Monthly Archives: October 2011

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Song of the Day #1,189: ‘Always’ – Shea Seger

Continuing yesterday’s focus on one-hit wonders, I’m turning today to Shea Seger, a singer-songwriter from Texas whose 2001 album, The May Street Project, is a refreshing blend of modern studio wizardry and appealing Lilith Fair-ready folk rock.

I guess it’s not even accurate to call Seger a one-hit wonder, because she never really had a hit. One song, ‘Clutch,’ was released as a single but I’ve never heard it other than on the album itself.

I posted ‘Clutch’ as a Song of the Day in early 2010 and was surprised to see it handily dismissed by the commenters. I’ve always loved that song.

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Song of the Day #1,188: ‘Murder’ – Alana Davis

In 1997, Alana Davis released Blame It On Me, a sultry blend of soft rock and R&B that landed on Time magazine’s list of the five best albums of the year.

The first single was a cover of Ani DiFranco’s ’32 Flavors’ that markedly improved upon the original. Another single, ‘Crazy,’ didn’t receive as much attention and Blame It On Me peaked at #157 on the charts.

Davis waited four years before releasing her second album, Fortune Cookies, then left her label and independently released a third album, Surrender Dorothy, in 2005. Her official website hasn’t been updated since 2004, and features a sad little banner that reads “Alana’s new album is coming soon!”

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Song of the Day #1,187: ‘Friday’ – “Bob Dylan”

Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’ was excoriated as everything wrong with the modern music industry — the epitome of packaged product and the removal of talent from the commercial equation.

Indeed, Black is the logical extension of Britney Spears. Spears proved that you didn’t need vocal talent to become a superstar… just a sexy image and a group of top hit-makers and producers behind you.

The Ark Music Factory removed the sex appeal and the proven behind-the-scenes talent from the equation and still managed to score a big hit, if only an ironic one.

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Song of the Day #1,186: ‘Moves Like Jagger’ – Maroon 5

Even now that I’m making an effort to keep up to at least some degree with what the kids are listening to these days, I miss things.

I saw the first ever performance of today’s SOTD, Maroon 5’s ‘Moves Like Jagger,’ when front man Adam Levine performed it on The Voice with fellow coach Christina Aguilera.

But then it fell completely off my radar. And, I assumed, neither did anybody else. I dismissed it as a failed attempt to capitalize on a large TV audience. Nice enough song, but instantly forgotten.

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Song of the Day #1,185: ‘The Dangling Conversation’ – Simon & Garfunkel

The third single from Parsely, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme might not have the instant familiarity of ‘Scarborough Fair’ and ‘Homeward Bound’ but it is a dazzler nonetheless.

‘The Dangling Conversation’ sets a sad scene of the relationship that has dissolved into apathy. Simon, all of 25 years old when he wrote this, beautifully captures the numbness of faded love.

You can picture these two intellectuals, “couched in… indifference,” reading their poetry and having superficial conversations about analysis and the theater — this is 70s Woody Allen territory a decade earlier.

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