Which one is your favorite? - LXXIX -

This week's song is a song from Billy Idol that was released as the second single from his self-titled studio album in 1982. Although not Idol's highest-charting hit, it is often considered one of his most recognizable songs. In the US, it peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart on 27 November 1982, then reached No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 2 July 1983 after it was re-issued.

Here is the song for this week;

"White Wedding"

Despite rumors to the contrary, this song is not about Idol's actual little sister. "Little sister" is slang for girlfriend. He is singing about a woman/girl he loves marrying someone else while he still loves her.

Idol did have a sister who was getting married, but on an episode of VH1 Storytellers, he explained that his sister's wedding simply gave him the idea for the song. Like many of Idol's compositions, he started with the title and wrote the song from there. 

The video for this song helped launch Billy Idol to stardom. It was directed by David Mallet, who had worked with Queen and David Bowie. Idol had little cash, so Mallet cut him a break on his fee. The concept was a "nightmare wedding," with a Goth guy (Idol) marrying a normal girl, with some vampire imagery thrown in. The bride was played by Perri Lister, who was Billy's girlfriend. The resulting video contained some of the most indelible images seen on MTV, including the barbed-wire wedding ring, the motorcycle crashing through the church window, and the dancers slapping their own butts in time to the music.

Mallet said of Idol in the book I Want My MTV: "In those days, he was the greatest looker and mover since Elvis. Before 'White Wedding,' nobody would have admitted that was even possible. One look at that video and they got him."

A key element to this song is the quick little guitar riff that starts it. Idol and his guitarist, Steve Stevens, liked to have a distinctive guitar part to open the songs - they thought of it like a flag harkening its arrival.

This song is a very anti-marriage song, and yet many people have it played at their weddings simply because it mentions a wedding.

This was used in the movie The Wedding Singer. After getting dumped at the altar, Adam Sandler tells his friends to "turn this crap off" after the video comes on. Idol later appears in the movie as himself. He helps get Sandler together with Drew Barrymore.

Here are the 6 versions I picked for you;

• Queens of the Stone Age - "White Wedding"

• Leo Moracchioli - "White Wedding"

• Polkaholix - "White Wedding"

• Janet Devlin - "White Wedding"

• Herman's Hermits - "White Wedding"

• Cityrocks - "White Wedding"

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 - CXX -

Another full lockdown as of this Friday due to increasing Covid-19 cases and deaths. Let's hope this will be the last time and with one last effort let's try to turn this nuisance into a manageable scenario...

As Aristotle once said;

"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet."

Here is the list for this weekend;

• Tom Misch & Yussef Dayes - "Can You Feel It"

• Cande y Paulo - "Summertime"

• Silver Apples - "Ruby"

• Kraftwerk - "The Man Machine"

• Nick Hakim, Roy Nathanson - Moonman

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? - LXXVIII -

This week's song is a Chuck Berry original dating back to 1956. It was a hit single originally released on Chess Records, with "Drifting Heart" as the B-side. The lyrics of the song mention rock and roll and the desire for rhythm and blues to replace classical music. The title of the song is an imperative directed at the composer Ludwig van Beethoven to roll over out of the way and make room for the rock and roll music that Berry was promoting.

Here is the song for this week;

"Roll Over Beethoven"

According to Rolling Stone, Berry wrote the song in response to his sister Lucy always using the family piano to play classical music when Berry wanted to play popular music. It was, as biographer Bruce Pegg says, "inspired in part by the rivalry between his sister Lucy's classical music training and Berry's own self-taught, rough-and-ready music preference". The lyric "roll over Beethoven and tell Tchaikovsky the news" refers to how classical composers would roll over in their graves upon hearing that classical music had given way to rock and roll.

In addition to the classical composers Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, the lyrics mention or allude to several popular artists: "Early in the Mornin'" is the title of a Louis Jordan song; "Blue Suede Shoes" refers to the Carl Perkins song; and "hey diddle diddle", from the nursery rhyme "The Cat and the Fiddle", is an indirect reference to the Chess recording artist Bo Diddley, who was an accomplished violin player. Although the lyrics mention "rocking" and "rolling", the music that the classics are supposed to step aside for is referred to as "rhythm and blues". The lyric "a shot of rhythm and blues" was appropriated as the title of a song recorded by Arthur Alexander and others.

Berry's single was one of 50 recordings chosen in 2003 by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. In 2004, "Roll Over Beethoven" was ranked number 97 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". The accompanying review stated that it "became the ultimate rock & roll call to arms, declaring a new era".

 Here are the 6 versions I picked for you;

• The Beatles - "Roll Over Beethoven"

• Jerry Lee Lewis - "Roll Over Beethoven"

• Shakin' Stevens - "Roll Over Beethoven"

• Electric Light Orchestra - "Roll Over Beethoven"

• The Rolling Stones - "Roll Over Beethoven"

• Status Quo - "Roll Over Beethoven"

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 - CXIX -

I had planned to write a completely different entry to this week's post but ten minutes ago I turned on the radio that I am also a part of and came across a show that is playing a soundtrack of the movie called "Draupadi Unleashed" by the great musicians Ahmet Kenan Bilgiç and Can Saka. I suggest you listen to this wonderful album on digital platforms. 

As Dave Attell once said;

" I feel like soundtrack music is almost

like seeing the movie again, but with my ears."

Here is the list for this weekend;

• Ahmet Kenan Bilgiç - "Draupadi Unleashed"

• Etwas - "Strahl"

• Mdou Moctar - "Tarhatazed"

• GoGo Penguin - "Petit_a"

• James - "Moving On"

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.

Five Songs for the Weekend - CXVIII -

A new round of so-called "lockdown" is here with a warning, saying that it could even be worse in May if the cases would not begin to decrease within two weeks. Therefore it is everyone's duty to respect the regulations if we want to be in a better position for the summer. Let the music be your support during these tough times...

As Art Blakey once said;

" Jazz washes away the dust

of everyday life."

Here is the list for this weekend;

• The Chemical Brothers - "Wide Open" (ft. Beck)

• Jackie Scott - "I'm Tired"

• Sonic Youth - "Pacific Coast Highway"

• Benjamin Clementine - "Condolence"

• Kris Davis - "The Very Thing"

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? - LXXVII -

This week I have a great punk song for you, originally released by The Ramones in 1977. This was the first punk song to hit the pop charts. While this was the first punk rock song to hit the Hot 100, it was not the first song on the chart with the word "Punk" in the title: Barry Mann made #78 in 1976 with "The Princess And The Punk," a song that about mismatched lovers that was certainly not a punk rocker.

Here is the song for this week;

"Sheena Is A Punk Rocker"

The name "Sheena" came from Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, who was kind of a female Tarzan character. It was a popular comic book and TV series in the '40s and '50s.

Joey Ramone: "'Sheena Is A Punk Rocker' first came out as a single. I played it for (Sire Records President) Seymour Stein. He flipped out and said 'We gotta record that song now.' It was like back in the '50s; you'd rush into the studio because you thought you had a hit, then put it right out. To me 'Sheena' was the first surf/punk rock/teenage rebellion song. I combined Sheena, Queen of the Jungle with the primalness of punk rock. Then Sheena is brought into the modern day: 'But she just couldn't stay/she had to break away/well New York City really has it all.' It was funny because all the girls in New York seemed to change their name to Sheena after that. Everybody was a Sheena."

Written by Joey Ramone, it is one of the Ramones' most popular songs, evidence of Joey's early 1960s surf rock and bubblegum pop influences. It first appeared in May 1977 as a single in the UK where it charted at number 22 in the UK Singles Chart.[1][5] In the US, it was released as a single in July 1977, and reached number 81 in the Billboard Hot 100, and appeared on copies of the second issue of the band's 1977 album Leave Home (replacing the track "Carbona Not Glue"). The track, as well as its B-side "I Don't Care", was remixed and re-released for their third LP Rocket to Russia.

Here are the 6 versions I picked for you;

• Paul Jones - "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker"

• Sixth Finger - "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker"

• Hüsker Dü - "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker"

• The Queers - "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker"

• Los Del Tonos - "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker"

• The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker"

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 - CXVII -

Even though it is April already, I hear from friends in various countries that it is still winter. Most cities in Europe are getting some snow instead of sunshine and warmer weather. Anyways, most probably very soon we will start to complain about being too warm as nothing is normal anymore...

As William Arthur Ward once said;

" The pessimist complains about the wind,

the optimist expects it to change, 

and the realist adjusts the sails."

Here is the list for this weekend;

• Crowded House - "Weather With You"

• Arianna Neikrug - "Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most"

• Avishai Cohen & Yonathan Avishai - "Sir Duke"

• CamelPhat & Cristoph - "Breathe"

• Vegyn - "It's Nice To Be Alive"

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? - LXXVI -

I believe this is a first that I will be mentioning about a German song. However, we all very well know its English covers from many artists. "Und jetzt ist es still" was first performed by Horst Winter in 1948, with music written by Austrian composer Hans Lang and German lyrics by Erich Meder. The English lyrics were written by Bert Reisfeld.

Here is the song for this week;

"Und jetzt ist es still" or "It's Oh So Quiet"

Prolific film composer Hans Lang and regular collaborator Erich Meder wrote a song called "Und Jetzt ist es Still." This roughly translates to "And Now It's Quiet." It was recorded by Austrian/German singer Horst "Harry" Winter (best known for competing in the 1960 Eurovision contest for Austria). 

The song traveled to America three years later. Betty Hutton--star of stage, screen, and radio--released a newly orchestrated and translated version of the song oddly called "Blow a Fuse" which afterwards evolved to "It's Oh So Quiet".

The song was covered by Icelandic musician Björk in 1995. It was released as the third single from her second album Post and remains her biggest hit, reaching number 4 in the UK and spending 15 weeks on the UK Singles Chart. Fueled by the Spike Jonze-directed music video clip, the single also shot Björk into the spotlight in Australia, where it reached number 6. In the United Kingdom, the single has been certified as Gold, having sold upwards of 400,000 copies. In an interview on BBC Radio 1 with Chris Evans in 1995, Björk said the song had been played on the bus she had used on a recent tour and she recorded it as a thank you to the team that worked with her on that tour.

Here are the 6 versions I picked for you;

• Betty Hutton - "It's Oh So Quiet" (Blow a Fuse)

• Björk - "It's Oh So Quiet"

• Lucy Woodward - "It's Oh So Quiet"

• Lyambiko - "It's Oh So Quiet"

• Lisa Ekdahl - "It's Oh So Quiet"

• Bria Skonberg - "It's Oh So Quiet"

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 - CXVI -

Every week I plan to write a non-covid related entry but unfortunately, that is still the hottest topic all around the world. In the earlier months of 2021, everyone was thinking that once the vaccinations are widely spread the problem would erode however it is not the case at all. So it looks like we still need to wait a bit more, keep the measures at the highest level and hope those normal days will arrive soon...

As Charles Eisenstein said;

"We sense that ‘normal’ isn’t coming back, 

that we are being born into a new normal: 

a new kind of society, a new relationship to the earth, 

a new experience of being human."

Here is the list for this weekend;

• Bahamas - "Lost In The Light"

• Wendy McNeill - "In Bocca Al Lupo"

• Aldous Harding - "Zoo Eyes"

• Bill Frisell - "Everywhere"

• The Cinematic Orchestra - "To Believe"

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.