Happy Sunday and hope you’re feeling groovy! I can’t believe it’s December, and we’re well into the year-end holiday season – seems unreal to me. Regardless of how you feel about it, I hope you’ll join me on another trip with the magical music time machine, which starts right now!
Sonny Stitt/The Nearness of You
For our first stop today, let’s set the time controls to 1956 and hope we have enough runway for this baby to 88 miles an hour! American bebop/hard bop jazz saxophonist Sonny Stitt, known for his warm tone, recorded more than 100 albums during his active close-to-40-year career. Sometimes viewed as mimicking sax genius Charlie Parker, eventually, Stitt developed his own sound and style. After struggling with heroin and alcoholism through much of his life, Stitt passed away from cancer in 1982 at the age of 58. The Nearness of You, a beautiful composition by Hoagy Carmichael and Ned Washington, appeared on a 1956 album titled Sonny Stitt Plays. Hank Jones’ piano and Shadow Wilson’s “soft” drums give the tune a bar feel. The recording also features Freddie Green (rhythm guitar) and Wendell Marshall (bass) – my kind of Sunday morning music!
4 Non Blondes/Superfly
Let’s kick it up a few notches with this next pick that takes us to October 1992. About four months later, you couldn’t switch on any mainstream radio station without hearing What’s Up, the major international and only hit for San Francisco-based rock band 4 Non Blondes. The song first appeared on their sole studio album Bigger, Better, Faster, More!, as did Superfly – and, no, it’s not a cover of the Curtis Mayfield gem you may know. The song was co-written by lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Linda Perry who also penned What’s Up. Unlike the latter, Superfly missed the charts altogether when it appeared in March 1994 as the album’s fourth and final single. During recording sessions for what was supposed to become 4 Non Blondes’ next album, Perry left to launch a solo career, and the group dissolved shortly thereafter.
The Pointer Sisters/Lay It On the Line
I’m in the mood to keep up the intensity, and my proposition is a smoking hot rocker performed by a music act who you may find surprising in this context: The Pointer Sisters. While the American girl group from California may be best known for R&B and pop hits like Jump (For My Love) and I’m So Excited, over their 50-plus-year-and-counting career, they have touched many other genres, including jazz, blues, soul, funk, country, dance and – yes- rock! Lay It On the Line, co-written by Patrick Henderson and Wornell Jones, is the kickass opener of the group’s fifth studio album released in October 1978 and appropriately titled Energy – the very same that included their excellent rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s Fire, which became one of their biggest hits. BTW, the ladies were backed by top notch musicians, which for Lay It On the Line included Waddy Wachtel (lead guitar), Danny Kortchmar (rhythm guitar), as well as Toto’s David Paich (piano), David Hungate (bass) and Jeff Porcaro (drums).
Joe Firstman/Slave or Siren
Time to pay a visit to the current century and the sophomore solo album by Joe Firstman, released in July 2003. The singer-songwriter gained national prominence as bandleader on American late-night TV program Last Call with Carson Daly. After his tenure on the now-defunct NBC show from 2005 to 2009, Firstman founded Americana and roots rock group Cordovas, who over the past five years have become one of my favorite contemporary bands. Here’s Slave or Siren, a great-sounding song off Firstman’s second solo album The War of Women.
The Beatles/A Day In the Life
After nearly five months, I think a visit to my favorite band of all time, who are back in the charts more than 50 years after their breakup, is in order. This shall take us back to May 1967 and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which I continue to think is the best studio album by The Beatles and, frankly, one of the best ever recorded. And while throwing out attributes, why not picking the magnificent closer, which on most days also happens to be my all-time song by the Fab Four: A Day In the Life. While credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney, as usual, this gem was mostly written by John, with Paul mainly contributing the middle section. As on most Beatles songs, all four members helped shape this masterpiece.
Rush/The Spirit of Radio
Once again, we’re reaching the final destination of yet another Sunday Six. Let’s end it in January 1980 with a great song by Canadian rock band Rush: The Spirit of Radio, off their seventh studio album Permanent Waves. It marked the group’s shift toward more concise arrangements and songs that were more radio-friendly. Evidently, music listeners liked what they heard, propelling the single to no. 22, no. 51 and no. 13 on the mainstream charts in Canada, the US and the UK, respectively. Admittedly, Rush were acquired taste for me, especially their early work featuring very high vocals by Geddy Lee. While Lee doesn’t exactly sound like Hank Marvin on The Spirit of Radio either, I simply have to acknowledge it’s a helluva song!
As usual, I’m going to leave you with a Spotify playlist featuring all of the above stops during this music time travel excursion. It turned out to be pretty rock-oriented, and I hope there’s something you dig and I will see you again soon!
Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube; Spotify