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Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is  “Home Town or City where you were born, or where lived in, or some place that you relate to.”

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Pasadena, California will always be a special place to me because it’s where my late husband and I married and lived for almost twenty years. All three of our children were born in Huntington Memorial Hospital and attended schools in the Pasadena Unified School District.

The city is home to the world famous Rose Bowl Stadium and hosts the Tournament of Roses Parade every January 1st. My father-in-law had a camper and would rent a spot along the parade route. He, my husband and the kids would spend the night–along with hundreds of thousands of other people–on Colorado Blvd and wake to a front row parade seat. My mother-in-law would join them in the morning. I watched the parade on television because cramming 1.5 million people into a narrow five and a half miles was not–and still isn’t–my idea of a good time. I could hear the marching bands from my living room. That was festive enough for me! 😀

As much as I loved southern California, I hated driving there… but you cannot live there without driving! I worked in the next city over – Glendale – and family, friends, and favorite spots of recreation were scattered from Canyon Country to Venice Beach, so I was well acquainted with the freeways, or as I used to call them… parking lots! 😀

You don’t have to drive far on so-Cal freeways to encounter just about every type of driver–rude, selfish, distracted, slow, and just plain dumb.

And then there are the speeders, who are not always what you expect.

Driving in the northeast Los Angeles County area, particularly in aging communities like Glendale, Altadena, and Pasadena, odds were good that you’d be rear-ended at least once, only to turn around and see this Buick Roadmaster smashed into your back end and a wrinkled little dear in a color-coordinated skirt-suit gingerly disembarking and muttering, “This is my husband’s car, see. My foot could barely reach the brake pedal.” Oh, and every year a float in the Tournament of Roses Parade gets held up by a granny who couldn’t read the detour signs and just blunders right into a marching band. Fun times.

That’s the moment which Jan and Dean chose to parody with The Little Old Lady from Pasadena in 1964, right at the tail end of the time when doo-wop surf music was on its way out. It’s just as well; Jan and Dean and the Beach Boys tended to be blended together so much that nobody could tell one from the other. Today, all surf-era music is made by the Beach Boys as far as the public mind is concerned, and bands like The Sunrays, The Rivieras, and Jan and Dean are forever consigned to their shadow, even though Jan and Dean predate the Beach Boys and the same guy (Roger Christian) wrote many songs for both.

The song reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1964 and number one on Canada’s RPM chart.

FUN FACTS:

• One parade I never missed was the popular Doo Dah Parade, an annual event satirizing the Rose Parade which originated in Old Pasadena in 1978. It was held a month before Christmas and attracted local residents for a day of fun with lots of local vendors setup for business. Most years, we sat right on the curb just to get hit with shaving cream and tortillas. (You had to be there!) However the event gained national notoriety (think Synchronized Briefcase Drill Team) and has been held in January and May, and in other nearby cities.
• Pasadena is also home to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) (managed for NASA by Caltech) has a  Pasadena mailing address but is actually located in nearby LaCanada-Flintridge.
• In addition to the annual New Year’s Day Rose Bowl game and a College Football Playoff semi-final game every three years, the Rose Bowl, a national historic landmark, is the home field for the UCLA Bruins football team, has hosted five Super Bowls and many BCS National Championship games including soccer games during the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for FeliciaDenise.com.

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

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Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is  “Diamond/Emerald/Jade/Pearl/Ruby/Sapphire.”

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One of six consecutive top 5 singles for the legendary Motown group, Jackson 5, Mama’s Pearl went to number two for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971.

On the R&B soul singles chart, the song likewise peaked at number two. Overseas, Mama’s Pearl peaked at #25 in the UK.

FUN FACTS:

• Mama’s Pearl was originally called Guess Who’s Making Whoopie (With Your Girlfriend).
• The co-writers of Mama’s Pearl included Motown head, Berry Gordy, Jr. The songwriting team was dubbed The Corporation, and helped the group score four consecutive #1 singles.
• Two of the Jackson 5’s recordings (ABC and I Want You Back) are among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and, alongside I’ll Be There, were also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for FeliciaDenise.com.

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

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Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is  “Birthday/Cake/Gift/Party/Surprise.”

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Released in September of 1982, Luther Vandross’ sophomore album, Forever, for Always, for Love, was his second album to chart in the top 20 on the Billboard 200 and his second album to top the R&B Albums chart where it spent three weeks.

The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA, and earned Vandross his third nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male, but Marvin Gaye won for his song, Sexual Healing.

The first release from the album, Bad Boy /Having a Party, became a top five R&B hit which peaked to number-three on the Hot R&B Singles chart, and reached #55 on the Billboard Hot 100… and it became a party anthem that can still be heard at class reunions, wedding receptions, family reunions, Christmas parties and cookouts almost forty years later!

The song is about a teenage boy, grounded for staying out too late, who decides to sneak out of his home to attend the party of the year.

FUN FACTS:

• The bridge samples the chorus from the Sam Cooke song Having a Party, but with new lyrics added to the end (“you can’t go”).
• The song was featured during the opening credits of the 1990 film House Party.
• Before he began a successful solo career, Vandross sang backing vocals for many top artists including Roberta Flack, Chaka Khan, Ben E. King, Bette Midler, Diana Ross, Carly Simon, Barbra Streisand, and Donna Summer, and for the bands Mandrill, Chic and Todd Rundgren’s Utopia.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for FeliciaDenise.com.

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

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Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is  “Touch/Feel.”

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While we’re much maligned these days by younger generations, I love being a boomer. We’ve seen and experienced more than any generation in modern times, and no other generation will probably ever get the opportunities we’ve had.

Technically, baby boomers were born from 1946 through 1964 and came of age from 1964 through 1982. We can remember when there were no microwaves, cellphones, or Internet.  Our first televisions were boxy with a picture tube and broadcast in black white.  Seat belts weren’t standard in automobiles… but ashtrays in the back seat were.

In my opinion, we also had the best music. From post-war quartets to high energy disco, some of the best songs and biggest artists happened during the boomer’s heydays.

And we listened to our music in more ways than any other generation. We had vinyl in 78, 33, or 45 speeds, reel-to-reel tape, 8-track tape, AM radio, cassette tape, CD, MP3, and now we stream from our phones and tablets. I haven’t met a boomer yet who hasn’t mentioned their favorite songs from back-in-the-day AND how they listened to it. A former coworker could never mention her beloved Beach Boys without including a mention for the stacks of 45s and her pink record player. An old neighbor loved Saturday nights in the park… with Motown hits on 8-track.

I was a typical preteen/teen girl, accumulating 45s as fast as I could. Somewhere in my mid teens, I switched to buying albums only, regardless of song or artist and amassed quite a collection. However, with going away to school and moving around the country, moving my albums with me was becoming work. I switched to audio cassettes, but can still remember the last three vinyl albums I bought; Funkadelic’s One Nation Under a Groove, Heatwave’s Central Heating, and Barbra Streisand’s Wet.

I can’t remember the song that hooked me on Barbra Streisand, but I do know I was in grade school. I was mesmerized by her big voice and ability to hold a note!

Wet was her twenty-first studio album, and probably best remembered for the #1 duet with disco queen, Donna Summer, No More Tears (Enough Is Enough). I loved that song but my favorite cut on the album has always been Kiss Me in the Rain.

In the song, the singer has reached a point in life where because of disappointment or simple ennui, they long for the innocence and feelings of their youth. It’s a really beautiful song I fell in love with while still in my teens and all these years later, it still feels timeless.

FUN FACTS:

• While it didn’t receive a wide release, Wet was an Adult Contemporary Top Ten hit.
• Wet is a concept album of sorts with all the songs referring to, or expressing different interpretations of, water. Wet is also the first and the last word sung on the album.
• The studio musicians on Wet was a melting pot of amazing talent like  Steve Lukather and Jeff Porcaro from the rock band, Toto, Grammy winner Larry Carlton, super music producer and composer David Foster, composer Lalo Schifrin, best known for the original theme from Mission Impossible, and composer Marvin Hamlisch, one of only fifteen people to win Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards. This collection of all four is referred to as an “EGOT”. He is one of only two people (along with composer Richard Rodgers) to have won those four prizes and a Pulitzer Prize (“PEGOT”).

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for FeliciaDenise.com.

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

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Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is  “Promise/Oath/Vow.”

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From his compilation album The Best of Luther Vandross… The Best of Love,  Here and Now became Luther Vandross’ fifth single to peak at No. 1 on the Hot Black Singles, and his first single to chart in the top ten on Billboard Hot 100, at No. 6. Here and Now also earned Vandross his first Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance in 1991.

Almost thirty years later, the hit single is still a favorite selection at weddings and anniversaries because of the singer’s promise to love faithfully and vow to be one with thee.

FUN FACTS:

• Vandross performed the song on an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show and in the two-part “Do Not Pass Go” (season 5) of 227, where he performed during Rose and Warren’s wedding ceremony in early 1990.
• The Best of Luther Vandross… The Best of Love is the first compilation album by Vandross, released on October 4, 1989.
• During his career, Vandross sold over 35 million records worldwide, and received eight Grammy Awards including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four different times. He won a total of four Grammy Awards in 2004 including the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for a song recorded not long before his death, Dance with My Father.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for FeliciaDenise.com.

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

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Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is  “Give/Get/Take/Receive/Send.”

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From her third studio album, 25, Send My Love (To Your New Lover) is an uptempo, rhythmic song, Adele describes as a “happy you’re gone” song dedicated to an ex-boyfriend. It was a collaboration by Adele, Max Martin and Shellback.

The song reached #1 on the Pop, Adult Pop, and Adult Contemporary charts and Billboard ranked Send My Love (To Your New Lover) at number 26 on their 100 Best Pop Songs of 2016 list.

Pretty sure I used this a couple of years ago, but it’s Adele! Sue me! 😀 😀 😀

FUN FACTS:

• Adele plays guitar and provides background vocals on the song track.
• Send My Love (To Your New Lover) was originally intended to be the first release from 25 before Hello was chosen instead.
• The track was recorded at two studios; MXM Studios in Stockholm and Eastcote Studios in London.
• At the last minute, Adele changed the title of the song from We Ain’t Kids No More to Send My Love (To Your New Lover).
• The track is a reworked skeleton of a song Adele wrote when she was thirteen years old after being inspired by the release of Frank (2003) by Amy Winehouse.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for FeliciaDenise.com.

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

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