Monday, June 9, 2014

"Hide" & "Seek" Songs

Here's a truly mixed bag of songs with either the word "Hide" or "Seek" or both in their titles. Because, why not? Oh yeah, and there's commentary, too. So enjoy!  ~  JH



1)  The Beatles  ~  "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away"  (Because it's a classic, and I like it, and they say "Hey!" a lot in it. That's why.)




2)  Yo La Tengo  ~  "Nothing To Hide"  (This is lo-fi grunge rock at its lo-fi grungiest. Not that that's a bad thing.)




3)  Kari Jobe  ~  "The More I Seek You"  (A great song by a great singer. I saw her in concert the year before last, and it was extremely uplifting!)




4)  AJ Woodworth  ~  "Hide Your Matches"  (I've never heard of this lady, but she's got a super-smooth voice and a nice, traditional country music sound.)




5)  Little May  ~  "Hide"  (A beautiful folk-pop gem by another artist I've never heard of before.)




6)  Howard Jones  ~  "Hide And Seek"  (I'm not familiar with this artist either, but his music is very reminiscent of a number of other '80s songs that I know and like.)




7)  Shiny Toy Guns  ~  "Somewhere To Hide"  (A poppy electronica song with solid female vocals? Yes, please!)




8)  Mary J. Blige  ~  "Can't Hide From Luv"  (This lady puts her heart and soul into everything she sings. And her backup band is kickin'!)




9)  Mirrors  ~  "Hide And Seek"  (A little Brit-pop never hurt anyone. I actually find this song to be quite soothing, for some reason.)




10)  Billy Dean  ~  "Tryin' To Hide A Fire In The Dark"  (I vaguely remember this song from way back when. It's a pretty good one. Wonder what ever happened to this guy?)




11)  Billy D & The Hoodoos  ~  "Hide My Heart"  (This post was seriously lacking in blues rock songs…until now.)




12)  Imogen Heap  ~  "Hide And Seek"  (Heap's use of a vocoder here is grating at first, then it grows on you, and pretty soon you realize you wouldn't have it any other way.)




13)  Man Overboard  ~  "How To Hide Your Feelings"  (Modern punk-rock songs tend to all sound the same to me – loud and whiny. This one's better than most. Not bad at all, actually.)




14)  Theocracy  ~  "Hide In The Fairytale"  (A Christian metal band that isn't so terrible it's comical? Yes, please!)




15)  Gravitonas  ~  "The Pain We Love To Hide"  (Kind of a depressing song, but very apropos at the moment.)




16)  Rend  ~  "Hide"  (Another "discovery" I'm glad I made. This Canadian rock band has a really good sound.)




17)  T-ARA  ~  "Hide & Seek"  (And now for a a scrumptious smattering of K-pop…)




18)  Speaking In Shadows ft. Kayleigh Kendall  ~  "A Place To Hide Away"  (Well, this post is just chock-full of songs by artists no one's ever heard of, isn't it? Still, though, this is a pretty good song. I like the featured girl's voice, in particular.)




19)  Naree  ~  "Hyde And Seek"  (While this wouldn't be my first choice of the type of music I'd typically want to listen to, it isn't half bad.)




20)  Syrenica  ~  "Hide"  (Electronica meets power metal, with a full orchestra AND two female vocalists? You must have been reading my mind, Syrenica!)




21)  Kenley Shea  ~  "Seek The Joy"  (Kinda country, kinda rock-n-roll, kinda good, kinda run-of-the-mill. In short…I kinda like it. Kinda-sorta.)




22)  Jason Matkin  ~  "Hide Away"  (Wow, what a voice!)




23)  Five Star  ~  "Hide And Seek"  (This junk is pretty horrible. But it's also horribly funny! Which is why it's here, of course.)




24)  Freddie King  ~  "Hide Away"  (I like this right here! An excellent blues instrumental!)


Friday, June 6, 2014

"They're," "Their," & "There" Songs


One of the most common grammatical errors is the misuse of these three words: "they're," "their," and "there." As a dyed-in-the-wool grammarian myself, I can assure you that all the uses of these words in the songs that follow are grammatically correct. That being said, enjoy!  ~  JH



1)  Napoleon XIV  ~  "They're Coming To Take Me Away"




2)  George Jones  ~  "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?"




3)  Switchfoot  ~  "You Already Take Me There"




4)  The Cape Race  ~  "They're Young, They're In Love"




5)  Just Jack  ~  "Starz In Their Eyes"




6)  Faith Hill  ~  "There You'll Be"




7)  Ari Hest  ~  "They're On To Me"




8)  Bruce Springsteen  ~  "Girls In Their Summer Clothes"




9)  Empire Circus  ~  "There Is A Light"




10)  Rhett Akins  ~  "What They're Talkin' About"




11)  Girl In A Coma  ~  "Their Cell"




12)  Our Lady Peace  ~  "Somewhere Out There"




13)  No More Kings  ~  "They're Coming To Get You, Barbara"  (Being a classic horror movie fan, I cackled frequently during this one.)




14)  Casting Crowns  ~  "House Of Their Dreams"




15)  Kenny Chesney  ~  "There Goes My Life"




BONUS TRACK:  Their/They're/There  ~  "New Blood"  (When I found out there was an actual band incorporating all three of these words, I had to include a song by them as well.)


Thursday, June 5, 2014

Songs With "Song" In The Title


Pardon my redundancy in the title of this post, but have you ever noticed the preponderance of songs with the word "Song" in the title? Being the neurotic that I am, I've certainly noticed. There's tons of them! But I only picked 20. And they're good ones. I think so, at least. For those of you who like commentary with your songs, I've included it here. Enjoy!  ~  JH



1)  The Cure  ~  "Lovesong"  (The crazy hair and goth makeup of the band notwithstanding, this is a hauntingly beautiful song that hasn't aged a bit in the 25 years since its release.)




2)  Weezer  ~  "Undone – The Sweater Song"  (This is one of those stupid songs that just gets in your head for a couple of decades and won't go away. Not that that's a bad thing. I couldn't include the original music video here, because of a choice word that was unfortunately included and not edited. So here's a live version on TV, minus the offending expletive.)




3)  Selena Gomez & The Scene  ~  "Love You Like A Love Song"  (For catchy pop songs like this one – which really has no substance, but is fun nonetheless – I can ALMOST forgive Selena Gomez for dating Justin Bieber. Almost.)




4)  Michael Jackson  ~  "Earth Song"  (What about this, what about that, and this, and that, asks M.J. How many years later, and most of these questions remain unanswered.)




5)  Taylor Swift  ~  "Our Song"  (Taylor haters, you're on the wrong website. I like this chick and almost all of her music. So what if she dates a bunch of jerks who break her heart – at least she cashes in on those heartbreaks by writing good songs about them.)




6)  Blur  ~  "Song 2"  (Apparently, Blur wrote this song at the height of the "grunge rock" mania to unabashedly poke fun at the genre. Instead, they created a great "grunge rock" song themselves. Woo-hoo!)




7)  T-Pain ft. Chris Brown  ~  "Best Love Song"  (Where would T-Pain be without AutoTune? Probably nowhere. But this is still a pretty good song. I apologize for the appearance of the utterly reprehensible Chris Brown in this song and video.)




8)  Sara Bareilles  ~  "Love Song"  (Sara wrote this catchy love song in order to inform you, the listener, that she is not in fact going to write you a love song. Clever!)




9)  Eric Paslay  ~  "Song About A Girl"  (This song is about exactly what its title would indicate. Eric reminds you of this fact throughout the song.)




10)  Florence + The Machine  ~  "Drumming Song"  (No drums were harmed in the making of this song.)




11)  Jake Bugg  ~  "A Song About Love"  (After you get past the somewhat grating sound of this guy's voice in the first couple of lines, you realize that the song – and its singer – are quite brilliant.)




12)  Carrie Underwood  ~  "Mama's Song"  (No Mamas were harmed in the making of this music video.)




13)  blink-182  ~  "Adam's Song"  (Contrary to popular belief, this is an ANTI-suicide song. According to the band, "the heart of the song is about having hard times in your life, being depressed, and going through a difficult period, but then finding the strength to go on and finding a better place at the other side of that.")




14)  Morgan Heritage  ~  "Perfect Love Song"  (And now for something completely different...a smooth, mellow reggae tune.)




15)  Julianne Hough  ~  "That Song In My Head"  (Well, I DIDN'T have that song in my head, but now I do. Thanks, Julianne!)




16)  Seether  ~  "Country Song"  (It's not exactly, but the video IS set in the Wild, Wild West. Which is something, I suppose.)




17)  Alan Jackson  ~  "Sissy's Song"  (Jackson wrote this song about his housekeeper, who died in a motorcycle accident. Not his sister. Sad but good song!)




18)  Ellie Goulding  ~  "Your Song"  (I know, it's an Elton John song, and I could have just as easily included Elton's version here. But I happen to absolutely adore Ellie's version, and I *might* just like it better than the original.)




19)  Matchbox Twenty  ~  "Our Song"  (This is your basic Matchbox Twenty song – not spectacular, but not bad either. They've managed to maintain their signature sound since they arrived on the scene nearly twenty years ago.)




20)  Earth, Wind, & Fire  ~  "Sing A Song"  (As the lyrics state: "When you feel down and out, sing a song. It'll make your day!" I couldn't agree more!)


Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Popular Songs Of 1944

So here's where the "Wax" in Wax & Tracks comes in. These songs are from the days when music videos did not exist and the only video clips you can find of popular songs are when the songs (and their singers) appeared in a film. Therefore, most of the songs here are uploaded copies of the original vinyl records. Which is pretty cool, if you ask me. As they are for me, most of these songs may be well before your time. But they're well worth your time to listen. This is when music meant something. Not much of today's music does. Enjoy!  ~  JH



1)  Bing Crosby  ~  "Swinging On A Star"




2)  Dinah Shore  ~  "I'll Walk Alone"




3)  Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra ft. Bob Eberly & Kitty Kallen  ~  "Bésame Mucho (Kiss Me Much)"




4)  Ella Fitzgerald & The Ink Spots  ~  "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall"




5)  The Mills Brothers  ~  "You Always Hurt The One You Love"




6)  Harry James & His Orchestra ft. Dick Haymes  ~  "I'll Get By (As Long As I Have You)"




7)  Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians  ~  "It's Love-Love-Love"




8)  Nat King Cole  ~  "Straighten Up And Fly Right"




9)  The Andrews Sisters ft. Vic Schoen & His Orchestra  ~  "Shoo-Shoo Baby"




10)  Glen Gray & The Casa Loma Orchestra ft. Eugenie Baird  ~  "My Heart Tells Me (Should I Believe My Heart?)"




11)  Judy Garland  ~  "The Trolley Song"




12)  Stan Kenton & His Orchestra  ~  "Artistry In Rhythm"




13)  Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five  ~  "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't (Ma' Baby)?"




14)  Frank Sinatra  ~  "A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening"




15)  The Merry Macs  ~  "Mairzy Doats"




16)  Duke Ellington ft. Al Hibbler  ~  "Do Nothin' 'Til You Hear From Me"




17)  Jo Stafford  ~  "It Could Happen To You"




18)  Helen Forrest  ~  "Time Waits For No One"

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19)  Perry Como  ~  "Long Ago (And Far Away)"




20)  Lawrence Welk & His Orchestra  ~  "Don't Sweetheart Me"




21)  Tex Ritter & His Texans  ~  "I'm Wastin' My Tears On You"




22)  Al Dexter & His Troopers  ~  "Too Late To Worry, Too Blue To Cry"




23)  Russ Morgan & His Orchestra ft. Al Jennings  ~  "Dance With A Dolly (With A Hole In Her Stockin')"




24)  Xavier Cugat & His Orchestra ft. Carmen Castillo  ~  "Amor"




25)  Billie Holiday  ~  "Embraceable You"