Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 1-31-24

by with No Comment Uncategorized

The first artist fan club I ever joined was that of KC and the Sunshine Band. I received a membership card and a Christmas card from the band when that holiday I don’t celebrate came around. I don’t think there was more to it. I joined Olivia Newton-John’s fan club a year or two later, and received a membership card and a folio filled with photos of Livvy pressed on cardboard of various sizes. Years later I joined the R.E.M. and Pearl Jam fan clubs, which came with 45 rpm records and stickers and a calendar and a VHS tape and some other fun stuff. 

Are any of y’alls in an artist’s fan club? Is it worth the price of entry? 

KC was born Harry Wayne Casey on this date in 1951. A handful of his group’s songs are included on today’s playlist. Also included is his first number one single – as a songwriter with fellow Sunshine Band member Rick Finch on George McCrae’s “Rock Your Baby.”

Follow Tunes du Jour on Facebook

Follow Tunes du Jour on Twitter

Follow me on Instagram

Tunes Du Jour Presents Covers of Show Tunes

by with No Comment Uncategorized

The theme of today’s playlist is cover versions of songs that originated in stage musicals. Here are the songs listed with the shows that introduced them:

  • Mack the Knife by Bobby Darin – From The Threepenny Opera (1928)
  • Till There Was You by The Beatles – From The Music Man (1957)
  • Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by The Platters – From Roberta (1933)
  • Little Girl Blue by Nina Simone – From Jumbo (1935)
  • You’ll Never Walk Alone by Gerry & The Pacemakers – From Carousel (1945)
  • I Am What I Am by Gloria Gaynor – From La Cage aux Folles (1983)
  • On The Street Where You Live by Vic Damone – From My Fair Lady (1956)
  • Everything’s Coming Up Roses by The Replacements – From Gypsy (1959)
  • Send In The Clowns by Judy Collins – From A Little Night Music (1973)
  • I Don’t Know How to Love Him by Helen Reddy – From Jesus Christ Superstar (1970)
  • Hair by The Cowsills – From Hair (1967)
  • Put On A Happy Face by Diana Ross & The Supremes – From Bye Bye Birdie (1960)
  • Losing My Mind by Liza Minnelli – From Follies (1971)
  • Tomorrow by Grace Jones – From Annie (1977)
  • My Favorite Things by John Coltrane – From The Sound of Music (1959)
  • Well Did You Evah? by Debbie Harry & Iggy Pop – From DuBarry Was a Lady (1939)
  • The Man I Love by Kate Bush – From Lady, Be Good! (1924)
  • If My Friends Could See Me Now by Linda Clifford – From Sweet Charity (1966)
  • Summertime by Big Brother & The Holding Company – From Porgy and Bess (1935)
  • Cabaret by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes – From Cabaret (1966)
  • I Get A Kick Out Of You by Frank Sinatra – From Anything Goes (1934)
  • Don’t Cry For Me Argentina by Festival – From Evita (1978)
  • Somewhere by Pet Shop Boys – From West Side Story (1957)
  • The Lady is a Tramp by Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga – From Babes in Arms (1937)
  • I’ll Never Fall In Love Again by Dionne Warwick – From Promises, Promises (1968)
  • I Love Paris by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – From Can-Can (1953)
  • Night + Day by U2 – From Gay Divorce (1932)
  • There Are Worse Things I Could Do by Alison Moyet – From Grease (1971)
  • Corner of the Sky by The Jackson 5 – From Pippin (1972)
  • I Enjoy Being a Girl by Phranc – From Flower Drum Song (1958)

Follow Tunes du Jour on Facebook

Follow Tunes du Jour on Twitter

Follow me on Instagram

Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 9-7-22

by with No Comment Uncategorized

Today’s playlist celebrates the September 7 birthdays of The Crickets’ Buddy Holly, Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, Air’s Jean-Benoît Dunckel, Chic’s Alfa Anderson, N.W.A’s Eazy-E, Gloria Gaynor, Owen Pallett, Starland Vocal Band’s Margot Chapman, Morris Albert, Latimore, Jermaine Stewart, and The Simpsons’ Julie Kavner; and the September 8 birthdays of The Cars’ Benjamin Orr, Patsy Cline, Neko Case, ’til tuesday’s Aimee Mann, P!nk, Bob & Earl’s Earl Nelson,The Beau Brummels’ Sal Valentino, Wiz Khalifa, Slim Thug, and Peter Sellers.

Follow Tunes du Jour on Facebook

Follow Tunes du Jour on Twitter

Follow me on Instagram

Throwback Thursday: 1979

by with No Comment Uncategorized

Nineteen seventy-nine was a very good year in music. In compiling today’s Throwback Thursday playlist focusing on 1979 I had so many very good songs from which to choose. 208 songs, to be exact. That’s how many 1979 cuts bring me much joy. There are another 181 1979 tracks I also like. Somehow I was able to whittle it down to the 30 cuts below. Some years it’s a struggle to come up with 30!

Disco was at its commercial peak in 1979. So many of the disco songs that charted then remain popular today – “I Will Survive,” “We Are Family,” “Y.M.C.A.,” “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” “Hot Stuff,” “Good Times,” “Heart of Glass,” “Ring My Bell,” “Knock on Wood,” “Got To Be Real.” While the genre seemed omnipresent, there was more to 1979 music than clams on the half shell and roller skates roller skates. Hear what was going on below.

Follow Tunes du Jour on Facebook.

Follow Tunes du Jour on Twitter.

Follow me on Instagram.

Pride 50

by with 6 Comments Uncategorized

On June 28, 1969, what was supposed to be a routine raid on a gay bar by the New York City police turned violent when patrons at the Stonewall Inn fought back, thus setting off the gay liberation movement. That pivotal moment was recognized one year later with a gathering in New York’s Greenwich Village, where the Stonewall Inn is located, and Gay Pride marches in Los Angeles and Chicago. The following year, Gay Pride marches sprang up in Boston, Dallas, Milwaukee, London, Paris, West Berlin and Stockholm. The Pride movement grew with each passing year, and it continues to expand to this day.

Tunes du Jour celebrates 50 years of Pride with today’s playlist. Be seen. Be heard. Be proud. Celebrate. Love.

Click here to like Tunes du Jour on Facebook.

Follow Tunes du Jour on Twitter.

Follow me on Instagram.

Disco 1975

by with No Comment Uncategorized
If you see Patti LaBelle today, wish her a happy birthday.

Nineteen seventy-five was a pivotal year for disco music. The genre was still very young; the name “disco” as a reference to the music genre was coined just two years earlier by journalist Vince Aletti. Disco music crossed over into the mainstream with more frequency, yet was not as ubiquitous a presence on the pop charts as it would become in the ensuing years of that decade. Artists who had their first top 40 singles in 1975 include Gloria Gaynor and KC and the Sunshine Band. In December of 1975, Donna Summer made her first appearance on the Hot 100 when “Love to Love You Baby” made its debut, having already been a smash in the clubs. The Bee Gees updated their sound in 1975 with “Jive Talkin’,” which became their first top ten single since 1971. Ben E. King, who had hits in the early 1960s as a solo artist and as the lead singer of The Drifters scored his first top ten pop hit since 1961’s “Stand By Me” with the funky “Supernatural Thing.” As the lead singer of the trio named after her, Patti LaBelle scored her first top ten hit in over a decade with “Lady Marmalade.” Veteran acts such as Frankie Valli, The Temptations, The Miracles, The Isley Brothers and Esther Phillips filled the dance floors. And it was in 1975 that the world was doing the hustle.

Today’s playlist is made up of forty disco gems from 1975.

Click here to like Tunes du Jour on Facebook!

Follow Tunes du Jour on Twitter.

Follow me on Instagram.