“Baby Blue,” taken from the 1971 Badfinger album Straight Up, is rated one of the band‘s greatest power pop songs. An updated version of this classic features vocals by Badfinger’s sole surviving original member, singer/guitarist Joey Molland, with Matthew Sweet adding backing vocals and guitar. Molland has been working on a new album Be True to Yourself, with veteran producer Mark Hudson. This new version is pretty controversial, as fans on Facebook have let loose some blistering criticism that this version is akin to sacrilege. Judge for yourself.
Thanks to Rick Gallego (aka Cloud Eleven) we have a jingle for the health food store Brian Wilson owned from 1969 to 1971. Wilson went on a big health food kick at the time exemplified in the song “Vegetables”, written for the Beach Boys’ album Smile in 1966. It sure makes me smile!
The great Starbelly returns with this new single featuring the incredible Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (Jellyfish, Beck, The Lickerish Quartet) on piano, backing vocals, and other lavish orchestrations. Drink it all in — it’s a winner!
Dungeon of Skeletons is a new band from Nashville, the always excellent Justin Kline is the driving force behind it and he’s developed two excellent singles. I can’t wait for the full length!
Frankie Siragusa (who played with The Posies) has a solo track under the name Jebb. It’s a grower about our ongoing COVID-19 crisis.