Your Daily Song Fix

A little secret about Your Daily Song Fix – We don’t turn down Prince requests! Shout out to Jon Cylus for the selection.

The last song on In Rainbows, the latest from Radiohead, is a tear-jerker.  It is written from the point of view of someone who has passed along to the great blogosphere in the sky if you catch my drift.  Slow, somber, totally Thom Yorke.  In fact, Thom wanted the track to be the first on the album.  What a weirdo.  This AmpLive remix, however, puts a whole new spin on a relatively new song.  As a matter of fact, Del the Funky Homosapien undoubtedly makes hip-hop history on this track, spitting the first  rap ever recorded to reference the ever so popular Quicktime video format.  What a G.  AmpLive, faced madd legal turmoil regarding the Rainydayz remix album from which this track is from.  Big, fancy lawyers making big, fancy claims about how this album wasn’t pre-approved.  Blah, Blah Blah.  Luckily, the information superhighway patrol AmpLive acrued fought the good fight, and the album was released for free here.  Way to stick it to the man, AmpLive.

Sam Cooke began his career singing gospel, first with siblings and later as part of other various groups through the early 1950s.  In the second half of that decade, Cooke transitioned to pop music, releasing “Lovable,” his first pop single in 1956.  “Having a Party” was recorded in 1961 under his own record label after he had gained significant notoriety.  The studio version of this song features Cooke’s clear, soothing voice; something he carried over from his gospel days and a quality his fans adored him for.  The live version of the song appeared on “Live at the Harlem Square Club,” recorded in 1963, just one year before his controversial death in December, 1964.  In this live cut, a coarseness can be clearly heard in Cooke’s voice, probably as the result of time spent touring and performing live shows.  This grittier version of the song exemplifies something closer to rock and roll, and captures Sam Cooke’s true versatility as a singer and performer.

Studio version:

Live version:

Oh and look, Incubus has a cover of this song. Thanks for the hat tip, Google video! Tell the high-schoolers from 2003 about that one, but if you are looking for a foolish, feel-good flashback, the original “Let’s Get Crazy” is a good place to start. This track by Prince & The Revolution was obviously recorded at the dawn of the drum machine, but it’s still a good one to bring to an 80s party attended by people you don’t entirely hate.

Practice your two-step too, because this song will have all the wasted people in the room bouncing like a beach ball. “Shoot the jumper. Shoot it.”

“When you feel down and out, sing a song!”  It’s hard to not do just that listening to this up-beat, happy-go-lucky funk melody.  Earth, Wind & Fire is the ultimate funk-pop band.  Their hit “Sing a Song” reached #5 on the U.S. Billboard Charts in 1976 and it’s regarded as one of the band’s most popular songs.  Founded in 1969 by Maurice White, EWF has sold over 90 million albums and enjoy continued success, performing songs to this day.

Yusuf Islam, commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam.

His early 1970s albums Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat went Triple Platinum in the United States. His album Catch Bull at Four sold half a million copies in the first two weeks of release and was Billboard’s number-one LP for three consecutive weeks. He has also earned two ASCAP songwriting awards in consecutive years, for “The First Cut Is the Deepest”, which has been a hit single for four different artists.

Cat Stevens converted to Islam at the height of his fame in December, 1977, and adopted his Muslim name, Yusuf Islam, the following year. In 1979, he left his music career to devote himself to educational and philanthropic causes in the Muslim community. He has been given several awards for his work in promoting peace in the world, including 2003’s World Award, the 2004 Man for Peace Award and the 2007 Mediterranean Prize for Peace. In 2006, he returned to pop music under the name Yusuf, with his first album of new pop songs in 28 years, entitled An Other Cup. His newest album, Roadsinger, was released on May 5, 2009.

This song is about a relationship between two best friends. Stephanie and Paulette are references to characters in Grease 2. From what I have read, everyone fights over Stephanie whereas Paulette tries hard and craves approval from the other characters. I guess that says something about the friendship described in this song…

The New Pornographers are a Canadian/American indie rock group. The band has 8 members and their music is often described as power pop. Carl Newman writes most of the band’s music and shares vocal duties with Dan Bejar and the well-known Neko Case. “The Laws Have Changed” is off their second album, Electric Version. I really like the entire album and would also recommend checking out their first album, Mass Romantic, if you like this style of music.