Justin Timberlake turns 40 today. Chew on that.
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Throwback Thursday: 1992
It’s Throwback Thursday, and on today’s playlist we go back to 1992. Compiling this list made me notice (or remember) what a kickass year for music 1992 was. The success of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” a top ten pop hit around the world months after it was sent to alternative radio, came as a complete surprise to the band’s record label and management, and seemed to kick open the doors for weirdos and freaks (I use those terms affectionately) to find their place in the sun and on the charts.
The left field entries weren’t solely from the guitar rock field. Shakespear’s Sister’s “Stay” was a song (or two songs) that stood out from the pack and was not something one would have expected from a former member of Bananarama and someone who co-wrote and sang backup on Eric Clapton’s hit “Lay Down Sally.” And Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy” endures all these years later.
To me this era was a golden age for hip hop. Arrested Development, Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, Kris Kross, Das EFX, Sir Mix-A-Lot and House of Pain hit creative peaks, while rap duo P.M. Dawn hit number three with “I’d Die Without You,” an unexpected ballad with nary a hint of the hip or hop.
Nineteen ninety-two was the year we met Mary J. Blige and Billy Ray Cyrus. It was the year many more people got to know Red Hot Chili Peppers, k.d. lang and En Vogue. And while new names were dotting the Hot 100, there was still room for more hits from Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, Whitney Houston and U2.
Here are thirty musical highlights from 1992, a year that most definitely was not wiggida wiggida wiggida wack.
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An Amy Rigby Playlist
I’ve been immortalized in print! And thankfully not in a book called The Twenty-First Century’s Biggest Garbage People!
In 2019, acclaimed singer-songwriter Amy Rigby published her memoir, Girl to City, and I have a cameo therein. In the middle part of the 1990s, Amy was my assistant at Sony Music. I remember her visiting a few months after she left the company (her leaving having nothing to do with me, and something to do with a mishap involving FedEx and Julio Iglesias), bringing me an advance copy of her debut CD Diary of a Mod Housewife and a promotional potholder. The potholder was good; the CD was (is) great. The Village Voice placed it as the eighth best album of 1996 in their annual survey of music critics.
She’s released more great music in the years since. We got to catch up again a few months before COVID restrictions went into place, when she came to L.A. while doing a book tour promoting her memoir. I recommend the book – it’s an entertaining read. I also recommend checking out her music. There’s a playlist below.
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A Lucinda Williams Playlist
Some of the accolades earned by Lucinda Williams (b. January 26, 1953):
Seventeen Grammy Award nominations resulting in three wins – Best Country Song (1993) for “Passionate Kisses,” Best Contemporary Folk Album (1999) for Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance (2002) for “Get Right With God”
Made VH-1’s ranking of the 100 Greatest Women in Rock and Roll
Named America’s best songwriter by Time magazine
Appears on Rolling Stone’s list of the greatest songwriters of all time
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road named the best album of 1998 in the annual Village Voice poll of nearly 500 music critics
Is included on Glenn’s list of his 100 favorite artists
Here are thirty of her finest recordings:
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A Neil Diamond Playlist
Today Tunes du Jour pays homage to Neil Diamond (b. January 24, 1941). Included in today’s playlist are hits Diamond had as a performer, songs of his that were hits for other artists, and “The Pot Smoker’s Song” and “Reggae Strut,” because I think you need to be aware of them, the latter sounding like it wasn’t written by the guy who espoused the views of the former.
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A Pointer Sisters Playlist
Today Tunes du Jour celebrates the birthday of Anita Pointer, born January 23, 1948. Along with her sisters Ruth and June and, in their early years of making records, Bonnie, The Pointer Sisters racked up more hits than you may name off the top of your head. Check out today’s playlist and see how many songs you recognize. It kicks off with their version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Fire,” featuring Anita on lead vocals.
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A Sam Cooke Playlist
There’s the voice. In its 2008 survey of the greatest singers of all time, Rolling Stone placed Sam Cooke (born January 22, 1931) at number four.
There are the songs. “You Send Me,” “Wonderful World,” “Cupid,” and many others are classics, known to generations. Cooke not only sang these songs; he composed them as well. I think that when you listen to the Sam Cooke playlist below, you’ll recognize a lot more songs of his than you realized.
There’s the business acumen. Cooke was among the first African American entrepreneurs in the music business, starting his own record label, SAR Records, in 1961. Artists signed to the label included Bobby Womack, Johnnie Taylor and Mel Carter. He founded a song publishing imprint. He created a management firm.
There’s the civil rights activist. Cooke took an active role in the civil rights movement. Inspired by Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Cooke composed and recorded “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Released as a single in December 1964, less than two weeks after he was shot to death at age 33, the recording is considered by many to be his finest work and a classic protest song.
There’s the legacy. Sam Cooke was among the charter inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He’s actually in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice – once as a solo artist and once as a member of the gospel group The Soul Stirrers. He’s in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He’s a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner. He has a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. In addition to his ranking on their Greatest Singers survey, Rolling Stone also placed him at number sixteen on their Greatest Artists of All Time list.
Today’s playlist pays tribute to the great Sam Cooke, with two dozen of his best recordings plus covers of a few of his hits.
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Throwback Thursday: 1984
Madonna! Prince! Bruce! Michael! Chaka! Cyndi! Rockwell! Boy! The best of 1984’s pop stars/hits made a mark that remain part of our consciousness nearly forty years later. The influence of upstarts who didn’t crack the Hot 100 – The Smiths, The Replacements, Run-D.M.C. – has been acknowledged in the years since. For those who wish to relive those days, for those who wish they were living then, and for those who wish to associate 1984 with something other than a misunderstood piece of classic literature or the most recent Wonder Woman movie, this playlist is for you. Happy Throwback Thursday!
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A Martin Luther King Day Playlist
“You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. 1963
“He had a dream now it’s up to you to see it through, to make it come true” – “King Holiday”
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