Bloggerhythms

"The Girl I Knew Somewhere" was released on March 8, 1967 as the b-side to "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You," The Monkees' third single. The more famous a-side climbed to #2 on The Hot 100. Neither of the tracks appeared on  Headquarters ,   The Monkees third LP, even though both songs were released in support of it. I wasn't able to discover why they were left off of the original disc. "Girl" did not appear on any full length album until it was released years later on several Monkees compilation discs and as a bonus track on the 1996 CD release of Headquarters . Two versions were recorded. The first one had composer Mike Nesmith on lead vocals and a second take - the one Colgems Records eventually released - featured the quartet's best singer, Mickey Dolenz, as the frontman. After a long and tense battle with Don Kirshner - primarily led by Nesmith - The Monkees eventually won the right to play on their own records and "The Girl I K...

There are times when the Internet is really cool. A few weeks back while doing research for my blog post on Ashleigh Flynn & The Riveters I accidently discovered a vocal group, Rosie & the Riveters, an even better outfit of talented women with a similar name but with a unique musical perspective. By now most people know the story of Rosie the Riveter so there is no need to go into it again here, so we'll just carry on with the music. Ms. Behave  (2018) is the singers' second album but their first as a trio - their earlier set from 2015 was released as a quartet.  Farideh Olsen, Allyson Reigh, and Alexis Normand were the Riveters and there was no one in the group named Rosie. I wrote that sentence in the past tense because Ms. Reigh unfortunately informed me that as of August of 2020 the group amicably disbanded. The Riveters hail from Saskatchewan and their sound can best be described as a modern version of The Andrew...

Those of you who saw the movie High Fidelity may recall the moment when Barry, played hysterically by Jack Black, destroyed Stevie Wonder’s 1980s music and humiliated a customer who came in to the used record store where he worked asking for a copy of the Motown star's huge 80s hit, "I Just Called To Say I Love You" for his daughter. It was a very funny scene based around a music snob's opinion that Wonder's 80s and 90s music doesn't compare favorably with his seventies output. Despite the laughs generated from Barry's outburst, Wonder's career is not one that should be made light of because even his lesser 80s music is still head and shoulders above the work of most other artists. I don't believe I'm exaggerating at all by stating that Wonder's albums, beginning with 1970's Where I'm Coming From and continuing through 1980's Hotter Than July , earned him a place as one of the top five artists of the entire decade. After that...

As part of Black History Month my original intent was to feature Motown founder Berry Gordy - the person most responsible for bringing black pop music into the mainstream of American life during the 1960s - but sadness has interfered with my plans. Unfortunately, the news broke today that Mary Wilson, one of the three original Supremes who rose to stardom with Florence Ballard and Diana Ross, has passed away at age 76. When I was growing up my true musical loves were the British invasion and Gordy's perennial hit factory. I loved The Supremes almost as much as The Beatles. I bought almost every one of the Detroit stars' 45 RPM singles featuring the original lineup whose run ended after "Reflections" became a hit in 1967.  During the years the trio was at the height of their popularity they were easily the most popular female recording artists in the world, placing twelve #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. I won't go into great detail about the group's histor...

If you're unfamiliar with The Iguanas now is the time for you to become acquainted. The New Orleans quintet has always been a less serious version of Southern California's Los Lobos and unlike their more successful and famous counterparts The Iguanas aren't into politics or social commentary. They're much more of a party band than The Wolves will ever be. However, Plastic Silver 9 Volt Heart, the group's fifth album, doesn't rock as hard as most party records do. Instead, for most of the set they sound like a low-key bar band with an irreverent attitude. These NOLA favorite sons manage to start a fire with "Flame On" that features their very cool, trademark, dual saxophone attack with both Joe Cabral and Rene Coman playing in the lower registers. As usual, these two continued to give the group their distinctive sound. "The Liquor Dance" doesn't fully ignite, but the beat is such that I can visualize a bar room full of patrons with their ...

As the album cover says,  Time Outtakes is a set of "previously unreleased tracks from the original 1959 sessions" by the masterful Dave Brubeck Quartet. It consists of alternate versions from one of the most deservedly loved jazz albums of all time, the original Time Out .  Brubeck (1920 - 2012) would have turned 100 late last year and these long forgotten tracks were discovered by researchers writing a book in honor of the pianist's milestone birthday.  The band featured here included the leader, alto sax man Paul Desmond, Eugene Wright on bass and drummer Joe Morello. Some of these takes are quite different form the originals. The famous "Take Five" has a faster tempo, a different drum solo from Morello on which the band leaves him totally alone, and there is a less conventional sax solo from Desmond. Parts of "Blue Rondo A La Turk" are quite different in spots and while it may not be superior to the well know version found on the original LP it is...