Happy 82nd birthday to Barry Manilow. Over his 60 year career, many folks have made fun of Barry. A buddy of my dad’s called him “Barely Man-enough,” while a radio DJ friend called him “Barry Banana Nose.” Despite the jokes and such, you cannot deny that the guy was a musical success!
Manilow has recorded and released 51 Top 40 singles on the Adult Contemporary Chart, including 13 that hit number one, 28 that appeared within the top ten, and 36 that reached the top twenty. He has also released 13 platinum and six multi-platinum albums. He came a long way from creating jingles.
Fun Fact: Barry wrote the jingles for State Farm Insurance (“Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there”), McDonald’s (“you deserve a break today”), and Band-Aid (“I am stuck on Band-Aid, ’cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me!”)along with many others!
My mom loved Barry’s music and it was often on the radio or a tape that my dad had made for her. She loved Even Now, I Can’t Smile Without You, Mandy, and a ton of others. One of Barry’s songs that I remember hearing for the first time on a drive with mom was Could It Be Magic. At the time I had no idea why, but I remember thinking that the piano intro sounded familiar.
It sounded familiar because Barry basically stole the intro from one of the greatest piano players of all time – Chopin. It all started one evening in 1971 when Manilow was playing Chopin’s “Prelude Op. 28, No. 20 in C Minor” at his Manhattan studio apartment. After taking a dinner break, he sat down at his spinet piano and wrote “Could It Be Magic,” unaware he’d lifted the chord changes from the classic piece’s chorus until he played back the recording.
He said, “Thank goodness the melody and verses were my own.”
Barry wasn’t surprised when the song finally became a hit because he’d consistently wowed huge audiences with the tune before it ever landed on the radio. At the time, he was Bette Midler’s music director and piano player, so when Bell Records wanted him to hit the road to promote his debut album, he felt guilty at the thought of abandoning Midler. Instead, he asked if she’d be willing to let him perform some songs during her own shows – to audiences of thousands of people. She agreed, and he brought down the house every time he sang the ballad.
Barry thinks the best songs are the ones the come the quickest, like this one. He says,
“I knew I was onto something. Sometimes you just know it. It came so fast – the ones that come fast I know that I have something going. The ones that I struggle with never work. But the ones that come fast, something’s in it. All I could tell you was that I loved this song.”
Welcome back to The Music of My Life, where I feature ten songs from each year of my life. In most cases, the ten songs I choose will be ones I like personally (unless I explain otherwise). The songs will be selected from Billboard’s Year-end Hot 100 Chart, Acclaimed Music, and will all be released in the featured year.
I turned 24 in 1994. In the 7 years I had been on the radio, I was starting to get used to the fact that radio stations made changes often. It happened again when Honey Radio went off the air that year. I would go on to land a gig at W4 Country in Detroit soon after.
1994 was also the year my paternal grandfather passed away. I was very close to him and that grief hung around for some time.
Musically, I was DJing a lot more parties and discovering more music. Thanks to a full time job where I drove a lot, I discovered some alternative music that I really enjoyed. Many of those tunes will show up in the lists/years ahead.
Let’s check out 1994 …
As someone who feels like I can never put my feelings into words, I appreciate a song that can. Beautiful In My Eyes was a huge Bride and Groom song when I was DJing. When it wasn’t the bridal dance, it was a slow song that always packed the dance floor.
When I DJ’d my cousin’s second wedding, it was on the “Do Not Play” list. Why? It was the wedding song she used in her first marriage. As strange as it may sound, that happened a lot.
Joshua Kadison describes the song as being about “a love that just lasts forever, and you’ll always be beautiful in my eyes.” I’ve always thought it was an example of a great love song. I will also admit that I had no idea what he looked like until I found this video.
Beautiful in My Eyes
We had Doug Stone do a show for us when I worked at the Moose. He was a nice guy and fun to chat with. By the time he did our show, he’d pretty much had all of his hits.
One song that I found extremely relatable was Addicted to a Dollar. There are lyrics in here that any hard working person can relate to!
“F.I.C.A. and the state – they make my paycheck look like a big mistake. Tax man takes his before I see a cent And what they don’t get, I’ve already spent.”
“Got me more payments than I’ve got checks. Ten more to go on this car, it’s a wreck.”
Those hit home on many levels, especially for a radio guy! Even long after my radio career, those lyrics can still hit home.
Addicted to a Dollar
Next up, the only US hit for Des’ree, who had quite a few hits in the UK. I like this song because it’s kind of a pep talk. It’s about not being ashamed to express your feelings and about living life to its fullest.
The whole song is loaded with wisdom. The chorus is something that a person could easily tell themselves everyday when they look in the mirror.
“You gotta be bad, you gotta be bold, you gotta be wiser You gotta be hard, you gotta be tough, you gotta be stronger You gotta be cool, you gotta be calm, you gotta stay together All I know, all I know, love will save the day“
Some days you just gotta push through, and being bad, bold, wise, hard, tough, strong, cool, and calm can certainly help!
You Gotta Be
The Troggs followed up their hit “Wild Thing” with the ballad Love Is All Around. They took the song to #7 in 1967.
The group Wet, Wet, Wet covered it for the movie Four Weddings And A Funeral. It wasn’t the only song they could have recorded. The band chose “Love is All Around” over Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” and Barry Manilow’s “Can’t Smile Without You” even though some of their members hadn’t heard it before.
Singer Marti Pellow related that the decision to pick “Love Is All Around” was an easy choice “because we knew we could make it our own”. They made the right choice, as their version was a UK #1 for 15 weeks and became the best selling single in the UK in 1994.
The song is so much different than the Troggs’ version. I think that is why I like it so much! It isn’t that the Troggs’ version sounds dated or anything, I just think the Wet, Wet Wet version sounds more polished. It’s fantastic.
Love Is All Around
I wish I had a dollar for every time I have played this next one at a wedding or party! It was one of my most requested songs – Cotton Eyed Joe. What’s funny is that while high school kids were asking for it, they have no idea just how old the song is!
Songfacts says “This song originated in America in the 1800s, and is commonly associated with the American South. It became a popular song in country bars, as it was perfect for line dancing. It’s a traditional folk song, and many country artists recorded it.
Rednex is a group of Swedish producers who recorded “Cotton Eye Joe” as a techno dance song. After putting the song together, they came up with the country bumpkin motif and named the group Rednex, a play on the word “redneck,” a term for an uncultured southerner in America.
They found five Swedish performers to portray the band, dressing them in tattered clothes and giving them a stereotypical hillbilly look, with unkempt hair and dirty faces. In a cagy marketing move, they refused interviews and released a bio to the press explaining that the group was rescued from an uncivilized village called Brunkeflo in the backwoods of Idaho and brought to Sweden, where they could express their musical gifts. Their names were Bobby Sue, Billy Ray, Mary Joe, BB Stiff and Ken Tacky – all inbred.“
What a way to start a band, huh?
Cotton Eyed Joe
I don’t think I could ever be a good songwriter. There are some lines that I think are just brilliant. One of those lines is the opening line of Green Day’s Basket Case.
“Do you have the time to listen to me whine about nothing and everything all at once?”
That’s a great line! This song is about anxiety attacks and a feeling that you are going crazy. Lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong suffered from various panic disorders while he was growing up – he would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with a panic attack and walk around his neighborhood to settle down. “Basket Case” was a cathartic and personal song for him. “The only way I knew how to deal with it was to write a song about it,” he explained.
Songfacts says “Blasting right into the verse at the beginning of this song is something that set it apart. Simplicity was a hallmark of the Dookie album, and while omitting an intro made little marketing sense (DJs couldn’t talk up the song), it got right into the meat of the track. Tre Cool of Green Day cites the first Beatles album, Please Please Me, as an influence on Dookie, since many of those early Beatles songs also got right to the point.”
Basket Case was one of those alternative songs I heard on the radio and it made me want to hear more from Green Day.
Basket Case
I’ve got the chance to hang out and interview Aaron Tippin a couple times. He’s a huge supporter of our veterans, and does a lot of charity work
During his stage show he puts together a bicycle while singing a song. Then he brings out someone from a children’s hospital or foster home and donates the bike and more to those children. Class act!
Off air, I found out he was a big fan of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. We chatted for a long time about their music. At his county fair show, he donned a fedora and nailed a Sinatra song. It was amazing.
My dad loves his music and he asked if I would get an autograph for him. Aaron and I were talking and I mentioned my dad’s request. My dad loves Aaron’s patriotism and support of veterans. I mentioned this to him. Aaron wanted to know more about him. Where did he serve? How long? What branch of service?
He grabbed one of his photos and signed it for my dad. It hangs proudly in my dad’s music room. “Sam. I KNOW you got it honest! Thank you. Aaron Tippin.”
I Got It Honest
The video for the next song is what got me. More on that in a second.
Weezer’s Buddy Holly was almost called “Ginger Rogers.” Well, it could have been. According to songfacts “The early demo of this song had a slower tempo and some different lyrics. The chorus originally referenced famous dancing duo Fred & Ginger: “Oo-wee-oo you look just like Ginger Rogers, Oh, oh, I move just like Fred Astaire,” before it was changed to “Oh wee-ooh, I look just like Buddy Holly, Oh, oh, and you’re Mary Tyler Moore.”
The video was just awesome. Spike Jonze directed it. Vintage Happy Days footage was intercut with shots of Weezer performing on the original Arnold’s Drive-In set. Al Molinaro, who played the diner’s owner on the series, made a cameo appearance in the video.
Think about this: Happy Days aired in the 1970s but was set in the 1950s, when Buddy Holly made his mark. So here we have a ’90s video referencing a ’70s TV series set in the ’50s.
The video was one of the most popular clips of 1995, it scored four MTV Video Music Awards, including Breakthrough Video and Best Alternative Music Video, and two Billboard Music Video Awards, among them Alternative/Modern Rock Clip of the Year.
The single was released to radio on September 7, 1994, which would have been Buddy Holly’s 58th birthday.
Buddy Holly
In 1994, Huey Lewis and the News released Four Chords and Several Years Ago. It was an album of 50’s and 60’s cover songs. What made this really cool was that they recorded it just like they would have in those days.
You didn’t have the guitar track laid down beforehand. The drummer wasn’t in a separate booth. All the musicians and vocalists were in the same room recording at the same time. This gave the songs a very authentic sound.
The band’s final entry into the Hot 100, was a cover of the JJ Jackson hit But It’s Alright. This is not to be confused with an earlier cover they did of the Impression’s It’s Alright. They did that one all acapella.
Four Chords is one of my favorite albums.
But It’s Alright
It is fitting that the next song is the last one on my list for 1994. It’s fitting because since it came out, I almost always used this song as the last song of the night when I DJ’d.
Madonna’s Take A Bow has a beautiful instrumentation and arrangement. While beautiful, it is sad. This song is about a failed romance Madonna had with “a movie star,” possibly Warren Beatty, whom she starred opposite in the movie Dick Tracy.
Babyface sang backup and also produced this track to give Madonna the R&B feel she wanted for the Bedtime Stories album. At Madonna’s suggestion, this song was recorded with a full orchestra. It was the first time Babyface had worked with live strings.
I always felt like it was a perfect song to wrap up with. The lyrics say, “The show is over, say goodbye.” I also liked that it was a 5 minute song, which gave me a little time to start packing up at gigs. At some gigs, if I had a friend there, or my significant other, I could sneak in a brief dance with them.
Take a Bow
And just like that, we’re through 1994. Like other years, there were plenty of good ones to choose from. Which one of your favorites did I miss?
Next week, we’ll hear the dance craze people love to hate, a band that was superior to another, a soulful sweet collaboration, a rather strange song, and the reuniting of one of the biggest groups in history. I hope you’ll stop by to check it out ….
I saw this on Facebook earlier and had to share. I know many of my blog followers are into music and I’d love their opinions on this list.
The list comes from a site called “A Lot Living,” which, from what I can tell, is some sort of entertainment site. I tried to post a link to the original article, but for what ever reason, the link wouldn’t work. Well, at least you have the list below…..
As a radio guy, and a mobile DJ, I agree with many of the songs on the list. Some of them, while overplayed, are still very well accepted by party crowds and radio listeners. Here is the list – YOU tell ME what you agree or disagree with….
Top 50 Overplayed Songs
50. Jam (Turn it Up) – Kim Kardashian
49. Axel F – Crazy Frog
48. Afternoon Delight – Starland Vocal Band
47. Happy – Pharrell Williams
46. What’s New Pussycat? – Tom Jones
45. It’s a Small World (After All) – Sherman Brothers
44. Disco Duck – Rick Dees
43. MMMBop – Hanson
42. Baby – Justin Bieber
41. Barbie Girl – Aqua
40. We Built This City – Starship
39. Call Me Maybe – Carly Rae Jepsen
38. Message In a Bottle – The Police
37. Do My Thang – Miley Cyrus
36. Livin’ La Vida Loca – Ricky Martin
35. My Humps – Black Eyed Peas
34. Sherry – The Four Seasons
33. Ice Ice Baby – Vanilla Ice
32. My Heart Will Go On – Celine Dion
31. Blue – Eiffel 65
30. Copacabana – Barry Manilow
29. Karma Chameleon – Culture Club
28. Macarena – Los Del Rio
27. Wannabe – The Spice Girls
26. I Love You – Barney
25. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go – Wham!
24. I Want Candy – The Strangeloves
23. Mah Na Mah Na – The Muppets
22. Tequila – The Champs
21. Bread and Butter – The Newbeats
20. Yakety Yak – The Coasters
19. Whip My Hair – Willow Smith
18. Cheerleader – Omi
17. Achy Breaky Heart – Billy Ray Cyrus
16. The Thong Song – Sisqo
15. The Final Countdown – Europe
14. Believe – Cher
13. Honey, I’m Good – Andy Grammer
12. I’m a Gummy Bear – Gummibar
11. Blurred Lines – Robin Thicke
10. All About That Bass – Meghan Trainor
9. Friday – Rebecca Black
8. Marry You – Bruno Mars
7. You’re Beautiful – James Blunt
6. Cotton Eye Joe – Rednex
5. I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) The Proclaimers
4. Who Let The Dogs Out – Baha Men
3. Baby Shark – Unknown
2. It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time – Buckwheat Boys
…. and the top overplayed/hated song is
1. Photograph – Nickleback
Do you agree? Disagree? What songs were missed? What songs should NOT be on this list? You tell me!
Recently a friend went to buy a new car. He was appalled when he found out there was no CD player in it. As a music lover, I totally get this. I want to be able to pop in the music of my choice when I am driving. Up until recently, the CD Player was a standard option. Now they provide a USB port for you to plug a thumb drive or iPod into for music. This wasn’t always the case.
Prior to the CD player, it was the cassette tape that was the choice for music. You could record your music to these 60-90 minute tapes and have your favorite cruising tunes at your finger tips. The only trouble was that if you wanted to hear a song again, you’d have to rewind it (or fast forward the other side if there was no rewind option). Prior to that mode of media – there was the 8 Track tape!
The 8 track was a continuous looped tape that had 4 stereo tracks (8 tracks total), and the player head would move play which ever track it was positioned over. You could buy 8 tracks with music already on them or, if you had a recorder (like my dad did), you could record your own. With prerecorded 8 tracks, all the songs played in their entirety with no type of interruption. My dad recorded his own, and sometimes a track would run out during a song and switch to the next track, so the player would “click” in the middle of a song. It’s humorous to try to explain it in words here, but if you know what I am trying to explain, you are chuckling!
My dad had quite the collection of his own 8 tracks. We’d listen to them often. My mother asked him to put some songs together for her. He put them on a red 8 track. He may have had other red 8 tracks, however, this one in particular I remember. It contained mom’s songs … mostly ballads.
As a child, we’d go to Caseville for weekend summer vacations. From our house, it was approximately 2-3 hours to drive there. We’d sit in the car bored out of our minds and listen to music. I remember when mom’s 8 track went it, it was like someone gave us a double dose of Benadryl. Oh man, TRY to stay awake with these songs on. The only thing that would keep me awake was listening to my mom mumble through the first 3/4 of the lyric (the part she didn’t know) and belt out the last two words of the line. “mumble, mumble, almost intelligible, mumble, half a word, mumble ….CAUSE I’D REALLY LOVE TO SEE YOU TONIGHT!”
To this day, there are songs that make me think of those rides to the trailer. When they come on, I think “Caseville 8 Track!” I remember driving up 53 through the towns of Romeo, Almont, Imlay City, Marlette, Cass City, Owendale, Pigeon, and finaly arriving at Caseville and listening to them all! Here is a partial list of some of them:
Sad Eyes – Robert John
Babe – Styx
You Needed Me – Anne Murray
Heartlight – Neil Diamond
Just The Way You Are – Billy Joel
Sweet Music Man – Kenny Rogers
You Are So Beautiful – Joe Cocker
You Light Up My Life – Debby Boone
Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue – Crystal Gayle
Your Song – Elton John
If You Could Read My Mind – Gordon Lightfoot
Lyin’ Eyes – The Eagles
Longer – Dan Fogleberg
Blue Bayou – Linda Ronstadt
Annie’s Song – John Denver
Keep On Loving You – REO Speedwagon
I’d Really Love to See You Tonight – England Dan and John Ford Coley
Who’s Crying Now – Journey
Sundown – Gordon Lightfoot
Song Sung Blue – Neil Diamond
Could It Be Magic – Barry Manilow
The Way We Were – Barbara Streisand
Three Times a Lady – The Commodores
All Out of Love – Air Supply
If – Bread
….and those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head! I am sure there are plenty that I am forgetting. I am sure there are probably a few more Barry Manilow and Neil Diamond songs that should be on here, too.
While most of these songs are never going to make my “favorites” play list, they do take me back to a time when I was a young boy driving in our station wagon up to our favorite summer get away. They also remind me of mom. What I wouldn’t give to hear her mumble through some lyrics today.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 