My last weekly mix of the year nods to the recently departed Solomon Burke, with covers of his "Cry To Me" by The Rolling Stones and Betty Harris as well as his version of the Jimmy Webb standard "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" and a rare live version of the song Tom Waits wrote for Solomon called "Diamond In Your Mind", performed with The Kronos Quartet and Greg Cohen.
Bobby Hebb also passed away this year. The story behind his hit "Sunny" is very moving. It was written in the aftermath of his brother's death and the assassination of President Kennedy. In addition to his original version is a cover by Cher.
I enjoyed the recent trend in "stripped" versions of older songs that feature more vocals and less instrumentation. This mix includes versions of Smokey Robinson's "Being With You", John Lennon's "Watching The Wheels" and "Never Can Say Goodbye" by The Jackson 5 all in the "stripped" manner. The mix ends after the Jackson 5 song with a rare fuller band demo of "That's Entertainment" by The Jam.
In between: a cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson" by Billy Paul, Paul Simon's soulful "Love Me Like A Rock", the rare "Feels Like (Nutty Professor)" by Slick Rick, Major Lance's aptly-titled "Rhythm", Ghostface Killah's western-movie homage "Black Tequila" with Cappadonna, the pretty "Reading In Bed" by Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton, an alternate take of "Gold Dust Woman" by Fleetwood Mac, the harrowing "Streets Of New York" by Kool G Rap & DJ Polo, Ray Charles' cover of "Yesterday" by The Beatles and the sweet "When The Sun Goes Down" by Rose Maddox.
