Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCXCVI--The Flying Machine: Smile a Little Smile for Me

 This week's post was originally supposed to be a tune by Van Morrison, but thanks to his selfishness (especially from a man worth over $90 million) in debasing COVID-19 warnings and mandates so his band could tour and his idiocy in claiming it was pseudo-science, he'll never be featured on the hallowed pages of Friday Night Jukebox again.  As if anybody was excited to see a seventy-six-year-old turd on his "Get Off My Lawn" tour.  So instead, you'll be treated to a nice piece of British pop from the late sixties....

The Flying Machine arose from the breakup of Pinkerton's Assorted Colours who had had a big hit in the U.K. with a song called "Mirror Mirror."  [Sidenote:  Every now and again while doing my half-assed research a band will have some previous hit that I've never heard of and I'll give it a listen and every now and again, that song turns out to be a surprisingly good ditty--this was not one of those instances.]  The band would have a very short career, originally forming in 1969 in the U.K. and breaking up for good in 1971.  They released two albums and six singles.  A compilation (of sorts) album was released in 1998, and since then The Flying Machine has been grounded.

"Smile a Little Smile for Me" was released in 1969 as the first single from their daringly titled debut album The Flying Machine.  The single would reach #5 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, but the album failed to make the LP chart. 

Fun Fact:  Though an English band, somehow "Smile a Little Smile for Me," which sold over a million copies in the U.S., did not reach the singles chart in the U.K.

"Smile a Little Smile for Me" tells the story of one Rosemarie, a (presumably) young woman who has had her heart broken so a friend tells her it's all going to be fine eventually, and that she'll make her happiness with another.  Okay--Pride and Prejudice it's not.  Still, it's a nice twist when a man tries to make a woman feel better about a breakup without trying to ingratiate himself to her so he can get her into bed.  It's also got a great chorus (though nearly thirty years before their creation, the song reminded me of the British band Keane), and a sweet melody that's got Sixties pop imbued in its very soul.  At the very least, it beats hell out of a song by a COVID-19 denying louse....

Lyric Sheet:  "So, darling, dry your eyes/So many other guys/Would give the world I'm sure/To wear the shoes he wore/Oh c'mon, smile a little smile for me, Rosemarie..."

Enjoy:

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCLXXIX--Travis: Why Does It Always Rain on Me?

This week's featured tune is another in a long list of artists/songs introduced to me by my lovely daughter.  At one time, she was quite the aficionado of Brit Pop, and her sharing of her love of the genre led me to many a good tune and many a good band....

Travis had its beginnings in 1990 in Glasgow, Scotland, and by 1991 had all of the members who would form the core of the band.  They had their first taste of success with their debut album, Good Feeling, in 1997, and with their second album (featuring this week's tune) in 1999 were well on their way to critical and commercial success. While the bulk of their success has been in their native U.K., they have had a modicum of success here in the States.  Travis has won two Brit Awards and are considered by some as having set the stage for Keane and Coldplay (both of whom have also been blessed enough to be featured on Friday Night Jukebox).  For their career, Travis have released nine studio albums (with two #1's on the U.K. Albums Chart and seven of the nine reaching the top five), and 24 singles (six of which have hit the top ten on the U.K. Singles Chart).  They released their latest LP in 2020 and continue to tour and record.  For those wondering, the band's name came from the character of Travis Henderson (portrayed by Harry Dean Stanton) in the critically acclaimed film, Paris, Texas.

"Why Does It Always Rain on Me?" was the third single released from Travis' career making second album, The Man Who.  The song would hit #10 (with a bullet, or whatever the British equivalent of Billboard's bullet is) on the U.K. Singles Chart, while the album was their first #1 on the U.K. Albums Chart.  Neither entered the top 100 in America.

Fun Fact:  This is probably the coolest Fun Fact yet...When Travis played the Glastonbury Festival in support of the recently released The Man Who album, the album had already peaked on the album chart and was beginning to look like a sales disappointment.  However, as the band broke into "Why Does It Always Rain on Me?" it began to rain (after several hours of sunshine) and stopped raining when the band finished the song.  Word of mouth about the incident caused people to flood radio stations with requests and the band's album as well as the single became a hit, very likely rescuing the band's career.

Every now and again while preparing Friday Night Jukebox, I come across a song that I had forgotten how wonderful it truly was, and "Why Does It Always Rain on Me" was such a song this week.  From Fran Healy's understated but heartfelt vocals to the melancholy--yet still hopeful--lyrics, this tune is about as good as a pop song can get.  The melody is like a dream, and the band hits all the right notes, highlighting Healy's vocals while adding their own signature to the song.  Bonus points because my Mom liked this one a lot, too.

Lyric Sheet:  "Sunny days/Where have you gone?/I get the strangest feeling you belong/Why does it always rain on me..."

Enjoy (props to Fran Healy for wearing a kilt in the video):

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CXLVII--Keane: Somewhere Only We Know

This week we'll feature Coldplay's less handsome, somewhat dorkier, and definitely less successful younger brother and his career making hit single...

Sadly (or not), in doing my weekly half-assed research for this week's post, I discovered that the history of Keane is decidedly not that, uh, keen.  Nothing bad, like being supporters of say, Donald Trump, but just a wee bit on the dull side.  Give them credit, though, for forming as a band in 1995 (give or take) and slogging it out until their big break with their first major label release in 2004 (after being discovered by...the same guy, Simon Williams, who discovered their big brother).  Piano player and chief songwriter Tim Rice-Oxley was heard playing by Chris Martin of their big brother and was offered a spot in Coldplay, which he wisely turned down to stick with Keane since Coldplay eventually did away with their keyboardist position.  They are a rarity in pop music as as they are a piano first band, and while the guitar has gotten a bigger role through their career, it's still a background instrument.  Other than that, they've released four studio LPs, an EP, sold over ten million records (which seems slight compared to their big brother's 90 million, but anyway you slice it, it's ten million more records than emaycee's ever sold), and had five major tours.  While they've been much more commercially successful in their native U.K., they've also had more success here in the states than I would have guessed with two of their albums reaching the top ten (#4 and #7) on the Billboard 200.

Fun Fact:  In 2008, Q magazine asked its readers to vote for the the best British albums ever, and Keane placed two albums (Hopes and Fears and Under the Iron Sea) in the top twenty--joining the Beatles, Oasis, and Radiohead as the only artists with two albums in the top twenty.  Pretty heady company there...

Released in 2004 on their aforementioned Hopes and Fears LP, "Somewhere Only We Know" would become a career making single for Keane.  Though it only reached #50 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, it rose all the way to #3 on the UK Singles chart (so many cool kids in England)--and its success paved the way for future tunes to come.

Keane has stated the song is more of a symbol or a metaphor rather than having a specific meaning, though I've always kind of thought of it as a song about a couple struggling with their relationship trying to find their way back to a place where the relationship was flourishing.   As I completely forgot the piano in last week's tune as I raved so much about Norah Jones' vocals, I don't want to make it two weeks in a row without noting that some succulent piano work helps carry "Somewhere Only We Know," as well.  In fact, there are only two instruments featured in the song--piano and drums.  Like last week's tune, though, it's the vocals that really shine.  Tom Chaplin uses his voice to just the right effect, and doesn't turn an epic ballad into an overwrought pop song as happens far too often in the pop music world.  Every now and again a good ballad helps get you through a bad day, and "Somewhere Only We Know" is one of those good ballads that's gotten me through many a bad day.

Lyric Sheet:  "Oh simple thing where have you gone/I'm getting old and I need something to rely on..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee