RANDOM SIGHTS + SOUNDS

Bryan Ferry, the front man of the glam rock outfit, Roxy Music, is still creating music more than fifty years after forming the group, which disbanded in 1983. The now seventy-eight year old musician has announced a career-spanning music collection appropriately entitled, "Retrospective: Selected Recordings" that will feature eighty-one tracks from his solo career and due out in October. Ferry has also released a new song, his first in ten years, and teamed up with Trent Rezner and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails to help create the track. "Star" features vocals by artist, Amelia Barratt and offers a different sonic approach than what we usually hear from the mod rocker with edgy, techno beats. Ferry has promised this is just the beginning with more original music on the way.



Here are a few songs that I am enjoying at the moment: "Taste", the latest from the new pop sensation, Sabrina Carpenter who has just released her sixth studio album, "Short N' Sweet" with the music video for the song inspired by the 1992 dark comedy, "Death Becomes Her" and features actress, Jenna Ortega; Megan Thee Stallion's "Mamushi" is a bilingual hip-hop track that features Japanese rapper, Yuki Chiba; rising dance-soul artist, Jae Stephens has a new song, "Body Favors"; Another remix from Charli XCX from her "Brat" album with "Guess" that has Billie Eilish on board; and the American DJ, the Blessed Madonna has teamed-up with the Australian dance queen, Kylie Minogue for a throbbing new party song, "Edge of Saturday Night".

And I will close by paying tribute to two artists who have recently passed away: Greg Kihn, the rocker who found fame in the 80's with the hit songs, "The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)" and "Jeopardy", died on August 13th at the age of seventy-five. Born in Baltimore, Kihn had a dream of becoming a professional musician after seeing the Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show" as a teenager. After spending time learning to write songs and playing guitar with several bands in local bars, Kihn made the move to California to try his luck, landing in Berkeley. In 1976, Kihn was signed to a local record label, Beserkley and recorded three albums that didn't generate much attention.

Four years later, he formed a group called, the Greg Kihn Band but they still struggled to breakthrough. But it was with the 1981 album, "Rockihnroll" and the single, "The Breakup Song" that brought Kihn his first taste of pop music success with the song reaching number fifteen on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Two years later, Kihn had an even bigger hit with "Jeopardy" which made it to number two on the US pop chart. That would pretty much be the end of Kihn's charting success but he would continue to make music over the following years. He also became a Bay Area morning radio DJ for a classic rock radio station in 1996, holding the job for fifteen years, and went on to write four novels.

Maurice Williams, with his band, The Zodiacs, was the the writer and lead vocalist behind the r&b classic, "Stay". He died on August 5th at the age of eighty-six. Music had been an important part of his life since he was a child through his church where his family members performed. As a teen, he formed a gospel group called Junior Harmonizers. But doo-wop soon captured his attention and the group became the Royal Charms. The band went through several other name changes before settling on "the Zodiacs", taking the name from a short-lived British car.

In 1959, Williams and the Zodiacs recorded several demos in search of a breakthrough and the final song they did was "Stay", written years before by Williams. The song became a smash hit and is the shortest to reach the top spot on the US Billboard Hot 100 at one minute and thirty-six seconds. There were several covers of "Stay" including Jackson Browne's popular live version in 1978. This song would achieve even greater success as being a part of the soundtrack to the 1987 movie, "Dirty Dancing". Williams would continue to record and tour up until his death.