13 Wonderful Will Songs: The Next Generation - Vol. 7

Featuring songs by Matthew Sweet, Marillion, Donovan, Ben Folds Five, Wet Wet Wet, Harry Nilsson, Johnny Cash, and more

That’s right, it’s time for another installment of 13 Wonderful Will Songs: The Next Generation, a series of playlists which are, in fact, in no way distinguishable from the original incarnation of 13 Wonderful Will Songs playlists. So don’t feel as though you need to have listened to those in order to appreciate these, because that’s not the case at all.

Hit “play,” and here’s hoping you enjoy what you hear!

1. Matthew Sweet, “Millennium Blues”

I think this volume of 13 Wonderful Will Songs has been through more track listing changes than any volume up to this point, but while I won’t bore you with the various switch-outs that have occurred, I will say that while I’m devastated about the reason why Matthew Sweet now leads off this volume (he suffered what’s being described as a “debilitating” stroke while on tour in Toronto(, I’m pleased that I can offer up the link to the GoFundMe that’s been established to help with his not-insubstantial medical expenses - click right here - and that I can include one of his many wonderful album-opening songs as the opener for this volume. I really love this particular album (In Reverse) and highly recommend that you give it a spin if you haven’t before.

2. Marillion, “Cover My Eyes (Pain and Heaven)”

This was the first single for 1991’s Holidays in Eden, Marillion’s second album after original lead singer Fish stepped away and new singer Steve Hogarth (who’s still with the band, for the record) took over. The first time I heard it, however, was when it led off their 1992 compilation, A Singles Collection. When I looked back and realized that it was actually the second song on Holidays in Eden, I immediately wondered how much more successful that album would’ve been if this song had led it off instead of “Splintering Heart,” but… Oh, well, it’s far too late to change things now!

3. Donovan, “The Way”

We talk a lot about how Rick Rubin managed to completely change Johnny Cash’s career trajectory and turn him back into the music legend he deserved to be throughout his career. We don’t talk nearly as much about how Rubin tried to do the same with Donovan and, well, let’s just say he didn’t manage to achieve the same results there. Well, not commercially, anyway. It did at least serve to cement Donovan’s status as a still-recording singer-songwriter, which certainly helped him in terms of ticket sales, and he was also able to release a few more albums along the way. This is one of my favorite songs on the Sutras album, and it sounds for all the world like Tom Petty playing guitar, but that’s actually Donovan himself. Also on the track, playing sitar and contributing backing vocals: Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction.

4. The Loveless, “The Return of the Ex-Girlfriend”

Once upon a time, I was a member of an email group called Audities, which was devoted to power pop, and we did both mix tapes trades and mix CD trades. I always participated, and I always received a ridiculous amount of new music as a result. This was one of the artists that I discovered through one of those trades, but it took me forever to find the actual CD by the Loveless, as it spent a fair while solely being available as a Japanese import. The whole album is great, but this will probably always remain my favorite track.

5. The Rosenbergs, “Secret”

I’m relatively sure that I first heard these guys on an early International Pop Overthrow compilation CD, and I was an instant fan. I still remember how shocked I was when they somehow managed to find their way into doing an outdoor show in Portsmouth, Virginia in support of the album. It was not what you’d call a packed show - I can only definitely recall five people in the audience: myself and my wife, Seth Gordon of the Mockers and his wife Kathy, and our mutual buddy Mike Connolly, who I don’t think was yet with his wife, Donna. Anyway, it was a great show, and this is a great album. When I did a test drive of this song in the car with my wife, she instantly remembered it fondly and still knew the words.

6. Ben Folds Five, “Don’t Change Your Plans”

The most Bacharachian that Ben Folds has ever gotten, at least in my estimation, and if pressed to pick a favorite song by him with the Five, this is invariably my first pick. I’ve got plenty of favorites, don’t get me wrong, but this is the song that come back to more often than any other. It’s just a gorgeous piece of work.

7. Wet Wet Wet, “Julia Says”

I can’t be sure if the first time I heard these guys was when they covered “With a Little Help from My Friends” for the NME charity compilation Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father or if it was through a promo copy (or was it a cutout copy?) of their album Popped In, Souled Out, which featured the wonderfully soulful pop song “Wishing I Was Lucky.” However they ended up on my radar, they stayed there, and I remember being floored when I heard this string-laden pop song. Beautiful stuff.

8. The Elms, “Lifeboat”

I’m dipping into the contemporary Christian collection again for this one, because it’s one of those that’s so damned poppy and catchy that it overshadows any potential preachiness to be found in lines like “When I’m not sure / That you are my maker.” I’ve picked up a couple of other albums by the band, and they’re good as well, but this is definitely my personal favorite.

9. Harry Nilsson, “One”

I don’t really know that I need to say much about this one, except perhaps that it doesn’t matter how many versions of this song you’ve heard, if you haven’t heard Nilsson’s own take on the song he penned, you haven’t heard the definitive one.

10. Scott McCarl, “Run for the Sun”

What’s funny about my introduction to Scott McCarl is that he was understandably hyped as being a former member of the Raspberries, and yet at the time I heard this solo album, I actually couldn’t have told you a single song by the Raspberries. So I guess you could call this my unexpected gateway drug into their catalog. (Obviously, I also wasn’t aware of Eric Carmen’s membership in that band. Boy, I was really behind in discovering those guys…)

11. Johnny Cash, “If You Could Read My Mind”

Obligatory cover song! Yeah, I realize this is two Rick Rubin productions in one playlist, but every once in awhile this cover gets in my head and stays there. Hearing the weary Cash singing the line, “You know that ghost is me,” it just gets me every time. And knowing the strength of his relationship with June Carter Cash… Okay, I need to just stop talking about this thing and move on. But I do love it.

12. Swan Dive, “Girl on a Wire”

I’m drawing a blank on how I first heard about this duo, but I can only presume it was a case of someone saying, “Oh, if you like those guys, then you’ll love Swan Dive!” And if that’s the case, then that someone was spot-on. This is my favorite of their albums, in part because they do a song that pays tribute to a short-lived UK band called the Katydids. But as much as I love that song, I love this one more.

13. Sidewinders, “We Don’t Do That Anymore”

This Arizona band put out a couple of albums on RCA in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, then a lawsuit forced them to change their name to the Sand Rubies. All of their incarnations are great, but this track is the one that made me a fan, so it remains my favorite…and even though it actually kicks off their second album, Auntie Ramos’ Pool Hall, it actually plays perfectly as a closer to this playlist as well.