The hostess is handing the hot towels around and I am BACK to talk about Holiday Inn from Elton John's 1971 Madman Across the Water. And how it sort of became part of my dream of going to meet my person in the early days when we were 6,000 miles apart. LOVE this song. Came out in November 1971. Lyrics by Bernie Taupin, who said 'Back in the seventies, when people were saying that "Madman Across the Water" was about Richard Nixon, I thought, That is genius. I could never have thought of that.'

Protest music. Finally.  I'd been making do with Little Hitlers by Everything but the Girl all this time and never knew this song existed. This is me discovering Ani DiFranco for the first time. 

This episode is an experiment. Instead of talking about something that's been on my ipod for years I am reading a letter to my gf about how I came across this awesome cover of the famed Thin Lizzy track, which I never expected I'd hear from Belle & Sebastian and never knew existed before today  Recorded in Belfast, in December 2001, and included on their 2008 'The BBC Sessions.'  

True story. 2 people in love on April 13 in a service area in Italy. And a song that helped open my eyes to the possibility of... 2 hearts, unchained, flying. 

Just saw The Dirt and I was SO IMPRESSED! And they were there all the time. Genius! 

One that I come back to again and again, and like to think everyone who hears 'Something Big' ends up thinking  'they wrote this one just for me.' Bacharach and David wrote the song for Mark Lindsay, who did a beautiful version in 1971. The original made it out in 1973 and that's the one that found its way to my iPod. 

True story about magic ipod being MAGIC! Music by Harry Warren & Al Dubin, sung in English and Pig Latin by famed glamour puss Ginger Rogers. From Gold Diggers of 1933.  

This fun instrumental is all the soundtrack you'l ever need for your next mental vacation to swinging London in the mid-sixties. 2 minutes 58. Who needs lyrics when you can hear the smiles. 

This song is like a friend. From 1974, George Clinton and Eddie Hazel's (in my opinion) masterpiece. 

Sugar.... a sentimental favorite about summer sunshine, salt water and.... smiles.  And who doesn't some of that. It's January.