Tuesday Tunes 108: Sentiments

For a slight change this week I thought I wouldn’t go with a key word that featured in the titles of the songs I am playing, but would go instead for the more general sentiments as my theme. This was prompted by my beginning to take part in Song Lyric Sunday, the topic for which this week was to choose a song hat talked about excitement, pleasure, sentiment, or spirit. I went with excitement, as you will have seen from my post, but decided to take a more general approach for today to fill out the brief a little better. This set includes songs about excitement, anticipation, happiness, the pleasure of being with someone, and of being content in one’s own skin. A mixed bag of sentiment for you.

I’m starting off with a rock classic, which brings in anticipation, excitement, pleasure and has a happy ending too, if you get my drift:

Start Me Up was released as a single in August 1981, ten days ahead of Tattoo You, the album for which it was the opening track. The single got to #7 in the UK (their last top ten UK single to date) and to #2 in the US, while the album made #2 in the UK and #1 in the US. I’ve always loved this, and Mick is great in the video. Microsoft paid about $3m to use this song in their Windows 95 marketing campaign: the first time that the Rolling Stones allowed a company to use their songs commercially. In 2012, a remixed version of the song was used as the soundtrack to an Omega advertising campaign for their role as official timekeepers of the 2012 Summer Olympics. The track was re-released in digital format only to tie in with this, and made the UK charts again – at #147!

I’m not really a fan of this next style of music, as you may have noticed, but there are exceptions, and this is one. I thought this was great when it first came out, and to be fair the Pointer Sisters did have some good songs in our charts:

This was first released as a single and on the album So Excited in June 1982; the single got to #30 in the US and the album to #59, but neither made the UK charts. It was then remixed and included on their next album, Break Out, in November 1983. This lived up to its title, making #8 in the US and #9 in the UK. The remix was released as a single in July 1984, reaching #9 in the US and #11 in the UK. It isn’t my favourite of theirs – that would be Slow Hand, which I could also have played today, but decided on the more upbeat one.

Another one from an earlier vintage next. Back to the Sixties for this one:

I’ve played this one before, but it was way back in the early days of this series and it deserves another airing: I think it’s a great song, with a video to match. This was the title track of the Turtles’ third album, released in 1967, and was the only time they made it to the top of the US singles chart. It also got a lot of airplay here and reached #12. I didn’t have the album, but the song featured on a ‘best of’ collection which I did buy, along with the grandly titled follow up The Turtles Present The Battle Of The Bands, which included their subsequent hit singles Elenore and You Showed Me. I think it demonstrates a certain amount of chutzpah to release a greatest hits album after just three previous records, but they had some style and confidence!

This next one is a little more recent. It is a song about love, hope and anticipation, mixed up with a lot of uncertainty:

One thing I can say about the Foo Fighters is that they always make great videos for their songs, and this is no exception. Everlong was a track on the band’s second album, The Color And the Shape, which came out in May 1997 and peaked at #10 in the US and #3 in the UK. It was released in August 1997 as the second single from the album, and while it wasn’t a hit on the main US chart it reached #3 on the US Billboard Alternative Songs chart and the Canadian RPM Rock/Alternative chart, both of which are rated on radio airplay. It did make the UK singles chart, though, getting to #18. That may seem surprising, but when you consider that every one of their albums has either charted higher in the UK or been matched by their US position, maybe not. This was the last song ever performed live by former drummer Taylor Hawkins before his death in March 2022.

I’ve featured this next artist a couple of times before, most prominently in a piece I did for her most recent album: A New Album – Antipodes. That post included a reworked lyric video for this song, but the original is great, too:

I think Caroline Jones and this video are lovely. She has so much talent and having recently been on tour – not for the first time – with the Zac Brown Band it can only be a matter for time before she becomes the huge star I think she deserves to be. The voice of an angel, and multi-talented in her songwriting and instrument playing – just the eight of them! Chasin’ Me was the title track of an EP she released in October 2019, which got to #45 in the US Indie chart. It was also a single, which got to #51 on the US Country Airplay chart. It is a nice little song about anticipation, excitement and hope, and the video goes so well with it. You may have noticed the ‘previously’ bit at the beginning. That clip was from a video for another of Caroline’s songs, which also featured the actor Cody Walker. The two form a little story, and if you want to see the other one it is called The Difference (Goshdamn) – just follow that link.

I wanted to include the song When You Walk In The Room in this set, but which version? There have been so many! I could have gone with the original by Jackie De Shannon (US #99), who wrote the song, or perhaps The Searchers, who had a #3 UK hit with it in 1964. But I chose this one:

This was a track on Paul Carrack’s third solo album, One Good Reason, released in November 1987, which got to #67 in the US and #46 in Australia, but didn’t make the UK charts. It was released as a single, making #48 in the UK and #90 in the US but it did best in Australia, where it got to #7. The duet vocalist is credited on Wikipedia as being Linda Taylor, about whom I know and can find nothing. A pity, as she has a good voice. There is an American guitarist of that name, and a British session singer. My money would be on the latter, but none of the mentions of her that I’ve found say anything about this song. Talking of good voices, if Paul’s sounds familiar to you it may be because he was the vocalist for the band Ace, who had a hit (UK #20, US #3) with How Long in 1974, or from his role in Mike And The Mechanics, with whom he had a string of hit singles and albums, my favourite of which is The Living Years – a fabulous song.

That last one was about how someone can make you feel. this next one follows on from that, about a state of euphoria:

Not what you might expect from a guy who is labelled as ‘country,’ though there does appear to be a good deal of line dancing going on in the video! Keith Urban released Never Comin’ Down on his tenth album, Graffiti U, in April 2018. The album got to #2 in the US, and made #1 on their Country Albums chart. It was also #1 in Canada, and peaked at #9 in the UK Country Albums listings. The song was issued as a single in August 2018 and reached #50 in the US. It didn’t chart here – he has had very little impact on our charts despite his US popularity. But he’s married to Nicole Kidman, so what does he care!

For today’s final song I’m taking a second chance to play one of my favourites again. This is also a ‘country’ artist, who has worked her way through a mainstream pop career and is now releasing beautiful singer-songwriter records. This one counts for my theme by being about contentment with how you are, a perfectly valid sentiment, I think:

At 3.1bn views that is comfortably the most viewed of this week’s songs – or probably any other week, come to that. In case you needed reminding that was a track on Taylor Swift’s fifth album, 1989, released in October 2014. The album topped the charts in both the US and the UK, and in a further twelve countries as well, and has to date sold more than 10m copies worldwide. Yes, one of those is mine! Shake It Off had been released as a single the previous month, making #1 in the US and a further nine countries, and #2 in the UK. It has sold more than 14m copies, in addition to the album’s sales. Not bad!

That’s all for this week, and I’ve managed to do this without any of the versions of Morris Albert’s Feelings – a dreadful song! Talking of ‘feelings’ I have had to leave out Boston, though, which is slightly disappointing. Maybe this will become one of those themes that makes a return visit? Who knows – I sure don’t!

Have a great week. I’ll possibly see you again later on, and will be here again on Sunday for my new regular participation in Song Lyric Sunday. Take care, and stay well. I’m off to try and keep out of the sun – heatwaves and I don’t get along all that well. 🌞