Guilty Pleasures - Music Edition

No apologies necessary for Huey Lewis. IMO, that was the club band that made it big in the '80s. Hootie & The Blowfish did the same in the '90s.

No apologies needed for Herb Alpert, either. Don't like it? "Rise" and lump it.

I have friends and acquaintances who all think instrumentals are useless or worse. Do they appreciate music or just want to hear poetry and endless variations of The Mating Ritual accompanied by notes? The fact that Alpert and Chuck Mangione managed to chart with the (lack of) lyrics stacked against them is remarkable (Alpert for "Rise" and making his name with the Tijuana Brass before becoming a wildly successful with a recording label and Mangione with "Feels So Good," though he has done a lot of much better pieces that didn't get near the exposure). And a few of the tracks from my favorites are instrumentals ... says a lot more about their ability and musicianship than writing the newest attempt at sap.

 

My wife and I have tickets to see this group in a couple of weeks. It should be fun.

 

The Beach Boys are one of my "guilty pleasures," and not just their hits.

I'm a big fan of their late-60s/early 70s albums (Wild Honey, Friends, 20/20, Sunflower, Surf's Up), which have a lot of cool songs from everybody as Brian Wilson let off the gas and became less involved with the group.

There's three distinct eras with them, IMHO: Early surf/car songs; "California Girls"/Pet Sounds/Smile Sessions; and the period I'm referring to above. All are enjoyable in their own way.

 

Yacht rock.

 

Christopher Cross, Pablo Cruise, Carpenters (even though their best stuff are just covers, still like For All We Know and I Won't Last A Day Without You), MmmBop, Backstreet Boys (Quit Playing Games... and I Want it That Way), Toxic by B. Spears.

 

Butch Walker before “The Spade.” (I like his stuff after, but I don’t avoid playing it if there are other people in earshot, so it’s not a guilty pleasure.)

Shootyz Groove

OPM’s “Heaven is a Halfpipe” and “Stash Up”

 

The Regrettes do "Fox On The Run" some serious justice.

 

Marshall Crenshaw.

Roxette.

The Bangles.

ABBA.

But mainly Electric Light Orchestra. I knew of "Evil Woman" and "Fire On High," but it wasn't until I happened to put "A New World Record" on a friend's turntable and listened through headphones, particularly to the intro to "Tightrope," that I got hooked. I wore that album out, plus "Out Of The Blue" and "Time." Nerdy kid, listening to a nerdy kid write post-Beatles pop. The fact that Jeff Lynne still looks like he walked out of 1977 is proof he's an alien from another planet.

 

Man, play that early Butch loud and proud. If anyone's going to look down on "Uncomfortably Numb" or "Alicia Amnesia" or "Best Thing That You Never Had," that's someone you don't need to be around. (OK, "My Way" is a guilty pleasure.)

Seriously, "Letters" may be my favorite album by anyone. "Sycamore Meadows" is probably top five.

 

Whenever I hear this song, I think back to watching a 1983 NCAA Tournament highlight video.

“Think of Laura” is one of my guilty pleasures. It’s about a friend’s college roommate, who was riding in a car with her familyvv and was killed when she was struck by a stray bullet fired in a shootout between rival gangs.