Curio Cabinet / Song Curio

What do gangster movies and T.S. Elliot have in common? They were both inspirations for the Pet Shop Boys’ synth-pop hit, West End Girls, which reached number one on the U.K. Singles Chart on this day in 1986. After watching a gangster film starring James Cagney, in 1983, Pet Shop Boys lead singer Neil Tennant came up with the song’s opening lyrics about depression and inner-city violence. For the rest of the lyrics, Tennant emulated The Waste Land, by T.S. Elliot, which famously mixes different narrative voices and mysterious references. Tennant thus filled the song with references to specific bars, clubs, and streets in London’s West End. The song’s spoken-word verses give it a moody, detached feel, while its synth-heavy beat makes it perfect for dancing. Although it was originally recorded in 1984, before the Pet Shop Boys had a record deal, they re-recorded a year later, after signing with EMI. It was this second version that went on to be a number one hit, even reaching number 8 in the U.S., where listeners couldn’t have understood the song’s U.K.-specific references. Words just don’t matter when the beat is this bopping.

[Image description: The Pet Shop Boys perform in 2011, wearing colorful foam costumes with cube-shaped, yellow and green headpieces completely covering their heads.] Credit & copyright: vagueonthehow, Wikimedia Commons

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of Harlem Globetrotters’ Day, enjoy these sports-centric curios.
 
Play ball! The Star-Spangled Banner has been a pre-sports favorite for decades, and has been testing the vocal range of performers just as long. Yet its demands are nothing compared to the unofficial original national anthem, Hail, Columbia. The music for the patriotic song was originally called Washington's March, and it was an instrumental composed by violinist and German immigrant Philip Pile in 1789 for the first Presidential inauguration. Nine years later, a Pennsylvania judge named Joseph Hopkins added lyrics celebrating the "naval prowess" of the Americans during the Revolution. The boisterous song was retitled Hail, Columbia, and it remained a popular unofficial national anthem until falling out of favor after World War I. It was officially out of the running when The Star-Spangled Banner was adopted as the national anthem in 1931. As if being downgraded once wasn't enough, the song also became relegated to the Vice President's anthem when Hail to the Chief became the President's. Maybe if Hail, Columbia keeps Biden its time, it'll regain the popularity it once lost?
 

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Image credit & copyright: chivvo26, Pixabay
 

Here’s a musician who’s traveled down the road and back again. With the recent passing of Betty White, a lot of people are undoubtedly reminiscing with screenings of The Golden Girls. Thanks to the hit sitcom, its theme song, Thank you for Being a Friend, has become tied to the idea of female friendships. Yet, the song was written by American singer, instrumentalist, and record producer Andrew Gold in 1978, seven years before The Golden Girls aired. Gold’s original version, which featured a laid-back, piano-heavy sound, even reached number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Gold later admitted that he wrote the song, which was inspired by his friendships with his music partner, Brock Walsh, and his manager, Norman Epstein, in around an hour. When The Golden Girls’ producer, Susan Harris, began searching for a theme song, Gold’s tune was an obvious choice, with its lyrics about lifelong friendships like those featured in the show. Harris hired jingle singer Cynthia Fee to re-record the song with a more feminine sound, and the rest is history. We’ll certainly be bobbing our heads to both versions this week, in honor of the dearly departed Betty.

[Image description: Andrew Gold plays guitar while performing in Amsterdam.] Credit & copyright: Arthur Winailan, Wikimedia Commons, image cropped for size

It's Flashback Friday AND New Year’s Eve! While looking into the future, enjoy these curios featuring images and stories from New Years past.
 
Should auld acquaintance be forgot? We think not! Neither does John Fahey apparently. Though the late guitarist was more than capable of writing his own instrumentals, he had a soft spot for covering folk tunes. There's no better time than New Year's Day to listen to his beautifully full and deliberate version of Auld Lang Syne, released in 1968. "It’s one of my favorite songs," Fahey said. "I like to play it when I’m by myself, makes me feel real nostalgic." Us, too, John. But we also enjoy it in the presence of auld acquaintances.  

New York, New York, it’s a wonderful town! Not only are these some of the first lyrics sung in Leonard Bernstein’s hit musical On The Town, they capture the essence of the entire show, which made its Broadway debut on this day in 1944. The musical tells the story of three sailors spending their 24-hour shore leave in New York City. The three friends go on separate adventures, meet girls, and eventually join up again, along with their dates, to sing kicky, danceable ensemble songs. New York, New York is the musical’s best remembered song, and managed to become popular even amongst those who’d never seen On The Town. With its boppy, earworm beat and lyrics celebrating everything from the city’s seven boroughs to its subways, New York, New York was a hit with anyone who liked NYC. Bernstein wrote it as an ode to his own love for the city, where he spent most of his life. It’s popularity soared even further after the release of the 1949 film version of On The Town, starring Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munshin. Even non-city-dwellers couldn’t resist that much star power.

[Image description: A black-and-white photo of Leonard Bernstein sitting in his dressing room in 1959.] Credit & copyright: Pertti Jenytin/Lehtikuva, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
 

It's Flashback Friday! On this Christmas Eve, enjoy these curios about one of the world’s most observed winter holidays.
 
37 years ago, Christmas music was changed forever. That’s when Chip Davis decided his new-age, synth-heavy, neoclassical group Mannheim Steamroller would record a holiday album. The result of their labors, Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, became one of the best-selling holiday albums of all time, going platinum six times over. There’s a synthesizer for everybody here. “Deck the Halls” sounds quite reminiscent of the Chariots of Fire theme. “Good King Wenceslas” has the punchy '80s synth from Beverly Hills Cop. And this version of “Silent Night" pulls out all the synthesizer stops. The keyboard starts piano-like, moves through the string section, turns into bells, and ends with our favorite synth sound of all time: wind. Whooosh!  

[Image description: An digital illustration featuring toy Santa Clauses playing instruments in front of a cabin and Christmas tree.] Credit & copyright: blende12, Pixabay
 

If you’re in the states, you’ve probably had a healthy dose of Last Christmas by Wham! already this year. Yet few Americans know that across the pond, a British Christmas anthem with a very similar vibe, by another one-syllabled rock band, gets at least as much play time every holiday season. Lonely This Christmas, by British glam rock band Mud, hit number one on the UK Singles Chart in December of 1974 and stayed there for four weeks. The tune’s success was due to both the famed songwriting of Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, who penned several U.S. and U.K. number one hits throughout the 1970s and 80s, and the dramatic, modulating delivery of Mud’s lead singer, Les Grey. Grey’s costuming and singing style in the song’s music video was meant to be a lighthearted parody and homage to Elvis Presley’s own Christmas anthem, Blue Christmas. Seeing that the song became the band’s second of 14 top 20 hits in the U.K., it’s safe to say that Les Grey’s name wasn’t muddied by imitating the king.

[Image description: A black-and-white photo of British glam rock band Mud, posing for a photo. Two members sit down while two stand.] Credit & copyright: AVRO, Beeld en Geluid Wiki, Wikimedia Commons, image cropped for size.

It's Flashback Friday, and the first official day of winter is quickly approaching! Enjoy these cold-weather curios.
 
Birds aren't the only ones who want to flock to warmer climates in the winter. Singers John and Michelle Phillips were braving the northern chill of New York in the early '60s when they wrote California Dreamin', an ode to Los Angeles' better weather. The melancholy tune was originally given to the scraggly-voiced Barry McGuire to record. The Mamas & the Papas eventually re-recorded the song over McGuire's original backing track, which already featured the group's backup vocals, canon-like echoes and all. But the American West inspired more than the song's lyrical longing for the warmth of California: the descending chord progression in the verses was partially inspired by Walk, Don't Run, the surf instrumental hit by the Washington-based band the Ventures. Hey, it might've been easy to take the Californians out of the surf weather, but it's much harder to take the surf weather out of the Californians!
 

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Image credit & copyright: Real Gone Music
 

Get ready to rock...to this heartfelt father/daughter duet. On this day in 2003, famed British rocker Ozzy Osbourne went to number one on the UK Singles chart with a remake of Changes, a song he’d first undertaken during his Black Sabbath days, in 1972. This time, though, the song was a duet between Ozzy and his daughter, Kelly. The duo changed some of the sorrowful ballad’s romantic lyrics to make it about a father and daughter who are drifting apart. Its mournful tune and echoey recording make the song sound as if it’s being sung from the center of an empty room, or from a great distance away, which fits well with the lyrics about isolation and suffering. The remake certainly struck a nerve with the public, becoming Ozzy’s only number one single in the U.K. as a solo artist. It was also the U.K.’s first father/daughter hit since Frank and Nancy Sinatra’s Somethin' Stupid in 1967. Clearly, there’s nothing stupid about recording a tune with your old man, every now and then.

[Image description: Ozzy Osbourne holds up one of his albums at an awards show in 2011.] Credit & copyright: Chicks With Guns Magazine, Wikimedia Commons, image resized.

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of Dewey Decimal System Day, enjoy these curios celebrating books, authors, and literature.
 
What happens when you book two of the world's most influential avant-garde musicians for the same show—at Coney Island, no less? A lot of silence, gibberish, space-age poetry, and chaotic synthesizer solos. John Cage Meets Sun Ra is far from accessible. Sometimes, it's downright baffling. But then again, the same could be said for both composers' solo works. Cage is perhaps best known for 4' 33", performed by sitting at a piano silently for four minutes and 33 seconds; Sun Ra paved his way with otherworldly jazz improvisations and his insistence that he was born on the planet Saturn. The two didn't seem to know of each other's work before this one-off show, and may as well have been performing at separate concerts. But at one point they came together for Empty Words and Keyboard and the result is, well, otherworldly. The video below shows Cage, right, reading from the vocal piece Empty Words with sparse accompaniment from Sun Ra, left. Cage's vowels and guttural sounds aren't total nonsense: the artist assembled them from the journals of Henry David Thoreau. Taking directions from the I Ching, an ancient Chinese book of divination, he removed vowels, consonants, and syllables, until he ended up with the final text. The poor audience didn't even know when to clap!  

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Image credit & copyright: Meltdown Records

A religious song, sung in French by a nun? Truly, this has to be the unlikeliest of all one-hit wonders. Yet, on this day in 1963, Dominique by The Singing Nun began a four-week, number-one run on the U.S. singles chart. The simple ditty features trickling acoustic guitar and a four-part harmony between Sister Luc Gabrielle and three backup vocalists. The song’s lyrics tell of a nomadic, evangelizing man named Dominique, whom Catholic listeners might recognize as St. Dominic, a 12th Century priest—assuming, of course, that they could understand French. As for Sister Luc Gabrielle herself, her talent was discovered at her convent in Fichermont, Belgium. After she won a few musical prizes, a church elder asked her to record an LP so that the convent could hand out copies as gifts. Record producers at the Brussels studio where she recorded her music had other ideas, though. With her permission, they commercially released the LP. Luc Gabrielle became “Soeur Sourire” or “Sister Smile” in Europe, and “The Singing Nun” in America. The sister’s story of breakout music fame even inspired a movie starring Debbie Reynolds. Pretty glamorous stuff for a nun!

[Image description: A black-and-white photo of Sister Luc Gabrielle singing and playing guitar in front of a cross.] Credit & copyright: Priscila Sherlyn, Wikimedia Commons, image cropped for size

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of International Sweater Vestival, a day meant to celebrate the warmest of sleeveless clothing items, enjoy these fashion-themed curios.
 
Being fabulous isn't always easy. When Annie Lennox broke away from the massively successful '80s synth-soul band Eurythmics, she was looking to spark her creativity by creating a new, striking stage presence. The Scottish singer settled on the Diva persona, as one who would make dramatic gestures, wear extravagant clothes, and actively seek public attention—a stark contrast to the intensely private Lennox and her androgynous appearance in Eurythmics. In her piano-driven Walking on Broken Glass video, Lennox brought along star-studded company to tell the tale. Director Sophie Muller (of No Doubt's Don't Speak-fame) set the scene for actors Hugh Laurie and John Malkovich to play Lennox's new and ex-partners in the Dangerous Liaisons-inspired piece. For all of her pretend excesses, Lennox knew where the humor lay in her character's flaws: playing a scorned lover clad in crimson, she ruins a perfectly stuffy baroque ball with her anguish and fury. No one said behaving well was ever part of the act!

 

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Image credit & copyright: Arista Records
 

Sometimes, all it takes to make a hit is a single, compelling image. That was the case with Glen Campbell’s Wichita Lineman, a song inspired by songwriter Jimmy Web’s sighting of a solitary lineman working atop a telephone pole along the barren Kansas-Oklahoma border. The song helped propel its album of the same name to a five-week, number-one run atop the U.S. album chart starting on this day in 1968. Wichita Lineman’s straightforward lyrics about a blue collar working man helped make it a country hit, and led many to question whether Web himself had any experience working as a lineman. In an interview with Songfacts, Web put those rumors firmly to rest, saying, “No, I never worked for the phone company. But then, I'm not a journalist. I'm not Woody Guthrie. I'm a songwriter and I can write about anything I want to.” Web’s demo tape greatly excited Campbell, who found that his own versions didn’t quite capture the demo’s raw feel...until he added Web’s Hammond organ to the instrumentation. The rest is story-song history.

[Image description: A black and white photo of Glen Campbell smiling and holding a guitar.] Credit & copyright: Public Domain
 

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of National Native American Heritage Day, enjoy these curios about Native American history, ingenuity, and expression.
 
What’s the sound of worlds colliding? Czech composer Antonin Dvorak made his best effort at answering this question in his ninth symphony, better known as the New World Symphony, which premiered in 1893. Dvorak wrote the piece for the New York Philharmonic during a stint in America. It blends Dvorak’s traditional conservatory background with the “spirit” of Native American and African American music, which he had encountered for the first time during this stay. Dvorak hoped the piece would inspire U.S. composers to form their own school, building from the melodies and rhythms of African American spirituals. The largo section from the symphony, below, was later amended with lyrics and turned into an American song called “Goin’ Home.” A nice reminder that whether home is Prague or Philadelphia, we can all appreciate a nice, warm melody.  
 

Gratulerer, Billy Swan! (That’s Norwegian for congratulations.) In the U.S., Swan is best remembered as a one-hit wonder thanks to his country-pop song, I Can Help, which reached number one on the U.S. Singles and the U.S. Country charts on this day in 1974. The song was a rare, cross-genre hit. However, while I Can Help only charted for two weeks in the U.S., it was much bigger in Europe—particularly Norway, where it spent a whopping 37 weeks on the charts, making it the 4th-best-performing single in Norwegian history. It’s international success may have been due to its danceable, easygoing sound aided by a Farfisa organ, since organs were generally popular in Norwegian music. Soon, singers from Loretta Lynn to Elvis Presley were covering the song, but Swan’s version remained the definitive one both in the U.S. and abroad. Swan himself went on to write several more successful songs, such as 1962’s Top Ten hit, Lover Please, but I Can Help was the only hit that Swan sang himself. It certainly was a minneverdig (memorable) one!

[Image description: A pair of hands playing a Farfisa organ.] Credit & copyright: antifluor, Wikimedia Commons, image cropped for size

This song is defiant in more ways than one. Taylor Swift’s All Too Well, originally released on her 2012 album Red, is undoubtedly one of the songs that solidified her ascent to pop stardom. The breakup anthem, which Swift often plays on acoustic guitar during live shows, features emotionally-charged lyrics demanding that an ex take responsibility for his actions. (The fact that said ex is suspected to be actor Jake Gylenhall has only ever helped its popularity.) On November 12, 2021, Swift released a new, extended version of All Too Well on her re-recorded album, Red (Taylor’s Version). Swift has been re-recording her albums ever since her previous record label, Big Machine Records, sold her catalog to music executive Scooter Braun, in 2018. Because Swift still owns the rights to all future music she creates, her re-recorded songs give her control of the hits that made her a star. As for the extended All Too Well, with new lyrics like “you kept me like a secret but I kept you like an oath,” it’s safe to say that it cuts even deeper than the original. Braun and Gylenhall better watch out!

[Image description: Taylor Swift claps while performing in 2015] Credit & copyright: Nicole Alexander, Wikimedia Commons, image cropped for size.

It's Flashback Friday! The popular Chicken Soup for the Soul book series began on this day in 1993. In honor of Chicken Soup for the Soul Day, enjoy these curios all about goodwill and people making a difference.
 
In 1992, the passing of Freddie Mercury united a crowd of 72,000 at Wembley Stadium in London. Many were there to pay tribute to the vocalist's work with the band Queen, but the concert's mission was more future-oriented: to kickstart Mercury's own posthumous AIDS charity, to which all ticket sales were donated. In 1992, putting together a massive AIDS benefit concert was no small feat. Public stigma of the disease was rampant: a study in the American Journal of Public Health found that between ⅓ and ⅕ of the American public held negative feelings toward people with AIDS. But clearly Mercury, who died of complications from the disease, made music that bridged the divide. It's hard to pick a favorite performance from a set list that included the original members of Queen, Elton John, Metallica, and Guns N' Roses. But we have to give it to the late David Bowie and Annie Lennox for their rendition of Under Pressure. The song, originally a collaboration between Bowie and Queen, had been a standard at Queen's live shows, but this was the first time Bowie had performed it live. It's hard to imagine a better Mercury stand-in on the song that Lennox, too, whose powerful pipes mesh perfectly with Bowie's cool, smooth delivery.  

Is it a Bowie you’re looking for? Because there’s two on this track. In 1993, David Bowie released his 18th studio album, Black Tie White Noise. It featured some of his most personal songs, from a track about his marriage to one about his childhood. Near the album’s end, an instrumental jazz piece, Looking for Lester stands out, in tone, from the rest. This track is nothing less than a five-minute-and-thirty-six-second jam session between David Bowie, some members of his band (like pianist Mike Garson) and jazz legend Lester Bowie, hence its title. The song is a series of splashy, improvised solos over a 4/4 beat; first Lester on trumpet, then Garson on piano, then David on saxophone. David’s determination to play with Lester was only natural; before turning to rock, David had considered becoming a jazz musician himself. He greatly admired Lester, who was known for modernizing the genre and who even co-founded the Art Ensemble of Chicago. When you’re as famous as David Bowie, you don’t just get to meet your idols—you get to play alongside them.

[Image description: Lester Bowie playing trumpet in 1978.] Credit & copyright: Nomo michael hoefner, Wikimedia Commons
 

It's Flashback Friday! In honor of National Love Your Red Hair Day, enjoy these “hairy” curios from our archives.
 
In the 1960s, counterculture rock musicians were obsessed with two things: gorgeous, long hair and The Lord of the Rings. Legendary heavy metal band Black Sabbath was no exception. Tolkien's themes of anti-industrialism—embodied by the miserly orcs and their smog-belching machinery—jibed with hippies looking to stick it to the man, including Sabbath bassist and writer of the song The Wizard, Geezer Butler. The tune, which graces Sabbath's eponymous debut album, opens with swells of harmonica and crashing riffs, before singer Ozzy Osbourne tells of a reticent and unnamed wizard who "turns tears into joy," leaving everybody he crosses paths with in good spirits. Like most Sabbath tunes, chords strike like lighting and drum beats like hail, but somehow the lyrics remain uncharacteristically chipper (begging the listener to wonder if something else is going on underneath the floorboards). Though Butler confessed the song was directly inspired by Rings wizard Gandalf the Grey, many metal conspiracists believe (perhaps reasonably so) that the wizard is actually a philanthropic drug dealer imparting psychedelics to passersby. Whatever the case, we'd rather bump shoulders with Butler's kind-hearted wizard than the demons, soldiers, and nightmares crowding other Sabbath songs!
 

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Image credit & copyright: St. Martin's Press
 

There are plenty of political songs, but few songs written by actual politicians. On this day in 1958, the only song ever to be co-written by a U.S. Vice President hit number one on the UK singles chart. All in the Game, made famous by pop and doo-wop singer Tommy Edwards, has an orchestral sound unique among doo-wop songs and a 3/4 time signature that made it stand out from other boppy 1950s hits. The song’s most unique elements come from Charles Gates Dawes, who composed it in 1911 while working as a banker. Dawes went on to become Vice President to Calvin Coolidge, in 1925. The song’s lyrics about love were added in 1951 by songwriter Carl Sigman, known for hits like Marshmallow World. Edwards actually recorded All in the Game twice, once in 1951 and then again in 1958, when his career took a turn for the worse and MGM Records was considering dropping him. The newly recorded 1958 version saved his career, and he went on to record several other hits in the early 1960s. Good thing he didn’t quit and go into politics.

[Image description: A black and white photo of Tommy Edwards wearing a suit and bow tie.] Credit & copyright: Public Domain