The second episode of Saturday Night Live in 1974 saw a cool skit with Marv Albert serving as commentator for a one-on-one basketball tournament between Paul Simon and former Harlem Globetrotter Connie Hawkins.
Paul Simon, Connie Hawkins – Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard – SNL 1975 from Simon and Garfunkel News on Vimeo.
“Working for the Weekend” was released in 1981 on Loverboy’s second album Get Lucky and reached #29 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #2 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart in the United States in January 1982. AND IT’S THE WEEKEND, SO BLAST THIS ONE UP! It even contains the cowbell in the beginning!
https://youtu.be/_3sFmrcW0os
“Between May 12 and Oct. 9, 2015, my band and I performed 112 concerts as part of our Mandatory World Tour, and almost every show started out with a performance of my song “Tacky.” As the audience watched on a giant LED screen, a camera crew would follow me as I sang the song, starting from some point outside (or deep within) the venue and eventually winding up on stage. It was always fun for us, because obviously the venues were different every night and every performance of the song was unique. We recorded about half of these performances, and I’ve spent the last few days editing together this little memento.” – “Weird Al” Yankovic
Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd reprise their iconic characters from “Back To The Future” for a very special appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s show.
To commemorate their 60th wedding anniversary, Jason Lyle Black’s grandparents recreated scenes from the opening montage from Pixar’s Up, and performed a piano duet of the film’s theme song.
…and here are the original scenes from Up.
https://youtu.be/1G371JiLJ7A
Both made me cry, by the way.
…and it’s superb. Let’s just end the mashup universe now, because this wins.
Jeff Beck was an admirer of Stevie Wonder’s music, and Wonder was informed of this prior to the Talking Book album sessions. Though at this point he was virtually playing all of the instruments on his songs by himself, Wonder still preferred to let other guitarists play on his records, and thus he liked the idea of a collaboration with Beck, a star guitarist. An agreement was quickly made for Beck to become involved in the sessions that became the Talking Book album, in return for Wonder writing him a song. In between sessions, Beck came up with the opening drum beat, which eventually led to Wonder’s creation of “Superstition”. In addition to the opening drum beat, Beck, together with Wonder, created the first demo for the song. Originally, the plan was for Beck to release his version of this song first, with his newly-formed power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice. However, due to a combination of the delayed release of that trio’s debut album and Motown CEO Berry Gordy’s prediction that “Superstition” would be a huge hit (which would subsequently greatly increase the sales of Talking Book), Wonder ended up releasing the song as the lead single off Talking Book ahead of Beck’s version.
VOCAL (Stevie Wonder):
CLAVINET (Stevie Wonder):
HORNS (TENOR SAX: Trevor Laurence, TRUMPET: Steve Madaio):
SYNTH BASS (Stevie Wonder):
DRUMS (Stevie Wonder):
CLAV ECHO TRACK:
Released on Ed Sheeran’s 2014 album x, “Thinking Out Loud” became a top hit, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the UK chart. On an album featuring numerous producers, this track was produced by Peter Gosling, who had worked with Sheeran on his first album.
The third single from their album Synchronicity, ‘Synchronicity II’ was written by lead singer and bassist Sting. It was released as a single in the UK and the US by A&M Records, it reached number 17 in the UK Singles Chart and number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1983. This is ripped from Rock Band, but it’s still pretty accurate.
https://youtu.be/XJ0eGFOENsE
Nicky Jam and Enrique Iglesias’ collab tallies a 30th week on the Hot 100, setting a peculiar record: the most weeks spent on the chart without reaching the top 50. It returns to its No. 56 high.
Here’s an updated look at the songs to spend the most time on the chart without cracking its upper half:
Weeks, Peak, Title, Artist, Peak Year
30, No. 56, “El Perdon (Forgiveness),” Nicky Jam & Enrique Iglesias, 2015
29, No. 53, “HeadBand,” B.o.B feat. 2 Chainz, 2014
27, No. 76, “The Rockafeller Skank,” Fatboy Slim, 2000
23, No. 81, “Cold,” Crossfade, 2004
22, No. 51, “Like a Wrecking Ball,” Eric Church, 2015
22, No. 53, “Drinking Class,” Lee Brice, 2015
22, No. 59, “Someday,” Rob Thomas, 2010
22, No. 84, “Take a Walk,” Passion Pit, 2013
Via Billboard
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Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.
Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com
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