swingin' sunday seven
A Sunday Seven - why not? Some tunes to enjoy the day by, the one I feel is best suited for music listening.
After the success of Purple Rain, record industry weasels flocked to Prince’s hometown of Minneapolis, hoping to find musicians and songwriters who could deliver that funky Roland TR-808-based sound the Purple One garnered hits with. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were at the right place at the right time - they had just been fired from The Time, a band Prince had put together. They quickly delivered, producing and writing songs for the SOS Band, the Human League and Cherrelle, who scored a top ten R&B hit with I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On. Palmer had asked Jam & Lewis for a song, they gave him the Cherrelle tune (I've included the video below), which he interpreted very nicely. It’s from the Riptide album, where it was overshadowed by the supermegamonster hit, Addicted to Love.
Robert Palmer: I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On
Cherrelle: I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On
Blanchmange were one of the plethora of Synthpop bands on the 80s music scene. The duo of vocalist Neil Arthur and keyboardist Stephen Luscombe landed the #7 spot on the UK singles chart with the exotic-sounding Living On The Ceiling. However, their success was short lived and they split up in 1987. They recently reformed - you can read all about it at their MySpace page.
Blanchmange: Living On The Ceiling
No matter what your opinion of mashups, through Girl Talk, Gregg Gillis creates legitimate art, all the dizzying amount of samples turn into one cohesive piece of work. Here's a link that lists all that were used: Mechanical Turk Meets Girl Talk's Feed the Animals.
Girl Talk: Here’s The Thing
The Human League are yet another 80s Synthpop band, they hit big with Don't You Want Me, which sold over 1,400,000 copies sold worldwide. They had much record company pressure to recreate those sales, to their credit they tried branching out with more of a R&B sound. Fascination channels a Motown groove, albeit through an ARP Odyssey.
The Human League: Fascination
During the 60s, Small Faces vocalist, Steve Marriott, was pretty much considered the best singer of the UK rock scene. If his manager had been able to overcome contractual disagreements with a then-forming Led Zeppelin and their management, they would have chosen him instead of Robert Plant as their singer. Too bad, it's scary to think how good they would've been.
Small Faces: Lazy Sunday
In 1982, for all intent and purpose, the Jackson 5 were pretty much done. Though they had another album and world tour in 1984, it was the year Michael unleashed the Moonwalk on Motown’s 25th anniversary television special, which sent his solo career in motion. The writing was on the wall for his siblings - branch out, diversify or spend the rest of your life giving interviews of what it was like to work with Michael. Unfortunately, it was the latter for all but Janet (Marlon Jackson stocks shelves at a Vons supermarket in San Diego), but it wasn’t from a lack of effort. Props to Jermaine for stretching out that year and bringing in Devo to help him record this track. It’s not a bad tune at all and it’s worth the price of admission alone to hear Devo grunt out a white bread version of the Soul music call, "Good god" during the bridge. Check it out - Jermaine gets devolved!
Jermaine Jackson & Devo: Let Me Tickle Your Fancy
I've attended literally thousands of music shows and the best live performance I've ever witnessed was by The Average White Band. They came on stage and just killed it from the first note to the very last, the crowd was floating from the music. I've never heard a tighter group, and I've attended James Brown shows during his heyday, they were just amazing. Pick Up The Pieces reached the #1 spot on the US charts in 1975, despite their popularity, the group disbanded in 1982. Afterward, Paul McCartney was smart enough to grab guitarist/vocalist Hamish Stuart and drummer Steve Ferrone spent time with Duran Duran before joining Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
The Average White Band: Pick Up The Pieces
Seven songs for Sunday - enjoy while you can, cause soon enough it'll be time to rejoin the Rat Race, already in progress.