#85 It Takes Two -- Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock (1988)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbSYk-XTf_M

In his writeup of this song (which he has at #956), Dave Marsh provides a great description of dueling “best singles” lists developed by Rolling Stone magazine in 1988 and Spin magazine in 1989. The latter had “It Takes Two” at #1; Marsh quotes rock critic David Hinckley characterizing the pick as “the equivalent of a three-year-old shooting his mother with a squirt gun in order to get her attention.”

OK, so I wouldn’t put this at the top of my list, but it nevertheless is among the best of the classic hip-hop tracks.

#86 Wide River To Cross -- Diana Krall (2012)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Osice1AjtI

Some songs take a while to grow on you, and others grab you immediately. This was one of the latter for me; I’ve been in love with it since the first time I heard it on mvyradio, which has been playing it relatively often. 

Written by alt-country legends Buddy and Julie Miller (it appears on Buddy’s 2004 album Universal United House of Prayer), it certainly has to be in contention for greatest “River” song ever, along with “Many Rivers to Cross” (Jimmy Cliff), “Too Many Rivers” (Brenda Lee), and quite a few others.

As good as Krall’s recording is, there is also a stunning version online from the 2012 Stand Up for Heroes concert, featuring Roger Waters of Pink Floyd and Afghanistan veteran Timothy Donnelly. Have your handkerchief and checkbook handy.

Great musical minds think alike?

Back in 1994, one-hit wonders US3 had a top ten hit with a song called “Cantaloop,” which was sort of a hip-hop take on Herbie Hancock’s “Canteloupe Island.” I hadn’t heard the song in a long time, although I had bought the CD when it came out.

This past Friday, David Dye on WXPN played the song to begin his 5-7 pm “Funky Friday” show. Later that evening, several songs into his weekly show, Weasel featured the same song.

Coincidence? I think not.

 

Pete Seeger

Rolling Stone ran a nice story on Pete Seeger’s death yesterday at the age of 94. WXPN’s David Dye also posted some nice reflections.

WXPN’s “Select-A-Song” set this morning is below. (Seeger didn’t write “This Land Is Your Land,” but frequently performed the Woody Guthrie classic.)

• Pete Seeger - We Shall Overcome - Pete Seeger's Greatest Hits
• The Byrds - Turn! Turn! Turn! - Turn! Turn! Turn!
• Pete Seeger - If I Had A Hammer (the Hammer Song) - If I Had A Hammer: Songs Of Hope And Struggle
• Sharon Jones And The Dap-Kings - This Land Is Your Land - Up In The Air (Music From The Motion Picture)
• Tommy Sands, Dolores Kean & Vedran Smailovic - Where Have All The Flowers Gone - Where Have All The Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger

When I first got seriously into music in 1965, the record that I put on my Christmas list was the Byrds album Turn! Turn! Turn! Mom & Dad got me a Herb Alpert LP instead (could have been worse), but my aunt and uncle came through.

 

Playlist for another frigid day

The Coldest Night of the Year – Bruce Cockburn

10 Degrees and Getting Colder – Gordon Lightfoot

Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out – Bruce Springsteen

Snow Queen – Blood, Sweat & Tears

California Dreamin’ – The Mamas & The Papas

The Warmth of the Sun – The Beach Boys

Under the Boardwalk – The Drifters

On and On – Stephen Bishop

Heat Wave – Martha & The Vandellas

Heatwave – Iain Matthews

Hit song in the making?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM

I fell in love with the song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams when I first heard it on WXPN a week or two ago. Its recent Oscar nomination for Best Song (from Despicable Me 2) seems to have brought it quite a bit of attention. It’s now among the Top 10 downloads in iTunes, and Billboard columnist Sean Ross speculates that it soon may be getting heavy airplay on a variety of radio formats.

It will be interesting to see whether it comes out on top on Oscar night, since it will have formidable competition from U2’s “Ordinary Love” (from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom), another great song, from an excellent movie that apparently got lost in the Christmas shuffle in terms of box office success.

Speaking of the weather

Here’s the WXPN 8:30am “Select-A-Song” for the frigid day after the snowstorm:

Snowbound – Donald Fagan

A Hazy Shade of Winter – Simon & Garfunkel

Snowfall – Ingrid Michaelson

California Dreamin’ – The Mamas & The Papas

#87 This Love -- Maroon 5 (2004)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPpTgCho5ZA

 

Probably the best pure pop song of the 21^st century, at least so far.

#88 Rock And Roll Lullaby -- B.J. Thomas (1972)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niIW7Ns2HJw  

I always liked most of the B.J. Thomas singles, dating back to his cover version of Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” in 1966 (although his later cover of the Beach Boys’ classic “Don’t Worry Baby” was completely unnecessary). Meanwhile, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil were one of the top songwriting pairs of the “Brill Building” era, nicely documented in Ken Emerson’s book Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era.

Put the two together, and you get one of the most poignant entries on this countdown. According to Dave Marsh, who put the song at #124 on his own personal list, “If you want to know what rock and roll means to people, why many lives would be unlivable without it, this is a good place to start learning.”

#89 Al Bowlly's In Heaven -- Richard Thompson (1986)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10tyrbhB7V8

I first saw Richard Thompson at the Wolf Trap Jazz & Blues Festival, probably sometime in the 1990s – not sure whether “jazz” or “blues” was the label they used for him. This was back when they had 3 stages for the festival, so he and bassist Danny Thompson (no relation) didn’t play inside the Filene Center, but rather on a small temporary outdoors stage. There was a thunderstorm earlier in the afternoon, so I was worried that the performance might be canceled. I don’t remember much about the set list, but this is the song that made the biggest impression on me. I promptly went out and picked up two RT albums (Daring Adventures and Rumor and Sigh), and the rest is history.