May earworm roundup

I wake up almost every morning with an earworm. Some fade quickly, other last for days. Sometimes they make me happy, sometimes they make me doubt my own sanity. They come from all genres. I can rarely know what triggers them. The only thing I do know and that they do without fail is reinforce my belief that all music is connected and good music never goes out of style.

Here’s a roundup of my May earworms.

Reel Big Fish – Take On Me
Kraftwerk – Das Model
The Marmalade – Reflections Of My Life
Pavement – Cut Your Hair

Dave Clark Five – Glad All Over
Procol Harum – Conquistador
The Guess Who – These Eyes
The Jam – Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
Buddy Holly – Everyday
The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown – Fire

Radiohead – Paranoid Android
The Go-Go’s – Our Lips Are Sealed
Toto – Rosanna
Trini Lopez – Lemon Tree
The Black Keys – Lonely Boy

The Rascals – Groovin’
Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole – Somewhere over the Rainbow
The Temptations – Papa Was A Rolling Stone
Stevie Wonder – My Cherie Amour
Depeche Mode – Just Can’t Get Enough
Cheap Trick – I Want you to Want me

REO Speedwagon – Can’t Fight This Feeling
Mary Hopkin – Those Were The Days
Link Wray – Apache
Billy Joel – The Longest Time

Herman’s Hermits – I’m Into Something Good
Jonathan Richman – That Summer Feeling
The Marvelettes – Too Many Fish In The Sea
Fleetwood Mac – Little Lies
Frankie Ford – Sea Cruise
Melissa Etheridge – I Want To Come Over

10 Songs of Springtime

Spring is finally here in the north. It seems like we go to bed one day to dull, dead brown last year’s grass, and wake up the next to flowers, leaves and birds singing.

To celebrate the welcome arrival of colour and birdsong, here are 10 of my favourite popular music songs about spring.

Frank Sinatra – Spring Is Here
Astrud Gilberto – It Might as Well Be Spring
Ella Fitzgerald – Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most (Holly Cole does a great version of this song too)
Lou Rawls – Spring Again
Barbra Streisand – You Must Believe in Spring
Judy Collins – So Early, Early In The Spring
Tom Waits – You Can Never Hold Back Spring
Sarah Vaughan – Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year
k.d. lang – I Dream Of Spring
Mario Lanza – Younger Than Springtime

Women classical composers – the May edition

As is the case with all too many things historical, the talent of women composers is underrepresented in the genre of classical music. In spite of the odds being against them women wrote, and continue to write, exceptional classical music that can be enjoyed today. They deserve more exposure, so it feels like a good idea to do my bit to mitigate our cultural musical myopia.

Below are five female classical composers whose works I enjoy, with links to songs for each of them.

Julia Ward Howe (May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910) was an all-round super woman, an author, poet abolitionist, social activist, and suffragist.

Battle Hymn Of The Republic

Anne Dudley (born May 7) was the first BBC Concert Orchestra‘s Composer in Association.

Theme from Poldark

Debbie Wiseman (born May 10) composes for film and tv.

Judith Weir (born May 11) writes operas.

A Night at the Chinese Opera

Maria Theresia von Paradis (May 15, 1759 – February 1, 1824) may have been Mozart’s inspiration for his Piano Concerto No. 18 in B flat major.

Sicilienne for violin and piano

Classical composers – the May edition

I have broad, perhaps somewhat eclectic taste in music. This is by accident rather than design. Most of the genres outside what gets airplay on popular radio I have luckily stumbled upon while on other paths. Our culture doesn’t really expose young people en masse to much more than current popular music, and that’s a shame. I feel like it’s a good idea to do my bit to mitigate our cultural musical myopia.

Below are links to 31 works of classical music by composers you’ll find on my iPod, and two links to works by composers most of us would know – all artists born in May, whose works I have enjoyed.