Nothing worth having comes easy. Life is a tough trial, and so is love, but it gets better. Push forward. "Use a little love and we will make it work out better."
So is the message from Ringo Starr's first post-Beatles single, produced by George Harrison. It remains one of Ringo's biggest solo hits - and no one expected him to have solo hits. Starting and ending somewhat quietly, the tune gets more bombastic, becoming a beautiful, uplifting song - and one of my personal favorites.
Ringo Starr and George Harrison famously performed this song at the Convert for Bangladesh, the first time that any two Beatles had performed together since the breakup. Ringo did forget the words..... but everyone still loved him, because how could you not?
From the Paul Thomas Anderson movie Magnolia, for which Aimee Mann did most of the soundtrack, this song comes at a sad, emotional crossroad in the movie. In fact, let's open this post with that very sad, emotional crossroad. The moment could have been absurd, but it wasn't.
But this song is so so much more than a soundtrack song - especially since it wasn't written for the soundtrack and had PREVIOUSLY appeared on the Jerry MaGuire soundtrack. It is in and of itself an emotional powerhouse with a real downer of an ending. P.T. Anderson has said that Aimee Mann's music inspired Magnolia, so it is likely that this song was part of that inspiration.
Listen to Aimee sing it herself, without the cast accompaniment.
She still performs the song, which is a fan favorite. Because of course it is.
The Replacements had been indie darlings for the better parts of a decade in 1989. This song was the closest they got to breaking out of that.
From the album Don't Tell A Soul, this video was in heavy MTV rotation, even during the day. Which is good. Because The Replacements were actively seeking a hit after many years of that indie fame. They didn't quite make it there - this song peaked at #51 on the Billboard Hot 100 - but it did spread their sound to a broader audience.
This might be one of the most beautiful songs ever written. Written by Ewan MacColl about his third wife, Peggy Seeger (he was still married to his second wife), this is a cover - but a cover that was the biggest hit of 1972 and won the Grammy for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
What was written as a folk song was reinvented with soul by Flack, and for that, the song was her own. Originally released in 1969, it went nowhere until Clint Eastwood found it and used it in his movie Play Misty For Me. After that, Atlantic Records released it as a single and it exploded.
Moe Berg and Dave Gilby moved from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to Toronto, Ontario, Canada and formed a band called The Pursuit of Happiness in 1985. Since then, they've been making fun, power-pop music.
One of their first singles was this one. This song was self-produced and self-pressed, and became a grassroots hit. This led to their major label record deal and some measure of success. It was eventually released in 1989 as a single in the US, and amazingly, it was a minor hit.
Do you know who would be really happy to be called a guilty pleasure?
Robert Pollard.
From the Dayton, OH band's 1997 album, Mag Earwhig!, this song and video are probably about as close as Guided by Voices has gotten to actual guilty pleasure territory. It's a song that clocks in at 3:00 on the dot, has a significant guitar solo, and a video with significant production value.
The title is in reference to being tough - having a thick skin. Clearly, the video's protagonist, Larkey Parka, had to have a thick skin as he was bullied in his pursuit of the girl, eventually winning her over at the Rock Show Tonight.
Thankfully, after all these years, Guided by Voices is a band that still tours, and still performs this song. Here they are in 2017, with Bob Pollard acting like the rock star he absolutely is.
Amethyst Kelly is back. And she came back with a really good album in 2021 - The End of an Era - preceded by three good singles. The best was this, the third single that was a short club banger.
Admit it, you're dancing right now. I am!
By the way, watch for the "Work" throwbacks in the video. This album in general and this song in particular was meant to bookend the first phase of her career - kind of a recap of the last decade, if you will. In that context, it really works.
In 2004, this song was absolutely everywhere. It's a hard rockin' song that brings the melancholy hard. A worldwide hit, it was Hoobastank's high water mark from a chart success standpoint - reaching #2 in the US and #1 in several other countries.
Nominated for two Grammys, the song was probably made more popular by the iconic video, which tells an elaborate story of what looks like an accident but ends up being a heist. It, of course, has zero to do with the subject matter of the song - but it's a cool story.
For once, I'm going to ignore the œ here - and it's for this reason I've held off on posting this. How much Cœur de Pirate do you actually need? She adds a little to the song, but it's Georgio's song.
The song is about the uncertainty of love in the modern era - a fuzzy concept in the narrator's eyes. He's been waiting for a sign from the girl he loves - someone he should probably just let go of. He eventually gets there, but the song is painful and sad while he does.
Most of you know that I am a huge ONJ fan. Always have been. Perhaps part of it is the greatest movie musical involving roller-skating. I am, of course, speaking about Xanadu.
This song, a huge hit for Newton-John in 1980, was used in the movie when her character, Kira, whose origin you don't know at the time, meets Sonny, the Michael Beck character, and they fall in love. The song, although, in the context of the movie, is a lot more than this, stands alone as a love song - a love that's always been there, predestined.
Wikipedia considers this song "disco" and "soft rock". OK, I guess so, but it came at the tail end of the disco era, and still spent 4 weeks at #1 - finishing 1980 as the 3rd biggest hit of the year.
DJ Dan Murphy and Steve Peach remixed the song in 2011, for ONJ's charity, the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre. She did reenter the studio to rerecord the vocals for this project, which also featured a music video with a large cast.
I didn't want to let the day go by without acknowledging this.
You might have noticed in my last post, about an hour ago, that I included a songwriting credit. All I have to say that, if you noticed that, good 4 u.
Yes, Hayley Williams and Josh Farro from Paramore got a songwriting credit on Olivia Rodrigo's song because Olivia Rodrigo interpolated the chorus of "Misery Business" into "good 4 u". The two songs are distinct enough that there isn't overt stealing - but the right thing was done by giving the songwriting credit to Williams and Farro.
The lyrics of THIS song were written by Williams, about Farro, on whom she had a crush.
Olivia Rodrigo is PRESENTLY nominated for seven Grammy awards, including one for this angry, sarcastic, biting song that she wrote - more specifically, THIS music video.
The song itself, co-written by Rodrigo along with Dan Nigro, Hayley Williams and Josh Farro, was her 2nd #1 hit from her debut album, Sour - a feat that had never happened before. Musically, it flows between pop-punk, grunge, and, well, music that Taylor Swift could be making. In addition to its #1 performance on the US pop charts (where it also spent 11 weeks at #2, tying the record), it topped charts around the world and cemented Olivia Rodrigo as a superstar.
Here she is, performing the song on Saturday Night Live in 2021. Clearly, she couldn't drop the crowd-pleasing f-bomb in the 2nd verse, but her laugh right after stayed in.
Released on their 1988 album Green but intended for 1989 single release (hence the title), the story of this song isn't really the song - which is a pretty standard pop song parody lyrically, and unimaginative in its simplicity musically. The video featured three topless women and a topless Michael Stipe dancing. This is the age restricted video you can't see below.
However, you can't show nipples on MTV. So, Michael Stipe put black bars on all the nipples, including his - because, as he said, "a nipple is a nipple."
It's rare that a B-side to a single is the same as the A-side, and yet, an acoustic version of "Pop Song 89" was the B-side. It is, in my opinion, a better version of the song - showing the beauty of the arrangement and the biting parody of the lyrics a little more pointedly.
Ten years ago from this very point - 3:36 PM, Eastern Standard Time, January 5, 2012 - I started a blog. It was born of a shared appreciation of a particular former sister-in-law of Nick Lachey and star of Melrose Place 2.0, and a thought that she got way too much shit for the SNL debacle.
I didn't know what the hell I was doing back then. I made a few sus style choices that I've stuck with (I'm not changing the font, people). I didn't know that I should be researching these songs a lot more. So, this is what I said:
"Let's open up this blog with one of the guiltiest pleasure songs ever performed. It's hard to be bad-ass in argyle, but Ashlee Simpson tries, and pulls it off to some extent. It's really hard to say "Ashlee Simpson" and "bad-ass" in the same sentence while keeping a straight face."
For our tenth anniversary, I am PURPOSEFULLY revisiting this song that started it all. It deserves a full treatment.
This song was based on real life experience, and is being sung to a very specific person. When you hear Ashlee singing "I didn't steal your boyfriend", she's singing it to Lindsay Lohan. And the boyfriend in question was Wilmer Valderama. That's right. THAT Lindsay Lohan. Simpson did deny it for many years, but she has finally come clean.
The song, which came after her "career-ending" turn on Saturday Night Live, would be a worldwide hit, reaching the top 20 in many countries.
You know what? Before we get into this video, I'd like to address the SNL thing, directly. Ashlee had a SECOND SNL performance. That's right. She came back after the debacle. And performed THIS SONG. This song, the second biggest hit she had, came AFTER her career was supposedly destroyed. Video of that performance appears on nbc.com - but they keep their rights pretty tight, so I can't post it here.
I also want to apologize to Ms. Simpson-Ross (Diana Ross is her mother-in-law now). I no longer have trouble calling her a bad-ass, argyle or no argyle.
Also, I wish a video existed that included the original lyric. Because, it's important to note, Lindsay Lohan bought a lot of shit to Ashlee's door.
Stop hating on Ashlee, people. She's the Simpson we all need.
Despite what you might have heard, this song is NOT at all against short people. You are not supposed to sympathize with the narrator. He's supposed to be seen as a bigot.
But a lot of people didn't understand that. Including the Maryland legislature, who attempted to BAN the song. Clearly, on First Amendment grounds, that was a failure.
Still, this was Newman's first big hit. And it endures to this day.
John Wetton was the lead vocalist for King Crimson. Geoff Downes was in a band called the Buggles. They both wrote this song - John Wetton as a lyrical apology to a woman he had wronged. Together with members of Yes and ELP, they made up Asia, a prog rock supergroup.
This was their biggest and only major hit - but it was a really big hit, making the top 5 in the US and charts around the world. I mentioned the lyrics earlier - it was a lyrical apology - but you might notice that it has a very country feel. That's because it was originally written as a country song.
I usually dedicate the last post of the year to a song by an artist that defined my year or otherwise was a huge song - sometimes an anticipated release. This year, this was an easy choice, despite what I literally just said.
But also, I thought I'd give you a peek behind the curtain of my process.
While researching a post for the song "Toes", by Toronto artist Lights (aka #1000), I listened to that artist's entire Siberia albumS - as she released an acoustic version of the album a year or so after the original. Doing THAT led me to another song of hers, "Peace Sign", which is the one that is the most dramatically different in its two versions (which I covered well on March 3rd). The acoustic version, a highlight of Siberia Acoustic, was reimagined as a bilingual duet, with Béatrice Martin, who is also known as Cœur De Pirate, who happens to be from Montreal, doing the French translation. I was desperate for a couple of Quebec artists for my #MapleLeafMarch that weren't Céline Dion, so I did some listening.
That discovery changed how I had the whole MONTH laid out, beginning to end. It also forever changed my Spotify stats, as she quickly became one of my top five listened to artists of all time, and them my MOST listened to artst, in like three weeks.
A couple of her albums have quickly become favorites of mine, despite me not understanding a word of French. The 2015 album Roses rises to the top, 1) probably because it's half in English and I can understand English but 2) because the songs on there in both English and French are both lyrically and aurally interesting.
I posted a song for which there is no official video, and so I start with the original album version of "Oceans Brawl", the best song off the best album. It is an epic piece, with a 10-second pregnant pause at about the 1:23 mark, so you can listen to the oceans.... brawl. The song itself builds in desperation to an impassioned crescendo before rolling back with the tide.
Any doubts about the real passion that goes into writing and performing this song need look no further than the CBC Music festival, where she cannot stay seated at her piano while performing the song. It is not the type of song to be merely sung. It is a whole body experience.
This live session was released prior to the release of Roses, which means it's a quieter and unproduced piece, and while it's not as bombastic at its crescendo, it's still a powerful version of the song.
My last post of 2021, which is the biggest this blog has seen, came down to me trying to choose which artist would go last. You see, there were two who really bubbled to the top for me, and they both got there in very much the same way.
The little project I did in March - #MapleLeafMarch - gave me a catalyst to give an artist for whom I had a serious blind spot for years. I spoke about this at length in post #1000. I don't need to rehash it.
Well, unlike other artists I discovered this year, whose catalog I just dove into head first, I spent much of my year in the Lights catalog listening to Siberia. And, about a month ago - even though I had branched out a little bit beyond that, especially to a few collaborations she did with deadmau5 and Felix Cartal, for example - and yes, I know, #1000 was from a different album, too - I realized my blind spot was still there.
So I branched out more. I listened to her whole catalog, end to end. Most of it was pretty great. A few pieces bubbled to the top. One of them was the whole Little Machines album, which is a real gem and represents the highest US chart position to date Lights has achieved (#34 on the album chart - but she's still making music, so jury's still out on this one).
So, what you might be curious about is, from an album that had several videos and singles, why, exactly, did I pick a non-single song that closed the album? It's an absolutely beautiful love song about a love that lasts a very long time, written by someone who hasn't reached that far yet but knows they will. Musically, it's unusual and compelling. Who cares if it was a single?!! It's a great song.
If you've been reading all my Lights posts all year, you know that she usually does electronic and then acoustic versions of everything. While we wait for the acoustic version of "Prodigal Daughter", why don't we just enjoy the quiet beauty of this one?
As I was researching a Totally Covered post you don't know about yet - but check back in a few hours - I found this beautiful version that was neither acoustic nor electronic. It's mostly Lights and a piano (there's a bit of a string accompanyment, too). However, it's one of the most beautiful versions of the song I've heard.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Taylor Swift dated for three months. I'm not sure if you were aware of that.
The original version of this song, which pretty much covers that relationship, was a top 20 Country hit in 2013. It was from her Red album, which really sparked Taylor's transition from country to pop artist.
Famously, she's rerecording her Big Machine catalog and retaining control of her catalog. This version of "All Too Well" TOPPED the POP charts in November 2021. This ten minute version of the song, which is now the longest #1 song in history, was accompanied by this short film.
It was also accompanied by this SNL performance of the song. The performance was, in a word, great, and this is coming from someone who is NOT Taylor's biggest fan, like Scott Colvin.
By the way, we've added Taylor's Version to any past post that has one: here, here, and here so far. As this and this get rerecorded, we WILL update them. They're honestly richer and better versions of the songs.
I was kind of thinking about saving this song for a Western/Central New York week. It's not common for Western/Central New York bands to have top 20 hits all over the world, but that's exactly what happened with X Ambassadors, from Ithaca NY, in 2015 with this song.
It's not surprising that this song is a hit. It's mellow, it's cool, it builds brilliantly, it uses fiddle judiciously. The song is simply great and deserves the acclaim it received. The band is brilliant! It's great that they got the attention they did.
You see, it is post #289 in 2021. We previously reached 289 posts in a single year in 2012, the year we started this blog. Back there, two of us were doing the writing. While Scott has come back to contribute this year, most of the writing belongs to Tony now.
There are three days left in the year. Spoiler alert - Friday's writing is already done at this point. This is going to be the biggest year we have had on Wicked Guilty Pleasures.
I wanted to make #289 a bit of a blooper. You see, in March, I did a thing where literally every song was by a Canadian artist. So, I wanted to represent as many provinces as possible. So, early on, I was looking for a Quebec artist.
So when I found out that of Montreal were from Athens, GA, I was temporarily disapponted. Now, I happened to find another artist, thankfully, but I was bummed, because this song was so dark and witty and different. Clearly, I saved the draft, and I'm posting it today, but, well, now you know my process.
I really REALLY like this song. I wasn't dragging my heels because I didn't like the song. (I probably had a Cœur de Pirate song to post or something.) (OK, NOW enough schtick) Post #288 of 2021 is the new Charli XCX single, and it's a banger that reminds me of the Sucker album. The core of the song is a throwback synth that sounds like it is suited more for 1987 keytar and less like 2021 pop charts. This song is great musically, and great lyrically. Give it a go.
