Weekly Mix #4
Short one today.
From the moment it starts, with a quick drum kick and mellow horns following, it is all quiet momentum; Harry’s voice is right where it should be. In some of his songs, he tries a little too hard to hit high notes; in some he dips maybe a little lower than he should, but on this track, his voice is right at home. His version of Mancini’s Charade is comforting but intense, and one of my favorite songs of his.
Buy Come By Me
“Hi everybody, I’m Archie Bell & The Drells of Houston Texas. We don’t hardly sing, but we dance just as good as we walk.” As this is a song and not a video, alas, we shall have to take their word for it. But I’ve always had a real amusing visual of their walk. This is necessary sixties funk and should be on your hard drive.
Buy Tightening It Up: The Best Of Archie Bell & The Drells
I remember this one from childhood. It was all over the radio – it hit the Top 40 in 1977. It always strikes me as a summer song, so of course I’ve listened to it on repeat this week. It’s the time of year for hot summer music, and I’m getting a lot of mileage out of it. What can I say, I’m big on synching music to the change of the seasons. Side note: I did not know that Welch was once a member of Fleetwood Mac.
Buy French Kiss
Necessary seventies funk, about getting your shit together, maturing, and empowering yourself. The Staple Singers were formed back in 1953, if you can believe that, and began singing secular music, funk and soul, in the late sixties. Between 1953, when they recorded their first album, and 1999, when they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, they covered a whole lot of ground.
Buy The Best Of The Staple Singers.
I’ve never been a big fan of Kate Bush, but listening to this quickie (not even 2 minutes long) cover of her “Wuthering Heights” by a girl group who sound (quite purposely) like a modern-day Andrews Sisters makes my whole day.
You can’t buy anything online, apparently, but you can contact Marcella Puppini about getting a CD.
I got my hands on this track at blowupdoll. blowupdoll is an mp3 blog focusing on music from what the proprietor, Mordi, calls “dolls.” Glamour girl rock and pop, with a mostly European slant, and it’s fun as hell. The Modern is pure early 80s New Wave, and the lead singer sounds like a dead ringer for Madonna, circa her first album back in ’83. Which makes me very happy.
Buy Jane Falls Down, which is reputed to be even better.
After last week, I was in the mood for more America. This also ties in, interestingly and however vaguely, with the Wicked rip I was on a while back.
Buy Holiday
His girlfriend left him for some guy named Leland that she met at the bank. They ran off to Cleveland. He’d like – hell, as he points out, the whole state would like – for her to come home to Texas.
Buy A Hangover You Don’t Deserve
I know my friend griff considers Weird Al’s “Amish Paradise” to be the “real” version of this, but as clever as Weird Al’s is, I still prefer this. There’s something about the ominous music & the intensity in the tone of Coolio’s voice that makes this something I keep coming back to.
Buy Gangsta’s Paradise
No real reason.
Buy Bachman-Turner Overdrive II
It blows my mind that Christina Amphlett, the lead singer of Divinyls, is now playing Judy Garland in the Australia production of “The Boy from Oz.” She first played Judy in the 1998 run of the musical. I found this out last week when looking for pictures of Hugh Jackman. How can she be old enough? Boy, I feel old. I remember Divinyls being a group with a hot tamale of a lead singer who made sexy music like this song.
Buy What A Life
From her solo album, Fur. Jane is, of course, a Go-Go, and the sunny, poppy, California spirit of their music is here, too. “Rush Hour” is happy music.
Buy Fur
“Mouth” is an Australian one hit wonder from 1995. The lyrics are odd, no lie, but the music is bubblegummy sweet.
Buy The Garden
All Eyes And Ears 