Five very random songs for Friday.

Embedding on this video has been disabled, but I suggest you start out with Johnny Guitar Watson's "Gangster of Love." His version, as opposed to Steve Miller's, has all of the drama that a song with this name should have:

Johnny-Guitar-Watson.jpg

"Heartbreaker" is one of my favorites by Dionne Warwick. Written by The Bee Gees, every transition, every melody, is a hit song within another hit song:

They didn't have "Oh, Sweetpea," which I was going to include if only to give you something to sing all weekend. Instead, here's Tommy Roe's other hit, "Sheila." It's not quite as saccharine as "Sweetpea," but also not as annoying.

I first heard "And When I Die" by Blood, Sweat & Tears on a long car drive. I didn't know what it was at first. I assumed I was listening to a song from a musical.

When KHITS first began broadcasting in Portland, they went deep into the vaults, playing songs that nearly made me pull my car over or stop what I was doing. One of those songs was Maria Muldaur's "Midnight at the Oasis." I bet a lot of hot-tubbing and couple swaps have happened to the tune of this song. And you'll be hard-pressed to pick just one favorite line. Pass the brandy.

If you want to see Maria Muldaur sing, here it is. (Embedding was not allowed for this version.)