When I first started this blog, I had planned on posting about once a day. And for a while there, I did – I was between semesters and taken with the idea of my shiny new blog. I was already 50 years and nearly 1000 number ones behind when I wrote my first review back [...]
Archive for October, 2009
74) Bobby Vinton – “Roses Are Red (My Love)”
Posted in 03, 1962, tagged bobby vinton on October 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
73) David Rose – “The Stripper”
Posted in 04, 1962, tagged david rose, instrumentals on October 22, 2009 | 2 Comments »
The David Rose LP featuring “The Stripper” is subtitled “And Other Fun Songs For The Family.” Really. Which is actually quite appropriate, as the instrumental has surely been used as shorthand for “sexy” in children’s cartoons at least as often as it has soundtracked actual stripteases. Probably more so, as there’s very little erotic about [...]
72) Ray Charles – “I Can’t Stop Loving You”
Posted in 06, 1962, tagged ray charles on October 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In American culture, blues and country are viewed as operating on opposite ends of the race spectrum. Charley Pride aside, country is still the whitest genre in pop; and before the Brits co-opted the blues in the 1960s, it was almost exclusively an African-American art form. Musically, though, the line between the two genres is [...]
71) Mr. Acker Bilk – “Stranger on the Shore”
Posted in 06, 1962, tagged acker bilk, instrumentals, mr. acker bilk on October 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Stranger on the Shore” might be otherwise forgotten, at least on this side of the Atlantic, were it not for a minor bit of trivia: the record was the first by a British artist to top the Hot 100. But if the honorific in Mr. Acker Bilk’s name didn’t tip you off, this record doesn’t [...]
