GROW BIGGER EARS #21: The Weekend Playlist of Hipster Roscoe: Chicago, Monkees, Rubinoos, Spanky & Our Gang, Michael Bublé
Everybody and their granny seems to be creating playlists, so why should my nose be pressed against the glass? After a year, here's a re-boot of our "GBE" series! Finally, a Human Algorithm!🎶Enjoy!
The original “Your Top 5” idea for this article was courtesy of of Daydreamin’ ‘Bout the Way Things Sometimes Are, as a generous guest-post offer! That original post can be seen here:
This is a welcome return to the long-dormant GROW BIGGER EARS feature! Here are a couple past ones that started this fun, focused-playlist lane:
Roscoe’s (and Terwilliger’s) Top Weekend Songs!
Meet Roscoe. He’s a middle-manager at Dell, and he, his laptop, and his decidedly retro sensibilities are “driving” home on a Friday after a tough week at work.
His weekend plans? Well, whatever they may be, they’ll be accompanied (and maybe inspired by), and super-charged by his Weekend Playlist of choice, and it goes a little something like this….Push “play,” and hop aboard:
1. Rubinoos, “Drivin’ Music,” 1977
1970: Bay area 13-year-olds, Jon Rubin and Tommy Dunbar, form a band in their Bay High School in Berkeley, CA, in order to play for a dance. Inspired by siblings’ 45s and the Cruisin’ vintage-radio compilation LP series, Jon and The Rubinoos play rock and roll oldies for anyone who’ll listen.
Songs included covers of Chubby Checker, Bill Haley and the Comets, The Dovells, the Troggs, Little Eva, the Chiffons, and others. The die is cast.
Cut to 1977 and their debut album on Beserkley Records, which led to their second in 1979, Back to the Drawing Board, and this nod to top-down groovin’ with the AM radio or the tape deck turned to 11. 🎵“You don’t have to touch the cruise control, ‘cause we got it set to rock’n’roll!”🎵Written by Rubin, Dunbar, and James Gangwer.
Rubinoos: They’re Raspberries’ punky, but polite little brothers. And, both those “R” bands are planted solidly on my Mt. Rushmore of Power Pop (joining The Records and Jellyfish). Let the weekend begin!
2. Spanky & Our Gang, “Lazy Day,” 1967
Terwilliger the cat wakes up Roscoe with some nuzzling on a Saturday morning. The first song he hears on his radio will blueprint his new day!
Spanky & Our Gang are slotted firmly and happily in the sub-genre of Sunshine Pop, joining such breezy, melody-rich and harmony-filled aggregates as Harper’s Bizarre, The Association, The Millennium, The Mamas & the Papas, 5th Dimension, The Sunshine Company, We Five, Left Banke, the Tandyn Almer canon, and Sagittarius.
Power pop and sunshine pop sit firmly in my boss ride of catchy, sing-a-long music, and they have for decades!
Roscoe tosses his board in the back seat of his ride, and he’s off to his favorite place:
3. Chicago, “Saturday in the Park,” 1972
According to Songfacts.com, “Chicago’s main songwriter, Robert Lamm, wrote this song after a particularly exhilarating 4th of July spent in New York’s Central Park, where there were steel drum players, singers, dancers and jugglers. Lamm and Peter Cetera sing on the track.”
☀Saturday turns into Sunday, and Roscoe’s wonderful weekend continues with Terwilliger the cat getting fed his favorite nom-noms and, surprisingly, gets rewarded with spending the day with Roscoe at the park! Off we go!
We recently joined Roscoe and Terwilliger at the park one Saturday, ourselves. But, we got there quicker; our secret? We took the “Inside Tracks”:
4. Michael Bublé, “It’s a Beautiful Day,” 2013
It’s a beautiful day, and I can’t stop myself from smiling. It’s a beautiful day, the sun is up, and the music’s playing!
The perfect day for Roscoe continues, as a kite-flying contest is accompanied by some musicians in the bandstand playing a happy-go-lucky Michael Bublé song from 2013. Ignore the lyrics on this one, as he’s cynically celebrating leaving his lady. We haven’t time for all that now…it’s a rousing, feel-good song punched up with spritely horns and propulsive arrangement, despite Bublé’s, Alan Chang’s and Amy S. Foster’s happy-to-be-breaking-up lyrics!
Exclusive FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE contributor, singer/songwriter/guitarist, Stephen Michael Schwartz, hired songwriter Amy Foster’s daddy, David Foster (then 25, and now, a 16-time Grammy winner), in 1975, to be his musical director for his second RCA Records album. Discover who Foster hired to be Stephen’s session players (spoiler alert: Elton John’s rhythm section and noted jazz guitarist, Lee Ritenour!), plus see Stephen’s exclusive, never-before-seen, in-studio photos by clicking here!
5. Spanky & Our Gang, “Sunday Will Never Be the Same,” 1967
“Sunday Will Never Be the Same” was written by Terry Cashman and Gene Pistilli. Spanky & Our Gang recorded it at Bell Sound in NYC on April 13, 1967 (Jerry Ross, producing). With a listed Mercury Records release date of, simply, April 1967, it apparently hit radio stations and record stores within two weeks, before May rolled around! The single peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #7 in Canada.
With Elaine “Spanky” McFarlane handling vocal chores, she rivalled Mamas & Papas’ Mama Cass for sheer vocal power and expressiveness! And, she’s still with us at 82!
In 1969, a series of TV commercials for Plymouth featured a jingle with the lyrics, “Just look what Plymouth’s up to now,” sung by Petula Clark to the tune of “Sunday Will Never Be the Same”!👇
6. The Monkees, “Pleasant Valley Sunday,” 1967
“Pleasant Valley Sunday” fittingly caps off our weekend with the song that Carole King says (in her autobiography) exemplifies the new life that she and her husband and songwriting partner, Gerry Goffin, had earned from their songwriting royalties: Moving, in the ‘60s, from New York City to West Orange, New Jersey, where one of the major thoroughfares in town is called Pleasant Valley Way.
Goffin disliked their new suburban life, and wrote lyrics to document the feeling that became “Pleasant Valley Sunday.” The lyrics are a social commentary on status symbols, the boredom and conformity of life in suburbia, and the old “keeping up with the Joneses” stereotype.
Roscoe and Terwilliger roll their way home, happily remembering their care-free weekend, and, as they ready themselves for another work week, already are looking forward to next weekend, but not before enjoying more about Carole and her music, by
and her Rock’n’Roll with Me:
Thanks for linking to my Carole King post and exposing more people to Carole as an exemplar and role model for how to be a Creator. She's very inspiring and there's so much we can learn from her.
Appreciate the support!
I'll be back to read and comment once I have time to give this piece the attention it deserves.
Happy songs - mid summer - makes you feel good! Thanks