There can be no valid argument against saying that 1964 was one of the greatest years in rock and roll. Here are 30 reasons why.
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Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 1-3-23
James Mtume (b. January 3, 1946) is best-known for his oft-sampled “Juicy Fruit,” though he also has writing and producing credits on records by Stephanie Mills, Roberta Flack, Spinners, Levert and Phyllis Hyman and also played on records by Miles Davis, McCoy Tyner, Lonnie Liston Smith, Sonny Rollins and Gato Barbieri. He died just a few days after his birthday last year.
Today’s playlist includes Mtume’s best-known track plus 29 other juicy cuts.
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A Bee Gees Playlist
Back when I handled the licensing for the Bee Gees, they turned down requests to be included on disco compilations. They rejected the disco label, as it limited them. Fair enough. As performers the trio placed 42 entries on the Billboard Hot 100. Do you know how many entries they placed on Billboard’s Disco chart? Three. “You Should Be Dancing” went to number one on that chart, “Tragedy” peaked at number 22, and the three new uptempo songs they recorded for the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack – “Stayin’ Alive,” “Night Fever” and “More Than a Woman” – constituted one entry, which peaked at number three. It’s the association with Saturday Night Fever,a movie where much of the action takes place at a disco, that saddled them with the disco label. That said, those five disco songs are nothing to be ashamed of. All are great. Today’s playlist spotlights their work in and outside of the disco genre, and it includes extracurricular production and songwriting activities one or more of the guys did for other acts.
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Happy!
Today is International Day of Happiness. Do something that makes you feel like a room without a roof. As long as you don’t impinge on someone else’s happiness, it’s all good.
Today’s playlist consists of thirty songs with the word happy in the title.
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Throwback Thursday: 1980
Nineteen eighty wasn’t a game changing year on the US pop chart. It wasn’t 1964. It wasn’t 1991. For the most part it was music business as usual. The death of disco was greatly exaggerated. Just ask any member of Lipps, Inc., should you have any idea what any member of Lipps, Inc. looks like. Seventies hit makers stayed on the charts. Paul McCartney. Diana Ross. Stevie Wonder. Barbra Streisand. The Captain & Tennille did it to us one more time, it meaning having a hit single. A few outsiders snuck into the top 40 with sounds unlike the rest – Devo hit with “Whip It,” Gary Numan with “Cars,” and The Vapors with “Turning Japanese.” In the coming years more such weirdos would make their presence known.
While many of 1980’s hits were great singles, many classics were born outside of the mainstream. Releases such as Bob Marley & the Wailers’ “Redemption Song,” Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” Peter Gabriel’s “Biko,” Prince’s “When You Were Mine,” David Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes,” and Funky 4 + 1’s “That’s the Joint” are often referred to as classics these days. In 1980, not a single one of them troubled the US Hot 100. Change was on its way. In 1980, rap wasn’t a fixture on the top 40, though its influence was heard in Queen’s #1 smash “Another One Bites the Dust.” The next few years saw #1 hits from Peter Gabriel, Prince, David Bowie and a rap song, plus a top ten reggae song.
Today’s Throwback Thursday playlist shines a spotlight on 1980.
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