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Infatueighties #51: Need You Tonight
Sex. That’s all you need to know. This song oozes sex. There’s that bluesy guitar riff that repeats throughout the song. Then there’s the skeletal groove-a little funky, a lot sleazy. Finally, there’s Michael Hutchence’s vocal delivery. Half whispered, half screamed, all sexual longing and tension. This was the song that established Hutchence as a Grade “A” frontman and gave his band INXS their first and only #1 American single.
That paragraph was 69 words. Somehow, […]
First Look: Taylor Hicks’ What’s Right is Right
Revisionist history has cast Taylor Hicks’ win in Season 5 of “American Idol” as a mistake or a joke, but I think it’s one of the only times that America actually made the right decision. Unlike most of the winners, Hicks seemed less preoccupied with being a star than with actually being a successful musician. “Idol” just gave him a platform to bring his sound to a larger audience, but without the show, something tells […]
FORTY-FIVE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE #24: Grapes & Wheat Clock
? & THE MYSTERIANSÂ “96 Tears” b/w “I Can’t Get Enough Of You, Baby” (Abkco Records #4020, original realease 1966-67, reissue circa early-’80’s)
This is not the extremely valuable, highly sought-after original Pa-Go-Go pressing from early ’66. Nor is it the not-quite-as-valuable-but-still-quite-desirable Cameo/Parkway version that soared to #1 that September. This is an Abkco double-A-side oldies-bin cash-in repress from the very early 1980’s, when AM counterparts across the country still spun 45s of “Louie Louie” and “Wolly Bully” for […]