Seven noteworthy selections heard this morning:
KMUN (Astoria, OR)
- Edvard Grieg: Old Norwegian Romance, Op. 51 (Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Paavo Berglund, conductor) (The gentility in the strings and winds and dramatic punctuation from the brass appeal to me.)
KUVO (Denver, CO)
- Fleurette Africaine (African Flower)-Norah Jones (A beguilingly played and hummed version of a Duke Ellington number.)
- Sideman-Lonnie Smith & George Benson (Organ/guitar collaborations don't get much slicker than this. Blue Mitchell contributes a commanding performance on trumpet.)
WERS (Boston, MA)
- Get Up-R.E.M. (Michael Stipe's decree to wake up strikes the right balance of being declarative but not overbearing.)
WEZS (Knoxville, TN)
- Please Come To Boston-Pacific Pops Orchestra (It only took 36 years, but thanks to this online-only station, I finally found out who played this cover of the Dave Loggins tune on KEZK in 1984. I only heard this version once, but its welcoming blend of keyboard, guitar, and strings has stayed with me all these years. When KEZK was an easy listening station here, the DJs back announced song titles but not orchestras. Presumably, this allowed the station to play multiple covers by the same handful of ensembles without calling attention to it. Thus, in the back of my mind, there was this version of "Please Come To Boston" in need of an ID. These kids today don't know what it's like to wait over three decades to find out who's playing an easy listening cover of a 1974 soft rock hit. If I used emoticons in these posts, this would be the place for a smiley face.)
WHDD (Sharon, CT)
- Johann Strauss: On The Beautiful Blue Danube, Op. 314 (London Philharmonic/Franz Welser-Most, conductor) (This famous waltz gets an exuberant treatment here. At the moment, it's difficult for me to take anything seriously; I'm having a flashback to an early '80s commercial in which a construction worker sings, "I got a Dolly...," to the tune of this piece. Perhaps, getting a Dolly Madison pie in one's lunch box is cause for celebration; a construction site is an odd venue for such rejoicing, though. To each, his or her own, I suppose.)
WSPS (Concord, NH)
- I'm Into Something Good-Stool Pigeons (The Herman's Hermits hit, sung from a female perspective; the low-key, bare bones arrangement of this cover brings out the song's charm.)
