The Beatles music is set to start streaming on various music services starting on December 24. This is good news for Beatles fans who don't have all of their recordings on various analog or digital medias. Starting tomorrow just go to your favorite streaming service and look for and listen to The Beatles there.
Beatles music has for the longest of time streamed for free on the "Internet Radio" tab of Apple's iTunes music application as well as on iHeart Radio.
From Scrivener's Friday 5 blog: "Long-time (and even short-time) participants in the Friday 5 pretty much know that my two favorite topics to ask questions about are food and music. And I’ve had a pretty good music-filled week, so here are five questions inspired by that."
1.What’s your favorite song about a specific city?
Gosh there are plenty of city songs that i like. Here are 10 of them.
3. The Night Chicago Died - Paper Lace - always loved this fictional account of gangsters and Al Capone. The record went to #1 in 1974. The song could also fit in question #2.
4. Honey's Tune (Hilo's Such A Rainy Old Town) - by Olomana - This song just feels "so Hilo" especially about the rain. You got to have lived there or been on the Big Island of Hawaii to know what I mean. 5. El Paso - Marty Robbins - one of the best story songs ever, this is like an audio movie rolled into 5 minutes. From back in the days of real country music.
6. Philadelphia Freedom - Elton John - a great, uptempo dance song about a tennis team from Philly. Great arrangement and orchestration. #1 in 1975.
10. Summer Night City - A Euro-pop song by ABBA from 1979. Location is probably fictitious or wherever there is a hot disco.
2. What’s your favorite song about a real, historical figure?
1. Candle in the Wind by Elton John (1973 - Marilyn Monroe) - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - 1973 Live in Australia - 1987 2. James K. Polk - They Might Be Giants (1990 on Istanbul Not Constantinople CD single) 3. Hey Jude - The Beatles (Julian Lennon, 1968 - he's not historical but he is part of Beatles history) 4.I'm Henry the 8th I Am - Herman's Hermits (1965) - Fun from when I was a kid.
3. What are your favorite song and favorite group (or solo artist) from the classic Motown era? Way to much to list just one. 1. My Girl - The Temptations (1965) 2. Superstition - Stevie Wonder (1972) 3. Love Child - Diana Ross & the Supremes (1968) 4. Get Ready - Rare Earth (1970) 5. I Heard it Through the Grapevine - Marvin Gaye (1968) 6. Higher Ground - Stevie Wonder (1974) 7. Reach Out (I'll Be There) - The Four Tops (1966) 8. Second That Emotion - Smokey Robinson & the Miracles (1969) 9. Tears of a Clown - Smokey Robinson & the Miracles (1970) 10. War - Edwin Starr (1970) I would like to include "Midnight Train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight & the Pips but this was released in 1973 on Buddah Records after they left Motown. Favorite artist - Stevie Wonder (especially after he took creative control of his music in 1970). Favorite group - Rare Earth (they were on a Motown imprint from 1969 to 1974) Today Motown is just part of Universal Music and not its own label anymore.
4. What’s your favorite song by a musician (or band) you really dislike? "The Real Slim Shady" by Eminem - definitely not a fan, but the song is ok.
5. What’s your favorite song with the word “song” in its title? 1. Song on the Radio - Al Stewart (1978) from Time Passages 2. Look What They've Done to My Song Ma - Melaine or The New Seekers (early 1970s) 3. Songs From the Wood - Jethro Tull (1978) 4. This Song - George Harrison (1976) - about being sued for My Sweet Lord. 5. The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole "chestnuts roasting on an open fire...."
From the Aloha Got Soul record label comes this in my email:
"Five years ago I launched this niche music blog simply because I wanted to document some of the cool music that came out of Hawaii during the 1970s.
Nohelani Cypriano's 1979 debut is one shining example of such music.
It's 2015 and Aloha Got Soul is working with Be With Records to reissue Nohelani's debut for the first time ever on vinyl, available August 7th.
Be With founder Rob Butler and Aloha Got Soul ambassador Cedric Bardawil are hosting a release party at Brilliant Corners in London—and you're invited.
Join us as we celebrate on Friday, August 7th for a night of amazing tunes including Hawaiian grooves, summertime sounds and island jams.
Nohelani Cypriano Release Party
Brilliant Corners 470 Kingsland Road, E8 4AE
Friday, August 7th
7:00pm - 1:30am Free entry All-vinyl"
First off I definitely remember this album being released on vinyl in 1978 or 79 about a year after Nohelani Cypriano hit it big in Hawaii with her Homegrown II hit, "Lihue".
Certainly, the album has been out of print for a while. It is good to know that it is being re-released again on vinyl. The album has long been available on CD and digital formats.
Kind of odd that the record release party is in London, UK. I guess Nohelani is popular there or perhaps there are more vinyl fans in the British Isles. Regardless I am sure this record will be also available in Hawaii.
This blog has been an absolute failure in recent weeks with no posts since May 27. Oh well, hopefully things will change as I have now decided to post some interesting, hopefully new YouTube videos that I have recently found.
To kick this off, I offer 3 new music videos from YouTube that I have found for your viewing and listening pleasure. In no particular order here they are:
"I Want You - I Want You Now" by Kevin McKnelly
Kevin McKnelly is probably best known for his song that was included on the Once Bitten movie soundtrack, "You're On My Mind" which came out in 1985.
In what is billed as his first music video McKnelly is back as "the world's oldest rapper" with " I Want You - I Want You Now". The track prominently features his 91-year-old father in a walker surrounded by 4 young dancing women. McKnelly also appears on the dance oriented track rapping about Imelda Marcos, shoes, happiness and consumerism. The song is lighthearted fun.
"Dumb" by The Heydaze
I know nothing about The Heydaze, but apparently they are relatively new and more than likely fit into the often maligned "boy band" mold. However they are not a vocal group and by the looks of this video, they actually play instruments.
"Dumb" is a catchy tune that could use more airplay to become a bonafide top 40 hit. The video is interesting enough to keep me watching as the group members get pelted with a variety of substances by an attractive young woman. Not exactly groundbreaking but like the previous video, "fun"!
"Nippon Manju" by Ladybaby
Speaking of fun, the new video by Ladybaby actually made me laugh the first time I saw it. This track was released last week and it already has close to a million hits if not so already. The song has elements of sugar-sweet J-Pop mixed with growling heavy metal.
The unlikely mix of music styles is attributed to Australian heavy metal singer and pro wrestler Richard Magarey who goes by the persona "Ladybeard". He's immediately identifiable by wearing a dress like his two teenaged counterparts Rie Kaneko and Rei Kuromiya who provide the sweet female voices opposite of his grungy guitar backed growls.
As unlikely as the music mix is, the video is quite a novel fun romp promoting Japanese consumerism. It is also the first video that I noticed that makes extensive use of cameras mounted on selfie sticks.
"Itch" is the name singer Jonny "Itch" Fox goes by these days. He is a British music artist who was once the lead singer in a ukelele punk band called The King Blues. He went solo in 2012 and released his first album in 2014 called The Deep End. His most well known song is "Another Man" featuring Megan Joy on vocals. The track has yet to chart in America and was featured as a free iTunes track in April 2015. "Another Man" did chart twice in Australia in 2014.
The song is a throwback to the late 50s/early 60s do-wop style. The video is a features a brilliant use of color and black and white computer generation to illustrate the song's point. Megan Joy's vocals are a little overpowering but definitely delivers the charm to this song.
The song is the current #1 track on Mel's Weekly Top 20 Chart which makes a comeback to this blog page as of this posting.
The Weekly Top 20 Chart now shows up on its own page within this blog (with a later update planned for the original chart page) using Google Docs as the database back end. The chart has not been regularly published since September 2014 as other obligations by the publisher was more pressing.
However chart data has been kept in an offline database on a weekly basis.
The Honokaa Jazz Band made its debut public performance at the recently renovated Ala Moana Centerstage venue yesterday (April 16) to a crowd that was treated to a variety of jazz, blues and R&B standards. The band with more than 30 members are currently touring Oahu and playing at a number of venues this weekend. The Ala Moana Shopping Center concert was the first of several.
The band has a long established reputation of creating memorable performances with a wide range of musical styles, mostly focused on the jazz genre. The band is led by Mr. Gary Washburn who has been a music instructor at Honokaa High and Intermediate School for many years. The Honokaa Jazz Band won a special Grammy Award in 2011 for “its unique and outstanding band program.”
So I been watching this Vlog series for a couple of months now - DAILY BUMPS - with Bryan, Missy, Ollieand Karma.... a family somewhere in the U.S. (don't exactly know which state).... they share a daily video of whatever happens in their family's life of about 15 minutes each day. The videos are tightly edited that gives the viewer a snapshot of "this is what happened today". They're quite an entertaining family as you get to see what is happening on their daily grind.
For a while I had no idea what Bryan or Missy do for a living besides making video blogs.
Bryan is a musician and he recently released his debut single called "This is Home". The song is available for purchase at the usual places... iTunes, Amazon, Google. Check the video out. It's a good contemporary, family-friendly single that is radio friendly to a number of formats including AC, Country and perhaps even Contemporary Christian.
I've liked the few Lynda Kay songs I've heard over the years. This one is a cover from 2013 - "I Put a Spell on You" first recorded by "Screamin'" Jay Hawkins back in 1956 - Kay's send up of the track makes it originally her own. Give it a listen, it's a great cover!
She's also got a new song out. "I'll Never Let You Go" streams on her site. Check it out.
Starting today I will be posting links of mixes that I currently have on my iTunes app for Mac OSX. These mixes show up in the PLAYLIST tab and column in iTunes and are transferred to my various iOS devices.
The first mix is a year by year synopsis of songs that I liked from near the start of the rock era to today. The mix list changes occasionally but as of this posting date this is what the mix is.
Videos: Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock (1957) Milky Chance - Flash Junk Mind (2015).
I answered these questions on my Friday 5 Answers blog. Since they were music related, they can also be cross-posted to this music blog, which makes this I believe, the first new entry for 2015.
The questions come from Scrivener's Friday 5 blog. People respond and post answers on their own blogs.
1. What’s a song that reminds you of your parents?
I wasn't at their wedding, but I think "The Hawaiian Wedding Song" was featured then.... way back in 1955. My Dad liked jazz music, big band... Lawerence Welk stuff. He also liked Hawaiian music, Arthur Lyman, Don Ho, The Four Amigoes and even some songs by Elvis Presley.
My Mom was mostly into country music and Hawaiian. However I remember her teaching us "The Twist" by Chubby Checker, "The Bunny Hop" and "Hokey Pokey" when we were kids.
In a nutshell, no one song reminds me of my parents but instead several of them.
2. What’s a song that makes you think of food?
"Junk Food Junkie" by Larry Groce from 1976... "in the daytime I'm Mr. Natural, just as healthy as I can be... in the night time I'm a junk food junkie, good Lord have mercy on me!"
3. What’s a memorable song from a movie soundtrack?
Theme from "Star Wars" - Song is so good that it is used to start all 6 movies so far. My top 10 movie soundtrack songs:
1. Star Wars - John Williams / London Symphony Orchestra
2. Stayin' Alive - Bee Gees (Saturday Night Fever)
3. Over the Rainbow - Judy Garland (The Wizard of Oz)
4. A Hard Day's Night - The Beatles (A Hard Days Night)
5. Theme From "Jaws" - John Williams / London Symphony (Jaws)
6. Also Sprach Zarathustra (Theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey) - Strauss / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
7. Lara's Theme / Somewhere My Love - Maurice Jarre (Dr. Zhivago)
8. Grease - Franki Valli (Grease)
9. Gonna Fly Now (Theme from "Rocky") - Bill Conti
10. Theme from the "Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" - Ennio Morricone / Hugo Montenegro
There are many more.
4. What was your favorite song from 2014?
"My Silver Lining" by First Aid Kit got the most plays last year on my iTunes and iPods. I really liked that song. Haven't compiled my list of Top 100 songs of 2014 yet.
5. What are your favorite songs for when you’re behind the wheel?
1. Deadman's Curve - Jan & Dean
2. Behind the Wheel / Route 66 medley - Depeche Mode
3. Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac
4. Breaking Into Cars - The Raveonettes
5. Love in a Trashcan - The Raveonettes
6. Slow Ride - Foghat
7. Bad to the Bone - George Thorogood & the Destroyers
8. Suzy & Jeffrey - Blondie
9. The Crunge - Led Zeppelin
10. Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival
