#tommy edwards

[hit-song-showdown]

Year-End Poll #9: 1958

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Now that we're reaching the end of the decade, we're seeing the culmination of the rising trends coming together in the charts. Traditional pop, early rock and roll, Latin pop, and the novelty song. Even going beyond the genres themselves, 1958 also marks a shift regarding the business side of the music industry. In August of this year, the Billboard Hot 100 was officially implemented, but we won't see the effects of that until next year. The 1950s serves as a fascinating transitional period in music culture.

And just to make things more complicated, some versions of the 1958 year-end chart feature both the A-sides and B-sides of some of the songs. I wondered if it had something to do with the introduction of the Hot 100, or perhaps because the B-sides charted equally or higher on different charts. But I have nothing to base that hypothesis off of and my own research hasn't helped me find anything. I reached out on the Billboard subreddit for help and a user named jdeeth was kind enough to give me a more thorough explanation. To make a long story short: in addition to the implementation of the Hot 100, 1958 was also the year Billboard started listing two-sided hits as a single entry, but this practice didn't catch on. However, there are future entries where two-sided hits are listed simultaneously again, but under different circumstances so I'll cross that bridge when it comes up.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

The arrangement is key. You will not hear arrangements like this these days. It is way thought out, with a live echo chamber on the vocalist, and layered with counterpoint parts on the strings, and communal voices filling in the gaps. But nothing gets in the way. — Bob Dylan

[filosofablogger]

♫ It's All In The Game ♫

Tonight’s song is the third and last one in the list rawgod sent me earlier this week, and might well be my favourite!  As I was looking through the SongFacts and Wikipedia pages about it, I happened to think … maybe I should check and make sure I haven’t already played this one.  Good thing I checked, for I have played it before … only once, and that was back in 2021, but it meant that at least…

[allthemusic]

Week ending: 30th October

Winter is coming on fast, and with it two rather obscure love songs. At least one of which almost certainly deserves to remain obscure, one suspects.

It's All in the Game - Tommy Edwards (peaked at Number 1)

This song has an interesting origin story, or at least its tune does. Originally written back in 1911 as "Tune in A Major", it was composed by one Charles G. Dawes, an amateur pianist and flautist, who played it for a friend who subsequently without his knowledge went and published it. This annoyed Dawes, who was busy preparing to run for US vice president - a position he won, only to have this tune played for him constantly, to the point where he apparently hated it with a passion. Which is just kind of funny to me. It also makes this the only Numer 1 single to be written by a US vice president!

The lyrics were then added in 1951, and they're kind of interesting, because they're framed as advice from Tommy to a friend who's seemingly not having much luck in love, describing to them how you have words with him / And your future's looking dim, / But these things / Your heart can rise above. Instead of despairing, they ought to know that it's all just part of the game of love - if their man doesn't call, they can rest assured in the knowledge that soon he'll be there at your side / With a sweet bouquet. It's a strangely philosophical approach, a sort of consoling "chin up" and a reassurance that you're going to get through it.

It would be really easy for this to come off as annoyingly dismissive of the friend's heartbreak, or worse, as a more general "boys will be boys" apology for men being terrible and deliberately playing with their partners' hearts. Don't leave him, c'mon, he'll make it up to you, just you wait! You can easily imagine a version of this that's genuinely gross. But somehow, just by sounding genuinely gentle and caring, Tommy makes the song work. He's got a mellow, crooning R&B voice, perfectly suited to this laid-back number, and the end result's a song that's warm and cosy.

More Than Ever - Malcolm Vaughan (5)

Last week I suggested that Come Prima wasn't a very interesting song. I'm can confirm this week that translating it into English and handing it to Malcolm Vaughn doesn't help matters much. In fact, I like this version considerably less than Marino's version, which at least had the vaguely exotic glamour of being in a foreign language, with all the sophistication that that implies.

Here, we start with some rather shrill backing singers, reapeating the words more than ever, followed by Malcolm's voice, which is somehow far too high-pitched and thin for this song. I don't think that it helps that he's upped the pace, either - usually speeding a song up improves it, but in this case, it's a real mushy ballad, and speeding it up doesn't add much in the way of energy, it just makes it feel a bit rushed. At least Marino sounded relaxed. Malcom sounds like he wants the song to be over, already. And fair enough, because so do I, at this point.

The lyrics have gone from "simple" to "insultingly basic", with whatever charm they had lost in translation, leaving us with lines about how more than ever, more than ever, / Than before, / We have found love, / Only true love, / Ever more. Which, besides sounding vaguely ungrammatical ("more than ever than before", anyone?), also gives the whole thing this very awkward stop-start rhythm that I can't bring myself to love.

And then we hit the middle solo. Here, I'll admit, we've improved on Marino's version by getting rid of the twangy non-harmonica instrument, and adding some chords on strings, these ascending semitones that are honestly kind of James Bond-adjacent.Sadly, it's just after this point that Malcolm, or at least his arranger, does something weird with the key change from the original. I'm not sure quite what it is, but it just doesn't work as a smooth transition. And we come from the awkward key change into a belter of a final verse. Which is the sort of thing you can pull off, if the song's strong enough, but on this rather flimsy ballad it's more than a touch reminiscent of the Big Old Endings of yesteryear, and not in a good nostalgic way.

Yeah, I think it's clear which my favourite of these is. Malcolm Vaughan is one of those artists I just can't really get on board with - at best, his songs are blandly okay, and at worst, you get this. I do wonder if this song's success came off the back of Marino's version, or if Marino's got popular after this was released. Or if they were both piggybacking off the original Sanremo tune? Either way, this version is lame. Give me Tommy's sage romantic advice, any day.

Favourite song of the bunch: It's All in the Game

[baltharino]

Men in Black (1997) Dir. Barry Sonnenfeld

[bluejeansoul]

Love Me (Like You Never Loved Before) - Tommy Edwards

[nemesis-writer]

Tumblr girls-

When he's a red flag but you're ass is color-blind.

[noughticalcrossings]

The Terror Textposts

Source: https://www.tumblr.com/gallusrostromegalus/183333162103/an-incomplete-list-of-the-animals-my-grandpa

[spaceshiprocket]

Ultraman by Tommy Lee Edwards

[crustaceousfaggot]

Terror textposts but it's almost entirely the mutineers because I have a problem

[froggerland]

Time for a line up of the terrors most similar looking white guys!!

aka time to practice capturing ppls likeness

The impressive facial hair gang:

(Goodsir, Collins and Nedward)

No muttonchops just dark hair (still confusing)

(Jirving and Armitage)

(De Voeux and Peglar)

(What can I say, sometimes you slay the dragon and sometimes the dragons slays you man, their monolids are hard to draw so de voeux ended up looking fully asian, i’ll get back on that and figure out how to draw that little piece of shit (he’s a pretty boy with very bad morals unfortunately))

[staiyn]

cards against Cillian

Been working on this for a while, because I was so busy the last few months. I thought about doing this, just because the game is standing around in my home, so why not try this out. Just let me know if yall like it and if I should continue that

[dailydccomics]

steampunk Justice League Dark by Tommy Lee Edwards

[scrambledslut]

being delusional about middle aged men is my roman empire

[baltharino]

Men in Black (1997) Dir. Barry Sonnenfeld