Greatest Song Evah 5/9/25

Bring It On Home To Me

Bring It On Home To Me is a sublime combination of soul and church - I won’t say the sacred and the profane because there is nothing profane about the song. A slight rewrite of a gospel leaning song that had been recorded a couple of years earlier, it retains that same feel in the call and response chorus. It is not a pure gospel song, however, in that it is clearly a love song without any overt references to religion. There is some vague notion of spirituality to be found, but that’s about it.

Sam Cooke’s earliest roots as a singer are in the gospel field; he was a massive crossover success in both pop and R&B, but he never lost the tinge to his voice that he honed from singing in church. When the material called for it, such as with this song, he could still be a full blown gospel singer. In addition, the backup singer who contributed the response part of the call and response was Lou Rawls. Rawls’s distinctive baritone makes for a great contrast with Cooke’s voice.

The production on the record is constructed very well; multiple guitars and multiple strings add a lot of depth to the recording. And that underlying piano line is quite memorable; not only has this song been covered frequently, but you can hear echoes of this in similar sounding songs that were not necessarily remakes. Sam Cooke was one of the greatest, most influential vocalists of the early rock & roll era. Many of his hits have become standards. This is one of the very best of those.

The NBA Makes No Sense

As the NBA playoffs began a few things appeared obvious. 3 teams - the Thunder, Cavaliers, & Celtics - had clearly established themselves as the class of the league and the general consensus has been that one of those 3 will win the title. Each had fairly smooth sailing in the first round, so each went into round 2 fully rested and on a roll. There are always bound to be speed bumps along the way, but there was no reason to think our pre-playoff assumptions were incorrect.

And then round 2 started. Shockingly, all 4 teams with home court advantage - the aforementioned 3 along with the Timberwolves - lost game 1 in their respective series. Not only that, but the Knicks and Pacers followed up with Game 2 victories as well, putting them firmly in control of pulling off the upsets. The Knick victories were particularly shocking. They failed to defeat any of those Big 3 teams in the regular season, and many of those losses were blowouts, yet not only have they beaten the Celtics twice in a row but they overcame deficits of more than 20 points in each game to do so. Team of destiny? They do have 3 former Villanova players in their starting lineup, and a Nova alum was just elected Pope. Hmmm….

Things could be returning to normal in the Western Conference. The Thunder & Wolves both came back to win Game 2 of their series fairly easily, and with Steph Curry currently sidelined with a hamstring injury they might be in trouble. They still need to win a game on the road in order to regain home court advantage, but at least they can breathe a little easier than the Eastern Conference favorites can. Whatever happens over the next couple of weeks it looks like the playoffs will not be the fait accompli that many of us thought they would be. What do we prefer? Surprises, or victory laps from the clubs that dominated the regular season?

I’ll Allow, But You’re On a Short Leash Counselor!

My civic service is now complete; my latest turn serving jury duty was brief and uneventful. No need to bore you with details other than to say that my first of 2 days serving was tedious even by the normal standards of jury duty. Oh, and there was a first class Male Karen in the pool of jurors. He would have been a joy to serve on a trial with. (I so wish that there were a different term for an entitled white woman than Karen. I know several Karens who are exceptionally kind-hearted people. That name does not deserve to be a slur.) Once again I did not have the opportunity to test out my surefire theory on how to get an easy dismissal. Stand up and yell “Oh my God! The defendant! It’s my son!” Maybe next time.

SNL Preview

I think I’ve already made it pretty obvious that I so looking forward to seeing Walton Goggins host this weekend. Intense actors often turn out to be pleasant surprises - think Adam Driver - but his work on assorted Danny McBride projects has already proven Goggins’s comedy bona fides. It would be no surprise whatsoever if he turns out to be a great host. Arcade Fire is the musical guest & I have mixed feelings about that. They had been one of my favorite bands but Win Butler’s toxicity makes it tough to enjoy their music. Their upcoming album is the first big release since the sexual misconduct accusations have come to light. It’s difficult to feel that he is worthy of this spotlight with such terrible allegations hanging over his head.

50 Years Ago - The Top Singles

In this ongoing feature I have focused on revisiting great albums, but it should not be forgotten that the most basic foundation of popular music is the great 3 minute single. So I’ll also acknowledge the biggest hits of 1975 by running through the year end Billboard charts. 1975 was a transitory year when it comes to the pop charts and AM radio. It was the beginnings of the disco era, but the genre had not yet become as dominant as it shortly would. A lot of the soft rock (not to be confused with yacht rock; there is an overlap yet there is a clear difference between say, Bread and Kenny Loggins) that was so prevalent in the first half of the decade was still making a mark. Here are songs 20-11, how many of these do you remember? (Sharing videos for 10 songs is overkill; I’ll be judicious.)

20. Janis Ian - At Seventeen. One of the most confessional songs from the era of the confessional singer-songwriter. This one has deep meaning for every teenage girl or young adult woman from this era. I’m not sure how much resonance it has had for later generations. Very quiet and very lovely.

19. Tony Orlando & Dawn - He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You). A remake of a Jerry Butler classic, with the title changed. Tony Orlando is no Jerry Butler. His time as a top of the charts pop star would soon come to an end.

18. B.J. Thomas - (Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song. There is a subsection of music that you can’t help but picture yourself listening to in the waiting room of a dentist’s office. Here is one of those. I can almost imagine the sound of a drill accompanying this song.

17. Sweet - Ballroom Blitz. Only a small handful of British glam rock hits broke through this large on our side of the pond. There’s a good reason why this song did; it’s infectious.

16. The Doobie Brothers - Black Water. A rare Doobies tune in which Patrick Simmons sang lead, it’s my single favorite song of theirs. It’s so evocative I almost feel like I’m fishing for catfish in the Mississippi while listening to this.

15. Carl Douglas - Kung Fu Fighting. A novelty song that’s 100% unfiltered kitsch. Too silly for my taste, but at least it’s better than Disco Duck.

14. Minnie Riperton - Lovin’ You. Famous for the humanly impossible high notes that Riperton hits, it is an astonishingly beautiful record and I won’t stand for people who mock it. The song is a lullaby written for and sung to her young daughter Maya. That would be Maya Rudolph.

13. Eagles - Best Of My Love. Nothing against The Eagles, but I have always found this to be a fairly bland ballad. They’ve done a lot better; I’ll give the song credit for the impeccable harmonies.

12. Bee Gees - Jive Talkin’. The song that fully signified the new R&B laden era for The Bee Gees. The rhythm was famously inspired from the sound a car makes as it’s driving down the highway - that’s just the drive talking. They soon changed the lyric to jive talking, without realizing what the phrase actually means. Great groove.

11. John Denver - Thank God I’m a Country Boy. Life ain’t nothing but a funny, funny riddle. Country artists did not receive much pop radio airplay; those that did generally were artists such as Denver. Country-ish, but not true country. 1975 was the year in which Charlie Rich made his feelings clear by pulling out a lighter and setting the envelope on fire after revealing that John Denver had won Entertainer Of the Year at the Country Music Awards. As for this song, it is some quintessential mid-1970’s cheese.

Closing Laughs

I don’t ask for much in life. Couldn’t the College Of Cardinals had thrown me a bone and elected Pope Pizzaballa? We can’t have nice things. Have an outstanding weekend everyone, hopefully I will have recovered from the crushing disappointment by Monday. See ya all then.