My Stack 'O Tunes for 11/3

Part of a high-volume blog month is the cliche filler post. At the very least, they call attention to tunes we didn't know existed, or merely serve to illuminate the headspace of the blogger. Here's a quick look at what today's tuneage consists of:

• Gene Chandler, "Groovy Situation" / "Not The Marrying Kind": Gene Chandler is most famous for "Duke of Earl", which was recorded for Vee-Jay in Chicago. When that label crashed and burned in 1966, Chandler went up the street to Mercury Records (also, at that time, in Chicago), and recorded this big hit ("Groovy Situation", that is). The flip side is the one that always hooked me as a kid; I was given this record by my Aunt Margie, from whom a very large portion of my singles collection stems. She thought I might like it (keep in mind I was, like, nine years old). Listening back to "Marrying Kind", it's just as great as I remember it.


• Jerry Butler and Betty Everett, "Let It Be Me": This chestnut comes to my attention via my recent acquisition of The Story of Vee-Jay, a budget-priced double CD of the late great Chicago record company. The song is bathed in symphonic string crescendos worthy of Mr. Spector; Butler and Everett make what could have been a bathetic paean of love instead be a soaring plea that if Heaven is your love, may it never end. Gorgeous.


• Peter, Paul, and Mary, "Flora": The B-side to "Blowin' In The Wind" is a quickly-strummed tale of a faithless lover and of jealousy turned to murder. Great little song.


• The Ventures, "Walk, Don't Run '64": The surf-guitar classic gets updated, though not necessarily improved or ruined. It's still a great song, regardless of the overlaid Farfisa organ and echoey arrangememts.


• Apocalypse Hoboken, Daterape Nation EP: I've had this one in my collection since the '90s. I'd played one cut of the EP ("Pop Sensibilities") pretty regularly at the time of its release, but couldn't delve too much further (for on-air purposes, anyway) due to its punk-rock-but-not-FCC-friendly language. I finally revisited it, knowing that they might have hailed from my current hometown, and it's awesome pop-punk as sung by Johnny Rotten's cousin. Awesome; I wonder if this ever made it onto CD. My copy is a double 7", in a gatefold sleeve.

P.S.: MSWord 2010 really stinks as an ad-hoc HTML editor!!