Tag: pop

699. Harry Belafonte

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(December 2025) Episode 699 of the “opus project” is HARRY BELAFONTE. In music, he is primarily known for popularizing calypso music with songs like “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” and “Jump in the Line,” although he successfully applied his silky voice to a range of styles including standards, show tunes, gospel, pop and Christmas. Calypso is evocative of a time and place, and I still chuckle that some predicted it would become the New Thing instead of rock-and-roll. Otherwise a lot of his recordings are in that 50s-60s saccharine pop style that I’m not a fan of. But much of his stature comes beyond music — acting in films, organizing within the civil rights and anti-Apartheid movements, and his social justice and humanitarian work.

Favorite album: Swing Dat Hammer

Favorite song: Jamaica Farewell

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The albums Calypso and Jump Up Calypso cover that style, but I prefer him singing blues, folk, and gospel, such as on Swing Dat Hammer and Ballads Blues and Boasters

686. Miriam Makeba

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(October 2025) Episode 686 is MIRIAM MAKEBA. For years the only reason I knew her was from ads for her records printed on the sleeves of used LPs I used to buy. Turns out, she was a big deal, nicknamed “Mama Africa” for being among first African singers to achieve global fame. She got famous in the U.S. under the tutelage of Harry Belafonte (with whom she duo’d on a good album). She sang in English as well as her native Xhosa, bringing a click language to wider attention. Makeba was not shy about raising rights and justice in her songs, including against apartheid in her native country. For that she was persecuted and exiled twice, stripped of her passport by the South African government and having her visa revoked by the U.S. government for marrying civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael.

Favorite album: Sangoma

Favorite song: Novema

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Sangoma was a comeback album of traditional South African songs stripped of the chrome and strings added to her 60s albums although those are peak period (including the one with Harry Belafonte).

681. Los Bravos

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(September 2025) Episode 680 is LOS BRAVOS, one of the few beat groups from a non-English speaking country to have a hit in the U.S.  You’ll recognize “Black is Black” from the radio repertoire of mid-1960s pop songs. They were from Spain, but their lead singer was from Germany and sang largely in English. Their peppy “Going Nowhere” made the Nuggets II box set. At this attenuated stage of the Project, I resort to B-and C-tier acts from the 60s, as Los Bravos shows. The fact that they were from Spain is the most salient feature.

Favorite album: Los chicos con las chicas

Favorite song: Black is Black

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: Attention deserved only for completists of 1960s pop and rock music.

675. Scott Walker

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(September 2025) Episode 675 is SCOTT WALKER. I did this episode because I knew he gained a cult following for avant-garde music later in his career. What I didn’t realize was the slog it would take to get there. I have never understood the popularity or appeal of The Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” Well, the Walker Brothers (not their real names) sound just like that, a deep baritone voice over grandiose string-laden arrangements. Not my cup of tea. Scott largely continued that style when he went solo. But he started to move in an unorthodox direction in the 1980s, and by the 1990s was releasing full avant-garde recordings. It is interesting stuff, if nothing else than for being eccentric. But by the time I got there, I was so tired of his distinctive voice that it didn’t work for me.

Favorite album: Bish Bosch

Favorite song: SDSS1416+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: I can’t, really, although I acknowledge his cult following.

672. Rhiannon Giddens

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(August 2025) Episode 672 of the “opus project” is RHIANNON GIDDENS. It is both impossible and unfair to apply a simple label to her music. It’s folk unbounded by convention, Americana unlimited by geography, and old-timey music beyond mere reinterpretation. On All the Pretty Horses she brings in British/Irish folk elements; on the two albums with Francesco Turrisi, Italian songs. Freedom Highway explores the African-American experience. You’re the One is more pop, while on What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow, Giddens returns to her fiddle & banjo roots. And she co-wrote an opera (Omar) with Michael Abels. I covered is just the listed solo work; there is a multitude of collaborations beyond. Whatever the style, it’s usually an interesting listen. My one fault is that her strong voice can tend to overpower songs that recommend a softer touch.

Favorite song: Freedom Highway

Favorite song: At the Purchaser’s Option

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: Freedom Highway is the strongest album, but There Is No Other and They’re Calling Me Home (both with Turrisi) are the most interesting.

657: Etta James

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(June 2025) Episode 657 is ETTA JAMES. One of my favorite voices. Powerful but not overpowering. Gentle, but sometimes coarse and bluesy. She recorded across a range on genres: R&B, gospel, jazz, pop standards, blues, soul. Her best stuff was in the 1960s, starting with trad pop and moving to soul. Substance abuse and financial difficulties affected her career, although she did have some good funky numbers in the 1970s. A comeback in the late 80s finally earned her emerita status and many late-career albums, although they lacked in originality.

Favorite album: Tell Mama

Favorite song: I’d Rather Go Blind

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Etta James Top Ten compiles her early silky songs; the 1965-68 trio of Queen of Soul, Call My Name and Tell Mama are her best.

655. The Chiffons

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Episode 655 is THE CHIFFONS. This enjoyable New York girl group had several hits in the early 1960s, including “One Fine Day” and “He’s So Fine.” The latter was the subject of the successful (and legit) plagiarism suit against George Harrison for “My Sweet Lord.” Their recordings for the rest of the decade were rather derivative.

Favorite song: One Fine Day

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: A playlist of the top singles is sufficient.

652. The Grass Roots

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Episode 652 is THE GRASS ROOTS. You will recognize the songs “Let’s Live for Today,” “Midnight Confessions” and “Sooner or Later” as AM radio staples, but you probably didn’t know the band behind them. That’s the Grass Roots. Music fans will know that songwriter P.F. Sloan got his start here. And fans of The Office may know it as the band Creed Bratton was in in the 1960s. They offered some decent LA-style late 60s pop, but with changing lineups and sounds, they come down to us in some obscurity.

Favorite album: Let’s Live for Today

Favorite song: Let’s Live for Today

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: A greatest hits record is more than you’ll need.

639. Peter and Gordon

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(March 2025) Episode 639 is PETER AND GORDON. Very like Chad & Jeremy from a couple episodes ago: a UK duo featuring Everly-ish vocals in the early British Invasion. What Peter and Gordon had going for them is proximity to the Beatles, socially and musically; Paul wrote their early hits and dated Peter’s sister Jane Asher. They offered fine, middle-of-the-road 60s pop, but struggled to keep up with trends. Peter and Gordon didn’t go as far as Chad & Jeremy’s full-bore attempt at tudor psychedelia, just venturing into baroque pop. Both duos were done by decade’s end. Peter became a long-time producer.

Favourite album: In London for Tea

Favourite song: A World Without Love

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The Ultimate Peter & Gordon (compilation)

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635. Chad & Jeremy

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(February 2025) Episode 635 is CHAD & JEREMY. Coincident with the first wave of the British Invasion, Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde offered light-pop/folk rock songs. “Yesterday’s Gone” puts them in the Merseybeat mode, while their most famous piece, “A Summer Song,” is in the vein of Simon and Garfunkel and the Everly Brothers. This approach characterized their 1963-66 recordings, which is fine, but put them out of step with the emergent R&B bands. Chad & Jeremy regrouped with 2 ½ psychedelic albums, a sound that I personally favor, although not it’s representative of what they were known for.

Favourite album: The Ark

Favourite song: A Summer Song  

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Albums: A best-of is fine. But those who dig 60s psychedelia should check out their baroque-pop stylings on Of Cabbages and Kings and The Ark.