The Mecca 100 - #90-86

[littlebeast13]

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#90. "Big Yellow Taxi" - Amy Grant (1994)

Mecca Radio had a big Amy Grant fetish in the early 2000's, and it was her take on the iconic Joni Mitchell song that introduced me to "Big Yellow Taxi." The Grant version contains some lyrics slightly altered from the classic version, and because this was played so much at work, it took me years of hearing other versions to get used to the trees costing a dollar and a half to see them, as opposed to Grant's $25, which now sounds odd listening to it 20 years later, especially since the Counting Crows version is now the definitive one that plays in my head. I used this song in a Mecca Radio version of Lyrically Speaking way back in the days before LSWE, and I think it was etaoin who pointed out the obvious irony that Mecca would play a song like this...





#89. "Flying Easy" - Donny Hathaway (1973)

One of the legends of soul music, Hathaway is best remembered for his collaborations with Roberta Flack in the late 1970's. However, he recorded a few solo albums prior to that, and this song comes from that final album Extension of a Man. This song wasn't really a Mecca earworm, in that it was in the rotation of songs played. The producer for one of the radio shows played it once on a show that got repeated over several weekends about four years ago, and I really picked up on how cool and smooth this song sounds! It could have easily been a 70's TV theme song...




#88. "Still New York" - MAX (2018)

I'm not the biggest fan of New York City, but I guess if I was raised there I might come up with a touching tribute song like this. While the version below still gets played occasionally at Mecca (censored, obviously), the Joey Bada$$ rap was not in the version that became the nearly nightly earworm about four years ago. And honestly, it's a perfectly good song without it...




#87. "Anna Sun" - Walk the Moon (2010)

Isn't it kinda cool to know a band before they hit it big? This song was included on a few of the Mecca CD's, first appearing on the Summer 2013 CD. It not only caught my ear, but TBone was well aware of its existence as I was pleased to see he gave it a spot in that year's Boneys. "Anna Sun" has a bit of an 80's sound to it, and certainly plays up to the decade's stereotypes in its music video. However, it was just a minor indie pop hit. It would take until 2015's smash hit "Shut Up and Dance" before everyone would know who Walk the Moon was...




#86. "Wild One" - Bobby Rydell (1960)

This really could have been a double, as "Wild One" and its follow-up "Swingin' School" were both steady Mecca earworms in the early morning hours of the mid 2000's. I can't say I particularly recall hearing any of Rydell's music on the oldies stations back in the day, so a big thank you to Mecca for filling in another gap in my musical knowledge!



And what the hell...




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