Thirty musical highlights of 2012, a year that produced too few musical highlights.
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Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (12-19-20)
Inspired by the season and the December 19 birthdays of Earth Wind & Fire’s Maurice White, Lady Sovereign, Phil Ochs, KajaGooGoo’s Limahl, Walter Murphy and Lenny White.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (11-15-20)
Inspired by November 15 birthdays of ABBA‘s Anni-Frid Lyngstad, The Drifters’ Clyde McPhatter, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, The Trammps’ Jimmy Ellis, Little Willie John, C.W. McCall, and Soul Survivors’ Richie Ingui.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (9-26-20)
Inspired by the September 26 birthdays of Olivia Newton-John, Roxy Music’s Bryan Ferry, En Vogue’s Cindy Herron, Marty Robbins, Everything But the Girl’s Tracey Thorn, David Frizzell, Lynn Anderson, Nicki French, Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde’s Andre Harrell, Julie London and George Gershwin; and the September 25 birthdays of T.I., Santigold, The Fresh Prince, Childish Gambino, Cecil Womack and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (9-19-20)
Inspired by the September 19 birthdays of Chic’s Nile Rodgers, Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker, Tegan and Sara, Mama Cass Elliot, The Righteous Brothers’ Bill Medley, Teddybears’ Patrik Arve, Skepta, Rex Smith, The Springfields’ Mike Hurst, Brook Benton, Lol Crème, Austin Roberts, Eamon, Marshall Jefferson, Adam West and Frances Farmer.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (7-21-20)
Inspired by the July 21 birthdays of Cat Stevens, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Damian Marley, Taco and Fitz and the Tantrums’ Michael Fitzpatrick.
Your (Almost) Daily Playlist (5-4-20)
Inspired by May the Fourth and the May 4 birthdays of Nic Ashford, Little Boots, Sharon Jones, Dick Dale, The Angels’ Peggy Santiglia, Green Day’s Mike Dirnt, New Radicals’ Gregg Alexander, and Pia Zadora.
My Top 99 Songs Of 2015
Herewith, my 99 favorite tracks of this year:
1. Can’t Feel My Face – The Weeknd
2. Sugah Daddy – D’Angelo & the Vanguard
3. Peanut Butter Jelly – Galantis
4. Downtown – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Eric Nally, Melle Mel, Kool Moe Dee & Grandmaster Kaz
5. Fuck It All – Elle Varner
6. Therapy – Mary J. Blige
7. Coffee (Fucking) – Miguel
8. What Do You Mean? – Justin Bieber
9. Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck) – Run the Jewels featuring Zack De La Rocha
10. Hello – Adele
11. Only One – Kanye West featuring Paul McCartney
12. Depreston – Courtney Barnett
13. On the Regular – Shamir
14. Lampshades on Fire – Modest Mouse
15. Shine – Years & Years
16. Hotline Bling – Drake
17. Truffle Butter – Nicki Minaj featuring Drake and Lil Wayne
18. The Blacker the Berry – Kendrick Lamar
19. Dead Fox – Courtney Barnett
20. The Ground Walks, with Time in a Box – Modest Mouse
21. Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars
22. FourFiveSeconds – Rihanna featuring Kanye West and Paul McCartney
23. Teenage Talk – St. Vincent
24. Alright – Kendrick Lamar
25. Who U? – Dynas featuring Slick Rick
26. Friday I’m in Love – Yo La Tengo
27. Queen – Perfume Genius
28. King Kunta – Kendrick Lamar
29. Yoga – Janelle Monae featuring Jidenna
30. Dreams – Beck
31. Return to the Moon (Political Song for Didi Bloome to Sing, with Crescendo) – EL VY
32. The Love Within – Bloc Party
33. The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apt. – Father John Misty
34. Huarache Lights – Hot Chip
35. Dancing in the Dark – Hot Chip
36. B.O.B. – Macy Gray
37. Break the Rules – Charli XCX
38. Ex’s & Oh’s – Elle King
39. Stay Gold – First Aid Kit
40. Cool for the Summer – Demi Lovato
41. Girl Crush – Little Big Town
42. Nobody Really Cares if You Don’t Go to the Party – Courtney Barnett
43. Little Red Wagon – Miranda Lambert
44. Cedar Lane – First Aid Kit
45. Jonathan – Christine and the Queens featuring Perfume Genius
46. Boxing Day Blues (Revisited) – Courtney Barnett
47. In for the Kill – Shamir
48. Biscuits – Kacey Musgraves
49. Can’t Get Enough of Myself – Santigold featuring BC
50. You’re So Beautiful – Empire Cast featuring Jussie Smollett
51. Ugly Cherries – PWR BTTM
52. Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey) – The Weeknd
53. Leave a Trace – CHVRCHES
54. Freedom – Pharrell Williams
55. Betray My Heart – D’Angelo & the Vanguard
56. Snakeskin – Deerhunter
57. Really Love – D’Angelo & the Vanguard
58. I Can’t Lose – Mark Ronson featuring Keyone Starr
59. Outta My Mind – the Arcs
60. Happy Idiot – TV on the Radio
61. Bad Blood – Ryan Adams
62. Nobody’s Empire – Belle & Sebastian
63. Come – Jain
64. Stonemilker – Björk
65. Holding On – Julio Bashmore featuring Sam Dew
66. Go Out – Blur
67. Weight in Gold – Gallant
68. Chateau Lobby #4 (in C for Two Virgins) – Father John Misty
69. Coming Home – Leon Bridges
70. All Day – Kanye West featuring Theophilus London, Allan Kingdom and Paul McCartney
71. Glory – Common and John Legend
72. Need You Now – Hot Chip
73. Sausage – Lil Mama
74. Déjà Vu – Giorgio Moroder featuring Sia
75. Alone on Christmas Day – Phoenix featuring Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzmann, Buster Poindexter and Paul Shaffer
76. Smokin’ & Drinkin’ – Miranda Lambert featuring Little Big Town
77. She’s Not Me – Jenny Lewis
78. Omen – Disclosure featuring Sam Smith
79. For Sale – Kendrick Lamar
80. NWA – Miguel featuring Kurupt
81. Times Square – Destroyer
82. I Put a Spell on You – Annie Lennox
83. 4 Degrees – ANOHNI
84. Go – The Chemical Brothers featuring Q-Tip
85. Sometimes – Heems
86. Bitch Better Have My Money – Rihanna
87. Runnin’ (Lose It All) – Naughty Boy featuring Beyoncé and Arrow Benjamin
88. Smooth Sailin’ – Leon Bridges
89. Hell – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
90. Simple Things – Miguel
91. Shivers – Courtney Barnett
92. Tom’s Diner – Giorgio Moroder featuring Britney Spears
93. Trap Queen – Fetty Wap
94. Tell Your Friends – The Weeknd
95. L$D – A$AP Rocky
96. These Walls – Kendrick Lamar featuring Bilal, Anna Wise and Thundercat
97. Love is Free – Robyn & La Bagatelle Magique
98. Country Down – Beck
99. Better in the Morning – Little Boots
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The Beastie Boys Parody That Changed Rock And Roll
In 1986, a group that started out as a punk rock quartet released a single that mocked party anthems, and in doing so made music history.
The group is the Beastie Boys and the song is “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!).” Per the group’s late founder, Adam “MCA” Yauch, “the song began as a goof on dumb rock songs” and a satire of drunken frat boys and the like. The trio recorded vocals and their friend, Rick Rubin, who produced Run-D.M.C.’s rock/rap breakthrough album Raising Hell, added loud drums and guitars. An iconic video was shot and received a lot of airtime on MTV.
“Fight for Your Right” took off. In early 1987 it reached #7 on Billboard’s Hot 100, the group’s only top ten single. It was hugely popular with the audience at whom it poked fun. Lamented the group’s Michael “Mike D” Diamond, “The only thing that upsets me is that we might have reinforced certain values of some people in our audience when our own values were actually totally different. There were tons of guys singing along to ‘Fight for Your Right’ who were oblivious to the fact it was a total goof on them.”
“Fight for Your Right” brought hip hop to the suburbs, with bored kids finding the same rebellion in rap that they did in punk. It is on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Among other accolades, it was named one of its release year’s top singles by the Village Voice, New Music Express and Record Mirror, and was later named one of the 100 Greatest Singles Of The Post-Punk Era by Uncut, one of the 100 Greatest Songs Of All Time by Q, and one of 1000 Songs Everyone Must Hear by The Guardian.
The album from which “Fight for Your Right” was taken, Licensed to Ill, became the first rap album to hit #1 in the United States. It remained at the top of the album chart for seven weeks, becoming the best-selling hip-hop album of the 1980s.
As today is the 49th birthday of Beastie Boy Adam “King Ad-Rock” Horovitz, Tunes du Jour celebrates with a playlist of twenty of the trio’s best.
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My Birthday Advice: Don’t!
Today is my birthday. Over my 25+ years on earth, I’ve learned many life lessons. Most of them came from songs. My birthday gift to you is a playlist of 100 songs offering advice as to what not to do.
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