13 Wonderful Will Songs: The Next Generation - Vol. 16
Featuring songs by Kajagoogoo, ABBA, R.E.M., Fleetwood Mac, David Johansen, the Brand New Heavies, and many 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. Sonny Sharrock and Eddie Horst featuring Alfreda Gerald, “Hit Single”
This installment’s opener goes out to the late, great George Lowe, a.k.a. the voice of the titular character in the incredibly funny Adult Swim series Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Unfortunately, the version of the series’ theme song that’s on Spotify is an extremely short one, but to make up for it, I decided to embed the Sonny Sharrock EP released by Cartoon Network that features six tracks of awesomeness from the show, including the full-length version of the theme song, a.k.a. “Hit Single.” Sadly, Sharrock died only a little over a month after the series premiered, so he never knew how beloved his absolutely insane guitar work would go on to become.
2. Lesley Gore, “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows”
You know, I feel like I must’ve been at least a little bit familiar with the song on its own merits, but for the life of me, I can no longer remember a time when I didn’t immediately associate it with its appearance - or two appearances, actually - in an episode of The Simpsons. (This is also why I inevitably start out singing it like Chief Wiggum whenever it comes on.)
3. Kajagoogoo, “Lies & Promises”
I recently had the opportunity to interview Limahl, onetime lead singer of Kajagoogoo, which in turn led me to find my way back to their debut album, White Feathers. You obviously know the hit singles - or at least the biggest hit, “Too Shy,” although the follow-up, “Hang on Now,” is pretty great, too - but here’s one that you might not remember.
4. ABBA, “Under Attack”
I’ve been an ABBA fan for ages, and I remember buying a 3-CD set at Camelot Music in Danville when I was still in college and obsessing over it. This song, however, was not on it, so when I saw the production of Mamma Mia! at my daughter’s high school a few years ago, I was, like, “What fresh pop is this?!” My wife and I were fortunate enough to catch the musical again recently at Chrysler Hall, and it reminded me of how much I love the song.
5. Lemonator, “Playing with Dinosaur”
I’d never heard of this Finnish power pop band until I was flipping through a copy of the Not Lame Records catalog in the ‘90s, but their EP was relatively inexpensive, so I figured I’d throw it into my order. So glad I did, if only for this ditty, which is a delightfully catchy power pop track.
6. R.E.M., “Exhuming McCarthy”
When Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy and their R.E.M. covers tour started making all the music outlet headlines recently because of Messrs. Stipe, Buck, Mills, and Berry reuniting to play a couple of tunes with them, one of those tunes was a cover of Wire’s “Strange,” which R.E.M. covered on their fifth studio album, Document. This in turn led me to revisit that album for the first time in a long while, which is how this track found its way into the mix.
7. Fleetwood Mac, “Murrow Turning Over in His Grave”
I feel like I might’ve mentioned this in a past playlist, but Lindsey Buckingham is the only guitarist who, after seeing him in concert, made me want to learn how to play guitar. To date, this still hasn’t happened, but by God, he still made me want to learn, and this song from Fleetwood Mac’s underrated Christine McVie-less album Say You Will spotlights just how well he shreds.
8. Murray Attaway, “Breath”
This past weekend, my wife and I were fortunate enough to attend an acoustic performance by three artists whose music I’ve loved since I was in my late teens: Murray Attaway of Guadalcanal Diary, Don Dixon, and Peter Holsapple of the dB’s. Murray has a new album coming out in a few months, and he just released the first single, so it seemed like a great time to share it. The man’s strong of voice and clearly remains more than capable of penning a memorable guitar riff. Can’t wait to hear the whole thing.
9. Don Dixon, “Lewd Vagrancy”
I’ve been a Dixon fan since picking up a copy of The Enigma Variations Vol. 2 and being introduced to his single “Praying Mantis.” Unfortunately, that song isn’t on Spotify at the moment, so I’m sharing a track from his criminally underheard album The Invisible Man. He made a valiant attempt at playing this song this weekend, only to accidentally flake on a portion of it, so now I get to listen to it in its entirety.
10. Bleu, “Baby Come Back”
The week before we saw the Attaway / Dixon / Holsapple show, my wife and I went to visit our daughter at college, and while we were there, we listened to her catch-all playlist, which basically includes any song she’s ever heard that she liked. One such song was Player’s “Baby Come Back,” but just to mix things up a bit, I thought I’d use Bleu’s version of the single as the Obligatory Cover Song for this mix…even if there’s actually another cover coming up in just a minute.
11. David Johansen, “My Obsession”
Since the last mix, we lost a musical legend: David Johansen, onetime frontman of the New York Dolls and also known as Buster Poindexter. I came to Johansen’s music relatively late in the game, by which I mean that I didn’t know anything other than “Hot Hot Hot!” until Morrissey covered the New York Dolls’ “Trash” live when I saw him at the Fox Theater in Atlanta in the early ‘90s. It wasn’t until years later that I delved into his solo catalog, thanks to American Beat Records reissuing all of those albums on CD. I had the honor of interviewing him twice - once for Bullz-Eye, once for Decider - and he was a swell fella both times. R.I.P., Mr. Johansen.
12. Brand New Heavies, “Midnight at the Oasis”
During that aforementioned interview with Limahl, we got to talking about cover songs and how important it is to make them sound distinct from the original, and he pointedly cited this version of Maria Muldaur’s “Midnight at the Oasis” and how Brand New Heavies really made it their own. Now, mind you, it’s still not as wonderful as the version by Catherine O’Hara and Fred Willard…but it’s damned close!
13. The dB’s, “She Won’t Drive in the Rain Anymore”
We close things out with a song that Mr. Holsapple played for us this weekend, one that I didn’t realize until his intro was co-written with Kristian Bush of Sugarland. To date, Sugarland hasn’t done their own version of the song, but for Holsapple’s sake, I hope they do. Mind you, this is not to suggest that any rendition by Sugarland would top this version by the dB’s, which is truly great and a great way to send us out until next time.