Weekend playlist (recycling edition)

Every other Saturday, I spend a bit of time - as much as an hour, it seems - in the garage area, sorting through recycling, getting garbage bagged up, tidying things up. My iPod never seems more valuable than getting through more tedious chores. Here are some of the songs that have been on that playlist lately.

Dave "Baby" Cortez: The Happy Organ Cortez. Included on a compilation of Fifties and Sixties tunes, this two-minute-long instrumental is both cheesy and exhilarating. It comes in a small dose, and is hard to resist. It apparently is the first single to make commercial use of the electric organ; it went to No. 1 in 1959.

Curtis Lee: Pretty Little Angel Eyes. Another mono-era classic, and hard not to sing along with ... including any or even all of the harmony parts.

Björk: The Dull Flame Of Desire. Some years ago, I remember causing one of those stinkbomb moments at a party when I said I didn't much care for Björk. The others, evidently, did. Oh well. Things haven't much changed over the years. The Q best of 2007 album included this track from Volta, a duet with Antony Hegarty of a plodding song that lifts its lyrics from a Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev poem. Oddly enough, I let it play through.

Deodato: Also Sprach Zarathustra. Speaking of surprises, I've been getting a kick out of this Seventies flashback: the funkified workout of Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra, post-2001. My head goes into shades or orange, brown and purple just thinking about it ...

The Submarines: Peace and Hate. The L.A. duo are a bit cute, but are worth checking out. (Their MySpace page is here.) Melodic and very hummable.

I post a list of about five songs here every weekend. Click on the links below to see past entries.