The current good news only apply to those who use the Last.FM Scrobbler with iTunes for Windows. Since Apple updated the music player of our choice to a version that is fully 64-bit (12.1.0.71, Windows 7), the Scrobbler did not detect songs that were played by iTunes anymore. Last.FM members have been complaining about it in the website’s forum since January 30, 2015.

When I just opened the Last.FM Scrobbler to check my Spotify scrobbles I finally received the notice for an update that had been promised by Last.FM for a weeks. I installed the update, and this did solve…

I can't help myself, but I prefer the German term "Schnapszahl" (schnapps digit) to the mathematical "repdigit". The latter would make more sense in my case if it were spelled "rapdigit", because quite a few of the 111,111 plays I just hit at Last.FM have been rap and hip-hop songs.
http://sozialgeschnatter.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/111111_last-fm.png?w=300&h=102

My 50,000th and 100,000th play on Last.FM happened to be Funkadelic's One Nation Under A Groove. The 111,111th play is a different version of "One Nation" - featuring just the duo of Dennis Chambers (drums) and Gary Grainger (bass): One Nation Under a Groove (Bass & Drums)…

This is the opening song of the movie “An Evening In Paris” (1967) … please watch it, and enjoy the authentic depiction of Paris by night (runs until time code 2:20):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4ILSHiDojk
You watched it? Okay. Now, allow me to elaborate for a second.

I became aware of this masterpiece during an extended summer weekend in Paris last year. From Charles de Gaulle airport, I took a train to the station Gare du Nord. In order to get a feel for the city which I hadn't visited for quite a while, I walked around Gare du Nord ……

Another old-timer is gone: '50s honky tonker Carl Smith. You can get one of his best albums at emusic.com: "Smith's the Name" from 1957.

One sentence in Last.FM's bio points out some of his major accomplishments ;-) : >> Known as “Mister Country”, Smith is the former husband of June Carter Cash and drinking buddy of Johnny Cash. Carl and June are the parents of singer Carlene Carter. <<

With June Carter, he recorded "Times A Wastin'" (full-length version at BLIP.fm).

With daughter Carlene, he later collaborated on the duet "Loose Talk" (full-length version at BLIP.fm).…

I was very sorry to hear by way of an insightful obituary @AllMusic.com that Bobby Charles has passed away.

If you are not familiar with his great songwriting and singing, check out the compilation "Last Train to Memphis" which is offered by the MP3 dealer of my choice (emusic). And: Some of his songs are available on his Last.FM artist page.

My favorite country guitarist Albert Lee has covered some of Bobby's songs. Two of Albert's best versions are featured on the Albert Lee and Hogan's Heroes album "In Between the Cracks".

You can listen to the songs (and…

I just checked out Southern soul singer Sheba Potts-Wright at my favorite MP3 dealer eMusic. With titles like "Private Fishing Hole", "Lipstick on His Pants", and "Need a Cowboy to Ride My Pony", she strikes me as a less classy version of Denise LaSalle. But I just found 24 songs on her five emusic albums which I considered worth buying.

A word of warning: As it's the case on many releases by the Ecko label, the production of Sheba's songs sounds extremely cheap. I particularly dislike the cheesy drum programming and the '80s-style synthesizer…

For Brit rocker Suzi Quatro, this is pretty funky. From 1975: "I Bit Off More Than I Could Chew" - produced by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman (aka Chinn/Chapman, who were behind many Brit pop acts - including Sweet).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KBlNW1ztXQ

I rediscovered Steve Martin's rap song "King Tut" while listening his 1978 "A Wild and Crazy Guy" comedy album. Nice track!

I initially assumed that Steve Martin was backed by session musicians (e. g., the baritone saxophone may have been played by Steve Douglas), or by the studio band of NBC's Saturday Night Live.

Surprise, surprise: The real backing band are the Toot Uncommons - members of the country-folk group The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Here is the video (the saxophonist stepping out of the sarcophage is Lou Marini):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXvw-NB_DLM

Thanks to the biography at AllMusic.com, I just encountered this interesting Rahman detail:

"('Slumdog Millionaire' Oscar winner) A.R. Rahman became the first Indian artist to sign with Sony Music, negotiating a three-year contract in 1997.

His premier release for the label, 'Vande Mataram' (his first collection of non-film music), was a tribute to India, commemorating 50 years of the country's independence. The album reached record stores in 28 countries on August 15th of that year."

The video shows the title track "Maa Tujhe Salaam":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiLvWSIzbA

I’m currently revisiting some of my favorite Willy DeVille and Mink DeVille songs – which remind me of a TV shoot I did with Willy in New Orleans in 1992, on the event of the German release of his album “Backstreets of Desire” (for the magazine “Das! Das Abendstudio” on the Northern German TV channel NDR). He had moved to the French Quarter around 1990 and recorded the album in the Big Easy (just like 1990’s “Victory Mixture”).

On the night before the shoot, I visited him and his wife Lisa at their home in the…