Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Non-R.I.T.: "I'll Love You Forever"

It's hard to not be a fan of the Monkees. "Stepping Stone," although sung my Micky, is a personal favorite that my mother had on a 45 -- and I played incessantly in my youth. If you don't like their pop music, love their courage to bring little known guitarist Jimi Hendrix out on tour to support them in 1967. Heck, Davy Jones is the reason another David Jones changed his name to David Bowie (to avoid market confusion.) Anyhow, the song below is a live version of Jones' 1984 holiday single which was only released in England. We will love him forever. (Song starts 1:20 into the video.)

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Non-R.I.T.: "I Know Him So Well"

Non-random post. Didn't really know how I wanted to approach Whitney's passing yesterday as there was the initial shock, the moment I thought about the loss of Amy Winehouse, the anger at losing one amazing voice and the sadness that her loved ones will face in the future. As a musicologist, I look at her debut album and smile. Duets with Teddy Pendergrass and Jermaine Jackson, bass by American Idol's Randy Jackson, keyboards by Richard Marx, guitar by Dann Huff and backing vocals by her mom Cissy. Huge record setting album but speaking of her mom... here's a duet they did for the follow-up album. The song was written by Tim Rice and ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson for the musical Chess but would become the final single released off Houston's Whitney album in 1988.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

R.I.T.: "Free"

Today's R.I.T. is Big Audio Dynamite's "Free." Released in 1989 as the first single off of the soundtrack to Flashback, the song would go to #22 on the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks chart. It would not be released on a BAD album (until their 1995 Planet BAD 'best of') but a reworked version called "Kickin' In" would surface on their Kool-Aid album. Really should have also done a show on Big Audio Dynamite when I could... well, and also Mick Jones' previous project, The Clash. Have a great weekend.