This month’s chart (“The Hot 100”) has some historic video within its Top 10. When Elvis got out of the Army, the first thing he did in his return to show business was to appear with Frank Sinatra on TV where they sang each other’s songs side by side. It debuts at #8. Likewise for the earth-shattering rendition of “Love Reign O’er Me” by New Jersey Treasure Bettye LaVette while Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend thrilled to it from the audience as The Who were honored. We’re all going to miss the Kennedy Center’s annual award show. It was always the best award show of them all (and this clip at #6 is one reason why). The venue, sadly, has since shuttered. (LaVette shows up twice this month. Her “Sooner Or Later” graces “Visual Sound”.) Elsewhere in The Top 10, besides a rare Sarah Vaughan clip of the Newark legend doing “Misty” and Newark’s James Moody doing his “Moody’s Mood For Love,” you gotta see Thelonious Monk in tribute to the Jersey town of “Hackensack.” Plus, there’s no less than four protest songs in The Top 10 this month.

We’re still reeling over the death of Uncle Floyd. The beloved talk show host from Paterson shows up twice this month. His “Deep In The Heart Of Jersey,” with brother Jimmy Vivino, is #10 on The Hot 100. And I had to go down to the basement and dig through the cobwebs to find a VHS cassette tape of the time in 1989 when I went on “The Uncle Floyd Show”. (Thanks to Dan’s Camera in Allentown PA for the help in making it a digital file so it could be posted.)

The “Jersey History” section this month features Redman, the Newark rapper who single-handedly saved Def Jam Records from going under in the early ‘90s. You’ll “Meet…” teen rocker Ray Sheehan from Clifton. “Jersey Bookshelf” is the 1988 Philip Roth novel The Facts. And “Visual Sound”, besides The Divine Ms. L, is full of West Orange guitarist Dave Stryker, the debut solo project from Mike Delevante, the latest Cucumbers gem and band you gotta check out, Two Point Oh, from Morris County.

“Beware The Ides Of March” is a warning from William Shakespeare’s 1599 play Julius Caesar where the soothsayer seems to know that on March 15, the emperor will be assassinated. It’s also the date our next installment lands so, indeed, beware. We’ve got some shocking stories to tell. In the meantime, keep an eye on our Events Calendar for what’s happening around the state.