Songs »Tell Him

tell him the excitersThe Exciters was a great and appropriate name for this band. While there hit “Tell Him” gets lumped into the broad category of “oldies” and is probably all too familiar to the world because of it's inclusion in the Big Chill, Ally McBeal and My Best Friend's Wedding, but if you take that all away, it's is in fact an exciting song,

The vocals are aggressive, and commanding. It's the song that made Dusty Springfield take up R&B so let's all give big thanks to these Queens born super singers: Brenda Reid, Lillian Walker, and Carol Johnson.

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Posted on May 26, 2008

Songs »Reggae Man

reggea man jack morgan look around youThe handsome Jack Morgan of TV's Look Around You had a hit song with “Little Mouse” or at least in the wondrous fake world of fake educational television that is the ingenious (and often sited here) BBC show Look Around You.

In season two, Morgan triumphs again with Reggae Man, and it has been my favorite song to get stuck in my head recently. He performs this stunningly awesome song at the end of the episode entitled Music 2000, where the Look Around You gang tries to predict what music will be like in the year 2000 with the help?of the ghost of Tchaikovsky.

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Posted on May 19, 2008

Songs »Making Love in the Rain

making love in the rain herb alpertI think my ipod has major beaver fever, because it keeps randomly playing smooth jams about love making. Making Love in the Rain, which features Janet Jackson and Lisa Keith, is surprisingly a Herb Alpert song.

Herb Alpert, of the television theme song jingles, of Whipped Cream and Other Delights! Who knew he was so soulful and so diverse with his music, always in tune with the times.

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Posted on May 12, 2008

Songs »Being With You

being with you smokey robinsonWhen I was a wee one I was obsessed with the song Being With You, obsessed. It was my “Trouble” (by Lindsey Buckingham) at that point in my life. My mom would put the record on and I would totally belt it out and had a few smooth dance moves to go with it too.

I seemed to always be drawn to a little soul in my music (that's probably why I am the only person I know that listens to R Kelly without irony) and this woeful ditty about defying all others for a girl that done you wrong apparently talked directly to my toddler soul (I was three when it came out).

This song can always take me back to that vague distant world of being a little kid, those years where you're not sure if you actually remember what happened or have just filled in the blanks with stories families love to retell.

My stint as a Smokey Robinson impersonator is definitely one of those stories and it reminds me of my mom, always there to turn on the record player so I could perform.

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Posted on May 5, 2008

Songs »Falling in Love Again

the blue angel marlene dietrich falling in love again/ Oh Marlene Dietrich. Can she sing such a love song of desperation and surrender or what? She made this song as legendary as herself when she introduced it to the world in the film Der Blaue Engel. Whether you've seen it or not, this scene and the image of her top hated and stockinged must be familiar.

The song was composed by Frederick Hollander, a famous Hollywood composer who also wrote I've Been in Love Before which was also performed by Dietrich in Seven Sinners and interpreted by Sammy Lerner who wrote the Popeye the Sailor cartoon theme song.

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Posted on April 28, 2008

Songs »Computer Love

zapp computer love the new zapp four youI imagine Zapp playing in fun dance spots with lots of neon and gold lamme and those long braids with beads in them that I could never get away with without looking like an even whiter Juliette Lewis. This family group (Zapp is made up of the five Troutman brothers) was big in the 80's, but Computer Love comes from the album The New Zapp IV U, recorded at the tale end of a successful career which also includes the hit More Bounce to the Ounce.

Kudos to Zapp for accurately prophesising the wild world of internet porn in five minute dance song format–and for creating an upbeat, digitized weirdly sexy anthem that I love.

In a tragic turn of events, percussionist Larry shot and killed younger brother Roger in 1999 before turning the gun on himself, no one's quite sure why, it seems to have something to do with a financial dispute. Roger was the creative force and the man behind the talk box; he's left a major legacy behind and Computer Love is one of the best.

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Posted on April 21, 2008

Songs »Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)

looking glass brandyWho knew that Brandy, the hit single from Looking Glass, is based on a real live girl! But before I get all excited imagining a feathered haired bar wench pining for a man at sea, lyricist Elliot Lurie has said that though a girl with a name similar to Brandy does exist, the story is made up.

She must have just been a real nice girl, the kind you want to marry, but maybe Lurie just couldn't quite bring himself to the altar since he was living the life of an early 1970s rock star–a lifestyle he probably equated to high adventure on the open seas.

I still see Brandy with blonde feathered hair, just like the makeup wearing, scarily slutty older sister of my own sister's childhood friend who used to steal boxes of wine from her swinger parents' fridge. Brandy–what a name–reached the peak of its popularity right after this song was released. Since then, it's been sliding: 81 million Brandys were born in the '70s; 719,00 in 2005 (according to the Baby Name Voyager).

In the song Brandy, a fine girl, is a barmaid to a bunch of sailors, all who know and praise her fineness but, alas, they tell her “my love, my wife, and my lady is the sea”. I really bonded over this song with a G in short shorts one night at the Phoenix, I hope you can still find it on the jukebox next time you're there.

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Posted on April 14, 2008

Songs »On the Radio

donna summer on the radioAfter watching Foxes, which I know you will on my glowing recommendation, you will be, as I am, compelled to listen to Donna Summer's On The Radio, over and over. It was written specifically for the bad girl teen movie and the film features some instrumental interludes that will make you want to feather your hair and have sleep overs with your best girlfriends.

Donna Summer, who is totally beloved here at Brix Picks always had an ear for wayward girls, remember Bad Girls her sympathetic pop ode to the women of the world who end up walking the streets? Or the feminist march on the street working woman anthem She Works Hard for the Money?

She's been quoted as once saying “You've got to maintain your level of self-esteem through everything. You are who you are, and nobody will ever be able to take that from you if you don't let them”. Man, this lady is awesome, and On the Radio ranks among her very best.

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Posted on April 7, 2008

Songs »We’re Barbie and the Rockers

barbie and the rockersMy sister and I took playing with our Barbie dolls very seriously. Not only did every single doll have her own name, she also possessed a detailed and complex personality and background. I say “she” because we only had two Ken dolls: a moppy haired gentleman who usually wore a fast food uniform, and the Derek doll from Barbie and the Rockers who's name in our play universe was Todd O'Neal–we even changed the lyrics of Manic Monday to “I was kissin' Todd O'Neal by a crystal blue Italian stream” when we sang it.

Our two most beloved characters, (the ones we would pitch our voices differently to act like) were Staretta Aldo (my sister) and Cheryl Phillip (myself). We were best friends, members of the Bangles, and the Frugal Gourmet was my dad, Mr Philip.

Yes, we took it very seriously. And this pink tape, which we still have somewhere, with its four amazing tracks was no less revered. I could have recommended it as album of the week, but with only four songs, each under two minutes, it's more like a medley. The most popular song, of course is “Barbie and the Rockers” a genuinely catchy tune, but my most favorite is “Born with a Mic in Our Hands” a story of how the whole gang: Barbie, Derek, Deedee, Diva, and Dana were destined to form a rock band since birth.

Many Jem fans claim Barbie and the Rockers were just a fake rip off and, well, they were–but I seriously love this tape.

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Posted on March 31, 2008

Songs »Darling Be Home Soon

darling be home soon lovin spoonfulI am so torn about The Lovin' Spoonful. They've made my picks before with their lamenting song Summer in the City, and again I have fallen in love with one of their hits, Darling Be Home Soon which was on the soundtrack to a very unheralded Francis Ford Coppola movie called “You're a Big Boy Now” which featured …. Rip Torn and Karen Black! (sweet!)

Still, I have yet to be able to recommend a full album as some of their songs (Did You Ever Have to Make up Your Mind? and Do You Believe in Magic specifically) drive me crazy, and crazy in a bad way. But even as their positively glowing and shrieking innocence can become syrupy and irritating, it can also be downright adorable.

Noddy Holder, lead singer of Slade who totally rocks up the song in this video calls it “gentle and sexy”, while the perpetually cranky writers at allmusic call it “turgid”. What a bunch of jerks. No one that has missed someone they loved so much it hurts could not be swayed by this song. And even people like me, who cringe and go into tick like discomfort with the sounds of some of their more popular hits will find themselves totally taken with these happy people and their gentle, sexy music.

Spazz Joe Cocker, who I might add used to be surprisingly handsome (kind of a mix between David Gilmour and Jaws from the Bond movies) also covered the song. It is very Joe Cockery, and kind of gives the ballad more balls.

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Posted on March 24, 2008