Starting Point playlist for Thursday, April 5, 2012

STARTING POINT PLAYLIST 4/5/12

We kicked off today's Starting Point playlist with a pick from guest panelist Stedman Graham: "How Deep Is Your Love" by the Bee Gees. The 1977 classic was recently included in Billboard's list of the 100 biggest hits of the last 50 years, ranking 20th. Graham also picked Smokey Robinson's sixties hit "More Love", the Grammy-winning Luther Vandross song "Here and Now," and Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," which Rolling Stone called the fourth greatest song of all time in 2004.

"Roadrunner" by Jonathan Richman and The Miracles was political comedian and frequent Starting Point panelist John Fugelsang's first playlist pick today. The song has received high praise, and was also included in the 2004 Rolling Stone "greatest" list. Fugelsang also picked The Rolling Stones classic "She's a Rainbow." After the song was released in 1967, rumors surfaced that The Beatles were featured on the track. Although these rumors turned out to be false, the song does have a link to another rock monster– a year before Led Zeppelin formed, bassist John Paul Jones arranged the strings for the song.

Jeffrey Toobin's playlist pick this morning was Elvis Costello's "Mystery Dance." The track is from Costello's debut album My Aim Is True. Costello has always been a very prolific artist; he released at least an album a year from 1977-1985, '93-'99, and '01-'10.

Will Cain picked a couple of classic hits today: Joe Cocker's version of "Unchain My Heart" and "Jack and Diane" by John Mellencamp, which was a number one hit for Mellancamp thirty years ago when he went by the stage name John Cougar.

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta made an in-studio appearance on today's Starting Point and brought a few songs with him. First up was Coldplay's 2005 hit "Fix You." Gupta also picked Robert Palmer's "Bad Case of Loving You" and Jackson Browne's "Doctor My Eyes."

We also featured James Brown's "Papa Don't Take No Mess," a pick from Marc Morial's playlist, as well as "Fight the Power" by The Isley Brothers and "Mr. Hurricane" by Beast, two of Roland Martin's song choices, as well as the campy classic "Barbie Girl" by European dance group Aqua.