Bettye Lavette Sings "Love Reign O'er Me"

There were three performances that stood out for me last night while watching the Kennedy Center Awards; Dave Grohl singing "Who Are You," Beyonce singing "The Way We Were" and Bettye LaVette singing "Love Reign O'er Me." The latter of which I have posted the video courtesy of YouTube above.

Let's forget comparing this singer to that singer or this actor to that actor for a moment and let's look at it this way: There are billions of people that have walked this planet; millions have tried to sing; and then there is a small percentage that gains some notoriety and then even a smaller percentage that gets honored by the President of the U.S. at such a classy and very well put together event. That's amazing to me and I'm sure those honored (Twyla Tharp, George Jones, Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, Morgan Freeman and Barbra Streisand) realize that as well.

Because Barbra Streisand is so out-spoken in her political views, I forget how talented and accomplished she is: winner of a Tony, Grammy, Emmy and Oscar!!!! I would say she has done quite alright.

The Who "Love Reign O'er Me"

I can't imagine having a more difficult song to sing then, "Love Reign O'er Me," so Godspeed to the person or persons that tries to perform it and do it as well as Roger Daltrey could back in his heyday. I couldn’t find video yet – probably will be available tomorrow – of Bettye LaVette’s performance at the Kennedy Center Awards show, however, I did find this video which someone made that fits pretty well with the song. The tune closes out the Quadrophenia album.

Kennedy Center Honors The Who, Others Tonight

Tonight at 9 o’clock on CBS, the Kennedy Center Awards show will air which was taped earlier in the month. The honorees are The Who’s surviving members Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend, Barbra Streisand, Morgan Freeman, George Jones and Twyla Tharp.

This has to be the crowning achievement for Pete and Roger being welcomed to the White House. Roger stated that The Who were influenced by American music so things have kind of come full circle. I don’t know how much of the event will be aired, but I would imagine that the much talked about performance of “Love Reign O’er Me” by Bettye Lavette will make the broadcast. Lavette's rendition of the tune brought Townshend to tears and caused Streisand to ask Pete if he was the one that wrote the song!

I’ll be watching…

The Who News

Things never seem to be dull for the boys from Shepherds Bush...

Roger Daltrey will narrate a special documentary commemorating the 25th anniversary of the death of Beach Boys' drummer, Dennis Wilson, for BBC Radio 2, called Pacific Ocean Blues: The Life and Death of Dennis Wilson.

Meanwhile, Pete and Roger were among the honorees at the annual Kennedy Center Awards. Click this for more.

Spitfire Productions has been, well, on fire, lately for The Who; The Who: Live at Kilburn 1977 sits atop the Billboard DVD music charts, while Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who has been nominated for a Grammy in the category of "Best Long Form Music Video."