.38 Special played a show in Green Bay on Friday night. My friend Mike mentioned on Facebook earlier that day that he was going to it. I responded:
“.38 Special has a surprisingly good Christmas record, ‘A Wild-Eyed Christmas Night,’ released more than 20 years ago. If they play some cuts from it, keep an open mind and enjoy!”
Good memories of that record, shared here 13 holiday seasons ago.
Stopped by our local Barnes & Noble store on Friday afternoon. I don’t often go to big-box stores, but at the moment B&N is the only place in town to get MOJO magazine. Wandered into the record and DVD section, where I saw this:
This is a record I bought on a whim 16 years ago. I have two copies of it, one mono, one stereo. Can’t imagine I paid more than $10 for the two of them combined.
But here we have a reissue, “a Barnes & Noble exclusive” that’s “mastered for vinyl from the original tapes” with “extensive liner notes.” It’s “clear with red ‘Santa’ swirl” and “limited to 500 copies!” Yours for just $29.99. Hm.
When I bought my first copy just after Christmas 2007, I thought it might be cheesy, but it’s pretty good. It’s a bit of a time capsule, with Steve and Eydie serving up a bubbly, sophisticated slice of the seemingly lost art of the pop duet, done in the finest nightclub tradition.
Good memories of this record, also shared here 13 holiday seasons ago. The cover track is a sexy, sassy duet written by Bill and Patty Jacob, orchestrated by Don Guercio and arranged by the great Don Costa.
On Saturday night, we drove down to Manitowoc, a half-hour away, to see a delightful exhibit of vintage aluminum Christmas trees, which were made there from the late ’50s to the early ’70s.
We popped into a nearby tavern for a bite to eat before the talk and tour. The local classic rock station was piped into the bar. As we walked out, we were greeted with this delightful blast of holiday spirit.
Good memories of this record, shared here 14 holiday seasons ago. “Deck the Halls” meets Mitch Ryder and James Brown on this rave-up by a young Bob Seger and one of his earliest Detroit bands.
WXPN, the fine public radio station out of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, has been asking listeners to help pick the 885 greatest songs by women artists.
(Why 885 songs? WXPN is 88.5 FM. They’ll play them all on their annual end-of-year countdown.)
I thought about it for a few days, then waded in at pretty much the last minute. Went through all my LPs and compiled a preliminary list of a couple of dozen songs by women. Then I trimmed that list to 10 songs and filed my ballot on the last possible evening. Deadlines spur action, you know.
We were asked to rank our top 10 songs, with 1 the best and so on.
Here’s my list. Yours will be different. Mine is highly subjective, 10 songs I like, not the 10 greatest songs of all time.
10. “California Nights,” Lesley Gore, 1967. I dig Lesley Gore, and she sang this on “Batman.” A moonlit slice of mid-’60s pop co-written by Marvin Hamlisch.
9. “Lady Marmalade,” Labelle, 1974. A powerhouse, produced by Allen Toussaint and sung by Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash. Such a great song that Pink, Christina Aguilera, Mya and Lil’ Kim — along with Missy Elliott — memorably covered it for the “Moulin Rouge” soundtrack more than 25 years later, in 2001.
8. “Oh Happy Day,” the Edwin Hawkins Singers with Dorothy Morrison on lead vocals, 1968. A great pop gospel song. I picked the original over the Aretha Franklin/Mavis Staples version from Aretha’s “One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism” LP from almost 20 years later, 1987.
7. “Free Your Mind,” En Vogue, 1992. Funk meets metal, delivering a message that remains necessary to this day, more than 30 years later, sung fiercely by Terry Ellis, Dawn Robinson, Cindy Herron and Maxine Jones.
6. “Put A Little Love In Your Heart,” Jackie DeShannon, 1969. Another song 12-year-old me heard on WLS out of Chicago while cruising The Circuitin Janesville, Wisconsin,with my older cousins. Such a great song that it was a hit all over again when Annie Lennox and Al Green covered it almost 20 years later, in 1988.
5. “Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart,” the Supremes, 1966. Hadn’t heard this upbeat, lighter-than-air piece of Motown pop until introduced to it by my friend Larry Grogan not all that long ago. Quickly became a favorite, as did the LP from which it comes — “The Supremes A’ Go-Go.” (That said, I’m still not a huge Supremes fan.)
4. “The Nitty Gritty,” Gladys Knight and the Pips, 1969. When I learned that Gladys Knight got down to the real nitty gritty and wasn’t just the elegant pop singer of “Midnight Train to Georgia,” well, that blew my mind.
3. “Friendship Train,” Gladys Knight and the Pips, 1969. Yeah, I really dig Gladys Knight as produced by Norman Whitfield. Here, she comes out smoking again, and like En Vogue, delivers a message that remains necessary to this day, more than 50 years later.
2. “Turn The Beat Around,” Vicki Sue Robinson, 1976. Just try to sit still if this song is playing. Its Latin-tinged beat was a breath of fresh air on the dance floors of 1976 (and yes, I remember the dance floors of 1976). Such a great song that it was a hit all over again for Gloria Estefan almost 20 years later, in 1994.
1. “One Less Bell To Answer,” the 5th Dimension with Marilyn McCoo on lead vocals, 1970. It starts cool but turns into a scorcher of a torch song. Marilyn McCoo is such a powerful, evocative and versatile singer. Written by the legendary team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David.
Tough to leave off any of the other women artists on my working list: Bananarama, Barbara Lynn, Bobbie Gentry, Carlene Carter, Donna Summer, Tina Turner, Tracey Ullman, Martha Wash and Izora Armstead (the Weather Girls), Annie Lennox (with Eurythmics), Joan Jett (with the Blackhearts), Petula Clark, Chaka Khan (with Rufus), Aretha Franklin, Mavis Staples and Nancy Sinatra.
Even had one last moment of indecision when my friend Larry Grogan played the Marvelettes’ “He Was Really Sayin’ Something” on his Funky 16 Corners streaming show last night. Oh, that’s a good one, too.
Then you have great and/or interesting and/or fun women artists who didn’t make either of my lists (and this, too, is far from complete): Dolly Parton, Kate Bush, Alison Moyet, Freda Payne, Dionne Warwick, Betty Everett, Nina Simone, Betty Wright, Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde (with the Pretenders), Debbie Harry (and Blondie), Bonnie Raitt, Erma Franklin, Carolyn Franklin, Darlene Love, Mary Wells, Kim Weston, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Merrilee Rush, the Donnas, Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson (with Heart), Shirley Bassey, Lea Roberts, Merry Clayton, Kim Shattuck (with the Pandoras and the Muffs), Gayle McCormick (with Smith), Chi Coltrane, Janis Joplin, Honey Cone, the Three Degrees, the Sweet Inspirations, Laura Nyro, Laurie Anderson, Melanie, Dusty Springfield, Millie Jackson, the Pointer Sisters, Sharon Jones, Linda Ronstadt, Wanda Jackson, Cher, Dee Dee Sharp, Ann Peebles, hell, even Charo. My friend Jerry probably would put 10 Francoise Hardy songs on his list.
Ask me tomorrow and my top 10 list might be entirely different. But I will be interested to see where my 10 songs wind up among the 885 songs in XPN’s year-end countdown.
Reader’s note: My friend Charlie over at Bloggerhythms has been all in on this, writing a series of solid blog posts about the top 10 songs by women artists on his ballot. Go check them out.
From a car-crazy southern Wisconsin town in the late ’60s, a love story.
Deb and Jer were a year apart at Janesville High School — Jer in the Class of ’66, Deb in the Class of ’67 as it became Janesville Craig High School.
Back then, Janesville was home to a GM assembly plant. Big car culture. Summer nights were meant for cruising The Circuit, a long, rectangular loop of one-way streets that went over the Rock River and back again.
I gotta think Deb and Jer spent some nights courting on The Circuit before they were married. Didn’t everyone in Janesville? Their wedding in the late summer of 1969 is the first one I remember going to. I was 12. My youngest brother, then 5, was the ring bearer.
Deb and Jer were married for 54 years until he died earlier this month. Five kids, 10 grandkids, four great-grandkids. Jer was 75 and had been undergoing treatment for lymphoma for the past year. Deb is my cousin, so we were all together in Janesville on Sunday to celebrate Jer’s life.
During his memorial service, I was surprised — and then not at all surprised once I gave it some thought — to hear echoes of the Top 40 hits that poured out of those car radios tuned to WLS. Echoes of a wonderful time in their lives.
“My Love” by Petula Clark was the first of the songs chosen by Deb for Jer.
As the memorial service came to a close, another reminder of their love: “I Got You Babe,” by Sonny and Cher.
Perfect choices from a perfect time in their lives.
Jer will forever be in Deb’s heart. Right there next to muscle cars.
Eight years ago, Deb got herself another one, a 50th anniversary Mustang. Jer enjoyed teaching everyone in the family how to drive stick shift on it.
That’s it, parked in our driveway with me at the wheel, Evan in the front passenger seat and Jer good-naturedly sitting in the back seat. He didn’t need to teach me how to drive stick, but he came along anyway.
Here, in its entirety, is my review of the Tina Turner tribute channel on SiriusXM:
Too much nice and easy. Not enough nice and rough.
If you tune in to SiriusXM Channel 49 through this Friday (June 2), you’ll hear a playlist with lots from Tina’s solo career and considerably less from her Ike and Tina career. I get it.
My friend Larry Grogan said pretty much everything I wanted to say about that on last night’s Funky 16 Corners Radio Show, “a tribute to the mighty Tina Turner.”
“Most of the world knows her by her 1980s resurgence as a solo superstar, and there’s even another part of the world that only knows her from, say, ‘Proud Mary’ on in the late 1960s.
“Ike and Tina Turner were working together from the very earliest part of the 1960s, making some of the greatest R&B and soul records of the era, period. Her vocal through that time makes her one of the preeminent female vocalists of the classic soul era. Just an absolute monument to her power and nuance. Just absolutely an amazing, amazing singer.”
That neatly sums up SiriusXM’s priorities in programming its Tina Turner channel. Play all the songs that most of the world knows. Play some of the lesser-known songs. Either way, make people happy, which is good.
I came in with that other part of the world, having had “Proud Mary” blow my 12-year-old mind upon seeing it performed on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in early 1970 or my 13-year-old mind upon its release as a single in early 1971.
I also got swept up in the big wave of her resurgence in the ’80s, then started exploring that earliest third level some 20 years ago as I got back into collecting records and rounded up all the Ike and Tina albums I could find. These 16 albums, dating from 1965 to 1985, upper left to lower right.
Larry opened his show with 9 scorching minutes of Ike and Tina live from a 1966 film, part of a half-hour set that also featured Tina live (from the 1965 record at upper left) and three from The Ikettes.
I listened to four hours of the Tina Turner channel while in the car this afternoon. Larry’s set and SiriusXM overlapped only with “Something’s Got a Hold on Me” from that same 1965 “Live!” record (and played only once in 21 hours today).
Of the 16 Ike and Tina records seen above, Sirius XM has played cuts from at least six of them on the tribute channel today. So give it a listen in the next couple of days. If you’re patient, you’ll hear a wee bit of the good vintage stuff.
Paul McCartney wrote “When I’m Sixty-Four” when he was 14.
From that vantage point, 64 must have seemed ancient, almost unthinkable. Paul turned 79 just three days ago. Perhaps now he just smiles knowingly at what 14-year-old Paul was thinking.
It was written in 1956, a time before the Beatles and a time before me. I came along a year later.
Today is my birthday. I am 64. I don’t feel 64. Maybe 24.
Every day, though, I’m reminded that none of us are getting any younger. B-Side Records in Madison, Wisconsin, does a daily history post on Facebook, highlighting a record released on that day and then the day’s birthdays.
The record of the day for this June 21: “The self-titled debut by Unknown Mortal Orchestra,” released on this day in 2011. It’s a “neo-psych-pop project” by New Zealand musician Ruban Nielson that came after his punk band The Mint Chicks broke up. Not knowing any of that makes me feel a little older.
The birthdays are listed in chronological order from oldest to youngest. It usually turns out that the artists who are dead or older than me are the ones I know best. Once they start getting younger than me, then it’s hit or miss.
The June 21 birthdays: “Jon Hiseman (Colosseum) b. 1944; Augustus Pablo b. 1954; Lil Bub b. 2011; Lalo Schifrin is 89; Eddie Adcock is 83; Eumir Deodato is 78; Ray Davies (The Kinks) is 77; Joey Molland (Badfinger) is 74; Greg Munford (Strawberry Alarm Clock) is 72; Joey Kramer (Aerosmith) is 71; Alan Silson (Smokie) and Nils Lofgren (Grin / E Street Band) are 70; Mark Brzezicki (Big Country) is 64; Marcella Detroit (Shakespear’s Sister) and Kathy Mattea are 62; Manu Chao (Mano Negra) and Sascha Koneitzko (KMFDM) and Kip Winger (Winger) are 60; Pat Sansone (Wilco / The Autumn Defense) is 52; Eric Reed and Pete Rock and Bill Borowski (Knuckel Drager / Charlemagne) are 51; Juliette Lewis (Juliette and the Licks) is 48; Neely Jenkins (Tilly and the Wall) is 47; Mike Einziger (Incubus) is 45; Brandon Flowers (The Killers) is 40; Lana Del Rey is 36.”
Today is a good day. I know most of those who are 64 or older, or dead. Of the younger crowd, I know Marcella Detroit, Kathy Mattea, Kip Winger, Juliette Lewis, Brandon Flowers and Lana Del Rey. Not knowing about the rest, well, that also makes me feel a little older. I’ll get over it.
Fun fact: The Beatles didn’t record “When I’m Sixty-Four” until 1966. That’s 10 years after it was written. Even then, 24-year-old Paul probably just smiled knowingly at what 14-year-old Paul was thinking.
“When I’m Sixty-Four (Take 2),” from Side 4. Recorded Dec. 6, 1966.
From the liner notes: “The foundation of the track was established by recording onto track one: bass played by Paul, kick drum and hi-hat by Ringo (Starr) and electric guitar from John (Lennon); track two contained piano by Paul; track three had Ringo’s brushes on a snare drum and Paul’s vocal was on track four. In later sessions, clarinets, tubular bells and vocals were added. When the song was mixed, the tape was played back at a higher speed. As a result, the key rose by a semitone. On this disc, take two is heard at its normal speed in the original key of C.”
These are mp3s from my collection, taken from vinyl whenever possible. Enjoy. All music presented here is shared under the premise of fair use. This blog is solely intended for the purpose of education, a place for me to tell stories and write about music and cultural history. If you are a rights holder to any of the music presented and wish for it to be removed, please email me directly and it will be taken down.
About the words
The text is copyright 2007-2024, Jeff Ash. Text from other sources, when excerpted, is credited.
AM, Then FM 