Category Archives: song of the day

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Song of the Day #3,642: ‘Sleep Like a Baby Tonight’ – U2

U2’s latest album, Songs of Experience, debuted at #1, giving the band #1 hits in every decade since the 80s (they are the first band to achieve that milestone). Many of those sales were the result of a deal that packaged a copy of the album with tickets to their current tour, a gimmick many acts are adopting to boost album sales.

As gimmicks go, it’s not as audacious as the one they tried with their previous album, 2014’s Songs on Innocence, when they automatically uploaded copies of the album to every iTunes customer in the world. That didn’t go over so well.

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Song of the Day #3,641: ‘Takin’ My Time’ – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

It’s been almost nine months since Tom Petty died of cardiac arrest brought on by an accidental drug overdose.

One of the drugs, fentanyl, also contributed to the deaths of Prince and Lil Peep. This is certainly the only context in which Lil Peep’s name will ever be mentioned alongside those legends.

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Song of the Day #3,640: ‘Drag Me Down’ – One Direction

My last One Direction selection is the third from 2015’s Made in the A.M., not just the band’s final album but their first after the departure of Zayn Malik. Malik released a successful solo album titled Mind of Mine in 2016 and placed a handful of singles on the charts.

I don’t see any drop-off without Malik — in fact, I’d call Made in the A.M. the band’s best album. Of course, I can’t tell any of these guys apart in the first place so I’m probably not the best judge.

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Song of the Day #3,639: ‘Olivia’ – One Direction

My next One Direction song, like the last one, comes from the band’s final album, Made in the A.M. In fact, all five of this week’s selections appear on the band’s last two albums. This is a band that got better and better as they went.

‘Olivia’ is a straight-up homage to the British Invasion, with a melody and production that would have felt at home on any Beatles album.

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Song of the Day #3,638: ‘What a Feeling’ – One Direction

When I asked my daughter Sophia to name her favorite One Direction song, she thought for a second and replied, ‘What a Feeling.’ I thanked her and withdrew, having decided on my Song of the Day for today, her 16th birthday.

Later she asked me why I wanted to know, and when I told her, she bristled, saying something along the lines of “Wait, that might not be the song I want to define me.”

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