The time has come again for the final post of the year – wow! As I previously said around Christmas, it would be easy to launch into a tirade. In fact, just over the past few days, I had two costly misfortunes. While it’s frustrating, that’s life and shit happens!
Plus, my grievances look rather trivial compared to the things other folks have gone through over the past year. As such, I feel I should be grateful for what I have. Instead of venting, I’d like to highlight a few songs that have a new year’s theme. You can find some additional tunes in the playlist at the end. Hope you enjoy!
The Breeders/New Year
The Breeders are an alternative rock band from Dayton, Ohio, who initially were formed in 1989. New Year is a tune off their sophomore album Last Splash from August 1993 – appropriately titled, as it turned out since the group went on a hiatus in 1995 and didn’t release their next album until May 2002. The Breeders are still around with two original members including founder Kim Deal being part of the present lineup.
Charlie Robison/New Year’s Day
New Year’s Day is a tune by country singer-songwriter Charlie Robison. He was active from 1996 until his early retirement in 2018 due to complications from a surgery that left him permanently unable to sing. Robison recorded New Year’s Day for his fourth studio album Good Times that appeared in September 2004.
Ella Fitzgerald/What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?
What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? was written by American songwriter Frank Loesser in 1947. R&B group The Orioles took it first to the charts in 1949. Subsequently, the tune has been recorded by many other artists including Ella Fitzgerald for her 1960 album Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas. A classic!
George Thorogood & The Destroyers/New Year’s Eve Party
When high-energy boogie-blues artist George Thorogood does a party song, you know it’s gotta be good, g-g-g-good! Written by Thorogood, the tune became the b-side of his 1983 single Rock and Roll Christmas. Instead of blues rock, the tune has a nice soul vibe.
G. Love & Special Sauce/Happy New Year’s Blues
G. Love & Special Sauce, according to Wikipedia, are an alternative hip hop trio from Philadelphia, “known for their unique, “sloppy”, and “laid back” blues sound that encompasses classic R&B.” Happy New Year’s Blues is from their new album Coming Back Home for Christmas that came out on November 26. In fact, I saw this trio open for Hall & Oates in September 2019. Their music definitely is much more blues than hip hop and quite fun to watch!
The last new year-related song I’d like to highlight is New Year’s Resolution. This nice soul tune appeared on King & Queen, a studio album by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas, which came out in March 1967.
Check the playlist below for the above tunes and a few additional new year’s songs.
Last but not least, I’d like to thank all visitors of this blog for reading, especially my fellow bloggers who keep coming back and take the time to leave comments. Not only do I find it a lot of fun to discuss music, a topic I love, but I’m also grateful for the insights I learn from those who share their thoughts and tips. Reading their blogs is very rewarding as well and definitely has inspired more than one idea.
The show must and will go on in the new year. I’m looking forward to it!
I’d like to wish everybody all the best for 2022 and please stay well!
This is it – well, almost! As the remaining hours of 2020 are ticking away, the time has come for my final post of this year. Since I’ve already expressed my thoughts about this year in comments to posts by fellow bloggers, I’m keeping this short and sweet.
I’d like to wish all readers a happy and healthy new year and hope you come back for more. Also, please keep the comments coming. I always enjoy reading your thoughts, even though we may not agree all the time on the music we post about. Thank goodness! Can you imagine how boring it would be, if everybody always had the same taste? Reading different perspectives is a good thing!
I’d like to leave you with a few new year’s songs. They aren’t all happy, but I feel choices are limited to begin with. Plus, obviously, the following is based on what I could find. I’m sure there are other tunes that would have been worthwhile to include. Plus, I wanted to keep it to a handful only.
Death Cab For Cutie/The New Year
I only know this indie rock band from Bellington, Wa. by name. Credited to all four members of the band at the time, Ben Gibbard (vocals, guitar, piano), Nick Harmer (bass), Chris Walla (guitar) and Jason McGerr (drums), The New Year is the opener of their fourth studio album Transatlanticism from October 2003.
Eagles/Funky New Year
Co-written by Don Henley and Glen Frey in 1978 but apparently not released at the time, Funky New Year was included in the Eagles’ box set Legacy, which appeared in 2018. Groovy!
Otis Redding & Carla Thomas/New Year’s Resolution
How about throwing in some sweet Stax soul music? My kind of music. Here’s New Year’s Resolution by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas. Co-written by Randle Catron, Willie Dean “Deanie” Parker and Mary Frierson, the tune was included on a studio album titled King & Queen. It appeared in March 1967 and was Redding’s final album prior to his untimely death in an airplane crash on December 10, 1967.
U2/New Year’s Day
Let’s wrap it up with what’s perhaps my favorite tune related to the new year: New Year’s Day by U2. The Irish rock band recorded it for their third studio album War from February 1983. Like all other tracks on the record, it was credited to U2. Here’s the live version from Under a Bloody Red Sky, released in November 1983, which I’ve always preferred over the studio take.
Everybody makes a dream this time of year From now on it’s gonna be good for you All your friends and family Gather ’round in peace and harmony…
I came across the above clip this morning and felt it was the perfect tune to post on New Year’s Day. Carole King recorded this beautiful song for her holiday album A Holiday Carole, released in November 2011.
The track was co-written by Louise Goffin, the daughter of Carole and Jerry Goffin, and English songwriter, musician and record producer Guy Chambers. Louise, who not only has a striking resemblance to her mother but is a singer-songwriter as well, also produced the album, which received a Grammy nomination.
…And it could be the time of your life Everything’s gonna turn out alright It’ll be okay, in every way makin’ it better It’s New Year’s Day…
Such uplifting words – dig it! Hope you will as well.
So this is it, almost at least – I can’t believe we’ve made it through another year! Between the blog, listening to music and going to concerts, 2018 feels it has been my busiest year on the music front to date.
I’ll admit that apart from giving me lots of joy, music provides a welcome distraction from the challenges life can throw at you. I’ve no doubt it can have that magic effect on other folks as well. And that’s a good thing!
Unlike Christmas, it appears there’s a much smaller selection of decent rock and pop songs celebrating the new year. The first that came to my mind in this context are New Year’s Day by U2 and 1999 by Prince. While I like the U2 tune, it doesn’t have much of a celebratory feel to it. According to Songfacts, the lyrics are about Solidarity, a Polish trade union co-founded in 1983 by labor activist and future president of Poland Lech WaÅ‚Ä™sa. I also dig the groovy Prince tune, but the lyrics two thousand zero zero party over, oops, out of time aren’t particularly uplifting either!
And while there’s certainly a lot of shit going on in this country and elsewhere in the world one could think about, I felt like posting a happy party song. Then good ole George Thorogood & The Destroyers came to the rescue with New Year’s Eve Party. Now, that’s what I’m talking about! I dig the soul vibe of the tune, which was written by Thorogood and apparently included on a Christmas classic rock compilation from 1983. Again, Christmas, but who cares, the song is definitely about the new year!
Last but not least, I’d like to take another moment to thank all readers of the blog. I always enjoy spotting visitors and reading comments, so please keep doing that.
Cheers and hope you all have a Healthy, Happy and Safe New Year!
A two-part feature looking back at music of the decade
I’ve mentioned my weak spot for ’80s music on a few previous occasions. My taste has since evolved, and I now find myself wondering more often than not how I could have liked certain songs as much as I did back then. Well, obviously, I was a lot younger (though of course, I’m still young at heart!), and that music was all around me. It also triggers memories of school, parties, the first vacations with friends (and without my parents or any adults for that matter), the first hangover…in other words, it really was the soundtrack of growing up – okay, call me a sentimental fool!
This morning, I rode the car with my wife and put on Duran Duran’sRio album – she loves ’80s, so it was all her fault! 🙂 Anyway, listening to this 1982 record gave me the idea to reflect on music and some related events from that decade. Since it’s a big topic, I figured it would be best to divide my thoughts in two parts. Obviously, it’s still not possible to make this all-inclusive, so I’m going to be arbitrary and selective, focusing on things that are meaningful to me. Here’s part I spanning 1980 to 1984.
Some of the first things that come to my mind when thinking about the ’80s are Madonna, Michael Jackson, Prince, the death of disco, new wave, the advent of the CD, hair metal bands and Live Aid. Of course, I could add many other buzz words, e.g., music videos. At the time, we didn’t have cable or satellite television at my house back in Germany, so I missed out on MTV and VH1. In fact, believe or not, it wasn’t until 1993 when I first came to the U.S. that I watched VH1 and kind of got hooked, especially on their Behind The Music documentaries. For some reason, I never warmed to MTV.
1980
Some of the events I’d like to call out are Paul McCartney’s arrest in Tokyo for marijuana possession, which resulted in the cancellation of the remaining Wings tour that year (Jan 16); launch of Pink Floyd’sThe Wall tour in Los Angeles (Feb 7); release of Back In Black, AC/DC’s first album with Brian Johnson who had replaced original lead vocalist Bon Scott (Jul 25); death of Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham (Sep 25); and murder of John Lennon who was shot by deranged Mark David Chapman in front of his Manhattan residence after returning from the recording studio with Yoko Ono (Dec 8).
The biggest hit singles of the year were Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2) (Pink Floyd), Woman In Love (Barbara Streisand), (Just Like) Starting Over (John Lennon), Funkytown (Lipps) and Upside Down (Diana Ross). I dug all of these songs at the time. While from today’s perspective my favorite is the Lennon tune, the track I’d like to highlight in a clip is Call Me by Blondie. Co-written by Debbie Harry and producer Giorgio Moroder (remember that guy?), the song was released as a single in February that year and was also included on the soundtrack for the 1980 picture American Gigolo. It became the band’s biggest hit, topping the Billboard Hot 100, as well as the charts in the U.K. and Canada, and scoring in the top 20 in many other countries.
1981
Notable events include the release of Face Value, the first solo album by Phil Collins – like it or not, the Genesis drummer was just everywhere in the ’80s – with Genesis and solo! (Feb 9); first break-up of Yes (Apr 18) only to reunite less than two years later and release their biggest-selling album 90125; U2’s television debut in the U.S. on the NBC late night program The Tomorrow Show (Jun 4); official launch of MTV in New York (Aug 1); Simon & Garfunkel’s free reunion concert in the Big Apple’s Central Park, drawing more than 500,000 visitors – no disputes over crowd attendance here! (Sep 9 ); and Rod Stewart show at Los Angeles Forum, broadcast live via satellite and watched by an estimated 35 million people worldwide – the first such broadcast since Elvis Presley’s 1973 Aloha From Hawaii special.
The top 5 hit singles of the year were Bette Davis Eyes (Kim Carnes), Tainted Love (Soft Cell), In The Air Tonight (Phil Collins), Woman (John Lennon) and Stars On 45 Medley (Stars On 45). Again, to me the Lennon tune holds up the best, though I also still like Bette Davis Eyes and have to admit In The Air Tonight is kind of cool. Even though I feel I’ve been over-exposed to Collins, I admit he’s done some good songs. Here’s a clip of Down Under by Men At Work. Co-written by Colin Hay and Ron Strykert, and released in October, the song was the second single from the band’s debut album Business As Usual that appeared the following month. It was cool then, and I still dig this tune.
1982
Perhaps most notably, the year saw the debut of Madonna with Everybody (Oct 2), the lead single from her first eponymous 1983 studio record, as well as the release of Michael Jackson’s Thriller album (Nov 30), which remains the world’s best-selling record to date. Some of the other events include the death of comedian and Blues Brothers vocalist John Belushi (March 5); premiere of Pink Floyd – The Wall, a film adaptation of the band’s 1979 album with the same title, at the Cannes Film Festival in France; and start of CD mass production by Dutch technology company and disc co-inventor Philips in Langenhagen near Hanover, Germany (Aug 17).
Eye Of The Tiger (Survivor), Down Under (Men At Work), I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll (Joan Jett & The Blackhearts), Come On Eileen (Dexys Midnight Runners) and Ebony And Ivory (Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson) were the biggest hit singles that year. Below is a clip of Come On Eileen, which appeared as a single in June. Co-written by Kevin Rowland, Jim Paterson and Billy Adams, the song was also included on the band’s second studio album Too-Rye-Ay, released the following month. I always found it cool how the catchy tune blended elements of Celtic folk with pop music.
1983
On March 2, CDs started to go on sale in the U.S., following their initial release in Japan the previous October. Some of the year’s other events in music include the debut of Let’s Spend The Night Together in New York, a film documenting the 1981 North American tour of The Rolling Stones (Feb 11); release of U2’s third studio album War, which debuts at no. 1 in the U.K. and features their first international hit single New Year’s Day (Feb 28); release of David Bowie’s commercially most successful studio album Let’s Dance (Apr 14); unveiling of Kiss’s faces without their make-up for the first time on MTVÂ (Sep 18) – yes, I do seem to recall that seeing their actual faces was a pretty big deal at the time!; and Quiet Riot’sMetal Health, the first heavy metal album to top the Billboard 200 (Nov 26).
The biggest hit singles of the year: Karma Chameleon (Culture Club); Billie Jean (Michael Jackson); Flashdance…What A Feeling (Irene Cara); Let’s Dance (David Bowie) and Every Breath You Take (The Police). Did I have all these songs? You betcha – in fact, I still do, mostly somewhere on music cassettes! Here’s Billie Jean, written by the King of Pop himself, and released as the second single from the Thriller album in January 1983.
1984
Some of the happenings in the music world that year: Announcement from BBC Radio 1 DJ Mike Read of this refusal to play Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood due to its suggestive lyrics (Jan 11), a ban that was put in place by the entire BBC around the same time – in a clear illustration that something forbidden oftentimes tends to make it more attractive, only 10 days later, the tune stood a no. 1 on the Official Singles Chart in the UK; death of one of the greatest soul artists, Marvin Gaye, who following an argument was killed by his own father with a gun he had given to him as a Christmas present the previous year (Apr 1); release of Prince’s sixth studio album Purple Rain (Jun 25), the soundtrack to the 1984 film of the same name – one of his most successful records and the third-best-selling soundtrack album of all time, exceeding more than 25 million copies sold worldwide; and the first annual MTV Music Awards held in New York, where Madonna raised some eyebrows with a racy performance of Like A Virgin (Sep 14) – Madonna being controversial?
The biggest hit singles of 1984 were Careless Whisper (George Michael), I Just Called To Say I Love You (Stevie Wonder), Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go (Wham!), Girls Just Want To Have Fun (Cyndi Lauper) and Relax (Frankie Goes To Hollywood). Since I was a good boy and never listened to Relax and Like A Virgin, here’s a clip of Borderline, a song from Madonna’s debut record. On a more serious note, the tune that was written by producer Reggie Lucas still is one of my favorite Madonna songs. It became the album’s fifth and last single released in February 1984, peaking at no. 2 in the U.K. and reaching no. 10 in the U.S., less successful than the scandalous Like A Virgin!
Stay tuned for part 2, which will cover the period from 1985 to 1989.
Christian's Music Musings 