2020 OSCAR NOMINEES FOR BEST ORIGINAL SONG

This year's Oscar nominations were announced on January 13th and the awards will be presented on February 9th which makes it the earliest the awards have ever been given out. And without any nonsense about eliminating the Best Original Song nominees from the show, that means that all of the singers of these songs have been invited to perform at the 92nd annual ceremony. This year is particularly strong in this category with any of them being a worthy winner. But I have to say I'm leaning towards Elton John's song from "Rocketman". This Motown-inspired, foot-stomper, "(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again" has John collaborating with his long-time co-writer, Bernie Taupin and this would only be the second award this legendary team has ever won together following their recent Golden Globe win for this song. Here are all five Best Original Song nominees for your listening pleasure:

"I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away" from "Toy Story 4"; music and lyrics by Randy Newman



"(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again" from "Rocketman"; music by Elton John; lyrics by Bernie Taupin



"I'm Standing With You" from "Breakthrough"; music and lyrics by Diane Warren



"Into the Unknown" from "Frozen II"; music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez



"Stand Up" from "Harriet"; music and lyrics by Joshuah Brian Campbell and Cynthia Erivo

RANDOM SIGHTS + SOUNDS

One name that was unexpected to hear during the announcement at this year's Grammy Award nominations was Tanya Tucker. Professionally singing since she was thirteen, the now sixty-one year old country music legend has had plenty of ups and downs throughout her career. But she has received plenty of praise and attention with her twenty-fifth album, "While I'm Livin'" with it receiving four nominations including Song of The Year. It has been over fifteen years since Tucker's last studio record of original material with musicians, Shooter Jennings and Brandi Carlile (who had her own career breakthrough after her Grammy nominations in 2018) stepping in to produce. Carlile, a hard-core Tucker fan, wrote a majority of the album with Tim and Phil Hanseroth while three songs are covers including Miranda Lambert's 2010 hit, "The House That Built Me". My favorite track is the nominated, moving ballad, "Bring My Flowers Now", where the album's title comes from, which focuses on appreciating your loved ones while they are still around to be appreciated.



Here are some videos of new music that I'm enjoying right now:

Alicia Keys, who will be hosting the 2020 Grammys this weekend for the second year in a row, has just dropped a new single. "Underdog" is an inspirational song that brings attention to the people out there struggling while offering encouragement to never giving up on their dreams. This is a powerful message that we really need to hear right now. This is the third single which delivers another preview of music from Keys' upcoming seventh album, "ALICIA" due out in March.

32 ANTICIPATED ALBUMS IN 2020

Now that we are into the new year, it's time to look at some of the upcoming new music that is expected in 2020. In the first few weeks, we had new albums from Halsey, Selena Gomez and a posthumous release from Mac Miller. And Vulture has done a rundown of other artists who are supposed to release some long-awaited new music throughout the year. This includes some big names who have been promising something for awhile yet nothing has materialized to date. This includes Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar, The Dixie Chicks, SZA, Adele and Rihanna to name just a few.

Please click below to read the article:

32 Anticipated New Albums in 2020

MY FAVORITE MOMENTS IN MUSIC IN 2019

2019 seemed to highlight the further fragmenting of pop music with the growing emphasis on the song and less on the singer. In this Spotify generation, endless playlists filled with disconnected songs by a variety of artists have increasingly replaced a focused collection of work by a singer/songwriter with specific thoughts on life and love. Even the way music is created has moved back in time to the days when a factory of songwriters and producers put together a track and then find the right singer to fill in the rest. While it has become much more difficult for performers to maintain enduring careers after their initial burst of success, there were certainly some promising new artists who broke out and made fresh, memorable works last year who look like the real deal.

Here are a few more favorite songs that I didn't get chance to share previously throughout last year:

ALLEE WILLIS (1947 - 2019)

The Grammy-Award winning songwriter, Allee Willis passed away suddenly on December 24th from cardiac arrest. The seventy-two year old Willis had just been inducted in to the Songwriters Hall of Fame last year.

Some of the music this talented writer helped create includes Earth, Wind and Fire's "September" and "Boogie Wonderland"; "Neutron Dance" by the Pointer Sisters (for the "Beverly Hills Cop" soundtrack which she won her first Grammy), "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" by Pet Shop Boys featuring Dusty Springfield and "I'll Be There for You" by The Rembrandts which was used as the theme song for the still-popular sitcom, "Friends". Willis also co-wrote the songs for the Broadway musical of "The Color Purple" and received Tony-Award nominations and a Grammy win for her work.

Born Alta Sherral Willis in Detroit, she would go hang out outside of Motown Records to listen to the artists record their soon-to-be hits as a teenager. Willis went to college to study journalism but moved to New York after graduation and was drawn to singing and songwriting, She did record an album, "Childstar" in 1974 but it failed to get any attention. Not long after, Willis decided to give up performing, move to Los Angeles and focus on being a songwriter.

Willis was hired by A&M Records in 1977 as a writer and her first chance encounter was an introduction to Verdine White, the bass player for Earth, Wind and Fire. Through him, Willis would meet his brother, Maurice, the founder and leader of the band. They worked together writing "September" and this 1978 now-classic became her first hit song. This opened doors for Willis and she would go to work with a wide variety of artists including Rita Coolidge, Crystal Gayle, Sister Sledge, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Patti LaBelle, Cyndi Lauper and Taylor Dayne.

Willis would later become known for her North Hollywood home, designed by William Kesling, where she threw wild parties and filled with pop culture artifacts which helped her become affectionately referred to as "the Queen of Kitsch". In honor of this great talent, here are a few of my favorite songs written by Allee Willis:

POST MALONE: AN APPRECIATION

I have to say that I haven't paid much attention to Post Malone although he is certainly one of the biggest acts in pop music right now. While I know it's not fair or right but I think it has been mostly due to his physical appearance: the face tattoos, the grills on his teeth and his overall look of just rolling fresh out of the gutter. For me, it was all a little off-putting.

But I have to admit that I really like the music of the twenty-four year old performer who was born in New York and raised in Grapevine, TX. From his breakout single, "White Iverson" in 2015 to his latest top-ten hit, "Take What You Want" which features heavy-metal legend, Ozzy Osbourne and Travis Scott, Malone's easy blend of hip-hop, r&b, country, and indie rock makes him a thrilling and dynamic force in contemporary music.

Born Austin Richard Post, his father had been a disc jockey when he was young and introduced his son to a wide variety of music. Following in his father's footsteps, Post did some DJing before learning to play guitar and joining a heavy-metal band as a teen. After dropping out of college and moving to LA, he joined a group of musicians and producers, drifting towards rap and hip-hop.

This lead to the self-released single on SoundCloud, "White Iverson" (which in part was a reference to basketball player, Allen Iverson) and the single quickly reached a million plays. Record labels came courting with Malone signing with Republic Records and his debut studio album, "Stoney" released in 2016. Several hit singles followed with "Congratulations"(featuring Quavo), his first number one, "Rockstar" (featuring 21 Savage), "Psycho" (featuring Ty Dolla Sign), "Better Now", "Wow" and "Sunflower" from the 2018 animated film, "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse". To date, Post Malone has sold an estimated sixty million records in the U.S.

To respectfully honor this artist and publicly acknowledge my poor initial judgement, here is a showcase of the exceptional sounds of Post Malone:

NUMBER ONE FLASHBACK

"Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" by Rupert Holmes reached the top of the U.S. pop chart during this week back in 1979 and would remain there, becoming the last number one song of the decade.

Holmes was born David Goldstein in Northwich, Cheshire, England to an American father and British mother. When he was six, the family moved to the States to Nanuet, New York where David began to pursue music, learning to play several instruments. By the time he was twenty, he had become a sought after session musician where he worked on record production, wrote jingles and songs and scored feature films.

Holmes soon went to work as a solo artist and recorded his debut album, "Widescreen" which was released in 1974. While it was not much of a success, it did catch the attention of Barbra Streisand who asked him to help write and produce some tracks on her 1975 album, "Lazy Afternoon". This lead to Holmes producing for other artists and releasing more solo albums. But his own material continued to fail to chart.

It was not until his fifth studio album, "Partners in Crime" that Holmes had a breakthrough with the single, "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" which would become a worldwide hit. "Escape" is a classic story-song about a man, bored with his marriage, deciding to put out a personal ad in search of a new lover. He proceeds to rattle off a list of what he's searching for including someone who likes that sweet cocktail. And if you have never heard the song, I won't spoil the ending but let's just say that the woman our protagonist meets during the secret rendezvous is someone he knows very well. Holmes had another top-ten hit from the album with, "Him" but that would bring a quick end to his pop music success.

He soon turned his attention to the theater and wrote the book for the musical, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" in 1985. The play would win Holmes two Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score. He continued to create for the stage with original shows, "Say Goodnight, Gracie" and "Accomplice"; a play based on "A Time To Kill and musical versions of "Robin and The 7 Hoods", "The First Wives Club" and "The Nutty Professor".

Enjoy this live version of Rupert Holmes performing his number one smash, "Escape":