Keith David - "Friends on the Other Side"

Some days you need to play both sides of the fence, and walking that tightrope can feel like a perilous balance. However, when you can see both sides clearly, and that truth lies in the grey areas beyond the binary. So when you think you know the whole story remember that your perspective alone will never be wide enough to see every angle.

Don’t play both sides, but do try to get them to understand each other. That’s the only way balance can be found.

Keith David Williams (born June 4, 1956) is an American actor, voice actor and producer. He is known for his work as King in Platoon and Childs in The Thing. He has acted in mainstream films, such as Crash, There's Something About Mary, Barbershop, and Men at Work.

David has had memorable roles in numerous cult favorites, including Frank in They Live, Abu "Imam" al-Walid in Pitch Black and its sequel The Chronicles of Riddick, General Kimsey in Armageddon, and Big Tim in Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream. He starred as Elroy Patashnik in the sixth season of the NBC series Community.  In 2016, he began starring as Bishop James Greenleaf in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama Greenleaf.

His Emmy-winning voice-over career includes work as the narrator of Ken Burns films such as The War. Characters that he has voiced include the Arbiter in the Halo series, Goliath on Gargoyles, Al Simmons / Spawn on Todd McFarlane's Spawn, a role he reprised in the fighting game Mortal Kombat 11, David Anderson in the Mass Effect series, Julius Little and himself in the Saints Row series, Sergeant Foley in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog, Chaos in Dissidia Final Fantasy and 012, the Flame King in Adventure Time, Solovar in The Flash, the Cat in Coraline, and the President and reverse giraffe in Rick and Morty.

So, today, with a little shadow in my magic, I choose Keith David’s version of “Friends on the Other Side” as my, sprinkle of stardust, touch of toadstool, pinch of pixie powder, song for a, twinkling eyes, shining smiles, glowing hearts, Wednesday.

Ben Harney & the Dreamgirls Original Broadway Cast - "Steppin' to the Bad Side"

Then the days come when you’ve just got to get down and dirty with it. You’ve got to roll up your sleeves put your big girl panties on and then make the hard choices. They hit harder we hit harder … and we can take more pain.

This was an outstanding cast full of incredible singers and hearing them sing about bad bad things doesn’t actually feel bad at all. I guess that’s the way it is with most bad things.

So today, stepping over the line, I choose Ben Harney & the Dreamgirls Original Broadway Cast’s version of “Steppin’ to the Bad Side” as my, slide on over, like a snake in the grass, the things we do in the dark, song for a, when needs must, a little bend, eyelids full of lead, Tuesday.

Cher - "Witchy Woman"

The Dark Lady herself has always had magic sparking off her fingertips. A muse, a mage, and a mystery, Cher continues to defy and define. I was fully unaware of this cover of the Eagles’ “Witchy Woman” but boy howdy is it wild! The costumes and the dancing alone make it worth watching, and once you get past that you’ve got Cher’s smooth vocals like velvet and wine.

Take a witchy little walk on the wild side with us.

So today, with sparks in the air, I choose Cher’s cover of The Eagles’ “Witchy Woman” as my, make your magic, black cats and familiars, spirits unknown, song for a, moonlight & mystery, simple little spells, find your sparkle, Monday.

(also, I found Kristin Chenoweth’s version so you’ll be getting that and The Eagles’ as well.)

Ingrid Michaelson - "Creep (Radiohead Cover)"

This song is so iconic. It really held a genre of pop music in it’s hand and crystalized it. Emotional, painful, honest, and true, it was able to capture the essence of a generation.

This has always been my preferred version. Something soft and captivating about the raw honesty in the song just really makes it poignant. The original is amazing, including the video with Johnny Depp, but something about Ingrid’s lamenting voice is just right.

So today, looking through the window, I choose Ingrid Michaelson’s cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” as my, a little odd, artistic that one, careful you don’t want to catch it, song for a, maybe I am, sticks and stones, call me what you want - you’ll still just be you, Friday.

David Bowie - "Magic Dance"

Life works that way doesn’t it? You’re a Zombie one day and the next your dancing as fast as you can to keep up with the world as it spins madly on. Today I’ve been doing triple pirouettes just to maintain as I’ve barreled forward with life’s incessant needs.

So today, with a little magic and a lot of sweat, I choose David Bowie’s "Magic Dance” from Labyrinth as my, you have no power here, I’ve fought my way, beyond the goblin city, song for a, should you need us, love wears many faces, don’t go that way - it would’ve taken you straight to the castle, Thursday.

The Cranberries - "Zombie"

There are days when you wake up and just stumble through the day, numbly moving from task to task, doing your best, and hoping that nothing falls through the cracks while your head is filled with fog. Mindless.

So this song seemed appropriate for todays homage to the month of All Hallows Eve.

The Cranberries were an Irish rock band formed in Limerick, Ireland, in 1989 by lead singer Niall Quinn, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan, and drummer Fergal Lawler. Quinn was replaced as lead singer by Dolores O'Riordan in 1990. The band officially classify themselves as an alternative rock group, but incorporate aspects of indie pop, post-punk, folk rock, and pop rock into their sound.

The Cranberries rose to international fame in the 1990s with their debut album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?, which became a commercial success. The band achieved five top 20 albums on the Billboard 200 chart: Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?, No Need to Argue, To the Faithful Departed, Bury the Hatchet, and Stars: The Best of 1992-2002, as well as having eight top 20 singles on the Modern Rock Tracks chart: "Linger", "Dreams", "Zombie", "Ode to My Family", "Ridiculous Thoughts", "Salvation", "Free to Decide", and "Promises". Their fifth studio album, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, was released in October 2001.

In early 2009, after a six-year hiatus, the Cranberries reunited and began a North American tour followed by shows in Latin America and Europe. The band recorded their sixth album, Roses, in May 2011 and released it in February 2012. Something Else, which covered many of the band's most popular songs along with new orchestral accompaniments provided by the Irish Chamber Orchestra, was released in April 2017. The album also included three new songs: "The Glory", "Rupture", and "Why?.

On 15 January 2018, lead singer Dolores O'Riordan was found dead of drowning in a London hotel room. She had recently arrived in London for a studio mixing session on her D.A.R.K. album and to discuss the band's latest album with record label BMG. The Cranberries confirmed in September 2018 that they would not continue as a band; their final album, In the End, was released in April 2019 and they disbanded afterward. Noel Hogan stated: "the Cranberries was the four of us. We don't want to do this without Dolores. So we're going to leave it after this."

The Cranberries' total sales are between over 40 and near 50 million albums worldwide as of 2019. The band ranks as one of the best-selling alternative acts of the 1990s, which garnered them an MTV Europe Music Award, a World Music Award, an International Group nomination at the Brit Awards, a Juno nomination, and a Juno Award win. The band was nominated for the Ivor Novello Awards and received an Ivor Novello Award for International Achievement. In 1998, they performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert. In 2016, they received a BMI Award with a Special Citation of Achievement. In the End earned them a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album.

So today, keening wildly, I choose The Cranberries’ “Zombie” as my, where is my mind, grey eyes in the mist, stumbling toward ecstasy, song for a, chokers on our neck, sleeves over our hands, docs stomping onward, Wednesday.

Stevie Nicks - "Crystal"

There’s just something really lovely about the movie Practical Magic. It only has a 22% on Rotten Tomatoes, so I wouldn’t call it Masterpiece Cinema, but the rather positive depiction of the occult, and the message that love can break all curses and mend all hearts is really something lovely. You’ve got megawatt talent with Bullock and Kidman fully inhabiting the characters they create to tell a story that is enchanting if not surprising. Not to mention some really delightful performances by Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest!

Follow all that up with a gorgeous song from the White Witch herself, the Legend, Stevie Nicks, and what is not to love!?!

So today, yearning for a little more magic in the world, I choose Stevie Nicks’ “Crystal” as my, dream a little dream, lime in the coconut, a worm with your name on it, song for a, crystalline knowledge, believe in a love that you dream into existence, hold them close enough to break curses, Tuesday.

Dusty Springfield - "Spooky (Quinten 900 Remix)"

Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien OBE (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), professionally known as Dusty Springfield, was an English pop singer and record producer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano sound, she was an important singer of blue-eyed soul and at her peak was one of the most successful British female performers, with six top 20 singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 and sixteen on the UK Singles Chart from 1963 to 1989. She is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and UK Music Hall of Fame. International polls have named Springfield among the best female rock artists of all time. Her image, supported by a peroxide blonde bouffant hairstyle, evening gowns, and heavy make-up, as well as her flamboyant performances, made her an icon of the Swinging Sixties.

Born in West Hampstead in London to a family that enjoyed music, Springfield learned to sing at home. In 1958 she joined her first professional group, The Lana Sisters, and two years later formed a pop-folk vocal trio, The Springfields, with her brother Tom Springfield, and Tim Feild. They became the UK's top selling act. Her solo career began in 1963 with the upbeat pop hit "I Only Want to Be with You". Among the hits that followed were "Wishin' and Hopin' " (1964), "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" (1964), "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" (1966), and "Son of a Preacher Man" (1968).

Springfield brought many little-known soul singers to the attention of a wider UK record-buying audience by hosting the first national TV performance of many top-selling Motown artists beginning in 1965. Partly owing to these efforts, a year later she became the best-selling female singer in the world and topped a number of popularity polls, including Melody Maker's Best International Vocalist. Although she was never considered a Northern Soul artist in her own right, her efforts contributed a great deal to the formation of the genre as a result She was the first UK singer to top the New Musical Express readers' poll for Female Singer.

To boost her credibility as a soul artist, Springfield went to Memphis, Tennessee, to record Dusty in Memphis, an album of pop and soul music with the Atlantic Records main production team. Released in 1969, it has been ranked among the greatest albums of all time by the US magazine Rolling Stone and in polls by VH1 artists, New Musical Express readers, and Channel 4 viewers. The album was also awarded a place in the Grammy Hall of Fame and in March 2020 the US Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry, which preserves audio recordings considered to be "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

Despite its current recognition, the album did not sell well and after relocating to America following its release, she experienced a career slump which lasted several years. However, in collaboration with Pet Shop Boys, she returned to the Top 10 of the UK and US charts in 1987 with "What Have I Done to Deserve This?". Two years later, she had two other UK hits on her own with "Nothing Has Been Proved" and "In Private". Since her death, Springfield has been widely commended as the leading British soul singer of the twentieth century.

Springfield was one of the best-selling UK singers of the 1960s. She was voted the Top Female Singer (UK) by the readers of the New Musical Express in 1964 to 1966 and Top Female Singer in 1965 to 1967 and 1969. Of the female singers of the British Invasion, Springfield made one of the biggest impressions on the US market, scoring 18 singles in the Billboard Hot 100 from 1964 to 1970 including six in the top 20. The music press considers her an iconic figure of the Swinging Sixties. Quentin Tarantino caused a revival of interest in her music in 1994 by including "Son of a Preacher Man" on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, which sold over three million copies. In that same year, in the documentary, Dusty Springfield: Full Circle, guests of her 1965 Sound of Motown show credited Springfield's efforts with popularising US soul music in the UK.

In 2008, country/blues singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne recorded a tribute album featuring ten of Springfield's songs as well as one original. The album, titled Just a Little Lovin', featured two tracks selected from Springfield's debut, four from Dusty in Memphis, and four from throughout her back catalogue. Lynne's album received critical acclaim, charted at number 41 on the US Billboard Charts and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical).

The beginning of 2017 brought another revival of interest in Springfield's music by the inclusion of the song "The Windmills of Your Mind" in Andy Wilman's The Grand Tour, featuring Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond. The cut version can be heard in the fifth episode of the show.

Springfield was popular in Europe and performed at the Sanremo Music Festival. Recordings were released in French, German, and Italian: her French works include a 1964 four-track extended play with "Demain tu peux changer" (aka "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow"), "Je ne peux pas t'en vouloir" ("Losing You"), "L'été est fini" ("Summer is Over") and "Reste encore un instant" ("Stay Awhile"); German recordings include the July 1964 single, "Warten und hoffen" ("Wishin' and Hopin' ") backed with "Auf dich nur wart' ich immerzu" ("I Only Want to Be with You"); Italian recordings include "Tanto so che poi mi passa" ("Every Day I Have to Cry") issued as a single. Her entries at the Sanremo festival were "Tu che ne sai" and "Di fronte all'amore" ("I Will Always Want You").

Dusty Springfield is a cultural icon of the Swinging Sixties where she "was an instantly recognisable celebrity". In public and on stage Springfield developed a joyful image supported by her peroxide blonde bouffant hairstyle, evening gowns, and heavy make-up that included her much-copied "panda eye" mascara. Springfield borrowed elements of her look from blonde glamour queens such as Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve and pasted them together according to her own taste. By the 1990s she had also become a camp icon, with her ultra-glamorous look and this, combined with her emotive vocal performances, won her a powerful and enduring following in the gay community. Besides the prototypical female for drag queens, she was presented in the roles of the 'Great White Lady' of pop and soul and the 'Queen of Mods'.

"Spooky" was originally an instrumental song performed by saxophonist Mike Sharpe (Shapiro), written by Shapiro and Harry Middlebrooks Jr, which first charted in 1967 hitting No. 57 on the US pop charts. Its best-known version was created by James Cobb and producer Buddy Buie for the group Classics IV when they added lyrics about a "spooky little girl". The vocalist was Dennis Yost. The song is noted for its eerie whistling sound effect depicting the spooky little girl. It has become a Halloween favorite. In 1968, the vocal version reached No. 3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and No. 46 in the UK.

So today, with spooky little songs swirling all around, I choose Dusty Springfield’s cover of “Spooky” as my, singin’ and swingin’, laugh a little, it’s only life anyway, song for a, children will listen, are you a good witch or a bad witch, hail to the guardians, Monday.