An Appealing Teenage Dancing Sensation

Song 461: This week on the playlist you’ll find Sweet Little Sixteen by Chuck Berry, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I knew almost nothing about RnR when the Beatles rocked my world back in the winter of 1964, and I mistakenly thought the Fab Four had invented the form. That didn't start to change until the turn of the 1970s, when a 1950s revival came across the airwaves, and a Rolling Stone subscription began to fill in the blanks for me. Thanks to what I heard and what I read, I soon began to appreciate the significance of this Berry guy. I had previously noticed his name as a songwriter on a couple of Beatles records, and John Lennon's 1975 version of this tune got my attention, but by that time, I had already begun to truly relish the original hit. While this record is now well over 60 years old, I would bet that as long as They're really rockin' in Boston, In Pittsburgh, PA, Deep in the heart of Texas and round the Frisco Bay, All over St. Louis And down in New Orleans, that All the cats still wanna dance with Sweet Little Sixteen.

Not Subject to Time Constraints

Song 460: This week on the playlist you can hear Whenever We Wanted by John Mellencamp, written by Don Covay and Steve Cropper, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. When Mellencamp's 11th album arrived in the fall of 1991, buses all over Manhattan had ads featuring the cover, and I liked the way it looked. A few tunes from the record came rippling across the airwaves, including this title track, quickly convincing me to get my own copy of the disc. As an indication of how much I have relished the LP, this marks the third cut from the album to make the playlist: Get a Leg Up is Song 111 and Crazy Ones is Song 285. Back when he released it, JM called WWW one of his best efforts, and at the time, I agreed with his POV, so it surprised me to learn that in more recent years, he has disparaged the project. While it might not mean much to him these days, I still enjoy hearing him sing about a lover who held her breath once for seven minutes And never turned blue and who Used to rest on a bed of burning coals Every single night. 

Repeating a Made-Up Word

Song 459: This week the playlist honors Sookie Sookie by Steppenwolf, written by Don Covay and Steve Cropper. My HS record collection consisted entirely of singles, since that was all I could sneak by the parents and grandparents, who strongly disapproved of the devil's music, and most of those hits came second-hand from my best friend's younger brother, who liked to keep up with the top ten, but then often soon lost interest in many of his purchases. Unlike him, I got a lot of pleasure out of those used 45s, including the lesser-known b-sides like this cut, which backed up Magic Carpet Ride (Song 403). The track doesn't have a very deep message, but it does have one that's fun to sing along with, and it does remind movers and shakers to better watch your step and don't step on that banana peel because if your foot should ever hit it, you'll go up to the ceiling, so you can let it hang out, baby, and you can also hang it in, baby - listening to this tune might make you feel like doing either, or both.

Identifying the Proper Recipient for Special Treatment

Song 458: Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week the playlist recognizes Somebody to Do That For by fellow former Fast Folkie Ilene Weiss, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I became an instant fan of her work by hearing her perform at Folk City in lower Manhattan one evening in the summer of 1987. The following year, I moved to Brooklyn, and soon became a part of the Fast Folk circle. I enjoyed Ilene's music so much that during the era when Jeff Wilkinson and I ran the Camptown Coffeehouse in Park Slope, I made sure we had one special evening set aside for her to perform. I will also take credit for leaning on Jack Hardy to include her in the 1993 Fast Folk concert, which he did. At both of those memorable gatherings, the audience got the chance to Stand back and receive the rays, watching her glow as out they poured and she warmed up the world that met her gaze, so at least twice she found not just one Somebody to Do That For, but a whole roomful of appreciative recipients.