DAILY DIRT: Speaking of underrated groups, you gotta have Heart

If you are wondering, all three of today’s underrated groups are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 628 of The Daily Dirt.

1. Today we conclude our look at most underrated — or under appreciated — artists of the rock era, with our final emphasis on groups:

1. Heart: Fronted by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, Heart managed to break through in an almost exclusively male-dominated industry. Heart came around way before there was a focus on women being an integral part of the music industry. Plus, Heart videos were some of the finest the 1980s produced. Best Heart song? How about “Alone?”

2. Kinks: Remember the famed British Invasion of the early and mid-1960s? Once the Beatles officially emerged as kings of the hill of that period, the Kinks found themselves all but forgotten in the aftermath of that musical epoch — only to resurface at several points in the progression of pop music history. The guitar and songwriting abilities of the Davies brothers (Ray and Dave) are legendary, punctuated by such hits as “You Really Got Me” to “Come Dancing,” The band had three No. 1 singles and 18 top-40 songs. Ahh … what might have been if had the Beatles never existed? For the record, my favorite Kings effort was “Come Dancing.”

3. Faces: This bunch was an easy choice, if for no other reason that the inclusion such members as Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood. Deservingly, Faces were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. Faces formed in 1969 by some of the talents who had been part of Small Faces (after lead singer Steve Marriott left to form Humble Pie). The remaining Small Faces were joined by Wood and Stewart, who both had been with the Jeff Beck Group. The new lineup was renamed Faces and gave us some memorable hits like “Stay With Me” and “Ooh La La” with Stewart on vocals.

2. This week’s most interesting celebrity birthdays:

• Actor Robert Englund, who played the infamous Freddie Krueger in the “Nightmare on Elm Street” film series, will be 76 on Tuesday.
• Singer Gary “U.S.” Bonds celebrates No. 84, also on Tuesday.
• Actor Liam Neeson turns 71 on Wednesday.
• Singer Chuck Negron of Three Dog night will be 81 on Thursday.
• Singer Boz Scaggs will be 79, also on Thursday. 

3. The Southeastern Conference has been taking a beating in the media in recent days after announcing it will be sticking to an eight-game conference football schedule in 2024.

That followed an earlier announcement saying it will remove divisions and become a one-division, 16-school league after Texas and Oklahoma become SEC members.

Missouri fans should be proud that their school was one of the five that voted for adding a ninth conference game. The schools that voted for keeping the SEC schedule at eight games (and playing, for the most part, four non-league cupcakes) were: Alabama, Auburn, Arkansas, Tennessee, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Kentucky and Vanderbilt. (Texas and Oklahoma did not have a vote.)

This is also interesting. Looking at the coming season, the SEC has an embarrassing number of schools not playing at least 10 Power-5 opponents:

Big Ten: 13 of 14

Big 12: 11 of 14

Pac-12: 10 of 12

ACC: 10 of 15

SEC: 2 of 14

Steve Thought O’ The Day — Speaking of Chuck Negron and Three Dog Night, the former super group had a trio of No. 1 songs: “One” in 1969, “Mama Told Me (Not to Come)” in 1970 and the legendary “Joy to the World” in 1971.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. Eight games…nine games…it’s still #KingSEC