Friday random ten: The next playlist

Well, I enjoyed my experimental playlist, and will certainly put a fair amount of it higher up in the rotation for the future, but all good things must come to an end, and I've still got a bunch of CDs to go. On to the next playlist, where the following songs came up on first play:

1. Nil Por Mi Punados Del Oro - The Mollys. A truly eclectic mix of Irish and Mexican folk music, done in a rollicking and lively style. Sadly, as noted on their cofounder's homepage, they disbanded in 2003. You had to hear them to believe them, and I'm just glad I got to see them live at the Mucky Duck as often as I did.

2. Callin' In Sick - Weird Al Yankovic. Surely by now you must have pegged me as a Weird Al fan, right?

3. I Can't Tame Wild Women - Hot Club of Cowtown. Another great band that has since split up, this Western Swing trio's motto was "In Bob Wills We Trust". I can't argue with that.

4. The Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish - from the soundtrack to "For the Boys". A little-known movie about a couple of USO-tour performers, its soundtrack is one half 1940s swing, one half Bette Midler schmaltz. This is from the good half.

5. Harbor - Vienna Teng. Another Priscilla song, and while it's made-for-Sunny 99 stuff, I'll freely admit that Teng has a gorgeous voice, and that makes up for it.

6. How Far To The Water - Eddie From Ohio. I've worn a groove in half of my EFO CDs and largely not played the others, partly because the two double live CDs that I do play have a good sampling of the material on these disks. Time to get myself more familiar with the back catalog.

7. Pico de Gallo - Trout Fishing In America. Come on, people, sing it with me!

Pico de gallo
You ought to give it a try, oh
Even if you're from Ohio
It'll get you by, oh
Don't get it in your eye, oh
Unless you want to cry, oh
So come on, don't be shy, oh
Have some pico de gallo!

How anyone could fail to love Trout Fishing In America is something I'll never understand.

8. Let's Spend The Night Together - Muddy Waters. I have two Muddy Waters CDs, one an acoustic folk blues disc, the other called "Electric Mud". Both were purchased in a futile attempt to get the version of "Mannish Boy" that I recall from the movie "Risky Business". No, it never occurred to me to just buy the soundtrack. All things considered, I'd say this approach worked out better anyway.

9. St. Louis Blues March - Glenn Miller. Here's the secret to making a kid a Glenn Miller fan for life: Hand him a saxophone in middle school, and point him in the direction of the jazz band. This is a rare song among Miller's canonical works that I've not personally played in one form or another.

10. Flight of the Passing Fancy - Squirrel Nut Zippers. For some reason, the opening riff of this song sounds like a mashup of "Sing Sing Sing" and "Beer Barrell Polka" to me. And I consider that a feature, not a bug.

As always, feel free to mock my musical quirks in the comments.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on March 23, 2007 to Music