Music for Mother’s Day

Tomorrow marks the date when folks can celebrate the one who brought them into this world, or whoever they consider “Mama”! For this Mother’s Day 2013, we asked our Murfie staffers what music reminds them of their mother, and we got some great stories along with their picks!

Tales of Mystery and Imagination – The Alan Parsons Project
Tiffany: My mom has something like 700 vinyl records, so needless to say, I have a lot of memories of my mom and her long-abiding love of rock and roll. But, this one…when I was a little kid and couldn’t sleep, I would ask my mom to play the second side of this album, which is a musical interpretation of Edgar Allen Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher.

Purple Rain – Prince & the Revolution
John: This album (on vinyl, of course) was the first gift my dad gave my mom when they first started dating.  She must have liked it (or my dad, I guess), because 25+ years later, they’re still together with three goofy kids.

Spice – Spice Girls
Toni: This disc was on heavy rotation for me as a kid. The track “Mama” says it all.

Ultimate Manilow – Barry Manilow
Matt: An all-time favorite of my mom, I learned to recognize Manilow’s distinctive voice on her 8-tracks at a very early age. And, I still occasionally enjoy rocking out to “Copacabana”.

“Mother” – Glenn Danzig
Jeff: No doubt Glenn Danzig has probably had a rocky relationship with his own Mom, as he was one of the original Goth/Punk/Metal kids, and probably kind of a pain as a teenager. But he has his hit 1988 song “Mother” to thank for being the household name he is today, and the brooding idol of anyone who’s ever gelled their hair into a single horn down the front of their face.

Organ Duets – Charles Harrison
Glynnis: Whenever I need any music that says “mom”, my go-to is organ music! My mom’s a professional organist, and I grew up playing among the pipes of church sanctuaries with my sister while my mother practiced. I can hardly hear any organ piece—particularly Bach—without thinking immediately of Mom.

“Walking After Midnight” – Patsy Cline
Emma: Every morning before school, my mom would pile us into the car and we would go for a drive. We lived in Alaska, so we’d usually drive to a scenic point overlooking Denali (Mount McKinley). Yeah, the view was pretty and all, but the most memorable part of these trips was the same mixed tape (recorded from NPR I’m pretty sure) of six classic Patsy Cline songs. Whenever “Walking After Midnight” came on, we’d all belt it at the top of our lungs.

Home for Christmas – Amy Grant
Steve: I can’t count how many times my mom listened to Amy Grant during Christmas!

“Summer Wind” – Frank Sinatra
Pete: This song always makes me think of my mom (or mum as we say in England) as it reminds me of my wedding day. I danced with her to this at the reception. It was also my parents’ first visit to the USA, and they were always playing Frank around the house back in England when I was growing up.

Songs You Know By Heart – Jimmy Buffett
Kayla: When I was a kid, my mom listened to this Jimmy Buffett album in our car all the time, and I made fun of her for it. Now that I’m older, Jimmy Buffett has totally grown on me, and I absolutely LOVE all his stuff! My mom and I even went to see him at Alpine Valley these past two summers, and we had so much fun :-)

Happy Mother’s Day weekend from Murfie!

This Week in Music History (April 11th-17th)

 

The story continues, and Henry’s tradition lives on! Learn up and boogie down!

4/11– Setting up a bittersweet moment on this day in 1994, Nirvana‘s final studio album In Utero was certified double-platinum by the RIAA, while on the same day a Seattle, WA coroner ruled that lead singer Kurt Kobain’s death was officially a suicide.

4/12- Making history on this day in 1999, Shania Twain became the only female artist in music history to sell over 10M units with back to back albums: The Woman in Me (1995) and Come on Over (1997).

4/13– Willie Nelson is always stirring up some sort of trouble! On this auspicious day in 2005, Willie had his attorney send Texas state senator Gonzalo Barrientos a (presumably polite) letter declining to have a toll road named after himself. A toll road? Nelson told the Austin America-Statesman, “I’d put my name on an electric chair, too, but I don’t think that’s be too great a thing.”

4/14– Whether Chuck D and crew knew it at the time, they were making history in 1988 when Public Enemy‘s second album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, hit the streets hard, loud and unapologetic.

4/15– Sir Elton John is often and lovingly out in front of charitable efforts. On this day in 2006, he’d “cleaned out his closet”  and raised nearly $1M for his AIDS foundation by selling over ten thousand articles of clothing at the “Elton’s Closet” sale in New York. Not sure we can conceive how BIG that closet must have been ;-).

4/16– Avant-grade jazz musician Ornette Coleman was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music on this day in 2007 for his album Sound Grammar, which was the first work of jazz to receive the Pulitzer honor.

4/17– The iconic Johnny Cash performed at the White House on this day in 1970 at the invitation for President Richard M. Nixon. Following the performance, the president and first lady spent hours with Johnny and his wife, June Carter, touring the White House and enjoying each others company immensely – with nary a mention of politics.

Oh, you wanna own any of these gems, or hear ’em in lossless format? Well whaddya know, we just so happen to have them for sale! Right now these titles start at just $1, so get ‘em before they’re gone!