From Counting Crows’ debut album, “August and Everything After,” released in 1993.

Dedicated to Donald Trump, with all the sympathy he deserves.

Barenaked Ladies wrote about what they’d do with a million dollars even before the band formed in 1988. Frontmen Steven Page and Ed Robertson were working as counselors at a summer music camp, and they would sing this to the campers on the bus, filling in the back half of the line “If I had a million dollars…” with anything that would make the kids laugh. That’s one reason for the fixation on youthful concerns like a tree fort and Kraft Dinners (that’s what Kraft Mac and Cheese is called up North). The tune quickly became a concert favorite for the between-verses banter, which changed nightly.

One million dollars from 1988 would be worth $2.6 million today (that’s American – $1 million Canadian then spent like $2.2 million Canadian now). That would probably cover the more esoteric items in the song, a list inspired by Michael Jackson’s whims at the time – a monkey, exotic pets and the remains of “Elephant Man,” John Merrick, which Jackson reportedly tried to acquire. Jackson even inspired the line about the green dress – he bought one for Liz Taylor to wear to an awards show.

Over the years the song has become an icon of Canadian culture. In a distinctly Canadian wrinkle, it engendered some controversy over Page’s response to Robertson’s “I’d buy you a fur coat” – “But not a real fur coat, that’s cruel.” The Métis, indigenous people descended from Native Americans and European trappers, protested that it denigrated the way many of them still earned a living. There was no corresponding outcry from the green dress industry.

Fun fact: The “K-car,” a platform Chrysler used across its brands that is widely considered to have saved the company, was first manufactured in 1984 at three facilities, including Chrysler’s Newark assembly plant. By the time BNL’s song appeared the various K-cars, including the Plymouth Reliant, were a frequent sight in used-car lots.

Life, as we know, imitates “The Simpsons,” which is why we got a Trump presidency. Even minor gags from long-ago episodes have come to pass: The U.S. won the Olympic gold medal in curling, the guy in Siegfried and Roy was attacked by one of his white tigers, Michelangelo’s David became the subject of censorship – the list is long and disconcerting.

Pompous rockers going orchestral was already a cliche when it turned up in “This Is Spinal Tap” 40 years ago, so the Simpsons writers turned it up to 11 in a 1996 episode – they had hip-hop trio Cypress Hill, “possibly while high,” engage the London Symphony Orchestra as a backup band. (The group was notorious for their cannabis use – they were banned from “SNL” after DJ Muggs toked up live on stage in a 1993 appearance, because, he said, he was annoyed that production people kept warning them not to do exactly that.)

Their fans have never forgotten the joke, and once social media made it possible they began cyber-clamoring for it to happen. So Cypress Hill’s upcoming July 10 concert with the LSO isn’t so much a prediction as a command performance.

The group has been leading up to this dream gig for months by appearing with other orchestras. Here’s a clip of them performing their best-known song with the Colorado Symphony last July. “Insane in the Brain” made it to No. 1 on the rap chart in 1993 and even crossed over to the Hot 100, where it reached No. 19, making it their only Top 40 hit.

Donald Trump is getting INCREASINGLY FRANTIC! as the clock winds down toward his deadline for posting bond as he appeals his fraud conviction. Before you read any story about it, you should cue up this song as the soundtrack.

Barrett Strong had his only hit as a performer with “Money,” written by Berry Gordy. It was Motown’s first chart success, reaching No. 23 on the Hot 100 in 1960. Strong soon joined the label to work as a lyricist with Norman Whitfield, co-writing dozens of tunes including “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” and “War.” He died in January 2023 at age 81.

It’s been covered by dozens of artists, not least the Beatles, and many have reached the charts in either the U.S., the UK or both. The only band that gave its cover a twist was Britain’s Flying Lizards, whose New Wave approach hit No. 5 in the UK and No. 50 on the Hot 100 in 1979.

Alex Melton is a South Carolina-based multi-instrumentalist who’s made a name for himself on YouTube by making genre-twisting covers – country songs done as pop-punk and vice versa are his specialties – and doing it all as a one-man band, playing all the instruments and mixing it together by computer.

He’s been doing this for several years, so he’s got dozens of videos out there, but this one particularly struck me because “MMMBop” was a silly late-90s pop tune written and performed by Hanson, who at the time were three young brothers who looked like a boy band but actually wrote their own songs and played their own instruments.

The song was infectious enough to make No. 1 not just on the Hot 100 but in a dozen other countries too. At the risk of putting a worm in your ear, here’s a reminder of how it sounded.

I don’t know about you, but beyond the chorus I couldn’t make out more than about 15 words. I was intrigued by the challenge Melton presented himself – how could he turn this bit of fluff into an emo song? Well, he started by listening to the lyrics, and slowing the tempo enough so we could hear them. They turn out to work amazingly well as an emo cry from the heart, something Melton explains after the music portion of this video. Somebody in the comments said it sounds like a Counting Crows single, which about nails it.

Melton has a real talent for this. Here’s what he did with MGMT’s “Electric Feel.”

Guest post by Nathan Arizona

Americans might have been puzzled by a recent Philadelphia Inquirer story about what Flyers’ hockey players want to hear on the song playlists that blast out on road trips or before and after games. Why did the name Tragically Hip come up so often? Who are they? Why is one player such a fan that his ringtone is the Tragically Hip’s “Bobcaygeon,” a song you’ve never heard of?

Why does center Morgan Frost play their music in his car on the way to games, and then again in the off-season when his “best, best friends back home . . . all know all the songs” by “the Hip.”

It begins to make sense when you realize that “back home” is Canada for him and most other hockey players. The Tragically Hip’s hard-to-define mix of indie rock, folk-rock and blues-rock never got much attention in the U.S, except for a little flurry in the early ‘90s. They did best in border cities like Detroit and Buffalo.The band managed to get a spot on “Saturday Night Live” once, but only thanks to lobbying by Canadian Dan Aykroyd.

But the Hip has been venerated in Canada for 40 years. They performed in the biggest arenas and small places other superstars ignored, before disbanding with the death of leader Gord Downie in 2017. Their songs reference Canadian history and culture. They appeal to a wide variety of Canadians, as the nickname “thinking man’s drinking band” might suggest. Nine of their 13 albums hit No. 1 on the Canadian charts.

Here’s the band’s “Bobcaygeon.” A stressed-out policeman chills in that small Ontario town where he watches constellations in the night sky. Back in the city, he joins the fight against fascism by helping to quell an “Aryan” riot. He seems like a good guy, just worn out.

This is another fan favorite. You’ll probably notice an R.E.M. vibe. It’s about a real-life hockey player who died in a plane crash a few months after his goal won the Stanley Cup for Toronto. I’m sure the Flyers know this one.

Not every Canadian band or artist is ignored in the U.S. A list of successes would include the Guess Who, Rush, Arcade Fire, the New Pornographers, Bachman-Turneer Overdrive, Bryan Adams, Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, Barenaked Ladies, Alanis Morrisette and Nickelback. (Insert Nickelback joke here.) On the other hand, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young struggled in their native Canada before becoming stars in the U.S..

But who cares about them when the Tragically Hip is playing as you circle the ice.

Trump’s lawyers whined that nobody will accept his real estate as collateral for the half-a-billion-dollar bond he has to post by Monday. Letitia James said Trump’s assets could be seized if he can’t pay, but it seems more likely that the state would go after his bank accounts than his real estate holdings.

Remember Paul Manafort, the Russian asset who ran Trump’s 2016 campaign? Trump pardoned the felon for his tax crimes and now intends to hire him again, I suppose so Russia doesn’t have to risk using someone else as a go-between.

Ketamine-addled genius boy Elon Musk once again revealed himself a thin-skinned racist in his interview with Don Lemon. Because Lemon challenged Musk’s racism, Musk pulled the plug on their deal after this one and only interview, offering the usual litany of Trumpian excuses and insults.

Bernie Sanders got a brief burst of publicity when he filed a bill to reduce the American work week to 32 hours. It stands no chance of passage.

The situation is out of control in Haiti, where armed gangs control most of the country. It’s not as bad as Gaza yet, but it’s on the same path of humanitarian disaster, and nobody seems to have any plan for dealing with it.

The floor’s yours.