Hotel California by Eagles

Hotel California by Eagles completed thirty-nine years last December. The song is the lead track from the namesake album and was released in 1976. It is considered one of the best songs of the rock era. But then, Eagles are regarded as one of the world’s best music groups ever. 

If I knew how to play the guitar, I’d have played Hotel California more than any other song. I like the way it sounds. It puts you in a kind of a trance. The fusion of electric guitar and drums are in unison with the vocals sung by Don Henley, who along with Don Felder and Glenn Frey are believed to have written the lyrics and composed the music.

I love the start and end of this iconic song. It begins with a slow drum beat, at the hands of Henley who also belts out the song, and finishes with a superb “interplay” of electric guitar by Felder and fellow band member Joe Walsh. You don’t want it to end.

Hotel California sounds like a pulp or a horror story in lyrical form. A man, exhausted from a long and tiring journey, checks into a hotel that looks warm and inviting only to find that it’s actually a dreadful place—where “you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.”

Don Henley has described the song as the Eagles’ “interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles” and that “It's basically a song about the dark underbelly of the American dream and about excess in America, which is something we knew a lot about.”

Over the years Hotel California has been open to many interpretations. Anyone who listens to it will have his or her own take on it. I thought the lyrics were very original and refreshing, as was the music.

Believe it or not, I have heard only one other song by Eagles, Tequila Sunrise, for which I blame the overriding influence of Hotel California.

Songs I grew up listening to in the seventies

I don’t understand music. I merely derive pleasure from listening to it. I listen to any form of music as long as it sounds like music to me. When I listen to songs, for instance, I don’t know if they are title tracks or sound tracks, who wrote or composed them, which albums they come from and when they were released, or how many people have sung the same song. I don’t bother with all that. It’s like this: if I can simply read a book written by an author, I can quietly listen to a song sung by a singer.

Yet, music touches me like it does most people. It lifts my mood and makes me feel good about myself and about others, and sometimes it allows me to take to the stage and lose myself. In that sense music is a non-intrusive and non-invasive remedy for a cheerful disposition. If meditation is a splendid tonic for the soul, music is a mighty stimulant for the senses. Both have curative powers.

My first brush with music came in the mid-seventies, when we used to listen to English pop songs on Binaca Hit Parade on Radio Ceylon and Saturday Date on All India Radio. Both shows were immensely popular in India.

I believe, in the fifties and sixties, Binaca Hit Parade was presented by the “happy-go-lucky” Greg Roskowski, one of the few “overseas announcers” on the station that was blaring in every household in South Asia. I don’t remember Roskowski.

Later, my father bought us a white-coloured Polish tape recorder for the princely sum of Rs.600 ($10 by today’s rate). The recorder looked a lot like its more famous Japanese cousin National Panasonic. It came with a small microphone. There was much excitement at home. We huddled around the recorder and taped nearly every song on Binaca Hit Parade and Saturday Date, and played them over and over again through the week. 

Recording was a tricky business owing to the absence of a cable link between the radio and the tape recorder. All external sounds got recorded as well. At times a song sounded like so much noise, because my father sneezed loudly, a car honked outside or my mother dropped a steel utensil in the kitchen, that we had to overwrite the song. Shushing had little effect.

Fortunately, like today’s cable television, the songs were repeated on radio back then. If we missed George Baker’s Una Paloma Blanca one Saturday night, we were sure to hear it the following weekend.

Those were simple and hassle-free days. We were contented with the little things we had, like Murphy Radio and the pop songs it belted out.

So then, which were some of the popular songs I grew up listening to in the seventies, right through most of school? Let me see…

Almost everything by Abba and Boney M. In my opinion, Abba has some of the best music and lyrics in the pop business. Boney M was preachy although I like their NASA-inspired Night Flight to Venus.

Carpenters: Top of the World, 1972, and Please Mr. Postman, 1975 (remake of The Marvelettes classic)

Tina Charles: Dance Little Lady Dance, 1976

Cliff Richard: Bachelor Boy, 1962

Perry Como: Chi-Baba, Chi-Baba, 1948

Bee Gees: Stayin' Alive and How Deep is Your Love, 1977

Elvis Presley: You Were Always on My Mind, 1972

George Baker: Una Paloma Blanca, 1976

Connie Francis: Stupid Cupid, 1958, and (He's My) Dreamboat, 1961

Mary Hopkin: Those Were the Days, 1972

Neil Diamond: I Am...I Said, 1971

Peter Frampton: Show Me the Way, 1975

Carl Douglas: Kung Fu Fighting, 1974

Neil Sedaka: Oh! Carol, 1958

Jim Reeves: But You Love Me, Daddy, 1959

John Denver: Annie's Song, 1974

Lee Hazlewood-Nancy Sinatra: Summer Wine, 1967

Louis Armstrong: What a Wonderful World, 1967

Lulu: To Sir with Love, 1967

The Mamas & the Papas: California Dreamin', 1965

Pat Boone: April Love, 1957

Simon and Garfunkel: Sound of Silence, 1966

Quantum Jump: The Lone Ranger, 1976

Brothers Four: 500 Miles

Tom Jones: Delilah, 1968

Trini Lopez: If I Had a Hammer, 1963

Village People: Y.M.C.A., 1978

Yvonne Elliman: If I Can't Have You, 1977

The Four Aces: Love is a Many-Splendored Thing, 1955

Gershon Kingsley: Popcorn, 1969

While these are by no means the only picnic songs I listened to as a kid, they are the ones that have stayed with me for more than three decades. I still listen to most of them, particularly Abba, whose popularity soared after the Swedish quartet came together for the film production of Mamma Mia! a few years ago. Every one of these songs hold up.

I'll round up by recommending two whacky numbers, the very funny Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas and the tongue-twisting The Lone Ranger by Quantum Jump, as well as Popcorn, an unusual instrumental by Gershon Kingsley.

We Are the World by USA for Africa, 1985

I haven't done a post on music for a while now, so here's one on a very popular song of the eighties, for Overlooked Films, Audio & Video at Todd Mason's blog Sweet Freedom.

The mid-eighties (1984, 1985 & 1986) was a productive year for music makers and music lovers. The period saw hundreds of hits by singers who became household names overnight. Michael Jackson topped the impressive list. Kenny Loggins’ foot tapping number, Footloose, was a rage. The namesake album contained some fine songs like Let’s Hear It for the Boy by Deniece Williams, Almost Paradise by Mike Reno and Ann Wilson, and Holding Out for a Hero by Bonnie Tyler.

Back then I was in college and my friends and I used to listen to the songs on our radios, cassette players and walkmans, and sometimes watch the videos on state-run television. A local publisher capitalised on the music craze by bringing out booklets of the songs with lyrics and pictures. We collected them for a while.

Several of these popular songs won Grammy Awards during this golden period. The songs, belonging to various categories, included Thriller, Beat It and Billie Jean by Michael Jackson, Every Breath You Take by The Police, Flashdance...What A feeling by Irene Cara, Chaka Khan by Chaka Khan, A Little Good News by Anne Murray, Love Is A Battlefield by Paul Benatar, What's Love Got to Do with It by Tina Turner, Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me now) by Phil Collins, Ghostbusters by Ray Parker, Jr., Caribbean Queen by Billy Ocean, Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen, Saving All My Love for You by Whitney Houston, Nightshift by Commodores, Freeway of Love by Aretha Franklin, and Money for Nothing by Dire Straits, among others.

There was one other song, a special song for charity, which won four Grammys in 1986 and became a big hit everywhere—We Are the World. It was performed by nearly two dozen contemporary solo artists, a veritable who’s who of the music world, and supported by a fine chorus comprising the likes of Dan Ackroyd, Harry Belafonte, John Oates, Bette Midler, Jeffrey Osborne, Bob Geldof, and Smokey Robinson. The song was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, produced and conducted by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian, and recorded by USA for Africa in 1985. Geldof and Belafonte were the spirit behind the charity single in aid of famine relief in Africa. The idea for 'USA for Africa' came from the 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' project by Band Aid in the UK. You can read the colourful history behind the event right here.

Today, 'We Are the World' is one of the most popular music videos on the internet. It’s a song that appeals to both old and new listeners. It has a great lineup of singers and musicians, each of whom lends his or her distinct voice to a worthy cause. The meaningful lyrics are put to rich and varying music. Over the years I have seen the video many times and have come to recognise most of the singers in the order they sing—Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, James Ingram, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, Al Jarreau, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Loggins, Steve Perry, Daryl Hall, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Kim Carnes, Bob Dylan, and Ray Charles.

You may click here and watch the video of the song that has been labelled as sentimental stuff by many. To me, it’s just a wonderful song.

The songs of Bryan Adams

For a change an audio-video entry for Tuesday’s overlooked films, audio and video at Todd Mason’s blog Sweet Freedom. Don’t forget to watch the video at the bottom of this post.

There are many songs that have stayed with me since I first listened to them, beginning in mid-1970s. Foremost among these is Una Paloma Blanca (or Paloma Blanca, which means ‘white dove’ in Spanish) by Dutch musician George Baker. The single was released in 1975 by his band the George Baker Selection. It was sung at most parties and school picnics.

In fact, so popular was the song in India that my generation used to record it from a radio on to a cassette player, usually a National Panasonic (see picture). Those were wireless days. The two electronic systems were kept side by side and as soon as the radio jockey announced a popular number, we’d press down hard on the ‘Play’ and ‘Record’ buttons simultaneously and shush everyone in the vicinity, lest external voices lent an unwelcome chorus to the songs. Upon replay, we could occasionally hear the loud honk of a bus or the shrill whistle of a pressure cooker in the background. However, that did not spoil the pleasure of listening to the songs. Pre-recorded cassettes were expensive.

I haven't forgotten the music or the lyrics of Paloma Blanca, which partly went…

Una paloma blanca
I'm just a bird in the sky
Una paloma blanca
Over the mountains I fly
No one can take my freedom away

It’d make a nice soundtrack for a second film remake of Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Paloma Blanca is one of several pop and country songs that I can lip sync well. Some others include Annie’s Song by John Denver, Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You, first sung by George Benson and then by Glenn Medeiros, and Somebody by Bryan Adams.

Bryan Adams performs in Hamburg, Germany in June 2007.
© Wikimedia Commons

Somebody (1984) was the first Bryan Adams song I heard somewhere in the late eighties. At the time I didn’t know it was sung by the famous Canadian singer-musician who has been to India and is immensely popular. I found out only in the nineties. It was pretty much how I listened to music in those days. Just as I saw films without caring to know who directed them. The lyrics “I need somebody/Somebody like you/Everybody needs somebody” sung by Adams in his rich and raspy voice have remained with me since.

It was this bestselling single that prompted me to listen to Adams’ other songs, most notably Heaven (1985), (Everything I Do) I Do It for You (1991), and Please Forgive Me (1993). These four songs ruled on the US Billboard and the UK Singles Chart for a long time.

Everything I Do was, of course, made famous as the official video soundtrack of the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Christian Slater, and Alan Rickman. It was an entertaining film. The Kostner-Freeman catapult scene was funny.

I have not heard every song by Bryan Adams but out of the ones I have, these four songs I like the most. The official video of Please Forgive Me, from the album So Far So Good, is really nice, as much for the slow ballad as for the beautiful German Shepherd moving about in the recording studio. I believe the Alsatian belonged to Adams who is said to be fond of dogs. If you like pets, especially dogs, you'll enjoy the video below.

‘Wonderful Tonight’ by Eric Clapton

A few days ago, I was watching an episode of Friends in which Monica proposes to Chandler and then Chandler proposes to Monica and then the two lovebirds hold each other and gently rock in the candlelit room as only the music of Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight plays in the background. That’s when I rediscovered this beautiful song, actually a ballad, though I wouldn't know the difference between the two. It forms part of Clapton’s 1977 album Slowhand.

According to an article at Wikipedia, Clapton wrote the song about Pattie Boyd, a model, photographer, and author, while waiting for her to get ready to attend a party hosted by Paul and Linda McCartney.

“For years it tore at me. To have inspired Eric, and George before him, to write such music was so flattering. Wonderful Tonight was the most poignant reminder of all that was good in our relationship, and when things went wrong it was torture to hear it,” said Boyd, who was first married to George Harrison and then to Eric Clapton.


For previous Music & Lyrics, see under 'Labels'

MUSIC & LYRICS

Believe by Cher (1998)

A musical treat this Tuesday for Overlooked Films, Audio and Video over at Todd Mason's blog Sweet Freedom.

“Do you believe in life after love

I can feel something inside me say

I really don't think you're strong enough, now”

Did you know that Cher released three films in 1987? They were The Witches of Eastwick, based on the novel by John Updike, Suspect, and Moonstruck. Did you also know that the American pop diva has acted in more than a dozen films and television series? I didn’t.

I haven’t seen Suspect which sounds like a good crime thriller with Cher playing a lawyer. Dennis Quaid and Liam Neeson are in the film too.

I liked The Witches of Eastwick mainly on account of Jack Nicholson and Susan Sarandon. The latter with Cher and Michelle Pfeiffer made three fine witches. Moonstruck almost put me to sleep. I prefer Nicholas Cage as a much older actor in his latter films. 

This post is not about Cher the actor but Cher the singer, and that is primarily what she is. A couple of months ago, we were at a mall when her hit single, Believe, played. The song sounded terrific on the hidden loudspeaker system. I wondered where I’d heard it before and then I remembered that I listened to it occasionally on my cellphone. What a difference it made! 

I cannot analyse the music behind Cher’s powerful, manly voice. But, according to Wikimedia, “Believe is a dance-pop song that incorporates elements of techno, Eurodance, and house music. It also uses heavy amounts of Auto-Tune, which has since become one of the song's most notable features.” 

Released in October 1998, Believe is the lead single from Cher’s twenty-third album of the same name and it has become one of the best-selling singles of all time.

For previous Music & Lyrics, see under Labels.

MUSIC & LYRICS

Funkytown by Lipps Inc

There are some songs that stay inside your head forever. Songs that you'll find yourself humming for no rhyme or reason several years after you first heard them. Funkytown by Lipps Inc. is one song that has refused to go away. Written by Steven Greenberg and performed by Lipps Inc, the 1980 disco hit was sung by Cynthia Johnson. I have no idea who these people are but I enjoyed their music, especially the very funky beat of Funkytown, from the album Mouth to Mouth. It was a big hit in many countries including India. Check it out below.

For previous Music & Lyrics, see under Labels.

MUSIC & LYRICS

Nightflight to Venus and Take the Heat Off Me
by Boney M.

If you belonged to the disco generation of the 1970s and early 1980s, then you are definitely familiar with Boney M. and most of their popular songs, many of which had biblical overtones. And if you listened to Boney M. in your teens, then I am equally sure you must have listened to Abba too. They belonged to the same disco era though their songs were very different. Most kids of my generation were dedicated fans of Boney M. and Abba and many other music groups and singers of the time like Tina Charles, The Carpenters, BeeGees, Lipps Inc., and Donna Summer. 

We used to listen to these songs on a white-coloured cassette player of Polish make which my father had purchased for a princely sum of Rs.600 ($12). Some of my cousins and friends heard the songs on the more popular National Panasonic with its trademark blue key for Record. Others had Murphy tape recorders.

For a long time I thought Boney M. were an American pop band till I found out that the music group was created in 1975 by German record producer Frank Farian (Franz Reuther) and initially comprised Jamaican-born British singers Liz Mitchell, Marcia Barrett, Maizie Williams, and Bobby Farrell, its public face. As far as I can remember Farrell never sang a full song; instead, he lent his deep and infectious voice to many of the songs sung by the three women in the group. The often bare-chested Farrell died in 2010.

Back then, Brown Girl in the Ring was one of Boney M.'s most popular songs heard and sung at parties in India, although Ma Baker and Daddy Cool were some of their cheekiest numbers. Ma Baker threatened you with her catchy lines that went...

Put your hands on your head and give me all your money
She was the meanest cat
In old Chicago town
She was the meanest cat
She really mowed them down
She had no heart at all
No no no heart at all

Many of the European pop groups like Boney M. and the Swedish group Abba were more popular in Asia than in USA. I suspect not many Americans have heard their songs assuming, of course, that they have heard of the music bands.

I will leave you with two of my favourite Boney M. songs, Nightflight to Venus and Take the Heat Off Me, courtesy YouTube.

MUSIC & LYRICS

Lay All Your Love On Me by ABBA

I was listening to this song even as I decided to do a post on it. Actually, the hit song playing in my ears was the inspiration for writing about Lay All Your Love On Me by Swedish pop group ABBA. It's part of their 1981 album Super Trouper and has been my favourite song by ABBA to this day. I like most of their love songs, some more than others, but this one I like the most. ABBA made good music with effective lyrics. 

Many of the ABBA songs can pass off as disco numbers but to me the single most defining feature of ABBA is the way their music and lyrics blend with each other. Every song will have you humming the tune and your feet tapping to the beat.

I wasn't jealous before we met 

Now every woman I see is a potential threat 

And I'm possessive, it isn't nice 

You've heard me saying that smoking was my only vice 

But now it isn't true 

Now everything is new 

And all I've learned has overturned 

I beg of you... 

Don't go wasting your emotion 

Lay all your love on me...

For previous Music & Lyrics look under Labels

MUSIC & LYRICS

Say You Love Me and Mehbooba, Mehbooba

This week I have two classic audio-video songs for you as part of Tuesday’s Overlooked/Forgotten films and television over at Todd Mason’s blog Sweet Freedom.

When I first heard Say You Love Me by Greek singer Demis Roussos, I was struck by its musical resemblance to Mehbooba, Mehbooba from the Hindi cult film Sholay (1975) which many consider to be the greatest Indian film ever made. Roussos, himself, appears to have borrowed the musical score of Say You Love Me from Ta Rialia sung by another Greek singer Michalis Violaris. I haven't heard his version yet.

Sholay, produced and directed by the father-son duo of G.P. Sippy and Ramesh Sippy, was influenced by spaghetti westerns and particularly by John Sturges' The Magnificent Seven (1960), or Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954) if you like. I intend to write about Sholay someday. It was called  Embers in English.

Mehbooba, Mehbooba, which means my love or my beloved, was composed and sung by the late R.D. Burman, one of India's most versatile musicians, in his trademark soul-filled baritone voice. You can picture an RD song the moment you hear the opening lines. His fan following has grown since he passed away in 1994.

In Sholay, the song is pictured on Indian character-actor Jalal Agha and dance queen Helen who, as a couple of wandering gypsy musicians, sing Mehbooba, Mehbooba before Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan) who plays a dreaded dacoit from Chambal Valley, the once-notorious bandit hideout in central India.

Most Indians, I'm sure, have never heard Say You Love Me and I don't think they really need to, because Mehbooba, Mehbooba outscores Demis Roussos' solo number which sounds tame in comparison. The Hindi song is vastly superior in musical texture, thanks to the use of a wide array of musical instruments by R.D. Burman.

It's the kind of song you'll enjoy even if you don't fathom the lyrics but then Mehbooba, Mehbooba is about RD’s score and Helen’s dance, and little else. I suggest that you listen to Say You Love Me first and then its near Hindi copy. It was plagiarism at its best, as so many Hindi films and film songs have been over the years. Let me know what you think.

JUKE BOX

Love Is a Many Splendored Thing
by The Four Aces

Love is a many splendored thing
It's the April rose
That only grows in the early spring
Love is nature's way of giving
A reason to be living
The golden crown that makes a man a king

This is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. The lyrics and music are soulful. The song, which first played in the 1955-film Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, was written and composed by Paul Francis Webster and Sammy Fain respectively. The music duo collaborated on the original score for several films including "Secret Love" in Calamity Jane, 1954. They won the Oscar for both these songs.

Since the song played out in the William Holden-Jennifer Jones romantic film, set in Hong Kong, it has been recorded by various singers like Nat King Cole, Engelbert Humperdinck, Andy Williams, The Four Aces, Frank Sinatra, Ringo Starr, Neil Sedaka, and Connie Francis who sang it in Italian. 

So far I have only heard two versions, those by The Four Aces and Engelbert Humperdinck. Though I have loved nearly every song of Humperdinck and though he sings this number well, I like The Four Aces version more. They sing it slowly and the chorus by the American quartet blends in really well with the music, the gentle highs and lows at just the right pitch not to mention the element of Chinese music in the beginning. Humperdinck sings Love Is a Many Splendored Thing in his trademark deep voice which somehow didn't work for me. 

Love Is a Many Splendored Thing belonged to my parents' generation and yet I can easily identify with the song and the era it was recorded in. It reminds you of the innocence and simplicity of life back then and kind of makes you homesick.

JUKE BOX

Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas

Everybody was kung fu fighting
Those cats were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit frightning
But they fought with expert timing

There isn't a single 1970s kid in India who didn't swing or lip sync to the popular disco song Kung Fu Fighting written and sung by the Jamaican-born, UK-based singer Carl Douglas and produced by the Indian-born, British composer and singer Biddu Appaiah. The 1974 song, with its farcical lyrics, became a hit single and sold eleven million records at the time. It also made disco music more popular than ever. In this video you have Douglas and Biddu (extreme left) singing and swaying to the martial arts number.

JUKE BOX

Astaire and Goddard in Second Chorus

Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers and Donald O’Connor are some of my favourite actors in musical-romantic comedies. I never tire watching their films, particularly the song-and-dance sequences that are so much fun. You only have to see O’Connor’s ‘climbing up the wall’ act in Singing in the Rain to know what I mean. Astaire and Kelly are a class apart. This evening I had the rare opportunity to watch Fred Astaire and Paulette Goddard in Second Chorus (1940) on TCM (hopefully they will show it again). Now Goddard as you well know is more famous for her long filmy association and romantic liaison with Charlie Chaplin but she puts in a fine performance with Astaire by her side including in this delightful song-and-dance routine. Take a look…

JUKE BOX

Billie Jean by Michael Jackson

Take the beat out of Michael Jackson's songs and there's very little left to listen to. But there's one Jackson song that has remained a favourite with me since his 1982 album Thriller introduced it  —  Billie Jean. I'm willing to ignore his voice for this particular number which has pretty good lyrics and music too. After all these years I still enjoy listening to Thriller and Beat It and I still marvel at how the crotch-grabbing pop sensation beat Elvis Presley's record — beat, beat, beat... 

Ten most popular male-female duets

Some of my favourite songs are popular duets sung by male and female vocalists. Here are ten most popular make-female duets that I have been listening to for many years. They are in no particular order because I like them all. If I have missed any obvious duos and their duets, such as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals, which I haven't included here, don't hesitate to belt them out. 

1. Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now by Grace Slick and Paul Kantner 

This hit song was a part of Jefferson Starship’s album No Protection and was also the soundtrack of Mannequin starring Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall. Both song and film were released in 1987. The song has a terrific beat and effective lyrics.

2. Phantom of the Opera by Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford
Of all the broadway and movie versions, the 2004-film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1986 musical starring Emmy Rossum and Gerard Butler is, unarguably, the best. Listen to it today, if you haven’t yet. It’s powerful and magical and, to use a cliché, it will take your breath away.

3. Almost Paradise by Ann Wilson and Mike Reno
This love theme from Footloose by Wilson, vocalist for the Heart band, and Reno, lead singer of rock band Loverboy, starts off slowly before the tempo rises. It’s a soft number that’ll stay with you long after you listen to it. 

4. (I've had) The Time of My Life by Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley
If you’ve seen Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in Dirty Dancing, then you’ve heard this song. It won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group, an Academy Award for Best Original Song, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. What more do you want?

5. Summer Wine by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood
The world discovered Lee Hazlewood’s baritone voice in 1967, the year he and Nancy Sinatra made this song famous. I discovered Hazlewood in 2010. Along with the Wild West Summer Wine, I also recommend Some Velvet Morning, one of many popular duets they sang. 

6. Up Where We Belong by Jennifer Warnes and Joe Cocker
When I first heard this lovely number, some years ago, I didn’t know it was from An Officer and a Gentleman, 1982. I found that out this evening! Warnes and Cocker sing this number with a lot of depth and feeling.

7. Somethin' Stupid by Nancy and Frank Sinatra
The best father-daughter duet I’ve ever heard. It sits on the famous crooner’s album The World We Knew.

8. Endless Love by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie
I have been hearing this original soundtrack but haven’t seen the film, namely Franco Zeffirelli's Endless Love starring Brooke Shields. Billboard has labelled it the “greatest song duet of all time” – it’s really nice, but I won't say it's the greatest.

9. Beauty and the Beast by Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson
Beauty and the Beast is the first of four of the greatest Disney films I’ve ever seen – the others are The Jungle Book, The Lion King and Bambi. The movie is a classic, so is this song.

 
10. You're the One That I Want by Olivia Newton and John Travolta
While this song from the 1978 musical-hit Grease is quite catchy, it faces stiff competition from the many songs in Grease 2, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Maxwell Caulfield, released in 1982.

JUKE BOX

I Dreamed a Dream by Susan Boyle

In April 2009, Susan Boyle, as a 47-year old unmarried and unemployed Scottish woman, took Britain's Got Talent, Simon Cowell, and the music industry by storm when she sang I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables to global applause. If you want to know what instant success and glory is, watch this video. You'll give her a standing ovation too.

JUKE BOX

Agadoo by Black Lace

I was half-way through college when I first heard this party song by British Euro pop band Black Lace. It was the whackiest number to come out in 1984 with lyrics that made little sense and music you couldn't write home about. It was the kind of song you heard once and forgot, and seldom recommended. Yet, Agadoo ruled for a long time on the UK Singles Chart becoming the eighth bestselling single in the UK that year. It became quite popular in India too.

According to Wikipedia, "In a survey for dotmusic in 2000, respondents voted Agadoo as the fourth most annoying song of all time. In a poll for Q magazine in 2003, a panel of music writers voted Agadoo as the worst song of all time, saying: 'It sounded like the school disco you were forced to attend, your middle-aged relatives forming a conga at a wedding party, a travelling DJ act based in Wolverhampton, every party cliche you ever heard.' The panel also described it as 'magnificently dreadful'."

Here's the video link to this crazy song. I usually post the lyrics too but let's skip this one, shall we?

JUKE BOX

Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra

Was Frank Sinatra a better actor or singer? Now what kind of a trick question is that! He excelled in both. He acted in some fine movies alongside fine actors like Cary Grant, Marlon Brando, Dean Martin, and Steve McQueen. I'll always remember one of America's most popular crooners for his performance in From Here to Eternity with Burt Lancaster and On the Town with Gene Kelly.

But this post is not about Sinatra's films; it's about his songs, in particular Strangers in the Night, the title song from his 1966 album Strangers in the Night. Since then no one has sung this song as well as Sinatra. It's a beautiful love song and it makes your day...

Strangers in the night, exchanging glances
Wond'ring in the night
What were the chances, we'd be sharing love
Before the night was through.

Something in your eyes, was so inviting
Something in your smile, was so exciting
Something in my heart
Told me I must have you.

Strangers in the night, two lonely people
We were strangers in the night
Up to the moment
When we said our first hello.
Little did we know

Love was just a glance away
A warm embracing dance away

And

Ever since that night we've been together
Lovers at first sight, in love forever
It turned out so right
For strangers in the night.

Love was just a glance away
A warm embracing dance away

Ever since that night we've been together
Lovers at first sight, in love forever
It turned out so right
For strangers in the night

Do dody doby do

do doo de la
da da da da ya

JUKE BOX

Those Were The Days by Mary Hopkin

How often have you muttered this line to yourself or said it aloud as a conversational piece? Forget the circumstances, but this is the song you think of and listen to every time you get nostalgic about the past, the good ol' days, and wonder to yourself, "What the hell happened?" Gene Raskin wrote the English lyrics for Those Were The Days, originally a Russian song Dorogoi dlinnoyu (By the long road), and it was sung by Welsh folk singer Mary Hopkin in 1968. Over the years there have been many versions including one with Robin Williams rapping.

Once upon a time there was a tavern
Where we used to raise a glass or two
Remember how we laughed away the hours
And dreamed of all the great things we would do

Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.
La la la la...
Those were the days, oh yes those were the days

Then the busy years went rushing by us
We lost our starry notions on the way
If by chance I'd see you in the tavern
We'd smile at one another and we'd say

Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.
La la la la...
Those were the days, oh yes those were the days

Just tonight I stood before the tavern
Nothing seemed the way it used to be
In the glass I saw a strange reflection
Was that lonely woman really me

 Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.
La la la la...
Those were the days, oh yes those were the days

Through the door there came familiar laughter
I saw your face and heard you call my name
Oh my friend we're older but no wiser
For in our hearts the dreams are still the same

Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.
La la la la...
Those were the days, oh yes those were the days

JUKE BOX

Almost Paradise by Ann Wilson and Mike Reno

Almost Paradise, the love theme from Footloose sung by Mike Reno (the lead singer of rock band Loverboy) and Ann Wilson (a vocalist for the band Heart), has been one of my all-time favourite love songs. I have been listening to this popular number since Footloose, starring Kevin Bacon and Lori Singer, hit the theatres in 1984. I was in college then and I used to watch the musical video on state-run channels on our black-and-white television set. If you and your girlfriend (or boyfriend) are on a patch-up then this beautiful song is just for you. It will inspire you to run right across the street and re-proclaim your undying love for the woman (or man) of your dreams. That's a little mushy, I know, but go ahead, listen to it...

I thought that dreams belonged to other men

'Cuz each time I got close

They'd fall apart again

I feared my heart would beat in secrecy

I faced the nights alone

Oh, how could I have known

That all my life I only needed you

Chorus

Whoa-oa

ALMOST PARADISE

We're knocking on heaven's door

ALMOST PARADISE

How could we ask for more?

I swear that I can see forever in your eyes

Paradise

It seems like perfect love's so hard to find

I'd almost given up

You must've read my mind

And all these dreams I saved for a rainy day

They're finally comin' true

I'll share them all with you

'Now we hold the future in our hands

Chorus

And in your arms salvation's not so far away

We're getting closer, closer every day

Chorus