Bloggerhythms

We all know that record sales are not calculated the same way they were thirty years ago when people were still buying physical copies of the music they loved. Things have changed so much in the modern era of streaming that it's much harder to gauge the popularity of a track today, but even with knowing that my favorite song of the 21st Century deserved a better fate. It's also the most current song to appear on this countdown. Sadly, Brandi Carlile's best known single, "The Story," is her only one to ever score a place on Billboard's Hot 100 where it only climbed to #75. Fortunately, the album of the same name did better. It peaked at #41 and that was good enough to earn the young singer-songwriter a gold record. Produced by the great T-Bone Burnett, "The Story" - written by Carlile's close frien...

Kim Richey has to be the least known of all the great female artists appearing on this countdown. In case you're not familiar with this fine singer-songwriter, she has a heavenly voice that perfectly suits the songs she composes. Quite often they're about the sadder side of love.  Richey is considered a country artist, but because she lacks the sometimes off-putting twangy guitars and southern accent - she's from Ohio - listeners who don't favor country music may find her appealing. Her later efforts have almost no country in them at all. On her second and most successful album, Bitter Sweet ,   Richey opens   with "Every River."  The rollicking beat and her tight electric band blend well with the lyrics to make a perfect song.  For the uninitiated it's a great introduction to her long career.  On "Every River" Richey reassures her lover that she'll always be there for him even if he has doubts after being spurned by...

It has been written here several times before about the love-hate relationship I have with the Carpenters , the brother and sister duo who achieved great commercial success in the 1970s. While I recognized the rare beauty of Karen Carpenter's voice I also lamented the outright dreck the duo often recorded - especially "Sing," a children's song originally featured on  Sesame Street .   It didn't complement their more sophisticated work at all - hits such as "Superstar," and album tracks like "A Song For You," and "This Masquerade," both composed by Leon Russell. The young siblings greatest moment came when they woke up and realized they were making music during what would eventually become the first great era of classic rock. The result was their #7 hit, "Goodbye To Love," released off of their finest album, A Song For You in 1972. According to the DVD documentary,  Close To You: Remembering The Carp...

Joan Baez's cover of Bob Dylan's "Simple Twist Of Fate" was never a single, but it became one of the better known tracks from her classic Diamonds & Rust LP. The whole album was more commercial than Baez's earlier work, and as a result it became one of her best selling and best loved releases. It achieved gold status and rose to #11 on Billboard's chart of the 200 best selling albums. It was obvious Baez was trying to expand her fan base, and more than a few of her earlier devotees were annoyed she was selling her soul to "the man." In Baez's hands, Dylan's classic tune from  Blood On the Tracks  is not treated as a folk ballad. Instead, the track possessed many similarities to the 70s, singer-songwriter sub-genre that was highly popular at the time. Because this up-tempo version of "Simple Twist Of Fate" was more accessible than Baez's previous work it received a considerable amo...

Along with my life-long obsession with The Beatles and my love of Southern California's Laurel Canyon sound Motown always possessed a big chunk of my heart during their powerhouse years of the 1960s. The Detroit hit factory's biggest act was The Supremes, and in November 1965 Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard earned the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for the sixth time with "I Hear A Symphony." On "Symphony" The Funk Brothers and composers Holland-Dozier-Holland took Motown productions to a whole new level. It's a good thing they did because Motown President, Berry Gordy, was angry that the trio's previous single, "Nothing But Heartaches" broke their streak of five consecutive chart toppers. It failed to reach the top ten, peaking only at #11. Gordy then issued this directive, " We will release nothing less than Top Ten product on any artist; and because the Supremes' world-...

It's ironic that both The Rolling Stones and The Beatles released new music less than three weeks apart. It's just like the old days. The Stones' new one is  Hackney Diamonds - a full length album - while the Fab Four's "Now and Then," is one final song that Paul McCartney has wanted to complete for decades. It's been forty-four years since John Lennon put the unfinished tune on a cassette that Yoko Ono gave to the three surviving Beatles to complete for their anthology series in the mid-nineties. Anthology One opened with "Free As A Bird," an unfinished Lennon song that McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr completed with the help of producer Jeff Lynne. They also turned "Real Love - a second Lennon track - into a genuine Beatles song for Anthology Two . When the three ex-Beatles started working on "Now And Then" it was supposed to be the opening track of the third compilation, but Harrison...