As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Monday, December 16, 2013

#96 There Was A Time -- James Brown (1968)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri9U8AnKKQI

I really didn’t get heavily into pop/rock/soul music until late in the summer of 1965, right before going into junior high school (7th-9th grades, for you younger folks). Back in the day, most of the radio stations that played “top 40” music had a weekly countdown of the top 25 or 40 songs. They printed copies of the lists every week (no Internet in those days), which you could pick up in your favorite record store. The first list I got in late August ’65, from WFEC radio in Harrisburg PA, featured Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag by James Brown as the #1 song. 

James did many great songs over the years besides that one, but for some reason There Was A Time (which was not even a big hit) particularly appealed to me. I still prefer the original studio version, although many give the edge to the live rendition that is included in the Star Time boxed set.

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