Inspired by the season and the December 4 birthdays of Jay-Z, The Beach Boys‘ Dennis Wilson, The Byrds’ Chris Hillman, Pansy Division’s Jon Ginoli, Freddy Cannon, Dionne Farris, Anna McGarrigle, Adamski and Southside Johnny.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (8-20-20)
Inspired by the August 20 birthdays of Boogie Down Productions’ KRS-One, Isaac Hayes, John Hiatt, Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott, The Knack’s Doug Fieger, Demi Lovato, Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst, Jim Reeves, Hawkwind’s Dave Brock, and Nikki Leonti.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (7-25-20)
Inspired by the July 25 birthdays of Sonic Youth‘s Thurston Moore, Digable Planets’ Ladybug Mecca, The Cyrkle’s Tom Dawes, and Rita Marley; and the July 24 birthdays of Sounds of Blackness’ Ann Nesby, Modern English’s Robbie Grey, and Jennifer Lopez.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (3-9-20)
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.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (3-8-20)
Inspired by the March 8 birthdays of The Monkees’ Micky Dolenz, Eagles’ Randy Meisner, Supergrass’ Gaz Coombes, frente!’s Angie Hart, Gary Numan, Peggy March, Keane’s Tom Chaplin, and songwriter Carole Bayer Sager.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (2-25-20)
The Beatles’ lead guitarist, George Harrison, wrote the song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” which appears on the band’s self-titled album, the one you call the white album. Harrison’s friend Eric Clapton plays guitar on the track. Clapton had a crush on Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd. Boyd inspired the Harrison composition “Something” and Clapton’s “Layla” and “Wonderful Tonight.” Boyd and Harrison divorced in 1977. In 1979, Boyd and Clapton were wed. Top that, Shania Twain!
Today’s playlist is inspired by the February 25 birthdays of George Harrison, X’s John Doe, Faron Young, Afro B and Jim Backus.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (2-13-20)
Inspired by the February 13 birthdays of New Order’s Peter Hook, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Williams, Feist, Black Flag’s Henry Rollins, Freedom Williams, the Monkees’ Peter Tork, Tennessee Ernie Ford, and songwriter Boudleaux Bryant, who, sometimes with his wife Felice, composed many of the Everly Brothers hits, including “Bye Bye Love,” “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Bird Dog,” “Devoted To You,” and “Love Hurts.”
Peter!
Today is the birthday of Peter Gabriel. It’s also the birthday of Peter Tork of The Monkees. And Peter Hook of New Order/Joy Division fame. Those three inspired today’s playlist of guys named Peter. Only on Tunes du Jour, folks. And before anyone drags me on social media for not including any women, I couldn’t think of any female Peters. #SorryBernadettePeters
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Throwback Thursday – 1966
The blogger in 1966
“My mother used to tell me about vibrations. I didn’t really understand too much of what she meant when I was a boy. It scared me, the word ‘vibrations’ – to think that invisible feelings existed. She also told me about dogs that would bark at some people, but wouldn’t bark at others, and so it came to pass that we talked about good vibrations.”
– The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, Rolling Stone magazine
“The concept of spreading goodwill, good thoughts and happiness is nothing new, but it is our hope. The ideas are there in ‘Good Vibrations,’ ‘God Only Knows,’ ‘Heroes and Villains,’ and it is why the new LP is called Smile.”
– The Beach Boys’ Carl Wilson
According to Brian Wilson, Capitol Records didn’t want to release “Good Vibrations” as a single because of its duration: three and a half minutes. Reportedly, executives at the label were also concerned about the psychedelic overtones of the lyrics. Wilson pleaded with Capitol to release the 45.
The song went to #1 and earned the Beach Boys a Grammy nomination in the category of Best Contemporary Group Performance, in which they were pitted against three fine recordings plus “Guantanamera” by the Sandpipers. The Beach Boys lost, thankfully not to the Sandpipers but to the Mamas & the Papas for “Monday, Monday.” Mojo magazine placed “Good Vibrations” at #1 on their Top 100 Records of All Time list, and Rolling Stone magazine had it at #6 on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time survey.
The crowning achievement of “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys was followed by an abrupt reversal of fortune for the group. While “Vibrations” was their 14th top ten single in just over four years, they would have to wait another ten years before cracking the top ten again, with their not-that-great remake of Chuck Berry’s “Rock and Roll Music” in 1976. It would be twenty-two years after “Good Vibrations” that the group hit #1 again, with the classic bad song “Kokomo.” The Smile album Carl Wilson referred to in the quote above went unfinished. Instead, the group released an album entitled Smiley Smile in 1967. Between 1963 and 1966 the group scored nine top ten albums; Smiley Smile peaked at #41. The following year’s Friends album only got as high as #126.
On this Throwback Thursday, Tunes du Jour listens to twenty of the finest singles from 1966, kicking off with the classic “Good Vibrations.”
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Throwback Thursday – 1967
I heard the news today. Oh boy! The Beatles’ recordings are now available on streaming platforms, including Spotify.
To celebrate, Tunes du Jour kicks off its 1967 playlist this Throwback Thursday with The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life,” a song that combines an unfinished song from John Lennon, inspired by newspaper articles, with one from Paul McCartney, a reflection of his school days.
Here are twenty of 1967’s finest musical moments.
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