Make The Yuletide Gay

Today is December 24. It’s the date when people around the world celebrate Ricky Martin’s birthday. What’s the first thing you think of when someone says Ricky Martin? Gay? I thought so. Hold that thought.

Christmas Eve is tonight. Many people around the world celebrate that as well, possibly almost as many people as the number that celebrate Ricky Martin’s birthday. He’s turning 43, by the way.

Anyhoosle, I decided to combine the two celebrations. Tunes du Jour hereby presents the gayest Christmas playlist ever. Fifty songs that will bring you cheer and fabulousity and get you arrested if you listen to them in Russia.

Have a festive day!

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Winston + Queen 2014-09-05 11.07

It’s Freddie Mercury’s Birthday And I Need To Dance!

The band Queen released their eighth studio album, The Game, in 1980. The album’s first single, “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” released eight months prior to the LP, went to #1 on the US pop charts. “Play the Game,” released as a single just a month before the album dropped, failed to make the US top 40.

Backstage after a Queen concert in Los Angeles, a fan of the group, Michael Jackson, suggested to Freddie Mercury that “Another One Bites the Dust” should be the next single. The band were initially reluctant to do so, but the track was getting airplay on black radio stations and demand was increasing, so their label, Elektra, put it out.

Inspired by the bass line of Chic’s “Good Times,” “Another One Bites the Dust” went to #1 on the US pop charts. It also hit #2 on the Soul chart and on the Dance chart, the group’s highest-placing songs on those formats.

A few years later Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson recorded a few tracks together, including one written by Jackson and Randy Hansen entitled “State of Shock.” The pair never completed the track; explanations given or conjectured being they both got too busy with other commitments and couldn’t find time to reunite, Jackson objected to Mercury’s cocaine use, Mercury objected to Jackson bringing a llama into the recording studio, Queen’s record label fearing Mercury associating with Jackson would lead consumers to think he was gay (ahem). Whatever the reason, “State of Shock” was eventually released with Mick Jagger trading vocals with Jackson. It hit #3 in 1984.

Winston + Queen 2014-09-05 11.07
Today is Freddie Mercury’s birthday, so we’ll kick off our weekly dance party with “Another One Bites the Dust.”

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Ringo + Clash 2014-08-22 12.32

It’s Friday And I Need To Dance!

Last Friday I received word that a friend of mine died. Brain cancer. He was 37 years old.

The following day I got the call that my uncle passed away. My mother and her sister flew in for their brother’s funeral. He was married to the same woman for more than 50 years, since she was 19.

Ringo + Clash 2014-08-22 12.32
I’m glad this week is over. It’s Friday, and I really need to dance. We’ll start our weekly dance playlist with The Clash. The late Joe Strummer’s birthday was yesterday. We’ll play a track by the late Isaac Hayes, whose birthday was Wednesday. Belinda Carlisle of The Go-Go’s and Mika had birthdays this past week, while Tori Amos turns 51 today. Here’s to life and dancing while one still can.

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Ringo + Gaga 003

It’s Lady Gaga’s Birthday And I Need To Dance!

Ringo + Gaga 003
Every Friday is dance playlist day on Tunes du Jour. This week’s party kicks off with a song about a woman who, while with her man, fantasizes that she is with a woman. The man doesn’t know this, unless he is able to read her poker face.

The song, of course, is “Poker Face,” Lady Gaga’s second hit single. The track was the UK’s best-selling single of 2009, with her first hit single, “Just Dance,” their third best-seller that year. The album from which the two singles were taken, The Fame, was the UK’s second best-selling album of 2009, kept from the top spot by Susan Boyle.

Today is the 28th birthday of the woman born Stefani Germanotta. Start the celebrating with “Poker Face” and just dance!

Britney plaque

Happy Britney Spears’ Birthday!

Britney Spears was the first recording artist to thank me in her CD booklet liner notes. The album was 2000’s Oops!…I Did It Again, which set a record when it sold over 1.3 million copies in the US its first week. At the time I was running the licensing department at Zomba Recording Corporation, parent company of Jive Records, to which Britney was signed. It was a great time to be at that company. I worked with smart, creative people, and I got to apply my skills to our superstar roster (Britney, Backstreet Boys, R. Kelly, NSYNC), enabling us to increase licensing revenue four-fold during my four years of employment there.

Britney plaque

When I started at Zomba, Britney was 17 years old and was on her second hit single, “Sometimes.” Today she turns 32. To date she has had 23 top forty hits in the US. Her latest album, Britney Jean, was released last week.

Enjoy today’s Britney-inspired playlist.