Typophile

Typophile Breaks/Tunes

Jared Benson

So for those of you who haven't heard, Typophile is DJing the Saturday night "Digikana" event at TypeCon San Francisco. And while we've been doing our best to amass a pile of tunes that will please the discerning typographer, we're left with a question:

What are the must-have tunes to please a Typecon crowd?

Mind you, I'm not fishing for "what's your favorite song?" here - I'm looking for specific songs that mention type, alphabet, fonts, letters, etc etc. Spoken word or musical.

Any links to downloadable MP3s of typographers speaking (or something similar) would also be welcome here.

thanks-
jb

"The Magic Number" by De La Soul [3 Feet High & Rising]
http://tinyurl.com/5ccmd

"ABC" - The Jackson Five
"Number Song" - DJ Shadow, from Endtroducing
"Everyday I Write the Book" - Elvis Costello, from Punch the Clock

Very few songs have typeface names, that namecheck the title. here's two:

CALEDONIA, what makes your big heart so hard?
(Louis Jordan wrote it, but also recorded by many others)
GEORGIA, sweet Georgia.
(Hoagy Carmichael wrote and recorded it, Ray Charles did a classic version)

How about:
1-2-3 by Len Barry
(Includes the line "ABC, falling in love with you was easy for me..") At least I think it does -- I haven't heard that song for 40 years!

German Bold Italic by Towatei, of course.

Towa Tei - GBI (German Bold Italic)
http://www.discogs.com/release/240102

Wiliam Caslon Experience
http://americanbacon.com/html/music.html

Futurismo Soundtrack to a Font
http://www.p22.com/records/futurismo.html
(shameless plug)

The sound of lettering
http://www.basichip.com/tony_schwartz/ts000.htm

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Give it to me! Respect, just a little bit.

Aretha Franklin did the JAGUNDA hit from the Otis Redding R&B masterpiece.

Also anything by the "Lettermen": "When I Fall in Love," "Theme From A Summer Place," "Put Your Head on My Shoulder," "Hurt So Bad," and "Shangri-La" (50s frathouse crooning quartet)
http://www.thelettermen.com/home.html

25 Greatest Hits

Cake - ALPHA BETA PARKING LOT - Prolonging the Magic

:D

Candy Chang's seminal work, "Typography," including suchditties as "Bravo Futura" and "The Letterpress Express."

www.redantenna.tv/candychang/audio/index.htm

La Marcha de las Vocales by "Cri Cri". Maybe not very suitable for the task.

http://www.cri-cri.net/mp3/ca091.mp3

"A" by the Barenaked Ladies, off of "Maybe You Should Drive"

<http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/barenakedladies/a.html>

It's common knowledge that Prince has a thing for letters, especially the "U" (I Would Die 4 U, Take Me With U, U Got the Look)... he waxes melodic about letterish locales (Alphabet Street, Graffiti Bridge)... but could we expect any less from a guy who renamed himself an unpronounceable glyph?

'Ondine' by They Might Be Giants
'Olympian' by Gene
'Sign o the Times' by prince
'Sale of the Century' by sleeper
'wide open spaces' by Mansun

unknown

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