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.)
Start
with a great bluesy singer, Lydia Pense. (Think Janis Joplin without the death
rattle.) Stir in some Latin percussion and a great horn section, add great
material to work with, and hook the whole thing up with legendary rock promoter
Bill Graham.
You’d
think you would wind up with an act that was every bit as successful as, say,
Santana, or Blood, Sweat & Tears. Instead, other than at a concert by the
band I went to last year, nobody I mention them to has ever heard of them. This
album did manage to reach a respectable #23 on Billboard’s sales chart when it
came out, and they put out some good stuff afterwards as well.
Fortunately,
the best of their music is easily available in digital form, although finding
CDs can be hit or miss.