Oh!

To keep myself entertained (and hopefully you, too), I'm going to start posting videos/performances/recordings of songs I like from my recent Top 10 albums list or other music that has had an impact on me over the years.

Some of it will be marvelous (to me), some of it will be execrable (to you), and some of it will be a bit of both. But, hey, that pretty much sums up my tastes, and at the ripe old age of 58, I'm tired of apologizing for what I like.

First up: Althea & Donna, "Uptown Top Ranking," a big hit in Britain in the late 1970s. I used to hear this on the BBC World Service Top 20 when I used to listen to shortwave radio back in the day. This along with vintage Bob Marley & The Wailers were likely some of the first reggae songs I ever heard.

"Uptown Top Ranking" is probably not for reggae purists, but it's incredibly catchy, rich in Jamaican patois, and has its own goofy charm ("Oh!"). The key lyric is "Nah pop, nah style, I strictly roots," meaning (as I heard it described once on BBC World Service), "You can't dismiss me as flashy and inauthentic; despite how I look or dress, I'm the real thing."

Good counsel for all of us. Oh!