The ubiquity of the soundtrack album has rarely flagged over the six decades since the introduction of the long-playing record. Kelly StitzelÁ¢€â„¢s treasure-trove column Soundtrack Saturday brilliantly documents the height…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
(EditorÁ¢€â„¢s note: The author promises there will be no further Sound of Music references in this column.) President ObamaÁ¢€â„¢s been taking it on the chin a lot lately, from both…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Purchase this CD (Amazon) George Harrison was an intensely spiritual man, but the compilation gods have never been kind to him. His first best-of Á¢€” actually a kiss-off from Apple/Capitol…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Jon Cummings’ ongoing look at great #2 hits in Billboard history moves into the ’80s this week, with hit tracks from the Bangles, Journey, and Foreigner in the mix.
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Just what the hell is a famous blue raincoat, anyway? Maybe Jon Cummings finds out in his new Popdose Interview with Leonard Cohen collaborator — and solo artist in her own right — Sharon Robinson.
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
I must admit, I had thought the days were over when Republicans could scare the bejeezus out of the citizenry (and force acquiescence from lily-livered Democrats) with bullshit tricks like…
Jon Cummings
3 Min Read
Continuing his decade-by-decade look of great second-place finishes in pop music, Jon Cummings moves on to the ’70s, including #2 hits from Lou Rawls, 10cc, and the King himself.
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
The Popdose Staff, led by the intrepid Jon Cummings, has banded together to present a mixtape full of songs from our own weddings. Walk down the aisle with us, won’t you?
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Love her or hate her, Madonna defined popular music Á¢€” screw that, she defined popular culture — like no one else during the 1980s. Her 16 straight Top-5 singles (from…
Jon Cummings
3 Min Read
Welcome to the second installment of an ongoing series celebrating songs that fell excruciatingly short of ascending to the top of BillboardÁ¢€â„¢s pop singles chart. In the course of compiling…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
When the long-awaited, religiously incendiary sequel to The Da Vinci Code arrives in theaters and the anticipated uproar is reduced to a low roar, you know itÁ¢€â„¢s gotta be a…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
This week in Jesus of Cool, Jon Cummings looks back on that lost and long-forgotten phenomenon known as the local radio hit. His focus: the Robbin Thompson Band’s “Candy Apple Red.”
Jon Cummings
7 Min Read
Any time now Á¢€” maybe even during the too-few moments between my pressing Á¢€Å“submitÁ¢€ and this column going live Á¢€” President Obama is going to announce his appointee to replace…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Last year, in the midst of compiling my Á¢€Å“Worst Number One Songs of the Rock EraÁ¢€ series, I began contemplating the sad, sorry fate of those records that have come…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
The Republican PartyÁ¢€â„¢s annus became considerably more horribilis this week, with Arlen Specter switching parties, President Obama taking what amounted to a 100-days victory lap (despite the economyÁ¢€â„¢s continuing decline),…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Singer/songwriter Linda Draper is currently celebrating the release of her sixth album, Bridge and Tunnel — but she isn’t too busy to take a few moments to talk about the music with Jon Cummings.
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
It may be that only an event like this could have propped up that downward-spiraling phenomenon, the beauty pageant: An out-and-proud celebrity gossip-monger asking a comely Californian how she feels…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Three years ago, Camera ObscuraÁ¢€â„¢s brilliant single Á¢€Å“Lloyd, IÁ¢€â„¢m Ready to Be HeartbrokenÁ¢€ was one of 2006Á¢€â„¢s most music-blogged tracks Á¢€” for a while there, you couldnÁ¢€â„¢t swing a dead…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Our yearlong flashback to 1989 continues with Jon Cummings’ reappraisal of Shawn Colvin’s Steady On.
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
Have right-wing evangelicals won their last battle? Maybe not, but Jon Cummings thinks it’ll take them more than three days to resurrect their political fortunes.
Jon Cummings
3 Min Read
Leonard Cohen has been referencing his own mortality in his lyrics for decades now, and on his current world tour the first such hint arrives about a half hour into…
Jon Cummings
3 Min Read
“Someone sent some big-shot Agent here to take a look at me But he left before I even started Then said that I was talent-free IÁ¢€â„¢m having that kind of…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
For someone who can talk your ear off, Syd Straw certainly has built an enigmatic career. After establishing her bona fides as an arty modern-rock diva during the mid-Á¢€â„¢80s, as…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
Those clunky translation earpieces were nowhere to be found last Thursday night in the United Nations General Assembly, as a multinational assemblage of talent and star power filled the great…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
For fans of pop music with integrity, the pop charts of 1989 were a desolate place. Between an avalanche of soul-sapping covers (Michael Damian, Michael Bolton, Martika), the blatant New…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
The original, furiously populist theme of this column, as I envisioned it last weekend, was Á¢€Å“Nationalize the Banks, Now!Á¢€ Well, as of Monday that was taken care of, so, moving…
Jon Cummings
3 Min Read
Tonight Japan and Korea will face off in a grudge match at Dodger Stadium Á¢€” having already split four games over the last two weeks — in the finale of…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
For much of his solo career, it was Paul McCartneyÁ¢€â„¢s peculiar fate to seem perpetually in need of a creative comeback. Chafing against the impossibly high standard he set for…
Jon Cummings
1 Min Read
It’s nice to see Raul Malo back in the spotlight. The onetime Mavericks frontman hadn’t exactly gone quiet, but over the last several years his big voice has been muted…
Jon Cummings
2 Min Read
In Rod LurieÁ¢€â„¢s first political potboiler, Deterrence, a U.S. president audaciously entered a nuclear confrontation with a newly aggressive (and surprisingly well-armed) Saddam Hussein. While hardly an original concept in…