Song of the Day EXTRA: RIP Astrud Gilberto

I got the news this morning that Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto, who sang the hit song "The Girl From Ipanema," passed away yesterday at the age of 83.

In 1963, saxophonist Stan Getz was working on an album with Brazilian guitarist and singer João Gilberto and performer and songwriter Antônio Carlos Jobim, which became the 1964 album Getz/Gilberto. When they did "The Girl From Ipanema," Glberto suggested that his wife Astrud sing the English version of the song. While she knew English, she had never sung professionally, but she sang it anyway. (I had always heard that she didn’t know English and learned it phonetically. Shows what I know.) The song went on to reach #1 on the easy Listening chart and #5 on the Hot 100, ws a hit around the world, and earned the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1965.

Another song from that album that she sang was "Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)."

Astrud Gilberto was a beautiful woman with a beautiful voice. Que ela descanse em paz.

Top Ten Tuesday: WNDU (92.9 FM, South Bend IN), 6/5/81

South Bend, Indiana is the home of Notre Dame Unversity (pronounced as "noter dame"), and they were the original owners of WNDU-FM as well as WNDU-AM (1480 AM) and WNDU-TV (channel 16). The University sold the station to Artistic Media Partners in 1998, and their call letters changed to WNDV. The station is stil known as "U 93" and is still a Contemporary Hits Radio station. Anyway, let’s look back to 1981, shall we? The playlist for today is here.

10 – Ray Parker Jr. and Raydio, “A Woman Needs Love (Just Like You Do)”

9 – Sheena Easton “Morning Train (9 to 5)”

8 – Juice Newton, “Angel Of The Morning”

7 – George Harrison, “All Those Years Ago”

6 – Champaign, “How ‘Bout Us”

5 – Smokey Robinson, “Being With You”

4 – Neil Diamond, “America”

3 – Climax Blues Band, “I Love You”

2 – A Taste Of Honey, “Sukiyaki”

1 – Kim Carnes, “Bette Davis Eyes”

And that’s Top Ten Tuesday for June 6, 2023.

Song of the Day: Grant Green, “Cool Blues”

Jazz guitarist Grant Green was born on this day in 1935. In a relatively short career (he died in 1979 at the age of 43), he recorded some 35 albums as a leader and appeared on a number of other artists’ albums, including blues and jazz artists. He drew inspiration from saxophonists, and his approach to the guitar was more linear than chord-based. Much of his catalog on Blue Note Records was released after his death. For example, "Cool Blues" was from his album Born To Be Blue, which was recorded in 1962 but not released until 1985.

Share Your World for 6/5/2023

Di has the questions, I have the snappy comebacks…

Do you like to sunbathe on the beach or by a pool? No. I have a redhead’s complexion, which means I burn easily and that I have a lot of freckles. I also had the terrible experience of watching my stepfather die of melanoma. It’s a death I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Please, protect yourself: use sunscreen and cover up as much as possible. Watch for signs that moles are turning malignant (changing shape, becoming rough-textured, bleeding etc.). See your doctor if you have any concerns. Caught early, melanoma can be dealt with.

Have you ever used a fake tan or a sun bed? No to both. Especially the tanning bed (see above).

Have you joined or wanted to join a gym? I have, and in fact worked with a trainer for several months. Once I was done with him, I used their pool and their recumbent bicycles for a while, but that was it.

Good health permitting, would you prefer to go hiking or take a walk in the woods? I loved to walk, usually on paved walking paths. Neither hiking nor walking through the woods appeal to me that much, but the latter sounds like the lesser of two evils, so I’ll say that.

That’s it for this week!

MMMM: Days Of The Week!

A little over six years ago, my brother Patrick asked me to come up with a playlist of songs that mention a day of a week in the title. The original list had fifteen songs in it, but when I pulled up that playlist, I saw that four of them had disappeared and two more were "unavailable," whatever that means. I also noticed that, while I had plenty of songs for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, I had only one Tuesday song and none at all for Wednesday or Thursday. So, I rebuilt the playlist, adding back the songs that had disappeared and new songs for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I also rearranged the list so the songs were listed by day, Monday to Sunday. Here’s the new list. The songs are available in a YouTube playlist here, and in a Spotify playlist here.

The Mamas & The Papas, “Monday, Monday”

Junior Wells & Buddy Guy, “Stormy Monday Blues”

The Bangles, “Manic Monday”

Carpenters, “Rainy Days and Mondays”

The Boomtown Rats, “I Don’t Like Mondays”

Steven Curtis Chapman, “Tuesday’s Child”

The Rolling Stones, “Ruby Tuesday”

Simon & Garfunkel, “Wednesday Morning, 3 AM”

The Royal Guarddsmen, “Any Wednesday”

Donovan, “Jersey Thursday”

Johnny Mathis, “Sweet Thursday”

The Cure, “Friday I’m In Love”

Steely Dan, “Black Friday”

Chicago, “Saturday In The Park”

The Sandpipers, “Come Saturday Morning”

Elton John, “Saturday Night’s All Right For Fighting”

Sam Cooke, “Another Saturday Night”

The Doobie Brothers, “Another Park, Another Sunday”

The Monkees, “Pleasant Valley Sunday”

Spanky & Our Gang, “Sunday Will Never Be The Same”

That’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for June 5, 2023.

Monday’s Music Moves Me is sponsored by Marie, Cathy, Alana, and Stacy, so be sure and visit them, where you can also find the Linky for the other participants.