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Mic King: Nat King Cole
How do you demonstrate the craft of crooning? It brings a broader range than you imagine. After the many nominations springing from last week’s topic, defining as all about style and using the microphone, guest playlister ParaMhor brings some perfect performance picks …
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Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse. But how many crooners are there in this photo?
This week it’s time to to get close to the microphone explore the evolution of crooning in the full range, the style, the technique, the good, bad and ugly, emotive, intimate and excellent, the creative, the cosy, and the cringeworthy, the sensitive and sentimental
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Eyes wide shut?
What does it mean, and what form does it take? From formal religion to private conversation, hope and supplication to comfort and meditation, and even parody of well-known prayers, it’s time explore this mysterious human activity in song
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The classic Netherlands Elfstedentocht event. But what songs made the finish for this week’s theme?
Skating, skiing, ice hockey and other sliding, the big freeze inspired musical outdoor winter activity. But which songs made it to the finish line, and which were left on ice? Check out in this winter wonderland of playlists by guest Marco den Ouden
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Musical vision: double-bass player Charlie Haden and friends gets eyes and ears firmly on the topic
Protective sunglasses to corrected vision, what songs are in the frame? They are often about what is hidden, but also what is revealed, especially in love, and guest Marco den Ouden brings everything into focus with fabulous playlists inspired by last week’s topic.
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JJ Johnson
From classical to Dixieland to New Orleans early jazz, swing, big band, bebop to modern jazz, pop, funk, rock and more, it’s time to bone up, slide in and have a blast with your suggestions on this great, often unheralded instrument
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Brief Encounter …
Songs that capture that moment of a surprise encounter, wherever it is, doorstep or elsewhere, and wherever it might lead – to romance, tragedy, comedy, death, or more, perhaps profoundly life-changing, or brief, and fleeting
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And this bird must sing …
Hope, fear, dreams, resolutions, giving the finger to 2020, but a welcome thumbs up to 2021? However you feel about this new chapter in the calendar of our lives, it’s time to express it in the form of song suggestions
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Benvenuti in La Taverna Cantata!
This week, it’s the full Italian job! And there’s far more to it than exploding cars – a whole queue of hooting horns, gesticulation and finest food and wine in musical form, all picked by excellente playlister philipphilip99 from a fleet of nominations
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The divine Miss Grace Jones
Let’s accessorise ourselves with songs about hats, gloves, scarves, sunglasses and the like, from a key lyrical moment to song as whole, with items that variously signify fashion, function, status, class, profession, character or era
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One mask, many articulate aliases, but mainly MF Doom
Nom de plume to nom de guerre, moniker, handle to sobriquet, this week let’s dig out songs that mention substitute names, from youth and the unknown to the famous, whether they come from affection, fear, pure description or hype
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Sketching out … Miles Davis and Gil Evans
It’s an artful arrangement in itself: classical to jazz, pop to prog, the parts unfold and come together beautifully in these playlists picked by this week’s guest magicman, drawn from hundreds of suggestions from last week’s topic
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Sammy and Frank
Best pals to the pangs of parenthood, lost lonely souls to lovers entwined, this week’s lists explore closeness in all forms through empathy, with emotionally powerful work chosen by guest Marco den Ouden from last week’s topic
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Dennis Brown … halfway up, halfway down
Love, relationships, work, politics. There are all sorts of compromises in life, but this this week everyone’s a winner, at least those who suggested or performed this brilliantly balanced set of songs chosen by our guest playlister severin
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Orangutan. Of course
From animals to objects, plants to birds, and all of its cultural associations, the meeting of red and yellow, symbol of change, joy, entertainment and also warning, this week let’s explore songs are about anything clearly of this colour
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Rokia Traoré … dancing with a constant companion Mélancolie
The Bar is delighted. Places, emotions, elements, the weather and even music itself take human traits as this week’s guru Uncleben is excellence personified, guiding through two exhaustive and illuminating playlists on this topic
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Roy Orbison: he drove all night …
From personal obstacles to the wider struggle in war, this week’s selections by guest playlister Marco den Ouden meet the challenges of hundreds of nominations with wonderful vim, vigour and variety
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Irreplaceable: The Modern Lovers
Replacements for players, soldiers, husbands, lovers, even robot sex – it’s all going on this these superb playlists chosen by our guest lister Marco den Ouden, who also replaces some of his words with those by nominators
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The Song Bar is really milking this topic …
This week at the Bar we're putting aside the booze, and ’cordial’ly invite song suggestions about any amount of softer beverages, from the fizzy to juicy, milkshakes to mocktails, and hot or cold water drinks
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The paradise tanager, an exotic songbird
Cuckoos to chickens, geese to gulls, a host of exotic birds and ascending on high with the lark and nightingale, this week's aural aviary expert Hoshino Sakura spies a beautiful set of musical calls from last week's topic
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