Today is the birthday of The Go-Go’s’ Belinda Carlisle. Hear a few of her hits on today’s playlist.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 11-6-22
Today’s playlist celebrates the November 6 birthdays of Eagles’ Glenn Frey, Living Colour’s Corey Glover, Guy Clark, The Sir Douglas Quintet’s Doug Sahm, The Jive Five’s Eugene Pitt, Conchita Wurst, Juanita Hall, and Robert Ellis; and the November 7 birthdays of Lorde, Sloan’s Chris Murphy, The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon, Shamir, Johnny Rivers, Toro y Moi, Dee Clark, Texas’s Sharleen Spiteri, Courtney Marie Andrews, Jellybean, and David Guetta.
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Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (11-7-20)
Inspired by the November 7 birthdays of Joni Mitchell, Shamir, Johnny Rivers, Lorde, The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon, Toro y Moi’s Chaz Bear, Dee Clark, Jellybean Benitez, David Guetta and Texas’ Sharleen Spiteri.
Madonna: Sixty At 60
Madonna celebrates her sixtieth birthday today. I’ll let others write about her place in pop culture and her impact on society. I’m here to celebrate her music.
Here are sixty of my favorite Madonna songs. Did I leave out a favorite of yours? Let me know.
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It’s Irene Cara’s Birthday And I Need To Dance!
Fame! I’m gonna live forever! Baby, remember my name!
Though she hasn’t had a hit song in more than thirty years, people still remember Irene Cara’s name. Between 1980 and 1984, she had more hit songs than the two you can name off the top of your head.
First came the song “Fame,” taken from the movie Fame, in which Cara played Coco Hernandez. “Fame,” written by Dean Pitchford and Michael Gore and featuring backing vocals from Luther Vandross and Vicki Sue Robinson, hit #4, and won the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. In addition, Cara’s performance in the film earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.
Also vying for the Academy Award for Best Original Song that year was “Out Here on My Own,” written by Michael Gore and his sister Lesley. Also performed by Cara in the film, it became her second consecutive top 40 single.
She didn’t appear in the movie Flashdance, but her theme song, “Flashdance…What a Feeling!,” was #1 in the US for six weeks, and won Cara, one of its writers, the Oscar for Best Original Song. “What a Feeling” also won Cara the Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance – Female and a nomination for Record of the Year, which she lost to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” (fair enough!). The single topped charts around the world.
Given the song’s massive success, Cara found it odd that per her record label, her royalties from sales of the record amounted to $183. In 1985, following a few more hit songs (“The Dream,” from the movie D.C. Cab, in which she played Irene Cara; “Why Me?,” and “”Breakdance”), she sued the head of that label (which had since gone under) for $10 million for breach of contract. Eight years later, a jury awarded her $1.5 million. By then, her time in the spotlight was long over. She never hit the charts again after filing her lawsuit.
Take your passion and make it happen, but make sure you have people you trust looking after your affairs.
Today, Irene Cara turns 57 years old. Tunes du Jour’s weekly dance party kicks off with “Flashdance…What a Feeling!”
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It’s Jellybean’s Birthday And I Need To Dance!
John “Jellybean” Benitez, along with Arthur Baker, was the pre-eminent remixer of the 1980s. If I saw his name on a 12-inch single, I knew I was going to get something good. He worked with many big names in that decade and beyond. Artists whose work he remixed include Talking Heads, Michael Jackson, Fleetwood Mac, Paul McCartney, Donna Summer, Santana, ZZ Top, Billy Joel, Afrika Bambaataa, Whitney Houston, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Sting, Bangles, A-ha, Cher, Shakira, Bonnie Tyler, The Romantics and, most famously, Madonna.
These days Jellybean deejays parties around the world and is the Executive Producer of Sirius XM’s disco/dance station, Studio 54 radio. A couple of years ago, while I was working at Warner Music, Jellybean and I were discussing a project he wanted to do. I was very into the idea and told him I was confident I could get the big names he wanted on board. We also talked about a radio show he conceived for the Sirius XM channel in which new mixes of classic dance songs were played. To help him with that show I sent him a package with some modern mixes we had done of disco classics by Chic, Ashford & Simpson and others.
He never said thank you. I sent him a follow-up email to be sure he received the package, but he didn’t reply. Oh, well. So he is lacking manners. That doesn’t affect the joy I get listening to his classic remix work. (By the by, he never got around to launching the project he wanted to do about which I was excited.)
Today is Jellybean’s 57th birthday. Many of his mixes are not on Spotify, so today’s dance playlist consists of some of his mixes that are, of Madonna, David Bowie, Irene Cara, The Pointer Sisters, Shalamar and Whitney Houston, alongside other records I love to dance to.
You’re welcome.
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It’s Friday And I Need To Dance!
Today is the anniversary of The B-52s’ first live performance. Today is Valentine’s Day. Today is Friday. It’s only appropriate that we kick off today’s playlist with “Love Shack.”