Name That Tune: Our Top Ten Charles Songs

Charles, Charlie, Chuck... there was only one man to illustrate this week's name: Charles Edward Anderson Berry.

I don't have time to list all the other famous musical Charlies in my collection, but I'm sure you know who most of them are... and you spotted quite a few yourselves.

Walter offered...

The Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down To Georgia 

Charlie Cunningham - You Sigh

The Swede said:

 As for performers, I'll go for the great Charlie Rich. His solo piano version of 'Feel Like Going Home' is one of my Desert Island Discs.

Charlie Rich - Feel Like Going Home

Rigid Digit went for...

Charlie Harper - leader of UK Subs, 112 years old, and just completed the alphabet with the UK Subs 26th album Ziezo.

UK Subs - Tomorrow's Girls

Alyson suggested:

There's Chas of Chas and Dave fame, although possibly breaks a rule. 

Chas & Dave - Ain't No Pleasin' You

Another duo is Charles and Eddie who it seems were at the No. 1 spot when I was on my honeymoon in 1992 with Would I Lie To You. Bit of trivia: They performed the song at Bill Clinton's inaugural ball in 1993, which was ironic considering the pickle Bill found himself in down the line re Ms Lewinsky.

Charles & Eddie - Would I Lie To You?

While Swiss Adam came up with...

Maurice and Charles and a track called I, Carpenter which pays homage to Escape From New York.

Maurice & Charles - I, Carpenter

And George offered...

Prince Charles and The City Beat Band - I'm A Fool For Love

All of which remain off the point, since the idea of this feature is songs about Charlies rather than songs BY Charlies. 

Still, on the subject of Prince Charles, George did toss this one into the ring...

McCarthy - Charles Windsor

Although I was more familiar with this version...

Manic Street Preachers - Charles Windsor

Closest with a chance of getting Prince Charles into this Top Ten though was Rigid Digit...

The Smiths - Queen Is Dead

I said Charles, don't you ever crave

To appear on the front of the Daily Mail

Dressed in your Mother's bridal veil?

Which brings us nicely to a new feature-within-a-feature I'm calling Songs That Would Have Made The Top Ten If Rol Was Cool...

The Skids - Charles (Rigid Digit)

The Clash - Charlie Don't Surf (Walter)

Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Charlie (Walter) 

FSK - The Wall (Charity Chic)

Two more miles to Checkpoint Charlie...

Which prompted Jim to recall another strong contender (for any Top Ten)...

Elvis Costello - Oliver's Army

There was a Checkpoint Charlie

He didn't crack a smile...  

And made me remember this...

Little Steven - Checkpoint Charlie 

And finally in the sub-category...

Scrawl - Charles (C)

C also offered "another sweet '60s song". Not one I was immediately familiar with, but it won me over being about rag 'n' bone men. Simpler times.

The Hollies - Charlie And Fred

While Jim also gave us...

The Retro Spankees - Charlie's in the Garden 

Hefner - Charlie Girl 

The Swede was pleased with a Barbara track from last week...

Impressed by the relatively obscure T.Rex song featured in this post, I'll suggest 'Charlie', an early Marc Bolan acoustic demo. 

Marc Bolan - Charlie

It would also be remiss of me not to mention... 

Bob Dylan - High Water (For Charley Patton)

All hail the return of Douglas McLaren from the snowy wastes of Canada! Welcome back, Douglas...

From my personal favourites of all time, the Trash Can Sinatras (or if you prefer to be up with the times, Trashcan Sinatras), there is an obscure b-side in the back catalogue entitled "Charlie's Atlas", with deliciously satirical lyrics full of their usual brand of wordplay and cutting linguistic cunning.

Trash Can Sinatras - Charlie's Atlas

I didn't have much time to do a thorough lyrical search for Charlies this week, but I did find this...

Half Man Half Biscuit - The Best Things In Life

My Uncle Charlie is a cynical man

And his wife’s a touch sceptical too

They’ve got one of those stickers in the back of their van

It says “We’ve seen the prices at the zoo”

Well today I knocked upon their door and said that I was passing

And Charlie launched a scathing attack

When I asked him what I’d done, he said

“You stupid bastard, we live in a cul-de-sac”

While Walter provided...

Lightnin' Hopkins - I'll Be Gone

Do you know your rolling mill is burnin' down?

Mister Charlie

Do you know your rolling mill is burnin' down?

Mister Charlie said if you ain't got no water boy

Just let that old mill burn on down

Sparks - B.C.

My name's Aaron
Hers is Betty
Our boy is a Charlie, so the neighbors sing "hooray for ABC"
ABC forever, each endeavour that I do, I do to keep together
A+B+C

(More from those guys in a moment.)

Jeff Beck - Come Dancing

When Charlie speaks of Lester

You know someone great has gone

The sweetest swinging music man

Had a Porkie Pig hat on

A bright star

In a dark age

And a song from my very younger days by German folk musician Hannes Wader - even it is named Charley...

Hannes Wader - Charley

And finally, the scrapings from my hard-drive...

Skunk Anansie - Charlie Big Potato

The Boo Radleys - Charles Bukowski Is Dead

Drive-By Truckers - Drag The Lake, Charlie

The Temptations - Run, Charlie, Run

Beans On Toast - Charlie

CR Avery - The Ballad of Charlie Parker & Patsy Cline

Lou Reed - Charley's Girl

Lucinda Williams - Lake Charles

The Nude Party - Charlie's Sheep

The Menzingers - Charlie's Army

Danny Wilson - Charlie Boy

Del Amitri - Charlie's Bar

Which brings us to this week's Top Ten... 

10. The Prodigy - Charly

Acid House was never my bag, so if you're going to make an acid house record that I'll listen to more than once, a good idea would be to sample one of my favourite public information films from the 70s.

Well done to Rigid Digit for guessing this one would be in the Top Ten. 

9. Split Enz - Charlie

Jim in Dubai suggested this one...

C added: Argh, I can't believe I forgot Charlie by Split Enz; we've been on a bit of a Split Enz fest in this house lately! (I have developed something of a crush on Noel Crombie - who doesn't like a man who can play the spoons?!)

Jim returned: You can't go wrong with Split Enz, always preferred them to Crowded House, some of those 70's video were brilliant, enjoy your Enz Fest :-)

8. Danny O'Keefe - Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues

Well done to Lynchie for suggesting this. 

It's been covered by Dwight Yoakam, Willie Nelson and (my favourite version) Waylon Jennings.

About another 20 cover versions of that song.

Whereas the first version I heard was...

Elvis Presley - Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues

7. Steely Dan - Charlie Freak

A sorry tale of guilt, advantage-taking and regret.

6. Sparks - When I Kiss You I hear Charlie Parker Playing

Jim in Dubai is doing well this week.

5. A Camp - Charlie Charlie

Charlie Charlie 

He's got my credit card 

And hasn't been seen 

He stole my heart 

But if you happen to meet him

Tell him I don't want the money 

I just want him

That's Nina Persson from The Cardigans.

Here she is again...

The Cardigans - Travelling With Charlie

Poor Charley

He would be nothing without me

But I do love him

4. Warren Zevon - Charlie's Medicine

A tribute to an old drug dealer... Warren at his best.

Charlie dealt in pharmaceuticals

Charlie used to sell me pills

Yesterday his sister called to tell me

He'd been killed

Some respectable doctor from Beverly Hills

Shot him through the heart

Charlie didn't feel a thing

Neither of them did

Poor kid

I came to say goodbye

I'm sorry Charlie died

I came to finish paying my bill

3. REM - Man On The Moon

Excellent lyrical spot from Rigid Digit...

Mister Charles Darwin had the gall to ask

Douglas adds...

The Low Anthem - Charlie Darwin

The (more or less) title track of their 2008 album. A fine slice American indie folk which may go over well with some ears around here if any are not familiar with it.

And here's an unexpected cover of that track...

Tom Jones - Charlie Darwin

And any excuse to play one of my favourite Weezer songs...

Weezer - Wind In Our Sails

We got the wind in our sails

Like Darwin on the Beagle

2. Rickie Lee Jones - Chuck E's In Love 

Does that count as a Charlie song? asks Lynchie.

It does indeed.

1. The Coasters - Charlie Brown

Walter was first in line to suggest this one.

Alyson added...

It was written by Lieber and Stoller and I've just discovered the first song they wrote, called Hard Times, was recorded by an artist called Charles Brown - not sure if that's just a coincidence or not.

Charles Brown - Hard Times

Now I have to admit that I was never a fan of the Charlie Brown cartoons. He always seemed a miserable little sod. (Too close to home, perhaps?) But I do love this track.

See also:

Carter USM - Good Grief, Charlie Brown

Ocean Colour Scene - Charlie Brown Says 

And I'm not ashamed to admit that the Coasters song always reminds me of this...

The Bloodhound Gang - Why's Everybody Always Picking On Me?

NEXT WEEK: OUR TOP TEN CAROLINE SONGS

Quite a few to choose from... but will your Number One be the same as mine?

Saturday Snapshots #157 - The Answers

 

Welcome back to the quiz that's always the Bridesmaid, never the bride. Still, I hope you all Wiigured out this week's answers... and there were no Cheetahs.

10. First swinging king lacks staple diet.

King Louis was the king of the swingers in The Jungle Book, and this was his voice. King Louis was also an orangutan whose staple diet would be bananas...

Prima would be the first.

Louis Prima - Yes, We Have No Bananas

9. Hellish tippers, 24 hours later.

"Hellish tippers" was an anagram.

Esther Phillips - What A Difference A Day Makes

8. Kayleigh's bloke starts crying again... cheer up, it's party time!

Kayleigh's bloke was Fish.

An Emotional Fish - Celebrate

7. Wait! The Real Thing can't spell Charlie Brown's pal.

The real thing is the real McCoy.

Charlie Brown's pal was Snoopy.

The McCoys - Hang On, Sloopy

6. Throwing homework on the fire long before Morrissey... this lady has a unique way of walking.

Long before Sheila Take A Bow, in which Morrissey entreated us to throw your homework onto the fire, David Bowie gave a similar exhortation in Kooks...

And if the homework brings you down

Then we'll throw it on the fire

And take the car downtown

The Kooks - She Moves In Her Own Way

5. A B C D F J K M N O P Q S U V W X Y Z.

(That may be my favourite clue in the history of Saturday Snapshots.)

What's MISSING from the alphabet above? The letters E G H I L R and T. And if you mix those around a bit, you get THE GIRL.

Everything But The Girl - Missing

4. Pardon self-inflicted wounds in Scotch toun.

Note how I said Scotch toun, not Scottish?

Whiskeytown - Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight

3. The Farun Ningily takes an elevator to the meaning of life. 

Wondering what a Famrun Ningily is? It's Running in the middle of Family. FAM-RUNNING-ILY.

42 was the meaning of life, the universe and everything.

Level 42 - Running In The Family

2. Unhurried hearsay.

Rumer - Slow

1. Candid landscape painter has not lost his faith.

Turner was a landscape painter, to be frank.

I Still Believe Saturday Snapshots will be back next week...

Saturday Snapshots #157

Taxi! Get me to Saturday Snapshots, on the double!

10. First swinging king lacks staple diet.

9. Hellish tippers, 24 hours later.

8. Kayleigh's bloke starts crying again... cheer up, it's party time!

7. Wait! The Real Thing can't spell Charlie Brown's pal.

6. Throwing homework on the fire long before Morrissey... this lady has a unique way of walking.

5. A B C D F J K M N O P Q S U V W X Y Z.

(That may be my favourite clue in the history of Saturday Snapshots.)

4. Pardon self-inflicted wounds in Scotch toun.

3. The Famrun Ningily takes an elevator to the meaning of life. 

2. Unhurried hearsay.

1. Candid landscape painter has not lost his faith.

Answers tomorrow morning!

Mac & Helen

 

We lost two big names from the charts of my youth on Tuesday this week, and I wanted to pay tribute.

First was Mac Davis, who the headlines will tell you wrote a few big hits for Elvis in the 70s, including In The Ghetto, Don't Cry Daddy and A Little Less Conversation.

But Mac was also a singer-songwriter in his own right, responsible for one of the best songs about being a frustrated songwriter you'll ever hear...

Rock and roll, I gave you all the best years of my life
All the dreamy sunny Sundays, all the moon-lit summer nights
I was so busy in the back room makin' love songs to you
While you were changin' your direction, and you never even knew
That I was always, just one step behind you

And then there was Helen Reddy, justly hailed by the press as the woman who wrote "feminist anthem" I Am Woman.

But the song I'll most remember her for was Number One on My Top Ten Twilight Zone Songs a few years back. She didn't write it, but she made it hers... 

The headlines read that a boy disappeared

And everyone thinks he died

'Cept a crazy girl with a secret lover who

Keeps her satisfied

It's so nice to be insane

No one asks you to explain

Radio by your side, Angie baby

I'll be sleeping with the lights on tonight after listening to it again now.

 

Stressed Post Thursday

 

When you don't have a Guest Post, go with a Stressed Post.

Here's Steve Mason, getting rather stressed when his musical heroes like John Lydon and Iggy Pop take the advertising dollar...

Johnny and The Idiot pissing on a dream

And obviously, I hate it when my favourite songs end up in TV commercials too. 

Then again, I used to work in advertising, and from time to time I would have to call up agents and publishers and try to get the rights to famous songs to use in radio ads. My biggest success was getting There's Nothing Like This by Omar into a campaign for a Kitchens & Bathrooms company. (Never managed to sell them a track by Kitchens of Distinction.) If I remember rightly, it was Omar's brother-in-law who was his agent, and Omar was more than happy to take the cash. 

I lost count of the number of idiots who asked me to get Simply The Best by Tina Turner for their fireplace showroom, used Honda dealership or honey glazed donut shop... even after Ricky Gervais took the piss out of that notion in The Office.

On the office wall where I used to work, I pinned a famous Bill Hicks quote, to remind me every day just what I was doing with my life...

But do you know what? I'd go back to that job in a heartbeat if it was still there. I didn't know how good I had it.

Am I stressed right now?

Here's Steve Mason...