Top 40 Smash Taps: “Oh Happy Day”
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, Glen Campbell had a total of twenty-one Top 40 singles. In 1970, he hadn’t yet notched his two massive chart–toppers, but he had already proven his ability to cross over from the country charts. In fact, he enjoyed eight straight Top 40 singles in 1969 and 1970, including a couple of duets with Bobbie Gentry. He was coming off of … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Oh Happy Day”
Arzner, Byrkit, Hitchcock, Pakula, Tartakovsky
Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock, 1943). Though he would sometimes demure at the question, this was typically the title Hitchcock offered up as his default answer when asked about his personal favorite among his hefty, dazzling oeuvre. I can’t really back him up on that, even though I can completely understand how this one would loom large for the Master. He’d made great films before this (The Lady Vanishes, Rebecca, and Suspicion among them), but there’s something about this one that feels like the Hitchcock cinematic voice locked in for good. The film follows Charlie Newton (Joseph Cotten), a … Continue reading Arzner, Byrkit, Hitchcock, Pakula, Tartakovsky
College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 15
15. Game Theory, Two Steps from the Middle Ages Like most of their contemporaries, the band Game Theory was headed towards the practically inevitable reunion. There were plans afoot to record a new album (the working title was Supercalifragile), which … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 15
From the Archive: Cliffhanger and Sliver
Ah, yes, the home video segment. How very early nineties. Wasn’t that a time? Within a few months, this was sort of a filler segment on the show as we were invariably writing about films we’d already covered previously, and we didn’t necessarily have something new and riveting to add. The main servicing to previous reviews was a consideration of how something might play better or worse on the television screen, then much smaller and squarer, of course. Usually, we each covered one movie new to video. I’m not sure why I doubled up here. We must have had a … Continue reading From the Archive: Cliffhanger and Sliver
One for Friday: See Dick Run, “Boy Meets Girl”
And now we come to one of those instances in which I can’t quite believe the song hasn’t been featured previously in this weekly space. I’m sure I had a reason, perhaps because it seems like it may be available for digital purchase. Or maybe I once found that the band was still selling copies directly, a surprisingly common occurrence with small-scale acts that I would otherwise love to celebrate with a “One for Friday” post (and may yet do someday, if only to direct people towards buying a full release). Today, I share one of the most wonderful gems … Continue reading One for Friday: See Dick Run, “Boy Meets Girl”
My Writers: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin tricked me into reading the work of a historian. I didn’t necessarily have anything against reading history, but there are so many books out there that I usually insisted on the need to concentrate on fiction. There’s … Continue reading My Writers: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Fifteen
#15 — 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 1957) In the annals of cinema, there are undoubtedly more impressive debut directorial efforts than Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men, but there are few that so perfectly captured and forecasted the defining strengths … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 50s — Number Fifteen
My Misspent Youth: Web of Spider-Man by Louise Simonson and Greg LaRocque
I read a lot of comic books as a kid. This series of posts is about the comics I read, and, occasionally, the comics that I should have read. Like many a comic book reader in the nineteen-eighties, when the … Continue reading My Misspent Youth: Web of Spider-Man by Louise Simonson and Greg LaRocque
Top 40 Smash Taps: “I’ll Try Anything”
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. The performer born Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien released her first solo recording in late 1963. She took a stage name derived from a childhood nickname bestowed upon her because of tomboy tendencies that often led to her coming home covered in dirt. Her new last name came from a folk trio she was in with Tom and Reshad Feild called the Springfields. … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “I’ll Try Anything”
College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 16
16. The Dream Syndicate, Ghost Stories As the title implies, Ghost Stories is a fairly gloomy record, at least lyrically. That surely stems from the uncertainty the Dream Syndicate endured on the road to their fourth studio album. Each of their three previous full-lengths had been on a different label, and they had gone through at least one aborted break-up precipitated by the heavy disappointment over their music business struggles. If other bands sometimes filter their own discontent to forecast the imminent demise of the group on what proves to be their final album, the Dream Syndicate wrapped up their … Continue reading College Countdown: Rockpool’s Top 20 College Radio Albums, November 1988, 16
