Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 8/5: Chairmen of the Board, “Give Me Just a Little More Time”
Put on your shaggin’ shoes. This song is on any Carolina Beach Music compilation worth hearing. General Johnson, lead singer of the Chairmen of the Board, toured the beach circuit for most of the ’60s with his Norfolk band the Showmen, scoring several regional hits before leaving to go solo in 1968. By 1970 he […]
Song of the Day 8/4: B.J. Thomas, “Mighty Clouds of Joy”
If white churches had music like this at their services I’d go more often. After his run as a pop singer, B.J. Thomas had a long career in gospel music. This Cynthia Weil/Barry Mann song sounds like a link between the two, but Thomas recorded it in 1971, while he was still a secular singer, […]
Song of the Day 8/3: Stevie Wonder, “You Haven’t Done Nothin”
Don’t know if you saw it, but Charles Barkley made an unwelcome-by-Democrats point during this week’s debate coverage: “I think all politicians take black folks for granted,” Barkley told reporters. “They talk to black folks every four years, and that’s about it. How they’re going to make our lives better, and then do nothing about […]
Song of the Day 8/2: The Beach Boys, “Darlin'”
The lead track on “Wild Honey,” the Beach Boys’ back-to-our-roots album following the “Smile” disaster, this soul-flavored confection was a throwback even in 1967. The Beach Boys were considered has-beens by that point, so the song barely hit the Top 20, but I’ve always thought it was pretty darn outta sight. Said Brian Wilson in […]
Song of the Day 8/1: Elvis Presley, “Burning Love”
Elvis’ last No. 1 hit — and that only in Cashbox, not Billboard — in its first live performance, about two weeks after he recorded it in late March 1972. Elvis reportedly didn’t care for the song, but it quickly became a fat-Elvis-period fan favorite. It was kept from Billboard’s No. 1 spot by, of […]
Song of the Day 7/31: Frank Sinatra (Joe Piscopo) and Stevie Wonder (Eddie Murphy), “Ebony and Ivory”
This SNL skit dates to 1982, when Ronald Reagan was president. Would he have been elected if the “African monkeys” tape had been released to the public? Given what we know about the GOP, I’m guessing yes.
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes: July 2019
I’ve discovered so many great tunes this year that I don’t know how I can shoehorn the best into a mere Top 50 at year’s end. Top 100, maybe? Talk me down. But only after you’ve listened to this month’s trove of musical treasures:
Song of the Day 7/30: Five Americans, “Western Union”
Technological progress has rendered some old songs obsolete — “Please Mr. Postman” and “The Letter,” for example, are set in an era when people still used snail mail to communicate with each other. Or consider telephone songs, especially ones in which the singer talks to an operator, like “Memphis, Tennessee” — most people haven’t spoken […]
Song of the Day 7/29: 10cc, “Oh Effendi”
This was written in the wake of the first Arab oil embargo, but it’s remarkable how little the geopolitics of the Middle East have changed in decades since. The only big difference is that we no longer have to use gun-runners to sell weapons to sheiks and mullahs — we do it right out in […]
Song of the Day 7/26: Rod Stewart, “True Blue”
The lead-off track to “Never a Dull Moment,” the 1972 follow-up album to Stewart’s mega-hit “Every Picture Tells a Story,” finds Rod the Mod struggling with his new-found success. Like many of Stewart’s solo records from the period, it’s hard to hear any difference from his work with the Faces, and no wonder — it’s […]
Song of the Day 7/25: Sly and the Family Stone, “Hot Fun in the Summertime”
Though it’s a quintessential summer song, the single, recorded for an album but rushed into release shortly after the band’s triumphant set at Woodstock, didn’t reach its No. 2 chart position until October of 1969. As a summertime anthem, this might be Sly’s most-covered composition. An early-’80s funk band from Dayton, Ohio, called Dayton, gave […]
Song of the Day 7/24: Toots and the Maytals, “Monkey Man”
Jane Goodall met Prince Harry yesterday and they enacted a “chimpanzee greeting.” As you can see at the link, it’s not much different from a human greeting, because we are basically near-hairless, smarter, weaker chimps. Toots and the Maytals released the song in 1969, inspired by Toots losing a woman to a guy who, he […]
Song of the Day 7/23: The National, “Secret Meeting”
I once heard The National described as “REM for the 21st century,” and the comparison makes some sense. Both groups are guitar-driven alternative bands that feature inward-looking, literate, cryptic lyrics and vocals by their brooding front men. Both write songs that, as the rock-crit adage has it, reward repeated listens. This song, which led off […]
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