First Think, THEN Ink.

Whitney Houston died on February 11, 2012. That's six years ago, today. And a lovely remembrance of her was given back then by Robyn Crawford, who gave her testimony to Esquire Magazine the following day. That article is HERE Ms. Crawford and Houston were inseparable for many years, until Bobby Brown, more or less, forced her out of Whitney's orbit.

That article from Esquire s a part of the source material for THIS PIECE as seen in Britain's Telegraph from September of last year, suggesting that Robyn and Whitney were more than friends, they were lovers. It's not like this is a revelation; tabloid papers and show biz gossip had suggested this during Whitney's run of success in the late 80s into the 90s.

The documentary Whitney: Can I Be Me" which was theatrically released in August of 2017 and is currently available on Showtime, revisits this as it explores that element of Whitney's life, and it also suggests that Whitney's mom, noted gospel singer Cissy Houston, would not have approved of such a relationship.

Still, you have to wonder about the elements of negativity that were sparked during her marriage to Bobby Brown and how this possible, and likely, relationship with Crawford would have been nearly as bad. The implication was that Whitney was bisexual and that she was getting something from both her relationship with Crawford as well as with her marriage to Brown, something she lost when Brown forced Crawford away.

It really speaks to what we value in life, to what we think is "acceptable." Bobby Brown, who emotionally manipulated Whitney, who, it was stated in the film, introduced her to alcohol (while she likely introduced drugs to him) and they both started to do both regularly, created that dynamic between them, a key element in her demise. Crawford, a stabilizing force in her life was pushed out and her father, who eventually sued his daughter for breach of contract and failure to pay must have crushed her in ways we could have never known.

The whole concept of what life is really about is called into question when you examine it from an angle like that.

Still, the documentary, which neither received input nor approval from Crawford, is one worth viewing as we try to reassemble the pieces of who this legendary performer was and how she came to be, then came to be destroyed. It truly is the Cinderella story, without the happy ending. It's chilling to watch each step on that path taking her down a road of no return. Couldn't she have been saved? And if she couldn't, might this happen to any among us?

"Whitney: Can I Be Me" is currently available through Showtime's "On Demand" service. It's listed under the "Black History Month" category. It will also air on Sho Next tonight at 8pm.

We have come to the end of the 30 Day Music Challenge, and again, I'm altering this selection from the original... the challenge for today was supposed to be "Your Favorite Song This Time Last Year." I'm pretty sure that this time last year, songs were not on my mind in the least... except for Mussorgsky's "Night On Bald Mountain", which, I kid you not, really was playing in my head almost continually those first couple of months of 2017.

But now, in the wake of the Grammys and of the positive elements that seem to be on the rise in our society, plus the fact that we haven't, as yet, talked about what's happening now in music during this 30 day meme, all points to reasons why we should examine what's popular today and select a current song for this list!

Music is ever-changing, ever growing, constantly surprising and continually flowing. Even though the sounds of the songs on the current charts bear no resemblance to 1968 or 1988 or even 2008, there is still a thread that connects them together. If you can't find something you like during any era of music, that only means that you just aren't listening.

I have an easy job for this final pick. Or, really it's a difficult one in that there are a number of songs that I really love that are on the charts this week. But I'm making this selection for a few crucial reasons. First, it's a song focused on the concept of what is usually referred to as "Girl Power", taking back the strength in a relationship, rather than giving it all to the guy. That's a great and very timely message.

Second, the tune itself is so strong and unique, it really has an edge that makes it stand out; it is a tune that has that "earworm" quality that a lot of hits are all about. It has a great sound.

Third, the artist is breaking through, becoming a part of the mainstream from her native Great Britain for most of last year. You didn't hear her name during this week's Grammys, but I would be shocked if you wouldn't hear it at least a few times during next year's ceremony!

And finally, just to bring it back to NYC one final time during this Challenge, The performer is going to make her very first appearance as the musical guest on this Week's Saturday Night Live, hosted by Natalie Portman. You'll be able to see her for yourself when the show airs on NBC, Feburary Third, at 11:30 Eastern, 8:30 Pacific!

So, this massive list of songs, which started with something old, is ending with something new. I conclude the 30 Day Music Challenge with Dua Lipa - "New Rules"

It's Grammy Day... And I always state that for an award, the Grammys have tended to be the most out of touch with their field. Granted, there are literally over eighty Grammys that will be presented today, and that doesn't even cover the Latin Grammys, which are typically presented in the Fall with another forty-eight categories represented there.

Why hasn't the Grammys gotten it right? Well, the point is, they're finally starting to... Back in the day, The Voters for the Grammy Awards were people that didn't care for some forms of music, notably Rock music, and so those songs and albums tended to be overlooked for a very long time. Just as an example, the winner of the "Best Rock N Roll Recording" in 1963 was (drumroll please...) "Alley Cat" or according to the label displayed on that disc The Alleycat by Bent Fabric. Now, I know that this is still pre-British Invasion, but this does suggest that something was wrong with the process.

I eventually found out first hand why the Grammy voting board had problems, even into the 1980s and 90s from a person involved in the process: All voters in all music genres submitted nominees for all categories. That meant you had country music people nominating rap, you had classical music people nominating rock. In short, you had people who had no business nominating things for categories they didn't understand or maybe didn't even listen to, and that created a lot of questionable choices for the awards.

Eventually, as the Grammy board started letting more performers in, people who produced and recorded hip-hop, heavy metal, world music, started to be both represented and voted on by people who were experts in those fields. That automatically made the nominating process more accurate.

The Grammys used to be my big day to criticize everything that was wrong with both the music industry and the people running (ruining?) it, but there's been less to complain about more recently. And the Grammy Ceremony has been a pretty great show, for the most part, for the last several years, since Whitney Houston's shocking and saddening death, the night before the 2012 ceremony. Hard to believe it's been six years since then, but in an odd way, it somehow also seems like it's been about twenty or so.

The industry has been trying to find its feet for a number of years since the Napster issues of file sharing became a rallying cry against fans that acquired music from others - this though stores constantly sold blank audio cassettes and rewritable blank CDs as a part of their inventory.

Now, it seems there is a new, somewhat stable and properly functioning system for the artists and producers to get their due, and for listeners to get their music. Platforms like Pandora and Spotify and outlets like iTunes and Amazon seem to be working better, after some earlier problems. The record labels cut away a lot of the fat, people on the payroll who weren't really contributing to the cause are now gone, because these labels can't just sit back on their laurels and watch the money come in. Everybody is working hard to do the best they can because the process isn't as guaranteed as it was, even as recently as the early 2000s.

And that brings me to my altered challenge for today. My point in doing this meme, this month, was that the Grammys were back in NYC, at Madison Square Garden, for the first time since 2003. So, of course I'm doing a special Grammy Challenge as part of it.

The "Record of the Year" category is sometimes confused with the "Song of the Year." But, they're easily discerned. Song of the Year is presented to the Songwriter. In other words, it's a celebration of that piece of music. Record of the Year is presented to the recording artist. So, that award goes to the particular recording of that song. And it's appropriate to choose "Record of the Year" nominees because we are picking particular recordings of songs with this challenge. Of course, "Song of the Year" and "Record of the Year" frequently go to the same recording, but not always.

To me, the best sort of "Record of the Year" lives up to the double meaning of that phrase. It is a great performance, but it also is a cultural touchstone that places both it and us at a particular moment, a specific point in history, one that both clearly delineates and acts as a marker for our collective experiences, making it an actual "record" of that particular year.

Music can do a lot of great stuff. It can make us happy. It can help us channel anger in a positive way. It can soothe us or challenge us or inspire us, music has a lot of benefits. That's why we love it. And helping a charitable cause is one of those elements that music has the power to do.

The movement that led to the song I selected really began with another song: "Do They Know It's Christmas" was written by Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof, in response to the scenes of famine in Ethiopia he viewed on British TV in 1984. Geldof gathered a bunch of recording artists to sing the tune and released it as a charity effort to help support relief for the Ethiopian people. It was an enormous success.

That led to Live Aid, a massive concert featuring performers in both London and Philiadelphia, with drummer/singer Phil Collins taking the Concorde "across the pond" to play at both Wembley Stadium and JFK Stadium on that incredible day. This massive effort produced a massive fundraiser and that set off more...

Like Farm Aid was to help America's farmers stay solvent as they fed the country.

Later, the series of Very Special Christmas albums helped to support the Special Olympics

But sandwiched between those came USA For Africa, an effort by Americans to contribute to famine relief, as the Brits had previously done.

Recorded around the time of another ceremony, that year's American Music Awards, it featured an all-star lineup of vocalists to sing the song, which became an international sensation, as well as the video which let you see a bit of what the recording session was all about, an additional album with more tracks, and a whole line of merchandise.

Thanks to the still operating WEBSITE, we have a collection of PHOTOS of the massive recording session. They are certainly worth seeing, or seeing again.

So, my selection on this Grammy Day, Day 27, is the Grammy Award Record of the Year winner for 1986: USA For Africa - "We Are The World"

I'm throwing this challenge off in ways because I'm not following the proper days. This really is supposed to be the "Day 25" Challenge, just to be accurate to the original. Don't sue!

That brings us to the topic of the day on my version of the challenge. Songs that make you laugh are most probably what they used to call Novelty Songs, a song that was most likely a parody of an existing song or a song with wacky lyrics or a strange story.

When I was a kid, there was a show that specialized in just these songs only. It aired late on Sunday Nights and originated from a radio station in Los Angeles. It was called "The Dr. Demento Show" and the host, a Character Unto Himself, would play the music of Spike Jones and Allan Sherman and Ray Stevens... among an enormous grouping of songs that I had never heard played anywhere else. I developed my love for the music of Tom Lehrer from this program.

I was of the geek variety who would attempt to write my own little parodies of the music of the day, inspired by what I was hearing, but I was still too young to do anything with them, I had no actual musical ability, though I did practice piano and had played some clarinet for a bit earlier. And I was nowhere near L.A. so I couldn't drive to Dr. Dememto's studio and play him tapes of my songs, the way a certain Weird Al Yankovic did. The rest, as they say, was music history.

So maybe I wasn't meant to make song parodies, but I certainly knew the ones I liked. And I still like this form of music. Weird Al is the most prolific, still going strong decades after his first charted single: "My Bologna" a parody of The Knack's 1979 hit, "My Sharona", brought him to national attention.

While there's plenty of material to select from in Mr. Yankovic's Catalog alone, I'm going a slightly different way.

Another great source for comedy parodies is NBC's long running comedy/variety program "Saturday Night Live." They've presented a lot of stuff through the years, and although they've never released a comedy album, many of the players on the show have. One of those is Andy Samberg who was a castmember from 2005 through 2012. During his tenure with the program, Samberg did a series of short films titled "SNL Digital Shorts". The films, some of which became wildly popular, were listed as the work of The Lonely Island and almost every one of their songs was a duet, where they were paired with a superstar music performer, like "Shy Ronnie," with Rihanna, "I Just Had Sex" with Akon and what is likely the most memorable of all of the songs from that series, Justin Timberlake, performing "Dick In A Box."

The album Incredibad featured more of that material and I had to select this song becuase it still gets a chuckle out of me... probably because of the intended smack at LL Cool J and his song "Around The Way Girl" included here.

My choice for Day 24 is The Lonely Island - "Punch You In The Jeans"

This is a little bit different and probably a little bit easier than the Day 20 challenge, if only because sadness isn't quite as specific as happiness. Or maybe it is, but maybe it doesn't require the specificity of happiness when it comes to song selection.

There are a lot of songs I might play when I'm sad. Some are songs that might cheer me up a little. Some would help me wallow in the emotion. It really depends on other factors, as is the case with this sort of thing. So, again, I'm just going to have to go for it and offer up something.

So, one of the things I'm noticing as I'm reaching what should be a more mature age is that I'm seeing things in a very different way than I used to as a younger person. The things that I thought were important then, even from when I started blogging online, have changed, in some ways drastically, from how I perceived them at that time. That's a positive, obviously, because that shows that maybe I've done some learning along with my living. But there is still some sadness about the loss of what it used to be. Orwell said "Ignorance Is Bliss" as one of the maxims from his totalitarian regime in Nineteen Eighty-Four. And, it actually is true! It's easy to be happier if you don't know what's going on. But it's also a way of giving control over to someone else, and that's only appropriate for a children to do to their parents, teachers or care givers.

And that thought is what has led me to the song. It's something that I relate to in a lot of ways, even though it is a female singer performing. It examines that loss of childhood, which is directly connected to the loss of innocence, that expectation of how life is "supposed to be" and what happens when it's not. And this connects to the elements of sadness but ultimately triumph. And we all could use that encouragement, at least some of the time. And may I say, this jam hits all the right notes, figuratively and literally.

My selection for Day 21 is Anita Baker - "Fairy Tales"

We're back to playing favorites. Okay. I shouldn't be so negative when it comes to the whole "favorites" concept. I know for some people, selecting a favorite song or a favorite musician or band is easier because they really do have particular ones that they love more than any other. It's just that, for me, it's extremely difficult to pick one favorite when it comes to these topics because I like so many things and those choices can sometimes be related to what I want to hear at that moment, which could be tied to my current mood or stuff I'm observing either in the news or my personal life or other non-related elements. I probably don't need to explain this because I'm sure you go through similar machinations at least some of the time.

But the idea of "Favorite Album" is another one of THOSE. I would guess that a favorite album has no tracks that you don't like. Or, maybe one that you'll stomach because the rest is great. It's tough to find an album that is perfect.

When we get back to it. this topic begs the question: what makes an album great? Is it like a "Concept Album", where all of the tracks share a common connection, or the album itself is telling a story? Is it just every track is the most popular, like a Greatest Hits Album? And for the record (pun intended) I wouldn't count a "Greatest Hits" Album as fair game for this category. Ditto to the "compilation album", so apologies to the soundtracks from "Forrest Gump" or "American Graffiti", or any of the Now That's What I Call Music! discs, and all others of that ilk. You are all excluded.

Really, Greatest Hits albums usually have something screwy. They'll leave off one track that you really wanted or that track will be some live performance that sounds bad or some "reimagined" studio recording version that you didn't ask for or they'll edit the tracks from the original down to a shortened version to fit more on there. It's the sort of stuff that made people hate the music industry and helped to explain why people weren't sad for them when the record labels and even the President of NARAS started complaining their long belly-ache re: "file sharing.".

Now, Albums really don't matter nearly as much anymore, unless you are a completist and just want all recordings by a particular singer or group. You can purchase any single track from most albums on Amazon or iTunes, so you aren't even committed to getting a full disc if you liked that one track, like all of us had to do all those years ago. How many albums did you buy for the hit single only to find out the rest of it was pure crap?!

And yes, there's also the purchasing the same song in different formats: vinyl 45, vinyl LP album, 8 track tape album, cassette tape album, compact disc album, mp3 track or album. How much did the music industry make by getting us to buy the same material over and over and over?

Will people care about albums in the future? I guess that's like asking will people care about music in the future... or maybe not. I think music is safe pretty much for all time. It's the format elements that might expand or contract, depending.

Before I get philosophical, let's get to the track.

Again just like on Day 1 I know for a fact that I probably would not choose this as the album in question on another day, like yesterday or tomorrow, so let's just get that out there first.

But I did actually spotlight the disc in my blog when it was first released, so I do have a history of promoting it. It's difficult to believe that this album is turning Sweet 16 this springtime, which is just a year or so younger than the performer who recorded it was at that time.

I'm talking about "Let Go" the debut album from Avril Lavigne

As I noted back in 2002, L.A. Reid was a producer on that disc and that certainly helped the young singer get beyond the run of the mill concepts offered by others her age and lifted it to a statement that was worth making, and more importantly to everyone involved, worth playing!

True, her song from that album, "Sk8er Boi" could have qualified for my Overplayed challenge, and even the first single from it: "Complicated" got more than its share of attention. listening to them again, now that both the world and the singer have moved on, seems rather charming, including Those Videos.

For my choice from this album, I wanted to pick a track that reflected the elements of her musicianship, captured the essence of the person she was at that moment and is a song I legitimately love. That's all encapsulated in my pick for Day 19: Avril Lavigne - "Things I'll Never Say."

As previously stated, I'm something of a Broadway Geek when it comes to it, but I'm also a Movie Musical Geek. There have been a lot of stage productions that got the big screen treatment, not all of them have excelled compared to the original, but certainly quite a few have.

"West Side Story" won just about every Oscar it could, despite all of the dubbing of vocals for most of the lead characters.

"1776" gave the world Howard da Silva as Ben Franklin, who was sadly missing from the Original Broadway Cast album. And "Chicago" took Best Picture even though the Broadway revival is still rolling right along.

Madonna as "Evita" was, let's be honest, stunt casting. Mamma Mia! was just taking advantage of the popularity of ABBA, so the movie version was more of that, only with folks like Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan, singing. Of course, this summer we're getting a Sequel to that film, so who knows where this is going? And we're all awaiting Ariana Grande and Dove Cameron who are seriously rumored to play the roles that Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth originated on Broadway when "Wicked" comes to a theater near you, late December, 2019.

But there have been some occasions when it goes the opposite direction: a film spawns a Broadway version. The first time that I personally remember it was "Singin' In The Rain," which got a staged version in 1985. Ironically, a revival of that show was set to star Derek Hough in the role Gene Kelly originated on the screen this season. The problem? One of the show's main producers was Harvey Weinstein. It looks like if that revival will happen, it won't be in 2018.

Concluding its run on the Great White Way TODAY is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which, seemed to want to draw a bit from both the Gene Wilder 1970s version and the Johnny Depp/Tim Burton 2000s attempt. It'll go on tour later this year.

And there's a whole host of Disney examples, from Mary Poppins to Beauty and the Beast, to The Little Mermaid to the still running The Lion King and Aladdin The Mouse is just mining its existing material and making you buy it again and again, additionally with their live action film versions of their original animated features. Coming in 2019... "The Lion King".

But, there's one more film that I must mention that became a Broadway sensation. It was a motion picture about a race car, an inventor, a daughter of a candymaker and a couple of kids thrown in the mix. Add in a wild tale about a fictional country where children were not allowed and poof! You have a story of Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang!"

"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" the film, was very loosely adapted from the children's novel by Ian Fleming. Yes, our old 007 author has returned from Day 11. And, when you look at the concept of this film from the right angle, all of the Bond elements are there. The fancy gadget, that magnificent automobile that could float on the sea and soar through the sky, the exotic location of the country of Vulgaria, and needing to infiltrate the government of said country to provide the people with a greater good.

There was even a Bond Girl to make the formula complete: The daughter of a candymaker who gets entangled with the inventor when he attempts to sell his sweet treats to her dad and comes to dote upon his two young motherless children. And yes, she had a "Bond Girl" style name: Truly Scrumptious.

Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman wrote the music for "Mary Poppins," and they probably thought they were onto another supercalifragilisticexpialidocious hit when they coined the word "fantasmogorical" for this production. And they did, after all, have their male lead from "Mary" here: Dick Van Dyke tried to get through another stab at doing a Brit accent (he really only tries about half the time, here). And the female lead was the understudy for Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady, so that connection is closer than you might have guessed. Sally Ann Howes took over for Julie when she left the production and joined the cast of "Chitty" as Truly... in fact, she was the second choice after Ms. Andrews turned down the role.

The problem with "Chitty" was pretty simple. The story just wasn't that solid. Fleming's book told a different tale, and though there were some parallels, the production seemed to lack focus or even a point of view that was relatable. Whose story is this? The Inventor? The Woman? The Kids? The CAR??

Back when the soundtrack album was created for the film, in order to place the platter with standard songs, they were edited to clip out the incidental dialogue that might have led into the opening bars of a tune and removed the instrumental portions that were dance breaks. It's a shame because some of these songs are really great and effective, like "Chu-Chi Face", where the King and Queen of Vulgaria proclaim their love for each other, even as he seems intent on getting her "out of the way". And then there's "Lovely Lonely Man," which gives you a peek into the tony world of our chocolatier's daughter.

But I've selected another track from the disc. One that sort of shows off just how unrealistic the story turned out to be. An impromptu picnic was arranged for Truly, Charactacus Potts (get it? He's a "Crack Pott" Inventor?) and his kids at the beach. And despite only knowing this lady for a very short time, they sing, with kindness and with a shocking amount of discipline for children of that age about how much they care for her. Calling this stilted, in the context of the film itself, is quite the understatement. But as a stand alone song, it's pretty good. Or at least I think so.

I kind of love all the songs from this soundtrack, but really, I don't like the edited versions heard on the Vinyl and CD. I really appreciate the full length tracks. And that's what I'm presenting, here.

My choice for Day 13 is, in alphabetical order: Adrian Hall, Sally Ann Howes and Heather Ripley - "Truly Scrumptious"

In the original meme, this day was listed as "A Song That Makes You Fall Asleep." And I would say that songs typically don't do that for me. I tend not to listen to music if I'm falling asleep, or at least I haven't in a very long time. Music doesn't serve that purpose for me, so I don't think I could effectively select a song of that sort. And I don't have a problem falling asleep usually. In fact, I probably should have found some way to find employment in world travel because my jet lag issues tend to be handled pretty well.

So, we tweak again, and this time I changed it to a Song that is Relaxing.

Something that isn't going to get the heart racing and the blood pumping is kind of the point and there are certainly songs that I have actually used to meditate during. Most of those are more obscure new age instrumentals that I don't think you would be that fascinated to hear.

But, as usual, I'm going with a surprising choice that still fits the category.

I'm not a huge gamer. I mean, I was one of the first with a Nintendo Entertainment System back when they first launched. Super Mario Bros., Ice Climber, Remember Duck Hunt? My most obscure favorite was "Wrecking Crew" where Mario had to knock down buildings with hammers and dynamite.

I got an XBox 360 back when that was the platform of choice. And I currently have a Steam account where I played the versions of Life Is Strange and its prequel, Life Is Strange - Before The Storm, and where I am kicking a lot of ass in The Pinball Arcade. My favorite tables are Star Trek The Next Generation, Ghostbusters, and Scared Stiff, a horror game with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.

And there's a first person shooter that I play. It's called Grand Theft Auto. A game series that has done something really great... taking real world locations and fictionalizing them, making places you might know into the setting for the action of the game. in GTA IV, they took New York and turned it into "Liberty City." and in the current incarnation, they converted the Los Angeles area into what they call "Los Santos" where you can rob banks in Vinewood, do drug deals in the mountains, hijack a food truck on the beach or just play pedestrian polo with the people unfortunate enough to step in front of your vehicle all while outrunning the cops.

It's intense, it's crazy, it's fun. You can play on your own or with a crew. And if you have a video channel, you can stream your gaming for others to watch.

Obviously, the game is filled with music, because you can turn on a radio in any car and hear tunes, just another element that makes the game feel so authentic.

But, before you even begin, as you are waiting for the game to load on your computer, there is a fantastic bit of music that they run to keep you connected as you patiently await your chance to run a heist or destroy your enemies. I think is among the coolest of any game. It's smooth, it's ambient, and yes, before you start destroying everything you can in Los Santos, it's relaxing. Or, I guess it could be frenetic if you turn up your headphones all the way. Your mileage may vary!

And here's the kicker: it's from a band that has been on the music scene for over a half century!

My selection for Day 10 - Tangerine Dream - "Mona Di Vinci"

A song that makes you sad is obviously different from a song you don't like. And there are times when you want or even need to hear a song that makes you sad. Or you're already sad and you need to hear sad music.

For whatever reason, there are times when we really do want a song that makes us sad, and there are many to choose from, as is the case for most every one of these categories.

I have selected a song that I feel fits the bill for many reasons. It's by a recording artist known for telling "story songs," a musician that isn't just singing about feelings and emotions that are universal, but are in fact very specific tales that become universal in their specificity.

The singer I'm referencing is Harry Chapin, and he was a one man innovator when it came to radio station playlist music. See, back in the day, AM stations were more concerned with having enough time for commercials during their hour long segments and for that reason, songs played on most pop stations tended to run between 2 minutes and three and a half minutes. Four minutes would surely have been pushing it.

But Harry created a story song that demanded six minutes and forty-four seconds of airtime. Titled simply "Taxi," it told the story of a man and woman who knew each other in school, flirted, then went two very separate ways, she to an acting career, and him to a job as a cabbie in San Francisco and how they discovered their past and present as he drove her to her mansion.

As sad as that may sound, I don't find "Taxi" sad at all; to me, that song is very life-affirming and in its way, positive. Harry, later on, did a sequel song to "Taxi" which he titled "Sequel." I only mention it because you should never bother listening to it. The original song neither needed a sequel nor deserved the one it got. I guess it could qualify as making me sad, but it makes me more disappointed in a cloying attempt to rectify the ending of the original with the only purpose an attempt at a reconciliation.

No, the song of Harry's that does make me sad is another of his story songs, another long one, by Radio Playlist standards, and actually has something to do with radio itself.

The reason why I find multiple reasons to be sad about this song are the extenuating circumstances of Harry's real life. It's the story of a divorced, middle-aged DJ who finally found a place on the dial to call his home and again, a story of an attempt to make good with the ex. The chorus lyric reads: "The bright 'good morning' voice who's heard but never seen/feeling all of forty-five, going on fifteen." And that saddens me because, of course, Harry Chapin died in a car accident on the Long Island Expressway before he even turned forty.

This song evokes what the "glory days" of radio were all about, with the background jingle singers vocalizing the station call letters, the tales of the wandering radio personalities that do different formats in different markets until they get the one they really want. In a very big way, all of that is gone because radio isn't how people listen to music any more. And part of me is slightly sad about that.

Before I get any sadder, let's just give the song its due.

My choice for Day 4 is - Harry Chapin - "WOLD"

As much as picking a favorite song is challenging (and, sure enough, if I picked it today, it would have been a different song from the Day 1 selection), picking a "least favorite" song (the original assignment for Day 2) seems not only just as difficult but very much equally pointless. Why would you want to hear a song that I don't like, unless you happen to like it, in which case my music cred just went down a couple of points in your ears. There's nothing but losing in that scenario.

So this is one of those times when we need to remix the meme and do better. After all, we all want to do better this year, don't we?

Rather than it being about "least favorite" I'm turning it into "least played" - a song that, rather than being disliked is really more "overlooked."

I have a lot of oddities in my collection for a lot of odd reasons. But in 1984, America went Olympic crazy. Granted, we had just hosted the Winter Games in Lake Placid, NY four years before, but everyone considers the Summer Olympics the "REAL" ones (after all, Greece never had a "proper" winter, at least not in the history of humanity). And a special disc of music was issued with it.

The most famous track from that album was obviously John Williams' "Olympic Fanfare and Theme" which, though it hasn't replaced the track recorded and still heard during the American Television coverage of every Olympics dating back to 1968 when ABC was the host network ("Bugler's Dream" by Leo Arnaud), is a constant for every games.

But there were some other pop songs, or songs that were intended to be pop songs included performances by musicians as varied as Christopher Cross, Bob James, Bill Conti, Toto, Quincy Jones, Philip Glass and appropriately enough for our international visitors to Los Angeles, Foreigner. The songs presented were intended to be themes for the various venues, from basketball to swimming, gymnastics to boxing. Most of these have retained their well deserved obscurity.

But there was one other track by one other performer who was popular at the time.

Herbie Hancock was a keyboardist extraordinaire and a bandleader since before The Beatles arrived on these shores. He had been having a solid and steady career in both the Jazz and Blues genres and just started to cross over, as they used to say as the "Jazz Fusion" concept started to happen in the late 1970s.

Hancock just came off of his biggest mainstream success, a song, with a remarkable video to go with it, called "Rockit!" (Am I cheating by providing all these extra tracks??) And he penned something of a soundalike song for the "Field Competition" that definitely gets overlooked, likely because of his massive hit.

Still, it deserves to be heard on its own merits and for its own value.

My Selection for Day 2 - Herbie Hancock - "Junku"