David Bowie with The Lower Third – "Can't Help Thinking About Me" (1965)

I can’t help thinking about me!

I can’t help thinking about me!

I CAN’T HELP THINKING ABOUT ME!

(I know just how the singer feels.)

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I know how much my loyal followers love it when the great and powerful wizard of 2 or 3 lines pulls back the curtain and reveals some of my secrets.  And that’s exactly what I’m going to do in today’s very special Christmas post.

Another great and powerful wizard

(Speaking of wizards, did you know that the Wizard of Oz’s real name was Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs?  I didn’t either.)

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I can’t tell you how often I’ve been out and about, driving my car and minding my own business, when a 2 or 3 lines-worthy song comes on my Sirius/XM radio.  But by the time I get home, I’ve forgotten what that song was. 

If you’re the creator of a wildly popular music blog like me, I bet the same thing has happened to you. 

Recently, I came up with a fix for this problem.  I simply take a photo of my car’s multimedia screen, which shows the title of the record that’s playing and the name of the artist who recorded it.

For example:

(You worrywarts out there would probably say that taking my eye off the road and steering with my knees while I use both hands to take a photo is a suboptimal driving technique.  But I haven’t crashed yet!)

About once a week, I scroll through my photo folder and write down all the songs whose titles I’ve captured.  That way, I don’t forget them.

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The only problem with my system is that it works too well.

It takes very little effort to snap a photo of every mildly noteworthy record I hear, so that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.

As a result, I have a list containing the names of 159 records . . . which is enough for roughly a year and a half of 2 or 3 lines posts. 

Of course, that’s assuming that I don’t add any new songs to the list over the next year and a half.  And we all know that ain’t happening.

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Last Saturday morning, I drove to the local Dunkin’ Donuts for a large coffee and a maple-frosted donut – not as good as the legendary maple bars from Dude’s Daylight Donuts in Joplin, Missouri, but not bad – and then continued to my local farmers market.  After making my usual purchases, I drove back home. 

I was in the car for about an hour, but used my phone to take note of no fewer than a baker’s dozen of the records I heard while driving that morning.

Here’s that baker’s dozen:

“Baby I Love You” – Andy Kim

“That’s Why God Made the Radio” – Beach Boys

“Jerk It Out” – Caesars

“He’s a Whore” – Cheap Trick

“Can’t Help Thinking About Me” – David Bowie and the Lower Third

“Groovin’ Is Easy” – Electric Flag

“Oliver’s Army” – Elvis Costello

“Hot You’re Cool” – General Public

“Out of My League” – Harlequin Ghost

“Last Train to Trancentral” – The KLF

“Que Vida” – Arthur Lee and Love

“Everlasting Love” – Robert Knight

“Girlfriend in a Coma” – Smiths

There’s obviously no rhyme or reason to that collection of records – it’s about as motley a group of songs as I can imagine.

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It’s possible that I’ll end up featuring two or three of those songs in future 2 or 3 lines posts, but you best believe that most of them will never see the light of day.

But I doubt that I’ll be able to stop myself from capturing ten times as many record titles as I’ll ever need.  After all, it doesn’t cost a thing to take a photo with a phone.  

And if I put the brakes on my picture-taking profligacy, the title of a record that would have made a dandy 2 or 3 lines post might slip my mind.

You don’t want to take a chance of that happening, do you?  (Horribile dictu!)

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“Can’t Help Thinking About Me” is a notable record for more than one reason.

For one thing, it was the first David Bowie record to be released in the U. S. of A.

For another, it was the first record he released after abandoning his real name – David or Davy Jones – in order to avoid being confused with the Monkees’ Davy Jones.

The Lower Third was the fourth of the six groups that Bowie was a member of before achieving fame and fortune as a solo artist.

David Bowie with the Lower Third

I had never heard The Lower Third’s recording of “Can’t Help Thinking About Me” – which Bowie wrote – until that day I was driving home from the farmers market.

But I was very familiar with a 1980 cover of the song by the Purple Hearts, an English mod revival band.

I heard the Purple Hearts’ version of the song on Steven Lorber’s legendary “Mystic Eyes” radio program, which I’ve written about incessantly over the years.

Bowie’s original is good, but I like the Purple Hearts’ cover even better.  Is that because it is better, or because I’m more familiar with it?

Click here to listen to David Bowie and the Lower Third’s 1965 recording of “Can’t Help Thinking About Me.”

Click on the link below to buy the record from Amazon: