Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

When I posted the first Any Major Power Ballads mix in 2020, I promised that I had a second volume all lined up. Three years on, I finally get around to posting one. The shortlist grew a bit since, also thanks to the suggestions from readers — though, sorry, I can’t see Livin’ On A Prayer as a ballad.

It was sort of a given that Journey would feature again in some way. In the event, I opted for the solo hit by singer Steve Perry. One problem I have with Perry is his diction, which is permanently in the kind of state one might be temporarily after receiving new, ill-fitting dentures. On Oh Sherrie, is he really singing: “Oh Sherrie, how low, with clothes on, clothes off”?

On the notes for Volume 1 (which is still live, by the way), I ruled out the inclusion of Celine Dion. Since then, Jim Steinman died and I had to confront myself with Dion’s version of It’s All Coming Back To Me Now. It was time to discard my prejudices against the artistry of Ms Dion — she nails the song. I have since experimented with the music of Celine Dion (that is to say, I listened to a few of her hits on YouTube). It’s better than my memory had given it credit for, but you still won’t see much more of it featured here.

In any case, as I have previously noted, power ballads give us an excuse to like music by acts we’d normally not listen to. I have albums by five of the acts featured here, and even then, I have to question my wisdom in buying two of them. And yet, this mix is great. This is as close as I’ll ever get to giving any currency to the misconceived notion of “guilty pleasures”.

There recently was an entertaining two-part documentary on British TV on power balladry (they adopted a broader definition that I would allow), which riffed a bit on the guilty pleasure fallacy. The thing was titled “Sometimes When We Touch”, after the Dan Hill hit. So it seems right to include the song here, perhaps doing my bit to dismiss the myth that this perfectly good song is in some way deficient.

And then it seemed right to accompany it with the godfather of all power ballads: Harry Nilsson’s Without You, even if I prefer it in Badfinger’s original version (the story is told in The Originals: The 1970s).Here’s hoping that Volume 3 — yes, I have enough for another one, though I remain open to suggestions — won’t take another three years to run.

As ever, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R, includes home-guitarsoloed covers, and the above in PDF format. PW in comments.

1. Aerosmith – Dream On (1973)
2. Nilsson – Without You (1971)
3. Dan Hill – Sometimes When We Touch (1977)
4. The Babys – Every Time I Think Of You (1978)
5. Heart – What About Love (1985)
6. REO Speedwagon – Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore (1984)
7. Steve Perry – Oh Sherrie (1984)
8. Firehouse – Love Of A Lifetime (1990)
9. Air Supply – All Out Of Love (1980)
10. Meat Loaf – Read ‘Em And Weep (1981)
11. Celine Dion – It’s All Coming Back To Me Now (1996)
12. Roxette – Listen To Your Heart (1988)
13. INXS – Never Tear Us Apart (1987)
14. Bad English – When I See You Smile (1989)
15. Whitesnake – Is This Love (1987)
16. April Wine – Just Between You And Me (1981)
17. Sheriff – When I’m With You (1982)
18. Bryan Adams – Heaven (1983)

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Last week I reposted ago I recycled from August 2013 one of the Any Major CD-R mixes I have listened to more than most other collection of music, Any Major Morning Vol. 1. Likewise, I have have played the present, second morning mix many, many times. It’s that good, and it is high time I re-share it with you, having originally run in August 2014.

The previous mix simply featured songs with the word “morning” in the title, provided the lyrics were set in the morning. The titles in this lot don’t all include the word “morning”, but they abide broadly by the latter rule. So I disqualify songs like Touch Me In The Morning or Angel Of The Morning wherein the singer is anticipating behaviours that still lie ahead. I’ve not been steadfast with that rule; the Crash Test Dummies survived it, as did Hall & Oates.

Obviously I have tried to avoid songs that use the idea of “morning” as a metaphor, so no It’s Morning Britain by Aztec Camera. And, Faron Young: 4 am is hardly “morning”, chum.

I’m surprised by how few songs there are about that great morning activity: breakfasts. The songs included here are not exactly about croissants and flapjacks (unless those can be applied as euphemisms), though the cute and amusing K’s Choice song sort of is.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes home-yawned covers. PW in comments.

1. The Beatles – Good Morning Good Morning (1967)
2. The Pretty Things – She Says Good Morning (1968)
3. Big Star – Watch The Sunrise (1972)
4. Richie Havens – Morning, Morning (1968)
5. Badfinger – Sweet Tuesday Morning (1971)
6. Daryl Hall & John Oates – When The Morning Comes (1973)
7. Neil Diamond – Deep In The Morning (1969)
8. Jimmy James & The Vagabonds – Good Day Sunshine (1968)
9. Chuck Jackson – I Wake Up Crying (1961)
10. The Rascals – A Beautiful Morning (1968)
11. The Monkees – Sometime In The Morning (1967)
12. Dusty Springfield – Breakfast in Bed (1969)
13. Gil Scott-Heron – I Think I’ll Call It Morning (1971)
14. The Bar Kays – Memphis At Sunrise (1972)
15. Bill Withers – Lovely Day (1977)
16. The Partridge Family – I Woke Up In Love This Morning (1971)
17. Glen Campbell – Sunflower (1977)
18. George Strait – Amarillo By Morning (1982)
19. Cowboy Junkies – Sun Comes Up, It’s Tuesday Morning (1990)
20. Crash Test Dummies – Get You In The Morning (1999)
21. The Boo Radleys – Wake Up Boo! (1995)
22. Eels – Saturday Morning (2003)
23. Richard Hawley – As The Dawn Breaks (2009)
24. Billy Bragg & Wilco – Someday Some Morning Sometime (2000)
25. K’s Choice – Breakfast (1993)
26. Norah Jones – Sunrise (2004)

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[This is a repost from August 2013. This mix and its follow-up are among my all-time Any Major CD-R mixes, so after almost a decade, it’s good to recycle them.]

Here’s a mix I have played more often than perhaps any I have ever done on this site. I dreamed it up, almost literally, when I had to drop my son at the airport for a red-eye flight. Trying to cheer myself up, I sang the Good Morning song from Singin’ In The Rain, Good Day Sunshine by The Beatles, and “It’s Four In The Morning by Faron Young. Funny enough, none of these made it into this eclectic mix.

It kicks off with the full version of the song you’ll know as the theme to The Sopranos, by London band Alabama 3. I hope you’ll have better mornings than the subjects of the song. It’s based on the 1989 killing of English wife-beater Malcolm Thornton by his wife Sarah, who stabbed him 20 times. A trial in 1990 found her guilty of murder; a retrial in 1996 reduced the verdict to manslaughter and Sarah was set free for time served.

The version featured here of Kevin Ayer‘s infectious Religious Experience (Singing A Song In The Morning), the psychedelic rocker”s first single in 1970, is the longer one which remained unreleased until 2003. It has Pink Floyd legend Syd Barrett on guitar, while The Ladybirds, who are best known from The Benny Hill Show, perform the backing vocals.

Perhaps the most obscure track here is Joyce Williams‘ The First Thing I Do In The Morning. This gospel-funk number burns it up, with its hot flutes, sizzling wah-wah guitar and incendiary bass. The only other record Williams seems to have recorded was a single titled Dance The Wrangler Shake (take that, Harlem) six years earlier, in 1966 — for the jeans company.

A few songs here are covers of well-known songs. Harry Nilsson covers Louis Jordan’s 1947 hit Early In The Morning, Paul Weller does Paul Lightfoot’s Early Morning Rain.

And listen to Bernard Purdie’s great drums on the Tim Rose track.

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes home-brewed covers. Volume 2 will follow next week.

1. Alabama 3 – Woke Up This Morning (1997)
2. Velvet Underground – Sunday Morning (1967)
3. Harry Nilsson – Early In The Morning (1971)
4. Tim Rose – Morning Dew (1967)
5. Kevin Ayers – Religious Experience (Singing A Song In The Morning) (1970)
6. The Jesus and Mary Chain – Deep One Perfect Morning (1987)
7. The Lilac Time – This Morning (2001)
8. The Pogues – Tuesday Morning (1993)
9. Paul Weller – Early Morning Rain (2004)
10. Brandi Carlile – Late Morning Lullaby (2007)
11. Lyle Lovett – Just The Morning (1994)
12. Rusty Wier – Texas Morning (1974)
13. Dolly Parton – Early Morning Breeze (1971)
14. Isaac Hayes – Early Sunday Morning (1971)
15. Joyce Williams – The First Thing I Do In The Morning (1972)
16. David Ruffin – Morning Sun Looks Blue (1979)
17. Al Jarreau – Mornin’ (1983)
18. Major Harris – Each Morning I Wake Up (1974)
19. The Temptations – Love Woke Me Up This Morning (1972)
20. Tim Buckley – Morning Glory (1967)
21. Townes Van Zandt – I’ll Be Here In The Morning (1968)
22. Bobbie Gentry – Mornin’ Glory (1968)
23. Joan Baez & Bill Wood – So Soon In The Morning (1959)

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The 1960s had a generation of songwriters which in its breadth and quality is ummatched.

Jimmy Webb, Bob Dylan, Lennon & McCartney, Brian Wilson, Paul Simon, King & Goffin and the rest of the Brill Building scene, Holland/Dozier/Holland and Smokey Robinson and the rest of the Motown crew, Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Curtis Mayfield, Hayes & Porter, Ray Davies, the evil John Phillips, Bert Berns, Crewe & Gaudio, James Brown, Sly Stone, Neil Diamond, Lee Hazlewood, Shadow Morton, Jagger & Richards, Stephen Stills, Van Morrison, and God knows whom I have forgotten and whose name you’ve just shouted out, unable to understand their inexplicable omission.

I don’t think it is remotely possible to name a “greatest” from that lot, but Burt Bacharach was a towering figure in that collection of genius songsmiths. His collaborations with Hal David, which comprises almost all of Burt’s 1960s prime, are near the level of Cole Porter, who perhaps was the greatest songwriter of all time (of course, Porter did music & lyrics himself).

Many of these songwriters and tunesmiths have already left us, some may follow soon. Burt Bacharach followed Hal David to the great recording studio in the sky last week. So this mix — a long overdue Vol. 2 to the Bacharach/David Songbook I posted in 2017 —  is by way of tribute to this giant in popular music. A third Bacharach/David mix will follow later in the year; it will include some songs that didn’t make it on this collection, and a few versions of songs that did.

Long-time readers of this blog will recall that I have previously put up three Bacharach Songbooks:
The Bacharach/David Songbook Vol. 1
Bacharach: The Lesser Known Songbook
Covered With Soul: Bacharach/David Edition
Any Major Originals: Bacharach Edition

As ever, this mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes home-trumpeted covers.

1. Gwen Guthrie – (They Long To Be) Close To You (1986)
2. Robin McKelle & The FlyTones – Walk On By (2013)
3. Jennifer Warnes – Don’t Make Me Over (1979)
4. Luther Vandross – A House Is Not A Home (1980)
5. James Brown – What The World Needs Now Is Love (1976)
6. Lyn Collins – Reach Out For Me (1972)
7. Jimmy Ruffin – Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head (1970)
8. The Dells – I Just Dont Know What To Do With Myself (1972)
9. Barbara Acklin – The Look Of Love (1969)
10. Dionne Warwick – I Say A Little Prayer (1967)
11. Dusty Springfield – TwentyFour Hours From Tulsa (1964)
12. Nancy Sinatra – Wishin’ And Hopin’ (1966)
13. Dee Dee Warwick – Alfie (1969)
14. Jackie Trent – Make It Easy On Yourself (1969)
15. Bobbie Gentry – I’ll Never Fall In Love Again (1969)
16. The Fifth Dimension – One Less Bell To Answer (1970)
17. Gabor Szabo & Lena Horne – A Message To Michael (1970)
18. Pretenders – The Windows Of The World (1988)
19. Neil Diamond – Do You Know The Way To San José (1993)
20. Rumer – You’ll Never Get To Heaven (If You Break My Heart) (2016)
21. Ronald Isley & Burt Bacharach – In Between The Heartaches (2003)
22. Bob Marley and The Wailers – What’s New Pussycat (1965)

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Previous Songbooks:
ABBA
Ashford & Simpson
Barry Gibb Vol. 1
Barry Gibb Vol. 2
Bill Withers
Bob Dylan Volumes 1-5
Brian Wilson
Bruce Springsteen
Burt Bacharach & Hal David
Burt Bacharach’s Lesser-Known Songbook
Carole Bayer Sager
Carole King Vol. 1
Carole King Vol. 2
Chuck Berry
Cole Porter Vol. 1
Cole Porter Vol. 2
Elton John & Bernie Taupin
Holland-Dozier-Holland
John Prine
Jimmy Webb Vol. 1
Jimmy Webb Vol. 2
Jimmy Webb Vol. 3
Lamont Dozier
Laura Nyro
Leonard Cohen
Neil Diamond
Paul McCartney Vol. 1
Paul McCartney Vol. 2
Rod Temperton
Steely Dan

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This year for me will be one of weddings. Not my own, of course. Any Major Dudette and I have been married for more than half our lives now. As Orleans say in their song, we’re still having fun and she’s still the one. But three young couples in our family and circle of friends will marry this year.

The Dudette and I will celebrate one of those milestone anniversaries this year, and as we are attending those three weddings, we hope that when those couples will in the future mark their milestone anniversaries, they shall feel about their marriage the way The Dudette and I feel about ours.

Sure enough, all those years have not been without problems, but even when it approached the verge of the abyss, we came back from it — and stronger! Are there things I’d change about The Dudette, or she about me? Of course, but none of that darkens our love and — this is, I think, the key to a good marriage — our friendship. The Dudette is my best friend, just as John Deacon of Queen wrote about his wife Veronica (in happy news, John and Veronica are still together, having just recently celebrated 48 years of marriage).

So this mix is intended to reflect long-time love, not the first flushes of romance with its attendant physical attraction — though the physical attraction may last the course — but the romance of having grown together, fused by love and time, having become one. These songs address these dynamics in different ways. Some specifically address having been together for a long time, others can apply also to younger love. All featured songs, I think, tell the story of love that has grown to be strong and lasting.

If you are among the fortunates to have that kind of relationship, you might play this mix for your loved one, maybe on Valentine’s Day. Or play just those songs that resonate with you, of course.

And if you are not among those privileged people — because life didn’t work out that way or because you are still seeking it — I hope you might simply enjoy the music. If you like your love music a little more disappointing, you might like Any Major Unrequited Love or Any Major Impossible Love.

This mix is a companion to the Any Major Love mix which I posted in 2015, also just before Valentine’s Day (like the other love mixes, it’s still up). One track from that mix is recycled here, but in a live version: Neil Young’s Harvest Moon. It’s a song I’d love to play for Any Major Dudette as I hold her close and look in her eyes. If only she liked it… The version here is from a live performance at the Ryman Theater in LA; the swishing percussion beat you hear is created by… a broom! And Glen Campbell song here covers the track that closed Any Major Love.

There are other tracks on Any Major Love that might have suited this Forever Love mix well. Let’s Stay Together, of course, or Ben Fold’s The Luckiest, which I nearly recycled as well, but include here in a live version as a bonus track.

And a different companion compilation: Any Major Babymaking Music Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

As always, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R, includes home-cuddled covers and the above text in PDF. PW in comments.

1. The Presidents – 5-10 15-20 (25-30 Years of Love) (1971)
2. Blood, Sweat & Tears – You’ve Made Me So Very Happy (1968)
3. Queen – You’re My Best Friend (1975)
4. Orleans – Still The One (1976)
5. Keith Whitley – When You Say Nothing At All (1988)
6. Neil Young – Harvest Moon (live) (2005)
7. Glen Campbell – Grow Old With Me (2008)
8. John Legend – All Of Me (2013)
9. Al Jarreau – We’re In This Love Together (1981)
10. Minnie Riperton – Simple Things (1975)
11. O.C. Smith – Friend Lover Woman Wife (1969)
12. Andre de Villiers – Memories (1999)
13. Brandi Carlile – The Story (2007)
14. Kacy Crowley – Kind Of Perfect (2004)
15. The Cure – Love Song (1989)
16. Modern English – I Melt With You (1990)
17. Cowboy Junkies – Anniversary Song (1993)
18. Jack Johnson – Do You Remember (2005)
19. Dan Seals – One Friend (1987)
20. Collin Raye – In This Life (1992)
21. Alan Jackson – I’d Love You All Over Again (1989)
22. Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt & Dolly Parton – When We’re Gone, Long Gone (1999)
Bonus Tracks:
Eastmountainsouth – So Are You To Me (2003)
Ben Folds – The Luckiest (live) (2002)

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Previously in Any Major Love:
Any Major Love
Any Major Love in Black & White
Any Major Unrequited Love
Any Major Impossible Love

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Flashback 50 years ago to 1973! This is the first of two mixes of hits in that year. As in the mixes covering past years, it’s supposed to be a snapshot of the year’s charts, rather than a representative overview — because if it was that, these mixes could be pretty bad (US top song of 1973? Tie A Yellow Ribbon…). I’ve also not necessarily chosen the biggest or even the best hits of the year; if I had, Superstition would feature.

So, the goal is to evoke a little bit of 1973, with some classics and some perhaps half-forgotten hits. The first mix for 1973 focuses on the US charts; the follow-up will cover the UK. What surprised me in researching these two mixes is how few British acts had hits in the US in 1973. The British invasion had been repelled.

In the Top 100 hits of the year, there were British mega acts like Elton John, Wings, George Harrison, Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd — all global stars whose fame transcended their passports. Otherwise, Sweet featured with Little Willy, Stealer’s Wheel with Stuck In The Middle With You, and Gilbert O’Sullivan (who was Irish) with the awful Get Down and the rather sweet Clair. Plus Focus, who were Dutch.

By contrast, the UK charts were full of US acts, including a number of tracks on this mix. That mix will drop later in the year.

The debates about the “first-ever disco record” are futile, because how do you define disco, a genre of several strands? But I think that any list of proto-disco songs should include First Choice’s quite wonderful Armed And Extremely Dangerous.

I suppose a companion series to this one before us today is A Life In Vinyl, which goes back to 1977, when I started to invest seriously in records.  That series tracks my music-buying behaviour in the decade or so that followed.

If you dig the feel of 1973, take a look at the collection of posters from West-Germany’s Bravo magazine in 1973 (other years are available, too).

As ever, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R, and includes home-lovetraineded covers. PW in Comments.

1. Deep Purple – Smoke On The Water
2. Alice Cooper – No More Mr Nice Guy
3. Edgar Winter Group – Free Ride
4. Doobie Brothers – Long Train Runnin’
5. Jim Croce – I Got A Name
6. Helen Reddy – Delta Dawn
7. Skylark – Wildflower
8. Dobie Gray – Drift Away
9. The Independents – Leaving Me
10. Barry White – I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little More Babe
11. O’Jays – Love Train
12. Three Dog Night – Shambala
13. Ozark Mountain Daredevils – If You Wanna Get To Heaven
14. King Harvest – Dancing In The Moonlight
15. Seals & Crofts – We May Never Pass This Way (Again)
16. Chicago – Just You ‘N’ Me
17. The Isley Brothers – That Lady
18. Ike & Tina Turner – Nutbush City Limits
19. Billy Preston – Will It Go Round In Circles
20. First Choice – Armed And Extremely Dangerous
21. Carole King – Corazon
22. Maria Muldaur – Midnight At The Oasis

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Any Major Hits from 1944
Any Major Hits from 1947
Any Major Hits from 1961
Any Major Hits from 1970
Any Major Hits from 1971
Any Major Hits from 1972 Vol. 1
Any Major Hits from 1972 Vol. 2

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Last week I ran the first set of “favourites” from Any Major mixes in 2022, with links to the respective posts (with a PDF containing them included). Here’s the second volume.

I noted last week how popular the Songbooks have been. In 2022, I songbooked Carole King, Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson on their respective 80^th birthdays, and Elton John, Carol Bayer Sager and the late Laura Nyro on their 75^th, and Lamont Dozier (alone and with the Holland brothers) on his passing. I’ll have to see what jubilees there are in 2023 (a couple are pencilled in already); obviously there needn’t be a special occasion to run a Songbook.

Of course I’ll continue other regulars: Covered With Soul (for which I have a surprise coming up), Any Major Soul, A Year in Hits, Albums of the Year, and so on. And no doubt here’ll be a few stand-alones, like 2022’s Any Major Laurel Canyon, Any Major Party and Any Major Sugar. And there will be more Beatles in foreign languages.

All this presumes, of course, that I will have the time to continue as I have in the past. Professional and private priorities must obviously take precedence, but how can I think of cutting back when I get such kind comments, such as this by a reader signing off as Le Trev:

I have no idea how I came across your site only a few days ago but it is my best Christmas present so far. (Albeit the only one but no matter!) If you are a one-man Operator, then your knowledge of “popular music” probably cannot be bettered by anybody in ” The business”!

Of course, you are invited to leave comments on posts — even if to say you enjoyed or didn’t like a mix. In fact, I would be very happy if you could tell me which mixes you particularly liked over the past year. This mix also include a PDF with the links below, for later reference. PW in comments.

1. Jo Jo Gunne – Run Run Run (1972)
Any Major Hits from 1972 – Vol. 2

2. Ike & Tina Turner – Get Back (1973)
Paul McCartney Songbook Vol. 1

3. Wilson Pickett – Sugar Sugar (1970)
Covered With Soul Vol. 24

4. The Monkees – Pleasant Valley Sunday (1967)
Any Major Carole King Songbook Vol. 2

5. Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich – The Legend Of Xanadu (1968)
Any Major Teen Dreams

6. Southern Freeze – Freeez (1981)
Any Major Disco Vol. 10 – Party Like It’s 1981

7. Charles & Eddie – Would I Lie To You (Acoustic Version) (1992)
Any Major Charlies

8. Dexys Midnight Runners – Liars A To E (1982)
Any Major Albums of the Year: 1982

9. The Pogues – Streets Of Sorrow/Birmingham Six (1988)
Life in Vinyl 1988

10. Carole King – Sweet Seasons (1970)
Any Major Laurel Canyon

11. Salome Bey – Hit The Nail Right On The Head (1970)
Any Major ABC of Canada

12. Chairmen Of The Board – Everything’s Tuesday (1970)
Any Major Lamont Dozier Songbook

13. Z.Z. Hill – Cheating In The Next Room (1982)
Any Major Soul 1982

14. The Bushmen – Pioggia (1966)
Any Major Beatles in Italian

15. Jody Reynolds – Endless Sleep (1958)
Any Major Teenage Tragedy

16. Merle Travis – So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed (1947)
Any Major Hits From 1947

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I noticed with some surprise that I’ve been doing these reviews of mixes posted throughout the gone year since 2015. Happily, it seems that people aren’t getting tired of what I’m doing in this little corner of the Internet, so I hope that I’ll be able to offer new Any Major Favourites comps in 2024.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. What we have here is the first of two mixes featuring a song from each mix posted in 2022 (with the exception of the Party Like It’s 1981 set, which ran in December 2021, and the year’s only Christmas album). These songs are among my favourites on each compilation.

In the tracklisting, I give a link to the particular mix these tracks come from, for easy click-through in case you missed it the first time around. I also have these links in a PDF file that is included.

So, which Any Majors have I listened to most? Obviously I don’t keep count — that would be weird — but the one I have loved the most is the Any Major Laurel Canyon mix, which I had put together long before I posted it. Because it is my top mix of the year, it will feature again on Vol. 2.

Not Feeling Guilty Vol. 12 got a lot of play, as did the Songbooks of Carole King (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2) and Elton John (actually, all the Songbooks did), the Any Major Hits from 1972 (Vol. 1 and Vol.2), and Albums of 1972 and 1982.

The Songbooks seems to be a very popular feature, and I have a few more in store for 2023. Poignantly, I compiled this playlist last month, before the death on New Year’s Eve of Anita Pointer. It closes with a song by the Pointer Sisters, from the Carole Bayer Sager Songbook, on which Anita took the lead vocals.

Older Any Major Favourite posts contain links to mixes you might have missed. Many of their links are still live. This post is also included as a PDF, for later reference.

At this point I want to thank the good people who have bought me coffees over the past year, and thereby helped in covering the costs of running this thing. With that, I wish everybody a superb and superbly healthy 2023.1. Rhinestones – Party Music (1975)
Any Major Party

2. Sad Café – Every Day Hurts (1979)
Not Feeling Guilty Mix Vol. 12

3. Malo – Suavecito (1972)
Any Major Hits from 1972 – Vol. 1

4. The Style Council – Long Hot Summer (1983)
Best of Any Major Summer

5. Soft Cell – Where Did Our Love Go (1981)
Holland-Dozier-Holland Songbook

6. Richie Havens – Band On The Run (1974)
Paul McCartney Songbook Vol. 2

7. Martha Reeves – Dixie Highway (1974)
Any Major Carole King Songbook Vol. 1

8. Claudia Lennear – It Ain’t Easy (1973)
Ziggy Stardust Recovered (1972)

9. The Allman Brothers Band – Blue Sky (1972)
Any Major Albums of the Year: 1972

10. Jimi Hendrix – Angel (1971)
Saved! Vol. 6 – The Angels edition

11. Judee Sill – Crayon Angels (1971)
Any Major Laurel Canyon

12. Dave Alvin – Surfer Girl (2006)
Brian Wilson Songbook

13. Joseph Arthur – Honey And The Moon (2002)
Any Major Sugar

14. Neil Diamond – Rocket Man (1978)
Any Major Elton John & Bernie Taupin Songbook

15. Swing Out Sister – Stoned Soul Picnic (1997)
Any Major Laura Nyro Songbook

16. Candi Staton – Nights On Broadway (1977)
Barry Gibb Songbook Vol. 2

17. Pointer Sisters – The Love Too Good To Last (1980)
Any Major Carole Bayer Sager Songbook

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As every year since 2016, I see out the old year with a mix of old-school dance tracks which may move you to, as the kids say today, shake your tailfeather. Since 2018, these mixes are themed to cover the corresponding year 40 years previously. So this year, we’re partying like it’s 1982.

By 1982, disco was dead and yet still very much alive. Only, nobody called it “disco” anymore. Rap was starting to make inroads into the genre formerly known as disco, as was the sound that would become known as HiNRG, though not on any of the present tracks.

And while some of the dance music carried echoes of disco, some of it anticipated the future. On this collection, the most interesting example of that is Nasty Girl by Prince-protégées Vanity 6. A trio of female singers, the group anticipated Destiny’s Child by more than 15 years. 1982’s Nasty Girl — written and produced by Prince, though songwriting credit was given to Vanity — sounds like it could have been a Destiny’s Child song in the year 2000. And on her 2016 tour, Beyoncé mashed up the song with her song Blow.

Nasty Girl closes the CD-R length playlist, but there are seven bonus tracks to carry your New Year’s Eve party — be it with booty-shaking guests or just you and your loved one in the kitchen cooking a supper — for two hours. There are many previous Disco and Party Like It’s … mixes to revisit; I think all links are live.

And with that, I wish you a good slide into the New Year, and a 2023 marked by peace, exultations and absurdly good health.

1. Imagination – Music And Lights
2. Gwen Guthrie – It Should Have Been You
3. Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King – Love Come Down
4. Shalamar – A Night To Remember
5. Sharon Brown – I Specialise In Love
6. Fat Larry’s Band – Act Like You Know It
7. Linda Taylor – You And Me Just Started
8. Aretha Franklin – Jump To It
9. Stevie Wonder – Do I Do (Single Version)
10. Patrice Rushen – Number One
11. Skyy – Let Love Shine
12. Alicia Myers – I Want To Thank You
13. Sharon Redd – In The Name Of Love
14. Tony Sherman – Ellovee-Ee
15. Vanity 6 – Nasty Girl
BONUS TRACKS
16. Gap Band – You Dropped A Bomb On Me
17. Carrie Lucas – Show Me Where You’re Coming From
18. Shades Of Love – Keep In Touch (Body To Body)
19. Candela – Love You Madly
20. Melba Moore – Mind Up Tonight
21. Montana Sextet – Heavy Vibes
22. Third World – Try Jah Love

GET IT! or HERE!

More Any Major Funk/Disco
More Mix CD-Rs

We had our fix of Any Major Christmas last week, with the multi-lingual festive mix. Today, there’s a chance to get a nice Christmas present for your mom, dad, aunt, uncle, friend, patient etc over 80, who may enjoy a nostalgia trip with hits from 1947 — 75 years ago. Of course, younger people and you might enjoy it, too. I’m enjoying this compilation tremendously.

1947 was just a short seven years before rock & roll exploded on the scene. In some of the featured songs, the rumblings of the nascent genre can be heard, like distant thunder before the lightning. Those tracks must have sounded quite startling 75 years ago.

Other songs are, of course, of their time. But, hell, you can feel how the jumpin’ boogie of the opening songs must have electrified the USA’s youngsters, and horrified their elders. The biggest juke box star of 1947 was Louis Jordan, a black musician to whose music white kids danced, much as their nieces and nephews would dance to Little Richard and Chuck Berry a decade later.

So this mix isn’t necessarily representative of the hits of 1947, though all were US hits. In compiling this collection, I tried to imagine what music I might have listened to, had I been a youngster in 1947 — and filtered out the many boring crooning ballads by tenors who come in only halfway slow big band tootlings. I certainly would have enjoyed the humour in several of these songs; Tex Williams’ Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! especially still makes me laugh. And if the squares thought that libertine attitudes arrived only with rock & roll, let them hear Julia Lee and Her Boy Friends talk about S-E-X.

I don’t know if I would have been able to swerve between genres; I’d be quite interested to know if such boundaries existed, or whether it was natural to hear jump one minute and country the next. For our purposes, let’s assume that it was possible.

This mix is a good companion piece to the Any Major Hits from 1944 collection I posted three years ago. And if you dig your music in black & white, there’s more, including several Christmas mixes. There’s

Any Major Christmas in Black & White Vol. 1
Any Major Christmas in Black & White Vol. 2
Any Major Christmas in Black & White Vol. 3
Any Major 1940s Christmas
Any Major 1950s Christmas
Any Major Doo Wop X-Mas
Any Major Rhythm & Blues Christmas
Any Major ABCs: 1950s
New York in Black & White
Germany’s Hit Parade 1930-37
Germany’s Hit Parade 1938-45
Saved Vol. 1
Saved Vol. 4

And, of course, there are more recent Any Major Hits mixes: 1961, 1970, 1971, 1972 Vol. 1 and 1972 Vol. 2.

Beach-goers in California in December 1947.

As ever, the mix is timed to fit on a standard CD-R and includes home-rationed covers. The text above is included in an illustrated PDF. PW in comments.

And with that, I wish you a Merry Christmas!

1. Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five – Let The Good Times Roll
2. The Five Blazes – Chicago Boogie
3. Bull Moose Jackson and His Buffalo Bearcats – I Love You, Yes I Do
4. Ella Fitzgerald & Delta Rhythm Boys – (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons
5. Margaret Whiting – Old Devil Moon
6. Annie Laurie with Paul Gayten and His Trio – Since I Fell For You
7. Frank Sinatra – I Believe
8. Dorothy Shay – Feudin’ And Fightin’
9. Tex Williams – Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)
10. Merle Travis – So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed
11. Hank Williams – Move It On Over
12. Peggy Lee – It’s A Good Day
13. The Mills Brothers – Across The Alley From The Alamo
14. Johnny Mercer and The Pied Pipers – Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
15. Hoagy Carmichael – Old Buttermilk Sky
16. Tony Pastor and His Orchestra – The Lady From 29 Palms
17. The Andrews Sisters – Near You
18. Art Lund – And Mimi
19. Dinah Shore – How Soon (Will I Be Seeing You)
20. Buddy Clark – Peg O’ My Heart
21. Savannah Churchill and The Sentimentalists – I Want To Be Loved (But Only By You)
22. King Cole Trio – Meet Me At No Special Place (And I’ll Be There At No Particular Time)
23. Julia Lee and Her Boy Friends – Snatch And Grab It
24. The Ink Spots – Ask Anyone Who Knows
25. Erskine Hawkins and His Orchestra – Hawk’s Boogie
26. Desi Arnaz and His Orchestra – Babalu’
27. Count Basie and His Orchestra – Open The Door, Richard!

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More Mixes
More A Year In Hits
More Music in Black & White