Tommy Toma performed a tremendous service for all us music lovers. Go to YouTube, punch in the title of your favorite pop-rock tune, and the odds are good that one of "Toma's Timeless Tunes" will surface. Or, if you want to browse, just key in "Toma's Timeless Tunes" and his entire catalog will come up. He even ranks his tunes. Some of the accompanying music videos are of the artists themselves; others are not.
Aside from Tommy's collections, I've been amazed at the number of songs/music videos available on YouTube. Here are some of my favorites.
The Snake by Al Wilson. A hit for Al in 1968. On the surface, this song is about a woman who rescues a poisonous snake from the cold and certain death. Aside from heavy sexual overtones, there's a powerful message embedded within the song:
Now she clutched him to her bosom, "You're so beautiful," she cried
"But if I hadn't brought you in by now you might have died"
Now she stroked his pretty skin and then she kissed and held him tight
But instead of saying thanks, that snake gave her a vicious bite
"Take me in, oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in oh tender woman," sighed the snake
"I saved you," cried that woman
"And you've bit me even, why?
You know your bite is poisonous and now I'm going to die"
"Oh shut up, silly woman," said the reptile with a grin
"You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in."
Moral: You can't change some person's or thing's basic nature; they are what they are and they will behave accordingly. If you assume otherwise, don't be surprised if you must pay the price.
All She Wants To Do Is Dance by Don Henley. A fabulous song about someone who wants to have fun and enjoy herself, oblivious to the fact that the world around her is crumbling, or more appropriately, exploding. The video is great. Mary Frances and I have a particular fondness for this song. In 1996, we flew into Flores, Guatemala, from Belize City. As we touched down, we turned to each other, nodded our heads, and simultaneously said, "Uh-huh. All She Wants To Do Is Dance!"
by Dexys Midnight Runners, featuring the tempermental Kevin Rowland. This was a monster #1 hit in 1982, undoubtedly helped by this "street urchin" video. Note that drummer Seb Shelton is not in the final scene. Urban legend has it that Rowland fired him before the video was finished because he did not adhere to Rowland's orders that the band members were not to bathe or shave during the filming. [Note added on 11 April 2008: Seb says that this really is "urban legend". He's not in the final scene because he and Rowland argued about the latter's directing, and Shelton decided to go home for the day. He did not leave the band until a year later.] The cover version by Save Ferris is also great, with a Rowland look-alike playing the tow-truck driver. The lead singer, Monique Powell, is quite a bit better-looking than Rowland. Come On Eileen
Here Comes My Baby, by the Tremeloes, is an amazing tune written by Cat Stevens (his best ever). I love this version; it was a pick hit by 'Mountain Man' Charlie Dent in 1967 on WCWM-FM. Interesting item about the Tremeloes: they and the Beatles were auditioned by Decca Records on the same day in 1962. Decca signed them and let the Beatles go (see quote at the bottom). The cover by The Mavericks (you have to view an ad), almost 30 years after the original, is also noteworthy, mainly for the video. Great go-go dancers. What's interesting about each of these versions, especially the one by the Tremeloes, is that despite the sad subject, the music is upbeat and it sounds as though people are having a party. Here's Cat singing his own composition. Quite different from the two covers.
Jive Talkin' (here is the original) by the Bee Gees. I've always liked the Bee Gees, harking back to the days when they crooned ballads (New York Mining Disaster 1941; Massachusetts, etc.). This song is significant because it's their comeback tune, a musical transition from lugubrious ballads to a "hipper", more rhythmic sound (they had moved to Miami by then). It was originally called Drive Talkin', and the "sound" represented the sounds of a car's tires crossing the Biscayne Bridge. Great bass licks from Maurice on the original. On the video Robin doesn't seem to be doing much of anything. Then came disco - but we won't talk about that.
Eres Tu ("You Are") by the Spanish (Basque, actually - better believe there's a difference!) group Mocedades. It was released in 1973 after winning second prize in the Eurovision Song Contest. It's one of the most beautiful pop songs I've ever heard. Amaya Uranga's singing defines the word "haunting". I missed this song when it first came out. When I heard the song on the radio in a taxi in Panama City, Panama, I made the driver stop and tell me what it was. Some claim that this was plagiarized from a 1966 song, Brez Besed ("Without Words") by Slovenian singer Berta Ambroz. You be the judge.
Black is Black, by another Spanish group, Los Bravos, though with a German lead singer, Mike Kogel. The tune was written by two Brits, Tony Hayes and Steve Wadey. Great beat and fabulous intro, though the 1960s Top 40 jocks drove me nuts by talking over it, as was the custom then.
Beach Baby by First Class. This is one of those songs that will lodge in your head for a few weeks (or years) - my wife Mary Frances loathes it (and she's from SoCal). If the lead singer sounds familiar, that's because he is Tony Burrows, who has been the lead vocalist for several British studio groups - White Plains (My Baby Loves Lovin'); Edison Lighthouse (Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes, or as we'd say on the air, Love Grows When My Rosemary Blows); The Pipkins (Gimme Dat Ding); Brotherhood of Man (United We Stand). When Brian Wilson heard Beach Baby he supposedly thought it was a SoCal group. When he discovered it was a bunch of Brits, he returned to therapy, where he remained for 20 more years.
And who could forget Cyndi Lauper's wonderful feminist anthem (or tribute to frivolity?) and video, Girls Just Want To Have Fun. Written from a male point of view by Robert Hazard, Lauper changed the lyrics slightly and the rest is music history. Lauper, a big wrestling fan, had wrestling star Captain Lou Albano play her father in the video.
If you sit still whenever the Gibson Brothers' Cuba is playing, you're comatose or worse. This one really moves; it's salsa meets disco. I love to play it while in the MR2 with the top down. One of my all-time favorites. By the way, the brothers are natives of Martinique and are currently based in France. I love Cuba almost as much as....
Feelin' Alright by Joe Cocker. My all-time best record. If I could have just one song while marooned in space, it would be this one. The only version worth listening to. Cocker's band really cooks on this one. Love the piano.
Remember the great Yellow River by Christie? Here is the version by the Tremeloes. Jeff Christie originally wrote it for the Tremeloes, but they decided not to release it. The version by Christie is actually the Tremeloes on the instruments and doing the backing vocals with Jeff singing lead. This song was released in 1970 during the height of the Vietnam War and became a big favorite with the troops.
Something a little darker - Barry McGuire's Eve of Destruction. The video has been updated with more current events.When I hear this song, I think: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
Here are The Byrds with their cover of Bob Dylan's My Back Pages. Yeah, we spent hours ruminating on the song's meaning - a fruitless exercise for a Dylan song, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.
This next song shows how far we've come (or how low we've sunk, depending upon your viewpoint) since 1965. Manfred Mann did this version of Dylan's If You Gotta Go, Go Now that was banned on many USA radio stations because of the "suggestive" lyrics. I was a young jock on WCWM-FM and we risked the wrath of the Program Director (or worse) if we played it (but we did anyway). Just catch these lyrics:
Now I don't want to make you give
Anything you never gave before
It's just that I'll be sleeping soon
It'll be too dark for you to find the door
Pretty hot, right?
Now listen to Fairport Convention's French version Si Tu Dois Partir.
I once did a "Dirty Dozen" show. Maybe I should post those.
Wipe Out by the Fat Boys and the Beach Boyz. Now the Surfaris' original. Ron Wilson's drum solo set the standard for garage bands all over the world. What can I say?
Since I am a graduate of the College of William and Mary, the list would be incomplete without Steely Dan's fabulous My Old School and its "Oh, no! William and Mary won't do!" But there is speculation that they are not referring to W&M but to Bard College in Annandale, NY, Donald Fagen's alma mater. Bard is supposedly called "The William and Mary of the North."
And yes, I do like ABBA. Here's a "political" video of their blockbuster,Waterloo.
Here is some more great music.
All for now.
"We don't like their sound; groups with guitars are on the way out." -- A Decca Records executive, referring to The Beatles (1962)
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