Guest conductor Robin said "Let’s do songs about animals!" Why not? Here are ten.

1. (Peter Green’s) Fleetwood Mac, "Albatross": Written by Peter Green and issued as a single in 1968, it was inspired by Santo & Johnny’s "Sleep Walk." It reached #1 in the UK and #4 on the Billboard "Bubbling Under" chart (i.e. it was #104). It got a lot of play on FM stations in the early days of FM rock.

2. Al Wilson, "The Snake": A song by civil rights activist Oscar Brown, who recorded it in 1963. Al Wilson reached #27 on the Hot 100 and #32 on the R&B chart in 1968.

3. Chicago, "Jenny": From Chicago VI, a song by Terry Kath to his dog.

4. Henry Mancini, "The Pink Panther Theme": Written by Mancini for the 1963 film and used in all of them since (at least the ones starring Peter Sellers). In 1978, for Revenge of the Pink Panther it was given a disco beat. Mancini was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1963 but lost to the Sherman brothers for their score of Mary Poppins.

5. Henry Mancini, "Baby Elephant Walk": Saw this when I was playing the last one and couldn’t resist it. Mancini wrote it in 1961 for the 1962 movie Hatari!, and it won him a Grammy in 1963 for Best Instrumental Arrangement. It does have lyrics, written by Hal David, which are rarely used.

6. Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, "The Lonely Bull": Written by Sol Lake, it was the title track for Alpert’s 1962 album. It reached #6 on the Hot 100 in 1962.

7. Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, "Spanish Flea": Again, saw this and couldn’t resist. Written by Julius Wechter with lyrics by Cissy Wechter, it appeared on Herb & The TJB’s 1965 album Going Places and reached #2 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

8. Bent Fabric, "Alley Cat": Title track from Bent’s 1962 album, he wrote it under the pseudonym Frank Björn. It reached #7 in the US and #4 in Canada.

9. Bent Fabric, "The Happy Puppy": And again, couldn’t resist this one. Title track for Bent’s second album in 1962.

10. Barnes & Barnes, "Fish Heads": A novelty song recorded by Barnes & Barnes in 1978. It was the most-requested song on Dr. Demento’s radio show. Bill Mumy, who many of you remember from the 1965-1968 TV series Lost In Space, is one of the Barneses.

And that’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for July 19, 2021.

Her name is Anastasia Tyurina, and she’ll be 11 in October. She’s been playing at least five years (I think the earliest videos I saw were from when she was five) and has become a virtuoso on the balalaika, a three-stringed instrument analogous to the guitar or the ukulele. I found her a while back as I was going through YouTube videos, and when I started listening to her, I couldn’t stop. She’s not just a little girl playing a balalaika: She’s a real rock star. Her bio from her YouTube channel:

Anastasia Tyurina (balalaika) Winner of national and international competitions. The winner of the All-Russian television competition for young talents "Blue Bird". Fellow of the Vladimir Spivakov International Charitable Foundation and Charitable Foundation "New Names"

She also has a Facebook page and an Instagram page.

Anyway, let’s get to the tunes… I’m only giving you 8 today, but there’s a lot more on Youtube.

1. "La Paloma": Written by S. Iradier and A. Tsygankov and performed by students of the children’s music school in Tambov. The triangular instruments are balalaikas, the round ones are domras.

2. "Fantasy" on a JS Bach Theme: Sadly, I don’t have names for the other musicians here, though the girl playing saxophone might be Anastasia’s cousin Sofia. This was from last June 12, "Russia Day." I love the leather jacket with the formal dress.

3. "Tritsch-Tratsch": This is a polka by Johann Strauss. The musicians are from the National Academic Orchestra of Folk Instruments of Russia. This concert celebrated their 100th anniversary.

4. "Valenki": I believe this is a Russian folk tune. She’s accompanied by Denis Matsuev, who’s a pretty dynamic pianist that we will be hearing more from later.

5. "Kalinka": A song by V. Gorodovskaya played with the Ensemble of Russian folk instruments "Tambov." The other musicians, left to right: Alexey Artemiev, button accordion; Roman Baranov, domra; and Stepan Kochetov, bayan bass.

6. "Venice Carnival": By Niccolo Paganini. She’s accompanied by the Lipetsk State Orchestra of Russian Folk Instruments, under the direction of Alexey Morgunov.

7. "Cinderella": Written by A. Arkhipovsky. She’s playing for the Dalian Dance Troupe; this is from their ballet and acrobatic show "The Nutcracker." This is from the TV show "Blue Bird" (I think; the description is in English translated from Russian).

8. Paganini/Rachmaninoff, "Caprice #24": This is a tremendous jam with Denis Matsuev on piano, Ekaterina Mochalova on domra, and Andrei Ivanov and Alexander Zinger, bass and drums (not sure which is which).

As I hinted, Anastasia’s cousin (I’m pretty sure she’s not her sister) Sofia plays the saxophone. I might feature her next freebie day.

I really hope you’ve enjoyed Anastasia Tyurina. That’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for July 12, 2021.

Our guest conductor, Robin (a/k/a Songbird), tells us that her daughter Becca is celebrating her 29th birthday today, and would like songs about magic, fantasy, or fairy tales. Naturally, I have no clue about any of those things, except maybe magic, and even then it’s the prestidigitation type, not turning someone into a wombat…. So, I did my best, Becca. Happy birthday!

1. Doris Day, "It’s Magic": Written by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn for Doris Day’s film debut in 1947’s Romance On The High Seas. It’s been covered many times since, not anywhere near as elegantly as the lovely Ms. Day.

2. Willie Dixon, "Seventh Son": The poet laureate of the blues, Willie wrote this based on the folklore concept of "the seventh son of a seventh son," who is alleged to be gifted with certain magical powers. Johnny Rivers did a cover of this that was quite popular.

3. Angelina Jordan, "I Put A Spell On You": The child singing sensation I wrote about five years ago has been steadily putting songs on her YouTube channel, including this, a cover of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’s 1956 hit that’s been covered by Bette Midler, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and others. Spells was one of the courses at Hogwarts, if I’m not mistaken…

4. The Police, "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic": From their 1981 album Ghost In The Machine. Reached #3 on the Hot 100 (behind Foreigner’s "Waiting For A Girl Like You" and Olivia Newton-John’s "Physical") and #1 in the UK and Canada.

5. Pilot, "It’s Magic": From their 1974 album From The Album Of The Same Name. Now being used to sell Type 2 diabetes drugs. Reached #5 in the US, #1 in Canada, and #11 in the UK.

6. Olivia Newton-John, "Magic": From the soundtrack of the 1980 movie Xanadu, where she rollerskates with Gene Kelly, in what was his last film role (probably because he rollerskated with Olivia in Xanadu). This was the #1 song for most of August 1980, after which "Sailing" by Christopher Cross (who’s nowhere near as attractive as Olivia) took over.

7. Frank Sinatra, "Witchcraft": A song by Cy Coleman with lyrics by Carolyn Leigh that was popularized by Ol’ Blue Eyes, who reached #6 on the Hot 100 in 1957.

8. David Seville, "Witch Doctor": Ross Bagdasarian, a/k/a David Seville, no doubt used this as a forerunner of the studio trick that created the voices for The Chipmunks. This single went to #1 on the Pop and R&B charts in 1958 and saved Liberty Records from bankruptcy.

9. Santana, "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen": "Black Magic Woman" was written by guitar superstar Peter Green in the days when Fleetwood Mac was a British blues/rock band. Santana’s version changed the feel of the original and added Gabor Szabo’s "Gypsy Queen" as the instrumental ending, which did not make Szabo happy…

10. The Lovin’ Spoonful, "Do You Believe In Magic": A 1965 song by John Sebastian and the boys that reached #9 on the Hot 100.

Again, Happy Birthday, Becca! That’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for July 5, 2021.

I found some music out on YouTube that was posted by the user Scratchy 45’s. True to his/her/its name, these are some pretty scratchy 45’s that were digitized. I started with one and YouTube drove me to the rest. Most are from 1960, but there are a few later ones. Enjoy!

1. Brighter Side of Darkness, "Love Jones": A band from Calumet City, Illinois (just outside Chicago) led by 12-year-old Darryl Lamont. The single was released in 1972 and reached #16 on the Hot 100 and #3 on the Soul chart. Their album of the same name was released in 1973, but this was their only hit. Cheech & Chong parodied the song with "Basketball Jones."

2. Jeanne Black, "He’ll Have To Stay": From 1960, a response song to Jim Reeves’s "He’ll Have To Go." It did very well: #4 on the Hot 100, #6 on the Country chart, #11 on he R&B chart, and #41 in the UK.

3. Larry Verne, "Please Mr. Custer": A novelty record from 1960 that reached #1 on the Hot 100.

4. The Flame, "See The Light": From their 1970 self-titled album. They were a South African band that included guitarist Blondie Chaplin, who played with The Beach Boys in the ’70’s. Notice that Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys was the producer.

5. Hollywood Argyles, "Alley Oop": The first rock record played by WLS in 1960. This reached #1 in 1960 and was their only hit.

6. Jimmy Charles, "A Million To One": Jimmy is from Paterson, New Jersey and sang in a distinctive "crying" style. This was his only hit, reaching #5 on the Hot 100 and #8 on the R&B chart in 1960.

7. The Vapors, "Turning Japanese": A new wave song from 1980 that reached #34 on the Hot 100. There is no truth to the rumor about what "turning Japanese" meant…

8. Lolita, "Sailor (Your Home Is The Sea)": Lolita was a German singer who had an internatioal hit with this in 1959.

9. The Fendermen, "Mule Skinner Blues": Jim Sundquist and Phil Humphrey were two guys, both born on November 26, 1937, who met at The University of Wisconsin and formed The Fendermen. "Mule Skinner Blues" was their only hit, reaching #3 on the Hot 100 in 1960.

10. Jump ‘N The Saddle Band, "The Curly Shuffle": A Chicago band who got their inspiration for this song from watching The Three Stooges, which WFLD in Chicago ran weeknights at 10 as Comedy Classics. They had several offers from record companies, but wanted to wait until they could get a contract. I’m not sure they did, but this reached #15 on the Hot 100 in 1984.

That’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for June 28, 2021.

So we’re supposed to create a playlist of music from the 1980’s and 1990’s. I found this hard to do, because I wanted to add a lot of songs for each decade, and I already hit you with a long playlist last week. So I got an idea: make a playlist for each decade. Here we go…

In the event that you have trouble playing this embedded here, you can play it over on YouTube here. If that doesn’t work, I don’t know what to tell you. Here are the songs in this playlist:

1. The Village People, "Ready For The ’80’s": Technically from 1979, but I thought it would make a good opener.

2. Culture Club, "Church of the Poison Mind": The older I get, the more I appreciate Culture Club. From 1983 and the album Colour By Numbers.

3. Sade, "Frankie’s First Affair": An album cut from 1984’s Diamond Life.

4. Swing Out Sister, "Waiting Game": Their third single from their second album, Kaleidoscope World.

5. Bruce Hornsby & The Range, "Look Out Any Window": From Bruce’s 1988 album Scenes From The Southside.

6. Huey Lewis & The News, "If This Is It": From their 1984 Sports album, it was the fourth single off of it and their fourth straight Top 10 hit.

7. Sheena Easton, "9 To 5 (Morning Train)": From her 1980 album Take My Time, it had to be renamed "Morning Train" in the US because Dolly Parton already had a song on the charts called "9 To 5".

8. Robert Cray, "Still Around": From Robert’s 1984 album Strong Persuader, this was an album cut that (in my humble opinion) should have been a single.

9. George Harrison, "Devil’s Radio": From his 1987 album Cloud Nine, an album cut that would have made a great single.

10. Traveling Wilburys, "Not Alone Anymore": From their 1988 album Volume 1, sung by the incomparable Roy Orbison, who hits some incredible high notes at the end. You know, the kind only Roy could hit.

Again, if you have trouble playing this here, try over at YouTube.

1. INXS, "Suicide Blonde": From their 1990 album X. It was a Top 10 single here and in Australia.

2. Rick Astley, "Cry For Help": Rick took that fantastic voice and wrapped it around a ballad, and the result was amazing. From 1990’s Free.

3. Tom Cochrane, "Life Is A Highway": This is the original, from 1991’s Mad Mad World.

4. The Chieftains and Van Morrison, "Have I Told You Lately": First appeared on Van’s 1989 album Avalon, The Chieftains covered it for their 1995 album The Long Black Veil with Van doing the vocal. Simply a beautiful song made even more beautiful by the traditional Irish instruments.

5. Sheryl Crow, "All I Wanna Do": From Sheryl’s 1994 album Tuesday Night Music Club, it’s based on a poem by Wyn Cooper called "Fun." By far her biggest hit, it won the 1995 Grammy for Song of the Year.

6. Acoustic Alchemy, "Casino": By the time this came out in 1996 I had pretty much given up on Top 40 radio, which had become increasingly about music that I didn’t especially like. "Casino" is Acoustic Alchemy’s signature song, going all the way back to the beginnings of the band. This version, from Arcanum (1996), was an updated one.

7. Fourplay with Chaka Khan, "Between The Sheets": Title track from Fourplay’s 1993 second album. Originally done by the Isley Brothers, the vocal is done by Fourplay’s bassist Nathan East with the lovely Chaka Khan.

8. Toto, "2 Hearts": I had to include one by Toto somewhere. Not the same song as the Phil Collins hit, an album track from their 1992 album Kingdom of Desire.

9. Candy Dulfer & Funky Stuff, "There Goes the Neighbourhood": A fantastic Dutch alto saxophone player who’s the daughter of a fantastic Dutch tenor saxophone player (Hans Dulfer). This is from her 1990 debut album Saxuality.

10. Peter Cetera, "Even A Fool Can See": From Peter’s fourth solo album World Falling Down (1992). The album was featured in a Heineken Light commercial in 2010. I couldn’t tell if this was the song, though.

And that’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for June 21, 2021.