In Billboard’s third spot this week is Maroon 5 with ‘Sugar.’ This is the eighth straight single the band has landed in the top ten.
More interesting than the song, which is a highly enjoyable pop soul confection, is the music video. Adam Levine recruited Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin to film the band crashing a series of weddings on a single day in Los Angeles.
At #2 on the latest Billboard Hot 100 is Ed Sheeran with ‘Thinking Out Loud.’ It’s an appropriate selection for St. Patrick’s Day given Sheeran’s leprechaun-like appearance.
Like yesterday’s SOTD, ‘Uptown Funk,’ this is a track my younger daughter latched on to earlier this year and played to death. But while I like the song well enough, it hasn’t grown on me the way ‘Funk’ has.
Two and a half months into 2015, I’m kicking off my first installment of ‘What are the Kids Listening To?,’ wherein I feature ten songs ranking high on Billboard’s Hot 100.
A glance at the chart reveals that the music business is a lot like the movie business, in that the first quarter of the year is sloooow. Most of the songs atop the Hot 100 are from 2014.
The random music selector in my car has been on a Tom Petty kick lately. Lots of tracks from Wildflowers, Damn the Torpedoes, Hypnotic Eye, even Traveling Wilburys.
No matter what Petty song it serves up, I’m never tempted to hit the skip button. There’s just something about his music — or at least the music of his that I own — that makes it perfect for any situation.
Joe Jackson’s Big World is an album I want to know much better than I do.
Released in 1986, it’s an album of original material that was recorded and mixed live with no added overdubs or post-production. The audience was asked not to applaud during or immediately after the performances. Stew used a similar tactic on his great album, The Naked Dutch Painter and Other Songs.
