Monthly Archives: December 2009

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Song of the Day #513: ‘We Can Work It Out’ – The Beatles

This weekend I’ll highlight two more of The Beatles’ non-album tracks, starting with the more popular song on their 1965 double-A side release of ‘We Can Work It Out’ and ‘Day Tripper.’

Though Lennon and McCartney shared songwriting credit on every one of their songs, it was very rare that they actually collaborated. ‘We Can Work It Out’ was one of those infrequent collaborations — Paul wrote the verses and chorus while John contributed the bridge (“Life is very hard and there’s no time…”). For that reason, and because it’s so damn good, this is generally considered one of the band’s best songs.

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Song of the Day #512 ‘Close to You’ – Frank Sinatra

Today is my parents’ anniversary and I’m marking the occasion by featuring a song by their favorite singer, Frank Sinatra. My dad was a big Sinatra fan back in the 60s when he and my mom became a couple… he largely bypassed the rock music bursting on the scene in favor of ol’ blue eyes. He’s one of those guys who was already 60 when he was 18 (and now that he’s in his 60s he looks like he’s 38, so he’s all over the map).

My mom made room for Elvis and The Beatles but she, too, was a Sinatra fan at heart. She’s been a little more adventurous musically than he has (though I’m admittedly stretching the definition of “adventurous”) but come dinner time in that household, nine times out of ten it’s going to be Sinatra coming out of the speakers. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Song of the Day #511: ‘Crying’ – TV On the Radio

I took some birthday money and bought a bunch of new music right around this time last year. Actually, I even wrote a post about it… this one. Of the seven CDs I bought, two rose quickly to the top of the heap: Rihanna’s Good Girl Gone Bad (the beginning of a beautiful friendship) and TV On the Radio’s Dear Science.

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Song of the Day #510: ‘Let Her Cry’ – Hootie & the Blowfish

I recently watched the Country Music Awards for the first time in my life and was happy to see Darius Rucker win the Best New Artist trophy (the first black performer to do so). It’s funny that a guy who first hit it big 15 years ago is considered a “new artist” but, to paraphrase NBC, he was new to them.

Rucker has had quite a career resurgence in the country genre. His first three singles, like the album they come from, all hit #1 on the country charts. His big voice and easy-going manner are a perfect fit for that audience.

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Song of the Day #509: ‘Apologies’ – Grace Potter & the Nocturnals

I’m sticking with the talent show today and featuring a song I’d never heard by a band I didn’t know existed. That probably applies to half the songs I heard in the talent show, but in this case I was moved to seek out the original track.

The singers were definitely the shakiest group of performers. As anybody who’s seen five minutes of American Idol knows, there are far more people who think they can sing than people who actually can. It takes some combination of guts and delusion to walk out on stage and perform a tuneless version of some recent radio hit.

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