Too much music, too little time! :D

Hi everyone,  thanks to my latest trip to one of my local thrift stores, I have a brand new load of long forgotten gems, so  get your ooah-ooah on and time to get down and boogie! lol

First,here’s a terrific favorite of mine that was sadly stuck in 1976, from the short-lived the THP Orchestra Canadian band (ooah-ooah) with the great disco hit “Fightin’ on the side of love”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ju1BFAqg0M

Next,  as long as we’re dancing, here’s an extended mix of a song by the trio from France, the Gibson Brothers called “Come to America”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9ZaDqfxyc0

Now third, here’s a guy listed on Wiki as being a reggae musician, who apparently drummed for Jimmy Cliff in the 70s, before going out on his own with a few disco hits up here in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. The song I want to share today from Jesse Green is called “Flip”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sZbz1t-QRQ

He had an even bigger hit with his song “Nice and slow”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hSf0107tFc

Now last but not least, here’s one that blew my mind how I had forgotten it. Sadly, it seems that a lot of disco hits, aside from the usual suspects like K C & the Sunshine Band, Donna Summer, the Village People and a few select other artists, a high percentage of disco hits were released by one-hit wonders. In any case, one-disco-hit wonder or not, here’s a song that’s pretty much garanteed to get you out of your seat, or at least dancing in it, Mississippi’s own queen of the blues, but momentarily disco mama Denise Lasalle’s “Freedom to express yourself”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD_k7Qzbs70

According to Wikipedia, both the Gibson Brothers and Denise Lasalle are still performing so good for them! Now aside from the bonus “Nice and slow”, these all came off the same K-Tel “Disco boogie” double LP, which I thought was pretty cool, almost mint for $4! :D Thanks for boogying down memory lane with me, for reading and listening, God bless, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Glad you're enjoying it Thresa, thanks for posting! Take care. Hugs, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Hi everyone, well first, I found out that the Dan Auerbach song dates from 2009, so who knows why the video had recently been uploaded, refering to my last post. In other news, I just found this silly video on the YouTube home page and had to share. I think it was on the Jimmy Kimmel show, it's the "Star Wars" cast singing Smash Mouth's "All-star":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGxP9XU0pNA 

lol May the fourth/Force be with you! Thanks for reading and listening, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Hi everyone, browsing on YouTube's home page, I found this newly uploaded video, fresh off the presses, 8 hours ago.  It's apparently a new song by Dan Auerbach, from his first solo effort called "Keep it hid" and the song is called "King of a one horse town":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfJpCjbEOdA 

Dan is the lead singer of the Black Keys, which I have mentioned before on this blog and most likely, he's produced this one too, because this song does have his guitar sound I really enjoy. I have no other details now, but I'll look them up. Hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading and listening, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Hi everyone, I usually like to keep this blog for either long lost treasures or fun discoveries, but today, I simply have to share our Michael's latest output. This is a truly magnificent rendition of Leon Russell's beautiful "A song for you", sung by our Michael:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR_oiwhCdLU

Incidentally, it's off the Japanese release of "Songs of cinema". I love this song by many people including Ray Charles who does a great version, but this is truly my new favorite! :D BTW, to paraphrase Michael's words from another song: "Every time I listen, feels like the first time..." XD So, I just might go listen for the first time again! Thanks for reading and listening, sincerely, Sylvie <3 <3 <3

Bonjour tout le monde, today I want to underline the birthday of my first musical love, when I was 7 years old, he was 9 himself: French Quebec singer René Simard. His career spans 47 years and yes, he’s still singing and putting out music. His last selftitled CD was released in 2015 and he’s still busy touring with it. I want to mostly focus today on a CD called “Hier encore” (Yesterday again), because tracks from it have been recently uploaded. Funny coincidence that it’s a jazzy compilation of vintage songs released in 2003: I just now realized that. :D Let’s start with the title song, which was, if I’m not mistaken, popularized by Charles Aznavour many years before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_qdwmKAk5g

I’m sorry but still today, his voice still gets to me... :d Next is another classic, previously sung in French and composed by singer Gilbert Bécaud in 1961 called “Et maintenant”, which technically means “And now”, but most people know as “What now my love”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_qdwmKAk5g

I must say I quite enjoy this arrangement, because it uses very little of the Ravel “Bolero” rif. The last excerpt from this album I’ll be sharing is one of my favorites as a rule, that I do enjoy both in English and French, by Tony Bennett “The good life” and in French by both Gilbert Bécaud and obviously René too, in French, it’s “La belle vie”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wjvTnI5tUs

Now, for my last one, I’ll share an excerpt from his latest album, which was the lead single, “Un nouveau rêv”, (A new dream):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvohl5Nch1k

The reason I’ve shared those today is because those are excerpts from albums that I feel are worthy of his talent, with quality songwriting and composing. His 2015 album was unexpected for him, in the sense that he wasn’t even sure he’d put it out, but it was put together during a 3 year span, at a turning point of his life and he wanted to go back to what he loved to do best: making music. I do hope you enjoy some of these, otherwise, it will have been a much appreciated self-indulgence. :D Bonne fête René! Thanks for reading and listening, sincerely, Sylvie <3

Hi everyone, well I finally got my "Songs of cinema"  in the mail yesterday, did a little dance and listened to it a few times... :D I thought I’d share my 2 cents about it. One thing I noticed right away is that there is an organic and comfortable feel to the album, with some lingering echoes of the previous CD, which were quite welcome. So I’ll go song by song.

WAMLAW: I love that it’s basically the live version Michael sings, his voice is amazing and I love the old-school sound of the organ.

Stand by me:   cozy, I love the arrangements and Michael’s phrasing, which is nicely different from other renditions I’ve heard, while maintaining the breath of soul in it.

I’ve got a woman: it’s a different musical sound for Michael, it has  really fun arrangements and I enjoyed the change in lyrics and the sax solo. I was thrilled that Michael recorded something off “Ray”, because I’d suggested it on PledgeMusic. :D

I will always love you: I got teary-eyed and goosebumps at the same time just hearing the first notes, the music and arrangements are simple but magnificent, I love Dolly’s participation and she also sounds amazing, there’s a nice dynamic between the 2, their “but above all this” together is delicious, but I confess that a small part of me would have wanted to hear Michael sing this one by himself...

Old time rock and roll: perfect pacing and instrumentation on this one and Michael sings the stuffing out of it! This would be the perfect opportunity to bring out the blue guitar in concert. :D

I heard it through the grapevine: the music is perfect, Michael’s performance is flaless, though the back-ups are a bit more prominent than I’m used to hearing them. We had been waiting for this one for a long time! :D

Cupid:  it’s just as nice, beautiful and comfortable as Sam Cooke’s version, with just enough soul groove to it.

Somewhere over the rainbow: yes it is the same vocals as on the “Gems” album, but the music is like a breath of fresh air and it is so nice to hear Michael’s voice taking all the space it should be taking. :D There’s nothing wrong with the “Gems” duet and frankly, while enjoying Michael’s voice throughout, I found myself singing the Paula Fernandes part and loved it! lol

As time goes by: I don’t know what it is about that song, but I can’t stop smiling when I listen to it... :D  It would have fit on “Vintage” like a velvet glove and I think Michael succeeded in Boltonizing it. It’s like hearing Michael’s tone in Hd, oh and love the sax solo on this one too.

Jack sparrow (ballad): I love that Michael committed to singing it as an epic ballad, but he allows himself to go “Lord Boltron” on that high note! lol

Listening  to the CD, thinking of the original versions of most of these songs, I realized there aren’t many of Michael’s influences missing: he’s got Percy, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, we know he wanted to sing with Whitney and Bob Seger was significant in his career in ’85 and it’s a shame he didn’t include a Stevie Wonder soundtrack song in there... :D To be honest, I did think the album was a little short, which obviously prompts us to put it on repeat, but maybe that’s just a marketing ploy! lol Guess that’s my 2 cents for now. Thanks for reading, sincerely, Sylvie :D