CoronaVinyl Day 139 (Nautical Themed): Commodores by Commodores

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "nautical themed," and I meant that to broadly include artists or albums that had names or themes based on the sea.  A commodore is traditionally a naval rank that signifies a senior officer that commands ships.  That's good enough for my purposes here, so I'm going with with 1977 self-titled album from soul and funk greats, Commodores.

The band formed in the late '60s when the members met at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.  Though it is self-titled, this album was the band's fifth studio album, and it proved to be one of their biggest successes, as it was their first platinum seller in the U.S. and their highest-charting album to that point, reaching #3 on the Billboard album chart (their first Top 10 album) and becoming their second #1 album on the Billboard R&B album chart.  Oddly, their next two studio albums, 1978's Natural High and 1979's Midnight Magic, would reach the exact same positions on both album charts.

All six of the band's members wrote or co-wrote songs for the album, and the songs range from smooth ballads to straight-up funk.  There's no better example of this than two of the band's biggest hits and most recognizable songs that appear on this album -- "Brick House" and "Easy."  The former is a funk classic, with drummer Walter Orange handling the lead vocals.  The latter is, as the name of the song implies, easy, with Lionel Richie's smooth voice standing in contrast to the lyrics, which are about a guy leaving his woman and not feeling bad about it (hence, he's "easy like Sunday morning").  Both songs were Top 5 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, with "Brick House" going to #5 and "Easy" going to #4.  "Easy" also helped to break the band overseas, as it was the band's first Top 10 hit on the UK pop chart and also went to #9 on the New Zealand pop chart.

Though Richie left the band in 1982 to pursue what became a wildly successful solo career, complete with dancing while defying gravity and videos about attractive blind sculptors, the group continued to make music into the early '90s, though their success and popularity seemed to peter off after 1985's Nightshift album and its international hit title track.  All in all, between their debut in 1972 and 1986, the band had five Top 10 albums in the U.S., 17 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including ten Top 10 songs and two #1s, and 16 Top 10 hits on the Billboard R&B singles chart, including seven #1s.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Squeeze the Fruit"

The first track off the album is a ball of uptempo funk, with various members taking turns singing.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Patch It Up"
Both "Brick House" and "Easy" are on Side 2, but since I've already talked about them, I'll go with "Patch It Up" because it might be the funkiest song on the album.  The bassline is fantastic.  If this song doesn't make you bob your head, then chances are, you don't have a head.  

CoronaVinyl Day 138 (Big Band): The Stereophonic Sound of Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey by The Members of the Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is big band, and by that, I don't mean a band comprised of a lot of members, like Santana or Earth, Wind & Fire.  I mean the genre of jazz music popular in most of the early half of the 20th Century, although I supposed the bands that played this music were, in fact, big.  Hence the name big band.

The Dorsey brothers, older brother and saxophonist Jimmy and younger brother and trombonist Tommy, formed a jazz band -- and a big one at that -- in 1934, and it included famed swing era band leader and trombonist Glenn Miller.  The brothers had a falling out, as brothers tend to do, and Tommy left in 1935, leaving Jimmy as the leader.  The band would have 11 #1 hits under his tutelage.  Not be be outdone, after leaving Jimmy, Tommy formed his own big band, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, which went on to be one of the biggest (pun intended!) jazz and pop bands of the '30s and '40s (with 17 #1 hits), and featured the likes of legendary drummer Buddy Rich and a young Frank Sinatra.

In the early '50s, Jimmy and Tommy teamed back up, both musically and otherwise.  They had a TV variety show on CBS called Stage Show, which is important because Elvis Presley made his first-ever national TV appearance on the show.

Tommy, a Scorpio, died in 1956, a week after his 51st birthday, after choking to death in his sleep, thanks to some heavy sedatives.  Jimmy, a Leap Day baby, carried on the band for another six months, until his death in June 1957 at the age of 53.  At the time he died, Jimmy's song "So Rare" was #2 on the Billboard pop chart, making it the highest-charting song by a big band during the first decade of the rock and roll era.

The album I have is called The Stereophonic Sound of Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey, and it is by "The Members of the Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra."  It came out in 1975, and as the name of the band indicates, it is comprised largely of former members of the brothers' bands, playing their songs.

The album isn't on Spotify, but someone made a YouTube playlist of the songs, so that's what I embedded below.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Deep River"

This is a catchy, uptempo ditty that we can imagine our grandparents really bustin' a rug to back in the early '40s.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Boogie Woogie"
This one is another one that makes you want to put on your zoot suit, get your dame, and hit the town.

Hair Band Friday - 8/28/20

1.  "Poison" by Alice Cooper


2.  "Speak" by Queensrÿche


3.  "Get All You Can Take" by KISS


4.  "I Don't Want to Change the World" by Ozzy Osbourne


5.  "Cathouse" by Faster Pussycat


6.  "Blue Murder" by Blue Murder


7.  "Bloody Mary" by Whitesnake


8.  "Hit Between the Eyes" by Scorpions


9.  "Dust N' Bones" (live) by Guns N' Roses


10.  "Stagefright" by Def Leppard

CoronaVinyl Day 137 (All First Names): The Best of Sam & Dave by Sam & Dave

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "all first names."  By that, I mean groups/bands whose names are comprised solely of first names.  When I came up with this category, I only had a few in mind, but there have actually been quite a lot over the years.  Some examples include Jan & Dean, Peter, Paul & Mary, Sam & Dave, Sonny & Cher, Peter & Gordon, Chad & Jeremy, and Mickey & Sylvia.

I have albums by some of these groups, but I decided to go with my favorite of the bunch, Sam & Dave, and their 1969 "Best of" album.  Sam & Dave -- comprised of Sam Moore (the tenor) and Dave Prater (the baritone/tenor) -- were one of the most successful soul acts of the late '60s.  They were part of the Memphis soul scene, and recorded most of their work in the late '60s at Stax Records, backed by Booker T. & The MGs and the Memphis Horns.  Most of the songs on this album were written by the Stax in-house songwriting power team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter.  So what we're listening to today is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group on vocals, backed by a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group of musicians, performing songs written by two Songwriting Hall of Famers (one of whom is a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer).  Decent.  Very decent.

One of the great things about Sam & Dave is their interplay, call-and-response, and interjections where it seems like their either talking to each other, the audience, or the band members.  Sam's line "Play it, Steve" on "Soul Man" has always been a favorite throwaway line of mine -- just a quick, unplanned shout-out to guitarist Steve Cropper (who also played on the Blues Brothers version of the song and was part of the band in the movie).

Anyway, the Best Of album contains nearly all of their A-side singles from their Stax years, as well as a few B-sides.  Of the 14 songs on the album, ten reached the Top 20 of the Billboard R&B chart, including seven that reached the Top 10 and two #1s -- their most famous songs, "Soul Man" and "Hold On, I'm Comin'."  They also had crossover success on the Billboard Hot 100, with those same ten songs all charting, including three Top 40 songs and two Top 10 songs, "Soul Man" (#2) and "I Thank You" (#9), the latter of which was also famously covered by ZZ Top on on their 1979 album Degüello (their cover reached #34 on the Billboard Hot 100).

The Spotify version of the album has 7 more songs than the vinyl version, and the songs aren't in the same order.  Deal with it.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "You Don't Know Like I Know"

This is probably my favorite Sam & Dave song.  I don't know what to say about it, other than it's a great Memphis soul song.  It was their first song that charted on either the Billboard Hot 100 (#90) and the Billboard R&B chart (#7).

Favorite song from Side 2:  "You Don't Know What You Mean to Me"
For Side 2, I'm going with another "You Don't Know" song, and it's another great one that doesn't get as much love as it should.  This one went to #48 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #20 on the Billboard R&B chart.

Retro Video of the Week: "Don't Come Around Here No More" by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

As we continue our look at COVID-related songs and videos, this week's Retro Video of the Week brings us to Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' 1985 hit "Don't Come Around Here No More."  The song has a pretty interesting back story.  It is co-written by Petty and Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics.  You might think that's an odd pairing, but the common bond was Stevie Nicks, with whom Petty and the Heartbreakers had recorded the duet "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" for Nicks's 1981 debut solo album, Bella Donna.

As the story behind "Don't Come Around Here No More" goes, the Eurythmics were in LA during one of their early tours, which I'm guessing was around 1983.  Nicks apparently goes to the show and then invites Stewart back to her place for a party.  Oddly enough, Stewart didn't know who she was (had he never heard of Fleetwood Mac?!), but he takes her up on the invite, presumably because she was an attractive woman.  He goes to the party, and at some point, everyone else at the party gets up and files into a bathroom to do coke.  This was LA in the '80s.  It was snowing all time.  Why they couldn't just blow lines in the living room is a mystery.  Anyway, after a couple hours, Stewart must have gotten bored, since everyone else was in the bathroom, so he goes upstairs to bed.  At 5 a.m., he wakes up to find Nicks in the room trying on Victorian clothes -- as '80s chanteuses were wont to do after a coke binge -- and Stewart said it reminded him of Alice in Wonderland.  I suppose that's why the video has an Alice in Wonderland theme (Stewart is the hookah-smoking caterpillar in the video, by the way).  Then a little while later, Joe Walsh shows up.  Nicks had recently broken up with Walsh, and Nicks throws him out, saying, "Don't come around here no more."

For COVID purposes, the song is poignant now that we are seeing rates increasing (again) across the country.  I know it can be tough to turn away friends and family, but sometimes, for your own safety, you just have to say, "Don't come around here no more -- or at least until we've gotten this whole coronavirus thing under control."  Or, if you see someone on your block walking around without a mask, you can politely say, "Stop walking down my street."

CoronaVinyl Day 136 (Abbreviated Name): Mean Streak by Y&T

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is abbreviated name, and by that, I mean a band whose name maybe started out as something fully spelled out, but then, for whatever reason, the band started going by the abbreviation of the name.  To be clear, I'm not talking about bands that are colloquially known by abbreviations but still released music under their full names, like Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR), Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO), or Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), or groups whose names have always been abbreviations and have never gone by an unabbreviated name, like R.E.M., UFO, ABBA, or TLC.  I'm talking about bands that released music under their abbreviated name.  Some examples of groups that would fall into that category are T. Rex (which started out as Tyrannosaurus Rex), O.A.R. (which started out as Of A Revolution, but dropped the full name on albums starting in 2001), and LFO (of "Summer Girls" fame, who started off as Lyte Funkie Ones).

Another such band is '70s and '80s Bay Area hard rock band Y&T.  They started off as Yesterday and Today, and released their first two studio albums under that name, before switching to the abbreviated Y&T for their third studio album, 1981's Earthshaker.  The band was kind of lumped in with hair bands during the '80s, although they are more of the late '70s/early '80s hard rock mold of AC/DC, early Whitesnake (lead singer and lead guitarist Dave Meniketti's voice has always reminded me of David Coverdale's voice), or even the New Wave of British Heavy Metal sound.  I have their greatest hits on CD and some other random songs here and there, and they were a really good, straightforward hard rock band.

The album I have is 1983's Mean Streak, which was produced by the vererable Chris Tsangarides, who produced and/or engineered albums or songs for a bunch of hard rock and metal bands over the years, Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy, Anvil (he appeared in the band's 2009 documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil), Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Exodus, King Diamond, Overkill, Yngwie Malmsteen, Helloween, and Tygers of Pan Tang, as well as many non-metal artists, including Depeche Mode, Tom Jones, Joan Armatrading, Concrete Blonde, Jan Hammer, and The Tragically Hip.

Mean Streak peaked at #103 on the Billboard album chart, and the title track reached #25 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.  But don't let it's lack of commercial success taint your view of the album.  Top to bottom, it's a pretty damn good hard rock album.  The band had been together for about a decade at this point, and it shows, as they are tight and aggressive.

For whatever reason -- perhaps because they didn't quite fit the "hair band" mold or because they didn't have many music videos in the burgeoning MTV era -- the band didn't have a lot of success on the charts, although hard rock and metal fans and musicians know and appreciate Y&T.  Only one of their songs charted, 1985's "Summertime Girls," and that definitely has more of a hair band sound (and a video with lots of girls in bikinis).  It was also featured in one of my favorite '80s movies, Real Genius.

The Spotify version of the album has a bonus track, "I'm Sorry," that isn't on the vinyl version of the album.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Mean Streak"

The title track kicks off the album with a punch.  The riff is fantastic, and it's a fast-paced hard rock song, with Meniketti providing a wicked guitar solo about 2/3 of the way through the song.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Down and Dirty"
This song is all about partying on a Friday night, and it's the song I most associate with Y&T for some reason.  I especially like the line "roll me in the mud, baby," right before the guitar solo.  It seems like a song that could have been a hit in the early '80s.

Tuesday Top Ten: One-Hit Wonders By Year - 1960s

Recently, SiriusXM launched a station dedicated to one-hit wonders called Onederland, and it's a pretty great station.  Inspired by that station, I decided to take a look at one-hit wonders over the next five Tuesday Top Tens.  What I'm going to do is look at five different decades, from the 1960s to the 2000s, but instead of just giving you my ten favorite one-hit wonders from each decade, regardless of year, I'm going to break it down year-by-year, giving you my favorite one-hit wonder from each year between 1960 and 2009.

We start with the 1960s, but before we get there, let's figure out the biggest question in this exercise:  what exactly is a one-hit wonder?  There are varying definitions, but of course, it comes down to a band or artist that had only one song that was a commercial success.  Sometimes, it's whether the song was a Top 40 song, sometimes it's whether the song was a Top 20 song, and sometimes the song might not have even made the Top 40, but was, for instance, particularly popular on MTV.  Sometimes artists are considered one-hit wonders if they had one song that was particularly successful (like a Top 5 song), even if they might have had another song or two that cracked the Top 40.  Sometimes hugely influential artists are technically considered one-hit wonders because maybe they only had one song that cracked the Top 40, even if they are otherwise highly revered or even in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I think a true one-hit wonder requires more than just a song that made the Top 40.  If a song peaks at #39, is that really a "hit"?  To keep things legit, here are my rules:

• The song must have been in the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100.  There might be a couple songs that are #21 or #22, as not every year had a ton of one-hit wonders with Top 20 songs to choose from (or one-hit wonders with Top 20 songs that I like).  Also, I'm focusing on the American charts, since that's where I've lived my whole life.  Plus, a look at one-hit wonders on the Dutch charts would require a lot more work.  There are certainly songs and artists who may be one-hit wonders here who have been successful in other countries, and vice versa.
• The band or artist cannot have any song that broke into the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100.  And just so you know I'm trying to keep everything on the level, I am truly focused on artists who didn't have a bunch of Top 40 hits.  For instance, if an artist had one Top 10 song and then five or six other Top 40 songs, I don't necessarily consider that a one-hit wonder.  On the other hand, if there is an artist who had one big hit and then another song that isn't as well know that happened to go to #21, I'm considering that artist.
• The band or artist cannot be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or have a band member who is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  For instance, technically Buffalo Springfield is a one-hit wonder because "For What It's Worth" went to #7, but they didn't have any other Top 40 songs.  But they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, and two of their members were inducted again (Neil Young as a solo artist and Stephen Stills as a member of Crosby, Stills & Nash).  So they don't count.  Same with "Layla" by Derek & The Dominos, which hit #10 in 1972, but the group featured three-time Rock Hall inductee Eric Clapton (as a solo artist and member of Cream and The Yardbirds) and Duane Allman (who was inducted as a member of The Allman Brothers Band).
• For the year, I am counting the year a song was released, regardless of when it charted.  This avoids having to deal with a situation where a song may have been high on the charts at the end of one year and the beginning of another.  Unfortunately, this also hurts songs that didn't become hits until a few years after their release, as I'm not going to choose a song as my favorite one-hit wonder from a particular year if the song didn't really become big until years later.  One that comes to mind is Billy Vera & The Beaters' "At This Moment," which was originally released in 1981, but reissued in 1986 and became a #1 song in early 1987 after it was featured prominently in several poignant episodes of Family Ties.  Same goes for Sheriff's #1 song "When I'm With You," which topped the charts in 1989, six years after it was released.

So those are the rules.  With those in mind, here are my favorite one-hit wonders from each year in the 1960s, chronologically by year of release, with the peak chart position on the Billboard Hot 100 noted.  There's some pop, some soul, some doo wop, and some garage rock.

1.  1960:  "Stay" by Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs (#1)
At a mere one minute and thirty-six seconds, "Stay" is the shortest song that has ever topped the Billboard Hot 100.  It's a doo wop classic, with Maurice Williams handling lead vocals and that iconic falsetto "oh-oh won't you staaayyyy" coming courtesy of Henry Gaston.  Williams wrote the song when he was 15 after he had tried to convince his date that she didn't need to go home by her ten o'clock curfew.


2.  1961:  "Hey! Baby" by Bruce Channel (#1)
Everyone knows this song, even if they don't know who sings it.  This song has a special place in my heart because it's one of the more popular songs played in the tents at Oktoberfest in Munich, thanks to a widely popular 2000 cover by Austrian artist DJ Ötzi.  After the "heeeeyyyyy, hey baby," everyone in the crowds at the tents yells "ooh, ahh."  It's magical.


3.  1962:  "Do You Love Me?" by The Contours (#3)
One of Motown's earliest big hits came via The Contours' 1962 garage soul classic "Do You Love Me," penned by Berry Gordy himself.  Billy Gordon's throat-scratching vocals are awesome, as he asks his ex-girlfriend if she now loves him, since he can now dance.  As with "Stay" and "Hey! Baby," this song was featured in the 1987 hit film Dirty Dancing, which gave it new life.  Even though it wasn't on the official soundtrack, it was so prominent in the film that it actually recharted in 1988, reaching #11 on the Billboard Hot 100, which is crazy.  I guess that makes The Contours a two-time one-hit wonder.

4.  1963:  "Denise" by Randy & The Rainbows (#10)

This is another great doo wop song that became hugely popular as the genre was dying down.  The song is an ode to a woman named Denise, and I'll always remember it because my IU rock and roll history professor Glenn Gass -- who was my favorite teacher at any level of education -- told my Z201 class that it was his favorite song.

5.  1964:  "Last Kiss" by J. Frank Wilson & The Cavaliers (#2)
One of the most famous and successful "teen tragedy" songs of the late '50s and early '60s, "Last Kiss" was originally recorded by the song's writer, Wayne Cochran, in 1961.  The song is sung from the point of view of a teenage boy who was driving his girlfriend on rainy night when the car hits an oncoming truck, killing the girlfriend and leaving the boyfriend to lament, "Oh where oh where can my baby be? / The Lord took her away from me / She's gone to heaven so I've go to be good / So I can see my baby when I leave this world."  The original version didn't have any chart success, but in 1964, J. Frank Wilson & The Cavaliers released their cover version of the song, which was a huge hit, getting to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100.  In 1999, Pearl Jam would match that #2 ranking with their cover of the song, becoming PJ's biggest hit.  Here's a crazy bit of irony.  When the Cavaliers' version of the song was rising up the charts in 1964 and the group was on tour, while driving in between gigs, the band's manager (who was driving) fell asleep at the wheel, the car crossed the center line, and collided head-on with a trailer truck, killing the manager instantly and severely injuring Wilson and another passenger.  A short time later, when the group appeared on American Bandstand, Wilson came out on stage on crutches.


6.  1965:  "Dirty Water" by The Standells (#11)
There's a marked difference in the style of songs between 1960-1964 and 1965.  The Beatles had arrived, the British Invasion was in full force, and music was changing.  One of the new and emerging genres was garage rock, and The Standells' 1965 tribute to Boston, "Dirty Water," is one of the most enduring garage rock songs from the era.  Though the group was from LA (and had never even been to Boston before the song came out), their producer, Ed Cobb, wrote the song for the group based on a visit to Boston where he was mugged.  It was the band's only Top 40 song, and of course, it is now well known as the victory song played at Red Sox and Bruins games.


7.  1966:  "Psychotic Reaction" by The Count Five (#5)
Among the earliest garage rock and psychedelic rock hits was The Count Five's "Psychotic Reaction," which got all the way up to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966.  It was the title track to the band's 1966 debut album, which would end up being the group's only album (and the song the group's only hit) because the members of the group were in their late teens and decided to go to college instead of pursuing music.  Idiots!  Thankfully, in their short time together, The Count Five bestowed the world with a classic garage/fuzz/psychedelic rock song, influencing many garage and punk rockers after them.


8.  1967:  "Little Bit 'O Soul" by The Music Explosion (#2)
The garage rock trend continues, as my choice for 1967 is the classic "Little Bit 'O Soul" by The Music Explosion.  It's just a great song, with that signature organ and bass riff and the soulful vocals by a guy who resembles Bill Walton.


9.  1968:  "Angel of the Morning" by Merrilee Rush & The Turnabouts (#7)
For 1968, I switching up from garage rock to orchestral pop.  "Angel of the Morning" was written in 1967 by songwriter Chip Taylor (who also wrote The Troggs' big hit "Wild Thing") after he heard the Rolling Stones' "Ruby Tuesday."  It was recorded by a couple artists before Merrilee Rush & The Turnabouts recorded it in 1968 and has been recorded by many artists since then (most successfully in 1981 by Juice Newton), but it was Rush's version that was the first successful version, hitting #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 (and also going to #1 in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand) and earning Rush a Grammy nomination.  It's a great song that is either about an unmarried woman who is mature enough to throw social mores out the window to have a one-night stand or about an affair.  I can never tell.  Either way, that dude better call her "angel of the morning," and he better fucking touch her cheek before getting the hell out of Dodge. But seriously, the chorus is one of the most satisfying musical moments, maybe ever, isn't it? The demure verses give way to the grandiosity of the chorus. You know it's coming, but every time, it scratches that itch.


10.  1969:  "Take a Letter, Maria" by R.B. Greaves (#2)
To finish out the '60s, I'm going with the 1969 #2 hit "Take a Letter, Maria" by R.B. Greaves, who I just learned was Sam Cooke's nephew.  It's a Latin-infused soul song in which the singer, after finding out his wife cheated on him, is dictating a letter to his secretary (Maria).  The letter will be sent to his wife, and a copy will be sent to his lawyer.  Either way, he's leaving to start a new life.  Then at the end, he invites Maria to dinner, which I think takes away from the story of the song a little because it's kind like "was he secretly into Maria this whole time?," but it's still my favorite one-hit wonder from 1969.

CoronaVinyl Day 135 (Sports-Related Name): Play Deep by The Outfield

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is sports-related name.  Over the years, there have been various sports-related band, artist, or album names, like Tennis, The Lettermen, John Fogerty's 1985 album Centerfield, jazz musician Bob James's 1978 album Touchdown, and even Pearl Jam's iconic 1991 debut album Ten (which is a reference to the jersey number of NBA player Mookie Blaylock).

I'm choosing British trio The Outfield's 1985 debut album Play Deep.  Both the band name and the album name are sports related!  And their sports theme goes even deeper (sports pun intended, motherfuckers!).  Originally, the band was called The Baseball Boys, named after the baseball-themed gang The Baseball Furies in the fantastic 1979 New York gang film The Warriors -- which you should all go see now if you haven't already.

They eventually changed their name to The Outfield and then, in 1985, released Play Deep, which was the band's biggest album, reaching #9 on the Billboard album charts and going triple platinum in the U.S.  I see them as kind of the natural extension of Men at Work.  Good, catchy pop rock, written predominantly by the band's guitarist and backing vocalist John Spinks.  There was also bassist and lead vocalist Tony Lewis and drummer Alan Jackman.  

Of course, Play Deep was a hit largely because of their hit "Your Love," which went to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100.  Though you may think The Outfield was a one-hit wonder, they actually had several hits other than "Your Love."  "All The Love" from Play Deep reached #19 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Everytime You Cry" was a minor hit, coming in at #66.  All in all, it's a pretty good album.  It's catchy, and the harmonizing between Lewis and Spinks was a signature of the band's sound, and it's ever-present on Play Deep.  There are songs like "Say It Isn't So," "61 Seconds," and "Talk to Me" that could have easily been big hits had they been released as singles.

The band had several more Top 40 hits from their next few albums -- "Since You've Been Gone" (#31 in 1987), "Voices of Babylon" (#25 in 1989), and "For You" (#21 in 1990).  Though they had some success after Play Deep, I think it's safe to say they peaked commercially with their debut album.  Jackman left the band in 1989, and Lewis and Spinks continued the band for a few more years.  They sporadically released albums over the next decade or so.  The original lineup reunited in 2009 and put out an album.  Sadly, Spinks died in 2014 from liver cancer.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Your Love"

This is one of the most instantly recognizable and universally loved '80s songs.  As soon as Lewis belts out "Josie's on a vacation far away," you're already singing along.  It has been covered more than 1,000 times.  Spinks wrote the song in 20 minutes.  The song is actually about cheating on one's girlfriend with an older woman while the former is away on holiday.  Of course, Jackman has a couple delicious fills.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Talk To Me"
This could have easily been another hit for the group.  It's a solid '80s power pop song -- one of those songs that you could see being the backdrop for a poignant montage scene in an '80s movie where the guy and the just-out-of-reach girl are hanging out and having fun, as she begins to realize that maybe Chad, the captain of the swimming team and the most popular guy in school, isn't the be-all-end-all after all.

CoronaVinyl Day 134 (Massachusetts): Freeze-Frame by The J. Geils Band

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Today's CoronaVinyl category highlights the music of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  Rather than lament the fact that the Bay State doesn't seem to have the same musical pedigree as some other larger cities in the U.S., let's focus on what we do know.

The J. Geils Band formed in the late '60s in Worcester, Massachusetts -- pronounced "woo-stah" -- which is the second-biggest city in both Massachusetts and in New England in general.  Fun fact:  J. Geils was the guitarist, not the lead singer.  The lead singer's name was (and still is) Peter Wolf, who I remember as a kid from that video where he jumps the whole time, not realizing at the time that he was the guy who sang "Centerfold."  Funner fact:  the band's harmonica player, Richard Salwitz, had (and still has) the nickname Magic Dick.  Thankfully, I do not remember any Magic Dicks from my childhood.

Anywho, the band built a big enough local following in the Boston that they got signed to Atlantic Records in the early '70s, and then built themselves into one of the most underrated party rock bands of the '70s and early '80s, thanks in large part to their energetic live shows.  They've always had a bit of a sense of humor, as well, which never hurts, unless you're a goth band.  While they did have one Top 10 album in the '70s -- 1973's Bloodshot -- as well as a handful of Top 40 hits in the '70s, it wasn't until the early '80s that they reached their commercial peak.

1981's Freeze-Frame was the band's highest-charting album, reaching #1 on the Billboard album chart, #1 on the Canadian album chart, and Top 15 on the album charts in several other countries.  The album featured three Top 40 songs in the U.S., including their first two Top 10 songs (and first #1), "Centerfold" (#1)" and "Freeze-Frame" (#4).  "Angel In Blue" was the other Top 40 song, squeaking in at #40.

Wolf left the band in 1983, and the band only put out one more studio album, 1984's You're Gettin' Even While I'm Gettin' Odd, before breaking up in 1985.  They reunited a couple times in the 2000s and 2010s for limited shows and tours.  Sadly, Geils died in 2017 at the age of 71.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Freeze-Frame"

It was definitely a tough choice between the title track and "Centerfold," which are both great songs and also happen to be the band's two biggest hits.  I went with the title track because it's just so damn catchy.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Piss On the Wall"
For Side 2, I decided to go with "Piss On the Wall."  Because it's called "Piss On the Wall."

CoronaVinyl Day 133 (Dead By 30): Axis: Bold As Love by The Jimi Hendrix Experience

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "dead by 30," and sadly, over the years, we have lost far too many talented musicians before they entered their fourth decades.  Of course, there's the infamous 27 Club, featuring musicians who died when they were 27 -- including Robert Johnson, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Rudy Lewis, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, and Pete Ham.  And there are plenty of other artists who lost their lives before turning 30, like Otis Redding, 2Pac, Notorious B.I.G., Duane Allman, Richie Valens, Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, Eddie Cochran, Selena, Ronnie Van Zandt, Aaliyah, Sid Vicious, Randy Rhoads, Cliff Burton, Marc Bolan, and Tammi Terrell.

I have albums by a bunch of these artists or the bands they were in, some of which I've already featured.  I decided on The Jimi Hendrix Experience's sophomore album, 1967's Axis: Bold As Love, since it's my favorite of the band's three studio albums.  While I realize that back in April, I already featured The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Otis Redding's combined live album from the Monterey Pop Festival, given that it was a split album with one side the Experience and one side Redding, I think it's fair to give the greatest guitarist ever his own post.  I'll probably do the same for Otis someday, too.

Axis: Bold As Love is just a fucking awesome record.  It's everything I love about both Hendrix and the Experience.  If listening to the album today is an indication, I'm pretty sure I know every word on the album, as I found myself singing to myself without even intending to do so.  Obviously, the guitar playing is out of this world, but the other two band members cannot be overlooked.  Mitch Mitchell's drumming is maniacal at times, sneaking in delicious fills to complement the feel of songs, and Noel Redding's bass isn't something you might notice at first, but once you do, you realize how great it was.

More than anything, though, on this album, Hendrix's songwriting skills began to really shine.  He wrote all but one of the 13 songs on the album, and with masterpieces like "Little Wing," "Castles Made of Sand," and "Bold As Love" (which also features some of Mitchell's most delicious fills), he showed that his songwriting abilities were up there with any of his peers.  There's also the trippy psychedelic blues sludge of "If 6 Was 9," the fun-loving pop rock feel of "Wait Until Tomorrow," the acid soul/rock of "Little Miss Lover," the more straightforward rock of "Spanish Castle Magic" and "You Got Me Floatin'," and a whole lot more that I'll let you listen to and discover for yourself.  It's rock, its psychedelia, it's blues, it's pop, and sometimes, it's all of those things rolled into one.  


The album would be the Experience's second straight Top 5 album in both the U.S. and UK, reaching #3 on the Billboard album chart and #5 on the UK album chart.  This is even more impressive, given that the only single released from the album was "Up From The Skies" with "One Rainy Wish" as a b-side, and it only reached #82 on the Billboard Hot 100.  The album was #83 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Little Wing"

This is arguably Hendrix's opus.  It's just such a perfect pop song, but it doesn't even feel like a pop song.  It feels like a dream, with a glockenspiel and lyrics about clouds, flying, animals, and moonbeams.  Then Hendrix reminds everyone that he's the best guitarist there's ever been with his understated, yet passionate, solo that ends the song.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "One Rainy Wish"
Recorded on my negative tenth birthday, "One Rainy Wish" features my favorite Hendrix moment, which occurs at the end of the first verse, when the guitar kind of hangs on to a note and that then the chorus starts. I get chills every time I hear it and often when I'm just thinking about it. Seriously.  I like that moment and this song so much that I railroaded my now-wife into including the chorus lyrics on our wedding program ("I have never laid eyes on you / Not like before this timeless day / But you walked in and once smiled my name / And you stole my heart away").

Hair Band Friday - 8/21/20

1.  "Slow an' Easy" by Whitesnake


2.  "Black Tiger" by Y&T


3.  "Love Pollution" by Kix


4.  "Home Is Where the Heart Is" by FireHouse


5.  "Don't Close Your Eyes" by Dokken


6.  "Over the Edge" by Hurricane


7.  "Ice Cream Man" by Van Halen


8.  "Damned If We Do, Damned If We Don't" by Sleeze Beez


9.  "Get Down" by Keel


10.  "Della Brown" by Queensrÿche

Retro Video of the Week: "Don't Stand So Close to Me" by The Police

This week's COVID-related Retro Video of the Week comes to us courtesy of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame new wave trio The Police.  It's their 1980 hit "Don't Stand So Close to Me," which was an international hit, reaching #10 on the Billboard Hot 100, #1 on the pop charts in the UK, Spain, and Ireland, and Top 10 on the pop charts in seven other countries.

The song itself is about a Lolita-esque relationship between a student and teacher, but for COVID purposes, you can passive-aggressively sing Sting's final repeating falsetto of "please don't stand so close to me" to yourself when encountering idiots in the grocery store who don't know how far six feet is. I suggest starting quietly and then building into a yell until they get it.

CoronaVinyl Day 132 (Memphis Soul): Greatest Hits by Wilson Pickett

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is Memphis soul, which is a genre that is one of my favorites.  From the mid '60s to the mid '70s, Stax Records in Memphis was essentially the heart of American soul music.  And that shouldn't be seen as a knock on Motown because I kind of consider Motown as its own genre.  The Memphis soul sound was different than the more pop-influenced Motown sound.  Memphis soul had horns, organs, and more of an emphasis on the rhythm section.  When I hear the term "soul music," it's the Memphis sound that first comes to mind.

Backed by arguably the best studio house band there has ever been -- Booker T. & The MGs -- not to mention the Memphis Horns and other staff musicians and songwriters like Isaac Hayes and David Porter, some of the most important and influential soul songs and records ever made were recorded in Memphis for Stax and its sister label Volt.  Artists like Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, the Staple Singers, Eddie Floyd, Isaac Hayes, Booker T & The MGs, William Bell, Arthur Conley, the Mar-Keys, and the Bar-Kays were either signed to Stax or Volt or recorded at Stax's studio for Atlantic Records (which had a distribution deal with Stax and often sent its artists to record at Stax).  The Stax Museum of American Soul Music is located at Stax's old studio ("Soulsville, U.S.A.") in Memphis, and if you're ever in Memphis, I highly recommend a visit.

I'm going with Wilson Pickett's 1973 Greatest Hits double LP.  Pickett was one of the artists who was signed to Atlantic Records, but often recorded in Memphis.  While not all of the songs on his Greatest Hits album were recorded in Memphis, Pickett is certainly considered one of the most important names in Memphis soul, as hits like "In the Midnight Hour," "Mustang Sally," "Land of 1,000 Dances," "634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.)," and "Funky Broadway" leading the way.  The album is a fantastic selection of Pickett's songs released between 1963 and 1972.  In that time period, Pickett would have 16 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including two Top 10 hits -- "Land of 1,000 Dances" (#6) and "Funky Broadway" (#8).  He also had 18 songs that reached the Top 10 of the Billboard R&B chart, including five #1s -- "In the Midnight Hour," "634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.)," "Land of 1,000 Dances," "Funky Broadway," and "Don't Knock My Love – Pt. I."

The album has 24 of his hits, tracing Pickett's journey from soul to more of a funk sound in the early '70s.  Its just generally great music to listen to, especially while you're working from home for the fifth month in a row and you have the windows open because it's a nice day.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "In the Midnight Hour"

Pickett's breakthrough song is the legendary "In the Midnight Hour," which was recorded in 1965 at Stax.  It was co-written by Pickett and Booker T. & The MGs' guitarist Steve Cropper at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, which would become infamous as the hotel where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968.  The song is a Memphis soul classic, and it reached #21 on the Billboard Hot 100 (his first Top 40 hit) and #1 on the Billboard R&B chart

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love"
While this is a cover of Solomon Burke's 1964 R&B classic, I love pretty much any version of this song.  Pickett and Burke had a history, as Burke had recorded one of Pickett's early songs, "If You Need Me," in 1963 and turned it into a hit, going to #37 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Billboard R&B chart.  Pickett returned the favor in 1967 with "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love," taking Burke's song to #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #19 on the Billboard R&B chart.

Favorite song from Side 3:  "Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You"
This one is from 1971, and it was a hit for Pickett, hitting #17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Billboard R&B chart.  It has a seemingly happy vibe, but it's really about trying to convince your lover not to leave you.

Favorite song from Side 4:  "I Found a True Love"
The last song on the album is a song from 1968 that reached #42 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #11 on the Billboard R&B chart.  It's an uptempo soul song that culminates with Pickett letting out some fantastic screams, letting the subject of the song know that she is his.

CoronaVinyl Day 131 (Animal in Name): 16 Greatest Hits by Steppenwolf

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "animal in name," and I have some great albums by artists whose names include the name of an animal (even if sometimes it's purposely misspelled), like The Beatles, John Cougar Mellencamp, Def Leppard, Eagles, Gorillaz, Panda Bear, The Sandpipers, Steppenwolf, and even Toto fall into this category.  

I've already featured some of those artists on CoronaVinyl, and after Blind Faith yesterday, I'm still in a late '60s hard rock kind of mood, so I'm going with Canadian rockers Steppenwolf's 16 Greatest Hits compilation, which was released in 1973 and featured the band's hits and other songs from 1968 to 1971.  It was the band's third compilation album in three years, which may explain why it only reached #152 on the Billboard album chart.

Steppenwolf was another one of those late '60s blues rock bands that started the ball rolling towards the hard rock and heavy metal that would follow in the '70s.  In fact, their hit "Born To Be Wild" is often credited as the first use of the phrase "heavy metal" in music.  That song hit #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has since become an anthem for motorcyclists (thanks in large part to its inclusion on the Easy Rider soundtrack) and roaming free at high speeds.

All in all, 16 Greatest Hits is a pretty damn fine collection of rock and roll.  It features their album and non-album singles released between 1968 and 1974, as well as "The Pusher," which wasn't released as a single in the U.S., but was also featured in Easy Rider.  12 of the songs on the album charted on the Billboard Hot 100, including six Top 40 songs, three of which reached the Top 10 -- "Born to Be Wild" (#2), "Magic Carpet Ride" (#3), and "Rock Me" (#10).  "Born to Be Wild" and "Magic Carpet Ride" also hit #1 on the Canadian pop chart.

The band put out nine studio albums between 1968 and 1976, then went on hiatus for a few years before reforming in the early '80s and putting out four more albums between 1982 and 1990.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "It's Never Too Late"

This is a nice blues rock/psychedelic rock song with some soulful vocals from Kay and some delicious fills from drummer Jerry Edmonton.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Magic Carpet Ride"
After "Born to Be Wild," this is the band's biggest and most recognizable song.  I've always loved this one.  It's is a psychedelic ball of feedback and organs that reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.  I can only imagine how many acid trips were enhanced by this song.  My earliest memory of it was when it was used in a Miller Genuine Draft commercial in the '80s, where some guy made an island around a bikini-clad woman on a beach using only his cowboy boot and his guile.  Why he was wearing cowboy boots on a beach on a hot sunny day is a question that has not yet been answered. 

Tuesday Top Ten: Animal Grouping Names

I realize I haven't done a Tuesday Top Ten in a while, and that's because I usually try to think of something musically related, which usually just takes too much damn time.  So I'm going with something a little more lighthearted.  We all know that a group of wolves is a pack, a group of fish is a school, and a group of lions is a pride, but there are some pretty funny and awesome names for groups of animals that you may or may not know.  For instance, did you know that, if it had been accurate, the '80s new wave band A Flock of Seagulls should have been called A Squabble of Seagulls?  Fact.  Anyway, here are my ten favorite, with some honorable mentions thrown in.

Honorable mention:  a convocation of eagles; an embarrassment of pandas; a pandemonium of parrots; an ostentation of peacocks; a stubbornness of rhinoceroses; a committee of vultures

10.  A parliament of owls

9.  An exaltation of larks

8.  A shrewdness of apes

7.  A mutation of thrushes

6.  An unkindness of ravens

5.  A slaughter of iguanas

4.  An implausibility of gnus

3.  A maelstrom of salamanders

2.  A murder of crows

1.  A conspiracy of lemurs (which would be a great name for a band or an album)