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Song of the Day #6,566: ‘Red Rubber Ball’ – The Cyrkle

The week of June 28, 1966, found a couple of legends atop the Billboard Hot 100: Frank Sinatra with ‘Strangers in the Night‘ at #1 and The Beatles with ‘Paperback Writer‘ at #2. I wrote about the latter way back in 2009 when these were Beatles Weekends.

At #3 that week was the song ‘Red Rubber Ball’ by the bizarrely named pop band The Cyrkle. The American trio was managed by none other than Brian Epstein, who also managed the little band right above them on the chart, and they actually opened for The Beatles during the Fab Four’s U.S. tour. John Lennon even suggested the spelling of their band name.

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Song of the Day #6,565: ‘I Almost Lost My Mind’ – Pat Boone

Throwing back to the week of June 27, 1956, we find Gogi Grant hanging on to the top spot with ‘The Wayward Wind,’ the unlikely hit that dethroned Elvis Presley’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel.’

At #2 that week was Pat Boone with ‘I Almost Lost My Mind.’ The song eventually reached #1, becoming Boone’s second chart-topping hit (of six total in his career).

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Song of the Day #6,564: ‘Blue Bayou (Live)’ – Linda Ronstadt

That’s a wrap on my three-week Deep Dive into the career of Linda Ronstadt, one of popular music’s most versatile and talented performers. Thirty-one albums, 11 Grammys, more than 100 million record sales worldwide, and one gorgeous set of pipes.

Ronstadt found extraordinary success in a laundry list of genres: folk, country, pop, rock, soul, jazz, and Latin, not to mention Christmas music and the Great American Songbook. Time and time again, she defied the odds and turned strange artistic detours into triumphs.

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Song of the Day #6,563: ‘River’ – Linda Ronstadt

I’ve now written about all but two of Linda Ronstadt’s 31 studio albums, and I thought the final two would group together nicely at the end.

First up is the oddest recording of her career, 1996’s Dedicated to the One I Love. This is a collection of rock songs performed in the style of children’s lullabies. If you’ve ever wanted to hear Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ sung against the backdrop of a crib mobile, this is the album for you.

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Song of the Day #6,562: ‘If I Should Fall Behind’ – Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt followed the excellent Winter Light with 1995’s Feels Like Home, a return to her country rock roots.

The album included a handful of tracks first recorded with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris for their initially abandoned second collaborative album. They would appear in remixed form on the Trio II album four years later.

Those tracks include a cover of Neil Young’s ‘After the Gold Rush’ and Randy Newman’s ‘Feels Like Home,’ two standouts that feel redundant on one album or the other depending on which you know better.

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