Ephemera: collectible printed or written items that were originally meant to be used for a short time and discarded.
I love the word. Would it surprise anyone to know that I have a file cabinet full of clippings on my favorite female singers & girl groups of the past… uh… century? Clearly, I do not find ephemera to be ephemeral.
What more can be said about dearly departed Dolly Parton? Plenty have eulogized her since her passing. Here I offer random tidbits from my Dolly Parton file along with a few paragraphs I contributed to an article in The Forest Hills Times / Queens Ledger.
First, we have some clippings from Billboard magazine in 1965. Monument records was promoting her latest single – a cover of Margo Sylvia & The Tuneweavers’ “Happy Happy Birthday Baby.” Produced by Ray Stevens, Dolly’s version peaked at #108 – bubbling under the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
Her follow-up single, Busy Signal did not chart.
Belgian 45 picture sleeve for Dolly Parton’s “Busy Signal” (1965)
In August 1982, the Mandate magazine featured an article on Dolly’s latest LP, Heartbreak Express:
Dolly featured in the July 1997 Out magazine cover feature:
Pulse magazine (2/2001)
Out magazine (11/2003)
Earlier this month, I recounted Dolly Parton’s 2016 show at Forest Hills Stadium for Michael Perlman’s article in the Forest Hills Times / Queens Ledger:
Volunteer Santas, NYC (1977) photo: Susan Meiselas
I know I am not alone when I say that I take comfort in the annual repetition of the holidays: revisiting holiday-themed music, films, television shows… and now internet posts. Dave Holmes’ account of Patti LaBelle’s disastrous performance at the 1996 National Christmas Tree lighting is worth an annual revisit. Trust me.
Not to get meta or anything, but the post you are currently reading has been reworked and updated each year since 2020.
While we’re mining the past and dusting off our chestnuts, here’s the intro to the 1999 holiday episode of Bri-Guy’s Media Surf, an NYC Public Access show that featured yours truly lip-syncing a little Esquivel:
Whenever the song pops up on my holiday playlist, I still do this.
I find it interesting that we immerse ourselves in certain pop culture favorites for exactly 6 weeks of the year and then pack them up in mothballs with the ornaments until next year. I mean, Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” is currently at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Burl Ives, Bobby Helms and Andy Williams are also in the top 10. Are any of them on your 4th of July playlist? They aren’t on mine.
Gabe Pressman (left) with Marilyn Monroe (1956)
I used to look forward to the annual Christmas Eve tradition on NBC New York’s evening news when reporter Gabe Pressman would read “Yes Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus.” I taped it in 2011, knowing that the tradition wouldn’t last forever. The self-described “little Jewish kid from the Bronx” was 87 years old at the time and continued to work at NBC until his death at age 93.
NBC New York reporter Gabe Pressman’s annual segment on Virginia O’Hanlon’s 1897 letter to the New York Sun Newspaper.
But wait! There’s more: My other blog posts of Christmas past are back to haunt you like A Christmas Carol, Mr. Scrooge.
We now have four 60 Degrees Girl Group Christmas playlists! These have been running each week this month on East Village Radio. Click here for streaming:
11/30/2025 Christmas Show #1: Holiday 60’s chicks and girl groups featuring lots of songs about snow and snowmen, winters warm and cold, blue holidays and Christmas trees.
12/7/2025 Christmas Show #2: The Classic Christmas Episode – our first holiday show from 2008. Featuring Darlene Love, Carla Thomas, The Supremes, Honey & The Bees and more.
12/14/2025 Christmas Show #3: British singers, obscure soul Christmas tracks, favorites from the Spector stable of artists, Motown and more!
12/21/2025 – Christmas Show #4: Featuring soul divas, duets, a boogie woogie Christmas, country ladies, Chess gospel soul and some ladies that really want a Beatle for Christmas.
I recently posted about Truman Capote’s classic short story A Christmas Memory, which includes the entire text, Capote’s 1959 reading of the story, and a link to watch the Emmy Award-winning 1966 television version starring Geraldine Page. Highly Recommended.
There’s a new Motown Christmas Special this year that has already aired in prime time this month, featuring Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Martha Reeves and The Temptations. Here is my take on the 1987 Motown Christmas Special – which featured very few Motown acts.
My Canine Christmas Tail is a true story about my dog Sunshine, a basset hound with an appetite for tinsel.
Have you watched Christmas In Connecticut yet this year? How about that delivery woman? After years of speculation, last year I was able to identify the actress as Daisy Bufford.
The original version of “¿Dónde Está Santa Claus?” is featured in “Llamacita,” a 2024 Amazon Prime holiday commercial. Here’s a little backstory on the song & Augie Rios, who sang the original version.
Also – would you like to hear my Spotify holiday playlist?
Way back in 2002, when Limewire was a thing and people listened to music on silvery discs, I started creating Christmas CD mixes that I would mail out or give to people. These were received with a heartwarming combination of feigned delight, veiled indifference and deafening silence. None of these CDs had a pressing of more than 20 copies. I’d like to call them “much sought after” – but no, that’s not really the case, although every once in a while, someone really got into them and would ask for copies of other volumes.
And so, I’m offering this simple playlist…. for kids from 1 to 92. Unfortunately some of the tracks on these dozen CDs are not on Spotify, but I keep adding songs that would be on the current CD volume… if there was one. And now the playlist is over 18 hours of holiday tunes. I recommend listening on shuffle – there’s something to irritate everyone. Enjoy!
Here’s one more nugget to stuff in your stocking: This vid went viral in 2011. Choreographed and performed by Alex Karigan & Zac Hammer of the Amy Marshall Dance Company, it was filmed in one continuous take at the New 42nd St. Dance Studios. There’s something infectious about it: the joy, the corniness, the celebratory queerness of it all. It makes me want to dust off my jazz shoes. Once a year.
While doing research for my previous post about a 1990 tour of gay Greenwich Village, I found a December 1991 clipping from Bob Harrington’s “Bistro Bits” column tucked into my journal. Harrington’s column was a regular feature in the performing arts publication Back Stage. In pre-internet days, performers would buy this print weekly for the audition listings. “Bistro Bits” was a column highlighting the cabaret scene. It was here that the annual Bistro Awards began in 1985 – created by Harrington to honor excellence in cabaret .
Another prominent feature in Back Stage at the time were the obituaries. Every week there would be death notices for entertainment industry professionals – usually young men dying far too young of “undisclosed causes.” This was at the height of the AIDS crisis and the stigma surrounding it may be lost on those too young to remember. “AIDS complications” were seldom cited in obituaries and listing it as a cause of death could be considered slander. That said, some men began to request its inclusion in their eventual obit: a final act of defiance in a world that was dragging its feet to find a cure.
I mention this to give some context to the level of courage it took for Harrington to write this column.
East Meadow High School (1968)
Robert William Harrington was born on October 2, 1950 in Richmond Hill, Queens and grew up in East Meadow on Long Island. Harrington graduated from East Meadow High School in 1968. He was just a couple of years younger than both of my parents, who graduated from W.T. Clarke, East Meadow district’s other high school. He then went on to study at SUNY Oneonta, where he graduated in 1972.
SUNY Oneonta, NY (1972)
Harrington honed his writing skills while working as a bartender and became known as an expert on the cabaret scene. In 1982, he began writing a column for the Long Island monthly magazine NightLife. He continued writing for the publication when they moved to New York City in 1984 and also launched his “Bistro Bits” column in Back Stage. In 1986, he began contributing reviews for the New York Post, and was an occasional guest on Joe Franklin’s local television talk show.
Harrington was a driving force behind the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs and also very active with Hearts & Voices, an organization that brought music to AIDS patients.
A few months after his announcement in Back Stage, Harrington was quoted as saying; “I’ve gotten tons of letters from people who have survived five, ten years with AIDS. This is the ’90s. We don’t have to die, we’re gonna make it.”
Bob Harrington died on October 19, 1992. He was 42 years old and was survived by his mother and three brothers.
A tribute was held at Caroline’s on November 12, 1992. The show was hosted by Jamie deRoy with performances by Julie Halston, Nancy Lamott, Jim Caruso, Margaret Whiting and Karen Saunders. All proceeds went to Hearts & Voices.
Another tribute took place the following month:
New York Daily News (12/8/92)
The following year, The Bistro Awards named Rosemary Clooney as the first recipient of their highest honor: The Bob Harrington Lifetime Achievement Award.
New York Daily News (2/5/93)
Back Stage editor-in-chief Sherry Eaker spent several years compiling Harrington’s “Bistro Bits” columns into a book. The Cabaret Artist’s Handbook: Creating Your Own Act in Today’s Liveliest Theater Setting was published in 2000.
I recently found myself perusing (as one does) the January, 1990 issue of In Touch For Men. An article titled Touring Around The Village caught my eye. Wesley Allen took a walking tour around Greenwich Village, writing about the gay bars, shops, and restaurants.
This was the New York City that I fell in love with – the one I would visit on day trips from Long Island and was finally able to move to the following year. (See The Lion In The Emerald City and 1991: Homo Alone for more on that. ) These were the shops I frequented and a couple of the bars, too.
Of the 26 businesses mentioned here, four of them still exist at the same locations: The Monster, Ty’s, Marie’s Crisis, and Julius. Around the time that this magazine hit the stands, The Duplex, which originally opened in 1951 at 55 Grove Street, moved to its current spot at 61 Christopher Street.
In 1991, I moved into a 5th floor walkup on East 6th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A. Tunnel Bar was my neighborhood spot, just around the corner on First Avenue at 7th Street. On slow nights, the bespectacled bald barback would sit cross-legged on the far end of the bar, absentmindedly clicking his tongue ring on his teeth like some sort of queer lizard. I couldn’t decide if it was creepy or adorable.
A few years after Tunnel Bar went out of business, Saifee, the hardware store next door expanded into the space. I would reminisce about what it used to be whenever I would go in to buy plant dirt and screws.
I used to joke that the bar I frequented the most was Uncle Charlie’s, but it was just so I could hold my friends’ coats while they cruised the preppy boys. I was invisible there – never quite handsome or stylish enough for the clientele.
Postcard for the 56 Greenwich Avenue location of Uncle Charlie’s, which closed in September, 1997.
The Bar on Second Avenue was another neighborhood spot that I frequented, followed by The Boiler Room, which opened right around the corner on East 4th street in 1994. The Bar went straight a few years later, undergoing many hetero iterations and name changes in the ensuing years. The Boiler Room remained its gay seedy self until the Fall of 2024, when it moved to 45 Second Avenue.
Another item of interest in this issue of In Touch: A very nice photo of Madonna paramour / model Tony Ward.
I was recently perusing (as one does) the June 1992 issue of Heat, a short-lived gay men’s magazine. Amongst the pictorials of cover boy Rob Cryston and fellow gay porn stars Karl Thomas and Sam Abdul is an article titled “The Life and Loves of Keith Haring” by Jack Ricardo.
Keith Haring, Untitled (1988)
Keith Haring photographed by Don Herron (1982)
Bill T. Jones painted by Keith Haring (1983)
Keith Haring photographed by Andy Warhol, Montauk (8/22/84)
Keith Haring photographed by Annie Leibovitz (1986)
This article was published just two years after Haring’s death. In 2019, Gil Vazquez became Executive Director of the Keith Haring Foundation, a role he held for 6 years.
Keith Haring photographed by Patrick McMullan, NYC (8/14/84)
Last month, when the NYC lounge Barracuda announced its closing after 30 years, I posted a couple of photos on social media from a May 5, 1997 appearance by singer/songwriter Jill Sobule. She was interviewed onstage by nightlife icon Candis Cayne, sang a couple of songs, screened the music video for “Bitter” and then met with fans.
That was 28 years ago this week. 30 years ago this same week, Jill’s single “I Kissed A Girl” was released. And now just days before both anniversaries comes the news that Jill has perished in a house fire. It’s a shocking end for such a talented individual, beloved by fans and fellow musicians.
Until the advent of YouTube, the screening of “Bitter” at Barracuda back in 1997 was the only time I ever saw the music video. MTV and VH1 certainly weren’t playing it. Her Happy Town CD had only been out for two months, but it was pretty clear that it wasn’t going to be as successful as her 1995 breakthrough LP – the one with her two hits: “I Kissed A Girl” and “Supermodel”. She would be dropped by Atlantic records by the end of 1997.
When I stepped up to meet Jill that night, I blathered on like the breathless fan that I was, telling her that the album was great and that her fans appreciated her music whether she sold 20 or 20 million copies. She seemed to be touched, gave me a hug and said “Oh, thank you so much.”
Jill sang a song at Barracuda that she had just written called “Money Shot” – a little ditty about a troubled porn star who couldn’t finish the job. She trusted that her audience at this gay club would appreciate it and the song went over well.
The following night, Jill was on the bill as part of a songwriters series at the Bottom Line in Greenwich Village. In the middle of her set, she asked the audience for song requests. I’d had a few cocktails by that point and called out “MONEY SHOT!”
I immediately regretted it.
Her wide eyes got even wider. She looked mortified as she said “Oh no.”
Jill at Joe’s Pub, NYC (April, 2002)
What had been a fun idea at a performance for gay fans in a Chelsea lounge didn’t fly in mixed company at The Bottom Line.
Five years later, I was briefly in a folk trio called The Wormwoods. We shared the bill with Jill and a dozen other singers at Joe’s Pub for two Dusty Springfield tribute concerts. She performed the classic Dusty In Memphis track “Just A Little Lovin’.”
Fast forward to August, 2011: Jill is opening for Fountains of Wayne at Bowery Ballroom on the Lower East Side. At first glance, this might appear to be an ill fit: The “I Kissed A Girl” girl and the “Stacey’s Mom” guys. Their fans can tell you that dismissing either act as a one-hit wonder is an oversight of many albums worth of smart, funny storytelling. Jill won over the Fountains of Wayne audience in no time.
Jill was at the merch table at intermission. “I think you made some new fans tonight,” I said.
She was pleasantly surprised. “They really seemed to like it, didn’t they?”
Songwriters of North America CEO Michelle Lewis called Jill Sobule “a singer/songwriter’s singer/songwriter.” I have similarly called her a musician’s musician. She often performed with just the smallest guitar and played with such intricacy that her audience could forget that it was her only accompaniment. I saw her onstage once with a small children’s keyboard that she had just picked up at a garage sale. Again, she found a way to make it sound like it was all the instrumentation that she needed.
Her song “Mexican Wrestler” epitomized her genius: heartbreakingly funny songwriting and a brilliantly nuanced performance.
Two weeks ago when Jill was opening for The Fixx on tour, she posted online about a concertgoer who took offense at her song “JD Vance is a C**t.” After the show, the woman shoved her and spewed some MAGA bile in her direction.
Jill’s response? She couldn’t wait until her next show – so that she could sing that song again.
I hate the idea of facing the next four years without her take on the unraveling of this administration. I can’t quite grasp that she won’t be here to sing “Underdog Victorious” when we are all on the other side of it.
Some of the many tributes to Jill that have popped up on social media:
Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go’s posted a link to “So Jill,” a song she co-wrote and performed with bandmate Charlotte Caffey and Lloyd Cole after meeting Jill at a songwriters retreat in 1997.
Photo: Brian Blauser/Mountain Stage Archive, Oct 8, 1995
The last 25 minutes of the May 4th episode of 60 Degrees with Brian Ferrari on East Village Radio is a tribute to Jill, with her songs about Joey Heatherton and Bobbie Gentry alongside covers of “Just A Little Lovin’,” “Stone Soul Picnic” and “Que Sera Sera.”Click to have a listen – the tribute starts at 1:35.
I know I am not alone when I say that I take comfort in the annual repetition of the holidays: revisiting holiday-themed music, films, television shows… and now internet posts. Dave Holmes’ account of Patti LaBelle’s disastrous performance at the 1996 National Christmas Tree lighting is worth an annual revisit. Trust me.
Not to get meta or anything, but the post you are currently reading has been reworked and updated each year since 2020.
While we’re mining the past and dusting off our chestnuts, here’s the intro to the 1999 holiday episode ofBri-Guy’s Media Surf, an NYC Public Access show that featured yours truly lip-synching a little Esquivel:
Whenever the song pops up on my holiday playlist, I still do this.
I find it interesting that we immerse ourselves in certain pop culture favorites for exactly 6 weeks of the year and then pack them up in mothballs with the ornaments until next year. I mean, Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” is currently at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Burl Ives, Bobby Helms and Andy Williams are also in the top 10. Are any of them on your 4th of July playlist? They aren’t on mine.
Gabe Pressman (left) with Marilyn Monroe (1956)
I used to look forward to the annual Christmas Eve tradition on NBC New York’s evening news when reporter Gabe Pressman would read “Yes Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus.” I taped it in 2011, knowing that the tradition wouldn’t last forever. The self-described “little Jewish kid from the Bronx” was 87 years old at the time and continued to work at NBC until his death at age 93.
NBC New York reporter Gabe Pressman’s annual segment on Virginia O’Hanlon’s 1897 letter to the New York Sun Newspaper.
In keeping with this revisit, my other blog posts of Christmas past are back to haunt you like A Christmas Carol, Mr. Scrooge:
There’s a new Motown Christmas Special this year that has already aired in prime time several times this month, featuring Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Martha Reeves and The Temptations. Here is my take on the 1987 Motown Christmas Special – which featured very few Motown acts.
My Canine Christmas Tail is a true story about my dog Sunshine, a basset hound with an appetite for tinsel.
Have you watched Christmas In Connecticut yet this year? How about that delivery woman? This year I was able to update my 2019 post, identifying Daisy Bufford as the actress who played the unbilled role.
The original version of “¿Dónde Está Santa Claus?” is featured in “Llamacita,” this year’s Amazon Prime holiday commercial. Here’s a little backstory on the song & Augie Rios, who sang the original version.
Also – would you like to hear my Spotify holiday playlist?
Way back in 2002, when Limewire was a thing and people listened to music on silvery discs, I started creating Christmas CD mixes that I would mail out or give to people. These were received with a heartwarming combination of feigned delight, veiled indifference and deafening silence. None of these CDs had a pressing of more than 20 copies. I’d like to call them “much sought after” – but no, that’s not really the case, although every once in a while, someone really got into them and would ask for copies of other volumes.
And so, I’m offering this simple playlist…. for kids from 1 to 92. Unfortunately some of the tracks on these dozen CDs are not on Spotify, but I keep adding songs that would be on the current CD volume… if there was one. And now the playlist is over 17 hours of holiday tunes. I recommend listening on shuffle – there’s something to irritate everyone. Enjoy!
Here’s one more nugget to stuff in your stocking: This vid went viral in 2011. Choreographed and performed by Alex Karigan & Zac Hammer of the Amy Marshall Dance Company, it was filmed in one continuous take at the New 42nd St. Dance Studios. There’s something infectious about it: the joy, the corniness, the celebratory queerness of it all. It makes me want to dust off my jazz shoes. Once a year.
Celebrating singer Angela McCluskey, who died at age 64 on 3/15/24. In the 90’s she fronted the band Wild Colonials, and her timeless voice graced many soundtracks and commercials.
You know the voice. Even if you think you have never heard it before, you recognize it. When you hear it out in public, in a movie, on television, it’s a voice that makes you reach for your phone to Shazam and find out who it is. It has been described as fractured, gin-soaked. It has the strength to front a rock band. It has a break that recalls Billie Holiday. It transcends genres.
Through the 1990’s Angela McCluskey fronted The Wild Colonials with a force akin to her friend and fellow Scotsman Shirley Manson of Garbage. Formed in Los Angeles, the band had heavy ties with the movie industry. Their music ultimately appeared in over 30 films, and three of the band members have scored full-length features.
Their third album, Reel Life, Vol. 1 was a compilation of songs used in various films including Mr. Wrong, Unhook The Stars and Flirting With Disaster. Their songs were used on television as well, most notably on Grey’s Anatomy.
McCluskey also lent her voice to numerous advertising campaigns, singing in commercials for American Express, Schick razors and this memorable 2000 Kohls jingle:
In 2004, McCluskey released her first solo LP, The Things We Do, featuring the song “It’s Been Done”:
Over the next 18 years, she would release 4 LPs and numerous singles and EPs, including one with the reunited Wild Colonials in 2010.
McCluskey has been described as “a singer’s singer.” Her list of collaborators is long and wide-ranging – from Dr. John to Cyndi Lauper to Shudder To Think to Paul Oakenfold. She contributed vocals for two albums with French electronic group Télépopmusik. Their 2004 collaboration “Breathe” garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording.
Another highlight from her work with Télépopmusik was “Love’s Almighty” from 2005:
She appeared on Robbie Robertson’s LP How To Become Clairvoyant. “In The Air,” her 2011 collaboration with Morgan Page reached #1 on the Billboard Dance Airplay chart.
Angela McCluskey sings “Wild is the Wind” and “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today” for WFUV (2012):
McCluskey recounted her early days with The Wild Colonials in one of her final Instagram posts:
“Never did anyone live life more fully, love more generously, sing more… well, just… more. Angela sang just as she breathed. Her life was a song, and she was music. She will be missed more than any of us can say…”
I know I am not alone when I say that I take comfort in the annual repetition of the holidays: revisiting holiday-themed music, films, television shows… and now internet posts. Dave Holmes’ account of Patti LaBelle’s disastrous performance at the 1996 National Christmas Tree lighting is worth an annual revisit. Trust me.
Not to get meta or anything, but the post you are currently reading has been reworked and updated each year since 2020.
While we’re mining the past and dusting off our chestnuts, here’s the intro to the 1999 holiday episode ofBri-Guy’s Media Surf, an NYC Public Access show that featured yours truly lip-synching a little Esquivel:
Whenever the song pops up on my holiday playlist, I still do this.
I find it interesting that we immerse ourselves in certain pop culture favorites for exactly 6 weeks of the year and then pack them up in mothballs with the ornaments until next year. I mean, Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” is currently at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Burl Ives, Bobby Helms and Andy Williams are also in the top 10. Are any of them on your 4th of July playlist? They aren’t on mine.
Gabe Pressman (left) with Marilyn Monroe (1956)
I used to look forward to the annual Christmas Eve tradition on NBC New York’s evening news when reporter Gabe Pressman would read “Yes Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus.” I taped it in 2011, knowing that the tradition wouldn’t last forever. The self-described “little Jewish kid from the Bronx” was 87 years old at the time and continued to work at NBC until his death at age 93.
NBC New York reporter Gabe Pressman’s annual segment on Virginia O’Hanlon’s 1897 letter to the New York Sun Newspaper.
In keeping with this revisit, my other blog posts of Christmas past are back to haunt you like A Christmas Carol, Mr. Scrooge:
Copyright issues kept my 60 Degrees Girl Group Christmas playlist out of commission but now it’s back! I plan to post other episodes of my old radio show in the new year.
My Canine Christmas Tail is a true story about my dog Sunshine, a basset hound with an appetite for tinsel.
Have you watched Christmas In Connecticut yet this year? How about that delivery woman? This year I was able to update my 2019 post, identifying Daisy Bufford as the actress who played the unbilled role.
The original version of “¿Dónde Está Santa Claus?” is featured in “Llamacita,” this year’s Amazon Prime holiday commercial. Here’s a little backstory on the song & Augie Rios, who sang the original version.
Also – would you like to hear my Spotify holiday playlist?
Way back in 2002, when Limewire was a thing and people listened to music on silvery discs, I started creating Christmas CD mixes that I would mail out or give to people. These were received with a heartwarming combination of feigned delight, veiled indifference and deafening silence. None of these CDs had a pressing of more than 20 copies. I’d like to call them “much sought after” – but no, that’s not really the case, although every once in a while, someone really got into them and would ask for copies of other volumes.
And so, I’m offering this simple playlist…. for kids from 1 to 92. Unfortunately some of the tracks on these dozen CDs are not on Spotify, but I keep adding songs that would be on the current CD volume… if there was one. And now the playlist is over 17 hours of holiday tunes. I recommend listening on shuffle – there’s something to irritate everyone. Enjoy!
Here’s one more nugget to stuff in your stocking: This vid went viral in 2011. Choreographed and performed by Alex Karigan & Zac Hammer of the Amy Marshall Dance Company, it was filmed in one continuous take at the New 42nd St. Dance Studios. There’s something infectious about it: the joy, the corniness, the celebratory queerness of it all. It makes me want to dust off my jazz shoes. Once a year.
It’s hard to believe that Tina Turner is gone. I remember feeling the same way after Prince died – I liked thinking that he was always out there, somewhere, working on music. Not that I was expecting new music from Tina – it was enough to see her pop up in occasional interviews as she enjoyed retirement in her Swiss castle.
What more can you say about the queen? So much is being written and discussed, I should just shut up and walk away. But…
With the exception of the song “Nutbush City Limits”, Tina is not remembered as a songwriter. But she did have a knack for choosing excellent material and putting her indelible stamp on it. After hearing Tina’s take on a song, you could be forgiven if you forget that “Proud Mary” was a Creedence Clearwater Revival tune, or that “Let’s Stay Together” is Al Green’s song. “I Can’t Stand The Rain” was a 1974 hit for Ann Peebles, and Bonnie Tyler had a minor hit with “Simply The Best” the year before Tina recorded it.
That said, there are some interesting covers that have flown under the radar or fallen through the cracks. Here are some of them.
UPDDATE: The New York Times published their own article on Tina’s covers the same day this was posted, but other than the Stones/Beatles/Led Zeppelin cuts, none of the tracks listed below were included.
1) Tina Sings Dusty Springfield: “Just A Little Lovin'” / “Every Day I Have To Cry” – Dusty Springfield’s version of the Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil song “Just A Little Lovin'” was the lead track from the classic 1969 Dusty In Memphis LP. Tina’s version is from her 1979 solo LP Love Explosion, which was not released in the U.S.
Tina Turner – “Just A Little Lovin'” (1979)
“Every Day I Have To Cry” was originally a minor hit for Steve Alaimo in 1962, and memorably covered by Dusty on her 1964 I Only Want To Be With You LP. Tina’s version is from the Phil Spector produced River Deep, Mountain High LP (1966).
Ike & Tina Turner – “Every Day I Have To Cry”
2) Tina Sings Led Zeppelin: “Whole Lotta Love” – This Led Zeppelin cover was released as a single from Tina’s second solo LP, 1975’s Acid Queen. The NY Times article on Tina’s cover songs describes this version as “disco-inflected” but also “slowed down.” To paraphrase Led Zep: It makes me wonder (what they were listening to.)
Tina Turner – “Whole Lotta Love” (1975)
3) Tina Sings Prince: “Let’s Pretend We’re Married” / “Baby I’m A Star” – Tina’s cover of “Let’s Pretend We’re Married” was recorded live in 1984 and featured as a B-side on different singles from the Private Dancer LP, depending on the territory.
Tina Turner – “Let’s Pretend We’re Married”
Tina’s version of “Baby I’m a Star” was omnipresent for a season in 2000, as she sang it in Target commercials while they were sponsoring her tour. It was also released on All That Glitters, a greatest hits CD only available at Target. And then… it was gone.
Tina Turner – “Baby I’m A Star”
4) Tina sings Linda Ronstadt: “Long Long Time” – Earlier this year, Linda Ronstadt’s definitive 1970 version of this Gary White song was introduced to a new generation via the HBO series The Last Of Us. Tina recorded her version in 1974 for her first solo LP, Tina Turns The Country On. Rolling Stone recently wrote about this forgotten gem. Although the LP was not a commercial success, it did garner Tina a Grammy nomination.
Tina Turner – “Long Long Time”
5) Tina Sings Marvin Gaye: “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” – There are a few versions of Tina singing Marvin Gaye’s classic Motown hit. The song was often part of her live repertoire. This live version from the Ike & Tina Turner Review is circa 1970:
Ike & Tina Turner Review – “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”
Thirty years later, Tina recorded a dance version of the song for her Twenty Four Seven LP. Unfortunately the song was pulled from the final release of the album:
Tina Turner – “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”
Also – just for funzies, here’s Tina singing with Marvin Gaye on Shindig! March 25, 1965 doing a medley of “Money (That’s What I Want)” and “I’ll Be Doggone.”
Tina Turner & Marvin Gaye “Money (That’s What I Want)” / “I’ll Be Doggone”
6) Tina Sings Stevie Wonder: “Living For The City” / “Higher Ground” – These two Stevie Wonder tracks from his classic 1973 Innervisions LP were covered the following year by Ike & Tina on their Sweet Rhode Island Red LP. The tracks later turned up on several compilations as the material from this period was often repackaged and re-released.
Ike & Tina Turner – “Living For The City”
Ike & Tina Turner – “Higher Ground”
7) Tina Sings Etta James: “All I Could Do Was Cry” – Motown founder Berry Gordy was a co-writer on this song, which was written for Etta James in 1960. Ike & Tina included their version on the Live! The Ike & Tina Turner Show LP (1964). Tina’s 4-minute monologue in the middle of the song is epic, recounting the wedding of the man she loves as he marries someone else, building to a crescendo with “their friends throwing rice all over their heads.” This overlooked camp classic was later featured on the 2007 CD A Date With John Waters.
Ike & Tina Turner – “All I Could Do Was Cry”
8) Tina Sings Elton John: “Philadelphia Freedom” – This Ike & Tina Turner track was recorded in the mid-1970’s, just before Tina left. Ike later included it on his 1980 LP The Edge and on a 1984 Tina Turner EP titled Mini, among other repackages of their 70’s output.
Tina Turner – “Philadelphia Freedom”
9) Tina Does Disco: “Shame, Shame, Shame” – Like “Philadelphia Freedom,” this cover of the 1975 dance hit for Shirley & Co. was featured on Ike’s The Edge LP, Tina’s Mini EP, and numerous other budget collections.
Tina Turner – “Shame, Shame, Shame”
She also memorably performed the song with Cher on her variety show in 1975:
Cher & Tina Turner – “Shame, Shame, Shame”
10) Tina Sings The Temptations: “Ball of Confusion”– Tina’s version of “Ball Of Confusion” was the gateway to the second (or third?) act of her career. Recorded with B.E.F., aka British Electric Foundation for their 1982 album Music of Quality and Distinction Volume One, the song became a top 5 hit in Norway. Capital Records took notice and signed her to the label. The resulting LP was Private Dancer, and the rest is history.
B.E.F. featuring Tina Turner – “Ball Of Confusion”
11) Tina Sings The Rolling Stones: “Honky Tonk Woman” / “Under My Thumb” / “Let’s Spend The Night Together” – Well of course Tina covered The Stones. She taught moves to Jagger. Tina & Mick were always joining each other onstage, and although she never recorded proper versions of“Jumping Jack Flash” or “It’s Only Rock And Roll‘, they were frequently on her concert setlists.
Ike & Tina’s studio version of “Honky Tonk Woman” was featured on their 1970 LP Come Together, and was also the b-side to the single of the title track:
Ike & Tina Turner – “Honky Tonk Woman”
“Under My Thumb” – A track from the 1975 Acid Queen LP:
Tina Turner – “Under My Thumb”
“Let’s Spend The Night Together” – Also from her1975 Acid Queen LP:
Tina Turner – “Let’s Spend The Night Together”
12) Tina Sings The Beatles: “Help!” / “Something” / “Get Back” / “Come Together” – Although not as closely associated with The Beatles as with the Rolling Stones, Tina covered several of their songs through the years. Her ballad version of “Help!” was on the international edition of the Private Dancer LP, but not the U.S. version.
Tina Turner – “Help!”
Tina’s version of “Something”:
Tina Turner – “Something”
Ike & Tina perform “Get Back” on Beat Club in the UK. The song was included on their 1970 Workin’ Together LP and released as a single in Europe.
Ike & Tina Turner – “Get Back”
“Come Together” was the title track from Ike & Tina’s 1970 LP. The single also featured their version of the Stones’ “Honky Tonk Woman” as the b-side.
Ike & Tina Turner – “Come Together”
Here’s a Spotify playlist of the available songs above as well as many other covers:
