Inspired by Mother’s Day, the passing of Betty Wright, and the May 10 birthdays of U2‘s Bono, Sex Pistols’ Sid Vicious, Spinners’ Henry Fambrough, Donovan, Traffic’s Dave Mason, Larry Williams, Fred Astaire, Underworld’s Karl Hyde, Young MC, Filter’s Richard Patrick, Jay Ferguson, Craig Mack, Sunscreem’s Lucia Holm and Young Disciples’ Carleen Anderson.
2020 seemed like just another year, until this week. Something mind-boggling happened. No, the president of the U.S. didn’t display empathy. Get this: The Village People are presently in the Top 40 on the Adult Contemporary chart with a ballad taken from their 2019 Christmas album. The key terms in that sentence: Village People, presently, Top 40, Adult Contemporary, ballad, Christmas. It’s 2020! The song is called “If You Believe” and it jumped from #53 to #25 this week with a 310% increase in radio airplay over last week. “If You Believe?” More like “Hard to Believe!” Am I right, people?
Today’s playlist is inspired by the May 3 birthdays of James Brown, Frankie Valli, Father John Misty, Soft Cell’s David Ball, Pete Seeger, Christopher Cross, Mary Hopkin and Napoleon XIV.
Inspired by Earth Day and the April 22 birthdays of Glen Campbell, Ace/Mike + the Mechanics’ Paul Carrack, Peter Frampton, Von Bondies’ Jason Stollsteimer, silverchair’s Daniel Johns, Larry Groce, Jack Nitzsche, Lipps Inc.’s Cynthia Johnson, UTFO’s Mix Master Ice, Moose Jackson and Eddie Albert.
Inspired by the March 2 birthdays of Lou Reed, Wu-Tang Clan’s Method Man, Karen Carpenter, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Jay Osmond, Boogie Down Productions’ Scott La Rock, Missing Persons’ Dale Bozzio, Musical Youth’s Dennis Seaton, UTFO’s Doctor Ice, the Kooks’ Luke Pritchard, and composer Kurt Weill (“Mack the Knife”).
Inspired by Valentine’s Day and the February 14 birthdays of Cait Brennan, Tim Buckley, Rob Thomas, and Dwele.
Michael Jackson was born sixty years ago today. Tunes du Jour celebrates the birthday of one of the greatest artists of our lifetime with sixty of his finest.
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In 1979, Giorgio Moroder, famous mostly for his production work on Donna Summer records, composed the score for the film American Gigolo. He asked Stevie Nicks to sing the movie’s theme song, for which Moroder wrote the music, but she had to decline for contractual reasons. He next turned to Deborah Harry of Blondie.
Harry write the lyrics to the song that became “Call Me,” the second #1 single for her band. Of her experience with Moroder, she told Billboard “He’s very nice to work with, very easy, (but) I don’t think he has a lot of patience with people who fool around or don’t take what they do seriously. I think he’s very serious about what he does and he’s intense and he’s a perfectionist and he’s very talented, so I think that people who are less talented or less concentrated bore him quickly…you really have to pay attention.”
Said Moroder of working with Blondie, “There were always fights. I was supposed to do an album with them after that. We went to the studio, and the guitarist was fighting with the keyboard player. I called their manager and quit.”
Moroder did end up working with Deborah Harry again years later on another soundtrack song, producing “Rush Rush” from Scarface, and in 2004 remixed Blondie’s single “Good Boys.”
Tunes du Jour’s Throwback Thursday playlist this week spotlights the best of 1980, kicking off with Blondie’s “Call Me.”
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Paul McCartney has a writing credit on 32 #1 Hot 100 singles. He has 21 Grammy Awards. He’s in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice – as a solo artist and as a member of The Beatles. His song “Yesterday” is the most covered song in history, with more than 2000 versions in existence. He has 60 gold records. Between 1962 and 1978 he wrote or co-wrote 43 million-selling singles. In the UK he has amassed nearly 100 top ten singles, more than 30 of which went to #1. He is an Academy Award winner who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
And I’m going to reduce his career into a twenty-song playlist. Let me be the first to proclaim how ridiculous such an attempt is.
Today Sir Paul McCartney turns 74 years old. This playlist isn’t complete, but it’s a start.
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In the latter half of the 1960s, Eric Clapton and George Harrison developed a close friendship. Clapton also developed a crush on Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd. The two started having an affair, but Pattie didn’t want to leave her husband.
Clapton wrote a song about his feelings for Pattie. He called the song “Layla,” after a title character in the book The Story of Layla and Majnun. The book told of a man, Majnun, who was madly in love with a woman, Layla, but was forbidden to marry her. His longing for her drove him mad.
Clapton’s band Derek and the Dominos released “Layla” in 1971. Pattie and Eric started living together in 1974. They wed in 1979. George Harrison, along with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, played at the wedding. Clapton left Pattie for another woman in 1985.
Today Eric Clapton turns 71. Here are twenty tracks that feature the musician.
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Several years I ago I had the honor of attending a presentation in the recording studio in the iconic Capitol Records tower in Hollywood. Sir George Martin was there to speak about a documentary series he was working on. I was asked to help out with the show’s music licensing.
Sir George Martin, who died yesterday at the age of 90, was a record executive, musician, composer and arranger, but he is best-known to most people as a producer, specifically, the producer of every album by The Beatles save Let It Be.
Sometimes it’s intimidating to meet one’s idols. What if they aren’t friendly or approachable? I’m happy to say that most times that isn’t the case for me, and it wasn’t the case with Sir George. He graciously accepted my request that he autograph the cover of The Beatles album I brought with me. He started signing in the upper left corner, but when he realized his misheard my name, he scribbled out what he wrote and started over in the center. He apologized to me for mussing up, to which I replied, “Are you kidding me?? I now have original George Martin artwork! I’m honored!” After signing my album cover we chatted for a few minutes, until he was called away to tend to other business. Friendly, approachable and gracious, the man was a class act and a true gentleman.
Here are twenty of Sir George Martin’s finest productions:
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