Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 12/18: Bing Crosby, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona Melancholy is almost a standard quality in Christmas music, but only one song was so sad that it got banned from the radio. And it’s one of the all-time classics, too. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” a hit for Bing Crosby in 1943, is about a soldier stuck overseas writing […]
Song of the Day 12/17: Kiri Te Kanawa, “O Holy Night”
If you’re not a church-goer you might not realize that, as pious as this song sounds, most Christian denominations do not have it in their hymnals. The reason is as old as religion itself: Religious intolerance. “O Holy Night” is the English translation of the original French “Cantique de Nöel,” which despite its subject matter […]
Song of the Day 12/16: Paul McCartney, “Wonderful Christmastime”
If you’ve ever seen one of those listicles of the best and worst Christmas songs, you might have noticed an oddity – several of the songs appear on both lists. I’ve seen “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” the most popular song in Delaware according to this story, atop both lists, and “Feliz Navidad” […]
Song of the Day 12/15: The Roches, “Deck the Halls”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona WXPN voters couldn’t find even one song by the Roches to place on the station’s just-concluded listeners survey of the 885 best songs by women. But the harmonizing sisters are going to sing a couple of Christmas carols for you today anyway, through the time-traveling magic of YouTube. The Roches […]
Song of the Day 12/14: Buck Owens, “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy”
I think most people sour on the Christmas music played on the radio and at commercial establishments because the playlist is too short. It consists of five or six dozen songs familiar to almost everyone, most of them recorded by dozens of artists. They vary only in their arrangement and production – the songs themselves […]
Song of the Day 12/13: Brenda Lee, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”
If you venture out in public much you’re probably sick of Christmas music by now, but it’s my policy to listen to only 12 days of Christmas music. I’m starting a day early this year because a record most people have heard their entire lives just made it to No. 1 on the Hot 100. […]
Song of the Day 12/12: Carole King, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”
WXPN’s contest countdown is nearly through (as I post this there are fewer than 60 songs to go) and most of the entries I put on my ballot because I thought they’d be underrepresented have been played. So have most of my late rejects. This song has been played, too, but not by this artist. […]
Song of the Day 12/11: Laurie Anderson, “O Superman”
WXPN’s year-end countdown of the 885 Greatest Songs by Women – I know, the title sounds more ridiculous every time you hear it – reached my pick for No. 1 yesterday afternoon. “O Superman” clocked in at No. 262, between Phoebe Snow’s “Poetry Man” and Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces.” I don’t know if […]
Song of the Day 12/8: Imogen Heap, “Hide and Seek”
WXPN’s countdown of the 885 Greatest Songs By Women – yes, it’s grandiose, but they had to call it something – has passed the halfway mark, and my strategy of picking cuts I thought might otherwise be ignored isn’t looking too successful. So far only two of my 10 selections, “Birthday” by the Bjork-led Sugarcubes […]
Song of the Day 12/7: Denny Laine’s Electric String Band, “Why Did You Come”
Denny Laine, who died Tuesday at 79, might have been who Andy Warhol had in mind when he said everyone would get 15 minutes of fame. For about that long in 1964 it looked like the guy born Brian Hines would be a big rock ‘n’ roll star. The band he fronted, the Moody Blues, […]
Song of the Day 12/5: Nine Inch Nails, “The Beginning of the End”
Could this be a message for Valerie Longhurst? You decide. It comes from Trent Reznor’s 2007 LP “Year Zero,” a concept album about an American dystopia. Reznor set his tale of a United States beset by terrorists and ruled by a Christofascist regime in 2022, 15 years in the future, because that was the year […]
Song of the Day 12/4: Jim Bryant, “Something’s Coming”
El Somnambulo insisted I feature this tune today. I have no idea why, but when a man in a luchador mask tells you to do something, you do it. Though Richard Beymer portrayed Tony in the film, his singing was dubbed by Jim Bryant. The music is by Leonard Bernstein, lately portrayed by Bradley Cooper […]
Song of the Day 12/3: Ratboys, “The Window”
El Som included a tune from Chicago band Ratboys in his monthly favorite new tunes post back when their fifth studio LP, “The Window,” came out in August. The album, produced by former Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla, got good reviews from the music press, and almost all of them cite the soaring […]
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