Songs
A list of songs you ought to know about. You can sort the table by clicking (some of the) headding. Using CSV technology! Some songs have not yet been written about, in which case you can not click the title... but it is important to know they're out there!
| Song | Artist | Album | Year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Do You Wanna Dance | Cherry Cherry | American Train | 1988 | Smantha Newark on Vocals. |
| Don't Ask Questions | Norma Human and the Body People | (single) | 1981 | Ellen Bernfeld is Norma Human. |
| Science Gives You Courage | Karacter | Karacter | 2005 | Self-titled album. |
| Sorry, I'm a Lady | Baccara | Baccara | 1977 | Album is self-titled. |
| Spooky Christmas | Dame Enda Everage | Theme from Neighbours | 1988 | This is the B-Side of the disc which seem to be identified as only the A-side song. |
| The Devil Sent you to Lorado | Baccara | Baccara | 1977 | Album is self-titled. |
| Walking Talking Christmas Tree | Gene London | (single) | - | Cringe.mp3 |
| Yes Sir, I Can Boogie | Baccara | Baccara | 1977 | Album is self-titled. |
Baccara
I don't know why I like Baccara so much, but there's probably going to be many songs by them here. There's recent preformances and the songs hold up against current music as fun, danceable songs to enjoy.
- Yes Sir, I Can Bougie - 1977
- A woman assures a man that she can dance she just needs a song that she wants to dance to. I'm sure there's a feminist interpretation of this somewhere. What sells it for me is when she explains "I already told you in the first verse" as if a man asked her to dance and she's actively singing her response at him. This is probably Baccara's most famous song. Oh and of course it's on YouTube.
- Sorry, I'm a Lady - 1977
- Their second favorite song and another song with a comma in the title. In this song the singer is no longer waiting for the right song, but she's apparently very attracted to a man and upset that she's a proper lady and feels bad sleeping with him. Although she describes him as "bad company" and says she'd rather be "just a little shady." Another possible feminist interpretation! Although, she asks for "power, passion" and says she needs "more than sympathy" so, uh maybe not. A more recent preformance is on YouTube.
- The Devil Sent You to Lorado - 1977
- This is one of those songs that... boy. You just gotta hear it. It's a narrative of a girl who falls in love with a con-man and blames the devil for sendign the man to Loredo "because he knew that I was there." It's a very fun song with a (fittingly) Spanish flavor. Since it's [current year] of course it's available on YouTube.
Cherry Cherry
When is a Japanese idol group not a Japanese idol group? When they're three American girls arriving on the American Train to bring the American Dream to Japan. If you know your modern Japanese history that concept is inherently flawed and yikes on toast, but Joey Carbone seemed to think it was a good idea. It is very novel and the original songs are pretty good and the covers are even better, since you never knew you needed 80s pop-rock covers of them until you had them.
- Do You Wanna Dance (American Train) - 1988
- This is the cover I didn't know I needed. Samantha Newark sings a rockin' 80s cover of the 1958 Bobby Freeman song. Samantha Newark has made the whole album available on her website and it is worth a listen.
Dame Enda Everage
The Australian housewife and Megastar.
- Spooky Christmas - 1988
- There's a few covers of this but it is my go-to Christmas song. As someone who hates most Christmas songs you can make guesses as to why. It really must be expereinced for yourself, and naturally it's on YouTube.
Gene London
- Walkin' Talkin' Christmas Tree
- This is cringy and wholly inapproprate by today's standards. There's a reason there's little record of this song online. The song is truly a product of its time. Some people call it casual racism but I think it's more well-intentioned-- although that's just into the whole idea of the white savior "teaching them what we kids know; 'Bout liberty and friendliness and help your neighbor in distress." Even if the song does imply that "yellows and whites and blacks and browns" will come together in unity, the real redeeming feature of the song is that it answers what a tiny elf on your shoulder would say in "accents tense"-- Surely, it would ask you "what would you be if you had good sense." There is a recording available from April Winchell's MP3 archive (link directly to MP3) for the time being.
Karacter
- Science Gives You Courage (Karacter) - 2005
- This is the first Karacter song I head and of course fell in love with. If my memory is correct this band started life as a Kraftwerk tribute band, however I always thought it was a bit mroe gritty. I am told that Lifestyle ("Sean's other band") still preforms the songs from time to time. The full album is available on Bandcamp.
Norma Human and the Body People
- Don't Ask Questions - 1981
- With only one single, under the name Norma Human now jazz singer-- and she's very good at it too!-- Ellen Bernfeld produced a song in the early days of electronic music and synth. The song served as a sort of audition for her role as the singing voice of Pizzazz in Jem and the Holograms (1985-1988). The song is a rock-synth anthem of every adolecent and is available on CD Baby.
The sorting has been improved a bit. Sorting by song sorts by song title and then artist. Sorting by artist sorts by artist then song title. Sorting by album sorts first by album-- duh!-- then by artist and lastly by song title. In the shocker of the year sorting by year sorts first by year, then by artist, then by album then by song title.