Here are some representative tracks of my music of 2024, CDs I bought because I’m that way. Most, though not all, are records I had on vinyl. They are listed from most recent to earliest.
Goin’ Down – The Monkees. I bought a five-pack of CDs by the group. There’s a version of the song as an add-on to the album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. It was initially the B side of the single Daydream Believer, which was #1 for four weeks. Goin’ Down, which I heard on a Best of the Monkees album, got all the way to #104 on the pop charts. I think it’s a hoot, and there’s a fun little backstory here.
Love Is A Beautiful Thing – the Young Rascals. Another five-pack. Their second album, Collections, contains my favorite Felix Cavaliere/Eddie Brigati shared vocal. Usually, it’s by one of the two, or Gene Cornish.
Come and Dance – Sam Mukoro. I bought the album Kids African Party at the Smithsonian Museum of African Art.
Waiting In Vain—Bob Marley. I had never owned his 1977 Exodus album until I saw the movie Bob Marley: One Love, the last film at the Spectrum Theatre as a Landmark Theatre.
Cass, Michelle, John, Denny
Safe In My Garden – The Mamas and The Papas. The quartet put out three albums and then broke up. They put out a greatest hits collection, Farewell to the First Golden Era, but then they got back together and released an album called The Papas and the Mamas, from which this song appears. I bought the CD as a twofer with the group’s third album, Deliver, neither of which I had ever owned, although my sister Leslie had them both.
Ex-Wives – from the Studio Cast Recording of SIX. I saw the show at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady.
Habits—Gary Clark Jr. is from the Jpeg Raw album. I probably saw him on a television program, The Daily Show, I’m guessing
Private Life—Pretenders. I bought the group’s eponymous first album 43 years ago and played it incessantly.
Live and Let Live (Bright-Side Mix) -Peter Gabriel. My friend Rocco turned me onto the 2023 album, i/o
Going Down For The Third Time – the Supremes. It is one of my two favorite songs from my favorite Supremes albums, Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland, which is a silly title since most of their songs at that time were H-D-H.
By sheer happenstance, the first and last songs share a common thread.
