3 posts tagged “my other jukebox”

I am now burning a series of CDs for my friend, Doc Y, who is turning 50 in a few days.

These are among the songs I have chosen:

1.  Gino Vannelli's Crazy Life from The Best of Gino Vannelli - The Millenium Collection.  I played this song a lot on my radio show especially when I had to do the graveyard shift. 

 For those too young to know Gino Vannelli, let me quote this from the CD insert:

  As a forerunner in the field of fusion-rock music in the 70s, Gino Vannelli's work is completely original in composition and sound.  Combining rock and jazz, Vannelli's song structure was incredibly innovative, as was his use of instrumentation.  Vannelli's music is not just complemented by drums, but propelled by that instrument in a busy, yet beautifully melodic manner executed by some of the best in the industry - Graham Lear (Santana), Mark Craney (Jethro Tull) and Vinnie Colaiuta (Sting).

2.  Mr. Blue by Michael Franks (from his CD, The Art of Tea).  The avid music fan my age who does not know Michael Franks must have been sleeping through the 70s and the 80s.  He dished out a lot of hits that made our radio station's list of Most Requested Songs but I chose Mr. Blue because I have an unforgettable anecdote about this song. 

When I was first sent to our sister station in Cebu (this was around 1977 or 78), one of the DJs played this song from an open reel tape. He said it came straight from another DJ in the U.S.  I fell in love with the song so I wasted no time looking for a hundred and one ways to get that tape so I could bring it back to Bacolod and play it on my show.   I succeeded but also got a strongly worded memo from the station manager for "transporting radio property without permission".

3.  For the Love of You - a remake done by Boyz II Men.  A lot of people from my generation would probably ask, "Boyz to what?"  But this remake version - the original was done by the Isley Brothers - is very good. 

I have never seen in one CD so many big names in music - Bono, Micahel Buble, Elvis Costello, Celine Dion, Dixie Chicks, Billy Joel, Elton John, Juanes, Diana Krall, k.d. lang, John Legend, Paul McCartney, Tim McGraw, George Michael, Sting, Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, and last but certainly not the least, Stevie Wonder.  They each had a duet with Tony Bennett in his latest CD: Duets ... An American Classic. The links below are his duets with my idol, Sting (The Boulevard of Broken Dreams) and my late mom's favorite song, done with my favorite Barbra Streisand.