Scribbler's "Get Out of My Brain!" Countdown of the Month (July 2016)

Poor The Last Dragon soundtrack. You did your best to stay in my consciousness.  I wrote a solid post about your movie and constantly had you on my mind because, like The Last Dragon itself, you're pretty friggin' awesome.  You had a firm leg up on such competition as Miki Howard's "Baby, Be Mine"--which was only holding on until recently because of the TV One movie, Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story--by having not one but two songs stuck in my brain: Willie Hutch's "The Glow" and DeBarge's "Rhythm of the Night".  In the end, however, you got beat out by party records, indie artists, originals and remakes, Philly soul and children's songs.  This was your best shot to make this countdown, but you blew it.  Maybe if I watch The Last Dragon again sometime soon, then you'll make the cut.  Okay...so now that I've effectively dragged a soundtrack as if it were a real person--yes, I'm a bit touched--let's get to the songs that harassed me even more...

Scribbler's "Get Out of My Brain!" Countdown of the Month (May 2016)

So in yet another attempt to expand my blog and include as many facets of myself as you can stand, I thought about how songs frequently get stuck in our heads for hours, days, weeks and even months.  There are some that we absolutely love, some that we are in like with and nails scratching on a chalkboard might pale in comparison to the rest.  Most times, they're renting out brain space because we associate them with a memory, a place or a person; other times, it's completely inexplicable.  Hence, I bring to you all a new monthly posting series: "Scribbler's 'Get Out of My Brain!' Countdown of the Month."  Now before we begin, two things.  First, I don't have an ASCAP or BMI representative in my head tracking every single spin in my own head, so these are totally metric-less estimations.  Second, y'all know that I can't kick off the inaugural post of a series like this without naming the songs that got bumped out like "Grateful" by Hezekiah Walker & LFC, "Hold On (Change Is Comin')" by Sounds of Blackness, "5 Steps" by Dru Hill (which almost came back into the countdown), "Truffle Butter" by Nicki Minaj and "Splackavellie" by Pressha (which some of y'all either don't remember, have never heard or haven't heard since it was out, so that would've need a nice throwback to '98).  It would've been nice to include those songs--all of which I fool with--but they didn't flood my brain as much as these ten little numbers...

Scribbler's Rave & Favorite Five Bonus Edition: A Tribute to Billy Paul

As if losing Prince on Thursday wasn't hard enough, now one of my favorite soul singers in Philly native Billy Paul has passed away at the age of 81.  For years, I only knew about three songs of his--one of which was his most popular in the 1972 across-the-board smash hit, "Me And Mrs. Jones".  However, around the time that my fascination with everything Philly soul began in 2003, that's when I doubled up and purchased two of his greatest hits albums because 1) many of his full-length albums were either hard to find or out of print and 2) one album had one or two more songs that the other didn't.  Although he had a very unique delivery, his jazzy style on songs like "Ebony Woman", "Love Buddies", "Let's Fall In Love All Over Again" and "There's a Small Hotel" always put me in the mindset of smoky nightclubs, stiff drinks and a grand piano.  Spending the first 13 years of his recording career working with legendary producers Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff, they crafted their sound around what he did best and didn't try to make his music sound too much like the rest of the Philadelphia International Records roster.  That's a huge amount of the reason why I fooled with him so tough because he wasn't like anyone else that they had in their stable of greatness.  So to pay tribute to his legacy, I present an impromptu "Rave & Favorite Five" celebrating Paul's music...

Scribbler's Throwback of the Week: The O'Jays, "What Am I Waiting For"

The often overlooked beauty of hip-hop music is that it can musically provide a formal introduction to the past.  Although The O'Jays are easily in my favorite top 5 singing groups of all time, I have never owned their 1975 Survival album that features this particular gem.  I first heard it via a Jay-Z song, "You Must Love Me", from In My Lifetime, Vol. 1.  Subsequently, I purchased one of those Smooth Grooves compilation albums mainly because I was so enamored once I heard the original.  It was also notably sampled in 50 Cent's "Ski Mask Way" from The Massacre--and although the sampling was a bit more creative in Fiddy's version, Jay's lyrics were more introspective and had the advantage of Kelly Price singing the hook.  However, this post is not about them...let's talk throwbacks, shall we?

Scribbler's Throwback of the Week: Billy Paul, "Let the Dollar Circulate"

You all will see many posts in the future featuring Mr. Billy Paul, the Philly soul singer known for his classic smash and creeping anthem, "Me & Mrs. Jones".  Taken from his 1975 album, When Love Is New, the late great J Dilla sampled it for Spacek's "Dollar" and so did 9th Wonder in "Dollar Circulate".  However, I first recalled hearing the sample in "Circulate" by Young Jeezy at a local community day celebration where I stopped everything I was doing--and I mean literally stopped putting ketchup and mustard on one of those good ol' burnt cookout hot dogs--to listen attentively.  Being an unofficial Philly soul aficionado, my ears perked up and recognized it as a definite brainchild of one of my biggest musical influences, Gamble & Huff.  After a while, I was less interested in what Jeezy had to say and more interested in finding the original and somehow the instrumental as well.  (I was far less successful in finding the latter...didn't quite have that inside track to Don Cannon to see if he could float me a copy.  Ah well...)