Tag: Willie Nelson

Happy 79th Birthday, Pop!

If you have read my blogs in the past, you know that it consists of a mixture of pop culture things (like movie, TV and music thoughts) and personal things (radio stories, school memories, and things from my childhood).  As I thought about today’s blog topic, I realized that without this man in my life – this blog would probably not exist!  I guess I didn’t really realize it until now. As I scrolled back over the blogs of the past, I see just how much influence he has had in almost ALL of them!  I am talking, of course, about my dad.  Today – is his 79th birthday.  So here are some birthday thoughts for dad.

In the past I wrote a blog about his musical influence.  My musical taste is very broad, because I was introduced to so many different genres by him.  He introduced me to rock and roll with the music of Little Richard, Bobby Darin, Roy Orbison and Elvis.  He introduced me to the “Great American Songbook” with music from Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Bing Crosby.  He introduced me to Jazz with Louis Prima, and Ella Fitzgerald.  He played me music from Johnny Paycheck, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard to introduce me to country music.  The list goes on and on … but what about other influences?

Movies

I could spend an entire week writing about the various movies he introduced to me!  As far as the classic films, most of those were introduced to me because he saw that they were playing on the Monday Night Movie on regular TV or something.  You have to remember VCR’s and DVD players were not a staple in the home yet.  You also have to remember that I grew up at the time where “pay TV” was just being incarnated.  One of the first pay services was “ON TV”.  It came on channel 20 at like 8 or 9 at night.  They put an antenna on your roof and it unscrambled the signal so you could watch movies.  I remember one time I wanted to record Smokey & the Bandit – but as I said, VCR’s were not for home use yet.  The last showing of it on ON TV was at 1am one Friday night.  My dad actually stayed up with a cassette recorder in front of the TV and recorded the audio for me.  What makes this even better is there were scenes that were so funny to him, you could hear him laughing in the background as the movie played.

With Cable TV came The Movie Channel and HBO.  As more and more channels became available, American Movie Classics, Turner Classic Movies, and others were the way to watch them. So he’d tell me “You gotta watch AMC at 3 today – they’re playing ‘Angels With Dirty Faces’!”  Growing up, I remember hearing my dad talking with my grandparents, my Uncle Tom, or his friends about actors and actresses and the movies they were in.  “Great Movie!” or “What a great flick!” I’d hear him say.  Well, if he thought it was great – I wanted to see it!  Movies I remember watching – only because I had heard him talk about them included The Godfather, White Heat,  Little Caesar, Key Largo, Patton, Midway, The Maltese Falcon, and Night of the Hunter.  Many of these were films that I’d walk in to the living room and dad would be watching and he’d tell me about them and catch me up so I could watch it with him. I was introduced to Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, The Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Mitchum, Burt Reynolds, and SO many actors just be casually walking into a room where he was watching TV!

The Godfather Part 1 & 2 and Patton are probably some of my favorite films.  I remember watching Godfather the first time trying to keep all the names straight.  Don Barzinni, Don Stracci, Luca Brazi, Sonny, Fredo, and Tom Hagen were all characters that I had to remember (amongst many more).  Dad was there to explain so many things to me as I watched this film the first few times through.  I have found myself doing the same thing when I sit and watch it with someone who has never seen it.  (On a side note, for one class I had to read books and write book reports for it.  I remember dad wrote a book report for me on The Godfather! He got an A!)

TV

Look through my DVD collection and amongst the movies are entire series of classic TV shows.  This, again, is a direct result from my dad’s influence.  I remember watching re-runs of The Honeymooners on channel 50.  I remember when dad told me that Ralph Kramden and Sheriff Buford T. Justice from Smokey and the Bandit were the same person!  I don’t know if I would have known that as a 7 year old!  I remember staying home sick and watching re-runs of the Dick Van Dyke Show on channel 9 out of Canada.  I knew about Carl Reiner because he was one of many cameos in the movie It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (which should have been mentioned in the movie section of this blog).  The other stars of “Mad World” were also known to me because of my dad:  I knew Mickey Rooney from a flick called Quicksand he rented.  I knew Milton Berle from The Dean Martin Roasts and other TV appearances. I knew Jonathan Winters from a classic Twilight Zone episode (Loved watching TZ with him).  Among the other “classic” TV shows he introduced me to:  The Untouchables, F-Troop, The Munsters, Car 54, Where Are You?, McHale’s Navy, Perry Mason, Combat, Star Trek, Hogan’s Heroes, Mission: Impossible, and Get Smart.

With the availability of video rentals, I remember dad bringing home TV shows that were not shown on TV anymore or shown late at night.  You couldn’t really watch The Little Rascals, Laurel and Hardy, or The Three Stooges on TV unless you stayed up late for comedy classics – which usually was on at 11pm or midnight.  With the VCR, though, we could go to the store and rent them!  I had listened to Jack Benny and Amos and Andy on cassette tapes of old radio shows (again, thanks to dad), but now I was able to see these TV shows – and they were amazing! I used to love watching these shows with him.  One thing I always love seeing is my dad laughing and these shows (and a couple I will mention in a minute) always made him laugh – I mean big belly laughs!

I guess you could say that I grew up at a time where some of  the “current” shows are now considered classics.  Those shows, my brother and I watched on a weekly basis and watched in re-runs.  These shows included The Love Boat, Mork & Mindy, Happy Days, Lavern and Shirley, The Dukes of Hazzard, Emergency!, Welcome Back, Kotter, All In the Family, The Jeffersons, The Carol Burnett Show, Barney Miller, Fantasy Island, and Charlie’s Angels.  Some of those dad introduced me to, while others he really couldn’t stand.

Sanford and Soupy

The one show that I will forever associate with my dad is Sanford and Son.  These shows, no matter how many times we see them remain funny.  I can be on the phone with my dad and say, “So last night I watched “the piano movers” and we will both start laughing!  Years later, we can quote this show to each other and still crack each other up.  Why do we and can we bond over this show? Perhaps it’s the fact that the show is about a father and son and their relationship.  I remember how I thought it was odd that Lamont always called Fred, “Pop”.  I never used to call my dad that, although somewhere over the years, dad has become “Pop” to me.  I call him that all the time now.  As a matter of fact, he still often calls me “Lamont”!  It is not used flippantly, I use it as a genuine term of endearment!  He’s my Pop – and I use it with much love and affection!

Another show that dad introduced me to was The New Soupy Sales Show.  He grew up watching Soupy at lunch time.  My grandmother often told stories of how Soupy would say “Tomorrow, we’re having bologna sandwiches for lunch” and if dad didn’t have them, he was pissed!  Soupy’s new show on channel 20 was pretty much just like the old show.  It was full of puns, bad jokes, clips of old movies, funny horoscopes on the radio, the Words of Wisdom, and his friends White Fang, Black Tooth, Pookie and Hippy.  It may have been on right after school and before dad came home from work, because I don’t recall him watching it too much with me, however, when it became available on video – we talked about it just like we talk about Sanford and Son.

Traits of a Good Dad

When I became a father, I remember reading something about what makes a good dad.  Let me say here that none of us is perfect.  My dad was not perfect and neither am I.  My point is that when you look at these things, we can assess things we are doing well, things we can improve, and things that we will start doing.  As I think back on those things – I can see where I strive to achieve those things and, at the same time, can see a lot of those things in my own father.

For example, a father must be a good disciplinarian.  All dad’s love their children, but you know and I know that you can’t let them get away with everything.  Dad was this way.  The old story about mom saying “Wait till your father get’s home” and the child being scared to death?  Yep!  That was me!  You didn’t want to make dad mad!  I would say I made him mad more than a few times.

One time in particular I remember telling him I was spending the night at a friends house.  I was out with my girlfriend at the time.  We were still in high school, and it was a weekend.  We had no money, so we weren’t going to a hotel or anything like that.  We just planned on staying out all night.  I don’t remember how he found out, but  I remember getting a page (remember pagers?!) from the friend who I said I was staying with and he asked why my dad thought I was there!  I think my girlfriend’s mom had called my house or something.  At any rate – I was in BIG trouble! Dad’s punishment was a fair one (even though I didn’t think so at the time).  He proved a point and I NEVER did that again.  He let me know that he was in charge.  Another time, I got in trouble at school for something.  We had a meeting with the teacher and he said what he would go on to tell every teacher afterward in parent teacher conferences, “If he gets out of line again, you have my permission to smack his ass!” (Yes, this was back before a teacher giving the kid a paddle was considered wrong).

A good dad allows his kids to make mistakes. Dad watched me make a TON of them, but he knew that if I was going to learn, I needed to make those mistakes.  He’d never let me make a mistake that was life threatening or would put me in danger, but he’d let me make mistakes that he knew, when all was said and done – I’d mature and learn from it.  While there were things he questioned, he never really interfered.  I learned a lot from that – even though there were times I wish he HAD said something!

A good dad has an open mind.  Times change.  The way that things were done when he was growing up, well, they may be handled differently now (the paddling in school is a good example).  He respected that and embraced it to a degree.  As someone who loved all kinds of music, I will never forget the time he called me into the living room to play me this “cool song” he heard and liked.  It was “Groove is in the Heart” by Deee-lite.  The song was not like anything he’s ever played for me, but he liked it and played it at DJ jobs!  He embraces change!

A good dad teaches his kids to appreciate things.  Those things can be anything.  My dad certainly taught me how to appreciate family and friends.  He taught me how to appreciate good music, movies and TV.  He taught me how to appreciate what you have and the importance of living within your means.

A good dad accepts that his kids aren’t exactly like him. This may or may not have been a lesson he learned from my grandpa.  My dad had always been very accepting of my brother and I.  While we all have a lot of similarities, we are all SO very different.  He respects that our religious and political views may not be the same as his.

A good dad spends quality time with his children. This is one of those things that is difficult to do in today’s society.  We spend so much time working and trying to get things done, that we often spend the hours we are not at work doing these things.  As a divorced father with limited time with my boys, I really try hard to make the time we spend quality time, even if it is just a car ride.  Some of my favorite memories with my dad are just him and I throwing the ball around in the front yard.  That meant more to me than he will ever know!

A good dad leads by example.  Dad was never really the “Do as I say, not as I do” kind of guy.  He was a hard worker and knew the importance of providing for our family.  I never once thought of growing up and not having a job.  Dad wasn’t always perfect in this area, but because of that, I was also able to take some of the things that I didn’t like him doing (like smoking) and not doing them.

A good dad is supportive and loyal.  I am sure that in my 30 year radio career, my dad probably thought “he needs to get out of that business and find something more stable”.  If he thought it – he never once told me that!  He was nothing but supportive!  If I ever came to him with something that he questioned, he might ask a question or two regarding the opposite viewpoint, but that was it.  He might ask “are you sure you want to do this” or “have you thought about what might happen if…”, and then he let me decide.  Whatever the decision, he supported it.  I have a great respect for that.

A good dad is someone who challenges his kids. I’m sure that there were many ways that dad challenged me.  I know there were times I wanted to quit something and he gave me the pep talk to keep going.  I cannot recall specific incidents, but I know they were there.

A good dad is a teacher.  While dad taught me how to throw a “submarine” ball and how to swing a golf club, he also taught me some valuable lessons.  One of the things I have hoped to do is to write down some of those lessons and pass them down to my own children.  To illustrate my point: there is a cartoon I saw once of two guys standing in front of three piles of stuff in a garage.  The one guy asked what they were.  The second guy says, “This stuff is the stuff my dad gave me.” He points to the first pile and says “This is the stuff I want to keep.”  He points to the second pile and says, “This is the stuff my dad gave me that I want to share with my kids.” He points to the third pile and says, “This is my stuff that I don’t need and will throw away.”  That’s the way it is – as a father, you take things that you learned from your dad and keep the stuff you want to share, throw out what you don’t, and then add stuff of your own.

A good dad protects and provides for his family.  When times were tough and money was tight, my dad would DJ or play in the wedding band to bring in extra money.  I remember as a young boy my dad going back to college to get a degree so he could move up in his place of employment.  It took me over 20 years, but I also decided to go back to school to better provide for my family.  I know that my dad would do anything for us, and I would do the same for my family.

Finally, a good dad shows unconditional love.  I read where this is the greatest quality of a good father.  Even though his child may let him down, upset him, make him mad, disrespect him, and disappoint him … the love remains constant.  Not to get theological, but it is one of the great principles spoken of about God in the Bible.  It says that no matter how much a child of God angers Him, ignores Him, or disappoints Him – His love is never ending and ever present.  THAT is the kind of love a father has for his children.

I am lucky that I have never had to question whether or not my dad loves me.  He has done so much for me during my lifetime and continues to do so.  I can only hope that he knows how much he is appreciated.  I can only hope he knows how thankful I am that he was chosen to be my father.  I can only hope that he knows of the impact that he has made on me.  I hope that he will never have to question how much I love him.

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Thanks, Pop, for being such an amazing man!  Thanks for being a wonderful example to me.  Thanks for everything you have done to support, encourage, accept, and love my family.  Today, I wish you a very happy birthday and wish you many more in the future!  I love you, Pop.

“Lamont”

Turntable Talk #42 – Going Out on a High Note

It is time once again for a new Turntable Talk topic from Dave at A Sound Day. Each month he offers up a musical topic for us to write about. This month we are Going out on a High Note. Dave’s instructions to us:

We all have seen artists (not to mention athletes, politicians…) who stick around long after they should have exited gracefully. For this round, pick a musical artist who you think ended their career on a high note, a great final album, or triumphant concert tour before they grew stale.

I had a difficult time with this one. As I began to think of artists, I kept coming up with artists who are still recording and touring. Willie Nelson, for example, is still making music and hitting the stage. Has he stayed around “too long?” Some say yes, while other say no. So my search continued. Then I remembered Bill Withers.

Bill served in the US Navy for almost 10 years. It was while he served our country that he began writing songs and became interested in singing. After he left the Navy, he decided to relocate to California in hopes of starting a career in music.

He found work as a mechanical assembler for several different companies including IBM, Ford, and the Douglas Aircraft Corporation. He used the money from his job to record demo tracks that he could take to record companies. He also began to play his songs in nightclubs in the area, hoping someone might discover him.

In 1967, he had his first official release – “Three Nights and a Morning.” It was a song that got little recognition. Three years later, he was signed to Sussex Records and Booker T Jones was assigned to produce Bill’s first album. That album, Just As I Am, included his first hit – “Ain’t No Sunshine.”

The album was a huge success and Withers rounded up a band and went out on tour. “Ain’t No Sunshine” was a Top 10 song and went on to win the Grammy for Best R&B Song in 1972. It also got him noticed by Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, who sent him a letter inviting him to appear on the show.

When his tour wrapped up, he used the time off to write and record songs for his second album entitled Still Bill. This album included Bill’s first #1 song – “Lean On Me,” which hit the top of the charts in July of 1972. This was followed up with his third million selling record – “Use Me.”

Bill’s relationship with Sussex record eventually went sour. He said of Sussex Records “They weren’t paying me.” He claims to have erased an entire album that he had recorded for the label in a fit of pique. “I could probably have handled that differently,” he said. There was an ongoing legal dispute with the Sussex company, and because of that Withers was unable to record for some time thereafter.

Sussex Records eventually went out of business and Bill had to find a new label. He wound up at Columbia Records in 1975. His first album on Columbia included the song “She’s Lonely,” which was featured in the movie Looking For Mr. Goodbar (which starred Richard Gere and Diane Keaton). He released an album every year afterward, including the 1977 album Menagerie which contained the hit “Lovely Day.”

Bill began to have trouble with Columbia. Apparently he was unable to get songs approved for his album. The label kept passing on the songs he wanted to record. Because of this, he decided to focus on joint projects beginning in 1977. He worked with the Crusaders, percussionist Ralph MacDonald, and jazz saxophonist Grover Washington Jr.

“Just The Two of Us” appeared on Washington’s 1980 album Winelight. It was released as a single in February of 1981 and went on to win a Grammy for Best R&B Song. In 1985, Withers released his final studio album, Watching You, Watching me. It was at this point that Bill decided to “go out on a high note.”

Withers was quoted in interviews that “a lot of the songs approved for the album—in particular, two of the first three singles released—were the same songs that had been rejected in 1982.” This played a big part in the eight-year hiatus between albums. Bill also stated how frustrating it was to see his record label release an album by actor Mr. T, when they were preventing him, an actual songwriter, from releasing his own.

With Columbia trying to exert control over his sound to sell more albums played a part in his decision to not record or re-sign with a record label after 1985. I would imagine the Mr. T thing played a part, too. This effectively ended his performing career, though remixes of his previously recorded music were released well after his “retirement.”

Withers was an artist who found musical success later in life. He was in his early 30’s when he began his career. Now at 47, he said he was socialized as a “regular guy” who had “a life before the music, so he did not feel an inherent need to keep recording once he fell out of love with the industry.” Bill felt he made the right decision. After leaving the music industry, he said that he did not miss touring and performing live and did not regret leaving music behind.

Accolades continued after his “retirement.” In 1988, he won another Grammy, this time as a songwriter for the cover of his “Lean on Me” by Club Nouveau. It won the Grammy for Best Rhythm and Blues Song. In 2005 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, followed in 2015 with his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He said:

“What few songs I wrote during my brief career, there ain’t a genre that somebody didn’t record them in. I’m not a virtuoso, but I was able to write songs that people could identify with. I don’t think I’ve done bad for a guy from Slab Fork, West Virginia.”

Bill passed away in March of 2020 in a Los Angeles hospital due to cardiac complications.

He is still receiving accolades in 2025. Last month, he was selected to be inducted into the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony usually takes place in October.

Thanks to Dave for once again hosting Turntable Talk. I am already looking forward to what next month’s topic will be.

The Music of My Life – Decade Extras – The 1990’s Part 2

This is sort of a continuation of the Music of My Life feature. It focused on music from 1970-2025. It featured tunes that have special meaning to me, brought back a certain memory or a tune that I just really like. I found that with the first three decades, there were songs that I didn’t feature. So I sat down with my original lists and selected some songs that “bubbled under,” so to speak.

I figured a good way to present them was to focus on a decade. 10 years = 1 song per year = 10 songs. Last week we looked at the 90’s. This week I have 10 more from the 90’s. Next week we’ll move to the 2000’s. So, let’s check out a few “Decade Extras.”

1990

To kick off the decade, I chose a song that is still played today and remains one of the most requested songs at parties and weddings. When Vanilla Ice hit the scene, many people mocked him, but all these years later, his song Ice Ice Baby remains a favorite.

In a 2016 interview, he explained that the song was based on a real life scenario. “The song tells you the story. It’s me, with my top down, in my 5.0 Mustang, cruising down A1A Beachfront Avenue. It’s a weekend experience that turned into an amazing song. It’s timeless. I still love singing it, and it never gets old.”

The song samples “Under Pressure” from Queen and David Bowie. Songfacts.com says: Vanilla Ice never got permission to use it. No lawsuit was filed, but it is likely that Vanilla Ice agreed to pay Queen and Bowie a settlement. According to industry insider Hans Ebert, Brian May of Queen first heard this song in a disco in Germany. He asked the DJ what it was, and learned that it was #1 in the US.

Ice Ice Baby

1991

In 1991, I was working at my first country station. I was familiar with many of the legends that were mixed into the playlist like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash. My dad listened to many of them, so I heard them, too.

The song Get Rhythm was a Johnny Cash song from 1956 as the B-side to I Walk The Line. Johnny’s music has influenced many an up and coming country singer. In 1991, Martin Delray decided to cover the song for his debut album. It had to be a thrill for Delray to have Johnny sing with him on the track AND appear in the music video.

I’ve always loved this song.

Get Rhythm

1992

Annie Lennox is best known for being in the 1980’s group the Eurythmics. It was her extremely successful and inventive duo with Dave Stewart. In early 1990, the group split and Lennox took time off to work on charitable endeavors and focus on her home life. In 1992 she released her first solo album, Diva.

The third single from the album was Walking on Broken Glass. Pop Matters Magazine described the song as a “gloriously weird pop song with one of the oddest intros: prancing strings, strutting keyboards, and the enigmatic line”. It went on to claim that “all of that make the track sound like nothing else on pop radio in 1992.” Honestly, I think that is why I like the song – it stood out.

The video was based on the 1988 movie Dangerous Liaisons, with elaborate costumes inspired by film, which was set in France during the 1700s. Annie Lennox recalled the song’s video in a blog promoting her 2009 greatest hits album:

“This was a wonderful video to create. There were some wonderful people involved – John Malkovich and Hugh Laurie (before he had an American accent)! That was tremendous fun. The idea of it being a period piece, like Les Liaisons Dangereux. The alternative title for ‘Broken Glass’ could easily have been ‘Hell hath no more fury than a woman scorned.’ The video is very wry and tongue-in-cheek. People can take me a little seriously sometimes, but I do actually have a rather radical sense of humor.”

Walking on Broken Glass

1993

Karaoke introduced me to the Gin Blossoms. I was going out the the bars a lot around this time and every once in a while someone would sing one of their songs. When I started driving for EDS and listening to the radio, I heard them much more.

Found Out About You was written by Doug Hopkins for the group’s first album, 1989’s Dusted. The album, however, was on a small label and really didn’t get noticed. When the band signed to A&M, they rerecorded the song for their New Miserable Experience album and it was released as the fourth single.

Singer Robin Wilson says, “The first time we ever demo’d “Found Out About You” we knew it was a hit song. I remember that being a significant event in my mind, when we were in the studio doing that song. I was sitting out on my car and what I imagined to be a hit song was a bunch of kids dancing to it at the Devil House. We were listening to it and Bill [Leen, the bassist] looked over at me and said, “Hey, wow, this song is going to get you a lot of women, isn’t it?” I was just like “Yeah, whatever.”

I was hooked from the opening guitar…

Found Out About You

1994

I heard Round Here by Counting Crows long after it had been released. This was one of the albums that my ex loved to listen to, so I hear it on long drives a lot.

Adam Duritz wrote the song and says it is sort of autobiographical. He wrote the song when he was in college and part of a band called the Himalayans. Members of that group helped with some lyrics and the music. When he formed Counting Crows, he brought the song with him and they reworked it a bit. Wanting to give everyone their due, Adam made sure to credit everyone in both bands with writing the song, so “Round Here” has eight different writers listed on the composer credits.

Songfacts.com says, The theme of childhood promises not panning out is one that shows up a lot in Duritz’ lyrics. In the chorus of this song, he lists some sayings that our parents often say: “Around here we always stand up straight,” “Around here we’re carving out our names.”

Adam says, “You’re told as a kid that if you do these things, it will add up to something: you’ll have a job, you life. And for me, and for the character in the song, they don’t add up to anything, it’s all a bunch of crap. Your life comes to you or doesn’t come to you, but those things didn’t really mean anything. By the end of the song, he’s so dismayed that he’s screaming out that he gets to stay up as late as he wants and nobody makes him wait; the things that are important to a kid – you don’t have to go to bed, you don’t have to do anything. But they’re the sort of things that don’t make any difference at all when you’re an adult. They’re nothing.”

Round Here

1995

When You Say Nothing At All was originally a hit for country singer Keith Whitley in 1988. It was co-written by Paul Overstreet. I had played it when I was at that first country station. I thought it was a great song lyrically, but wasn’t a fan of his voice. He died in 1989 of alcohol poisoning.

When some of Whitley’s friends decided to put together a tribute album to Whitley, they had other singers recording his songs. It was Alison Krauss who chose to cover “When You Say Nothing At All.

When I heard her version of the song, it stopped me in my tracks. Her voice is so beautiful and perfectly fit the song. Her voice took the song to an entirely different level. She knocked it out of the park!

When asked by Songfacts what he thought of the Krauss version, Overstreet said when he first heard it, “All the hair stood up all over my body. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me!?’ She sang it great.”  It still gives me goosebumps!

When You Say Nothing At All

1996

I think whenever guys have a “guy’s night” or gals have a “gal’s night” they begin to talk and tell stories. “My wife/girlfriend does that, too!” or “Why is it that all men keep shirts or socks with holes in them?” You know, that kind of thing.

I have been guilty of asking male friends, “How come they can do that and we can’t?” It all falls into that “Battle of the Sexes” thing. Music has focused on those male/female differences for years, but I hadn’t heard it put the way Mindy McCready did in 1996.

It was at my second country station that I heard “Guys Do It All The Time.” It is the ultimate switcheroo song from the woman’s point of view. The song itself does a great job in conveying this, but the video only enhances it with gal’s doing guy things.

I saw Mindy in passing at a Radio Seminar, and she was even more beautiful in person. It was sad to see her life spiral out of control before her passing.

Guys Do It All The Time

1997

Picture it – you are getting ready to go on a trip or maybe you are being shipped off for the military. This is the last night you will be with your special someone for a while. You’d want it to last forever and make it special right? That’s the premise of Save Tonight by Eagle Eye Cherry. He wants to cherish this one last night spent with his love. He explains that you can’t fight changes, all you can do is accept them.

This was the last song Cherry wrote for his debut album and he wanted it to be special, “something that would stand the test of time.” He achieved his goal – two decades later, the song is still in rotation on throwback radio stations and is a fixture on the setlists of countless cover bands.

Songfacts says that the black-and-white music video was filmed in Sweden and follows Cherry in the roles of several different characters whose lives intersect, including an amiable young man, a bespectacled butcher, a robber, a truck driver, a busker, and a homeless man.

Cherry is actually a trained actor, having attended New York City’s School of Performing Arts, with credits that include a bit part on The Cosby Show and a stint as an ex-con on the short-lived TV drama South Beach.

Save Tonight

1998

Another song that really stood out to me on the radio was Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls. That opening guitar always seemed to cut through whatever was going on. It was almost hypnotic.

Songfacts says that lead Goo Johnny Rzeznik wrote this song for the movie City Of Angels, where it is sung from the perspective of Nicolas Cage’s character. In the film, Cage plays an angel sent to help humans make their transition to the afterlife. When he falls in love with a human (played by Meg Ryan), he must choose between love and eternal life.

Johnny explained how the film influenced the song: “I was thinking about the situation of the Nicolas Cage character in the movie,” he said. “This guy is completely willing to give up his own immortality, just to be able to feel something very human. And I think, ‘Wow! What an amazing thing it must be like to love someone so much that you give up everything to be with them.’ That’s a pretty heavy thought.”

Iris was nominated for Grammys in the categories Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Pop Performance By Duo Or Group. It didn’t win any of them.

Iris

1999

It was around 1998-1999 that I took a leap of faith after deciding to give up on radio. I had received a call from a station in the Flint area. They had called the Detroit country station that I had just resigned from asking if they knew anyone who wanted full time work. The boss talked me up and gave them my number. It was from there that I would spend the next 10-12 years working full time in Country radio.

LeAnn Rimes was making quite a name for herself around this time. She had burst on the scene in 1996 with her debut single “Blue.” She was only 13 years old at the time!

In 1999, she recorded an album of country cover songs. It included Patsy Cline’s Crazy and She’s Got You, Hank Williams Your Cheating Heart and Lovesick Blues, and other classics. The album was entitled “LeAnn Rimes” and was her fourth studio album.

If you have ever been in a situation where your lover broke up with you, only to begin dating one of your closest friends, you know how much that hurts. How do you handle that situation? In country radio, you write a hit song about it. That song was only original song on the album – Big Deal.

What I loved about the song is the slow and deliberate opening verse. It almost has a gospel song feel to it. She is lamenting about letting her man get away and eventually winding up with her friend. Then the tempo kicks in and she let’s her rival have it. She’s tired of her bragging …

Big Deal

And that is a wrap on the 1990’s. You may remember that the further along I got in the original series the less songs I was able to come up with. I think I have enough to look at the early 2000’s and officially put this feature to bed. Next week we’ll glace at 2000-2009. I hope you’ll come back then.

Thanks for reading and listening!

Turntable Talk #37 – Turn It On Again

This was first posted on the A Sound Day blog hosted by Dave Ruch:

Once again, Dave from A Sound Day has invited me to participate in his month Turntable Talk feature. I truly appreciate the fact that he always comes up with great topics. Some of those topics are a bit more difficult to write (like last month), and some are quite easy. This month’s topic falls into the latter category.

Dave is calling this month’s round –Turn it on Again!  His instructions are very easy: “tell us about your favorite music video, or the one which impresses you most, and why you love it.” As a child who grew up with MTV, I had many that came to mind.

At this writing, I don’t know what the other contributors have chosen to write about. Has someone picked Michael Jackson’s Thriller? What about Take on Me from A-Ha or Buddy Holly by Weezer? I also wonder about Fatboy Slim’s Weapon of Choice, Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer and Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit. Each and every one of them stands out and have appeared on many “Best Music Video” lists.

I’m not sure that my pick would be considered my “favorite.” I also wouldn’t say it “impresses” me most, but I do enjoy watching the craziness of it. I suppose readers may be surprised at my choice, as I don’t really write about many “rock” songs. I suppose that this song wouldn’t fit into that category, but the singer qualifies as a rocker (at least most people think so).

“The band as you know it is over!” That is what Eddie Van Halen told Rolling Stone in mid-August 1985. This confirmed the rumors of division in the band with David Lee Roth. Eddie also made sure to add that “Dave left to be a movie star.” With that, Dave went on to explore a solo career. In late 1984, Dave released a cover of the Beach Boy’s California Girls. He followed that with another cover song (medley actually) from the great Louis Prima.

In 1956, Prima took the song Just a Gigolo and paired it up with I Ain’t Got Nobody. He used the song in his 1950’s Las Vegas act with Sam Butera and Keely Smith. The success of that act gained Prima a recording deal with Capitol Record, which hoped to capture on record the atmosphere of his shows. The first album, titled The Wildest! was released in November 1956, and opened with “Just a Gigolo”/”I Ain’t Got Nobody.” It became Prima’s signature number and helped relaunch his career.

Roth’s version is really almost a note for not copy of Prima’s record. By itself, it’s just an ok cover song. However, with an entertaining video that features celebrity look-alikes, beautiful women, and Dave being … Dave, it becomes something much much more.

The video for the song begins with Dave asleep at a news desk as his video for “California Girls” plays behind him on the monitor. The crew calls his name and he wakes up. After his talk, the freaky crew members begin to speak to him. They are right in the camera, so the viewer sees this from Dave’s perspective in this sequence. It’s actually kind of disturbing. The intro to the video is almost two minutes long before the song actually begins.

When it does, Dave is off dancing through the studio. We see him showing up at a talk show, walking through the backstage area among Vegas showgirls, astronauts, pimps, pirates, monsters, cheerleaders, hula dancers, and the police. All of this happens before you really get to the “meat and potatoes” of the video.

It is there that Dave begins parodying videos from Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Billy Idol, Richard Simmons’s “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” videos (Davercize!), Willie Nelson, and Boy George. As he appears in each of the videos, he winds up wrecking them. It is almost like watching a cartoon. It’s utter chaos, but a fun chaos (unless you count the priest who has a heart attack because of Dave’s dancing.)

The video is like a snapshot of the 80’s. It’s funny to imagine Dave crashing into a Willie Nelson or Cyndi Lauper video. As the “Nostalgic Italian,” I appreciate the nostalgia that the video presents. It is more powerful now than it was in 1985.

Eventually, MTV edited the 2 minute intro out, and just played the song portion of the video in rotation. I think that is how I first saw the video. When I searched for it to post in this blog, I found the full video. I honestly had forgotten all about the intro, but seeing it again was a hoot. Watching Dave do his “over the top” announcer made me think of so many of those DJ’s on the radio who literally puke every thing they say.

Back in one of our first rounds of Turntable Talk, we discussed music videos and whether they hurt radio. To me, I love the fact that a music video can convey the story of a sad song or add a whole lot of fun to another. With this video, Dave pokes fun at other videos, which only makes his more enjoyable to see.

I could be wrong, but it is possible that Weird Al Yankovic looked back to this video as inspiration for his UFH video. In Al’s Video, (in between clips from the movie) he pokes fun at Guns and Roses, Prince, George Michael, Peter Gabriel, ZZ Top, Billy Idol, The Beatles, INXS and the Talking Heads!

Thanks again, Dave for asking me to take part in this feature. I know that I really look forward to your topics and enjoy writing my response to them. I am already looking forward to next month.

Thanks for reading!

Tune Tuesday

Happy 92nd birthday to the Red-Headed Stranger – Willie Nelson!

Willie Nelson is a country music legend.  Whether you love or hate his music, there is no denying his legendary status.  Willie is one of the most prolific songwriters and is responsible for many classic country hits.  He wrote many songs that became hits for other singers including, Funny How Time Slips Away (Billy Walker), Crazy (Patsy Cline), Pretty Paper (Roy Orbison), and Hello Walls (Faron Young).

In 1962, he recorded his first album, “… And Then I Wrote”.  The success of that album led to him signing with RCA Victor in 1964 and joining the Grand Ole Opry in 1965.  He had some minor hits in the 60’s and early 70’s, but because of his mediocre success, he retired and moved to Austin, Texas in 1972.  He didn’t stay retired long, as he signed a new deal with Atlantic Records in 1973 and began singing “outlaw country”.  In 1975, he signed with Columbia Records and released The Red Headed Stranger album.  Thanks to that album, his 1973 album Shotgun Willie, and the classic 1978 album Stardust, Willie became one of the most recognized names in country music.

Willie’s music has been a part of my life since I was a little boy.  As I have said in previous writings, I can go to any Willie album and there is a song on it that will remind me of some life event I was dealing with or going through at that time. I can revisit an album later and find yet another song that I can relate to at that particular moment.

Last year, Willie released his 76th studio album. With 76 albums of songs to choose from, what could I possibly feature here? It is not an easy decision. I looked at song after song and any one of them could work. On the Road Again? Always On My Mind? Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain? There are plenty of hits.

I have often found that the songs that were never released as a single were ones I really connected with. One of those songs is If My World Didn’t Have You. If you are in a relationship, this beautiful song is one you have to hear. After my wife and I got together, it really said it all. It was one song that I suggested to be “our song.” Willie’s vocal and the amazing arrangement make it one of my favorite love songs.

If My World Didn’t Have You

My world has midnight and daylight and sunsets and dawn.

And your eyes, like two stars that I dream upon.

Sometimes I’m losing and sometimes I win.

Life likes to make me start over again.

And I don’t know what I would do, if my world didn’t have you.

Chorus

If my world didn’t have you,

Then I’d have no reason for my dreams to come true.

And somethings would be too much to go through

If my world didn’t have you.

Verse 2

We have good days and bad days and comfort and pain

It all has a balance like sunshine and rain

You share with me the blues and the breaks

And you are the key to the sense it all makes

No, I’d never find my way through, if my world didn’t have you

Chorus

If my world didn’t have you,

Then I’d have no reasons for my dreams to come true.

And somethings would be too much to go through

If my world didn’t have you.

If my world didn’t have you.

Happy birthday, Willie!!

The Music of My Life – 2013

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 started this feature on my birthday back in May. We have come from 1970 to 2013. I would turn 43 that year. I was still working in radio part time at the Adult Contemporary station. I also graduated from college that year. It was 2013 that saw the career change from radio to sleep medicine.

Musically, there were quite a few tunes I really liked from 2013. Here are ten of my favorites.

_____

It is not every day that you hear a “chant” on the radio. That chant is what made Pompeii by Bastille very unique, and maybe even helped it reach top 5 status on the charts.

Songfacts says,

Rare for a hit song, the title never shows up in the lyrics. So why is it called “Pompeii”? Dan Smith told The Daily Telegraph that he was imagining what the dead inhabitants might have to say to one another. “It is essentially about fear of stasis and boredom,” he added. “Being quite a shy, self-conscious person, I was afraid my life might get stuck.”

Dan Smith was not a professional musician when he wrote this song – he was a bartender and student of English literature. He wrote the song in 2010 on a laptop in his bedroom after reading about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. He didn’t think anyone outside of his circle of friends would ever hear the song, but when he posted some tracks online, they got enough attention to earn his band a deal with Virgin Records. “Pompeii” was included on their first album and became their breakout hit.

While it isn’t a very “happy” subject, the song did very well.

Pompeii

There’s a song that Willie Nelson recorded called, “You Just Can’t Play a Sad Song on the Banjo.” I suppose that is true. The banjo is what really makes The Best Day of My Life by the American Authors stand out.

Songfacts.com says:

This joyful, banjo-laced tune celebrates the best in life, but was conceived in reaction to tragedy: the Sandy Hook school shooting on December 14, 2012. American Authors bass player Dave Rublin told Songfacts:

“We were upstate in the woods writing with our producer when the Sandy Hook shooting happened. When we heard the news, it was shocking to all of us because it happened right down the street from where we were. And in that framework, we were thinking that the world has hit a whole new low, and we wanted to focus on making things that make people happy and make people feel positive, because that’s something that was missing from rock and from songwriting, just something so simplistic that can be an earworm, that can carry people.”

Vocalist Zachary Barnett said, “We wanted to tell this story of how no matter what’s going on – whether you’re stuck at your job or having a bad day – there’s always an escape from that, and there’s always a way to make any day the best day of your life. It’s about escaping reality and entering into that dream world.”

This song was a big one at school dances when I was DJing. The positive message of the song is one that I can appreciate.

Best Day of My Life

To be clear, I have never seen Pitch Perfect, nor do I intend to (unless asked by my wife). At any rate Cups by Anna Kendrick is a song from that movie. It features the voice of Anna Kendrick accompanied only by a plastic cup, which she uses as improvised percussion. The song serves as her character Beca’s brief audition for the Barden Bellas, an all-female a cappella group from Barden University.

The version used in the movie was not the “hit” version. A longer version (a whole 2:09 minutes!) featuring instrumentation was released to radio in March 2013. I really liked this ditty.

Songfacts says: This song’s success meant that Kendrick became only the second artist to have earned both a top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and nominations in the two leading acting award ceremonies. The singer-actress was nominated for a 1998 Tony Award for featured actress in a musical (High Society) and the 2009 Academy Award for actress in a supporting role (Up in the Air). The only other performer to achieve the same feat is Barbra Streisand.

Cups

Life can be scary. As I have said in the past, my marriage to my ex was over at least a couple of years before the divorce. I stayed because of my boys. I had sworn that I would never divorce or fight like my parents, but I did both.

When my therapist and I talked it became very clear that I was only hurting myself and the kids by staying. As scary as it was, I had to be brave and step out of the comfort zone. I had to do what was right for me. That is kind of the message of Sara Bareillis’ Brave.

Songfacts.com says,

The record was inspired by her own life and addressed some of the demons she was battling. “I have never felt more open and more raw in my entire life,” said Bareilles. “2012 was a year of deconstruction for me personally. I have been confronting some of my greatest fears in the last handful of months and have been amazed at how empowered I can feel when I muster up the courage to turn and growl back at those monsters under the bed.”

Brave

Another song I played on the AC station that I liked had been a huge hit in Norway before going worldwide. Am I Wrong by Nico & Vinz was another great uptempo song that the kids loved at dances.

From Songfacts:

This song was Nico & Vinz’s international breakthrough. It peaked at #2 in their home country where it has been certified three times platinum. The single also hit the Top 10 in many other European countries as well as the US. “We always knew it was possible to reach outside of Norway with our music,” Sereba told Billboard magazine. “With this song, we wanted to say, ‘Are we wrong for thinking that we can actually do this?’ That’s how that message came about – trusting your gut feeling, going for it and searching for your own happiness.”

The theme continues – Before deciding on the divorce I had to “trust my gut feeling and go for it” as Sereba said.

Am I Wrong

Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic had great success as a writer. He wrote songs for Leona Lewis and Beyonce, just to name a few. Counting Stars is the first hit for him as a performer.

For whatever reason, I was really drawn to OneReublic’s music. When I read this quote from Ryan, it makes sense as to why. He told Billboard magazine that he finds it gratifying that so many have connected with such an uplifting and meaningful song.

“I think it’s our responsibility as a band, and what separates us from everyone else. I took that from being a fan of U2 for two decades now, since Achtung Baby,” he said. “To this day, they might be the only band on that level who sings about things other than just boy-girl troubles or the kind of selfish, ‘I’m a badass’ stuff. I’ve spoken with Bono about this when we toured with him, and he said the same thing.”

“I felt a responsibility to actually write and sing about things that have a level of human gravity to them,” Tedder continued. “If everybody else sings about sex and love and lust and money, then somebody’s gotta be singing about life and faith and hope and things of that nature. And in the pantheon of their esteemed career, they’ve had two #1 hits, and I think both were 25 years ago. It’s not about that – it’s about what songs feel real. I’d rather have a song that peaks at #15 that’s meaningful and embedded in the cultural framework we live in than a #1 song that explodes for five seconds, becomes the dance hit of the summer, then goes away.”

Counting Stars

Here is another song that got the kids dancing at school dances. I can see why. The Best Song Ever by One Direction may not be that, but it is a good one. It follows a proven format that has been used for decades. More on that in a second.

The song was compared to being almost identical to The Who’s Baba O’Riley. As a matter of fact, The Who guitarist Pete Townshend brushed off unsubstantiated reports that his band wanted to sue One Direction or seek to have this song withdrawn.

“No! I like the single. I like One Direction,” he told Uncut magazine. “The chords I used and the chords they used are the same three chords we’ve all been using in basic pop music since Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and Chuck Berry made it clear that fancy chords don’t mean great music – not always. “

“I’m still writing songs that sound like ‘Baba O’Riley’ – or I’m trying to! It’s a part of my life and a part of pop’s lineage,” Townshend continued.

“One Direction are in my business, with a million fans, and I’m happy to think they may have been influenced a little bit by The Who. I’m just relieved they’re all not wearing boiler suits and Doc Martens, or Union Jack jackets.”

To me, I feel it is different enough. I guess I can hear a little of Baba in here. What do you think?

Best Song Ever

Again, another uptempo AC song makes the list. Again, a big dance song. This time around the personal connection is I remember my oldest boy loving this song. Wake Me Up By Avicii was another song that I loved a lot.

Songfacts says, Songwriting credits go to Avicii, Aloe Blacc, and multi-instrumentalist Mike Einziger of the rock band Incubus. They wrote the song at Einziger’s home studio in Malibu, California. According to Blacc, Avicii and Eizinger had the track worked up when he arrived. He had disparate bits of lyrics on hand, one of which was the line “Wake me up,” which he felt was the strongest message to go with the track.

While Einziger played, Blacc sang, “Wake me up when it’s all over,” and the cadence of the line went with the chord progression. The next line Blacc introduced from his notebook was “All this time I was finding myself, I didn’t know I was lost.” Blacc was concerned that these two lines wouldn’t make any sense in the same song, but Einziger told him it was fine, so they went with it.

Aloe Blacc came up with the lyrics on an airplane. “I was thinking to myself, ‘My life is a dream. Wake me up when it’s over,'” he recalled to Billboard magazine. “When I walked into the session with Mike Einziger on guitar and Avicii, Mike was playing his guitar chords and these words… the way I sang them just felt right. We ended up recording it that night and I drove home listening to this acoustic version that Avicii eventually made into a fantastic hit. It’s a wonderful experience.”

Wake Me Up

2013 was a very easy year for me to DJ for school dances, obviously. So many of these songs tie right into those dances. One Direction was a very hot group, so it is no wonder that they show up twice on my list. This time around it is Story of My Life.

From Songfacts:

Niall Horan recalled the first time Jamie Scott played them the song during an interview with UK radio station Capital FM. “We were in Nottingham on tour when we were touring the UK back in February and March,” he recalled, “and we just came into a room one day and he was like, ‘I’ve got this song that I’ve written and I want to play [it for] you.’ And we just fell in love with it the second we heard it.”

The song is more folk-orientated than most of One Direction’s previous offerings, but Scott told MTV News the quintet have the talent to pull it off. “It’s not that hard a thing to do because the boys have really good voices, they’ve all got very different voices. Harry [Styles’] rasp is something that you can always lean towards… All the boys have such a great sound themselves,” he said. “For instance the demo that we played the boys sounds a lot more folky than it does now. That’s what amazing about their voices [when they record it] straight away it sounds like them.”

Story of My Life

Happiness is a theme in many of these songs. It continues with my final selection by Pharrell Williams – Happy. Most hit songs around this time were written by teams of writers, but this one was entirely composed by Pharrell Williams. He wrote and recorded the song for the soundtrack of the 3D computer-animated action comedy film Despicable Me 2. Williams also penned tunes for the first Despicable Me movie.

I loved how Songfacts puts this:

Finding a way to follow a trend and be unique at the same time seems like an impossible task, but that is exactly what Williams was facing with “Happy.” It could have easily drowned in the stream of other songs that blended R&B, funk and soul if not for some clever techniques to help it ride the wave to the top of the charts.

For one, it had to be an earworm, and to do that, repetition is key. Aside from repeating the uplifting title 56 times, over 62% of the song is dedicated to its memorable chorus (about 20% more chorus time than most hits of the era). To make room for that monstrous chorus, there is no pre-chorus, solo, instrumental break or outro.

There is no denying that it is an earworm! All I can say is that as someone who is finally happy, I can understand proclaiming it over and over again!

Happy

That brings us to the end of 2013. What favorite of yours did I miss? Mention it in the comments.

Next week, we move into 2014. The list next week includes a Disney song, a song that dates back to 1934, some great dance songs, and one that I play at least twice when it comes up on my iPod. I hope you’ll join me next week.

Thanks for listening and for reading!

The Music of My Life – 2005

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:

Tune Tuesday – Must Be Doin’ Something Right

Must Be Doing Something Right

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.

The Music of My Life – 2003

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.

This will post on January 1, 2025, so let me start off by saying Happy New Year! I am sure that I will be posting something of a New Year’s Wish as well today.

Off to the side of my 2003 list I wrote, “Difficult year!” This could mean that it was difficult to pick ten songs. It could also mean that it was difficult to narrow the list down to ten songs. With my life, it could mean that 2003 was a difficult year personally. I’m not sure. I know that as I got deeper into the 2000’s, there were fewer songs that I liked. Maybe that is it?

Anyway, let’s drift into 2003:

Drift Away was a top 5 hit for Dobie Gray in 1973. In 2002, Gray recorded this as a duet with Uncle Kracker. When the song reached the Billboard top 10 in 2003, 30 years later, it broke a record. Dobie broke the record for the biggest gap between top US top 10 appearances and held that record for 17 years.

How did Uncle Kracker come to record it? You can thank a radio DJ for that. Songfacts explains:

“Although Uncle Kracker liked this song, he only performed it out of necessity at first. He was making the rounds on the morning radio shows to promote his solo debut, Double Wide (2000), which was mostly rap-rock tracks except for the mellow hit single “Follow Me.” Because he was expected to perform a few songs during his appearance, he needed something else to sing in the same vein, and the DJ Scott Shannon suggested the Dobie Gray tune.“

Kracker said, “If it wasn’t for him, that song would have never gotten cut, he pretty much put the bug in my ear for that.”

I like the fact that the cover included the original singer. People liked it, too. It was #1 for 28 weeks in 2003-04 on the Adult Contemporary chart. It broke the record for the longest run atop the tally and held the record for 15 years.

Drift Away

I had my first child in 2002. Over that first year, it was amazing to see the changes in him. I never really understood how fast time flies, until having children.

I was working in country radio in 2003 and I remember hearing Then They Do for the first time. I knew that it would be a huge hit because any parent could relate to the lyrics. They are delivered perfectly by Trace Adkins.

The song begins and describes a typical morning where the singer’s children are causing trouble on the way to school. Naturally, he thinks things will be easier when the children grow up. In time, the children go off to college and get married. It is then that the parents realize that they have more time to themselves now. Their children have accomplished their dreams, but their house and lives feel a lot emptier nonetheless.

It’s sort of a “be careful what you wish for” kind of thing. Be present and enjoy the memories.

Then They Do

The next song is one that I really liked. I don’t necessarily pray to angels when I am down or when I am hurting, but I do pray. I pray to God and ask Him to give me guidance or comfort. I did an in depth study for Sunday School at our church about angels once. That is why I don’t pray to them.

That being said, I do understand that in certain situations, people will often pray. Some, pray to angels. I think in essence, they pray to heaven for help. That’s kind of what I got from Train’s Pat Monahan’s inspiration for the song.

From Songfacts:

The song was inspired by something his therapist, Judy Bell, told him. Monahan told Buzzfeed, she said: “Just remember that we are made up of angels and traitors, and the angel is the one that says, ‘You’re beautiful and you can do anything you want,’ and the traitor is the one that says, ‘You’re ugly and you can’t get anything right.'”

“That song just came from that conversation of, if we all called our angels, what a cool life this would be for all of us,” he said.

The song went to number one on the Adult Contemporary chart.

Calling All Angels

I have always loved Willie Nelson. Some of his duets are just fantastic. I loved Pancho and Lefty with Merle Haggard. I loved To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before and Spanish Eyes with Julio Iglesias. I loved Seven Spanish Angels with Ray Charles. Last week, I could have included Mendocino County Line, his duet with Lee Ann Womack. When he did his duet with Toby Keith, it was a monster country hit.

Toby posted the story behind Beer For My Horses on his website:

“When I was a kid I worked for a rodeo company,” says Toby. “The old timers who worked the stock and stuff in the back would carry a pint of whiskey in their pocket – they were just old cowboys. They would pull it out and say, ‘Here’s to me, here’s to you, we got screwed, so screw you, here’s to me.’ They always had some little toast. One was to hold up the bottle for a drink and say, ‘Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses.’ I kept that in my head a long time thinking I’d write it some day.“

“We did finally, trying to say that maybe it’s time that justice gets back into the judicial system. The big posse goes out and catches the bad guys and everybody comes back to lick their wounds, remember the ones they lost and celebrate with the ones that made it back. You raise your glass and say, ‘Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses, bartender.’ One of those conceptual deals. Soon as we got done writing it I thought man, it’d be cool if we could talk Willie Nelson into singing the Texas verse on that. Obviously he went for it and I think it’s the biggest multi-week #1 either of us ever had.“

In 2008, Toby and Willie starred with Rodney Carrington in the movie of the same name.

Beer For My Horses

The next song was a top five hit for 3 Doors Down. Lead singer, Brad Arnold told Songfacts:

“The song’s just about being away from someone, or missing them,” he clarifies. “And it really doesn’t matter if you’re here without them for all day or all month. It’s just kind of about the lonely and missing of somebody, but people kind of take that sort of as a little bit of a sad song. And in a way, I kind of meant it as a happy song. And the reason being because it’s talking about being here without you, but she’s still with me in my dreams. ‘And tonight, it’s only you and me,’ so the song was really just about that dream. And being in a state of peace, because you’ve got that person there with you in your sleep. And in that way I kind of meant for it to be a little bit of a happy song.”

The song means a lot to many military personnel. Especially those who find themselves away from their loved ones with their lives in danger. At the same time, many think about someone who has passed away and that miss them. However you interpret it, it really is a great song.

Here Without You

Josh Turner is one of the nicest singers I’ve ever had the chance to meet. His voice can rattle things hanging on a wall it is so deep. I remember when his first single (Long Black Train) hit my desk. Personally, I loved it. I got it. I understood it. However, it had a Christian theme to it and I wondered how the listeners would like it.

I love hearing him tell the story of how the song came about. He told AOL Music:

“‘Long Black Train’ was inspired by a vision that I had of a long, black train running down this track way out in the middle of nowhere. I could see people standing out to the sides of this track watching this train go by. As I was walking, experiencing this vision, I kept asking myself, ‘What does this vision mean and what is this train?’ It dawned on me that this train was a physical metaphor for temptation. These people are caught up in the decision of whether or not to go on this train. And this came about in a time of my life where I was trying to figure out who I was as an artist and as a person… I was trying to learn how to deal with the freedom that I had away from home for the first time. ‘Long Black Train,’ the song and the album, are very special to me. It was just one of those things that I felt like God gave to me for a purpose, and I’ve been out here promoting that purpose.”

He wrote the song after listening to some old Hank Williams Sr. songs. He was a college senior. He said he started strumming the guitar and the verses came to him. He never had any intention of releasing the song and noted that when he wrote it, “I didn’t even have a record contract yet!”

Long Black Train

Next is song that has been covered a few times. The First Cut is the Deepest was written by Cat Stevens. He did a demo of the song in 1965. In 1967,  it was a hit for P.P. Arnold in Britain reaching #18 in the charts.

In America, the first version to chart was by Keith Hampshire, who took it to #70 in 1973. Rod Stewart covered it in 1976, taking it to #21 US and #1 UK. Sheryl Crow released her version in 2003, which made #14 in the US and #37 in the UK.

Sheryl recorded it for her hits compilation, “The Very Best of Sheryl Crow.” It was one of her biggest radio hits. It also became her first solo top-40 country hit following the success of her duet with Kid Rock (“Picture”)

First Cut Is The Deepest

Next, the third duet on my 2003 list. This was another one of those songs that after hearing it, I knew it would be a hit. How could it NOT be with Jimmy Buffett on it?

The song came about when writer Don Rollins had with the line “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere.” It was written for another artist whose album wanted a Jimmy Buffett vibe to it. The artist passed on the song and eventually it came to Alan Jackson. Rollins explains,

“I got the call that it was on hold for Alan, which I thought was strange, because if you hear the demo it’s very island-ly. There are acoustic guitars and steel drum samples, very much Buffett. The idea that someone as country as Alan Jackson might be interested in that song never even occurred to me. Then I got wind that he was wanting to do a duet with Buffett, and it made a little bit more sense at that point.”

This song spent eight weeks at #1 on the Country charts, and won the 2003 Grammy for Best Country Song. It was the first #1 song on the Country chart for Jimmy Buffett.

It’s Five O’clock Somewhere

Last week I picked a remix of Elvis Presley’s A Little Less Conversation. In 2002, the remix had worldwide success. Because of that English record producer Paul Oakenfold took another Elvis song and did a remix of it. This time it was Rubberneckin’.

Rubberneckin’ was a song that Elvis sang in the movie A Change of Habit. It was released as the B-side of Don’t Cry Daddy. It was a top ten hit for him.

The remix only reached number 94 on the Hot 100 chart in the US, but it was big elsewhere. It peaked at number two in Canada, and number three in Australia. It also reached the top 10 in Denmark, Finland, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

Some folks dislike these remixes. I can see where a bad remix would make me feel that way. I really thought these two Elvis remixes were great. I was loving how many people danced to them at parties.

Rubberneckin’

The final song of 2003 is probably the most bizarre. It just sticks out, and the band knew this! I’m talking about I Believe in a Thing Called Love by The Darkness. This was a song that was brought to my attention by my ex. I had never heard it before, but one time I was asked to play it at a party and the crowd went crazy!

From Songfacts:

The British magazine Classic Rock named this as their Greatest Rock Song of the ’00s. The band’s frontman Justin Hawkins commented: “All The Darkness ever tried to do was bring a little joy into the glorious realm of rock, but ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ crossed over big time and changed our lives forever. To have been awarded ‘Song Of The Decade’ is overwhelming and I’m very grateful to Classic Rock for everything.”

The band’s former guitarist, Dan Hawkins, told Classic Rock the story of the song: “‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ was such an important song for The Darkness, but when we wrote it I really wasn’t sure about it. The chorus is so stupidly catchy, I thought people were just gonna take it as a complete joke! Right from the start, this song stuck out like a sore thumb.

We started with the riff, which Justin came up with. It sounded really great right away. But when he sang the chorus for the first time, I just said, ‘No, you can’t do that – it sounds ridiculous!’ I really thought people would just laugh at us when they heard it. So for the rest of the song, I tried to make it sound cool, more ‘rock.’ The rest of the song is all in minor key.“

Songfacts also presents this very funny review:

The New York Times wrote that this song “sticks to the listener like hair gel.”

I Believe in a Thing Called Love

So there you have it. Did I miss one of your favorites from 2003? Make sure to tell me about it in the comments.

Next week, I’ll present my list from 2004. The list include one of the funniest group names to say on the radio, a monster debut song, movie music, a dance craze that is still going strong, and a song that still brings me to tears.

Thanks for reading and listening!

The Music of My Life – 1997

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 have found it interesting to do this feature every week. First, I am reminded about the things that were going on in my life at the time. Second, I find it funny how an old song can apply to my future life events. This feature has been like therapy for me. I don’t always write down everything that these songs bring to mind, but I am made aware of them. I appreciate you letting me indulge myself by sharing these songs.

I would turn 27 in 1997. I had gone through a break up that hurt me bad. I was spending a lot of time at the karaoke bars and drinking much more than I should. I felt lost and alone. Alcohol numbed a lot of the pain. It was a very dark time.

When I wasn’t singing karaoke, I was hosting it or DJing a wedding or party. I enjoyed doing that because it was almost like being in radio again. There was interaction with people and that was something that I desperately needed.

1997 was a decent year for music. Many of the songs on my list were first heard while I was driving for EDS. I would play many of these songs while DJing. Some of them bring back memories of bad times, but most of them have a good memory attached to them.

I will stop rambling now and jump right into 1997 –

I like the next song because it was so different from what people were used to hearing from them. Green Day was known for some pretty heavy sounding songs that were “in your face.” So an acoustic song from them comes from out of left field. Believe it or not, the song could have been on their first album, but wasn’t.

Songfacts.com explains: “Billie Joe Armstrong wrote this song in 1993 and submitted it for the band’s first major-label album, Dookie, which was released in 1994. Both the band and their label felt it was a great song but didn’t fit on the album, which was loaded with punk blasters. The song was held back and didn’t make their next album, Insomniac (1995) either. It was finally included on the Nimrod album in 1997.

In 2010, Armstrong told Spin Magazine, “That was really the first time we attempted a ballad. The first time we ever played that song was during an encore in New Jersey – I had to pound a beer backstage to get up the courage. I knew we were gonna take a tomato to the face.” A very poignant song, this is quite popular at graduations and weddings despite the kiss-off title “Good Riddance.” Billie Joe Armstrong wrote it about a very specific event in his life, but he’s thrilled when others relate it to their own experience.

This song was played over a montage of clips in a “look back” Seinfeld special. The special aired before the finale of the show. I would have never expected that this song would work for something like that. But it certainly did.

This song is very poignant and gives me chills when I hear it. The blending of the guitar, the strings, and his voice is just beautiful to me.

Good Riddance

In Good Riddance, Green Day sings about the “photographs and still frames in your mind.” Believe it or not, that kind of fits how the next song was described by one of the members.

You either like or dislike Hanson. That like or dislike probably comes from the song MMMbop. Why? It is one of those songs that sticks in your head forever after you hear it. It is very catchy and the lyrics make you think. But just what in the world is this song all about?

Drummer Zac Hanson says,  “What that song talks about is, you’ve got to hold on to the things that really matter. MMMBop represents a frame of time or the futility of life. Things are going to be gone, whether it’s your age and your youth, or maybe the money you have, and all that’s going to be left are the people you’ve nurtured and have really built to be your backbone and your support system.”

Zac tells the story of how the song happened, “That song started out as the background part for another song,” he said. “We were making our first independent album and we were trying to come up with a background part. We started singing a slightly different incarnation of what is now the chorus of ‘MMMBop.’ That sort of stuck in our heads but never really worked as a background part. Over a couple of years, we really crafted the rest of the song – the verses and bridge and so on. It was something we almost stumbled upon.”

Zac made me laugh when I read that because the song even got stuck in THEIR heads!

What is truly amazing to me is that the song was released as their first single in 1997. At the time, Isaac Hanson was 16 years old, Taylor was 13, and Zac was 11. The song quickly became a huge worldwide hit. It was getting constant airplay on radio stations and MTV, and going to #1 in 27 countries.

It is on my list because I was DJing a high school dance once and a student asked for it. He was very shy and didn’t dance much. He may have had autism, I am not sure. When I played it, this boy came out of his shell and danced like crazy! The students formed a circle around him as he danced. It was one of those things I will always remember.

Mmmbop

Before you listen to the next song, I need you to hear this. I had no idea that this song was sampled for the 1997 hit.

I had never heard of the Andrew Oldham Orchestra. I had no idea that there was an instrumental album of Rolling Stones songs. The Verve did, however, and sampled it for the song Bittersweet Symphony.

The Verve took the sample and added vocals, strings, guitar and percussion. This led to trouble. After a lawsuit by the Rolling Stones’ former manager, Allen Klein, the Verve had to relinquish all royalties from the song. Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were added to the songwriting credits. Things worked out in 2019. After Klein died, Jagger, Richards, and Klein’s son ceded the rights to the Verve songwriter, Richard Ashcroft.

If I had to put why I like this song into words, I would find it hard to do. There is something about it. It is mesmerizing to me. MTV’s Gil Kaufman wrote “Bitter Sweet Symphony” was “built on a slow-rolling fat beat, a pomp and circumstance violin loop.  And (was like an) … elliptical, snake-swallowing-its-tail lyrics” Rolling Stone magazine wrote that it “intertwines baroque strings worthy of Pachelbel with sedated vocals and shimmering guitar lines”.

The song is built around one simple chord.

Bittersweet Symphony

Much like Bittersweet Symphony, I was hooked on the next song as soon as I heard the intro. Again, the intro was “borrowed” from another song. This time it was from Perrey and Kingley. They were considered pioneers of electronic music. They were together from 1965-1967. Smash Mouth interpolates the keyboard line from their 1966 single, Swan’s Splashdown. You don’t need to listen to but 15 seconds of the song to know the Smash Mouth song …

Smash Mouth’s guitar player Greg Camp wrote Walkin’ on the Sun. He said, “The song was basically a social and racial battle cry. It was a sort of ‘Can’t we all get along?’ song for the time when I wrote it. It was just about all the things that were going on around me as a young person. And I’m, like, God, what is going on? I don’t understand why this is happening. It’s like we might as well be walking around a planet on fire.”

The songs has a 1960’s sound to it, which made the song stick out on the radio. It was their first hit song. The song itself was never sold in stores as a single, so it never made the Hot 100 chart. However, it went to #1 on the Modern Rock chart and #2 on the Airplay chart. Because it was not released as a single, the album Fush Yu Mang sold over 2 million copies. The album was the only way to get it.

I was one of those 2 million people who bought the album.

Walking On the Sun

Kevin Sharp’s story is a moving one. He was born in 1970, the same year as me. In school, her performed in musicals and was an active musician. When he was 19, he started to feel tired and dizzy. This led to a diagnosis of a rare form of bone cancer. His chance of recovering was not good.

Through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses, Kevin met the record producer David Foster. They became friends fast. He went through two years of chemo and radiation therapy, which caused him to lose his hair permanently.

While in remission, he recorded a demo that wound up in the hands of his friend David Foster. Thanks to him, Kevin was signed to a record deal in 1996. His first album was Measure of a Man. The first single was a cover of Tony Rich’s Nobody Knows, which went to #1 on the Country Charts. His next two singles were both top ten hits for him.

He would go on to became a motivational speaker and spokesperson for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He was awarded the foundation’s Wish Granter of the Year award, in 1997. Sharp wrote a book, Tragedy’s Gift, and published it in 2004. Despite releasing two more albums, he never ever matched the success of his first album. He died at age 43 of complications from stomach surgeries and digestive issues in 2014.

If You Love Somebody is one of his three top 10 songs. Deborah Evans Price, of Billboard magazine reviewed the song favorably. She said that the record grabs the listener immediately and doesn’t let go thanks to the “energetic percussion that opens this track and gives way to a spree of sassy fiddle lines.” She goes on to say that the song is a fine example of the “vibrancy and passion he can bring to a great uptempo cut.”

The song is a fun love song that speaks of all the things you would do because you love someone.

If You Love Somebody

In 1997, there were still music videos being made – and played on MTV. While I love the next song, it is the video that really stands out. More on that in a second.

The Backstreet Boys were very big in Europe. When they returned to the US, no one really knew them. In 1997, they released their first album in the states. Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) was the band’s choice for a single. However, because they had been in Europe, the record label felt that the song wouldn’t make sense to audiences and it wasn’t even on the US release.

The song was the first single from the international release. It started gaining steam on Canadian and nearby US stations. The label finally added the song to the US album after a million units had already been produced. It was released as the fourth single.

Joseph Kahn was approached to do the music video for the song. When he met with BSB and saw their smooth dance moves, he thought they were more like “little Michael Jacksons.” This led to him thinking about the Thriller video which had the singer leading a choreographed dance with zombies. Kahn developed a similar concept for the Backstreet Boys.

In the video, the boy band’s tour bus breaks down near a spooky mansion. It is where they’re forced to spend a harrowing night. The haunted manor has a transformative effect on the boys, and each one changes. (Brian Littrell changes into a werewolf; AJ McLean into Erik, The Phantom Of The Opera recluse; Kevin Richardson into the two-faced Dr. Jekyll & Hyde; Howie D into Dracula; and Nick Carter into a mummy.) They converge in the ballroom and bust out “Thriller”-esque moves with a group of dancers. At the end, they’re relieved to discover the whole experience was just a nightmare – that is until their driver turns out to be a monster. The driver? Antonio Fargas, who was known for his role as Huggy Bear on the ’70s cop show Starsky & Hutch.

Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)

Up next, a group who got its name from a story created by one of the members. In the story, the men were Chumbas and the women were Wambas. Tubthumping was the first single from Chumbawamba’s eighth album – Tubthumper.

I suppose it is important to point out a few “vocabulary” words here. In England, a tubthumper is a politician. Here in the US, tubthumping is like “campaigning.” “Pissing” has a very different meaning in the UK. “Pissing the night away” would translate to “Drinking alcoholic beverages all night.” To be pissed in England is to be drunk, while in the US it is to be angry.

Whenever we played this song DJing, we’d go out on the floor and do a dance that we made up. It was basically an easy thing that matched the lyrics. “I get knocked down (crouch down), but I get up again (jump up) you’re never gonna keep me down (stand shaking our heads and wagging our finger side to side). Easy and no instruction needed because of the lyrics.

We had empty booze bottles that we’d pretend to swig when the band said, “He takes a whiskey drink, he takes a vodka drink”. It was silly and stupid, but it always got a laugh from the crowd.

At 54, I doubt that I could crouch down and jump up again like I did when I was 27!

Tubthumping

The next song was the debut single for the group Everclear. Everything to Everyone is true of many of us. I remember when I was with my ex, that I would do things that I didn’t necessarily want to do because I wanted to please her. I spent a lot of time in my life trying to please people and never really standing up for myself. It’s like the Sheryl Crow song – “If it makes you happy….”

In an interview with Songfacts, lead singer Art Alexakis says:

“It’s kind of an angry song. That person is within everybody, I think everybody has this ability to try and be everything to everyone, to try to please. I think there are 2 aspects of it – there’s the pleaser, who doesn’t always show his true self, always plays nice and as time goes on shows more and more of himself, but there’s also the people who are everything to everyone who are manipulators and users.”

When asked if the song had “anything to do with the record business”, Alexakis replied, “Oh yeah. Anything in the entertainment business you’ll find people who are slimy.”

I believe that you will not only find them in the entertainment business, but in much more than that!

Everything to Everyone

You cannot say that country music doesn’t have some great song titles! Take the next song on my list. Did I Shave My Legs For This?

Deana Carter’s father was a songwriter. The legendary Dean Martin recorded one of his songs, and perhaps as a thank you, named her Deana. Another legend, Willie Nelson, heard one of her demo tapes and invited her to play Farm Aid in 1994. That same tape, led to her being signed to Capitol Records.

Did I Shave My Legs For This is also the title track of the album. The album gave Deana three #1 songs (Strawberry Wine, We Danced Anyway and How Do I Get There?). The title track was the fourth single released from the album. It didn’t fair as well as the previous songs as it only went to #25 on the Country Charts.

I have learned from DJing and hosting karaoke that just because a song wasn’t a hit, doesn’t mean it isn’t liked. I always got requests for this song and people were always singing it. At weddings or parties, groups of women would sing along at the top of their lungs to it. It reminded me of what people did when Friends in Low Places would play.

Back in the day, we used to play Karaoke Roulette. This was where a friend would pick a song for you to sing. You wouldn’t know what song until you got to the microphone. My friends always made me sing songs like “I Am Woman,” “I Touch Myself,” and such. This was one they gave me one night and I nailed it! I knew the song and hammed it up all the way through it.

Did I Shave My Legs For This?

My final song is one that brought back a genre of music that overtook the nation in the 1930’s and 1940’s. I grew up listening to Benny Goodman, Harry James, and other swing bands. It was almost mind blowing to hear swing music on the radio in 1997.

The 1996 movie Swingers and t he Cherry Poppin’ Daddies are credited with the “Swing Revival.” Other groups like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and The Brian Setzer Orchestra had success in the genre, too. The BSO’s version of Jump, Jive and Wail turned the revival into what songfacts called “a full-fledged craze!”

Zoot Suit Riot was a song that was inspired by real events. Songfacts explains:

The Zoot Suit Riots began in Los Angeles in 1943, triggered by conflict between the American servicemen stationed in Southern California and the Los Angeles Mexican-American community. Tensions had been building since the 1942 murder of a Latino man named Jose Diaz, a case referred to as the Sleepy Lagoon murder case.

The riots took place when swing music was the hot sound and everyone was doing the jitterbug. Lead singer Steve Perry says, “I wrote it inspired by the Zoot Suit Riots. I guess it seemed like a Pachuco rallying cry that could double as a dance anthem for those of us interested in swing music and culture at a time when nobody else was. It was an expression of a proud marginalism. That’s not that deep, but there you go.”

It wasn’t odd around this time to have a bride and groom request a swing song as their first dance. Most had taken a dance class and had a routine for that dance. It was always cool to watch that.

One day, I hope to get around to seeing Setzer, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, or any swing band live. I love the energy that they put out as they play.

Zoot Suit Riot

That’s it for 1997. There were many songs that didn’t make my cut, maybe your favorite is one of them? Let me know what your picks are in the comments.

1998 is on the horizon and we’ll check out my tunes from that year next week. They include a song that I almost picked for this month’s Turntable Talk Topic (songs based on historical events or people), a song that is often played as the last song of the night at DJ gigs, a song I mentioned in this week’s post, and a great song I can barely listen to anymore. Find out why next week

Thanks for reading!

The Music of My Life – 1989

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.

Before we get into the music, I have to take a moment to mark a blogging milestone. This blog will be the 1400th blog I have written since the Nostalgic Italian site went live.

1400 posts and here you are still reading. For that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am glad that you are here. Now, let’s celebrate by going back to 1989…. when I turned 19.

As I sorted through the singles from 1989, I noticed that there were a lot of duets recorded that year. After All from Peter Cetera and Cher, Don’t Know Much and All My Life from Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville, were just a few of them. No duets made my list, however, as I just didn’t feel any of them connected with me enough to bump the ten songs I picked.

I grew up listening to Roy Orbison. He was a favorite for a long time. I used to ask my dad to play his songs on the stereo all the time as a kid. In 1988, Roy saw his career take on new life. He recorded with George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan as part of the group The Traveling Wilburys (More on them in a moment) and had recorded a brand new album (Mystery Girl) in November of 1988.

On December 6, 1988, I was at the radio station when an “Urgent” Bulletin came across the AP Newswire stating that Roy had died after having a heart attack. I had never met Roy, but his music was such a big part of my life that seeing the story upset me quite a bit.

You Got It was the first single released from the Mystery Girl album in January of 1989. Orbison wrote the song with his Wilbury friends, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty. Lynne produced the track and also played guitar, keyboards and bass; Petty played acoustic guitar and sang backup. It would reach #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #9 on the Top 40 chart.

Orbison performed this song just once: at the Diamond Awards Festival in Antwerp, Belgium on November 19, 1988. This performance was used as the song’s music video.

You Got It

Every interview I have seen with the guys from the Traveling Wilburys always has them saying how wowed they were by having Roy in their group. When Jeff Lynne was asked about the recording sessions, he said, “Everybody just sat there going, ‘Wow, it’s Roy Orbison!’ … Even though he’s become your pal and you’re hanging out and having a laugh and going to dinner, as soon as he gets behind that [microphone] and he’s doing his business, suddenly it’s shudder time.”

Roy was in the group’s first video (for Handle With Care), and was set to travel to London a couple days after he passed away. One of those videos was for The End of the Line. One of the reasons that I love this video is that the group gives a heartfelt tribute to their friend. When Roy’s vocal happens, we see Roy’s guitar in a rocking chair next to a framed photo of Roy.

The End of the Line

I have never seen the movie Road House. My mom liked it a lot, because she liked Patrick Swayze. Jeff Healey and his band were shooting scenes for the movie (and Jeff had many scenes with Swayze) and recording his See The Light album simultaneously. One of the cuts from this album was Angel Eyes.

I had never heard of Healey before this song. I had no idea that he was blind and marveled at the way he played his guitar (on his lap, like a piano). I was really blown away by his vocals and his guitar playing. He was discovered by two blues legends – Stevie Ray Vaughn and Albert Collins.

He toured and sat in with some fantastic people over the years including Buddy Guy, BB King, Eric Clapton, ZZ Top, The Allman Brothers and Bonnie Raitt (just to mention a few.) While he is mainly known for his bluesy style, by the year 2000 he actually was releasing many jazz albums.

He loved music and he was an avid record collector. He amassed a collection of well over 30,000 old 78 rpm records. Starting in 1990 he hosted a radio program of very early jazz on CIUT at the University of Toronto with Colin Bray. Later he went national on CBC Radio’s program entitled My Kind of Jazz, in which he played records from his vast vintage jazz collection.

Too many people write him off as a “One hit wonder” act. His music is fantastic and this song is so soulful … he was a talent taken too soon.

Angel Eyes

“Hey, man! Have you heard that new song by Marvin Young?” I can’t even imagine what type of music someone called Marvin Young would be singing! However, Young MC just screams rap music, right?! I’ve never been a big rap fan, but there was just something about the baseline and the catchy lyrics that made this a favorite for me.

Bust a Move was a song that whenever I played it, the crowd always new the words and sang along. The verse that every one knows is “Your best friend, Harry, has a brother Larry, in five days from now he’s gonna marry…” The whole rhythm of that verse and the baseline fit so well together. I also like the fact that while there is some sexual innuendo, there is no profanity in the song.

Interesting story from songfacts.com: Flea from The Red hot Chili Peppers played bass on this song and appears in the video, but he didn’t reap the rewards. He explained to Bass Player magazine: “I have a bitter taste in my mouth about that, because I feel as though I got ripped off. The bass line I wrote ended up being a major melody of the tune, and I felt I deserved songwriting credit and money because it was a #1 hit. They sold millions of records, and I got $200! Afterwards, my lawyer told them, ‘You should throw down Flea some cash,’ but the record company said, ‘We told him exactly what to play.’ No one was even in the room at the time but me and the engineer! It was ridiculous, but I learned from it.”

It was one of the first rap records to cross over to the mainstream charts. It went to #7! Young MC recalled to Rolling Stone: “People looked at rap and hard rock as the type of music that you slam your door after you argue with your parents, and bang your head in defiance. My record wasn’t necessarily rebellious, but it was clever enough to grab in a decent segment of people that didn’t listen to rap music.”

Bust a Move

The next song is one that I used to play for my prom date, Karen, after we started dating. This and Just You and I from Eddie Rabbit and Crystal Gayle were “our songs.” I remember the first time I heard Luther Vandross sing Here and Now. I remember how powerful the lyric was and just how perfect his voice was for the song.

Karen and I dated for a bit and broke up around 1990, only to get back together a year or so later before breaking up after another year or so. Somewhere during that time I had made her a mix tape of love songs. This was just one of many that made it to that tape.

It was hard for me after we broke up because I was DJing a lot of weddings and this was a very popular Bride and Groom song. I almost always had to put headphones on and listen to something else while it played. Today, I can listen to it and it doesn’t bother me, but at the time, it brought about a lot of pain.

Here and Now

My next tune is one that I have featured before and I wrote about how it was helpful to me post-divorce. You can read about it here:

Tune Tuesday – I’m On My Way

I’m On My Way

I have said many times that Willie Nelson always seemed to have one song on each album that I connected with personally. Many times it was more than that. In 1989, he released a fantastic album entitled “A Horse Called Music.” On the album is a cut that was co-written by Mike Reid (who played five seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals and had a brief country singing career) called There You Are.

I had heard the song many times when listening to the album, but it wasn’t until after the final break up with Karen (see above) that the song really hit me hard. At the time, I was still wrapped up in feelings and hated that we were not together. I found myself thinking about her more than I should have been, especially since she had moved on with her life. Then I heard this song…

I could have written this song! It literally was exactly what was happening to me. For no reason, she’d pop into my head. It was never bad things, it was always some good memory of when we were together. The string arrangement and Willie’s vocal convey those feelings in such a magnificent way. It is beautifully sad …

I had never seen the video for this song until I searched for it today. Willie cleans up pretty good…

There You Are

When you make a list of great songwriters – Leiber and Stoller always are on that list. The next song was written by Oliver Leiber, the son of Jerry Leiber of that aforementioned team. Oliver had already written a couple songs for Paula Abdul (Forever Your Girl and The Way That You Love Me) when he got a call saying that the label needed one more song for her album. That song would be Opposite Attract.

From songfacts: This song evolved into a duet with a cartoon cat named MC Skat Kat, who was actually the duo The Wild Pair. Oliver Leiber explains: “I wrote it all from the perspective of one person singing it. It wasn’t initially a duet. It was saying, ‘I like this and you like that.’ It was basically: I like potatoes, and you like po-tah-toes, all from one singer’s perspective. But I had these two singers I had been working with – Marvin Gunn and Tony Christian. They’re the guys that sang on Prince’s “Kiss” and they were incredibly soulful funky singers that I had been using as part of my sound on the first two tracks I did with Paula, helping to preserve the Minneapolis sound, because they sounded very Prince-y and it really added something to Paula’s vocals.

Basically, he had the Wild Pair sing the entire song and then got Paula to cut her lines later. He wasn’t happy with the original mix, which is why the album and the single versions sound so different.

In the video, the real Paula interacted with the animated MC Skat Kat. The concept of Paula dueting with a cat came from Anchors Aweigh, a movie where Gene Kelly dances with the mouse from Tom & Jerry. The video was directed by Michael Patterson and his wife Candace Reckinger, who also created the MC Skat Kat character and animation. Patterson said: “Gene Kelly loved it; he was a friend of Paula’s. Gene was also an inspiration to Candace and I.”

Fun Fact: Patterson and Reckinger got their start in music videos when they created the iconic clip for a-ha’s Take On Me

I loved the Gene Kelly and Jerry Mouse dance, so naturally, I loved this video (and Paula) too!

Opposites Attract

Before I knew the song was about Elvis, I really loved the sound of Black Velvet by Alannah Miles. It was considered a power ballad, but to me it sounded more like a good blues song. Miles’ voice had that bluesy and sultry voice that fit with the groove of the song perfectly.

The story of how the song came to be is a good one. Co-writer Christopher Ward, who was Myles’ then-boyfriend, was inspired on a bus full of Elvis fans riding to Memphis attending the 10th Anniversary Vigil at Graceland, in 1987. Upon his return to Canada, he brought his idea to Myles and producer David Tyson, who wrote the chords for the bridge. The song was one of three in a demo Myles presented to Atlantic Records, which eventually got her signed to the label.

Songfacts provides a bit of lyric analysis:

“Black velvet and that little boy’s smile” – You can buy a black velvet Elvis painting at any respectable yard sale. Early female fans were drawn to his “Little boy smile.”

“Black velvet with that slow southern style” – Elvis delivered some of his songs with slow, undulating hips. Check out “Steamroller Blues” live.

“Up in Memphis the music’s like a heatwave” – Sun Studios. The epicenter of early rock music and where Elvis recorded.

“Love Me Tender leaves ’em cryin’ in the aisle” – Love Me Tender was a huge hit for Elvis in 1956.

“The way he moved, it was a sin, so sweet and true” – Elvis’ legendary hips swivel, the Pelvis.

“Every word of every song that he sang was for you. In a flash he was gone, it happened so soon, what could you do?” – Elvis died suddenly in 1977.

Black Velvet

For me, the last song for this week is something that I continue to work on in my personal life. In my first marriage and throughout that period of my life, I just found it easier to back down and make everyone happy. I did this even if it made me unhappy. It is challenging to stand your ground and not back down from what you believe in or what you feel is right.

Tom Petty’s song was helpful to him as well. Before recording his Full Moon Fever album, an arsonist burned down his house while he was in it with his family and their housekeeper. They escaped, but Petty was badly shaken and spent much of the next few months driving between hotel rooms and a rented house.

Songfacts says that: It was on these drives that he came up with many of the songs for the album; the fire was a huge influence, especially on this song. Petty felt grateful to be alive, but also traumatized – understandable considering someone had tried to kill him. “I Won’t Back Down” was his way of reclaiming his life and getting past the torment – he said that writing and recording the song had a calming effect on him.

The song was used as a patriotic anthem after the September 11th terrorist attacks. Regarding that, Tom said: “The song has also been adopted by nice people for good things, too. I just write them, I can’t control where it ends up.”

The song has a Wilburys connection.  The video features Ringo Starr on drums, with Wilburys’ George Harrison and Jeff Lynne on guitar. Harrison did play on the track and contributed backing vocals, but Ringo had nothing to do with the song itself.

I Won’t Back Down

That’s it for the 1980’s! We’ll dive into a brand new decade next week. 1990 was a good year for music. Starting in the 1990’s my music choices tended to lean a bit more country as far as new stuff. In 1990 alone, I could have picked 10 country songs for the list. I didn’t, but I could have.

Next week’s list will feature and interesting mix of music, largely due to the radio station where I was working at the time … some classic rock, some soulful songs, and big pants ….

Did I miss a favorite of yours from 1989? Tell me all about it in the comments. See you next week.