Which one is your favorite? - XXI -

This week we go back to the 50s and try to find the best covers of a Screamin' Jay Hawkins song that was written in 1956 and was selected as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. It is also ranked No. 313 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Here is the song for this week;

"I Put A Spell On You"

Hawkins had originally intended to record "I Put a Spell on You" as "a refined love song, a blues ballad". However, the producer (Arnold Maxin) "brought in ribs and chicken and got everybody drunk, and we came out with this weird version ... I don't even remember making the record. Before, I was just a normal blues singer. I was just Jay Hawkins. It all sort of just fell in place. I found out I could do more destroying a song and screaming it to death." as he said in an interview...

Hawkins first recorded "I Put a Spell on You" as a ballad during his stint with Grand Records in late 1955. However, that version was not released at the time (it has since been reissued on Hawkins' UK Rev-Ola CD The Whamee 1953–55). The following year, Hawkins re-recorded the song for Columbia's Okeh Records – the notorious screaming version, which was released in October 1956. However, this version was banned from most radio programming for its outrageous 'cannibalistic' style. A truncated version was later released omitting the grunts and moans from the ending of the song, but the ban generally remained. Despite the restriction, the record still sold over a million copies.

And just for this week I have 11 versions for you; I am telling you, you have some homework to do :)

• Nina Simone - "I Put A Spell On You"

• Bryan Ferry - "I Put A Spell On You"

• Natacha Atlas- "I Put a Spell On You"

• IZA - "I Put a Spell On You"

• Annie Lennox - "I Put A Spell On You"

• Diamanda Galas - "I Put A Spell On You"

• Nick Cave & The Cavemen - "I Put A Spell On You"

• Chaka Khan - "I Put A Spell On You"

• Creedence Clearwater Revival - "I Put A Spell On You"

• Jeff Beck & Joss Stone - "I Put a Spell On You"

• She and Him - "I Put a Spell on You"

Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).

nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers.

Five Songs for the Weekend - LXI -

It is the awards season in music and movies and as always I am trying to stay away from the mainstream but I am happy that Brad Mehldau won a Grammy this year in the Jazz Instrumental Album category. If you haven't listened to "Finding Gabriel", give it a try...

As Bob Marley once said;

"One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain."

And here's this week's list;

• Rodrigo y Gabriela - "Echoes"

• John Zorn, Sofia Rei - "Besos de Sangre"

• Meena Cryle - "It Makes Me Scream"

• David Bowie - "Starman"

• Pat Metheny with Charlie Haden - "Cinema Paradiso"

Hope you have a great weekend.

nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.

Which one is your favorite? - XX -

How about we take a journey to the second half of the 60s and remember the Motown sound? This week we have a song from The Supremes recorded as a single in 1966. Written and produced by Motown production team Holland–Dozier–Holland, the song topped the United States Billboard pop singles chart, made the UK top five, and made the top 10 in the Australian Singles Chart.

Here is the song for this week;

"You Can't Hurry Love"

It was based on a gospel song entitled "You Can't Hurry God," which was sung by Dorothy Love Coates and the Gospel Harmonettes, a gospel group based in Birmingham, Alabama. 

The song, a memory of a mother's words of encouragement ("My mama said 'you can't hurry love/No you just have to wait' ") telling her daughter that with patience she will find that special someone one day, is an example of the strong influence of gospel music present in much of R&B and soul music.

The recorded version of "You Can't Hurry Love" showcases the developing sound of The Supremes, who were progressing from their earlier teen-pop into more mature themes and musical arrangements. This song and "You Keep Me Hangin' On" were finished together; when it came time to choose which single would be issued first, Motown's Quality Control department chose "You Can't Hurry Love."

Sixteen years later, it would become a number-one hit in the UK when Phil Collins re-recorded the song. It reached number one on the UK Singles Chart for two weeks beginning in January 1983[2] and reached number 10 on the US Singles Chart that same month.

And here are the 3 versions I picked for you;

• Phil Collins - "You Can't Hurry Love"

• Youn Sun Nah -  "You Can't Hurry Love"

• Jordin Sparks - "You Can't Hurry Love "

Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).

nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers.

Five Songs for the Weekend - LX -

Here I am with the 60th post of the "Five Songs for the Weekend". I hope you are enjoying the songs that I have been choosing for you. Please keep on listening and fill yourselves with music to be able to bear up with the times we are in...

As Confucius once said;

"If one should desire to know whether a 
kingdom is well governed, 
if its morals are good or bad, 
the quality of its music will furnish the answer."

And here's this week's list;

• First Aid Kit - "My Silver Lining"

• Mando Diao - "Gloria"

• Michelle Gurevich - "Woman is Still a Woman"

• Professor Longhair - "Big Chief"

• Joan Jett & Paul Westerberg - "Let's Do It"

Hope you have a great weekend.

nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.

RIP: Jimmy Heath

James Heath, nicknamed "Little Bird" passed away on January 19th at the age of 93. He was the brother of Percy Heath and Albert Heath.

He was a visionary jazz saxophonist, composer and a bandleader. He played alongside with great jazzmen including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Dorham, Art Farmer and Milt Jackon.

Saxophonist, composer and arranger Jimmy Heath.

Lonnie Timmons III/Getty Images

He also thought at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College.

Let's salute his contributions to the jazz world that lasted over 70 years.

Jimmy Heath feat. by WDR BIG BAND - "Bruh Slim"

Which one is your favorite? - XIX -

I noticed that I haven't chosen a proper rock song recently in the "Which one is your favorite?" posts. So here is a great song from the 70s by the great Led Zeppelin. It is the opening track on the band's second album, Led Zeppelin II, and was released in the United States, several countries in Europe, and Japan as a single.

Here is the song for this week;

"Whole Lotta Love"

Jimmy Page came up with the guitar riff for "Whole Lotta Love" in the summer of 1968, on his houseboat on the River Thames at Pangbourne, England.

Robert Plant's lyrics are based on a 1962 Muddy Waters song written by Willie Dixon called "You Need Love". The band reached an agreement with Dixon, who used the settlement money to set up a program providing instruments for schools.

The massive drum sound was the foundation of this track, so Jimmy Page recorded it in the big room at Olympic Studios in London, which had 28-foot ceilings. One of the engineers, George Chkiantz, got the sound by putting the drums on a platform and setting up microphones in unusual places: a stereo boom eight feet above the kit, two distant side microphones, and a AKG D30 placed two feet from the bass drum. "For the song to work as this panoramic audio experience, I needed Bonzo to really stand out, so that every stick stroke sounded clear and you could really feel them," Page said in the Wall Street Journal. "If the drums were recorded just right, we could lay in everything else."

Jimmy Page served as Led Zeppelin's producer, and on this song, he let loose in the studio, using all kinds of innovative techniques, particularly in the free form section about 1:20 in, which was the result of him and engineer Eddie Kramer "twiddling every knob known to man." This part is often referred to as "the freakout."

One of the more intriguing sections of this song comes at the 4-minute mark, where the distant voice of Robert Plant sings each line ("Way down inside... woman... you need... love") before his full-throated vocal comes in. This is known as "backward echo," and one of the first uses of the technique, but it happened by accident: A different take of Plant's vocal bled over to his master vocal track, so when Page and engineer Eddie Kramer mixed the song, they couldn't get rid of it. They did what most creative professionals do with a mistake: they accentuated it to make it sound intentional, adding reverb to it so Plant sounded like he was foreshadowing his lines from afar.

In 2004, the song was ranked number 75 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and in March 2005, Q magazine placed "Whole Lotta Love" at number three in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. It was placed 11 on a similar list by Rolling Stone. In 2009 it was named the third greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1. In 2014, listeners to BBC Radio 2 voted "Whole Lotta Love" as containing the greatest guitar riff of all time.

I suggest you first listen to the original before the below covers as it is really a great song which sounds way beyond its time...

And here are the 3 versions I picked for you;

• Nguyên Lê - "Whole Lotta Love"

• Hozier - "Whole Lotta Love"

• Mary J. Blige - "Whole Lotta Love"

Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).

nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers..

Five Songs for the Weekend - LIX -

I've been watching the TV series "Killing Eve" for some time now and I think it is an interesting show with lots of great music to discover too. So I have decided to put two song from the soundtrack in this week's list. Hope you like them and do try to watch the series, you won't be disappointed...

As Johnny Depp said;

"Music touches us emotionally, where words alone can’t."

Here we go with the list;

• Unloved - "Cry Baby Cry"

• Agnes Obel - "The Curse"

• Anouar Brahem - "The Astounding Eyes Of Rita"

• Brigitte Bardot - "Contact"

• Kollectiv Turmstrasse - "Sorry I Am Late"

Hope you have a great weekend.

nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.

RIP Neil Peart

He was truly one of the greatest drummers of all time. Everyone knows what a master of percussion he was, but at the same time he was the songwriting brain of Rush...

Neil Peart passed away on January 7th 2020 and he will be always be remembered...

Which one is your favorite? - XVIII -

Here comes a song from my younger days. I clearly remember the day I bought the album in LP format maybe a year later than it was released (unfortunately that was the case during those years, well maybe it was better I don't know...).
There were songs on that album far more popular than this song but it was always my favorite; even probably in my top 3 songs list of the band.

Here is the song for this week;

"Close To Me"

It is a song by the English band "The Cure" which was released in 1985 as the second and final single from their sixth album, The Head on the Door.

Three versions of "Close to Me" were released in 1985: the original album version, the 7" single mix version and the 12" extended mix version. The album version does not feature the brass section part present on all of the other versions, which was adapted from a traditional New Orleans funeral march melody and played by horn section Rent Party for the single mix.

The 7" version also includes a long creaking sound of a door closing at the beginning: this originated from the music video shot for the song by director Tim Pope, which features the band trapped in a wardrobe falling off a cliff into the English Channel. The idea for the video came from a dream Robert Smith had where he was locked in a linen closet that fell off a cliff and into the ocean.

The song peaked at number 4 in Ireland, and also reached number 7 in Australia and number 24 in the UK Singles Chart.

And here are the 3 versions I picked for you;

• Kaki King - "Close To Me"

• The Separate & Mark Lanegan - "Close To Me"

• The Orobians - "Close To Me"

Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).

nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers..

Five Songs for the Weekend - LVIII -

Well it's just the beginning of the year but we are receiving terrible news from all over the world. Warmongering in some parts, massive fires in Australia and ongoing environmental crisis almost all over the world...I believe our poor planet is heading to a situation where "Ctrl-Alt-Delete" will be inevitable if proper measures are not taken very soon!

In the meantime we try to console ourselves with the magic of music.

As George Eliot once said;

"Life seems to go without effort when we are filled with music."

And here is the list for this weekend;

• Thorbjørn Risager & the Black Tornado - "Drowning"

• Devendra Banhart - "Carmensita"

• Monophonics - "Foolish Love"

• Absolute Ensemble ft. Joe Zawinul - "Sultan"

• Mdou Moctar - "Kamane Tarhanin"

Hope you have a great weekend.

nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.

Which one is your favorite? - XVII -

How about we start the year with a song from the 30s? This is a classic popular song written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1934. It may be the first instance of the familiar "50s progression" in a popular song and has become a standard ballad. The song was a hit twice in 1949 with successful recordings in the U.S. by Billy Eckstine and Mel Tormé.


Here is the song for this week;

"Blue Moon"

In 1961, "Blue Moon" became an international number-one hit for the doo-wop group The Marcels, on the Billboard 100 chart and in the UK Singles chart. Over the years, "Blue Moon" has been covered by various artists. Richard Rodgers hated the Marcels' doo-wop arrangement of this song so much that he took out advertisements in the music papers urging people not to buy it.

Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart began writing this for the 1933 movie musical Hollywood Party, but it was cut from the film. The following year, it was used in Manhattan Melodrama - starring Clark Gable, William Powell and Myrna Loy - where it was performed by Shirley Ross in a nightclub scene. The song was originally called "The Bad in Every Man," befitting the story of Gable's kind-hearted criminal, but was rejected by MGM until it was re-worked as "Blue Moon."

Mel Tormé sang this in the 1948 movie Words And Music, which was loosely based on the story of Rodgers and Hart's partnership. It was also used in the movies Malaya (1949); East Side, West Side (1950); and With A Song In My Heart (1952) before Elvis Presley recorded it for Sun Records in 1954.

It is also the anthem of English Football League club Crewe Alexandra and English Premier League football club Manchester City, who have both adapted the song slightly.


And here are the 3 versions I picked for you;

• The Marcels - "Blue Moon"

• Rod Stewart - "Blue Moon"

• Cowboy Junkies - "Blue Moon Revisited"

And here is another one out of competition;

• Beady Eye - "Blue Moon"

Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).

nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers..

Five Songs for the Weekend - LVII -

Here comes the first post of the year. We spent our New Year in a beautiful village in the mountains with great friends, tasty food and wine hoping 2020 will be a good year filled with music and art...

As Truman Fisher once said;

"The pause is as important as the note."

Here are the 5 songs for this weekend;

• Beth Orton - "Stolen Car"

• Empire Of The Sun - "Chrysalis"

• Emile Parisien, Vincent Peirani, Andreas Schaerer & Michael Wollny - "B&h"

• Bonobo - "Black Sands"

• Mark Guiliana - "Spirit Animal"

Hope you have a great weekend.

nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.