A couple of rockers prominently associated with music-based “Aid” events turned 60 in the past few days.

On Wednesday, Bob Geldof hit the mark.  You may know Geldof from his song with the Boomtown Rats titled “I Don’t Like Mondays” (which is featured below).  You may also know him as the lead character in the film Pink Floyd–The Wall.  Additionally, you may remember him as one of the developers of Band Aid, which brought together famous pop musicians to record the single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia in 1984.  Geldof followed that up by developing and coordinating the live concert event Live Aid in 1985, which featured 16 hours of music in London and Philadelphia to raise more money to aid the economies of African nations.

Meawhile, on Friday, John Mellencamp (a.k.a. John Cougar or John Cougar Mellencamp) hit age 60.  Mellencamp is more known for his pop chart success (which Marc Majers noted here on Tunesmate on Thursday) than Geldof, particularly through hits like “Jack and Diane,” “Hurts So Good,” “Pink Houses” (which is featured below), and a host of others.  Yet, you may also recognize Mellencamp as a cofounder of Farm Aid–an annual concert established to aid family farmers in the United States that was inspired by Geldof’s Live Aid and that remains a yearly event today.

The question Tunesmate wants to know as we celebrate the 60th birthdays of these two important musicians is “Which one is more significant in pop music history–Geldof or Mellencamp?”  Please cast your vote below.

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Musicians are known for their signature songs. For example, when you think of John Mellencamp, one of the first songs that comes to mind is “Jack and Diane”. Bryan Adams’ signature song is “Summer of 69′” while Billy Joel’s is “Piano Man”. The tune an artist is most remembered for is not always their highest charting song but is actually rather more novelty.

In 1992 John Mellencamp released “Love and Happiness” a hidden rock gem off his commercially successful 1991 album “Whenever We Wanted“. In my opinion, this song is a underrated Mellencamp song that should get a few more rotations.

John Mellencamp dominated the 1980s and 1990s as an outstanding American song writer / performer. Today, try your hand at completing a mini or regular Sentune. Once again, the object of a Sentune is take song titles of an artist and create a sentence with them. Three song titles equal a mini-Sentune and five song titles equals a full-Sentune.

Mini-Sentune:
Jack and Diane get a leg up under the boardwalk
Pink houses crumblin down under the boardwalk

Full-Sentune:
Again tonight, Jack and Diane dance naked under the boardwalk when Jesus left Birmingham

Songs to help:
Again Tonight
My Sweet Love
Wild Nights
Hurt So Good
Get A Leg Up
Authority Song
Key West Intermezzo
ROCK in the USA
Under The Boardwalk
Love and Happiness
Rain on The Scarecrow
Pink Houses
Need A Lover
Dance Naked
Cherry Bomb
Small Town
Lonely Ol’ Night
Jackie Brown
Freedom’s Road
What if I came Knocking
Human Wheels
Just Another Day
Crumblin Down

http://www.mellencamp.com/