Playlist for 1/26

Conway Twitty - I've Already Loved You In My Mind

Conway Twitty - High Priest of Country Music

Conway Twitty - Now and Then

Conway Twitty - Play Guitar Play

Conway Twitty - Conway

Conway Twitty - Georgia Keeps Pulling On My Ring

Conway Twitty - Cross Winds

Best of the Beatles Solo Songs

 First posted this in 2015. Updated for 2022.

With Peter Jackson's 6 hour plus Get Back documentary now a part of Beatles history, here's my ranking of their solo songs.

I was originally going to rank the Beatles' Top 40 solo songs.  But I thought that wouldn't be fair. McCartney had the most prolific solo career, even when John and George were alive. Ringo's

solo career bottoms out after 1975, John didn't release anything from 1976-1979.  George stayed active through his entire post-Beatles life.  For the George list, I didn't include any Traveling Wilburys songs as those were mostly a collaborative effort. 

So here's my list of each Beatles' Top 10 solo songs.  

Paul
1.  Jet
2.  Maybe I'm Amazed (studio + 1977 live single)
3.  Band On The Run
4.  Live and Let Die
5.  Listen To What The Man Said
6.  Silly Love Songs
7.  Let Me Roll It
8.  Take It Away
9.  Here Today
10. With A Little Luck

Ringo
1.  It Don't Come Easy
2.  Photograph
3.  Back Off Boogaloo
4.  Early 1970
5.  Oh My My
6.  Snookeroo
7.  You're Sixteen
8.  No No Song
9.  Wrack My Brain
10. I'm The Greatest

George
1.  My Sweet Lord
2.  Give Me Love
3.  What Is Life
4.  Crackerbox Palace
5.  Blow Away
6.  Got My Mind Set On You
7.  I'd Have You Anytime
8.  All Things Must Pass
9.  All Those Years Ago
10.  Any Road

John
1.  Instant Karma
2.  Imagine
3.  Jealous Guy
4.  #9 Dream
5.  God
6.  Watching The Wheels
7.  (Just Like) Starting Over
8.  Nobody Told Me
9.  Whatever Gets You Thru The Night

10. Mind Games

Bonus Tracks: Best of Paul's Duets & the Traveling Wilburys

Paul

Ebony & Ivory - w/Stevie Wonder

Get It - w/Carl Perkins

Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight - as the Fireman w/Youth

Say Say Say w/Michael Jackson

Sing The Changes - as the Fireman w/Youth

The Girl Is Mine - w/Michael Jackson

What's That You're Doing - w/Stevie Wonder

George

End of the Line - Traveling Wilburys

Handle With Care - Traveling Wilburys

Heading For The Light - Traveling Wilburys

Playlist for 1/18

Neil Young - Barn

Michael Hurley - Time of the Foxgloves

American Aquarium - Slappers, Bangers and Certified Twangers Vol. 2

Joshua Ray Walker - See You Next Time

Fancy Hagood - Southern Curiosity

Margo Cilker - Pohorylle

Burnt Sugar - Angels Over Oakanda

Alicia Keys - Keys

Behind The Music: Huey Lewis & The News (2021 Updated Documentary)

Music List A Month (January): Greatest Disco Songs

Disco rose and fell in dramatic fashion.  But it never went away.  It just got rebranded as Dance music by those too afraid to utter the word "disco" among their friends. Even after it so-called demise, it remains an influential genre. I first did this list in 2013 as a voter in a music poll on the best Disco songs.  I'm still pretty pleased how it turned out, so I didn't make many tweaks.  

1.  Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive

2.  Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive

3.  Donna Summer - Last Dance

4.  Chic - Good Times         

5.  Village People - YMCA

6.  Sylvester - You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)

7.  Sister Sledge - Lost In Music

8.  McFadden & Whitehead - Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now

9.  Vicki Sue Robinson - Turn The Beat Around

10. Bee Gees - Night Fever

11. Donna Summer - Hot Stuff

12. Trammps - Disco Inferno

13. Andrea True Connection - More More More

14. Cerrone - Love In C Minor

15. Cheryl Lynn - Got To Be Real

16. Chic - Le Freak

17. KC & The Sunshine Band - That's The Way I Like It

18. Thelma Houston - Don't Leave Me This Way

19. Peaches & Herb - Shake Your Groove Thing

20. Taste of Honey - Boogie Oogie Oogie 

21. Diana Ross - Love Hangover

22. Rod Stewart - Da Ya Think I'm Sexy

23. Dan Hartman - Instant Replay

24. Anita Ward - Ring My Bell

25. Gloria Gaynor - Never Can Say Goodbye

26. Barry White - Can't Get Enough Of Your Love

27. Eddie Kendricks - Keep on Truckin'

28. Sister Sledge - We Are Family

29. Hues Corporation - Rock The Boat

30. Peter Brown - Dance With Me

31. EWF/Emotions - Boogie Wonderland

32. Van McCoy - Hustle

33. Yvonne Elliman - If I Can't Have You

34. Candi Staton - Young Hearts Run Free

35. Indeep - Last Night A DJ Saved My Life

36. Bee Gees - You Should Be Dancing

37. Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band - Cherchez La Femme

38. Tavares - More Than A Woman

39. Alicia Bridges - I Love The Nightlife

40. Blondie - Heart of Glass

41. Foxy - Get Off

42. Jacksons - Dancing Machine

43. Sylvers - Boogie Fever

44. Abba - Dancing Queen

45. Donna Summer - I Feel Love

46. Bell & James - Livin' It Up

47. KC & The Sunshine Band - Get Down Tonight

48. Silver Convention - Fly Robin Fly

49. Heatwave - Boogie Nights

50. Barry Manilow - Copacabana

My Latest Podcast Guest Appearance

 Once again I was a guest on Nick Bambach's Rock In Retrospect Podcast talking about many Rock Hall topics.  But the primary focus was discussing Nick's updated list of 100 artists he believes the Hall should induct. This time there were 3 other people on the podcast: Mark Lempke, Joe Kwaczala and Troy Smith.

Here the link: Rock In Retrospect

Playlist for 1/8 (Special Elvis Presley Birthday Edition)

Elvis Presley - Dinner Bell In Vegas 8/20/70

Elvis Presley - Night of the Dragon 8/28/74

Elvis Presley - Legendary Performer Vol. 3

Elvis Presley - Legendary Performer Vol. 4

Elvis Presley - Legendary Performer Vol. 5

Elvis Presley - Legendary Performer Vol. 6

Elvis Presley - Legendary Performer Vol. 7

Elvis Presley - Legendary Performer Vol. 8

Playlist for 1/6

James Taylor - BBC In Concert 1971

Up South 2021 Oxford American (Playlist + Magazine)

Mr. A & Mr. M: Story of A&M Records (2021 Documentary)

Listening to Kenny G (Documentary)

Mr. Saturday Night (Robert Stigwood Documentary)

You’re Watching Video Music Box (Documentary)

Floating Points/Pharoah Sanders - Promises

Torres - Thirstier

Mike and the Moonpies - One To Grow On

Low - Hey What

2021 Kennedy Center Honors (TV Special)

 

Tom's 2021 Nashville Scene Music Critics Poll Ballot

For the last 13 years, I've begun every post on my Nashville Scene Country Music Critics Poll ballot with this: "Once again, I voted in the Nashville Scene Music Critics Poll".

But that didn't happen this year.  Because the Nashville Scene decided to stop publishing a Critics Poll.  This is sad not just for me, because I always looked forward to voting in it, but for Country music itself.  The genre needs its own poll, because most music magazines, websites short-change Country albums/songs in their year-end polls. There's more to the story on why they dumped their poll, but I'll let readers Google the behind the scenes drama. 

If you're looking for some kind of Country albums poll, No Depression publish one every year. 

So let's hope in 2022 somebody resurrects another Country music poll.  

I had already started to fill out my proposed ballot weeks before the email came that the poll was off.

Here's what my ballot would have looked like for 2021: 

Here's my 2021 Ballot: 

TOP TEN COUNTRY ALBUMS OF 2021:

 

1.  Allison Russell - Outside Child

2.  Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raise the Roof

3.  Yola - Stand for Myself

4.  Mickey Guyton - Remember Her Name

5.  Miko Marks - Our Country

6.  Brandi Carlile - In These Silent Days

7.  James McMurtry - Horses and the Hounds

8.  Jack Ingram, Miranda Lambert, Jon Randall - Marfa Tapes

9.  Kacey Musgraves - Star-Crossed

10. Sturgill Simpson - Ballad of Dood & Juanita

 

TOP TEN COUNTRY SONGS OF 2021:

 

1.  Walker Hayes - Fancy Like

2.  James McMurtry - What's the Matter

3.  Kacey Musgraves - Camera Roll

4.  Lainey Wilson - Things A Man Oughta Know

5.  Brandi Carlile - Faster Horses

6.  Carly Pearce/Ashley McBryde - Never Wanted To Be That Girl

7.  Carly Pearce - What He Didn't Do

8.  Morgan Wade - Wilder Days

9.  Jimmie Allan & Brad Paisley - Freedom Was A Highway

10. Elvie Shane - My Boy

 

TOP FIVE COUNTRY REISSUES OF 2021:

1.  Elvis Presley - Back In Nashville

2.  Choctaw Ridge: New Fables of the American South 68-73- Various

3.  Emmylou Harris - Ramble In Music City: Lost Concert

4.  Randy Travis - Storms of Life (reissue)

5.  Billy Joe Shaver & Kinky Friedman - Live Down Under