First off: If you are looking at the group name and the song title and you think this is one of The Beach Boys‘ earlier surf songs, DO NOT STOP READING THIS. It’s not. It is, simply, one of the most beautiful and original pop songs ever recorded. By 1966, the idea of Beach Boys […]
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“Do you realize that you have the most beautiful face? Do you realize we’re floating in space?” So begins the most recent song to appear in The Great Songs series. It’s a simple statement that says so much about humanity’s tiny, fragile existence and forms the beginning of multiple musical crescendos that make you want […]
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You knew it was bound to happen. Hell, I’m wondering why it took me 10 weeks to get to this band. Here it is. Let the debate begin. My 10th choice (not ranked, just the 10th “Great Song” I’ve chosen for this series) for a classic, timeless rock n’ roll song is by a band […]
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George Jones has been called the Frank Sinatra of country music. He is the ultimate country crooner and has a voice that sounds like he is in severe emotional pain. By March of 1980, he truly was. His career was in the toilet, his life was a blur of nonstop cocaine and alcohol abuse, his […]
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Sometimes the best tunes come from the spark of an outside collaborator. David Bowie entered the studio to sing backing tracks for a new Queen song, but ended up working with the group on another song called “Still Life.” Eventually that morphed into “Under Pressure,” which was credited to Bowie and all four members of […]
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Producers Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff formed Philadelphia International Records in 1971 to rival the Berry Gordy Motown empire, and the sound of Philly Soul, which had been bubbling for some time, was solidified. “Backstabbers,” from the album of the same name was performed by The O’Jays, but it was written by Huff and the […]
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In June 1967, just after The Beatles recorded “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and Pink Floyd recorded “Piper at the Gates of Dawn” at the same studio, The Zombies entered Abbey Road to record nine songs that would appear on “Odessey and Oracle” (and no, that’s not my misspelling, but one by the album cover’s designer which The […]
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Now that the weather’s getting better, it’s just about time to bring out one of my favorite summer songs. It’s not like a Beach Boys fun-in-the-sun-surfin’-safari summer song or anything like that, though. It’s more of an obtuse, I’m-feeling-kinda-lonely-and-surly song. 1992’s “Summer Babe” was the first song I ever heard by Pavement and it was […]
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Week three of our new series spotlights a song that never, ever gets old. Some how, every time I hear it, it makes me want to sing to the rafters. I suppose it’s as close to a gospel song as I’ll ever have in my life. It’s the lead track off of 1995’s “Tomorrow the […]
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