A few weeks ago I played a Nick Lowe song and one of the comments mentioned another of his that I also liked. As so often happens, that sparked an idea, so this week I am taking something from that song as my theme: these are my cruel tunes.

I’m starting with what to me feels like the obvious place to begin:

Elvis Presley, of course, with Don’t Be Cruel. This was released as a single on July 13, 1956, backed with Hound Dog. Within a few weeks Hound Dog had risen to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 with sales of over one million. Soon after it was overtaken by Don’t Be Cruel, which went to #1 on all three main charts; Pop, Country, and R&B. Between them, both songs remained at #1 on the Pop chart for a run of 11 weeks. As he mentioned in his intro, this went on to become Elvis’ biggest selling single of 1956, with sales which later reached over six million. In the UK, it remained a B-side to Hound Dog, which peaked at #2 here, but was posthumously a hit in its own right, reaching #24 in 1978, a year after Elvis’ death.

Those of you who know my musical tastes won’t be in the least bit surprised that I’m playing this one:

Cruel Sister was the title track of Pentangle’s fourth album, which was released in November 1970 and reached #50 in the UK Albums Chart. It was the most folk-based of the albums recorded by the band, with all the tracks being versions of traditional songs: this one is a traditional ballad (known in some versions as The Twa Sisters), which tells the story of the violent rivalry between two sisters for the love of a knight. I have loved the album ever since it first came out, and this track is nothing short of majestic.

A change of style, pace and volume for my next one:

That was the Jeff Healey Band with Cruel Little Number, the opening track on their third album, Feel This, which was released in November 1992, peaking at #27 in Canada, #72 in the UK and #174 in the US. it wasn’t well received by the critics, either, and fared notably less well than their two previous records. This track was the first single taken from it, reaching #17 in Canada and #2 on the US Mainstream Rock Airplay Chart. There is an official video for the song but it is heavily restricted, so I had to seek out another. This one is only unavailable in Russia so I thought I’d go with it. No other reason for my choice, honest! Jeff led a short but troubled life: he lost his eyesight to cancer at just a year old, and died at 41 in March 2008, after suffering from a number of other cancer variants. He has left us some good blues rock albums as his legacy.

I’m dipping back into English folk music for this one:

Linda was born as Pettifer, changed her stage name to Peters, which is when I first saw her in concert with Richard Thompson: they married, and she took his surname. Katy Cruel is a track from Versatile Heart, her third solo album, which was released in August 2007. This is a traditional song, and I think Linda has given it a fun arrangement.

Next up is another female vocal – a whole group of them, and a more familiar one from the pop charts. There is a Taylor Swift song with the same title, but I actually prefer this one:

Bananarama, with Cruel Summer, possibly an unlikely choice for me but, as I say, I liked this one when it was a hit here and getting lots of airplay. The group consisted of friends Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey, and Keren Woodward, and they had a good deal of success in the UK charts and elsewhere. This was released as a single in June 1983, reaching #8 in the UK and #9 in the US, and was later included on their second album, simply called Bananarama, which came out in April 1984 and got to #16 in the UK and #30 in the US. I always saw them as a singles band, and they had ten hits in our top ten, several of which also did well in the US, including their cover of Shocking Blue’s Venus which made #1 over there (just #8 here). They were always fun to watch and hear.

And that makes up my set of five tunes for this week. Oh, wait, I haven’t played the one that prompted this theme, have I? I couldn’t leave it out, so here’s a bonus sixth one for you:

Nick Lowe, with Cruel To Be Kind. This was released as a single in August 1979 and achieved the unlikely feat of peaking at #12 in the UK, the US, Canada and Australia – yes, the same position in all of them! It had previously been released as the opening track on Nick’s second solo album, Labour Of Lust, which came out in June 1979 and reached #42 in the UK and #31 in the US. The song was actually co-written by Nick with Ian Gomm in the early Seventies, when they were both members of Brinsley Schwarz, which is where Nick started out. That version then became the B-side to his 1978 single, Little Hitler. Nick’s take on it was “We recorded it on a demo, it never came out, and when I signed to Columbia Records the A&R man [Gregg Geller] there at the time suggested I record it again. And I didn’t think it would do anything, but he kind of bullied me into it.” Nick recorded the song with his band Rockpile and later recalled, “I said, ‘Boys, I’m sorry, I’ve got this song which I’ve been told we’ve got to record, and it goes like this.’ They grumbled a bit about it.” It didn’t turn out so badly, did it! The video features real footage from Nick’s marriage to Carlene Carter, in case you were wondering: I guess if they had paid for the wedding video they might as well have got as much mileage from it as they could!

As usual I leave you with a reminder of where I’ll be sharing this post. Firstly, at Esme’s Senior Salon Pit Stop, and then at Cathy’s Monday’s Music Moves Me. Both are recommended by me, so do drop in.

That’s another Tuesday Tunes done and dusted. I’ll see you again for my midweek post, something a little different this time. Until then, have fun and stay well 😊