Today’s SOTD is the closing track on Rufus Wainwright’s 2007 live album Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall. As this performance was a song-for-song recreation of Judy Garland’s original 1961 Judy at Carnegie Hall show, it was the final track for her as well.
‘Chicago,’ sometimes subtitled ‘That Toddlin’ Town’ is the less famous of two Chicago songs first popularized by Frank Sinatra. The other is, of course, ‘My Kind of Town.’
The award for most awkwardly long title this week goes to track two of The Negro Problem’s debut album, 1997’s Post Minstrel Syndrome.
This is a little throwaway poem/song offering up a snapshot of “93 North” and Main Street, which my Googling suggests might be in Concord, New Hampshire, though that doesn’t make much sense. It might also refer to US 93, which runs from Arizona to Canada, through Nevada, Idaho and Montana. That’s a lot closer to singer-songwriter Stew’s hometown of Los Angeles.
‘From Afar’ was the debut single from Vance Joy’s 2014 album Dream Your Life Away. It’s a pining portrait of unrequited love that kicks into another gear during its yearning outro.
The song was eclipsed by the success of second single ‘Riptide,’ which became the longest-charting single in Joy’s home country of Australia and enjoyed worldwide success.
In 1967, as many as 700 million people worldwide watched Our World, the first ever live international satellite broadcast. The show featured segments by 14 different countries, presenting scenes of their choice (Japan showed the construction of the Tokyo subway system, while Canada showed a rancher herding cattle).
The United Kingdom won the night by offering up The Beatles, at the height of their popularity, debuting a new song. John Lennon wrote ‘All You Need Is Love’ for the occasion, deliberately penning a tune so simple that anybody in the world could easily sing along.
‘9-9’ (pronounced “nine to nine,” according to bassist Mike Mills) is a deep cut on R.E.M.’s debut album, 1983’s Murmur.
Murmur is a fascinating album because it not only introduced the jangly pop and soulful folk rock that R.E.M. would perfect, but also weird, discordant, soft-punk songs like this one that pointed to some of the odd detours the band would take throughout their career.
Meet Me In Montauk 