Arts and Entertainment
‘XPN’s Top Songs By Female Artists Poll: My Ballot
Every year, WXPN does an 885 Countdown featuring different themes. This year, for the first time, they’re featuring best songs by female artists, which can include groups as well. For at least the last ten years, I think the importance of the music of female artists has significantly outshined that of their male counterparts. Here’s […]
Song of the Day 11/12: Eva Cassidy, “Autumn Leaves”
Who looks at fallen leaves and thinks of lost love instead of hours of raking and bagging? A guy without a lawn, that’s who. Iconic lyricist Johnny Mercer spent most of his life in New York and Hollywood, so I doubt he ever heard a gas-powered leaf blower. But then Mercer wasn’t working from scratch. […]
Song of the Day 11/1: The Jaynetts, “Sally Go ‘Round the Roses”
El Somnambulo’s fave tunes for October includes a psychedelic cover of this 1963 girl-group nugget by the Jaynetts, who are considered a one-hit wonder but didn’t really exist at all. The Jaynetts and the song were both the brainchildren of an A&R man for Chess Records named Abner Spector, who wrote and produced a hit […]
‘Bulo’s Fave Tunes: October 2023
There were more than 14 great tunes that I heard this month. However, I make the rules, and I must abide by the rules. So the great tunes that won’t officially be released until 2024 will make the lists–in 2024. Plenty of compensation, though: Ladeez and gentlemen, your microdose musical experience of the month: Cyrus […]
Song of the Day 10/31: Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers, “Monster Mash”
Yes, you’ve heard it a million times. Everybody’s heard it a million times, and lots of them know some of the lines, even if they’re too young to know that “mash” was short for the “mashed potato,” a national dance craze back in 1962. Bobby Pickett, who died in 2007, was an aspiring actor who […]
Song of the Day 10/30: Reba McEntire, “Turn on the Radio”
This year saw an odd trend in the agritainment business: Reba McEntire-themed corn mazes. Corn mazes are a seasonal money-maker for small farmers who market the farm along with its crops, and they’ve been around long enough that a business has sprung up around them. I suppose if you have to come up with a […]
Song of the Day 10/29: Milli Vanilli, “Girl You Know It’s True”
You can tell the ’90s are having their day in the nostalgia-industrial complex – there’s a new documentary out about Milli Vanilli, the dance-pop duo who had to give up their Grammy Award when it was revealed that they were lip-synching and dancing to vocals recorded by other singers. I remember seeing the act at […]
Song of the Day 10/27: The Jackson 5, “I Want You Back”
So I was at a wedding a couple of weekends ago and – old fogey alert! – when the music started it was like a rave had broken out. The DJ segued one record into another ad infinitum, all with the same monotonous robo-beat while the bridal party – were nine bridesmaids really necessary? – […]
Song of the Day 10/26: The Rolling Stones, “Start Me Up”
I don’t want to make a big thing of it, but Joe Biden is the same age as Keith Richards, and nobody is telling the venerable guitarist to hang it up. The indestructible Stone might look like the picture of Dorian Gray, but he stopped by the Jimmy Fallon show the other night after the […]
Song of the Day 10/25: The B-52s, “Dry County”
For Andrew C, by request. The B-52s were scheduled to play a White House state dinner tonight but had their performance called off at the last minute. Jill Biden was called upon to explain, “While we had initially planned for the legendary B-52s to perform their iconic dance and party music, we are now in […]
Song of the Day 10/24: Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers, “I’m Not Your Man”
Theme song for the endless search for a Speaker of the House. Tommy Conwell ruled the bar band circuit in Philadelphia and Delaware for a little while back in the ’80s with his blend of blues and pop. His popularity in the region culminated in a major-label contract and a debut album, “Rumble,” anchored by […]
Song of the Day 10/23: DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, “A Nightmare on My Street”
Will Smith’s spoof of the Freddy Krueger movies fits the Halloween season, but he’s living a more substantial nightmare these days, what with all the publicity his apparently estranged wife is getting for her tell-all memoir. Stay out of the basement, Will, it’s full of dirty laundry. “A Nightmare on My Street” was the second […]
Song of the Day 10/22: Jimmy Cliff, “Trapped”
For Gaza. Jimmy Cliff released this song as a single in 1972, the same year he starred in “The Harder They Come,” the movie and soundtrack that made Jamaican music mainstream, but it got surprisingly little attention at the time. Produced by Cat Stevens, whose “Wild World” was a big hit for Cliff in the […]
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