Two Faces Have I: The Mercurial Musical Messages of the Sign of Gemini

We see the sun expand its rays to maximum lighting here in the Northern Hemisphere. Indeed its Gemini Season once again. My home sun sign is an archetype oft misunderstood. Given to stereotypes of flaky, flighty and duplicitous, I beg to offer up some different perspectives through the songcraft of either the Gemini Archetype, Gemini Performers or Gemini writers with this month’s playlist.

For Gemini Roll Call, we’re learning a bit more about messengers, magic, and merriment that I consider the positive aspect of my Sun/Mercury/MC combination. We’ll be hearing from may Soulful Gemini Suns, some Gemini Moons, and folks that took the words of Gemini poets of performance and made them their unique own. I get pretty epic towards the end of this playlist with Geminis singing Gemini written songs, with some of them being cover versions of one Gemini interpreting another Gemini’s work.

From the highest of highs to the most resolute of lows; Gemini knows heaven and hell equally well. There’s no greater sign to talk to you about the concerns of life. Would you like to give a listen, we promise you prizes and not poison. Frolick with us with more than an hour and a half of tuneage.

Juanita Williams – “You Knew What You Were Gettin'” (1964. My personal “Gemini” theme song.)
The Impressions – “I’m The One Who Loves You” (1963, Curtis Mayfield, Lead Singer/Writer. Born June 3, 1942 )
Mitty Collier – “Little Miss Loneliness” (1963. Mitty was born June 21, 1941)
The Four Tops – “Is There Anything I Can Do?” (1965. Four Tops Lead Singer Levi Stubbs was born June 6, 1936. Fellow Four Top Renaldo “Obie” Benson was born June 14, 1936)
Ramsey Lewis Trio – “My Babe” (1964. Ramsey Lewis was born May 27, 1935)
Peggy Lee – “Sneaking Up On You” (1965. Peggy Lee was born May 26, 1920)
Marie Knight – “Make Yourself At Home” (1963. Marie Knight was born June 1, 1925)
Little Miss Cornshucks -“It Do Me So Good” (1961. Mildred Cummings, was a remarkably influential early R&B singer from the late 1940’s. She was born May 26, 1923)
Miles Davis – “Eighty One” (1965. Miles Davis was born May 26, 1926)
Jackie Wilson – “Haunted House” (1964. Jackie Wilson was born June 9, 1934)
Linda Scott – “Don’t Lose Your Head” (1965. Linda Scott was born June 1, 1945)
Marlina Mars – “Just Another Dance” (1965. Written by Curtis Mayfield)
The Marvelettes – “Little Girls Grow Up” (1965. Gladys Horton, co-lead of The Marvelettes was born May 30, 1945).
The Shirelles – “Till My Baby Comes Home” (1966. Shirley Owens (Alston-Reeves), co-lead of The Shirelles, was born June 10, 1941).
The Isley Brothers – “Seek And You Shall Find” (1966. Ronald Isley was Born May 21, 1941)
Irma Thomas – “Live Again” (1965. Hal David, lyricist partner of Burt Bacharach, was born May 25, 1921)
Junior Walker & The All Stars “Baby That Ain’t Right” (1966. Junior Walker was born June 14, 1931)
Kim Weston – “I’ve Got A Weak Heart” (1965. Lamont Dozier, 1/3rd of the Holland Dozier Holland songwriting team, was born June 16, 1941)
Deniece Chandler – “I Don’t Want To Cry” (1969. June Deniece Chandler, better known as Deniece Williams, was born June 3, 1950).
Gladys Knight & The Pips – “I’m Gonna Get You” (1968. Gladys Knight was Born May 28, 1944).
The Four Tops – “Clip My Wings” (1968)
Ronnie Dyson – “Emmie” (1970. My Birthday Twin. Known for his role in Hair, Ronnie Dyson was born June 5, 1950)
The Dells – “The Change You Go Through For Love” (1968. Johnny Carter, co-lead singer, Tenor and Falsetto of The Dells, was born June 2, 1934)
Sondra “Blinky” Williams – “God Bless The Child”(1966. Sondra “Blinky” Williams was born May 21, 1944)
Patti LaBelle & The Bluebelles – “I Need Your Love” (1967. Patricia Holte, better known as Patti LaBelle, was born May 24, 1944)
The Crystals featuring La La Brooks – “My Place” (1965. Delores “La La” Brooks was born June 20, 1947)
Lamont Dozier – “Dearest One” (1962)
The Marvelettes – “Don’t Fence Me In” (1963. The Marvelettes Gladys Horton, a Gemini, sings the Cole Porter Standard. Cole Porter, a Gemini himself, was born June 9, 1891)
The Supremes – “I Saw Her Standing There” (1964. All three Supremes had prominent Gemini Placements. Mary Wilson and Diana Ross have Mars/Saturn/Uranus in Gemini. Florence Ballard, who does the lead here, had Moon, Mercury, Saturn and Uranus in Gemini. Of course, this Beatles song was co-written by Gemini Paul McCartney).
The Shirelles – “It’s Love That Really Counts” (1962. Gemini Shirley Owens sings Gemini Hal David’s words)
Patti LaBelle & The Bluebelles – “I’m Still Waiting” (1966. Gemini Patti LaBelle sings Gemini Curtis Mayfield).
The Marvelettes – “Finder’s Keepers, Loser’s Weepers” (1964. Gemini Gladys Horton sings Gemini Lamont Dozier’s composition).
The Isley Brothers – “Why When Love Is Gone?” (1967)
Blinky – “How You Gonna Keep It?” (1969)
Nancy Sinatra – “Zodiac Blues” (1967. Nancy Sinatra was born June 8, 1940).