Our next 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee is unquestionably a pop culture legend. Cher has been eligible for inclusion in the Hall since 1991 and yet, remarkably, was nominated for the first time this year.
That’s despite being the only solo artist in history to have #1 hits (on any Billboard chart) in each of the last seven decades. Only The Rolling Stones have matched that feat, and as Cher said, “it took four of them to be one of [her].”
This week marks the fifth presidential election since I launched Meet Me in Montauk, a number that frankly surprised me.
I looked back to see how I handled the other four and was shocked to see that I largely ignored them. Only once did I program blog content related to Election Day.
That was in 2016.
The week of Nov. 3, 1964, found The Supremes atop the Billboard Hot 100 with their classic ‘Baby Love.’ I posted that song way back at Song of the Day #339, early on in a Motown Weekends series.
At #2 was J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers’s ‘Last Kiss,’ a recording of a song originally released a few years earlier by the song’s writer, Wayne Cochran. While that version stalled out on the charts, this one did quite well.
Throwing back to the week of Nov. 2, 1954, we find a familiar trio hanging on at the top three of Billboard’s singles chart: Eddie Fisher’s ‘I Need You Now‘ and two Rosemary Clooney tracks, ‘Hey There‘ and ‘This Ole House.’
At #4 that week was Perry Como’s ‘Papa Loves Mambo,’ a tune that capitalized on a nationwide interest in the Cuban dance music style.
My final horror movie post of the year sings the praises of the genre’s acting. While many low-budget scary movies are notorious for wooden performances, particularly by dim-witted teens being lined up for slaughter, others are showcases for extraordinary screen acting.
The Academy Awards have famously ignored this genre, along with comedy, for nearly 100 years. Only six actors have won Oscars for horror movies: Frederic March for 1931’s Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, Ruth Gordon for 1968’s Rosemary’s Baby, Kathy Bates for 1990’s Misery, both Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster for 1991’s Silence of the Lambs, and Natalie Portman for 2010’s Black Swan.
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