Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 3/25: Jay and the Techniques, “Keep the Ball Rollin’ “
Most soul music of the ’60s came out of Detroit, or Memphis, or Chicago. But sometimes it came from the most unlikely places, like Allentown, Pa. That’s where singer Jay Proctor assembled his integrated band the Techniques, who hit the Top 10 with “Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie.” The band might better have been called the […]
Song of the Day 3/23: Linus of Hollywood, “Don’t Fuck It Up”
Musicians who record power pop must realize by now that it’s almost impossible to make a living at it, so Kevin Dotson, better known as Linus of Hollywood, keeps lots of irons in the fire. Not only does the multi-instrumentalist record solo records, he plays with the geek-rock band Nerf Herder, writes music for TV […]
Song of the Day 3/22: Stevie Wonder and Tom Jones, “A Place In The Sun/Uptight/It’s Not Unusual”
“Ebony and Ivory,” the duet by Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney, hit the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic in 1982. But it wasn’t the first time Stevie paired with a British singer. Welshman Tom Jones, who won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1966, was so popular by 1969 […]
Song of the Day 3/21: The Buckinghams, “Kind of a Drag”
In 1965 a Chicago group called the Pulsations was hired as house band for a local TV station’s music show. With the British Invasion in full swing, the show’s producers asked them to change their name to capitalize on it, and the Buckinghams were born. They recorded several songs for a local record label the […]
Song of the Day 3/20: Godley & Creme, “Cry”
Kevin Godley and Lol Creme were half of the art-rock band 10cc for much of the 1970s, but left to pursue an invention called the gizmotron, a device that attached to the bridge of an electric guitar and gave its strings indefinite sustain. It never really caught on, and the duo returned to making music […]
Song of the Day 3/19: Michael Jackson, “Black or White”
As long as everybody is arguing about racism, let’s listen to what was intended as a condemnation of it. Here’s the song alone, stripped down to just the music — no controversial video segments, just a mid-tempo dance tune with catchy riff and a social message. Of course, that’s not how anyone remembers the song. […]
Song of the Day 3/17: Dropkick Murphys, “The Wild Rover”
If you’re reading this before your first green-dyed beer of the day, you probably know this tune, or at least its “no, nay, never” refrain, by heart. It’s among the most widely known and performed Irish folk songs, even though it’s not originally Irish. The lyrics have been traced to a 17th-century broadside from England, […]
Song of the Day 3/16: Yusuf Islam, “Don’t Let Me Be Understood”
When Cat Stevens converted to Islam in 1977, he changed his name and dropped out of the music industry for almost 30 years. He made headlines in 1989 when he was quoted supporting the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, and his music was promptly dropped by most U.S. radio stations. When he finally recorded another pop […]
Song of the Day 3/15: The Who, “Pictures of Lily”
I’ve been talking a lot about power pop recently, mainly because it seems Jason330 is a fan of the genre even if he didn’t realize what it was called. So let’s look into the history of the only genre of rock and roll that shunned being cool in favor of commercial appeal, only to be […]
Song of the Day 3/12: Sugar Stems, “We Only Come Out at Night”
I’m invoking our new Earworm Warning for this one, which I first heard when it was released in 2014 and not much since. Yet it popped into my head unbidden a few days ago and it’s still there. So consider yourself warned. Sugar Stems formed in Milwaukee in 2007 and released two albums before “Only […]
Song of the Day 3/11: AC/DC, “Hard as a Rock”
Can someone please explain why Viagra hasn’t used this as their theme song? The Young brothers didn’t even bother to disguise it a double entendre — it’s crystal clear what Brian Johnson is singing about. In case there was any doubt, the B-side to the single was “Caught With Your Pants Down.” “Hard as a […]
Song of the Day 3/10: The Outsiders, “Time Won’t Let Me”
The American answer to the British Invasion was in full swing by 1965, when a Cleveland R & B outfit called the Starfires got signed to Capitol Records and changed its name. Their first single as the Outsiders hit No. 5 in spring 1966, its punchy horns and driving beat making it an instant white […]
Song of the Day 3/9: Lloyd Williams, “Shama Lama Ding Dong”
Anybody who’s seen “Animal House” remembers the scene at the Dexter Lake Club — “Otis! My man!” — and the song Otis Day and the Knights launch into as it begins. “Shama Lama Ding Dong” fits right in with the movie’s soundtrack of late ’50s-early ’60s R&B, a doo-wop flavored number full of scat syllables […]
Recent Comments