List: Top 20 Whistling Songs of All Time

In my continuing quest to express my love of music, I present my

Top 20 Whistling Songs of All Time

#20 -

Let's Go Surfing - The Drums

Thanks to Jason for turning me on to this song back in 2010.

#19 -

Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding

#18 -

Patience - Guns N Roses

#17 -

Winds of Change - The Scorpions

#16 -

Brick House - The Commodores

#15 -

Don't Worry Be Happy - Bobby McFerrin

#14 -

Tighten Up - The Black Keys

#13 -

Walk Like An Egyptian - The Bangles

#12 -

Pumped Up Kicks - Foster The People

#11 -

Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard - Paul Simon

#10 -

Home - Edwin Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes

#9 -

Centerfold - J. Geils Band

#8 -

The Ruling Class - Loose Fun

#7 -

The Good The Bad and The Ugly Movie Theme - Ennio Morricone

#6 -

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life - Monty Python

#5 -

Good Life - OneRepublic

#4 -

The Andy Griffith Show Theme

#3 -

Danse Caribe - Andrew Bird

And many other songs by him!

#2 -

Games Without Frontiers - Peter Gabiel

#1 -

Big Chief - Professor Longhair

Top 10 Songs Featuring Harmonica

Carlos is not a fan of the harmonica or any song containing it. And I love the harmonica. 

Back in the day, my friend Matt and I each bought $60 harmonicas for the sole purpose of learning how to play - and then woo women.

It was the early 1990's.

I was still dating women then.

I still love the sound of the instrument and any song containing it. Here are my Top 10 Songs Featuring Harmonica. Enjoy. You too, Carlos!

Black Country Woman - Led Zeppelin

From Me to You - The Beatles

I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues - Elton John Featuring Stevie Wonder

Isn't She Lovely - Stevie Wonder

Long May You Run - Neil Young

Piano Man - Billy Joel

Roadhouse Blues - The Doors

Running To Stand Still - U2

What I Like About You - The Romantics

 

What Would You Say - Dave Matthews Band

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I've never been a fan of Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen so I couldn't list their songs. I could have listed many more U2, Neil Young or Stevie Wonder songs. What songs are your favorites?

Top 10 Artists: Badfinger (Revisited)

Back here, I posted my Top Ten Favorite Badfinger Songs (in chronological order).

The site Ultimate Classic Rock - one of my daily reads - recently posted its list of Top 10 Badfinger Songs. Not surprising to me, our list shares exactly one song: Meanwhile Back At The Ranch / Should I Smoke. Their lists in general tend to lean toward the more popular songs by a band, rarely anything from deep in the catalog.

Though I do appreciate their love for Rock Lists!

Here is the song that we both agree on...

Badfinger: Meanwhile Back At The Ranch / Should I Smoke

Bruno Mars

Bruno Mars is one of those artists who - like Katy Perry or Pink (who I'll discuss one day soon) - are on the charts today that you wouldn't normally think I'd like. But I do.

I especially like his latest single Locked Out of Heaven:




It reminds me a lot of early Police songs, around their Outlandos d'Amour and to a lesser extent Reggatta de Blanc phase. As I did with the song Strawberry Letter 23, before I worked up a whole compare and contrast post, I Googled to see if someone else had already done the work. Sure enough, someone had!

First,  here are the three Police songs that I think Bruno Mars took inspiration from.

#1 - Can't Stand Losing You (from Outlandos d'Amour):




#2 - Roxanne (from Outlandos d'Amour):




#3 - Message in a Bottle - especially the chorus (from Reggatta de Blanc):




Here is the mash up of Bruno Mars's Locked Out of Heaven with The Police's Can't Stand Losing You - Can't Stand Locked Out of Heaven:




Here's an article entitled "Does Bruno Mars Think 'Heaven' Sounds Like A Police Song? 'Hell Yeah!''

Full article here.


Finally, here is the cast of Glee performing the song on their January 24, 2013 episode:

Boy Bands

So I was driving down Airline Drive on my way home from work today, blasting this song...

One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful

...when I came to a stop light. The passenger in the large red truck on my left side gave me a strange look. I rocked on.

That got me thinking...

One of my hobbies is trading shirtless photos of celebrities. I guess it's the modern day, gay version of baseball cards.

I run three fairly successful Yahoo groups - 

Male Stars Shirtless

Male Stars Undressed

Male Stars Update

I also frequent and contribute to a message board called Famous Males Forum. Because it's based in the UK, I find out about many stars that never cross over to here in the US.

Even though I have over 100 shirtless photos of, for example, Lee Ryan...

until last week I had never heard a note of his band Blue. That is, until I started compiling my list of...

Top Ten Boy Band Songs of All Time

Or at least that was the original idea of this post. I quickly realized that I liked looking at the members of the boy bands much more than actually listening to their music. Even with 89 listed American Boy Bands -- and 58 listed English Boy Bands - plus the 50+ ones from the rest of the world, this is the best list I could assemble.

Once I assemble a Top Ten Boy Band Members for my other blog, I'll post a link here.

Starting off our countdown is One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful at #7. You saw that video above.

Here's how to correctly remake a song - with style, humor, and a wink to the original version...

#6 - Westlife - Uptown Girl

Bonus points for the best looking member being the one who came out (and the fan base didn't care)...

Here is Billy Joel's original version...

Billy Joel - Uptown Girl

The aforementioned boy band Blue has done both a classy remake...

#5 - Blue featuring Elton John - Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

...and a fumbled attempt...

Blue (featuring Kool & the Gang and Lil' Kim) - Get Down On It

Here is Kool & The Gang's original version...

Kool & The Gang - Get Down On It

Of the Disney-Channel-spawned band The Jonas Brothers, this is their best song (though they actually do have some other good ones)...

#4 - The Jonas Brothers - Year 3000

The youngest brother Nick is especially talented. I've heard his solo album - and it's quite good.

Going back to 1996, I still sneak this song onto mixed CD's that I create...

#3 - Hanson - MMMBop

Zac Hanson, the 10-year-old drummer in the video, is now 27 years old, and married with two kids. Taylor Hanson, the lead singer, is now 29, married with five kids. Don't you feel old now?

Interestingly, my top two songs both have the same title..

#2 - The Jackson 5 - I Want You Back

The top of my chart of Top Ten Seven Boy Band Songs of All Time was always going to be this one...

#1 - NSYNC - I Want You Back

What are your favorite boy band songs?

Happy Thanksgiving

Back in 2010, I wrote about one aspect of my days as a college radio DJ. Here's another story.

Thanksgiving coming up later this week reminded me of a set of radio shows I did back in college: Back then, I had a Monday noon until 3 pm solo radio show and another one with a partner Tuesday from 9 pm until 1 am.

Each year, right before our break for Thanksgiving, during my Monday show, I would ask my listeners to call me with ideas for music that got them in the mood for the holiday. I would then find the songs in our music library or in my personal collections, and play four hours of Songs About Food during our Tuesday night show.

FOUR HOURS! It was quite a challenge!

The lists of songs that we played during those shows are long gone, but I do remember one favorite...



Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Here is the NPR story that reminded me of my story.

New Favorite Song: Neon Trees - Everybody Talks

Here's my new favorite song this week...

The Bangles & The GoGo's

I was listening to The Bangles recently on Songza. Here's their best song...



Watching the video reminds me of the question I had back in the late 1980's, when the Bangles were hot and when that video came out: Why can't an all-female group just play music? Why do they have to be sexualized to sell albums?

That's a question with many more questions and many more thoughts. For another post.

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We saw them a few years back at The House of Blues here in New Orleans. They're worth seeing live.

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Speaking of girl groups of the 80's and misogyny, the best GoGo's song is Head Over Heels...

Top 10 List: AC/DC Songs

AC/DC is one of those bands that if you like one song by them, you'll probably like all songs by them. From their first album High Voltage (1975) to their latest one, Black Ice (2008), when an AC/DC song comes on, you can tell it's them.

Carlos and I have been trying to keep up with the summer movie releases. Two of the movies we've seen have featured AC/DC songs:

The Avengers - Iron Man's "theme song" is Shoot To Thrill

Battleship - Thunderstruck

Since I love making lists, I thought I'd tackle my Top Ten Favorite AC/DC Songs of All Time. Unlike my entry on Badfinger, however, I'm not going to chart this band's history as I count down.

I will give you a bit of my history with the band.

My first memory of AC/DC is seeing their concert film Let There Be Rock around September 1980 at Lakeside I in Metairie (Louisiana) with my friend Lloyd. We were both 13 so we had my mom drop us off and pick us up. I remember that I was nervous because we were meeting Lloyd's older cousin and her friend. They must have been 14 or 15. I tried to act cool the whole time.

 I have seen AC/DC live once: in the mid 1990's - though I'd love to see them live again. Their encore of For Those About To Rock (We SaluteYou) with the fireworks is incredible.

 AC/DC has never been one of my All-Time favorite bands, but their best songs definitely endure in my mind.

Now the list. Top Ten Favorite AC/DC Songs of All Time

#10 -

Highway to Hell (title track - 1979)

#9 -

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (title track - 1976)

a

#8 -

Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution (from Back in Black - 1980)

#7 - 

Have a Drink on Me (from Back in Black - 1980)

#6 -

Heatseeker (from Blow Up Your Video - 1988)

#5 - 

Shoot to Thrill (from Back in Black - 1980)

#4 - 

Let's Get It Up (from For Those About to Rock [We Salute You] - 1981)

#3 -

That's The Way I Wanna Rock N Roll (from Blow Up Your Video - 1988)

#2 - 

Thunderstruck (from The Razors Edge - 1990)

 #1 - 

C.O.D. (from For Those About to Rock [We Salute You] - 1981)

Lagniappe:

TNT (from High Voltage - 1975)

This one is right outside of my Top Ten. Dedicated to the late Bon Scott. Bits of the song can be now frequently be heard on the cable network Turner Network Television, better known as TNT.