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Today, May 24, 2021, it is 30 years ago that American singer songwriter Gene Clark passed away. Today we commemorate him by featuring this rare video, recorded for Toppop in 1979. During their second European tour Clark visited with his Byrds mates Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman the Netherlands and recorded three songs in the Toppop studios. The songs they recorded under their ’McGuinn, Clark & Hillman’ band name were ’Backstage Pass’, written by Gene Clark, ’Don’t You Write Her Off’ and ’Surrender To Me’. McGuinn, Clark & Hillman came about in 1977, when three former members of the original Byrds — Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, and Chris Hillman — decided to try and update their sound in a new context. McGuinn and Hillman had played together longer than any of the other original members, with six albums (and innumerable concerts) across four years during the 1960s, and as late as 1967 they’d tried without success to reintegrate Gene Clark — the best songwriter among them and a superb singer, but also the first to leave — back into the band. Then, in early 1977, with each fronting his own band, they planned a joint tour of Europe promoting their own respective new releases. The Byrds were still idolized across Europe, even more so than in the United States, and ticket sales were brisk and press coverage enthusiastic. The self-titled ’’McGuinn, Clark & Hillman’ album was issued by Capitol Records in February 1979 and climbed to number 39 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart—which was a higher chart placing than any of the principal members’ solo albums had achieved. The first single taken from the album was McGuinn’s “Don’t You Write Her Off“, which reached number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1979. Two further singles were taken from the album: the Rick Vito-penned “Surrender to Me“ and Clark’s “Backstage Pass“, but neither song managed to chart. As a result of their visit to The Netherlands, the first single ’Don’t You Write Her Off’ reached #17 in the Dutch Top 40 on April 7, 1979, and ’Backstage Pass’ reached #7 in the Dutch Tipparade on July 14, 1979. This Toppop recording was first broadcast on March 15, 1979. Watch our great music videos ❯ More TopPop? Subscribe here ❯ More info on Wikipedia ❯ Broadcast date: 15 March 1979 This is to let you know that the video recording of the video clip was originally recorded by AVROTROS Broadcasting. AVROTROS Broadcasting hereby warrants and represents that it is the sole and exclusive owner of the physical film and/or videotape footage in this video clip. The performance of the artist(s) in the clip was filmed and recorded with the written consent of the artist(s) and their representatives. AVROTROS is a Dutch radio and television broadcaster, founded in 2014 from a merger of AVRO and TROS. From January 1st, 2014 the name of the merged broadcaster was used in joint programmes. AVRO was founded in 1923 as the Netherlands first public broadcaster. TROS started broadcasting in 1964. Toppop was a weekly AVRO pop program that was aired between 1970 and 1988. AVROTROS Broadcasting PO Box 2 1200 JA Hilversum The Netherlands TopPop was the first regular dedicated pop music TV show in the Dutch language area. Dutch broadcaster AVRO aired the programme weekly, from 1970 to 1988. Presenter Ad Visser hosted the show for its first fifteen years. World famous music artists performed on TopPop: ABBA, 10CC, Bee Gees, The Jacksons with Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Earth & Fire, Queen, Golden Earring, Boney M, KC & The Sunshine Band, Chic, Donna Summer and many many more.
