BLACK IS THE NEW (and old) BLACK

The other day I was listening to the oldies station on my satellite dish, and they played “Black is Black” by Los Bravos. What a great song that is, and sounds surprisingly contemporary for something that was a hit all the way back in 1966. Anyway, as I was contemplating this song, I realized that I know nothing about Los Bravos, but if you had asked me, I probably would have said they were an American band, from maybe the West coast. Also, I was pretty sure that Black is Black was a one-hit-wonder (OHW) and that was about it. So I Googled Los Bravos, and then I Wiki’ed them. And what a surprise!

It turns out that I was right about the OHW thing, but beyond that, I could not have been more wrong. The group Los Bravos is what the Wiki writer calls a Spanish beat group. They are all Spaniards, from Spain except for their Gene Pitney dead ringer sound alike lead singer, who is a German, from Germany. As Jack Benny used to say, “Well!” While they charted a couple more modest hits in the UK, Black is Black was their only charting US Billboard hit (all the way to #4 in the Top Hot 100).

So, here is the group singing their famous song, and a little Gene Pitney tune for comparison. I just love Gene’s voice, and all of his songs, but I picked this one, Mecca, because the similarities are easy to hear. It occurs to me, though, how times have changed. I wonder if anyone these days would see releasing a song about Mecca as a risk, given the way things are. A question without an answer, for sure.













Los Bravos video by YT member lauuu
Gene Pitney video by YT member Brent441
Photo from www.sassyscrubs.com (really!)

SEXIEST SONG SURVEY: GOOD THING OR EXERCISE IN FUTILITY?

As some of you may already know, I’m big on making lists. There’s the on-going (as in never-ending) Things To Do list, plus weekly shopping lists. Then there’s lists of movies to watch, books to read, CDs to check out, blog posts to write about… Really, I should own stock in Post-It Notes. And let's not forget the list of my personal Top 10 vintage oldies over on the left-hand margin of this blog. Lists galore! But it’s all good, right? I mean, my lists are, with the exception of the blog one, not for public viewing. Nobody gets hurt.

But recently in my travels online I came across a list that claimed to be the results of a survey on The Sexiest Songs of All Time. I can’t tell you much more, because no one had signed their name to the entries, still, it was a real eye opener as to what different people actually think is sexy in a song. I found myself alternately nodding my head (Unchained Melody, The Righteous Brothers) and furrowing my brow (Bang-A-Gong, T. Rex) as I read the list. And then, I decided to look into the matter a little further. First I Googled “sexiest songs of all time.” I found more of the same wildly diverse mixture of titles on most sites: “Wicked Game” Chris Isaak, “Love to Love You Baby” Donna Summer, “Possibly Maybe” Bjork, “Tupelo Honey” Van Morrison, and the Titanic one by Celine Dion. One survey site was totally rap and hip hop, with titles I would blush to type out for you (but, yes, they did each refer to sex in, ahem, one way or another). Next I decided to go right to the horse’s mouth, and clicked to see what Rolling Stone mag had to say on the topic. Here’s their list of the Top 5 Sexiest Songs of All Time:

1) “Let’s Get It On” Marvin Gaye
2) “Closer” Nine Inch Nails
3) “Darling Niki” Prince
4) “Like A Virgin” Madonna
5) “Sex Machine” James Brown

I have to say, none of those would be on my list, and two of them (2, 3) I’ve never even heard. So, is there any point to even trying to pick the sexiest song/s ever? I’m pretty sure a lot of peoples’ top pick might change over time, anyway. Still, we are driven to try. So, I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.

Deb’s Pick for Sexiest Song of All Time – “Every Breath I Take” Gene Pitney. It’s got it all – Lyrics, melody, drums, strings, Gene’s terrific voice. Oh, and did I mention the drums?

And, BTW, the photo at the top is my pick for the Sexiest Eye Chart of all time.