Musiclectic

"No One is Alone" - Cleo Laine

If I could sing like anyone else, I'd want to sing like Cleo Laine.  I first fell in love with her singing when I discovered the London revival album of Showboat at the library.  She played Julie, and her version of Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man of Mine is still one of my all time favorite songs. 

I love her versions of jazz songs, popular songs, and Broadway songs.  No One is Alone is from Stephen Sondheim's musical, Into the Woods:

"Pon de Replay" - Rihanna

Pon de Replay is a great song for Zumba.  

I only recently watched the video.  I like the dancing - particularly the four guys in white jackets:

I don't usually care for repetitive songs, but this one always keeps my attention. 

"My Skies" - James Keelaghan

James Keelaghan is a Canadian singer/songwriter.  I love his melodies and the way his voice and guitar blend. Here is My Skies from the album of the same name (song starts at about a minute):

You can listen to the album version on his MySpace page.  My other favorites on that album are I Would I Were, Big Picture, Orion, Abraham, and Tomorrow is Another Day.

More about James Keelaghan:

• Review of his album, Road, in Rambles:  A cultural arts magazine
• Review of his album, House of Cards, in BlogCritics
• Two posts about James Keelaghan from Folkmama's Blog

"Who Are You" - The Who

This is my favorite of The Who's non-Tommy songs.  I like all the different things going on here musically (particularly interesting when listening with headphones). 

MTV's page about The Who tells why they smashed guitars:

...completely by accident, at a gig at the Railway Hotel, Townshend smashed his first guitar. It happened by accident, because of a temporary stage extension that the band had built, which was higher than the stage itself, and caused him to accidentally hit the ceiling with his instrument -- frustrated by his damaging of the instrument, and the crowd's reaction, he struck it again, and again, and soon it was in pieces, and it was only by using a 12-string Rickenbacker that he'd recently gotten that Townshend was able to finish the show. The following week, he discovered that people had heard about this, and had come to the Railway Hotel to see him smash his guitar. He eventually obliged with encouragement from Keith Moon, who attacked his drum kit -- and while Lambert and Stamp were at first appalled, Townshend smashed another guitar to pieces a little bit later with Lambert's encouragement, as part of his publicity campaign (and it worked, despite the fact that the journalist for whose benefit he committed the destruction never actually saw it). In reality, he didn't smash guitars at every show in those days, and what he was doing, in terms of generating feedback, sufficed in most audience's minds -- smashing the guitar, when it did take place, only punctuated the feedback...

• The Who's website
• Songfacts has a long discussion of the lyrics
• Who are You was one of the Who's biggest U.S. hits (getting up to #14).

Meditation from Thais by Jules Massenet

One of the few places you can still regularly hear classical music is in figure skating so, besides the beauty of the skating, I've also really enjoyed the music during the Olympic figure skating.  In the Exhibition Gala last night, South Korean, gold medal champion Kim Yu-Na skated to the lovely Meditation from the opera, Thais (1894), by the French composer, Jules Massenet.  Massenet's operas were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th century. 

Here's a performance by Sarah Chang, violinist, with Placido Domingo conducting the Berlin Philharmonic:

Not that I think that figure skating always has to be done to classical music.  The Canadian gold medal Ice Dancing duo, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, had a fun performance using both Tchaikovsky's Spanish Dance, from the Nutcracker, and C & C Music Factory's Everybody Dance Now (video from the Canadian championship).

• If this piece seems familiar from your childhood (or your children's childhoods), it may be because it was used in the 1973, animated version of A Cricket in Times Square (one of my favorite book animations).
• Photos from the 2010 Olympic skaters' Exhibition Gala

I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas

I don't usually post very recent hits, but this song has been on almost every radio station recently because the Black Eyed Peas performed in Raleigh last night.  This song appeals to my aerobic side:

• Raleigh News and Observer interview, A Black Eyed Pea who loves the pod

"Come and Get Your Love" - Redbone

It wasn't one of my favorite songs in the 70's, but it's a pleasant way to pass a few minutes.  The Native American rock band, Redbone, had a hit single with this song in 1974 (from their album, Wovoka).  According to the Wikipedia:

...the name Redbone itself is a joking reference to a Cajun term for a mixed-race person ("half-breed"), the band's members being of mixed blood ancestry.The band referenced Cajun and New Orleans culture many times in their lyrics and performing style. ...According to [co-founder] Patrick Vasquez, it was Jimi Hendrix who talked the musicians into forming an all-Native American rock group and so they signed as the band "Redbone" to Epic Records in 1969... Redbone played primarily rock music with R&B, Cajun, Jazz, tribal, and Latin roots.

Here's their 1976 performance from The Midnight Special:

"Always Be" - Jimmy Eat World

My daughter was listening to Chase This Light this weekend.  Always Be is my favorite song of the ones I heard.  Every time it came on, I said that I hadn't posted on Musiclectic lately, and I should definitely post this.  By the last time or two, my older son grinned at me at the sound of the opening chords.

The music video is fun (I also enjoy its accurate portrayal of field trip reactions).  
I've always wondered about the band's name, but never bothered to look it up.  It doesn't refer to the name of the lead singer, Jim Adkins.  Instead, as Last.fm writes:

Tom Linton’s [co-vocalist/guitarist] younger siblings, Ed and Jimmy, fought constantly when they were younger. Jimmy, who was stronger and heavier, would usually win. On one instance, Ed, as revenge, drew a picture with crayons of Jimmy shoving the entire world into his gaping mouth with the caption, “Jimmy eat world.”

• Jimmyeatworld.com

"Amoreena" - Elton John

I thought I was familiar  with all of Elton John's hits in the 1970's so I was surprised to hear Amoreena at the opening of Dog Day Afternoon (which we recently watched, but which I was too young to watch when it came out in 1975):

 

Amoreena comes from his 1970 album, Tumbleweed Connection, which I need to get someday.

• Popdose article:  Cratedigger:  Elton John, Tumbleweed Connection.  
• Rolling Stone:  1971 Review of Tumbleweed Connection:

...Tumbleweed Connection is simpler than John's last album and next time around I hope he goes all the way and gets down to nothing but the basics. He is one of the few who is good enough not to need anything else.

"One More Angel in Heaven" from "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat"

This summer, I've been involved in a community theater production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,* Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's pop/opera version of the Biblical story of Joseph.  It's a fun musical, and a number of the songs are in varying styles:  Disco (Go Go Joseph), Calypso (Benjamin Calypso), Elvis (Song of the King), French (Those Canaan Days) and country/western - One More Angel in Heaven:

This is the movie production starring Donny Osmond as Joseph, Maria Friedman as the Narrator, Robert Torti as the Pharaoh, Joan Collins as Potiphar's Wife, and Richard Attenborough as Jacob.

*  I've written much more about the community theater production at my other blog, Moomin Light.