LOOK AND REFLECT ON THE PAST, LOOK AHEAD TO THE FUTURE:
JANUARY: The blog year got off to an inauspicious start, as I pretty much took the whole month off to chill out from the holiday rush. I unveiled "officially" my Top 100 of 2016, even though I posted it on Facebook right after Christmas. I debated, as I do every year, whether to continue the blog for another year.......Ed Sheeran debuts on the first blog chart of the year with "Shape of You". It would still be on the list at the end of the year. It says 37 weeks on my chart, which gives you an indication of how many weeks I had to combine weeks, and how many I missed (fifteen, if you're keeping track). At least there was no extended hiatus like what happened twice in 2014........While blog up-and-comer Phoebe Ryan was on the charts as featured vocalist with The Chainsmokers, another talent was coming to a fork in the road: Rachel Allyn, who has been trying for years to make it to the big time but had primarily done shows as basically a cover band, had pulled most of its gigs in an attempt to retool. But except for a couple local gigs here and there, we don't hear from her all year......I look back on the winter of 1969 and invite my friends to chime in what they were during that year (assuming they had been born yet!).
FEBRUARY: The twin hit of the Super Bowl and Grammy awards were much in topic. Aside from the New England Patriots pulling off a massive second half comeback in the Super Bowl LI, the halftime show focused on Lady Gaga. I looked back at her accomplishments and evolution from gimmicky made-up glitz, to serious musician. As for the Grammys, I review Bruno Mars' take on Prince, as well as Adele starting the show. But, in spite of Mars racking up a couple of hits in 2017, for me, both artists took a back seat to what I was listening to all year. An out-of-leftfield group called The Palms debut. They would have two big blog hits this year, although they were still pretty much unknowns by year's end........The Hounds of Winter promote their new single "I Get You", but when I wrote that it was the follow-up to their SNS hit "Oh Paige" last year, leader Tom Corea tells me they had a single in between, the rocker "Lesson Learned'. Between both of those songs, they both pretty much held sway all year long, with the former just dropping off the list.......While Rachel Allyn stayed dormant, her Carolina counterpart, Christina Taylor, the artist formerly known as Taylor Centers, from Charlotte (and a friend of my Roselle Park friend Mary Anne Reed Nolan), started generating buzz with her new single, "Don't Look Good In Your T-Shirt Anymore". ........Husband-and-wife duo Wild Belle tops my chart with "Our Love Will Survive"........I also try to figure out the story of Beyoncé, and why she is regarded as a mega-superstar........The haunting "Love on the Brain", by Rihanna, assumes the top spot, and I try to explain why I think she has more talent than Beyoncé......Train tackles Hoagy Carmichel by changing the words to "Heart and Soul" and coming up with "Play That Song".....I try to offer tips for Rachel Allyn and to maybe get her back on track...
MARCH: With no ski trip planned this year with friends, I do a solo trip up to Gore Mountain and stay at the Black Mountain Lodge, where we were the year before. It was a nice time, with the best part meeting up with three other strangers at the bar after skiing, having fun for a few hours before going separate ways. I take a look at the music listened to that weekend...... Artists from my home state of New Jersey dominate the SNS 100, with The Hounds of Winter, Billy Spanton Band, Blondie, Charlie Puth, The Doughboys, Christina Alessi, Paul Czekaj, kjband and Rachel Allyn on the list......Fitz and the Tantrums keep their presence felt: I pluck another track from their third, self titled album, with "Get Right Back". They, of course, would spend yet another full year on the list, as they'd done since February 2013........Forgotten teen idol Tommy Page, from New Jersey, passes away......I attempt to describe the "eerie winter night in the middle of nowhere" feel and sound perpetuated by songs by Santana, The Black Keys, and even 60's soul group The Sapphires......."Feel It Still" by Portugal. The Man, debuts, and will move very slowly up the charts. But it will be a long time before it actually stops moving......Two "Chuck B's", Berry and Barris, are remembered, the former as a rock pioneer, and the latter for his contribution to music.
APRIL: While music has evolved over the decades, so have the ways we listen to it. I review all the configurations of recorded music and how we went from singles to albums and back to singles again.........Ed Sheeran knocks Rihanna out of the top spot. But my question is, "what happened to all the alternative rock that I primary listen to?".........With a tepid response to all of my blogging over the first three months out of the year, I call it quits---sort of.....from this point on, it's mostly about the songs I add, and on some weeks I don't even publish. Of course, if there is a big music event, which seems to happen frequently, mostly with a musician's passing, I come right back. I provide a recap of the first six and a half years of the blog.
MAY: Fitz & the Tantrums' "Get Right Back", tops the SNS 100, becoming their sixth number one in a row, and 11th overall. The next most? A tie with a grand total of four. Will they ever go away?........In a disturbing trend that has apparently taken place this year, a bomb went off at the end of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England in the UK, killing 22 people. .......That tragedy served as the backdrop for Miley Cyrus' surprising new single, "Malibu", which she sung both on the Billboard Music Awards, as well as on the season finale of The Voice, dedicating the song to the victims and their families of the tragedy. As for the song itself, it surprised the hell out of me, and it would soon take off on the SNS 100.......While dining at a local Applebee's restaurant, an intriguing, retro-sounding song is played. After Soundhounding it, it is actually a recent song, by Nick Waterhouse, called "It's Time". The song, which sounds like it could have been released in 1970, will compete with "Malibu" for "Song of the Summer"...... Two more rock passings: Chris Cornell, frontman for the grunge-era band Soundgarden, which I saw at the 1992 Lollapalooza festival, takes his own life, and Southern rock legend Gregg Allman also passes.
JUNE: While country has always been a presence on the SNS 100 more or less, the genre finally yields my first #1 song: "The Fighter" by Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood.....Foster the People, whose "Pumped Up Kicks" was runner-up in 2011, and "Coming Of Age" topped my year-end list three years later, release their third album, and the lead track, "SHC" sped up my chart. National reaction, however, was tepid at best.......Dan Auerbach, of The Black Keys, who, coming off a side project with The Arcs, releases a solo album, Waiting On a Song......another favorite of mine, Pageants, re-emerges with their first "official release', which yields two more top tens here. However, there is still no word on when the next Black Keys album will be released.......Miley Cyrus flies into the top spot with "Malibu"........A geocaching trek to the Jersey City waterfront with my friend Lynzie Northrup injects new music that she was listening to on our trek. As a result, songs by Saint Motel, Cold War Kids, and The Griswolds, among others, are added to the chart.
JULY: Fitz & the Tantrums releases a new stand-alone single "Fool", which dilutes their soul sound even further than that of their last album, and while the song would reach top three on my list, it would break their string of #1 songs. It would barely dent any rock charts, and only reached the top 20 on the Adult Top 40 radio format, but hell, it's still hook-laden and I can't escape them......I make a plea for radio programmers to stop just getting toes wet in breaking Phoebe Ryan and just dive into the pool and make her a major star already. But as of the end of the year, in spite of a cool concept EP, Ryan is still ignored.......Carolina Beach Music, a genre rooted in the R&B music of the late 1940's thru the 1970's takes up a Sirius XM channel for much of the summer. A genre I was always a fan of, I listened extensively much of the time and purchased around 30 or so Beach Music songs........Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington commits suicide, just two months after his friend Chris Cornell does the same. I review his work with both Linkin Park as well as his brief stint with Stone Temple Pilots........If Miley Cyrus' ascent to the top of the SNS 100 was surprising, then Justin Bieber's first appearance on my list has to be a shocker. But he was featured vocalist on the mostly-Spanish song "Despacito", by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee. The song ties the Billboard Hot 100 record of 16 weeks at the top, and is that publication's "song of the summer". Here, it peaks early at #21, but takes its sweet time in descending, and is still on the list at the end of the year.......Christina Taylor's video for "Don't Look Good in Your T-Shirt Anymore", is aired on country cable music station CMT, and is featured in their top 12 countdown. It hits one of the obscure trade charts, but a Billboard chart berth was not quite to be realized.
AUGUST: Another month, another passing. This time it's Glen Campbell, who after a bout with Alzheimer's, finally passes. I review his long, storied career..........Portugal. The Man, has been atop the Billboard Alternative chart for awhile now. The song, which is also scaling the Hot 100, finally tracks my top 20 in it's 17th week, and it's not done yet......We throw a barbecue party for some hometown friends who make the trek up from Roselle Park, and I compose the playlist, primarily of songs from the 1960's and 1970's. Many of them love the songs from their youth, and get up and dance and sing along. One of the few new songs in the mix, Nick Waterhouse's "It's Time", strikes a chord with one of the friends, Gail Bradley........Trapdoor Social has a surprise #1, with the environmental social commentary "Winning As Truth".......The Cranberries, whose peak years were in the 1990's are still around, and grab a top-ten spot with "Why"........Beth Ditto releases a new album and single, but because I see an old song of hers on the WEQX playlist, I add "I Wrote the Book", in spite of that song being six years old. The real, intended new single, "Fire" is what was supposed to be on that list, and I do eventually make it the follow-up.
SEPTEMBER: It took 21 weeks, but Portugal. The Man, finally tops my chart with "Feel It Still". It would spend five weeks there. It still hovers near the top of the Billboard Alternative chart, and returning to the top even close to year's end. More surprisingly, it would reach the #4 spot on the Hot 100 and tops many radio format charts, the biggest rock song to do so since Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" in 2012.......My "song of the summer" is announced. Actually points-wise, it was a tie, but it was the most weeks at #1 which broke the tie: It went to "Malibu" over "It's Time".........Another passing (folks, this is an unfortunate reality now), Walter Becker of Steely Dan, one of my favorite 1970's bands. I recap their career and their impact on me........I also recall the career of The Knack, who are the subject of a new compilation; songs from their first three albums, done by indie bands all over the world. Of particular local interest is the rendition of the band's top 10 "Good Girls Don't", by none other than The Hounds of Winter.
OCTOBER: Another month, another big loss in the music world. This time it's Tom Petty, leader of The Heartbreakers, passing away. Once again, I discuss his very long career........Unfortunately on the same day, another tragic mass shooting at a concert. This time, it's in Las Vegas at the Route 91 harvest country music festival, with 58 dead and nearly 550 wounded...........While many songs, after peaking, drop rapidly, there is a group of songs that were just hanging around the middle part of the chart, refusing to die. They include, "Shape of You" (Ed Sheeran), "Reverend" (Kings of Leon), "Push Off" (The Palms), "The Fighter" (Keith Urban/Carrie Underwood), "Get Right Back" (Fitz & the Tantrums), and others........With songs by Keith Urban, Miley Cyrus, Maroon 5 (featuring Adam Levine), Blake Shelton, and Kelly Clarkson on the list, I recall coaches and judges on the two competition shows: The Voice, and the soon-to-be-resurrected American Idol.......King Tappa (real name Kurt Prince), who used to work with my wife at Solix, but has a fledging career in the reggae/dancehall field, and had a song called "Take Your Time" back in 2007, is back with "Can't Stop This Feeling"........Beck releases his long-awaited album, Colors, and the first single, "Up All Night" becomes my second chart-topper of his. It would eventually top the Alternative chart as well, his third chart topper there, one in each of the last three decades. How is that for both longevity and relevance?
NOVEMBER: Hegazy, the band formed by Staten Island twin sisters Omnia and Leila, finally release the new single from their first effort together, "Alive". The song speeds up the charts, and the duo would release another song soon thereafter (see below). I discuss their careers, both individually and collectively up to that point, and what a unique situation they create that should be worth getting some buzz on..........Offguard, a rock quintet from Long Island, which featured Matt Weiss,(the son of my friend Annette Weiss) who hit two years ago, releases their second single, "Strawberry Moon", which like the first single "Maybe", hits the top ten of my chart......Two Cold War Kids songs vie for the top five: Album cut "Invincible" and latest single "So Tied Up" (featuring Bishop Briggs). The latter wins out, topping my list for three weeks, but they miss out on having an unprecedented top two distinction.........With Hegazy, Phoebe Ryan, Matthew Koma, The Hounds of Winter, Christina Taylor, and King Tappa on my list, I note those friends who actually know these artists and pay tribute to them.......I discuss Portugal. The Man's big out-of-left-field smash, and reference a Billboard interview with member Eric Hawk...... After a five year gap, New York City gets its first alternative rock station since then in the form of "Alt 92.3". The initial broadcasts are without commercials. As for the music, while there are a couple new songs in rotation, much of it are throwbacks to the nineties, with even songs that weren't considered alternative at the time. However, we promised to give it a chance..........Three more deaths, Rock and R&B pioneer Fats Domino, and AC/DC's Malcolm Young, and most notably, former 1970's teen idol David Cassidy of Partridge Family fame. I recall the girls I went to school with going wild over him and talk a bit about his career and later troubles.
DECEMBER: And yet one more passing: Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens, a New Jersey band with some success in the 1980's and early '90s.........Once again, Christmas songs invade the charts, with entries by Sia, The Hounds of Winter, Gwen Stefani, Kelly Clarkson, Josh Groban, and Pentatonix making the list. In addition, I add a seven year-old holiday song by Fitz & the Tantrums, as well as the patriotic Five or Fighting/Jim Brickman song, "Christmas Where You Are"........As the year ends, Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" is still on my list........I guess there are some things you can always count on.
WINDING UP THE YEAR: On the last chart of the year, Hegazy reaches the top spot with "Alive", but there is still a logjam near the top of the list. Last week's #1, Portugal. The Man's "Live in the Moment" drops to #2. The War on Drugs' "Holding On" makes it to #3, but the big mover is Ed Sheeran's "Perfect", bulleting to #4.
The big news is the advancing of four Christmas songs into the top twenty. They include The Hounds of Winter's "Christmas Must Be Tonight" (22-11), Fitz & the Tantrums' "Santa Stole My Lady" (23-12), Gwen Stefani's "You Make It Feel Like Christmas" featuring Blake Shelton (57-18), and Five For Fighting featuring Jim Brickman's "Christmas Where You Are", (53-19). The other seasonal songs also make good advances as well.
As indicated last week, I didn't go crazy adding new songs; only 3 new ones this week, two of them holiday entries: The Hounds of Winter with their official single "Remember Christmas", also from their promotional CD Christmas Party, at #49; the song is #5 on an indie trade publication. Congratulations to Tom and the gang! Hanson's title track from the brother trio's second holiday album Finally It's Christmas, enters at #82. The one non-holiday entry is the new single by Hegazy, "Here To Stay" also enters.
FINALLY: This the last regular blog for 2017. After Christmas, I will be posting my Top 100 of 2017 on my Facebook timeline as well as on The Scenes 'n' Soundwaves Music Page; eventually, I will list it on this blog as well. I will take my usual hiatus, and plan to start my 2018 journey sometime in mid January. As I mentioned earlier, I will try and commit to this blog to the end of the decade, God willing.
At this time, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season, a Merry Christmas, and a Happy and healthy New Year.
Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves 100
December 17, 2017
| This Week | Last Week | ARTIST-Title | Weeks on List |
| 1 | 2 | NUMBER ONE:
"Alive"
Album: Young (EP)
|
6 |
| 2 | 1 | Portugal. The Man - Live In the Moment | 8 |
| 3 | 5 | The War on Drugs - Holding On | 13 |
| 4 | 7 | Ed Sheeran - Perfect | 7 |
| 5 | 3 | The Palms - Levitate | 10 |
| 6 | 4 | Cold War Kids f. Bishop Briggs - So Tied Up | 13 |
| 7 | 8 | Weezer - Happy Hour | 9 |
| 8 | 11 | Phillip Phillips - Miles | 7 |
| 9 | 6 | Pink - What About Us | 14 |
| 10 | 10 | St. Vincent - New York | 15 |
| 11 | 22 | TOP 20 IMPACT OF THE WEEK:
"Christmas Must Be Tonight"
Album: Christmas Party 2017
|
3 |
| 12 | 23 | Fitz and the Tantrums - Santa Stole My Lady | 3 |
| 13 | 18 | Moon Taxi - Two High | 11 |
| 14 | 15 | Nick Waterhouse - Old Place | 9 |
| 15 | 57 | MOVER OF THE WEEK:
"You Make It Feel Like Christmas"
Album: You Make It Feel Like Christmas
|
3 |
| 16 | 16 | Beth Ditto - Fire | 6 |
| 17 | 9 | Pageants - Chai ('n) | 10 |
| 18 | 12 | The National - The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness● | 19 |
| 19 | 53 | Five For Fighting f. Jim Brickman - Christmas Where You Are | 2 |
| 20 | 14 | Lord Huron - The Night We Met | 14 |
|
|
Songs
with the greatest increase in favorite points over the prior week.
● Songs
with 25 or more plays on my iPod.
▲ Songs with 50 or more
plays on my iPod.
Songs shaded in green are seasonal entries.
The “Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves 100” is a list
of current and recent song playlist which I am listening to.
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