Showing posts with label Easy Listening Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easy Listening Music. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

PODCAST TAKES YOU BACK TO THE SPRING OF 1966


The new format for the podcast are a success. Jeff & Jamie's trial run as guest host of the podcast has had more hits than any other podcast on this website.This time Jeff is by himself with a musical montage on memories from the spring of 1966, the height of Batmania. Using the Airheads Radio Survey Archive as a reference, he has mixed the major hits, that have been overplayed on Oldies radio stations for years, with songs that were favorites on Top 40 radio, but have rarely been heard from since 1966.

This was the era of the British Invasion, Motown & Stax soul, folk rock, garage bands, and girl groups. Emerging sounds included psychedelia, easy listening and country pop.

How many songs will you recognize? Enjoy!




Friday, June 16, 2017

THE DUMBEST POP SONG OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY


If you are on social media (or anywhere on the Internet), you know that people are usually complaining about how bad they think modern pop music is and that none of today's musical stars have any talent. Allegedly. People brag up "the good old days" and how wonderful everything was in the past. Quite a few of these people think that music was better before the advent of rock and roll. Think again.

You see, the people who hated Elvis, Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly, then turned their vitriol toward the Beatles, the Stones and Bob Dylan, then hated Led Zeppelin, Kiss, Sex Pistols and disco, they  had the government go after Prince, Ozzy Osbourne and Madonna, and now (if they are still living) complain about Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Kanye West, as well as hip hop/rap in general, liked one of the dumbest songs of the twentieth century (I'm saying the twentieth century, because honestly believe "Red Solo Cup" by Toby Keith will be considered the dumbest song of the twenty-first century).

Not only did they like this song, but they gave it the Academy Award for Best Song. Even harder to fathom is the fact it was written by two of America's greatest song writers. Some of the greatest pop singers of all-time have recorded it and singers are still recording it. What is this song?

My vote for dumbest song of the twentieth century is "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" written by Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael. Mercer wrote such great songs "Moon River, "Glow Worm," "Hooray for Hollywood," "And the Angels Sing," and "That Old Black Magic." Carmichael wrote "Ole Buttermilk Sky," "Heart and Soul," "Up a Lazy River," "Georgia On My Mind" and "Stardust."  Together, Mercer and Carmichael wrote the song "Skylark," which is truly beautiful. All of those are great songs, but this one, in my opinion isn't one of the great ones.

This song was recorded by Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Steve Lawrence and Edie Gorme. More recently Bette Midler and Crystal Gale have recorded this annoying, stinker of a song.  

My problem is the lyrics don't go together. It jumps around with this part early in the song:

"I like a barbecue, I like to boil a ham
And I vote for bouillabaisse stew (What's that?)
I like a weenie bake, steak and a layer cake
And you'll get a tummy ache too."

Then later in the song we get these lyrical gems:

"Whee!" said the bumblebee
"Let's have a jubilee!"
"When?" said the prairie hen, "Soon?"
"Sure!" said the dinosaur.
"Where?" said the grizzly bear,
"Under the light of the moon?"
"How 'bout ya, brother jackass?"
Ev'ryone gaily cried,
"Are you comin' to the fracas?"
Over his specs he sighed,
In the cool, cool, cool of the evenin'
Tell 'em I'll be there.
In the cool, cool, cool of the evenin'
Slickum on my hair."

I'm sure some dork out there will say, "Ah, they don't write songs like that any more." To that, I say "Good!"  This song is proof that there were bad songs in the pre-rock era. As a matter of fact, you could probably say that "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" is our parent's and grandparent's equivalent "We Built This City."


     

Saturday, December 24, 2016

RETRO CHRISTMAS IN-STORE MUSIC IPOD PLAYLIST

I was planing several post for Christmas but time escaped me sadly. However, I wanted to give you an Ipod playlist. Last year I posted a video from YouTube that was a tape of in-store music Kmart was using during the holiday shopping season. I became obsessed with easy listening, instumental versions of Christmas songs, like the ones on that tape.

Also, when I was a kid, radio stations did not beat us to death with Christmas music as they do now. You might hear on or two Christmas songs before December 24th, but not like today. On Christmas day, you might hear "wall-to-wall" Christmas music and usually it was the easy listening instrumental type.

So here are my choices for in-store, wall-to-wall Christmas music. They'll go perfect with one of those videos of a lighted fireplace or sitting on a goofy-looking store Santa's lap (I think that is Ernie Kovacs as Marvin). Enjoy!

"I'll Be Home For Christmas" - Jackie Gleason
"Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let it Snow!/Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer" - Eddie Dunsteder
"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" -George Melachrino Strings
"It Came upon a Midnight Clear" - The Three Suns
"Toy Parade" - Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra
"Midnight Sleigh Ride" - Saulter- Finnegan Orchestra
"White Christmas" - Frank Chacksfield Orchestra
"Silver Bells" - Percy Faith Orchestra
"Winter Wonderland" - Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra
"Sleigh Ride" - Ferrante & Teichner
"Jingle Bells" - Hollyridge Strings
"Get Lost Jack Frost" - John Barry Seven
"Christmas Trumpets" - Ray Anthony (It's "Jingle Bells")
 "O Tannebaum (Oh Christmas Tree)" - The Three Suns
"Joy To The World" - Mannheim Steamroller
"Santa Clause Is Coming To Town" - Bert Kaempfert
"The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting)" - David Rose
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" - The Living Strings
"It's Begining To Look a Lot Like Christmas" - Andre Kostelanetz and his Orchestra
"Frosty The Snowman" - John Klein
"Jingle Bell Rock" - Pete Fountain
"Santa Medley" - Liberace
"Sleigh Ride" - Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops
"Silent Night" - Lawrence Welk Orchestra




Saturday, December 19, 2015

KMART IN-STORE CHRISTMAS MUSIC


Kmart stores, while not as abundant as they once were, are still around. My mother said she preferred Kmart to Wal-Mart because it wasn't as noisy and more civilized.

Maybe that is why I still shop there. Some how the big viral trend has been former Kmart employees putting MP3 of the recorded in-store music on various websites. This is a 1974 Christmas music tape that played in the store, while people did their Christmas shopping. Included is a Kmart jingle and some announcements for customers "wishing to pay for purchases with a personal check" and reminders that "there is no smoking on the sales floor."

The rest is retro easy listening Christmas music from Hollyridge Strings, Wayne King, Al Hirt, Lawrence Welk, Bert Kaempfert, Living Strings, Eddie Dunstedter, Tex Beneke, John Klein, Ralph Hunter Choir, Andre Kostelanetz, Pete Fountain, Mantovani, Domenico Savino, George Melachrino, Hugo Winterhalter, Arthur Fiedler, Ronnie Aldrich, Billy Vaughn, Liberace and Jackie Gleason. And those are just the once Shazam could identify. This is about two hours worth of instrumental Christmas music.


And as a Christmas bonus (or gag gift) I give you a juvenile photo funny of Jaclyn Smith, making a promotional appearance at a Kmart store, that pays homage to my favorite Kmart commercial. Yes, Santa Claus may put me on the naughty list for that.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

A TRIBUTE TO DOS TEXT-ONLY BULLETIN BOARD CABLE CHANNELS


This is one of those times that I might sound like some bad Facebook meme, but more than likely, what I'm going to post about is gone or at least evolved into something more sophisticated. This is a tribute to DOS text-only bulletin board cable TV channels of the 70s and 80s.


You know the ones. They were all in a sort of DOS text produced by a Chyron generator somewhere. Mainly they had the current time and temperature, with weather from National Weather Bureau. It was usually a five day forecast, interspersed with some stats such as the barometric pressure, humidity, wind speed and dew point. These stations also had news headlines from AP or UPI or even Reuters, crawling along the bottom of the screen.  Some of these channels told what big event was coming up on the pay cable channels like HBO. There were also community news items like blood drives from the American Red Cross, church revivals or high school plays.


The audio was always from an easy listening, jazz or classical radio channel. Some even used the Muzak service. I'm going to at the end of this post by giving you an Ipod playlist of the kind of music you would have heard on those cable stations.

The fact is, these are probably gone, not because of some evil government plot as some websites would probably have you believe, but because they're outmoded by our technology. Let's face it, we can get information on our cell phones and the Internet. Turning on a certain cable channel to get the weather, news and other information really isn't necessary.

Also remember that these cable stations predated CNN and The Weather Channel, themselves and they stayed around for a little afterwards. They began dying out in the 90s, but if there is one still around, I'm sure the graphics are better because DOS graphics look pretty cheesy these days (although the screen capture at the top is from 2013 - some broadcasters never update as long as something works).

Another reason they are probably gone is they were kind of boring. Something you parents would watch when you wanted to watch reruns of Lost In Space, Get Smart or Batman.





I was trying to find information on these type TV stations. I was having trouble with what they were called.  Finally, I found out the technical name was "text-only bulletin board stations."  Lo and behold, I also found something I was hoping to find for this post. Not only did I find screen captures but, yes, some demented people taped these channels back in the day with their VCR and they posted some on YouTube. There are several on YouTube from a weather channel from Winnipeg, Canada. I have included a sample above.

Here is you Ipod playlist, so you can recreate the experience at home by typing up the time, temperature, weather forecast, AP headlines, sports scores and an announcement for a church bake sale in DOS, then stare at it for about an hour.

"Music Box Dancer" - Frank Mills
"Those Were The Days" - Mary Hopkins
"Love Is Blue" - Paul Mauriat
"My Coloring Book" - Kitty Kallen
"Theme From a Summer Place" - Percy Faith
"The Girl from Ipanema" - Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto
"Nadia's Theme" - Barry Devorzon & Perry Botkin Jr.
"We've Only Just Begun" - The Carpenters
"It Was a Very Good Year" - Frank Sinatra
"Life of Leisure" - Keith Mansfield
"Evergreen" - Barbara Steisand
"Theme from Summer of 42" - Peter Nero
"Morning After" Maureen McGovern
"Love's Theme" - Love's Unlimited Orchestra
"If I Could Reach You" - 5th Dimension
"Soul Coaxing (Ame Cailne)" - Raymond LaFevre 
"Do You Know The Way To San Jose?" - Dionne Warwick
"Theme from Exodus" - Ferrante & Teicher
"And I Love You So" - Perry Como
"Love Theme from Romeo & Juliet" - Henry Mancini
"You Needed Me" - Anne Murray
"Autumn Leaves" - Roger Williams
"Wichita Lineman" - Glen Campbell
"The End" - Earl Grant
"A Taste of Honey" Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
"You Light Up My Life" - Debby Boone
"Never My Love" - The Association
"Love at First Sight (Je T'amie...Moi Non Plus)" - Sounds Nice 
"We Will Sing In the Sunshine" - Gale Garnett
"A Swinging Safari" - Billy Vaughn
"Midnight Blue" - Louise Tucker
"Scarborough Fair" - Sergio Mendes & Brazil 66
"Take Five" - Dave Brubeck Quartet
"Weekend in New England" - Barry Manilow
"True Love Ways" - Buddy Holly
"Our Winter Love" - Bill Persell
"Who Do You Love" - The Sapphires
"Music To Watch Girls By" - The Bob Crew Generation
"Beyond the Sea' - Bobby Darin
"Some Velvet Morning" - Lee Hazelwood & Nancy Sinatra
"Classical Gas" - Mason Williams
"Windmills of Your Mind" - Dusty Springfield
"The Dis-Advantages of You" - The Brass Ring
"Can't Help Falling In Love" - Elvis Presley
"Sacha" - Hank Marvin
"Just The Two of Us" - Grover Washington Jr. & Bill Withers
"If" - Bread
"Everybody Loves Somebody" - Dean Martin
"Calcutta" - Lawrence Welk
"Don't Cry Out Loud" - Melissa Manchester
"Something" - Mystic Moods Orchestra
"Look of Love" - Burt Bacharach
"Song Sung Blue" - Neil Diamond
"Breezin" - George Benson
"After the Lovin" - Engelbert Humperdink
"Theme from Dark Shadows" - Bob Cobert Orchestra
"Paloma Blanca" - George Baker Selection
"Cast You Fate To the Wind" Vince Guaraldi Trio
"Elusive Butterfly" - Bob Lind
"The Knack (and How To Get It)" - John Barry
"Girl in a Sportscar" - Alan Hawkshaw
"What's In a Kiss" - Gilbert O'Sullivan
"Maschio Ruspante" - Ferrio Giovanni
"Tequila" - Wes Montgomery
"Aspetto Ancora un Giorno" - Piccioni Gian Piero
"That's Nice" - Alan Moorehouse 
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