Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 12/15: The Ray Coniff Singers, “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona You don’t find many Christmas songs with St. Nicholas in them. Santa Claus took over in the 19th century with a big boost from Clement Moore’s poem “The Night Before Christmas” and the illustrations of Thomas Nast. Their Santas were kind of elfin, not exactly like ours. The poem described […]
Song of the Day 12/14: Stevie Wonder, “Someday at Christmas”
Today we kick off Song of the Day’s 12 Days of Christmas Music with a song I’m hearing more this year than I have in a long time, and with good reason. “Someday at Christmas” was written by Motown staff writers Ron Miller and Bryan Wells, who were responsible for some of Wonder’s earlier hits, […]
Song of the Day 12/13: Lenny Kravitz, “Fly Away”
Lenny Kravitz was viewed as a promising young talent when he debuted in the late ’80s, but by 1998 he was written off as someone who could emulate his multiple influences but couldn’t make anything new or distinctive out of them. Though his albums were selling and he was hob-nobbing with the glitterati, his last […]
Song of the Day 12/12: Talking Heads, “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)”
The WXPN 885 cover songs countdown ended last evening, and there were no surprises among the top finishers: Jimi Hendrix covering “All Along the Watchtower” was No. 1, Johnny Cash doing “Hurt” No. 2 and Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” No. 3, all of which were easy to predict. There were plenty of surprises further down the […]
Song of the Day 12/11: The Mavericks, “Here Comes the Rain”
Raul Malo, founder and lead singer of the Mavericks, died of cancer Monday at 60, silencing one of the best voices of his generation. Malo, the son of Cuban immigrants, formed the group in Miami, but they were signed as a country band and relocated to Nashville. Their sound, which owed as much to rock […]
Song of the Day 12/10: Simple Minds, “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona There’s an ‘80s revival going on. It’s been going on since about 1990. It’s the decade that wouldn’t die. Eighties pop culture nostalgia spiked in the 2000s, bubbled on low heat for a while and now Gen Z can’t stop TikToking about big hair, bold colors, Game Boys, shoulder pads, […]
Song of the Day 12/9: Vince Guaraldi Trio, “Cast Your Fate to the Wind”
Donald Trump’s War on Wind – a particularly stupid fixation given AI’s soaring demand for electricity – suffered a setback yesterday. A federal judge ruled his abrupt cancellation of all wind power projects was “arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law.” As if that would ever stop him. I’m sure his amateur-grade lawyers will take […]
Song of the Day 12/8: Gloria Gaynor, “Fida Known”
Trump played MC for the Kennedy Center Honors last night, and managed to get through the evening while keeping the cringe to a minimum. But it’s Trump, so he couldn’t go without making a few vile remarks. After praising the persistence he said marked the careers of the honorees in his introduction, Trump added, “I […]
Song of the Day 12/7: Steve Cropper & the Midnight Hour, “Talkin’ Bout Politics”
Steve Cropper, who died Dec. 3 at 84, did as much as anyone to make Stax a soul powerhouse in the ’60s – playing guitar in the house band, Booker T and the MG’s, co-writing a clutch of R&B classics, including “The Dock of the Bay,” “Knock on Wood” and “In the Midnight Hour,” and […]
Song of the Day 12/5: Mark Knopfler, “Sailing to Philadelphia”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona Two Englishmen sail west across the Atlantic and finally spy “the capes of Delaware.” They have a big job ahead. As this Mark Knopfler song about them says, they’ve come to America to “draw the line.” They are the surveyors Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason. They spring to life in […]
Song of the Day 12/4: The Beatles, “Rocky Racoon”
Things are so bad in this country that even the wildlife is getting hammered. A liquor store in Virginia was ransacked by a raccoon that was found passed out drunk on a bathroom floor. This comes on the heels of a report in Scientific American that urban raccoons are showing signs of domesticating themselves. Now […]
Song of the Day 12/3: The Byrds, “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better”
Alina Habba, the pride of Widener Law School, has been disqualified as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey after an appeals court has ruled that the Trump administration’s ploy for appointing her is illegal. It’s the second such ruling in recent weeks, bad news for Trump’s Lawfare Revenge tour but a rare-enough win for the rest […]
Song of the Day 12/2: Green Day, “Brain Stew”
Trump’s rapid unraveling is getting hard to ignore, but I’m not seeing many stories about the man-child rage-tweeting into the wee hours to spout ever-more-incredulous fabblegab. My personal favorite: in the waning days of Biden’s administration, Michelle Obama wielded the Nefarious Autopen to “pardon key individuals.” Maybe he should take something for that insomnia. That’s […]
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