This song is simply unreal. It starts out in a kind of 4/4 samba groove with a highly prominent cuica and a funky strummed acoustic guitar chord progression before the super-catchy pizzicato-violins riff comes in, and Abilio's mellow voice singing the melody. It's sunshiney and catchy, with a bit of a haunting aftertaste, very Brazilian. I can never hear this song enough times!! Abilio Manoel is a Sao Paulo-based singer-songwriter from the late-60s-70s (still active) who wrote a few moderate hits without attaining even a Marcos Valle level of popularity. Good for Marcos, since Abilio's work would have caused me a few sleepless nights if I were him. And both on the same label, too! Abilio's stuff is hard to find, but very worth the effort.....I've already given Dusty Groove the heads-up about the CD....

I think that it is rather telling that the first words you hear on Air's new album are "we are the synchronizers". I have owned this CD for less than 24 hours and am currently on my seventh listen...to some people, that's natural, but not to me. I have to admit, this is quite the anomaly for me in general. It's much, uh, "proggier" than their first record, a fact well-evidenced by the cover art. In fact, it's quite a bit proggier than anything else in my record collection, but I can't seem to get enough of it. I'm having a very difficult time picking a particular song to recommend, so I'm arbitrarily choosing this one. I was a bit worried that I would be disappointed by this, considering how much I love "Premier Symptomes", "Moon Safari" and the "Virgin Suicides" score, but that was not the case. Get this album, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

An outstanding version of this much covered Jobim tune by japanese singer Akiko with Corinne Drewery of Swing Out Sister providing guest vocals. Starts out light and fluffy it later gets into full gear with electric harpsicord, orchestra, percussion, saxophone and a massive background chorus all blended together wonderfully by Paul Staveley O'Duffy (who also produced all but one Swing Out Sister records).

Al Cooper is a great overlooked songwriter.His album,Easy Does It,is a double length tour de force.He wrote more than half the tunes for this double LP,and played a myriad of instruments as well!This one is my favorite right now, mainly because it mixes well with my miserable winter. Instumentally, it has a sort of"Indo-blues"quality, with sitar(played by Mr. Cooper himself) and tablas against a lilting string ensemble.It's a song of lost love and it's dreaded illumination:"...As the sun it slowly rises, there is judgement in it's glare/And it seems too much to ask, to light a face that isn't there..." A real treat of a tune, and a must for any fans of american songwriter stuff with a touch of sad humor.Also check out his sprawling version of the Big Joe Williams tune "Baby Please Don't Go" and another original,"She Gets Me Where I Live".

I heard this, weirdly enough, at some random film festival in Rotterdam? In a short film, at that! Pretentious! Luckily I remembered to memorize some lyrics so I could search for them when I got back to the USA and my computer. This song is perfect for listening to while strolling an English park, preferably with an umbrella that is subbing as your walking stick (because you're the kind of person who needs one). You're just checking out a park that you've never been to before. If you then come home and eat some yogurt for lunch...I think you know what I'm talking about here: mood.

A super cool instrumental track which for me is one of the highlights of the Italian 'Easy Tempo' series of film music compilations. A laid back funky beat drives the song forward. Strings seep in and out, twangy guitars play on. I guess if you're reading this you are getting the picture of the kind of stuff I like by now...

Hardcore song, fun and fast. Starts of fast.....continues to be fast.....ends fast. Great jump around song.

Here is a prime example of the endless amount of creativity this band had.
They take a song/ concept from a broadway musical, and transform it into an unparalelled, irresistable rock classic.
(That you will NEVER F*#%ing HEAR on a "Classic Rock Station" - They choose stale ClearChannel Playlists over quality & taste)

Alice & the band (his best lineup ever, 1969-74) have created a masterpiece of imaginative rock music here.

The sequence beginning with:
"...Midnight/ Catfight/ Neckbite/ ...Die!"
...and the following interlude leading up to the
'Street Fight' and including the 'Jets Chant'
is one of my favorite pieces of music EVER, by ANYONE.
I get chills to this day.
I wonder if Leonard Bernstein ever heard this, and what he thought.

New song that comes out on Alice's new CD, "Who I Am" June 13. You can hear it on www.myspace.com/alicepeacock - song sounds like it came out of Carole King's "Tapestry" album...nuff said.

I'm not just going for the 'most unfashionable song selection' award - this is a great song despite everything. As well as immediately winning me over by being about finding your own secret beach somewhere warm it also manages to be humourous ('...I'm intruiged - I'm insured...') and it's so seductively sung you can't help but be won over. More than that the song's rhythym drives forward at the chorus like a wave, and the overall effect is of being taken to the hidden shore on a rollercoaster.

Wow, I thought I was the only person alive who remembered them. A girl Cynthia I knew raved about them, and I saw them several times, once opening for Janis Joplin at the Village Theater. "Midnight Circus" was the highlight of the sets I remember, lots of swirling Farfisa organ (I seem to remember a very atractive girl playing it), and a very carchy chorus - of which I only remember "It's a Midnight circus"... I don't know if the song was ever recorded, either as part of a set or demo, but it was that good it should bew noted....

This album was long overdue on its release. It was recorded by Alzo in 1972 while signed to Bell Records. The album was recently released in Japan Arista/BMG. Produced by Bob Dorough, (Multiplication Rock) the music possesses a jazzy folk feel with a great deal of brazilian soul. Alzo's story is just as impressive as his music....

Folk? Soul? Pop? Rock? I don't know, I just know I REALLY like it. The sole album by this mysterious duo (Alzo's got a solo album too) is the very definition of groovy. This song, like the rest of the record, is hard to describe, but let's just imagine a funkier version of the 60s Bee Gees crossed with, I don't know, Donovan? No, maybe the Rascals crossed with Jose Feliciano and Joe Bataan is closer to it. It totally works, especially when they get to the falsetto chorus of "Everybody feel iiiiit......come on and clap your hands!" People, find this record: it will improve your life!

A breezy popsong, produced by Anita Kerr... a grrrrrrrreat slice of uptempo sunshine pop...a tune that makes you feel good... isn't that what music is all about ???

funky, jazzy, hypnotic...

The exquisite standout of the Virus Meadow album and easily And Also the Trees's best song from its early years, "Gone�Like the Swallows" steers away from the sometimes frenetic vocal intensity found elsewhere on the record it comes from for a more reflective but still passionate approach. Simon Jones delivers his lyric with all the deep-voiced intensity of a student of Wordsworth and Shelley reciting on the hillside to nature (which in some respects is pretty much the point of the song). But Jones isn't explicitly anti-modern � consider the mention of the aeroplane in the sky at various points � while the music is equally ancient and up-to-date in feel. Digital delay on the guitars turns them into rolling, darkly chiming flows and waves of sound, dramatically crashing behind the steady rhythm section and Jones' increasingly intense words. Bass and drums alone wrap everything up on a brief, spare note.
(AMG)

The best disco song ever... the vocals are so sultry and seductive as only a former porn star's can be... the beat is irresistable.

Normally I'd steer well clear of anything on the Acid Jazz label - the early 90's bad music debts have a long way to go to be paid off - but the presence of one of my soul idols just tipped me into buying this natty little blue vinyl 45.

Everything that made me love Etta James' Fire (see recommendation elsewhere on site) is amplified through this brilliant, brilliant song. Bettye's vocals are super-harsh, matching the song's acid sentiment and grasping rock-funk.

It's a tribute to how well this single is done that I thought it was a new vocal performace from Bettye instead of a reworked version of an old song. Bravo!

Think bouncy, 60's brit-girl classic. Makes me tingle all over with happiness. This was on the flip on a Man From UNCLE novelty, Love Ya Illya, and is actually by that queen of opulence Alma Cogan in disguise.

A smart, funny rant -- half talking, half singing. Political as any of her music, but less angry and more mocking. Very cool. Even if you don't like Ani, this one deserves a listen.



"...all the radios agree with all the tvs, and the magazines agree with all the radios and I keep hearing that same damn song everywhere I go! Maybe I should put a bucket over my head and a marshmallow in each ear, and stumble around for another dumb, numb week for another humdrum hit song to appear."

if u've ever thought that capitalism aint all it's cracked up to be...ani hears you. this is perhaps THE song about the 'music industry'. ever want to do a 'Fk the RIAA/BPI' comp? here u go. a pristinely crafted effortless sounding very personal rant on what's wrong with the way things are...and how we get by till the world is the way it SHOULD BE...

This is my favorite these days. Totally cuts into my dull recession-based lifestyle and peppers it with some yellow Nashville sunshine....

The song bounces through a hum-drum monday with the bouyant post-it note poetics of a 9 to 5 cutie... Nothing is going right today, and the song sounds like the antedote :

" ...Gotta' go to work, really gotta per-cu-late... Try to catch the fish that's jumping off your
dish-or-plate...." To "Don't ask for help... from anybody... cause they'll only turn you down-ooo...
na-na-na-na-na, ooooooooooh na-na-na-na-na, Blame it on a mondaaaaayy..... YEAH! ....

The session smokes and the players are astounding! Huge southern brass-blasts counterpoint the bouncing hoe-down groove... It must have been a hoot to play because the track clocks in at over four minutes, but you hardly notice for all the fun....Funky in a very music-city way. Almost Nancy & Lee like, with a little Free Design-like harmonic optimisim in the vocal arrangements, which Anita's well known for.

I recommend the whole record though.It plays straight through, and you play it again & again. A lost gem.

A real up-beat number for a very cerebral tune! All AK's records are full of wierd moments and odd delights, this is the one from the set that aim's to please! It starts out with the groups signature harmonies in a acapella almost swingle-like mode, and then kicks in to a hybrid pop groove from heaven, with castanets clacking away ... And the lyrics are wild ! :..." What's the difference being different when it's difference now that looks alike, you say i'm changing and i'm not so sure it's wrong..." " It's just that centerline on this highway runs up my banjo neck, and I feel somehow that it's natural to be gone..."

Written by John Hartford. A name i've seen before, but i'm not familiar with his work. I'd like to know more if anyone knows his definitive recordings!

This song is from Annie's debut self titled album. If you enjoy that new age celtic sound, this is a song that you shouldn't miss.

Annie's voice has a haunting quality about it...without sounding like every other female vocalist in her genre. Her music is definitely worth taking a second listen to.

i'm not sure if this is a cover, (most of the songs off her album 'medusa" are) but it is the most amazingly beautiful song... it's smooth, sultry, and you can definately get your business going on to it...

it's rock and roll at its absolute finest.
...and i'm aware of what an out of proportion statement that is...

hm, i wonder why this hasn't been added yet. if this isn't classic, then what is?
there are about a zillion different interpretations of this song by about a million different artists. there are compilations only with this song but by different artists. and i got two of them.
maybe it's mainstream and it's played too often but i love it nonetheless.
my favourite version is on the album "the composer of desafinado plays". of course arranged by claus ogerman. he did also the arrangement for "the wave" which is i think the best album by antonio carlos jobim. an album packed full with classics.
he made the strings sound so cool and you really get the feeling of what for a lifestyle bossa nova seems to have been those days. (as i think and hope it has been...)

The girl from Ipanema is the greatest song in this planet. I got (belive!) 320 versions of it. And wht I guess so cool is that it has been recorded in all styles of music: Jazz, blues, Reggae, Techno, Rock, Salsa... Its very nice. My favouritte version is played by the brazilian singer "GAl Costa" in album "Gal Canta Tom Jobim". Its a swinger jazz. Very nice!!!

Please... is anyone got unknow versions of this song or enjoy it as me, send me a e-mail, ok?:
[email protected]

aphex twin always touching.... this song especially. electronic excellence.

This song really seems like it should be on the soundtrack of some movie that would be a cross between Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Matrix and... I don't know, something about samurai. If you don't like electronic music, you won't like it. But one good thing about Aphex Twin is that he establishes a clear sense of movement without vocals. Most of his songs (this one included) tell a story really well.

flim is the best aphex twin song it reminds me of a thistle blowing through a playground. i'm the thistle going through monkey bars.i've heard it coming home from so many raves its the subtlest most child like song...

I just found out about this chick (self-proclaimed, okay?!). I feel like Superman having been kissed by Kryptonite . . . "In-tri-guing . . .(gasp) . . .
Must ... find ... out ... MORE ..!" Why am I so
far behind? Sorry, can't really describe it. Funky, sultry, French, (France) Gallic & Gainsbourdian as noted by one reviewer of another April March song ... Derivative is one thing, but this is inspired.

Despite couple of questionable decisions over the arrangement and mix, this is an extremely good song with an excellent lyric.

Particularly good is the harmonically-driven chorus, but there are a number of subtleties, as is evident from the opening instrumental sequence.

Why does he insist on recording his voice with so much distortion? It could almost drive you crazy...

"red lights mean you're leaving, white lights mean returning
tell me how this story ends and I'll keep these fires burning..."

Most of the soundtrack to this comedy-caper flick is pretty standard '60s soundtrack material. This track, however, is moody, top-notch crime jazz... The arrangement is chaotic but stirring with some really heavy bass-piano, wailing brass, and organ (used more as an atmospheric sound effect than to deliver any melody). Special thanks to Darrell Brogdon for playing this on his Retro Cocktail Hour.

I adore this man. A-D-O-R-E. But i seem to be quite alone in doing this outside france. And i can´t figure out why. For my money he (pardon my language)pisses all over katerine, benjamin biolay, divine comedy and louis phillipe etc. In fact the closest description of his music would be if The Divine Comedy came from france. Perhaps Arnaud is the kind of artist that you either go totally nuts about or you don´t get it all. A bit like Prefab Sprout. So, to pick any track is virtually impossible since i love nearly everything he has done but i go for "En vieillisant peut-etre" from his towering masterpiece "Portrait du jeune homme en artiste".

A week ago I was in India, the holiday of a lifetime. As well as all the tourist stuff, like temples and museums, I always make sure that I get a slice of pop culture when I'm in a foreign country. So the night tended to conclude in the hotel with a bit of Indian TV.

Watched a fair bit of MTV India which, if anything, is even heavier on ads and blatent self-promotion that its British and American equivalents. I was cheered to see that most of the music they played was in Hindi and there was a limit on the American and European bands that got airplay (seemingly, strangely, limited to The Rasmus and Britney Spears).

But MTV is only watchable for a limited amount of time. Jet lag and excitement dictates that one spends more time awake than asleep and so I got to see a few late 70's Bollywood classics, among them 'Shaan' (translation: 'Pride'). This Asha Bhosle gem is from this movie. The film itself struk me as a fairly banal James Bond rip off although, not speaking Hindi, I grant that I'll have missed the more subtle aspects of plot construction.

This song stopped me in my tracks. I knew that Bollywood was an area that I enjoyed but was in a grand state of ignorance of, and I was looking forward to rectifying this. Pyar Karne Wale takes the prize for best Donna Summer rip off EVER. Stealing its barely-adjusted backing from 'I Feel Love', Bhosle wails and moans over the top, transforming Moroder's disco classic into something that simultanously establishes common ground between Indian and European disco while evoking its more subtle differences.

Myself and boyfriend came back with what seems like every Bollywood soundtrack produced between 1972 and 1980 including, of course, Shaan. I look forward to educating myself in this genre and finding more similar gems.

Very popular Canadian pop band. You know them from Kindercore Records...home of Of Montreal, The Olivia Tremor Control, Richard Davies. This song is an orch-pop, bacharachian, stereolab ish number

More from Canada's Ashley Park Spin Magazine, Uncut, Billboard, and Magnet all rave "Beatles, Bacharach, Kinks"...This song is a jazzy take on that uber hip college sound.

The wonderful arrangement never fails to impress me whenever i listen to this Gilberto song (I always thought this was an Ogermann arrangement just to find out recently it's by Don Sebesky). Anyway, the arrangement is excellent: with its incredibly lush, glissanding strings it feels like you're just about to leave a 60s jet set lounge to enter your private plane on a sunny summer day that takes off to Rio. Well, that's how it sounds to me anyway...

Oh, my... I know that she gets played to death, and has her lion's share of recommendations on these pages, but I have to mention this one.

For an artist considered sexy in any context this really takes it high. The track just makes you wanna light the candles, pour the cava, burn the buddah, and get freaky-sticky all over the couch! I mean come on! A total love down... Reminds me of the best stuff from the Moments/Sylvia Robinson camp... Smooth smooth soul. And with one of the most sultry voices in recorded history, it's just insane.

This unique song, unique to the whole body of work by the obscure Asylum Party, unique in every sense... If anybody ever wanted to create the sound of pure nostalgia in itself, this is the closest anyone ever got. I wonder what other people feel when listening to this song. I get utterly and hopelessly nostalgic, even though I don't know what for. It's not that I'm particularly old and know many times and eras, it's not that I have to dig particularly deep into my memory to get to that one dark part that's so irrevocably gone it makes one's heart ache and break. I don't know what it reminds me of, if of anything at all. It seems to be simply the soundtrack of some good times, times much better than the one you're stuck in right now, the soundtrack of reverie and the painful awareness that nothing will be the same again. I sometimes think it reminds me of beautiful summers I've known, the heat and sun that burnt my eyes, but then it seems just as fitting for a summer night at an open fire or an autumn window blurred with falling rain. The initial beats sound as if they could lead to anything, they even sound deceptively cheerful until the first melancholic screech of a guitar... "Feeling that hole that is just my soul..." Yeah, that must be it!

Melodic chaos...quite enjoyable

this is a great mellow funky jazz Hungarian styled piece in the vain of Gabor Szabo...has a great drum beat with superb jazz guitar interplay by Atilla...well worth tracking down

This Neo-Swing Song from the American Pie soundtrack. Kinda blues, kinda rock... Pretty cool. And John Bunkley's voice!! Wow it's really something. This song cheers me up a lot.

Interesting Beatles related Exploitation Record with a nice Cover!
The Sound is much similar to the Original Beatles from Liverpool!

Go to http://www.easylounge.org to see the cover and look for other interesting Records! (Organ Sounds, Easy Listening, Funky Big Band Beats, Cheesy Listening.....a lot of them with sound samples!)

Travelling music if there every was any. No matter the vehicle, you roll with this in the deck and it's just nice. Guitar in overdrive, Echo effect in full effect, vocals... hey we've been there. The lone guitar note break is the bomb if you are playing air guitar.

Not a particularly well-known song which was originally a B side and not on any of their original albums, it's actually particularly musically advanced for the time. A pity that George Martin didn't get them to do a few extra takes of the vocals, as the difficult harmony signing which starts the song sounds...difficult. The song, which deserves to be more talked about, contains interest and variety in its melody, rhythm, harmony and arrangement. In its way this is truly a masterpiece.

In a stupid pop mood tonight, egged on by seeing the recent McFly recommendation. The sun finally came out over South Yorkshire today too, which is probably what's making me think of this enthusiastic pop-reggae workout. I really click with this, despite the OTT misogynistic lyrics, Beenie Man's homophobia and the general rubbishness of most of his back catalogue (that which I've heard, anyway).

Ms. Thing doesn't really do much to shut Beenie and his sexist mouth up, but at least Shawnna has a but more life to her which is why I'm recommending this remix with her rap on.

The video's cute too, especially where Beenie, Thing, Shawnna and various cronies do a ridiculous trot-dance at the end.

Beautiful, uplifting synth-crossed acoustic sound with their typical hint of sinister mood lingering throughout. Streaming trumpet, whirling keyboard and delicate vocals singing of a hit and miss existence. "Take a walk in the park, take a valium pill/Read the letter you got from the memory girl/But it takes more than this to make sense of the day/Yeah it takes more than milk to get rid of the taste." This and "Electronic Renaissance" are my two favorites by this group, and incidentally stand apart in sound from everything else they've created. Do your ears a favor and hear it...

i once met these guys at a festival. we discussed belle & sebastian and they went 'let stuart sing his songs and kick the looper-man out of the group as well as that gentle waves-chick' i don't remember my reply... legal man is a perfect example of belle & sebastian as a group i think. the fact that i like sitar and the tempo makes me like it even more.

Belle and Sebastian are great. This particul song is light and summery and will make you feel like you are laying in the grass on a warm, breezy summer day.

"your diary's looking like a bible with it's verses lost in time..."

This song is one of the best songs I have ever heard...actually the whole album is great! Its Ben and his keys and a background orchestra in this song. Anyways, I believe the song is about how he knows he is the luckiest because he knows how perfect him and his wife belong together.

"as political a song as I got" - says Ben Folds.
a quieter bouncy jazzy song where Ben sings to his son about how fucked up the world is. they point and laugh at the ignorance and consumption of most of the world. two verses and a solo or two, a short song comes together for his EP, Sunny 16. here's hoping he'll revisit it and flesh it out with another verse for the promised album...

"But Mama said 'boy, if I ever catch you here again, you ain't never gonna have nobody else, not a woman or a man...'"

no one can resist the poppy sounds of the beautiful Ben Kweller.

This song opens with the great line: "I don't stand a chance in this fucked up world..."

A short and sweet orchestral piece featuring harpsichord and some sort of mallet instrument (is that just a vibraphone???). It has sort of a subdued Burt Bacharach sound especially in the harpsichord. I'm noticing that many of my recommendations feature harpsichord... Strange.

Bessie Smith - here is a real woman, not an Allie McBeal stick-insect, but the type of woman that makes you want to throw back your head and howl like a Coyote. Bessie vibrates in places that most women don't even have places, and every man who hears her is transfixed.
She doesn't need to use any siren-like feminine wiles. This is the kind of woman who makes you feel glad to be alive. Mae West eat your heart out!

From the driving introductory rhythm to when Bessie bellows "If I call three times a day,
Come and drive my blues away,
When you come, be ready to play,
Do your duty" you know exactly where you are.

So sit back and close your eyes, grab the oxygen and slip back to late 1933 ................

Had it been released under different circumstances, this song might have been one of the enduring soft-rock classics of the early 70s. It's got a catchy, haunting melody and one can easily imagine it charting alongside Bread or Seals And Crofts or whoever.

Best Of Friends were essentially the East Coast-based songwriting/guitar duo of Bing Bingham and Joe Knowlton. I'm not sure how, but Eumir Deodato and legendary bossa nova producer Roberto Quartin took a shine to them and recorded this album for Brazilian release on Quartin's eponymous experimental label of the early 70s. The album even features Dom Um Romao on drums. It's actually a straight-forward pop-rock album of its era, with little to no Brazilian overtones. This same duo would later make an album on RCA as "Joe And Bing."

This title track was also covered by Astrud Gilberto on her 1972 "Now" LP, arranged by (coincidence?) Mr. Deodato himself....

This is a beautiful cover of the song by the Ronettes, sung ever so sweetly by Beth Orton. She is accompanied by an acoustic guitar. It's very simple and beautiful. The song mourns a lost love, a feeling with which I think we can all identify. "I wish I never saw the sunshine...because then maybe...I wouldn't mind the rain"

one of my favourite ultra pop records from the sixties female vocal era.........harmless

This is Billie Holiday at her absolute best, or worst, depending on your point of view. I personally consider it her best. She sings this song with a feeling of absolute devotion and love. With only months to live, Billie Holiday made her final recording for MGM records in March 1959. Years of abuse thru drugs and bad relationships had left both her voice and body only shadows of their former selves. However, what she no longer retained vocally, she more than made up for emotionally. Her battered voice and life experience allowed for the feelings to shine thru in a way that she couldn't have possessed in her younger years and for this reason, I fall into the group that prefers her latter recordings over the earlier ones. I am the happy owner of a 10-cd boxset of her complete recordings for the Verve and MGM labels which includes outtakes and incomplete tracks recorded between 1945 and 1959. It's one of the few things I will grab if I have to evacuate my apartment in an emergency...

"Strange fruit hanging/from the poplar tree"...one of the most haunting songs ever written. Holiday recorded this song about a lynching several times throughout her career, but this original version features a performance so intense that it is impossible to beat.

This album has been called "Britain's answer to 'Pet Sounds'", and while I wouldn't necessarily agree with that, it is certainly a masterpiece of psychedelic pop, and even more impressive when you factor in that Nicholls was barely 19 when he wrote & recorded it. Nicholls was indeed influenced by Brian Wilson in his melodic construction and orchestration, however...the album's sound is very reminiscent of the pseudo-Spector work that Andrew Loog Oldham was using with Del Shannon at this period (Oldham, not so coincidentally, also produced this LP). This song in particular, with it's intricate multi-tracked harmonies really hints at the kind of promise Nicholls' career had, and had this album not been shelved at the last minute, it's anybody's guess what may have followed.

Birgit Lystager is incredible, a Danish cross between Astrud Gilberto and Karen Carpenter with really artily written and composed pop songs. It's hard to choose just one tune from this magnificent and scarce album, but I'm often unable to get that "Eyes and hair and legs, oh what a sight/She's a flash of light in darkest night...." chorus out of my head for days at a time. To the above two chanteuses I might also add a dash of Joni Mitchell because of the conversational lyrics and melodic savoir-faire (maybe I should also mention Francoise Hardy right about here as well!). The arrangement is lush and expansive with more than a hint of Bacharach (whose "Another Night" is covered spectacularly on the same album). All this is already more than enough, but lovely Birgit also opted to go the extra mile and pose stark naked on the gatefold LP cover, tastefully exhibiting her considerable assets. (Heh heh, he said "assets.") In any event, this song, and the album it comes from, would be completely brilliant no matter what she looked like. Extremely hard to find, but WELL worth the search. I recommend Soulseek.....

the intro to this song is on a kazoo. the rest is guitar and awesome lyrics.. "i'll make a shoehorn out of your shin" ... my only complaint is that this song is too short

Another one that came to mind just now, was a great orchestrated ballad from the Scandinavian group Blond (former members of The Tages). Fanstastic piece of work...
Once again... goes crescendo and explodes in the climax ... wow indeed

Just compleatly filled with strong emotion and absolute dominating power...

Profound lyrics...You can just feel his disgust with the government.

When it seems like The Free Design finally have got the attention they so well deserve, I would like to recommend something that is very close in my opinion... Bobby and I! 5:09 fits in perfectly between Love so fine (Roger Nichols & The Small Circle Of Friends) and 2002-A Hit Song (The Free Design). The arrangment is incredible, there's a unique singer-singer magnetism on the top and the drums and bass makes me wanna dance the days away. Jim Gordon play drums (how many records has he done?) and the bass player, Rod Ellicott, is brilliant. Of course they added the song with string, horns & flutes... It's sunshine all over! I don't know anything about them, I only have this fine record, so if you know anything feel free to send me an email.

I saw this record at a local shop and based upon the up-scale credits (Don Sebesky, Joe Cain, etc.), I picked it up. And Boom! I instantly had the swinginest version of sixteen tons ever recorded! As you can imagine, Don S. puts his magical twist on things, hot on the heels of his A&M/CTI work (The intro for this track sounds just like "Going to Detroit", from the Wes Montgomery album "Down Here on the Ground"), and full of swanky harpsichords and snappy drum beats. Bobby has a very Jack Jones-y sound, super pop, but with that saccharine smarm of an uptown lounge pianist... Great stuff!

This simple song has a kind of wan beauty and a lovely piano and strings backing. The relationship lyric is a good one which seems an ideal foil to Hal David's "Why do birds..." from "(They long to be) Close to you".

WOW! We all know how much the brazillians love Burt, well, this is a fine example of how well he was interpreted by the south.



They keep the original arrangement but spice it up a bit with snappy side-stick beat and pumped-up organ stabs ala' Wanderley.The singers are (I believe) Gracinha Leporace & Pery Ribeiro,and they harmonize beautifully as Manfredo Fest rythmically taps his organ paired with piano in a sumptuous unison.They carry the song along in gradually ascending stages of bliss,until they drop away only to build "Do-you -know-the-ways"in an rounded refrain to finsh it off...Absolutely gorgeous! Produced by Sergio Mendes in his imitable style!!!Also check out their version of "Up, Up, And Away", from the same LP.

I hearty Punk rock romp through heart break....Sing along if you want.

Kind of like a drole walk through rainy streets in Europe somewhere. Light, jangley echoy guitar reminds me of Ocean Blue, The Smiths and more but in a more mello mood. No one seems to know who Brandi Ifrgray is... he sang for Shadowplay before releasing two very cool CD's "Le Mutant" and "Stargazer".

brilliant number from the sixties god brian auger assisted by female wonder vocalist julie driscoll can be found on her best of cd title below......
julie driscoll and the brian auger trinity

Picture yourself in a boat on a river.

Actually, in this case it happens to be the middle of the ocean. Just drifting any direction. No land in sight, nothing else on the water, not even any clouds. No distractions. Just you, the boat, and the water.

Oh, and Julie -- she's there -- with her open blouse, gazing up into the empty sky.

What's so powerful about Eno's "Julie With..." (and this is perhaps representative of his entire career) is that he gives you an experience in perfect detail, as if reading a book.

Even if you discount the lyrics, which, although not exactly Shakespearian, are clear and unambiguous, there is no escaping the image that Eno is presenting.

Casting aside any overanalysis, what we're left with is an outstanding bit of relaxing, but emotionally evocative chillout music. Completely beatles, the instrumentation is typical Eno: pad synthesizers, minimoog and guitar with heavy chorus. Not something you'd throw on at an afterparty, but great for a sunset in solitude.

Fantatic Serge Gainsbourg penned lounge track.... A welcome break from Brigette's more bubblygummy tracks (B-side to the hilorious Harley Davidson single, complete with SFX)

Ever wonder what a collaboration between Young Marble Giants and Tuxedomoon in, say 1981, might have sounded like? Well, now you know....
Stark bass lines, antediluvian drum machines, and lilting, little-girl-lost vocals collide with welters of noise and lyrics full of images straight out of David Cronenberg's "Scanners".
Gorgeous, grisly and grim - a great track from what might be the record of the year.

It makes me think of being a kid in my hometown...again, the music itself doesn't really have anything 'great' about it...it's more the message and the feeling that the song gives me than anything specific about the song...I guess it's a memory association thing.

This track is simply outstanding, a showcase for Nicolai as well as for Edda Dell'Orso. It's insane how this is put together: funky rhythm section with drums, bass and acoustic guitar, loads of brass throughout, reverb-laden plucked strings interchange with sweeping, floating strings and an incredible vocal performance by Edda Dell'Orso. Hard to describe how magically this is woven together...

Another amazing version of this fantastic tune. This features several very different-sounding multitracked guitars, and really is quite astounding. It feels very short at a little under 2 and a half minutes. The opening features an acoustic guitar playing a wonderfully delicate and precise rhythm, accompanied by a nice wall of strings and electric guitar hits. A twangy picked guitar plays the melody, building gradually for about a minute.

The track then explodes into a quite amazing sequence, in which a dirty-sounding fuzz guitar picks out a bassline while a manic and jazzy improvised guitar solo moves around over the top and the strings maintain some solid bluesey chords. The sound is extremely funky, and vaguely reminiscent of some tracks from the late 60s 101 strings album 'Astro Sounds from beyond the year 2000', but ends up being more tasteful. Pure genius!

perfect hangover listening. just as the piercing headache eases off and the sadness and self-loathing set in, " I'm gonna leave out Babylon, gonna make the change"...

A bouncy, delightful instrumental. Those who are in their late 40s/early 50s will recognize the song as the theme from the old ABC Movie of the Week TV series. Bacaharach did it twice, first on a mono 45, then re-recorded on a stereo album. Both versions are now available on CD... the mono on the great 3 CD Box Set "The Look Of Love", and the stereo re-make on the new "What The World Needs Now" CD.

What a great song! Burt's a heavy hitter on these pages, as you can tell I'm sure. There is something magical when he sings, maybe it's because he seems to humble the incredible songs he writes, or that he works with the best singers to walk the earth. Here is Burt at his best, in a spare setting with a strolling rhythm and paced piano chords, almost like he's singing to you across a smoky piano bar. The song conveys a simple truth, and almost makes it seem like a gospel, that nature continues unabated despite human trials and tribulations... How true.

A hard LP to get your hands on it seems. But worth the wait!

I'm beginning to sound like and old record, because it seems I'm repeating myself in commenting on songs... but this another recommendation. If you have read other comments on my fave songs, I guess you'll know what to expect. A strrrrrrrrong melody, backed by a great orchestration. Butterscotch only made album and a couple of 45s. Take it from a devoted popfan... this is one hell of a tune !

If ever there was an excuse to learn to speak French, this is it. Mesmerisizng guitar work, the back beat is so.....right. Just what the hell are they talking about?

I spun this once on a friend's college radio show, and he said he had never heard a song with the bass mixed so heavily...honestly, the needle was so deep in the red we thought the Eisenhower-era console was going to explode. Once you get past that, you find yourself listening to an absolutely storming early reggae instrumental, with a beautiful slow, loping groove and a horn chart very reminiscent of a Stax session from around the same time. I met Lester Sterling in 1995 and talked to him about this song, he told me that he'd been trying to remember how it went for twenty years! Making me even prouder, the next time that the Skatalites came through town, they played it. The original Byron Lee LP that it appeared on has terrific naked lady cover art, to boot!

This is my favorite song...

A great cut with that classic Axelrod sound. Also included are compositions by Joe Zawinul and Lalo Schifrin. Check it out...

I'll probably tire of it fairly quickly, but I enjoy this. It fuses something that is very nearly Prefab Sprout with two other influences from the singles charts of the late 80s and early 90s...I haven't quite focussed on what those are yet. The lyric is clever...just a little.

Cardiacs have been described as: fairground music; punk rock; prog rock; beautiful; frightening; deadly serious; total euphoria; ugly; sexy; avant-garde; pop genius; totally genuine; disturbing; uplifting... All I can say is this song has one of the maddest guitar solos I have ever heard!

Carlo coup� es un nov�simo compositor espa�ol que cuenta en su haber con 3 discos repletos de un estilo exquisito y sibarita, recreando ambientes selectos llenos de largos cigarrillos, trajes de corte impoluto y vestidos op art, acompa�ado por supuesto por el toque m�gico de su hammond.
la canci�n que presento pertenece a su �ltimo disco, en el que pinta toques m�s funk y numerosos gui�os de ye ye espa�ol. pero lo m�s divertido es que el disco parece ser la soundtrack de una pel�cula italo-espa�ola de 1965 "mis balas llevan tu nombre" de la cual no se encuentra ninguna copia. cada cancion va precedida de un track con dialogo de tal pel�cula. todo ello es tan real que seguro caeras en la trampa de su mentira... o no? get it!!!!!!!!!!!

When my sister and I were small, this album was the one we listened to most commonly for naps, after a lunch of something like chili, fritos and "green" kool aid. It's the most solid album the Carpenters ever did by some distance, and Richard actually wrote two of the best songs, "goodbye to love" and this one. It blends well into the follow-up, "road ode". Other standouts include the title track by Leon Russell, "it's going to take some time" by Carole King, and "i won't last a day without you", another golden Carpenters interpretation of Roger Nichols/Paul Williams. I would love to hear this song performed by Astronaut Wife. See "konsu" for that link...

Song: Crying On A Suitcase
Genre: Country
Year: 2012
Album: Casey James

Crying On A Suitcase is the second Track of the Casey James Self Title Debut Album.
It's a very Beautiful Song... i loved it.
Listen it... i'm sure Country Music Lovers will sure love it...

Does anyone NOT like this song?!! A great nostalgic feel and that glorious voice... A perfect moment in music history!

Driving and discordant, bittersweet, sad. This song is the most beautiful thing I've heard this week. In the mixtape of my head this comes right before Johnny Cash's "Don't bring your guns to town." A song you should listen to after you watch the evening news tonight... (released free as part of the protest records project: http://www.protest-records.com/ which is somehow associated with sonic youth.)

I think this is my favorite version of 'Miserlou'. A really scintillating one, backed by Edmundo Ros's band, with a lot of bongos and an extra little 'Ba Ba Ba' rhythm added in. I believe the US pressing of this superb LP is called 'Fire and Frenzy', but my copy, oddly, is Brazilian, bought in Holland, so I'm entering the title as it was on the record. To me, the album is quite the best thing I have by either Caterina or Edmundo, and I'm quite a Caterina fan, so that's saying something.....

Cathy Dennis' music is predominantly rubbish. As UK residents know, she is now the writer behind much of the teeny crap that fills the top 40 singles chart every week. But When Dreams Turn to Dust shines like a beacon amongst a fog of blandness. I bought the single for 50 pence from a charity shop in 2000. I thought I'd paid too much. I was wrong.

I was out of work at the time and looking for a job. Dennis' masterpiece is the sound of those crazy job-search days - there was a good two week period when I listened to this song continually. Hard times economically - even tougher times on the turntable...

The song has a king of warped Beatles/Byrds quality. And an amazing minor chord chorus. To top it all, she shifts the whole chorus up an octave in the final eight or so bars and kills the listener with a repetitive and insistent refrain.

Convinced by its majesty, I then bought one of her dance albums from a car boot sale for �1. Never has money been so well intentionally spent and inevitably wasted.

Powerful vocals... the verses have a strange and different tune- they sound almost like Celine's making it up as she goes along, but in a good way. Even if this isn't her most heartfelt song, it is very good and fun to listen to.

An amazing trippy piece of social commentary, from their genius concept LP. The opening track, and it goes all over the place with this completely mad arrangement by Chad Stuart, and produced by Gary Usher (of "Pet Sounds" fame). The track seems to pertain to mortality, and the sad truth of time and the forgotten... It sets the tone for the whole album, which seems inspired by atmosphere of the time, when singles were exchanged for huge concept pieces, more likely due to the success of "Sgt. Peppers" and the like, but taking a much more delightfully cynical view! A sometimes overlooked part of the britpop puzzle, Chad and Jeremy are full of surprises.

I almost know nothing about the Chad Mitchell trio, except that John Denver was in the group. I'm not even sure that this is the same guy for that matter. I guess it's really not too suprising that an old folkie would team-up with geniuses like Bob Dorough & Stu Scharf for a little boot in the ass, since those guys seemed to be working a lot of crossover pop material. That's really the reason I picked this up, basically to see what could happen.

The record ends up being incredible actually. Imagine a mix of "golden throat" type schmaltz, Tom Rapp-ish hip folk, Nilssonesque melodrama, and the poetic and jazzy humor of Scharf & Dorough and that will sum it up. It can grow on you for sure.

This track is in the sort of word jazz thing in a highly characterized way hard to describe without taking up too much space... just listen. I think this was a piece from an Alan Arkin LP. Suppose I will have to get one of those now.

"Easy fantastic, lonely together.." - I have listened to this song at least 100 times since receiving it on Audiogalaxy. Simple yet beautiful. I never knew Mos Def had such a pleasant and sexy voice! I am in heaven when he sings "I just go walking in the rain ... when I feel you passing by..." The back drop is provided by the talented contemporary 8 string jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter (once a member of Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprosy).

This is an utterly lovely song with synthesized strings and organ (and a real oboe) which actually made the Top Ten on the east side of the pond, the side where more people have "musical taste" it would seem. The bowed strings back much of the song, while the plucked strings and the oboe make some nice fills between vocal lines. And the line "I sat on the roof", out of context, sounds exactly like the identical line in Elton John's "Your Song", although that one continues "and kicked out the moss" while this one continues "and watched the day go by" ...

A song with style, with passion, with character, that's Wicked Game... Don't miss the chance to listen to it... -a.

If anyone could improve this Classics IV ditty, it's the adorable Mr. Montez!

Although the arrangement doesn't change much, (it didn't need to) Nick De Caro did add some nice little "effects" that really set the mood. Like a cool bit of "spooky" delay/filter effecting after the refrain...nice.

Montez's voice just seems to add to the story of the song. Like a guy like him could get spooked by a chick more than your average dude... he's sensitive.

Great Grusin-like organ solo too... That just nails it for me!

nice one! i discovered chris montez lately and i like what he has done.
this song is a cover of astrud gilbertos song from the album "beach samba" (which i didn't recognize until reading it at allmusic.com) and begins with a nice organ-melody as an intro. i especially like the sound of that organ, it's a very sweet and not to heavy one. so that it fits perfect into the mood of this song and giving it a little more sweetness.
as always chris montez sings like a woman and if one doesn't know this it wouldn't be necessarily clear to one. (correct english....?)
while searching for chris montez stuff i came across "the more i see you" performed by montez which was covered last year by a onehitwonderband here in germany and you couldn't escape to hear it at least twice a day no matter where you were leaving and going. the cover was very strict arranged along montez' version. i wonder how i would think of the montez original if this onehitwonder band wouldn't have done this cruelty?!
anyway, last years summer was great anyway...(sex every day...)
and now, you go and listen to that montez guy!!

'We won't do anything that shouldn't be done, only the groovy things like having fun'...& there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, in my book.

This is the title track to Chris Montez's third album with A&M, produced by Herb Alpert & it's very, very sweet, but, for some reason not sickly so. That's the magic of mid-'sixties Chris Montez.

This song was almost a hit in Britain. It was released just as the pirate radio stations were about to be banned. It was 'Record Of The Week' on Radio London the week it was shut down and sadly never grabbed it's deserved foothold after that.

A lot of people are taken aback by how high Chris's voice was when he sang, but once you get over that, his music from the A&M era (1966-8) is strangely addictive. Very warm and melodic.

He did mostly cover songs, mostly 'hits of the day', but also generous helpings of classics from the 1940's & '50's. Always giving them a brand new very mid-'sixties treatment.

actually, this is a german advertising-song from 1973. i wonder how advertising was in those days, since this track lasts 2:56min.
found on popshopping, a compilation with old funky german advertising-songs issued by the lable crippled hot dick wax, where you can find many of those obscure old recordings. for example shake sauvage. a compilation with old french film soundtracks. great catchy tunes in there, too!
anyway, christian bruhn is rather known here in germany. he wrote a lot of hits and a great soundtrack for the 70s/80s cartoon/anime series captain future.
this one is funky and catchy, with female "aaaaah" singings and great brass hits (which i like more and more....)

Thought I might see if I can type in some Christmas favorites...

This is the Pogues song, sung by Christy Moore, the great Irish balladeer, folk singer and all round good bloke.

There's a studio version on his 'Smoke and Strong Whiskey LP'. The LPs great, but the version of 'A Fairy Tale' is not half as good as the live version from (I think) Live at the Point.

Christy's shows at the time were just him and an acoustic guitar. It was still a cracking show. He's now accompanied by another acoustic guitar (hey - lets rock!! :) ).

Anyhow he seems to get a big sound out of just guitar and voice.

Coming to the point...

This version is just Christy and his guitar. It preceded by a long story about how he 'stumbled into a fairy ring and bejasus I couldnt get out'. He's eventually helped out by a stranger who takes him by the hand and takes him to a pub. They sing each other songs and tell each poems. Then the stranger starts to sing 'It was Christmas Eve, babe...' .... and you know the rest. It finshes with Christy kissing the stanger on the lips and declaring Shane MacGowan 'I love you baby too'

Other Christmas songs:
Cajun Christmas
Il est Ne le Devine Enfant - Siouxsie and the Banshees
All I really want for Christmas - Ini Kamoze (maybe?)
Christmas Lullaby - Shane MacGowan
White Christmas - The Drifters

great song. because it starts off in a relaxed easy listening mood, the big paul mccartney chorus caught me completely offguard on first listen. Hasn�t left my playlist since...the demo version is superb, too.

What a depressing yet beautiful song... I was thinking of recommending this when I first heard it, but today it fits my mood better and I feel compelled to do so. Bertrand Burgalat's production mixes modern beats and bleepy sound with strings, alongside Cinnamon's old-school tuneful indie guitar pop with a female vocalist. God, this song is depressing; did I say that yet? But it's one of those depressing songs that's actually glorious to hear, accompanied as it is by beautiful, rousing music. The vocal is rather tender; as if she's sympathetic about what a fuckup the listener is.

Those uplifting lyrics in full (actually, there's more, but I'll spare you):
"when you were young/you had the sun in your eyes/the grass was greener/the days were sweeter/in the next life/you know where you came from, but there's no sparkle in your eyes/you're gonna die/and there's nothing in between to shout about'.

Why would you want to listen to something like that? I'm not sure, but I have it on repeat play today; check it out!

Citizen Cope has such a great voice, very soulfull. Salvation is a slow, stark, haunting song.

"But I just kept playing like I had nothing to lose, he turned the third on himself because the bastard knew...salvation..."

This is surely one of the most powerful, windswept songs ever, relying on the synths (and the lyrics) to create a strong aura of desolation. The verses have minimal backing but it all comes pouring in when the choruses arrive. Not too far off "Black Celebration" era Depeche Mode, which is by far my favourite LP by that band ...

I had to mention my favorite Claudine tune. A nice cinematic piece about an enigmatic lover with "Laughing eyes & dark brown hair..." who sweeps her off her feet, then splits with her dough when he goes to buy a ring. The track is touched by the deep-blue sax of Ernie Watts, which gives the track a "Noir-ish" vibe. Look of Love is one of the best records she did in her short career. Arranged by the genius Nick DeCaro, the godfather of A.O.R. !

Really cheering to find so many other Longet recommendations on the site. This festive gift seems only to be available on the Japanese "Best of" but repays handsomely the effort in seeking it out. Highly melodic and atmospheric it begs you to curl up in front of a real fire with a loved one in a cottage miles from anywhere...

Claudine recorded a number of Margo Guryan songs which are all impossibly fey, seductive and bewitching and I couldn't get through a week without them. (BTW I would also recommend all of the tracks (not one duffer) on Margo Guryan's album Take a Picture)

Beetles and eggs and blues and pour a little everything else...

great upbeat coldplay song....

Terrific pop from former Zombies singer...

maravillosa recopilaci�n alemana que con frase ir�nica por t�tulo nos presenta una veintena de canciones de diversa musicalidad.
en �l encontramos desde el funky mas setenta a cargo de Heinz Kiessling (petra), el sonido hammond y groove del siempre increible Jack Arel (following you), la diversi�n er�tica m�s lounge de Uschi Moser (love, jet t'aime, l'amour y sunny honey) o el beat ritmico de Gerhard Heinz (look at me), junto con otros temas que recuerdan al pop, la psicodelia, etc...
en conjunto, un disco para pedir ya, con el fantastico libreto repleto de fotos de las peliculas mencionandas que tampoco tiene desperdicio.

This Australian popsong was recorded at the same time by two performers: solo singer Craig Scott and Toomorrow (which included Olivia Newton-John). I like both versions, but the Scott version has that extra bit that makes it better than the group sound. Delightful slice of orchestrated feel-good pop. It must be said that the Australians as well as the French, were the uncrowned kings of cover versions of songs, but from time to time they produced originals ... not too many, but some like this one. Great uplifting, positive song...

I just like the deep voice, the song gets old fast, but it's fun while it lasts...

Great Lost Punk Single #3

Going all heavy on your arses now...as you might guess from the title this is a serious agit-prop single, but with a great, catchy punk tune. I guess it you like 'Holidays in Cambodia', you'll like this.

Dunno if its available on CD or not to be honest.

Could this be the most self-aware song ever written? 'I'm the world's most opinionated man,' sings sweet-voiced David Crosby in a tone of utter resignation. Bear in mind he'd already dealt with fame, failure, bereavement, heroin, booze and yachting by this point. It's a very stripped-down arrangement, with even CSN's trademark harmony kept to a minimum. And Crosby's rueful laugh towards the end is a real killer. Should I die soon, stop by my funeral and you'll hear this song... From a very underrated album, recorded after that toerag Neil Young had come and gone.

I'm not usually into DJ's and "stuff like that", but DJ Cybo stole my heart. this was one of my faves from her infinite resume of mood altering sounds..... xoxo

http://www.djcybo.com/Music.html

A great Christmas song - it starts with a kids choir (of course...) then about a minute in the band and Cyndi kick in with a very vaguely reggae influenced song. Its a great Christmas LP - I think this is my favorite song on it

You have to love the 40 second 80's metal band guitar solo... In short it is Zen, then to kick that same riff back at your ears as a Midi composed symphonic tribute shows the ecletic taste that is Daft-licious...

Bob Marley's most talented son. Reggae with an edge.

"...been there, done that my main squeeze
is natural, simply natural..."

"And those who had money looked good but weren�t too happy
And those who didn�t have money didn�t look so good and weren�t so happy either
And in a city of 3 million, 269 thousand, 984, everyone was lonely..."

Man! You really have to get up early in the morning to find tracks like this. LA big band funk, banks of brass, electric bass throbbing away, and the hard hitting Jimmy Gordon on drums! But the best part is the vocals, done it a way that makes it sound like an Odeon recording from late 60's Brazil!... Stunning. The rest of the LP is no slouch either though, and reminds me a lot of Quincy's late 60's work and the Project 3 era Enoch Light stuff.

Highly recommended to lounge DJ's and fans of mod rarities.

A pretty 1965 pop song by Danny Hutton a few years before he got big as a member of Three Dog Night, the group which had a long string of hits beginning in 1969. There's a bit too much of that tinkling thing which I thought wasn't so prominent when I heard it on the radio, but maybe I'm wrong ...

But the best thing about the song in my opinion is the drum track! It's probably one of the L.A. session men, but whoever it is puts on an absolute clinic! Best bits: the one at the end of verse two, before the first bridge, which seems to tie up the song to that point in a nice bow, and the one before the second bridge which reminds me of the drums in Tommy Roe's hit 1962 "Sheila".

"Roses and Rainbows" is the first track on the double-CD Three Dog Night best-of.

Well, the song was written for the Spider-man 2 soundtrack...but it's such an excellent song...

Let it be known that I HATE covers... I like originals, but there is the odd exception and this is one of them. Amen Corner had a hit version with the song, but when you hear the 1969 Dave Clark Five version you will immediately forget the Amen Corner one. DC5 started out as a beat group and I don't like 1963-1966 beat. But like many groups they tried to survive in the music business and adapted to the new "sound" of the decade. They gave this song the late 60s treatment the way it should have sounded in the first place. Dramatic, musicall over-produced and full of power. If you like a strong orchestrated poptune, this is one of them. DC5 deserved the hit... not the Amen Corner.

The film "Candy" was recently released on DVD, and as soon as I saw it, I had to get the soundtrack. The reason is this track, which plays over the final scene in the movie. There are great elements of late-60s film music all over the place here...sitars, wordless vocals, terrific rock breakbeats, you name it. A fantastic song, and one that I can listen to several times through, in spite of it's five-minute length (I usually have the attention span of a meth-addled fruit fly).

great acoustic guitar, haunting lyrics... One of the best from this band

Super organ led (Herbie Hancock no less) Swinging jazz dance number... Buy the album, if only for this track and the Brilliant cover!

An instrumental of monumental brilliance. Mixing religious moods with tight beats and strings really seems to work for me. The track opens quietly with piano chords and a bass guitar. A slow, funky drum beat comes in, and after this the track goes on all kinds of journeys, building up and down with doomy strings and psychedelic guitars. A really incredible way to set a mood...

A nasty/under appreciated gem from David Bowie's Berlin period, "Beauty and The Beast" is sheer perfection/pure malice in musical form. Ominous squibs of sound coalesce around an almost crocodilian groove and Robert Fripp's hissing, poisonous guitar line. Then Bowie makes one his most memorable vocal entrances with a sound somewhere between a croon and a scream. Things just get nastier from there - David playing the hipster, killer android on the lead vocal, while the backgrounds get all down and dirty on chorus. Then, as if he's suddenly come his senses after committing some atrocious act, Bowie howls over the break: "I want you to believe me!/I wanted to be good!/I wanted no distractions!/Like every good boy should!" - before sliding back into the sociopathic sleekness of the last verse. The genius of the tune is that it suggests all manner of violence/bad shit without actually describing any act of mayhem. Therefore the imagination runs riot. A brilliant/evil track.

Okay, I know this is kind of a well known, outplayed song...still, it is a classic...and so much fun to listen to.

"We live for just these twenty years to have to die for the fifty more..."

THE perfect popsong ? Not sure, but it comes close to it. The tune has that typical late 60s "sound". Bombastically orchestrated in the "Barry Ryan style"... it's a melodrama with lots of
catchy hooks... IF you can find it, you will love it ... I usually rate a song not higher than
8/10, but this one... well, what can I say... 11/10 !!!

Sorry folks, I am not a real David Essex fan, but this guy could sure record a great orchestrated popsong... it has all the right stuff (for me that is). The drive, the energy,
the passion and a thumping orchestration, cracking like a whip on the melody...

The man, the mullet, the myth: Davey Heckenschneck! Can't give a snippet here because it's the only song i can think of that has to be heard in it's entirety to vaguely grasp what's been achieved on all conceivable levels. This song is so beyond words, all i can say it's...well, errm... particularly good! But many others have tried, see for yourself: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000070S1/ref=cm_cr_dp_2_1/104-6418425-3463150?v=glance&s=music&vi=customer-reviews

Interesting early composition/production work from Axelrod. Vaguely calypso-inspired orchestral pop with a very prominent piccolo and what sounds like a French horn solo...I think that I hear a glockenspiel in there, as well. All layered over trademark Axelrod drums and a cool walking bassline.

This song - like the whole Secrets of the Beehive album - leaves me breathless... awash with gentle melody, so atmospheric and dripping with beauty.
Acoustic guitars roll on a painted lanscape; subltle fingers tug at long-forgotten memories...

"Sunlight falls, my wings open wide..."

Indeed, the kind of song that could make you fly!

The deep and catchy voice again...plus kinda cool lyrics...check it out. The beat is a bit more of a dark and repetative type sound, really the vocals in this are what the song is all about. Plan to have them get old really fast though as they do repeat the same thing over and over many times.

Great slow screamo song about, well... Look at the title, you can probably guess.

Dionne's lil' sister, in contrast to her sibling's restrained niceties, proves what a gorgeous, wholesome howl she has in a track voluminous with vehemence and the hope of joy hereafter. Warwick travels effortlessly between poles of frustration and hope over the underdone orchestration (a compliment: if the backing was as heartfelt as Dee Dee we'd be wading into Celine Dion territory).

And, in the age of Eamon and his bleep-a-ramas, it's deeply satisfying to hear a word such as "damn" being expressed as if it were the nastiest expletive possible.

Novelty pop from two American sisters of Italian origin. About their teachers telling them off after a visit to the zoo (?!). Their portrayal of authority figures is very like that in Charlie Brown - "wha wha wha whaaa....".

One of the most underrated mood tracks of the era. An uptempo urgent drumbeat hits manic guitar riff - Crack That Whip! And you're away....

DeVotchKa are kind of hard to describe... but I'll try... think: Morrissey meets Julio Iglesias meets Henry Mancini meets Jobim...

I was happily surprised to hear their music when I went to see the film 'Little Miss Sunshine' this past weekend.

Am amazing song ... 14 minutes of pure passion. I think Kevin Rowland is one of the few singers of the past few decades who has real soul. The man MEANS IT and this song just makes my soul soar. The way it starts off with the dialogue, and the accapala singing, and then how the band just kicks in at the same moment, and your heartbeat just rises, and keeps on rising as Kevin just takes the songer higher and higher ... and sevem minutes in, just when you think it's going to finally finish, it changes completely and runs on for another seven minutes. I always feel exhasted after the song has ended ... it's such an emotional rush.

I don't know much about the French duo Di Maggio, but this is a great track. I guess this sounds a lot like that other French duo, Air, but with a more pronounced Morricone influence. Very nice regardless...

A truly heartbreaking/hair-raising reading of the Timi Yuro classic.
Just Diamanda's spacey/ghostly piano and that apocalyptic voice, recorded live.
The lady sounds like a lovelorn Banshee, wandering some abandoned, seaside amusement pier...in the rain...in the middle of January...at 2 a.m.
Astonishing....

I couldn't possibly say that this is the best version of the old MacLen chestnut (there are simply too many of them out there for me to ever hear them all), but it probably qualifies as one of the most original. Hyman's virtuoso keyboard skills were already quite reknowned, but on this album he tackled an entirely different animal...the harpsichord. On this track, he starts out using the harpsichord in a very conventional fashion, performing a baroque solo. About two-thirds of the way into the song, however, comes a drastic slowing of the tempo, the bass & drums come in and it mutates into a jazz trio arrangement! He even plays solos on the 'chord that make it sound like a Hammond organ...absolutely amazing!! Much of this album is rather difficult to listen to, but when it's good, it's sublime.

Is it just me or are the original compositions on Command LPs almost always the best and most adventurous? Here is one my all-time favorite Command recordings. A far-out, moogy masterpiece by Hyman. It's about 8 minutes long, not nearly as pop as the rest of the record, and totally brilliant. According to the liner notes, Kolumbo was improvised on the Moog and the Maestro Rhythmaster, "a mechanical drum device," fed through a Echoplex-tape reverberation unit. Improvised Moog? Is that possible? This is very strange stuff. From the liner notes: "[...] there is an effect of a battery of African drummers following an improvised soloist. The listener can provide his own scenario of what seems to be a musical battle, as a second soloist abruptly materializes, challenging the first man. At the end, the original soloist states a brief epilogue, packs up his horn, and splits."

A heavenly pop vocal track, one of the last tracks ever recorded by Dino, Desi and Billy. The production (by Stu Phillips, who did the Hollyridge Strings and some cool soundtracks) is dreamy and soft, perfectly matching the idealized lyrics (the world seems so wonderful...etc).

"I should have known it from the very start
This girl would leave me with a broken heart
Now listen people, what I'm telling you
keep away from Runaround Sue


I miss her lips and the smile on her face
touch of her hands and this girls warm embrace
so if you don't wanna cry like I do
keep away from Runaround Sue"


Half sad, half funky. A very groovy Doo Wop - track with a funny melody that makes it hard to believe that the guy is really blue...

This song is a song everyone should hear. Beginning with African drum beats and chants, it has a tribal feel to it. Really cool, upbeat...great to listen to while driving. Check out the live version too.

"I think you could answer all the questions of the world in just one word..."

An outrageously ambitious number by a 24-year old - an opening awash with horns, before a ridiculous set of lyrics in which Neil goes up in a big wheel with his girl, only to meet God at the top of the revolution, whereupon he tries to argue with him. Neil is on sparkling form, crying with disgust

and the couple in the car above
well I suppose they think that we're in love

Before continuing (his eye must ache with all this winking)...

Then without warning, as we approach the top
The wheel that turns us all comes to a sudden stop

This song also has the greatest cliffhanger ending in rock. Go and listen - you'd be crazy not to. THe rest of this album is brilliant too.

If you're into hardcore rap from the clubs you are gonna love it. Very commercial. Nice mixes and dirty lyrics.

The chorus is petty catchy: Y'all gon' make me lose my mind up in HERE, up in here...

The beat... unbeliaveble flow. Smooth, different style from other rap songs/artists

This is a song by a one-man band, the DMX Krew. He's from England, and he uses only recording equipment and instruments that predate 1985. As you might guess, this guy has an affinity for a trademark 80s synth sound...but this song somewhat deviates from his normal style.
This song is fast, catchy as all get out, and features some of the most striking robot vocals I've ever heard in a song. There's a catchy guitar riff throughout, with a jet distortion sound that makes you feel like you're on an airplane, with a driving electronic beat under it that will make you want to move your head about. This song is just utterly fantastic. I work in a record store and have reccommended it to many people, and I've yet to meet a person who already knew this song...or that didn't instantly LOVE this song. I've gotten hoards of people hooked on this band.

It's an absolutely over-the-top hard soul dance tune. I first heard it on a soul compilation and recently, against all odds, I found the 45! Really cool mid paced groove with amazing guitar sound.

OK, OK, OK........I know that many of you hipster types out there are probably wincing at this recommendation, but...deal with it. I'm sure that most people are all too aware of this track, and probably avoid it at all cost, but in my humble opinion, this is one of the best pop radio songs ever recorded. I think I heard it first when I was about 12 or 13 while on summer break from school. I was immediately drawn to the eerie, repetitious, heavy delayed intro guitar line. Granted, it has some cheezy lyrics, and a fairly melodramatic tone overall, but this song will forever hold a special place in my heart....awe.

One of the few succesful attempts at using a gospel choir on a jazz recording (along with Max Roach's "It's Time" LP from the previous year...which, coincidentally, featured the same chorus), Byrd's "A New Perspective" album was the first time it was really attempted with a small group setting (Roach's was backed by an orchestra). This, the opening track, begins with a vocalese scat by the choir that calls to mind old slave work songs. From there, the incredible band (featuring a very young Herbie Hancock and Kenny Burrell, among others) strikes up, and begins to follow a basic riff with the chorus that takes you through the remaining nine-plus minutes with various tempo changes throughout. An equally impressive edited version appeared as a b-side to the single of "Cristo Redentor", which got to be a minor hit on the pop charts.

The perfect slice of disco...everything is right, the wild bassline, pounding beat, streaking violins and the re-requisit amount of donna 'ahh's' and 'ohhs'....what more can you ask you!

I've got 5 or 6 Dot Ashby albums, and this is by far my favorite song of hers.

It's breathtaking, no mistake. The bass and drums are steeped in funk, yet keep it mellow. A flute (?) section keeps it nice and light. Its all held together by 'Dorothy's harp' her playing is perfect, sprwaling rich deep soundscapes.

I can't emphisise how perfect this song is. If you've hard any version of 'Windmills...' I'm sure you can imagine a harp suitung it well.

I belive Cadet have recently reissued the 3 albums Ashby did with them (Afro Harping, The Rubiayat of Dorothy Ashby, and Dorothy's Harp), but they can still be hard to get hold of. An excellent quality copy from an original LP can be found on Dusty Fingers Vol.1, also on vynil.

I'm not sure if this is available on CD.

this is possibly the first Motown-influenced Doves number i've heard -- and it's fucken brill, with the right dose of thumping beaty-ness, atmospherics and excellent lyrics. as it is, i suspect that "Some Cities", the band's new album will be on my list of Top 10 Records of the year... but this track totally knocked my socks off, and is now slated to be a mixtape favourite too. :-)

Cosmopolitan Disco with a warm orchestration igniting the perfect melody, Cory Daye's vocal performance can't go wrong. Dr. Buzzard's music is unlike any other music with the battered "Disco" tag. As with most of their discography, this is highly recommended! Also try "The Gigolo and I" and "Transistor Madness-Future DJ" from their wrongly criticized "Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band Meets King Pennett" album.

It's a shame not everyone can be into this type of music, because this is really one of the best, most incredible songs I've ever heard in my entire life! It's good for all the right reasons...everything about the music is amazing, from lyrics, guitar, bass to drum and all the cool instruments they've used.

This song is REALLY long (about 10 minutes I think!) so it's a real musical odyssey and worth listening to. It's one of those great works of art that needs all your attention because it won't let your mind stay idle while you're listening to it. The guitar riffs are so breath-taking and the big instrumental break halfway through the song makes it outstanding.

This song is a little more....soulful.. than lots of the stuff I listen to. I find it utterly charming though. Dusty was a goddess, and singing this lovely, simple Goffin/King song she completely slays me. It's a slow arrangement in which Dusty is accompanied by piano, light, gospel-style backing vocals and unobtrusive strings. There's nothing complex or especially clever here; just beautifully executed and perfectly distilled pop.

Just wonderful. The CD reissue for this album is Philips 846 049-2 if you're interested in hearing the rest of this album. The song is truly Dusty with the husky vocals and the quiet but wanting tone. Bacharach comes through clear and strong with his interludes. The whole thing is as I said, just wonderful...

The chords are unbelievable... I've never heard such as good as this with as many fancy chord changes going on... It's a wonderful song to sing.. Hard to beat Dusty though