Apr 262012
 

They Say It’s Your Birthday celebrates an artist’s special day with other people singing his or her songs. Let others do the work for a while. Happy birthday!

At the age of 20, Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins became one-third of one of the most successful singing girl groups of all time: TLC. Throughout the ’90s, the R&B trio — T-Boz, Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas, and the late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes — consistently dominated the charts with singles like “No Scrubs,” “Unpretty,” and “Waterfalls.” Continue reading »

Aug 272010
 

Song of the Day posts one cool cover every morning. Catch up on past installments here.

San Diego songwriter Steve Poltz is hard to peg. He’s best known for his work with Jewel, co-writing her sappy 1996 hit “You Were Meant for Me.” You’d think that sentence says it all (specifically, it says, “I’ll pass”). But he recorded a whole record of 45-second answering machine records. And it’s one of Neil Young’s favorite albums. Okay, I’m interested again. He’s recorded songs for gooey romantic comedies, but his indie post-punk band inspired a Weird Al song. If nothing else, the man must have a very eclectic Rolodex.

He leans towards his sappier side on his new album Dreamhouse with Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were,” the title song to the 1973 movie. It’s schmaltzy as heck, but it’s well-crafted schmaltz. Put it this way: if the schmaltz-instrumentation continuum runs from acoustic guitar to synthesized orchestra, this falls to the former. Naming it one of the 100 best songs of all time seems a stretch (I’m looking at you, Billboard), but in Poltz’s tender delivery it’s perfect for a vulnerable moment. Continue reading »