An ample number of LL Cool J jams pepper today’s playlist in celebration of his birthday.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 1-11-23
Today is the birthday of Sugarhill Gang’s Big Bank Hank, so lots of old school rap jams are included in today’s playlist.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 8-8-22
Today’s playlist celebrates the August 8 birthdays of U2’s The Edge, Joe Tex, The Treacherous Three’s Kool Moe Dee, Creed’s Scott Stapp, and JC Chasez; the August 9 birthdays of Whitney Houston, Kurtis Blow, Sampa the Great, Barbara Mason, and Arlo Parks; and the August 10 birthdays of The Righteous Brothers’ Bobby Hatfield, The Ronettes’ Ronnie Spector, Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson, Bell Biv DeVoe’s Michael Bivins, UTFO’s Kangol Kid, The Velvelettes’ Carolyn Gill, The Four Aces’ Al Alberts, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Martin, and Patti Austin.
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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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A Martin Luther King Day Playlist
“You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. 1963
“He had a dream now it’s up to you to see it through, to make it come true” – “King Holiday”
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Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (11-14-20)
Inspired by the November 14 birthdays of Run, Veruca Salt’s Nina Gordon, and Stephen Bishop; and the November 13 birthdays of Cass McCombs, Timmy Thomas, Onyx’s Sonny Seeza and The Teddy Bears’ Carol Connors.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (8-10-20)
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.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (7-3-20)
Inspired by the July 3 birthdays of Erasure’s/Yaz’s Vince Clarke, Laura Branigan, Heatwave’s Johnny Wilder Jr., Elle King, Fontella Bass, Johnny Lee, Betty Buckley and The Seekers’ Judith Durham, and the July 2 birthdays of The Temptations’ Paul Williams, Vince Staples, Justice’s Xavier de Rosnay, Monie Love, Saweetie, Burna Boy and Michelle Branch.
The Ultimate Christmas Playlist
Today is the day after Thanksgiving here in the United States of America. You’re officially allowed to start listening to holiday music now. To get you started, I compiled a playlist of what I consider to be 100 of the best Christmas songs. Okay, 98 songs, a stand-up routine and a skit. It’s a mix of standards, versions of standards with which you may not be familiar, and obscure but delightful tunes.
Enjoy!
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Throwback Thursday – 1980
In 1979, Giorgio Moroder, famous mostly for his production work on Donna Summer records, composed the score for the film American Gigolo. He asked Stevie Nicks to sing the movie’s theme song, for which Moroder wrote the music, but she had to decline for contractual reasons. He next turned to Deborah Harry of Blondie.
Harry write the lyrics to the song that became “Call Me,” the second #1 single for her band. Of her experience with Moroder, she told Billboard “He’s very nice to work with, very easy, (but) I don’t think he has a lot of patience with people who fool around or don’t take what they do seriously. I think he’s very serious about what he does and he’s intense and he’s a perfectionist and he’s very talented, so I think that people who are less talented or less concentrated bore him quickly…you really have to pay attention.”
Said Moroder of working with Blondie, “There were always fights. I was supposed to do an album with them after that. We went to the studio, and the guitarist was fighting with the keyboard player. I called their manager and quit.”
Moroder did end up working with Deborah Harry again years later on another soundtrack song, producing “Rush Rush” from Scarface, and in 2004 remixed Blondie’s single “Good Boys.”
Tunes du Jour’s Throwback Thursday playlist this week spotlights the best of 1980, kicking off with Blondie’s “Call Me.”
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