The Random iTunes Fairy must have felt bad for last week’s post calling Ron Sexsmith a “no-hit wonder.” She has brought him back for an encore performance just eight days later.
Today’s track is from the 2008 album Exit Strategy of the Soul. It’s one of Sexsmith’s more sonically interesting albums, adding horns to most tracks and getting a little more experimental in its production. That doesn’t apply to today’s selection, though, which is a pretty straightforward ballad.
Today’s random selection is a cut from the 11th volume of Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series, this one dedicated to the Basement Tapes album he recorded with The Band in 1967. Those recordings didn’t see an official release until 1975, a span that saw Dylan release eight other albums.
While the final album featured 16 songs from those 1967 recordings, along with eight more recorded by The Band in the ensuing years, there was a wealth of other material committed to tape during those sessions. Bootlegs of those songs have been passed around by fans ever since.
I’m closing out these three weeks of “covers you didn’t know were covers” with a trip into the ‘Torn’ extended musical universe.
Most of us know today’s Song of the Day as ‘Torn,’ the 1997 pop song by Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia. It was a huge hit in both the UK and the U.S., though it was initially kept off the Billboard Hot 100 due to a rule that didn’t allow songs to chart unless they had been released as physical singles. That rule changed late in the song’s popularity, and it managed to reach #42 for a couple of weeks.
The first three songs featured this week originated with men but were popularized by women. Today’s song is the opposite.
June Carter, soon to be June Carter Cash, wrote ‘Ring of Fire’ with Merle Kilgore in 1963, using the song’s central image as a metaphor for falling in love. But rather than give the song to her husband-to-be, she gave it to her sister, folk singer Anita Carter.
Here’s another case of a late 70s song by a man turning into an early 80s hit by a woman. In this case, swapping the genders in the lyrics also led to a title change for the song.
‘Mickey’ was released in 1982 by American singer Toni Basil, reaching #1 in the United States and cementing the 39-year-old as a classic one-hit wonder. Basil’s career as a choreographer is far more interesting, including co-directing videos for Talking Heads and serving as choreographer on such films as American Graffiti, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Legally Blonde, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Meet Me In Montauk 