1960s Archives – How Good It Is

Ladies and Gentlemen, the queen of them all. Pattie Boyd was the inspiration for a huge number of songs. Some of them went to the top of the charts, some of them weren’t released as singles, but nearly all of the songs about her are well-known, and not just because they’re about her; because they’re … Continue reading "179: Influential Women, Pt. 4–Pattie Boyd" The po...

By 1968, Glen Campbell had moved from session musician to a star in his own right. His single “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” written by Jimmy Webb, was a huge hit for him. So when Campbell decided he needed another song, he turned back to Webb and asked him for another song. For … Continue reading "173: Wichita Lineman" The post 173: Wichita Lineman appeared first on How Good It...

…before we were so rudely interrupted… This is a song that I’m long-overdue in covering, if only because of the backstory it has. It’s simultaneously heart-warming and heart-breaking. It’s a love letter from lyricist Doc Pomus to his wife. That’s not unusual, of course. Many songwriters compose songs dedicated to a loved one. But this … Continue reading "1...

How many times now have I gone into the backstory with a song and learned that the person who wrote it says something akin to, “Yeah, I knocked that one off in about fifteen minutes.” Oftentimes they also think that the song isn’t going to amount to very much, which I find kind of funny. … Continue reading "170: I Fought the Law" The post 170: I Fought the Law appeared firs...

Such a life I’ve had lately, what with getting Covid and then getting part of the house renovated…four weeks of a two-week project. And the job isn’t even done, but that’s not the contractor’s fault. (Replacement parts, don’tcha know.) And for some reason it’s taking forever to put the kitchen—the whole downstairs, really—back together. Anyway. … Con...

Pardon my allergies; I’ve sounded kind of rough for a week or so. There was a lot of throat-clearing to edit out of this one. I can’t even blame the Southern Studio on this one; it’s the direct result of spending too much time cutting the grass at home. (And THEN I can blame the … Continue reading "160: Failing Upward, Vol 2" The post 160: Failing Upward, Vol 2 appeared fir...

Oh, I do enjoy breaking format once in awhile to do special episodes like this one. For this year’s Christmas episode, I return to the songs that you don’t seem to hear on the radio when the stations are playing All Christmas All The Time. You’d think that with the huge catalog of recordings to … Continue reading "151: More Obscure Christmas" The post 151: More Obscure Chri...

The interesting thing about this song is that it was written for a specific singer. That said, it’s been a pretty big hit for many different artists over the years. “Everlasting Love” was written in 1967 specifically to match Robert Knight’s voice, but it’s proven to be quite the malleable tune. It’s been rendered in … Continue reading "144: Everlasting Lo...

Laura Nigro was a sixteen-year-old musical prodigy who was trying on several last names, as creative types sometimes do. She happened to be “Nyro” when she finally started to catch on in the music industry, so Laura Nyro she became. Nyro was never a huge star in her own right. But she left behind a … Continue reading "139: And When I Die" The post 139: And When I Die appeared fir...

Merry Christmas! I actually had a different show in mind but I got to listening to some old radio airchecks (not my own) and I was inspired to do something different from the usual show. The first thing you’ll notice is that it’s a half-hour long. That’s because I’m playing songs in their entirety and … Continue reading "135: Lesser Known Christmas Pop" The post 135:...