Blog: Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

We continue on our five-yearly cycle of intros quizzes, going on to 1985, with 20 intros to hit songs from 1985, of 5-7 seconds in length. All were released as singles or had their chart peak that year. There admittedly is a bit of a UK bias here: US readers should not despair at not getting the first tack (though it was posted on this blog before). Number 9 was a hit in the UK only early 1986, but in the US in late 1985. The answers will be posted in the comments [...]

1977, the year I turned 11, was a pivotal year in my life, perhaps more than any other. My family was torn apart by my father's sudden death, I discovered love and became a serious fan of pop music. We'll deal with the first two in part 1. As always, I must stress that all songs are included here because they have the power to beam me back to the time under discussion. Some I like, and some I most certainly do not endorse. Don't despair, things will get better as I get older… * * * [...]

It has been a while since I inaugurated this series of songs about murder. In the three songs for the second instalment, we observe a musician killing in self—defence, a crime of passion, and a family making excuses for their very fucked-up son. * * * Bill Brandon – Rainbow Road (1969).mp3 This deep soul track by the little known Bill Brandon used to be very rare. Thanks to the Internet, it is now accessible to [...]

In 1944, the Third Reich's propaganda and culture minister Joseph Goebbels issued a list of artists who were exempted from military duty. The list included individuals deemed too valuable for sacrifice on the battlefield — and friends of the regime. The Gottbegnadeten-Liste (God-gifted list) included authors, architects, painters, sculptors, composers (including 80-year-old Richard Strauss), conductors as well as singers and actors. Those included that have featured on these two compilations included Willy Fritsch, Paul Hörbiger (soon to be arrested for resistance activities), Hans Albers, Wilhelm Strienz, and Heinz Rühmann. These artists enjoyed protection because their contribution [...]

This is the first of two compilations of German hits covering the era from the rise of Nazism to its demise. The first compilation leads us through the latter years of the Weimar Republic to 1937, just before war became an inevitable prospect. The second mix will start in 1938 — the year of the Anschluß, or annexation of Austria — through the war to 1944 (there were no hits in 1945, it seems). None of the pre-war Schlager featured here are of the Nazi propaganda sort, and even the propaganda of the war-period songs is subtle, framing [...]

In the fourth instalment of this series we'll look at Chuck Berry's hit that deliberately borrowed from a country tune, a song that made a four-stage transition from crooner standard to soul classic, and Bob Marley's possibly unintended homage to a kids' TV show. I should stress that I'm not suggesting plagiarism or other unethical actions by anybody (let's save that for the inevitable mammoth Led Zep post). * * * Dykes Magic City Trio - Ida Red (1927).mp3 Bob Wills [...]

I will hardly reveal myself as the music blogosphere's slightly less ugly version of Dr Phil when I observe that people recover from the end of serious relationships in very different ways. In this series of songs about love we have looked at various themes, including splitting up. Here we look at how protagonists in ten songs have bounced back, or not, from the death of a liaison. * * * Skeeter Davis – Gonna Get Along Without You Now (1964).mp3 [...]

This mix should persuade those who believe that soul music was dying by the mid-1980s of their error. There is much that's great on this mix, and among tracks that did not make the cut. Some of the songs are surprising. Cameo are more usually associated with funk and camp codpieces, not deep soul music as this duet between Larry Blackmon and Barbara Mitchell of Hi Inergy (who featured on Any Major Soul 1976-77 ). Denise LaSalle , during the time covered by this mix, had a hit with the awful Don't Mess With [...]

May 9 will mark the 21st anniversary of the death of the country singer Keith Whitley, who was just about to break huge when he suddenly died. So it's appropriate to include in this instalment of The Originals his vastly superior original of the mammoth hit for the ghastly Ronan Keating. In the course of researching this series I come to learn new things. I had always thought that Big Maybelle did the original of Jerry Lee Lewis' first hit. I thought wrong. The third song featured is The Mindbender's cover of A Groovy Kind Of Love, the first original [...]

The big news death in April obviously was that of Malcolm McLaren, but more shocking perhaps was the suicide of rock singer-songwriter and Grammy-nominated sound engineer Will Owsley at 44. It also was not a good month for jazz keyboardists and drummers. On a different note, I'd appreciate some feedback as to whether to continue with this series. It takes up a lot of work, but generally there is little comment, and download numbers tend to be modest. * * * [...]

We continue on our five-yearly cycle of intros quizzes with one of my favourite years in music: 1980. Ah, the trinity of Dexys' Geno, the Pretenders Brass In Pocket (which was released in 1979, I know), and New Musik's Living By Numbers. None of which feature in this quiz, of course. Fans of the era, especially veteran Smash Hits readers, will love this blog , with completely scanned issues from 1979 and1980, ads and everything. The single reviews are particularly fascinating. The cover on the right is borrowed from the Like Punk Never Happened blog. [...]

The first mix of soul covers was very popular (and great fun to compile), so I hope that subsequent compilations will also find an audience.I think I have at least two more in the works. There are a few surprising covers in this mix. Maxayn reshape the Rolling Stones song entirely, while the wonderful Zulema Cusseaux, a gifted songwriter in her own right, perhaps even tops my favourite solo McCartney track. And could there be soul versions of Wild Thing? Jagger's ex-squeeze Marsha Hunt gave it a shot. Scanning the tracklisting, there are some wonderful [...]

I made a generous new friend recently thanks to my post of different versions of By The Time I Get To Phoenix . He claimed that I had left off the best cover, by country singer Roy Drusky, and sent me that version. You'll decide where it ranks in the hierarchy of Phoenix covers. Shortly after, I posted Volume 5 of the Answer Records, and my new friend Rick had a related song: Wanda Jackson's answer to By The Time I Get To Phoenix. Besides that, we'll have Muddy Waters' mojo set straight, and Miss Chuckle Cherry's [...]

The third mix of Beatles covers, covering the period between the White Album (partly covered in the second mix) to the final album. The most significant song here is the Beach Boys' live recording of Back In The USSR, with Ringo Starr guesting. The song was, of course, Paul McCartney's satire of the Beach Boys. One imagines it was a find piss-take, because by 1968 the Beach Boys had long left the girs-cars-surf scene behine (well, except Mike Love, who never really got past it). Two songs here, by George Benson and by Booker T & the MGs, [...]

Almost all of the previous 36 instalments of The Originals consisted of five songs each. The inaugural post had ten tracks, one (or was it two?) had six. Which makes for 186 tracks that have been, well, covered. Truth be told, researching five songs at a time has been so much a burden on my time that at times I've not been motivated to start a new post. Maybe by reducing the number to three I'll update this series more enthusiastically in future. I still have many lesser-known originals to write about. * [...]

The second mix of Beatles covers comprises songs from the group's 1967-68 period, ending rather abruptly in the middle of the White Album selection. So the third mix will carry on with songs from that double album (leading with the Beach Boys doing Back In The USSR). There are some quite unexpected covers. Ella Fitzgerald singing Savoy Truffle? Soul group The Moments singing Rocky Racoon, of all songs? Some performers are also surprising. Bill Cosby, for example. The stand-up comic did an album of covers in 1969, including Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It's not mugging for [...]

A little later in the month than previously, here are some of the music people who died in March (since then, of course, Malcolm McLaren has joined the great recording studio in the sky). The Grim Reaper took two notable frontmen from us, Alex Chilton and Mark Linkous, as well as the blues singer Marva Wright (whose version of I Will Survive is as glorious as Gloria's) and grievously underrated folky Lesley Duncan (featured here with one of the few songs Elton John ever covered). Most bizarre was the death of Serbian pop star Ksenjica Pajcin, who apparently was shot [...]

The last ever photo of the Beatles together, as far as I know. Ringo and Paul wave goodbye, George looks exceedingly pleased, and John looks for Yoko (or perhaps Allen Klein). Tomorrow, 10 April, marks the 40th anniversary of Paul McCartney announcing the offcial disbandment of The Beatles. Of course, the Beatles were finished long before that. The final session for the Abbey Road album was, as the song had it, The End. And the guys knew it. Still, nothing was announced until 10 April 1970, when Paul unilaterally declared the Beatles kaputt. There [...]

Country music is a fertile field for answer records. So here we'll look at three answer records from that genre. Kitty Well's response to Hank Thompson was a massive hit, a breakthrough for country's first female superstar that outsold the hit song it was responding to. And I defy anyone not to like, even secretly, these songs — few things annoy me so much than people claiming categorically that they hate "all country music". * * * Should he stay or should he go now? [...]

Country music is a fertile field for answer records. So here we'll look at three answer records from that genre. Kitty Well's response to Hank Thompson was a massive hit, a breakthrough for country's first female superstar that outsold the hit song it was responding to. And I defy anyone not to like, even secretly, these songs — few things annoy me so much than people claiming categorically that they hate "all country music". * * * Should he stay or should he go now? [...]