A Pack of April Fools

Dear listeners,

Happy April Fools’ Day, when you can’t believe anything you read on the internet! Trust that this playlist is a prank-free space, though: We’re just gathering up some of the many fools who have been immortalized in song over the years, by soul singers (Aretha Franklin), blues legends (Bobby “Blue” Bland) and new wavers (Bow Wow Wow). Country and classic rock are in the mix, too — there’s a little something for everyone who’s ever fooled around and fell in love. So hit play, give those dubious corporate social media posts a miss and we’ll try to ride this out together.

Everybody plays the fool sometime,

Dave

Listen along while you read.

1. Aretha Franklin: “April Fools”

Dionne Warwick sang this Burt Bacharach-Hal David theme song for a 1969 romantic comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Catherine Deneuve before Aretha Franklin covered it on her “Young, Gifted and Black” LP three years later. The intro to the Queen of Soul’s arrangement is giving “Jingle Bells,” but it quickly settles into a soulful boogie with a soaring chorus where new love is trailed by doubt: “Are we just April fools / who can’t see all the danger around?”

▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube

2. The Doobie Brothers: “What a Fool Believes”

What a chorus on this one: Michael McDonald’s blue-eyed soul swoops upward into a falsetto that’s almost Bee Gees-level. Does it matter that absolutely no one can tell what they’re singing on the high part? It does not. (For the record, it’s “No wise man has the power to reason away.”)

▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube

3. Led Zeppelin: “Fool in the Rain”

My interest in Led Zeppelin has waxed and waned; I needed an extended post-high school detox after years of hearing the St. Louis classic rock station “get the Led out” every afternoon at quitting time. But listening with fresh ears — and digging deeper than what you’d find in a Cadillac commercial — it’s undeniable that Led Zep has dozens of slappers, like this cut from “In Through the Out Door” (1979). Maybe I need to catch that “Becoming Led Zeppelin” movie after all.