Posts by Alby

This is for El Somnambulo, and anyone else on Day 2 of their Dry January. Bartees Strange is one of his faves. I'm sure he's this song already – it's…

You probably don't know the name of this tune, but if you've ever seen a commercial for Philadelphia's Mummers Parade you've heard it. Ferko String Band sold 1 million copies…

There is something about the tune we use for Robert Burns' "Auld Lang Syne" that urges people to start singing. Listen to the start of this video of Dutch violinist…

Bleak times call for bleak songs. Lou Reed made this the centerpiece of his critically acclaimed 1989 LP "New York," and it topped Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart for four…

It has been a long December, but I don't think anybody believes this coming year will be better than the last. Adam Duritz doesn't sound like he believes it when…

Sclerotic bully Donald Trump has been talking tough about Panama, which like, sure, Grandpa. I'm not the only one whose mind went to this 1984 Van Halen classic, which has…

I always found this song's opening line a bit strange. "Oh, what a night, late December, 1963." Considering that "late December" is already filled with several significant calendar items, like…

H/t El Somnambulo, who suggested this for the Christmas playlist back in March. This Christmas song by Robbie Robertson went overlooked for years. Written and rejected for the Band's 1975's…

If you like holiday music played by jazzmen, you've probably heard this on Columbia's 1981 Christmas sampler, "God Rest Ye Merry, Jazzmen," because there aren't all that many jazz Christmas…

As Nathan Arizona noted the other day, Karen Carpenter could make even a happy holiday song sound a little sad, so a song about missing her beau on Christmas Eve…

This song, which debuted in 1963, turns up among Billboard's top 10 holiday songs every year, and I'd argue it owes its popularity to a TV commercial that wasn't about…

Guest post by Nathan Arizona It shouldn’t be hard to identify “the man with the bag” everybody’s waiting for this time of year. The bag has presents in it. It…

When I heard this on the car radio the other day I honestly thought it was some overlooked song from a '60s soul Christmas album. With better speakers I could…