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Song of the Day #6,618: ‘Yellow Submarine’ – The Beatles

During the week of September 6, 1966, The Supremes held the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘You Can’t Hurry Love,’ covered on the blog a full 17 years ago. At #2 was Donovan’s ‘Sunshine Superman,’ which appeared just last year.

At #3 that week was The Beatles’ ‘Yellow Submarine,’ the lone single released by the band from that year’s Revolver. Normally, The Beatles would release a non-album song as a promotional single accompanying a new release, but in 1966 they were burned out enough to just go with an album track.

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Song of the Day #6,617a: ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ – Elvis Presley

Throwing back to the week of September 5, 1956, we find Elvis Presley atop the Billboard Top 100 with ‘Don’t Be Cruel.’ This was the first of seven straight weeks at #1 for the song.

This was Presley’s top-performing song of 1956, a year that saw the release of ‘Hound Dog,’ ‘Heartbreak Hotel,’ ‘I Want You, I Need You, I Love You,’ ‘Blue Suede Shoes,’ ‘Love Me Tender,’ and many more.

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Song of the Day #6,617: ‘Still Standing’ – Phoebe Bridgers

Concluding my ranking of the songs on Phoebe Bridgers’ Lost Weekend…

#3. ‘The Governor’s Waltz’

This beautiful track sounds like it could have appeared on either of Bridgers’ first two albums, which is part of why it became an early favorite. As much as I admire the ambition and growth on display in Lost Weekend, I don’t see it as the equal of Stranger in the Alps or Punisher. Not yet, anyway… I’ve certainly spent a lot more time with those albums than this one. ‘The Governor’s Waltz’ is the record’s Paul Mescal track, and while it throws some shade at his new girlfriend Gracie Abrams, it mostly finds Bridgers exploring her own failure to connect.

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Song of the Day #6,616a: ‘Bobby’ – Phoebe Bridgers

Continuing my ranking of the songs on Phoebe Bridgers’ Lost Weekend…

#6. ‘Bobby’

One of the funny things about Bridgers’ catalog is that she almost never writes upbeat songs, but when she does they are absolute bangers. Such is the case with ‘Bobby,’ a full-on love song written for (and, amusingly, co-written by) Bo Burnham. This song captures the infatuation of early love just beautifully. It’s also the only love song I can think of with a reference to a vibrator (though the lyric is made less explicit in streaming versions of the song).

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Song of the Day #6,616: ‘I Can’t Wait’ – Phoebe Bridgers

Continuing my ranking of the songs on Phoebe Bridgers’ Lost Weekend…

#9. ‘As Above’

The final song (before a brief reprise of the title track) finds Bridgers drifting through her past, present, and future while watching Hot Tub Time Machine over a seat mate’s shoulder on a plane. Its delicate piano-backed verses give way to an explosive bridge before settling back into a moment of resignation: “As it was, so it goes.”

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