Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “The Shelter Of Your Arms” by Clyde McPhatter Singles and albums that came out of the Brill Building during the early 1960s have a distinct sound of their own. It’s not just down to the great songs that were written by the best songwriters New York City had to offer, or the now-legendary musicians who played on the sessions, but it also came down to the production sound, which was the key ingredient that made each record sound good coming out of a mono speaker on a car radio, transistor radio or record player. Without that production sound, there was no record. One of the great albums to come...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#698 in the Series) is Carole King, The Legendary Demos Carole King demos have been floating around the music industry for as long as I can remember. Some sounded really good.  This release is the first time that some of those have hit the streets on an official basis. Let’s say, it’s been worth the wait. This package was released late last month and it covers about a decade of Carole’s early writing career.  These songs are indeed demo versions, but they are not solo demos. Many of the songs do indeed have a small band playing with her, some songs however are just her. I have a close friend that always...

  There’s a pretty cool album being released on April 24th.  It’s called Carole King, The Legendary Demos and yes, the songs are just that, legendary. Carole began her career as a staff writer for the publishing company Aldon Music. There she wrote hits that were recorded by the likes of  Gene Pitney, Bobby Vee, Aretha Franklin and The Monkees. Also look for her first book two weeks before that on April 10. It’s titled Natural Woman and will be published Grand Central Publishing. The Legendary Demos track listing Pleasant Valley Sunday So Goes Love Take Good Care of My Baby (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman Like Little Children Beautiful Crying in the Rain Way Over...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#584 in the Series) is Blood, Sweat and Tears, 3. In many ways, this album had more to do with long love affair with music, than any other album ever released. When I was a wee lad, my sister gave me copy of this. It was actually on cassette. It was right when those lovely pre-recorded cassettes first hit the market. I had a player and played it over and over and over. I even remember starting and stopping the songs over and over so I could write out the lyrics. I was hooked. I had to get more of these! Blood, Sweat and Tears 3 contained some of the bands most...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#413 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...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#349 in the Series) is Carole King, Tapestry. There has always been one thing that I’d love to know about an artist like Carole King, and about her writing her masterpiece Tapestry.  That is, do you really know what you’re writing when you write an album like this? Meaning, this just wasn’t your run of the mill singer-songwriter album.  This was indeed a masterpiece of music.  Did Carole know that this was something special? Did she know that although she’d written a ton of hits, mostly for others, that this was just different?  I really don’t know how to answer that.  I’d love to hear what you think. Please share your ideas below.  I’m betting she...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#117 in the Series) is Mandy Moore, Coverage. I told you I’d pull out some weird things on this blog. Well I bet this one really blows your mind! Back to Ms. Moore. I bet your saying ‘What the ^%$( is he smoking!’ But take a look at this album. It’s an album full of cover tunes. (How many of those have we seen the past few years?) But what makes this one interesting is the song list that she chooses. Her performance of these songs was quite good. Some not so much but others were pretty solid. But let’s look at the songs. I was shocked when I saw this list. She...