Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 10-1-23

In 1993, humor columnist Dave Barry surveyed his readers to find the worst song. The clear winner for Worst Overall Song and Worst Lyrics was “Mac Arthur Park.” Culture critic Joe Queenan disagreed with the results “because ‘Ebony and Ivory’ exists, as do ‘You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,’ ‘Baby, I’m-a Want You,’ ‘Feelings,’ ‘Benny and the Jets,’ ‘Witchy Woman’ and ‘Sussudio,’” adding “On a planet where somebody thought it would be a good idea to write ‘Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,’ the best ‘MacArthur Park’ is ever going to earn in the sucky-song sweepstakes is a tie.”

The late Richard Harris was born on this date in 1930. Celebrate his birthday with a piece of soggy cake and by listening to today’s playlist, which includes the song many hate.

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Your (Almost) Daily Playlist: 12-24-22

Today’s playlist celebrates Christmas; the December 24 birthdays of Motörhead’s Lemmy, Savages’ Jehnny Beth, Lee Dorsey, Ricky Martin, Ray Bryant, and Dave Bartholomew; and the December 25 birthdays of The Pogues’ Shane MacGowan, Air’s Nicolas Godin, Eurythmics’ Annie Lennox, Cab Calloway, The Silhouettes’ Bill Horton, Alannah Myles, Chris Kenner, Jimmy Buffett, Dido, Bob James, and Merry Clayton.

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Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (3-17-21)

Inspired by the March 17 birthdays of Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, Grimes, The Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian, Jefferson Airplane’s Paul Kantner, Nat King Cole, The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins, Altered Images’ Clare Grogan, Gene Ween, Nicky Jam, Lorraine Ellison, Hozier, and Vivian Girls’ Cassie Ramone.

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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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Paris001

Your Bastille Day Playlist

Paris001
In seventh grade we were given the option of taking Spanish or being expelled. I opted for the former. I did well in Spanish class. When I moved on to high school in ninth grade, we had a foreign language requirement, our options being Spanish, French or Swahili. I stayed with Spanish.

Through music I was able to pick up bits and pieces of other languages. I picked up some French phrases from Labelle and Talking Heads. I learned some Japanese from The Police and Robyn. The Rolling Stones and Dusty Springfield recorded Italian-language versions of a couple of their hits, and The Beatles recorded “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You” in German.

Limited as it was, this knowledge of foreign languages served me well when I moved into Sony Music’s International division. I could converse with our affiliates and licensees around the world. Sure, all I knew how to say to the folks in our French office was “Would you like to go to bed with me tonight?” and “What is it?,” but that’s all I needed to say. They appreciated the effort.

As today is Bastille Day and this blog has a French name, I created a playlist to help you with your French and your French kissing. Amusez-vous!

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