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psychicdeath

Member
Jan 21, 2015
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Dave's Song of the Day

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas – Gayla Peevey

Christmas song of the day: It’s Christmas, so of course we have a suitably cheesy Christmas song of the day.



In 1953, a 10-year-old from Oklahoma named Gayla Peevey recorded the song I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. The song told how she wanted a hippopotamus (not a crocodile or rhinoceros) as a Christmas present. It really was not any more complicated than that.

The record climbed to #24 on the Billboard pop music chart and she performed the song on The Ed Sullivan Show. Since then, it has not been one of the most popular Christmas songs, but neither has it been totally forgotten.

The popular story is that the song was recorded as a fundraiser to buy a hippopotamus for the Oklahoma City Zoo. This is false. Peevey recorded the song without any plans to raise funds for the zoo to buy a hippo. It was only after the song had become a hit that a promoter piggybacked off the record’s popularity and raised money to actually give Gayla Peevey a hippopotamus. Over $3,000 was raised, and Peevey was given a 700-pound hippopotamus named Matilda. Obviously a 10-year-old couldn’t care for a real hippo, so she promptly gave Matilda to the zoo. Matilda survived at the zoo for almost another 50 years.



Tomorrow: In their hearts a burning hunger beneath the copper sun
 

psychicdeath

Member
Jan 21, 2015
955
1,521
Dave's Song of the Day

Scatterlings of Africa – Juluka

Thursday song of the day: Today’s song of the day is Johnny Clegg’s most well-known song in the West, which he recorded in two different projects.



In 1969, teenagers Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu met in Johannesburg and formed the band Juluka. Under the apartheid system in South Africa, there were few places where a multiracial band could perform – Clegg was white and Mchunu was black. In addition, many of Juluka’s songs were anti-apartheid, so they were often arrested and beaten.

Eventually, they gained a following and started releasing records in 1976. In late 1982, they released the album Scatterlings. The song Scatterlings of Africa gave the album its name and was released as a single in 1983. It was basically unknown in the United States but did peak at #44 on the UK singles chart. The song’s lyrics refer to scatterlings who have been uprooted in present-day Africa, and also to the entirety of mankind as scatterlings across the globe since the human race originated in Africa.

Juluka disbanded in 1985 when Mchunu retired from music, so Clegg formed a new band called Savuka. In 1987 Johnny Clegg and Savuka released the album Third World Child, which contained a re-recording of Scatterlings of Africa. This version gained some attention in the United States but did not chart. It did reach #75 on the UK singles chart, however. In 1988, the song was included on the soundtrack of the film Rain Man.

Juluka briefly reunited for an album and a tour in 1997. In 2015 Clegg was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died on July 16th, 2019.

Juluka, 1982



Johnny Clegg and Savuka, 1987



1987 music video



Tomorrow: Take time to think it out
 

SongExotic2

ATM 3 CHAMPION OF THE WORLD. #FREECAIN
First 100
Jan 16, 2015
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I'm not gonna lie tho people keep stomping on the hardwood floor and I may have to bollock them in a minute. Doing me head in
 

psychicdeath

Member
Jan 21, 2015
955
1,521
Dave's Song of the Day

New Day for You – Basia

Friday song of the day: Today’s song was a US hit for a UK-based Polish jazz singer.




In the late 60s into the 1970s, Barbara Trzetrzelewska performed with several bands in her native Poland. She soon began using the single stage name Basia. In 1981, she moved to the United Kingdom and joined the jazz trio Matt Bianco. The band had moderate success in the UK, and in 1985 Basia and fellow band member Danny White left Matt Bianco to concentrate on establishing Basia as a solo artist.

Her first solo album, Time and Tide, was released in 1987. At first it didn’t perform well, but eventually jazz radio stations in the United States discovered the album and began giving it airplay. In 1988, the title track reached #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and in 1989, New Day for You climbed to #5 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #53 on the Hot 100. Eventually the album went platinum in the US, and sold over two million copies worldwide.

New Day for You tells of a two-person partnership where one person is the public face and the other is equally involved, but behind the scenes. It pretty much mirrors the relationship of Basia and Danny White. The lyrics, however, are based on a poem that their friend Peter Ross wrote for Basia’s birthday one year.

Basia’s next album contained the US #29 hit Cruising for Bruising, but since then Basia has not had another record chart on the Hot 100. She has remained popular in Europe and Japan, however.



Tomorrow: I’d murder that son-of-a-gun in the first degree
 

Grateful Dude

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May 30, 2016
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psychicdeath

Member
Jan 21, 2015
955
1,521
Dave's Song of the Day

Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) – Tex Williams

Saturday song of the day: Today’s song is sort of a country novelty song that stuck around for quite a while.



In 1947, country singer Tex Williams recorded the song Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) that he had written with Merle Travis. The performance was more spoken than sung, and the song was a complaint that smokers often caused delays in important goings-on because they needed to take a cigarette break. The singer mentioned health only in passing and dismissed it as a concern because “I’ve smoked them all my life and I ain’t dead yet.” Obviously, this was in the days before the Surgeon General’s warning.

The record was very popular, rising to #1 on the Country chart, where it stayed for a total of sixteen weeks. A few months later, a cover version by Phil Harris was released and also became a hit, reaching #8 on the record sales chart. Harris was a famous bandleader, singer, and actor whose career spanned several decades, but today he is best remembered as the voice of Baloo the Bear in the 1967 Disney animated film The Jungle Book.

Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) has been covered numerous times over the years, by artists including Willie Nelson, Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, Ray Stevens, and Sammy Davis, Jr. Even Bobby “Boris” Pickett of Monster Mash fame covered the song in 1964. I myself first became familiar with the song through a cover version by Jimmy Dean on his 1961 album Big Bad John.

Tex Williams, 1947



Phil Harris, 1947



Jimmy Dean, 1961



Tomorrow: A terrible blow, but that’s how it goes
 

psychicdeath

Member
Jan 21, 2015
955
1,521
Dave's Song of the Day

Freddie's Dead (Theme from "Superfly") – Curtis Mayfield

Sunday song of the day: Today’s song is from the 1972 blaxploitation film Super Fly.




Curtis Mayfield was a member of The Impressions and had written their great 1965 hit People Get Ready. In 1970, he left the group and embarked on a solo career. His third studio album was the soundtrack to the film Super Fly. This album contained the song Freddie’s Dead, which had been released as a single in July 1972, before either the film or its soundtrack album were released.

The use of Freddie’s Dead in the actual film was just the instrumental track, without the lyrics. Parts of the instrumental were used at several points in the film, so the single version, complete with lyrics, was subtitled as (Theme from “Superfly”), even though there was another song on the soundtrack album titled Superfly that was about the main character instead of the secondary character of Freddie. This parenthetical title was removed on the album.

The song concerned the character Freddie, who the film’s main character, Youngblood Priest, forces into helping him in a criminal deal. Freddie is later killed when he tries to escape from police and is hit by a car.

Freddie’s Dead hit #2 on the Billboard R&B chart and #4 on the overall Billboard Hot 100. With the follow-up, Superfly, reaching #8 on the Hot 100, and both songs selling over a million singles each, the soundtrack generated considerable interest in the film. Oddly, the film and the album used the two-word title Super Fly, while Freddie’s Dead‘s secondary title (Theme from “Superfly”) and the Superfly song itself spelled it as one word.

Mayfield continued with a successful career for many years afterward. In 1990, a lighting structure fell on him at an outdoor concert, with the injuries leaving him paralyzed below the neck. In 1999 he died due to complications from diabetes.

The ska/funk/metal band Fishbone released a cover version of Freddie’s Dead in 1988.

Curtis Mayfield, 1972



Fishbone, 1988



Tomorrow: After all these changes that you put me through