Tag Archives: pop

Start of Something Big

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Monday Morning, Walden Robert Cassotto (that’s Bobby Darin to most of us) with the Steve Allen standard; and “Just in Time” from Bells are Ringing

Thanks to YouTuber The Ed Sullivan Show

What’ll I Do?

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Monday Morning, Nat King Cole tells his story. Lots of versions of this song from Frank Sinatra to Johnny Mathis to Linda Ronstadt, but my favorite by far is Nat King Cole’s version. No pyrotechnics, just pure and simple singing with tasteful accompaniment.

I was surprised to see who wrote this song!

Thanks to YouTuber catman916

I’ll Never Find Another You

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Monday morning we salute Judith Durham of the Seekers who died this month. The 1964 hit featured the Australian singer’s wonderful voice which would ring out from the harmonies of her band mates. They had other hits including the theme song to the film, Georgy Girl, but this song is my favorite of theirs.

Thanks to YouTuber Classic Hits {Stereo}

My Future Just Passed

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Sung by the exquisite Carmen McRae. The don’t-make-em-like-that-anymore music and lyrics are by Richard Whiting and George Marion Jr.

Richard Whiting was the father of singer Margaret Whiting and also the composer of “Hooray for Holywood” and “She’s Funny That Way.”

Thanks to WBAI’s Reggie Johnson for a great two hour radio special on Carmen McRae where I first heard these songs.

More at Carmen McRae – Topic

Never Let You Go

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Monday morning, Brooklyn’s own The Five Discs with John Carbone on lead. While they never had any big commercial successes, this once inter-racial group was recognized by other Doo-Woopers as one of the great purveyors of that kind of song.

Thanks to YouTuber PJDooWop

Let It Be Me: The Everly Brothers

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Rolling Stone magazine named them the Greatest singing duo ever. They influenced everyone from the Beatles to Simon and Garfunkel. Phil and Don Everly, brothers whose artistic and business partnership was famously contentious, make some of the most beautiful harmonies ever in pop music.

They called “Let It Be Me” the most beautiful song they had ever recorded.

Click on the image to play.

Thanks to YouTuber Orvil Morris

Turn The Radio On

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Monday Morning, Chan Poling’s band, The Suburbs.

It’s a catchy song, but on reading about it, I found Chan dedicated the song to the memory of his deceased wife, Eleanor, the daughter of Walter Mondale, who died at 51.

Click on the image to play.

Thanks to YouTuber MN Original

“When You Believe In Things You Don’t Understand, Then You Suffer”

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Monday morning, Stevie Wonder at the age of 22 killing it on Sesame Street, of all places, with “Superstition.” Still great.

Click on the image to play.

“Superstition”

Very superstitious, writings on the wall,
Very superstitious, ladders ’bout to fall,
Thirteen-months-old baby broke the lookin’ glass
Seven years of bad luck, the good things in your past

When you believe in things that you don’t understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain’t the way

Very superstitious, wash your face and hands,
Rid me of the problem, do all that you can,
Keep me in a daydream, keep me goin’ strong,
You don’t wanna save me, sad is my song

When you believe in things that you don’t understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain’t the way, yeah, yeah

Very superstitious, nothin’ more to say,
Very superstitious, the devil’s on his way,
Thirteen-months-old baby broke the lookin’ glass,
Seven years of bad luck, good things in your past

When you believe in things that you don’t understand,
Then you suffer, superstition ain’t the way, no, no, no

Thanks to YouTuber Ryan’s Smashing Life

Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered

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With the madness of the last week it’s nice to just relax and give oneself up to an artist who is totally in control of her talent.

Lady Gaga sings a jazz/pop version of the Rodgers and Hart standard that promises a lot and delivers a lot.

She sang this often on her 2015 tour, and if you look on YouTube, you can see that in every performance the vocal arrangement is different, she’s clothed in a different costume and wig, and yet every performance is right on the money. Really a rare talent.

Click on the image to listen.

Thanks to YouTuber Lucs Said

Africa: Toto

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Monday morning after sifting through literally dozens of versions, band configurations, and covers, we settle on this 2013 version of the 1981 Toto song.

Dave Paich: lead vocals, keyboards and writer

Simon Phillips: drums

Nathan East: bass

Steve Lukather: lead guitar

And because here at Shalblog Industries® we use every part of the buffalo, expect more versions of it posted this week.

Thanks to YouTuber MADIM67

At Seventeen: Janis Ian

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Monday morning, a song for misfits.

At the time, 1975, the song was a  highly unlikely candidate for a pop hit. It may have been the first pop song for young women of high school age that wasn’t for the cheerleaders. It might be hard to recall now, in the age of Glee, but songs examining the inner lives of high school students who saw themselves as social outcasts were not, at the time, the common fare. Millions of young women saw themselves in the lyrics of the song, and suddenly the singer/songwriter, Janis Ian, who at age 14 had had a qualified (and often censored) hit with her song of interracial love, “Society’s Child,” was overnight an international star.

The clip above seems so raw, true, and natural that you might think it was just an amateur effort turned lucky. But Ian by that time had already had seven albums of music released and was an accomplished songwriter. It was the one time, though, she said, that she had penned a song and told her manager that she had just written a hit.

Thanks to YouTuber LittleMonster13100