If You Have 5 Seconds To Spare...

...I'd like to expand upon my feelings about the post below and the importance of those remembered below. The links are to pages where you can download the songs I am reminiscing about. I'll update the links as I have more of them available.

While I grew up listening to Gene Pitney on the radio, it was the classic "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart", his duet with Marc Almond that made me love him so much. An iconic singer/songwriter paired with the only vocalist I love as much as Morrissey, singing some of the most romantic lyrics ever to an amazing score by a big band (in the classic sense)...let's just say that there were MANY wistful minutes spent staring out of windows, daydreaming.

Everyone who watched The Partridge Family basically knew The Cowsills - it was based on them. They would've actually been on the show themselves but producers decided on actors who were musicians. They had their hits, but the song that has always been my favorite is "The Mystery of Life", a brooding song that resonated with me far more than it should have at such an early age (kinda like my obsession with "In My Room" by The Beach Boys when I was 6). When I heard about the flood and the worried family, the lyrics to it immediately sprung to mind and the tears came. Now, with the way history has been written with Barry and Billy, the tears fall even more readily.

Gilks was the drummer for The Wonder Stuff, an amazing, acerbic Brum pop band. It always seemed like pop gems just flowed from them like water from melting snow. They were one of those bands you'd listen to after a break up and say "yep - that's exactly what I'm going through". Can't Shape Up, indeed...