Most Underrated Beatles Songs Ever? Your Call.

Hard to think of any Beatles song as not having gotten some attention. M.C. Antil posts on his blog Reflections at the Speed of Life on just that topic and lists his Ten Most Underrated Beatles Songs of All Time. Regardless of how you feel about his picks (or ours), it is a good topic.

Our Staff Picks: Top Ten Underrated Beatles Songs:
10.Run for Your Life-Rubber Soul
9. There's a Place-With the Beatles
8. No Reply-Beatles for Sale
7. Hold Me Tight-With the Beatles
6. Julia-White Album
5. Sun King-Abbey Road
4. Mr. Moonlight-Beatles for Sale
3. I've Just Seen a Face-HELP!
2.You Know My Name (look Up the Number)- "B" Side of Let it Be.
1. Anna (Go to Him)- Please Please Me

Marmalade: "I See the Rain" (1967)

The only reason I know about this song at all was because Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs covered it in their excellent album "Under the Covers" in 2006. ( Their sequel, recorded in 2009 is worth owning as well.) Hearing it on the radio recently by the original band, "Marmalade" (also known as "The Marmalade") made me think this could have been an iconic example of '60's music, and it is hard to believe this song never charted anywhere. 

Says Dave Gersham in an article on Reselct.com: "...by all appearances, “I See the Rain” was one of two high-water marks for the group. (In fact, according to the writeup on AllMusic.com, Jimi Hendrix declared " I See the Rain" the best British single of 1967, and considering that year was smack dab in the middle of the Beatles’career, not to mention numerous other huge British groups, that’s saying an awful lot.) Truly a lost classic, and while Sweet and Hoffs do an excellent version of the song, they do it even greater justice by simply featuring it as the leadoff song on the album and bringing it to the light of day for today’s listeners."

The band was formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1961 and were known as "The Gaylords" and "Dean Ford and the Gaylords" before changing to "The Marmalade" in 1966. They were extremely popular in Scotland and were the first Scottish band to have a top charting song in the U.K. (a cover of the Beatles "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da").

In the U.S. they will be best known for "Reflections of My Life" (1969) which sounds completely different than "I See the Rain". If you listened to "Wild Thing" and "Love is All Around" by the Troggs, you would never believe it was by the same band either. Coincidently, they had the same manager. "Reflections of My Life" would rise to #10 on the Hot 100 Chart in the U.S.

In 1970 the band had a U.S. Adult Contemporary Chart hit reaching #9 called "Rainbow", a song I heard for the first time one minute ago. All of their productive originals were written by William Campbell/Thomas McAleese.

From then on,they began to have personnel changes and they never really were the same band although they are still touring today.

The Sweet/Hoffs cover of "I See the Rain" is so good I have included their performance on Conan O'Brian in this post.

Monahan's Song of the Week Christmas Nominee- Nota: "All I Want for Christmas is You (2010)

Yup, the contest is still on for Best Holiday Song and our staff is having a listening party on Friday to pick the winner. So far we have 20 candidates. In the meantime, and since it has not been nominated, we submit this one for your approval.

A capella, (in the U.S. acapella) is singing without instrumental accompaniment. If you close your eyes during this video, you would certainly believe there is a band behind Nota. They define it themselves as "only human voices, no drums, no guitars, no keys, no horns, no exceptions."

Nota was the first band to win the $100,000 grand prize and recording contractd in "The Sing Off", a show that ran three seasons featuring only acapella groups and was very popular but expensive to run. Many of the groups had as many as 25 members (usually college acapella ensembles) and they had to be put up, fed and videoed.

Nota has been on a journey since The Sing Off.  Since then, they have astounded audiences across the country and in their homeland of Puerto Rico with performances that you have to see to believe.

Nota is a group of six male vocalists from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The group met in 1994 and started singing together occasionally. Johnny Figueroa, Nota's bass singer, first heard of The Sing-Off during the summer of 2009. He called five other people he had sung with on and off with for 15 years, seeking the five best singers for the competition. There was initially some doubt that members Rodriguez and Rios would be able to participate as both had family members sick with the H1N1 virus. David Pinto was unsure if he could participate in the competition, due to financial issues. Daddy Yankee, whom Pinto was working with, paid the airline bill in order for Pinto to participate in the competition. All five entered the competition.

They released an album in November 2010, and a Christmas album (only $1.99 on Amazon!) in December of the same year.

No need to tell you about the song "All I want for Christmas is You", as it is a modern day holiday classic and featured in the brilliant movie "Love Actually".

So grab an egg nog, click below and close your eyes...

Santa Want's Your Favorite Holiday Song

 

Well here we are in December and it's time we selected the best song of the season. Our elves just put a new needle on the turntable and we are ready for your original picks. Rock, country,jazz or blues, it all works for us here at Monahanssong Headquarters. The winner will get props on this blog AND receive a CD of hand selected gems from our staff archives. The winning tune should be in video format so recon YouTube before nominating so we can share with everyone. Simply comment on this post to make a suggestion or send it HERE!

 

As always, let us look beyond the obvious songs like this one. You have all been good this year so enjoy this Bobby Helms classic from 1957, "Jingle Bell Rock". Over 70 artists have released a version of this song, but this version is the best.

 

 



Foster the People "Pumped Up Kicks" (2010)

Robert's got a quick hand.
He'll look around the room, he won't tell you his plan.
He's got a rolled cigarette, hanging out his mouth, he's a cowboy kid.
Yeah, he found a six shooter gun.
In his dad's closet hidden with a box of fun things, and I don't even know what.
But he's coming for you, yeah he's coming for you.

If you are under 35, you probably caught this as it was a very popular song. It charted very well, but I think a lot of older people missed it. It is yet another example an upbeat tune masking dark lyrics. The Ravonettes "Here Comes Mary"(2005)  (and soon to be featured here) comes to mind and is a nice match as that song is about a girl being bullied whereas this one is about getting inside the head of someone who is bullied and out for revenge. Gil Scott-Heron's "The Bottle" (1974) is another example of a danceable song with ominous lyrics.

Foster the People is really Mark Foster, who hails from Cleveland, Ohio, but later moved to LA. Mark started it all as a solo project while working writing commercial jingles. Later, Foster brought in Bassist Cubbie Fink and Mark Pontis to play drums. Other than a EP,  "Torches" is their only album release to date. The band does not seem to be touring.

As for "Pumped Up Kicks," It had been said that it is a song you can sit and analyse or get up and dance to.

A explanation of the songs meaning came from Mark Foster during an interview with Spinner UK:
"Pumped Up Kicks" is about a kid that basically is losing his mind and is plotting revenge. He's an outcast I feel the youth in our culture are becoming more and more isolated. It's kind of an epidemic. Instead of writing about the victims of some tragedy, I wanted to get into the killer's mind, like Truman Capote did in In Cold Blood. I love to write about characters. That's my style. I really like to get inside the heads of  other people and try to walk in their shoes."

Foster points out that there is no violence in the song other than the pictures painted in the kid's mind.

"Pumped Up Kicks" was a viral release in 2010 that grew in popularity and was being played on radio long before the album was released. It was this song that got Foster a recording contract.

Winner: Biggest Turkey Song 2012- Paper Lace: "The Night Chicago Died" (1974)

Well the nominations are all in, and we have our Thanksgiving Day worst song ever winner! Hats off to alert reader Gary DiStefano for bringing this song to light. A bubble gum confection you want to scrape off of the sole of your shoe. Imagine if you will, two guys who together wrote three of the most unlistenable songs ever. "Bonnie and Clyde"(1968), "Billy Don't Be a Hero"(1974) and our winner "The Night Chicago Died". A troika of tripe!

Mitch Murray (who appears to have written some good things as well) and Peter Callander are bestowed that honor. They got Paper Lace, the pride of Nottingham, England (They are the best band to ever hail from that town) to record "Billy Don't Be a Hero" and it was a big hit in England. Before they could release it in the U.S., Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods covered it and made it a hit for themselves. The Paper Lace version only hit #96. Bo and the boys were not nominated this year but will surely winn worst song somewhere down the line.

Murray and Callander were not going to get beaten again so they rushed the Paper lace version of "The Night Chicago Died" to U.S. release, peaking at #1 in August 1974. No wonder I was following the blues by then! The other four top five songs were "Feel Like Makin' Love" by Roberta Flack, "(You're) Having My Baby" (already a worst song winner on this blog), "Tell Me Something Good" by Rufus, and "Please Come to Boston" by Dave Loggins...wow. CNN pointed out that 1974 may have been the worst year for songs in history.

Paper Lace came to America but other than playing at a few radio stations, they were unable to perform the song live in the U.S. at the height of its popularity because of contractual issues.

Oh, and the name of their lead guitarist was Carlo Santanna...most unfortunate.

This song made quite a few worst songs of the '70s lists and CNN named it to their worst songs list as well. It is cited in TV writer Ken Levine's blog also.
Lyrics? Here you go:

And the sound of the battle rang
Through the streets of the old east side
'Til the last of the hoodlum gang
Had surrendered up or died

There was shouting in the street
And the sound of running feet
And I asked someone who said
"'Bout a hundred cops are dead!"

I heard my mama cry
I heard her pray the night Chicago died
Brother what a night it really was
Brother what a fight it really was
Glory be!

The band would try to sign with another label to make more money but it all collapsed in lawsuits. Some of the members press on as Paper Lace today. Glory be!

So enjoy this song and try to get it out of your head as you dig into your stuffing today!

Submit Your Nominations: Biggest Turkey Tune Ever!

It's turkey time and so here is your chance to submit (for our consideration) your nominee for worst song ever! The winner will receive top billing as a connoisseur of garbage. We are looking for songs that are just plain band and/or received way more airplay than it deserved. Let's do away with novelty songs that try to be bad and go for the epic failures (by today's measures) that never held up over time.

So I seek your input. I'll pick two submittals and publish them Thanksgiving Day. One caveat: the song you suggest must be a video I can post or at minimum, an audio link from a website. I want our readers to hear what you have chosen.

Simply submit your choice by commenting on this post or send it via e-mail (with a link to the song) here.

Let me get you started with this one:
Paul Anka:"(You're) Having My Baby" (1974) 
In 2006, CNN poll voters named this the worst song ever. But wait, the video has a bonus in that Anka is introduced by none other than BBC's late child abuser Jimmy Savile! Is this a small world or what?!