My first weekly mix of 2011 begins with the bullet blast opening Jr. Walker's "Shotgun". For some reason the sound effect wasn't added until later and there are versions without the sound effect and at least one different one, which sounds more like a bomb going off. This seems to be the standard version. Walker played saxophone but had never recorded lead vocals until this song, when the singer didn't show up. For the rest of his career, he did double duty.
Two songs are featured in different versions on this week's mix. Neil Young's countryish "Harvest" is on here alongside a cover by Sy Straw. Also, the Tin Pan Alley standard "When Somebody Thinks You're Wonderful", made popular by Fats Waller with versions by Bryan Ferry and Dean Martin from the movie Scared Stiff to accompany the Waller version.
Years ago, I included the frantic Ghostface Killah/Jadakiss collaboration "Run" on a mix. The remix here adds verses from Raekown, Freeway and Lil Wayne.
The rest: the swaggering "Return Of The Hip Hop Freaks" by Nice & Smooth, the soulful "Never Find A Love Like Mine" by The Brownettes, the brooding "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle" by Nirvana, MF Doom's instrumental "Pennyroyal", the mellow "I Get My Groove From You" by Bobby Patterson, Method Man's atmospheric "Killin' Fields", the operatic "Streets Of Fire" by Bruce Springsteen, O. V. Wright's soulful "I'm Going Home (To Live With God)", Polly Possum with Joe Wolverton and The Dog Patch Boys on the smoky "Don't Talk To Me About Men", Elvis Costello's brisk cover of Bob Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go", Dylan's precocious "My Back Pages", the jazzy "Glad Tidings" by Van Morrison, 60s French pop by Les Roche Martin with "Les Mains Dans Les Poches", a cover of Carly Simon's James Bond theme "Nobody Does It Better" by Radiohead, a version of the Jimmy Webb standard "Wichita Lineman" by Bruner and the elegiac "Baker Street" by the recently departed Gerry Rafferty.
