On January 29, 1979, 16-year-old Brenda Spencer killed two people and wounded nine others when she fired a .22 caliber rifle from her house across the street onto the entrance of San Diego’s Grover Cleveland Elementary School.  When asked why she did it, she answered “I don’t like Mondays.”  The Boomtown Rats went on to write and record a song based on the event.  The song reached No.1 on the UK charts, though only rose to No.73 on the US charts.  Bob Geldoff, of the Boomtown Rats and organizer of Live Aid concert for Ethiopian famine relief in 1985 (see information about Live Aid in my bio “About”), performs the song at the concert:

In 2010 Bob performed the song with Jon Bon Jovi, also worth a watch.

“Ticking,” a song chronicling a fictional shooting, though loosely inspired by the Whitman “Texas Tower Sniper” shooting and gun violence in America, was released 5 years earlier by Elton John.  The song is off the album “Caribou,” which is more famous for the Elton hit “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me,” later recorded with George Michael.  He and Bernie wrote it as a statement against violence in America.

“I Don’t Like Mondays” contributes the theme for this week’s playlist – songs including days of the week in their title.  Saturday and Sunday by far inspire the most songs, each with 18 entries on the playlist. 

This is off one of my favorite U2 albums, “Under A Blood Red Sky” live at Red Rocks:

Maroon 5’s Sunday Morning is so good:

And the song has some great covers. So how intimidating to sing the song with Adam Levine as your judge?!?

The George Twins?

Jayesslee Cover (this version is for my friend Melissa):

This one too by Madelyn Grant, Mel:

And I love this version by Algyle, as a cross between Harry Connick Jr. and Michael Buble

Post Modern Jukebox

For those not familial with Post Modern Jukebox, here is one of their classic performances, with some American Idol alums Hailey Reinhardt and Casey Abrams, Morgan James of Broadway fame, and singer and burlesque performer Ariana Savalas, daughter of Telly Savalas.  They are definitely a group seeing in person, though be aware their personnel is constantly changing.

Back to the playlist.  The middle of the week gets slighted by artists, with Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday each having only 3 songs each.  Though Tuesday outshines its mid-week partners with such classic “day” songs as “Tuesday Afternoon,” “Ruby Tuesday,” and “Tuesday’s Gone.”   

Sounds of the 60’s with the Rolling Stones and “Ruby Tuesday.”  Who knew that your fourth grade recorder practice could translate to a career in rock!

So tripping to the 70’s with the Moody Blues “Tuesday Afternoon” off of “Days of Future Past,” one of the first true “concept albums” from this progressive rock band that fused rock with classical music.

And then the Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Southern rock ballad anthem “Tuesday’s Gone.”  They named the band in mocking tribute to their PE teacher at Robert E. Lee High School, who strictly enforced the high school policy against long hair.  So they dropped out of school, grew their hair, and the rest is history:

Monday and Friday have 11 and 9 entries, respectively.  Monday outshines it’s end of the week partner for quality songs.  The beginning of the week offers hits “Monday, Monday,” “Manic Monday,” “Rainy Days and Mondays,” “New Moon on Monday,” “Come Monday,” and “I Don’t Like Monday,” whereas Friday’s hits, though big, are fewer, with “Friday I’m In Love,” “Friday Night,” “Last Friday Night,” and “Black Friday.”

A Monday 60’s classic by the Mama and the Papas, “Monday Monday:”

And and fast forward to the 80’s for this pop hit, “Manic Monday:”

And while I didn’t see Steely Dan until a few years ago, just before Walter Becker died, they hadn’t lost a note – their instrumentation and vocals were spot-on.  So good:

Also included are a few songs that prominently feature days of the week throughout the song, with

“You May Be Right:”

“Friday night I crashed your party. 
Saturday I said ‘I’m sorry.’
Sunday came and trashed me out again…”

Off of “Glass Houses” that landed him his first No.1 hit with “It’s Still Rock & Roll To Me,” the song was a big hit in the 80’s:

“Lady Madonna”

“Friday night arrives without a suitcase
Sunday morning creeping like a nun
Monday’s child has learned to tie his bootlace
See how they run…”

I think John is having fun with nonsensical lyrics as he did in “I Am The Walrus,” to confound the students assigned by his former grade school teacher to interpret lyrics of Beatles songs:

“Happy Days”

“Sunday Monday happy days
Tuesday Wednesday happy days
Thursday Friday happy days
Saturday what a day
Rockin’ all week for you…”

Such a great show for it’s time:

So on to the playlist.  I think this is a fun one to listen to.  Enjoy!

I hope that this music and my blog truly serve as a “revival: a new presentation of something old,” a springboard to return to the music of your youth, or perhaps to find artists you want to discover anew.  Rediscover the passion of music in your life.

Live in the moment.

Enjoy the moment.

Love the moment.

Listen to the MUSIC!