gts140 “mush”
A many splendoured thing is better than a many tentacled thing.
01-01 Ethel Waters & Eddie “Rochester” Anderson – Cabin In The Sky OST 05 – Taking A Chance On Love (1943)
— reprising their roles in the 1940 Broadway production, Eddie Anderson is not heard at this point in the movie, though that’s him whistling, and we hear his hoofbeats. Of course the nickname “Rochester” came from his longtime role on radio and television, as Jack Benny’s valet.
01-02 The Chipmunks – Chipmunk Punk 08 – Crazy Little Thing Called Love (1980)
— sued by Queen’s label because that actually is Freddie Mercury’s vocal performance, merely having been “chipmunkified”.
01-03 The Squirrels – Squirrels Live Bootleg Series Vol1 10 – Just The Way You Are (2001)
— continuing the rodential theme, sorry no muskrats, we’ve got other Captain/Tenille coming later.
01-04 Gang Of Four – Fast Product 5 – Love Like Anthrax (1978)
— incredible achievement to get the two vocal streams to match up in key places. Fast Product is not an album title, it’s the record label.
01-05 Roxy Music – Siren 101 – Love Is The Drug (1975)
— can usually funny-up a long by replacing “love” with “drugs” but this is the only song in the world where that doesn’t work.
02-01 k.d. lang & The Reclines – Absolute Torch And Twang 203 – Big Big Love (1989)
— sounds pretty Elvisesque.
02-02 David Josefsberg – Honeymoon In Vegas OBC 20 – Higher Love (2015)
— a running gag in the show, which is infested with Elvis impersonators.
02-03 Wynonna Judd – What The World Needs Now Is Love 09 – Burning Love (2003)
— many covers of this tune, here is the verified best!
02-04 Georgia Gibbs – Mercury 5823 – Kiss Of Fire (1952)
— takes two to tango, which is why lips come in pairs.
02-05 Merle Kilgore – Mercury 71918 – Lover’s Hell (1961)
— a two-fer from Mercury Records? Getting hot in here!
02-06 Madeline Peyroux – Careless Love 01 – Dance Me To The End Of Love (2004)
— a burning violin is a reference to Paganini, who sadly lived just before audio recording arrived. Said to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for virtuosity, the truth is even weirder. He had a genetic disorder making all his joints dislocatable. Paganini could touch his thumb to his pinkie… over the BACK OF HIS HANDS.
03-01 Jimi Hendrix – Are You Experienced 104 – Love Or Confusion (1967)
— my money’s on the latter.
03-02 Alan Arkin – Columbia 4-43787 – Barney’s Love Song (1966)
— classified as a “childrens” record, 20 years before a purple dinosaur terrified kids. To you youngins, yes this is Adam Arkin’s father.
03-03 Jimmy Fallon – SNL S24 E13 – Valentines Day Medley (1999)
— picking up where Adam Sandler left off at SNL. Think Jimmy got another job after leaving Saturday Night, forget what he’s doing now.
03-04 The Blenders – Jay-Dee 780 – Don’t Fuck Around With Love (1953)
— hah, almost forgot to bleep myself when announcing the set!
03-05 Redbone – Wovoka 201 – Come And Get Your Love (1973)
— nice tune but makes a great fit in the spot where it appears in the film “The Postman”.
03-06 The Temptations – Gordy 7015 – I Want A Love I Can See (1963)
— The Temptations did not sue Redbone 10 years later though they could well have had a case, but that just wasn’t done in 1973.
04-01 Billie Holiday – Esquire All American Jazz Concert – Metroplitan Opera House NYC 1944-01-18 – I Love My Man (1944)
— in the background, can hear Louis Armstrong lightly heckling Lady Day. Perhaps the second-most famous jazz concert of the Big Band Era, certainly the 3rd-most at least. Benefit show where attendees didn’t buy tickets, they bought WWII War Bonds for entry. Odd thing, add up the cost of a War Bond, multiply by the seating capacity of The Met, and this concert raised almost double what it should have! The Met’s board was horrified at the suggestion of jazz on their sanctified stage, and at first refused to host the event. Show came about only after “ungentle persuasion” by the US War Department.
04-02 Goldfinger – The Waterboy OST 02 – More Today Than Yesterday (1998)
— was pretty sure this came out before the Adam Sandler movie, but can’t find evidence for a prior release.
04-03 Captain & Tennille – Love Will Keep Us Together 101 – Love Will Keep Us Together (1975)
— first time ever calling a radio station, was to request this song. Which was pointless, because at that time it was on rotation so heavy that it was played every hour. Only later, we learned what an asshole The Captain was, in how he treated Toni Tennille.
04-04 Jason Robert Brown – Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes 09 – I Could Be In Love With Someone Like You (2005)
— hehee, “I’ll buy your Daddy a new shilleleagh,” now if only I could learn how to spell it. Schedule of Thursdays means no St. Patricks show here this year, so just play this one back next month.
04-05 J. Geils Band – EMI America 8039 – Love Stinks (1980)
— the 45rpm single version, shorter than the album cut, but still smells as sweet.
05-01 The Velvet Underground – The Velvet Underground 103 – Some Kinda Love (1969)
— Lou Reed knows all about significant ambiguity.
05-02 Mickey & Sylvia – Groove 4G0175 – Love Is Strange (1956)
— surprised this is 1956. Woulda guessed it ten years later.
05-03 Jimmy Mitchell – Songs In The Key Of Z Vol1 23 – Eres Tu
— this recording was Jimmy’s prize, for winning a karaoke contest. Today we would refer to him as “differently abled” but back then bars still had Dwarf Tossing Night. No info on the original release of this single, but according to an online forum, Jimmy Mitchell won that karaoke contest in “the 1990s”.
05-04 Left Alone – Lonely Starts & Broken Hearts 09 – Heart Riot (2005)
05-05 Ray Wylie Hubbard – Charleston WV 2022-09-25 – Pretty Reckless (2022)
— recorded for a production of the radio show Mountain Stage which was aired in November of 2022, as Mountain Stage’s 998th broadcast. Whew, I’m only 974 shows behind ’em!
06-01 Brad Marino – Basement Beat 12 – Baby Doll (2022)
— still think this was the best album of 2022.
06-02 The Rubinoos – Back To The Drawing Board 102 – I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend (1979)
— good song, nothing to upset anyone…
06-03 Avril Lavigne & Lil Mama – RCA PTS-03012 – Girlfriend (Dr. Luke Mix) (2007)
— original version was on Canadian pop princess Avril’s February 2007 album. This “official remix” released in June of 2007. Three weeks after that, Avril Lavigne was sued for infringement by… wait for it… The Rubinoos! Settled out-of-court in 2008 for the usual “undisclosed sum” but later Avril remarked: “they didn’t win,” and The Rubinoos put out a statement “exonerating” Avril and Dr. Luke.
06-04 The Dellwoods – MAD “Twists” Rock ‘N’ Roll 204 – She’s A Serious (Yeah Yeah) Teenager In Love (1962)
— the Dellwoods were Mike Russo & Jeanne Hayes, contracted by MAD Magazine. On the title of the album, the first “s” in Twists is printed backwards, but don’t know how to make my keyboard do that character.
06-05 Johnny Royal – Doc Holiday OB-2011 – Lover Boy
— unable to find a release year for this, assume it falls somewhere in the 1960’s.
06-06 Sabrina Carpenter – Mean Girls OBC 05 – Stupid With Love (2018)
— Broadway show based on a movie, both written by Tina Faye of Saturday Night Live fame. Sabrina reprises the role originated by Lindsey Lohan, both of whom got extra sexy after leaving their chaste Disney shackles.
06-07 unknown – Wannabe (If You Wanna Be My Lover)
— punkrock cover of the top hit by The Spice Girls. Listened to several similar cover versions but no luck ID’ing this. I suspect it’s by The Toy Dolls, but unable to verify before airtime here!