I’m sure you won’t remember but I did one of these posts on the theme of food back in January last year – it was actually #87 in this series and you can find it here if you’d like to see it again. So why am I doing it again? Today’s date, 14th March, is in numerical format 14.3. Except in the US that is where, due to their totally illogical custom of putting the month before the day, they know this as 3.14. Cast your mind back to schooldays, which is the last time most of us needed to know this, and you might recognise these as the starting digits of the mathematical concept of pi. True to form, this has become one of the plethora of silly national days that the US celebrates, though they have amended it slightly and it has become Pi(e) Day over there. I have written about this many times, but rather than just regurgitating one of those pieces I thought I would take this opportunity of expanding the theme to other kinds of food. None of these tunes featured in my previous post on this topic (apart from the joke one) though the opener has been in some of my Pi(e) Day posts. Have you guessed what it is yet? Where else could I start:

A truly iconic piece of pop history. Not just for the song, but also for that clip proving that even those allegedly staid British audiences can join in with a good song, though without the need for whooping and hollering. Don McLean released American Pie as his second album, in October 1971, and it made #1 in the US, Australia and Canada, and #2 in the UK. This title track came out as a single to coincide with the album, and by a neat piece of symmetry achieved exactly the same chart positions in all four of those countries. Here, it was the other single taken from the album – Vincent – that gave him a #1, though it didn’t get that high anywhere else. We can be obtuse when we want to be!

My second tune for today is the joke one I played last time. The video is a little grainy as I’m having to use an unofficial version – the official one is only playable on YouTube:

I’m guessing that the 1+ minute of black screen after the song is deliberate, but don’t know why. Anyway, that was posted in July 2017 so I think it’s safe to use it! ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic has made a huge number of parody versions of other people’s songs, as you are probably aware. For anyone who didn’t recognise this, Eat It is his reworking of Michael Jackson’s Beat It, with several nods to the original’s video along the way. This was a track on his second album, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic In 3-D, released in February 1984 and peaking at #17 in the US. This song was released as a single alongside the album, and got to #12 in the US and #36 in the UK, though it did make #1 in Australia. I’ve always liked his fun style and especially the videos that go with them – I think my favourite is the one for Amish Paradise, which is a hoot.

Back across the pond for my next one, from a band I’ve always liked:

Pour Some Sugar On Me was one of the tracks on Def Leppard’s breakthrough album, Hysteria, which was released in August 1987 and got to #1 in the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Norway and New Zealand, and has to date sold more than 20m copies worldwide – 12m of those in the US. This was the third of seven tracks from the album to be released as a single, in September 1987, making #18 in the UK and #2 in the US. I played this album a lot and still enjoy it today – it is packed full of great tunes. Poodle rock at its finest!

Another band I’ve always liked, and whose albums I have played a lot, is 10,000 Maniacs. This is a favourite:

Candy Everybody Wants is a track on the band’s best album (in my view) – Our Time In Eden – which was released in September 1992. It reached #28 in the US and #33 in the UK, and was their last album before Natalie Merchant left in 1993 for a solo career. Subsequent albums haven’t fared nearly as well, though Natalie’s solo records have been fairly successful, with four top twenty albums in the US and steady sales over here. This song was released as a single in March 1993, peaking at #67 in the US and #47 in the UK.

I’m going a bit louder with my next choice:

TV Dinners was a track on ZZ Top’s album Eliminator, which was released in March 1983 and is the band’s most successful to date, selling 11m copies in the US, 1.2m in the UK and 1m in Canada as part of a worldwide total of more than 17m sales. It got to #9 in the US and #3 in the UK, as well as making #2 in Australia and Canada. This was a single in December of that year, but it only made #67 in the UK and didn’t chart in the US. The band had started out as blues rockers, and this album, which used synthesisers a lot, marked their move into the mainstream, though die hard fans thought they had sold out. I think their sales figures would have had them laughing all the way to the bank, and they were always a fun band to listen to. Great videos too.

Time for another British offering now. I’ve never played anything by Squeeze before, so this is long overdue:

Pulling Mussels (From The Shell) was originally released in February 1980 as the opening track on Squeeze’s third album, Argybargy, which reached #32 in the Uk and #71 in the US. It has since come to be regarded as a classic of the new wave genre, and still sounds good today. The band had previously had two big hit singles here, Cool For Cats and Up The Junction, both of which got to #2, but overall their chart performances were a bit variable. This was released as a single in May 1980, and got to #44 here though it didn’t make the US charts. I think they can be classed as steady sellers, particularly for albums, with which they enjoyed reasonable success on both sides of the Atlantic. The song was written by Chris Difford (who takes lead vocal) and Glenn Tillbrook, and is about Difford’s coming of age experience during a stay at a budget holiday camp in Kent. I leave it to your imagination for what the title refers to!

[I’ve been advised that the original video I posted for this one didn’t work in the US. I’ve swapped it for a newer version and hope that does the trick, but if not maybe this link to the audio-only version might: https://youtu.be/Hn0Rzi1s5iU ]

In honour of the cartoon I chose to head this piece, I couldn’t really leave this one out, could I:

I’ve previously played one of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s duets, but the is the first time for this one. The Onion Song was first released on their joint album, Easy, in September 1969. The album reached #184 in the US, but didn’t make the charts anywhere else. By that time Tammi was suffering badly from the brain tumour which had been diagnosed in 1967, and which eventually took her life in March 1970 at the age of just 24. Recording sessions were scheduled around her illness, though there has been some dispute about who actually sang on the record: some say it was Tammi, others say Valerie Simpson. Simpson herself has said it was Tammi, and she should know. This track was released as a single in the UK in October 1969 and became their biggest hit here, peaking at #9, but for some reason it wasn’t released in the US until four days after Tammi died. Opportunistic, or what? It only got to #50 over there, though it did make #18 on the R&B chart. Tamla Motown was never really my thing, but I did like quite a few of the label’s records and this was one of them. Its optimistic message may sound a little naive, but the world would be a better place if people took it to heart.

Proving that I can flutter around all over the place with my musical choices I’m closing today with a country favourite of mine:

A happy little song with no pretensions. Just a simple message; “mind your own biscuits and life will be gravy.” Even here in the UK where ‘biscuits’ are rather different from what you have in the US – divided by a common language again – it isn’t hard to take the point that we shouldn’t interfere in other people’s lives. And Kacey Musgraves is undeniably gorgeous, which makes it even better. Biscuits was a track on her second album, Pageant Material, which was released in June 2015 and made #3 in the US and #11 in the UK, though it topped the country albums charts in both countries. The song had already been released as a single in March 2015, making #26 on the US Country chart. Its message of being yourself and not standing on others’ toes is a good one to close with this week, I think.

This is where I take my leave for another Tuesday. Tomorrow sees the annual budget statement here in the UK, so no doubt I’ll be even more impoverished by next week than I already am – someone has to pay for all those government cock ups and you can bet your life it won’t be the rich who have to cough up! Have a good week. I’ll see you again for Song Lyric Sunday and might drop in again in the meantime if the mood takes me. Take care 🎶