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Song of the Day #1,177: ‘The Sound of Silence’ – Simon & Garfunkel

When we left Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, they had split up after the failure of their debut folk album, 1964’s Wednesday Morning, 3AM, with Simon moving to London to perform in small venues and Garfunkel pursuing a Masters degree in New York City.

During the summer of ’65, one track off of that debut album showed signs of life on college radio. ‘The Sound of Silence,’ a gentle tune with grand lyrics, received a lot of airplay in Gainesville, Florida, and other college towns. Producer Tom Wilson, who had worked on Wednesday Morning, 3AM, sensed an opportunity.

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Song of the Day #1,176: ‘The Summer Place’ – Fountains of Wayne

Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger are the Rodney Dangerfield of popular music. Their band, Fountains of Wayne, is often dismissed as a novelty act or a one-hit wonder when actually it is among the smartest, most talented pop outfits around.

Blame ‘Stacy’s Mom,’ the infectious hit single from the band’s 2003 album, Welcome Interstate Managers. That song, and its Rachel Hunter-starring video, struck gold more as a novelty than an example of fine songwriting craft. Never mind that it is an expertly crafted song, and that the album it comes from is chock full of tunes even better than that one.

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Song of the Day #1,175: ‘Over Joy’ – Steven Page

The last time I featured a Steven Page song on the blog, it was a big hit. That song was ‘Leave Her Alone,’ a big band update on The Beatles’ ‘She’s Leaving Home,’ and impressively it drew high praise from all corners.

That’s a rare enough occurrence on Meet Me In Montauk that I figured I’d go back to the well and give Page another shot.

‘Over Joy’ is another track off of his solo debut, Page One, an album that I’ve had in constant rotation since I picked it up a few months ago.

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Song of the Day #1,174: ‘Hell on Heels’ – Pistol Annies

The album I’m most looking forward to this year is Miranda Lambert’s Four the Record, due out on November 1. I can’t name many up-and-coming artists whose music I enjoy as much as hers.

But Lambert has made the wait a lot easier by teaming up with a couple of songwriting buddies, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley, to form Pistol Annies, a girl group in the old-school tradition. Their debut album, Hell on Heels, was released last month as a digital download and still managed to top the country charts and land at #5 on the overall Billboard chart.

As a result, Lambert is the first country artist in history to reach #1 both as a solo artist and as part of a group.

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