9 August 2023 - Billy Vera and the Beaters - At This Moment

In 1981, Billy Vera, along with his live band The Beaters, released a single called "I Can Take Care of Myself", which ended up being a top 40 hit - Billy Vera's second, but also his first since 1968.  His follow-up song was an over-the-top sad love song called "At This Moment."

It would peak at #79 on the Billboard Charts in 1981 - a minor hit, but nothing spectacular.  

 

Fast forward to 1985.  During the 1985-1986 season of the popular TV show Family Ties,  the character of Alex P. Keaton, played by Michael J. Fox, was given a love interest, Ellen Reed, played by Tracy Pollan (who would soon become Fox's wife (she still is)). It was a great on-screen relationship, probably because they had that real-life connection.

Anyway, this song was used by the show as their love theme - and it became a huge, HUGE hit on its second run.   It topped the charts in 1987, and also hit the country charts - such a crossover by a chart-topping pop song wouldn't happen again for another 13 years. 

It would be Vera's last Top 40 hit (to date).

Despite the song hanuting Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan for a few years, they, and all the cast, appreciated the song, and he the show.  In 2011, he performed the song at the TV Land Awards - and yes, the cast of Family Ties were there... and clearly enjoyed it.

I will take any excuse to take a screen grab of Michael Gross and Justine Bateman enjoying a Billy Vera jam (you weren't expecting Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan, were you?)

Here is his performance from that night.  You can see all the main cast members from the show's run watching and enjoying. 

8 August 2023 - Joey Scarbury - Believe It Or Not

Sometimes, it isn't just a random song from an episode that hits just right.

Sometimes, it's the theme song.  

Take this song, from the 1981 series The Greatest American Hero. Starring William Katt and Connie Sellecca, and I guess William Culp, and created by the legendary Stephen Cannell, it would last for three seasons... and the theme song was inspiring.

  

Joey Scarbury's biggest hit peaked at #2 on the greatest American pop charts in 1981, being kept from the top spot by the juggernaut that was "Endless Love". Steven Geyer wrote the music, with producer Mike Post providing the music.  

Of course, the tune would be repopularized by George Constanza's answering machine on Seinfeld. 

7 August 2023 - Lily Kershaw - As It Seems

This week on Wicked Guilty Pleasures, we are going to dedicate our list to "What the hell is that song that I just heard on my favorite TV show?"

Today, we go to the end of Season 7, Episode 24 of Criminal Minds.  This song was played as JJ and Will got married, if you know the show.   If you don't know the show, that's a meaningless reference and this is just a really pretty song.

Lily Kershaw, of course, is a singer-songwriter best known for, well, this song.  Her mom is actress Whitney Kershaw, so she knows show business.  This song is from her 2013 debut album, Midnight in the Garden.  The episode this song was featured on, however, was from 2012 - and it, along with another appearance in a season 8 episode by another of her songs - led directly to her record deal.  

Anyway, it's an awfully pretty song and I hope you enjoy it.

Yes, she performs it live, and she performs it beautifully.

And, for those interested in the song in the context of the show.....

 

4 August 2023 - J. Geils Band - Centerfold

Seth Justman wrote and produced this song.  Not coincidentally for this keyboard-heavy song, Seth Justman was also the keyboard player for the J. Geils Band.  

He was not J. Geils, though.   

Neither was Peter Wolf, although a lot of casual fans of this song, the band's biggest hit (six weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982) sure thought he was.  He was the vocalist and most prominent publc face of the band.

No, no.  J. Geils was the guitarist for the band.  And their leader, I suppose.

This is Jay.  John Warren Geils, Jr.

 A little strangely, the video takes place in a high school classroom full of young women who end up being relatively scantily clad.  It makes sense to the plot of the song - the narrator has discovered his high school crush has appeared as a centerfold in an unspecified men's magazine that we can only assume is Playboy.  He's both titilated and, well, confused, I guess is the right word.  

I don't have any explanation for the milky drum, though.

The band did have some hiatuses - hiati? - but remained mostly intact until 2013, when J. Geils passed away.  They did tour through 2015 at least - as shown in this live performance from that year.

Contrast that with this performance from 2009, with J. Geils still on guitar.  I think it's a better performance, frankly.

3 August 2023 - Lyle Lovett - Church

Perhaps my favorite album title of all time is Lyle Lovett's 1992 album, Joshua Judges Ruth. For those Chritians out there, they are the 3 books immediately following the Torah (the first five books) in the Old Testament.

That is a pretty cool way to title your album. 

The former Mr. Julia Roberts has carved out a nice alternative country career that has recieved a lot of critical acclaim, and with good reason - he writes and performs good, unique country music.  Take this song, from the aforementioned album.  It would not be out of place at a Southern revival, or on country music radio.  It's a spirited song.

The beauty of Lovett's music is when it is performed live.  You can see just how much of this song is powered not by musical accompaniment - which is sparse but ever-present - but by the power of his voice and of his backing vocalists.  This song really and truly takes on a spiritual feeling - and you actually hear the lyrics.  It's really not a terribly spiritual song.  

2 August 2023 - Madonna - Music

If I ever go back to adding artists to our Hall of Fame, I have a list of potential inductees.  

Madonna tops that list.  She's a prolific performer, who has had a very long career - spanning about 40 years, during which time she's frequently released albums and performed live.

What a lot of people DON'T know is that she also has written a lot of her music.  Take this song, a single she co-wrote and co-produced with Mirwais.  She's also all the voices in this song - she's the one asking if you like to boogie woogie throughout.

More than fifteen years into her career, this song was yet another #1 song for Madonna, in 2000 - and remains one of her largest worldwide hits.

The video features a pre-Borat Sacha Baron Cohen, who was largely unknown to the US audience at that time, in full Da Ali G Show character.  Amazingly, Madonna was pregnant during the filming of this video.  

The real reason we're posting this?  In a live version, Madonna interlaced this song with "Disco Inferno".  It's way more incredible than it deserves to be.

In 2012, Madonna did the Super Bowl halftime show, which was epic and full of guest stars.  Here, she merged "Music' with LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It".  Also, at the :31 second mark, she almost falls.

1 August 2023 - Kacey Musgraves - Blowin' Smoke

I'm haivng a little trouble believing that Same Trailer, Different Park, the debut album by Kacey Musgraves, is ten years old this year.  

This was one of the singles off that album.  It was a relatively big country radio hit and even bubbled under the Hot 100, which means it got a lot of POP radio airplay - in a era when such a crossover was uncommon

The song is a clever play on words - the "Blowin' Smoke" is both a reference to the protagonist of the song smoking and also to the phrase "blowing smoke up one's ass", or in other words, talking trash and generally doing a lot of talking - her words.  And, there's a lot of blowin' smoke in this song - mostly about her co-workers, one of whom just left for Vegas (so there's a little jealousy going on here). It's clever and witty - and a little dark.

It's refreshing to hear a live version of a song sound a lot like the studio version.  The song is just as quietly cool unproduced than it is on vinyl.   Also, that tambourine playing by Kacey is epic.

But what about when the stage and crowd get a lot bigger, like at Farm Aid 30, in 2015?  By this time, her 2nd album, which had a more traditional country feeling, had been released, and so her band was tuned for that.  It sounds less pop and more country - but it's still the same old song about blowin' smoke.