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Top 40 Smash Taps: “Spirit in the Night”

Dan Seeger

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. I’m going to indulge in a bit of inside information here, providing the super-secret DVD commentary track backstory on this particular entry of our long-running series. Shortly after lauching the “Top 40 Smash Taps” posts some four-and-a-half years ago, I sat down to write about “Spirits in the Night,” the second of three Top 40 singles charted by Manfred Mann’s Earth band. As I … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Spirit in the Night”

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 241 – 239

Dan Seeger

241. The Jesus and Mary Chain, “April Skies” “April Skies” stands as a little surprise within the Jesus and Mary Chain discography. This is not because of its sound, which is right in line with the chiming pop coated in light gothy, industrial buzz that the band had established on their debut album, Psychocandy. Instead, the unexpected element was the swell of chart success that greeted it, at least in the U.K. In the broader homeland of the Scottish group, “April Skies” was their first Top 10 song, indeed one of only two singles in the band’s career (to date, … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 241 – 239

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One for Friday: M, “That’s the Way the Money Goes”

Dan Seeger

I’ve previously acknowledged my fascination for what I consider the secret history of rock ‘n’ roll. When I deploy that term I’m usually thinking of the multitude of bands that created music just as interesting and engaging as the stuff that wound up in the canon of classic rock, but were somehow left behind. There are other facets to that crazy diamond. For example, there are those bands that are the true one-hit wonders, registering a single song deeply into the public consciousness without some much as a glimmer of follow-up success. “Pop Musik,” officially the second single from the … Continue reading One for Friday: M, “That’s the Way the Money Goes”

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 244 – 242

Dan Seeger

244. The Suburbs, “Love is the Law” The inner sleeve of the full-length studio album issued by the Suburbs in 1984 states, “The title ‘Love Is The Law’ is the opinion of The Suburbs, stands alone and has no connection whatsoever with Aleister Crowley.” They may not have drawn direct inspiration from the foundational tenet of Thelema, as laid out by the upstart religion’s crackpot founder, but disavowing any relation whatsoever would require parsing the intent of an unidentified Minnesotan with access to spray paint and a blank horizontal surface. As Chan Poling, vocalist and keyboard player for The Suburbs, later explained, “I … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 244 – 242

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One for Friday: Sport of Kings, “This City in Darkness”

Dan Seeger

“This City in Darkness” is one of those tracks in my digital collection that is so obscure I’m not even certain how I found my way to it. To the best of my knowledge, I never played anything from the band Sport of Kings during my radio days, although I suppose it is possible. It seems the band hailed from Chicago, and the entirety of their output was issues only a handful of years before I arrived at my happy bunker with a fully working transmitter. Perhaps I did slip one of their records out of the C Stacks some late … Continue reading One for Friday: Sport of Kings, “This City in Darkness”

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The New Releases Shelf: Leave Me Alone

Dan Seeger

I adore the way Leave Me Alone, the debut album from Hinds, shuffles to life with a distinct slacker ease, as if it’s trying to establish a code of ripe sonic lassitude. Album opener “Garden” recalls some of the hollowed out retro rock of the Best Coast brigade from a couple years back, but with an added distancing from the rigidity of popcraft. With its trudging backbeat, rickety anti-harmonies, and guitar lines that sound like they’re being played by arms collapsing out of exhaustion, “Garden” is a call to arms from a band choosing not to raise their voice too … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: Leave Me Alone

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College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, #247 – #245

Dan Seeger

247. Pretenders, “Message of Love” Led by the magnetic Chrissie Hynde, the Pretenders flared to massive popularity quickly enough in the U.K. that the demand for new music started to outpace the band’s ability to deliver it. Hynde moved to London in the early nineteen-seventies, in part because she saw a greater likelihood of getting involved in the music scene she adored. Before long, she landed a gig with the magazine NME and started connecting with local musicians. The Pretenders formed in 1978, and they were charting U.K. hits by the following year, when their self-titled debut was also released. … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, #247 – #245

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One for Friday: Franz Nicolay, “This Is Not a Pipe”

Dan Seeger

Some Fridays I offer up elaborate personal history to accompany whatever song has been selected for the kindergarten-approved act of sharing, or I’ll at least delve into some aspect of the artist’s career that I admire. And then there are the instances when a song merely hit my ear just the right way during the week, somehow asserting itself as the right little gem to join the couple hundred other tracks that have been scattered digitally throughout the years. Franz Nicolay’s “This Is Not a Pipe” shuffled up this week, and it set me gently aswirl. To the degree that … Continue reading One for Friday: Franz Nicolay, “This Is Not a Pipe”

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Top 40 Smash Taps: “I’ll Be Your Shelter (In Time of Storm)”

Dan Seeger

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. If a one-hit wonder is an artist who had a single trip to the Billboard Top 40, then Luther Ingram just barely sidesteps that designation. A staple of the R&B charts from the late nineteen-sixties to the end of the seventies — albeit one who had few major hits, even in that specialized realm — Ingram made it all the way up to #3 … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “I’ll Be Your Shelter (In Time of Storm)”