Monday, March 22, 2021

Dave's Music Database Hall of Fame: Music Maker Inductees (March 2021)

Originally posted 3/22/2021.

January 22, 2019 marked the 10-year anniversary of the DMDB blog! To honor that, Dave’s Music Database announced its own Hall of Fame. This ninth class of music maker inductees is comprised of the top 10 classical composers according to Dave’s Music Database. See the full list of music maker inductees here.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Inducted March 2021 as a “Top Classical Composer”

Classical composer born in Eisenach, Germany. Recordings of his Cello Suites and Goldberg Variations have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Those two and his Mass in B Minor are also in the National Recording Registry. Those works as well as his Brandenburg Concertos and St. Matthew Passion all rank amongst the top 100 classical works of all time and the DMDB’s top 1000 albums/works of all time. Read more.

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Inducted March 2021 as a “Top Classical Composer”

Classical composer and pianist born in Germany. Recordings of his Violin Concerto in D Major, Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Piano Concerto No. 5, Symphony No. 7, Piano Sonatas (32), and The String Quartets (16) have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Those works, as well as Symphony No. 3 in E-flat "Sinfonia Eroica" Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral", and Symphony No. 9 all rank amongst the top 100 classical works of all time and the DMDB’s top 1000 albums/works of all time. Read more.

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Inducted March 2021 as a “Top Classical Composer”

Classical composer born in Hamburg, Germany. His Symphony No. 4 in E minor ranks as one of the top 100 classical works of all time and the DMDB’s top 1000 albums/works of all time. A recording of his Piano Trio No. 1 in B major been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Read more.

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

Inducted March 2021 as a “Top Classical Composer”

Classical composer and pianist born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin in Duchy of Warsaw, Poland. Recordings of his Nocturnes for Piano, Waltzes, and Mazurkas have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. A recording of Polonaise, op. 40, no. 1 ("Polonaise Miltaire") is in the National Recording Registry. Read more.

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Inducted March 2021 as a “Top Classical Composer”

Classical composer and pianist born in Rohrau, Austria. He has been called “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet.” He composed more than 100 symphonies and nearly 70 string quartets. He was influential in the development of chamber music such as the piano trio. Read more.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Inducted March 2021 as a “Top Classical Composer”

Classical composer and pianist born Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart in Salzburg, Austria. His operas The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro), Don Giovanni, and Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) rank among the top 50 operas of all time. Those works as well as Symphony No. 40 in G minor, Symphony No. 41 "Jupiter", Requiem Mass in D minor, Clarinet Concerto in A major, and his Piano Concertos (27) all rank amongst the top 100 classical works of all time and the DMDB’s top 1000 albums/works of all time. Read more.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Inducted March 2021 as a “Top Classical Composer”

Classical composer and pianist born in Himmelpfortgrund, Vienna, Austria. His works Piano Quintet in A major ("Trout"), Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished"), Winterreise, Symphony No. 9 in C major ("The Great"), and String Quintet in C major all rank amongst the top 100 classical works of all time. Read more.

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Inducted March 2021 as a “Top Classical Composer”

Classical composer born Oranienbaum, Russia. His ballets Pétrouchka (aka "Petrushka") and Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Those and The Firebird (L’Oiseau de Feu) rank amongst the top 100 classical works of all time. Rite of Spring is also one of the DMDB’s top 1000 albums/works of all time and is in the National Recording Registry. Read more.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Inducted March 2021 as a “Top Classical Composer”

Classical composer (Swan Lake) born in Votkinsk, Russia. Wrote Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, and the 1812 Overture, which all rank amongst the top 100 classical works of all time as does his Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, which is also one of the DMDB’s top 1000 albums/works of all time and is in the National Recording Registry and Grammy Hall of Fame. Read more.

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

Inducted March 2021 as a “Top Classical Composer”

Classical composer and pianist born Wilhelm Richard Wagner in Leipzig, Germany. His operas Tristan Und Isolde and The Ring Cycle (Der Ring Des Nibelungen) rank among the top 50 operas of all time, the the top 100 classical works of all time, and the DMDB’s top 1000 albums/works of all time. They are also both in the National Recording Registry and Grammy Hall of Fame. Read more.

Sunday, March 21, 2021

David Baerwald Hellbound Train, Hard Times, Reckless Boy (2016-2018)

Hellbound Train/Hard Times/Reckless Boy

David Baerwald





Released: 2016-2018


Available on Amazon: March 21, 2021


Peak: --


Sales (in millions): --


Genre: Americana


Tracks (Hellbound Train (2016):

Song Title [time]

  1. Hellbound Train [3:48]
  2. Hi Ho Nobody’s Home [1:52]
  3. John Henry [2:38]
  4. Wayfaring Stranger [4:10]
  5. Omie Wise [3:30]

Tracks (Hard Times (2017):

Song Title [time]

  1. Down in the Willow Garden [3:24]
  2. Deep Ellum Blues [2:53]
  3. Hard Times [3:49]
  4. Banks of the Ohio [3:27]
  5. John Hardy [3:05]
  6. Long Journey Home [2:44]
  7. Pretty Polly [3:42]
  8. Drifting Too Far from the Shore [3:55]

Tracks (Reckless Boy (2018):

Song Title [time]

  1. Devil’s Train [2:18]
  2. Black Water Blues [3:02]
  3. Black Highway Blue [2:18]
  4. Time Is a Hunter [3:23]
  5. Reckless Boy [3:19]
  6. Vile and Blasphemous [3:04]
  7. Darkness Night [3:21]
  8. I’ll Die That Day [3:44]

About the Albums:

After releasing A Fine Mess in 1999, Baerwald went on a long hiatus from releasing a proper album. Here Comes the New Folk Underground dropped in 2002, but was really an abbreviated version of A Fine Mess with three new songs. In 2004, he did release some new material on the Around the Bend soundtrack, but that wasn’t exclusively his work.

In 2016, he dropped the surprise EP Hellbound Train through the A-Tone Recordings label. “All of the tracks on this album are traditional compositions with arrangements by David and…Dr. Steven Trip.” DB1 The title cut was previously featured on A Fine Mess and Here Comes the New Folk Underground, but this version is “much slower and atmospheric.” DB1

Another EP followed in 2017. Hard Times “can almost be considered Hellbound Train part 2,” DB2 considering it traverses the same territory with Baerwald dipping his toe quite convincingly into the Americana pool. Reckless Boy, released under the name The Regulators followed, although it was a collection of originals. DB3 Tracks on the latter are credited ot Baerwald, Dr. Steven Trip, and George Doering, who is “a popular session musician and a member of the bluegrass band, the Brombies.” DB3

This gave Baerwald three EPs in three years after a dozen years of studio inactivity. Collectively, the three essentially serve as a new Baerwald album, although there’s no evidence that it will be released as such. Hellbound Train and Reckless Boy are both available on Spotify and Amazon, however.

All three of these EPs are available through the Extreme Music website (links below), which is “a clearing house for music available to purchase/license for movies, TV, and the web.” DB1

Resources and Related Links:


Other Related DMDB Pages:


First posted 8/21/2021.

Monday, March 15, 2021

Sunday Night Doo Wop Party Radio Show

First posted 3/15/2021.

Memory Lane Oldies:

Sunday Night Doo Wop Party

In early March of 2021, I got a message from Stuart Weiss, a DJ with MemoryLaneOldies.com. He used my Top 100 Doo Wop Songs of All Time list to do a countdown on his show, the Sunday Night Doo Wop Party. He’d already counted down the first half, #100 to #51, and wondered if I’d be interested in doing an interview during the second half countdown (#50 to #1). I’m always eager to talk at length about music with people so happily agreed. The actual interview starts at the 59:40 mark of the second link.

A big thanks to DJ Stu for using my list and a big thanks to his listeners for letting me ramble about music for half an hour. Make sure you check out his show as well as the other DJs at MemoryLaneOldies.com.


Resources and Related Links:

Grammys: Albums of the Year Ranked

This page has been consolidated with the DMDB post on the Grammy Winners by Year. Check it out here.

Sunday, March 14, 2021

Taylor Swift wins third Grammy for Album of the Year with Folklore

Folklore

Taylor Swift


Released: July 24, 2020


Peak: 18 US, 13 UK, 13 CN, 14 AU


Sales (in millions): 1.04 US, 0.1 UK, 2.05 world (includes US and UK)


Genre: pop


Tracks:

Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts.

  1. The 1 (10/9/20, 4 US, 4 AU, 7 CN, 10 UK)
  2. Cardigan (7/27/20, 1 US, 1 AU, 3 CN, 6 UK)
  3. The Last Great American Dynasty
  4. Exile (with Bon Iver) (8/3/20) (6 US, 3 AU, 6 CN, 8 UK, gold single)
  5. My Tears Ricochet
  6. Mirrorball
  7. Seven
  8. August
  9. This Is Me Trying
  10. Illicit Affairs
  11. Invisible String
  12. Mad Woman
  13. Epiphany
  14. Betty (8/17/20, 42 US, 22 AU, 32 CN)
  15. Peace
  16. Hoax


Total Running Time: 63:29

Rating:

4.267 out of 5.00 (average of 27 ratings)


Quotable: “The first chapter of Swift’s mature second act.” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide


Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album:

Taylor Swift’s eighth studio album been called “the quintessential quarantine album” and the “first great work of art” from the pandemic. WK The surprise release “blindsided the pop music world,” saving listeners from “their tedious lockdown lives.” WK She announced it via social media 16 hours before its release. Supposedly even her record label wasn’t aware of the album until hours before its launch. WK

Swift conceived Folklore as “a collection of songs and stories that flowed like a stream of consciousness” out of her imagination. WK She departed from her the usual autobiographical references of previous works to craft stories mostly from a third-person perspective, keying in on themes of “escapism, nostalgia, loneliness, and introspection.” WK Some of the narratives included “a ghost finding its murderer at its funeral, a seven-year-old girl with a traumatized friend, an old widow spurned by her town, recovering alcoholics, and a love triangle between three-fictitious characters.” WK As Taylor said, “these images in my head grew faces or names and became characters. I found myself…writing about or from the perspective of people I’ve never met, people I’ve known, or those I wish I hadn’t.” WK

All Music Guide’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine said the songs “are recognizably her work, bearing telltale melodic phrases and a reliance on finely honed narratives that turn on exquisitely rendered lyrical details.” AMG He said that the album feels “not like a momentary diversion inspired by isolation but rather the first chapter of Swift’s mature second act.” AMG

Folklore was a musical departure from previous more upbeat pop albums, traversing instead in indie-folk territory. Variety’s Chris Willman said the album was a reminder that Swift was one of the few pop stars willing to experiment with different styles. WK The Guardian’s Laura Snapes called it Swift’s most cohesive and experimental album. WK

She worked with longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff, but also Aaron Dessner, guitarist of indie-rock band the National. She’d gone to one of their concerts in 2019 and he’d told her how the band members lived in different parts of the world, but sent instrumental tracks to their singer. During the quarantine in 2020, Swift decided to adopt the idea and she and Antonoff and Dessner sent digital files of instrumentals and vocals to each other to craft the album. WK

Folklore came only 11 months after her 2019 Lover album, her fastest turnaround time between albums. It became her seventh album to top the Billboard charts in the United States. It set the Guinness World Record for the biggest opening day on Spotify for an album by a female artist, became the longest-running #1 since 2017, and became the biggest-selling album of 2020. WK

The album’s first single, Cardigan, gave Swift the distinction of being the first act to debut atop the Billboard album chart and Hot 100 singles chart simultaneously. The song was also nominated for a Grammy for Song of the Year. Swift described the song as one that explored “lost romance and why young love is often fixed so permanently in our memories.” WK

Another of the singles, Exile, hit the top 10 and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. The “sentimental, gospel-flavored, indie folk duet with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver” WK was “an unspoken, argumentative conversation between two former lovers.” WK


Notes: The deluxe edition added the song “The Lakes.”

Resources and Related Links:


Other Related DMDB Pages:


First posted 1/12/2021; last updated 4/30/2022.

Friday, March 12, 2021

100 years ago: Eddie Cantor “Margie” hit #1

Margie

Eddie Cantor

Writer(s): Benny Davis and Con Conrad (lyrics), J. Russell Robinson (music) (see lyrics here)


First Charted: February 5, 1921


Peak: 15 US, 12 GA (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): --


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

This song started life as an instrumental SM by Joseph Russell Robinson, a ragtime pianist with the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. They introduced the song in 1920 in a medley with “Singin’ the Blues.” WK Their recording reached #9 and remained in print continuously for sixty years. DJ

Lyrics were added later by pianist Con Conrad and songwriter Benny Davis, SM both of whom were vaudeville performers. It was inspired by Marjorie Cantor, the five-year-old daughter of Eddie Cantor but it is not actually a love song to a little girl, but the singer’s girlfriend. He can’t stop thinking about her and wants the world to know. TY2

The most popular version was by Eddie Cantor, who incorporated the song into his Broadway revue The Midnight Rounders and took it to #1 in 1921. There were other charted versions by Gene Rodemich’s Orchestra (#7, 1920), Ted Lewis (#4, 1921), Frank Crumit (#7, 1921), Claude Hopkins (#5, 1934), and Don Redman (#15, 1939). PM

The song has been used in several movies including Margie in 1940 and 1946. It was also in Stella Dallas (1937), Hit Parade of 1941 (1940), The Eddie Cantor Story (1953), The Drowning Pool (1975), and The Cat’s Meow (2001). It became a jazz standard recorded by Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Bing Crosby, Fats Domino, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Jim Reeves, Jo Stafford, Slim Whitman, and others. WK


Resources:


First posted 1/28/2023.