“Happiness is a Warm Gun”
by The Breeders (originally by The Beatles)
from the album Pod
1990
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I’m already a day late, and with 11 minutes to spare, nearly two days, so I’ll follow Lance’s lead and go with one where I’m slightly embarrassed to admit I only knew this cover version for a long time before I ever heard the original.
“Brick”
by Ben Folds Five
from the album Whatever and Ever Amen
1997
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This isn’t exactly a karaoke upper. For people who don’t know it, it’s a bit of a downer in sped, but if you do know what the song is about, it’s downright depressing. Which of course hasn’t stopped me from doing it a time or two.
Continue reading Karaoke Tuesday: “Brick”
“Summer of ’69”
by Bryan Adams
from the album Sparkle and Fade
1984
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I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner. It wasn’t even in my mind until Lance did 1979, and we were discussing how timeless the song was even if 1979 wasn’t your summer. This song is the same.
It’s not about being there in the summer of 1969 – it’s about having all the time in the world on your hands, starting a band with your friends, and having it eventually fall apart because everyone grows up and apart. Any of those relevant and timeless? Check, check, and check.
Oh, when I look back now
That summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice
Yeah, I’d always wanna be there
Those were the best days of my life
I used to associate this song with my childhood and watching it on MTV, but now there’s a different association. It must be stated that this is the song that Lance and I start every single karaoke night with. It makes a great duet, it warms the voice up, and traditions are important. And damn if this isn’t incredibly fun to sing. This deserves to be sung with your pal, sharing the mic, thinking of days gone by, even if it is just in some tiny, dark karaoke room.
“Love Hurts”
by Kim Deal and Robert Pollard (originally by The Everly Brothers)
from the album Love and a .45
1994
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I feel grossly uninformed, but until a week or two ago, I didn’t know anything about this song. It’s another one I randomly came across at some point and downloaded strictly because of Kim Deal (I never got into GBV). I was actually going to post it at the end of last month for #AprilDuets, but then when I started looking into it, i realized how much history the song had.
“Hey Jealousy”
by Gin Blossoms
from the album New Miserable Experience
1992
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I wasn’t too sure what to post this week. Nothing was really calling out to me, but was just looking at my karaoke playlist and this jumped out. Probably because it’s so much of the same time as Lance’s pick. I never really got into the Gin Blossoms. I think I had this album at one point but got rid of it, but man, this song is great.
“Duck Tales” Theme Song
by Scott Bradlee’s Saturday Morning Slow Jams
from the album Scott Bradlee’s Saturday Morning Slow Jams
2013
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It’s entirely a coincidence that Lance and I are both posting cartoon covers today. Sometimes we’re eerily in sync, and I highly doubt there will be a recurrence of this type of cover. I wasn’t even going to save this for #CoverFriday and was going to post it when it first made the rounds a few days ago, but was lazy.
“Summerland”
by Everclear
from the album Sparkle and Fade
1995
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I’m not sure how I feel about Lance’s theme for the month, but that’s mostly because it’s been cold and miserable here the past few days, which made it feel like the awful winter is truly never going to leave. Hopefully throughout this month I can get into the right summer song mindset. Regardless, onward.
“Turn My Way”
by New Order w/ Billy Corgan
from Get Ready
2001
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The final entry in #AprilDuets (though I certainly have more I could post) comes from New Order. This was a bit of a comeback album after they hadn’t released anything in 8 years, and though I never gave it enough of a proper listen, this song pretty immediately jumped out.
“Time After Time”
by Cyndi Lauper w/ Sarah McLachlan
from The Body Acoustic
2005
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Cyndi Lauper, or at least my appreciation of her, is in the fine wine/better with age category for me. I didn’t have MTV growing up, but this song is one of the songs I associate with the times I got to watch it at a relative’s, and it was always my favorite of her hits.
“Oh Sherrie”
by Steve Perry
from the album Street Talk
1984
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This was inspired by Lance’s selection for the day, in that it also falls firmly in the category of “I randomly heard or thought of this song one day and remembered how awesome it is and holy crap I can totally hear myself singing this and I’m going to bust this out at karaoke next time!”