Today’s Artist
Curtis Mayfield 1942 – 1999
People get ready, there's a train a-coming.
Mayfield wrote about Black pride before anybody called it a movement. He fell through a stage light in 1990 and was paralyzed from the neck down. He kept recording. He sang lying on his back. The music never stopped. More →
Back of the Catalog Selection
30 sec
Who Did It Better
Until You Come Back to Me
1967 Stevie Wonder
1974 Aretha Franklin
Stevie Wonder wrote about wanting someone back after they are gone for good. Aretha Franklin sang the same until you come back with regret from someone who knew the cost of being the one who leaves, who walks away without ever coming back at all.
Today’s Record
Don't Let Go (Love)
My boo, my boo, my boo.
Four women from Oakland. A soundtrack for a film about a bank heist. 30 sec arrived in 1996 and the harmony builds like a wave -- Dawn, Terry, Cindy, Maxine, four voices stacked so tight you couldn't slide a piece of paper between them. What's it gonna be? The song hit number two. It was their last top ten hit. The group was about to come apart. You can hear the holding on.
Today’s Theme
Loading...
You’re Kidding, Right
Lou Rawls was a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division -- 26 jumps -- before becoming a velvet-voiced crooner. That deep voice came from a man who'd been shot out of airplanes. The same man who sang 'You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine' was a combat-trained paratrooper.
Steel spine, silk voice.
Soul in the Movies
The Runaways 2010
The Runaways tells the story of Joan Jett and Cherie Currie's teenage rock band in 1970s Los Angeles. Jett's 'Cherry Bomb' -- written with Kim Fowley -- opens the film: Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, two young women refusing to apologize for anything. Hello, Dad. Hello, Mom. I'm your cherry bomb.
Cherry bomb. The Runaways exploded. 