Category: Monday’s Music Moves Me

Monday’s Music Moves Me: Pink

Some time ago, I was working on a series where I was finding songs with specific color in them. I don’t think I ever did “pink,” so here are ten songs with that color in the title. Most of these I knew, but a few I had to find. Enjoy!

  1. Joe Liggins & The Honeydrippers, “Pink Champagne” Joe Liggins was a blues and R&B pianist who led his band The Honeydrippers in the 1940’s and 1950’s. His biggest hit was “The Honeydripper,” recorded in 1945. This reached #1 for 13 weeks on the R&B chart (then called the “race records” chart) and #30 on the Pop chart in 1950.
  2. Perez Prado, “Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White” Cuban bandleader Prado recorded this in 1955 for the movie Underwater, and it reached #1 for ten weeks that year.
  3. Carl Perkins, “Pink Cadillac” The master rockabilly guitarist covers Bruce Springsteen’s song and does it better than “The Boss” did, in my opinion.
  4. Jerry Wallace, “Touch of Pink” Wallace is best known for “Primrose Lane,” which he took to #8 in 1959. This is the Jerry’s record just before that one, which barely cracked the Hot 100, coming in at #92.
  5. Mitchell Torok, “Pink Chiffon” Country singer/songwriter Torok had his greatest chart success with “Caribbean,” which reached #1 on the Country chart in 1953. This only reached #60 on the Pop chart in 1960. I thought it was good, anyway…
  6. Dodie Stevens, “Pink Shoelaces” Dodie was one day short of 13 when ths debuted on the Pop chart at #96. It eventually reached #3. Cute, isn’t she?
  7. Henry Mancini, “The Pink Panther Theme” I figure that if I didn’t include this one, everybody’d ask “Why didn’t you include The Pink Panther theme?” During my first A to Z Challenge back in 2012, I talked about Mancini and his working relationship with director Blake Edwards, and this was maybe the most famous collaboration between the two.
  8. Marty Robbins, “A White Sportcoat (And A Pink Carnation)” In the early days of rock & roll, Country stars regularly crossed over onto the Pop chart. This was a big hit for him, reaching #1 on the Country chart and #2 on the Pop chart, and #1 in Australia in 1957.
  9. Karl Sapp, “White Lightning or Pink Champagne” Allmusic tells me Karl has three albums out and that this can be found on the second album, 2007’s *Words and Music.” That’s as far as it goes. Good song, though.
  10. The Psychedelic Furs, “Pretty In Pink” Molly Ringwald evidently told director John Hughes that this was her favorite song, and the built the movie around it. Or maybe not. Anyway, this was on their second album, 1981’s Talk Talk Talk, and it reached #43 in the UK.

And that’s Mondy’s Music Moves Me for April 6, 2020.

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

Monday’s Music Moves Me: Walking

Image by Michael Drummond from Pixabay

Athena the Cat Goddess wants songs about walking, and I bet most of us wouldn’t mind taking a walk. Here are ten songs about walking.

  1. Patsy Cline, "Walkin’ After Midnight" One of the great ladies of Country music, Patsy had a #2 hit on the Country chart with this in 1957. It also reached #12 on the Pop chart.
  2. Muddy Waters with George "Harmonica" Smith, "Walkin’ Thru The Park" From a 1971 performance.
  3. Paul Butterfield Blues Band, "Walkin’ Blues" Paul originally recorded this on his 1966 album East-West, then recorded it again on his 1972 album Better Days. This is a live performance from 1978.
  4. Kyu Sakamoto, "Sukiyaki (Ue O Muite Arokou) The Japanese title means "I Look Up As I Walk," but the record company, reasoning the American audience wouldn’t be able to pronounce the Japanese title, named it "Sukiyaki." Must have worked, because it was a #1 hit for three weeks here in 1963.
  5. The Rooftop Singers, "Walk Right In" A cover of a Gus Cannon song from 1929, it reached #1 for two weeks in 1963 and sold a lot of 12-string guitars.
  6. Johnny Smith, "Walk Don’t Run!" Usually I use The Ventures’ cover, but this is the original from 1954. There’s a story that someone arranged for Johnny to have dinner with The Ventures, who didn’t know that he had written their biggest hit, and he never let on. Chet Atkins has also covered this.
  7. Nancy Sinatra, "These Boots Are Made For Walkin’" Legend has it that Frank was less than thrilled that "Nancy With The Laughing Face" was dressed like this. It was an international #1 hit in 1966.
  8. The Four Seasons, "Walk Like A Man" The Jersey Boys recorded this in 1963 on Vee Jay Records, and it was their third consecutive #1 hit (after "Sherry" and "Big Girls Don’t Cry").
  9. The Four Tops, "Walk Away Renee" I was going to use The Left Banke’s original, then saw this and liked it better. It only went to #14 on the Hot 100 and #15 on the R&B chart, but went to #2 in Canada, #3 in the UK, and #5 in Ireland.
  10. Fats Domino, "I Want To Walk You Home" Fats did several songs about walking, and this might be the least well-known of them. It was a #1 hit on the R&B chart and a #8 on the Hot 100 in 1959.

And that’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for March 30, 2020.

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

Monday's Music Moves Me: Totally Random

Decided to go to the YouTube home page and take ten songs from there. And here’s what I got.

  1. Dionne Warwick, "Alfie" From the 1966 film of the same name, starring Michael Caine. Cher sang it over the closing credits in the movie, but as I said time and again this weekend, Bacharach/David and Dionne Warwick are a winning combination.
  2. Mary Hopkin, "Goodbye" One of the first singers to sign to Apple Records, Mary is a Welsh folk singer who was a protege of Paul McCartney’s. Paul wrote this and Mary took it to #2 in the UK, #13 on the Hot 100, and #6 on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1969.
  3. The Monkees, "Sweet Young Thing" A song by Gerry Goffin, Carole King, and Michael Nesmith that appeared on their 1966 eponymous debut album.
  4. Jake Faun, "Sugarfoot Rag" I just started following Jake on YouTube. He is a session guitarist, composer, and guitar teacher. He’s also very fast and very clean. Some of his solos combine country with jazz, like this one.
  5. The Beatles, "If I Fell" From my favorite movie of all time, 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night. What else is there to say?
  6. O. C. Smith, "Honey I Miss You" O. C. Smith’s music has been described as "dinner club soul." He had a few hits in the ’60’s, most notably "Little Green Apples." Here he covers Bobby Goldsboro’s song.
  7. The Guess Who, "Clap For The Wolfman" From The Guess Who’s 1974 album Road Food, this track featured Wolfman Jack throwing in some of his craziness, which here is on tape. When The Guess Who appeared on The Midnight Special in 1974, co-hosted by the Wolfman, he did his part live.
  8. The Chordettes, "Lollipop" and "Mr. Sandman" The Chordettes were four ladies from Sheboygan, Wisconsin who sang mostly a capella, since they started as a barbershop quartet. These are their two biggest hits, which they performed on Dick Clark’s Saturday night show probably in 1958.
  9. Ruby Jay, "Vivid Dream" I can’t say enough good things about Ruby Jay: she’s a talented actress (this season she appeared in the lead role on Hulu’s Holly Hobbie and in a supporting role in CBS’s The Unicorn with Walton Goggins), singer, dancer and composer. This is her latest single that was released this past Friday.
  10. Leonid & Friends, "Make Me Smile" and "Brand New Love Affair" The ultimate tribute band to the group Chicago, this band from Russia now sounds more like Chicago than Chicago does. This was taped at one of their shows, in Gilbert, Arizona last November.

And that’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for March 23, 2020.

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

Monday’s Music Moves Me: Animals

NOTE: By the time I learned that the theme for today had changed, this was already written and scheduled. Tomorow’s Song of the Day will be an Irish song. Sorry for the confusion!

The Chinese Zodiac, just because…

Today Athena the Cat Goddess want us to choose songs with animals in the title. So here are a dozen songs with animals in the title that I don’t think anyone else will choose.

  1. Fats Domino, "Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey" Fats covers this song from The Beatles’ white album.
  2. Theo Bikel, "Piggies" Another song from the white album, given the royal treatment by Theo.
  3. The Flying Burrito Brothers, "Wild Horses" A beautiful song by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, covered beautifully by the FBB.
  4. Buffalo Springfield, "Bluebird" From their second album, it starts out almost psychedelic, but ends with a lovely banjo.
  5. Paul McCartney & Wings, "Bluebird" When I went looking for the last song, I saw this as well and remembered how pretty it was. From Band On The Run.
  6. Rufus Thomas, "Can Your Monkey Do The Dog" Singer/dancer/disk jockey/composer Rufus got with Steve Cropper and came up with a song that’s easy to dance to.
  7. The Hollies, "Too Much Monkey Business" Normally known for their spot-on harmonies, The Hollies show they can rock & roll with the best of them with this cover of a Chuck Berry tune.
  8. Ray Stevens, "The Preacher and The Bear" Wikipedia tells us that this was originally a "coon song," one that presents a not-too-pleasant stereotype of Black people, which came as a great shock to me. It’s been covered frequently, and I knew that Jerry Reed and The Big Bopper had done it, but never knew that Ray Stevens also had a cover.
  9. Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, "The Lonely Bull" Title track from Herb and the TJB’s first album. This is popular among surf bands as well.
  10. Big Mama Thornton, "Little Red Rooster" Written by Willie Dixon and originally done by Howlin’ Wolf, Big Mama puts her own mark on it.
  11. Big Mama Thornton, "Hound Dog" Had to do this one as well. Elvis got the song from her. That’s Buddy Guy playing the guitar here.
  12. Gabriella Quevedo, "Blackbird" Paul McCartney wrote it and put it on the white album, and pretty much every fingerstyle player has covered it. Funny thing was, Paul didn’t know how to play fingerstyle, but he did all right. Gabriella Quevedo has a channel on YouTube where she does a lot of fingerstyle covers.

And that’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for March 16, 2020.

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

Monday’s Music Moves Me: More Names

More interesting than most of what’s on these days.

As I said last week, I had to force myself to stop at ten last week because I wanted to leave a few "name" songs for everyone else. Even then, there were a lot of songs that got missed, so here are 12 of them, and I forced myself to stop there.

  1. The Kentucky Headhunters, "Dumas Walker" When I first heard this one, I could swear they were calling him "Doofus Walker." The second single from the band’s 1989 album Pickin’ On Nashville, it reached #15 on the Country chart in 1990.
  2. The Beatles, "Julia" The Beatles have several representatives on today’s list, and I could have put a bunch more. John Lennon learned to fingerpick in India from Donovan, and learned really well. Paul is still jealous.
  3. Michael Martin Murphey, "Wildfire" Wildfire is the name of the horse in this one. From Michael’s 1975 album Blue Sky – Night Thunder, it was the lead single and reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, #3 on the Hot 100, and #1 in Canada on both the Pop and AC charts.
  4. The Association, "Windy" From their third album, 1967’s Insight Out, it reached #1 on the Hot 100 and was certified Gold.
  5. Little Richard, "Long Tall Sally" The Beatles covered this one, and I could have used their cover, then I thought to use the original. This video is from the 1956 film Don’t Knock The Rock, which also featured Bill Haley & The Comets. It reached #2 on the R&B chart, while Pat Boone’s cover reached #12 on the Pop chart.
  6. Danny O’Keefe, "Good Time Charley’s Got The Blues" O’Keefe recorded this in 1967, and re-recorded it in 1971. Recording a slower a third time in 1972, he reached #9 on the Hot 100 and #5 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
  7. Steely Dan, "Josie" In addition to having three Beatles songs (including two from the white album) on today’s list, I (sort of) have three from Steely Dan (including two from their 1977 album Aja) on today’s playlist. This was the third single from Aja, and it just fell shy of the Top 20, reaching #26.
  8. The Beatles, "Dear Prudence" The second song from the 1968 white album we feature today, it’s the second song on the album, right after "Back In The USSR." You can hear the sound of a jet engine at the start of the track, a remnant of the previous song.
  9. Donald Fagen, "Ruby Baby" Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen recorded his first solo album in 1982, shortly after the band went their separate ways. He covered this Lieber & Stoller tune done by Dion in 1962.
  10. Simon & Garfunkel, "Mrs. Robinson" From their 1968 album Bookends, it was included in the soundtrack for the 1967 film The Graduate (but you knew that). It was a #1 hit in the US and Canada and ended the year at #9.
  11. Steely Dan, "Peg" The second song from Aja, it was released as a single and reached #11 in 1977.
  12. The Beatles, "Eleanor Rigby" From 1966’s Revolver, it was the A side of a single with "Yellow Submarine" on the B side. It reached #1 in Canada and the UK, but only reached #11 in the US.

And that’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for March 9, 2020.

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