Jazz

Cryin’ Mood – Ella Fitzgerald

It’s always worth listening to as much Ella as you can. She’s so great. Don’t remember where I heard this unfortunately but when you hear The First Lady of Song, you find out that song.

The Devil Caught Me Nappin – Andrea Litkei, Ervin Litkei

Ok, again, sorry, I don’t remember where I heard this. A lot of these songs were just on my Shazam within the past year, so I took it from that. Literally could be from anywhere – tv (show/commercial), radio scan, another song that samples this song, a movie, or I read about it. I’ll try and do a better job next year. Good Jazz tune here though.

Pop

Allison Road – Gin Blossoms (1994)

I feel like a lot of people think Gin Blossoms are one-hit wonders, but they got a couple hits! “Follow You Down”, “Found Out About You”, “Hey Jealousy” and this.

The Power of Love – Jennifer Rush (1984)

Something that absolutely blew my mind this year was learning that “The Power of Love” is not originally by Céline Dion! In fact, she’s like the 4th person to record it behind this original, Air Supply and Laura Branigan. Incredible.

R&B/Soul/Funk

Call Me – St. Paul & The Broken Bones (2014)

In competition with “Kill The Lights”, this might be the best “new” song I heard all year. I need to see them in concert. The front-man is absolutely electric and has a massive voice. Go check out a bunch of their songs and join me when they come to Boston.

La La Peace Song – Al Wilson (1974)

XM Radio was free for like a week a few months ago and I was on the Soul Town channel and this song came on. My radio said it was by O.C. Smith (who released a version also), but my Shazam wasn’t catching it, which is pretty rare. So I had to remember it. But I was absolutely jamming out in my car. I eventually texted both my dad and brother in law who like and know R&B songs and neither had even heard of this. That’s when I start wondering about how songs don’t become real hits (and vice versa). This is one that seems like it could’ve been huge. I feel like the 70s were huge for anti-war, peace songs, but I guess it came out “when the pop charts saw a decrease in the display of anti-war feeling”. The story of both guys recording and releasing it in the same year is pretty interesting.

Love Man – Otis Redding (1969)

How great is Otis Redding?? I heard this on July 4th when someone with the aux cord played this at the cookout. I had to Shazam it right away. Such a fun song. To be honest, it actually made me wonder if I should completely do over my Summer/cookout Playlist and include more songs like this.

So Very Hard to Go – Tower Of Power (1973)

Landed on this song when I was writing my GOTG3 soundtrack post. I really felt TOP could be included in Volume 3, but was between two songs. In listening to them, I went deeper into their discography and heard this and really liked it.

Rock

Sea of Love – The Honeydrippers (1984)

I included this song under Rock because the lead singer is Robert Plant. It is a cover though, which should be noted. Don’t know where I heard this, but apparently Kraken Rum uses the song (unsure what version) in their commercials.

Shame On The Moon – Bob Seger (1982)

Heard this on the radio and once the piano started I knew I liked it. I was a little surprised though I hadn’t heard it before, but perhaps it’s just a lesser known Seger song.

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Hope you enjoyed this as much as I liked writing it and sharing it with you. I’d love to know if you had heard/known any of these songs before or if you like anything that might’ve been new to you!