February songs

It's really all Mel and Tim's fault.

Sometimes after I go through a round of listening, a song that I had not consciously noticed will start coming back to me. In this case, it was their "Backfield in Motion", a football-themed song.

I knew that with the attacks on diversity, it would really be the wrong month to stop celebrating Black history. I knew I wanted to make it last 30 days instead of only 28. I just didn't have a theme.

"Backfield in Motion" coming back to me sent my thoughts in two directions. 

The first was that after going over all of these years of hits, it might not be bad to go back through. I was only choosing ten out of a hundred, and there were always songs that I liked but did not use.

Also, I could have a football-themed song of the day on Super Bowl Sunday.

I decided to focus on Black artists, which was not a problem. It took a little longer to decide on the other parameters.

In January I had just gotten to 1966, working backwards from 1979 (after having worked forward from 1980 through 1999). I decided to look forward, reviewing old ground. That could start from 1967, where I had just been.

It still had to fit within thirty days.

Although I can imagine a really great review of lesser-known R&B from the 80s and 90s, I ended up decided that I would just go forward for ten years, using three songs per year. Unfortunately, that pushed me past 1969 ("Backfield In Motion's year) by Super Bowl Sunday if I was going in order. 

I wanted to go in order. I ended up giving 1968 an extra song and cutting a song from 1971, which I was okay with.

One kind of fun thing about that is it allowed me to fit in both the 1968 (Hugh Masekela) and 1969 (The Friends of Distinction) "Grazing in the Grass".

As I was working on the list, I saw an article about the first television theme song to hit number 1, 1974's "TSOP (The Sound of  Philadelphia)" from Soul Train. I had just happened to place it on the list. I know I would have listened to it before, but I did not know it's significance.

There are some other interesting things going along with it that are more a part of the overall experience, where it may make more sense to write about them later.

For now, the great thing is that there are so many cool and interesting and good and cheesy and emotional and every other type of song out there. 

It's worth finding more.

Daily songs:

1/31 “Soul Man” by Sam & Dave (1967)
2/1 “Sweet Soul Music” by Arthur Conley (1967)
2/2 “Gimme Little Sign” by Brenton Wood (1967)
2/3 “Slip Away” by Clarence Carter (1968)
2/4 “Dance to the Music” by Sly & The Family Stone (1968)
2/5 “Hold Me Tight” by Johnny Nash (1968)
2/6 “Grazing in the Grass” by Hugh Masekela (1968)
2/7 “Grazing in the Grass” by The Friends of Distinction (1969)
2/8 “What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)” by Jr. Walker & The All Stars (1969)
2/9 “Backfield in Motion” by Mel & Tim (1969)
2/10 “Band of Gold” by Freda Payne (1970)
2/11 “Everybody is a Star” by Sly & The Family Stone (1970)
2/12 “Ball Of Confusion (That’s What The World Is Today)” by The Temptations (1970)
2/13 “Want Ads” by Honey Cone (1971)
2/14 “Smiling Faces” by The Undisputed Truth (1971)
2/15 “Lean On Me” by Bill Withers (1972)
2/16 “Oh Girl” by The Chi-Lites (1972)
2/17 “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want to Be Right” by Luther Ingram (1972)
2/18 “Love Train” by The O’Jays (1973)
2/19 “Stir It Up” by Johnny Nash (1973)
2/20 “Drift Away” by Dobie Gray (1973)
2/21 “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)” by MFSB featuring The Three Degrees (1974)
2/22 “Until You Come Back to Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do)” by Aretha Franklin (1974)
2/23 “Show and Tell” by Al Wilson (1974)
2/24 “Fire” by Ohio Players (1975)
2/25 “Walking In Rhythm” by The Blackbyrds (1975)
2/26 “Express” by B.T. Express (1975)
2/27 “Something He Can Feel” by Aretha Franklin (1976)
2/28 “Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker) by Parliament (1976)
3/1 “Walk Away From Love” by David Ruffin (1976)