Hump Day Hit 2/8/17

As the Grammy’s draw closer, we take today’s #HumpDayHit to look at a Record of the Year winner. As a drummer and lead singer following Peter Gabriel’s departure, Phil Collins lead Genesis to some great hits in the 80’s such as “Invisible Touch” and “Land of Confusion.” During all of this however, he also had a wildly successful solo career as well, with such classics as “In the Air Tonight” and “Against Al Odds.” Here we look at his final US #1 hit, “Another Day in Paradise.” A song that touches upon the heartbreaking issue of homelessness, an issue that still persists to this day, it’s rather touching whether you’ve stopped for someone or not. The song had some rather tough competition in 1991 to win RotY, beating out “Vision of Love” and “U Can’t Touch This”, and “Nothing Compares 2 U”; all former #1’s as well and all monster hits. While Phil hasn’t had another #1 since, he did a bit more, including the soundtrack to Disney’s “Tarzan”, and remained relatively silent in the music world. One hopes his live shows in London in June are a smashing success.

Hump Day Hit 2/1/17

I liked #HumpDayHit so much, I decided to do it again this week. In these tumultuous days we’re living in, I know you don’t get a chance to take a break this often. Daft Punk feels your pain too. Two Frenchmen with a penchant for electronic music teamed up 24 years ago, and have made an everlasting relationship that has birthed an amazing array of pioneering music. Their music is one I’d call transcendent; with many of their songs providing an escape to another world. While “Discovery” is probably their most critically acclaimed album, and for good reason, “Random Access Memories” is their most commercially successful, their first #1 album and winner of the Album of the Year Grammy in 2014. Teaming up Pharrell, pioneer for his work with The Neptunes, and Nile Rodgers, pioneer from his work with Chic, for two songs on the latter, this song, “Lose Yourself to Dance”, feels like a precursor to the other collaboration, “Get Lucky”. Both going hand in hand for what I’d consider an unforgettable night. One where there are no worries. Where friends and I just click, and build those random access memories as we lose ourselves to dance.

Hump Day Hit 1/25/17

I bet you think I forgot about Music Monday this week, and you’d be half right in that I practically slept through Monday after an early start to the day. So this week, let’s have a #HumpDayHit! The week can be long and arduous, so as we head downhill to the weekend we look at a song lamenting how hard it can be out there. The Spinners are an outstanding group who found a way to capture that wonderful Philly sound after they moved to Atlantic Records following a six year run with Motown. They had an array of hits with Atlantic. A wonderful time period where the songs were on point and Philippé Wynne was at his peak as one of the primary leads. In “Games People Play” however, he only provides background as Bobby Smith and Pervis Jackson give us that tired feeling of the daily grind the world throws at us. Evette Benton joins in to segue us into the chorus. All of it, including a wonderful piano break, adds up to another million seller for the group, and a top 5 hit on the pop charts.