Over the next two weeks, I’ll feature songs from the latest batch of inductees to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This year’s crop is one of the biggest yet (maybe the biggest ever?), with 12 performers earning inclusion in the Hall.
Kicking things off, alphabetically, are Foo Fighters, who made the cut in their first year of eligibility. The band was founded by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl in Seattle in 1994, following Kurt Cobain’s suicide and the subsequent disbanding of Nirvana.
Today’s track, from John Mellencamp’s 1994 album Dance Naked, is the fourth Random Weekend song from that record. The most recent was posted this past June.
Lots of Random Weekend love for a minor album in Mellencamp’s discography. Only two other Mellencamp songs have ever been selected by the Random iTunes Fairy, one from Human Wheels and one from Scarecrow. Better albums than this one, for sure.
I wasn’t really aware of Bruce Springsteen as a career artist when I was 15 years old, the year 1987’s Tunnel of Love came out.
Of course, I was aware of the runaway smash Born in the U.S.A. (1984) from its radio and MTV airplay, but I had no concept of his prior work or his importance to the rock music landscape. And this album missed my radar entirely until years later.
The final song in the latest installment of ‘What the Kids Are Listening To’ comes courtesy of Italian rock band Maneskin, who sit at #13 with their cover of the 60s song ‘Beggin’.’
This track was first released by The Four Seasons in 1967 and was later covered by French DJ Pilooski and Norwegian hip-hop act Madcon before Maneskin took their shot.
Happy Thanksgiving to my readers in the United States! And what better way to celebrate the holiday than with a song by Nigerian singer Wizkid?
‘Essence’ is a duet with fellow Nigerian vocalist Tems in which the two flirt over Afrobeat rhythms. The version that sits at #11 on this week’s Hot 100 (one slot behind Dua Lipa’s ‘Levitating’) also features a verse by Justin Bieber.
Meet Me In Montauk 