. A sample can be a recording of an actual Hammond. But even if it is, there’s still a difference in how it can be played, for example.
And there are other organs that sound similar too. Some with the Hammond name on them. But there are a lot of factors in something like this. I remember studying human perception in college, lots of things can affect this. I mean, a CD and an MP3 are quite different, can you tell which is which?
When you mentioned Three Dog Night, I figured it was a B-3 based on how it sounded and when it was recorded, plus like Tomás said, Greenspoon was known for playing one.
I am not an organ player. I have no doubt Rudi could tell you a lot more than I can about them, since he’s a pro and I’m not. But I do think the C-3 he has now is still the gold standard for that sound.
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Young Rascals… GOOD LOVIN’
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