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Song of the Day #1,654: ‘Elastic Love’ – Christina Aguilera

christina_aguilera_bionicChristina Aguilera has had a strange career. She started out hot, riding the same Mickey Mouse Club teen starlet wave that gave us Britney Spears, but then cooled off quickly. Her sexed-up sophomore album, Stripped, came across as dirty rather than provocative.

She rebounded well with Back to Basics, an excellent double album that showcased her amazing voice and earned both critical raves and strong sales. But then she disappeared for a few years before appearing in the 2010 bomb Burlesque and releasing Bionic, a weak collection that sounded like an attempt to become Lady Gaga.

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Song of the Day #1,653: ‘(How Little It Matters) How Little We Know’ – Frank Sinatra

sinatraI knew this was a Frank Sinatra song about three seconds in, though I didn’t know which one. I don’t have many albums from this era in my collection, so the sound of a big band orchestra generally means just one thing: Ol’ Blue Eyes is back.

I’m not at all familiar with this particular song, though it’s instantly great in the way all of these old songs are great.

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Song of the Day #1,652: ‘Summer Nights (Live)’ – Reassembled Cast of Grease

grease_summer_nightsI never thought I could milk a week’s worth of blog posts out of the Schooner Bar on the Liberty of the Seas, but here we are.

One night, Paul O’Shea played the first few notes of ‘Summer Nights’ from the Grease soundtrack and then looked to the audience for a Sandy to sing alongside him.

No, I’m not going to tell you that Alex (or I) volunteered. This isn’t that good a story.

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Song of the Day #1,651: ‘Walking in Memphis (Live)’ – Marc Cohn

marc_cohnI have this image of Paul O’Shea, relaxing in port, Googling himself and finding a week’s worth of posts on my blog about his Royal Caribbean cruise ship piano bar routine.

Mine wouldn’t be the only one, I’m sure. I found several mentions of O’Shea on YouTube and cruise message boards, and he has a Facebook page filled with pictures from his ocean adventures.

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Song of the Day #1,650: ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’ – The Foundations

build_me_up_buttercupI write these posts in advance, so I’m guessing that my wife, Alex, might have broken her Internet silence to comment on yesterday’s post and reveal that while, yes, she did have a crush on piano man Paul O’Shea, it paled in comparison to the crush I had on massage therapist Aihnoa Gallardo.

If so, I plead the fifth. If not, please disregard the previous paragraph. Nothing to see here… move along.

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