Songs I Didn't Skip (Part 5)

 "Moritat (Mack The Knife)" by Lyle Lovett (1994)

From the 1994 very good Robert Redford-directed movie, "Quiz Show" about olde time TV, comes this version of the classic song performed by LL that plays over the end credits. In isolation, the arrangement is pretty over baked but as a movie closer, it's good. The song itself, which I play pretty regularly on jazz gigs, more often then not reminds me of this odd late 1980s McDonald's ad campaign that used the song and this piano player character whose head is a crescent moon (a "tribute" to Bobby Darin I assume). All in the service of promoting $.99 Big Macs. Sometime in the 1990s, I remember seeing a vestige of this short-lived campaign at a McDonald's restaurant here in Minnesota that had a plastic table shaped like a piano with the moon-guy sitting at it. People who didn't know what it was must have found it a head-scratcher.

"Rollin'" by Randy Newman (2016)

I really have enjoyed Newman's recent re-recordings of his old songs with just him at the piano. I wasn't really familiar with this one but check out this lyric:

Let me tell you what I do

I sit here in this chair

I pour myself some whiskey

And watch my troubles vanish into the air

"Come A Long Way" by Loudon Wainwright III (1973)

Classic somewhat acidic LW breakup song. 

"Modern Love" by David Bowie (1983)

Quite possibly one of the best opening tracks on a pop album and has to be one of the best opening tracks to also feature a Bari sax.

"Ballad of a Well-Known Gun" by Elton John (1971)

Another album opener which, if I'm honest, is a bit of a let-down after the Bowie track. It's still worth lingering on, though.

"High Fidelity" by Elvis Costello and the Attractions (1980)

The app knows which great EC songs to roll, that's for sure. 

 "O Tannenbaum" by The Vince Guaraldi Trio (1965)

Oh what the heck. The very good bass solo on this tune is not on the TV special, There's something Charlie Brown-ish about that.

"Always On The Run" by Lenny Kravitz (1991)

Typical great Kravitz neo-60s R&B groove.

"Teenage Jail" by The Eagles (1979)

I suppose I would have stopped on any Eagles song that I haven't recently heard at a doctor's office. This, while not as bad as "The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks", I suppose, is pretty weak sauce.