Steven Rubio's Online Life

music friday: 2000

Madonna, "Music".

*NSYNC, "Bye Bye Bye".

Vicki Sue Robinson, 'Turn the Beat Around". Robinson died of cancer, age 45, on April 27, 2000.

music friday: double shot (of my baby's love)

The Swingin' Medallions, "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)". I'm not sure the Swingin' Medallions ever expected to be big stars, and I like to imagine they enjoyed their moment in the sun. Many (most? all?) of the original band members have passed on now, but the band retained a popularity in the South for a long time, and if YouTube is proper evidence, they never tired of playing their classic for fans. I love this trivia about the song. It was originally released in 1963, three years before the Medallions' version, by Dick Holler and the Holidays. Holler went on to write "Abraham, Martin, and John", a memorable record by Dion. "Double Shot" was an example of a subgenre called "Frat Rock" (think "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen).

One big fan of the song was Bruce Springsteen, who mentioned it at least once when introducing his own frat-rock composition, "Sherry Darling". Bruce being devoted to his influences, and always ready to share the stage, it was inevitable that the following happened in 2009:

Bonus: Bruce Springsteen, "Sherry Darling". I love late-70s Bruce more than anything in the world.

music friday: stevie wonder

Rolling Stone has a new list put together by Michaelangelo Matos, "The 50 Best Stevie Wonder Songs". Tip of the cap to Matos ... it's a great list ... but what else do you expect when the artist is Stevie Wonder, and you don't wonder how they could possibly find 50 best songs, but instead wonder what they had to leave out. Here are #3-1. First, #3:

Next, #2:

And #1:

Bonus, the song that got our attention in 1963 ... it's #9. I don't think there was another song so exciting on the radio when I was 10 years old:

music friday: 1999

Britney Spears, "...Baby One More Time". 17-year-old Britney puts the Mickey Mouse Club in her rearview mirror. In 2020, Rolling Stone named this the #1 debut single of all time.

Lou Bega, "Mambo No. 5". Lou Bega was born in Germany to a Ugandan father and an Italian mother. He reworked Cuban Pérez Prado's 1949 hit ... it was a worldwide smash. It was Bega's only top-40 recording in the United States.

TLC, "No Scrubs". Won the Pazz & Jop poll as the #1 single of 1999 ("Baby One More Time" was #19, Lou Bega nowhere to be found).

Bonus: Pérez Prado:

music friday: 1998

Cher, "Believe". Cher discovers Auto-Tune.

Run-D.M.C., "Rock Box". One of the most important recordings in pop music history. Eddie Martinez on guitar, Professor Irwin Corey in the video.

Semisonic, "Closing Time".

music friday: 1997

Hey, I'm back! No comments this week, still working myself into shape.

Aqua, "Barbie Girl".

Hanson, "MMMBop".

The Notorious B.I.G., "Mo Money Mo Problems".

The Verve, "Bitter Sweet Symphony".

music friday: parliament, "give up the funk (tear the roof off the sucker)"

A couple of days ago, my wife was on a Zoom call with some of her knitting friends. I was doing what I usually do these days, lying on the bed, listening to SiriusXM, and I only caught bits and pieces of the conversation. My wife says the topics often range far afield from knitting, and so it was this time. I don't know how it got started, but somehow the women were reminiscing about a song from their past. No one knew who the artist was, and it appeared all they remembered was a snippet of the chorus. I listened closely for a bit, made the proper connections, and told my wife it was Parliament. I must say, it was delightfully entertaining listening to their subsequent discussion.

born in the usa

Ankle surgery tomorrow.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=irOHUCpnXGU&si=aOZ6lafTlBzAcYVa

music friday: crippled

Took a fall on our front steps. Can't do shit, hard to post anything. Here's this week's song:

https://youtu.be/ERxX_9R5Bo0?si=7TZwxppiIy-pX9Fi

music friday: 1996

Sleater-Kinney, "Good Things".

why do good things never wanna stay?
some things you lose, some things you give away

Nas, "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)".

If I ruled the world
I'd free all my sons

Everclear, "Santa Monica". Cheating ... single released in December of '95.

We can live beside the ocean
Leave the fire behind
Swim out past the breakers
Watch the world die

Bonus: Crystal Waters, "The Boy from Ipanema".

When he walks he's like a samba
That swings so cool and sways so gentle