Hey there, it's me, Your Old Pal Will. Welcome to another episode of Vinyl-O-Matic. This time around, we continue our journey through singles with a-sides that begin with the letter W as in Whiskey, and we actually make it into singles with a-sides starting with the letter Y as in Yankee. Those of you wishing to play along at home, point your browser in the direction of vinylomatic(dot)com(slash)s04e71. And now, without further ado, everyone's favorite confusing trio. Of course, I am talking about Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynolds.

Phew, I can still feel the heat on that last one. We just heard from Portland beer-drinking hellraisers Red Fang and their 2011 single "Wires" backed with "LSP" on lovely translucent red vinyl released by Relapse Records. As per usual, the gents in Red Fang also made a pretty killer video for this a-side. Conveniently, I've left a link in the show notes for you to enjoy. Hey, wait a minute, "LSP"? Is the b-side about Lumpy Space Princess?! Oh my glob! Before the heaviosity of Red Fang, we had the disco and country-ish disco of Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynolds. This 1975 Playboy Records featured "Winners and Losers" backed with "Barroom Blues". A follow up to "Fallin in Love", this one only made it as far as number 21 on the Hot 100. So it goes.
Next up, we take a trip down under to the year 2006.

Well, all right then. At the top of that last set, we heard from Architecture in Helsinki and their single "Wishbone" on Moshi Moshi Records, with a remix of that very song on the b-side. Then we had Harry Nilsson and a twofer RCA Victor reissue featuring the seemingly interminable "Without You" on the a-side backed with the jaunty "Me and My Arrow".
Moving right along, do you have your dancing shoes on? Ready to take a trip back to the early 60s? Well then, take it away, King Curtis.

Indeed, that was The Mekons and their excellent Virgin Records single from 1979 "Work All Week" along with "Unknown Wrecks" from 1979. That was preceded by King Curtis and the Noble Knights bringing us not one, but two twistin stompers "Wobble Twist" and "Twistin' with the King". Astute listeners may recognize King as the saxophonist The Coaster's "Yakety Yak". If you must talk back, feel free to drop me a line: will(at)vinylomatic(dot)com. And now for a song about single room occupancy lifestyles from the late 1970s.

If you cast your minds back to the beginning of that last set, you will recall that we heard everyone's favorite hit single in Gb from The Village People. Yes, I am talking about "Y.M.C.A." from 1978 on Casablanca records. Amazingly this smash hit was kept out of the number one slot on the Hot 100 by both Chic's "Le Freak" and Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy". What a time to be alive. We mixed things up after that with a 1988 promotional single from ol George "No Show" Jones. "Ya Ba Da Ba Do (So Are You)" sadly only made it to number 26, ending The Possum's 30 year run of single in the Top 25. A sad time to be sure.
And thus, we find ourselves at the end of this episode of Vinyl-O-Matic. I'd like to remind you that you can find show notes, RSS feeds, newsletter signup, and many many archived episodes of this very program at vinylomatic(dot)com.
Next time we will continue our journey through singles with a-sides that begin with the letter Y as in Yankee as we wind down this alphabetical exploration. Join me, won't you?