This is starting to become an annual tradition, isn't it?
I mean, it's Christmas Eve, and here I am with the œ on my clipboard again.
La Voix is the French Canadian version of The Voice, a singing competition show I'm sure most of you have heard of. These were the four judges in the 2020 version of the show - right around the beginning of the pandemic. Do you remember the pandemic?
(I'm writing this in 2021. I really hope the pandemic is something we are remembering and not still living) (2023 update: yes)
This song was released in late 2019, ahead of the 2020 season as something of an announcement. It is, of course, a cover of a John Lennon classic.
Let's talk about Grease. An adaptation of a stage musical of the same name, it starred Olvia Newton-John and John Travolta. The soundtrack was the second biggest selling album of 1978 - second only to the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever.
By the way, both movies were definitely in theaters at the same time, because I remember going to see Grease in 1979 with my mother and literal one-month old sister and seeing posters for both.
Written by longtime ONJ collaborator John Farrar, this song did not appear in the original stage musical (the movie, to be fair, took several liberties with the source material), but was accepted into the movie immediately. It ended up being one of Olivia's biggest hits, reaching #3 on the Billboard charts and earning Farrar an Academy Award nomination (he also earned a Golden Globe nom for a different original song for the movie, "You're The One That I Want").
Because it was an Academy Award nominated song, Olivia performed the song at the 1979 Oscar ceremony. The backing was by the Oscar ceremony orchestra - and, if it's possible, she sang it bigger on that stage.
Olivia performed this song at least through 2017, as it was one of her favorites (mine, too). Here is one of her last performances (she retired from live performance soon after, and passed in 2022).
In 1978, the Bee Gees owned the music world. This song spent eight weeks at #1, on the strength of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack album that was, essentially, a Bee Gees album. That soundtrack is the best selling soundtrack of all time, and one of the ten biggest selling albums of ANY kind.
It ended up being the second biggest hit song of 1978, behind their brother Andy Gibb's "Shadow Dancing", which, well, they wrote. In fact, five of the top ten songs of 1978 were either by the Bee Gees or Andy Gibb and written by the Brothers Gibb. 8
To put that in perspective, Debby Boone's cover of "You Light Up My Life", one of the biggest singles of all time, was the #3 song of 1978. In the moment, "Night Fever" was the bigger hit.
By the way, the movie was originally called Saturday Night, but the band, who hated that as a song title, convinced the director to rename the movie to match THEIR song. It was the right choice. The song began life as something of a disco-based rerecording of Perth Faith's "Theme From A Summer Place", which, now that you know that, you cannot unhear.
I promise I didn't plan a theme week this week. Sometimes, I go where the posts take me.
And this week, they took me to "Pink Venom", the 2022 hit song by BLACKPINK.
Fun fact - this song was BANNED in Korea.... not because it was dirty or anything. No, it's because Lisa rapped about the French brand Celine - which she endorses - and that level of product placement in songs is not allowed in music in Korea.
The song brings direct references to Taylor Swift, Rhianna, and Notorious B.I.G., all of whome are quoted in the lyrics - see if you can find them. It is a confident and bold song that critics have compared to musical anarchy - with shifting musical styles between pop, rock, hip hop and Middle Eastern influence - almost as if each member chose a style and shifted it every time it was their turn to sing.
It works, though. It remains one of the group's biggest hits.
We've mentioned that a live performance in the K-Pop world is more about dance than singing - but these ladies are getting better at the live singing part, too.
Well, AleXa may live in South Korea now, but she was raised in Oklahoma and is an American citizen. She was born in Tulsa. And, when it was announced that a K-Pop star was going to participate in this show, she became the odds-on favorite to win what was essentially American Eurovision.
This was the winning song, and remains her only US chart hit to date, reaching #38 in 2022.
The song is still a fan favorite, even in her adopted home country of South Korea. The focus is on dance performance here - and it matches what she actually did on the NBC show, and not the video above.
To compare, here is her week 1 performance from the show. To be clear, this is the song and performance that won the show for her. And the win was NOT close. She beat Michael Bolton, y'all!
In any language, this is real rock music. Jayoung is a charismatic lead vocalist with a hell of a stage pressence. The entire band is full of talented musicians who know how to play.
Watch at the 0:55 point of the video. It's clear the video director told the band to each individulally give a deep, serious, sultry look to the camera. Iree - the guitarist, who is a damn virtuoso - is way too happy to be there at 1:00. It becomes her song at 1:59, when she goes into what is arguably the sickest guitar solo in Korean music history.
I know there's a tendency to believe that a lot of Korean music is manufactured and built in a studio, with limited reliance on live talent. Yes, sometimes, that's true. It is NOT true with Rolling Quartz. Three things of note in this live performance.
1) It's not perfect. Live performances shouldn't be.
2) Yeonguen's feet are going a mile a minute on those drums.
3) There are actually TWO guitar solos in order. Rhythm guitarist Hyunjung gets a solo, too - and she's pretty damned solid herself.
One of my best friends in high school was a woman named Heather. We don't talk as much as we used to (and in fact, I really should check and see how she's doing because it's been a couple of years), but I still think of our friendship.
A lot of it was rooted in music. Her favorite artist back then was Heart, a group I didn't fully appreciate becuase, well, I first heard them with "What About Love", which wasn't really classic Heart. Because of her, I know now of older Heart.
This song, which peaked at #11 on the pop charts, was from Heart's 3rd album, Little Queen, and was written by the band. The song was produced by Mike Flicker, who is best known for his work with Heart. It also happens to be one of my favorite songs of theirs.
Heart is still together, a half century after they started - with the Wilson sisters as the only original members. In 2013, the whole band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and played with a band that included other Seattle legends, like Chris Cornell (who gave the induction speech) and Jerry Cantrell. This was the first time in three decades that the original lineup was all together on one stage.
This song is being posted not because it is one of my favorite Madonna songs.
I mean, it is. Absolutely. Co-written by Madonna and Mirwais, it is a minimalist masterpiece. Released in 2003, it was a bigger hit outside of the US than inside - but it was a minor hit here, too.... and a huge club hit. It was her first single in 20 years to NOT make the Billboard Hot 100, though.
It's not because the video is iconic.
I mean, it is. Madonna being Madonna all throughout this video makes this an even larger experience.
It's not because Madonna is a WGP Hall of Famer
She's likely to be our next inductee. Let's be honest.
No, no, there's another reason.
Before we get to that reason, let's hear "Hollywood" live.
Oh, wait. Maybe "Hollywood" was part of an infamous VMAs performance in 2003 when Madonna famously kissed both Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera on the mouth.... literally right as they finish the song.
Wow, did we have the debate behind the scenes where to put this worldwide hit song.
There is ABSOLUTELY no doubt that this song leans very heavily on the Fatboy Slim hit "Praise You". The question is, does it cross the threshold of being a cover.
Well, Rita Ora is credited as a songwriter here - and adds a LOT of lyrics. That's why it's here and not there. Absolutely, Norman Cook - who we know better as Fatboy Slim - is also listed as a songwriter, because it leans SO heavily on his song. However, Ora took his creation and made something new and different, that brings a completely different feel and a lot more lyrics.
For reasons we don't understand, Ora made two different videos for this song. We like the first one (directed by her husband, Thor:Ragnarok director Taika Waititi) better (because it pays homage to the "Praise You" video), but the second (directed by Joseph Kahn) is also pretty entertaining.
Lest you think Fatboy Slim isn't on board, here they are together performing THIS song at the Glastonbury Festival.
I wasn't initially a fan of Green Day. I'm not really sure why - they don't make bad music.
And, really, this is the first time in my life that I was aware at the time that this was a band that was made up of people my age - or younger. That's right. This hip bastard is an old man now.
This single - which is really two songs released together - changed that for me somewhat. It was minimalist ("Brain Stew", anyway), it was well-crafted, and it was catchy. It was also an alternative radio hit, like most of their singles before this one - in fact, this seems like LESS of a hit than their others. It wasn't, really - it just seemed that way at the time.
Anyway, "Brain Stew" remains to this day my favorite Green Day song, and you can't truly appreciate it until you also listen to it with "Jaded".
You know this is a live favorite. Just listen to the crowd. They know the words.
Green Day is one of those bands that formed in the late 1980s and never, ever broke up. They're still back in the club they performed at in Berkeley, CA in the late 1980s - still bringing that energy now.
It's hard to believe that this song is nearly 30 years old. The song came from Mark Griffin's - that's his real name - 3rd album, Looney Toons.One Step Ahead of the Spider. His first two albums were dark, and this one was bright and cheery.... and self-effacing.
At any rate, this ended up being the biggest hit of his career. This charming song about being stupid reached #25 on the Modern Rock charts.
I will always remember this song from this clip from Beavis and Butthead, where Beavis annoyed the living hell out of Butthead.
MC 900 Ft. Jesus is a classically trained musician, which shines through in this clip from MTV's 120 Minutes. That is what that is, right?
You may have never heard of Danielle Dax. That's a damn shame and I am going to remedy that situation now. She's been sitting in my drafts for so long, it was time to do that.
Dax was previously in a band called the Lemon Kittens, and went solo in the early 1980s. She self-released a few albums, and finally got a US record deal in 1988. She released the album Dark Adapted Eye in 1988, which was mostly a repackaging of her 1987 album Inky Bloaters. "Cat House" has only previously appeared on a compilation album, so it was a new single....
....and it ended up being a club hit. Dax's combination of dance sensibilities and Middle Eastern inspired beats made for a unique sound.
Dax went into musical retirement in 1995 and became a renowned interior designer. She returned to performing in 2017, sporatically. We hope to see her live soon.
I really really want to put an apostrophe at the end of Fetchin' but the band leaves it off.
This song was the lead single from the band's 1989 album, Monster. Produced by the great Ed Stasium - the only one of their four not produced by Don Dixon - the North Carolina band heard a lot of "sell-out" talk upon its release... which likely broke up the band, because it wasn't a successful sellout if that's what happened.
This was the song that got me into Fetchin Bones. I think it's a great song and a good album. That's why this song made it into my drafts.
The North Carolina Music Hall of Fame agrees, and the band was inducted into the Hall last month! Congrataulations, guys!!!!
You see, Charlotte Cardin is Canadian. Specifically, she's from Montreal - and sings in both English and French. It's been such a big year for Cardin, though, that it wasn't necessary to wait.
You see, her critically acclaimed 2nd album, 99 Nights, was released in August. It was a hit in the French-speaking world but really should be a hit wider, because Charlotte Cardin is one of the best pop singers on the planet at the moment.
Now, normally, that would be enough of an achievement for an artist. Release an album, go on tour. Not for Charlotte Cardin. She followed this up with an EP in September that was ALSO a hit (admittedly centered around a French version of her hit single "Confetti"). This song is from that EP and it is a pop delight, even though it's mostly in French.
Anyway, this song has been sitting in our drafts for a couple of months, and today seemed like the right day. Enjoy it.
It's a new song, so she has not performed it live, and our loyal YouTube listeners have not gotten a great reording of the song live - despite several stops on a US tour. However, she also performed it live in studio for Basique, on French television.
It sounds a LOT like the studio recording.
OK, OK, fine. Here's a pretty poor recording of the song performed live in Philadelphia. You can see the energy she brings to the song. She goes into another song - "Main Girl", which was her first hit - afterwards.
On Friday, I gave you my oldest draft. Today, I give you my newest, and it started as a meme,
You might have heard about Adriano Celentano, the Italian artist who wrote a song that was complete gibberish but supposed to sound like American English, and whose absolutely bonkers song was an Italian hit.
I had to know if this was true.
It was.
Yep. Celentano and his wife really did this, not to make fun of American English, but to show communication barriers - but also, to show that "ol rait" was a universal sound.
The lyrics do NOT say "all right." They say "ol rait".
Celentano wrote the song over top of a bunch of looped drum beats in the studio and added bass guitar - and not the acoustic guitar he's playing here - and horns. Despite making ABSOLUTELY no sense, it's a remarkably catchy song.
But how the hell do you perform such a dense song live?
In 2012, Celentano did just that, with what looks like a full orchestra. Also, he would have been 74 when he performed this, and he's amazingly spry.
Those of you familiar with the TV show Ted Lasso may think this song sounds familliar.
It is. Season 3, Episode 3, over a montage of Zava.
The song was also part of an
elaborate prank on Italian TV at Will Smith's expense. No word on whether or not he smacked the host and said anything about keeping his wife's name out of anyone's mouth.
In 2016, Celentano rerecorded the song, with additional vocals from Italian star Mina and beats from Benny Benassi. It's got a different feel, but it's clearly the same song.
This was not the first time he had done this. In the 90s he gave his song new lyrics and turned it into the hip hop parody he didn't know he had written in 1972.
Over the years, I have accumulated a lot of drafts here. There are literally hundreds of songs in my queue - and there are a few artists that are heavily represented in that queue and will be future Hall of Fame choices, probably.
I did decide, however, that this December would be one to remember, and I would highlight some of my very oldest drafts - ones that I have been sitting on for a good long time. My very OLDEST draft was this song from 1990, this breakthrough modern rock hit by The Sundays. Written by David Gavurin and Harriet Wheeler (members of the band, the latter the vocalist), it is a fun and sweet jangle-pop breakup song.
The irony is, it wasn't released as a single in their native UK, as their UK label, Rough Trade, suffered an epic business collapse soon after the release of the album and went into recievership.
When I think of the Pogues, I think back to my days at St. Bonaventure University. I ran in many different circles of friends there, each of whom frequented a different bar. The Pogues are a band that remind me of Hickey Tavern, in Allegany, NY - the smaller of the two towns that bordered St. Bonaventure, which was not legally in Olean, either.
I don't really have a particular reason why I associate the Pogues with the Hickey, but I do.
I do know that there was one friend I have, who passed away several years ago, to whom a lot of our mutual friends will dedicate the first play of the season of "Fairytale of New York". That friend was Jonathan Fabian.
Jon was a really kind soul, who I got to be a better friend to after the days of SBU and as Facebook came to be. He announced the deaths of celebrities with "*celebrity* is dead. Long live *celebrity"!" So, when I heard of Shane McGowan's passing, there was only one thing to say.
"Shane McGowan is dead. Long live Shane McGowan!"
Well, since Scott posted "Fairytale" 11 years ago, I felt this was an appropriate song for today. McGowan will be missed by those he touched, as is our friend by those he touched.
So, yesterday, Spotify released their Spotify Wrapped 2023 to all its loyal subscribers, which shows you what you listened to in 2023. My top song didn't surprise me - I listened to "Sugar Water" like it was going out of style.
My top artist sure did.
A woman not really known for music so much as being that Asian foul-mouthed comedian woman from Queens, Awkwafina, the stage name for Nora Lum, was my top played artist on Spotify in 2023.
Anyway, she DOES have more than the one song. She released an entire album, and even made some videos, mocking how poor she was - a recuring theme from her music. This doesn't really apply to her life anymore, as she is a successful actress with a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Vag... er, Actress. It DOES speak to her modest upbrinigng... and love of cannabis.
I'm really late getting one out today because of Spotify Wrapped. Wow, that's a lot of fun and I'm happy to say that 4 of the top 5 songs were featured in this blog this year.
I don't want you think I'm going to shut down anytime soon, so let's keep the music going with one of the few Rihanna songs I find bearable.
This link on this should have been www.creedthoughts.gov.www\creedthoughts
It was addressed during the TV show The Office, but Creed Bratton was playing a fictionalized version of himself on the show. You see, he used to be in a band called the Grass Roots, and is a legitimate musician. The SAG Award-winning actor also has albums, both solo and with The Grass Roots.
There's a podcast, called Office Ladies, which is hosted by Jenna Fischer (Pam) and Angela Kinsey (Angela), who are also best friends in real life (and wrote a book together). The theme song, if you listen to the end of each episode, is a song called "Rubber Tree" by Creed Bratton. I always figured it was because they were supporting their good friend - and Creed has been a guest on their podcast.
But it's more than that. You see, Creed performed this song with The Scrantones - who are best known for their big hit "The Theme Song to the Office (U.S.)" and their appearance on the episode titled "Booze Cruise" - at the wrap party for The Office. Here is that performance.
Here is Creed performing the song live with special guest Ed Helms (Andy Bernard) on the banjo. It's a sweet little song.
We're back with a lesser-known song by singer-songwriter Daniel Moore. Released in 1973, there;s a reason why I call this huge hit song "lesser-known." You seen the song went to #3 on the pop charts in 1973, and everyone was singing about this mythical place, supposedly in Peru.
This was not the version that made it to #3. It's still a pretty good version, though. The version that DID was covered very quickly after this release by Three Dog Night.
If you know the Three Dog Night version (and you should - it's on Totally Covered today) you can hear a slight difference. This version rhymes the title with "Ham Bala", and not "Prom Bala", as the Three Dog Night version does.
Still, it's good. Here is Moore with JJ Cale live in 1993.
This song, Evanescence's third top ten hit in the US (and three years after their 2nd), was co-written by Amy Lee and Terry Balsamo - who started off working on very different songs musically. They played what they were working on and decided to merge the songs.
What emerged was arguably their most heartfelt single, with both the heavy sound that was the band's hallmark and very emotional lyrics. The lyrics were clearly written by Lee, and were very clearly about her ex-boyfriend, Shaun Morgan of the band Seether - who didn't really appreciate a song that painted him under the influence of an addiction as a bad guy.
I have to be honest - I was not a fan of Evanescence's 2003 debut, despite recognizing Amy Lee's huge voice. Their 2006 album changed things for me. It was simply better, more mature.
This live performance form 2007, which starts with a quiet Lee on piano and ends with her whippin' her hair back and forth mid-stage, really showcases the power of the entire band - the ability to do the quiet and the loud, and that''s probably one of the things I like te most about this song.
Fast forward to 2021 - the band is still rocking hard, although Amy Lee is whipping her hair less. The performance is largely identical, fifteen years after the initial single release.
