Birthday Month 2016: Day 1

I've given this month of April a special theme: DISCO!

Why? I'm turning 54 this year.

Get it? Studio 54? Hence, DISCO!

I hope to post a video every day, but I honestly don't know how successful I'll be in reaching that goal. I plan to share some classic faves, some not-so-classics, and maybe a little off-the-beaten path items and some songs that came along to keep the dance alive after the "Disco Sucks" crowd tried its best to kill it. Call it hi-NRG, call it dance music, call it EDM, whatever.

So here's the title song from a movie. The title sums up how I feel every seven days. Thank God It's Friday!



The movie featured Jeff Goldblum and Debra Winger, as well as Donna Summer, playing a singer. What a stretch. She sings one of her most famous songs, which will definitely be featured here later this month.

Summer! NOT Summers!

Over two years after her death and people still get it wrong, including someone on KYW Newsradio earlier. So I need to take a stand.

My 2012 In Music

Last year at this time I was lamenting the lack of new music (as in, new in 2011 or new to me) added to my iTunes library. I figured that 2012 would be better since I had gone back to work. Since May I've been out of work but at least I got some unemployment out of it. So, indeed, my 2012 acquisitions are up. (A note, which is mainly for my own reference: the figures below include a couple of CDs I got during 2012 but only got around to adding to my iTunes tonight, so I need to remember for next year's wrapup not to include them again.)

I added 567 tracks to my collection by my count (it's a complicated story but I may be off by one or two because of duplicates), compared to 271 last year. Christmas music comprised 26 of those 567 songs. There were a lot of downloads of individual songs, as well as the first song in my next project - converting my vinyl collection to mp3 format. I have maybe a few dozen 45s and many more 12-inch dance remixes, probably in the hundreds. I'm so excited about this.

Beyond that, I got some free downloaded samplers and mixtapes (which is such an odd term to use for mp3 downloads, but...):

Will Sheridan – G.I.A.N.T. Sampler
DJ ShyBoy presents the RuPaul Mixtape (RuPaul songs mashed up with other songs)
DJ Jazzy Jeff and Mick Boogie – Summertime 2: The Mixtape
DJ Jazzy Jeff and Mick Boogie – Summertime 3: The Mixtape
Dangerous Muse – Red
Slaves to the Rhythm – Pride 2011 Sampler

And then there were the albums that were released prior to 2012:

Kelly Clarkson – Stronger
Discovery – LP
Ricky Martin – Ricky Martin
David Guetta – Nothing But The Beat
Jody Watley – Midnight Lounge
Paul McCartney – All The Best
Donna Summer – She Works Hard For The Money
Elton John – Rocket Man - Number Ones
Steely Dan – The Definitive Collection
The Gap Band – The 12” Collection and More
Nona Hendryx – Nona (as I mentioned here, the first full-length album I transferred from vinyl to mp3)
Katy Perry – Teenage Dream-The Complete Confection (this is the re-released version with bonus tracks -- the original was out in 2010 so I don't feel right counting it as a 2012 album)

In 2011 I got only four albums that were actually

My iTunes Not-Quite-Shuffled Baker's Dozen 3-16-11

It started with a radio playing at work on Friday, on a desk an aisle or two away from me. I only heard it faintly but it was enough for me to recognize the song...



That led me to take my iPod and let the DJ save my life, and then I realized that, technically speaking, I was my own DJ. So I started cherry-picking some songs from my 1980s playlist, many of them with an urban-contemporary vibe and all of them with a beat, at least to some extent. No out-and-out ballads. Nice for a Friday afternoon...

Last Night A DJ Saved My Life - Indeep
Funky Little Beat - Connie
One More Shot - C-Bank
Right On Track (Remix) - Breakfast Club
I Wonder If I Take You Home - Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force
Thinking About Your Love - Skipworth & Turner
I Feel For You - Chaka Khan
Monkey - George Michael
Solid - Ashford & Simpson
Fall Down (Spirit Of Love) - Tramaine Hawkins
Nite And Day - Al B. Sure!
She Works Hard For The Money (LP Mix) - Donna Summer
Kiss - Prince and the Revolution

My Summer Listening Pleasure (And Maybe Yours) Part 1

I love disclaimers. In the case of the big 58-song summer playlist I've created, there are a few of them. These songs fall into at least one of these categories, sometimes more, sometimes all: they were released during the summer, they were popular during the summer, the song title and/or lyrics refer to summer, sun, heat, etc. If they don't fit these categories -- and this is a pretty big disclaimer -- to me they either sound like a summer-type song or I identify them with summer in my mind for some reason, which will be explained.

Also, the list only includes songs that are in my iTunes library. There may be other songs that are truly summer songs, but if I don't own them I didn't include them. (It's also possible that some songs not on the list but should be are in my iTunes but I somehow neglected to find it.) I am open to any and all suggestions to add to the list, but if it's not obvious from the song title why it should be included I hope you'll enlighten me as to why it's a summer song.

I'm listing them in order of the year of release (according to Wikipedia or whatever other sources I could find). Using the versions I have (a couple of extended mixes included) it's over 4 hours, 15 minutes of music, and Part One begins after the jump: