WTIT Top 10 Love Sones

Today we return with a very popular feature of the WTIT Blog. We simply call it A DJ's Take. Not only have you requested its return on a regular basis, but also we receive more traffic from "new readers" for this feature than all others combined. Today we return with a Top 10 list. Now this is very subjective, but let's qualify it by saying it is our list of the Top 10 Love Songs of the Boomer generation. This way your kids don't start trashing us because of a current hit that isn't on our iPod. And my dad Bierne won't complain What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong is on it either. Fair enough? It better be. Also, for those who know us, we did not even consider a Beatles' song. (If the Top 10 were all Beatles, you'd say WTF?) So here they are an imperfect list from the perfect Tape Radio station, WTIT! Song titles are in bold.

10. My Cherie Amore In French the words mean “My Little Dear” but was originally titled Oh My Marcia. Henry Cosby and Sylvia Moy co-wrote the song with Stevie. Marcia was a woman that fascinated Stevie in school. However, it was Moy who talked him into the more generic title.

9. Be My Baby The song was written by Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry. It was a hit for the Ronettes which featured Phil Spector’s wife Ronnie. It was one of Rolling Stone magazine’s Top 500 songs of all time, in fact it made the top 25. It was with this song that Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound” became widely known. Brian Wilson once said it was his favorite song of all time.

8. Love Me Tender The music for the song came from a civil war ballad titled Aura Lee and was in public domain by the 1950’s. The words were written by Ken Darby but were credited to his wife and Elvis for some legal issue. Elvis performed it on Ed Sullivan before it’s release which led to over a million pre-orders for the single. So, by the time it was released it was a gold record already.

7. Your Song When I was in college my roommate woke me at 8 AM on a Saturday to tell me the next “superstar” was at our college radio station and I should come meet him. I asked “What’s his name?” My roommate said “Elton John”. I replied, “Wake me again when he’s famous” and I went back to sleep. My bad. The song was suppose to be the b side of Take Me to the Pilot, but American DJs liked the b side more, and the rest is history.

6. Just The Way You Are The song is from Billy Joel’s album from 1977 The Stranger. It was written about his first wife. After they divorced Joel would change the lyrics at times to reflect his changed feelings while performing live. He never really liked the song, even in the beginning. So he decided to leave it off the album. Phobe Snow and Linda Ronstadt were recording in the same studio and urged him to reconsider.

5. She This song was written by Charles Aznavour and Hebert Kretzmer. Charles had the first success with his song which reached number one in England. It never took off in the rest of Europe or the U.S. When the film Notting Hill was produced the orignal version was going to be used, but the director didn’t quite like it. Elvis Costello was brought in to do a cover version for the 1999 film and that’s our choice and how we know the song.

4. Three Times a Lady The song was written and sung by Lionel Richie while with the Commodores. It was their first number one hit and was on the album Natural High in 1978. It was Motown Records only top 10 song that year. The reference, by the way to “Three Times a Lady” was because Richie’s girlfriend was a very large woman.

3. Colour My World The song was written by Chicago’s trumpet player Jimmy Pankow and song by Chicago’s original lead singer Terry Kath. Kath died from a self inflicted gunshot wound in 1978. It is still not know if this was an accident or a suicide. Chicago stopped playing the song for quite a few years after that tragedy.

2. Ain’t No Sunshine Bill Withers wrote the song while he still worked in a factory that made toilet seats. It became his breakout hit in 1971. The part of the song where repeats “I know” about a hundred times was so he could write additional lyrics. But since he still had his day job, when the record company wanted him not to put his new lyrics in he agreed.

1. Unchained Melody The song was written by lyricist Hy Zaret (who passed away last year at 99!) and composer Alex North for a 1955 film named Unchained. It was a hit by two people that year, Al Hibber with a vocal version and Les Baxter with an instrument. It was covered by folks like Leena Horn and Elvis. However, we will always love the Phil Spector produced Righteous Brothers’ version recorded ten years late in 1965. And of course, it was a hit again some twenty-five years after that with its inclusion in the film Ghost.

The WTIT Blog will return next time

with maybe that party story.

We are waiting for the pictures.

Perhaps we will receive them.

Perhaps not.

We hope that you have enough time in

your day to be with us next time.

But of course we will understand

if you choose not to return.
We will be ready, either way.
Same time. Same blog.