“The Trolley Song” is a song written by Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin and made famous by Judy Garland in the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis. In a 1989 NPR interview, Blane and Martin reminisced about the song’s genesis. They were assigned to write a song for the trolley scene in the film. […]
The Pleasure Fair
The Pleasure Fair was a musical performing group based in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. The original group membership included Robb Royer, Tim Hallinan, Michele Cochrane and Stephen Cohn. Robb Royer obtained his first guitar when he was 19 years old and a college sophomore at San Fernando Valley State College in Northridge (now California […]
Gurenge
“Gurenge” (“Red Lotus”) is a song by Japanese pop singer Lisa from her fifth studio album Leo-Nine. It was released as her fifteenth single digitally on April 22, 2019, and received a physical release on July 3, 2019. Commercially, the single peaked at number three on the Oricon Singles Chart, and number two on Billboard […]
Walking The Dog
Walking the Dog is one of many musical numbers written in 1937 by George Gershwin for the score for the Fred Astaire – Ginger Rogers film Shall We Dance. In the film, the music accompanies a sequence of walking a dog on board a luxury liner. In 1960, the sequence was published as “Promenade” to accompany […]
Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Green Day)
“Boulevard of Broken Dreams” is a song by American rock band Green Day. The power ballad is the fourth track from their seventh studio album American Idiot (2004). Reprise Records released “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” as the second single from American Idiot in November 2004. The song’s lyrics were written by lead singer Billie Joe […]
The 5.6.7.8’s
The 5.6.7.8’s are a Japanese rock band from Tokyo with a retro-inspired sound that draws heavily from the 1960s garage rock scene. They first started performing as a quartet in Tokyo, and recruited guest performers during their Australian tour. They became a trio in 1992, before touring Australia.The 5.6.7.8’s formed when Sachiko and Yoshiko “Ronnie” […]
Ashton – La Fille Mal Gardee (The Clog Dance)
La Fill Mal Gardee (The Wayward Daughter, literal translation: “The Poorly Guarded Girl” and also known as The Girl Who Needed Watching) is a comic ballet presented in two acts. In 1959, the choreographer Frederick Ashton began creating a completely new version of La Fille mal gardée for the Royal Ballet of London. This production […]
Night and Day
“Night and Day” is a popular song by Cole Porter that was written for the 1932 musical Gay Divorcee. It is perhaps Porter’s most popular contribution to the Great American Songbook and has been recorded by dozens of musicians. NPR says “within three months of the show’s opening, more than 30 artists had recorded the […]
The Diva Dance
The Diva Dance song was composed in 1997 by French composer Éric Serra at the request of film maker Luc Besson for the movie The Fifth Element (1997). It becomes the highlight of the film. In the movie the actress who played the “Diva Plavalaguna“, the alien, was Maïwenn Le Besco, but the voice was that of the […]
Twelfth Street Rag
“Twelfth Street Rag” (alternatively “12th Street Rag“) is a ragtime musical composition published by Euday L. Bowman in 1914. A friend of Euday Bowman known as “Raggedy Ed” declared his intention to open a pawn shop on 12th Street in Kansas City while the two were walking along it. Bowman is rumoured to have said […]