Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#927 in the Series) is Dusty Springfield, Dusty in Memphis The stable of Blue-Eyed Soul fillies from across the pond has been Kentucky Derby quality over the last 10 years. Duffy, with her 2008 release Rockferry has more of a sensitive delivery than her more bombastic contemporaries that should serve her well with the AOR crowd as her career progresses. Joss Stone burst on to the scene in 2003 with The Soul Sessions, an unabashed tribute to the soul singers of the past sounding more like Carla Thomas or Aretha Franklin than a sixteen year old girl recording her eponymous album.  But even though her later releases seem to lack direction and continuity...

Song Of The Day – “Harper Valley P.T.A.” by Jeannie C. Riley Today’s Song Of The Day goes out to all of those “Harper Valley hypocrites” who scorn mini-skirts, casual sex and casual drinking. Jeannie C. Riley’s recording of “Harper Valley P.T.A.” sold six million copies worldwide in 1968 and catapulted her to instant notoriety, earning her a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and the Country Music Association Single of the Year award.  The Tom T. Hall-written ditty topped both the Country and Pop charts in 1968, a feat that would not be repeated by a song until Dolly Parton did the trick with “9 To 5” in 1981. Jeannie C. Riley had been a receptionist...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “That Old Black Magic” by Tony Bennett with The Dave Brubeck Trio Every so often the reissue gods bestow upon us a truly special recording that music fans never knew existed.  Recently, one such recording was unleashed upon an unsuspecting public by our friends at Sony Legacy, featuring a musical summit that took place between Tony Bennett and Dave Brubeck on August 28, 1962 at The White House. The event was a special concert recorded at the Sylvan Theater (at the base of the Washington Monument) welcoming a new group of volunteers (or interns as they are now called) that had come to Washington DC to work for the government. The...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Evil Ways” by Santana from “Woodstock” This week we are celebrating the 44th anniversary of “An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music” which took place August 15-18th 1969 on Max Yasgur’s farm. While most people are familiar with Santana’s blazing performance of “Soul Sacrifice” that single handedly established the group to the American public and appeared in the movie, most people have never seen anything else from the group’s afternoon set on 8/16/69. At the time, the band was totally unknown out of their native San Francisco, and so was this now classic rock standard. The song wouldn’t become popular for many months, after the group released the studio...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Andmoreagain” by Love Love were the biggest rock act on the Elektra Record label, and along with The Byrds, were the darlings of the Whiskey a Go Go rock music scene on the Sunset Strip. That was until The Doors came along… The Summer Of Love wasn’t all sunshine and flower power, and Arthur Lee wasn’t your average psychedelic band leader. For one, Lee was an African American in a white man’s rock world who was leading a mixed-race band. His music was based on his reality reflecting the trials and tribulations of inner city life channeled through a prism of drug addiction, street violence and the Vietnam War. His world...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Shake Your Hips” by Slim Harpo This record’s got it all! An insinuating groove that doesn’t quit…otherworldly vocals that spook and caress at the same time…laid bare stripped down production, and the stellar harp playing that gave Slim Harpo his surname. There’s good reason why ‘60s British Invasion groups like The Who, the Yardbirds, the Kinks and the Rolling Stones borrowed so heavily from him. Today’s Song Of The Day is the version of “Shake Your Hips” that The Rolling Stones carbon copied for their Exile On Main Street Album. The following year, ZZ Top revisited the track to form the basis of their first break-out hit “La Grange.” Although this...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#871 in the Series) is Otis Blue, Otis Redding Sings Soul.  If you are a musical purist and do not allow live albums, compilations, or greatest hits packages to infiltrate your desert island disc knapsack, then Otis Blue / Otis Redding Sings Soul should be added to your collection post haste. The album, released in 1965 just months after the death of Sam Cooke, was the first really pure Otis Redding record.  More cohesive in style, this effort has much more of a live feel about it, with the entire package (including the sultry, evocative blond on the album cover) produced with an artistic flow that was previously missing from his prior efforts that...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Break Away” by The Next Exit Here’s a slab of psycho-delicatessen from the original “Fab Four!” What’s in a name? The Next Exit recorded two psychedelic singles for Warner Bros. Records in 1968 that went nowhere on the charts, and for some, that would’ve been the end of the story. However, The Next Exit’s convoluted history had them recording numerous singles under a myriad of names for many years, and at the end of the day, they still found no commercial success. Today’s Song Of The Day is a prime slab of psychedelia that in a perfect world would have made The Next Exit household names. The track was originally released...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “The Horse” by Cliff Nobles & Co. Cliff Nobles was a gospel singer from Alabama who relocated to Philadelphia to break into the recording industry. He was quickly signed to Atlantic records where he recorded three singles: “My Love Is Getting Stronger,” “Let’s Have A Good Time” and “Your Love Is All I Need” that failed to find any action on the charts. As a result of his affiliation with Atlantic, he was signed to a local Philadelphia record label called “Phil-L.A. of Soul Records” by independent producer Jesse James and formed the group Cliff Nobles & Co. consisting of Benny Williams on bass, Bobby Tucker on guitar, and Tommy Soul...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Good Shepherd” by Jefferson Airplane The epiphany of an eight year old… The backdrop of my childhood played out with images of the Viet Nam war and the unrest that culminated in the protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention coming over the television screen. While I wasn’t privy to what it all meant, I did know that the world around me was changing and that my older sister and her peers were making it happen. And I also knew that I very badly wanted to be a part of it all. I was eight years old in 1969 visiting my grandmother’s house when up the drive came the coolest MG convertible...