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,…
Friday Vids
It will take me another week to get back into the swing of things musically, so a couple videos to share today. “Hero Takes a Fall” – The Bangles I read this wonderful interview with Susanna Hoffs this week. In it she said this was the song through which Prince first came to know their music. Which, of course, led…
Friday Vid
“Plowed” – Sponge No time for a full playlist this week, so I did the thing where I randomly scroll through my library and pick something that pops up. This was the third song I landed on, and it seemed appropriate since I heard an unplugged version of it on Sirius yesterday. This is not a song that sounds super…
Friday Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3Gt9kqqRQJtOfDCr56MdrP?si=76d0571ed9c5449a “Luna Moth” – Lola in Slacks Kind of a terrible band name. But this song cooks, so I’ll allow it. “When This Gets Out” – The Persian Leaps Rock ‘n’ roll, bitches! These guys sound like an updated version of The Smithereens… “A Girl Like You” – The Smithereens …this song to be specific. “Oh My God” – Lula…
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 64
Chart Week: November 6, 1976 Song: “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” – Gordon Lightfoot Chart Position: #3, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for two weeks. This entry is cheating a little bit, as I’ve written about this song before. However, I heard not one but two countdowns last weekend that included it, so I take that…
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 63
Chart Week: November 2, 1985 Song: “And We Danced” – The Hooters Chart Position: #23, 13th week on the chart. Peaked at #21 the week of October 26. (Fear not, music trivia fans! After a long dry spell, I’ve got three, maybe four, of these posts queued up for the next couple weeks.) “Who the fuck are The Hooters?” Those…
Friday Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7bC3VpZm4TuiuflZZNJ9C0?si=f34a58c4cfb84ca5 “I Don’t Wanna Wait” – The War on Drugs Not that there was much doubt, but pretty sure based on the past week alone The War on Drugs will be my most listened to artist of the year. The new album, I Don’t Live Here Anymore, is fantastic. I’ll post a review next week where I will share more…