Singles – Page 168 – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

The Who – A Quick One, While He’s Away

I first saw them perform this on The Kids Are Alright. The performance was electric. I like the studio version but the live versions they push a little harder. The song didn’t chart being so long. The album “A Quick One” peaked at #4 in the UK charts. The hit song of the album was Happy Jack.

The Who had 10 minutes left to fill on the album. Kit Lambert, The Who’s manager, suggested to Pete Townshend that he write “something linear… perhaps a 10-minute song.” Townshend responded by saying that rock songs are “2:50 by tradition!” Lambert then told Townshend that he should write a 10-minute story comprised of 2:50 songs.

The song was a “mini-opera,” paving the way for the other mini-opera “Rael” and eventually full-length rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia.

From Songfacts

The plot of the story is simple. A girl is sad that her boyfriend is away. Her friends suggest that she take a substitute lover, Ivor The Engine Driver. When the boyfriend returns, she confesses her infidelity and is forgiven.

The Who performed this on the Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus, which was going to be a TV special. It never aired on television but it was released on VHS in 1996 and DVD in 2004. The Who’s performance of this was included in The Kids Are Alright, a 1979 film about The Who.

According to legend, Rock And Roll Circus didn’t air because the Rolling Stones felt that they were showed up by The Who. Jethro Tull, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithful, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, and Mitch Mitchell all appeared on Rock And Roll Circus.

A live version of this song appears on Live At Leeds and the soundtrack for The Kids Are Alright.

The Who wanted to put Cellos on the track but Kit Lambert said they couldn’t afford it. So they sang “cello, cello, cello, cello,” where the Who thought they should go. >>

This was used in the Wes Anderson film Rushmore starring Jason Shwartzman and Bill Murray

A Quick One, While He’s Away

Her man’s been gone
For nearly a year
He was due home yesterday
But he ain’t here

Her man’s been gone
For nigh on a year
He was due home yesterday
But he ain’t here

Down your street your crying is a well-known sound
Your street is very well known, right here in town
Your town is very famous for the little girl
Whose cries can be heard all around the world

Fa la la la la la
Fa la la la la
Fa la la la la la
Fa la la la la

We have a remedy
You’ll appreciate
No need to be so sad
He’s only late

We’ll bring you flowers and things
Help pass your time
We’ll give him eagle’s wings
Then he can fly to you

Fa la la la la la
Fa la la la la
Fa la la la la la
Fa la la la la
Fa la la la la la
Fa la la la la la

We have a remedy
Fa la la la la la la
We have a remedy
Fa la la la la la la
We have a remedy
Fa la la la la la la
We have a remedy
Fa la la la la la la

We have a remedy.
We have!

Little girl, why don’t you stop your crying?
I’m gonna make you feel all right

My name is Ivor
I’m an engine driver

I know him well
I know why you feel blue
Just ’cause he’s late
Don’t mean he’ll never get through

He told me he loves you
He ain’t no liar, I ain’t either
So let’s have a smile for an old engine driver
So let’s have a smile for an old engine driver

Please take a sweet
Come take a walk with me
We’ll sort it out
Back at my place, maybe

It’ll come right
You ain’t no fool, I ain’t either
So why not be nice to an old engine driver?
Better be nice to an old engine driver
Better be nice to an old engine driver

We’ll soon be home
We’ll soon be home
We’ll soon
We’ll soon, soon, soon be home

Come on, old horse

Soon be home
Soon be home
Soon
We’ll soon, soon, soon be home

We’ll soon
We’ll soon, soon, soon be home

We’ll soon be home
Soon be home

Dang, dang, dang, dang, dang, dang, dang, dang, dang

Cello, cello, cello, cello, cello, cello
Cello, cello, cello, cello, cello, cello
Cello, cello, cello, cello, cello, cello
Cello, cello, cello, cello, cello, cello

I can’t believe it
Do my eyes deceive me?
Am I back in your arms?
Away from all harm?

It’s like a dream to be with you again
Can’t believe that I’m with you again

I missed you and I must admit
I kissed a few and once did sit
On Ivor the Engine Driver’s lap
And later with him, had a nap

You are forgiven, you are forgiven, you are forgiven

You are forgiven

Jimi Hendrix – All Along the Watchtower

Bob Dylan wrote this song and it was on his John Wesley Harding album. It was the longest time that I finally started to like Jimi’s version. The song peaked at #20 in the Billboard 100 in 1968. This was Jimi’s only top 40 hit in the Billboard 100.

I do like the simplicity of Bob’s original version also.

Bob said this about Jimi Hendrix in a 2015 speech: “We can’t forget Jimi Hendrix. I actually saw Jimi perform when he was with a band called Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. Something like that. And Jimi didn’t even sing. He was just the guitar player,” Dylan said. “He took some small songs of mine that nobody paid any attention to and brought them up into the outer limits of the stratosphere, turned them all into classics. I have to thank Jimi, too. I wish he was here.”

From Songfacts

This was written and originally recorded by Bob Dylan in 1967, but it was the Jimi Hendrix cover that made the song famous. Many other artists have covered it, including Eric Clapton, Neil Young, U2, Dave Matthews Band and The Grateful Dead. Dylan was so impressed with Jimi’s version that Dylan for years played it the way that Jimi had recorded it.

This was Hendrix’ only Top 40 hit in the US, where his influence far outpaced his popularity. He charted a few times in the UK, where he rose to fame before making a name for himself in America.

This was recorded while Hendrix played with the Jimi Hendrix Experience: Hendrix on guitar, Noel Redding on bass, and Mitch Mitchell on drums. For this song, however, Redding was not on bass; Hendrix did it. Redding was also the guitar player for his band Fat Mattress, which Hendrix referred to as Thin Pillow. Hendrix often felt that Redding did not put his heart into the bass and was concerned that Redding concentrated more on Fat Mattress than he did on the Experience. Things like these led to him being replaced by Billy Cox. >>

The original version of this song is very slow. Jimi Hendrix’ version had a large impact on Dylan which made him make his own version “heavier.”

Hendrix: “All those people who don’t like Bob Dylan’s songs should read his lyrics. They are filled with the joys and sadness of life. I am as Dylan, none of us can sing normally. Sometimes, I play Dylan’s songs and they are so much like me that it seems to me that I wrote them. I have the feeling that Watchtower is a song I could have come up with, but I’m sure I would never have finished it. Thinking about Dylan, I often consider that I’d never be able to write the words he manages to come up with, but I’d like him to help me, because I have loads of songs I can’t finish. I just lay a few words on the paper, and I just can’t go forward. But now things are getting better, I’m a bit more self-confident.” >>

Hendrix had been working on and off with the members of the band Traffic as he recorded Electric Ladyland. Traffic guitarist Dave Mason caught Hendrix at a party and the two discussed Bob Dylan’s newest album, John Wesley Harding, containing “All Along The Watchtower.” Hendrix, long fascinated with Dylan, decided to cover the song on the album. On the resulting track, Mason plays rhythm on a 12-string acoustic guitar.

In our interview with Mason, he explained: “Hendrix just happened to be sitting in one of those semi-private clubs in London. He was there one night just sitting alone, and it was like, “F–k, I’m just going to go over and say hi and talk to him.”

Mason recorded the song himself in the Hendrix arrangement for his 1974 self-titled album. He also made the song a mainstay of his concerts. Mason says it’s a deceptively simple song: “It’s just the same three chords, and they never change.”

This was used in an episode of The Simpsons when Homer’s mother was telling him a story that took place in the ’60s about why she had to leave him.

In a 2008 poll conducted by a panel of experts in the Total Guitar magazine, this was voted the best cover song of all time. The Beatles’ rendition of “Twist and Shout,” first recorded by the Top Notes, came second, followed by the Guns N’ Roses version of the Wings song “Live and Let Die” in third place.

This was used in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump shortly after the title character arrives in Vietnam.

Yes this is Bob’s version…the only one I could find.

All Along The Watchtower

There must be some kind of way outta here
Said the joker to the thief
There’s too much confusion
I can’t get no relief

Business men, they drink my wine
Plowman dig my earth
None were level on the mind
Nobody up at his word
Hey, hey

No reason to get excited
The thief he kindly spoke
There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke
But, uh, but you and I, we’ve been through that
And this is not our fate
So let us stop talkin’ falsely now
The hour’s getting late, hey

All along the watchtower
Princes kept the view
While all the women came and went
Barefoot servants, too
Outside in the cold distance
A wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching
And the wind began to howl

Rod Stewart – The First Cut Is The Deepest

Rod Stewart has covered many songs in his career. I’ve always liked this version of the song. It was written by Cat Stevens in 1967. The song peaked at #21 in the Billboard 100, #11 in Canada, and #1 in the UK in 1977. Stewart recorded the song at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama, United States, and it appeared on his 1976 album A Night on the Town. It was released as a double A-side single with “I Don’t Want to Talk About It”.

Rod Stewart had a total of 52 songs in the Billboard 100, 16 top 10 hits, and 4 number 1’s.

From Songfacts

This was written by Cat Stevens. It was a hit for P.P. Arnold in Britain in 1967, reaching #18 in the charts. Stevens, who included it on his debut album New Masters later in 1967, never released his version as a single, as he felt Arnold’s rendition was definitive.

P.P. Arnold is a female singer from America who got her start as one of Ike & Tina Turner’s backup performers (an Ikette). After two years with Ike & Tina, she moved to London and got a record deal with Immediate Records. Cat Stevens was also part of the London music scene at the time, and his song found it’s way to Arnold, who recorded it for her first album.

Arnold, who was in an abusive marriage as a teenager, felt it was a perfect song for her. “It encapsulated everything that I was at the time,” she said. “Having the courage to get out of that [abusive relationship] and create a life for me and my kids. What a blessing.”

In 1968, Arnold scored another UK hit when her cover of “Angel of the Morning” went to #29.

This is about a guy who has met a girl he wants to start a relationship with. In the song, he is explaining the hurt he feels because of his first love, and how it is keeping him from diving into this potential new relationship.

In America, the first version to chart was by Keith Hampshire, who took it to #70 in 1973. Rod Stewart covered it in 1976, taking it to #21 US and #1 UK; Sheryl Crow released her version in 2003, which made #14 in the US and #37 in the UK.

The First Cut is the Deepest

I would have given you all of my heart
But there’s someone who’s torn it apart
And she’s taken just all that I had
But if you want I’ll try to love again
Baby I’ll try to love again but I know

The first cut is the deepest
Baby I know the first cut is the deepest
But when it come to being lucky she’s cursed
When it come to loving me she’s the worst
I still want you by my side
Just to help me dry the tears that I’ve cried
And I’m sure going to give you a try
And if you want I’ll try to love again
Baby I’ll try to love again but I know

The first cut is the deepest
Baby I know the first cut is the deepest
But when it come to being lucky she’s cursed
When it come to loving me she’s the worst

I still want you by my side
Just to help me dry the tears that I’ve cried
But I’m sure gonna give you a try
‘Cause if you want I’ll try to love again
Baby I’ll try to love again but I know

Wooh
The first cut is the deepest
Baby I know the first cut is the deepest
When it come to being lucky she’s cursed
When it come to loving me she’s the worst

Squeeze – Tempted

Paul Carrack sang lead on this. He also sang with the bands Ace (“How Long”) and Mike And The Mechanics (“The Living Years”). In 1987, he had a solo hit with “Don’t Shed a Tear.”

This was the first Squeeze song to crack the charts in America. Squeeze was already a big deal in their native England, where they had 7 Top-40 hits to this point. They managed just 2 more US hits: “Hourglass” and “853-5937,” but “Tempted” remains their only top ten hit. It peaked at #8 in the Billboard 100.

From Songfacts

Squeeze singer and guitarist Chris Difford wrote the lyrics to this song. He explains: “Tempted was written in a cab on the way to Heathrow, I just wrote down what I saw and how I felt as we wormed our way through the traffic. I also must have anticipated a good time on tour as the chorus suggests.”
Carrack was with Squeeze for their East Side Story album, replacing Jools Holland on keyboards and also contributing vocals. He rejoined Squeeze in 1993 for their album Some Fantastic Place, and sang on a new version of “Tempted” that the band recorded for the soundtrack of the 1994 movie Reality Bites.

Elvis Costello produced this track. You can hear him singing on the second verse.

Glenn Tilbrook, who writes the music for Squeeze, considers this one of his favorites. Says Tilbrook: “It was a sort of breakthrough song for us, in spite of the fact that it wasn’t a hit, it was our first song. It was when we grew up, really, as a band. When we finished it I couldn’t quite believe it was us.” (Read more in our interview with Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford of Squeeze.)

In the US, this was used in a commercial for Burger King, and another for Heineken. It’s a good fit for advertisements where someone is “tempted” by their product.

At many Squeeze shows, fans would throw toothbrushes (Rocky Horror-style) on stage at the opening line: “I bought a toothbrush…”

Tempted

I bought a toothbrush, some toothpaste
A flannel for my face
Pajamas, a hairbrush
New shoes and a case
I said to my reflection
Let’s get out of this place

Passed the church and the steeple
The laundry on the hill
Billboards and the buildings
Memories of it still
Keep calling and calling
But forget it all, I know I will

Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered
What’s been going on
Now that you have gone

There’s no other
Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered

I’m at the car park, the airport
The baggage carousel
The people keep on [Incomprehensible]
Ain’t wishing I was well
I said it’s no occasion
It’s no story I could tell

At my bedside empty pocket
A foot without a sock
Your body gets much closer
I fumble for the clock
Alarmed by the seduction
I wish that it would stop

Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered
What’s been going on
Now that you have gone

There’s no other
Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered

I bought a novel, some perfume
A fortune all for you
But it’s not my conscience
That hates to be untrue
I asked of my reflection
Tell me what is there to do?

Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered
What’s been going on
Now that you have gone

There’s no other
Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered

Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered
Tempted by the fruit of another
Tempted but the truth is discovered

The Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop

The Ramones were no frills and to the point. No long solos or instrumental breaks. Just 2-minute rock songs full of energy. This was the song that helped launch the Ramones.

The song never charted but is probably their best-known song because of the many movies, tv shows, and commercials it’s been in. The song was mainly written by drummer Tommy Ramone, while bassist Dee Dee Ramone came up with the title (the song was originally called “Animal Hop”). Dee Dee also changed one line: the original third verse had the line “shouting in the back now”, but Dee Dee changed it to “shoot ’em in the back now”.

From Songfacts

The Ramones had a very sparse budget at the time: The entire album cost just $6,400 to make.

This song has been used in a number of movies and TV series, including The Simpsons (the 2007 “Treehouse of Horror” episode), and the 2006 Entourage episode “I Wanna Be Sedated,” revolving around a Ramones documentary.

In the 2001 movie Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, it was used in a scene where Jimmy and his friends go on a rampage of fun. Some other uses:

Fear No Evil (1981)
National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)
Sugar & Spice (2001)
Shattered Glass (2003)
The King of Queens (2004)
Date Night (2010)
The Crazy Ones (2013)
Parenthood (2014)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

The New York Yankees baseball team often plays this when one of their big hitters is coming to the plate. Johnny Ramone was a huge fan of the Yankees.

Green Day performed this at the 2002 ceremonies when The Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In 1991, this song piqued the interest of Budweiser, which used it in a commercial for their beer (without the “Shoot ’em in the back” line). There was no debate in the Ramones camp over whether to authorize it: they were all happy to get the money and exposure. In 2003, the song found its way into another commercial, this time for AT&T Wireless. It was later used in commercials for Diet Pepsi, Coppertone and Taco Bell.

Rob Zombie covered this song on the album A Tribute To Ramones (We’re A Happy Family).

Fellow first-wave punk band The Clash covered this song live on tour in 1978, often as a medley with their own song “Police and Thieves.”

Blitzkrieg Bop

Hey ho, let’s go! Hey ho, let’s go!
Hey ho, let’s go! Hey ho, let’s go!

They’re forming in straight line
They’re going through a tight wind
The kids are losing their minds
The Blitzkrieg Bop

They’re piling in the back seat
They’re generating steam heat
Pulsating to the back beat
The Blitzkrieg Bop

Hey ho, let’s go
Shoot ’em in the back now
What they want, I don’t know
They’re all revved up and ready to go

They’re forming in straight line
They’re going through a tight wind
The kids are losing their minds
The Blitzkrieg Bop

They’re piling in the back seat
They’re generating steam heat
Pulsating to the back beat
The Blitzkrieg Bop

Hey ho, let’s go
Shoot’em in the back now
What they want, I don’t know
They’re all revved up and ready to go

They’re forming in straight line
They’re going through a tight wind
The kids are losing their minds
The Blitzkrieg Bop

They’re piling in the back seat
They’re generating steam heat
Pulsating to the back beat
The Blitzkrieg Bop

Hey ho, let’s go! Hey ho, let’s go!
Hey ho, let’s go! Hey ho, let’s go!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitzkrieg_Bop

Violent Femmes – Blister In The Sun

In the mid-eighties, a girl I knew kept playing this song over and over. It got on my nerves but after a while I found myself liking it. I ended up liking the song more than I did the girl. A Blister In The Sun was released in 1983.

The song had a cult following and was favorite on American college radio in the 1980s. In the early 1990s, an alternative and modern rock radio stations went on the air, it got a lot of airplay because it was considered a classic of the genre. The album gradually sold over one million copies and earned the Violent Femmes a large fan base.

From Songfacts

Written by Violent Femmes lead singer Gordan Gano, this song sure sounds like an ode to masturbation:

Body and beats
I stain my sheets
I don’t even know why
My girlfriend, she’s at the end
She is starting to cry

Gano says it isn’t, and that he didn’t hear that interpretation until years later. “I don’t think there’s a whole lot to understand with the lyrics,” he told the Village Voice. “But I can see where people could get that idea.”

Gano is coy in discussing the song, but he has explained that it’s about the strung-out feeling that comes from drug abuse. The girlfriend is at her wit’s end because he keeps staining the sheets, as he lacks sexual control.

This is the first song on the first Violent Femmes album, introducing the band with the famous guitar riff and snare hits. The band made inroads with songs like this one about adolescent insecurities delivered in a deprecating tone. Gordon Gano was just 19 when the album was released.

The line, “Big hands I know you’re the one” is in the song because Gano has small hands. In the song, he’s in a self-loathing state where he knows the girl is just going to take up with some big-handed guy.

In 2007, this was used in commercials for the fast food purveyor Wendy’s. Gordon Gano authorized its use, which triggered a lawsuit by the group’s bass player Brian Ritchie, who stated: “I don’t like having my sound misappropriated to sell harmful products, such as fast food… that’s not why we made the music. It should not be hijacked.” Ritchie cited misappropriation of jointly owned intellectual property as the basis for his suit.

Ritchie also blasted Gano in the publication OnMilwaukee, where he wrote, “When you see dubious or in this case disgusting uses of our music you can thank the greed, insensitivity and poor taste of Gordon Gano, it is his karma that he lost his songwriting ability many years ago, probably due to his own lack of self-respect as his willingness to prostitute our songs demonstrates. Neither Gordon (vegetarian) nor me (gourmet) eat garbage like Wendy’s burgers.”

The band was still touring when this went down, but they broke up soon after. They didn’t return to action until 2013, when they played the Coachella festival.

This was featured in the 1997 John Cusack film Grosse Pointe Blank. The soundtrack includes two versions of the song, the original 1982 release and a remake entitled “Blister 2000.” The remake is slower and has kind of a funky instrumental sax solo in the middle. >>

A multi-instrumental cover of the song was used in a 2012 television commercial for the Hewlett-Packard DV6T notebook. In the ad, the song in played in various styles, including gospel, Mariachi and metal.

The barefoot child peeking into an old building on the album cover is three-year-old Billie Jo Campbell, who photographer Ron Hugo spotted walking with her mother in Los Angeles. Speaking to MTV News in 2007, Campbell recalled: “I remember looking into that building, and they kept telling me there are animals in there. I had no idea there were photographers there. I was pissed off that I couldn’t see the animals.”

Blister in the Sun

When I’m out walking
I strut my stuff
And I’m so strung out
I’m high as a kite
I just might stop to check you out

Let me go on like I
Blister in the sun
Let me go on
Big hands, I know you’re the one

Body and beats,
I stain my sheets
I don’t even know why
My girlfriend, she’s at the end,
She is starting to cry

Let me go on like I
Blister in the sun
Let me go on
Big hands, I know you’re the one

When I’m out walking
I strut my stuff
And I’m so strung out
I’m high as a kite
I just might stop to check you out

Body and beats,
I stain my sheets
I don’t even know why
My girlfriend, she’s at the end,
She is starting to cry

When I’m out walking
I strut my stuff
And I’m so strung out
I’m high as a kite
I just might stop to check you out

Let me go on like I
Blister in the sun
Let me go on
Big hands, I know you’re the one

Joe Walsh – All Night Long

Joe has to be one of the most likable guys in Rock and Roll. Along with having a good time he is one of the best rock guitarists. All Night Long peaked at #19 in the Billboard 100 and #13 in Canada in 1980.

“All Night Long” was released as a single, in addition to being included in the legendary soundtrack to Urban Cowboy. It became one of Joe Walsh’s four Top 40 charting songs in his solo career. The song also found its way onto a live Eagles album.

From Songfacts

Independent of the single’s chart record, the soundtrack album made #1 on the Country Albums Chart, #3 on the Billboard 200, #2 on the Canadian RPM Country Albums Chart, and #21 on Canadian RPM Top Albums. Quite a bit of success for songs from a movie that cast John Travolta as a cowboy (inverting the concept of a “spaghetti western”), which makes about as much sense as casting John Wayne as Genghis Khan, and yet here we are still talking about it.

Joe Walsh fun fact: he played a prisoner in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers; during the “Jailhouse Rock” scene he was the first jumpsuit up on the table.

This was Walsh’s very next single after “Life’s Been Good.” Uh oh… Here comes a flock of WAH-WAHS!

All Night Long

We get up early and we work all day.
We put our time in ’cause we like to stay up
All night long. All night long.

We keep on grinnin’ ’til the weekend comes.
Just a pinch between your cheek and gums.
All night long. All night long.

Start in the morning and get the job done.
Take care of business and we have some fun.
All night long. All night long.

We like a long neck and a good old song.
Turn it up and then we’ll sing along. Sing along.
Oh, we’re stayin’ up all night long.

All night long.
All night long.
All night long.
All night long.

The Jam – Town Called Malice

The Jam was a mod band in the late seventies who were hugely popular in the UK but their only charting song in America was Town Called Malice that peaked at #31 in the Mainstream rock charts in 1982. This song went to #1 in the UK and #19 in Canada.

In the UK they had 4 number 1s, 9 top ten hits, and 24 top forty hits. They had company with bands like The Small Faces and Slade who were much more popular in the UK than America. Paul Weller left the Jam in 1982 and found The Style Council with Mick Talbot in 1983.

From Songfacts

The title of Nevil Shute’s A Town Like Alice inspired the title, but the inspiration for the song came from Paul Weller’s friend Dave Waller by means of describing urban life. The song is about unemployment in a working town and Paul Weller confessed, “It could have been written about any suburban town, but it was in fact written about my hometown of Woking.” (quote from 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh)

This was a double A-sided UK #1 along with “Precious.” The Jam became the first act since The Beatles, who performed “Day Tripper” and “We Can Work It Out” to perform both tracks of double A side on the BBC pop music show Top Of The Pops.

The song lasted a mere eight weeks on the chart, four of which were in the Top 10 and of that four, three were spent at #1.

This caused an industry furor after EMI objected to this being available in a studio-recorded 7-inch version and a live 12-inch version. The feeling was that the Jam’s fans were buying both versions of the single and so stopping “Golden Brown” by the Stranglers on the EMI label from reaching #1.

Many of Weller’s songs reflected his anger with right of center politics and the video for this number featured a cue-card with the slogan “If we ain’t getting through to you, you obviously ain’t listening.” Prompted by Conservative Party leader David Cameron’s comment that the music of the Jam “meant a lot,” the Guardian newspaper asked Weller, if it had been suggested in the early ’80s that there were ardent Tories coming to Jam concerts, what would he have thought? He replied: “I’d have been really, really surprised. I think I pretty much nailed where I was at to the mast. But people come to gigs for different reasons: it isn’t necessarily about what the person on stage is singing. But at the same time, you do think, ‘Well, maybe this’ll change their minds.”

The Walking Dead Season 7 third episode starts with a montage of the Saviors’ Sanctuary soundtracked by this song.

Town Called Malice

Better stop dreaming of the quiet life
Cause it’s the one we’ll never know
And quit running for that runaway bus
Cause those rosy days are few
And, stop apologizing for the things you’ve never done,
Cause time is short and life is cruel
But it’s up to us to change
This town called malice
Rows and rows of disused milk floats
Stand dying in the dairy yard
And a hundred lonely housewives clutch empty milk
Bottles to their hearts
Hanging out their old love letters on the line to dry
It’s enough to make you stop believing when tears come
Fast and furious
In a town called malice

Struggle after struggle, year after year
The atmosphere’s a fine blend of ice
I’m almost stone cold dead
In a town called malice

A whole street’s belief in Sunday’s roast beef
Gets dashed against the Co-op
To either cut down on beer or the kids new gear
It’s a big decision in a town called malice

The ghost of a steam train, echoes down my track
It’s at the moment bound for nowhere
Just going round and round
Playground kids and creaking swings
Lost laughter in the breeze
I could go on for hours and I probably will
But I’d sooner put some joy back
In this town called malice

Warren Zevon – Excitable Boy

Maybe the darkest pop song that I know. You first hear this song and it sounds cheery until you pay attention to the lyrics. I must admit I love the song because it’s just so different. The upbeat happy music with Linda Ronstadt on backing vocals is very catchy and then Warren tells the story and it ends up very dark, to say the least.

When I first paid attention to it…I was shocked and listened to it over and over to make sure I was hearing the lyrics right…No he couldn’t be singing this right? Warren had a dark sense of humor and it shows on this.

The song was not released as a single. The album peaked at #8 in the Billboard 100. Werewolves of London was the hit off of the album. It is perhaps Zevon’s best album.

Excitable Boy
Well, he went down to dinner in his Sunday best
Excitable boy, they all said
And he rubbed the pot roast all over his chest
Excitable boy, they all said

He took in the four a.m. show at the Clark
Excitable boy, they all said
And he bit the usherette’s leg in the dark
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he’s just an excitable boy

He took little Suzie to the Junior Prom
Excitable boy, they all said
And he raped her and killed her, then he took her home
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he’s just an excitable boy
After ten long years they let him out of the home
Excitable boy, they all said
And he dug up her grave and built a cage with her bones
Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he’s just an excitable boy

Eurythmics – Here Comes The Rain Again

It took a while for me to warm up to the Eurythmics in the 80s but I did. Here Comes the Rain Again peaked at #4 in the Billboard 100 in 1984. Annie Lennox’s voice is so distinguishable, strong, and versatile that they didn’t have just one style. They did this and then the next year they had the more R&B song Would I Lie To You.

Here Comes The Rain Again was recorded in an old church that was converted into a studio – except the studio wasn’t finished yet and they brought in the orchestra anyway. About 30 string players had to improvise by playing in corridors and even the toilet. The song was mixed blending the orchestra on top of electronic sounds created by a sequencer and drum machine.

From Songfacts

The Eurythmics were vocalist Annie Lennox and instrumentalist Dave Stewart. Both were members of The Tourists before forming Eurythmics in 1980. They met when Lennox was working as a waitress in Stewart’s home town of Sunderland; they lived together for four years before forming Eurythmics and ending their romantic relationship while forging ahead as a duo. Writing and recording as ex-lovers created an interesting tension in their songs.

In our interview with Dave Stewart, he explains that creating a melancholy mood in his songs is something he excels at. Says Stewart: “‘Here Comes The Rain Again’ is kind of a perfect one where it has a mixture of things, because I’m playing a b-minor, but then I change it to put a b-natural in, and so it kind of feels like that minor is suspended, or major. So it’s kind of a weird course. And of course that starts the whole song, and the whole song was about that undecided thing, like here comes depression, or here comes that downward spiral. But then it goes, ‘so talk to me like lovers do.’ It’s the wandering in and out of melancholy, a dark beauty that sort of is like the rose that’s when it’s darkest unfolding and blood red just before the garden, dies. And capturing that in kind of oblique statements and sentiments.”

Instead of the conventional verse-chorus-verse, this song alternates an A section (“Here comes the rain again?”) and a B section (“So baby talk to me?”) with very little variation between repetitions – just a short instrumental bridge in the middle of the song. This creates the feeling of monotony, as the rain keeps falling.

The Eurythmics were named after a mime performed by Emile Jacques-Dalcrose. They had nine UK Top 10 hits and three in the US, including the #1 “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).” In 1987, Stewart married Siobhan Fahey of Bananarama. Lennox left in 1990 but the pair reunited in 1999.

In The Dave Stewart Songbook, Stewart explains that he and Lennox wrote this song when they were staying at the Mayflower Hotel in New York City. Writes Stewart: “I’d been out on 46th Street and bought an early Casio keyboard, about 20 inches long with very small keys. It was an overcast day. Annie was sitting in my room, and I was playing some little riff on the keyboard sitting on the window ledge, and I was playing these little melancholy A minor-ish chords with the B note in it. I kept on playing this riff, and Annie was looking out the window at the slate grey sky above the New York skyline and just sang spontaneously, ‘Here Comes The Rain Again.’ And that was all we needed. you see, like with a lot of our songs, you only need to start with that one line, and that one atmosphere, that one note, or that intro melody. And the rest of it was like a puzzle where we needed to just fill in the missing pieces.”

The video was shot at the Orkney islands in Scotland, where Annie Lennox is seen performing the song in and around a scuppered ship. The whole time, we see Dave Stewart recording her with a video camera, appearing to stalk her. “The videos all express an interior world going on between me and Dave — emotional tensions,” Lennox told Q magazine in 1991.

The line, “Talk to me like lovers do” shows up in the 2007 song “Taking Chances,” which Stewart wrote with Kara DioGuardi.

Here Comes The Rain Again

Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion
I want to walk in the open wind
I want to talk like lovers do
I want to dive into your ocean
Is it raining with you

So baby talk to me
Like lovers do
Walk with me
Like lovers do
Talk to me
Like lovers do

Here comes the rain again
Raining in my head like a tragedy
Tearing me apart like a new emotion
Oh
I want to breathe in the open wind
I want to kiss like lovers do
I want to dive into your ocean
Is it raining with you

So baby talk to me
Like lovers do

Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion
(Here is comes again, here it comes again)
I want to walk in the open wind
I want to talk like lovers do
I want dive into your ocean
Is it raining with you

Monkees – For Pete’s Sake

Thinking of Peter Tork who passed away Thursday at 77. This song would play over the closing credits of their TV show. Peter Tork (Peter Halsten Thorkelson) co-wrote the song with Joey Richards. “For Pete’s Sake” kicked off side two of the Monkees’ third album, 1967’s Headquarters. The song was not released as a single but the album Headquarters (the Monkees played their instruments on this one) and eventually peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100 until Sgt Pepper took over the spot.

The song has a garage band sound and lyrically it’s very 1967…and that is a good thing.

For Pete’s Sake

Love is understanding,
Don’t you know that this is true.
Love is understanding,
It’s in everything we do.

In this generation,
In this lovin’ time,
In this generation,
We will make the world shine.

We were born to love one another
This is something we all need.
We were born to love one another
We must be what we’re goin’ to be
And what we have to be is free.

In this generation,
In this lovin’ time,
In this generation,
We will make the world shine.

We were born to love one another
This is something we all need.
We were born to love one another
We must be what we’re goin’ to be
And what we have to be is free.

Love is undertanding, we gotta be free
Love is undertanding, we gotta be free
[Repeat and adlib]

The Romantics – What I Like About You

I remember this song in the 80s as a throwback to a familiar riff in many 60’s songs. The song peaked at only #49 in the Billboard 100 in 1980. The Romantics’ two Top 40 hits were “Talking In Your Sleep” (#3) and “One In A Million” (#37). Both came in 1983, from their fourth album In Heat.

The Romantics formed in East Detroit in early 1977. The original line-up consisted of singer/guitarist Wally Palmar, singer/drummer Jimmy Marinos, guitarist Mike Skill, and bassist Rich Cole. The band has said their name came from an article on Bryan Ferry in Creem magazine. They were all big fans of Ferry’s band, Roxy Music, and the word “romantic” was used throughout the article.

The group formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1977. The band’s first show was on Valentine’s Day at My Fair Lady Club, in Detroit, opening for the New MC5 in 1977.

From Songfacts

The Romantics, so named because they formed on Valentine’s Day 1977 in Detroit, have had only two US Top 40 hits – and this, now their best-known song, wasn’t one of them. It attracted little attention and was only a minor hit when first released in 1980 on their debut album, but found new life later in the decade when it became a popular choice for an advertising jingle, particularly for Budweiser beer. Since then the song has also become a fixture at sporting events, bars and nightclubs, and parties and celebrations of all kinds, and has taken its place as one of the most popular rock anthems of all time.

In another ironic twist, the licensing of this song for advertising, the very thing that sparked the song’s comeback, was apparently handled illegally. It was secured from the band’s management without the band’s knowledge or approval, which sparked a lawsuit lasting several years. Despite now having faded into obscurity, the band stayed together during this time, albeit with several lineup changes, and remain active as of 2012. >>

This song’s resurgence had a lot to do with MTV. The band made a simple performance video for the song that MTV put in rotation when they launched in 1981. It fit the criteria the network was looking for: American band, rock, catchy song, acceptable production quality. Since few American artists made videos at the time, MTV made do with lots of European imports when they started.

The Romantics, who were often compared to The Knack when this song was released, were a four-piece that split lead vocals between their guitarist Wally Palmar and drummer Jimmy Marinos, and it was Marinos who sang lead on this one.

Marinos and Palmar wrote this song with their other guitarist, Mike Skill.

The Texas singer Michael Morales took this song back to the charts in 1989 when his version hit #28 in the US. The song was also covered by 5 Seconds of Summer, who released it in 2014 on their EP She Looks So Perfect. They performed the song at the American Music Awards that year.

What I Like About You

Hey, uh huh huh
Hey, uh huh huh

What I like about you, you hold me tight
Tell me I’m the only one, wanna’ come over tonight, yea

Keep on whispering in my ear
Tell me all the things that I wanna’ to hear, ’cause that’s true (that’s what I like)
That’s what I like about you (that’s what I like)

What I like about you, you really know how to dance
When you go up, down, jump around, think about true romance, yea

Keep on whispering in my ear
Tell me all the things that I wanna’ to hear, ’cause that’s true (that’s what I like about you)
That’s what I like about you (that’s what I like about you)
That’s what I like about you (that’s what I like about you)
That’s what I like about you (that’s what I like)
Wahh!

What I like about you, you keep me warm at night
Never wanna’ let you go, know you make me feel alright, yea

Keep on whispering in my ear
Tell me all the things that I wanna’ to hear, ’cause that’s true (that’s what I like)
That’s what I like about you (that’s what I like)

That’s what I like about you (that’s what I like about you)
That’s what I like about you (that’s what I like about you)
That’s what I like about you (that’s what I like)
That’s what I like about you (that’s what I like)
That’s what I like about you (that’s what I like)
That’s what I like about you (that’s what I like about you)

Hey, uh huh huh, hey hey hey
Hey, uh huh huh, brrr
Hey, uh huh huh, hey

Ike and Tina Turner – Nutbush City Limits

Tina Turner wrote this song named after a place near where she was born. Tina’s voice is one of a kind and she is electric. Ike and Tina only had one top ten hit and that was Proud Mary. What surprises me is they had 6 top 40 songs and 20 songs in the Billboard 100. Nutbush City Limits peaked at #22 in the Billboard 100 in 1973.

Anna Mae Bullock was born November 26, 1939 in a hospital in Brownsville, a short drive from Nutbush, Tennessee where she grew up. She would eventually marry songwriter and musician Ike Wister Turner, taking the name Tina Turner. In November 1973 the duo released “Nutbush City Limits.” Far from being a city, Nutbush is a hamlet on Highway 19, Tennessee.

From Songfacts

In this song, Turner recalls her memories of Nutbush, painting a picture of a friendly little town with a strong community. She once said that she didn’t turn any heads in Nutbush, as many women there had the goods.

Marc Bolan of the ’70s British glam rock band T-Rex played guitar on this track. Bolan was a fan of Ike’s guitar playing and in his teenage years he had had a crush on Tina Turner.

Tina Turner didn’t write many songs, but she is the sole composer on this one, which was her biggest hit as a songwriter. As her career progressed, Turner did less songwriting, putting her energies into vocal arrangements and performance. As a solo artist, she surrounded herself with top talent and developed a reputation for her strong work ethic, always getting it right in the studio. She certainly could have written more songs had she chosen to.

Turner re-recorded the song as a house number in 1991 for her compilation album Simply The Best. A single release peaked at #23 in the UK. Two years later she re-worked it again for the What’s Love Got to Do with It? soundtrack album.

Bob Seger released a live version on his 1976 album Live Bullet. Released as a single, it went to #69 in the US.

Nutbush City Limits

A church house, gin house
A school house, outhouse
On highway number nineteen
The people keep the city clean
They call it Nutbush, oh Nutbush
They call it Nutbush city limits
Nutbush city

Twenty-five was the speed limit
Motorcycle not allowed in it
You go t’the store on Friday
You go to church on Sundays
They call it Nutbush, oh Nutbush
Said they call it Nutbush city limits
Nutbush city

You go to the fields on week days
And have a picnic on Labor Day
You go to town on Saturday
But go to church every Sunday
They call it Nutbush, Nutbush
They call it Nutbush city limits
Nutbush city

No whiskey for sale
You get drunk, no bail
Salt pork and molasses
Is all you get in jail
They call it Nutbush, oh, Nutbush
They call it Nutbush city limits
Nutbush city

A lil old town on the Tennessee
Quiet little old community, one-horse town
You got to watch what they’re puttin’ down
Old Nutbush. They call it Nutbush
They call it Nutbush
Oh, Nutbush. They call it Nutbush

Rare Earth – Get Ready

This song was written by Smokey Robinson. The Temptations took the song to #29 in the Billboard 100 in 1966. Rare Earth took a 3-minute version of the song edited down from 21 minutes to #4 in the Billboard 100 in 1970.

The song was on their album Get Ready that peaked at #12 in 1970. When they started to record this album they ran out of material so they recorded a 21-minute version of this song to fill up space. The album wasn’t going anywhere until the edited version of the single was released and then it took off.

From Songfacts

Rare Earth recorded an unusual version of this song that stretched over 21 minutes and took up the entire second side of their first Motown album, which was issued in the fall of 1969. This version was based on Rare Earth’s live version of the song, where every member of the band would get a solo. In 1970,

Motown released a 3-minute edit as a single, which peaked at #4 in the Billboard 100 in 1970. The song also did well on R&B stations, even though some DJs refused to play it when they found out the group wasn’t black – they were one of the first white groups signed to Motown.

This was written by Smokey Robinson, who was the main songwriter for The Temptations. In the Motown stable, The Temptations were considered the premier group, and there was a lot of competition among the songwriters to have their compositions recorded by the band. When this song underperformed on the charts, Motown chief Berry Gordy gave the next Temptations single, “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg,” to Norman Whitfield, and he became their primary writer.

Get Ready

Never met a girl could make me feel the way that you do
You’re alright
Whenever I’m asked what makes a my dreams real
I tell ’em you do
You’re outta’ sight

Well twiddley dee, twiddley dum
Look out baby ’cause here I come

I’m bringing you a love that’s true
Get ready, get ready
Start makin’ love to you
Get ready, get ready
Get ready, ’cause here I come
Get ready, ’cause here I come

You wanna’ play hide and seek with love, let me remind you
You’re alright
Lovin’ you’re gonna’ miss, and the time it takes to find you
You’re outta’ sight
Well fee fi, fo fo fum
Look out baby, ’cause here I come

I’m bringing you a love that’s true
Get ready, get ready
Start makin’ love to you
Get ready, get ready
Get ready, ’cause here I come
Get ready, ’cause here I come

Baby all my freedoms should you want me to I think i’ll understand
You’re alright
Hope I get to you before they do, ’cause that’s how I planned it
You’re outta’ sight

Well twiddley dee, twiddley dum
Look out baby ’cause here I come

I’m bringing you a love that’s true
Get ready, get ready
Start makin’ love to you
Get ready, get ready
Get ready, ’cause here I come

Beatles – Got To Get You Into My Life

This song still sounds fresh today. Got To Get You Into My Life was on Revolver released in 1966. It was not released as a single at the time. Any other band would have released it as a single.

In 1976 it was released as a single and peaked at #7 in the Billboard 100…not bad for a song that was 10 years old. It was released off of the horribly packaged compilation album Rock and Roll Music. Capital Records seemed to forget The Beatles represented the 60s, not the 50s that the album cover represented. They probably wanted to capitalize on the 50s revival that was going on at the time… Bad Choice.

I owned this album and Hey Jude Again for my first exposure to the Beatles.

There is a 5 piece horn section on this recording that sounds great. Paul McCartney has said the song was about pot…

“’Got To Get You Into My Life’ was one I wrote when I had first been introduced to pot. I’d been a rather straight working-class lad but when we started to get into pot it seemed to me to be quite uplifting. It didn’t seem to have too many side effects like alcohol or some of the other stuff, like pills, which I pretty much kept off. I kind of liked marijuana. I didn’t have a hard time with it and to me it was mind-expanding, literally mind-expanding.”

“So ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ is really a song about that, it’s not to a person, it’s actually about pot. It’s saying, ‘I’m going to do this. This is not a bad idea.’ So it’s actually an ode to pot, like someone else might write an ode to chocolate or a good claret. It wouldn’t be the first time in history someone’s done it, but in my case it was the first flush of pot.”

From Songfacts

This beatific love song is actually about marijuana. Paul McCartney cleared this up in his 1998 book Many Years From Now when he explained that it was not about a particular person, but his desire to smoke pot. “I’d been a rather straight working-class lad but when we started to get into pot it seemed to me to be quite uplifting,” he said.

There are no obvious drug references in the song, so it appears to be about a guy who is blissfully in love:

Ooh, then I suddenly see you
Ooh, did I tell you I need you
Every single day of my life

A British rock group called Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers released this song as a single around the same time it appeared on the The Beatles Revolver album. Bennett & The Rebel Rousers were an opening act for The Beatles on their European tour in early 1966; since there were no plans to release “Got To Get You Into My Life” as a single, Paul McCartney encouraged them to record it and produced the session.

Revolver appeared on August 5, 1966 and the Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers version of this song showed up on the UK chart for the first time on August 17, rising to #6 on September 21. It ended up being the biggest hit for the group, which made #9 in 1964 with “One Way Love.”

Session musicians played trumpets and sax. It was the first time horns were used in a Beatles song.

Earth, Wind & Fire recorded a funky new version for the 1978 movie Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Beatles producer George Martin was in charge of the music, and the soundtrack was a success, but the movie, which starred Peter Frampton, The Bee Gees and Aerosmith, was a huge flop. Earth, Wind & Fire’s version of this hit #9 in the US.

The first group to chart with this song was Blood, Sweat & Tears, whose horn-heavy version made #62 in the summer of 1975. The Beatles version wasn’t issued as a single until 1976, when Capitol Records issued it in America backed with “Helter Skelter.”

This version went to #7 in July that year, becoming the first Beatles song to chart in the US since 1970. Later in 1976, Capitol issued “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” which made #49.

John Lennon thought this was some of McCartney’s best work.

In the ’60s, Joe Pesci was an aspiring singer known as Joe Ritchie. He recorded a version of this that can be found on Rhino’s “Golden Throat” Series. His version merits the “Stick to Acting” award. >>

This song rarely licensed for movies or TV. The only time the Beatles rendition was used in a film is the 2015 movie Minions, where it plays under the end credits. In 2009, a version by Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs appeared in the Eddie Murphy movie Imagine That, and in 2013 Kurt Hummel and Chris Colfer sang it on the “Love, Love, Love” episode of the TV series Glee.

Got To Get You Into My Life

I was alone, I took a ride
I didn’t know what I would find there
Another road where maybe I
Could see another kind of mind there
Ooh, then I suddenly see you
Ooh, did I tell you I need you
Every single day of my life

You didn’t run, you didn’t hide
And had you gone, you knew in time
We’d meet again for I had told you
Ooh, you were meant to be near me
Ooh, and I want you to hear me
Say we’ll be together every day
Got to get you into my life

What can I do, what can I be
When I’m with you I want to stay there
If I’m true I’ll never leave
And if I do I know the way there
Ooh, then I suddenly see you
Ooh, did I tell you I need you
Every single day of my life
Got to get you into my life