music Archives - Page 39 of 261 - Ramblin' with Roger

The 1993 #1 hits: women rule!

Janet

Mariah Carey The list of 1993 #1 hits on the Billboard pop charts is short, with only ten songs. They all went platinum, and all but one topped the charts for multiple weeks. This year sees the continuation of the trend of women dominating the charts, as they did throughout the decade. It was unprecedented in recorded musical history, according to the authority on such things, the late Joel Whitburn.

Dreamlover– Mariah Carey, #1 for eight weeks. She was the decade’s biggest-selling pop artist.

That’s The Way Love Goes– Janet Jackson, #1 for eight weeks. I saw Janet perform live in 2018.

Can’t Help Falling In Love– UB40. #1 for seven weeks. The Elvis Presley cover. This is from the film Silver starring Sharon Stone and William Baldwin; I never heard of the movie.

Informer – Snow, #1 for seven weeks. I will admit that, to my recollection, I never heard this song before. Nor do I know the artist. It was #1 on my 40th birthday.

I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That), #1 for five weeks. I always enjoyed the New York Times style guide referring to the late Marvin Lee Aday as Mr. Loaf.

Hero – Mariah Carey, #1 for four weeks

Freak Me – Silk, #1 for two weeks. Written and produced by Keith Sweat, it was also #1 on the RB charts for eight weeks.

Weak – SWV (Sisters With Voices), #1 for two weeks. I have an SWV CD.

Again – Janet Jackson, #1 for two weeks

A Whole New World (Aladdin’s Theme) – Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle. Yes, I saw the movie at the cinema.

Kept from the top

The most chart-worthy #2 is Whoomp! (There It Is) by Tag Team. It spent 15 weeks longer on the Top 100, 19 weeks longer on the Top 40, and nine weeks longer in the Top 10 than any #1 song in the year. Also, it went quadruple platinum.

Yet it was stuck at #2 for seven weeks. It was kept out of the #1 slot by UB40 for five weeks and Carey’s Dreamlover for two. It DID go to #1 on the RB charts for a week.

I almost always hear music

relative pitch

An old friend, C, asked:

When you hear non-playing music, what genre(s)? Do you recognize the tune right away, or do you get to play ‘Name that Tune’ with yourself?

I suppose I should clarify. Often, I have said that I almost always hear music. Even when there is no obvious music source, I can hear music.

There are two answers to the question. One is that I usually hear the bass line. About 5% of the time, it’s the bass at the beginning of Keep On Running by the Spencer Davis Group, which I used to hear when trying to to ride a bicycle uphill. But it could be almost anything I’ve heard more than a dozen times.

It doesn’t have to be pop music. The pedals on the organ often come to mind. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor may be my favorite, not just the last three chords, but that deliciously dissonant section at 7:25 to 7:35 on this recording.

Sometimes, it’s vocal, usually something in my range. The low harmony part of Rosanna by Toto during “Not quite a year since she went away.” (0:51-1:04). I don’t love the song, but I love that bit, and I don’t have to have listened to it recently to recreate it in my head.

But it could be almost anything.

The siren song

The other answer to the question is that music is everywhere. Someone was mowing the lawn next door the day after I received the question. I discovered I was humming to the tune, only a third higher. Specifically, harmony is everywhere.

I was on a plane recently, an A321. The sounds I heard were two pitches, which reminded me of the song, Western Union. I couldn’t even remember the group’s name – the Five Americans.

My not-so-old friend ADD posted an article about David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison discussing “the restored version of their iconic documentary [Stop Making Sense], the band’s classic albums, and being a Talking Head for life.”

As I’ve mentioned frequently, I saw Talking Heads on that tour in Saratoga Springs, NY, one of the two greatest concerts I’ve ever attended, though I’ve never seen the movie. Moreover, I’ve met backup singer Lynn Mabry, pictured in the article. She sings backup for Sheila E. and is her business partner. Niece Rebecca Jade made the intros.

In the article, David Byrne recalled that keyboardist Bernie Worrell of Parliament-Funkadelic, the music director for the tour, “had perfect pitch. So, he would hear a siren go by, or car brakes, or something on the street when we’re on the bus. And he had a little tiny keyboard, and he would start playing along with it, perfectly in the right key.”

I certainly do NOT have perfect pitch. Like many singers and other musicians, I have relative pitch, so I’ve also harmonized with sirens, which is interesting because it’s not a sustained sound but variable and often multiple.

Harmony

All that said, I listen to external music, usually compact discs [wotta dinosaur], for most of the day when I’m writing (currently listening to Double Fantasy by John and Yoko) and ESPECIALLY when cleaning the house. And I’ll sing harmony to them if necessary.

On a recent Sunday, there was a hymn in the church bulletin. The words were unfamiliar, but the tune was a standard. Only the melody line appeared, but now there were altos, tenors, and basses singing harmony in the middle verses.

Sept rambling: extreme heat

backyard train

ALA Releases Preliminary 2023 Book Ban Data. Look for more info here.

Extreme Heat Is Threatening Entire Marine Ecosystems in Florida

Summer Heat Is Killing Incarcerated People — It’s Cruel and Unusual Punishment

US sets record for billion-dollar disasters in a single year, with months to go

If there’s no federal budget on October 1, blame the House Republicans

Don’t just connect the dots

About the polls (JRB vs. djt)

Legal Experts Have A Field Day With djt’s Megyn Kelly Interview

Colorado Lawsuit’s Strategy for Keeping djt Off Ballot Is Starting to Spread – The lawsuits cite the 14th Amendment, which says former officials who engage in insurrection may not serve as president. But it may not work.

How GOP pressured Texas senators over Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial

Arthur: The fourth horrible anniversary

Travis: Screw Cancer!

FDA OKs Updated COVID Shots — New single-strain vaccines will exclusively target the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant

John Green attends the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis and gets to give a speech.

Actor David McCallum died at age 90. I noted here that my sister Marcia and I used to play The Man from U.N.C.L.E. together. My daughter watched NCIS regularly for a few years.

Brooks Robinson, Hall of Fame third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles, died at the age of 86

El Monte Thai garment workers were inducted into the Labor Hall of Honor. They helped expose their employer’s abusive labor practices and spurred changes in legal protections for the nation’s workers.

US senators can wear workout clothes to work under new rules. In response, pearls will be clutched.

In TV’s Wild West, Which Channels Will Be Dropped Next?

Oakland vs. the A’s: The inside story of how it all went south (to Las Vegas)

Jann Wenner [weakly] Apologizes for Saying Black and Female Musicians Aren’t “Articulate” Enough for His New Book

A metamorphosis, completed

NASA: the lunar south pole

Life Expectancy of Pets

Someone’s nice backyard train

Artist Imagines What Would Happen If Disney Princesses Visited A Psychotherapist (10 Pics)

Now I Know: When Being From France Isn’t French Enough and The Fugitive Who Was Put Out to Pasture and The Counterintuitive Problem of Dry Counties and The Town That Fled a Fake Earthquake and The Mystery of the Exploding Toads and How to Sell* a Lot of Carrots

MUSIC

Perfect Day– Al Green

When You Wish Upon A Star – Sara Bareilles

So You Are Tired – Sufjan Stevens

Ballad Of A Homeschooled Girl – Olivio Rodrigo

I remember everything – Zach Bryan, feat. Kacey Musgraves

Shiny Happy People – Micky Dolenz (Sept. 2023)

Voiceplay, giving the a cappella treatment to a collection of TV theme songs

Start Me Up – The Folksmen (Sept. 2003)

Volcano Girls – Vercuna Salt

Coverville 1457: The Tommy Shaw & Styx Cover Story

I’ll Follow You – The Empty Pockets

Mickey– Toni Basil

Elegy by Mark Camphouse

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? – Carole King

Romanian Rhapsody #1 by Georges Enescu

Reject All American – Bikini Kill

The Beatles Stowe School Concert Is Unlike Any Other Show in History

Temptation’s About To Get Me

Bruce Springsteen Postponing All 2023 Concerts to Next Year as He Recovers From Peptic Ulcer Disease

Sunday Stealing: Swapbot redux

Sondheim

Swap-bot For today’s Sunday Stealing, here’s Swapbot redux

What did you do today?

By “today,” I will answer for yesterday since I’ve done nothing consequential today. Or maybe I have. In any case, I washed all of the dishes and vacuumed the first floor. Then my wife and I went out and had dinner with old friends.

2. What are the must-sees in your area?

Discover Albany has a page for this very thing. The Capitol is cool, but I haven’t been there in decades. One of my favorite underappreciated treasures in my county is the Overlook Park with the waterfalls in Cohoes. The Underground Railroad Education Center is cool and will be more so in the next few years. I’ve visited Schuyler Mansion, Thatcher Park, and the USS Slater. My wife and I are members of the Albany Institute of History and Art. I understand that the ‎New York State Museum is getting a needed facelift.

3. What is your favourite quote?

It’s probably from Here and Now: Living in the Spirit by Henri J.M. Nouwen, a Canadian theologian who died in 1996. Here’s a piece of it: “Celebrating a birthday reminds us of the goodness of life, and in this spirit we really need to celebrate people’s birthdays every day, by showing gratitude, kindness, forgiveness, gentleness, and affection.” A longer version I posted on my 60th birthday and probably subsequently.

4. What was the last thing you cooked or ate?

I prepared oatmeal with blueberries, strawberries, and bananas. My regular breakfast.

Grands

5. What is something you learned from your grandparents?

Playing cards. From my paternal grandmother, canasta. From my paternal grandfather, gin rummy.

6. What makes you happy?

Friends, music, learning stuff, leisure

7. What is your best travel memory?

Unexpectedly, we flew first class from Barbados to JFK in NYC from our honeymoon in 1999.

8. What’s the weather like today?

Rain

9. Share an interesting fact that you’ve learned

Almost anything I learned as an adult after college that I feel I should have learned in school. The Red Summer of 1919 and related activities, e.g.

10. What is your favourite book, movie, or band?

I’m going to go with The Temptations. I saw a musical about them called Ain’t Too Proud in May 2023. The group is still going with one original member, Otis Williams.

Poemlike

11. Write your favorite poem or haiku.

I’m sure I don’t have one. So, I decided to think of something by Bob Dylan or Smokey Robinson. But then I saw the book Finishing The Hat by Stephen Sondheim on my bookshelf. I leafed through the table of contents and came across Anyone Can Whistle from 1964. At my previous church, I sang the title song at a cabaret.

Anyone can whistle; that’s what they say-easy.

Anyone can whistle, any old day-easy.

It’s all so simple. Relax, let go, let fly.

So someone tell me, why can’t I?

I can dance a tango, I can read Greek-easy.

I can slay a dragon, any old week-easy.

What’s hard is simple. What’s natural comes hard.

Maybe you could show me how to let go,

Lower my guard, Learn to be free. Maybe if you whistle, Whistle for me.

Here is Patti LuPone singing it.

12. What is a local festival or tradition from your area?

There are several, but my favorite may be the Tulip Festival in May, which I’ve attended at least two dozen times. The Dutch colonized New York before the English took over.

13. What was the best thing you learned in school?

The most interesting fact I learned is that if you add up the digits of a long number and it adds up to be 9, and that number is divisible by 9, the larger number is divisible by 9. For 123,456,789, the digits add up to 45, divisible by 9. When I learned this in 4th grade, it was MASSIVE.

Reactions to music reaction videos

Cartier family

Dee asked me a question about six months ago, and it got lost in my email. Do you have an opinion, pro or con, about the music reaction industry? If so, what do you think? The first link she sent was a Medium members-only article called 10 Hit Music Videos Highlight Race and Stereotypes. And humor, reflection, and insights follow. It begins: “Jaws dropped recently when countless folks discovered Mr. Bobby Caldwell, the late talented, singer, songwriter, and musician was not a person of color.

“Regardless of age, listeners knew his iconic 70s hit ‘What You Won’t Do for Love’ but only thought they knew what he looked like because of the sound of his vocals.”

This is very true: “Countless listeners may sheepishly question their own sets of assumptions. And many may realize stereotyping is so automatic it’s scary.” Then she shares videos of the music of Caldwell, the Rascals (Groovin’), Michael McDonald, and BeeGees (Stayin’ Alive).

Sidebar: In the Warner Brothers’ Lost series, COOK BOOK (PRO 660) from 1977 was “Focusing on Warners’ black acts.” One track was The Doobie Brothers’ Taking It To The Streets, with McDonald on lead vocals.

The article has a short video of black opera singer Ryan Speedo Green. I’ve long railed against black musicians being put into a musical straitjacket.

Dee’s second Medium link is The Appeal and Value of Music Reaction Videos. 24 time-traveled videos cross color lines, entertain, educate, inspire, and create income. The artists listened to Rick Astley, Johnny Cash, the Danish National Anthem, Chaka Khan, Parliament-Funkadelic, Pavorati, Phil Collins, and the Temptations.

Better in concept

I embrace the IDEA of the videos more than the OH-MY-GOD-THAT’S-INCREDIBLE reactions. After seeing a few in a row, I find them exhausting. To be sure, I’m not the target demographic.

This Reddit post speaks to this. “There’s some psychology behind why some of us enjoy watching people react to hearing music for the first time- music that viewers know to be great. We like having more information than the people we watch, whether that’s in movies, tv, etc…

“My problem is that most reaction videos I’ve seen are positive 100% of the time. It takes away some from the enjoyment and the feeling of authenticity when the youtuber is superlative with every song, maybe because they don’t want to lose viewers who love that song.” Yeah, it’s just too much for me. Too hyper, and often too hyperbolic.

That said, Dee’s third link is to the Cartier Family watching the last few minutes of the movie Stormy Weather, featuring Cab Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers. Yes, they talk over each other. But I’ve seen this segment several times before, and it continues to leave me slack-jawed.