Our group declare to be trueThis month's music challenge is #FirstLastEverything.
The performer or song begins and ends with the same letter. Like the band "ABBA", or a song called "Eagle".
Everything's presented alphabetically, by the terminal letter...
Inevitably, I'm playing #FirstLastEverything on hard mode. Challenge devisor @[email protected] accepts performer *or* song beginning and ending with the same letter,
I've got 31 performer *and* song matches - not counting "Eagle" by ABBA.
As you'd expect, it's a mix of big hits and more obscure work. And sometimes both - we start with a forgotten top ten hit...
#FirstLastEverything A song about the boring grind of modern life - or is our protagonist visiting sex clubs after work? A-ha's third top ten hit leaves so many questions unanswered.
On #TOTP, Morten Torten Forten Harket pops into the studio to leave a smouldering look. Mags Furenholmethingie dances on the spot to stomp it out before it turns into a burning gaze and sets light to Sam Fox's frightwig.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDiVfjWK164
A-ha - Train Of Thought - TOTP 1986
#FirstLastEverything continues with another A.
#AztecCamera were Roddy Frame and his session musicians. Two big hit singles in the 1980s, and a stream of well-regarded albums. The band continued to record well into the 90s.
"Spanish horses" was a single ahead of the 1992 Barcelona sports event, later turned up on the album "Dreamland". Ryuichi Sakamoto produced - or dare I say "over-produced"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7Q2_do3nuc
Aztec Camera - Spanish Horses (Official Music Video)
#FirstLastEverything goes title-tracking from one of last year's LPs To Look At promotions.
The #BuenaVistaSocialClub preserved the folk music from before Cuba's communist revolution. Most of the main players died in the early years of the present century, but that doesn't stop their music from living on. Or, indeed, from hanging on hipster's living room walls.
Buena Vista Social Club - Ahora Me Da Pena (Official Audio)
Chic - "Everybody dance"
#FirstLastEverything meets "Disco's greatest band", according to the #Chic website. Nile Rodgers played guitar, Bernard Edwards on bass, Tony Thompson drummed, singers included Luther Vandross, Jocelyn Brown, Norma Jean Wright, and many more.
Soul and funk incarnate, Chic moved with the times, stayed ahead of fashion, chortled at homages from Queen and Steps. Here's a performance from Top Pop in spring 1978.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbwFZMi8YhE
Chic - Everybody Dance • TopPop
#FirstLastEverything gets prefabricated.
#TakeThat were assembled by Nigel Martin-Smith. Five likely lads from the Manchester area, hyped to high heaven, and eventually found a suitable audience - both gay men and tweenage girls wanted to be with the band.
Barry Manilow wrote the song, Donna Summer covered it in the late 1970s, and Take That made a version of Donna's song. Their stomper of a single for Christmas 1992.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVBIfSt0lAo
Take That - Could It Be Magic
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#FirstLastEverything puts on its playsuit.
This 2001 single's about the various ways things orbit a planet. Communication. Pollution. Radioactivity and traffic and debris and everything.
#SuperFurryAnimals were the heavier, less fashionable rock band from Wales. This album sees them at their most solid - they're not polished, are properly on top of their game.
Super Furry Animals - (Drawing) Rings Around the World (Official HD Video)
I expect lots of #FirstLastEverything players are stopping at this Depeche Mode classic.
This version's from #LacunaCoil's 2006 album "Karmacode". The Italian goth-metal band are still active and recording.
LACUNA COIL - Enjoy the Silence - US Version (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
I'm slightly reaching to fill #FirstLastEverything with songs by performers that both begin and end with the same letter.
Toronto lovelies #EvansBlue put out this hard rock song in 2007. The lead single from their second album is about a breakup where one party's not ready to move on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azkGI6OFZJc
Evans Blue - The Pursuit
A 1972 single from Lynsey, it's about a girl who gets annoyed when her bloke starts wearing her clothes. Not because she's some sort of dragphobe, but because *he looks better than she does*.
We don't have Lynsey's performance on TOTP, with Marc Bolan grinning from the sidelines. We do have this from ARD's show.
Getting a Drag - Lynsey de Paul (live on German TV)
#FirstLastEverything marks Hallowe'en on completely the wrong day.
The fourth single from their arena rock album "Once Upon a Time" was released in aid of #AmnestyInternational. Jim Kerr and #SimpleMinds had always had a social conscience, here it is on display for a controversial political cause.
Simple Minds - Ghostdancing (Live)
An ecological song from 1988.
T-Bone Burnett's wife turned her back on Christian music, to channel her secular singer-songwriter talent. It's a single from "The Indescribable Wow", which reminds me of late-era Beatles psychedelia, or the work of Bourgeois Tagg.
Holding On To The Earth
#FirstLastEverything gets modern.
Rosa Linn's new single is fresh off the press. It's only released today.
"Hallelujah" works on a lot of levels, just like similar titles by Leonard Cohen and George Handel. Religious iconography? Not out of place.
It's got a scrapbook video, which recaps everything in the life of last year's #AMPTV entrant to #Eurovision. #RosaLinn has embraced that start, and extended it far beyond anyone's wildest dreams.
Rosa Linn - Hallelujah (My Story)
...and, yes, I am aware how this breaks my self-imposed #FirstLastEverything "title and performer both start and end with the same letter" rule. One of my later picks has fallen through because the song isn't online anywhere, and this is too good to miss.
#FirstLastEverything goes to the flicks, with the title track to 2000's "Charlie's Angels" film.
The film's stars Drew, Cameron, and Lucy all get namechecks, and the video is an homage to the film.
Was this the point when #DestinysChild moved from R&B to the mainstream? Possibly, because "Survivor" is next, and then the group shatters into its constituent parts.
Destiny's Child - Independent Women, Pt. 1 (Official HD Video)
“Independent Women Part 1” by Destiny’s Child feat. Da BratListen to Destiny’s Child: https://DestinysChild.lnk.to/listenYDSubscribe to the Destiny’s Child Y...
Revenge is a dish best served cold. On this 2011 single, Jessie J delivers a message to the peers who doubted her ambition, thought she'd amount to nothing, or generally doubted.
Very much a single (and video) from 2011, really don't think she would release anything this aggressive in the present day.
#FirstLastEverything #JessieJ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsxSxF3JKeU
Jessie J - Who's Laughing Now (Official Video)
Rock week begins with Sheffield's finest. The lead single from 2022's "Diamond Star Halos" album recaptures their stadium rock days.
Harks back even further, this song could have fallen from a Roy Wood or The Sweet setlist.
Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy were the core of The Cult, a very hard rock band from the late 80s. This song's about someone Astbury once knew, and we mean that in the biblical sense.
This single came from the 1987 album "Electric". Rick Rubin produced, and crushed much of the musical genius out of the mix. Energetic, fun, but they've done better and they'll do better.
The Cult - Lil' Devil HD
After almost two decades on the fringes of success, metal-prog band Magnum had broken through in 1988 with hits "Start talkin' love" and "Days of no trust".
Their next album was an effort to break the States, but "Goodnight LA" broke the fans, who called it too commercial; it ended up costing them their record deal.
Magnum have split, reunited, changed lineups, and still perform.
MAGNUM - Rockin Chair -
Rock week continues with one of the best bands I've ever seen.
Ned's Atomic Dustbin rocketed to fame on the back of Pop Will Eat Itself and The Wonderstuff, the closest we got to a Stourbridge Scene.
Their brand of funk-punk may not have sold huge quantities, but their Christmas shows at the #Wolverhampton Civic became legendary parties, crowds of merry festive debauchery.
Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Trust
"Begin to Hope" is Regina's most accessible album, showcasing her ability to move from sound to sound, skip from soul to show tune in a heartbeat.
Lead single "On the radio" is a song about maturity, growing from youthful indescretions to the meaning of life. Grief is the price of love.
Regina Spektor - "On The Radio" [Official Music Video]
Pete Waterman's answer to Michelle McManus, a four-piece group who could sing a bit, dance a bit, and looked cute on Saturday morning telly.
The video is shot on a massive Twister mat, the song builds step by step to a textbook PWL climax, all melodrama and bombast.
The group's only substantial hit, because Pop! was not where 2004 was at.
POP! - Heaven & Earth (Official Video)
Rock week concludes with a song from 2018. By now, the Stone Temple Pilots have a new singer - Jeff Gutt from Yankee X Factor - and less of the internal tension from Scott Weiland's era.
This is a bluesy song, the sound of a band getting to be at ease with itself.
Stone Temple Pilots - Roll Me Under [Live] (Official Video)
The original Sugababes line up had some wonderful harmonies, never clearer than on this song.
It's a chilling and dark work, the trio literally hide in the shadows and do not want to face the world.
The world of songs and performers that start and end with the same letter has some wonderful people in it.
#FirstLastEverything #Sugababes #MutyaKeishaSiobhan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA85-bQtDuk
Sugababes - Run for Cover (Official Music Video)
From 2019's "Living Mirage" album, a song to celebrate diversity and find a common core to humanity. The whole album is about personal growth, and was written when one of the band had his struggles with addictions.
#FirstLastEverything #TheHeadAndTheHeart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA85-bQtDuk
Sugababes - Run for Cover (Official Music Video)
1979 marked a change of direction for the Mael Brothers, working with hip-and-happening producer Giorgio Moroder.
It's a musing on disco culture. And hedonism, and mortality, and drugs, and commercialism.
Released at the moment disco music jumped the shark: after summer '79, fashion changes and Sparks moved to be a heritage act.
#FirstLastEverything #Sparks
Sparks - The Number One Song In Heaven (Official Video)
From 2015, the breakthrough track for the singer / songwriter / hunk. Nothing difficult, nothing flash, it's simple and catchy pop with more handclap than vocal dexterity. The performance comes from BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge.
Shawn Mendes - Stitches (in the Live Lounge)
You are a travelling big band. You play the same standards every night. You get bored and uninspired, so you mix things up a bit.
The William Tell Overture on kitchen implements! A song called "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"!
This "Rudolph" was a top ten Billboard hit from 1950, just one year after Gene Autry's syrupy original.
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer : Spike Jones and his City Slickers : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Performer: Spike Jones and his City Slickers; Rudolph (himself) with Santa Claus and The Four ReindeerWriter: Johnny Marks; Eddie MaxwellVocal refrain; Special...
It started as "Mbube", translated as "Wimoweh", hit big for The Tokens.
"The lion sleeps tonight" was a number one hit for Tight Fit - model Steve Grant with singers Denise Gyngell and Julie Harris.
They looked great on #TOTP, with literal choreography. And they could sing! But management didn't pay wages, and the group split within months They've reunited for the nostalgia circuit.
Tight Fit - The Lion Sleeps Tonight - TOTP - 1982
A burst of chillout brilliance from 1995. Joanna Law's cover of "The first time ever I saw your face" is chopped up and reassembled over a gentle ambient beat.
Sounds as good with your posse on the dancefloor as cuddling with your cutie under the stars on a warm summer's evening.
#FirstLastEverything #WayOutWest #Joanna Law
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6-Rnq9P_wM
Way Out West - The Gift (Original)
From 2020's "evermore" album, when young Swiftie compared her life to a willow tree, bending before the winds of love.
Sparked a lot of discussion amongst fans, and also amongst musicologist anoraks. They say "ooh, common time at 84bpm".
Some fans think "bless, cosy with Joe." Some think "stronger than a 90s trend, obviously a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference."
What does it mean? Who knows? That's the fun!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsEZmictANA
#FirstLastEverything #TaylorSwift
Taylor Swift - willow (Official Music Video)
Official music video by Taylor Swift performing “willow” – off her evermore album. Listen here: https://taylor.lnk.to/evermorealbum►Subscribe to Taylor Swift...
Working in a record shop in summer 94 had its highlights. One of them was reminding people what was that tribal / African / calming song they'd heard.
Lunchtime after they'd sung on #TOTP, we sold all 23 copies. Could have sold them five times over.
Struck a nerve with a lot of people - number one in France for One Full Bryanadams and MTV Europe's video of the year.
Youssou N'Dour - 7 Seconds ft. Neneh Cherry
Youssou N'Dour's official music video for '7 Seconds' ft. Neneh Cherry. Click to listen to Youssou N'Dour on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/YoussouSpotify?IQid=...
Ian Tindale
@daweaver this was also a change for me – I’d been a huge fan of Sparks since my early teens, the first three albums I ever bought were Kimono My House; Propaganda; Indiscreet, but by the time this came out I was no longer at school and living in Papua New Guinea so I never heard it until one of the times I returned to the UK later, and basically didn’t like it – all further Sparks stuff seemed to me to be different somehow to the Sparks I liked, they seemed more overtly operatic and theatrical and it was quite some time before I liked them again
(Then again my other obsession parallel to Sparks, which was Kraftwerk, I also went off around about the time of that yellow album, so it’s not me, it’s them)
Dudula the Dud@daweaver A band named after a Goon Show episode!
@BackFromTheDud Wow! Thank you, will file that in the #TodayILearned collection.