And here’s Donny Osmond playing a Nazi for Rock The Vote. You know he’s just playing because at the end he’s in a shirt with the top buttons down and rolled-up sleeves. Nazis don’t wear those.
Anthony Is Right
Favorite Albums: 2000-2004. I post even shorter things on Twitter.
Jan 31
I Can’t Believe It’s Not On Spotify! #7: Donny Osmond, “My Love Is A Fire”
Despite Donny’s Club MTV appearance, this first single from Eyes Don’t Lie, the follow-up to his shock comeback album, just missed the Top 20 in 1990. I highly recommend watching the Michael Bay-helmed video above, at least until Donny’s pre-lyric exclamation at 0:15.
I Can’t Believe It’s Not On Spotify! #6: Moon Zappa, “Valley Girl”
Finally heard this song, and it is way more risque and Repo Man soundtrack than I would have expected. Points to Solid Gold for sharing it with the children.
Jan 28
If you’ve experienced the joys of Roddy McDowall making this face in a movie, but have not seen The Legend Of Hell House, you only have a day or three to do so before it leaves Watch Instantly. It’s about a group of people who stay at Hell House despite the legend of Hell House and wind up regretting it. Roddy gets to make this face a lot.
Jan 27
I Can’t Believe It’s Not On Spotify! #5: The Music Machine, “Talk Talk”
“I got me a complication/ and it’s an only child/ concernin’ my reputation/ as something more than wild.” The dancers are more disturbing than the band, to be honest, but that “all black with one glove” look gets an A+.
I Can’t Believe It’s Not On Spotify! #4: Mark Morrison, “Return Of The Mack”
Oh my god!
I Can’t Believe It’s Not On Spotify! #3: Peter McCann, “Do You Wanna Make Love”
This dude was tired of empty sex with your mom. I’m tired of one-hit wonders from big-in-the-’70s labels only being available in shitty K-Tel remakes. If only there were more Boogie Nights soundtracks.
Jan 26
I Can’t Believe It’s Not On Spotify! #2: Byron MacGregor, “The Americans”
As proven by Casey Kasem at the end of the Youtube, in 1974 enough people bought this recording of a Canadian newscaster condemning foreign countries for not appreciating the US over “America The Beautiful” to put the track in the Top 5 (“When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.”). Gordon Sinclair, the actual author of the editorial, released his own version soon after. It only went Top 30.
The proceeds went to the Red Cross but this is still bananas. As is the fact that it was released by Westbound, a label best known for early Funkadelic albums that ironically are on Spotify.
Jan 25
Timmy T, “One More Try”
While this track is available on Spotify (unless Timmy put way more effort into re-recording than most comp-fodders do), I wanted to share this video and ask why there’s never been a rumor that Timmy and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy are the same person.
I Can’t Believe It’s Not On Spotify! #1: Calloway, “I Wanna Be Rich”
As I’ve spent serious time of late crafting Spotify playlists based off Top 40 hits from the ’50s through the ’90s, I’ve grown a strong sense of what is and isn’t available, at least as far as pop is concerned. And as I post inaccessible one-hit wonders and notable obscurities here, you can expect to see quite a few from Solar and Casablanca Records.
Though Calloway are having financial troubles in the above video, they certainly had a rather large, well-furnished home for two bachelors.
