Posts by Alby

Gene Wilder died last weekthree years ago last week, which sent me to YouTube for his greatest film clips, which led to "Candy Man" by Sammy Davis Jr., which led…

It's been just about a year since I first featured this Philly band in Song of the Day, and they just released a new album, "A Distant Call," that tops…

I was watching the PBS series about Reconstruction recently and heard a bunch of historians lament how that part of American history is so little studied and poorly understood. That's…

The title track to the Beach Boys' 1964 LP was never released as a single in the U.S., so most people didn't hear it much until George Lucas used it…

Another song for the "Nothing Has Changed" playlist. Folk/country artist Iris DeMent is probably best known for her song "Our Town" and her duets with John Prine, but back in…

This tune, initially recorded during sessions for the band's breakthrough "Out of Time" album, saw release on the band's 1992 "Automatic for the People" LP. Most REM songs started with…

The Rembrandts were just two guitarists, Danny Wilde (lead vocals) and Phil Solem (lead guitar), who hit the Top 20 with this catchy kiss-off in 1990. They are, unfortunately, remembered…

"Trust," released in 1981, is one of Elvis Costello's under-appreciated efforts, mostly remembered only for "Clubland." I always liked this track, with its understated air of menace, Costello's vague but…

Back in the day, the Top 40 included all sorts of music, even gospel, as evidenced by this song hitting No. 4 in the country in 1969. Edwin Hawkins, director…

Another one-hit wonder from the '90s, "Phone Booth" traveled a long road to No. 1 on the modern rock chart in 1996. It started several years earlier, when songwriter Chris…

Fastball is a band out of Austin, Texas, that formed in 1995 and scored a massive modern-rock hit in 1998 with this rockabilly-flavored tale of a road trip with no…