Number One Songs—Grazing in the Grass
by Jack Hayford"Grazing in the Grass" is a timeless song. Every time I hear it, no matter the year, it always seems fresh and new. Maybe it's because there are so few instrumentals that land on the charts, much less all the way to #1, as this classic did in June of 1968. (Ironically "Love is Blue" also made it to the top position in 1968, but truly I much prefer this one.) And 1968 wasn't just any year for music. "Grazing in the Grass" had some very hefty competition: "Honey," "Mrs. Robinson," "This Guy's In Love With You"...not to mention "Hey Jude" and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"! But Hugh Masekela, a trumpet player and band leader from South Africa, had a fresh sound which trumpeted (pun intended!) the coming of the brass into popular music: Herb Albert, Chicago, Earth Wind and Fire, et al. Masekela helped usher in a new age in pop music with "Grazing," including the African influence to show up on the charts a decade or more later; Masekela was part of Paul Simon's Graceland tour in the mid-'80s. (Some may point out that the brass section in "Ring of Fire" released in 1963 by Americana legend Johnny Cash was a startling and effective new "sound" as well.)
"Masekela studied at the Royal Academy of Music, then the Manhattan School of Music. During the early '60s, his career began to explode. He recorded for MGM, Mercury and Verve, developing his hybrid African/pop/jazz style. Masekela moved to California and started his own record label, Chisa. He cut several albums expanding this formula and began to score pop success. The song "Grazing In The Grass" topped the charts in 1968 and eventually sold four million copies worldwide. That year Masekela sold out arenas nationwide during his tour, among them Carnegie Hall." —Allmusic.com But Masekela was more than a great musician and arranger, he was also an activist. As the brutality of the Apartheid state increased, Hugh finally left the country with the help of [Archbishop] Trevor Huddleston and his friends Yehudi Menuhin and Johnny Dankworth who got him admitted into London’s Guildhall School of music. Miriam Makeba who was already enjoying major success in the USA later helped him with Harry Belafonte, Dizzy Gillepsie and John Mehegan to get admission to the Manhattan school of Music in New York. Hugh finally met Louis Armstrong who had sent the Huddleston Band a trumpet after Huddleston told the trumpet king about the bank he helped start back in South Africa before deportation. With immense help from Makeba and Belafonte, Hugh eventually began to record, gaining his first breakthrough with "The Americanization of Ooga-Booga" produced by the late Tom Wilson who had been producer of Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel’s debut successes...By the beginning of the 1970’s he had attained international fame, selling out all of America’s festivals, auditoriums and top nightclubs. Heeding the call of his African roots, he moved to Guinea, then Liberia and Ghana after recording the historical "Home is where Music is" with Dudu Pokwana." —RitmoArtists.com |
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