We’re not doing a lot of 9/11 stuff today. Not that we don’t think it’s important, because it is. But when I say that we aren’t doing a lot of stuff, it’s because we’re leaving it for you. This post is intended to be a place for you to vent, to remember, to share what you want to share. Normally, that’s for the overnight open thread posts, but we’re adding this post for that special purpose, if you want to do that.
Archive of entries posted by Basil
Thursday Night Open Thread
Never really got into The Pixies. Or is it “Pixies?” I don’t know. Doesn’t really matter. It’s just not my style. Not saying they aren’t talented, just their music is not for me.
Do you have something you’d like to share? A link? A joke? Some words of wisdom? A topic to discuss? It’s our nightly Open Thread, and you have the floor.
Tuesday Night Open Thread
We’ve been playing catch-up with the number one hits of the Big Band era on Tuesday Nights. Here’s one we featured for other reasons, back in 2017. Glenn Miller’s In The Mood topped the charts in December 1939, was supplanted by a couple of other songs in late December and in January 1940, then returned to the number one spot in February 1940, staying a total of 13 weeks there. It was Miller’s 6th number one hit, as the bandleader topped the charts five other time prior to 1940.
So, who knocked Glenn Miller from the top spot? Glenn Miller, of course. With another monster hit that topped the charts for nine weeks straight.
If you want to see it live (many years later) it’s available here.
Do you have something you’d like to share? A link? A joke? Some words of wisdom? A topic to discuss? It’s our nightly Open Thread, and you have the floor.
The chart information is from Billboard magazine, as compiled by Record Research. Chart data is copyright 1939-1954, BPI Communications.
Monday Night Open Thread
I was fascinated by the game of chess before I learned how to play. Then, one day, I taught myself the rules. Well, mostly. I got them mostly right. But I eventually learned all the rules. And I’ve continued to love the game this whole time.
Do you have something you’d like to share? A link? A joke? Some words of wisdom? A topic to discuss? It’s our nightly Open Thread, and you have the floor.
Friday Night Open Thread
I love Weird Al.
Do you have something you’d like to share? A link? A joke? Some words of wisdom? A topic to discuss? It’s our nightly Open Thread, and you have the floor.
Thursday Night Open Thread
You may (or may not) realize I’m a music trivia fan. Not an expert by any means, but I do like music trivia.
I remember when Paul Davis broke Johnny Mathis’ record for most weeks for a song on the Hot 100, when his “I Go Crazy” reached its 40th week on the charts.
Well, that’s no longer the record holder, by a long shot. In the last 25 years, several songs have bested that. The current record holder is 87 weeks. Yes, nearly one year and nine months.
Do you have something you’d like to share? A link? A joke? Some words of wisdom? A topic to discuss? It’s our nightly Open Thread, and you have the floor.
Tuesday Night Open Thread
As we continue playing catch-up on the chart toppers of the 1940s, here’s one that slipped through the cracks. It spent five weeks atop the charts, but four of those were in late 1939. Still, it hit number one in January 1940 after having surrendered the top spot to a song featured here previously.
Do you have something you’d like to share? A link? A joke? Some words of wisdom? A topic to discuss? It’s our nightly Open Thread, and you have the floor.
The chart information is from Billboard magazine, as compiled by Record Research. Chart data is copyright 1939-1954, BPI Communications.
Monday Night Open Thread
Every now and then, I run across something that I didn’t know, but think I should have known. For example, the Paul Anka song, “It’s Really Love.”
I was familiar with the tune, but not really the song. In fact, the song and tune go by a bunch of different names. The song is known as “It’s Really Love,” of course. It also appeared on on the album “Endless” under that name.
The song appeared on the “I Love Paris!” album, which wasn’t a U.S. release. On that LP, the song went by the name “Faibles Femmes” which was also the name of a movie in which it appeared.
The tune, sans lyrics, appeared under the name “Toot Sweet” by Tutti Camarata (as Tutti’s Trumpets with the Camarata Strings). Annette Funicello released the song under its original name on “Annette Sings Anka” for Disney’s Buena Vista label.
Finally, the song came to be known as another name, and if you don’t already know what that is, see if you can figure it out from these videos.
The first is the Italian movie “Faibles Femmes” (also known as “Women Are Weak” and “Three Murderesses”). The song appears in the background of a pool scene at the 34:40 mark.
Here’s the song by itself.
Oh, here’s the link to Annette’s version (spoiler alert). And the Tutti Camarata instrumental (spoilers).
I’m gonna leave it up to y’all to say what it is in the comments, if you want. And to brag that you already knew, or admit this one had got past you, too.
Do you have something you’d like to share? A link? A joke? Some words of wisdom? A topic to discuss? It’s our nightly Open Thread, and you have the floor.
Friday Night Open Thread
I love Weird Al.
Yes, I know this isn’t a parody of “Learn To Fly,” but it is a Foo Fighters style parody. That’s why I simply picked a Foo Fighters song I enjoyed, that had a video I enjoyed, for last night.
Do you have something you’d like to share? A link? A joke? Some words of wisdom? A topic to discuss? It’s our nightly Open Thread, and you have the floor.
Thursday Night Open Thread
Never really got into the Foo Fighters. Not sure why not. Most of what I’ve heard, I liked. I just wasn’t looking for new bands at the time, I suppose.
Do you have something you’d like to share? A link? A joke? Some words of wisdom? A topic to discuss? It’s our nightly Open Thread, and you have the floor.
Tuesday Night Open Thread
Some time back, I mentioned that Billboard began publishing their charts in July 1940. That’s correct, but it’s not really complete.
You see, Billboard did have charts back to the first of 1940. Many sources don’t really consider them official, because of the change made to the process in July 1940, which created the “Best Selling Retail Records” chart, which was the primary chart. Despite that, Billboard did publish charts prior to July 1940.
Another thing I want to mention is that for many months now, I’ve been featuring the Billboard number one songs from that era, in order, on Tuesday nights. The exceptions are when I had previously featured a song that hit number one in a different context. I simply skipped them, and picked up with the next song that hit number one, that we haven’t previously featured during a nightly Open Thread post.
Also, I want to mention that I had used a secondary source for my information regarding what songs topped the charts, when, and for how long. I recently found some errors in my secondary source and decided to go directly to the primary source. I now have all of the Billboard pop charts for the 1940s, directly from the recognized authority, Joel Whitburn’s Record Research. I’ve used Whitburn’s data for over 40 years, but didn’t have any data prior to 1955. After my cheap secondary source proved unreliable, I did what I should have done years ago and went directly to the true authority.
As a result, I’m going back and filling in the blanks. I’m going to be listing number one songs from the 1940s, beginning in January 1940, that were not previously shared. I’ll include a little bit of info for trivia buffs. I may be the only one that really cares, but I’m the one putting up the night Open Thread posts, and will fill in some stuff that’s on my mind — the top songs from the Big Band era — accordingly. So, until Oppo, Walruskkkch, or someone else beats me to the keyboard, I’ll be doing this on Tuesday’s for a bit.
The first Billboard number one song of the 1940s was by Frankie Masters and his Orchestra.
This song spent a total of six weeks atop the chart, including the last two weeks of 1939 (no, I don’t have those charts … yet).
Do you have something you’d like to share? A link? A joke? Some words of wisdom? A topic to discuss? It’s our nightly Open Thread, and you have the floor.
The chart information is from Billboard magazine, as compiled by Record Research. Chart data is copyright 1939-1954, BPI Communications.
Monday Night Open Thread
I fell into a “Billy the Kid” rabbit hole on the Internet this past weekend, and found some videos and interviews that had information I hadn’t heard before.
For instance, did you know that Billy the Kid sometimes wore a dress? That, a new version of details of the killing, a new reason for it, and a few other tidbits were gleaned from a pair of videos I saw.
How much truth to them? Dunno. The person interviewed is the grandson of a man who was at the Pete Maxwell ranch on July 14, 1881, and helped bury Billy the Kid, so if the grandfather told his grandson the truth, and if the grandson (the interviewee) remembers it correctly, this is something I hadn’t previously heard. And, it actually fits — or at least doesn’t not fit — with items that are not in dispute.
Here’s the short version of the interview, which I found interesting.
If you want the full version, which includes a lot of stuff not related to the infamous Henry McCarty AKA Billy the Kid, you can see that here. It’s interesting in other ways, but takes over an hour.
Do you have something you’d like to share? A link? A joke? Some words of wisdom? A topic to discuss? It’s our nightly Open Thread, and you have the floor.
Silly Snowflakes
If you use Microsoft Edge, you may have notices that IMAO is dangerous. Excuse me. I mean DaNgErOuS!!!11!
It may be other browsers that do this too. We don’t know, because it doesn’t happen to us, the behind-the-scenes folks.
What’s causing this? Well, while I don’t know with 100% certainty, I suspect that it’s silly snowflakes not liking what they’re seeing, and reporting the Website. Now, note that it says about the Website:
It has been reported to Microsoft for containing misleading content that could lead you to lose personal info, financial data, and even money.
Now that’s just plain silly. Except the jackass (or jackasses) that are reporting us are claiming we’re presenting things in a way to take people’s data and/or money.
I expect that Microsoft will clear all this up, as indicated in their email response to our counter-claim.
Thank you for contacting us about https://www.imao.us/.
We have received the information you provided and are currently reviewing it. If it is determined that the current designation is incorrect or no longer accurate the warning will be removed.
We typically expect to take two business days for our investigation. During the investigation, you may not see changes to the status of your site. If the status of your site has not changed after two business days, please contact us with a reply to this message. Please do not change the subject when replying.
You can find additional information by reviewing the Microsoft Defender SmartScreen
FAQ – https://feedback.smartscreen.microsoft.com/faq.aspx.Thank you,
Microsoft Defender SmartScreen® Support
I do hope that once Microsoft takes a look at things, and when they find out that the report is bogus — nay, an outright lie full of malicious intent — that they will be able to flag the reporter in some way as to prevent them from making such claims.
We’ll keep you posted.
UPDATE: Although we haven’t received an update from Microsoft, the issue is no longer occurring, leading me to suspect that Microsoft has reviewed and found in our favor.
Tuesday Night Open Thread
Frank Sinatra had quite a few hits, but his first actual solo number one hit didn’t come until September 1946 with this hit record.
This song was number one for a total of four weeks, with two different stints at the top. Yes, I know this may conflict with some earlier trivia I offered, but it appears that resource was flawed. I’ll be looking back over those and issuing corrections as needed.
It’s quite frustrating to find a normally reliable resource is in error, and this is one of those times. However, I feel quite confident with my statement that this song was Sinatra’s first solo chart topper. I’ve ordered actual copies of all the Billboard Top Ten charts from the 1940s to ensure that my information about them is correct going forward, and, as I said, I may have to issue corrections. I hate having to do that.
Do you have something you’d like to share? A link? A joke? Some words of wisdom? A topic to discuss? It’s our nightly Open Thread, and you have the floor.
Monday Night Open Thread
Now that it seems people are tired of this Coronavirus thing, it’s probably time for a new plague of some kind. Not that I’m trying to give folks any ideas, but it would probably be a good idea to keep an eye out for something like this.
Do you have something you’d like to share? A link? A joke? Some words of wisdom? A topic to discuss? It’s our nightly Open Thread, and you have the floor.