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When Smokey Sings Or Writes

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In 2011, I attended the Society of Singers’ tribute to Smokey Robinson. The award was well-deserved, as anyone who has heard him sing knows that Smokey Robinson possesses a sweet, soulful voice, one that he has used to beautiful effect on records going back more than fifty years. The British band ABC paid tribute to him on their top ten single “When Smokey Sings.” In their hit “Genius of Love,” Tom Tom Club sing “No one can sing quite like Smokey, Smokey Robinson.”

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In addition to his singing talent, Smokey is a writer on many classics in the great American songbook. Chances are you know “The Tracks of My Tears,” “My Girl” (click here for more about that song), “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me” (originally recorded by Smokey’s group The Miracles as the b-side of a 45), “The Tears of a Clown,” “My Guy,” “Shop Around,” “Ooo Baby Baby,” “I Second That Emotion,” “Cruisin’,” and “The Way You Do the Things You Do.”

doggies + Smokey 006Here’s my cocktail napkin from the Society of Singers event. I need to wash that placemat.

I met Smokey one time in the late 1980s. I was working at CBS Records in midtown Manhattan. Our offices were in the Black Rock building, which was also home to WCBS radio. Smokey had just done an interview at the radio station when I bumped into him in the building’s lobby. I told him I enjoyed the article about him in the new issue of Rolling Stone, which I was holding. He said he hadn’t seen it yet and took my magazine from me to look at it. I wouldn’t let him keep my issue – I was a poor office clerk, after all – but he was gracious enough to sign an autograph for me.

Smokey autograph

Today is Smokey’s 74th birthday. Enjoy this playlist comprised of songs Smokey sings and songs Smokey wrote or co-wrote, songs you know and songs you should know.

Winston + Foxboro Hot Tubs 002b

A Story About Billie Joe, Not Bobbie Sue

Winston + Foxboro Hot Tubs 002b

Today Tunes du Jour celebrates the 42nd birthday of Billie Joe Armstrong, lead vocalist and guitarist of Foxboro Hot Tubs. The band Green Day made FHT’s track “Mother Mary” available as a free download on their web-site. Many listeners thought Foxboro Hot Tubs sounded similar to Green Day, prompting Armstrong to release the statement “The only similarity is that we are the same band.”

Ringo + Bright Eyes blue

Turn It On, Bright Eyes

Ringo + Bright Eyes blue

Today Tunes du Jour celebrates the 34th birthday of Conor Oberst, leader of Bright Eyes and a member of Monsters of Folk.

Oberst released his debut album, Water, in 1993, on a record label he started with his brother. He was 13. His new album, Upside Down Mountain, is due out May 20.

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It’s Friday And I Need To Dance!

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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.”

Ringo + Carole King 002

The Twelfth Best Album Of All-Time, Subject To Change

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I’m creating a list of my top 100 albums of all-time. I’ve been working on it for a couple of years. I need to get it right. I’ve whittled the list down to 112 nominees, which I listen to repeatedly, moving albums around as I assess their impact on my ears and emotions. Presently sitting at #12, between The Beatles’ Rubber Soul and the Phil Spector Christmas album, is Carole King’s Tapestry.

Released in 1971, Tapestry was a huge success, staying at #1 on the album charts for 15 weeks and remaining on Billboard’s album chart for 300 weeks, the longest run of any album by a female solo act. The album won King the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, its track “It’s Too Late” was named Record of the Year, its song “You’ve Got a Friend” won Song of the Year (as well as a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male for James Taylor for his cover version), and its title track won King the Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female award.

The album includes new songs written or co-written by King, including “I Feel the Earth Move” and “So Far Away,” as well as covers of songs she wrote or co-wrote that had already been hits for other acts, such as “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” a smash for Aretha Franklin, and “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” which The Shirelles took to #1 ten years earlier.

Other King compositions you may know are “Up on the Roof,” a hit for The Drifters, “One Fine Day,” a hit for The Chiffons, “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” a hit for The Monkees, “Go Away Little Girl” a hit for Steve Lawrence and later Donny Osmond, “I’m Into Something Good,” a hit for Herman’s Hermits, “It’s Going to Take Some Time,” a hit for The Carpenters, and “The Loco-motion,” a song which holds the distinction of going top ten in three different decades – in the sixties for Little Eva (King’s babysitter), in the seventies for Grand Funk and in the eighties for Kylie Minogue. In the forty years between 1959 and 1999 King made the Billboard Hot 100 118 times as a songwriter.

Tunes du Jour honors the classic work of Carole King, who turns 72 today.

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It’s Friday And I Need To Dance!

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This week’s dance playlist kicks off with Kool & the Gang’s “Celebration,” which hit #1 on this date in 1981. The song had prominent television exposure for the couple of weeks prior, as it was played during the 1981 Super Bowl and when the American hostages returned home from Iran on January 26 after 444 days in captivity.

Kool & the Gang were a funk band whose fortunes were on the decline as the seventies progressed. They scored two top ten singles in 1974, “Jungle Boogie” and “Hollywood Swinging,” but no more until they recruited a new lead vocalist, James “JT” Taylor, and were paired with a new producer, Eumir Deodato.

Deodato’s first record with the band was 1979’s Ladies Night, whose title track returned the group to the top ten. This was quickly followed by the top ten hit “Too Hot.”

Deodato’s next record with the band was Celebrate!, from which “Celebration” was taken. To this day the song is played at a myriad of celebratory events, making it a dance classic.

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This Will Be A Natalie Cole Post

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In 1967, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences split the Grammy Awards category for Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Performance into two – one for men and one for women. The first recipient in the female category was Aretha Franklin, for “Respect.”

The 1968 winner of Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Performance, Female, was Aretha Franklin, for “Chain of Fools.”

The 1969 winner of Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Performance, Female, was Aretha Franklin, for “Share Your Love with Me.”

The 1970 winner of Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Performance, Female, was Aretha Franklin, for “Don’t Play That Song (You Lied).”

The 1971 winner of Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Performance, Female, was Aretha Franklin, for “Bridge over Troubled Water.”

The 1972 winner of Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Performance, Female, was Aretha Franklin, for Young, Gifted and Black.

The 1973 winner of Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Performance, Female, was Aretha Franklin, for “Master of Eyes.”

The 1974 winner of Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Performance, Female, was Aretha Franklin, for “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing.”

The 1975 winner of Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Performance, Female, was Aret…wait! It was NOT Aretha. Who broke Ms. Franklin’s chain chain chain? It was a young singer named Natalie Cole, whose debut single, “This Will Be,” won her that Grammy and also earned her the award for Best New Artist, making Natalie the first African-American to win in that category.

“This Will Be” is one of my favorite records of all-time. The music is festive, as a song celebrating the discovery of an everlasting love should be. Cole’s performance is letter-perfect. The part where she sings “huggin’ and squeezin’ and kissin’ and pleasin’ together forever through rain or whatever” works me into a frenzy still, almost forty years later. In addition, the record is under three minutes, so there is not time to get sick of it. It ends while your heart is racing. If it came out two years later there likely would have been an extended version but it didn’t so there isn’t.

By the way, Aretha Franklin was not nominated for Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Performance, Female for 1975. After that year off, she returned to that category in 1976 with “Something He Can Feel.” She lost to Natalie Cole, who took home the award for “Sophisticated Lady (She’s a Different Lady).” Both women were again nominated for Best Rhythm & Blues Solo Performance, Female for 1977, but they lost to Thelma Houston. That’s one for another blog post.

Today Tunes du Jour celebrates Natalie Cole’s 64th birthday. Here are three of my favorite Cole performances.

Ringo + Buddy

The Day the Music Didn’t Die But Still

Ringo + Buddy

On this date in 1959, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper died in a plane crash. In his hit “American Pie” Don McLean referred to it as “the day the music died.” A little dramatic, no? The music didn’t die, but it was a tremendous loss nonetheless.

Today Tunes du Jour pays homage to these late, great rock and roll pioneers. On our playlist:
“Chantilly Lace” – The Big Bopper – The man born Jiles Perry Richardson’s only top ten hit, from 1958.
“Think It Over” – Buddy Holly – A top forty single from 1958.
“Donna” – Ritchie Valens – Valens’ only top ten hit, peaking at #2 in early 1959.
“American Pie” – Madonna – Madonna covered Don McLean’s classic for her film The Next Best Thing at the suggestion of her co-star, Rupert Everett, who sings backing vocals on the recording.
“Oh, Boy!” – Buddy Holly – A top ten single from early 1958. I recall Olivia Newton-John performing it on one of her television specials with guest stars Andy Gibb, Elton John and Cliff Richard. If memory serves, it went on for about forty minutes.
“Heartbeat” – Buddy Holly – The Knack covered this for their breakthrough album, Get The Knack.
“It’s So Easy” – Linda Ronstadt – Ronstadt had a top five hit with her cover of this song, written by Buddy Holly and Norman Petty. Ronstadt also charted with covers of Holly’s hits “That’ll Be the Day” and “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore.”
“Not Fade Away” – The Crickets – An English quintet who went by the name The Rolling Stones charted in the US for the first time with their version of this tune. Not sure what happened to them.
“Buddy Holly” – Weezer – Buddy Holly couldn’t have predicted this song’s opening lines – “What’s with these homies dissing my girl? / Why do they gotta front?”
“Everyday” – Buddy Holly – James Taylor charted with his cover of this in 1985.
“La Bamba” – Ritchie Valens – It’s hard to believe this song only peaked at #22 upon its release in 1958. “La bamba” is Spanish for “the bamba.”
“Peggy Sue” – Lou Reed – This song was co-written by Buddy Holly, who took it to #3 in 1957.
“It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” – Buddy Holly – Holly didn’t write this posthumous hit; Paul Anka did. This and “My Way” are my two favorite Anka compositions. I also love “(You’re) Having My Baby,” but in a different way.
“Words of Love” – Patti Smith – A pop combo from England covered this Holly composition on their album that in the US was titled Beatles VI. Not sure what happened to them.
“Maybe Baby” – The Crickets – The Beatles’ name was inspired by the name of Holly’s band, The Crickets.
“I’m Gonna Love You Too” – Buddy Holly – Blondie covered this for their breakthrough album Parallel Lines.
“Come On, Let’s Go” – Los Lobos – Los Lobos performed Valen’s music for the biopic of Valen’s life, La Bamba.
“That’ll Be the Day” – Modest Mouse – Written by Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison, “That’ll Be the Day” was Holly’s first hit, going to #1 in 1957. Given his immense influence on rock and roll, it’s hard to believe he died a year and half later.
“Rave On” – Buddy Holly – One of five top forty singles Holly had in 1958.
“True Love Ways” – My Morning Jacket – Holly wrote “True Love Ways” for his wife as a wedding gift. What did your husband get you?

Winston + OutKast 002

Hey, Big Boi

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In 2003 the two members of OutKast released solo albums packaged together as an OutKast double-CD. Big Boi’s album was Speakerboxxx and André 3000’s was The Love Below. The first single from Speakerboxxx was “The Way You Move,” which quickly rose to #2 on the pop charts, held back from the top spot by The Love Below’s “Hey Ya!” After eight weeks in the runner-up position, the Big Boi track moved to #1.

Today Tunes du Jour celebrates the 39th birthday of Big Boi.

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It’s Friday And I Need To Dance!

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When I was twelve years old I joined the KC & the Sunshine Band fan club. They’re the first band I remember loving. Their hits were so much fun – “Get Down Tonight,” “That’s the Way (I Like It),” “(Shake Shake Shake) Shake Your Booty,” “I’m Your Boogie Man,” “Keep It Comin’ Love,” “Boogie Shoes.” Even the ballad, “Please Don’t Go,” was a good song (and their fifth #1 single). I still love all of these.

Today Tunes du Jour celebrates the 64th birthday of KC. Do a little dance and get down.