This episode is filled with a nice stack of classic records, good for about ninety minutes of sheer nostalgia.
| Title | Artist | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| I Don’t Like Mondays | Boom Town Rats | “I Don’t Like Mondays” is a song by Irish new wave group the Boomtown Rats about the Cleveland Elementary School shooting in San Diego. Geldof had been contacted by Steve Jobs to play a gig for Apple, inspiring the opening line about a “silicon chip”. His paternal grandfather, Zenon Geldof, was a Belgian immigrant. |
| Monday, Monday | The Mamas & The Papas | “Monday, Monday” is a 1966 song written by John Phillips and recorded by the Mamas & the Papas with members of the Wrecking Crew (a loose collective of Los Angeles–based session musicians). |
| For What It’s Worth | Buffalo Springfield | “For What It’s Worth (Stop, Hey What’s That Sound)” (often referred to as simply “For What It’s Worth”) by Buffalo Springfield is written by Stephen Stills and recorded on December 5, 1966. Stephen Stills was inspired to write the song because of the Sunset Strip curfew riots in Los Angeles in November 1966, a series of early counterculture-era clashes that took place between police and young people on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, California. Buffalo Springfield had become the house band at the Whisky a Go Go in 1966. |
| Love Street | The Doors | The song was originally a poem written by singer Jim Morrison about the street in the Laurel Canyon section of Los Angeles, California, where he lived with his girlfriend Pamela Courson and watched hippies pass by. Morrison died unexpectedly in a Paris apartment at the age of 27. They were the house band (starting from May 1966) of the Whisky a Go Go (informally nicknamed The Whisky) a historic nightclub in West Hollywood, California, United States. |
| Have You Ever Seen The Rain | Rod Stewart | ‘Have You Ever Seen The Rain’ written in 1970 by John Cameron Fogerty is about rising tension within CCR and the imminent departure of his brother Tom from the band, when they were on the top of the charts, and had surpassed all of their wildest expectations of fame and fortune. They were rich and famous, but somehow all of the members of the band at the time were depressed and unhappy. |
| Who’ll Stop The Rain | Creedence Clearwater Revival | “Who’ll Stop the Rain” is a song written by John Fogerty and originally recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1970. It is inspired by the Woodstock Festival in August 1969. |
| It’s Raining Again | Supertramp | Written by founders and band members Rick Davies, Roger Hodgson, “It’s raining again’. Feeling sad about a lost friend on a rainy day inspired writer Roger Hodgson. |
| Feels Like Rain (ft. Bonnie Raitt) | Buddy Guy | Feels Like Rain is the title song of the 1993 album by Buddy Guy. The is written by John Hiatt and features Bonnie Raitt. |
| Take Me To The River | Talking Heads | Written by singer Al Green and guitarist Mabon “Teenie” Hodges in 1974 and covered in many ways by different artists.The American band Talking Heads covered it on their second album in 1978 with the rhythm section composed of bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz. Byrne, Frantz and Weymouth met as freshman students at the Rhode Island School of Design, where they formed a band called the Artistics and later moved to New York where they formed Talking Heads. |
| Genius of Love | Tom Tom Club | “Genius of Love” is credited to songwriters Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, guitarist Adrian Belew, and producer Steven Stanley. Weymouth sings the primary lead on “Genius of Love.” Frantz plays drums and sings the song’s later male vocals. Weymouth’s sisters Lani and Laura feature on backing vocals. Adrian Belew is credited with guitar, Tyrone Downie with synthesizers, and Uziah “Sticky” Thompson with percussion. Although Tina Weymouth was responsible for writing the bassline and intended to play it on record, she was forced to pass on the latter task to another musician. Tom Tom Club is named after the dancehall in the Bahamas where they rehearsed for the first time. |
| Foot Stompin’ Music | Hamilton Bohannon | Hamilton Frederick Bohannon moved to Detroit in the early 1960s and worked as sideman for Stevie Wonder between 1965 and 1967 and became arranger for all of Motown’s top acts. He was recruited in 1964 as drummer in 13-year-old Stevie Wonder’s touring band. |
| I Cannot Believe It’s True | Phil Collins | “I Cannot Believe It’s True” is a song written and performed by Phil Collins. The great ‘jazz’ artist Chester Thompson plays the drums at live performances. |
| How Long (Has This Been Going On) | Ace | Although widely interpreted as being about adultery, the song was in fact composed by English band Ace lead singer Paul Carrack upon discovering that bassist Terry (“Tex”) Comer had been secretly working with the Sutherland Brothers and Quiver. |
| Arms of Mary | Sutherland Brothers & Quiver | The Sutherland Brothers (Gavin and Iain Sutherland) were a Scottish folk and soft rock duo. From 1973 to 1978, they performed with rock band Quiver, Ian Sutherland wrote ‘Arms of Mary’ most likely the woman he first made love to. Their first single as the Sutherland Brothers Band was under this contract and was a minor hit, “The Pie”, in January 1972. Their follow-up single was “Sailing”, which had much radio play but was commercially unsuccessful (it was later covered by Rod Stewart). |
| Moondance (ft. Van Morrison) | George Fame | Written and performed by Van Morrison in 1970. Georgie Fame covered the song, featuring Van the Man and Robben Ford on guitar in 1996. Georgie Fame was born Clive Powell on June 26, 1943, in Leigh, Lancashire (near Manchester, England). In 1989, Fame played organ on Van Morrison’s Avalon Sunset album, which grew into a fruitful collaboration over the course of the ’90s; Fame played on all of Morrison’s albums through 1997’s The Healing Game, received co-billing on Morrison’s 1996 jazz album ‘How Long Has This Been Going On’, and even served a stint as Morrison’s musical director. In 1998, Fame split with Morrison to record and tour with former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman’s new group the Rhythm Kings, contributing organ and vocals to several albums. |
| Harvest Moon | Neil Young | The song was written for his wife, Pegi Young, whom he met in the early seventies. The “harvest moon” is a metaphor for the final crop of the year, expressing the final moments of a fruitful season. Neil Young’s credits on the song “Harvest Moon” include guitar, banjo-guitar, piano, pump organ, vibes, and of course his unmistakable vocals. The backing vocals include Linda Ronstadt. |
| You’re No Good | Linda Ronstadt | “You’re No Good” is a song written by Clint Ballard Jr., first performed by Dee Dee Warwick in 1963. Linda Ronstadt began performing “You’re No Good” to close her live shows in early 1973, after her band member Kenny Edwards suggested it to her. She first included it in her setlist while opening for Neil Young. |
| American Pie | Don McLean | American Pie is written and performed by Don McLean. The repeated phrase “the day the music died” refers to a plane crash in 1959 that killed early rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens, ending the era of early rock and roll; this became the popular nickname for that crash. |
| That’ll Be The Day | Buddy Holly | “That’ll Be the Day” is a song written by Buddy Holly and Jerry Allison. It was first recorded by Buddy Holly and the Three Tunes in 1956 and was re-recorded in 1957 by Holly and his new band, The Crickets. In June 1956, Holly along with his older brother Larry as well as Allison and Sonny Curtis went to see the film The Searchers, starring John Wayne, in which Wayne repeatedly used the phrase “that’ll be the day”. This line of dialogue inspired the young musicians. |
| The Great Gig In The Sky | Pink Floyd | The song features music by keyboard player Richard Wright and improvised, haunting, wordless vocals by session singer Clare Torry, who later got credited co-authorship for the song. You also hear Abbey Road Studios doorman Gerry O’Driscoll talking in the beginning of the track. Studio engineer at Abbey Road, London, Alan Parsons suggested 25-year-old songwriter and session vocalist Clare Torry, who improvised the part. Check out her live performance in 1990. |
| Eye In the Sky | The Alan Parsons Project | The song has been recorded at the Abbey Road studio in London late 1981. In 2019, Alan Parsons recorded a version in Catalan, under the title “Seré els teus ulls al camí” (“I’ll be your eyes on the road”), for the CD edited by La Marató de TV3, a telethon devoted to raising funds for the research of incurable diseases. Alan’s longtime hobby has been performing magic. |
| Year of the Cat | Al Stewart | The title song of Al Stewart’s album ‘The Year of the Cat” was recorded at the Abbey Road Studios, London, England, in January 1976 and produced by Alan Parsons. Scottish artist Al Stewart wrote and recorded the song in the Vietnamese Year of the Cat. The opening line “In a morning from a Bogart movie” comes from the movie Casablanca Stewart had seen on TV. Al Stewart played at the first ever Glastonbury Festival in 1970, worked with Yoko Ono pre-Lennon and shared a London apartment with a young Paul Simon. |
Sources
The information sources of the song facts include, but are not limited to, Wikipedia, songfacts.com, discogs.com, secondhandsongs.com, YouTube and artists’ related websites.
