Throwing back to the week of September 11, 1954, we find two repeats atop the Billboard chart: The Crew Cuts’ ‘Sh-Boom‘ and Rosemary Clooney’s ‘Hey There.’
At #3 was vocal trio The Gaylords with ‘The Little Shoemaker,’ a song based on the French tune ‘Le petit cordonnier’ by Rudi Revil.
The song certainly has a European flair, with two of the choruses sung in Italian (maybe they had too much trouble singing in French?).
Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 2005…
#6 – The Forgotten Arm – Aimee Mann
Aimee Mann’s fifth solo release is a concept album about a romance between Vietnam vet boxer John and his girlfriend Caroline. Set in the 70s, it depicts the couple’s struggle with John’s alcoholism.
Though the songs shape the narrative, they are general enough to work as standalone tracks, and Mann serves up a great batch of her signature melancholy mid-tempo pop.
Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 2005…
#7 – Time Well Wasted – Brad Paisley
This is the first album on my list that I didn’t hear in 2005. Brad Paisley, and country music in general, just weren’t on my radar that year.
It was four years later when I first heard Paisley’s American Saturday Night that I became an instant fan. And that sent me right to his back catalog to catch up with everything I’d missed.
Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 2005…
#8 – Fijacion Oral, Vol. 1 & Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 – Shakira
Today’s pick is a bit of a cheat, in that I’m squeezing two albums into one slot. But Shakira’s two-volume project, separated by five months, certainly feels like one extended album.
Fijacion Oral, the first (and better) volume, is performed entirely in Spanish, while Oral Fixation is fully English-language. The albums share a few titles but mostly tread different territory.
Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 2005…
#9 – Rebel, Sweetheart – The Wallflowers
I’m a massive fan of The Wallflowers’ 2000 album Breach, their third studio release and first after 1996’s breakthrough Bringing Down the Horse. But I had one foot out of the bandwagon after their uninspired follow-up, 2002’s Red Letter Days.
That made Rebel, Sweetheart a pivotal next entry in their discography. And fortunately, it was a return to form.
Meet Me In Montauk 