Today would be George Harrison’s 78th birthday, so I built a short playlist (5 songs) to honor the occasion:

1. "Something": George’s most famous song, from Abbey Road. It was one side of a double-A side single (with "Come Together"), and reached #1 in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. By the end of the ’70’s it had been covered oer 150 times.
2. "Crackerbox Palace": A fun song (and even more fun video) from his 1976 album Thirty-Three & 1/3. It reached #19 on the Hot 100.
3. "Blow Away": From his eponymous 1979 album. It was a song he wrote on a rainy day when the roof in his house was leaking. He realized that getting upset over it was just making it worse, and it reminded him that he loved everybody and he needed to be more optimistic. Reached #16 on the Hot 100 and #2 on the Adult Contemporary charts.
4. "All Those Years Ago": From 1981’s Somewhere In England, this was George’s tribute to John Lennon. Ringo played drums, while Paul, Linda and Denny Laine sang backup, stoking rumors that the band was getting back together. Reached #2 in the US behind Kim Carnes’s "Bette Davis Eyes" and topped the Adult Contemporary chart as well as reaching #1 in Canada.
5. "When We Was Fab": From 1987’s Cloud Nine, a fond look back at the days of Beatlemania. Co-written by Jeff Lynne, who produced the album, the song features Ringo on the drums and some elements of psychedelia and Indian music. The video is priceless. Reached #2 on the Mainstream Rock chart, #10 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and #7 on the Canadian Adult Contemporary chart.

Happy birthday, George!

Composer and pianist Michel Legrand would be 89 years young today. He wrote "The Windmills of Your Mind" for the 1967 film The Thomas Crown Affair with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, and took home the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Golden Globe for Best Original Song in 1968. Noel Harrison sang it for the movie, but I’ve always liked Dusty Springfield’s cover, which reached #3 on the Easy Listening chart in 1969. (Sting sang the song for the 1999 remake starring Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo.)

Guitarist extraordinaire Johnny Winter would be 77 today. "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" is a song by Rick Derringer, former member of The McCoys and a longtime associate of Johnny’s and his brother Edgar’s. Rick plays rhythm guitar here, with Randy Hobbs on bass and Randy Z on drums; the three of them comprised the "And" portion of "Johnny Winter And." This is from 1970.

Sporano and "ghost singer" Marni Nixon would be 91 today. She provided the voice for Deborah Kerr in The King And I, Natalie Wood in West Side Story, and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. She received no credit for her work until much later. That’s her singing "I Could Have Danced All Night" for Audrey Hepburn.