Inspired by Mother’s Day, the passing of Betty Wright, and the May 10 birthdays of U2‘s Bono, Sex Pistols’ Sid Vicious, Spinners’ Henry Fambrough, Donovan, Traffic’s Dave Mason, Larry Williams, Fred Astaire, Underworld’s Karl Hyde, Young MC, Filter’s Richard Patrick, Jay Ferguson, Craig Mack, Sunscreem’s Lucia Holm and Young Disciples’ Carleen Anderson.
Inspired by the passing of Little Richard and the May 9 birthdays of Ghostface Killah, Sam & Dave’s Dave Prater, Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan, Billy Joel, Andrew W.K., Hank Snow, The Housemartins/The Beautiful South’s Paul Heaton, The Crickets’ Sonny Curtis, The Ventures’ Nokie Edwards, Cyrkle’s Don Dannemann, Clint Holmes and Tommy Roe.
Inspired by the passings of Millie Small and Kraftwerk’s Florian Schneider, and the May 6 birthdays of Bob Seger, They Might Be Giants’ John Flansburgh, Man Parrish, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, 3rd Bass’ MC Serch, Mary MacGregor and Meek Mill.
Inspired by Cinco de Mayo and the May 5 birthdays of Adele, Monty Python’s Michael Palin, Tammy Wynette, Johnnie Taylor, Echo & the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch, Craig David, Chris Brown and Blind Willie McTell.
2020 seemed like just another year, until this week. Something mind-boggling happened. No, the president of the U.S. didn’t display empathy. Get this: The Village People are presently in the Top 40 on the Adult Contemporary chart with a ballad taken from their 2019 Christmas album. The key terms in that sentence: Village People, presently, Top 40, Adult Contemporary, ballad, Christmas. It’s 2020! The song is called “If You Believe” and it jumped from #53 to #25 this week with a 310% increase in radio airplay over last week. “If You Believe?” More like “Hard to Believe!” Am I right, people?
Today’s playlist is inspired by the May 3 birthdays of James Brown, Frankie Valli, Father John Misty, Soft Cell’s David Ball, Pete Seeger, Christopher Cross, Mary Hopkin and Napoleon XIV.
Inspired by the April 29 birthdays of Willie Nelson, The Coasters/Robins’ Carl Gardner, Tommy James, Tammi Terrell, The KLF’s Bill Drummond, The Brady Bunch’s Eve Plumb, Duke Ellington, Romeo Void’s Debora Iyall, Lonnie Donegan, Rod McKuen, Otis Rush and April Stevens; and the April 28 birthdays of Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, Goodie Mob’s Big Gipp, Too $hort and Blossom Dearie.
Inspired by the April 27 birthdays of The B-52’s‘ Kate Pierson, Lizzo, Sheena Easton, Badfinger’s Pete Ham, Ann Peebles, The Main Ingredient’s Cuba Gooding Sr., Ace Frehley and Robin S.
Inspired by the April 17 birthdays of Liz Phair, Spice Girls’ Victoria Beckham, Buzzcock’s Pete Shelley, Afrika Bambaataa, Billy Fury, Redman, Michael Sembello and Jan Hammer.
Inspired by the April 16 birthdays of Dusty Springfield, Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner, Chance the Rapper, Henry Mancini, Bobby Vinton, Gerry Rafferty, Akon, Midnight Oil’s Peter Garrett, Roy Hamilton, Herbie Mann, Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, Gabrielle and Gerardo.
Inspired by the April 15 birthdays of The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney, Dave Edmunds, Margo Price, Bessie Smith, Samantha Fox, and 4 Non-Blondes’ Linda Perry.