Either I open the week with Belinda Carlisle or I end with her.
Either I open the week with Kathy Valentine's band The Delphines, or I end with it.
Pretty clear which way I went.
Smack dab in the middle.
So enjoy The Delphines. They are led by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Kathy Valentine. This was a great band in its own right - so great I won't even mention that other band she was a member of.
Belinda Carlisle's first solo release was this song. It peaked at #3 in the Untied States and was a hit worldwide. Featuring Andy Taylor from Duran Duran on guitar (yes, he's in the video), the video also features her husband - who she married three weeks before this song was released in 1985 (they're still together, people).
Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey of the Go-Go's sang bankground vocals on this song, and replacement Go-Go (for Jane Wiedlin!) Paula Jean Brown co-wrote the song, so any rumors about acrimony in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted band were not well-founded. In fact, this was almost a Go-Go's song - but when the band split, the song went to Belinda.
InB4 the hate mail I will get reminding me that House of Schock was a thing. I know. I grew up in the 1980s.
Former Go-Go Gina Schock is clearly not drumming here. No, no. She's singing and playing guitar. And she does a fine job - the song is enjoyable pop-rock - but the band - formed with Ellen's brother Vance DeGeneres - was clearly lacking in chemistry and record label support, so they were a one-album wonder.
Robert Pollard is perhaps the most prolific songwriter of all time. He's written few better than this song.
A clear workingman's anthem from the Dayton, OH band - that's the middle of the Rust Belt - it starts somewhat calm and controlled in the first verse, but Bob Pollard goes full on yell in the second verse, struggling to exceed the music that has also increased in volume, tempo and desperation. The third verse is a hypercompressed repeat in feel of verses one and two - with something of a greater desperation ending on a more somber note.
Live in Cincinatti in 2016, the contrast between verses is even more pronounced,
What really got me feeling the chills on this song, however, was this version billed as the demo. I heard a version the band recorded for the radio station KCRW, which is quite similar to this one. The desperate emotion in Pollard's voice really shines through with a slightly quieter mix.
This was Warren Zevon's last single. He wrote it after he realized he was dying. It was released on his last album, The Wind, two weeks before he passed away from mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer.
Think about mortality as you listen to it.
Despite being dead, Warren Zevon managed to appear on the Grammys in 2004. This is a very special tribute to the man, and you should see it. These artists - most of them legends in their own right - aren't singing a duet. They are singing backing vocals.
Let's be clear. The Marti Jones version, released in 1988, is absolutely a cover of Don Dixon's version. I am OPENLY posting a cover here, and not on Totally Covered.
However, Marti Jones brought a feel to her husband's song that was simply transcendent. It is a desperate, haunting song that I cannot get enough of, to this day. Also, this version adds a bridge, which absolutely adds to the mysterious appeal of this simple folk song.
Of course, this doesn't mean the Don Dixon version sucks. It's amazing. Here it is. It is a much simpler song in its arrangement - which is why it doesn't get top billing on this post.
It is "Songs That Are So Good They Give Tony Chills" Week,
We start with this 1958 single by the Everly Brothers. Written by famed country songwriter Boudleaux Bryant, who wrote a lot of Everly Brothers hit songs, it is a beautiful song of longing for the one you love. The harmonies of the brothers absolutely make the hairs on my arm stand on end.
The song was so good, it topped the pop charts for five weeks in 1958 AND returned to the charts in 1961. It also topped the R&B AND Country charts. Literally everyone loved this soulful, mournful song.
