Most every big city had lights bright enough downtown to entice singers into small studios to produce music. Philadephia was no different, despite its close proximity to New York City. Especially in the flow of the great migration, Philadelphia was a trendsetter in the fields of R&B, Rock and Soul music. Giving an extra boost…
Tag: Mixcloud
The Weight for ’68: 50 Tunes from The Tumultuous Year 50 previous
When one takes into account how ridiculous the past year has been, it’s hard to put into reference or frame of mind that the world has always been a bit bent out of shape. One of the preferred ways of coping is turning one’s stress about strife to the songs and singers that keep us…
Ingenue, You Too? 33 Femme Fatale Fineries From The Late 50’s
One of my favorite styles of mixes to create is to jump around throughout sub-genres and eras of female singers. Probably the majority balance of the things I’ve uploaded to Mixcloud are in this bag. Since 2015, I’ve jumped from the swinging soul of 1965, through the Mid 1970’s and then back as far as…
Queen Bee of The Brill: Ellie Greenwich and 35 of her cha-cha-charms
In general, the creators of popular music rarely get the credit that they deserve. Although we all have dozens of tunes that we (un)controllably hum in our heads due to the genius of composers forever having something memorable tunewise to offer, we oft deride such content as fluff. When you’re one of the rare women…
Heaven Must Have Sent You: Your Holland-Dozier-Holland History Lesson
I’ve been prone to these songwriter series playlists moreso. This time we make a visit to our first team. While Burt Bacharach’s mix featured him not exclusively tethered to Hal David, and Sylvia Moy found herself working with a round robin of partners, this one solely focuses on Holland-Dozier-Holland. Brothers Eddie and Brian Holland and…
Mo’West: The Evolution Of Bay Area Soul
The San Francisco Bay Area is known as a cultural center for the West Coast. Legions of artists found docks of the bay to unleash their creativity for over 150 years. However, with the increased importance of Los Angeles as a multimedia capitol, with Film, Music and Television growing and rivaling the might of New…
With This Song, I Be Wed: 30 Songs On The Pains and Pleasure of The Wedding Day
Marriage is a particularly curious item in American society. The combinations of romanticism, pragmatism and patriarchy inform an ever shifting social condition. As long as there’s been the concept of a popular song, anyone that got a chance to record more than 10 songs somehow deals with the concept in some circular way. As we…
Mary – Very – Proud: Late Sixties into Seventies Sister Soul
When we look back at late 60’s Soul Music in terms of a transitional period that saw the rise of women’s liberation, we know one name in particular: Aretha. True to life, from 1967 through 1974, she sat on multiple thrones. She had major hit singles on both the R&B and Pop charts, critically acclaimed…
Better Luck Next Time: 40 Hits that happened for someone else
Sometimes, it’s like, with a song, dust yourself off and try again. The perfect moment for a tune to become a success entrenched in the Pop Culture lexicon sometimes isn’t its first time up to bat. Sometimes it takes competition and revision to get things right. With this, I’ve gone a bit overboard, giving you…
Jazz For A Summer’s Day: 28 Tunes To Close Out The Season
Yet another season is nearly behind us. As summer winds down and we find ourselves firmly planted in the 2nd half of the year, I find myself wanting to gather up and go out to every type of event to live up these blanket warm days before Fall is upon us. One thing sorely lacking…
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