Normally, I would steer clear of this song, but because it is his birthday, I will feature it today.
Happy 83rd Birthday to Bob Lind!
In 1965, Bob Lind signed a contract with World Pacific Records, which was a division of Liberty Records. It was there that he recorded his composition (and only hit) Elusive Butterfly.
From songfacts.com:
Bob Lind wrote this song, where he sees himself as a butterfly hunter. He is looking for romance, but he finds it as elusive as butterflies are to capture. It turned out to be the only hit for Lind, who did a lot of traveling as a kid and ended up playing folk music around Denver when he flunked out of Western State College. He wrote “Elusive Butterfly” as the sun was coming up after staying up all night. He says the song is about “The magic of the quest, the thrill of searching, even when that which is sought is hard to see.”
One of music’s greatest bass players, Carol Kaye, played on the song. She told songfacts.com:
“It was at Sunset Sound. It was kind of a boring tune. I think it was D-flat or something, and it stays a long time in that chord and then it moves in a funny way to the next chord, it’s like a sidebar phrase or something like that. I missed it and I went to go up to the G-flat or whatever and I missed it and I came right back down. I did a slide up and down. And they stopped and I thought, ‘Uh oh, he caught me.’ He said, ‘Do more of those!’ (laughing) So the slide was born, then. I’d stick that slide in here and there on the records I cut.”
I chuckled when I read her quote calling the song “boring.” When I was at WKSG in Detroit, this song would come up on the play list from time to time. Johnny Molson, who did the evening show before I came on the air, had the best description of the song. He told me that the song “sounds like someone ate a Hallmark card … and threw up.”
Happy Birthday to Johnny, by the way. Who knew he and Bob shared a birthday?
Plagued by drug and alcohol problems, Lind gained a reputation in the business for being “hard to work with.” He eventually left the music business for some time, but his music was recorded by over 200 artists. Those artists include: Cher, Glen Campbell, Dolly Parton, Eric Clapton, The Turtles, Johnny Mathis, Nancy Sinatra, The Four Tops, and Petula Clark!
In 1988, he moved to Florida. He wrote five novels, an award-winning play, and a screenplay, Refuge, which won the Florida Screenwriters’ Competition in 1991. He also worked briefly for the Weekly World News and is credited with co-writing their famous “Bat Boy” story.
I’d say that he should stick to singing, but I’m not really keen on that either… So, Happy Birthday, Bob.
When I got into radio, I asked one of the DJ’s if he had any advice for me. “Don’t get involved with a listener!” was his reply. I asked him why and his response was, “Haven’t you ever seen Play Misty for Me?”
I hadn’t. So I rented it. It starred Clint Eastwood and Jessica Walter and it scared the heck out of me!
The film came out on this day in 1971. The movie in a nutshell:
Popular radio show host Dave Garver (Clint Eastwood) becomes restless in his relationship with his girlfriend (Donna Mills). Impulsively, he goes out and sleeps with a woman (Jessica Walter) he meets at a nightclub. After the fact, he finds out she was not an anonymous hookup, but an obsessive fan who has called in repeatedly to request he play the song “Misty.” Garver soon discovers extricating himself from the woman will be no easy feat as she becomes increasingly psychotic.
In my radio career of over two decades, I thankfully never encountered a listener like this! Naturally, we were all leery of any food or drink that was brought to the radio station. You never knew what might or might not be in it.
Most DJ’s had “groupies” who followed you around to your appearances. Many just wanted to chat with you. They always treated you like you were a “big star” or “famous.” I always told them I was just a guy doing a job. Still, there were plenty of folks that followed me around or always called the station. Off the top of my head: Gary, Dawn, Ann, Dan, Marie, Jennifer, Heather, Don, Tracy, Michelle, Lee, Kortney, Shelley, Pat, Sandy, Joe, Deatta, and many more all connected with me at various stations and throughout my career. Many of them became friends afterward. None of them ever attacked me violently.
Errol Garner composed Misty in 1954. It would be recorded by many artists including Frank Sinatra, Sarah Vaughn, Aretha Franklin and Johnny Mathis. It would become Mathis’ signature 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 35 in 2005. There was plenty going on in my personal life at this time. We were doing various therapies for my son, who had been diagnosed as being on the Autism spectrum. I had settled into my position at 94-5 The Moose in Saginaw as their afternoon guy and music director. I was certainly loving that. And at some point during the year, my mother’s cancer returned.
At the time, My Space was pretty popular. I was blogging a lot on there. Somewhere, I have a Word document with every one of those blogs. I had to contact them to get them. I had stopped posting there after joining Facebook, and at some point they moved content. I was thankful to get those blogs as they covered the time leading up to my wedding, the birth of my sons and the death of my mom.
I posted a lot about new songs we were playing on the radio, too. A few of them make this list. Let’s head into 2005:
The legendary Ray Charles passed away in 2004, but before he did, he recorded an amazing duets album. Genius Loves Company was the best selling recording of Charles’ more than 50-year career. It was a collection of duets with Norah Jones, Natalie Cole, Elton John, B.B. King, Gladys Knight, Diana Krall, Michael McDonald, Johnny Mathis, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor.
The album entered the Top 10 on the US album chart more than 40 years after Charles’ previous appearance on that same chart. This broke the record held by another act who also made his comeback with a duets album. In 1993 Frank Sinatra’s Duets reached the Top Ten 25 years after his previous Top 10 album.
Here We Go Again was a song that Ray had recorded in 1967. Then in 2004 he re-recorded this as a duet with Norah Jones for Genius Loves Company. She recalled collaborating with Charles on this song in a 2010 interview with Billboard magazine:
“I got a call from Ray asking if I’d be interested in singing on this duets record. I got on the next plane and I brought my mom. We went to his studio and did it live with the band. I sang it right next to Ray, watching his mouth for the phrasing. He was very sweet and put me at ease, which was great because I was petrified walking in there.”
This song won Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration in 2005 eight months after Charles passed away. In addition Genius Loves Company was awarded Album of the Year among six other awards, as the American music industry paid lavish tribute to him.
Unlike Frank Sinatra and Willie Nelson, Ray Charles’ voice is as strong as ever on this recording. I felt Sinatra’s voice was weak on his duets albums. Willie is still putting out albums and at times he sounds like he’s just speaking the lyrics. Ray, however, sounds fantastic. I love the blending of these two voices.
Here We Go Again
The next song is an example of a song that I first heard in a polka. You read that right – a polka. Weird Al Yankovic has done quite a few polka medleys on his albums. The medley usually contains a verse or chorus from a pop song done as a polka. When I first heard Beverly Hills by Weezer on the radio, I found I liked it.
Weezer lead singer (Rivers Cuomo) explained in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine that this song is about how he could live in Beverly Hills, but he wouldn’t fit in. “I could live in Beverly Hills, sure,” he says, meaning he could afford it easily. “But I couldn’t belong there.'”
Songfacts explains:
The song comes off as satire, but that wasn’t what Rivers Cuomo had in mind when he wrote it. “I was at the opening of the new Hollywood Bowl and I flipped through the program and I saw a picture of Wilson Phillips,” he said. “And for some reason I just thought how nice it would be to marry, like, an ‘established’ celebrity and live in Beverly Hills and be part of that world. And it was a totally sincere desire. And then I wrote that song, ‘Beverly Hills.’ For some reason, by the time it came out and the video came out, it got twisted around into something that seemed sarcastic. But originally it wasn’t meant to be sarcastic at all.”
The music video was shot at the Playboy mansion. It included appearances by Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and some of the Playboy bunnies. Two of those bunnies were Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt.
Beverly Hills
When I was music director at the Moose, I spoke with a lot of record people. One of the industry folks knew I loved music from the Rat Pack. She asked me if I had heard of Michael Buble’. I hadn’t. She sent me some MP3’s of his music and I was hooked.
The song could have been sung by just about any artist who tours. The lyrics sound as if they could be autobiographical. It is sung by someone who spends a lot of time on the road with great success. With that success, there is sacrifice. He is missing his home, particularly the woman he loves.
Despite the fact that Home only reached #72 on the Hot 100 chart, it was a breakthrough song for him. The song hit #1 on the Adult Contemporary survey in July 2005. Three years later Blake Shelton reached #1 on the Country chart with his cover of Bublé’s hit.
Bublé and Blake Shelton teamed up in 2012 to record a holiday version of this song for Shelton’s, Cheers, It’s Christmas album. The collaboration happened after Shelton sent Bublé an email saying he hoped to record a yuletide-themed rendering of the tune. “I had the idea of doing a Christmas version of ‘Home,'” he said.
This was the song that proved to folks that Michael was more than a cover artist. His original songs are just as good as the standards he records. He is also more than just a Christmas artist. It bugs me that people pigeon hole him and label him like that. He’s one of my favorites.
Home
My on air name was “Keith Allen.” As a music director, I got to hear all the new music before it went on the air. I popped Play Something Country by Brooks and Dunn in the CD player and loved it. On my first listen, I thought they said my name – Keith Allen. I suppose, in a way, they did. But the lyrics refer to Toby Keith and Alan Jackson:
Said, I’m a whiskey drinking, cowboy chasing, hell of a time I like Kenny, Keith, Alan and Patsy Cline.
I have to tell you my favorite story about this song. When my program director and I first heard this, we said, “That’s a number one song!” We told our consultant that we wanted to add it. He said he didn’t feel like it was a hit. We were both shocked. We both told him that we felt it would be number one. He fought us.
He fought us for a few weeks on this one. He finally said that if we really felt it was a hit, we should add it. We wound up making a wager. I told him that if it didn’t go to number one, we’d buy him dinner. He said if it did hit number one, he would buy US dinner. The week it hit number one, he called us for our weekly music call. When we answered we started giving him restaurants we could go to!
His issue with the song? The “wolf-like” howl of the chorus.
Play Something Country
The next song is one that everyone jokes about on October 1st every year. “Someone needs to go wake up the guy from Green Day!”
This song reminds me of Fastball’s The Way. I say that because it starts with a simple acoustic guitar behind lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong. Then the song kicks in with drums and the rest of the instrumentation. I love the sound of that.
Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong wrote this song about his father, who died of cancer on September 1, 1982. At his father’s funeral, Billie cried, ran home and locked himself in his room. When his mother got home she knocked on the door to Billie’s room. Billie simply said, “Wake me up when September ends,” hence the title.
“My father died in September of ’82, and I purposely, up until that point, never went there,” Armstrong said in an interview. “I think really what I was doing was processing that loss that I had with this person that I never really knew. So I wrote that song for my father and about that loss and how 20 years had passed. I remember right after I wrote it, I felt this huge weight off my shoulders.”
Wake Me Up When September Ends
Another country newcomer makes my list this week. I have actually written about him, and the song. Here is that blog:
The next song is one of the slowest chart climbers in history. It was on the American Hot 100 chart for 23 weeks before it entered the Top 40. KT Tunstall’s “Suddenly I See” was inspired by another artist, Patti Smith. Tunstall said, “The inspiration for the song was Robert Mapplethorpe’s photograph of Patti Smith on the cover of her album Horses. I was staring at it one day thinking it was incredible. It’s everything I love about music – mysterious, inviting, frightening.”
Suddenly I see This is what I wanna be Suddenly I see Why the hell it means so much to me
“The chorus was me thinking, ‘that’s what I want to be,'” Tunstall told The Guardian. “Not a famous pop star with lots of money, but like this woman who’s living her life as an artist. I’d been trying for more than 10 years to be a professional musician. I was just exhausted from trying to persuade other people I was good enough.”
I remember hearing this song shortly after realizing that my first marriage was over. After all I learned and discovered through therapy, the title spoke to me. Suddenly, I saw just what was going on and I realized that I couldn’t do it anymore.
Suddenly I See
There were some really good country songs around this time. There were many new artists and some really distinct sounds that were on the radio. I was impressed with Josh Turner from the first time I heard him. I couldn’t believe the tone of his low voice.
Your Man is a song that I wish I could have written. Here is a guy who has been thinking about his woman all day long. He tells her to lock the door, turn the lights down low, and play some music.
I’ve been thinking about this all day long Never felt a feeling quite this strong I can’t believe how much it turns me on Just to be your man
That’s LOVE right there!!
I love the entire feel of this song. It’s the perfect song to “sway” to.
Your Man
As the “Nostalgic Italian,” I think it is safe to say that I believe in the power of a photograph. The memories that can come from looking at an old picture just amazes me. My Friday Photo Flashback is always fun to do. I think that is because of the stuff that comes to mind with those old pictures.
I know there are plenty of people who hate Nickelback. However, Photograph is a song that I can relate to in so many ways. (From songfacts): This song is about reviewing the memories (missed and forgotten) from the band’s childhood in Hanna, Alberta. The lyrics are a chronicle of real events and personal landmarks lead singer Chad Kroeger recalled as he wrote it.
“It’s just nostalgia, growing up in a small town, and you can’t go back to your childhood. Saying goodbye to friends that you’ve drifted away from, where you grew up, where you went to school, who you hung out with and the dumb stuff you used to do as a kid, the first love – all of those things. Everyone has one or two of those memories that they are fond of, so this song is really just the bridge for all that.”
Someone once said, “If you don’t think photos are important, wait until they are all you have left.” I couldn’t agree more.
The photograph Kroeger is holding in the video is the one that inspired the song: It’s a shot of him and their producer, Joey Moi, at a New Year’s Eve party.
Photograph
We wrap up 2005 with a One Hit Wonder. Defining a “one hit wonder” isn’t really easy. Most feel it is when the artist fails to have their follow up released crack the Top 25. There are certainly many songs that fit into that category.
Daniel Powter’s album was released in America in 2006. Bad Day was released in the UK in 2005. In the fifth season of Americal Idol, the song was played over a video montage of the contestant that was being sent home that week. This helped the song gain popularity.
Powter is from British Columbia who later moved to Los Angeles. “Bad Day” was his first single released on a major label (Warner Bros.), and his only hit. He later described it as “a blessing and a curse.” Powter said:
“I was touring the world and performing for thousands of people, but I felt like the song was starting to define me. I actually found myself getting almost angry about it.”
This was the top-selling digital download of 2006. This was the star of people prefer downloading songs to buying CDs. It was part of a shift toward digital distribution of individual songs. In America, the album sold 500,000, but the single was digitally downloaded over 3 million times!
My mom was doing chemotherapy and radiation for her breast cancer at this time. She found the song to be inspiring. It basically says that even if you have a bad day once in a while, things will get better. My mom always tried to have a positive outlook. She battled cancer for 10 years and by this point she was tired.
My mom had the gift of gab. She was always on the phone. She assigned Bad Day to be the ringtone for her cell phone. I believe it was on there until she passed away. When I hear this song, I am taken back to those final weeks of her life.
Bad Day
What song from 2005 did I miss that was your favorite? Drop it in the comments.
Next week, we’ll focus on 2006. On my list is a song about a steeplechase runner, a song that became a hit because of Grey’s Anatomy, and a song that was a hit on the Adult Contemporary Chart and the Country charts. It also has a great Drifter’s cover song, one that took on a whole new meaning for me when my daughter was born, and a creative way to insinuate profanity without actually using it.
Thanks for reading and for listening! See you next week.
I realize that I have spent a lot of time writing about books lately. I also realized that it has been a while since I posted a song for Tune Tuesday. I heard one on the way into work today that remains one of my favorites.
When I Fall In Love
The song itself was written by Victor Young (who wrote the music) and Edward Heyman (who wrote the lyrics) in 1952. It was first recorded by the lovely Jeri Southern. Victor Young and his orchestra accompanied her on her version.
Doris Day’s version became the movie theme from One Minute to Zero (also 1952) and became the first “hit” version.
I was most familiar with Nat King Cole’s Version of the song. He released it on Capitol Records and his vocal is amazing. That version was the love theme for the 1957 movie Istanbul. Nat’s daughter Natalie recorded it twice – in 1987 and in 1996, the later version being a duet with her father.
It is a song that has been recorded by just about everyone. Celine Dion, Michael Buble’ Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Mathis, Etta James, Rick Astley, and Donny Osmond are just a few of the many who have recorded the song. The song itself stands out as an amazing piece of music, and I can’t think of a bad version of it. However, the version I want to feature today comes from the early 60’s.
In 1961, the song was recorded by The Letterman. These guys were one of the most popular vocal groups of their day. The group was formed in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the late 50’s. Anyone who reads my blog knows that I love good harmony, and their music features amazing harmony and beautiful arrangements. They were an unknown group of guys until they signed with Capitol Records in 1961. At the time the group members were Jim Pike, Tony Butala, and Bob Engemann. Their first single for Capitol was a song that is forever connected with Frank Sinatra – “The Way You Look Tonight.” Their version of the song went to #13 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, they struck gold and a top 10 record with their follow-up single – “When I Fall in Love.” Their version went to #7 on the Billboard hot 100 and #1 on the Billboard Easy Listening Chart in late 1962.
Give this beautiful arrangement a listen and enjoy one of the classic love songs!
When I fall in love, it will be forever Or I’ll never fall in love
In a restless world like this is Love is ended before it’s begun And too many moonlight kisses Seem to cool in the warmth of the sun
When I give my heart, it will be completely Or I’ll never give my heart
And the moment I can feel that You feel that way too Is when I fall in love When I fall in love with you
The group’s members have changed over the years, but as far as I know, they still tour together. As a bonus, check out this clip from a talk show where each of them sing their part and then put it all together. It’s kind of neat to hear.
To say that the past few days have been stressful is an understatement. There have been some very good moments and I tried to just take them all in. However, something was on my mind all weekend.
I’m not going to get into detail on that. I could, but I won’t. Let me just state that it is stress related to things outside of my home life. Read into that however you wish.
At any rate, after a particularly emotional and crappy Monday that was the culmination of all the things on my mind, I needed something – anything! My Monday evening walk with the kids helped. I was out in the neighborhood, counting squirrels, saying hello to our “puppy friends” and listening to AJ babble and Ella sing.
Sam knew the weekend and Monday had taken a toll on me. She never said it was her plan, but she suggested taking a trip to Bronner’s in Frankenmuth to look for our annual “ornament hunt.” Bronner’s is “The World’s Largest Christmas Store” and I have blogged about it before. You can read about that here:
We packed the family up in the car after Sam got home and we made the short drive there. It was the perfect day to go. Tuesday morning in September. Sure, there were people there, but not the normal crowd that is there. The sounds of Christmas music were playing through the outside speakers as we walked in.
(Johnny Mathis’ version of Marshmallow World was playing as I walked in. I found myself thinking that the Dean Martin version is FAR superior to this version. As a bonus, Dean’s version played before we left!)
I hadn’t thought about it but this was Andrew’s first trip to Bronner’s. He was in awe of all the lights and him and Ella were anxious to touch everything!!
Every year, we get an ornament that marks some big event that happened in the past year. We have an engagement ornament, a marriage ornament, a mother-to-be ornament, and two “Baby’s First Christmas” ornaments. So what big event could we commemorate this year?
Neither one of us changed jobs. We didn’t get a new house or new car. Now that I think about it, the only big thing that happened this year was my vasectomy! I doubt they had an ornament for that, but then again, they have thousands of ornaments for just about every thing! They probably DO have something for that!!! Maybe I will call and ask …
Instead of an ornament, we got a snowman family plaque. You have probably seen what I am talking about. It has mom, dad, and snow-kids.
The one above is not the one we got, but it is similar. So we had them put our family name on it and then each of the snow kids had their name written on them. It came out really cute and we’ll either put it on the mantel or hang it on the main entry door.
Next year, Sam has said that she wants the kids to go and each pick out their own ornaments. I think that is a great idea and a good way to make it a tradition. We want them to have that experience and then every year when the holiday rolls around, they can look back on the ornaments and relive memories.
The kids were both getting a bit antsy, so as soon as the plaque was personalized, we headed out. We stopped for photo ops and walked outside. As we exited the building, there was a huge Santa Claus. Andrew saw it and began to point to it. It was a perfect (and frame worthy) photo.
It was just want I needed to get my mind off all that transpired over the past few days. A welcome distraction with those that I love.
One thing is for sure. Despite all the feelings that are churning around inside me, especially as I think about things, I think on the reasons why I keep going. The people who mean the most to me. I think of my wife and her never ending support and love. I think of my two older sons, and of course, the two little blessings who accompanied me on our trip to “Christmas in September” …
THEY are why I continue to do what I do. THEY are the reason I need to focus on getting healthy. THEY are the reason I am happy.
Sirius XM Radio has a few holiday music channels. They each kind of fall into a category – Country Christmas, Uptempo Holiday favorites, etc… I often find myself listening to the channel they call Holiday Traditions. This channel focuses on songs and artists from the 1940’s through the 1960’s. I hear a lot of my favorite artists on there like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, etc… They also play instrumental favorites, too.
On my way into work this week I noticed they will often play Christmas songs from the Ray Conniff Singers. As kids, I think my folks had two Christmas albums from them. I don’t really recall being a fan of them.
Listening to their version of Frosty the Snowman, I began to think. I wondered why they play so much Ray Conniff, but never play any Christmas songs by another singing group we had on LP – Mitch Miller.
Among the many Christmas albums we had (Johnny Mathis, Perry Como, Bing Crosby), the above Mitch Miller album got a TON of play at our house. If memory serves me right, this album was one that my dad put on when we opened Christmas gifts. Mitch Miller had a TV show in the 1960’s where his singers sang songs and the lyrics were on the screen so viewers could sing along. He had many albums, too. I’m not sure just how many holiday albums, but I know we had that one!
Must Be Santa
Of all the holiday songs on the album, there is one that really stands out from my childhood – Must Be Santa. This song was not on any of the other holiday albums we owned. It was not a song that you ever heard on the radio. It was, in a sense, a Mitch Miller exclusive! As a matter of fact, Mitch was the first to record it, as far as I can tell. He released it in November of 1960.
The song is based on a German drinking song (the Schnitzelbank song) and is a “call and response” song. The lead singer sings a question and the singers answer back (Full Lyrics below).
I remember as kids loving this song. We often sang along with the “answer back” lines. As I grew older and heard the song, I remember noticing something I hadn’t really before. There was one voice that screamed through as they sang “Must be Santa” and it was awful!
It was a piercing voice. It almost sounds like a kid whose voice is changing. I cringe when I hear it now. It always seemed like that voice always sang a second longer that every other voice. Plus It was almost like some sort of fake vibrato in that voice. Give the song a listen in the YouTube video and see if you can’t hear the voice….
Now that I think about it …. maybe that voice is why they don’t play more Mitch Miller on the radio ….
Who’s got a beard that’s long and white? Santa’s got a beard that’s long and white Who comes around on a special night? Santa comes around on a special night
Special Night, beard that’s white
Must be Santa Must be Santa Must be Santa, Santa Claus
Who wears boots and a suit of red? Santa wears boots and a suit of red
Who wears a long cap on his head? Santa wears a long cap on his head
Cap on head, suit that’s red Special night, beard that’s white
Must be Santa Must be Santa Must be Santa, Santa Claus
Who’s got a big red cherry nose? Santa’s got a big red cherry nose
Who laughs this way: “HO HO HO”? Santa laughs this way: “HO HO HO”
HO HO HO, cherry nose Cap on head, suit that’s red Special night, beard that’s white
Must be Santa Must be Santa Must be Santa, Santa Claus
Who very soon will come our way? Santa very soon will come our way
Eight little reindeer pull his sleigh? Santa’s little reindeer pull his sleigh
Reindeer sleigh, come our way HO HO HO, cherry nose Cap on head, suit that’s red Special night, beard that’s white
Must be Santa Must be Santa Must be Santa, Santa Claus
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 