Here’s something I just learned about Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, born on this date in 1974: His great-grandfather, Francisco Manuel Homem Cristo Filho, was a writer, described by present-day historians as “the first authentic and indisputable Portuguese fascist” and a personal friend of Benito Mussolini’s. “I know him only from photographs, of course,” de Homem-Christo says. (from Rolling Stone, May 21, 2013)
You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby by Fatboy Slim holds the Guinness World Record for the most significant number of samples used on a single album, with more than 60.
FatBoy Slim was born Quentin Cook on this date in 1963. A few of the classics from his You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby album are among the tunes in today’s playlist.
While grocery shopping yesterday I was struck by an announcement that came over the loudspeaker. I can’t recall it verbatim, but it was something like “Attention shoppers: Signing up for our rewards program is the greatest thing you will do in your life.” I thought about that as I stood in front of the frozen pizzas. How sad a life that must be! I put some frozen pizzas in my cart, then asked a clerk where I can get a rewards program application. It’s too early to know if filling it out was the first step to the greatest thing in my life, but it certainly was the greatest thing to happen to me thus far in this young year.
Lots of music birthdays to celebrate today. On the playlist you’ll find music from celebrants Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Joan Baez, AJ McLean of Backstreet Boys, Sean Paul, Crystal Gayle, Steve Harwell of Smash Mouth, David Johansen (a/k/a Buster Poindexter), Bill Cowsill, Scott Walker, Haddaway, Paolo Nutini, Domenico Modugno, Vic Mizzy and Mic Murphy of The System. It’s also the birthday of Orbital’s Phil Hartnoll, but I left his music off as I’m not too familiar with it. In addition, it’s Dave Matthews’ birthday. I left his music off as I am familiar with it.
As there are so many birthdayees, each of them got only one song in the playlist, except for Bill Cowsill, because come on! Also, I should confess that although I worked at Backstreet Boys’ record label for four years and while there licensed their music at least 734 times per day, I don’t know one Backstreet Boy from another. I selected “I Want It That Way” for the playlist. Hopefully the lead vocalist on that cut is Birthday Boy AJ and not one of those other Backstreet Boys, like Justin or Donnie or Peter or Blitzen.