Louis Armstrong "What A Wonderful World"

A good buddy of mine has a favorite song that he always wants me to play on the air.

Now, I love "What A Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. But it's not exactly in the wheelhouse of what we normally play.

He says, "Just play it, you know, once a month or something. People will love it!"

No, it's still not something we'd really play at mvy.

"Okay. You at least have to play it on my birthday."

A few years ago, I did an interview for the mvyradio Person Of The Week with a woman who runs a support group for people born, like my friend, on February 29th.

If you're initial reaction to the idea of a support group for Leap Day babies is, "that's ridiculous," well, I was with you at first.

But after speaking to her, I had compassion for her. I mean, to have someone at the DMV call you a liar because they think you are making up a fake birthday . . . that's kind of sad. (Hear the 3 minute interview in the mvyradio Archives)

So yeah, once every four years I play "What A Wonderful World."

Catch it at 4:50pm ET, today.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Robb!


Here's a cool version of the song, with a spoken intro by Armstrong.

Hear the song on Youtube.

New Multitudes "Hoping Machine"

I only took one CD with me during vacation last week. This was it.

"New Multitudes" is the album name (but I think it should be the band name, because calling them "Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker, Yim Yames" every time is a non-melodic mouthful).

This is another collection of Woody Guthrie lyrics, from what seems to be a bottomless well of writings that he left behind from the years he was too debilitated from Huntington's Disease to play guitar.

I had heard Barbara play this song on the air before I left for vacation. "Hoping Machine" so moved her, that she actually teared up on the air while talking about it.

I put it on my headphones as I left the island for vacation, and even with the heads-up that this could make me cry, well, it still made me cry.

I've joked about Jay Farrar's limited palette before. But damn, within his wheelhouse, his is the most beautiful, moving voice, with a tone that is both warm and cuts through absolutely everything.

Yeah, I cried on the ferry.

Beautiful.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Tag Team "Whoop There It Is"

I had a lot of great toys when I was a kid. And by virtue of being the oldest of 3 children, I had fun toys coming in the house long after I was at an age where you'd normally get kid toys.

I was well into middle school, but could still be in the basement, fascinated by my little sister's ball popper.

Or looking at the same old Viewmaster reels that I'd been clicking through for (literally) half my life.

And I loved our Fisher-Price record player. If you don't remember this toy, check out the demonstration video.


See it on Youtube.

It came with 5 two-sided records, which each played some kind of classic Americana piece (and I mean "Americana" in the nostalgic sense, not the roots-rock sense).

It's how I learned some of the canon of songs that included "Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone" and "London Bridge" and "Edelweiss" (as well as the now-considered-kind-of-racist "Camptown Races"). Songs that pretty much every one of every age, knew.

Looking back on it, it was kind of strangely educational.

(I'll point out that I'm sure Fisher-Price was not intending to educate me; all the songs involved were Public Domain tunes, meaning they didn't have to pay any licensing fees)

One of the fun things about being a parent, is that you get to buy toys for your kid, and play with them yourself.

So we have a Ball Popper and Candyland.

Some of the toys are updated, like the Fisher-Price Little People farm, which is now totally plastic, but still has the barn door that goes "Moo!"

And though you can buy a vintage Fisher-Price Record Player, they don't make 'em like they used to.

We received, as a gift, its modern-day equivalent:

The Little Tikes Pop Tunes Music Mixer.


See my son and I play with it on Youtube.

First, I think it's kind of funny yet cool that they still make a "Kids Record Player" since most of today's kids have never seen a record player, and never will.

And I'm actually okay with the idea of the turntable being a Club DJ/Mixin'-And-Scratchin' kind of turntable. It's fun enough.

But I'm struck with the music choices. Here in 2012, music licensing is big business, and it's easy. So there is no need to rely on Public Domain tunes.

Instead, the "Canon" that my son is learning includes "Free Your Mind" and "Whoop There It Is."

"Whoomp There It Is?" Is that really the "Edelweiss" of this generation?


See it on Youtube.

The Lightning Seeds "Life Of Riley"

Here's another Weekend Post:

This is a song from that stretch of the early 90s where sweet, unassuming Brit-pop tunes could be hits in the States.

The era Also Known As the one before Oasis showed up to completely obliterate any British music connection to the word "unassuming."


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show. They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are wonderful to revisit.

Big Audio Dynamite "Rush"

Here's another Weekend Post:

I was in a car listening equipped with satellite radio (the competition!), and I heard this tune, which hadn't crossed my ears in years.

I forgot they sampled The Who! I thought Mick Jones and The Clash were supposed to be the backlash to The Who? Maybe that was just media bunk.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show. They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are wonderful to revisit.

Dave Stewart "Can't Get You Out Of My Head"

Welcome to another segment of "Let Me Ruin This Song For You."

(If you missed the first entry, you should probably read this)

Let me give credit where credit is due. I'm not the one who is going to ruin this song for you. You can blame Jess.

It was she, who asked:

"Why are we playing two songs that sounds so similar?"

Which two songs?

"'Can't Get You Out Of My Head' and 'She Walks In So Many Ways'"

Those two songs don't sound anything alike!

So of course, she got out both CDs, and played the opening riffs, back to back.

Go ahead a listen below on the videos, from the beginning of each song, until the singing starts.

Then try not to think of the first song, whenever you hear the second one. Or vice-versa.

Thanks for ruining two songs, Jess!


Hear Dave Stewart on Youtube.


Hear The Jayhawks on Youtube.

Delta Spirit "California"

I like this band. But I definitely prefer their more straightforward rocking side ("Golden State") to the stuff they do that incorporates an electronic feel.

So I was resistant to this one.

But hell, if Grampa likes it . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.


See Grampa review Delta Spirit on Youtube.

Lou Reed "Dirty Blvd."

Here's another old song, that I've been thinking about bringing back to the library.

But let me ask you, if you were driving your kids to school and you had mvyradio on, would you be upset if you heard Lou Reed mention urination, not once but twice?

Flat-out FCC-hackle-raising words (F**k, S**t, etc) are obvious no-nos.

But what about a line like this:

Give me your hungry, your tired your poor I'll piss on 'em
that's what the Statue of Bigotry says

"Dirty Blvd." is such a well-crafted portrait on New York City, it's a shame to let a great work from Reed languish in the Hold category.

Here in modern times, the record company would have the artist record an alternate, "clean" version ("Forget You," anyone?). But I don't have access to a clean version of this one.

Maybe Laurel, our production director can make an edit?

Either way, is this line a little too much for the unsuspecting broadcast audience?


Hear the song on Youtube.


Hear a live version on Youtube.

The Little Willies "For The Good Times"

So here was an awkward promo person situation. I asked:

"Are you still working The Little Willies project? I'm thinking of adding something from it."

The Little Willies is this group of New York Musicians who started getting together on a regular basis over a decade ago, first to perform Willie Nelson covers, later expanding their repertoire to covering lots of classic country songwriters. One of the members happened to concurrently have a breakthrough in her solo career: Norah Jones.

This is their second record. It's been floating around for a couple of months now. I liked it when I heard it---the free-wheeling love of the music is charmingly evident---but I wasn't in any rush to add something until I had some space to play with in the playlist.

The time, for me, was right. So I mentioned it to the guy working the record to me.

He handled it quite deftly.

"That's great, but I know (name of person at the label) would want me to mention, that Norah's new single will be here in a couple of weeks."

Ah, how awkward! You can't really have a Norah Jones side project get in the way of Norah Jones main project.

I know there are plenty of stations who would only be willing to play one song by an artist at a time. And if they added The Little Willies, they'd probably hold the add on the new, proper-Norah track.

We think that's silly.

So we're adding the Kris Kristofferson cover, "For The Good Times." And we'll most definitely add the new Norah when it arrives.

By the way, the new Norah Jones album sounds like it could be VERY interesting. It's produced by Danger Mouse.

Though I hear it is not a continuation of "Rome," I posted one of the Norah Jones tracks from that Danger Mouse project from last year, below, so you could get a possible flavor for how those two might connect, musically. "Rome" was Danger Mouse's tribute to spaghetti Western film music.


Hear "For The Good Times" on Youtube.


See a mini-documentary about The Little Willies on Youtube.


Hear the Rome track on Youtube.

Vampire Weekend "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"

I'm on vacation this week, so I'm keeping the posts brief (but hopefully still interesting).

Occasionally, there is some specious reasoning that goes into why I might want to add a song.

A few months ago, while rooting around for older songs that would sound good to add to the mvy library, we pulled out Nickel Creek's "Lighthouse's Tale."

We have several lighthouse songs in rotation. It's geographically appropriate.

So when I remembered that Vampire Weekend had a really great song called "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" I thought we should go back and revisit it. Because it's geographically appropriate.

It IS now in our library.

But really, does it have anything to do with Cape Cod?

(Read the lyrics)


Hear the song on Youtube.