"You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" is a popular song written by Cole Porter for the 1943 film Something to Shout About, where it was introduced by Janet Blair and Don Ameche. The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1943 but lost to "You'll Never Know".
Today's tune is performed by Helen Merrill, taken from her self titled debut studio album, on which she is accompanied by trumpeter Clifford Brown in arrangements by Quincy Jones. Brown had recorded a similar album with Sarah Vaughan only a few days previously, on December 16 and 18, 1954.
In 1995, Merrill recorded a tribute album to Brown, who had been killed in a car accident in 1956, the year after their collaborative album was released.
Helen Merrill (born Jelena Ana Milcetic; July 21, 1930) is an American jazz vocalist. Her first album, the eponymous 1954 recording Helen Merrill (with Clifford Brown), was an immediate success and associated her with the first generation of bebop jazz musicians. After an active 1950s and 1960s, Merrill spent time recording and touring in Europe and Japan, falling into obscurity in the United States. In the 1980s and '90s, she was under contract with Verve and her performances in America revived her profile. Known for her emotional, sensual vocal performances, her career continues in its sixth decade with concerts and recordings.
Today's version was filmed at Festival de Jazz d'Antibes Juan-les-Pins, France July 1960
Betty Harris (born September 9, 1939 in Orlando, Florida, United States) is an American soul singer. Her recording career in the 1960s produced three hit singles that made the U.S. Billboard R&B and Billboard Hot 100 charts: "Cry to Me" (1963), "His Kiss" (1964) and "Nearer to You" (1967). However, her reputation among soul music connoisseurs far exceeds her commercial success of the 1960s, and her recordings for the Jubilee and Sansu record labels are highly sought after in the 2000s by fans of Southern Soul, Northern soul and deep soul.
Soul Jazz Records' fantastic collection Betty Harris' "The Lost Queen of New Orleans Soul" available in new one-off limited-edition heavyweight gatefold special edition green vinyl coloured pressing + download code exclusively for Record Store Day 2022!
Betty Harris's powerful, fiery soulful vocals found a perfect accompaniment with the New Orleans' players that Toussaint put together to back her, which by the time of her funk classic 'There's A Break In The Road' were the legendary super-tight, super-funk New Orleans group THE METERS.
With the extraordinary song-writing skills of Allen Toussaint alongside the powerful, soaring, confident and emotive singer and the groove of THE METERS, you have an unbeatable combination. That Harris never, in fact, lived in New Orleans (she flew in from Florida for all her sessions with Toussaint's local in-house players) seems almost an irrelevance, a geographical aside to the defining New Orleans sound captured on the recordings featured here.
All of these singles featured here were released on Allen Toussaint and his business partner Marshal Sehorn's local New Orleans label Sansu, widely distributed in the southern city but in only limited quantities elsewhere. As a consequence, Betty Harris' music failed to achieve the commercial success of other New Orleans artists such as Lee Dorsey (whom she recorded with) and THE METERS (who backed her). And so at the end of the decade, she stopped recording, retired from the music business to raise her family in Florida.
This is no reflection of the stunning musical quality of all these songs which encompass everything from southern soul, heavy funk, deep soul ballads and northern soul. Betty Harris has been a cornerstone of Soul Jazz Records' New Orleans Funk and New Orleans Soul compilations. Always soulful and always funky, Betty Harris' music contains the essence of New Orleans music. She is the Lost Soul Queen of New Orleans.
Today's tune "Ride Your Pony" is taken from the "The Lost Queen of New Orleans Soul", enjoy today's classic.
"You were all I lived for, I guess my life is through
I've been living so long, a year has gone
Lonely Sunday morning, rest in peace, my love
You been sleeping so long, a year has gone"
That's part of the song line of today's classic tune "A Year", a really great piece by the English rock band STATUS QUO, a tune that don't follow the traditional STATUS boogie rock.
"A Year" is taken from the fifth studio album "Piledriver", released in 1972. It was the first album to be produced by the group themselves, and their first on the Vertigo label. It peaked at number five in the UK and included several favourites that would be frequently featured in live concerts.
In a retrospective review, AllMusic applauded the album as both crowd-pleasing and moderately ambitious, commenting that "Despite the name, most of the music on "Piledriver" is varied and subtle enough to be interesting." They particularly praised "A Year" and "Big Fat Mama". The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau asserted that the band had no decent singer or guitarist, and criticized their attempts at ballads and blues as "boring".
"A Year" was written by Alan Charles Lancaster, best known as a founding member and bassist of the rock band STATUS QUO, playing with the band from 1967 to 1985, with brief reunions in 2013 and 2014. As well as contributing to songwriting, he was also one of the lead vocalists on albums and live concerts, taking the lead on tracks such as "Backwater", "Is There a Better Way", "Bye Bye Johnny", "High Flyer" and "Roadhouse Blues".
"Dreamline" is a song by the Canadian rock band RUSH. It was released as a single and on their 1991 album "Roll The Bones". The song peaked at number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and was a staple for live performances by RUSH, having been performed on every tour from the inaugural "Roll The Bones Tour" until the 2010 and 2011 "Time Machine Tour", when it was dropped. It was performed during the subsequent "Clockwork Angels Tour", where it was accompanied by the "Clockwork Angels" string ensemble and a video with a dedication to Neil Armstrong. It was dropped again on the 2015 "R40 Tour". In live performances, the bridge was extended to incorporate a solo by Alex Lifeson.
Bassist and singer Geddy Lee said: "I love the spirit of "Dreamline" and the way Neil captures that feeling of wanderlust and invulnerability that comes in a particular trying time in your life."
Martin Popoff said that the song is "strafed by a crouching-then-striking verse and clouds-breaking chorus. It is a track that proved to be strong enough to open the "Different Stages" live album seven years later and then stay tenaciously in the set for the "Vapor Trails Tour"."
AllMusic writer Eduardo Rivadavia called the song "gutsy" and also said that "Dreamline" is one of their best songs from the '90s.
"Ship Of Fools" is a rock song performed by English rock singer Robert Plant. It was the second single released from his 1988 album "Now And Zen", following "Heaven Knows".
"Ship Of Fools" is a love song, pure and simple. The highlight is Robert Plant's singing. He pulls out the best of the tender parts of his range with this one. Plant started making the album with an ambitious vision. He wanted to make the era's electronic music, which was widely considered soulless and plastic, into something that captured the most vital and human aspects of traditional rock and roll and blues. He wanted to be a trailblazer.
In 1988 he told Chuck Eddy of Creem, "I want to cut through radio with a hot knife, this idea where they say, 'We're only gonna play stuff guaranteed on being a big hit.' I wanna stretch it out some. People like Tom Verlaine and Hüsker Dü are making quite important music right now, and people aren't hearing it because it never gets played."
With the success of "Now And Zen", Plant had seemingly achieved his goal. Yet, in 2005 he gave an interview in which he said that the electronic aspects hurt the music. Talking to Nigel Williamson of Uncut ("Good Times, Bad Times," Uncut, May 2005), he said that in hindsight the music feels "lost in the technology of the time." So, he'd done what he intended at the time with "Now And Zen", but later decided that maybe what he intended wasn't all that cool.
Plant wrote this song with Phil Johnstone. On his previous three solo albums, he'd co-written with bandmates Paul Martinez, Jezz Woodroffe, and Robbie Blunt, none of whom played on Now and Zen. Johnstone also co-produced the album with Plant and Tim Palmer.
"Ship Of Fools" was used in "Freefall," the final episode of the '80s crime drama Miami Vice, which aired May 21, 1989. Miami Vice influenced television in many ways, including its use of music. The show didn't use generic made-for-TV stuff but instead spent a lot of money acquiring rights to use top pop songs of the era. Getting a song featured on the show was a significant indicator of '80s-hipdom.
Another hero has left us, Taylor Hawkins, mostly known as the happy drummer in FOO FIGHTERS.
On March 25, 2022, emergency services were called to the Casa Medina hotel in Bogotá, Colombia, where Hawkins was suffering from chest pain in his hotel room. Health personnel arrived and found Hawkins unresponsive; they performed CPR, but he was declared dead at the scene. No cause of death was given.
Hawkins was scheduled to perform with the FOO FIGHTERS that night at the Estéreo Picnic Festival as part of their ongoing South American tour; the festival stage was turned into a candlelight vigil for Hawkins
Taylor Hawkins performing "Somebody to Love" at his last live perfomance along with FOO FIGHTERS, the song was written by the singer/pianist Freddie Mercury from the British rock band QUEEN. It was orginally released on the band's 1976 album "A Day at the Races". Enjoy this clip from Chile 18/03/2022. R.I.P. Taylor! Thanks for the ride!
Here a full show clip with FOO FIGHTERS - Live at Lollapalooza [March 20th, 2022] - In Loving Memory of Oliver Taylor Hawkins
"Hasta Siempre, Comandante," ("Until Forever, Commander" in English) or simply "Hasta Siempre," is a 1965 song by Cuban composer Carlos Puebla. The song's lyrics are a reply to revolutionary Che Guevara's farewell letter when he left Cuba, in order to foster revolution in the Congo and later Bolivia, where he was captured and killed.
The lyrics recount key moments of the Cuban Revolution, describing Che Guevara and his role as a revolutionary commander. The song became iconic after Guevara's death, and many left-leaning artists did their own cover versions of the song afterwards. The title is a part of Guevara's well known saying "¡Hasta la victoria siempre!" ("Until victory, always!").
Like many of the songs of the author and in line with the tradition of the Cuban and Caribbean music, the song consists of a refrain plus a series of five verses (quatrain), rhyming ABBA, with each line written in octosyllabic verse.
The song has been covered numerous times, there are more than 200 versions of this song. The song has also been covered by Compay Segundo, Soledad Bravo, Óscar Chávez, Nathalie Cardone, Robert Wyatt, Nomadi, Inés Rivero, Silvio Rodríguez, Ángel Parra, Celso Piña, Veronica Rapella (whose performance is attributed to Joan Baez by a common mistake), Rolando Alarcón, Los Olimareños, Maria Farantouri, Jan Garbarek, Wolf Biermann, Boikot, Los Calchakis (commonly wrongly attributed to Buena Vista Social Club), George Dalaras, Apurimac, Giovanni Mirabassi and Al Di Meola, Ahmet Koç, Mohsen Namjoo, Enrique Bunbury, Verasy, Interitus Dei among others. Although Victor Jara never sang this song, many attribute the Carlos Puebla version to him by mistake.
So for today we have the Norwegian jazz saxophonist Jan Garbarek's version, along with Rainer Bruninhaus (piano), Eberhard Weber (basse), Marilyn Mazur (percussions), the tune was released on his "Witchi-Tai-To" from 1974. The clip is from Nancy Jazz Pulsations 2004, enjoy!
"Les Fleurs" is a song by American singer-songwriter Minnie Riperton, taken from her debut studio album "Come To My Garden" which was produced, arranged and orchestrated by Charles Stepney and released in 1970 under GRT Records. It was re-released in 1974 on the Janus label, in the same time frame as Riperton's album Perfect Angel and her hit "Lovin' You."
The album was first released on CD in 1990, and has since been made available in digital form. None of the CD editions have material transferred directly from the original master tapes. All CD editions were mastered in UK, USA and other countries using LP records and different noise reduction methods. It is quite possible that original tapes that belonged to GRT were lost forever.
Riperton decided to go solo in the early 1970s, and was introduced to the great jazz composer Ramsey Lewis, who originally wrote a more laid-back version of this song, and it became the opener on Riperton's 1971 debut album, Come To My Garden. With the help of Charles Stepney's orchestration and conducting and more work by Riperton's husband Richard Rudolph, it turns into a grandiose, soaring classic with that gentle rocking rhythm, soaring vocals, and glorious swelling, orgasmic orchestration. The lyrics? A hippie flower track certainly, literally about being a flower, and a certain amount of innuendo too, though nothing like as explicit as her track Inside My Love. Les Fleur was also covered, with great similarity, by the electronic duo 4hero in 2001 on their album Creating Patterns, but below let's also enjoy Ramsey Lewis's piano jazz original from 1968.
"No Moon at All" is a jazz standard written in 1947 by David Mann and Redd Evans.
The version I have for you guys today is with Julie London, she was an American singer and actress whose career spanned more than 40 years. A torch singer noted for her sultry, languid contralto vocals, London recorded over thirty albums of pop and jazz standards between 1955 and 1969. Her recording of "Cry Me a River", a track she introduced on her debut album, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001. In addition to her musical notice, London was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1974 for her portrayal of nurse Dixie McCall in the television series Emergency!.
"No Moon at All" is a track taken from her first album "Julie Is Her Name", released by Liberty Records in December, 1955, under catalog numbers LRP-3006, in monaural form. It was subsequently reprocessed to produce a stereophonic album, and this stereophonic version was released on May 25, 1960 as catalog number LST-7037. The album featured Barney Kessel on guitar and Ray Leatherwood on bass.
"To Hell With Poverty" is a tune by the English post-punk band GANG OF FOUR, formed in 1976 in Leeds.
The tune was released a single in UK but not in US, so the "Another Day/Another Dollar" EP, released in 1982 in the US, by Warner Bros. Records. The release is a compilation of material previously unreleased in the US. The first two tracks were released in the UK as a single. The third track is the b-side of the UK only single "What We All Want," and the last two tracks are excerpted from a live show recorded at the Hammersmith Palais, in London, on 3/30/81. All five songs from the EP later appeared on the EMI Records and Infinite Zero Archive/American Recordings's 1995 CD reissue of the 1981 LP "Solid Gold".
Today's tune "To Hell With Poverty", with an TV live clip of tune, filmed 1980, enjoy!
Sunday, time for a classic. "Love Is A Shield" is a tune taken from "Methods Of Silence", the second album by the German band CAMOUFLAGE, released by Atlantic Records in June 1989. The single "Love Is A Shield" reached position 9 of the German single charts making it CAMOUFLAGE's most successful song.
CAMOUFLAGE is a German synth-pop trio consisting of lead singer Marcus Meyn, Heiko Maile and Oliver Kreyssig.
CAMOUFLAGE set up a new studio, "Boys Factory 2", near their home town before entering the Synsound Studio in Brussels in early 1989 to create "Methods Of Silence". The producer, Dan Lacksman (known for his work with TELEX), used both modern and old technology to create the new album. The band was given more creative freedom due to their previous success.
A review by Allmusic wrote that the album's "material contrasted sharply with the vibrancy of the ensuing decade" referring to the decline of the Synthpop genre at the beginning of the 1990s. The albums was however noted for its sonic precision and a reliance on pop-song structures.
"Kickstart My Heart" is a song by American heavy metal band MÖTLEY CRÜE, originally released on their 1989 album, "Dr. Feelgood". Released as the album's second single in 1989. The track has been used in various media, and was also included on the soundtrack album to the 2019 biographical film "The Dirt" and the official trailer of Battlefield 2042 remixed by 2WEI.
In a 2015 interview, MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx related the origins of "Kickstart My Heart,” which he wrote while the band was already working on "Dr. Feelgood". Sixx was playing acoustic guitar in his house while scribbling words on a piece of paper. When the group’s former manager read the words, he encouraged Sixx to share it with the rest of the band. Sixx was reluctant, but eventually did show the band and the track came together quickly. The phrase "kickstart my heart" supposedly refers to Sixx's overdose incident where a paramedic injected his heart with adrenaline; GUNS N' ROSES drummer Steven Adler disputes the accuracy of the story, saying he revived Sixx before the paramedics arrived. The introduction is a classic example of a Floyd Rose bridge trick, in which Mick Mars drops three consecutive strings resulting in sound similar to a motorcycle shifting gears. The song's ending features a prominent example of talkbox effects.
The video clip was shot at the Whisky a Go Go on October 5, 1989 during MÖTLEY CRÜE's warm-up show before embarking on the "Dr. Feelgood" world tour. Sam Kinison is featured at the start of the video chauffeuring the band to the Whisky in a 1946 Buick ambulance.
As part of their cross-promotion with the MÖTLEY CRÜE Final Tour and to celebrate the song's 25th anniversary in 2014, Dodge remixed the music video, replacing some of the action scenes with footage of Dodge's performance cars on the track.
Today's tune "Kickstart My Heart", taken from the album "Dr. Feelgood", enjoy!
"Life on Mars?" is a song by English singer-songwriter David Bowie, first released on his 1971 album "Hunky Dory". In 1968, Bowie was commissioned to write English lyrics for the Claude François French song "Comme d'habitude". After his lyrics were rejected, songwriter Paul Anka rewrote it into "My Way", which was made famous by singer Frank Sinatra in 1969. Annoyed at the success of "My Way", Bowie used the song as a template and wrote "Life on Mars?" as a parody of Sinatra's recording. Like other songs Bowie wrote during this period, it was written primarily on piano. Recording for "Life on Mars?" took place on 6 August 1971, the final day of the Hunky Dory sessions. Co-produced by Bowie and Ken Scott, the backing band consisted of guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder and drummer Mick Woodmansey; Ronson also composed the song's string arrangement. After failing to acquire pianist Dudley Moore, piano was played by Strawbs member Rick Wakeman.
Musically, "Life on Mars?" is described as a "soaring, cinematic ballad". It is primarily glam rock, with elements of cabaret and art rock. The song has a complex structure, containing different chord changes throughout. The instruments act in tandem with one another and Bowie's vocal, steadily growing throughout its runtime. Lyrically, the song describes a girl who goes to the cinema to escape reality, using numerous surreal images. It thematically reflects optimism and the effects of Hollywood. Despite its title, the song has no connection to Mars itself; it is instead a reference to a then-recent media frenzy between the United States and Soviet Union.
At the height of Bowie's fame as Ziggy Stardust, RCA Records issued "Life on Mars?" as a single on 22 June 1973 in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart and stayed on the chart for thirteen weeks. The single release was promoted by a promotional video shot by photographer Mick Rock, featuring a made-up Bowie in a turquoise suit performing the song against a white backdrop. Bowie performed the song during his concerts frequently throughout his career, performances of which have appeared on several live albums. The song also has appeared on numerous compilation albums and was remixed by Scott in 2003 and 2016, the latter being a 'stripped down' mix. The 2016 mix was accompanied by a remastered and reedited version of Rock's video.
"Life on Mars?" is considered by biographers and reviewers as one of Bowie's finest songs, with many describing it as a masterpiece. Praise is also given to Bowie's vocal performance and growth as a songwriter. Several publications have also considered it one of the greatest songs of all time. The song was the namesake of the British television series Life on Mars and has featured in other films and television shows. Artists who have covered the song include singer Barbra Streisand and Nine Inch Nails members Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The song charted worldwide following Bowie's death in 2016 and became a frequent tribute song for the artist; tributes by Nicholas Freestone and singer Lorde garnered widespread attention.
"I'm So Tired" is a song by American post-hardcore band FUGAZI, taken from the album "Instrument Soundtrack", released 1999.
FUGAZI is an American post-hardcore band that formed in Washington, D.C. in 1986. The band consists of guitarists and vocalists Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, bassist Joe Lally, and drummer Brendan Canty. They are noted for their style-transcending music, DIY ethical stance, manner of business practice, and contempt for the music industry.
The album "Instrument Soundtrack" is a mainly instrumental soundtrack for the documentary (Instrument) about the band produced by the band and filmmaker Jem Cohen. The soundtrack mostly consists of previously unreleased songs and studio outtakes culled from FUGAZI's history to that point, as well as seven demo versions of songs from their proper albums (six from 1998's End Hits and one from 1993's In on the Kill Taker). Of particular note is the song "I'm So Tired", a piano ballad played and sung by Ian MacKaye, which is a significant departure from FUGAZI's usual post-hardcore sound. Enjoy today's tune!
POWERMAD is an American speed metal band, formed in Minneapolis in 1984. The group has been called an "innovative and often forgotten speed metal band...who infused progressive metal styles and European styles into abstract American speed metal." The band's intricate riff formulations were heavily influenced by thrash metal acts like METALLICA and TESTAMENT. Vocalist Joel DuBay's singing is easily recognizable with his mixture of singing and high screams.
Their first and only full-length album until 2015, "Absolute Power", was released in 1989. Other than a US tour opening for OVERKILL, a video featured on MTV of their single "Nice Dreams" and a cameo appearance in the David Lynch film "Wild at Heart" (where they go from playing their own music to Elvis Presley's with Nicolas Cage singing), POWERMAD never achieved notable commercial success. Their releases in the 1980s, however, were critically acclaimed and are considered collectors items today by fans of thrash and speed metal music.
Today's tune "Nice Dreams" is taken from the album "Absolute Power", enjoy!
"Everybody Wants Some!!" is a song by the American hard rock band VAN HALEN it is the second track off their 1980 album "Women And Children First". It is one of the band's most popular songs, starting as a concert highlight throughout the band's early career.
The song is rife with experimental features including a "jungle" drum and Tarzan-like vocal introduction and some new guitar playing techniques from guitarist Eddie Van Halen. The drum-vocal interlude or breakdown section has an improvised feel, with Roth ad-libbing conversational dialogue; for example, he begins the section by saying “I like…” before being cut off by Eddie striking a guitar chord, then finishes "I like the way the line runs up the back of the stockings". At the very end of the song, Roth quips, "Look, I'll pay you for it, what the fuck?" However, the song fades out to where the obscenity is not entirely audible.
The song was a staple on all of the tours with Roth, following its release. Often, the band would stop in the middle of the song and Roth would chat with the crowd for several minutes before finishing the song. In later years, with their later lead singers, VAN HALEN would use the opening drum beat from this song as an introduction into "Panama."
The song appeared in the 1985 comedy Better Off Dead in a humorous Claymation scene. It is also featured in the 2009 horror-comedy Zombieland. The 1999 Judd Apatow-produced comedy Freaks and Geeks featured the song in episode 9, "We've Got Spirit". It is also featured in the 2016 Richard Linklater film Everybody Wants Some!!
The song appeared in the 2001 comedy film Joe Dirt.
"Cycles" is a studio album by American singer Frank Sinatra, released in 1968.
Released just before Christmas in 1968, there was a ten-month gap between the release of Francis A. & Edward K. and this album, which was the longest period in Sinatra's Reprise years in which he did not commercially record music (barring his contributions to The Sinatra Family Wish You a Merry Christmas).
Sinatra sang a variety of folk-rock oriented songs, including Judy Collins' hit "Both Sides Now" (written by Joni Mitchell) and the Glen Campbell hits "Gentle on My Mind" (written by John Hartford) and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" (written by Jimmy Webb). The title song was released as a single, reaching #23 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #2 on the Easy Listening chart, while the album peaked at #18 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Today's tune "Cycles", the title tune from the album, the song was written by (Gayle Caldwell), the song is a really beautiful piece where Franks' voice really dig deep into your heart, enjoy!
