Mission Statement

Guilty Pleasures: The Music Edition is intended as a forum to review songs that were once considered out-of-favor. Readers are asked to rate the songs using a 10 point voting system (10=strong like, 1=strong dislike) and provide their comments.

The objective is to review the songs offered here with a fresh listen for things like intent (objective), structure, influences (to or from), production value, and performances, all within the context of its musical time frame and while trying to forget past reactions. Hopefully we can hear something different in a song we once thought was less-than-pleasing.

So remember, valid reactions include:

1) None of my friends ever liked this song, but I always did.

2) I never liked this song, but listening to it again after all this time now it makes me want to: (a) tap my foot, or (b) shove a pencil in my ear.

All legit.

-Ken

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

"Denise" by Randy and The Rainbows

My apologies for the delay in recent postings, but something tells me we've all been a bit distracted by the current events of our local ball club...!!! Also had some technical difficulties of late (not sure how many folks actually saw The Monkees post I did), so I thought I'd try out a new format: Guilty Pleasures: The Music Edition Blog. Seems it may be easier to keep track of postings and results using Blogger (see "Voting Results: Master Song List" at top of this page), but unsure about the interaction between Blogger and Facebook. You can add your votes and comments either here or in Facebook, but Facebook may be easier for everyone to see. Let's see what happens...

And now for something on the easy side to get us going again?

There is an extensive catalog of Doo Woop vocal music from the 50s that we all know and love, but this song has always been one that I turn up.  The heavy 1/8 notes create a real moving feel that isn't in most of these songs, and I love the way they keep dropping the bass line out. The guilt? It's 50s Doo Wop, perhaps the most over-played music genre on the planet.

"Come Go With Me" was more popular, "Blue Moon" rocked more, but Denise by Randy and The Rainbows is a nice example of what skinny Italian guys from Queens can accomplish once they put their mind to it.

Enjoy!

KO
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