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Rhode Island DJ Music Chart – Week of 5/13

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This week’s DJ Music Chart will be the Adult Contemporary DJ Music Chart the week of 5/13/2013. Good to see Lumineers “Ho Hey” on top of the DJ Music Chart.  I am surprised to see Taylor Swift “I Knew You Were Trouble” and Fun. “Some Nights” still near the top. I guess they still get requested often and played. I won’t lie, it is still strange for me to see Rod Stewart “She Makes Me Happy” on the charts. He has reinvented himself so any times, hard to know what Rod Stewart music actually is at this point.

DJ Music Chart with Fun Rhode Island Multicultural DJ

Here is a description of Adult Contemporary Radio Music from Wikipedia for those who are to familiar with the DJ Music Chart format.

The Adult Contemporary DJ music chart (formerly known as Easy Listening (1961–1962; 1965–1979), Middle-Road Singles (1962–1964), Pop-Standard Singles (1964–1965), Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks (1979–1982) and Adult Contemporary Singles (1983–present)) is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and “lite-pop” radio stations in the United States. The dj music chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to Billboard by stations that are members of the Adult Contemporary radio panel. The chart debuted in Billboard magazine on July 17, 1961.

DJ Music Chart Adult Contemporary with Rhode Island Wedding DJ

The Billboard Easy Listening DJ music chart, as it was first known, was born of a desire by some radio stations in the late 1950s and early 1960s to continue playing current hit songs but distinguish themselves from being branded as “rock and roll” stations. Billboard had written articles about this trend during the time, and the magazine’s editors decided to publish a separate chart for these songs beginning in 1961. The magazine offered an “Easy Listening” programming guide beginning January 9, 1961, which continued until the numbered chart appeared in July. The first #1 song on the Billboard Easy Listening chart was “The Boll Weevil Song” by Brook Benton. From 1961 to 1965, this chart was compiled from the Billboard Hot 100 chart by removing songs that were deemed rock and roll by the magazine and re-ranking the remaining songs. For example, if the non-rock and roll records in the Hot 100 Top 10 were at #5, #6, and #9, then #5 would be #1 that week on the Easy Listening chart, #6 would be #2, and #9 would be #3. Beginning in 1965, the Easy Listening chart would begin to be compiled by a method similar to the one used for other Billboard singles charts: reported playlists from radio stations airing the format as well as sales data submitted by record stores. By the early 1990s, automatic song detection and barcode sales information had begun to be the norm for most of the Billboard charts, and currently the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks DJ music chart is compiled in much the same way as those for other radio formats.

The DJ Music chart was known as the Easy Listening chart until 1962, when it was renamed Middle-Road Singles. In 1964, the name changed again, this time to Pop-Standard Singles. After alternating the name of this chart twice more in less than a year, Easy Listening was again chosen as the chart name in 1965 when the change in compilation occurred. In April 1979, the Easy Listening chart officially became known as Adult Contemporary, and those two words have remained consistent in the name of the chart ever since.

In 1996, Billboard created a new DJ music chart called Adult Top 40, which reflects programming on radio stations that exists somewhere between “adult contemporary” music and “pop” music. Although they are sometimes mistaken for each other, the Adult Contemporary chart and the Adult Top 40 chart are separate charts, and songs reaching one chart might not reach the other. In addition, the term “hot AC” refers to another sub-genre of radio programming that is distinct from the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks DJ music chart as it exists today, despite the apparent similarity in name.

DJ Music Chart – Week of 5/13 – Adult Contemporary

Download (PDF, 61KB)

What is your favorite song form this DJ Music Chart?

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & Boston DJ

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ and Boston DJ

Gallery

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This gallery contains 14 photos.

  DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & Boston DJ

Ritchie Valens Sleepwalk

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It is hard not to feel the energy and Soul that the great Ritchie Valens Sleepwalk put into every guitar lick in this song. Smooth as silk without being overproduced. I recently had a Groom ask for this song to be the song that he and his mother would dance to for their Mother-Son Dance.  I fought hard to contain the tears that well-up every time I hear this song. I do not remember the scene in the film La Bamba but I remember it was one of the more emotional ones. There are few artists from that era that had a full-length feature film made about their life like Ritchie Valens Sleepwalk. As a professional Wedding DJ, I get requested plenty of his music these days and continue to feel moved by his music.

Ritchie Valens Sleepwalk Music Video

He was born Ricardo Esteban Valenzuela Reyes. He was asked by his producer and agent to change his family name to make it sound ‘more american’. Its strange in 2011 to contextually imagine that happening today, where nearly twenty percent of American population is Latino.  His death along with other pop stars Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper is still considered an American tragic story. After the February 2, 1959, performance in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly, Richardson, and Valens flew out of the Mason City airport in a small plane that Holly had chartered. He was on the plane because he won a coin toss. The plane, a four-passenger Beechcraft Bonanza, departed for Fargo, North Dakota, and crashed shortly after takeoff in a snow storm. The crash killed all three passengers and the pilot; at 17, Valens was the youngest to die on the flight. The event inspired singer Don McLean’s popular 1971 ballad “American Pie“, and immortalized February 3 as “The Day the Music Died”.

Ritchie Valens Sleepwalk with Rhode Island Oldies DJ

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

The Bee Gees Stayin Alive

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The Bee Gees Stayin Alive. I was in 7th grade when John Travolta was at the peak of his teen icon status with his role as Vinnie Barbarino on the TV show Welcome Back Kotter.  My brother who was four years older than me, met and became friends with him strangely enough at a bar in Miami. They stayed in contact for a little while and  once I answered the phone and sure enough John Travolta was on the other end. My brother wasn’t home and I took a message.

Fun Rhode Island Wedding DJ Dancing Bee Gees Stayin Alive

It wasn’t till I was in high school that Saturday Night Fever and The Bee Gees Stayin Alive came out. My brother liked Disco, at the time I was not as much a fan. I have grown to appreciate how it is so well-made for dancing. As a professional DJ, The Bee Gees Stayin Alive such an effective tool for mixing genres and generations.  It continues to amaze how often I get The Bee Gees Stayin Alive requested by people of all ages from teens, college students, middle-aged and older folks at weddings and parties. There are many remixes of The Bee Gees Stayin Alive out these days that are all fun and great party songs.

The Bee Gees Stayin Alive Music Video

The Bee Gees Stayin Alive is a disco song by the group Bee Gees from the Saturday Night Fever motion picture soundtrack. The song was written by the Bee Gees (Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb) and produced by the Bee Gees, Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson. It was released on 13 December 1977, as the second single from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. It is one of their signature songs. “Stayin’ Alive” was placed at number 191 on the list of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Upon release, “Stayin’ Alive” climbed the charts to hit the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of 4 February 1978, remaining there for four weeks. In the process, it became one of the band’s most recognisable tunes, in part because of its place at the beginning of Saturday Night Fever.”

The Bee Gees were an interesting group who made their name originally as a Soft Rock, almost Folk, in the 60’s and early 70’s. They had a completely different sound and energy in their first round as pop stars. They gained international success and lasted nearly forty years as recording and preforming artists.

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Carly Simon You’re So Vain

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It was the summer between sixth and seventh grade.  I had just gotten home from a Little League game which I pitched and we won. I walked up to my room and the new telephone that my parents had just hooked up for me rang its old-style ring like a bell. I picked up the phone and heard the song Carly Simon You’re So Vain playing from beginning to end with the person on the other end hanging up, evidenced by the click and dial tone. I smiled as I put my new beige phone back on its receiver. I was twelve and did not know what ‘vain’ meant yet and in my foolishness thought it was a compliment:)

Fun Boy Dancing with Rhode Island Sweet Sixteen Party DJ Carly Simon You're So Vain

Later that summer I was at our school camping weekend to end the year and these two girls kept singing Carly Simon You’re So Vain every time they passed me in a chorus. I again smiled every time just fueling them even more.  Finally, one of them came up to me and told me the other one had played Carly Simon You’re So Vain on the phone to me. I asked her to thank her friend and smiled, still clueless. She explained to me with fire in her eyes “Vain is not a compliment, it means you are a jerk!”

 

“Jerk? Really? Why am I a jerk?”

 

“Because Mary is your girlfriend and you are going to the dance with Dana! Jerk!”

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

“Don’t your remember when Bryan asked Mary to go out with you in January on the playground at lunch-time?”

 

It took a minute but I remembered something like that happening in what seemed like such a long time ago at that point. “Oh yeah, I remember, tell her I am sorry that I forgot all about that.”

 

Since that day every time I have heard this song I think of that Saturday afternoon phone call that I thought was a compliment but learned later that vanity is not something that we aspire to achieve.

Carly Simon You’re So Vain Music Video

 

I really like the video of Carly Simon You’re So Vain they made for this and the remix.

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons Set Billboard Record

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It was on this date in 1994 that the Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons song, “December, 1963(Oh What A Night) re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 Music Charts for a second run. It was originally released in 1976 when it charted as high as number one on Billboard’s Hot 100. each time the song stayed on the charts for twenty-seven weeks, totaling fifty-two weeks. Fifty-two weeks was the record at the time for the longest stay on Billboard Hot 100. The remastered version, which peaked at number fourteen was remixed by Dutch deejay and producer Ben Liebrand.

As a New Jersey native, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons are part of my childhood and musical history. They grew-up in the same neighborhood in Newark, NJ as my Mother did. She, her sister and my Grandmother all knew the original members of the band, The Four Lovers, which became Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons . Of course, there have been many folk tales about Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons in my family that I have no idea if are even remotely true:)

 

The Vocal Group Hall of Fame has stated that Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons group was the most popular rock band before The Beatles.  The Four Seasons (group members 1960–1966) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, and it joined the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999. Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons are one of the greatest selling vocal groups of all-time selling over 175 million records worldwide! Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons have five number one and three number three hits on The Billboard Hot 100 charts.

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons December, 1963(Oh What A Night)

Jersey Boys, a musical play based on the lives of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons and directed by Des McAnuff, premiered at his La Jolla Playhouse and opened on November 6, 2005, to generally positive reviews and subsequently won multiple Tony Awards after its move to Broadway.

Fun Birthday Party with Rhode Island DJ and Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & Boston DJ

Ask about my Rhode Island Wedding DJ and Rhode Island Party DJ Guarantee!

Al Green Let’s Stay Together

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Al Green Let’s Stay Together “People are born to do certain things, and Al was born to make us smile.” These are the words of Justin Timberlake about Al Green for Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Al was number 65. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Green in 1995, referring to him as “one of the most gifted purveyors of Soul music.”

 

For me, he is an amazing and a powerful songwriter and singer. He has the unique ability to inspire and soften pretty much anybody. You do not have to like his music or Soul to enjoy and appreciate especially, Al Green Let’s Stay Together.  I remember having the cassette, yes cassette, of the Al Green Let’s Stay Together album. The tape broke from overuse and by that time I had a record player and got the record to play it on vinyl. This is the kind of song that as a professional DJ when you want to slow the crowd down on the dance floor before they get burned-out you can play this song and it even fills the dance floor more than with the party stuff.  You will always get a few couples and future-couples making their way to the dance floor with a sparkle in their eyes for the first time of the night.

 

When Tina Turner’s cover of Al Green Let’s Stay Together first came out, I was a bit bothered by her rendition, not that I didn’t like it, I do. I just felt it did not touch Al Green Let’s Stay Together.  I eventually appreciated the fact that a whole new generation was getting to learn and enjoy Al Green Let’s Stay Together.  Many of them have been turned-on to the original since then too! Professional DJs now have two versions to choose from.

Al Green Let’s Stay Together Music Video

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Marvin Gaye What’s Going On

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Marvin is and always has been one of my heroes. He has inpisred me to cry, laugh, want to be a better person and get off my butt and dance!  When I was a kid I had this ’45’ and wore it out. I am sure my family was sick of Marvin but not me. When I first became a professional DJ and was aked to do performances at Oldies DJ Parties, I knew I would have a chance to break out my Marvin Gaye What’s Going On and Stevie Wonder records, and did as often as possible.

 

Marvin Gaye What’s Going On in particular has a message that still resonates today. Hate and violence are still a significant current in our culture and globally. At some point we have to chose peace and respect. I think that is part of what he was trying to say in Marvin Gaye What’s Going On. I am amazed at how he could produce songs like this and “Mercy Mercy Me” and then balance them with “Sexual Healing” and “Got To Give It Up”. That sweet voice and passion rang through whatever he touched, Marvin Gaye What’s Going On, and he will be remembered by me and many others.

 

Thanks for Marvin Gaye What’s Going On!

As one of the pioneers of Motown, singer-songwriter and producer Marvin Gaye helped shape the sound of R & B music and is considered one of the greatest artists of all time. ‘I think I’ve got a real thing going. I love people. I love life and I love nature, and I can’t see why other people can’t be like that.’ –Marvin Gaye

 

Marvin Gaye What’s Going On and What’s Happening Brother Music Video

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Led Zeppelin Stairway To Heaven

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I was recently doing some searching online for remixes of Led Zeppelin Stairway To Heaven and other rock classics for a gig as professional DJ. Along the way I found several incredible versions of songs I did not know could be remade with such passion and fire, like Led Zeppelin Stairway To Heaven. It was a pleasant surprise. I was also impressed with some of the respect that these old classics have garnered by those who are musicians and producers.

 

What struck me the most was the actual original version of Led Zeppelin Stairway To Heaven. I did not know it was impossible to forget how powerful and creative a song can be. I have heard Led Zeppelin Stairway To Heaven so many times in my life I forgot what a gem it is. Familiarity breeds contentment, they say. In stepping back and listening to the rhythms, melodies and lyrics I acknowledged what a risk producing a song like Led Zeppelin Stairway To Heaven must have been for them at the time. Or maybe the inspiration was high enough that they did not even realize what they had come up with. I am grateful either way that Led Zeppelin Stairway To Heaven made it to my turntables, CD players and now my MacBook after all these years as a professional DJ.

Here is the original Led Zeppelin Stairway To Heaven:

Led Zeppelin Stairway To Heaven Remixes and Covers

Here are some of the remixes of Led Zeppelin Stairway To Heaven I found that I thought were interesting, I think they are all legal to listen but maybe not download:

Far Corporation Stairway To Heaven:

Mash-up of Stairway to Heaven and Marvin Gaye Ain’t No Mountain Enough:

And Syko Beats Hip Hop Instrumental Version:

Which do you like the best?

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Elvis Presley Suspicious Minds

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I was at a family wedding this weekend. The band played many great songs well but I was left remembering the Elvis songs the most. One of the singers had sideburns like Elvis and some similar style of representing himself. It was fun and the band was good, especially on Elvis Presley Suspicious Minds.

 

I remember when I was kid and the first 7-Elevin opened down the street from us with all their Slurpees and everything else that made being a kid fun. Next to the counter, there was a large album rack stuffed with really only two artists; The Beatles and Elvis Presley. I was still young and did not understand the full scope of the popularity of either of them. I guess no one did really. At the time, I did not know that Elvis made albums, since I knew him as an actor who sang in all his movies. Funny to look back now and realize how small-minded that was. Elvis Presley Suspicious Minds.

 

He was on the radio all the time and if not there, on the television. He was everywhere.

 

About 20 years ago I visited Graceland. It was an uncomfortable experience. I felt like I was spying on a man’s life and legacy without his permission. Seeing his stuff and bedroom before the age of papparazzi, felt intrusive. Truly sounds hysterically funny in a time when not only is seeing a celebrity’s house while they are not in it commonplace, today we can actually see them when they are in it! Even their bedroom and bathroom while present! If this is so out of hand as it is today with the celebrities we have now; what would it be like if Elvis was alive today? He was really the first artist that had cameras following him night and day and no one really since till this decade, not even Michael Jackson or Madonna had a following of media like Elvis Presley.

 

It is sad seeing his photos before and after alcohol took its toll on him.  How many of our great talented performers are we going to lose due to not being able to properly handle fame and fortune? What responsibility do we have in their demise? Jimi, Janis, Keith, Marilyn, Lindsay, Brittany, Paris just to name a few. Of course, not all that are listed qualify as ‘great’ but fame and its trappings have had such a detrimental impact on their lives. When is enough, enough? Elvis Presley Suspicious Minds

I stil get to play Elvis Presley Suspicious Minds as professional Wedding DJ on a regular basis.

Elvis Presley Suspicious Minds:

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ