YTunes Shuffle Song Nuggets: Dustin David

Dustin David is a comedian, writer and performer from Maine. His #Fave5 songs narrate his life in completely unexpected ways including getting sober, living in Southern California, growing up in Maine, working with a burlesque troop and playing a game of cat-n-mouse with his  idol, Morrissey. You enjoyed the music he brought in: here are a few nuggets about each of the artists!

Because I Feel Things---Vuurwerk

From Detroit, they originally they called themselves Bears before they signed to the indie record label "Run For Cover Records," where they released a demo with three songs on it and then all they did was tour for the next three years. They got signed by "Triple Crown Records" and then finally released their first full length album in 2009.

Dom-Living In America

One guy, Dominic Cournoyer from Massachussetss. This song won "Song Of The Year" at the Boston Music Awards in 2010!

Pop That-French Montana

Karim Kharbouch was born in Morocco and immigrated to the Bronx with his family at 13 years old. He started creating a series of street-flavored DVDs. Essentially mini documentaries and released them under the name Young French. He did that for 8 years until Akon signed him to his label Konvict in 2009. Karim left that label after 2 years because of record release delays. He was then signed to Bad Boys Records and announced his new name....French Montana.

 

Bloc Party-The Prayer

Inspiration comes from everywhere. Lead singer Kele Okereke says he wrote this after watching the video for Busta Rhymes' song "Touch It." He said the he thought the beginning of Busta's song had a stamp pattern and that was a really great idea. So they toyed with it while recording their own record and wrote the song around it.

The Smiths-Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before

This song was banned by the BBC because of one lyric "And the pain was enough to make a shy, bald Buddhist reflect and plan a mass murder." That was considered insensitive because this song was released not long after the Hungerford massacre, when a 27-year old Michael Ryan shot and killed 16 people in Berkshire, England. The Smiths didn't release this song in the UK.

YTunes Shuffle Episode 68: Song Nuggets Of Zahra Ali's Fave5

Zahra Ali is a comedian/actress in Los Angeles  who runs a highly successful show called Facial Recognition Comedy  Here are extra nuggets on the Fave5 she brought to the show!

Mariah Carey-Always Be My Baby

Mariah's mother is an opera singer and taught her how to sing. Mariah also demands to be photographed from only her right side...cause that's the "Good Side"

Biggie Smalls-Hypnotize

Biggie was a great student. He won several awards as an ENglish student at the Queen of All Saints Middle School in Brooklyn. His mother worked two jobs to raise him as a single mother and had no idea Biggie was selling drugs until he was an adult. He transferred high schools and attended with other future rappers, DMX, Jay-Z, and Busta Rhymes.

Backstreet Boys-I want it that way

The songwriters, Max Martin and Andreas Carlsson (also wrote for Britney Spears and N Sync) say that this song is proof that melody is so important. The lyrics don't make much sense but contain lots of simple rhymes to support the music "You are my fire, the one desire" "Aint nothing but a heartache, Aint nothin but a mistake" They tried rearranged the words, but still, it makes no sense. They blame this on Max Martin being a Swede and writing this song in his second language.

Sean Paul-Just Gimme The Light

Not surprisingly, this song is about marijuana. When he says "Gimme the light" he asking to pass the joint.

Green Day-Blvd Of Broken Dreams

The band wanted to stray from PUnk rock and finish the song with a more Beatles-esque vibe. Their producer was hearing them say "we want calliopes and circus music and craziness!" Producer Rob Cavallo was like, look, you're a rock band, let's just do that with guitars."

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YTunes Shuffle Episode 67: Adam Chester Song Nuggets

Adam Chester is a song writer, singer, pianist, author and most notably, Sir Elton John's surrogate. That means, Adam stands in for Elton to rehearse the band and sometimes, even helps Elton remember how to play some of his own songs. Through his Fave 5 we get a sense of how Adam came to be a successful musician and a family man.  Here are a few little extras, or Nuggets on the music he brought in to share.

Allan Sherman “My Zelda”

Allan is a Chicago born and raise comedy writer. This song, from the album “My Son, The Folk Singer” (1962) became the fastest-selling record up to that time. He went to University of Illinois (Maggi’s alma mater) and wrote for the Daily Illini. He never graduated because he was expelled for reaking into a campus sorority house with his then-girlfriend.

Elton John “Funeral For A Friend”

This was known as one of the first bathroom break songs on radio. It is 11 minutes long and wasn’t played very much on FM radio but still gained immense popularity.” Funeral For a Friend” is the instrumental section and transitions into “Love Lies Bleeding.” Not surprisingly, he wrote the music for this song after thinking about what he would want played at his funeral. In this episode, Adam talks about how Love Lies Bleeding is also the name of a flower! Check out the beautiful blossom here.

Adam Chester “8 Days And Nights”

A Ytunes Shuffle first and original!!!

Bee Gees “How Deep Is Your Love”

This was a big radio smash and broke a big record for the 70’s by staying #1 for 3 weeks and then stayed in the Top 10 for 17 weeks! The band was sued by a man named Ronald Selle, an antiques dealer in Illinois who wrote a song called “Let It End” claiming “How Deep Is Your Love” was based off of Selle’s song.  Selle’s song was never released, he just made a home recording that he had sent to publishers. The jury did convict The Bee Gees to copying Selle’s song based on similarities between songs,  but the judge nullified the verdict.

Truman Chester “Burn”

Truman Chester is the 14 year old son of our guest. This is an original recording not available (yet) for purchase or download. You can hear the song only on this episode of YTunes Shuffle.