Song

Songs I Like (33)

~ beetleypete ~ 32 Comments

1979 was a good year. I was 27 years old, had moved into a nice house in the Wimbledon Park district of London, and I had been accepted for training as an EMT. I played a lot of music at home back then, in a variety of genres. But this one was a favourite, combining the funky-jazz style of the band The Crusaders with the outstanding vocal talents of Randy Crawford and a full orchestra. This is the short radio version, the original album track was 11 minutes long. (Worth hearing!)

I still hang around neither lost nor found
Hear the lonely sound of music in the night
Nights are always bright
That’s all that’s left for me, yeah
I play the street life
Because there’s no place I can go
Street life, it’s the only way I know
Street life
And there’s a thousand cards to play
Until you play your life away
You dress and walk and talk
You’re who you think you are
Street life, you can run away from time
Street life, for a nickel, for a dime
Street life, but you better not get old
Or you’re gonna feel the cold
There’s always love for sale
A grown up fairy tale
Prince charming always smiles
Behind a silver spoon
And if you keep t young
Your song is always sung
Your love will pay your way beneath the silver moon
Street life, street life, street life, oh street life
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Joe Sample / Will Jennings
Street Life lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sentric Music, Songtrust Ave, Spirit Music Group, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc

Songs I Like (32)

~ beetleypete ~ 28 Comments

This is another song that was famously ‘hijacked’ by a later version. Long before Whitney Huston convinced so many people it was her song, the wonderful Chaka Khan released this original in 1978, written by Ashford and Simpson. You just know I prefer Chaka.

(Yes, all five women in the video are Chaka)

Whatever you want, whatever you need
Anything you want done baby, I’ll do it naturally
‘Cause I’m every woman
It’s all in me, it’s all in me
I’m every woman
It’s all in me
Anything you want done baby
I do it naturally
I’m every woman
It’s all in me
I can read your thoughts right now
Every one from A to Z
I can cast a spell of secrets you can tell
Mix a special brew, put fire inside of you
Anytime you feel danger or fear
Then instantly I will appear, ’cause
I’m every woman
It’s all in me
Anything you want done baby
I do it naturally
Oh, I can sense your needs like rain onto the seeds
I can make a rhyme of confusion in your mind
And when it comes down to some good old fashioned love
I got it, I got it, I got it, got it, baby, baby
I’m every woman
It’s all in me
Anything you want done baby
I do it naturally
I’m every woman
It’s all in me
I can read your thoughts right now
Every one from A to Z
I ain’t braggin’, ’cause I’m the one
Just ask me, ooh, and it shall be done
And don’t bother to compare
I’ve got it, I’ve got it, got it got it, got it
I’m every woman
I’m every woman
I’m every woman
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Nickolas Ashford / Valerie Simpson
I’m Every Woman lyrics © Emi April Music Inc., Nick O Val Music Co Inc

Songs I Like (31)

~ beetleypete ~ 32 Comments

In 1989, British electro pop duo The Pet Shop Boys met Hollywood star Liza Minnelli. Add a ‘theatrical’ song from Stephen Sondheim, and I give you ‘Losing My Mind’.

I shouldn’t really like it, but I love it!

The sun comes up, I think about you
The coffee cup, I think about you
I want you so, it’s like I’m losing my mind
The morning ends, I think about you
I talk to friends and think about you
And do they know it’s like I’m losing my mind?
All afternoon doing every little chore
The thought of you stays bright
Sometimes I stand in the middle of the floor
Not going left, not going right
I dim the lights and think about you
Spend sleepless nights to think about you
You said you loved me, or were you just being kind?
Or am I losing
Losing my mind?
All afternoon doing every little chore
The thought of you stays bright
Sometimes I stand in the middle of the floor
Not going left – not going right
I dim the lights and think about you
Spend sleepless nights to think about you
You said you loved me
Or were you just being kind?
Or am I losing my mind?
Or am I losing my mind?
You said you loved me
Or were you just being kind?
Or am I losing my mind?
Or were you just being kind?
Or am I losing my mind?
Losing my mind?
Losing my mind?
Losing my mind?
Losing my mind?
Losing my mind?
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Stephen Sondheim

Songs I Like (30)

~ beetleypete ~ 23 Comments

A rocking mature lady belting out a great singalong pop song, Anastacia had a big hit with this in 2000, and followed it up later with other hits. I only ever bought this CD single, and after more than two decades I still enjoy hearing it. Having suffered twice with breast cancer, she has managed to fully recover and is still performing at the age of 55.

Ooooha
Whoa
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Oh yeah
Aha
Now baby come on
Don’t claim that love you never let me feel
I shoulda known
‘Cause you brought nothin’ real
C’mon be a man about it you won’t die
I ain’t got no more tears to cry and I can’t take this no more
You now I gotta let you go and you know
Ooooha
Whoa
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Oh yeah
Aha
Said how many times
Have I tried to turn this love arond?
But every time
You just let me down
Come on be a man about it
You’ll survive
True that you can work it out all right
Tell me, yesterday
Did you know?
I’d be the one to let you go?
And you know
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Anastacia L. Newkirk / Samuel J. Watters / Louis John Biancaniello
I’m Outta Love lyrics © Emi April Music Inc., Sony/atv Tunes Llc, Universal Music Corp., Poho Prod., S.m.y. Publishing, Breakthrough Creations

Songs I Like (29)

~ beetleypete ~ 22 Comments

In 1976, I heard a new Disco hit record that had elements of Soul, and also felt like a ballad. I bought it immediately, as I knew it would be stuck in my head anyway. Forty-eight years later, it still sounds great to me.

Candi Staton had been around since the mid-1960s, but this song launched her worldwide. She went on to have more hits, release lots of albums, and at the age of 84, she is still an active performer.

What’s the sense in sharing, this one and only life
Endin’ up, just another lost and lonely wife
You’ll count up the years, and they will be filled with tears
Love only breaks up, to start over again
You’ll get the baby, but you won’t have your man
While he is busy loving every woman that he can, uh-huh
Say I’m gonna leave a hundred times a day
It’s easier said than done
When you just can’t break away (when you just can’t break away)
Oh, young hearts run free
Never be hung up, hung up like my man and me, my man and me
Oh, young hearts, to yourself be true
Don’t be no fool when love really don’t love you, don’t love you
It’s high time now just one crack at life
Who wants to live in, in trouble and strife
My mind must be free, to learn all I can about me, uh-hmm
I’m gonna love me, for the rest of my days
Encourage the babies every time they say
“Self preservation is what’s really going on today”
Say I’m gonna turn loose a thousand times a day
But how can I turn loose
When i just can’t break away (when I just can’t break away)
Oh, young hearts run free
They’ll never be hung up, hung up like my man and me, you and me
Oh, young hearts, to yourself be true
Don’t be no fool when love really don’t love you, don’t love you
Oh, young hearts run free
They’ll never be hung up, hung up like my man and me, my man and me
Oh, young hearts, to yourself be true
Don’t be no fool when love really don’t love you, don’t love you
Oh, young hearts run free
They’ll never be hung up, hung up like my man and me, my man and me
Oh, young hearts, to yourself be true
Don’t be no fool when love really don’t love you, don’t love you
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: David Bernard Crawford
Young Hearts Run Free lyrics © Ghati Music Inc

Songs I Like (28)

~ beetleypete ~ 28 Comments

Yesterday, a post from Jill Dennison on her blog reminded me just what a powerful singer Glady Knight could be. https://jilldennison.com/2024/04/20/%E2%99%AB-neither-one-of-us-%E2%99%AB-redux/

I am not using the same song Jill used, but have also chosen a power ballad from the same era.

Starting life as a Country music song, Gladys recorded her deliberately Soul music version in 1974 and enjoyed a hit with it. As a long-time fan of her Motown years, I bought a copy as soon as it came out, and still love to hear it 50 years later.

The lyrics are on the video.

Songs I Like (28)

~ beetleypete ~ 38 Comments

In 1967, Mike D’Abo wrote the song ‘Handbags and Gladrags’, trying to get over the point that fashionable clothes and designer labels are not the way to find happiness. That same year it was recorded by Chris Farlowe, a British singer with a powerful voice who is almost forgotten now. I bought that single, aged fifteen. Two years later, Rod Stewart recorded his version of the song. Although I still liked Chris’s original, I liked the actual song enough to buy Rod’s album too.

Then much later, in 2001, the Welsh band The Sterophonics released their version of the song, which was also used as the theme song for the TV series ‘The Office’. I liked their version a lot, and bought a copy. Then I decided that I really much preferred their more soulful-voiced and orchestrated version to both of the others.

So for a change, I am presenting all three versions, in time order. I still enjoy them all, for different reasons.

Chris Farlowe. (The date on the video is wrong, it was 1967)

Rod Stewart.

The Stereophonics.

Ever see a blind man cross the road
Trying to make the other side?
Ever seen a young girl growing old
Trying to make herself a bride?
So what becomes of you, my love?
When they have finally stripped you of
The handbags and the gladrags
That your poor old granddad
Had to sweat to buy you, baby
Once I was a young man
And all I thought I had to do was smile
Well, you are still a young girl
And you’ve borne everything in style
So once you think you’re in, you’re out
‘Cause you don’t mean a single thing without
The handbags and the gladrags
That your poor old granddad
Had to sweat to buy you
Sing a song of six-pence for your sake
And drink a bottle full of rye
Four and twenty blackbirds in a cake
And bake ’em all in a pie
They told me you missed school today
So what I suggest you just throw them all away
The handbags and the gladrags
That your poor old granddad
Had to sweat to buy, oh-woah
They told me you missed school today
So what I suggest you just throw them all away
The handbags and the gladrags
That your poor old granddad
Had to sweat to buy you
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Mike D’abo
Handbags And Gladrags lyrics © Emi United Partnership Ltd

Songs I Like (27)

~ beetleypete ~ 21 Comments

The Manic Street Preachers, also known simply as the Manics, are a Welsh rock band formed in Blackwood, Caerphilly, in 1986. The band consists of Nicky Wire and cousins James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore. They form a key part of the 1990s Welsh Cool Cymru cultural movement. Many of their songs have a left-wing political element, and the band is still going strong, with a very loyal following of die-hard fans.

I thought they were talented and ‘different’, but never quite liked them enough to buy one of their albums. Then in 1996, I heard a new record from them, released as a single from an album. I was very impressed with what sounded to me like a mini-symphony, and I bought the CD single with the extended mix. I like to revisit the song now and again, reminding myself just how much I liked it 28 years ago. It takes a minute to get going but then becomes something of an ‘anthem’, and the orchestration makes it for me.

The lyrics are still relevant in modern Britain. Play it with the volume high.

Libraries gave us power
Then work came and made us free
What price now
For a shallow piece of dignity
I wish I had a bottle
Right here in my dirty face
To wear the scars
To show from where I came
We don’t talk about love
We only wanna get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told that this is the end
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
I wish I had a bottle
Right here in my pretty face
To wear the scars
To show from where I came
We don’t talk about love
We only wanna get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told that this is the end
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
We don’t talk about love
We only wanna get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told that this is the end
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
A design for
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: James Bradfield / Jones Nicholas / Sean Moore
A Design for Life lyrics © BMG Rights Management

Songs I Like (26)

~ beetleypete ~ 32 Comments

This song has featured on my blog previously, but it has a personal connection for me that never goes away.

In 1981 I was 29 years old. Life was going well, and I was enjoying my job as an EMT in London. I saw the band Japan performing this song on a late-night music TV show, and was instantly captivated by it. Not just the unique voice of David Sylvian and the unusual musical construction, but also the lyrics, which seemed to have come from inside my own head. Forty-three years later, the song is more relevant to me than ever. Along with the song, the ghosts of my own life have haunted me since then.

When the room is quiet
The daylight almost gone
It seems there’s something I should know
Well I ought to leave but the rain it never stops
And I’ve no particular place to go
Just when I think I’m winning
When I’ve broken every door
The ghosts of my life blow wilder than before
Just when I thought I could not be stopped
When my chance came to be king
The ghosts of my life blew wilder than the wind
Well I’m feeling nervous
Now I find myself alone
The simple life’s no longer there
Once I was so sure
Now the doubt inside my mind
Comes and goes but leads nowhere
Just when I think I’m winning
When I’ve broken every door
The ghosts of my life blow wilder than before
Just when I thought I could not be stopped
When my chance came to be king
The ghosts of my life blew wilder than the wind
Just when I think I’m winning
When I’ve broken every door
The ghosts of my life blow wilder than before
Just when I thought I could not be stopped
When my chance came to be king
The ghosts of my life blew wilder than the wind
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: David Sylvian
Ghosts lyrics © BMG Rights Management

Songs I Like (25)

~ beetleypete ~ 29 Comments

Whatever you think of him, there’s no denying that Prince was something of a musical maestro, whether you ever liked his music, or not. As long ago as 1984, he released a song that I bought the same day I heard it. I still think it’s his best song, although ‘Nothing Compares 2U’ is a close second. But Sinead O’Connor’s version was actually better than his original.

Here’s my favourite.

Dig if you will the picture
Of you and I engaged in a kiss
The sweat of your body covers me
Can you my darling
Can you picture this?
Dream, if you can, a courtyard
An ocean of violets in bloom
Animals strike curious poses
They feel the heat
The heat between me and you
How can you just leave me standing
Alone in a world that’s so cold? (So cold)
Maybe I’m just too demanding
Maybe I’m just like my father, too bold
Maybe you’re just like my mother
She’s never satisfied (she’s never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other?
This is what it sounds like
When doves cry
Touch if you will my stomach
Feel how it trembles inside
You’ve got the butterflies all tied up
Don’t make me chase you
Even doves have pride
How could you just leave me standing
Alone in a world so cold? (World so cold)
Maybe I’m just too demanding
Maybe I’m just like my father, too bold
Maybe you’re just like my mother
She’s never satisfied (she’s never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other?
This is what it sounds like
When doves cry
How can you just leave me standing
Alone in a world that’s so cold? (A world that’s so cold)
Maybe I’m just too demanding (maybe, maybe I’m like my father)
Maybe I’m just like my father too bold (you know he’s too bold)
Maybe you’re just like my mother (maybe you’re just like my mother)
She’s never satisfied (she’s never, never satisfied)
Why do we scream at each other? (Why do we scream, why)
This is what it sounds like
When doves cry
When doves cry (doves cry, doves cry)
When doves cry (doves cry, doves cry)
Don’t cry (don’t cry)
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Prince Rogers Nelson
When Doves Cry lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group