Arts and Entertainment
Song of the Day 4/30: The Boo Radleys, “Wake Up Boo!”
Not woke yet, or just feeling a bit lacking in the wokeness department? Let the Boo Radleys remedy that. The Boo Radleys were an early ’90s Liverpool indie four-piece that released its most commercial album, “Wake Up!” in 1995, just in time for the Britpop boom that made Oasis internationally famous. Their LP caught the […]
Song of the Day 4/29: Kool and the Gang, “Too Hot”
Maybe it’s too common to be news anymore, but the Indian subcontinent is suffering under a brutal heat wave. Temperatures have been 10 degrees above normal for weeks and have reached 112°F. In related news, CO2 levels at Mauna Loa set a new record at over 422 ppm this week. “Too Hot” was the second […]
Song of the Day 4/28: Gary Glitter, “Rock and Roll (Part 1)”
There’s no other way to put it — the French just think differently from everybody else. Paul Gadd was just 15 when, calling himself Paul Raven, he cut his first single in 1960. He had a small-time career until the glam rock craze hit Britain in 1971, at which point he changed his name to […]
Song of the Day 4/27: The Replacements, “Androgynous”
Republicans are like an aging band that doesn’t realize they’re playing stale oldies for a graying audience. They’ve been trying to relitigate the 1960s for 50 years now without coming up with any new tunes, so they’re back to demonizing sexual/gender nonconformity. They’re also keen on spotting perverts everywhere except the obvious places, namely evangelical […]
Song of the Day 4/26: Fleetwood Mac, “Tusk”
Does Weird Al Yankovic take requests? If so, would someone please forward mine? I think this Lindsey Buckingham tune screams out for use as a salute to the current world’s richest man and second-greatest egotistical con artist, Elon Musk. C’mon, Al! A waiting world needs “Musk.” “Tusk” might be Fleetwood Mac’s unlikeliest hit — it […]
Song of the Day 4/25: Sweet, “Little Willy”
EARWORM ALERT Were they glam? Bubblegum? Power pop? Sweet was all of those things and more, depending on the song and the whims of their writer/producer, Mike Chapman, and his partner Nicky Chinn. Those two were aspiring songwriters in 1970 when they met the lads from The Sweetshop, as they were originally billed, who had […]
Song of the Day 4/22: AC/DC, “Dog Eat Dog”
Kevin McCarthy has never been among the sharper tools in the GOP congressional shed — he once voiced his belief, in front of witnesses, that Trump was on the Kremlin payroll — but he really should have seen that Rachel Maddow coming with that right cross. Maybe somebody should warn him that when push comes […]
Song of the Day 4/21: Frank Sinatra, “I Have Dreamed”
Philadelphia disc jockey Sid Mark, host of the nationally syndicated “Sounds of Sinatra” radio program that aired locally on WPHT-AM as “Sundays With Sinatra,” died this week at age 88. He had been playing Frank Sinatra’s music over the airwaves for more than 65 years, and closed every show with this Rodgers and Hammerstein tune […]
Song of the Day 4/20: The Doors, “Light My Fire”
Believe it or not, kidz, this song was once considered a paean to weed because the first verse ends with the line, “Girl we couldn’t get much higher.” After “Light My Fire” reached No. 1 in September 1967, Ed Sullivan booked the band — but wanted them to alter the offending line. Jim Morrison didn’t, […]
Song of the Day 4/19: Dr. Feelgood, “Down at the Doctors”
I hoped it was just rockin’ pneumonia or the boogie-woogie flu, but the test strip says it’s Covid. Lee Brilleaux and Dr. Feelgood claim to have a cure — he’s gonna shoot some rock ‘n’ roll in my arm. This isn’t the original lineup of the pub rockers who paved the road to punk — […]
Song of the Day 4/17: The Rascals, “Good Lovin'”
Yesterday I mentioned songwriter Rudy Clark, whose “Got My Mind Set on You” became a No. 1 hit for George Harrison in 1988, 25 years after its first release. It was Clark’s second No. 1 record. The first one also failed to connect until a white band covered it, but it didn’t take nearly so […]
Song of the Day 4/16: George Harrison, “Got My Mind Set on You”
When the Beatles landed in New York in February 1964, it was the first time in the United States for three of them, but not George Harrison. While his bandmates vacationed in Europe in September 1963, 21-year-old George visited his older sister, Louise, at her home in Benton, Ill., where her Canadian husband worked as […]
Song of the Day 4/15: The Robert Cray Band, “1040 Blues”
Here’s a song you’ll never hear the likes of Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk singing. They don’t hate taxes — because they don’t have to pay any! This was the first single off Cray’s 1993 LP, “Shame + a Sin.” It didn’t chart, even in the UK, where Cray’s albums consistently score higher than they […]
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