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Song of the Day #6,308: ‘Father Figure’ – Taylor Swift

I’m pausing my Decades installment on the year 1986 to write about the new album of an artist born in 1989.

Yes, I figured I might as well strike while the iron is still relatively hot and post my take on Taylor Swift’s 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl.

This has been Swift’s most polarizing release in years, with some critics and fans alike disappointed in the superficial goofiness of many of its lyrics. Others have hailed it as another triumph. And of course it’s breaking new sales records every day.

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Song of the Day #6,307: ‘Oh Sheila’ – Ready for the World

Today’s SOTD is the second straight Throwback Weekend selection that is entirely new to me. I have never heard ‘Oh Sheila’ and I have never heard of Ready for the World, the R&B band behind it.

This was the third single and biggest hit by the Michigan-based group, though they reached the top ten again the following year with ‘Love You Down.’

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Song of the Day #6,306: ‘Bad Blood’ – Neil Sedaka

Throwing back to the week of October 11, 1975, we find Neil Sedaka atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ‘Bad Blood,’ a song I’m certain I’ve never heard before.

This was Sedaka’s third #1 hit, following 1962’s ‘Breaking Up is Hard to Do’ and 1974’s ‘Laughter in the Rain.’ This song remained at #1 for three weeks, becoming the biggest hit of the singer-songwriter’s career.

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Song of the Day #6,305: ‘All Around the World (Or The Myth of Fingerprints)’ – Paul Simon

Concluding a countdown of my favorite albums of 1986…

#1 – Graceland – Paul Simon

Like The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead, Paul Simon’s Graceland is one of my all-time favorite albums, and it’s pretty damn high on that list.

My love for Simon’s best-selling and most-lauded album is due to its impeccable music content, of course, but it’s also rooted in nostalgia. This is the one album on my 1986 list that I listened to the year it came out. It was a staple of my childhood, an album my family learned and loved together.

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Song of the Day #6,304: ‘The Boy with the Thorn in His Side (Live)’ – The Smiths

Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1986…

#2 – The Queen is Dead – The Smiths

If you’d told me The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead wouldn’t be my #1 album of the year it came out, I would have called you crazy. And yet, that’s where we stand, with one of my all-time favorite albums serving as salutatorian.

I’ve sung this album’s praises so much on the blog that all ten of its tracks have already been featured, requiring me to post a live version today. But I’ll scribble down a few more words of praise.

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