This is wrong on so many levels.
The 25th anniversary re-release of Michael Jackson’s Thriller features a series of bonus tracks on which Jackson’s original tracks are re-mixed and turned into duets with performers such as will.i.am, Akon, Kanye West and (in today’s SOTD) Fergie.
First of all, I hate the idea of a “duet” with a dead person. I hated it when Natalie Cole sang with old Nat, and I hate it here.
Today we throw back 40 years to the week of May 14, 1983, when a song called ‘Beat It’ by little-known pop singer Michael Jackson topped the Billboard Hot 100.
I was surprised to see I hadn’t featured ‘Beat It’ on the blog through 5,432 Songs of the Day. The closest I’ve come is a Random Weekend feature of ‘Beat It 2008,’ a bonus track on the 25th anniversary re-release of Thriller that remixed the song and added vocals by Fergie. Exhibit A of why Throwback Weekends are already better than Random Weekends.
I guess the Random iTunes Fairy is in a mischievous mood this weekend.
Out of more than 200 songs by the greatest rock band of all time, she has chosen to offer up The Beatles’ worst recording: ‘Revolution 9.’
To be fair, this is the 19th Beatles song to appear on a Random Weekend. I guess the l (bad) luck of the draw was going to settle on this one eventually.
I’ve always ranked The Beatles’ Let It Be in the lower half of their albums. That’s not saying too much, given the excellence of everything they released, but still, it’s never been a favorite.
I found a whole new appreciation for the album, however, after watching Peter Jackson’s Get Back mini-series, which documented the creation of Let It Be in fascinating detail. Now when I listen to it, I can picture the laughs, the fights, the creative chemistry that made The Beatles work.
I recently wrote that I’d like to feature more Beatles music this year, and I guess the Random iTunes Fairy was listening. Today she’s offering up the opening track of the band’s classic 1967 album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
While Pepper is an iconic release and one of The Beatles’ top-selling albums, it sits pretty low on my personal list. Of course, this being The Beatles, that means the album still features several all-time classic songs, including ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,’ ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ and ‘A Day in the Life.’
Meet Me In Montauk 