AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Teddy Swims

Artist:Teddy Swims

Song:Lose Control

Album:I've Tried Everything But Therapy Part 1

The 2023 single Lose Control topped the charts. It's from Teddy Swims' debut album so it's all downhill from there. We'll see if he has staying power. He got a record deal after posting videos on YouTube. He was born Jalen Dimsdale Sept. 25, 1992 in the Atlanta suburb of Conyers, GA. Swims is an acronym for Someone Who Isn't Me Sometimes. His grandfather was a Pentacostal minister so he grew up in church. His father introduced him to soul music. Swims played football in high school. One of his teachers suggested he enroll in musical theater class. And that's how he got into performing. Plus he studied singers on YouTube. And he started playing piano. After appearing with several local bands, Swims formed a rap duo with his friend Addy Maxwell and they toured with singer Tyler Carter in 2019. Then he started posting cover videos on YouTube. After posting the original song Night Off on YouTube, Swims got a record deal with Warner Bros. They released the single Picky in Jan. 2000. The single My Bad was released Feb. 2021 and Swims performed it on The Kelly Clarkson Show. Rolling Stone magazine named Swims An Artist You Need to Know. He continued to release singles and EPs and perform on TV. He also appeared on singles by Meaghan Trainor and others. Supposedly Warners was going for the slow build with Swims. But I would counter that three years is too long. They even sent him on tour in fall 2022. Finally, Lose Control was released as the lead single of the album I've Tried Everything But Therapy. Swims had recorded two albums of material. But Warners only released one album as Part 1. Lose Control was released in June 2023. But it didn't top the Billboard Hot 100 until Mar. 2024. Apparently that's some sort of record. Lose Control was on the Billboard Hot 100 for 112 weeks which is also a record. The album was certified Platinum. Swims co-wrote most of the album songs including Lose Control. His main collaborators were Joshua "Ammo" Coleman and Julian Bunetta. Both have produced all kinds of singers. Warners then released I've Tried Everything But Therapy Part II and even released both albums in a 2CD set. They are available together but buying the albums individually is cheaper. Also, the second album didn't do as well. But that may have been a flaw of Warners' release strategy. Swims has been off the road as his girlfriend gave birth to a son. But he's back on tour in April. I would expect him to record a new album after the tour is done in July. We'll see if he has staying power. Music fans have short memories. Here's the video for Lose Control by Teddy Swims. 

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Swedish House Mafia

Artist:Swedish House Mafia f/John Martin

Song:Save the World

Album:Until Now

Swedish House Mafia is another one of these DJ groups that produce EDM for dance clubs. They have been successful mainly in Europe. EDM fans should like them. Swedish House Mafia are from Stockholm, Sweden with Axel "Axwell" Hedfors, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso. Before forming Swedish House Mafia in 1998, they each performed solo. Angello and Ingrosso knew each other growing up in Stockhom and they would collaborate under aliases. They met Axwell by chance and started performing with a fourth DJ Eric Prydz. They were given the name Swedish House Mafia in 2008 but Prydz chose not to join. Prydz describes himself as a control freak in the studio. Swedish House Mafia signed with Universal. Swedish House Mafia normally do not release albums. They will release singles and maybe put them on an album later. That's what they did with the 2011 single Save the World. The guest singer on Save the World is Swedish singer John Martin. He has also worked with Avicii and Martin Garrix. He is also a member of the duo VCATION and sometimes records solo. So he wrote Save the World with Swedish House Mafia and Swedish DJs Michel Zitron and Vincent Pontaire. BBC Radio One DJ Pete Tong premiered it in May 2011. It reached #5 on the British Dance charts and #10 on the British Singles chart. From there it spread across Europe. Then it topped the US Dance Club chart. It was certified Platinum mostly through digital downloads. It was on EMI in most of the world and Astralwerks in the US. The album Until Now was released in 2012. I guess the album is a best of recent hits. As I said, they like to release singles first and put them on an album. Until Now is available as a digital download and it includes their biggest hit Don't You Worry Child which also features John Martin. Swedish House Mafia split up in 2012 but they continue to tour and release occasional singles. Their recent singles haven't been as successful. Meanwhile Axwell & Ingrossio formed their own group in 2014. They also produce other artists like The Weeknd. Swedish House Mafia is still a big live draw in Europe. Here's the video for Save the World by Swedish House Mafia.   

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Dianne Reeves

Artist:Dianne Reeves

Song:Better Days

Album:The Palo Alto Sessions 1981-1985

Singer Dianne Reeves recorded for Blue Note for years. So I think most jazz fans are familiar with those albums. But I first heard her on her 1982 debut album Welcome to My Love on Palo Alto Records. They didn't last very long. But Dianne signed with Blue Note in 1987. So I wanted to talk about her early days. She was born Oct. 23, 1956 in Detroit. Her father sang and her mother played trumpet. Bassist Charles Burrell was a cousin and so was keyboard wizard and producer George Duke. Her father died when she was two years old so Dianne moved to Denver with her mom to live with her family. Dianne started singing and playing piano in 1971 and was in her high school band. While performing at a convention in Chicago, jazz trumpeter Clark Terry spotted her and invited her to sing with him. And that got her into jazz. Dianne studied classical voice at the University of Colorado. She moved to Los Angeles and sang with Stanley Turrentine, Lenny White and the fusion band Caldera. Then she started working regularly with pianist Billy Childs. And that led to a record deal with Palo Alto Records and the 1982 album Welcome to My Love. Childs played piano and produced the album. Better Days was the big song from that album. Dianne wrote it with Tony Lorrich. It seems to be his only credit. Musicians were guitarist Nick Kirgo who played with Les McCann, Billy Carroll on bass, Joe Heredia on drums and Luis Conte on percussion. Conte is a veteran sideman. But Carroll and Heredia were in Childs' band and soon quit the music business. The problem was Palo Alto closed in 1985. They were owned by trumpeter Jim Bernham. They released plenty of music but none of it sold so they closed. It's difficult for an independent jazz label to survive. Dianne's cousin George Duke got her a record deal with Blue Note and he produced the 1987 album Dianne Reeves. Better days was the big hit from that album. Blue Note released The Palo Alto Sessions in 1996. It's the Welcome to My Love album with bonus tracks and is available as a budget CD. Dianne recorded for Blue Note until 2008 then a 2014 album for Concord. She says on her website that she has a new record deal with Candid and a new album and tour with Brazilian guitarist Romero Lubambo. She has also recorded a John Coltrane 100th birthday tribute album with Branford Marsalis and that will be released on Blue Note in September on Coltrane's 100th birthday. Here's the video for Better Days by Dianne Reeves.

 

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Trevor Daniel

Artist:Trevor Daniel

Song:Falling

Album:Nicotine

Singer songwriter Trevor Daniel scored a top 20 hit when the 2018 single Falling spread through TikTok. He hasn't been successful since then. He was born Trevor Daniel Neill Sept. 28, 1994 in Houston. He started playing drums as a child. During high school, Daniel recorded using Mixcraft 5 in his bedroom and posted videos on Youtube. He started posting music to SoundCloud in 2017. After the 2017 single Pretend was uploaded to a popular YouTube channel, Internet Money Records owner Taz Taylor signed Daniel with distribution by Alamo Records and Interscope. The EP Homesick was released and the single Falling spread through TikTok and then Spotify added it. That led to radio play and it reached #17 on the Billboard Hot 100. Daniel wrote the song with Taylor and Charlie Handsome and they produced it. Daniel co-wrote all the songs on the EP. A second EP Restless was released. So the two EPs were combined and released as the album Nicotine. It's available as a digital download. After Daniel charted with the 2020 single Past Life, Internet Money had a falling out with Alamo and Alamo switched distributors to RCA. An EP was released in 2021 but it went nowhere and Daniel left Alamo in 2024. He signed a new record deal with Fearless Records. After releasing the 2024 single Tempo, he announced that he was leaving Fearless in May 2025. He has yet to sign a new record deal. Trevor Daniel's career could be over before it even starts. Here's the video for Falling by Trevor Daniel. 

 

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Boots Randolph

Artist:Boots Randolph

Song:Yakety Sax 

Album:Yakety Sax

Most of you are probably familiar with Yakety Sax as the theme of The Benny Hill Show. But what you don't know is that Homer "Boots" Randolph scored a top 40 pop hit with Yakety Sax in 1963. He also wrote it so The Benny Hill Show made him a lot of money. Most of the time, Randolph was a Nashville session musician. He was born June 3, 1927 in Paducah, KY. His brother gave him the nickname Boots because their father was also named Homer and he wanted to avoid confusion. Randolph learned to play music in his father's band. He started out playing ukulele and trombone. But he switched to sax when his dad unexpectedly brought one home. After graduating from high school, Randolph served in the US Army and played in the US Army Band until his 1946 discharge. He settled in Decatur, IL. and played with Dink Welch's Kopy Kats from 1948-54. Then he started his own band. He called himself Randy Randolph. Randolph moved to Nashville in 1957 and signed with RCA in 1958. Legendary guitarist Chet Atkins was the head of RCA's Nashville office. Though Randolph's recordings weren't commercially successful, Atkins put him to work in the recording studio and he played on records by Brenda Lee, Al Hirt, Roy Orbison and many more. Most notably he played on the Elvis Presley hit Return to Sender. He worked a lot with Atkins. Meanwhile, Randolph signed with Monument Records in 1961. Monument was owned by producer Fred Foster. His best known artist was Roy Orbison. Randolph first recorded Yakety Sax on the 1961 album Boots Randolph's Yakety Sax. In 1963, it reached #35 on the Billboard Hot 100. Randolph rerecorded it on the 1963 album Boots Randolph's Yakety Sax. Foster produced the album. Yakety Sax was inspired by King Curtis' sax solo on The Coasters 1958 single Yakety Yak. In 1969, British comedian Benny Hill adopted Yakety Sax as the theme of The Benny Hill Show. That's where most folks heard the song. It made him money while he was playing on hundreds of albums and on TV. Randolph recorded for Monument for most of his career. You can get Yakety Sax on this comp from Bear Family. Randolph owned his own Nashville club from 1977-94. He continued to tour and record until he died on July 3, 2007 at age 80. Here's Boots Randolph performing Yakety Sax on Nashville Now.

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-James Taylor

Artist:James Taylor

Song:How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)

Album:The Essential James Taylor

James Taylor's 1975 cover of the Motown classic How Sweet It Is was his final top ten hit before he left Warner Bros. for Columbia in 1979. At the time, Taylor took some time off after he married Carly Simon and Warners was bugging him to get back into the recording studio. The 1974 album Walking Man was a commercial failure with no hit singles. Taylor decided his 1975 album Gorilla would be more polished and commercial with a lighter tone. Warners house producers Russ Titleman and Lenny Waronker were brought in to make sure the album would be successful. How Sweet It Is was the first single and it reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Of course that song was originally a hit for Marvin Gaye in 1964 and written and produced by Holland-Dozier-Holland. It was lighter in tone than Taylor's previous hits. Carly Simon was on harmony vocals. Musicians were Danny Kotchmar on guitar, Clarence McDonald on electric piano, Leland Sklar on bass and Russ Kunkel and Jim Keltner on drums. David Sanborn plays the sax solo and he plays it on the video. It is believed that Taylor recorded this song as a tribute to Carly. So all was well with Taylor and Warner Bros., right? Wrong. Taylor was unhappy at Warners and he had one album left on his contract. While he was recording the 1976 album In the Pocket, Taylor talked to labels and settled on Columbia. They offered him a whole lot more money and promised a more attentive production. Taylor's Columbia debut album was the 1977 album JT. And his cover of the Jimmy Jones classic Handy Man was a top five hit. The album was produced by Peter Asher who worked with Taylor when he was at Apple. This 2CD comp contains a mix of Warners and Columbia hits. Taylor sued Warner Bros. in 2012 for $2M of unpaid royalties mostly from digital downloads. After an audit was done, Warners settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. So I guess Taylor got his pound of flesh. Here's James Taylor performing How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) at the Blossom Music Festival at Cuyahoga Falls, OH. July 18, 1979. And that is David Sanborn on sax. 

AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Ali Gatie

Artist:Ali Gatie

Song:It's You

Album:You

Ali Gatie is an R&B singer songwriter whose 2019 single It's You had chart success. It remains to be seen if he can cross over to pop. I have my doubts. He was born May 31, 1997 in Aden, Yemen. His family moved to Abu Dhabi. Then they settled in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, ON. Gatie was influenced by Ed Sheeran, J. Cole and Frank Ocean. He started posting videos on YouTube in 2016. He was in university at the time and he decided to drop out of school and pursue a music career. His big break came in 2017 when he won an online competition called RhymeStars. That got him a manager followed by a record deal with Warner Bros. An EP was released in 2019 followed by the single It's You. It reached #25 on the R&B Singles chart and charted worldwide. Gatie wrote It's You in fifteen minutes. It's obviously about a girl. He performed it on Instagram to a positive response and then posted it on YouTube. Then he brought in producers Happy Perez, Pop Wansel and Sam Wish to record it. Warners took two previously released EPs and turned them into an album. The album was released as a digital download. The 2020 single What If I Told You That I Love You was from the same album and got similar results. Subsequent singles haven't done as well. We'll see how his next album does. The songs I have heard all sound the same to me. I could see that getting old very quickly. I would like to see him write about different topics and perform the songs in different ways. He can't do the same thing all the time. Folks will tire of that. Here's the video for It's You by Ali Gatie.