In this episode, Benjamin de Menil helps usher in the warm season by telling us about his earliest music memory of hearing “Yellow Bird” played by a steel drum band in Jamaica. The experience was a formative one, kindling a raging love affair with Caribbean arts that would lead to his eventual career as a label owner, producer, and academy founder specializing in bachata, popular traditional music of the Dominican Republic.
For the one year anniversary of Play It Back, musician, chanteuse, book lover, and performer extraordinaire Susan Hwang helps us celebrate by telling us a little something about her dad, Ray Charles, and The American Dream.
Play It Back co-hosts John Asante and Jia H. Jung revel in the holiday spirit by rapping about their favorite songs of the season, and invite you to add to the official Play It Back Holiday Playlist spectacular on Spotify just in the nick of time for Christmas, Chanukah, and the shiny New Year!
When London-based actor Laura Killeen worked at a florist as a teenager, she was introduced to a spacey, operatic pop tune that would serve as comfort and motivation when she needed it most.
NBC Documentary producer and The Soundtrack Series podcast creator Dana Rossi reflects upon how a terrible tragedy brought her back to a song that she first heard in 1994, which served as a salve to any trouble in high school — and beyond.
Play It Back 