Final column
This week’s Hot Half Dozen will be my last. I have been doing the Hot Half Dozen in various forms for 15 years, and during that time, I have always looked forward to it and enjoyed writing it. But it takes me most of a day to listen to 100- 200 songs submitted to me, peruse various lists like Billboard and the Grammys, choose the 6 that fit in my wheelhouse, and that I think will both appeal to you and broaden your taste a little.
But I am also the co-founding Executive Editor of the only bilingual newspaper – and news organization – in Mexico, Lakeside News . As we have expanded into online, YouTube, breaking news, newsletters, news quizzes, event production, and soon podcasts, I simply don’t have the day to devote to the HHD. There are as many as 30 people here now putting out news and entertainment in two languages, and I need my Tuesdays back to help make it al happen every day.
Thank you so much for reading my columns and giving me the feedback over the years. Having a ringside seat to the cross-border growth of music, especially from this side of the border, and the growth of women in music on both sides of the border has been inspiring. It has been quite a change from a time when singers like Ritchie Valens, Freddy Fender, and Rosie Hamlin Méndez had to Anglicize their names or be blacklisted, to a year in which an all-female Mexican rock band, The Warning, topped the US Billboard Radio Play chart and is set to perform the halftime show for the NFL opener in Mexico City.
I like to think I had a little to do with it, and you did too.
I will still publish Music Sin Fronteras each Monday (except vacations, which I do take), reviewing singles and albums, profiling artists, and examining trends in music. Music will always be my muse.
In that vein, here are my Hot Baker’s Dozen favorite songs of all time, not in order but more or less going backward from the present. As you can see, there is no strong pattern to my likes – I listen to everything (except classical – you can’t dance to it). Check them out, and I will see you right here Monday, with Music Sin Fronteras.
My Hot Bakers’ Dozen
Maiz, by Gina Chavez
Gran Civilization, by Nancy Sanchez
Closer Tonight, by Elston Torres
Ain’t No Sunshine, by Zora
The Rose, by Beth Midler
You Are So Beautiful, by Charles Lloyd and Norah Jones
White Rabbit, by Jefferson Airplane
La Llorona – various versions, but especially Ángela Aguilar
Crazy Love, by Irene Diaz
A Beacon From Mars, by Kaleidoscope
Sympathy for the Devil, by the Rolling Stones
Johnny B. Goode, by Chuck Berry
Fever, by Peggy Lee
Goodbye for now, but see you Monday for Music Sin Fronteras.
Patrick O’Heffernan