Snapshots #405: Superstitious Songs

If you're wondering why there was a photo of Stevie Wonder holding a camera available on the web of lies, apparently it comes from an old Saturday Night Live sketch in the 80s. Stevie was presumably a very good sport.

As to why it was featured here, well...

13-month-old baby, broke the looking glass
Seven years of bad luck, the good thing is in your past
When you believe in things that you don't understand
Then you suffer
Superstition ain't the way

Here are fifteen songs about good and bad luck superstitions...

15. Not actually jumpers.

The Cardigans - Your New Cuckoo

Hearing the first cuckoo of the year is considered good luck - turn your money over!

14. Nonaligned one.

With the correct alignment, those letters form...

Lonnie Donegan - Black Cat (Cross My Path Today)

Lots of debate whether black cats bring bad luck or good luck.

13. KLM, Vietnam Airlines, Air Tahiti, Air Force One.

Google them. They all have...

Blue Aeroplanes - Walking Under Ladders for a Living

12. Mighty Like A Shotgun Wedding. 

Might Like A Rose. Shotgun Wedding was by Roy C.

Rose Royce - Wishing On A Star

11. Electric Vehicle designed for the beach.

Evie Sands - Close Your Eyes, Cross Your Fingers

10. They spent so long sorting out the creases, they didn't score any runs.

Too much ironing led to a maiden over.

Iron Maiden - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

9. Oy! Fiddle de way out of this one!

"Oy! Fiddle de" was an anagram.

Eddie Floyd - Knock On Wood

8. A complete lack of gratitude.

The Unthanks - Magpie

One for sorrow, two for joy...

7. What if Bogie came from Bethlehem?

What if Humphrey came from a Little Town...?

Humphrey Lyttelton Band - Bad Penny Blues

6. Don't cry, baby, I'll turn on the air-con.

Wah! Heat - Don't Step On The Cracks

5. A Minder from Nottingham, with Joan.

Terence was a Minder. The river Trent flows through Nottingham. Darby & Joan.

Terence Trent D'Arby - Wishing Well

Or Sananda Maitreya as he's known these days.

4. POTUS 3, Wright Flyer 1.

The third President was Jefferson. The Wright Flyer was the first Airplane.

Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit

Pinch punch, first of the month.

3. What have you got tangled in your hair, Nan?

"Hair, Nan" was an anagram.

Rihanna - Umbrella

Don't open it indoors.

2. Reggae prototypes in space.

The Skatalites - Lucky Seven

1. Taylor Swift, for example.

Taylor is a very...

Big Star - Thirteen

If anyone knows any songs about putting your shoes on the table, I'd love to hear them... otherwise, there'll be more of this nonsense next Saturday.

Celebrity Jukebox #110: Katherine Anderson

As a member of the original line-up of The Marvelettes, Katherine Anderson Schaffner helped give Motown Records its first Number One single. She died last week, aged 79, the last of the original line-up (apart from Juanita Cowart, who was only with the band until 1963). 

The Marvelettes were Motown's first girl group, and although they would soon be overshadowed by The Supremes, they produced a string of US hits throughout the 60s (although they only charted once in the UK). None of the group's members would go on to achieve household name status like Diana Ross, so I couldn't find any songs that mentioned Katherine, or any of her bandmates. The Marvelettes, however, were a different matter.

Normally Elvis Costello would walk away with it if he threw his hat in the ring for this feature, but this is latter day Elvis, so not quite on a par with his wonder years...

From the booth in the corner

From a different perspective

Where a man plays the fool or a private detective

He wrote her name out in sugar on a Formica counter

"You could be the game that captures the hunter"

Then he went out for cigarettes

As the soundtrack played The Marvelettes

Elvis Costello & The Imposters - My Most Beautiful Mistake

Elvis is referring, of course, to a lesser-remembered Marvelettes hit...

The Marvelettes - The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game

At the beginning of the 21st Century, 80s hitmaker Terence Trent D'Arby "died", changing his name to Sananda Maitreya. "Terence Trent D'Arby was dead," he told the world, "he watched his suffering as he died a noble death. After intense pain I meditated for a new spirit, a new will, a new identity". This is what hew sounds like these days...

We are getting stronger

And we want the world to know

We are getting freer

And we've got let it show

When you were a sister

Of loneliness in Sivaville

No Goobers no Raisinettes

No Miracles no Marvelettes

When I was a solo boy

Sananda Maitreya - …And They Will Never Know

Next, a taste of what you'd find on a mixtape compiled by Helen Love. No surprises here...

I got 'Stephanie Says' and 'I'll Be There', 

Bikini Kill and the Marvelettes

Undertones, Rolling Stones, 

Sandra Bernhardt and Joey Ramone

Helen Love - Rollercoastin'

Finally today, here's David Johansen from The New York Dolls with a solo track that starts out in unexpectedly melodic fashion... but then morphs into a rocking tune that's just as good as anything he produced in his day job...

Remember how we were marveling darling, 

We were marvelous

Yeah we were marveling at The Marvelettes