Inspired by the October 2 birthdays of The Police’s Sting, Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard, Genesis/Mike + the Mechanics’ Mike Rutherford, The Human League’s Philip Oakey, Mousse T., Badly Drawn Boy, Foxy/OXO’s Ish Ledesma, The Diamonds’ Dave Somerville, Don McLean, Richard Hell, Redbone’s Lolly Vegas, Aqua’s Lene Nystrom, and Bud Abbott.
Inspired by the July 16 birthdays of The Police’s Stewart Copeland, BROCKHAMPTON’s Kevin Abstract, William Bell, Desmond Dekker, The Searchers’ Tony Jackson, and Live’s Ed Kowalczyk; the July 15 birthdays of Linda Ronstadt, Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, The Buggles/The Art of Noise’s Trevor Horn, Years & Years’ Olly Alexander, Gregory Isaacs, The Heartbreakers’ Johnny Thunders, Alicia Bridges, and Pamela Myers; and the July 14 birthdays of Belly/Throwing Muses’ Tanya Donelly, Woody Guthrie, Jamey Johnson, and Cliff & Claude Trenier.
Inspired by the July 9 birthdays of Jack White, Hole’s Courtney Love, Marc Almond, AC/DC’s Bon Scott, Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brook, Simple Minds’ Jim Kerr, Lee Hazlewood, Gwen Guthrie and Haysi Fantayzee’s Kate Garner.
Inspired by the May 30 birthdays of The Clash‘s Topper Headon, The Marvelettes’ Gladys Horton, Cee Lo Green, Stephen Malkmus, Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave’s Tom Morello, the Charlatans’ Tim Burgess, of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes, Devendra Banhart, Donna A., Benny Goodman and Remy Ma.
Inspired by the May 11 birthdays of The Animals’ Eric Burdon, Disclosure’s Howard Lawrence, R. Dean Taylor and composer Irving Berlin.
Inspired by the May 1 birthdays of Ray Parker Jr., Rita Coolidge, Judy Collins, Little Walter and Jay Reatard.
Inspired by the April 3 playlists of The Spinners’ Phillippe Wynne, The Band’s Richard Manuel, Tony Orlando, Jan Berry, Richard Thompson, Wayne Newton, Social Distortion’s Mike Ness, and Spiller.
Inspired by the March 9 birthdays of John Cale, ABC’s Martin Fry, Mark Lindsay, Lloyd Price, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s Chris Thompson, Chingy and L.T.D.’s Jeffrey Osborne.
June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. Tune du Jour celebrates with this playlist consisting of two hundred songs by and/or about Ls, Gs, Bs, Ts and Qs. Happy Pride!
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“I don’t care to belong to any club that will have Bon Jovi as a member.”
– Groucho Marx
On April 14, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will induct several worthwhile acts and Bon Jovi. Over the coming weeks, Tunes du Jour will spotlight artists that are eligible for induction (i.e. they commercially released their debut recording at least 25 years ago), but have not been inducted as they are not as talented, innovative or influential as Bon Jovi.
Today we look at and listen to The Replacements. Per the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s website, consideration for induction involves “factors such as an artist’s musical influence on other artists, length and depth of career and the body of work, innovation and superiority in style and technique, but musical excellence shall be the essential qualification of induction.” Starting out as a punk band, The Replacements evolved their sound over the course of 12 years and seven albums. Mixing humor with heartbreak and vulnerability, loud thrashing anthems with melodic quieter songs, the band influenced so many artists that made it bigger in a commercial sense, including Nirvana, R.E.M., and Green Day, all of whom are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Still, Bon Jovi has had a longer career, more albums, and, um, influenced Nickelback (probably), so they win.
“Right now I’m listening to this band called The Replacements – they’re from the ‘80s or something – and half the songs make me think, ‘God, I should cover this!’”
– Lorde
Here are twenty of The Replacements’ finest tunes.
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