Category Archives: random weekends

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Song of the Day #4,461: ‘Thank You Girl’ – The Beatles

‘Thank You Girl’ was released as the B-side to The Beatles’ ‘From Me To You’ in the United Kingdom and ‘Do You Want To Know a Secret’ in the United States. Originally intended as a single but later relegated to also-ran status, it’s a great example of the band’s earliest pop phase.

I’m always amazed that within four years of lightweight fare like this, the band had released Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, three albums that changed the face of popular music forever.

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Song of the Day #4,460: ‘Shout’ – Tears For Fears

‘Shout’ is the opening track of Tears for Fears’ 1985 album Songs From the Big Chair, the New Wave band’s most successful release.

In addition to this track, which hit #1 in the United States, the album featured ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ (another #1 hit) and ‘Head Over Heels,’ which peaked at #3 in the U.S. Interestingly, none of these songs reached the top spot in the band’s native England.

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Song of the Day #4,454: ‘Vincent’ – Don McLean

Don McLean’s 1971 album American Pie is best known for its epic title track, of course, but it spawned another hit single in ‘Vincent.’

This lovely song was inspired by the life and death of painter Vincent Van Gogh, who suffered from mental illness and committed suicide at just 37.

McLean had this to say about the inspiration for one of his most beloved songs:

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Song of the Day #4,453: ‘The Long Race’ – Bruce Hornsby &amp the Range

This is the third Bruce Hornsby song to show up on a Random Weekend in the past nine months. Prior to that, the only Hornsby song on the blog came more than nine years earlier, in September of 2010.

This song is new to me. It’s the fourth track on his debut album, a record I know through its singles: ‘The Way It Is,’ ‘On the Western Skyline,’ ‘Every Little Kiss,’ and ‘Mandolin Rain.’

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Song of the Day #4,447: ‘Dig Down Deep’ – Marc Cohn

Here’s a track from an album making its first appearance on Random Weekends: Marc Cohn’s 1991 self-titled debut.

This is the only Cohn album I own, so it’s no surprise that it took this long for it to win the Meet Me in Montauk lottery. We’re talking 11 songs out of more than 13,000.

Cohn has released nine albums since this one, though two are live albums, one is a greatest hits, one is a collection of unreleased tracks, one is an album of covers of songs from 1970, and one features re-recordings of his own songs with the gospel group Blind Boys of Alabama.

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