Battle of the Decades

Jerry Lee takes the last one with 12 (maybe 13), but it wasn't unanimous, and it wasn't the whippersnappers who dampened the Killer's great ball of fire.
Elvis gets 2, or maybe 1, depending on who Caitlin's "ditto" was for, the vote just above hers, or the majority.
One for Patty Smyth, one for Frankie Laine, both of them deserving.



40s on 4*
Duke Ellington
The Gal From Joe's http://www.lala.com/#search/the%20gal%20from%20joe%27s%20duke%20ellington


50s on 5*
Playmates
Beep Beep
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-h27xvUGbo


60s on 6
Steam
Na Na Hey Hey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsaTElBljOE


70s on 7*
Orleans
Love Takes Time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WESBLOPiuM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdSa5GMWCmY&feature=related

80s on 8* Wham!
I'm Your Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwm-okcskVA


90s on 9*
Jane's Addiction
Jane Says
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh-5FI21s6M



Not hard to figure out what gets the gate first here. What is hard to figure is why "Beep Beep" would inspire this arty film-student video.

And for me, second out the door isn't hard either, but there are a few George Michael fans here who might disagree with me. I can't see how.

Jane's Addiction did some interesting stuff, and this is representative of it, quirky and ranty but arresting. Although I have to say I think Sergio is better off -- and don't worry, Sergio, there's nothing much good on TV anyway. And I definitely wouldn't have dinner with Jane.

For cultural relevance, you'd have to go with Steam, who became a ballpark staple first for White Sox fans and then for the world. As I understand it, this was cut as a demo with a scratch vocal -- they were planning on coming back and adding real lyrics to it later. But someone recognized its terminal catchiness, and a group was hastily thrown together to tour behind the song.

For musical value, you'd have to go with Ellington, Cootie Williams and Johnny Hodges. Here's another neat version of the song by Nina SImone -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwBqW26FBgo

But I'm going with nepotism. Orleans and "Love Takes Time."

Battle of the Decades

The battle of the icons. John goes up over Fats by 9-5. Only slightly less iconic, the Tempts get 2 votes, and only slightly less iconic than that, one for the Dave Matthews Band. Some strong temptation to vote for Duran Duran, but they didn't quite break through. Oh, well, Hungry Like the Wolf or James Bond will hit BOTD at some point, and they'll come roaring back.

This time around:

40s on 4*
Cab Calloway
Blues in the Night


50s on 5*
Elvis Presley
Can't Help Falling in Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7VG4I_b2Fk

60s on 6*
Blood, Sweat & Tears
You Made Me So Very Happy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y168CNQyO7g

70s on 7*
The Eagles
Peaceful, Easy Feeling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrc8XOlJsm0

80s on 8*
Naked Eyes
Promises, Promises
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJP2PH8WKaI

90s on 9*
House of Pain
Jump Around
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwQbPgouUYo


I hate David Clayton-Thomas's voice, and his style, and his songs. One down.

Naked Eyes -- hey, if I were going to vote for an Eagles-sounding group, I'd vote for the Eagles.

House of Pain -- ah, Irish hip-hop. A Big Ten football fight song, for the Wisconsin Badgers, and I still have my Big Ten roots. Lively and angry, always good qualities in a song. And the guys are ugly, which is a nice change of pace from Naked Eyes. I do think that Naked Eyes and House of Pain are both good group names.

Elvis and the Eagles. These are a couple of listenable songs. "Peaceful Easy Feeling" is neither lively nor angry -- in fact, it's peaceful and easy, "Can't Help Falling" is really peaceful and really easy, but it's one of Elvis's better ballads. Written by Hugo and Luigi, perhaps the most soulless bandleaders in America, but it turned out they could write a pretty nice ballad. Also, to my surprise, it turns out they produced the Stylistics, and the Isley Brothers' "Shout." Maybe they weren't quite so soulless. I really like the Eagles, although many have accused them of soullessness too. But if someone asked me to put on Eagles record, this isn't the one I'd choose.

Harold Arlen. Johnny Mercer. Cab Calloway is great even with mediocre material -- how can he not be great with great material? Even without the Nicholas Brothers. "Blues in the Night" gets my vote.

Battle of the Decades

Billie Holiday 9 to 5 over the Zombies last time around, with one vote for Nirvana. Three good ones. And some good ones coming up here, too.

These go out to my BOTD posse by email, but feel free to vote here too.





40s on 4*
Harry James
The Man With the Horn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm1qTTmnDnM


50s on 5*
Fats Domino
Blue Monday


60s on 6*
The Temptations
Cloud Nine


70s on 7*
John Lennon
Instant Karma


80s on 8*
Duran Duran
Union Of The Snake



90s on 9*
Dave Matthews Band
Ants Marching ('95)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t7xE8yovw4



Duran Duran -- they're not bad. They did a James Bond song that some people bizarrely pick as the best Bond song (nothing touches "Goldfinger"). They bear about the same relation to the really significant bands of the 80s that Harry James bears to Benny Goodman, and neither Harry nor Simon are at their zenith here, so let's wrap them up together. Simon is handsomer, but Harry was married to Betty Grable.


The rest are all virtually uneliminatable, so I'll take them in chronological order. I think I'd put "Blue Monday" just a shade below Fats' A+ work, which still makes it better than most anything by most anyone else.
The Temptations were the subjects of probably the best TV movie music biopic ever, and if that sounds like a bar not raised awfully high, I don't mean to damn it with faint praise. It was a terrific flick. And the Temps were always good, and the combination of social commentary and Motown choreography (on red, green and orange platforms) is well-nigh irresistible.
I hadn't heard this Dave Matthews before, and wondered briefly if Dave had done a Sesame Street bit and recorded "The Ants Go Marching Two by Two." But this is great stuff, and not just for dual sentimental reasons -- first, that the DMB shot a video at Opus 40, and second, that the drummer is wearing a Rangers jersey on the night when the Rangers fought gamely but went down to the Washington Caps in game 7 of the opening Stanley Cup series. This is a very tight band, some tight songwriting, and I like the little auctioneer bit he does.

But...John Lennon. His power is undiminished. And the symbolism of Yoko knitting blindfolded...wow...what symbolism! It symbolizes...well, like I said, John's power is undiminished. John for me.

Battle of the Decades

A first...a double dead heat. Well, it has to be a first, since it's the first time we've had two competions. We also had a couple of guest participants which was all to the good. Percy Sledge and the 5 Satins each scored 7 votes, with 4 going to Shawn Colvin and one to the Four Seasons, And it was also a tie between the glass of wine and the fast embrace of Hernando's Hideaway vs. the fryers, broilers, and Detroit barbecue ribs of The House of Blue Lights. It's hard to beat a glass of wine and a fast embrace, but on the other hand, all you'd hear at Hernando's would be castanets, and at the HOBL they give you all those fine eight beats.

This time around:

40s
Billy Eckstine
Cottage for Sale


50s
The Mystics
Hushabye
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuNYZgAZNxs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ent9tHjdv2E

60s
The Mamas and the Papas
Monday, Monday



70s
John Paul Young
Love is in the Air
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNC0kIzM1Fo

80s
The B52s
Roam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEqEg5MVDu4

90s
Quad City DJs
C'mon and Ride It
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7ALNISy-jk



Can a song called "Love is in the Air" possibly be any good? Is John Paul Young gonna make it after all? As it turns out...no. And no, at least not on BOTD.

In the 70s, a school called L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry gained some notoriety in American po-biz circles. It was distinguished by more or less divorcing words from meaning, and frequently divorcing letters from word-making. It had a political base - they were freeing language from the patriarchy and the hegemonistic control of the bourgeoisie, and making it equally available to all social classes, I guess by making it equally incomprehensible to all social classes. If you want to really digress, here's my take on one of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets. My problem with it, and the question I could never get answered, was how can you tell good L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry from bad? What are the standards? I have sort of the same problem with hip-hop. I kinda like the Quad City DJs, even though they appear to be from Florida and not the Quad Cities I'm familiar with (Davenport, Bettendorf, Moline and Rock Island). But I don't know if they're better or worse than any other rappers, or what standard I should use to measure them.

Then, a closely bunched group.

It's interesting that virtually all the doowop that wasn't made by African-Americans was made by Italian-Americans, and the Mystics were one such aggregation. None of the Italian groups was as good as the great black groups (though they were generally better than non-Italian white groups).The Mystics fit right in that niche, and with "Hushabye" they had the best the Brill Building had to offer, The very best: Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. And here's a little bit of pop cultural history -- when the original lead singer of the Mystics left in 1960, he was replaced for a while by a non-Italian Brill Building kid named Jerry Landis. Well, Jerry Landis wasn't his real name, so he could have been Italian, but he wasn't, and he soon left the Mystics and returned to his real name: Paul Simon.

I don't have much to say about the B-52s. They were one of those really good groups who never resonated with my inner teenager, or any other inner part of me, for reasons that probably aren't their fault. This is a good song. Good lyrics, good harmonies, good energy. What more do you want?

The Mamas and the Papas had all those things too, and I liked them and was irritated by them in equal measure. They were maybe too quintessentially 60s, especially California 60s, Anyway, check out the video and see if you can explain to me how Denny Doherty keeps his balance.

Billy Eckstine is beloved of jazz fans for hiring Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and he had that big, rich voice that wasn't always as effective as you might think. Sometimes too lush, too in love with itself. But on this strange, wonderful song, Mr. B. finds his gifts perfectly suited for the material. "Cottage for Sale" for me.


OK, where would you least like to spend the evening?

(a) Heartbreak Hotel
(b) Hotel California
(c) Rose's Cantina
(d) The Golden Fingerbowl


Heartbreak Hotel would actually probably be bearable, if you could just stay away from that bellhop.

The Hotel California has that No Exit quality that wouldn't really get in the way of having a pleasant evening. It would just be the next morning, when you wanted to leave...

You could have a good time at Rose's, but you'd end up dead. Of course, there'd be that goodbye kiss from Falina.

But heartbreak and a soggy bellhop,,,no exit...a bullet deep in your chest...none of it could come close to the maddening, crashing boredom of constantly running into your Uncle Max and everyone you know.

--

Battle of the Decades

The inauguration. It alreadyn seems a long time ago, doesn't it? We're solidly into the Obama regime, and yeah, things feel different. But we danced in the streets, with Martha and the Vandellas, and Martha danced away with it.

Martha 7
4 Non Blondes 3

No votes for Santana, after I defected. But I'm not sorry.

On songs recycling through again -- I say let 'em. They're up against different competition, and as Mike says, it would be nice to get a second chance to vote for Santana. And for those of us not so familiar with 4 Non Blondes, we welcomed a second chance to make their acquaintance, even if we mostly didn't vote for them. That's OK, I think they won last time out with the whippersnapper vote. And maybe like Jim Rice, if they come back often enough they'll win everyone over. I think we're doing it again -- I'm fairly certain we had "Linda" before. I think she even got Jon's vote.


40S ON 4
Buddy Clark o/Ray Noble
Linda




50S ON 5
The Five Satins
In the Still of the Night


60S ON 6
Percy Sledge
When A Man Loves A Woman ('66)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkIidzxL-iA

70S ON 7
4 Seasons
Who Loves You ('75)



80S ON 8
Greg Kihn Band
Jeopardy ('83)



90S ON 9
Shawn Colvin
Sunny Came Home




Greg Kihn -- not bad, just boring. Not to be confused with Weird Al Yankovic's (I Lost on) Jeopardy -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_JIg9NB47M

I never liked the Four Seasons even with their best material, even if they were Jersey Boys (apologies to Jerseyans).

Linda's a lovely tune, but she falls victim to my next axe. Maybe next time. I'll keep waiting...she's still walking.

I love Shawn Colvin. If this were her version of "Viva Las Vegas" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=208pX4UMWi0 -- it doesn't come on right at the beginning) she'd have me. She and Emmylou are playing UPAC in Kingston in February, but I won't be able to spring the price of a ticket.

Again, a crowded field at the top -- and I'd put Linda and Shawn very near the top. "When a Man Loves a Woman" is one of the most purely romantic songs ever recorded. It would melt the heart of Hard Hearted Hannah. But I gotta go with my first love -- the classic R&B/DooWop era. And there aren't many better songs from that era better than "In the Still of the Night," here presented as by "Fred Parris and the Satins," and sure enough there are only four Satins. I can't figure out what this is from -- a 50s rocksploitation movie, but where's Allen Freed? OK...it's Sweet Beat (1959) -- "An aspiring singer wins a trip to London and is promised a record deal, but when she gets there an underhanded American record producer spirits her off to New York and away from her boyfriend." The rat! But it features the Satins, the Mello Kings, Lee Allen, and Jeri Lee as Herself (stripper).

And a BOTD extra -- if you know the Chuck Miller version of "House of Blue Lights," or the Asleep at the Wheel version, or the George Thorogood version, or the Manhattan Transfer (not so good) check out the original by Ella Mae Morse -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO5ysmjLlaw -- which is also the first use I've ever heard of "Homey."

And finally, your BOTD Question of the Week: Which fictional Hot Spot would you rather spend an evening in?

(a) The House of Blue Lights
(b) The House of the Rising Sun
(c) Hernando's Hideaway
(d) I Like it Like That

Battle of the Decades

Jessie Hill the last battle's big winner with seven. And I won't stop trying till I create a disturbance in your mind. I have The Hustle with two, but I have a feeling it got three, and I've lost one. The Gin Blossoms tied with Hall and Oates with one vote, which doesn't seem right. Doesn't seem right that the Gin Blossoms only got one, and it doesn't seem right that Hall and Oates got any. But hey, I just record the votes (what am I saying? I record the votes and cast acerbic judgments).


Here's the new batch.



40s
Wayne King
Josephine
http://www.lala.com/#artist/Wayne_King


50s
Danny & The Juniors
Rock N Roll Is Here To Stay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DTZnMjiJe8

60s
Martha and the Vandellas
Dancing in the Streets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdvITn5cAVc

70s
Santana
Black Magic Woman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik8JjtxHI0M&feature=related

80s
Heart
Never
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQcQnDFhjxo


90s
Four Non Blondes
What's Up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXcQGsoDkDk



We can cheerfully relegate Wayne King, the Waltz King, to the bottom of the heap. I don't really recommend giving this one a listen at all. unless you want to just how bad music by white people can be when they put their minds to it.

After that, it gets harder. Heart's won one ot these before, if I remember right, and this is one of their best. They're young and tough and sexy.

And I was tempted to put them up above Four Non Blondes on the basis of being sexier, but Four Non Blondes are great, and they're grungier, and Linda Perry is some kind of amazing singer, as well as being a superstar producer and songwriter.

In fact, there's no reason for me to put Danny and the Juniors ahead of either of these groups, because they really weren't very good. But they were classics in their own way, so I'm voting them for third place -- it was meant to be that way, though I don't know why. Besides, who can resist this gran video que me da cuenta cuan original se era en aquellos tiempo, es impactante como se paran de sus asientos y chasquean sus dedos al compas de la cancion


Then it gets totally unfair. How am I supposed to choose? Martha and the Vandellas, the toughest, most streetwise Motown group-which I know is a little like saying the most liberal member of the Bush administration, but Martha and the gals really did take it to the streets. Santana - guitarist extraordinaire, evolved spirit. Jelly Roll Morton said that all jazz needs to have a Latin tinge, and Santana brought that Latin tinge brilliantly to 60s rock. I know he was better, but how can I vote against Martha?

I can't. It's Inauguration Day. Time for dancing in the streets. It's Martha.

Battle of the Decades

Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson and “Body and Soul” the clear winner last time, with 8 votes – one for LL Cool J and one for Edison Lighthouse.

This time, a higher level of mediocrity at the very least, and for some of us one or another will rise from the pack. One does for me, certainly.



40S ON 4

Larry Clinton v/Peggy Mann

Because Of You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m35Zx9xepIk

50S ON 5

Gary "U.S." Bonds

Quarter to Three

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

60S ON 6

Jessie Hill

Ooh Poo Pah Doo ('60)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQkYn05vidE

70S ON 7

Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony

The Hustle ('75)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFz2WkVAk38

80S ON 8

Daryl Hall & John Oates

Out of Touch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zV8xeA7Z5Q&feature=related

90S ON 9

Gin Blossoms

Alison Road

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-UBnjzJMQ0

I don’t remember Larry Clinton or Peggy Mann – Larry apparently a Tommy Dorsey alum who had a moderately successful band of his own, and Peggy had a nice smile and could sing standing still. Or so I gather from this video – not of “Because of You.” because I couldn’t find that one, but a song that’ll give you sense of the Clinton/Mann sound. “Because of You” is s good song, no “Body and Soul,” but it did lend itself to a tour de force performance by Sammy Davis Jr. -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCQc-naGb3E

Then what? I never loved Hall and Oates, but they were professional, as was Gary US Bonds – I remember liking this song better than I liked it playing it back/ Of this mid-level grouping, I almost like “The Hustle” best – at least it has that appalling but curiously appealing dancing-by-the-numbers video.

The Gin Blossoms had a good beat; you could dance to them. I’ll give them an 84.

New Orleans went through some doldrums years in the 60s and 70s, when jazz had left, and great rock and roll on Specialty and Imperial had passed its prime. Bumps Blackwell, Specialty’s chief producer-talent scout, left the label to go with Sam Cooke, and he had been replaced by Sonny Bono, which should tell you all you need to know. Imperial had shifted its focus from New Orleans and Fats Domino to Hollywood and Ricky Nelson. A lot of great musicians left New Orleans for LA, basically not to return until Jazzfest revived its great musical tradition. But some awfully good records still got made in Cosimo Matassa’s recording studio, often with Allen Toussaint producing, and “Ooh Poo Pa Doo” was one of them. My pick for this round.

Battle of the Decades

No one was happy about it, but Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, featuring the redoubtable Teddy Penergrass, won out. with 5 votes, with Hammer and Neneh Cherry each getting 2, and The Stripper one. I was the only one to vote for Mickey Mouse.

The new batch:

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, and we can be thankful for having lived through (to varying degrees) the American Century in Music, one of the most fruitful, varied and innovative eras in the history of music. And you can be thankful for me, filling your ears and minds with some of the best and some of the worst in that tradition. And if, over the last couple of weeks, you've cursed me for some horrible selections, perhaps this one will remind you of how much more painful it is to have to choose between a selection of great and distinctive stylists.


40S ON 4
Glenn Miller
(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo


50S ON 5
Everly Brothers
Devoted To You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXeiExU8lrA


60S ON 6
Sam Cooke
Chain Gang




70S ON 7
Chicago
Baby, What A Big Surprise ('77)



80S ON 8
Debbie Gibson
Shake Your Love



90S ON 9
Black Box
Everybody Everybody



Well, we have three on the lower tier and three on the upper tier, and they divide where the fogey meets the road. None of the lower three are awful, though they all have aspects of awfulness. Chicago had a style and a sound that was considered original at the time -- jazz/rock -- but it was a sound that almost no one did well. Miles did, of course. Chicago blended the wimpy end of rock with the tame end of jazz, to no particular advantage. Does anybody really know what time they're going on for the next show? Does anybody really care? If anyone is interested in hearing what jazz/rock should have and could have become, amd you can find the album, check out Brute Force. Their only album was produced by Herbie Mann, and described by Downbeat as Pharaoh Saunders meets Sly and the Family Stone. The jazz was free and adventurous, the rock was gritty and groove-based. The great Stan Strickland was their tenor player.

Debbie Gibson was awful, but she was young and cute, and she was actually the youngest female artist ever to reach number one with a song she wrote, produced and performed. Needless to say, she didn't do any of them well, but she did in time develop into a pretty solid professional, and it's hard not to have a certain modest affection for someone who could say of her early pop idol career, "You never get a chance to be that cheesy again."

Black Box were Euro-House, which is different from Euro-Disco in that...er...well...in that their records misdiagnosed a strange and near-fatal illness each week. They were awful in that they hired a supermodel to lip-synch their vocals on their videos, but otherwise they weren't bad.


OK, on to the good stuff. I'll do them chronologically, since choosing between them is so darn hard, and I'd rather put it off till the last minute.

Give yourself eight minutes of uninterrupted time to watch the Glenn Miller video, because it's that good. They go through the song once with Tex Beneke and the Modernaires. And that's good, though not great. Beneke's voice, like his saxophone, was the perfect vehicle for Miller's arrangements. He was whitebread, but he was the epitome of whitebread, and nobody ever did it better. Larry the Fluff has another opportunity to vote for him, as it turns out, and with another novelty song (I had this sneaking suspicion that we'd done 'Kalamazoo' before, but I can't find it in my files). Anyway, Tex Beneke looks like the archetype for Billy Batson and Captain Marvel, and he makes for a thoroughly enjoyable musical experience. Then, as he finishes, and you think the song si probably finished, the Nicholas Brothers show up. They sing as well as dance here, and I love their singing, too, but the dancing is on a whole other level. If Fred Astaire was the grace, and Gene Kelly the athleticism, the Nicholas Brothers were both. And if Glenn didn't swing like Basie, he swunbg enough to put the Nicholas Brothers into orbit. If you can't get enough of the Nicholas Brothers -- and who ever could? -- check them out with Cab Calloway here --

If this isn't the very best of the Everly Brothers, it's right up there close. The Everlys were as musically tight as Glenn Miller, and they were perfectionists to the same degree. I somewhere have a CD of Everly Brothers outtakes for those first Cadence sessions, and the versions of "Wake Up Little Susie" and "Bye Bye Love" that hit the charts were between their 15th and 20th takes -- these two young kids, trying to explain to seasoned professionals like Chet Atkins what they wanted, and finally getting through to him. The outtakes -- even up to the final outtakes -- are wonderful, and a lot of artists would have been satisfied with them. But they were wonderful in the way that earlier family harmony groups like the Delmores and the Louvins were wonderful. The final takes were a new sound, and it was all theirs.

Is this the best of Sam Cooke's songs? Who knows, who cares? Sam Cooke was such a triumph over his material. These mostly dumb little novelty songs that no one else could have made into great records. Or a chain gang song that's so clearly not out of any chain gang experience. If you want an actual great song, it's "Touch the Hem of His Garment." None of it mattered. It was Sam Cooke, and that's all that mattered, and our experience of his voice caressing those lyrics almost makes us believe that they were great songs.

I was pretty sure I was going to end up voting for Sam. But it's Glenn Miller and the Nicholas Brothers.

Battle of the Decades

Many complaints over the last BOTD -- a general attitude that this was a weak competition. It's my belief that anyone can vote for a good song -- it takes real musical acumen to choose between lesser tunes. And it wasn't even such a bad group. If Joni Mitchell backed by Pat Metheny and Michael Brecker can only finish third, that should tell you something. But Joni only picked up three votes.

The Madonna-loving whippersnappers were insufficiently impressed by La Isla Bonita to give it more than four, although it's certainly not Madonna at her worst.

So the Forties picked up this round, even though I couldn't link to the actual recordings. Some voted for Jimmy Dorsey's soaring sax, some for the melodic charm of "Jersey Bounce," and some out of loyalty to New Jersey. Jimmy and "Jersey Bounce" picked up six votes, and the laurel.

So...you thought the last batch was bad -- wait'll you see this one. Actually, I didn't think the last group was so bad. There was merit in all three of those selections. OK, there was no merit at all in any of the others. But since I have a finely honed death wish, I'll post it, especially since I'm heading down to see Charis and Wendy, and I can be attacked by them in person. And don't forget, the real test is voting when you have nothing to vote for.


We almost had another Eastern Seaboard tribute this time around -- I'd just C&P'd a new list, when my computer froze, and I had to reboot, and we lost, among other numbers, Harry James and Helen Forrest doing "Manhattan Serenade."

Instead:


40S ON 4
Dick Haymes
It Can't Be Wrong

50S ON 5
David Rose & His Orchestra
The Stripper



60S ON 6
Mouseketeers
Mickey Mouse March



70S ON 7
Harold Melvin
Bad Luck ('75)



80S ON 8
Neneh Cherry
Buffalo Stance



90S ON 9
MC Hammer
U Can't Touch This



We surely would have done better with Harry James than with Dick Haymes -- he was everything that was boring about the 40s, so much so that I can't find this on YouTube or anywhere else, and you're not missing anything. But the rest of this crop is so bad, they almost make Dick look good. "The Stripper" is pure kitsch, and dumb kitsch at that. MC Hammer is cookie cutter rap.

Neneh Cherry is better, but when you're a fogey, rap is rap.

Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes had Teddy Pendergrass, and he was one of the great romantic voices of soul, and he'd be a worthy vote.

What is "Mickey Mouse Club March" doing in the Sixties? Annette had already left by then. For that matter, what is "The Stripper" doing in the Fifties? That doesn't seem right to me either. Well, after a moment's research, it is and it isn't. "The Stripper" was originally released in 1958, as the B side of Rose's version of "Ebb Tide," but it didn't become a hit until it was on the sound track of "Gypsy" in 1972.

Does anyone ever wonder who all those orchestra leaders from the 50s were? The ones who had one or two hits on the charts? Who was Ralph Marterie? Frank Chacksfield? David Rose? Hugo Winterhalter? Percy Faith? Ray Anthony? Frank Weir? Russ Morgan? What were they all doing with orchestras? What did they do with those orchestras the rest of the time? Play proms and debutante balls? If the classic big bands of the 30s had all had to disband because of economic hard times, what was the economic story for these bozos? I know some of them, like Les Brown, had radio gigs for people like Bob Hope, but that doesn't explain the whole phenomenonlet.

Anyway, I vote for Mickey Mouse Club. It meets Jon's criterion of iconicity. And if anyone else cares to join me on this, you're as welcome as can be.

Battle of the Decades

No surprise on the last one (which I didn't get around to posting here) -- it was a walkaway for the Beatles with very tough competition. Nine votes for Let it Be, 3 for Fortunate Son. Glenn Miller, REM and Sarah M. all pulled down one each, and all had great songs.

Here's the new batch, and I predict a wide spread.



40S ON 4
Jimmy Dorsey
Jersey Bounce



50S ON 5
Trini Lopez
If I Had A Hammer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyTO5vcFWuw

60S ON 6
Jan & Dean
Dead Man's Curve
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anq4wdZc2Ow

70S ON 7
Joni Mitchell
Free Man In Paris ('74)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXBba77U1_Y

80S ON 8
Madonna
La Isla Bonita
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHZDjO_DlSI

90S ON 9
Janet Jackson
Black Cat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJFgUbzslNQ



Trini Lopez in the 50s? That can't be right. Well, at least it wasn't "Lemon Tree." But it displaced some actual 50s song that might have been good.

I never loved Jan and Dean, but the song does have nostalgic appeal. Janet Jackson is all flash and no substance. She has about as much sex appeal as Mary Lou Retton, and a particularly ordinary voice. It's good flash, but that ain't enough. So these two go out together.

So we move on to the finals. Madonna has flash and substance to spare. And I actually had not heard this song before, and it's wonderful. I love the Spanish guitar. Jimmy Dorsey gives us another white swing guy. Glenn Miller had a sound all his own, but Jimmy was the better jazz musician (although I do have a recording of Coleman Hawkins' first session, with the Mound City Blowers, featuring Miller on trombone). I couldn't find Jimmy's version of Jersey Bounce on the Web, but last.fm has a bunch of other waxings http://www.last.fm/search?m=all&q=jersey+bounce. The classic Benny Goodman version, a great one by Gerry Mulligan, and an unbelievably great one by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. There's also a version by Glenn Miller, in which he shows that when he's up against the jazz greats, he can't compete.

And I'm going with Joni Mitchell, Pat Metheny, and the recently departed and mourned Michael Brecker. I don't think Joni Mitchell is a great lyricist. Her lyrics are always a little pretentious and forced for my taste. But she's a great singer, and a great composer, and boy, can she put together a band. Michael Brecker kicks ass here, and Joni kills.

Battle of the Decades

THE '40S
Peggy Lee
Manana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUT6mTq5ekM

THE '50S
Fats Domino
It's You I Love
http://www.last.fm/music/Fats+Domino/_/It%27s+You+I+Love?autostart

THE '60S
Tom Jones
What's New Pussycat?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsoYU1z0nbU

THE '70S
Earth, Wind & Fire/The Emotions
Boogie Wonderland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jLGa4X5H2c

THE '80S
Loverboy
Queen of the Broken Hearts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfRJtkDJOkU

THE '90S
Billy Idol
Cradle of Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxZPPOHqop4


An overwhelming -- and gratifying for me -- vote for Margaret, for warmth, intelligence and musicianship. REM second with three votes, although Fred Koller suggested "REM are the Monkees for gen x slackers." Which is a putdown of sorts, but where does it leave me, given that I'm on record as liking the Monkees? One for Lee Michaels, One for Madonna, coming up surprisingly short in the intergenerational battle of the divas.

Another great pop diva of the 40s up this time around, but I don't that she'll get the same type of support.

And since I'm not sure who I'm supporting this time, instead of my usual elimination stratagem, ending with my winner, I'll just go through them at more or less random.

Well, I'll probably eliminate Loverboy first off. They aren't so much worse than the others in the "Well, Dick, I'd give it a 76 -- it's got a good beat, you can dance to it" sweepstakes. But I couldn't really listen to it all the way through.

Billy Idol's got a good beat, and you can dance to him, and he has a girl in his video who takes her shirt off, and he takes his shirt off, and he snarls a lot, and he's entertaining enough.

Earth Wind and Fire have a great beat, and you can really get down to them. Plus they have all those great 70s outfits, and some nice playing, and some great grooves.

Manana is a dumb cutesy song, and more than a little racist, but it does have Peggy Lee, and Lordy lord, she was pretty back then.

Can I really even be considering voting for Tom Jones? Come on, admit it, some of the rest of you are tempted, too. This is a guilty pleasure, and while you can get a YouTube of Tom performing it in concert (really awful), the recording plus Japanese anime is the best way of experiencing it.

No YouTube for Fats -- I have a link to the song on Last.fm. It's not Fats at his absolute best, but it's plenty good.

So I'm between -- God help me -- What's New Pussycat, and Earth Wind and Fire, and Fats. Stay tuned while my good taste angel and my bad taste angel battle this one out.

And...since this was sent out...bad taste has triumphed, and I went with the Pussycat, in spite of this from my daughter Wendy:

I am sorry, but you have all lost your minds. This is a crappy choice and there is nothing I want to vote for - and certainly not What's New, Pussycat? Alexandra had the best out of all - she is thousands of miles away. She could have pretended her email was down, thus saving herself from her humiliation. I guess I will go with Billy Idol, if no abstentions are permitted - but I would prefer to abstain. If it is good enough for Sarah Palin's family, it should be good enough for us - oh wait, it wasn't good enough for them either.

Battle of the Decades

The Beatles won the last BOTD convincingly, but hardly unanimously. Chuck Berry got strong support, and both Mariah Carey and Benny Goodman got well-deserved votes. Nothing for Barbra Streisand, though she was worthy too.

Well, they can't all be choices among songs and artists of this level, and I'm afraid this one is not. But here goes:



THE 40s
Margaret Whiting o/Paul Weston
It Might As Well Be Spring
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKZ04mc1-e8&feature=related
http://www.last.fm/music/Margaret+Whiting


THE 50s
Johnnie Ray with The Four Lads
Cry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hm0r3AGrN8&feature=related



THE 60s
Ray Charles Singers
Love Me With All Your Heart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ6MTQbjQBc


THE 70s
Lee Michaels
Do You Know What I Mean
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fymw5ie9Zd4



THE 80s
Madonna -- True Blue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb8akXtOCaI


THE 90s
R.E.M.
Shiny Happy People

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwPu96ZcV_I

It could be worse. As I was copying and pasting this, some of the songs turned over, and we had Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes), Disco Duck, and the Ames Brothers.

For you whippersnappers, the Ray Charles Singers are not Ray Charles, and in spite of the psychedelic video, they ain't psychedelic either.

And I can get rid of Lee Michaels almost as easily. He was the harbinger of the new spirit of FM radio, which was that it was starting to get a little boring. This isn't the worst song ever recorded, but who wouldn't change the station when it came on?

You might not turn off Johnny Ray quite so quickly (or you might turn him off more quickly). He was kind of horrible, kind of mesmerizing. He was sui generis, and also almost totally deaf, which may or may not explain his singing. Anyway, "Cry" was his ur-song, and it became famous for its naked display of emotion by a male singer -- was he unmanly? Was he the new man? This YouTube video also has his version of "Just Walking in the Rain," originally recorded by the Prisonaires, who were maybe the original gangstas, in that they were real prisoners, let out on a work-release program to record a handful of great songs at Sun studios. You can sample them here; http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=prisonaires&search_type=&aq=0&oq=prisona

This brings us to the two whippersnapper numbers, probably destined to be the big vote-getters this time around. Did Madonna ever make a bad video? If she did, it wasn't this time around, especially the booty-shaking trio at the beginning. She didn't make many bad records, either. However, I think I'd give REM, and their strange take on the world -- David Byrne meets the Marshall Tucker Band -- the nod here.

But I have to go with my dear friend Margaret Whiting. No one sang a pop song like she did, found the meaning in the words the way she did. When the Kool Jazz festival replaced Newport, and moved to New York, they called Margaret and asked her to appear in an evening of Tribute to the American Song. "But I'm not a jazz singer," she told them. "I only sing the melody."

"Exactly," they replied. "And do you know how hard it is these days to find someone who can do that?"

Margaret never stopped being herself, never stopped being true to the great songs of her father and her mentor Johnny Mercer, and was never a fogey, either. Her championing of the First Amendment rights of the erotic film industry led to meeting the love of her life, gay porn star Jack Wrangler. They've been together since 1976, married since 1994, and he's successfully produced shows for her and others.

A memory: when I started working with Margaret, I took Jon and Claudia to an upper West Side cabaret where she was featured. Somehow, the cabaret had neglected to provide an MC, and Margaret was stuck in the wings, waiting for someone to introduce her. Jon took the bull by the horns and introduced her from his seat at a table. She gratefully came out, graciously thanked him, and gave one of her always-great shows.

Here's my bio of her from The St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_/ai_2419201301

The YouTube video pairs her with George Shearing; Last.fm has just a clip of "It Might as Well Be Spring."

My vote, and my heart, to Margaret Whiting.

Battle of the Decades

THE 40s
Rendition Quartet
Eagles Medley

THE 50s
Malcolm Yelvington
Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGwhUduklyw

THE 60s
Tom Jones
It's Not Unusual
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfaNCRAFuek

THE 70s
Blondie
Heart of Glass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUG0GjdoGHE

THE 80s
Squeeze
Tempted
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUA7F9j_xzs

9
THE 90s
Corona & Ice Mc
The Rhythm Of The Night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv6xxEF4hdo



This one skews heavily toward the whippersnappers (sorry, fogeys!), starting with a fast elimination of the Rendition Quartet, whose number had already finished by the time I got the 40s channel. Could they really have been singing an Eagles medley in the 40s? Does H. G. Wells know about this? By they time I got to the 40s channel they were playing a barbershop harmony quartet, so I'm guessing the Rendition Quartet was more of the same, and maybe so retro that they sounded retro even singing Hotel California. Or maybe "Eagles Medley" means something totally different. Maybe I don't care.

I keep waiting for that 90s song that will blow me away and convert me to whippersnapperdom. This isn't it. Corona - nice voice. Song...if I had to listen to her sing "this is the rhythm of the night...night...night..." once more.....


In spite of someone commenting on Squeeze's video "people who like this song are gay,queer, geekish and dorkish and lesbian!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! " I like this song. But I don't love it. And I'm sure Malcolm Yelvington was a fire-breathing young rockabilly when he first recorded this song, but age has lost him his edge. It's still one of the all-time great songs.

Tom Jones in second place? Well, I really liked this song when it first came out, before Tom Jones became...well, Tom Jones. (To my credit, I never liked Engelbert Humperdinck.) Listening to it now, he sounds like...well, Tom Jones.

Blondie's far and away the best of a weak field, but she might have been first in a strong one, too. Well, not a really strong one. But she's smart, cool, self-possessed, and hip. She's probably the template for the emotion-dead singers who came after whom Alex keeps voting for her, but that's not her fault. And a good song, probably her best.

Battle of the Decades

Since my blogging has dwindled recently, I figured I could at least start posting BOTD here. This is the game I started for my family, but it keeps expanding and taking on new players.

The rules are simple. Every so often, when the spirit moves me, I'll put om XM Radio online, C&P whatever happens to be playing on their decade channels at that moment, and send out the list, with my commentary. Players have to vote for one song . If there are a couple of great ones, you have to choose between greatness. If they're all wretched, you still have to choose between wretchedness. Or sometimes, as is the case this week, one song distances itself from the pack




THE 40s
Perry Como
I'm Always Chasing Rainbows

THE 50s
Dovells
Bristol Stomp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDo9yYSuzkk

THE 60s
The Syndicate of Sound
Little Girl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SMjE21fFRc

THE 70s
Elton John
Philadelphia Freedom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkMXnk16kiE

THE 80s
Bruce Springsteen
Glory Days
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsEkhy7fGLw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64ejl3a0wxU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTDXlM9eqSw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOpIfbneeHg&feature=related

THE 90s
Eve 6
Inside Out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2EE511FWsQ



OK, I'm willing to drop Perry Como pretty quickly, Not only was he a boring singer, and not only is this a dumb song, but I also associate it with Tuesday evening singalongs at the Millbrook School for Boys, and however ghastly that may sound to you in the abstract, in the reality it was much, much worse. And no YouTube for Perry...sorry.

And we can scratch off the Syndicate of Sound, who managed to combine a pseudo-70s-funk-sounding group name (before there even was any pseudo 70s funk, or even real 70s funk) with a pseudo Dylan vocal, and I figure if the little girl slept with these guys, she probably was doing something wrong.

Elton John is one of the most brilliant pop music composers of our time. So why can't I ever remember which song is which? However, dig those crazy Soul Train dancers.

What is "Bristol Stomp" doing in the 50s? XM playing fast and loose again. No 50s group ever had a name like the Dovells. This is a dumb song that I can't help loving. Eve 6, on the other hand, are a very good group whom I could really grow to like if I listened to 90s music more than I do, which is basically the YouTube videos for BOTD. But they still tie for runner-up, with their sound that encapsulates the heart of white American music in the last quarter of the 20th century, the music pushed to its highest peaks by Bob Dylan and...

Here's a guy who dresses like a working man, acts like a working class guy, sings working class songs, and what do they call him? The Boss! That anomaly aside, no one wrote songs like Springsteen. He had the kind of power and compression and allusion that poets get, and songwriters generally don't. But he was writing, and singing, songs, real songs, with a beat and hooks and hot riffs and everything that needs to come together to make a great song. "Glory Days" is muscular and poignant. It nails its characters with vicious accuracy and deepest sympathy. And it rocks. It gets my vote.

The videos are, in order, live on Letterman with Paul Shaeffer, on tour with the "Other Band" that everyone hated because they weren't the E Street Band, but they were damn good, live with the E Street Band featuring Silvio Dante, and the video released with the song. Just be grateful I didn't also include the duet with Jon Bon Jovi.

My own Glory Days included playing softball -- with the Crawdaddy team -- on a road trip to Asbury Park, against Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. I got two hits off Bruce.

Battle of the Decades

Beck swept the field last time, with one vote for Pat Benatar from Caitlin, and Mike Kaufman entering the game because I finally got his e-mail address right, and he immediately disgraced himself with a vote for Georgia Gibbs. Well, a student of mine wrote a brilliant paper a couple of semesters ago, comparing the LaVern Baker and Georgia Gibbs versions of "Tweedle Dee" and finding much to admire in Her Nibs.

Here's the new one, and I can predict two votes: Charis for the Kinks and Alex for Hootie.



THE 40s
Charlie Barnet
Skyliner

THE 50s
The Chantels
He's Gone

THE 60s
The Kinks
You Really Got Me

THE 70s
The Bee Gees
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?

THE 80s
Hall & Oates
You Make My Dreams

THE 90s
Hootie & The Blowfish
Time

I'll eliminate Hall and Oates first. They were there, they made hit records, they were terminally boring.

The Chantels were one of the first and one of the best girl groups, and if this were "Maybe" they'd rate higher with me -- and this is almost as good. The BeeGees in their disco days were the kings of disco, but you can't say much else for them. This was pre-disco, when they were still heavily Beatles influenced, and actually very good, and this is from that era, although no "Massachusetts" or "New York Mining Disaster 1941" (was there a New York mining disaster in 1941?) And hoots though I may get for this, I'll put Hootie in the same list of songs you'd like to listen to but not actually vote for.

We haven't had a contender from the 40s for a while, but Charlie Barnet was one of the good ones, and "Skyliner" is one of his best -- not as good as "Cherokee," which became a jazz standard and the basis for Bird's "Koko." Barnet was a rarity among jazz musicians, a rarity to the point that he may well be the only one, in that his parents were millionaires. He was also one of the first jazzmen to integrate his band, although not the group he had for this video. It's nice reading the comments on the YouTube video -- one from the son of Barnet's trumpet soloist and one from the grandson of one of the other trumpet players.

And the Kinks. Ray Davies is one of the three British rock songwriters I use when I teach my British lit survey course (Lennon/McCarney and Strummer/Jones are the others). "You Really Got Me" is one of his good ones (well, they were all good). If this were "Superman" or "A Well Respected Man" or "Young Conservatives" or especially "Lola" I'd vote for the Kinks in a second. On the other hand, if it were "Cherokee" or one of the Charlie Barnet numbers with a scat-singing telegram from Bunny Briggs, I'd tip that way.

As it is...oh, I dunno...the Kinks. Or maybe...but no, I've made my choice. But watch this anyway.

THE 40s
Four Voices
The One I Love

THE 50s
Georgia Gibbs
Seven Lonely Days (1953)






THE 60s
Secret Agent
Johnny Rivers







THE 70s
Donny & Marie Osmond
Deep Purple






THE 80s
Pat Benatar
Invincible







THE 90s
Beck
Loser


"Get a Job" waltzes off with the honors for last time, since Tony deFranco wasn't in the running.

I started one a few days ago, and it would have been interesting -- the two top contenders were The Spencer Davis Group doing "Gimme Some Lovin'" from 60s, and Salt-n-Pepa doing "Let's Talk About Sex" from the 90s, and I was probably going to go for Salt-n-Pepa, in spite of considerable affection for "Gimme Some Lovin,'" but realizing "Let's Talk About Sex" was probably the better song...but my computer froze and I lost the list.

So here's yet another, and...guess what? It's like I never left home.

I'm hoping not even Charis will go for Donny and Marie. I'm fairly certain the 40s and 50s will get left at the gate.

Pat Benatar was OK, but it would take an awfully weak set of competitors to make me vote for her.

So we come down to the 60s and 90s again, with a 60s song that I have even more affection for, and 90s song I know I have to vote for. Beck's an original, an elite talent. So although I am in fact a man who lives a life of danger..

Battle of the Decades

I haven't done a Battle of the Decades in a while, but I have an excuse. I got a download of the Complete Buddy Holly, in ten volumes, boing back to a home tape recording he made when he was 12, and I've been cataloging it. A lot of it is great -- Holly, fooling around in the studio but more than just fooling around, did his version of a whole lot of rock 'n roll hits of the day, from Bo Diddley to Rip it Up to Smokey Joe's Cafe. One not-very-effective cover is Ferlin Husky's Gone -- Buddy's strength wasn't in country ballads. Which explains why, when he started out in the early 50s in Texas, as Buddy and Bob, Bob did most of the lead vocals. Buddy had a different muse. This follows the theory that so much innovation in art comes from artists who don't have the ability to imitate -- Dizzy Gillespie tried to sound like Roy Eldridge but couldn't, so he moved on to create his own unique style. Miles Davis tried to sound like Dizzy but...

THE 40s
Glenn Miller v/Ray Eberle
Moon Love

THE 50s
The Silhouettes
Get a Job

THE 60s
Paul Revere & the Raiders
Him or Me (What's It Gonna Be?) (67)

THE 70s
Donny Osmond
Puppy Love


THE 80s
Survivor
High On You

THE 90s
Heart
All I Want To Do Is Make Love To You


I trust I don't have to explain to anyone why I'm eliminating Donny Osmond first.

Paul Revere and the Raiders were always mediocre, but they recorded some very catchy songs -- this isn't one of them. Survivor was just another disco group. Ray Eberle leading the Glenn Miller Orchestra isn't exactly breaking any new ground.

Speaking of Survivors, who would have expected Heart to craft one of the longest-lasting careers in rock? But they're still going, and they were particularly strong in the 90s, rocking as hard as they ever did, and adding those nice harmonies to a full-tilt rock sound.

But I have to go the fogey route again. Peter, Wendy, Jon and Tad as teenagers, cruising around Woodstock and surrounding areas, listening to George ("The Hound") Lorenz, sponsored by Mother Goldstein's Top of the Vine New York State Wine , and -- one suspects -- sampling the Mother's Malaga. I don't know how much Payola entered the picture, but when the Hound liked a song, he'd play it over and over -- the DJ in "The Buddy Holly Story" who locks himself in the studio and plays Buddy Holly until they break the door down -- that was The Hound. Here's a good web site for him (even though they do mention "Clyde McFatter).

On this night, when he broke "Get a Job," we knew what we had to do. WKBW Buffalo was clear channel, but it drifted in and out of clear reception in the valley of the Catskills. So we drove around for hours, looking for good reception areas, because we knew that if a new song was this good, The Hound would keep coming back to it all night. That was back when music was still magic.

Battle of the Decades

Here's a game I've been playing with my family and a few friends over email. The premise is simple: I open up XM Radio online when the spirit moves me, copy the songs which are playing at that moment on XM's Decades channels, whatever they may be, and send them out to my Battle of the Decades mailing list.

The rules are simple: Vote for the best song. You must vote for one (hard if none of them are any good, which can happen) and only one (hard if there are two or more really strong candidates -- this last rule is broken so frequently that I've abandoned it).

As the game has developed, I've taken to writing desultory notes -- criticism, reminiscence, biography, trivia -- on the list. These have gotten lengthy enough, and at least no less interesting than most of the nonsense here, that I thought I might as well start posting them. Y'all are welcome to join in and vote.


In the last competition -- a two-way race, which surprised me a little -- it was 4 Non Blondes over Elvis. I'm certainly not surprised that none of my daughters voted for Elvis. But I'm surprised that neither Queen not Marvin Gaye/Martha and the Vandellas got any votes. I


So here's the new one, and I predict near-unanimity between young and old.


THE 40s
Freddy Martin
Easy To Love


THE 50s
Bobby Darin
You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby


THE 60s
James & Bobby Purify
I'm Your Puppet


THE 70s
Paul McCartney & Wings
With A Little Luck


THE 80s
Janet Jackson
The Pleasure Principle


THE 90s
Right Said Fred
I'm Too Sexy


But first, a word about young and old, and the generation gap. I'm certainly not going to vote for Freddy Martin, and I feel confident that no one else will, unless my brother is in a really weird mood, but there is a memory attached to him. When Jon and I first started listening to music, and buying records, naturally we listened to, and bought, rock and roll, which was in its early days back then. This was so long ago that for those of you who don't remember 45s, and barely remember LPs, this goes back further -- our first purchases were 78s. Jon can maybe correct me on this, but I remember our very first being "Bazoom (I Need Your Lovin')" by the Cheers. The Cheers are mostly noted for having, as lead singer, a future TV game show host -- according to Wikipedia,

Convy soon took the podium himself as host of several game shows, including the fourth edition of Password, Super Password (1984–1989), but he remains best known for his first television game show, Tattletales (1974–1978, 1982–1984), for which he was awarded an Emmy for "Best Game Show Host" in 1977.

He also hosted the syndicated version of Win, Lose or Draw (1987–1990), which he co-produced with Burt Reynolds (under the firm Burt and Bert Productions). The final season of Win, Lose or Draw was hosted by Robb Weller, freeing up Convy to host his last game show, 3rd Degree, a syndicated program that ran during the 1989–90 TV season. He was also slated to host the 1990 revival of Match Game but was too ill to do so (comedian Ross Shafer took the role instead).

The Cheers also recorded "Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots," an early entry into the rock and roll world by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, at that point mostly known for R&B classics like Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog." Loyal rock and rollers, we listened to the Cheers' version and scorned the pop cover by Vaughn Monroe, but actually the Cheers didn't bring much to rock 'n roll, and Vaughn Monroe's version was just as good.

But I digress. My mother, hating everything we listened to, and really hating the idea that we were wasting our allowance money on rock 'n roll records, tried out the classic parent ploy of assuming that all pop music was the same, and if we wanted to listen to records, why didn't we listen to her old records from the 30s? So she got them out, and when we listened to them, we immediately had the answer as to why we didn't listen to them. But the one we kinda didn't mind, because it was a mildly clever novelty and we were, even back then, into clever, was "The Broken Record," a 1936 for both Freddy Martin and Guy Lombardo -- the general gist of which was that this broken record kept sticking, fortuitously, just at the places which delivered the young swain's message most punchily: "My sweetneart, I love you -- I love you -- I love you -- I love you..."

Yes, it's as corny as it sounds. But it conjures up a memory of Nonna, and so gets a sentimental nod. But no vote.

I pretty much hate everything Paul McCartney & Wings ever recorded, and Janet Jackson's Super Bowl breast (as opposed to Super breast) didn't do anything to win me over, and Bobby Darin was mostly boring -- so much so that even a major fan like Kevin Spacey couldn't make his movie life interesting. Of course, Jerry Lee Lewis' movie bio was boring too...

Here's one of my favorite exchanges in movie-bio-making history.

Dennis Quaid: Jerry Lee, I just don't feel I can play this part right if I can't sing the songs myself.
Jerry Lee: Well, son, that gives me a pretty good idea of your acting ability.

"I'm Your Puppet" was a great song. Maybe not given its due, because it was one of many great soul numbers during an era of great soul records by masters like Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett, and James and Bobby were one-hit wonders. Interestingly, for one-hit wonders, and for apparently a brother act, they had a personnel change. James was a real Purify, but the original Bobby, actually named Bobby, was his cousin Bob Dickey. He was replaced in the group by Ben Moore, neither Purify nor Bobby, nor related to Scotty Moore, Sam Moore, Wild Bill Moore, Johnny Moore, the other Johnny Moore, Mandy Moore, or Thurston Moore. Quick trivia quiz -- who can identify all the above Moores? I didn't include Dudley, Mary Tyler or Henry, because they weren't primarily associated with music, although Dudley was a brilliant musician.

"I'm Too Sexy" was also a great song -- also by a one-hit wonder group, but more distinctive, more readily identifiable, and terminally catchy. It gets my vote.