If you thought this post might be be about stupid CEO's and greedy COO's, sorry to disappoint you.
No, this is another one of my goofy not-so-late-night posts about music. Unlike a previous post on the same topic, Genny pounders and paint thinner fumes play no part in this post. Not that this will make the post any better than the last music post.
I'm thinking about songs I heard on the radio over the years that were flat out stiffs, turntable hits or m id-chart hits. They weren't bad songs, in fact, some of them are my favorites... I even bought a few. But for the most part, some of the songs I'm about to describe might be thought of as stiffs.
Let's start with a song that brings back memories of being marooned at camp in the Poconos, listening at night to what probably was WABC, but could have been WARM Scranton or WILK Wiles Barre. I don't think this one made it on KB. It was 64 or 65 and "Mixed Up Shook Up Girl" was playing on my Zenith 8 transistor AM only radio. Patty and The Emblems sang the song and I thought she had a glorious voice. I also dug the horns. This is one of those songs you'd like to hear covered these days but only by a woman who can belt it out with a ten ton voice and do it justice.
Only last year, while walking through a shopping mall in Oneonta, New York did I hear this song again and it stopped me in my tracks. You know that slogan that oldies stations used every three minute, "Good Time, Great Oldies?" It was an immediate zone-out to the scent of mountain pines, cold showers (because the only hot water was in the kitchen) and all too heavy pancake breakfasts every day for a week. What a great sensation!
Next up, "Morning Girl" by the Neon Philharmonic, from around 69 or 70. This is one of those ersatz hook-up tunes that made guys wonder who the girl in the song might have been and what she looked like... just before turning it off. I liked the harpsichord intro and the over-orchestrated outro which was played by members of the Nashville Symphony. The lyrics were sappy.
Everybody knows Edwin Starr from his 1970 monster, "War" ("What is it good for? Absolutely nothin', huhhh! Say it again!"), but Starr also had a groovy little tune in 1965 called "Agent Double-O Soul." This song is full of bravado and it's a hoot. When I first heard it, I thought it was from the sound track of one of those Double-0-7 spy movies... later, when I became a little too hip for the room, I thought it was a parody. I've accepted that it's just a song. And a cool time piece song at that.
Then, there's a silky little song called "Suavecito" done by Jorge Santana, one of Carlos Santana's brothers playing with a group called Malo. This song may not have impressed many people, but I think its groovy latin riff and arrangement makes it a good cruisin'-late-at-night-with-the-windows-down tune.
"More" -Kai Winding. One of those songs that parents didn't mind listening to when it played on their kids' favorite Top 40 station. This song isn't any where near as aggressive as those great Ventures instrumentals, "Walk Don't Run" and "Perfidia." It's more uptempo than Santo & Johnny's elegant "Sleepwalk" and it has a similar drive as the Toronado's "Telstar." It just occurs that I've riffed through five pretty cool intrumentals in this paragraph. Here's number six, "Apache" by Jorgen Ingmann (and his guitar). The subtle flip-back on the guitar strings on the intro gives me the chills. It's just that cool.
Todd Rundgren has always been one of my favorite writers, producers and vocalists. Not a great voice, but a great singer-interpreter of lyrics, usually his own. I'd put him in the Marvin Gaye category in this regard. "I Saw The Light" is one of those absolutely superb energetic intro songs that all jocks like to talk up and then feel guilty about talking over atruly great part of the song. And does it ever sound great coming out of a jingle! This is a song that also had one of the better KB Pop Tops. "Hey there bay-bee, guess you're just listenin' to KB..."
"All I Want" Toad The Wet Sprocket. This is a song that was a hit around 1991. It has a neat cord progression (or what I think is a cord progression, I'm not a musician) and I always associate it with picking up a good friend (who has four college degrees) from re-hab and bringing him home after he falls off the wagon (again.) While listening to the song on a Rochester FM station, we both sing the chorus, "All I Want" and he modifies the lyrics and sings "is one more brew" then says introspectively, "I wish I could drink only one," and continues with the AA mantra, "but one's too many and a hundred's not enough." Last I checked, this guy is sober and teaching at one of the colleges. His students don't know how lucky they are to have this guy imparting information to them.
"Voices" -Russ Ballard, around 1983-84. Didn't even break the Top 100, but what a neat arrangement and driving bass, nicely married to a crisp drum in this song. Horns in the bridge and on the outro. It was used in an episode of Miami Vice, that "MTV with cops" program which feature Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas... high powered speed boats and lotsa ladies with very little clothing.
That's it. Hope you've enjoyed the ride. This is where I get off. Feel free to add to the list or rip the writer. Yeesh, these songs are so all over the road that I may have started another Legends thread.
No, this is another one of my goofy not-so-late-night posts about music. Unlike a previous post on the same topic, Genny pounders and paint thinner fumes play no part in this post. Not that this will make the post any better than the last music post.
I'm thinking about songs I heard on the radio over the years that were flat out stiffs, turntable hits or m id-chart hits. They weren't bad songs, in fact, some of them are my favorites... I even bought a few. But for the most part, some of the songs I'm about to describe might be thought of as stiffs.
Let's start with a song that brings back memories of being marooned at camp in the Poconos, listening at night to what probably was WABC, but could have been WARM Scranton or WILK Wiles Barre. I don't think this one made it on KB. It was 64 or 65 and "Mixed Up Shook Up Girl" was playing on my Zenith 8 transistor AM only radio. Patty and The Emblems sang the song and I thought she had a glorious voice. I also dug the horns. This is one of those songs you'd like to hear covered these days but only by a woman who can belt it out with a ten ton voice and do it justice.
Only last year, while walking through a shopping mall in Oneonta, New York did I hear this song again and it stopped me in my tracks. You know that slogan that oldies stations used every three minute, "Good Time, Great Oldies?" It was an immediate zone-out to the scent of mountain pines, cold showers (because the only hot water was in the kitchen) and all too heavy pancake breakfasts every day for a week. What a great sensation!
Next up, "Morning Girl" by the Neon Philharmonic, from around 69 or 70. This is one of those ersatz hook-up tunes that made guys wonder who the girl in the song might have been and what she looked like... just before turning it off. I liked the harpsichord intro and the over-orchestrated outro which was played by members of the Nashville Symphony. The lyrics were sappy.
Everybody knows Edwin Starr from his 1970 monster, "War" ("What is it good for? Absolutely nothin', huhhh! Say it again!"), but Starr also had a groovy little tune in 1965 called "Agent Double-O Soul." This song is full of bravado and it's a hoot. When I first heard it, I thought it was from the sound track of one of those Double-0-7 spy movies... later, when I became a little too hip for the room, I thought it was a parody. I've accepted that it's just a song. And a cool time piece song at that.
Then, there's a silky little song called "Suavecito" done by Jorge Santana, one of Carlos Santana's brothers playing with a group called Malo. This song may not have impressed many people, but I think its groovy latin riff and arrangement makes it a good cruisin'-late-at-night-with-the-windows-down tune.
"More" -Kai Winding. One of those songs that parents didn't mind listening to when it played on their kids' favorite Top 40 station. This song isn't any where near as aggressive as those great Ventures instrumentals, "Walk Don't Run" and "Perfidia." It's more uptempo than Santo & Johnny's elegant "Sleepwalk" and it has a similar drive as the Toronado's "Telstar." It just occurs that I've riffed through five pretty cool intrumentals in this paragraph. Here's number six, "Apache" by Jorgen Ingmann (and his guitar). The subtle flip-back on the guitar strings on the intro gives me the chills. It's just that cool.
Todd Rundgren has always been one of my favorite writers, producers and vocalists. Not a great voice, but a great singer-interpreter of lyrics, usually his own. I'd put him in the Marvin Gaye category in this regard. "I Saw The Light" is one of those absolutely superb energetic intro songs that all jocks like to talk up and then feel guilty about talking over atruly great part of the song. And does it ever sound great coming out of a jingle! This is a song that also had one of the better KB Pop Tops. "Hey there bay-bee, guess you're just listenin' to KB..."
"All I Want" Toad The Wet Sprocket. This is a song that was a hit around 1991. It has a neat cord progression (or what I think is a cord progression, I'm not a musician) and I always associate it with picking up a good friend (who has four college degrees) from re-hab and bringing him home after he falls off the wagon (again.) While listening to the song on a Rochester FM station, we both sing the chorus, "All I Want" and he modifies the lyrics and sings "is one more brew" then says introspectively, "I wish I could drink only one," and continues with the AA mantra, "but one's too many and a hundred's not enough." Last I checked, this guy is sober and teaching at one of the colleges. His students don't know how lucky they are to have this guy imparting information to them.
"Voices" -Russ Ballard, around 1983-84. Didn't even break the Top 100, but what a neat arrangement and driving bass, nicely married to a crisp drum in this song. Horns in the bridge and on the outro. It was used in an episode of Miami Vice, that "MTV with cops" program which feature Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas... high powered speed boats and lotsa ladies with very little clothing.
That's it. Hope you've enjoyed the ride. This is where I get off. Feel free to add to the list or rip the writer. Yeesh, these songs are so all over the road that I may have started another Legends thread.
