A Hint Of Mint – Volume 23: Covers

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This week’s installment of A Hint of Mint consists of cover songs. It’s likely you are familiar with most or all of the songs on this week’s playlist, but I’m guessing you are not familiar with the versions presented here. Drawn primarily from soundtracks, compilations and CD singles, here are twenty remakes of popular tunes, performed by members of the LGBTQQISA populations. Included are Tegan & Sara covering Bruce Springsteen, Antony & the Johnsons covering Beyoncé, and Pansy Division covering Johnny Cash and June Carter.

Happy Sunday!

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Fleetwood Mac’s Twin Songs

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The first single from Fleetwood Mac’s mega-smash album Rumours was “Go Your Own Way,” written by band guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. The song is about Buckingham’s relationship and break-up with fellow Mac member Stevie Nicks.

While Nicks was not angry with Buckingham writing about their relationship, there was one lyric she wanted Lindsey to remove. She told Rolling Stone magazine “I very much resented him telling the world that ‘packing up, shacking up’ with different men was all I wanted to do. He knew it wasn’t true. It was just an angry thing that he said. Every time those words would come onstage, I wanted to go over and kill him. He knew it, so he really pushed my buttons through that. It was like, ‘I’ll make you suffer for leaving me.’ And I did.”

“Go Your Own Way” hit #10 on the Billboard Hot 100. For a follow-up single, the group released “Dreams,” Stevie Nicks’ take on her relationship with Lindsey. In the liner notes to the 2013 reissue of Rumours, Nicks writes “Even though “Go Your Own Way” was a little angry, it was also honest. So then I wrote ‘Dreams,” and because I’m the chiffony chick who believes in fairies and angels, and Lindsey is a hardcore guy, it comes out differently. Lindsey is saying go ahead and date other men and go live your crappy life, and Stevie is singing about the rain washing you clean. We were coming at it from opposite angles, but we were really saying the same exact thing.”

Today Lindsey Buckingham, then man who wrote Fleetwood Mac’s first top ten single (“Go Your Own Way”) and inspired their first #1 single (“Dreams”), turns 66 years old. Tunes du Jour presents twenty of his finest moments.


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It’s Sting’s Birthday And I Need To Dance!

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“Turn on my VCR, same one I’ve had for years”

beta
I still have my beta player. It’s not a Betamax, which is a Sony brand, but rather a Sanyo. I haven’t used it since I moved to LA in 2003, because it isn’t working. I don’t want to get rid of it, though, as I have a lot of great stuff on beta tapes. Stuff that is irreplaceable.

beta tapesThere are plenty more where these came from!

Some of the recordings I have on beta tapes can be found on YouTube – The Making of “Do They Know It’s Christmas,” for example. Others, such as Purple Rain and The Flamingo Kid, are available on a host of formats that have hit the market since beta. I’m sure I could find Madonna’s pre-fame feature A Certain Sacrifice on-line if I bothered to look for it.

I used to always keep a recordable beta tape in the machine. You never know if while channel surfing you’ll come across Chaka Khan being interviewed on a Spanish talk show on UHF. (UHF pre-dates cable TV. It pre-dates beta tapes. Look it up.) I have several dozen tapes filled with television performances from artists I was obsessed with during my beta machine’s lifetime. Not that it’s dead. I refuse to believe it is. Perhaps I’m still in the denial stage of Dr. Kübler-Ross seven stages of grieving, but I believe the beta machine can easily be fixed. It probably needs a new band. Getting the machine fixed is on my To Do list. I can’t wait to dig in to those old tapes. I look forward to watching the one I labelled “Highlights from The Late Show With Joan Rivers.” It contains her interview with the late great disco queen Sylvester in which he accidentally outed his boyfriend. It also contains several appearances by The Bangles, as I was obsessed with both the Bangles and Joan Rivers. Sometimes I miss the 80s, but then I remember Duran Duran.

Might any of my LA readers be able to recommend a beta machine repair person?

The lyric that opens this post is from The Police’s song “When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around.” I have some of the band’s TV appearances on those beta tapes.

Today is the 64th birthday of that band’s usual lead singer, Sting. Our weekly dance party kicks off with the song with the longest title of any in the trio’s recorded repertoire.


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A Hint Of Mint – Volume 22

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Lots of ladies in this week’s installment of A Hint of Mint, which includes some college radio classics plus two different songs entitled “I Kissed a Girl,” neither of which is performed by Katy Perry, at least not the version here.

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matt lattanzi

This Is Not About Matt Lattanzi

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This post is not about Matt Lattanzi. If you’ve come here looking for information about Matt Lattanzi, the actor/dancer who appeared in the film Xanadu and went on to marry that film’s star, Olivia Newton-John, you’re not going to find it here. I don’t know much about Matt Lattanzi, other than he starred in My Tutor alongside Crispin Glover, and the Xanadu/Olivia thing.

matt lattanziMatt Lattanzi, not the subject of this post

I read somewhere that Matt Lattanzi unplugged and is living in a tent on the beach in Malibu. Maybe that’s true and maybe it isn’t. I don’t know. This post is not about Matt Lattanzi.

I have fun writing this blog and curating its playlists. I often don’t know what brings you readers here. How did you find me? Maybe you’re more than a virtual friend – I may know you in real life.

Interestingly, the most popular search for finding Tunes du Jour is “Matt Lattanzi.” “Matt Lattanzi” leads four times as many readers to Tunes du Jour’s than this blog’s second most-popular search term, “TunesDuJour.”

I’ve only mentioned Matt Lattanzi in one blog post, which was one year ago today, on Olivia Newton-John’s birthday. Matt Lattanzi was not the subject of that post. Olivia Newton-John was. Do people search for Olivia Newton-John and end up here? No. They search for Matt Lattanzi. One mention a year ago! Yes, I mentioned him today, but that’s just to say I’m not going to talk about Matt Lattanzi. Just because he’s brought more readers to my blog than anyone else doesn’t mean I’m going to make Matt Lattanzi click-bait and write his name over and over again. I’m above that.

People, I can’t tell you more about Matt Lattanzi than I already have! I probably wouldn’t recognize him if I were to go to Malibu and trip over his tent pole.

No more Matt Lattanzi mentions for me!

Today’s post is about Matt Lattanzi’s first wife, Olivia Newton-John, who celebrates her 67th birthday today. Do you think Matt sent her a gift? Maybe he called, though if he’s living off the grid, that might be difficult. Do pay phones still exist? How does one get by in this modern age living off the grid? Why are you asking about Matt Lattanzi again? Come on, readers! Focus! Olivia!

Here are twenty fun tracks from Matt Lattanzi’s first wife:


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It’s T.I.’s Birthday And I Need To Dance!

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Last night I debuted a new speech about diversity and inclusion in corporate America. It was the first time I tackled the subject in a presentation and I’m pleased to say it went very well.

I’m working on a series of speeches about what makes good leaders. It’s a departure from my usual speeches, which lean toward storytelling or purely humorous. Last night’s speech had plenty of humor (and all the jokes hit!), but it had a message and action steps as well. I delivered the twenty minute version. I’m working on a thirty minute and hour-long version as well.

Comments I received afterwards included “Great style – loved every moment,” “enjoyed all aspects,” “good mix of information and humor,” “very interesting,” “very creative,” and “I don’t like your shirt.” For the record, my shirt was a crisp, white Surface To Air button-down with a grey stripe down the center. What’s not to like?

I look forward to the next presentation.

Friday is dance day at Tunes du Jour. We kick off this week’s party playlist with “Blurred Lines,” which features a guest spot from Clifford Harris, Jr., better known by his initials, T.I., who turns 35 today.


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A Hint Of Mint – Volume 21: Television

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Television inspires this playlist of TV theme songs, covers of TV theme songs, songs that sample TV theme songs, songs about watching TV and sung critiques of watching TV. This may be the only place where Beck and Bruce Springsteen rub shoulders with The Brady Bunch.

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