This is the second appearance of ‘The Beehive State’ on the blog. The first was by the song’s writer, Randy Newman, and was posted without comment during a week when my family was on vacation in Utah.
Today’s version is from Harry Nilsson’s 1970 album Nilsson Sings Newman, which found the successful singer-songwriter covering songs by a then relatively unknown Randy Newman.
I’m not sure how I came to own the 2006 album Boys and Girls in America by alternative rockers The Hold Steady, and I don’t think I’ve ever listened to it.
The band has made only one other appearance on the blog, in a post about a song they performed for the closing credits of a Game of Thrones episode.
Today’s song is the second track on the band’s third album, and it’s a wonderful Random Weekend find. It’s sharp, propulsive and fun.
Carly Rae Jepsen’s 2015 album Emotion is a rare bird — an audience-friendly pop confection considered a cult classic due to its low sales and small but devoted fan base.
This album is so bright and infectious, it should have been pouring out of radios and phones all over the world. Instead, it showed up on plenty of critics’ top ten lists but struggled to chart. The album sold better in Japan than in the United States or Jepsen’s native Canada.
To help appreciate the astounding popularity of Michael Jackson, consider that 1979’s Off the Wall sold more than 20 million copies worldwide… and it’s his fifth best-selling album.
What’s nuts is that the four albums Jackson released before this one, all between 1972 and 1975 on Motown Records, barely made a dent. Those records, recorded by a teenaged Jackson in a style very much like his work with the Jackson 5, showed few hints of the R&B/disco juggernaut to come.
I split Lucinda Williams’ discography into four periods.
You have the early years, from 1979-1992, featuring straightforward folk pop/rock and her most radio-friendly tunes and vocals.
Then there’s the span from 1998-2003, which saw her stretch into more challenging song styles and favor raw emotion over more polished performances. 1998’s Car Wheels On a Gravel Road, still her masterpiece, bridges the first two phases.
Meet Me In Montauk 