Posts by Alby

The Fireballs, originally Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs (named for the Jerry Lee Lewis song), are most famous for their 1963 No. 1 hit "Sugar Shack," a tune that in…

Everyone knows they're white -- it's right there in the band name -- but I ran into a millennial the other day who didn't know they were Scottish. This video,…

Yeah, Dorian is just a flimsy excuse to play one of my favorite Neil Young songs. It was written in 1975, recorded for "American Stars and Bars" for release in…

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…