Classic rock, pop, and soul songs from the '60s, '70s, and '80s
Classic rock, pop, and soul songs from the '60s, '70s, and '80s
Today’s classic sad song of the day is “San Francisco Mabel Joy,” by Mickey Newbury. Like “Tecumseh Valley,” yesterday’s classic song of the day, “San Francisco Mabel Joy” is a folk song that tells a story—a sad story, indeed. “San Francisco Mabel Joy” really isn’t about the character in the title, although she’s in the song. No, this one is…
Today’s classic sad song of the day is “Long Long Time,” one of Linda Ronstadt’s first solo hits. The single was released in June of 1970 and rose to #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #20 on the Easy Listening chart. Mr. Ronstadt’s performance was nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance. (She lost to Dionne…
This week we’re featuring particularly sad songs, and today’s classic sad song of the day is “Hasten Down the Wind” by Warren Zevon, later covered by Linda Ronstadt. It’s hard to believe this song is close to fifty years old or that Warren’s been gone twenty years now. “Hasten Down the Wind” tells the story, in the third person, of…
This is the last day of Motown week here at the classic song of the day blog, and our final classic Motown song of the day is “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” a song great enough to be a hit for two different Motown artists within the span of three years. “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” was first released by…
Today’s classic Motown song of the day comes from one of Motown’s top composers and performers. It’s “The Tears of a Clown” by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. This one was initially released on the Miracles’ 1967 album, Make It Happen, but not released as a single. Motown released it as a single in England in 1970, where it rose…
Today’s classic Motown song of the day is “Heat Wave,” which was a hit twice—for Martha and the Vandellas in 1963 and a little over a decade later for Linda Ronstadt. We’ll focus on the original version first, since this is Motown week at the Classic Song of the Day blog. Martha and the Vandellas recorded “Heat Wave” on June…
Today’s classic song of the day is “Please Mr. Postman” by the Marvelettes. It was one of the first big Motown hits, released in August of 1961 on the Tamla label. It went all the way to #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard’s Hot R&B Sides charts. If you’ve been following this blog you might have noticed…
In honor of his passing, today’s classic songs of the day are “Margaritaville” and “Come Monday” by the late Jimmy Buffett. I know you know them both. Jimmy Buffett started out in Nashville as a country artist. He released his first album in 1970 and it went absolutely nowhere. He later moved to Key West and evolved from country music…
Today’s classic song of the day was suggested by group member Paula Summerville Davis. It’s the two-part song “I’m Your Captain (Closer to Home)” by Grand Funk Railroad. “I’m Your Captain (Closer to Home)” was included on Grand Funk’s 1970 album, Closer to Home. It was a very long track (5:31 for the single, 10 minutes for the album version),…