Happy hundred and thirty-fourth birthday to Albert Einstein. It’s not a particularly significant birthday, especially for a deceased person, though it is an interesting number: a hundred and thirty-four is a nontotient, which means that there is no integer with exactly a hundred and thirty-four coprimes below it. This would probably entertain Einstein. He might also be entertained by these songs about him: http://nyr.kr/YdTgLp

Ben Greenman: “At the end of this week, when Pope Benedict XVI’s formal resignation takes effect, he will be the first Pope to voluntarily step down from the papacy in more than five hundred years. As the search for a new Pope begins, here are some songs about Popeitude”: http://nyr.kr/15jhadH 

To get you ready for this week’s Academy Awards, here are some songs about movies—ten songs, in fact, to keep pace with the Academy’s expanded Best Picture list: http://nyr.kr/Vuesio

Marc Phillipe Eskenazi on judging our Caption Contest Song Contest:

When Bob approached me a few months ago, asking me to help him judge the “ Caption Contest Song… song… contest,” I told him, “Absolutely—and I’ll use the extra money to buy a new guitar.” Then Bob said there would be no extra money. When I started to object he gave me the Look, and I apologized.

Since then, I have learned that the talent of all you Caption Contest contestants goes beyond your ability to write captions. You are true songsmiths. I’d like to point out some of my favorite verses, and then celebrate the winning song with my own rendition of it.

I dedicate this performance to my collaborator, Myles Kane, who directed, choreographed, and edited the video. If the video seems strange at first, that’s because it most certainly is. And it will only become stranger. The reason that it is so strange is that Myles and I got in trouble for playing music in the office, and were only allowed to record one take of the song. We then spent the rest of our afternoon messing around with special effects.

And, click-through to see the contest runner-up and honorable mentions: http://nyr.kr/XlPFOc

(Source: newyorker.com)

Nemo, the winter storm you’ve heard so much about, is bearing down on the East Coast. Here are some songs about snow to keep you warm: http://nyr.kr/YK3gO8

Old Unsingable: Bob Mankoff looks at how our cartoonists have taken on the national anthem over the years: http://nyr.kr/WBRJhD

Martin Luther King, Jr., celebrated today, has been celebrated repeatedly in song. Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday,” a straightforward tribute released in 1981, was instrumental in helping to establish the national holiday commemorating King’s birth. U2’s “Pride (In the Name of Love),” one of the band’s earliest and most enduring anthems, was written after Bono read Stephen B. Oates’s King biography “Let The Trumpet Sound.” And “Abraham, Martin, and John,” written by Dick Holler and originally recorded by Dion, looks at the string of assassinations that defined America in the sixties; it has since been covered by dozens of artists, including Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, and even Leonard Nimoy. But there are other, lesser-known songs about King.

Ben Greenman rounds up seven: http://nyr.kr/WlYo08

(Source: newyorker.com)

The Bowie release highlights the musician’s own mythmaking, mystery, and melancholy, but it also demonstrates the ways in which viral marketing and digital distribution have permanently changed the record business. Who could have imagined the Bowie of 2003 (when he released his “Reality” album), let alone of 1983 or 1973, sneaking new material online in the wee hours of the morning?

Ben Greenman on the new song releases by David Bowie and Prince: http://nyr.kr/SiejQ9

(Source: newyorker.com)

(Source: newyorker.com)