Adam Ant was born Stuart Leslie Goddard on this date in 1954. Supposedly, the name “Adam” was inspired by the biblical first man, symbolizing a fresh start after a serious bout of depression and a suicide attempt, while “Ant” reflected his desire for his band to embody industriousness and resilience, akin to ants in nature.
A handful of tracks from Mr. Ant are included on today’s playlist.
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Today is the birthday of The Go-Go’s’ Belinda Carlisle. Hear a few of her hits on today’s playlist.
Today is the birthday of the leader of The The, Matt Johnson, who clearly didn’t foresee Internet searches when he named his band. A handful of their songs are included on today’s playlist.
It really rankles and roils, riling me relentlessly, gets my goat and grinds my gears that a ghastly ghost greedily grabbed some of my greatest grooves, several superb sounds from my marvelous music menagerie, including The Cure’s Disintegration on vinyl, vanishing without a visible vestige. It’s a haunting hijacking that has me howling hauntingly, harboring hopes that horrific hoodlum returns my rightful recordings. Relievingly, I’ve retained Robert Smith’s resonant refrains on compact disc, considerably consoling my celestial lamentations.
The Cure’s Robert Smith was born on this date in 1959. Even if you don’t have the disease, we have The Cure on today’s playlist.
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“Pretty In Pink,” The Psychedelic Furs’ 1981 song about a woman named Caroline who sleeps with different men who mock her for being so “loose,” became the title song to a 1986 movie scripted by John Hughes about a teenager named Andie who “must choose between the affections of dating her childhood sweetheart or a rich but sensitive playboy.” I pulled that from IMDB, as I’ve never seen the movie. At the time of this movie’s release I had already seen two other movies based on Hughes scripts, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, both of which he also directed, and didn’t care much for either, the performances of Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall notwithstanding. (Make that three previous Hughes scripts. Looking at IMDB, I notice that he wrote Class Reunion, a movie I saw only because my dad was an investor in it. It wasn’t good.) I’ll give Hughes this – the music used in his films was, for the most part, winning. So while the song “Pretty In Pink” resembles the storyline of the movie Pretty In Pink as much as I resemble Janelle Monae, it is a good one.
The Psychedelic Furs’ Richard Butler turns 67 today. A couple of his bands songs are included on today’s playlist, including the original mix of “Pretty In Pink.”
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Today’s playlist celebrates the November 2 birthdays of Nelly, k.d. lang, Emerson Lake and Palmer’s Keith Emerson, Mobb Deep’s Prodigy, The Cadillacs’ Earl Carroll, Maxine Nightingale, and J.D. Souther; and the November 3 birthdays of Courtney Barnett, Adam Ant, Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino, John Barry, Onyx’s Sticky Fingaz, Lulu, Robert Miles, Icicle Works’ Ian McNabb, Mable John, The Subways’ Billy Lunn, and Lucas.
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Inspired by the November 3 birthdays of Courtney Barnett, Adam Ant, Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino, Lulu, John Barry, Lucas, Mable John, Onyx’s Sticky Fingaz, Icicle Works’ Ian McNabb and The Subways’ Billy Lunn.
What do people want more than anything else? Love, perhaps. When songwriter/Motown founder Berry Gordy, Jr. asked “What do people want most?,” his writing partner Janie Bradford answered “Money. That’s what I want.”
A song was born, a classic that became the first hit for Gordy’s Motown Records, with singer Barrett Strong taking “Money (That’s What I Want)” to #23 in 1960.
Twenty years after Strong hit with it, UK band The Flying Lizards took a cover of “Money” to #50 on the US pop chart. Their version also made the dance chart. It kicks off Tunes du Jour’s weekly dance party.
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