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Top 40 Smash Taps: “Charity Ball”

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. Fanny was billed as the first all-female rock group to release an album on a major label. Naturally, given the stultifying sexism of the era, it’s entirely possible the band wouldn’t have reached that status without the behind-the-scenes influence of a male. Richard Perry was a producer with an eclectic batch of records on his resume, including Captain Beefheart’s Safe as Milk and God … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Charity Ball”

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 20 and 19

Dan Seeger

20. The Smashing Pumpkins, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness For most of 1995, I heard at least a portion of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, even if it was only reverberating through my floorboards. Early in that calendar year, I took up residence in what became a beloved rental house located on a main drag of Madison, Wisconsin. Though it may have involved some creative disregarding of the terms of the lease to set our household lineup, we quickly had four people in total living there, one of them sadly crammed into a minuscule room that was also … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 20 and 19

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One for Friday: Jet Black Berries, “Charles Darwin’s Dream”

Dan Seeger

Animal Necessity, the third album by the Rochester, New York band Jet Black Berries, is one of those releases I sought for ages. Even once the internet dramatically shifted the availability of obscure music, it was devilishly hard to come by. I wanted to hear it again because this was one of those touchstone LPs from my first semester at the college radio station, way back in the fall of 1988. As I remember it, the album sat in rotation amidst, only mildly loved by the general station populace. For whatever reason, it spoke to me more, and I returned to … Continue reading One for Friday: Jet Black Berries, “Charles Darwin’s Dream”

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Top 40 Smash Taps: “Where You Lead” and “The Way He Makes Me Feel”

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. By my count, Barbra Streisand has amassed twenty-one Top 40 singles during the course of her career. To my surprise, her sustained success on that particular Billboard chart didn’t really begin until the nineteen-seventies. From her double-barreled debut in 1963 (The Barbra Streisand Album was followed by The Second Barbra Streisand Album within months), she always sold albums at a steady clip, making … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Where You Lead” and “The Way He Makes Me Feel”

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 22 and 21

Dan Seeger

#22 — Throwing Muses, University Throwing Muses took a complicated path to University, their sixth studio album. Though this was their second release without departed member Tanya Donelly, by then landing on the cover of Rolling Stone with her band Belly, most of the reviews remained preoccupied with her absence. This album also sat on the shelf for over a year, as Sire Records, eternally perplexed about how to turn this critically-acclaimed band into a commercial success, decided it would fare better if it arrived after the solo album lead singer and chief creative force Kristin Hersh recorded in close chronological proximity … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 22 and 21

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One for Friday: Ranking Roger, “So Excited”

Dan Seeger

Sometimes I marvel at all the different ways my college radio station introduced me to new music. There are the obvious ones, of course: combing through the walls of records, chatting with fellow deejays about their more obscure favorites, just plainly listening to station as much as I could. There was another method that I’m confident is fairly prevalent at college radio station to this day. I learned about music from the posters on the wall. Our station was flooded with promotional materials from the various labels and distribution agencies and just about anything that could get tacked up on … Continue reading One for Friday: Ranking Roger, “So Excited”

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College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 24 and 23

Dan Seeger

24. Everclear, Sparkle and Fade When I was at the height of my imperious, combative, disgruntled twenties, my contrarian streak could lead me to come dubious judgments, at least where new music was concerned. For example, while there’s some haziness around this memory (many of my most spirited music debates took place in the wee hours of beer-soaked evenings), I expended some of my taste capital announcing to whoever had the misfortune to be across the table that Everclear was one of the more underrated bands on the day and their 1995 release, Sparkle and Fade, deserved prominent mention in … Continue reading College Countdown: 90FM’s Top 90 of 1995, 24 and 23

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One for Friday: Ednaswap, “Torn”

Dan Seeger

By the summer of 1998, the song “Torn” was practically unavoidable. I used to join a friend on an annual summertime jaunt intended to hit as many Major League ballparks as we could over a long weekend. While we always made sure the vehicle was stocked with plenty of mix tapes (competitively so), part of the ritual was scanning through local radio, including carefully cataloging which songs we heard the most. On that trip, “Torn” was the clear winner (though, to be fair, we likely zipped right past “The Boy is Mine,” which topped the Billboard charts for essentially the … Continue reading One for Friday: Ednaswap, “Torn”

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The New Releases Shelf: Pageant Material

Dan Seeger

Best as I can determine, the only significant flaw of Pageant Material, the new album from Kacey Musgraves, is that it seems to inspire a unstoppable fleet of music writer think pieces, the sort of essays that helplessly consider music only in the context of some imagined greater trend. It can’t simply be that her second album for Mercury Nashville is a splendid example of songcraft, warmly and wittily performed. It somehow has to provide entry to commentary of the very nature of modern country music, usually delivered with withering condescension by music writers who’ve probably not listened to more … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf: Pageant Material

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Top 40 Smash Taps: “Sweet Maxine”

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. “Sweet Maxine” is a song by the Doobie Brothers. Released as the second single from their 1975 album, Stampede, it brought them their eighth trip to the Billboard Top 40, although just barely. Across their career, they’d make it into the Top 40 a total of sixteen times, including two instances when they topped the chart. Not knowing anything about this particular song … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Sweet Maxine”