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Song of the Day #6,080: ‘Dreaming’ – Blondie

Continuing my countdown of last year’s best films…

Best Films of 2024
#3. Anora

It’s kind of amazing that Sean Baker is seemingly on the verge of Best Director and Best Picture wins at this weekend’s Oscars. Here’s a fiercely independent filmmaker whose movies depict America’s underbelly, often focusing on sex workers ground down by the heel of capitalism.

I’m still wary that the Cinderella story will end with someone more traditional winning the prize. I’m reminded of when Richard Linklater’s Boyhood looked like it would capture the top awards, only to lose to Birdman.

Indie stalwarts don’t often get the storybook ending.

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Song of the Day #6,079: ‘É Preciso Dar Um Jeito, Meu Amigo’ – Erasmo Carlos

Continuing my countdown of last year’s best films…

Best Films of 2024
#4. I’m Still Here

One of the last award season movies I caught up with, Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here, turned out to be one of the very best.

The film depicts the family of real-life Brazilian congressman Rubens Paiva, who was disappeared by the country’s military dictatorship in 1971. Matriarch Eunice, played by the remarkable Fernanda Torres, relentlessly pursues the truth behind her husband’s fate while raising their five children.

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Song of the Day #6,078: ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ – Timothee Chalamet

Continuing my countdown of last year’s best films…

Best Films of 2024
#5. A Complete Unknown

It occurred to me after the second time I’d watched and loved director James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown that I’d never before seen a biopic about an artist whose work means as much to me as Bob Dylan’s.

Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Elton John, Ray Charles… all legends, no doubt. But none whose music has enraptured me for nearly four decades. None whose albums I dissected as a nerdy high school sophomore, gobbling up every line of poetry, every harmonica note, every nasally vocal.

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Song of the Day #6,077: ‘This Diamond Ring’ – Gary Lewis & the Playboys

Gary Lewis & the Playboys topped the Billboard Hot 100 the week of February 23, 1965, with ‘This Diamond Ring.’ It was the song’s second straight week at #1.

This was the band’s first single release, and their only one to reach #1. They were one of only two acts to reach the top ten with their first seven singles (the other was The Lovin’ Spoonful).

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Song of the Day #6,076: ‘Ko Ko Mo (I Love You So)’ – Perry Como

Throwing back to the week of February 22, 1955, we find the usual repeats in the top three spots before a newcomer at #4: Perry Como with ‘Ko Ko Mo (I Love You So).’

This was RCA Victor’s first rock record, and matching it with a white crooner like Como was, as one historian put it, an “industry effort to whitewash the racy, raunchy music of rhythm and blues before anyone’s daughter heard it.”

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