Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 67
Chart Week: January 12, 1985 Song: “The Boys of Summer” – Don Henley Chart Position: #16, 10th week on the chart. Peaked at #5 the week of February 9. You might wonder why I spend a few hours each week listening to re-broadcasts of a 40-ish year-old radio show that features songs I can listen to literally whenever I want.…
Friday Playlist
This week features a song that choked me up and an oldie I’m guessing most of you won’t remember. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6o14w4OebmqlOXpDNmjBaX?si=ec15a77caad44f7b “Wishbone” – Husbands A cool post-post-post-post punk track by a duo from Oklahoma. With guest vocals from a third Sooner State artist. Doing my best to push emerging artists from Big 12 country! “Everything Is Simple” – Widowspeak “Everything is…
Friday Playlist
Some terrific new songs and RIP to one of the biggest names in the history of popular music. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5i35EIhow8Gwq3XGKFYLAO?si=a4ae2c77c12640e6 “Wild” – Spoon Spoon never, ever release a bad single. That doesn’t mean every single is great, but they always hold my attention for a week or two. This, however, is a great single, as good as anything they’ve done in…
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 66
Chart Week: January 10, 1981 Song: “More Than I Can Say” – Leo Sayer Chart Position: #10, 16th week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for five weeks. (I will be adding an element to these posts moving forward. I’m going to copy my man Tom Breihan and rate each song using his 10-point scale.) One of the only bummers…
Friday Playlist
There is an unintentional theme to this week’s playlist. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/51nkHVdwuXbJRobCtqcCcT?si=a75a586dc8614e4a “Tunnels” – Weakened Friends A huge, crunchy very 90s song about getting your heart broken. It’s awesome. “Lo Lo Lonely” – Young Guv YG returns in March with a double album filled with his take on power pop. I know Matthew Sweet put out an album last year. I didn’t…
Friday Playlist
It’s been awhile since we’ve had a normal Friday playlist. Might as well wrap up 2020 by getting back into the routine of sharing good music with friends on Fridays. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ylMbTT4eZud6taHU7f0tf?si=eebec8a3a2134a9a “Maelstrom” – Melts I’ve been sitting on this one for awhile. Turns out it is perfect to save for New Year’s Eve, as it is about a getting caught…
Favorite Songs of 2021
We’ve made it to another year-end list of my favorite songs of the past twelve (-ish) months. Usually I start working on these rankings in early October. This year I didn’t put any real work into it until after we returned from Hawaii on December 1. Some of that was because my working list was about as tight as it…
Getting Back
Over the weekend I knocked out all of The Beatles: Get Back. A few observations and thoughts about Peter Jackson’s nearly eight-hour documentary of the January 1969 Beatles studio sessions. I’m pretty sure I saw the original movie that was made from the film shot at those sessions, Let It Be, years ago. When I first saw the trailer for…
Friday Playlist
Like the good little elf that I am, I’ve been hard at work on my Favorite Songs of the Year list since we returned from Hawaii. My goal is to publish it the middle of next week. As has become tradition, I will offer this prelude: my favorite songs for each year since 2004. These are in chronological order, so…
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 65
Chart Week: December 10, 1977 Song: “Here You Come Again” – Dolly Parton Chart Position: #12, 9th week on the chart. Peaked at #3 for two weeks in January, 1978. This edition features another musician origin story.[1] I really like this one; hope you do, too. It is a tiny miracle that anyone becomes a recording star. There are, what,…