Now in paperback. On Nov. 21, my book, Anatomy of a Song: The Oral History of 45 Ionic Hits That Changed Rock, R&B and Pop (Grove), will be available in paperback in the U.S. (here) and the U.K. (here). A literary jukebox, just in time for the holidays. Be sure to go to Spotify and type "Anatomy of a Song" into the search bar. You'll find all of the book's songs on a special playlist in the same order as they appear in the book's table of contents. Read 'n' roll!
In The Wall Street Journal this week, I interviewed former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins for my "House Call" column (go here). Billy talks about what he saw as a child in New York's East River that inspired him to write poetry. Billy's terrific new collection, The Rain in Portugal, is now in paperback (go here).
Also in the WSJ, I interviewed astronaut Scott Kelly, who spent a year at the International Space Station, about Coldplay's Speed of Sound for my "Playlist" column (go here). Scott took the song up with him to the station and listened early each morning while looking down at Earth. Scott's new book is Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery (go here).
Bill Holman. Last week, after my post on arranger Bill Holman, I received this email from John Edward Hasse, curator emeritus of American Music at the Smithsonian Institution:
"Hey Marc. Good to see you paying tribute to Bill Holman. In case you and your readers were unaware, the Smithsonian has a substantial collection of his scores—88 boxes (go here). There's also an oral history with him from 2010 that runs 84 pages (go here)."
Clifton Anderson, a superb trombonist, has launched a crowd-funding campaign to help pay for his next recording. Please watch his video and donate something if you love what you hear. Clifton is one gorgeous player and a great guy. Go here.
Aretha Franklin. In November, Rhino Atlantic is releasing A Brand New Me: Aretha Franklin with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The label just posted a cool clip featuring a track from the album synced with footage of Aretha in concert singing Respect...
Marty Paich was an extremely busy arranger in the 1950s and '60s. So busy, that he sometimes used similar charts of the same song on two different dates. Frank Farnham wrote me recently to point out that Paich's arrangement of Something Happens to Me for a Jesse Belvin recording at RCA was tweaked for Peter Brady's Capitol album, which I posted about recently (go here). This isn't a knock, just a fun observation for those who love Paich and arranging. Here's the Belvin recording from December 1959...
And here's Paich's arrangement of the same song for Peter Brady in January 1964...
And here's Paich's arrangement of Squeeze Me for Joannie Sommers in June 1959...
And here's Paich's arrangement of the same song for Ethel Azama in November 1959...
What the heck. Here are the Dramatics singing Watcha See Is Watcha Get on Soul Train in 1972...
Oddball album cover of the week.
The words "hi-fi" and "children" in one sentence is enough to make anyone move their vinyl collection to a very high shelf. Judging from the kid's "dad, do we have to listen to this again?" expression, my guess is Stan Kenton's City of Glass was on the turntable. A special thanks to Michael Bloom for sending along the cover.
