Jump In the Line - Harry Belafonte

Jump In the Line - Harry Belafonte
3:41

Jump Up Calypso, 1961

Written by Lord Kitchener, 1946

This song, with its infectious Calyspo rhythms, is known by millennials and kids alike due to its inclusion in Beetlejuice and the direct-to-video Disney offering The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning.  However, its lineage is far messier than its pop-culture afterlife suggests.  It was recorded by Trinidadian artists Lord Kitchener and Lord Invader, and Jamaican Calypso artist Lord Flea.  Somewhere in the decades between its writing and Belafonte's version the "Shake, Senora" chorus was added.  Belafonte uses that chorus and  leans into bright, infectious calypso rhythms and an uptempo arrangement that turns the song into pure motion: hips, shoulders, whole rooms shifting. His delivery folds the song's island exuberance into sleek pop craftsmanship, giving it a buoyant, effortless joy.

It's Raining - Irma Thomas

It's Raining - Irma Thomas

single, 1961

2:08

Written by Allen Toussaint (as Naomi Neville)

This is a stately R&B number, draped in doo-wop-style falsetto backing vocals and Toussaint’s beautifully unhurried arrangement.  The narrator notices the rain, which evokes sad memories of a lost love: "The harder it rains the worse it gets / This is the time I'd love to be holding you tight / I guess I'll just go crazy tonight."  What makes the song land is Thomas' vocal.  She never overplays the emotion.  Her delivery is poised, almost regal, turning a simple ache into something clear-eyed and adult. The sorrow feels lived-in, not melodramatic; a quiet storm held together by dignity rather than despair.

Hands Off - Jimmy Soul

Hands Off - Jimmy Soul

2:23

If You Wanna Be Happy, 1963

Written by Frank Guida and Joseph Royster

This song is a cheery warning shot: any other guys in hearing distance better stay away from the narrator's girl.  "Hands off boys, leave her alone / Get another girl because she′s my own."  You can get an eyeful, but don't even think of calling her on the phone; stay away from her with that silver tongued patter.  Over handclap percussion, Calypso rhythms and schoolyard "ba-pa-pa" background chants, Soul belts out his ode to possessiveness with broad, infectious delight.  As with a lot of these lighter, throwaway songs of a more innocent era, sometimes the lines are so corny, they're sweet: "She wears nice clothes, she′s a real good dancer / On top of that she′s a real great romancer."  What more could anyone want?

Get Down - Avi Kaplan

Get Down - Avi Kaplan
3:10

single, 2019

Written by Avi Kaplan

I'd never heard of Kaplan (he was a member of the well-known a cappella band Pentatonix before leaving in 2017 to pursue a solo career), but I heard this song on the TV show "Resident Alien" and I had to know more.  It's a folk-rock burner with gospel bones, built on heavy, stomping percussion and a warm bass voice. Kaplan leans into that register with real purpose, turning the whole thing into a gritty benediction of resilience.  Over that percussion evocative of handclaps, his powerful bass voice thunders out an affirmation of optimism.  "Ain′t nothing gonna take my fire / Ain't nothing gonna crush my soul."  It's a fun listen with an uplifting message; his voice does the lion’s share of the work, sure, yet the arrangement holds its own: earthy, pulsing, and sturdier than it has any right to be.

Fundamental Reggay - Jimmy Cliff

Fundamental Reggay - Jimmy Cliff

3:01

Unlimited, 1973

Written by Jimmy Cliff

"This is the music / For all who love beat."  Jimmy Cliff died two days ago.  He was one of the great architects of reggae, maybe not as mythic as Marley, but in some ways more formative.  Cliff's sound always kept one foot outside the genre. What he brought to the world was a version of Jamaican music that was lighter on mysticism and political dread and heavier on warmth, melody, and emotional directness. His voice was bright, flexible, and optimistic, and he used it in a rocksteady sound that embraced genre crossovers into pop, soul, and funk.  Indeed, I picked this song for its archetypical reggae beat and just such a genre-transcendent theme.  "It′s got some calypso / Just like in rock afro / Classical notion / To still your emotion." 

Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think) - Guy Lombardo

Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think) - Guy Lombardo
3:20
single, 1949
Written by Carl Sigman and Herb Magidson

On this blog, I called "No Tomorrow" by Loudon Wainwright III the ultimate carpe diem song.  But more likely, this song deserves the title.  "Next year for sure, you'll see the world, you'll really get around / But how far can you travel when you're six feet underground?"  This song, more than others of its kind, encourages the listener toward love more than wild living.  Heartbreak?  Don't reach for a gun to end yor misery, reach for another blonde.  Wealth?  Nice idea, but "when you kiss a dollar bill it doesn't kiss you back."  Many acts have covered this, from Louis Prima to Todd Snider, the Specials, and Prince Buster, but Lombardo's has a charm of its own.  His mellow baritone, with the backing chorus of His Royal Canadians, delivers the message with a warm shrug and a wink.

Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street? - Bruce Springsteen

Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street? - Bruce Springsteen
2:04
Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., 1973
Written by Bruce Springsteen

I've never been fully aboard the Springsteen train.  I admire the catalog, I respect the work ethic, and he has some undeniably brilliant songs on each of a long spate of consistently good albums, but... but that salt-of-the-earth gravitas doesn't always light me up.   Here, though, on his first album, he comes out swinging, young and brash and voluble, sounding like Lou Reed and Bob Dylan had a baby who was raised by steelworkers in a small town he couldn't wait to get out of, just as soon as he memorized this rhyming dictionary.  It barrels forward in a breathless tumble of street scenes, stray characters, and neon-soaked Americana.  I mean, come on.  "Where dock wokers' dreams mix with panthers' schemes to someday own the rodeo / Tainted women in VistaVision perform for out-of-state kids at the late show."  It's the sound of a young artist announcing himself: not just talented, but overflowing.  

Classified - C.W. McCall

Classified - C.W. McCall

2:39

Wolf Creek Pass, 1975

Written by C.W. McCall and Chip Davis

McCall is best remembered for "Convoy;" this talking-country novelty track shows the same deadpan humor and storyteller's twang. It's about a guy answering a newspaper ad for a '57 Chevy pickup, only to discover a jerry-rigged heap of scrap metal held together by hope and baling wire. The seller proudly rattles off its features — a bent shaft, a leaking rear end, a missing key ("use a nail as a starter,"), plus an ominous "whirrin' sound" — but other than that, it's "cherry."  Naturally, the narrator buys it for twenty-eight bucks.  Sonically, it's classic mid-'70s country kitsch: a shuffling beat, a little guitar chug, and McCall's dry, half-spoken delivery driving the joke home. It lands in the same comic lane as Johnny Cash's "One Piece at a Time," a lightweight but cheerful tall tale about a junker.

Ballad Of Easy Rider - The Byrds

Ballad Of Easy Rider - The Byrds

2:04

Ballad Of Easy Rider, 1969

Written by Roger McGuinn

This song has a surprisingly twisty origin story.  First, it was originally released on a McGuinn solo album, the soundtrack for the movie Easy Rider.  The song also came about because they couldn't get the rights to "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)."  Instead, Peter Fonda got McGuinn to write this one, which he did, inspired by a few quick lines from Dylan.  However, Dylan demanded that Fonda and McGuinn take his name off as co-author — whether because he didn't like the movie's bleak ending, or he just didn't want his name tied to another counter-culture anthem, who knows.  Anyhoo, the song is a fine example of the mellow folk-rock of the era.  McGuinn's airy tenor, sounding like an American-born Donovan, that gentle 12-string shimmer, and a calm, ambling melody make it a gentle listen, even if the whole is slightly marred by the addition of a misplaced string section.

Anything Could Happen - The Clean

Anything Could Happen - The Clean
2:37
Boodle Boodle Boodle, 1981
Written by David Kilgour, Hamish Kilgour, and Robert Scott

The Clean is another New Zealand band, a pillar of the Dunedin sound, like the Bats (bassist Robert Scott was also the guitarist and singer for the Bats).  This song has a ragged, raw indie sound. It's lo-fi, DIY, and ramshackle, informed by the Velvet Underground.  A thumping, slightly out-of-phase bass line holds the center while the hi-hat drags just behind the beat, giving the whole thing a stuttering, lurching feel that bands like the Fall would take and roughen even further.  Lyrically, it alternates an optimistic, Buddhistic chorus with verses full of confusion, mixed signals, hypocrisy, and the brittle nonsense of social authority.

Made Up in Blue - The Bats

Made Up in Blue - The Bats

4:02

Made Up in Blue, 1986

Written by Robert Scott

The Bats were a forerunner (along with the Tall Dwarfs and Straitjacket Fits) of what came to be called the Dunedin sound, a genre that emerged from the city of Dunedin in New Zealand.  It's a jangly new wave-influenced pop with elements of surf rock and psychedelia.  R.E.M. would be a good example of American equivalent.  This is peak jangle-pop: bright, chiming guitars, a steady, unfussy rhythm section, and Robert Scott's cool, deadpan vocal floating just above the mix.  The abstruse lyrics are about some man whose antics the narrator is pretty much over, except not" "His second rate ravings don't thrill me / Even if they did some time before / Only his blue eyes still drill me / As I get to know my friend the floor."

El Paso - The Gourds

El Paso - The Gourds

3:10

Bolsa de Agua, 2000

Written by Kevin Russell

I've been a fan of the Gourds for several years now; I love their hick America fusion sound that doesn't cater to any kind of commercial sensibility.  This song is sadly not the Marty Robbins cover we all crave and deserve.  Instead, the narrator seems to be riding — maybe driving, maybe slumping on a bus — toward El Paso for reasons the rambling, stream-of-consciousness lyrics never quite reveal ("Chicken blood on my pants / My hands are shaky and pillow is damp.")  Kevin Russell leans into a slurred, nasal drawl, and the band wraps him in dusty, twang-heavy guitars and a loose, shuffling groove. The whole thing plays like a hillbilly Texas Tornados, or a drunker, loose Steve Earle.

(I'm) Stranded - The Saints

(I'm) Stranded - The Saints
3:29
I'm Stranded, 1976

Written by Chris Bailey and Ed Kuepper

Hailing from Australia, the Saints were one of the first and most influential punk groups, coming up at the same time as the Ramones, and like them ragged and unflashy.  This song is a full-on sonic assault, with no gloss or effects.  The jackhammer guitar is double-tracked, the vocals are tossed off in a way that bands like Interpol and the Strokes would imitate decades later.  The drums are ferocious as well, but buried in the mix.  Lyrically the song is paranoid and jittery, evoking isolation and alienation from a world that seems indifferent and hostile: "Livin' in a world insane / They cut out some heart and some brain."  At three and a half minutes (an epic by Ramones standards), it never drags, the band's manic energy burning through the time.

Up the Down Escalator - The Chameleons

Up the Down Escalator - The Chameleons

3:57

Script Of the Bridge, 1983

Written by Mark Burgess, Dave Fielding, Reginald Smithies, and John Lever

I've never heard of this British post-punk band, but this track grabbed me immediately.  Singer Mark Burgess' charismatic vocals, the atmospheric layers of guitar, and the muscular, clockwork drums all swirl to create a proto-gothic, dark, ambient sound.  The abstruse, anxious lyrics hint, like the title, at trying to struggle onward but only sinking further: "There must be something wrong boys / They're dragging me down."  There's a doomsday paranoia at the edges, fitting the song's era of mutually assured nuclear destruction: "Now they can erase us / At the flick of a switch."   It's a tense, propulsive piece that eventually slows into a kind of exhausted drift, as if the will to fight finally gives way to resignation and release.

The Bulrushes - The Bongos

The Bulrushes - The Bongos
2:36
Drums Along the Hudson, 1982
Written by Richard Barone

This is a jumpy, quirky slice of power pop.  I never had an '80s music fixation, so I only came to this song via Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoff's much later cover.  The lyrics are fairly oblique; the title makes one think of baby Moses bobbing on the Nile, and indeed, the words alternate disjointed Biblical references with mundane modern remarks: "Unleavened bread comes down from heaven" and "Oh, Sally, let's look for baby Moses."  I read that the band was originally lumped in with avant-garde and post-punk acts like Television and Lou Reed, and eschewed bland melody for experimentation, but you wouldn't know it from this single song, which, while it has a scrappy garage immediacy, is all straightforward guitar pop.  There's crisp, trebly strumming, a clipped, propulsive beat, and a melody that refuses to get weird even when the lyrics do.  Maybe that's part of the charm.

The Resignation Vs. The Comeback Special - Todd Snider

The Resignation Vs. The Comeback Special - Todd Snider

3:54

First Agnostic Church Of Hope and Wonder, 2021

Written by Todd Snider

Todd Snider died yesterday.  I can't pretend I've been a lifelong devotee — I'm always the last one to discover a talent — but I really enjoyed his acerbic wit and dry, deadpan delivery.  His sharp observations and craggy growl lent his songs a gravitas missing from a lot of political singer-songwriter material.  I chose this song because it captures both Snider's mordant humor and his exasperation with an absurd, unjust world, and because musically it's a step outside the usual acoustic story song Snider excels at.  Over a funky, bluesy piano line, Snider half-raps the lyrics, in which a figure in the spotlight, probably a politician, announces his grand, principled resignation.  "I cannot succeed the way that I need to under the glare of all these suspicions / And I will not stand here and listen to any more of these wild accusations."  He's stepping down, do you hear me?  The punchline, and the depressing reality, is when after a beat of silence, the band slides back in: "I'm making a comeback! Just the same as ever if not even more the same!"

Riderò - Santa Margaret

Riderò - Santa Margaret

3:49

Il Suono Analogico Cova la sua Vendetta - Vol. 1, 2015

Written by Santa Margaret

A hard-driving Italian alt-rock track powered by Angelica Schiatti's commanding vocals, this one leans on metronomic percussion and big, classic-rock guitar riffs.  The title translated to "I'll laugh;" the song seems to be about a young woman who is at the moment at a disadvantage in a relationship, but savors the day when she comes out on top: "I'll laugh at your light when it's gone / I'll laugh because mine is violent."  It's a good song, but in my opinion relies too much on the chorus and goes on for just a bit more time than it earns.

Rio Grande - Waldeck

Rio Grande - Waldeck

3:19

Gran Paradiso, 2016

Written by Klaus Waldeck

Klaus Waldeck is an Austrian musician and producer.  This catchy instrumental track begins with a plaintive, echoing harmonica, evoking the Western sounds of the title.  Then the beat drops, and a blend of reggae and trip-hop, with flourishes of neo-swing in the horns takes over.  In the final third, everything dissolves into a serene, almost classical piano passage while the harmonica drifts back in from the edges.  In the final third, everything dissolves into a serene, almost classical piano passage while the harmonica drifts back in from the edges. 

The Rapper - The Jaggerz

The Rapper - The Jaggerz

2:43

We Went To Different Schools Together, 1970

Written by Donnie Iris

This is an old-school rocker very much of its era, with elements of disco and funk blended in, backed by schoolyard hand percussion and cowbell.  The song is addressed to a young girl, warning her of the danger of a fast talker, a "rapper," who tries to seduce her with his corny lines ("Come up to my place / For some coffee or tea or me").  The song ends with the girl in the man's house, and it's not looking good for her: "He's got you where he wants you / Girl, you′ve gotta face reality."  Oof, problematic.  There's a scruffy charm in its blend of funk-lite groove and rock theatrics, even if the cautionary tale at its center lands with a heavier thud today than it probably did back then.

Red Roses For a Blue Lady - Dean Martin

Red Roses For a Blue Lady - Dean Martin

2:45

(Remember Me) I'm the One Who Loves You, 1965
Written by Roy Brodsky and Sid Tepper, 1948

Just like the title says, this song is about buying flowers for a woman with whom the narrator has had a falling out — a "silly quarrel," as he puts it.  Listen, this guy is putting a lot of faith in this floral purchase: "And if they do the trick, I'll hurry back and pick / Your best white orchids for her wedding gown," he promises.  Buddy, I'm no marriage expert, but a few roses alone rarely catapult you straight from apology to altar.  It's a one-joke song, but it's sweet and brief, and Dean croons it warmly, light on the Rat Pack swingin' braggadocio, heavier on the soft-shoe charm.

Texas Eagle - Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band

Texas Eagle - Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band
3:28
The Mountain, 1999

Written by Steve Earle

A great addition to the mass of nostalgic train songs in Americana music, this tune has the narrator reminiscing about the titular Texas Eagle, an old train "on the Mopac line" that since has been shut down and sold to Mexico. His grandaddy, a railroad man, takes the narrator aboard for one last ride so he can experience it before it's gone forever.  "Home in time for supper with a tale to tell / That night I dreamed I heard that lonesome whistle wail," Earle finishes up the story in his reedy growl.  As one would expect from Earle, the bluegrass is historically accurate, with no glossy neo-touches or fusion detours; just straight, skilled picking. The playing is perfect but unpolished, loose, lived-in, and powered by dedication to the craft.

Temba, Tumba, Timba - Los Van Van

Temba, Tumba, Timba - Los Van Van

4:48

Llego... Van Van, 1999

Written by Los Van Van?

Los Van Van, a Cuban band founded in 1969, practically minted their own genre with songo, a combustible blend of timba, charanga, salsa, jazz, and rock. This track is a spinning, polyrhythmic cyclone driven by steel drum percussion, darting guitar lines, and those irresistible group vocals that sound like a block party gathering momentum. I love how the lead singer leans into those over-trilled r's; he sounds like a moped weaving through a Havana street festival, which is exactly the energy he’s channeling ("Y en eso llegó el doctorrrrr manejando un cuadrimotorrrrr").  The title refers to three characters in a chaotic love triangle of partner swapping.  Naturally, it all detonates: "¡Oye! Y se formó el despelote y se formó la corredera / Cada uno cogió por su lado" (“Hey! And all hell broke loose, and everyone ran off / Each one went their own way"). It's a joyful noise in the best possible way.

Toucher l'horizon - Oxmo Puccino

Toucher l’horizon – Oxmo Puccino
2:58 

Cactus de Sibérie, 2004 

Written by Oxmo Puccino and DJ Duke 

This Mali-born French rapper delivers a conscious rap, but not in the preachy, thesis-statement sense.  It's more like an assertive monologue about ambition, exhaustion, and the stubborn belief that you can still push past whatever walls life builds in front of you and not settle for being less than. He casts himself as the guy who started from less than nothing (“Recommences ta vie à zéro quand je la redémarre à moins dix / J'suis né blasé sans un sous / Puis brassé me suis retrouvé sans issue / J'suis rentré en collision avec mes obstacles"), but instead of slipping into braggadocio, he uses that bleak starting point as fuel. The tone is self-mythologizing but never smug; it's more like he's he's inviting everyone to break down barriers with him. The production is all soft edges and slow burn.  Oxmo isn't just talking about reaching the horizon; he's reaching out a hand for you to be dragged along with him ("Viens, la vitesse de mon son frisons").

Too Sweet - Dusk

Too Sweet - Dusk
2:50
single, 2016
Written by Dusk?

This Wisconsin band incorporates a variety and blend of musical styles.  On this song, shimmering guitars and a pounding organ line provide the backbone while powerful vocalist Julia Blair infuses '70s soul into a country-rock melody drenched in dynamite echoing backing harmonies.  It's got Motown sensibilities filtered through the Band's harmonies.  Lyrically, it seems to be a warning to someone blind to something holding them back.  "All the rubble you've been hauling around is a sight to see / So all the things you've done for him now are too sweet."

Texas Hold 'Em - Beyoncé

Texas Hold 'Em - Beyoncé

3:53

Cowboy Carter, 2024

Written by Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Elizabeth Lowell Boland, Megan Bülow, Brian Bates, Nate Ferraro, and Rafael Saadiq

This song has 743 million streams, and yes, I did hear (and nod my head along to) it when it dropped but I'm a bit late to the party in actually giving it the in-depth it deserves.  It's a boot-stomping burst of country pop swagger, a fusion of Nashville twang and Houston groove that feels both playful and unstoppable. A catchy banjo riff pulls you in first, and then the explosion of the beat with that unmistakable Beyoncé polish: crisp handclaps, tight harmonies, and a rhythm built for the dance floors of line-dancing halls and nightclubs.  Her vocal performance is sly, knowing, effortlessly confident and impressive in range and power. She teases and commands in equal measure, laying down strutting, assertive lines: "This ain't Texas, ain't no hold 'em," she reminds you, as if she's reclaiming the genre and rewriting the rules at the same time. It’s country, sure, but filtered through R&B phrasing, gospel inflection, and pop precision ("Pop your Lexus / lay your keys out").  More than a genre exercise, it's a celebration of Black southern musical heritage wrapped in a high-energy, radio-ready package. It’s clever, catchy, and brimming with personality.  Of course it came with an outburst of criticism from insecure country gatekeepers.  To them I say: "Don't be bitch / Come take it to the floor, now."

No Tomorrow - Loudon Wainwright III

No Tomorrow - Loudon Wainwright III 
3:01
Older Than My Old Man Now, 2012

Written by Loudon Wainwright

The ultimate carpe diem, live for today song.  It's pretty explicit about the message; no subtext here.  After LW3 imagines a drunkard, a spendthrift, and a man wondering where the time went, he just comes out and says it.  "Tomorrow might get it but there's no way to know / So live for today, there's no tomorrow."  Loud-O has always written about mortality, but at the time of this album he was 65 and living in the moment (like his dog!) probably seemed like a great idea.  It's clear he had a lot of life left from this song, however; his vocal is as spry, playful and strong as ever as he sings, bellows, tosses out asides, and holds the notes with youthful energy.

No Children - The Mountain Goats

No Children - The Mountain Goats

2:48

Tallahassee, 2002

Written by John Darnielle

One of the most blackly funny breakup songs ever recorded ("I hope that our few remaining friends / Give up on trying to save us / I hope we come up with a failsafe plot / To piss off the dumb few that forgave us.")  This song feels like it was written by someone drowning in poison and laughing about it. Over a bright, perky piano and upbeat strumming, Darnielle spits apocalyptic nihilism with a grin: "I hope you die / I hope we both die." It's a song about mutual destruction, sung as if it's a jaunty campfire tune. That contrast — the bouncy melody versus the scorched-earth lyrics — is exactly the Mountain Goats' magic trick.  The narrator and his partner are long past reconciliation, reveling in their shared misery like doomed lovers in a cheap motel. "I am drowning / There is no sign of land," he declares, sounding more defiant than defeated. Darnielle's voice strains and cracks, but the delivery is gleeful, an exorcism by singalong.  It's a portrait of broken love at its ugliest and most honest.

No Weather - Brian Fallon

No Weather - Brian Fallon

2:39

The Revival Tour 2011 Collections, 2011

Written by Brian Fallon

Fallon, the vocalist for the excellent band Gaslight Anthem, turns in gritty acoustic here, his gravelly, aching voice never before sounding so much like Bruce Springsteen.  The song is addressed to an unknown adversary, someone who has thrown stones in the narrator's path.  In the chorus, Fallon rewrites the old blues trope "I asked for water, she brought me gasoline" into something wider and more elemental.  "And all I wanted from you was no weather / And no dark clouds since I was young / All I needed was slow peaceful rivers / All I felt was poison on my tongue." There's venom in the verses ("Did your mother raise you with Judas or Jesus?") but also a weary dignity. When he multiplies his own voice for backing vocals at the end, it's not for polish, but to suggest solidarity, a lone man harmonizing with his own ghosts.

No More - The McGuire Sisters

No More - The McGuire Sisters

2:15

By Request, 1955

Written by Julie De John, Dux De John, and Leo J. De John

He's not around.  He's long gone.  He doesn't write, he doesn't phone.  "My baby don't buy me pearls / He's busy with other girls."  A sad lament, you might think.  But backed by buoyant, screeching horns and a jovial male backing vocal, the McGuire Sisters sing it as a swinging romp and sound positively radiant.  It's not entirely anomalous: you can almost hear the flirty smile in their voices when they proclaim in a coy harmony, "But somehow / I'll find me a baby new / And maybe I'll pick on you."  Maybe they'll come knocking at your door!  In the heady days of American post-war optimism, the prospect must have been delightfully enticing.

No One - Ray Charles

No One - Ray Charles

3:10

single, 1963

Written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, 1960

Originally recorded by Connie Francis, this song finds a compelling voice in Ray Charles.  It's a ballad of steadfast love for the one who broke the narrator's heart clean in two. "So I'll keep on caring / My whole life through," Charles sings, turning hurt into devotion. Backed by the Raelettes' smoky harmonies and a punchy horn section, Charles' phrasing is masterful, every syllable radiating warmth and ache. It's a tribute to the songwriting skills of Shuman and Pomus that this song could easily fit into pop and western sensibilities as written, but Charles delivers it as a perfect soul gem.