Toronto Mike

Music

Total 766 Posts

Arrows vs. The Arrows

The Arrows are mentioned on Toronto Mike'd periodically, including today. I'm not familiar with The Arrows, but my brain is full of trivial facts including that Joan Jett's I Love Rock N' Roll was a cover of a song by the Arrows. That's the Arrows, not to be confused with
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One Helluva Fever

Fear not, I'm not feverish. In fact, I feel great. I just finished a chilly 25km bike ride and now I'm listening to Neil. Neil's the guy who had the fever. In late 1968 Neil Young had a 39.5 °C fever and in this state wrote three of his
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Surfin' Bird: Pee Wee vs. Peter Griffin

Thanks to Fortnite, the online video game my kids are obsessed with, my 9 and 7 year olds are really into Peter Griffin's Surfin' Bird. That's right, even though they've never seen an episode of Family Guy, they know Peter Griffin and his favourite song of all-time. Surfin' Bird has
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Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

We need to talk about Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree". I'm sure I heard it in the zeitgeist as a kid, but my first specific memory of this holiday staple is its appearance in 1990's Home Alone. Since then, it's seemed unavoidable. Brenda Lee recorded this Johnny Marks
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The Deuce Theme Songs

Admittedly, I'm a sucker for anything created by David Simon. The Wire is my all-time favourite television show, ahead of Six Feet Under and The Sopranos. Another David Simon series is The Deuce which ran for three seasons. This post is about The Deuce's theme songs. I love all three
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Phoenix Saturdays Reunion!

Last night, I attended the Phoenix Saturays Reunion celebrating Martin Streek and 30 years of Phoenix Saturday Nights. Let's do the time warp again! You can go home againUnlike the recent 35th anniversary of Electric Cicus I attended recently, I actually did dance at the Phoenix for many of these
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When Dusty Bettered Aretha

Aretha Frnaklin is the undisputed Queen of Soul, but in the late-60s, she was beat by British blue-eyed soul singer Dusty Springfiield. In 1968, songwriters John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins wrote Son of a Preacher Man for Aretha Franklin, but Aretha turned it down because her father really was a
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Don't Be Cruel

What the heck was that Cheap Trick cover of Don't Be Cruel all about? I realize I'm 35 years late in asking this pertinent question, but I was just reading an article about Elvis Presley's September 9, 1956 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Here's Elvis performing his hit "Don't
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D' You Know What I Mean?

The moment at which a song hits me is very important. There are mediocre songs I adore to this day becuase they hit me at precisely the right time. When Oasis released Be Here Now in 1997, they had already peaked. Be Here Now was the follow-up to (What's the
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FOTM Playlist for #TMLX13

#TMLX13 is Thursday from 6-9pm at Great Lakes Brewery (30 Queen Elizabeth Blvd) and I'm trying to mimic the vibe of our recent park gatherings. There's no live recording or band, just a good bunch of people collecting to enjoy fresh craft beer and delicious Palma Pasta. I sincerely hope
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Creep'd

Do I ever love Radiohead's "Creep". It was their first single, and unlike anything else you've heard from Radiohead, but I fuckin' love it. The melody, the guitars, the lyrics... the band may not love "Creep", but I do! "Creep" is similar enough to "The Air That I Breathe", a
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The Remix

I loved Duran Duran as a kid. Rio was the first vinyl I ever bought on my own, although I doubt it was my own money. I was very excited to buy Seven and the Ragged Tiger on cassette. Here's The Reflex from that album. Not a bad song, but
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The Irish Rovers

I was born in the 70s, but was still pretty young when we entered the 1980s. I remember the first day back at school after the 1979 Christmas break when our French teacher said the date. She always started class with the date, and I remember the mind-blow that 1980
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I Never Felt I Had to Choose

Pulp Fiction is my favourite movie of all-time, and it's held that title for almost 30 years. There's a deleted scene in Pulp Fiction where Mia Wallace is interrogating Vincent Vega by asking if he's a Beatles or Elvis man, because she claims there are only two types of people.
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Is River A Christmas Song?

Last night, my wife started streaming Sisters, a new Canadian-Irish co-production. The first episode features The Pogues's version of Dirty Old Town. That got me thinking about The Pogues, and I started singing Fairytale of New York. I thought to myself, "this is the only Christmas song I can enjoy
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From Joni to Heart

Joni Mitchell recorded "This Flight Tonight" for her 1971 album Blue. She wrote the song, she sings it, and she produced it. In 1973, Nazereth covered the song for their album Loud 'n' Proud. They really rocked it up, and Canadian rock radio play it all the time. So we
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Stewball Was a Racehorse

When Peter Gross dropped by the other day to kick out the horse racing jams, one of the songs we played was Stewball. I wasn't familiar with Stewball, but I did some digging and learned this folk song has quite the history. Firstly, Stewball was an actual horse, an 18th-century
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