Today's earworm and birthday all in one: Walk Hand In Hand

I grew up hearing the Gerry and the Pacemakers version of this song. It was pretty darned good, after all.

Now I discover what I've missed, all those years: Roy Hamilton.


Stylistic and general influence on Elvis Presley, as well as the man who inspired Sam Cooke to switch from gospel to  his famous secular sound, Hamilton combined elements of classical and gospel vocal training, to create his own unique handprint on American music.

Plus, he was one of the first to make a hit record of what has since become one of the most overdone tunes of the 1950s, "Unchained Melody".

He would have been celebrating his 92nd birthday, today.

Earworm of the Day: When Was Jesus Born

I got no complaint. I think I'll continue to hum this for another day or two.

Earworm of the Day: Gingerbread

I can't imagine why this keeps cycling through my internal playlist. It's not as though there were some seasonal prompt, or something.

On the positive side of things, I have yet to be subjected to the Christmas songs so many people I know are doing their best to avoid (oh, those non-reindeer games!).

Earworm of the Day: Rip It Up

A little Rockabilly to keep you from resting quietly tonight...

Of all the versions of the song I've heard through the years, hers is actually my favorite, possibly because it's a girl thing (although, cute as these two are, they don't hold a candle to Wanda Jackson) Still, every time I listen to Jackson, my throat hurts for hours afterward. Like Rod Stewart and Bonnie Tyler after her, she belts her songs out in such a dry, wild fashion, I imagine she must have had nothing left of her vocal cords but burrs, after a few decades.

Earworm of the Day: Washington Square

In Dixieland-style, the Village Stompers actually made it onto my playlist early on, probably while I was still in diapers, having heard it on the radio in our apartment building in Chicago (but don't quote me on it, because, as a child of my times, pretty much everything that happened before my 30th birthday is a blur, and everything that has happened since is a lie. Even the verity of that statement may also be questioned). From any angle, though, it's been with me since my earliest stages of musical awareness, along with a bunch of now-dead writers and performers.

It was one of those tunes I knew for years, before I was able to track it down and learn its name.

There are still a lot of those mystery tunes rattling around in here, leading from one to the next by virtue of, sometimes, a single chord or some other arcane note in common. And then, quite suddenly, it'll get stuck on a single melody for a day, a week a month, or even a year…

If that triggers a tune in you, you're welcome.

Earworm of the Day:The Poor People of Paris

I don't know why everybody seems to want to schmaltz this up, or turn it into something quaint and cutesy.  I mean, I realize everybody has had a gimmick, at one time or another... which is how so many tunes like this one turn into earworms. 

But a couple of real dames turned out distinctive versions, neither of them the least bit too-clever-by-half. I had to flip a coin to decide which version to post above, and my nickel came down in favor of Winifred Atwell's cover, just because I felt a little bit honky tonk rise up in my soul, for a moment. There is no shame in listening to Edith Piaf's original, though.

Just be forewarned: it'll stick with you for a while.

Earworm of the Day: Pink Shoelaces

Here's another nice Chicago-born girl, Geraldine Ann Pasquale, aka Dodie Stevens. It's hard to believe that voice was coming to us, live, out of a thirteen-year-old, but then, back in the day, they actually expected pop performers to be able to carry a tune on their own, without someone running it through a machine to correct its pitch.



That makes hearing this all night in my sleep slightly less intolerable.

Of course, it could have been worse: I could have been hearing it in another language, in different voices, and not realized what the heck the song was, until the coin dropped in the slot much later.

Earworm of the Day: Orange Coloured Sky

Last night's sky was a blend of gray and more gray, with a
brief splotch of vivid crimson, so I don't quite know where this came
from, but Flash! Bam! there it was – the first song to have been made a
hit by dint of television exposure. And it's had so many wonderful interpretations (and a few slightly less wonderful), it was hard to pick one to share, but, hey…



Watch out for flying glass.  Alakazam and Goodbye!