24 July 2025 (Special Edition) - Chuck Mangione - Give It All You Got

Our last THREE posts are special editions.  What a terrible time. 

The most famous fluegelhorn player is best known for the megahit "Feels So Good", but the native Rochesterarian did a lot more than that.  For instance, he wrote the official theme for the 1980 Olympic Winter Games, held in Lake Placid, just a few hours from Rochester. 

And he performed it there, too.  But the poster won't let us embed that, so here's his performance of "Give It All You Got" from that Games's closing ceremonies. 

Mangione passed away this week, and he will be missed. 

22 July 2025 (Special Edition) - Ozzy Osbourne - Mama, I'm Coming Home

I was having a nice few days off.

And what did I choose to celebrate the life of the now-late Ozzy Osbourne?  

His only solo Top 40 hit, which reached #28 on the Hot 100 in 1991.  It's a power ballad that I ABSOLUTELY hated when it was new.... and I have come to appreciate. Co-written by Osbourne, Zakk Wylde, and Lemmy Kilmester of Motörhead, it was originally written on piano, but moving it to guitar really amped up the power. 

It is rare that we get such a soon final performance of a song like this.   But we have it here.

July 5, 2025.

It was to be his and Black Sabbath's final performance, and... well, you can tell he's weak, and he threw EVERYTHING he had into this performance.   

 

Ozzy Osborne has passed.  His voice will be missed. 

17 July 2025 (Special Edition) - Connie Francis - Where The Boys Are

Connie Francis - born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero in a time when Italians weren't exactly beloved in this country (hence the stage name), actress and singer, passed away yesterday at age 87 - and news has broken on this today.  

Now, modern music fans probably don't think much of this, but in 1960, when she first hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 - her first of three #1 hits - she was the FIRST woman to do that. She was also the first woman to have three #1 hits and that record held until 1979 (Donna Summer, for the record) .

She was a big deal, guys.   

This song was not her biggest hit - but it is an enduring one, from the movie of the same name (that she also starred in).  This song hit #4 in early 1961. 

By the way, in 1989, 29 years after the song's release, Connie Francis performed it on Today. 

In Fort Lauderdale, where the movie was set.

And she sounded great.

She would return to Fort Lauderdale Beach in 2010 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the movie. 

And yeah, she sang it again.

Connie Francis will be missed. 

17 July 2025 - Baby Nova — Too Pretty For Buffalo

I sincerely thought she was going to be from Buffalo.  I mean, she co-wrote and performed a song that makes you think she's from middle America.

Hell, the song even SAYS "....hotel middle America, you can never leave here."

Nope.  

Nova Scotia.    

Still, this artist - real name Kayleigh O'Connor (at the end of this video, you hear an older woman reference her by name) who is very much up-and-coming, is worth your listen.  The video is a combination of Baby Nova standing in an empty room posing and what look like old home videos.   It's kind of cool.

16 July 2025 - Angèle - Bruxelles je t'aime

Let's just not bury the lede.  

Angèle is from Brussels, Belgium.  This song is a love letter to her hometown and her home country.  Written during the pandemic, when she was forced to be away from Brussels, she wrote what will undoubtably become their tourism anthem..... and an anthem for a unified Belgium (yes, the country splitting apart on language lines is a real possibility). 

This was the lead single off her 2022 album Nonante-Cinq, or, as we say in numbers, 95.  She was born in 1995, so... well, title makes sense.  

Anyway, the song was a hit in all of Belgium, and elsewhere in Europe.  And it's delightful. 

By the way, not joking about it being a tourism anthem.  This is unofficial but, still.

Also, used in a LOT of TikToks about Brussels.

@lisasloodts Lights in Bright Brussels ✨#bruxelles#bxl#brusselsbynight#brightbrussels#lightfestival#brussel#travelbelgium#visitbrussels#traveltiktok#travellife#fyp ♬ Bruxelles je t’aime - Angèle

But you didn't come here for the TikToks.  You came for the cool live performances.  

And the first is from French television, and it's not the electro-pop version, but rather a quiet, piano-driven one. Her voice pairs so well with the piano, which she is playing. 

Worry not, friends.  She also does the original version live - extending this version in Montreal to north of eight minutes that do NOT seem wasted. It's high energy, even when it's a love letter for a different city - and listen to all the Quebecois singing along about Brussels. 

15 July 2025 - Ribbon Skirt - Wrong Planet

Last week, the Polaris Prize committee announced their short list.  

Ten great Canadian albums.  

Which I like to think of as ten great albums that happen to be Canadian.  

I listened to all ten of them.  In a day.  Which is insane.  (Full disclosure - I had previously listened to one of the nominees - Nemhasis - and posted about her during Maple Leaf March). 

All of them were good.  

One of them was a lot better than the rest.

Bite Down, by Ribbon Skirt.  

Previously known as Love Language, this Montreal, QC band is amazing, with a rock sound - and this album is my favorite of 2025 so far.    Give them a listen. 

Got that down?  Good.  Now listen to their SXSW 2025 performance of the same song.   It's practically star-making. 

14 July 2025 - A "Bette Davis Eyes" Special

So I'm flipping through Spotify a couple of days ago and I hear THIS. 

JoJo Siwa covering a nearly-forgotten 80's classic song was NOT on my 2025 bingo card.  However, it's pretty solid - an electronic update of the Kim Carnes classic.  Her raspiness matches the song well.  

But let's talk about the 1981 Kim Carnes version - which adds a sultry breathiness to the raspiness.  THIS version - Carnes's biggest (but not only - she isn't a one-hit wonder) - spent nine weeks at number one on the US charts, and won the Grammys for Song and Record of the Year. 

The song also reached gold and platinum status, and Carnes sent gold and platinum records to Bette Davis herself - who was very appreciative of the song and of course hung those gifts up prominently. 

So the thing about the Grammy for Song of the Year - it's a songwriter award.  Kim Carnes did not write this song.   Donna Weiss and Jackie DeShannon wrote this song, so they won the Grammy. 

However, even though they won the Grammy in 1982, they WROTE the song in 1974, and DeShannon was the original artist.  Although her version is VERY different, I don't think she was terribly upset that her song was made into a hit by Carnes.  

I thought it would be a fun detour here to hear a man cover the song.  

So who better than Liga Joe, from Brazil? We've featured them before. This is straight-ahead rock and I don't really care where they're from - this is a great song. 

Other artists, however, have made this song into a hit.  Shockingly, Gwyneth Paltrow is one of them.

(Long time readers here are NOT surprised)

Anyway, this version - from the movie Duet - went platinum in Australia, and was a top five hit there. And, although not as raspy, it's still well done. 

Although Taylor freaking Swift performed the song live, and did so beautifully on an acoustic guitar, it did not become a hit from her. 

That does not mean it wasn't great. 

T-Swift isn't the only pop superstar to cover this song live.   Kylie Minogue did it, too, and did it a little less acoustically. 

And we come back full circle to JoJo, who performed it live before she went into a studio.

Not gonna lie - I like this version better. The raspiness is more natural.