Written and sung at 22 and a half, a month before he died. At that age, Lennon was recording ‘Love Me Do’ and Dylan had just finished his first album of original material.
Continue reading...Rock and Roll
191: The Fleetwoods, ‘Mr Blue’
Nobody talks about The Fleetwoods anymore. In my eyes, that’s a tragedy, because so often when I’m feeling like Mr Blue their songs come softly to me. They were the first group to have two records top the Billboard Hot 100 in a single year! No one can take that away from them. I hope no one would want to.
Continue reading...023: Tommy Edwards, ‘It’s All In the Game’
The only #1 hit written by a sitting Vice President.
And it wasn’t Mike Pence or Spiro Agnew.
048 Sam Cooke ‘Bring It On Home To Me’,
In which Jeff is reminded that Sam Cooke takes a back seat to no one, not even to Smokey Robinson; and that the sweetest fruits are often those closest to the roots.
Continue reading...265: Dion DiMucci, ‘Abraham, Martin and John’
Dion, from doo Wop to Dylanizer.
More swagger than Jagger.
117: Carole King, ‘It Might as Well Rain Until September’
The 1950s didn’t end on December 31st, 1959. Here’s a quiz about 3 very minor hits from 1961-2, a whole bunch of Jews and a few Blacks, and the frustrated egos of several trillionaires.
Continue reading...257: Alison Krauss/Brenda Lee: ‘All Alone Am I’
Guilty pleasures.
Could we keep this just between us?
034: Dionne Warwick, ‘Walk On By’ (Burt Bacharach)
So much of the best music of the last hundred years has come from Jewish men writing songs for female Black singers. And it don’t get no better than the Burt Bacharach/Dionne Warwick, ‘Walk on By’.
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