Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 45
Chart Week: July 3, 1982Song: “Hurts So Good” – John CougarChart Position: #5, 11th week on the chart. Peaked at #2 for four weeks in August. This entry is about how the biological information Casey Kasem shared on American Top 40 was not always accurate. John Cougar (Mellencamp) is the perfect artist to demonstrate this point, as he charted under…
40 at 50
I missed an absolutely huge anniversary over the holiday weekend and have been grievously late in finally getting to it. Last weekend was the 50th anniversary of the first American Top 40 broadcast. If you follow here closely you know that there has likely been no bigger pop culture influence on my life than AT40. I remember my parents and…
Friday Playlist
“Light in the Heart of Our Town” – Joensuu 1685This Finnish band created some buzz about 10 years ago then splintered into side projects. They are back after that long fallow period and arrive with this absolutely gorgeous song “same mistakes” – We Were Promised JetpacksAlong with label mates The Twilight Sad, WWPJ practice a wonderfully miserable brand of Scottish…
Reaching for the Stars, Vol. 44
Chart Week: June 23, 1984Song: “Obscene Phone Caller” – RockwellChart Position: #39, 8th week on the chart. Peaked at #35 the week of June 30. I have always prided myself for knowing minor hits by artists who have been labeled as One Hit Wonders by the general public. Others find this trait annoying, but it’s kind of too late to…
Friday Playlist
As promised, a playlist for the holiday weekend. This is the same PL I shared last year on July 4. I listened to it again this week and still thought it was pretty good. I hope you enjoy it, and have a happy and safe Independence Day weekend.
New Jams for Your Head
I’m about to check out for the holiday weekend. I’ll post a special playlist for the weekend on Friday. Before I step back for a few days, I thought I’d provide some more music recommendations. So here are a few good albums from the first six months of 2020. If you have free time over the next few days, open…
Friday Playlist
Another longer set of music this week. “Find Your Way Back Home” – Neil Finn featuring Stevie Nicks and & Christine McVie The whole Neil Finn replacing Lyndsey Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac thing is so odd that I kind of refuse to believe that it actually happened. But Finn leveraged that to get his two most famous new bandmates to…
Friday Playlist
It looks like it has been nearly a month since I shared new music in a Friday post. That has left quite a backlog. So let’s get caught up with a mega-playlist to take us into Father’s Day weekend. “Carousels” – Doves. The first new Doves song in over a decade, and it does not disappoint. Sounds mature yet maintains…
Ten Influential Albums
I think I’m done with Facebook for awhile. I’m not a huge user to begin with. But over the past week I’ve been disappointed at both Mark Zuckerberg’s continued stance that FB has no role to play in reining in posts that are meant to deliberately mislead people and spread lies and with a few friends who have posted/shared things…
Friday Playlist
Another week in the books that was a little worse than the week before. I don’t know what the end point is, when things will start getting better, but I fear where the next worst week will take us. For this week’s playlist, some songs that both sum up what’s happening and how I feel about it. Not the most…