Pop Culture Roundup (Best of 2011 Edition)

New Year hat 2012 Happy new year! In case you have been too busy preparing for the new year, here is a sample of recent pop culture stories you might have missed. As you might guess, many of the interesting stories look back at the best and worst of 2011.


— Best of 2011 —

A number of websites and blogs consider the best music of 2011. The New York Post featured Twitter-sized reviews of the best songs of 2011. Ickmusic has a 2011 best-of list of albums and songs. Uprooted Music Revue listed its 50 Favorite Audio Releases of 2011. Entertainment Weekly listed its top 10 albums of 2011. USA Today critics picked their best albums of 2011. Cover Lay Down presented mp3s of the best cover songs of 2011.

A number of sites considered the best and worst films of 2011. Chicago Tribune critic Michael Philips picked his 10 worst films of 2011, and he also picked his 10 best films. Just Go With It was the number one rented film at Redbox kiosks in 2011. All of top 5 rentals were comedies. Leonard Maltin picked the 11 Best Films You May Have Missed In 2011.

Some posts examined the top books. For example, NPR listed its Best Music Books Of 2011. (Thanks @robertloerzel.) The New York Daily News picked the best under-the-radar books of 2011.

There were other end-of-the-year lists. For example, Salon featured the viral videos of 2011. Frontier Psychologist listed The Top 10 Not That Special People of 2011. (Thanks @HipandCritical.) Salon featured the best and worst Tweets of the year. Slate had the worst catchphrases of 2011. TV critic Robert Bianco put together a list of the best and worst of TV in 2011.

DJ Earworm created a mashup of the top 25 pop songs of 2011 in one 5-minute clip. It’s pop. There ain’t no Lucinda Williams or Ryan Adams in here.

— Other Recent Music News —

Beyond “more cowbell!” The New York Post examined Blue Oyster Cult in pop culture.

Kelly Clarkson received a big boost in album sales after she endorsed Ron Paul.

stuffed puppy toy
Thanks for saving me, Pink!

Pink saved a puppy thrown in a river. How cool is that?

Singer-actress Kaye Stevens passed away. She performed with the Rat Pack, on Johnny Carson, etc.

Bob Seger recently explained his 2011 highlight was playing with Bruce Springsteen.

The Los Angeles Times interviewed Woody Allen about his career playing New Orleans jazz.

Bono and Glen Hansard played on the streets of Dublin for charity on Christmas Eve.


— Other Movie News —

Me Tarzan, you ?? Maybe it isn’t true that the chimp that just died was the 80-year-old Cheetah of Tarzan movie fame.

Scientists have discovered the reason for the strange bird behavior that inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.


— Other Television News —

Anne Serling has written a memoir about discovering her father Rod through his show The Twilight Zone.

Slate has the best and worst ads inspired by director Wes Anderson.

Barry Livingston, who played Ernie on My Three Sons, is still acting and has a book out.

What were your favorite stories of the year? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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  • Springsteen and Bono Sing “Because the Night” in Dublin
  • Bob Seger and Bruce Springsteen “Shout” In Their Third Performance Together
  • Bob Seger on Letterman: “All the Roads”

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    Best New Year’s Eve Scene in a Film

    New Year's Eve Movies

    Is there a better New Year’s Eve movie scene than this one in When Harry Met Sally? The movie makes perfect use of the holiday, including Harry Burns’s (Billy Crystal’s) questions about “Auld Lang Syne.”

    Below is the climactic scene from the movie. {Spoiler alert: This clip is the film’s ending.}

    After When Harry Met Sally shows Harry’s loneliness magnified by the special night, Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) wonders about the role the holiday played in Harry’s surprise appearance. She wonders if he is just lonely because he is by himself on New Year’s Eve. Harry directly confronts that possible explanation for why he ran to Sally: “And it’s not because it is New Year’s Eve. . . When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” Where are my tissues?

    When Harry Met SallyFor romance, one might compare Meg Ryan’s New Year’s Eve meeting with Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle. That movie does a good job of not overplaying when the two finally meet.

    But the movie New Year’s Eve kiss that one might compare to When Harry Met Sally for dramatic impact is when Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) kisses Fredo (John Cazale) with the kiss of death at a New Year’s Eve party in The Godfather: Part II. Michael tells Fredo, “You broke my heart. You broke my heart.”

    More tissues, please.

    Happy New Year. In the new year, may your kisses be of the When Harry Met Sally type instead of of the Godfather: Part II type.

    What is your favorite portrayal of New Year’s Eve? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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  • Here’s a Little New Year’s Song
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    (Back in the) USSR Established on Today’s Date

    USSR flag On December 30, 1922, following the Russian Revolution, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (“USSR“) was established. The country was created out of a confederation of Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation (which was later divided into the Georgian, Azerbaijan, and Armenian republics).

    Before being dissolved in 1991, the Soviet Union eventually included fifteen republics: Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Belorussia, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

    When any Beatles fan hears “USSR,” the person’s mind wanders to the Beatles classic “Back in the USSR” from the two-disc The Beatles (1968), otherwise known as The White Album.”

    Although the song is about the USSR in the title, underlying the song is a tribute to American rock and roll. The title evokes Chuck Berry’s “Back in the USA.” And in the chorus there is a nod to the Beach Boys’ “California Girls“:

    Well the Ukraine girls really knock me out
    They leave the west behind
    And Moscow girls make me sing and shout. . .

    Another line in the chorus mixes the USSR Georgia and the USA state Georgia to evoke Ray Charles and “Georgia on my Mind.” That song was recorded by Charles in 1960 and written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell in 1930.  As a tribute, the Beatles sing, “That Georgia’s always on my my my my my my my my my mind.”

    Although “Back in the USSR” takes the conflict of the Cold War to make a piece of beautiful music, there was conflict among the band members when the song was recorded. In a precursor to later band troubles, during the making of The White Album, Ringo Star quit the group for a short period. “Back in the USSR” was recorded during this period.

    So, Ringo does not play on the song. Most believe that the drums on the song were a composite of the other band members taking a turn at the skins, although a majority of the drumming may be McCartney, the primary writer of the song. For an earlier version of “Back in the USSR,” check out this Beatles demo:

    Paul McCartney eventually performed the song in Russia in 2003. By then, neither the countries of the USSR nor the men of the Beatles were together.

    Still, it is a good performance. I suspect the people in the crowd know how lucky they are.

    What do you think of Back in the USSR? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Dion Has the Blues

    Dion Bronx in Blue Dion Dimucci has made some wonderful music since the dawn of the rock and roll era. His song “Runaround Sue” is one of my favorite all-time songs, and I love other songs he made with the Belmonts and solo.

    For a long time through the late 1980s and 1990s, though, I assumed he was not around anymore because I had not heard anything about him since those days. And then one night at a Bruce Springsteen concert, Springsteen told how he reworked his own “If I Fall Behind” from his Tunnel of Love album after hearing Dion cover it. It is a beautiful song that Springsteen has played in a variety of ways, including an excellent Irish music version with the Seeger Session band. But his Dion doo wop version of “If I Fall Behind” was a revelation because it made me realize Dion was still around. Being a Springsteen fan and loving old Dion music, I had to track down Dion’s recording, which Dion later put on the album Deja Nu (2000). I liked the album a lot, and I’ve been keeping up with Dion’s new releases ever since.

    Some of his most amazing recent work is on two blues CD’s of classic covers with a few originals: Bronx in Blue (2006) and Son of Skip James (2007). I bought the first one because I had read good reviews of it and saw it on sale at a store. It might first seem odd that Dion is singing blues songs, but he grew up listening to blues music in the Bronx. The albums are excellent. There are not videos for most of the songs, but I did find this one of “Worried Blues”:

    Below is Dion’s take on Howlin’ Wolf’s “Built for Comfort,” which appears on Bronx in Blue:

    His third blues CD, Tank Full of Blues, is due out January 24. This week Rolling Stone premiered one of the songs off the CD, “I Read It (in the Rolling Stone).” Finally, one other thing I love about Dion is that he seems to write his own updates on his Facebook page. And he still writes using 1950s slang. The cat is cool. Give him a “Like.” For crying out loud, he is a legend and has been making music for seven decades. You can at least press a button for the guy.

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  • Dion’s Lost “Kickin’ Child” (Album Review)
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    Billy Joel Saw the Lights Go Out on Broadway

    Billy Joel Shea Stadium Billy Joel recently became the only non-classical musician to have his portrait unveiled at Steinway Hall, home to the piano maker Steinway & Sons. Except for Elton John, there probably is not another pop musicians as associated with the piano as Joel. So it is a fitting tribute.

    One of my favorite Billy Joel songs is “Miami 2017,” and in the following video, Billy Joel explains the inspiration behind the song. “Miami 2017” originally appeared on The Stranger (1977), and a live version later appeared on Joel’s collection of lesser-known previously released tracks, Songs in the Attic (1981).

    Near the end of the video below, Joel plays a part of the song. But in the beginning, Joel describes his reaction to the federal government’s refusal to bail out a defaulting New York City in 1975. Then, he explains that his song’s title evokes a retired New Yorker living in Florida in the year 2017 telling what he had witnessed.

    If that gave you a taste for hearing the entire song, check out this video of Billy Joel singing the song as part of his 2008 performances that closed down Shea Stadium before the stadium was reduced to a pile of rubble. Hence, the lyric change at around the 2:40 mark, “The Mets can play / One more game in Shea,” before sinking Manhattan out at sea.



    What is your favorite Billy Joel song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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