Missy Elliott and her producer, Timbaland, recorded enough songs to make up Missy’s third album, Miss E…So Addictive. They decided the album could use one more song, so they came up with a little something called “Get Ur Freak On.”
Missy Elliott turns 52 today. Honor the occasion by getting ur freak on with help from today’s playlist.
Today’s playlist celebrates the September 3 birthdays of The Beach Boys’ Al Jardine, Grand Funk Railroad’s Don Brewer, Freddie King, The Melodians’ Tony Brevett, Taana Gardner, The Creation’s Kenny Pickett, Jessy Lanza, Mantronix’s MC Tee, BG, Majical Cloudz’s Devon Welsh, and Jennifer Paige; and the September 4 birthdays of Destiny’s Child’s Beyoncé, The Byrds’ Gene Parsons, Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil, Mark Ronson, Mantronix’s Kurtis Mantronix, W.A.S.P.’s Blackie Lawless, and Sonny Charles.
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.
I was working in the international licensing department at Sony Music when Destiny’s Child released their debut album in 1998. I would field requests to include their first single, “No, No, No,” on compilation CDs. Matthew Knowles, the group’s manager and father of their usual lead singer, Beyoncé, was in favor of granting all the license requests. “I want them to become a household name” he told me. Look how far Beyoncé has come. Today’s playlist consists of my 30 favorite Beyoncé tracks. She’s had bigger hits than some of the songs included, though if I must choose, I’d choose these.
Inspired by the season and the December 11 birthdays of Jermaine Jackson, Brenda Lee, Mos Def, Bread’s David Gates, Perez Prado, Big Mama Thornton, J. Frank Wilson and Jon Brion.
Inspired by the August 21 birthdays of The Clash‘s Joe Strummer, Kacey Musgraves, Kelis, Kenny Rogers, Jackie DeShannon, Prodigy’s Liam Howlett, and System of a Down’s Serj Tankian.
Inspired by the August 10 birthdays of The Ronettes’ Ronnie Spector, The Righteous Brothers’ Bobby Hatfield, Bell Biv DeVoe’s Michael Bivins, Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson, Jimmy Dean, The Four Aces’ Al Aberts and UTFO’s Kangol Kid.