Two thousand four. Nothing radical happened in music, though that’s okay. There were enough good songs coming out to keep us entertained. Here are 30 of them.
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Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (12-4-20)
Inspired by the season and the December 4 birthdays of Jay-Z, The Beach Boys‘ Dennis Wilson, The Byrds’ Chris Hillman, Pansy Division’s Jon Ginoli, Freddy Cannon, Dionne Farris, Anna McGarrigle, Adamski and Southside Johnny.
Your (Almost) Daily Birthday (11-12-20)
Inspired by the November 12 birthdays of Neil Young, Bay City Rollers’ Les McKeown, Blue Oyster Cult’s Buck Dharma, Booker T. Jones, Hot Chocolate’s Errol Brown, Brian Hyland, and Tevin Campbell.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (9-8-20)
Inspired by the September 8 birthdays of P!nk, The Cars’ Benjamin Orr, Patsy Cline, Aimee Mann, Neko Case, Peter Sellers, The Beau Brummels’ Sal Valentino, Wiz Khalifa, Slim Thug and Bob & Earl’s Earl Nelson.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (5-5-20)
Inspired by Cinco de Mayo and the May 5 birthdays of Adele, Monty Python’s Michael Palin, Tammy Wynette, Johnnie Taylor, Echo & the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch, Craig David, Chris Brown and Blind Willie McTell.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (1-26-20)
Inspired by the January 25 birthdays of Alicia Keys, Etta James, Edmund Sylvers and Antonio Carlos Jobim and the January 26 birthdays of Lucinda Williams, Anita Baker, Wham!’s Andrew Ridgeley, Eddie Van Halen, Ya Kid K, Soul II Soul’s Jazzie B, Huey “Piano” Smith and Jean Knight.
Prince: Compositions
Around ten years ago, while I was working at Warner Music, we were trying to think of catalogue projects that may engage Prince. One of my suggestions was a two-disc set in which one disc consisted of Prince songs recorded by others and the second disc was Prince’s demo versions of songs made famous by others.
Two weeks ago Warner released on Tidal Prince’s Originals, demo versions of songs Prince wrote that were recorded by other acts. (It hits others streaming services tomorrow, with CD and vinyl releases coming as well.) I’m not saying Warner took my idea without giving me credit; I’d be surprised if I were the only person who thought of it.
Today’s Tunes du Jour playlist is the concept of the other disc of my proposed set – songs Prince wrote or co-wrote performed by other acts. It’s not exactly what I envisioned that disc to be, as many (MANY!!) of the songs I would choose are not available on Spotify. There’s all the Paisley Park material that reverted to Prince (Vanity 6, Apollonia 6, Mazarati, Jill Jones, The Family, Ingrid Chavez, etc.), as well as commercially-released covers that for whatever reason are missing, by artists such as Foo Fighters, Robyn, Jesus and Mary Chain, Mavis Staples, Eels, and Living Colour.
Even with those limitations, not a bad list. Enjoy!
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20 Greatest Songs Of The Century…So Far That Are Not On Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Songs Of This Century…So Far
The current issue of Rolling Stone includes their list of the 100 greatest songs of this century, so far. Incredibly, the 20 songs on this Tunes du Jour playlist are not on the Rolling Stone list, though they are great and from this century. As the title of one of the songs says, WTF?
I should note that while “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys is better than many of the songs on my playlist or Rolling Stone’s list, it is not on Spotify, hence its omission. Also, Beyoncé has not yet posted her Lemonade album on Spotify, so sorry. (I ain’t sorry.)
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A Soulful Christmas Playlist
TRIVIA QUESTION: Who was the first woman to hit the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 with a song she wrote herself?
ANSWER: Carla Thomas. She was 16 years old when she wrote “Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes),” which hit #10 in 1961. Today she turns 72.
In 1963, Thomas incorporated the title of her first hit into a seasonal offering, “Gee Whiz, It’s Christmas.”
“Gee Whiz, It’s Christmas” inspires today’s playlist – fifty great soul and r&b Christmas jams, with some fun extra treats thrown in.
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