Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 9-22-23

“I love rock ‘n roll, so put another dime in the jukebox, baby”

Would the youth of today understand those lyrics from Joan Jett & the Blackhearts’ cover of The Arrows’ “I Love Rock ‘n Roll?” “What’s a jukebox? What’s a dime?” I hear them asking. If that song were written today, how would it go?

“I love rock ‘n roll, so stream your favorite song on your smartwatch, baby”

“I love rock ‘n roll, so send payment via Venmo so you can unlock the playlist you want to hear, baby”

“I love rock ‘n roll, so tap your phone to connect to the speaker’s Bluetooth and hit play on your selection, baby”

“I love rock ‘n roll, so say ‘Hey Siri, play some rock ‘n roll and feel free to include women and Black artists because you’re not Jann Wenner, baby’”

“I love rock ‘n roll, so use your smartphone’s camera to scan the square-shaped QR code to be redirected to a website or an app where you can choose from a variety of songs and see the ratings, reviews, and popularity of each and select the song you want and it will be added to the queue and play when it’s your turn, baby / I love rock ‘n roll, so come and take some time and dance with me”

That last one just rolls off the tongue. So singalongable!

I love rock ‘n roll and I love Joan Jett, who turns 65 today. A handful of tracks by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts are on today’s playlist.

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Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 9-26-22

Today’s playlist celebrates the September 26 birthdays of Everything But The Girl’s Tracey Thorn, Roxy Music’s Bryan Ferry, Marty Robbins, En Vogue’s Cindy Herron, Lonnie Gordon, composer George Gershwin, Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman, Blind Melon’s Shannon Hoon, Lynn Anderson, Olivia Newton-John, Julie London, Nicki French, David Frizzell, and Dr. Jeckyll; and the September 27 birthdays of Lil Wayne, Meat Loaf, Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s Randy Bachman, Avril Lavigne, 3 Doors Down’s Brad Arnold, Shaun Cassidy, and Trick Daddy.

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Throwback Thursday: 1968

Today’s Throwback Thursday playlist makes a strong case for 1968 being the best year for pop music in the rock era. So many classics hit that year. Yes, I know I didn’t include all of them. I didn’t want to be too classic rock heavy, as other genres produced timeless pieces as well. There’ll be a part 2 one of these weeks. Until then, enjoy!

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Throwback Thursday: 1971

I recently read a book about the music of 1971. It was pretty bad. I should have been clued off seeing that the book derived its title from the name of a Rod Stewart album that came out in…1972. The author and I agree that 1971 was a great year for music, though he focused mainly on white acts. Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, recently named the number one album of all-time in Rolling Stone, was dismissed as being overrated due to white guilt, something the author clearly doesn’t feel. I humbly suggest that the playlist below shows more of the greatness (and diversity) of 1971’s music than this book.

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Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (9-26-20)

Inspired by the September 26 birthdays of Olivia Newton-John, Roxy Music’s Bryan Ferry, En Vogue’s Cindy Herron, Marty Robbins, Everything But the Girl’s Tracey Thorn, David Frizzell, Lynn Anderson, Nicki French, Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde’s Andre Harrell, Julie London and George Gershwin; and the September 25 birthdays of T.I., Santigold, The Fresh Prince, Childish Gambino, Cecil Womack and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Throwback Thursday – 1971

At the end of the 1960s, Marvin Gaye was a huge star, having had more than two dozen top 40 hits before 1970. However, the singer was having a crisis of conscience, wanting to sing about the ills of the world he saw around him as opposed to perform nothing but love songs.

Inspired by the horrific stories told to him by his brother of what he witnessed serving three years in Viet Nam, Gaye, who hadn’t a hand in writing most of his hits up to this point, added lyrics to an unreleased song written by Obie Benson of the Four Tops and Al Cleveland.

He presented the song to Motown head Berry Gordy, who supposedly called it “the worst thing I ever heard in my life.” Gaye’s response? “Basically, I said ‘Put it out or I’ll never record for you again.’ That was my ace in the hole, and I had to play it.”

“What’s Going On” became the fastest-selling single in the history of Motown Records. Rolling Stone magazine has since placed it at #4 on their ranking of the greatest songs of all-time.

This week’s Throwback Thursday playlist consists of twenty hits from 1971, kicking off with Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.”


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Winston + Bee Gees

Maurice and Robin Gibb

Winston + Bee Gees

Lead vocals on most of the Bee Gees’ hits were handled by Barry Gibb; however, some were sung by his younger brother Robin, while Robin’s twin, Maurice, occasionally took the role on album tracks.

Though not the lead singers, Robin and Maurice co-wrote most of the trio’s hits with Barry. They also did a lot of extracurricular producing and writing.

Marking the birthday of Robin and Maurice Gibb, today’s playlist consist of Bee Gees tracks on which one of them sang lead, plus outside recordings Robin and/or Maurice worked on. As much of their work for other acts was done with their older brother, I steered clear of duplicating songs that were on the playlist for Barry Gibb’s birthday.

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shelfie 001

A Shelfie On Keith Richards’ Birthday

The Guardian asked its readers to put aside the selfie and send in a shelfie – a photo of your bookshelves. As Tunes Du Jour is a music blog I figured it makes me sense to take a shelfie of some of my music collection:

shelfie 001

One act that takes up a fair amount of shelf space is The Rolling Stones. In fifth grade my music teacher, Mrs. Matzot, played the group’s Hot Rocks for us in class. She knew the secret is to hook ‘em when they’re young. I became a Stones fan that day.

shelfie 002Some of my rarer Rolling Stones CDs, all of which are authorized releases

Today Tunes Du Jour celebrates the 70th birthday of Keith Richards.