The Best Song Ever (This Week)

Author: The Best Song Ever (This Week)

"Cruel Summer" by Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift's "Cruel Summer" became the song of the Summer of 2023 four years after its initial release because it's what this summer needed: a catharsis.

A playlist with "Cruel Summer" and the songs featured on The Best Song Ever (This Week) this episode can be found here:

"In The Summertime" by Mungo Jerry
The summer of 1970 was the summer of Mungo Jerry. Here's the story of one of the top-selling singles in history, told without a mention of singer Ray Dorsey's heroic sideburns. Please forgive the omission. 
A playlist with "In The Summertime" and 14 other songs by Mungo Jerry can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5scEfev4KPILrFNhXhMeAC?si=efa33dc38fb44879 
You can also read The Best Song Ever (This Week) for free at bestsong.substack.com. Recommended if you like footnotes. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Don Henley's "Boys of Summer" could have been a Tom Petty song. Hear the story of how a song written by The Heartbreaker's guitarist Mike Campnbell got to Don Henley and how Henley's lyrics express summer beyond all the fun in the sun. And Henley really did see a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac. 
Hear the full interview with Mike Campbell on Brian Koppelman's The Moment podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-moment-with-brian-koppelman/id814550071?i=1000519286788

A playlist with "Boys of Summer" and other songs relevant to this episode can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Sf2ClX1lP9MJtmfGxGaDt?si=5f71ef53b5ed4532
You can also read The Best Song Ever (This Week) for free at bestsong.substack.com. Recommended if you like footnotes. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everybody's looking for something... The Eurythmics were looking for a way out of debt and despair when "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" -- an experimental electronic song with no chorus -- surprised them and their record label to become a worldwide hit in 1983. 
A playlist starting with "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" and including 19 more songs by The Eurythmics and Annie Lennox can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1nbLhTcxRqqFBe4XZVSwpM?si=1a8ca0ad052544a3 
You can also read The Best Song Ever (This Week) for free at bestsong.substack.com. Recommended if you like footnotes. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Author: The Best Song Ever (The Week)

Morphine's "Buena" 
1993's "Buena" was the song that introduced many people to the Cambridge/Boston band Morphine. The three-piece band's sound was baritone saxophone and two-string slide bass. Bassist and singer Sandman called it Low Rock for its deep tones, but Morphine goes deep in other ways, too, even 30 years later.
A playlist starting with "Buena" and continuing through other songs from Morphine and Mark Sandman can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6c7GFFHnn8S9QzKFN7DRY2?si=2ff8cf81bb384611

You can also read The Best Song Ever (This Week) for free at bestsong.substack.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Split Enz had New Zealand's first international hit with a song that had the chorus of "I don't know why sometimes I get frightened." It was one of those early MTV videos that for the anxious young people who saw it, they themselves felt seen. 
You can hear "I Got You" along with other songs by Split Enz and the Finn brothers' bands that followed here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5T3b5Lz7XOrm4VM6fjvatD?si=d9e9531930d54585

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Girl from Ipanema" recalls so much loungey, easy-listening kitsch, but that's not the fault of Bossa Nova's history-making song and certainly not Astrud Gilberto, who wasn't even supposed to sing it. 
A playlist of this and other songs relevant to the episode can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3sF2lmLbhbwrq98noI40Me?si=cc58aee82d8d44e6
You can read The Best Song Ever (This Week) for free at bestsong.substack.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Peggy Lee's performance makes "Is That All There Is" a classic that spoke to both sides of the generational divide of the 1960s and endures today. Written by hitmakers Lieber & Stoller, arranged and conducted by a young Randy Newman, "Is That All There Is" is the song of her life, and she gave them the performance of theirs. 
You can hear "Is That All There Is" along with 26 other songs by Peggy Lee that we'll hope you enjoy here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4wdSq3foHXvXeDSqOoiO7l?si=bd9a2acb11924075See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"Totally Wired" by The Fall

"Totally Wired" is a staple of Punk, Post-Punk, and New Wave compilations and playlists. Not that The Fall would allow itself to belong to any scene. The band outlasted any of those with which it was compiled and over the years counted over 60 members. The thing that kept The Fall goin and breaking apart was cantankerous and quotable Mark E. Smith. Please join us on this look into what their seventh album called "The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall."
You can hear "Totally Wired" in different versions and more music by the artists involved here: SpotifySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Desmond Dekkar introduced Reggae to the world with "Israelites," and he introduced the song's producer to another singer he knew from his old job as a welder, Bob Marley. 
You can hear "Israelites" and more songs by Desmond Dekkar, plus other songs relevant to this episode here:  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/36uetjsU7rhqh7UfbgcPbM?si=a376e1a6756b4771See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.