The Friday Five

Friday Five : |ˈfrÄ«dā – fÄ«v| : On the sixth day of every week, I hit the shuffle button in iTunes and share the first five tracks and thought for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, occasionally we’ll have a guest, but most of the time it’s just me. The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up the media player of your choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments.

The Five:

“Let’s Groove” by Earth, Wind & Fire (from Sounds of the Eighties: 1981, 1995)

Earth, Wind & Fire’s last truly great single, “Let’s Groove” does precisely what it sets out to do. As Mr. Morris Day would say, it gets some asses wigglin’.

“When I Think of You” by Janet Jackson (from Design of a Decade: 1986-1996, 1995)

While I liked “What Have You Done for Me Lately” and “Nasty,” it was “When I Think of You” that made me love Miss Jackson.

“Give Me a Beat” by Girl Talk (from Feed the Animals, 2009 )

Janet makes a second appearance on this week’s five, albeit in sample form. These mash-up records seem so damn dated, but there are some incredibly cool moments on this track. Every time you listen to it you recognize a new sample.

“When Doves Cry” by Prince and The Revolution (from Purple Rain, 1984)

It feels like it has been a long time since His Royal Badness showed up the Friday Five.

“Building Steam With a Grain of Salt” by DJ Shadow (from Endtroducing….., 1996)

I’ve been listening to this record, as well as his newly released career retrospective,Reconstructed: The Best of DJ Shadow, an awful lot lately. It astounds me how this music–unlike the Girl Talk record above–doesn’t at all sound dated.

What’s on your shuffle today?

About the Author

Michael Parr

Husband, Father, Writer, Musical Voyeur, Pop Culture Glutton, Gourmet in Training. I'm the tall guy behind all these short guys. You can find me on the Twitter.

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