Fanfare for the Common Man is a musical work by the American composer Aaron Copland. It was written in 1942 for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under conductor Eugene Goossens and was inspired in part by a speech made earlier that year by then American Vice President Henry A Wallace, in which Wallace proclaimed the dawning of the “Century of the Common Man”. Copland’s fanfare was used in 1977 by British prog-rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer on the album Works Volume 1. The track became one of the band’s biggest hits when an edited version was released as a single that year. It peaked at No. 2 in the UK. Keith Emerson had long been an admirer of Copland’s Americana style, previously using Copland’s Hoedown on the band’s Trilogy album in 1972.
“A Glass of Champagne” Sailor are a British pop/glam rock group best known in the 1970s for their hit singles “A Glass of Champagne” and “Girls, Girls, Girls”, A Glass of Champagne from their second album Trouble released in late 1975, reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart. It was written by the group’s lead singer and 12-string guitar player, Georg Kajanus. The group’s work included Kajanus’s invention the Nickelodeon, a musical instrument made of pianos, synthesizers and glockenspiels that allowed the four-piece band to reproduce on stage the acoustic arrangements that they had done in the recording studio.
Conquistador Procol Harum are an English band formed in 1967 (their name comes from the Latin and means Beyond These Things). They began as a psychedelic band and evolved more toward prog rock. Their best known single was the monster hit “Whiter Shade of Pale,” which sold over ten million copies, and is still a staple on oldies stations. The Spanish flavoured “Conquistador,” which originally appeared on their self-titled debut album, was released in 1972 as a single from the live album, Procol Harem Live: In Concert With The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and was their third top-40 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100. One unusual thing about the song is that Gary Brooker wrote the music not only before the lyrics were written, but before the band had even official formed. Keith Reid later wrote the words, which was the opposite of how they normally did things.
“American Woman” is a song by Canadian band the Guess Who, released January 1970, from the album of the same name. It was later released in March 1970 as a single and it reached number one for three weeks in May on both the United States’ Billboard and the Canadian RPM magazine singles chart. Billboard magazine placed the single at number three on the 100 singles of 1970 list, and it was listed as number five for 1970 on the RPM Year-End Chart. In May 1970, the single was certified as gold by the RIAA. It also reached the top ten in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria, and the top twenty in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
“Hot Stuff” is a song by American singer Donna Summer. It was the lead single from her seventh studio album Bad Girls (1979), produced by English producer Pete Bellotte and Italian producer Giorgio Moroder. Up to that point, Summer had mainly been associated with disco songs but this song also showed a significant rock direction, including a guitar solo by ex-Doobie Brother and Steely Dan guitarist Jeff Baxter. It is the second of four songs by Summer to reach number one on the Billboard. In 2010, the song was ranked No. 104 on Rolling Stone‘s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.
