Tune Tag #47 with Jared the Curator: Carpenters, Kenny Rankin, Harlem Shakes, Buzzcocks, Kenny Rogers, Barry Manilow

Wow! Barry and the Buzzcocks! Two Kenny R's! Harlem Shakes?🍓Make mine strawberry! The mind boggles at the possibilities in this Tune Tag, and Jared the Curator doesn't disappoint!

Then, Tune Tag, it is! Welcome, Jared!

Tune Tag welcomes

Jared the Curator

of The Wax Museum!

Jared Smith curates The Wax Museum on Substack, and created Vinyl on Sale, the Internet’s #1 vinyl deal finder. His mission is to elevate the quantity and quality of your record collection. A passionate physical media advocate, Jared is always on the hunt for the next great sound!

Last week, we were graced by the musical presence of

Ellen from Endwell

of Rock’n’Roll With Me!

Tune Tag #46 with Ellen from Endwell (Rock'n'Roll With Me): Carole King, Gladys Knight, Fleetwood Mac, CSN, Meat Loaf, Three Dog Night

Next week, we can expect fun galore from

MK Piatkowski

from Song of the Day!

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Jared’s song #1 sent to Brad: Harlem Shakes, “Strictly Game,” 2009

Jared’s rationale: There was something magical in the water back in 2009. Within months, the music gods blessed us with Dirty Projectors’ Bitte Orca, Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion, Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ It’s Blitz!, Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest, and Passion Pit’s Manners.

This was the “blog rock era”—a carefree time for me in college running my own MP3 blog, Too Good For Radio (RIP). Writing about music and hitting up shows—what could be better?

One of those shows was Vampire Weekend, with Brooklyn’s Harlem Shakes opening. After that show, I became their unofficial hype man, convinced they were the next big thing. Spoiler alert: I was wrong.

Their debut album, Technicolor Health, dropped in March 2009, and by September, the band had called it quits! Listening to this record now is like finding an old love letter—it’s a bittersweet reminder of what could have been and one of my favorite overlooked albums of the “blog rock era”.

Brad’s song #1 sent to Jared: Kenny Rankin, “Spanish Harlem,” 2002

Jared’s response: We stay in NYC for Kenny Rankin’s “Spanish Harlem.” First time listen, so thanks for that. Sensual and jazzy, muy bien. I dove into the rest of the album (Rankin’s last hurrah, as he passed away at 69 in 2009…there’s that year again: when Harlem Shakes dropped their lone album and broke up) and got hooked on his take of Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight.” Smooth as silk, that one.

Brad’s rationale: Matching Jeremy’s Harlem Shakes group with Phil Spector and Jerry Leiber’s classic “Spanish Harlem” (an original 1960 #10 hit for Ben E. King), as done by singer/guitarist/songwriter, Kenny Rankin, who also arranged, in case you’re as enchanted by those key changes as I.

This is from Rankin’s A Song For You album, produced by longtime veterans, Tommy LiPuma and Al Schmitt. The session players were unusually numerous, and worth checking out, with many well known jazz players present!

Jared’s song #2: The Headhunters, “God Make Me Funky,” 1975

Brad’s response: Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, formed in 1973. This ‘75 album debut was on Arista Records, produced by Hancock and David Rubinson. Tough to find a connection between Jared’s Headhunters track and the Rankin “Spanish Harlem” cover.

Jared’s rationale: Whenever I think of “Spanish Harlem,” for better or worse, my mind drifts to the ubiquitous-at-the-time, “Maria Maria,” from Santana’s 18th album, Supernatural, released in 1999.

This track (above, featuring The Product G&B), which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for ten weeks, samples the drum beat from “God Make Me Funky” (with The Pointer Sisters) by jazz fusion band, Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters in 1975, while the melody riff takes its cue from the Wu-Tang Clan’s “Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta F*** Wit.”

Wyclef Jean was the mastermind behind the “Maria Maria” beat (and, he co-wrote the song with Jerry “Wonda” Duplessis, Carlos Santana, Karl Perazzo, and Raul Rekow); he was one of many to sample The Headhunters’ head-nodding drum groove, a group that included The Roots, De La Soul, and Eric B. & Rakim.

Jared also recommends this live version of the song performed the same year (1975):

Brad’s song #2: Barry Manilow, “New York City Rhythm,” 1975