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GEE WHIZ (Album of the Day)
As the daughter of music great Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas was destined for the charts - and reached them in 1960 with Top Ten hit “Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes).” Penned by the singer herself at age 15, she described it as “young-sounding, romantic and it expressed what a lot of people wanted to say at that age” and it became the title track of the performer’s debut album for Atlantic Records. Alongside standards and covers of recent releases by The Drifters and The Five Satins, the 1961 collection included follow-up single “A Love Of My Own” and a couple more Carla originals (plus one by her dad). Cut in Memphis and Nashville with producer Chips Moman at the helm for five tracks, GEE WHIZ is a delectable pop prelude to the Southern soul for which Thomas would later be known.
RAMONES (Album of the Day)
On this day in 1976, the Ramones released their eponymous debut. As befits the first true punk album, it was utterly devoid of pretension; recorded in a little over a week for a little over $6000, its 14 tracks buzz by in a little under half an hour. Though such simple, fast and fun songs as “Blitzkrieg Bop,” “Beat On The Brat” and “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue” would inspire legions of followers, the Queens quartet also paid tribute to the '60s pop-rock that inspired them with a cover of Chris Montez's “Let's Dance” and the Searchers-esque jangle of their own “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.” RAMONES didn't make the Billboard Top 100 on original release - it got to #111 - but the set went on to be cited by Rolling Stone and Spin as one of the Top 100 alternative albums of all time.
NOTHING’S SHOCKING (Album of the Day)
Jane's Addiction sparked a bidding war among record labels when it arrived on the L.A. music scene, and the band's 1988 debut for Warner Bros. made it clear why the quartet had been the focus of so much attention. NOTHING'S SHOCKING deliberately combines musical elements that shouldn't work together but somehow do; the strange mix of heavy metal, progressive and alternative rock might have sunk if played by lesser performers but soars in the hands of guitarist Dave Navarro, bassist Eric Avery, drummer Stephen Perkins and banshee-voiced frontman Perry Farrell. The 11 originals here are both distinctive and powerful, and at least three – “Mountain Song,” “Jane Says” and “Summertime Rolls” — qualify as modern rock classics. Avery was born on this day in 1965, and we'll celebrate the birthday with the Platinum-certified NOTHING'S SHOCKING.
DURAN DURAN (Album of the Day)
One of the great standard bearers of U.K. new wave music, Duran Duran drew its name from a character in the film Barbarella, and its members were ready for their close-ups from the very beginning. While the photogenic Birmingham quintet had a flair for fashion and a keen visual sense, their self-titled 1981 debut proved that they had substance as well as style. “Planet Earth,” “Careless Memories” and “Girls On Film” were irresistible singles, and the more experimental material dominating the second half of the album was as richly atmospheric as peak-period Roxy Music. After the massive success of the band's RIO, DURAN DURAN was re-released and became a Top Ten Platinum seller; to celebrate the birthday of Duran drummer Roger Taylor, we'll give another spin to the album that started it all for the “Fab Five.”
SILENT ALARM (Album of the Day)
Bloc Party named their debut album after a Japanese earthquake detection system, and its 2005 release certainly shook up the alternative music scene. Powered by such urgent tracks as “So Here We Are,” “Positive Tension” and “Banquet,” the collection entered the UK Albums Chart at #3, eventually selling more than a million copies worldwide. Co-produced by Paul Epworth, the set will appeal equally to fans of techno-house atmospherics and three-minute guitar pop, and its ambitious personal and political scope has drawn comparison to U2. Picked as Album of the Year by NME, SILENT ALARM remains inspiring nearly 20 years on, and we’ll give it a spin now to wish drummer Matt Tong a happy birthday.
SUNDOWN (Album of the Day)
If 1974's SUNDOWN was the only album in Gordon Lightfoot's catalog, his place in the singer-songwriter pantheon would still be secure. Its ten masterfully crafted originals include a pair of Top 10 hits: “Carefree Highway” and the chart-topping title track, and the collection as a whole reached the No.1 spot in both the U.S and Canada. Recorded in Toronto with producer Lenny Waronker, the predominantly acoustic set shows Lightfoot at the peak of his folk powers, though the performer also broadens his sound with hints of R&B and rock (in the form of percussion from Derek and the Dominos drummer Jim Gordon, as well as a little Moog accompaniment). Gordon Lightfoot passed away a year ago today, and we'll remember him with his most successful album, the superb SUNDOWN.
PRESENCE (Album of the Day)
Without the keyboard and acoustic textures of their most recent albums, Led Zeppelin's seventh studio set, PRESENCE, was a return to the elemental blues-based rock of their debut. That was less by design than necessity; when the quartet went to Munich, Germany to record the album, Robert Plant was recovering from a car accident (he was in a wheelchair for the sessions), and like the band's first album, it was cut quickly. Even under duress, Led Zeppelin could still deliver great songs like “Nobody's Fault But Mine” and the epic “Achilles Last Stand,” and Jimmy Page's solos here rank among his very best. Thanks to this resilience, PRESENCE soared to the top of the Billboard chart in 1976, eventually going triple-Platinum in the U.S.
I’LL NEVER FALL IN LOVE AGAIN (Album of the Day)
Following an album of soul covers cut with Chips Moman in Memphis, Dionne Warwick returned to the writing-production team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David for I’LL NEVER FALL IN LOVE AGAIN. The duo penned all but three songs on the 1970 Scepter set, and Dionne’s renditions of “Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head,” “Paper Maché” and the Top 10 title track showed this hitmaking collaboration still had the magic. With touches of jazz, samba and R&B, the arrangements are as varied as they are tasteful, and Warwick’s expressive singing suits each of them perfectly. I’LL NEVER FALL IN LOVE AGAIN was a Grammy winner for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and fans of classic pop balladry will surely fall in love with it.
SHAKEDOWN STREET (Album of the Day)
The final Grateful Dead album of the 1970s, SHAKEDOWN STREET, paired the group with another acclaimed California rocker: Little Feat's Lowell George, who co-produced the Arista collection. This would be the final Dead album to feature the husband-and-wife team of Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux; the latter sings beautifully on “France” and her own “From the Heart of Me.” From the Garcia-Hunter title track (which flirted with disco) to such future concert staples as “Fire on the Mountain” and “I Need a Miracle,” these 10 songs cover plenty of stylistic ground. SHAKEDOWN STREET shows a great band still eager to shake things up, and we'll spin it now to wish drummer Bill Kreutzmann a happy birthday.
REPUBLIC (Album of the Day)
Released on this day in 1993, REPUBLIC saw New Order emerge like a phoenix from the financial ashes of longtime label Factory Records and home base the Hacienda club. Led by singles including “Regret,” “Ruined in a Day” and “Spooky,” the quartet’s sixth studio set climbed to the top of the UK Albums Chart. Stephen Hague co-produced the collection, whose gleaming surfaces are reflected by designer Peter Saville’s magazine-spread photography – but as polished as the band’s dance-pop gets, it never loses its soul. New Order’s final album before an 8-year hiatus, the Gold-certified REPUBLIC brought the first chapter of the group’s career to a satisfying close.