The Mecca 100 - #45-41
Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2026 12:00 pm
<<< #50-46
Last one until sometime next week....
#45. "Kids in America" - Kim Wilde, ft. Charlotte Heatherly (2006)
It drove me nuts in the days I was compiling this countdown last year just who did the version of this song that was being played on Mecca Radio that I absolutely loved and wanted to include in it. After checking out every cover version I could find, I finally found out the cover artist was..... the same singer who made it a hit back in 1982! Kim Wilde covered her own song for a 2006 comeback album, bringing aboard British singer Charlotte Heatherly and making it a duet. As much as I enjoy the original, this much more high energy version of the classic 80's anthem is an excellent improvement!
#44. "Get Closer" - Life in Film (2015)
There seems to be little about this British indie band or song out there. I always wondered how such obscure songs like this wound up on the Mecca CD's of 2013-15, but this one was just released before the final of those CD's brought it to my ears in the summer of '15. Man, this is good... and yes, they drop an F-bomb near the end! That didn't make the Mecca CD...
#43. "Someone To Love" - Fountains of Wayne (2007)
This is the first of two FoW songs that will grace this countdown, and this blurb from the music video's director Adam Neustadter perfectly explains why I love it...
"When I first heard 'Someone To Love,' I immediately thought of The Beatles' 'Eleanor Rigby'. Not just because of Beth's last name — which may be a reference to Father Mackenzie — but because of the accurate descriptions of these lonely people and how the song answers The Beatles' questions of, 'All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?' Was I reading into this too much? Absolutely [...] The story is about these two lonely characters living in New York, leading parallel lives right next door to each other, but with no idea the other exists. When their paths finally do cross, they blow the chance at finding love and we see that, despite being so lonely, they're still cutthroat New Yorkers who are too busy to care."
And, yes, another Mecca CD song!
#42. "Louisiana Saturday Night" - Mel McDaniel (1981)
I have professed my utter love for this song every time I've included it in an LSWE game, and I would not know it exists were it not a Mecca earworm during the late 2010's. That line "fifteen kids in the front porchlight" just floods me of memories at Granny's house when I was young...
#41. "Head On" - Man Man (2013)
When I launched my Monday music series on my Evil Squirrel's Nest blog in 2014, I started with Mecca CD earworms, and chose this song to lead off with. It perfectly embodies the bizarre and eclectic songs that populated these CD's I listened to five nights a week. This is a weird experimental group performing a rather normal sounding song with some interesting lyrics! Also, a pretty neat lyrical video, but that doesn't get it any extra countdown cred...
#40-36 >>>
Last one until sometime next week....
#45. "Kids in America" - Kim Wilde, ft. Charlotte Heatherly (2006)
It drove me nuts in the days I was compiling this countdown last year just who did the version of this song that was being played on Mecca Radio that I absolutely loved and wanted to include in it. After checking out every cover version I could find, I finally found out the cover artist was..... the same singer who made it a hit back in 1982! Kim Wilde covered her own song for a 2006 comeback album, bringing aboard British singer Charlotte Heatherly and making it a duet. As much as I enjoy the original, this much more high energy version of the classic 80's anthem is an excellent improvement!
#44. "Get Closer" - Life in Film (2015)
There seems to be little about this British indie band or song out there. I always wondered how such obscure songs like this wound up on the Mecca CD's of 2013-15, but this one was just released before the final of those CD's brought it to my ears in the summer of '15. Man, this is good... and yes, they drop an F-bomb near the end! That didn't make the Mecca CD...
#43. "Someone To Love" - Fountains of Wayne (2007)
This is the first of two FoW songs that will grace this countdown, and this blurb from the music video's director Adam Neustadter perfectly explains why I love it...
"When I first heard 'Someone To Love,' I immediately thought of The Beatles' 'Eleanor Rigby'. Not just because of Beth's last name — which may be a reference to Father Mackenzie — but because of the accurate descriptions of these lonely people and how the song answers The Beatles' questions of, 'All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?' Was I reading into this too much? Absolutely [...] The story is about these two lonely characters living in New York, leading parallel lives right next door to each other, but with no idea the other exists. When their paths finally do cross, they blow the chance at finding love and we see that, despite being so lonely, they're still cutthroat New Yorkers who are too busy to care."
And, yes, another Mecca CD song!
#42. "Louisiana Saturday Night" - Mel McDaniel (1981)
I have professed my utter love for this song every time I've included it in an LSWE game, and I would not know it exists were it not a Mecca earworm during the late 2010's. That line "fifteen kids in the front porchlight" just floods me of memories at Granny's house when I was young...
#41. "Head On" - Man Man (2013)
When I launched my Monday music series on my Evil Squirrel's Nest blog in 2014, I started with Mecca CD earworms, and chose this song to lead off with. It perfectly embodies the bizarre and eclectic songs that populated these CD's I listened to five nights a week. This is a weird experimental group performing a rather normal sounding song with some interesting lyrics! Also, a pretty neat lyrical video, but that doesn't get it any extra countdown cred...
#40-36 >>>