music Archives - Page 35 of 261 - Ramblin' with Roger

December rambling: who isn’t running

“Girls were girls, and men were men”

Who isn’t running for re-election in the House and Senate in 2024

A deluge of violent messages: How a surge in threats to public officials could disrupt American democracy

What Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court, could teach today’s SCOTUS: Her embrace of the rule of law and empathetic jurisprudence are sorely missed.

Will Henry Kissinger, the Secretary of State under Nixon and Ford, actually RIP?

Jewish American Families Confront a Generational Divide Over Israel

Comics For Ukraine, the benefit hardcover comic anthology to benefit folks in Ukraine, which I got in its original crowdfunding push – it’s very good – is still available for purchase

How Much Pain Is ‘Enough‘ to Prescribe Opioids?

Massive Tuberculosis News

Don’t Neglect Tobacco Use in People Experiencing Homelessness — Cessation programs can save lives and improve financial stability.

Organ & Body Donations: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Why Do You Get to Do That? A few words on your “rights”

Truth-telling

Watch videos from the November 17, 2023 Telling the Truth conversations by the NYS Writer’s Institute. The fifth Telling the Truth event, this 2023 edition featured two panels.

The American Presidency: A conversation about the Biden administration and the prospect of a second Trump administration with Miles Taylor, former Trump Administration staffer and author of Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump and Franklin Foer, author of The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future.

Also, The American Backlash: A conversation about the politics of revenge, and the impulse to punish ‘out groups’ who have made political gains — particularly racial, sexual, and cultural minorities, and women with Jeff Sharlet, author of The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War and Juliet Hooker, author of Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics of Loss.

I attended these seasons in person.

That’s Entertainment

I was on a team for Any Questions Live! WAMC‘s Inaugural Trivia Challenge on December 7. The final question was that five of the 15 largest cities in the United States are in one state. Of THOSE five cities, which one is the smallest in population? Answer below.

2023’s TIME Person of the Year. I was totally off; I thought it’d be Bibi.

The 100 Most Powerful Women in Entertainment of 2023

Everybody knows Flo from Progressive. Who is Stephanie Courtney?

Actor Andre Braugher Dies at 61. I was a massive fan of the NBC series Homicide: Life on the Street; the episode for which he won an Emmy was gutwrenching. He appeared in six episodes of Law and Order: SVU, including this one featuring Mike Tyson. He appeared in the movies Glory, Salt, and She Said, all of which I saw. I occasionally watched him on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and some Kojak TV movies.

Marty Krofft, the Brains Behind a Kids TV Empire, Dies at 86

Ryan O’Neal, Star of ‘Love Story,’ ‘What’s Up, Doc?’ and ‘Paper Moon,’ Dies at 82. I never saw Love Story, but I saw the others and the evening soap opera Peyton Place.

The Ritz Brothers, comedy pioneers: A Retrospective.

‘Doctor Who’ Doctors: Every Actor Who Has Played the Part

‘Home Alone,’ ‘Terminator 2,’ ‘Love and Basketball,’ ‘Desperately Seeking Susan,’ ‘Fame,’ ‘Apollo 13’ Enter National Film Registry. Of these, I specifically recommend 20 Feet from Stardom.

The murky math of the New York Times bestsellers list

Why Do Airplanes Dim the Cabin Lights During Takeoff and Landing?

Hinsdale, NH, man had no car and no furniture but died, leaving his town millions.

Now I Know: A Creative Way to Stop a Celebrity Stalker and The Great Puffin Toss and You Is Now Welcome in Sweden and Pokémon Go to Jail and The Politician Who (Technically) Kept His Pledge and The American Enclave That Pretended to Want to Join Canada

To a deluxe apartment in the sky

Norman Lear, the legendary television producer and inclusive storyteller, died at 101. Here’s the family tree for All in the Family and its spinoffs, all of which I watched, at least for a time, as well as Sanford and Son; One Day at a Time, both iterations; Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and ITS spinoffs, and others. Heck, I even saw his less successful ventures, such as a.k.a. Pablo, Hot L Baltimore, the underestimated The Powers That Be, and the movie The Night They Raided Minsky’s.

Performers and critics lauded him not just for his contributions to entertainment but also for his activism with People for the American Way and other avenues.

His son-in-law, Dr. Jon LaPook, gave some personal insights. I recommend you check out If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast, the late Carl Reiner’s 2017 documentary where he “tracks down several nonagenarians” – including his friend Lear – “to show how the twilight years can be rewarding.”

This is what I wrote way back when Norman Lear turned 100.

Music

John Williams’s score to Nixon: “The 1960s: The Turbulent Years

Coverville 1467: The Damien Rice Cover Story and 1468: The Shane MacGowan Tribute

Save Me – Jelly Roll

Rossini: La Cenerentola – Overture

The ten most overplayed piano pieces

Everybody’s Talkin’ – the MonaLisa Twins

Six13 – A Hamilton Chanukah

Maccabeats Hanukkah Videos

Arthur describes all of the #1 songs from 1983 and a few more

Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm is now open at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, through April 7, 2024

Denny Laine (1944-2023): a remembrance

The answer to the question above is #15 here. (We got the correct state but the wrong city.)

The 10 Most Streamed Christmas Songs on Spotify

plus Bing/Bowie; Stax; Bob & Doug

There’s a 2022 article, The Most Streamed Christmas Songs on Spotify:

All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey (1) – I continue to find her proclamation and trademark claim that she’s the Queen of Christmas gagworthy. As this article notes, Elizabeth Chan “said that Christmas is not something that a person can claim ownership or a title over. ‘That’s just not the right thing to do. Christmas is for everyone. It’s meant to be shared; it’s not meant to be owned.”
Last Christmas by Wham! (7)
Santa Tell Me by Ariana Grande (9)
It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas by Michael Bublé (6)
Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee (2); also #9 on the 1955-2004 list
Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms (3); also #2 on the 1955-2004 list
It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year by Andy Williams (5); I associate this more with a series of back-to-school ads
Mistletoe by Justin Bieber
Snowman by Sia
Do They Know It’s Christmas? – 1984 Version by Band Aid; also #2 on the 1955-2004 list. Well-meaning but terrible song.

I’ll admit that I’d never heard the Grande, Bieber, or Sia songs before.

Interestingly, there was a 2017 roster that had some overlap. (The parenthetical numbers were their 2017 rankings.)

The songs falling out of the Top Ten

4. White Christmas — Bing Crosby, John Scott Trotter & His Orchestra, Ken Darby Singers

8. The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You) — Nat King Cole

10. Feliz Navidad — Jose Feliciano

Other songs

Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth – Bing Crosby and David Bowie. As I’ve mentioned, Bing Crosby died of a heart attack on October 14, 1977. The TV special Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas, on which this appeared, was recorded on September 11 of that year but didn’t air until November 30. I watched it because Bing Crosby has Ziggy Stardust and Twiggy on his show? Here’s the version with the intro.

12 Gifts of Christmas – Allan Sherman. When I was a kid, this was uproariously funny.

Take Off – Bob and Doug McKenzie with Geddy Lee of Rush

12 Days Of Christmas – Bob and Doug McKenzie. Yes, I have the album, The Great White North, on vinyl.

Christmas Wrapping – The Waitresses. I have this on an EP.

Fairytale of New York -The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl. The Pogues’ Shane MaGowan died recently. “Rob Tannenbaum (a journalist with a very appropriate name for this purpose) published a fascinating piece about the making of the song and the push to send it to the top of the charts in the United Kingdom.”

And here’s some Stax, which, of course, I have.

All I Want For Christmas Is You – Carla Thomas.

Gee Whiz It’s Christmas – Carla Thomas.

Every Day Will Be Like A Holiday – William Bell. This went #33 RB in 1968

The Mistletoe And Me – Isaac Hayes.

Jingle Bells (James Lord Pierpont) – Booker T. and The MG’s

Winter Snow (Isaac Hayes) – Booker T. and The MG’s

A Spotify surprise

J. Eric Smith

Has anything like this ever happen to you? I was visiting the site of one J. Eric Smith, as I am wont to do. In the then-current post, he noted: “It has been almost a year since I reluctantly caved to streaming my music.” He discussed the pros and cons of that.

“On the upside: I do like the ability to create playlists quickly, and there seems to be more of the musical arcana that I like available on Spotify than there was/is on iTunes, which I’d used exclusively for the prior 12 years. We’ve sort of defaulted to themed playlists around the house, ranging from 50 to 100 to 150 songs.

“(I’m obsessive about tidiness on such matters, and couldn’t stand to have a 52-song or 147-song list, no sir, that would not do, not at all).” I could definitely create a 52-song list. There are 52 cards in a standard deck of cards, after all.

Eric posted a great Africa playlist, 100 of his “favorite songs from that continent’s myriad musical cultures. ” I decided I didn’t want to listen to 30-second snippets of songs. So I figured I would finally get a free registration to Spotify.

Oops

Except, it appears that I had already done so. Of course, I didn’t record the password anywhere. So I had to get another one. They had the damnedest Captcha methodology I had ever seen. They showed a series of dice, some standard pips, and Arabic numbers, and you had to match the dice with a number three times.

I discovered that not only did I have an account, but I had made a playlist of my own: 12 Paul Simon songs. I have no recollection of having done so, let alone when or HOW I did that.

This falls into the category of a truism about me. Confronted by almost any technology that I don’t use regularly, it is like I’d never seen it before. When I figure it out again, maybe I’ll create more playlists. I have some particular ideas. And heck, I might even take requests.

Tactile

Or not. I came across this New York Times article. Want to Enjoy Music More? Stop Streaming It. Build a real music collection. Reintroduce intimacy to the songs you care about. Though Denise Lu is much younger than I, she gets me. “Maybe that’s why I never latched onto streaming services — I didn’t like depending on a third-party platform, or being part of a social experiment that feeds Spotify data that it then sells to advertisers.”

Something that Chuck Rozanski/Bettie Pages, the President of Mile High Comics, Inc. wrote on October 9 resonates with me. “I… drove to Jason St. mid-afternoon each day to sort comics until 8 PM. I don’t know why, but there is something about the Zen of spending hours sorting old comic books into categories that has the capacity to soothe the ache in my heart, and to restore my spirit.

“In many regards, for me, it is like visiting with old friends, as I can look at any given title and/or issue number and remember quite vividly where I was (and who I was…) when that issue was first released.”

About every four months, I have to resort all of the CDs I have played. You’d think it would be boring. Not for me. I, too, experience the joy of remembering how I got that album, maybe looking at something on the liner notes I forgot.

More Hot 100 Xmas Hits, 1955-2004

Nuttin’

Here are some more Hot 100 Xmas hits. These ones are far less familiar to me. Some of the songs I know, but by different artists.

Please Come Home For Christmas – The Eagles, #18 in 1978. I prefer the Charles Brown version that came out in 1960 and topped the Christmas charts in 1972.

The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) – Christina Aguilera, #18 in 1999

Santo Natale (Merry Christmas) – David Whitfield with Stanley Black and his orchestra, #19 in 1955. I am used to unfamiliarity with the newer songs, but I don’t know this one either.

Nuttin for Xmas – Joe Ward, orchestra conducted by Dave Terry, #20 in 1955. What is it about 1955 that allowed three versions of this song to reach the Top 30? And no consistency in the spelling of the title.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer – The Chipmunks, #20 in 1960

Pre- and post-Twist

Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Rydell and Chubby Checker, #21 in 1961. This is the period between when The Twist by Chubby Checker was #1 in 1960 and The Twist by Chubby Checker was #1 in 1962 and namechecked some of Checker’s other songs.

(I’m Gettin) Nuttin’ for Christmas – Ricky Zahnd and The Blue Jeaners, with the Tony Mottola Orchestra, #21 in 1955

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – The 4 Seasons, arranged and conducted by Sid Bass, #23 in 1962. It’s your standard Bob Crewe production for the group. I wrote a whole blog post about naughty and nice in April 2019.

Baby’s First Christmas – Connie Francis, orchestra and chorus conducted by Don Costa, #26 in 1961

If We Make It Through December – Merle Haggard, #28 in 1973, written by the artist. This is a downbeat and not particularly Christmasy track, which may be why I like it. The New York Times reported: “This one might be a Christmas song because it appears on a Christmas album (‘Merle Haggard’s Christmas Present’; please note the cover art), but Merle Haggard only decided to cut that album after the success of this stand-alone single — the biggest pop crossover hit of his entire career. There’s mention of gifts under the tree (or rather, a lack thereof), but the true subject of this melancholy tune is the plight of the down-and-out working man, meaning it is, first and foremost, a Merle Haggard song.”

A bonus from fillyjonk which you of a certain vintage will likely recall: Attention Kmart Shoppers – 8 hours of vintage department store Christmas music (Customusic tapes)

Hot 100 Christmas Songs, 1955-2004

Ross Bagdasarian

These are the top 10 Hot 100 Christmas Songs in the rock and roll era, starting in 1955. While there was a particular Christmas chart from 1963 to 1972 and again from 1983 to 1985, the songs here charted on the pop charts.

Many of these will be quite familiar to you, though I’ll admit to being totally unaware of the NKOTB track, the only one I don’t own in a physical form.

The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late) – The Chipmunks, #1 for four weeks in 1958. My family owned the single. I particularly liked it because I thought l did a passable imitation of the rodents. Ross Bagdasarian also had a #1 hit in 1958 with Witch Doctor as David Seville.

Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Helms, #6 in 1957. Background vocalists were the Anita Kerr Singers. The electric guitar was by Hank Garland.

Nuttin’ for Christmas – Barry Gordon with the Art Mooney orchestra, #6 in 1955. I never heard this until I heard it on a compilation CD. Fingernails on a blackboard.

This One’s For The Children – New Kids On The Block, #7 in 1989

White Christmas – Bing Crosby, #7 in 1955. This is the 1947 version, which supplanted the 1942 version.

Mary’s Boy Child – Harry Belafonte, #12 in 1956. The remarkable Jester Hairston, who had a fascinating life as a composer and actor, wrote the song.

The Little Drummer Boy – the Harry Simeone Chorale, #13 in 1958. We owned this single growing up, too. There was a 1965 remake of this song, which takes the ending much slower; I prefer the original.

Also Paul Young

Do They Know It’s Christmas? – Band Aid, #13 in 1984. It features members of Kool & the Gang, U2, The Boomtown Rats, Genesis, Ultravox, Bananarama, Culture Club, Heaven 17, Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Wham!, Status Quo, The Police, The Style Council and others

Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee, #14 in 1960, and #1 in 2023!

Pretty Paper – Roy Orbison, #15 in 1963. I never heard this until I bought Orbison’s Greatest Hits CD collection.