‘Here Comes My Baby’ was written by Cat Stevens in the late 60s and first released as a cover by a band called The Tremeloes in January of 1967. Their version landed on both the U.K. and U.S. charts.
According to an uncited (and therefore quite dubious) tidbit on The Tremeloes’ Wikipedia page, the band was signed by their label (Decca) over another English band, The Beatles, who were deemed a bit too far away in Liverpool.
When today’s song popped up as my next random selection, I was shocked to discover I hadn’t written about it already. It’s one of my favorite tracks on a really great album by an artist I’ve featured fairly often.
‘Daddy I’m Fine’ appears on Sinead O’Connor’s 2000 album Faith and Courage, her fifth and quite possibly her best. It’s a quick and clever piece of autobiography with half-spoken choruses building to a thrashing chorus.
‘I’ll Get You’ is an early Beatles track released in 1963 as the B-side of ‘She Loves You’ but not appearing on any of their official album releases.
Listening to the opening lines of this simple pop track (“Imagine I’m in love with you”), it’s hard to believe John Lennon would be singing “Imagine there’s no heaven” just eight years later. These guys lived a lifetime in less than a decade.
Sara Bareilles is so good I feel a little guilty for not listening to her more.
The truth is I hear her songs quite a bit, especially tracks from her 2007 debut Little Voice, because my daughter plays the hell out of them on long drives. But Bareilles’ second album, 2010’s Kaleidoscope Heart, is very good as well and I never play that one. And I’m ashamed to say I didn’t even know she had a third album, 2013’s The Blessed Unrest, which was nominated for an Album of the Year Grammy (it lost to Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories).
Here’s a lovely track from Brandy Clark’s excellent 2013 album 12 Stories. It’s about a woman and her man running into his ex-girlfriend.
As in all of Clark’s songs, the writing here is subtle and evocative. I love the key line of the chorus (“this would be a real good time to hold my hand”), which reads a bit jokey but Clark sings with nervous resignation.
Here’s a cut from Bob Dylan’s 2013 Bootleg Series release Another Self Portrait, which compiled alternate and discarded takes from the sessions for his most loathed album, Self Portrait. It’s a fine collection, and one that makes you wonder how Dylan ended up with such a dog of an album given the source material.
However, even more entertaining than the music on Another Self Portrait is the comment section of my initial post about this album back in 2013.
The L.A.-based rock band Los Lobos has released nearly two dozen albums over the past 40+ years, but none has been more celebrated than 1992’s Kiko. It also happens to be the only album of theirs I own, so I guess I chose right.
Kiko is full of off-kilter rock and blues songs, tracks that sound like long-last classics. Today’s random SOTD is one of the most straight-forward cuts on the album but it’s a great listen as well.
