The Ivy-Style Playlist Update

On the Ivy Style Facebook group, we started a playlist of songs that were Ivy for one reason or another.  Click here for the playlist as currently constituted.

The reasons varied.  The artist dressed Ivy.  It was jazz.  The artist attended an Ivy school.  It reminds one of an experience one had at an Ivy school, or their school where they dressed Ivy.  We agreed that we would, from time to time, revisit the list.

It’s a collaboration.  Just give one song, and why, in the comments.  One song, and why.  Spotify is free if you want it to be so everyone can listen.

Two interesting things about The Kingston Trio.  First, they are amongst Columbia’s top selling artists:  The Beatles,  Sinatra, and The Kingston Trio.  Speaking of Ivy, Al Jardine of the Beach Boys confessed that they “borrowed” the striped shirt thing from The Kingston Trio.

Art Garfunkel went to Columbia.  Simon & Garfunkel made their first recording three days after Paul Simon’s 16th birthday.  So if your kid is in the garage with a drum set, let them be.   They signed with Big Records, an independent label, were renamed Tom & Jerry, and the song, “Hey Schoolgirl,” was a hit and reached number 49 on Billboard.   Despite disastrous bangs, Paul Simon was the songwriter, and, content being king, was offered a deal to record two of his own records.  He, um, forgot to tell Art Garfunkel.  They reunited in ’63, but things were never the same.  Here is a market indicator.  Paul Simon’s biography came out in 2017, and includes this quote: “I remember during a photo session Artie said, ‘No matter what happens, I’ll always be taller than you.’ Did that hurt? I guess it hurt enough for me to remember 60 years later.”  Mr. Garfunkel, who has confessed on the record that he really never forgives, kept the barbs coming: “I concluded in an eighth of a second, and the friendship was shattered for life…I never forget, and I never really forgive,” he said, adding the subtle dig: “Paul won the writer’s royalties. I got the girls”.   Though busy with the girls, Mr. Garfunkel and Mr. Simon (who apparently had a little more free time) released Bridge Over Troubled Waters, then split for good.   Which is both sad and funny.

You have to work to see a playlist that has Red Garland and Weezer on it, yet here we are.  Rivers Cuomo, who has real pipes, went to Harvard (he’s the lead singer for Weezer if this is all new to you).  Here’s Weezer:

Again, one song per person, don’t ask me to pick between some, I can’t.  My contribution?  In 1988,  when I was entering the Ivy League, Mr. James Taylor released Never Die Young.   Perhaps the most underrated acoustic guitarist ever because his play is overshadowed by perhaps the greatest baritone voice of the last 60 years, James Taylor wrote: “Never give up, never slow down, never grow old, never ever die young.”