The Luckiest Man in America whammies out

It's quite curious to me that a movie that would go to the trouble to meticulously recreate Press Your Luck's stunning set piece, that enormous board of slides and flashing lights — one of the best game show centerpieces ever — would then go so far afield with the story of Michael Larson. Always looking for the next scheme, Larson memorized the board's patterns and used that knowledge to break the bank. For all the small details captured, like the accurate rendering of the hidden score and spins readout that only the contestants are intended to see, there are incredible diversions in the story, such as network brass drinking champagne in the background after they decide to cash in on Larson's performance. The reality was quite the opposite. 

I'm not sure anyone coming to this movie with no knowledge of Larson or Press Your Luck would find the story particularly interesting; its scenes are largely confined to the show's studio. And I think many people could have written this better. For example, it seems malpractice not to have a scene of Larson sitting at home, eating cereal in his pajamas, watching the great game show block of The $25,000 Pyramid, Press Your Luck and The Price Is Right. One day, studying those lights bounce around the squares on Press Your Luck, he thinks he notices something and starts taking notes through the use of a VCR recording. The tagline at the bottom of the poster says, "What's behind his winning streak?" That's the meat of what is interesting about Larson, and it is largely unexplored here.

I also think Peter Tomarken, who did a fine job hosting the 1983-1986 game show and spent some of his time providing angel flights to sick individuals, would be insulted by the unfairly smarmy portrayal of him in this production. While the cast includes some fine performers like David Straithairn, and it's clear that Paul Walter Hauser studied Larson's in-the-zone technique, it's not enough to save this misguided script. For those intrigued by Larson's feat, Game Show Network's documentary Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal is excellent and remains the definitive telling of the Larson story.

Verdict: 2 out of 5

Also see // RIP Peter Tomarken

Some true things about Milli Vanilli

 Ok, Eddie … This one’s for you.

The Paramount+ documentary Milli Vanilli spends much of its time portraying the fake duo’s surviving member Fabrice Morvan as a sympathetic figure, a victim of show business and, particularly, producer Frank Farian, who lured the naive duo into a contract that they did not read or understand. But, late in the documentary, Morvan has the gall to say that yes, a small part of him still feels that he deserved that Grammy award for all the hard work they put in touring the world for promotion while eating caviar and living the life of a star. The moment underscores the sketchiness that tainted everyone involved.

One of the actual lead vocalists, Charles Shaw, is positively seething throughout the documentary, and rightly so. To its credit, the show brings to light the fact that Farian was a repeat offender who previously undertook similar shenanigans with the immensely popular Boney M. The other person with the most screen time is Farian’s business manager/girlfriend Ingrid “Milli” Segieth, who gives the scandalous details of the real singers sneaking in the back entrance after hours and her love for Rob Pilatus.

The documentary goes on for a very long time — at least a half hour too long as it dwells on Morvan’s lmaudlin reflections — yet it manages to largely gloss over the appeal of the music, a triumphant string of five top five U.S. singles, including three consecutive number ones on the Billboard Hot 100. Most of the songs aren’t even mentioned by name, although Dianne Warren does appear for about 15 seconds to acknowledge her contribution. The song “Girl You Know It’s True” sounded like nothing else on the airwaves in late 1988/early 1989. Farian is a clever producer who also made hits for the likes of La Bouche, No Mercy and Le Click, and I would like to have heard some talk about how he cooked up the winning Milli Vanilli sound. To my ‘80s pop loving ears, the best of the bunch was the version of “Baby Don’t Forget My Number” that appears on the greatest hits album — likely a single remix. Of the album tracks that didn’t get released as singles, most of them are unremarkable, but there was one potential hit left on the table — “Take It As It Comes” — a Climie Fisher co-write that is as instantly catchy as the album’s hits.

Through the whole documentary, there’s a galling lack of anyone accepting any genuine responsibility for what transpired, from record label executives who appeared shifty and unprepared for basic questions to Morvan himself. And there was a surprising lack of consequences once the jig was up. Yes, Rob Pilatus arguably lost his life as a direct or indirect result and there was the public shaming of being stripped of the Best New Artist Grammy, but a lot of people made a lot of money and carried on with their merry lives. It does feel like something that should rise to the level of criminality. When it was discovered in the 1950s that game shows were making up the outcomes, there wasn’t just outraged headlines — there were congressional hearings and strict new rules at the TV networks. But when the music world made up Milli Vanilli, everyone involved said: Ah, just blame it on the rain.

RIP Christine McVie

Christine McVie's sunny 1984 solo hit "Got a Hold On Me" has always been one of my favorite songs of the 1980s. It was her only substantial solo hit — #10 on the Hot 100 and #1 AC — and it bears the instantly familiar upbeat, buoyantly melodic sound that she did so well. At times, she did that thing I love of juxtaposing the euphoric and the melancholy, as in Fleetwood Mac's "You Make Loving Fun," which contains one of my favorite lyrics:

I never did believe in miracles
But I've a feeling it's time to try
I never did believe in the ways of magic
But I'm beginning to wonder why

In the Fleetwood Mac songbook, her style is a nicely balancing counterpoint to the mystical Stevie Nicks compositions and the eccentric ones of Lindsey Buckingham. Songs like "Everywhere," which is currently featured in a TV commercial, "Hold Me" and "You Make Loving Fun" will always be dear old friends.

While McVie's involvement in the surprisingly excellent 2003 Mac album Say You Will was minimal, it disappointed me that they never all got together for one more. For years, another album seemed possible but always stayed just out of reach, while Say You Will showed the spark was still there.

Wordle rips off Lingo, which is coming back to TV

Where's the lawsuit? 

Wordle literally is the concept of the game show Lingo, a word game cleverly infused with some elements of bingo, which first appeared in 1987. The only differences in the word-guessing portion, really, are that Lingo gives the player the first letter, and Worlde provides a handy grid to help keep track of the used letters that are not in the word. I say the differences will not stand up in court. As has been all over the news, The New York Times snatched up Wordle for a big wad of money.

American viewers will best know Lingo for the Chuck Woolery-hosted Game Show Network version, which ran from 2002 to 2007 with more than 300 episodes — a rare bounty for a GSN production. The show originated with a single, obscure syndicated season (1987-88), and there have been a number of successful international versions. In the Netherlands, except for a five-year gap, it has been in production since 1989. So, the concept has been around, and there have been Lingo game apps for the phone.

Now news breaks that CBS is resurrecting the show for primetime. Seems too much to be a coincidence, but news reports indicate the show was in development long before the Wordle craze emerged.

It's fun to see some of the lesser known game shows get the big-budget, big-network treatment — perhaps there will be a car prize ball — but I suspect an hour of Lingo is going to grow tiresome. It seems more of a small-doses pleasure.

And RuPaul as host? Wouldn't be my on my shortlist, or even long list, but maybe he'll work it.

Music that moved me in 2021

This year was more fun musically than last, I’d say, with interesting things going on like Elton John and ABBA going to the top of the charts again.

One of the pleasant surprises of the year was Duran Duran’s Future Past, a stunningly good album that begs the question of where their muse has been in the last 20-plus years. Released in October, Future Past ends up as my #2 album for the year but may ultimately have more impact in 2022 as the songs work through my playlist. The Durans are often at their best with downbeat numbers, and the song “Future Past” is probably my favorite since the extraordinary singles “Ordinary World” and “Come Undone” resuscitated them way back in the first half of the ‘90s.

Here’s a look at how some of the songs released in or near 2021 placed in my top 100, which includes songs old and new and is based on play counts as monitored by Last.fm:

#1 Be the One • Dua Lipa // It was a very Dua Lipa kind of year, and this single from her previous album emerged as my favorite apart from her Elton John collaboration. She has kind of taken on the Queen of Pop role that Gaga squandered over the last few albums. Lipa is also in the top 100 at #21 with “Hallucinate” and #74 with “We’re Good,” and she finishes as the #7 artist of the year.

#2 Anyone • Justin Bieber // Bieber has really carved a niche with melancholy and evocative grooves like this and “Sorry.” Dance with me under the diamonds / See me like breath in the cold is one of my favorite lyrics of the year.

#15 Got Me • Laura Mvula // The British R&B singer delivered one of the most interesting singles of the year. Its groove continually makes me think of Billy Ocean’s “When the Going Gets Tough,” in a good way.

#32 Unwanted • Rick Astley // Suggests Astley should still be making albums of danceable pop.

#38 Cold Heart (Pnau Remix) • Elton John & Dua Lipa // It’s hard to describe what this is — sort of a dance remix of 1989 ballad hit “Sacrifice,” (which by happenstance topped my rolling chart last year), wrapped in a very clever mashup with “Rocket Man,” “Kiss the Bride” and “Where’s the Shoorah?” It’s brilliant, but I wonder if it could have been even more so with a bridge somewhere in the second half. It had the longest run at #1 on my rolling chart and would have finished higher if it had come along earlier in the year.

#39 Free Woman • Lady Gaga // Sometimes a song works better outside the context of its album, and I have found that to be true for some of the tunes from the rather monochramatic Chromatica.

#48 Magic • Kylie Minogue // Kylie’s Disco album is surprisingly not particularly disco, sounding instead like just another pop album, really. There’s nothing anywhere near the disco-ness of Kylie oldie “Your Disco Needs You.” Nevertheless, the single “Magic” lived up to its name.

#53 Don’t Shut Me Down • ABBA // The new album Voyage is solid if not the mind-blower we were hoping for after all this time, right? The lovely ballad “I Still Have Faith In You” also makes it in at #89.

#57 Golden • Harry Styles // Not a name I would expect in my top 100, and he gets here by evoking a style of music that was never my cup of tea, but it works beautifully.

#68 Your Fandango • Sparks & Todd Rundgren // The incomparable combination of wit and musicianship that is Sparks ushered in the first time ever that I’ve played Rundgren. Love the castanets and the unmitigated glee of the insanity going on here.

#80 Golden G String • Miley Cyrus // My interest in Cyrus’ outstanding Plastic Hearts album carried over into ’21 enough to make it the #1 album of the year and Cyrus the #9 artist of the year, which opened with synth masterpiece “Midnight Sky” sitting at #1 on my first rolling chart of ’21. The raucous “Night Crawling (feat. Billy Idol)” also makes the year-ender at #98.

#81 Once I Saw the River Clean • Morrissey // The Mozzer never quite fades away, and the electronic sheen on recent album I Am not a Dog on a Chain was a welcome complement to his eccentric songs.

What’s so hot about the Hot 100? // We have three points of crossover this time, up from one last year. These minor miracles are:

— Save Your Tears • The Weeknd // #2 Billboard; #26 Me

— Anyone • Justin Bieber // #74 Billboard; #2 Me

— We’re Good • Dua Lipa // #90 Billboard; #74 Me

A close call was Ritt Momney’s “Put Your Records On,” a quirky cover of the Corrine Bailey Rae song that got inside my head but finished a bit outside my 100 while landing at #93 in Billboard, despite getting no higher than #30 on the Hot 100 weeklies.

Go here to view prior years' recaps.

RIP Anne Rice

I haven't read any Anne Rice in more than 20 years, but I'll always fondly associate her early vampire novels with the time when I was a teen and really getting into reading voraciously (something which came crashing down when I entered the real world of employment/slavery). As a Christmas gift, my aunt bought for me a paperback set of the first three novels, despite her initial objections to buying something titled The Queen of the Damned. 

My book notes reveal that I was reading Interview With the Vampire at the time I graduated from high school in 1991, and I read the next two within a few months. My notes also indicate that I liked Queen best of the first three books, although that was not how I remembered it before digging out those old pages that meticulously document the books I read. I also read The Tale of the Body Thief, the fourth of The Vampire Chronicles series, a few years later, and that concluded my consumption of Rice's work. I think I sensed by that point she had said what she had to say. At times, I felt the series sagged under the weight of excessive historical detail, but I ultimately bestowed highly favorable ratings on each of the first three novels.

I admire Rice's deadly serious approach to the subject matter; she aimed to elevate the genre with an eye to being a lasting influence, and I believe she succeeded. I'm not sure the sophistication of the Sookie Stackhouse and True Blood stories would have emerged had Rice's treatment of the genre not happened. The idea of a vampire living as a rock star was a groundbreaking departure from caped bloodsuckers crawling up the exterior walls of castles to a young woman's window in the dead of night.

We'll be looking to the upcoming AMC series Interview With the Vampire, coming in 2022, as a fitting tribute to the queen of vampire horror.

Seven things about Spotify's 2021 wrapped

 

1 // I don't usually post about Spotify's yearly recap because the bigger picture of my listening comes via last.fm scrobbling, which aggregates all of my listening on Spotify and the things that I play from my computer, but this year will be an exception. My overall year-end recap will be forthcoming, of course …

2 // In a bit of a shocker, Wrapped tells me I listened to more music this year than 65 percent of other listeners in the United States. I wouldn't have expected this, since I almost never listen at work, and with last.fm I'm rarely in the top 50 percent.

3 // I was a bit surprised to see Erasure as the most played artist (spoiler: They will not be #1 on the aggregated list). It must stem from the fact that I did not purchase a physical copy of their last album, The Neon, or any of its offshoot releases, such as the Ne:Ep. It's a decent album but not one I feel like I played that much. Their songwriting is not as sharp, in my view, over the last several albums. Wrapped says I was in the top 1 percent of Erasure listeners.

4 // Wrapped says I listened to 63 genres, and that's a good thing — I'm proud to be eclectic. New wave coming out on top is a reflection of all that '80s music, and too much of it gets labeled that way.

5 //  The artists on those top songs are, in order, Bieber, Dua Lipa, Simple Minds, Johnny Hates Jazz and Griff. Then and now, now and then.

6 //  Kudos to fairly obscure electronic / chillwave artist Brothertiger for edging into the top 5 artists. That's largely on the strength of his excellent rendition of Tears for Fears' Songs from the Big Chair album in its entirety.

7 // December 1 is too early to close the chart year — there are weeks to go.

Unmasking Information Society's ODDfellows bonus tracks

I recently got the physical CD copy of Information Society's latest album, ODDfellows, for which the bonus tracks are rather shrouded in mystery. Unless they were described in some "social media" comment thread, there is / was literally no information about them online, except that they are limited to the CD, which appears to only be on offer through bandcamp. So, this is a public service to identify and briefly describe the bonus material:

Track 11 - Might Have Been 4:13 // This is the reason to get the CD. "Might Have Been" is arguably better than most of the proper album; it's got a piano bit that lodges in the brain, and the song is one of the sort of mid-tempo grooves they do so well. It's also a tad dark, as if a pinch of Don't Be Afraid was thrown into the recipe.

Track 12 - World Enough (Phuzzed Up Mix) 5:13 // An unremarkable remix of one of the better tracks.

Track 13 - Escape from Murderapolis 1:02 // An instrumental trifle that seems rather pointless to include here at just a minute in length. Quite possibly from one of the guys' soundtrack work.

Track 14 - Slow-Scan 72 1:40 // This is one of their on-line scavenger hunts that I was never hacked enough to pursue.

Back in 2018, they sort of declared the album format dead and started chucking out a string of singles — "Nothing Prevails," "World Enough," "Room 1904" and "Bennington." These ended up being four of the 10 tracks of the new album, so it feels more like getting an EP's worth of new material here. The romantic rumination "World Enough" is the best of the bunch, another of those mid-tempo toe-tappers. Their 2014 return with _hello world remains the jewel of their late active period and, with Information Society (1988), is one of their two best albums.

Eight things about classic Price Is Right on Pluto TV

 A 24-hour loop of current episodes of The Price Is Right might be one definition of hell. But Pluto TV’s 24-hour-a-day classic The Price Is Right Bob Barker-era channel is pretty heavenly.

Some random observations:

• With my (lack of) luck, I’d probably win a sewing machine or a snowmobile. I always feel sorry for those contestants.

• Most of the episodes airing now are circa 1983, when it was apparently a legal requirement that all washing machines and clothes dryers were a sickly yellow color.

• What’s the deal with the 1980s obsession with brass beds? It’s a chintzy look.

• Contestants could reap the rewards of faithful viewership. Watching these shows, I quickly learned that the Haggar slacks are always $30.

• My dream would be to play Punch A Bunch (or is it Punchboard?). Assuming I earned all four punches, I would punch four consecutive spaces on the bottom row. Just because.

• Whoever built the games used too much lattice. Ten Chances looks like something your neighbor is trying to grow tomatoes on and might be a city code violation.

• Bob Barker had his occasional creepy and condescending moments, but he was peerless among game show hosts at building playful drama and anticipation, and I admire his love for game statistics and esoterica (“Has that ever happened before?”).

• It’s streaming on channel 163 on Pluto TV, which, many days, we watch more than “regular” television. That's really saying something, because we loathe sitting through commercials. Come on down!

Music that moved me in 2020

Most played (new songs)

For songs released in or near 2020, Pet Shop Boys win the year with “New Boy,” a “b-side” from the “I Don’t Wanna” single. It’s one of those brilliantly maudlin midtempo meditations they reel off effortlessly, like “Only the Wind” and “Always,” which are often buried as extra tracks on singles and are better than most of what’s on the accompanying album.

The runners-up are the Pets’ “Only the Dark” from this year’s Hotspot album and “Do You Feel,” which emerged as the favorite from La Roux’s latest album, Supervision.

Most played (oldies)

Don Henley’s synthy “Sunset Grill” wins by a point over three tied songs — Tori Amos’ “Silent All These Years,” The Lighting Seeds’ “Don’t Let Go” and Paula Abdul’s “The Promise of a New Day (7” Edit).” When I went to an Eagles concert in Tupelo with my parents back around ’99 or so, the highlight for me was “Sunset Grill.”

Most interesting

From the first time I heard it, I thought Miley Cyrus’ “Midnight Sky” was the most interesting song of the year. It feels like she’s channeling the dark electronic sounds of The Weeknd on this one, and the whole Plastic Hearts album is sounding strikingly good.

What’s so hot about the Hot 100?

It’s becoming a trend that one song from Billboard’s Hot 100 of the year makes my year-end chart. This year, somewhat surprisingly, it’s Billboard’s top song of the year, “Blinding Lights,” by The Weeknd, which sits at #59 on my year-ender. It’s probably his best since "Can't Feel My Face," although I ended up playing “In Your Eyes,” with that killer sax riff, more (#27 for the year); it is currently in my top 10, having recently topped my chart, and could have finished even higher if its run had come earlier.

Lukewarm

Some of my core favorite artists significantly underperformed with new releases (this, sadly, has been a recurring theme in the last few years). With Chromatica, it’s time to accept that Lady Gaga isn’t going to reach the heights of The Fame / The Fame Monster / Born This Way and, to a slightly lesser degree, Artpop, again. Chromatica, to my ears, has a disturbing homogeneity, particularly when compared to her first few albums. It does land a couple of songs on the year-end chart — “Alice” (#51) and “911” (#56). Then there’s Erasure, whose last several albums have underwhelmed; their lone entry from The Neon is “Shot a Satellite” (#62). And the Pets’ Hotspot had some gems, as always, but it was not at all what I expected for the conclusion of their trilogy with Stuart Price, who has essentially been a Pet Shop Boy for the past decade.

Posthumously

It’s not unusual for me to have a Roxette song in rotation, and the late 2019 death of Marie Fredriksson had me hunting for some deeper cuts. They finish the year with several entries — “Wish I could Fly” (#32), “Queen of Rain” (#44) and “Perfect Day” (#66). And my favorite Eddie Money tune, “I Wanna Go Back,” is in at #78, while the posthumously released George Michael song “This is How (We Want You to Get High)" scrapes in at #95.

Ava Max

“Sweet but Psycho” was big enough to repeat; it was #53 for 2019 and #90 for 2020. “Kings & Queens” finished at #115 this year.

The chart statistics are courtesy of scrobbling via Last.fm.

Go here for recaps dating back to the 2000s.

Movies: The Bedroom Window (1987)

With The Bedroom Window, it seems director Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle) set out to make the Hitcockiest movie Hitchcock would make if he and Alma were around in the mid to late 1980s. It’s so overtly Hitchcockian that you almost expect to see the old master walk by in one of the bar scenes or seated in the crowd in the theater scene, casting a knowing fourth-wall glance at the camera. 

It’s got the signature Hitchock ingredients of romantic intrigue and an innocent man wrongly accused and digging himself ever deeper a hole in a plot that involves the protagonist Terry (Steve Guttenberg) doing the boss’ wife (Isabelle Huppert), who witnesses an assault of a woman from her lover’s bedroom window in the middle of the night after hearing screams. To cover up the affair, Terry, rather than his paramour, goes to the police. In terms of plotting, it’s a clever idea that sends our protagonist into a series of mishaps and errors.

Currently available to stream on Amazon Prime, The Bedroom Window often does look like a Hitchcock film in style and staging, and there are a few scenes in which Huppert, dolled up to the max, is framed like a ‘40s vixen. It generally doesn’t look much like an ‘80s movie; the bar scenes, however, with Mario Brothers and Ms. Pac Man video games in view and ‘80s music playing, are exceptions. A curiosity that struck me is a song that plays in both bar scenes — a repetition of music that seems intended as a harbinger of the villian's presence. Particularly in '80s movies, I'm always trying to identify the music, and, in this case, it’s a third-tier Robert Palmer single, "Hyperactive," that many viewers probably wouldn’t even notice had been played in the earlier scene. "Hyperactive" was a single of the time; it crawled to #33 on the Hot 100 on the coattails of its #1 predecessor, "Addicted to Love." Why not use a more identifiable tune or a bit of ominous orchestration that recalls Bernard Hermann?

Most of the movie is a fun watch as Terry gets on the trail of the villain and begins to make a mess of things, but the movie’s final act is rather unimaginative. I think Alma would call for a rewrite.

RIP Roxette's Marie Fredrikkson

From about 1988 to 1992, Roxette were masters at both big, shiny power pop such as "The Look" and "Dangerous" and also devastating pop ballads like "It Must Have Been Love," "Spending My Time" and "Fading Like a Flower," the latter of which I recall even drew praise from my father. Marie Fredrikkson, who was half of Roxette with Per Gessle, passed this week after a very long battle with cancer that had not deterred them from making music. Many casual listeners might be surprised by the hefty body of work left behind by Roxette — they were workhorses, and the quality is generally there throughout, although some albums are decidedly stronger than others. There's lots of Roxette music worthy of exploring beyond Look Sharp and Joyride — one I definitely recommend is Room Service (2001), and I think their final album, Good Karma (2016), was the best since their chart-topping heyday.

My top 10 played Roxette tracks weaves an enjoyable mix of hits and deeper cuts:

Top 7 things about Classic American Top 40 on iHeartRadio

We’re counting down now to my top seven thoughts about Classic American Top 40 from the 70s and 80s (I’m there for the 80s), back in the days when it felt like the charts really meant something, on iHeartRadio. And it doesn’t stop till we get to the top!

#7 Casey Kasem had a voice and charisma that made him perfect for counting down the hits. He was the best ... sorry, Rick Dees.

#6 It's always fun to rediscover good tunes that you forgot you knew. One of those that resides in my current playlist as a result of listening to these shows is Sylvia's hilarious country crossover hit "Nobody" (#15 in 1982). Your nobody called today / She hung up when I asked her name …

#5 The writers for this show had a curious obsession with the geographical identity of the artists. Born in Brooklyn, grew up in Queens, recording out of Nashville, vacationing in the Poconos ...

#4 I’ve always had an inordinate interest in music charts — I think it is somewhat tied to OCD tendencies. It's satisfying to know that both of The Motels’ substantial hits peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 (or "the Hot Hundred" as Kasem sometimes called it), among endless other chart minutiae.

#3 Listening to the shows from the 80s, one thing that has struck me is how the big power ballad duets of that era, often teaming major stars, are a lost art. Songs like "We've Got Tonight" by Kenny Rogers and Sheena Easton, "Separate Lives" by Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin, and "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" by Aretha Franklin and George Michael. A number of them were movie soundtrack songs — another driver of the charts that has diminished in today’s music scene. 

#2 Another thing that has struck me is that there are some fine tunes from the first half of the decade that never resurface in 80s playlists or flashback radio shows. One such nugget that I recently playlisted is John Lennon’s excellent "Just Like Starting Over" from 1980, and there are countless others.

#1 If you listen with any regularity, you'll almost immediately begin to hear repeats, because a relatively small number of countdowns (considering how many there were) are in rotation. If you listen frequently, you'll be able to recite the long distance dedication letters along with Casey and sometimes know what song is coming next. I know there's one show in which Belinda Carlisle debuts at #30 with "Circle in the Sand," one in which Level 42 holds at #7 with "Something About You" and one in which Diana Ross moves 40-29 with a ridiculous song written by Michael Jackson called "Muscles" about unbridled desires for beefcake men (!) . It'd be great to hear some "new" old countdowns added to the rotation. I'd actually love to hear shows from the Shadoe Stevens era as well (Kasem departed in August 1988, so the tail end of the decade is underrepresented). Stevens presided until the 1995 cancellation, and there was still some fun left in the top 40 format into the first half of the 90s, although I pinpoint the beginning of the end to be somewhere around "Rump Shaker" (#2 in 1992).

Till next time, keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars!

Let's talk about The Bird and The Bee

When The Bird and The Bee released the rather quirky  Interpreting the Masters Vol. 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates nine years ago, I figured it would be their Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 — an outstanding album that would never see a second volume. Well, they've just proved me wrong with something that absolutely no one was asking for — Interpreting the Masters Vol. 2: A Tribute to Van Halen. However, we should've seen it coming, given that they signaled their love for VH with the not good song "Diamond Dave" on their 2008 album Ray Guns Are not Just the Future. Perhaps it makes a bit of sense, given Van Halen's somewhat atypical use of synthesizers in the hard rock genre. It's the one thing that made some of their music work for me.

At best, this covers album takes Bird and Bee (Greg Kurstin and Inara George) into some new and interesting sonic territory, particularly on "Ain't Talking 'bout Love," which sounds like Bird and the Bee dipped in dreamwave / synthwave / retrowave, and it's a very good thing. Another highlight is "Jump," which very cleverly transforms singer Inara George's lovely voice into that classic hit's infamous synthesizer riff. Album opener "Runnin' with the Devil" works well, as does "You Really Got Me" (which really ought to be disqualified from this exercise by way of originally being a Kinks song) and "Jamie's Cryin'."

"Eruption" is a roughly 90 second instrumental b-side cover, leaving us with nine actual songs, including the previously released "Diamond Dave." Overall, the song choices veer too far away from hit material for the casual listener; I would much rather hear Bird and the Bee tackle "Dreams" or "When It's Love" than most of what's here. At worst, they struggle with capturing the inherent silliness of some the originals, as in "Hot for Teacher."

FLASHBACK // Back in 2010, I said the Hall & Oates tribute worked beautifully, with "The Bird and the Bee's electro lounge pop marrying perfectly with H&O's pop chestnuts."

RIP Eddie Money

Eddie Money does not hail from the genres that I write most about here, but it occurred to me as I played some of his songs on Spotify that his smoky voice was often pleasantly around during the time frame in which my obsession with pop music emerged, which coincided with his later period as a hitmaker. Beyond the obvious tracks are numerous worthy listens, like "Walk on Water" (#9, 1988), "Endless Nights" (#21, 1987), "The Love in Your Eyes" (#24, 1989) and "Peace in Our Time" (#11, 1989, and originally recorded by Jennifer Holliday for the One Moment in Time Olympics album). Pressed to choose a favorite, I quite like "I Wanna Go Back" (#14, 1986), but I might have to go with the somewhat uncharacteristic and softer-than-usual ballad "I'll Get By," which was his final top 40 hit, peaking at #21 in 1991. It's got an appealingly dark quality with lyrics like Lately I've been thinkin' / I should move away / No reason left to stay / This house is haunted anyway. 

RIP Ric Ocasek

While most of the Ric Ocasek obits are understandably focused on the importance of The Cars and his role in their success, it’s one of his solo songs, "Emotion in Motion," that is one of my all-time favorites of the 1980s and among all pop tunes in general. There's a magical quality to the synth-driven ballad that really takes me somewhere. Released in 1986 as the lead single for his second solo album This Side of Paradise, which largely sounds like a Cars album, it was Ocasek's only U.S. top 40 single as a solo artist (#15 pop, #8 AC, #1 rock tracks). It's a sweetly romantic track, in a good way, and it sits at #16 on my all-time Last fm scrobbles chart. Ocasek's final drawing/doodle that has been featured in the news says "Keep on Laughin'," which is the title of the opening track on This Side of Paradise. It's a good tune, but the second-best track on Paradise is "Mystery."

Elsewhere among his solo albums, "Hang on Tight" from 1997's Troublizing, which featured some collaboration with Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins (not on this track, however), is also highly recommended, with an interesting evolution of the synth-pop-rock sound.

As for The Cars' body of work, the moody ballad "Drive" and "Magic" are divine slices of pop music.

Some things about the return of Press Your Luck

ABC is the new game show network …
Who saw that coming? Faithful reproductions of Pyramid, Match Game and, now, Press Your Luck. To Tell the Truth is a bit of a different vibe than the older versions, but it is quite good, as well. It's interesting to see ABC dipping deeper into the genre with Press and Card Sharks, and these are a real gift to classic game show fans as well as reminders of so much potential mostly squandered by GSN / the Game Show Network.

High tech is better?
The new "big board" is a stunning set piece, to be sure, and modern technology eliminates the possibility of anyone "cracking the code" like Michael Larson did on the old show. But that old big board was a marvel, with individual slides for all of the prizes and dollar amounts in each square. The slides in each square switched in unison and had kind of a cool morphing effect that is completely lost in the new computerized big board. Once in a while, some of the individual squares would get out of synch with the others, making the board look even more dynamic. It also had more stylized representations of the prizes compared to the somewhat generic look of the new board's graphics. The old board still rules.

WTF
We get the somewhat obscure and pointless "Across the Board" space but not the iconic and game-rocking "Double Your $$$ + One Spin"? Seriously? Doesn't seem like it would bust the primetime budget. At least "Pick a Corner" is there.

The hostess
Elizabeth Banks is giving it the ol' college try, but she's not a game show host. Peter Tomarken occasionally got a bit too goofy, but he had gravitas and knew how to run that game. "Roll the board!"

No deal
The new end game is a too-long drag that feels influenced by the overblown drama of Deal or no Deal (although I admit that I like the "chosen just for you" prizes). ABC should have stuck to its usual approach of not fixing what ain't broke. The ideal outcome for all this would be to drop the end game and give us a daily morning or afternoon network or syndicated show with returning champions, the way it's meant to be.

'It' is not a very good movie

Is it the extreme anticipation associated with a cultural touchstone? 

Something has to account for mediocre movies getting a critical pass — I'm thinking of The Force Awakens, for one, and a more recent example is the 2017 adaption of the classic Stephen King horror novel It, which is about as much of a holy grail as Star Wars for King fans. It's stunning to me that this movie sits at an 85/84 on Rotten Tomatoes, and I think a lot of horror movies in recent years — Insidious and The Conjuring among them — have been pretty grossly overrated. I mean, we know going into a horror movie that most of them are bad, but have we set aside all expectations at this point? 

Here, Andy Muschietti's big-budget treatment gets off to a quite promising start in the opening scenes as the paper boat floats down the street in the heavy rain and Georgie pursues it; when it goes down the drain and Georgie comes face to face with Pennywise for the first time, it's captivating to see the solicitous monster trying to push just the right buttons to lure in his prey. Bill Skarsgard nails it in that moment, and I'm ready to go along for the ride. Sadly, though, the movie quickly descends into the usual jump scares, noise and nonsense of modern horror movies; long before the silly final confrontation mercifully arrives, I just wanted it to be over (my viewing partner wholeheartedly agreed). As plenty of others have pointed out, a real bright spot in the movie is Sophia Lillis as Beverly; she displays a gravitas beyond her years that hints at great things to come. 

If I had to watch one of the two adaptations of It again, I'd opt for the slow-burn TV version. I recall that King once said he should have called the novel "sh*t." I don't know about that, but, when it comes to this movie, if the clown shoe fits …

Music that moved me in 2018

Top Song
Foster the People claims the most-played song trophy with the sublime "Sit Next to Me," which has a really appealing, dreamy quality. This rekindled my interest in earlier single "Doing It for the Money," which lands at #21 in my year-end recap of most-played songs, new and old, as tallied by Last FM. The runners-up for songs released in or near 2018: "My My My!" by Troye Sivan and "Your Song," Lady Gaga's outstanding Elton John cover.

A year without scorchers
It was a cycle lacking in artist and album breakouts. My core artists didn't have new albums, and things that could have blown up, like Thompson Twin Tom Bailey's solo debut Science Fiction, failed to fully ignite. My most played "current" artist was Troye Sivan ("My My My!" #3, "Strawberries & Cigarettes," #51 and "Better Now," #83 for the year and currently in my top 10).

Double A-side
I loved that Paul McCartney called the lead single from his 2018 album a double A-side, as if that kind of thing still exists. Both excellent tunes, "Come on to Me" and "I Don't Know" (love that piano intro on the latter), finish in my top 50, along with one of his oldies, "Say Say Say." It's a tad surprising to find him thrice in my top 50.

What's so hot about the Hot 100?
Last year, my non-mainstream tastes yielded only two instances of crossover between my music of the year and that of popular consumption. Not to be outdone, 2018 has literally no crossover at all. It's not surprising, considering the Billboard Hot 100 of the year is a chart heavily infested with songs by Drake and Imagine Dragons. A close call, though, is Bruno Mars' "Finesse," finishing at #14 in Billboard and a bit outside my top 100 in the non-Cardi B version. Mars has become a bit boring, but I loved the overt musical references to Bell Biv DeVoe's "Poison" in that jam. Also worth mentioning is Troye Sivan's cover of Post Malone's "Better Now," which is currently charting in my top 10, while Malone's original finished at #13 for the year in Billboard.

// Go here for recaps from 2017 and prior years.

RIP Aretha Franklin

The mid to late 1980s was a great time to be a teenager getting into music. While there were all of those new sounds happening, it was a time when radio was kinder to veteran artists, and the likes of Roy Orbison, Smokey Robinson and Aretha Franklin could still chart a hit. When I think of Aretha, I think of those '80s hits like "Freeway of Love," "Through the Storm" (with Elton John), "Jimmy Lee," and particularly the Narada Michael Walden collaboration "Who's Zoomin' Who?", a fine pop jam that hit #7 in 1985. Good times with the Queen of Soul, a great American, and one of those people who it seemed would always just be there.

There was no music video for "Who's Zoomin' Who?" …