Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is “A song with a harmonica.”

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Stevland Hardaway Morris né Judkins aka Stevie Wonder also provides my second selection for SLS this week.

Seasons of Love is a song from the 1996 Broadway musical Rent, written and composed by Jonathan Larson. The song is performed by the entire cast in the play and the 2005 movie by the same name. Along with the Original Cast Recording soundtrack is an alternative version of Seasons of Love featuring Wonder who sings (and improvises upon) the part usually sung by the soloists. Stevie also lends his harmonica skills to the song.

FUN FACTS:

• Larson actually intended for Seasons of Love to be performed symbolically as a song at Angel’s funeral.
• The song is heard twice throughout the second act and as the finale.
• Born six weeks premature, and with retinopathy of prematurity, leading to permanent blindness, Wonder was a music prodigy and had mastered several instruments, including the harmonica, before he reached his teens.
• Signed with Motown’s Tamla label at the age of 11, Stevie’s first single, Fingertips, featuring him on the bongos and harmonica, was a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 when Wonder was 13, making him the youngest artist ever to top the chart.

Take care, stay safe, and be well.

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection on Nesie’s Place.

~~~

Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

Compiled from Genius Lyrics, Google, Wikipedia, Songfacts.com, and YouTube.

Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is “Acquire/Collect/Gather/Secure.”

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Took a bit of searching my playlists come up with a second song for SLS, but when I decided on a variation of one of the prompts – TA DA! 🙂

Secure can also mean safe, which is why I chose Paula Cole’s Safe in Your Arms from her 2007 album, Courage.

Cole is best known for Where Have All the Cowboys Gone, which reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997. The following year she won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Her song I Don’t Want to Wait was used as the theme song of the television show Dawson’s Creek.

Safe in Your Arms is a simple song with a folk-music feel where the singer equates her safe harbor with the one she loves.

FUN FACTS:

• Courage was Cole’s return to the music scene after nearly a decade-long hiatus.
• Cole co-wrote Safe in Your Arms with Greg Phillinganes, a keyboardist, singer-songwriter, and musical director discovered by Stevie Wonder, and who worked with Michael Jackson and the Jackson for more than thirty years.
• Paula attended Berklee College of Music in Boston and studied jazz singing and improvisation. She was offered a record deal by a jazz label, but decided to turn it down.
• Since 2013, the 52-year-old Cole has been on the voice faculty at Berklee College of Music while continuing an active performing career.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection on Nesie’s Place.

~~~

Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

Compiled from Genius Lyrics, Google, Wikipedia, Songfacts.com, and YouTube.

Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is “Different/Same.”

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A man wanting the woman he loves to feel the same way about him is the theme of Show and Tell.

Written by Jerry Fuller and first recorded by Johnny Mathis in 1972, the song went to #36 on the Easy Listening chart.

Less than a year later in September of 1973, R & B singer Al Wilson released a cover of the song and took Show and Tell to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 for one week on January 19, 1974; it sold over two million copies and was named a Cash Box Number One Single of the Year. Billboard ranked it as the No. 15 song for 1974. Wilson’s version also made No. 10 on the Hot Soul Singles chart.

FUN FACTS:

• Peabo Bryson had a No. 1 R&B hit with his version of the song in 1989. Bryson’s version did not chart on the Hot 100.
• Jerry Fuller also wrote Travelin’ Man which was originally intended for Sam Cooke. Ricky Nelson recorded it instead and the record sold six million copies worldwide.
• Fuller discovered Gary Puckett and The Union Gap  in a San Diego bowling alley lounge. He wrote and produced the group’s hits Young Girl (a UK No. 1), Lady Willpower, and Over You.
• Al Wilson died on April 21, 2008, of kidney failure, in Fontana, California, at the age of 68. He was buried at the Evergreen Cemetery in Riverside, California.

The video is from one of Wilson’s appearances on Soul Train.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection on Nesie’s Place.

~~~

Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

Compiled from Genius Lyrics, Google, Wikipedia, Songfacts.com, and YouTube.

Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is “Baking/Bread/Cake/Pie/Picnic.”

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After legendary songwriter Jimmy Webb wrote MacArthur Park, actor Richard Harris took the song to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and country music icon Waylon Jennings won a Grammy Award for his cover in 1969; but it was Disco Queen Donna Summer who introduced it to a new generation in the disco era and took the song to number one in November of 1978 and stayed there for three weeks. (This was yet another song that could be heard all over my college dorm! 😀  )

The Meaning of MacArthur Park

The inspiration for the song was Jimmy Webb’s relationship and breakup with Susie Horton. MacArthur Park, in Los Angeles, was where the couple would occasionally meet for lunch and spent their most enjoyable times together. In an interview with Newsday in October 2014, Webb explained:

Everything in the song was visible. There’s nothing in it that’s fabricated. The old men playing checkers by the trees, the cake that was left out in the rain, all of the things that are talked about in the song are things I actually saw. And so it’s a kind of musical collage of this whole love affair that kind of went down in MacArthur Park. … Back then, I was kind of like an emotional machine, like whatever was going on inside me would bubble out of the piano and onto paper.

FUN FACTS:

• Jimmy Webb and Susie Horton remained friends, even after her marriage to another man. The breakup was also the primary influence for By the Time I Get to Phoenix, another song written and composed by Webb.
• In 1967, producer Bones Howe had asked Webb to create a pop song with classical elements, different movements and changing time signatures. Webb delivered MacArthur Park to Howe with “everything he wanted”, but Howe did not care for the ambitious arrangement or unorthodox lyrics and the song was rejected by the group The Association, for whom it was originally intended.
• The nearly 18-minute Donna Summer musical medley MacArthur Park Suite incorporated the original songs One of a Kind and Heaven Knows. This medley was also sold as a 12-inch (30 cm) vinyl recording, and it stayed at number one on Billboard‘s Hot Dance Club Songs chart for five weeks in 1978.

The video is a live performance from VH1 Presents.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection on Nesie’s Place.

~~~

Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

Compiled from Genius Lyrics, Google, Wikipedia, Songfacts.com, and YouTube.

Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is “Air/Earth/Fire/Water.”

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Of course, when I think of the elements, the first thing to come to mind is legendary music icons Earth, Wind & Fire.

The group released Boogie Wonderland, a collaboration with the group I featured last week–The Emotions–in April of 1979. The song peaked at number 14 on the dance chart, number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 2 on the Hot Soul Singles chart. Boogie Wonderland was certified Gold in the US by the RIAA and Gold in the UK by the BPI.

FUN FACTS:

• Boogie Wonderland was Grammy nominated in the categories of Best R&B Instrumental Performance and Best Disco Recording.
• The song was covered by Brittany Murphy for the soundtrack to the 2006 movie Happy Feet.
• In November 1978, EWF issued a compilation album entitled The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1. It rose to No. 3 on the Billboard Top Soul Albums chart and No. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album was certified Quintuple Platinum in the U.S. by the RIAA.
• Considered one of the world’s best-selling bands of all time, EWF has won numerous awards and honors including six Grammys, four American Music Awards, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, the Kennedy Center Honors, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

The official music video is just one big party! 😀

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection on Nesie’s Place.

~~~

Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

Compiled from Genius Lyrics, Google, Wikipedia, Songfacts.com, and YouTube.

Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is “Best/Better/Good/Great.”

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I was 17 when I attended my first music concert in October of 1977–the Commodores World Tour at Wings Stadium in Kalamazoo, Michigan! Brick House was their current hit and their opening act was The Emotions. I had the keys to my Mom’s gold Pontiac Catalina station wagon and it was loaded to the brim with siblings and friends. 😀

The Emotions released their second album for Columbia Records, Rejoice, in June of 1977, and it spawned two hits, Don’t Ask My Neighbors and Best of My Love.

Best of My Love would go on to top the Billboard Pop and R&B charts and win Grammy for Best R&B Performance By a Duo or Group with Vocals, as well as an American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Single.

Oh, what a night! 😀 😀

FUN FACTS:

• The group was originally a gospel outfit known as the Hutchinson Sunbeams who toured the gospel circuit with their father Joe Hutchinson. The Sunbeams sang on Jerry Van Dyke’s “Children’s Gospel” television show and also occasionally performed in the concert with Mahalia Jackson. They eventually became an R&B/Soul act with a popular following in their hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Soon being renamed as The Emotions, they signed with the Memphis-based Volt imprint of Stax Records in the late 60s.
• Signing with Columbia Records led The Emotions to an association with Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire that would bring them their greatest level of success.
• The Emotions originally consisted of three sisters Wanda, Jeanette and and Sheila Hutchinson, however, when Jeanette left for maternity leave in the late 70s, their youngest sister, Pamela, and cousin, Theresa Davis would join in turn.
• The Emotions were named by VH1 as one of the 18 most influential girl groups of all time.

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection on Nesie’s Place.

~~~

Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

Compiled from Genius Lyrics, Google, Wikipedia, Songfacts.com, and YouTube.

Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is“Cool/Freeze/Heat/Melt.”

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The video for The Sweetest Days is shot in two different ways. The “romantic version” was shot in an apartment overlooking a city skyline while the “urban version” shows the singer walking in a park and through streets. They give the song a different feel but both supporting the same message that despite turbulent times, the warmth and security of love is always a safe haven, and the days we’re living now will one day be “the good old days.”

The song is the first single from Vanessa Williams’ third studio album of the same name in 1994 and was written by the same team who previously penned Save the Best for Last for Williams.

The Sweetest Days reached No. 18 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 3 on the US Adult Contemporary Charts.

FUN FACTS:

• As an actress, Williams enjoyed success on both stage and screen, receiving an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture for her portrayal of Teri Joseph in the film Soul Food (1997).
• Vanessa’s best-known television role is that of Wilhelmina Slater on Ugly Betty (2006–10), for which she was nominated three times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
• Williams’ paternal great-great grandfather was William A. Feilds, who was born a slave, would go on to serve as an African-American legislator in the Tennessee House of Representatives.
• Williams was the first African American recipient of the Miss America title when she was crowned Miss America 1984 in September 1983. Several weeks before the end of her reign, however, a scandal arose when Penthouse magazine bought and published unauthorized nude photographs of her. Williams was pressured to relinquish her title, and was succeeded by the first runner-up, Miss New Jersey 1983, Suzette Charles. Thirty-two years later, in September 2015, when Williams served as head judge for the Miss America 2016 pageant, former Miss America CEO Sam Haskell made a public apology to her for the events of 1984.

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection on Nesie’s Place.

~~~

Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

Compiled from Genius Lyrics, Google, Wikipedia, Songfacts.com, and YouTube.

Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is“Maria/Marie/Mary.”

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Even though it’s about infidelity, this upbeat song with a Latin flair was a dance favorite and quickly gained airplay reaching number two on Billboards Hot 100. Released in September of 1969, Take a Letter, Maria was certified gold in early December of the same year. It would go on to sell nearly three million copies.

So many songs about broken marriages leave you crying in your beer or scarfing down Ben & Jerry’s. R.B. Greaves doesn’t seem too broken up over his… since he asks Maria out to start a new life!

The video is from a 1969 television performance… yes, it’s lip-synced, but check out that dicta-phone!

FUN FACTS:

• R.B. Greaves is Sam Cooke’s nephew. He had one more US Top 40 hit: Always Something There To Remind Me. That one, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, reached #27 in 1970.
• Take a Letter, Maria was kept from the #1 spot by Wedding Bell Blues by The 5th Dimension.
• The song was recorded at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio using house musicians, including Donna Jean Thatcher on vocals (later Donna Jean Godchaux of the Grateful Dead).
• Greaves was one of several Atlantic artists sent to Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, but the first to have a hit there.

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection on Nesie’s Place.

Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

Compiled from Genius Lyrics, Google, Wikipedia, Songfacts.com, and YouTube.