So. we are bookending this week of covers and revisiting with another repost, from Month 3 of the blog.
The other major change we're making is why we're doing this repost. Well, that, and because it's a great song that we didn't get its full due in 2023, and we're going to correct that.
This next change, though, isn't coming yet - we don't know how to do it. We may end up with another blog. But we know that wicked guilty pleasures go way beyond music. With Paris Hilton, you have her music, plus her reality television show The Simple Life, that cinematic masterpiece The Hottie and The Nottie, and so much more. You've also got her YouTube documentary, which shows a completely different side of her (and GO WATCH THAT NOW)
We're going to start exploring that. We just don't know what it's going to look like yet.
But now, revisit this great and sweet song.
If you watched This Is Paris, you know that she is actually a sought-after DJ now. Seriously. She's also a champion of LGBTQ+ rights, and she performed this song during one of her DJ gigs at LA Pride in 2022.
It's great that she's embracing this part of her career, because it was more solid that we thought it would be.
And if you need proof, here she is performing with two Grammy nominees (Sia has NEVER won a Grammy, oddly) with famously huge voices, Miley Cyrus and Sia.
Oh, and yeah, she's here with Kim Petras at NYC Pride 2023.
Måneskin made their big debut on the Italian version of the comeptition show X Factor in 2017.
They came in second to Lorenzo Licitra, who 95% of you have never heard of.
They did so well largely because of this Four Seasons cover, which I would not turf over to Totally Covered because a lot of people don't know that it's a cover.
Gosh, this week did not go the way I expected.
When I wanted to post this song, I ended up posting their Eurovision winning song, which is inarguably a better song. But this song is also amazing, and it needed to be highlighted. It was, in fact, the success of "Zitti e Buoni" that led directly to the 2021 attention on this song, and it ended up being a worldwide hit...
....which is why they were nominated for an American Music Award four years after the song's release.
This song is maybe the most compelling reason why we're starting to post covers here. You see, yesterday, I talked about my favorite album of 2023 - and my favorite song on that album.
My favorite SONG of 2023 was this one. And I wrote about it in December of 2023 on Totally Covered. It never felt like it belonged there, at all. Mashups are weird - the band took two songs and shoved them together and made something that was strangely better than the two were apart. I did such a good job writing that, and so few of you read it, that the rest of this post is quoting HEAVILY what I said in December.
And, when I opned the post with, "I'm not going to lie. Today's feature was SUPPOSED to be the other blog", it was a Rolling Quartz original song that just was not as good as this one.
As you know, as part of my wiring process, I look for live performances of a featured song. And, I found one. I was looking for a second and I found a full performace by the band.... which I decided to watch.
This mashup cover of "Pink Venom" by BLACKPINK (I wrote the "Pink Venom" post two days after this one, because I needed the contaxt, but this is SO much better!) and "MIC Drop" by BTS was featured in that performance. It blew me away.
So, I started looking for the cover individually.... and I found it.... not realizing that it was not just a live thing, but something the band ACTUALLY did, with AleXa coming in to share vocals with Jayoung. AleXa is a Korean-based performer from Oklahoma, and is best known as the winner of the NBC competition series American Song Contest.
Of course, AleXa has her own career and can't tour with Rolling Quartz all the time, despite being unofficially called the band's 6th member. Jayoung, however, is perfectly capable of shouldering the vocals herself.
And no, this is not the same live performance I used before. This is one where Jayoung is not doing an AleXa impersonation during her part.
By the way, this was the full performance, and it is spectacular - "Pink Drop" starts around 9:20.
I didn't say I wouldn't post the original. It is an amazing song and was a worldwide hit in 1979. It was a top 20 hit in the US, and number one in many countries, including his native France and his father's native Spain (it was #2 in his mother's native Italy).
The song was just fun, and it changed his life - he found success in Europe, if not the US.
And yes, he's still around, and he still performs the song with just as much aplomb.
The changes to Totally Covered and Wicked Guilty Pleasures have been a long time coming. I had thought about merging the two for about two years now. It's a lot of work to maintain TWO daily blogs, and I had neglected Totally Covered.
Then, March 2024 happened. You know, I do the whole #MapleLeafMarch thing every year, and in the lead up to that, I try to discover new Canadian music. One thing I discovered was that Elisapie - an artist I was not previously familiar with but I sure as hell am now - had in 2023 recorded an album of covers, translated into Inuktitut - which is a language spoken by some First Nations people who happen to live in the far north. The album was, in fact, called Inuktitut - and, as will be a recurring theme this week, I own it on vinyl now - and it is my favorite album of 2023.
I went on to postfivecoversbyElisapie between the end of February and the beginning of April of this year - on Totally Covered. You need to go check those out, because they are amazing.
I posted nothing about her on this blog, and that bothered me a lot. A lot of times in the past, when I discovered a song was a cover, I would often post the original here, and the cover on Totally Covered. In these cases, it just didn't feel right to do that. I really wanted those songs over HERE.
So, this is a song I held back - mostly because it didn't have an official video, but it is also my favorite song from my favorite album of 2023. I want you to hear it and see it - so that's why it's here. This version is absolutely sublime.
Because I think more can be said. And, since I have recently purchased Eyelid Movies on vinyl, I felt it was time to revisit the pride of Saratoga Springs and tell you where I've been since this time, and what's going on with this blog. So, this week, I will talk about the future of Wicked Guilty Pleasures and Totally Covered, and also revisit some of my favorite posts from the past.
Don't worry. There is a future. We're not going away. At all. By any stretch. I literally already have posts written that you won't see until 2029. So, there's a clue.
Before I do that, though, let's talk about the coolness of this song. Because it is seriously cool. And in the 14 years since its initial release, it has not gotten less cool. But since we wrote our initial post, Phantogram have become something of an industry darling. The members have been in high-profile relationships (and Sarah Barthel somehow made it onto NBC's Olympic coverage because of that).
And the band has changed. This is the band performing the song in 2014. I feel like they were still breaking out of their shell then. Sarah is behind the keyboards.
By 2019, she's on the bass. And, as synth-heavy as the song is, you can hear the bass now.
In 2023, she's interacting with the crowd.
Much like Sarah Barthel, we're growing and changing. NO, we did not go blonde. We ARE looking for opportunities to get bigger and better. To that end, we want your comments. We are going to grow this blog to a real source for music, and not just a guy regurgitating his thoughts on old songs. OK, this week, it's gonna be old songs.
Going forward, this blog is going to be the focus. You'll not see Totally Covered go away - it's way too much fun - but you're going to start to see covers over here. There's too many good ones, and I think too many were getting turfed over to the other blog - and people read this one.
You know, I sometimes sit on drafts for a very long time, especially when they are unexpected.
And the unexpected pieces of this, the fourth single and title song from her second album, are as follows:
1) Suzanne Vega, usually a solo songwriter, co-wrote this song with her backing band, who feature prominently in the video.
2) This song was her 2nd trip to the Billboard Hot 100 (her first being "Luka", of course). The third single from Solitude Standing - you know, the one that preceded this one - "Tom's Diner" - in it's DNA remixed version, would go on to become her third.
I bought Solitude Standing in 1987, on cassette - it came in a longbox, which was a type of packaging to prevent theft - and this song, which personifies solitude as a woman, was quickly one of my favorites.
Somehow, when performed live, the song becomes a little angrier, sharper - more focused. The cool, laid-back version jumps to life when there's a crowd.
Vega recorded a sparser version of the song in 2011 - she did a series of four albums called Close-Up - each labeled by volume. This version is a live version of the one recorded on Close-Up Vol. 3.
The Close-Up albums are really cool and interesting, by the way, and if you are a Suzanne Vega fan, you should seek them out.
What? We're ending our hiatus on an obscure Spanish-language song?
Yes. Yes we are.
You see, Maná has been around since the early 1980s (in 1981 as Sombrero Verde, adopting their later name in 1986) - and yet, this 2011 song, literally thirty years into their career as a band, was a breakthrough single for them in their home country of Mexico. They had other singles, and a couple of other hits - and a ton of US Latin Chart hits - but this one - this launched them into the upper stratosphere of hitmaking.
But, this is a band that has won many awards, including four Grammys and eight Latin Grammys.
It's a mournful and still an upbeat song. And it doesn't matter that you don't speak Spanish. Enjoy the emotion.
Of course they did a pandemic live version, 9 years after its release. And of course it sounded just like the original. Maná has been nothing if not consistent!
Here's Canada's own Charlotte Cardin, with her 2020 hit that established her as a credible artist and a Canadian hitmaker - the first single from her album Phoenix. The Montreal-born singer-songwriter, has been making waves in the music industry with her unique blend of pop, jazz, and electronic elements. Her track "Passive Aggressive" offers a raw and honest look at the complexities of modern relationships.
The song deftly tackles a common yet often unaddressed issue in relationships. The song's lyrics paint a vivid picture of the frustration and confusion that arise when direct communication breaks down. Cardin's portrayal of passive-aggressive behavior is both relatable and uncomfortable, forcing listeners to confront their own experiences with this destructive communication style.
Charlotte Cardin's background as a French-Canadian artist adds an intriguing layer to her music. Growing up in bilingual Montreal likely influenced her ability to convey complex emotions through her songwriting. The city's rich musical heritage, blending North American and European influences, can be heard in the sophisticated pop sensibilities of "Passive Aggressive."
The production of "Passive Aggressive" is a masterclass in creating atmosphere through sound. The track opens with a sparse, almost eerie piano line that sets a tense mood from the outset. As the song progresses, layers of electronic elements and percussive beats are added, mirroring the building frustration in the lyrics.
Cardin's vocals are treated with a light touch of reverb, giving them an intimate yet slightly distant quality that perfectly captures the emotional state of someone dealing with passive-aggressive behavior. The chorus explodes with a fuller sound, representing the release of pent-up emotions.
One of the most interesting production choices is the use of distorted, chopped vocal samples in the background. These create a sense of internal dialogue or conflicting thoughts, adding depth to the song's exploration of communication issues.
You didn't expect such an in-depth analysis from this blog, did you? Well, expect it now.
Wikipedia would have you believe that Mother Mother are a Canadian indie rock band from British Columbia.
Mostly because they are. But they're more than that.
They're one of the holdovers from #MapleLeafMarch 2023 that I could not even get to in 2024 OR 2025 because they were so full. I mean, I did post "Hayloft" eariler this year, which pushed this song back FURTHER, but I've had this draft for years.
This song, from the 2012 album The Sticks, was released as a single in 2013. This particular tune was a top 20 alternative hit in Canada in 2013 - and I'm a little surprised it didn't go bigger. Bigger was in their future and their past.
They are a band with some depth, for sure. Here they are, performing the song in a stripped-down manner in Calgary in 2012.
Look, you're not supposed to take Carole Pope too seriously. She's a comidienne, who makes humourous music.
So, you can laugh at all the stereotypes that she wrote into this song. From her 2014 album, Music for Lesbians, and co-written by TIm Welch (who plays a lot of the instruments) and Peaches, the song is quite the journey.
But she's also a punk pioneer, being a founder of Rough Trade and other early punk acts. She's a classic, through and through, and she's still making music. She was also one of the first openly lesbian musicians - so when she goes to a forest, she is literally a lesbian in a forest - but also, she was unafraid, even from her early days.
So, even though this song was a bit of a laugh, it's also a testament to Carole Pope's life.
Like everyone else during the pandemic, Carole did a live version of this video over Zoom, and yes, Peaches shows up here, in typical Peaches fashion.
This bright song is from her 2nd solo album, Blonde. And it's fun. And it was a big hit (in Belgium and France - where her music sells very well).
This live performance of the song from 2015 - in front of a largely English-speaking crowd - was well-recieved, and equally bright as the recording. She started the performance very nervous (a lot of the material from that day was new and untested, and French), but this song was already well known and a favorite.
I don't know why I love this song by Wham! I always did - it always brings a smile to my face. Is it a great song? NOPE. Is it consistent with the rest of the Wham! catalogue? NOPE!
It is, however, one of the last singles by Wham! before their 1986 breakup, hitting #1 in the UK and #3 in the States - and various chart topping worldwide. It's a bright, fun single, an homage to Motown of sorts - the horns! the harmonies - written entirely by George Michael.
It strikes me as more of a George Michael solo song and less of a Wham! song, I suppose, although Andrew Ridgeley is clearly front and center in this video.
Indeed, George Michael did go solo soon after this single's release - this was the last song they played as Wham! at Wembley Stadium, at their farewell show in 1986. Terrible video exists and here it is.
However, in 1991, in Rio, at a a George Michael show, that is CLEARLY Andrew Ridgeley performing with him. We're glad the split was not acrimonious - it was, in fact, quite amicable - and in fact, the two men remained great friends for life.
This song was the lead single from Culture Club's 2nd album, Colour by Numbers, and it was a top 10 hit worldwide, including the US (#10) and UK (#2). Was it their biggest single? No. "Karma Chameleon" was. But it was such a big and enduring hit that it was in the top 10 at the SAME TIME as "Karma Chameleon", which was released later.
I think history has forgotten just how huge Boy George and Co. were in the mid 1980s. We were all embracing this gender-androgynous vocalist without issue. I hope this post remedies a little of that.
Anyway, this was my favorite Culture Club song, off the first cassette tape I ever bought with my own money. It was a good purchase. Written by the band, the song features uncredited backing vocals by the huge voice of Helen Terry - and she appeared on several other tracks as well - who appears in the video (and several others by the band).
Helen Terry also performed with the band live, which is amazing, and their 1983 performance of this song is incredible.
This more recent performance, from the late 2010s, does not feature Helen Terry, and features a less androgynous Boy George - and also interpolates Wham's "I'm Your Man".
They have been releasing music for six years - their first performance at age 15 involved a bar and a chicken liver they rubbed on themself. They rose to prominence with their extreme makeup styles (and they do have a makeup line, by the way). They come from music royalty of sorts, as borh their mother and their father are from well known British punk bands.
They are a very interesting person. They idenify as non-binary, use they/them pronouns, and specifically refer to themself as "generless".
We are cool with that. Because they seem happy.
This song and video are kind of a fever dream. That's about the best we got here. But it's interesting pop electronica, and we think you should listen.
They also perform to sold-out crowds and we think they're really singing and not lip-syncing.
She's definitely unique. A sex-postiive musician (and yes, this is her signature song) and performance artist, she was once roommates with Feist - and yes, they have collaborated, a lot. She reinterpreted Jesus Christ Superstar as a one-woman show (and it's beautiful).
Peaches Christ, Superstar, do you think you're what they say you are?
She's also from Toronto, which is in Canada, and the 2nd t is silent. Go ahead, fight me on this. She started her career as a drama teacher at conservative Hebrew schools in Toronto - she also attended Jewish school as a child, for which she was bullied.
No one is bullying Peaches now.
Let's talk about this song, her best known and, yes, you've probably heard it - in The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu, the movie Lost In Translation, or maybe as Liz Lemon's ringtone on 30 Rock.
This song was released in September of 2000, and appears on her 2000 album Teaches of Peaches. Its original recording was not done in a studio. So, this 2022 recording from Full Frontal with Samantha Bee is just as credible as the one on record. No, we're not sure what the hell she's wearing.
Well, crap. That was age-restricted. It's worth the click to get to YouTube, though. Let's see if this 2009 performance of the song is any better.
The Juno Awards happened back in March. For those not familiar and who don't read this damn blog, that's basically the Canadian Grammys, for Canadian artists (with one award exception).
Nelly Furtado was the host of the 2024 Junos. She also hosted the 2007 ceremony.
And, with more than 45 million records sold, she is one of the most successful Canadian artists in history.
Her debut album - Whoa, Nelly! - was a huge hit - generating two top 10 singles in the US. Her first, "I'm Like A Bird", is well-known, and hit #9 on the US charts in 2001. Its follow-up, this song, written by Furtado, hit #5 and was a bigger hit in the States.
Neither song was as big a chart hit in Canada (the former did hit the top 20, and both got a fair amount of airplay), but she would continue to record hit after hit on both sides of the border, and also in other countries.
This is a song for which two official videos exist, and yes, we have them both. Same song, sparser video.
Nelly has been known as something of a musical shapeshifter, bridging pop, rock, folk, hip hop and even Latin music. In 2006, she was in her hip hop period, and this live version of the song surfaced.
It's actually pretty much the same song.
Furtado, whose parents were Portuguese immigrants to Canada, performed the song for a very small audience - the cast of Big Brother Brasil. Yes, she speaks Portuguese.
When she recorded the song in 2012 for Walmart Soundcheck... well, it was harder and slower. Still, very cool version of the song, even if it was comissioned by Walmart.
Guys, this is our last post until next week. Please stay safe this weekend.
Meet Emei. She was born in California (as Emily Li) and raised in New Jersey to Chinese immigrants.
She also competed on Chinese Idol and Dancing With The Stars China. She was enough of a star in China to be on THAT show.
She's an angry pop-rock artist with some great songwriting chops, like this 2022 single by her. Did it chart? No. Did it make an impact? Yuppers. This song is fun and angry and empowering and you will be dancing by the end of it.
For most of you, you don't know who Mélanie Renaud is.
Born in Haiti in 1982, she was adopted at 8 months to parents from Quebec. She built a hell of a career as a singer and a stage performer. Today's song won the Félix Prize, an award for Quebec songwriters, for in 2002. Her debut album, Ma Liberté, won the Canadian Independent Spirit Award for Francophone Album the same year. She fought and beat substance abuse. Her huge voice never suffered.
Renaud passed away today at age 42, from overian cancer. Her legacy and her music remain.
A few months before she passed, Renaud did a beautiful acoustic version of this same song. It is breathtaking and haunting.
I tried like HELL to get this song into Maple Leaf March this year. Since we featured Marie-Mai as part of a Simple Plan post in 2023, I've been trying to slot her in.
Marie-Mai is not that well known outside of Quebec, but inside Quebec, she's a star. She got her start on a Quebec-based singing competition show, finishing third, and followed that with a part in the musical Rent.
It's been a lot of music over the last twenty years as well, with hits in francophone Canada and France. She has gravitated a little more pop nowadays, but she was always pop/rock. This is one of her earliest, from her debut album, Inoxydable, from 2004
Of course she performed one of her biggest early hits live. By this time, she had gone a little mellower and more towards a poppier direction, but the rock edge is still here.
Had I not woken up to the news that Steve Albini had passed away on Tuesday, I would have made this a Special Edition.
Steve Albini wasn't best known for his music with Big Black, Rapeman and Shellac, although all three bands were great, and what will likely be the last Shellac album is coming out next week. He was best known as a great record producer - producing such albums as Surfer Rosa by the Pixies, Pod by the Breeders, In Utero by Nirvana, Rid of Me by PJ Harvey, and so, so many others. He was notoriously not easy to work with, but also, down to earth, even personally answering the phone in his recording studio.
Big Black's second and final album, Songs About Fucking, probably the most honestly titled album ever, was a masterpiece, and it opened with this minute and a half long ode to, well, independent trucking... and absolutely about fucking. Released in 1987, it was probably a little ahead of its time. Albini layers distorted power chords with atonal squeals, creating a relentless feeling of claustrophobia that perfectly captures the cramped confines of a diesel cab.
His voice, his guitar, and his production will be missed.
Born in Quebec and raised in Nova Scotia, Tara Slone isn't exactly a household name outside of the San Francisco Bay area, and even then mostly with hockey fans. She has been a longtime hockey commentator - first with Sportsnet in Canada and now with NBC Sports Bay Area.
But before that, Tara Slone was a musician. She got her biggest break with a band called Joydrop (yes, we've featured them before) and then she went solo. She did take a slight turn in trying to be the lead vocalist for INXS - that's not a joke - but did some credible solo work in her own right.
She had a pretty solid straight-ahead rock sound that was compelling - an extension of Joydrop, but even heavier.
Meet Austria's 2023 Eurovision entry. Teya and Salena are separate Austrian musical artists - both quite talented. They met on the TV show Starmania 21, which is a music competiton in Austria.
This ended up being a hit song in many countries, and the 15th place finisher in Eurovision. It is the biggest hit to date by either artist, and they've gone on to continue to record and release singles together.
By the way, the titular "Edgar" is Edgar Allen Poe, who has possessed the songwriters, these women, along with their producers, Ronald Janeček and Pele Loriano. The song was written during the last hour of a songwriting camp in 2022, and was always intended for Eurovision... for Salena to sing solo. It just worked better with both of them.
Just have fun with it.
Eurovision is, of course, about the performance, and this is their performance. Again, it's a fun, goofy song.
Of course they continue to play the song, like during this charity play in Austria.
They've even done a stropped down - I refuse to call it "acoustic" - version of the song.
I was REALLY SCARED we wouldn't have something to continue this. I mean, it's going to have to end someday, right? The Darling Buds only released so much music.
This is not the year it ends. But I scared you, didn't I?
There have been rumours of new Darling Buds music coming soon. I will let you know if I see it anytime soon, but we won't post it here until next May 6th. We have to conserve our Darling Buds, you know.
You see, Manel are from Barcelona, in Catalonia, in the north of Spain. The native language there, banned for so many years by Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain from the end of the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s until 1975, is Catalan.
Manel are a band who perform in Catalan.
This song was the title song from the 5th album, released in 2019. They use a sample from the song "Alenar" by Maria del Mar Bonet, a Majorcan singer who stood in defiance of Franco by singing in Catalan in the late 1960 - the native language of Majorca, strangely enough, is a dialect of Catalan as well.
If this is the first time you've heard Catalan, it may sound a little strange, like someone is pronouncing Spanish with extra h's. It is a beautiful language and this song is a banger.
Daoko is a young Japanese singer and rapper who first hit the scene in 2012, at age 15, when she uploaded her songs on the video streaming site called Nico Nico Douga at the time (now it's NicoNico).
This single, a collaboration with Kenshi Yonezu, who wrote the song. Featured on her 2017 album, Thank You Blue as well as the anime Fireworks, Should We See It From The Side or The Bottom, it would go on to top the Japan Hot 100. It would go on to be the 3rd biggest hit on the 2017 Billboard Japan year-end chart.
Here's where it gets crazy.
It would also go on to be the 4th biggest hit on the 2018 Billboard Japan year-end chart.
It would also go on to be the 21th biggest hit on the 2019 Billboard Japan year-end chart.
OK, so now I'm done.
No, wait. It was the 75th biggest hit on the same chart in 2020.
In an all-time hit chart released in 2022, it was the 13th biggest Billboard Japan hit of all time.
The song is sad and beautiful at the same time, and was heralded for that dichotomy. The video is, well, anime.
Daoko isn't an anime, though. She's a real person, who really performs live, as she did in 2018.
The Bundesvision Song Contest is a German competition between the 16 states of Germany that is loosely based on Eurovision's concept.
In 2008, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern band Jennifer Rostock didn't win, but they did get noticed and a record deal followed.
Oh, we should probably address this for our non-German readers. Jennifer Rostock is a band, fronted by Jennifer Weist. The name came from an earlier studio misunderstanding, where notes to the band were directed at Jennifer, and since they didn't know her name, but only that the band was from the coast, they just put the only coastal town they knew, Rostock - which was not where the band was from, but close enough, I guess? - and the screwed-up name stuck.
The band rocked hard and they continue to rock hard. This single, from 2014, is a great example of that.
It doesn't hurt that the actress who played Lu - Mexican singer/actress Danna Paola - in seasons 1-3 of the show released a single last Tuesday... and that it's a banger. The second single from her new album, Childstar, it's already got a LOT of views and listens on your favorite streaming platform. Co-written and co-produced by the now-mononymous Danna (with a large team), it's a fun and sexy song.
Even you English speakers will recognize a few of the words.
The song's title is a reference to the popular Atari 2600 VCS, the first mass-market home video game systems with interchangable cartridges - you know, you can play with her like an Atari.... I guess.
The French hitmaker has a lot of great singles to choose from, including this 2020 single, written and produced by Wolfgvng and Damso, the latter of whom Louane met at a music festival, where they bonded and decided to work together. The song is a slow electronic love song, whose title literally translates to "Give me your heart".
The song would go on to be a hit in Belgium and Switzerland, and a minor hit in France.
In addition to her excellent pop vocals, Louane is a pretty good pianist, and she does an acoustic version of this song, which is slower and more heartfelt.
It's beautiful.
It also wasn't a one-off, as she also did this version live, on French television.
That doesn't mean she doesn't perform the original live.... or that it isn't differently beautiful.
This song was on heavy rotation in the 90s on Rochester, NY alternative radio station WBER, which is how I became aware of Soul Coughing.
This song, written by the band, was one of their biggest hits on alternative radio, becoming something of radio favorite in 1997. It was used as wrestler entrance music, in video games, in television.... it was something of a cash cow for the band.
It is probably better to see a live performance by the band, and see the energy that they bring. Watching M. Doughty go apeshit while the rest of the band stays cool is a sight to behold.
This was not Paula Abdul's first single. It was her third.
It was, however, her first top 40 hit, the first of four from Forever Your Girl, at the time the most ever from a debut album. Written and produced by Elliot Wolff, it would eventually hit #1 around the world - in the US in February 1989. To get into the technical, the song is at a tempo of 96 beats per minute, which is known as a "shuffling" tempo.
You aren't here for the technical. You're here to see Arsenio Hall.
Did you watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2022? Then you saw Paula Abdul, 35 years after the single's release, tap dancing and lipsyncing the song.
She does also perform the song live for real from time to time, but really, you should be here for the choreography, because Adbul was and is a gifted choreographer.
We're presently binging the Netflix series Élite. The show was originally made for Netflix Spain, and is dubbed into English for our viewing pleasure. It's a cool show, with a lot of twists and turns. There's also a lot of great music to discover, much of it music I have never heard.
Season 3, Episode 4 is where we are as I am writing this, and as the episode was starting, this song came on. I instantly recognized Mala Rodríguez's voice, and this song, which was her debut single in 2000. It set the stage for the in-your-face style that is a hallmark of everything La Mala has done.
The song's title literally translates to "I Have A Deal" and is a classic rap battle response. For that, you need her attitude.
La Mala is not one to forget where she came from, which is why, in 2020, she was still performing this song, with as much bravado as the first day she performed it.
It's also a very complex song with a lot of changes and movements. Written by David Gilmour, Roger Waters and Richard Wright, it is an opus in nine parts, and a tribute to Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett. Appearing on their 1975 album, Wish You Were Here, it quickly became a band favorite.
I'm going to leave this without much commetary, because the emotion of the song - the love for Barrett and the guilt in forcing him out - is enough.
Here is the band, led by David Gilmour, performing the song in 1990.
Here's another performance, from Nassau Coliseum in 1988.
I've been following Romanian band Fine, It's Pink since 2013. That's when I heard their amazing cover of Phantogram's "When I'm Small". Now, the original of that is one of my favorite song, and I'll probably fire it up on the turntable pretty soon.
I write this blog to tell you about the music that I enjoy, and, well, I have discovered music thanks to this blog. It was purely accidental that I discovered this Romanian band, over here in the States, and yet I did.
Watching Fine, It's Pink mature as musicians - watching their original songs get more adult and more beautiful - is one of the best things I have ever experienced in writing this little blog. Their new single, out last week, is perhaps their most mature and beautiful work to date. The song was written by Fine, It's Pink, with Ioana Lefter writing the lyrics she is singing herself.
I hope this is the song that breaks them out of Romania and onto the world stage, because few musicians deserve it more.
No, I'm not talking about my personal struggles. I'm talking about the Grandmaster Flash sample that the outstanding Coi Leray employs prominently through this song.
This 2022 single ended up in the Top 10, her first and at this point only trip there. It absolutely an explicit and empowering song, and I love it a lot.
It is unusual to see a new video for a REMIX of a song, but in the case, it is appropriate, as DJ Smallz put a new spin on the song.
This remix by DJ Saige replaces the Grandmaster Flash sample with a Busta Rhymes sample.... and Mr. Rhymes himself guest stars.
You know when we feature bands with non-English characters in their names, when we have to figure out the ASCII codes for writing these non-English characters, that they must be special.
Icelandic superstars Sigur Rós, described as a post-rock band (accurately) are that kind of special. Their best known song is this one, a song with some Icelandic and some nonsense words, about childlike fun and holding onto that spirit....
,,,which is probably why the video prominently features several elderly people pulling pranks on people, including members of the band.
The song, like a lot of their music, is beautiful and different and thought-provoking.
Of course it's a live favorite. Why wouldn't it be?!
For those who do not know, the former Beyoncé Knowles was raised in Houston, TX. She was raised on country music. She performed four times at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, an event she attended many times as a child. She's performed COUNTRY MUSIC in the past, with the (former Dixie) Chicks and Sugarland. Her songs have been covered by Reba and others.
So explain to me: why would anyone have any issue with her "going country" when she's performing (and she co-wrote) a really catchy country album?
I sure don't. This song, released during the Super Bowl this year, is damn catchy. She didn't even send the song to country radio, but it is getting significant airplay. It's also getting significant airplay on pop radio, making it one of the more significant crossover songs of the last several years (miss me with that Jason Aldean and Morgan Wallen talk, kids).
And yes, we hear it. It sounds a lot like the Franklin theme song.
Sometime soon, we are going to have a week of nothing but non-English songs.
It was a search for those songs that led me to DRAMAS, an Austrian band that is making some of the most interesting music on the planet. And thank Courtney for this one - she found it and introduced it to me.
Formed in 2016, they made a splash in Europe right from the get go. Viktoria Winter and Mario Wienerroither are the whole band, and they bring a lot of noise and emotion. This song, their latest single, was inspired by old French music.... and yeah, I can hear it.
"Coma Call" isn't going to win awards for lyrical complexity, but that's precisely the beauty of it. It's a track that revels in pure sonic pleasure. It's the kind of song you crank up while cruising down a nighttime highway, windows down, feeling the wind whip through your hair.
Labi Siffre built himself a long and illustrious soul career with classic songs and great beats that live on.
This was the opening track of Siffre's 1975 album, Remember My Song. It is probably the song for which he is best known.
However, it was never a hit song on his own.
Nope, it was a hit because Emimen sampled it as a singificant part of his song, "My Name Is", in 1999. Siffre was initially not allowing this song, which he wrote and performed, to be sampled, as the original Eminem track contained a lot of derrogatory language againsts women and gay people (Siffre is openly gay). Eminem changed his lyrics and submitted a clean version, and the sample was approved. (Eminem DID release the other version as well, as a dirty version).
The song, however, was pretty great as is, even if it was a bit obscure. Here. Enjoy it.
Since then, the song is no longer obscure, even getting use in an episode of Better Call Saul.
This 1999 single is likely the first thing you heard by Eminem unless you saw him as a freestyle rapper in Detroit as a kid.
It earned Eminem his first Grammy, for best Rap Solo Performance. Cowritten by Marshall Mathers (Eminem), Andre Young (Dr. Dre) and Labi Siffre (Labi Siffre,who was credited because of the significant sample of his song "I Got The..."), the song was meant to be humorous and light-hearted, but ended up being also pretty groundbreaking.
That was the version that Labi Siffre approved.
He expressly did NOT approve this version, which contains some homophobic slurs - calling it "lazy writing". But we'll talk more about that another day.
Eminem released it anyway.
Yes, of course, he did perform ths song live, like in this performance at the legendary Whisky A Go Go on the fabulous Sunset Strip.
Well, this song.... it wasn't a hit when Elvis recorded it in 1968. It was a minor hit when rerecorded later that year for a TV special.... but it wasn't a hit, despite being a fun and energetic song. Written by Mac Davis (who wrote and later rerecorded a lot of Elvis songs) and Billy Strange, it was perhaps more than people were expecting.
Here's a video of the original, from the movie Live a Little, Love a Little, where the song first appeared.
You likely know this song, but that version you just heard doesn't sound right, right?
Fast forward to 2001. The song was featured in the movie Oceans 11, and then Junkie XL remixed it.
THIS SONG was a worldwide hit in 2002, everywhere... except the United States, where it was still a MINOR hit, but not to the level of everywhere else, where it was a top 5 hit. Even in the US, it was his first visit to the Billboard Hot 100 in twenty years.
It was only a matter of time until I got to Oliva Rodrigo's opening act, right?
But Chappell Roan is so much more than just an opener. She's a singer/songwriter from the middle of Missouri, who makes campy, poppy music with a drag-queen inspired aesthestic. This song, a 2022 song that ended up on her acclaimed album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, co-written by Chappel Roan, Daniel Nigro and Skyler Stonestreet, and its video, with all its pop culture references and over-the-top fashion is a perfect illustation of that aesthetic.
To be sure, she is unique, and so is this song. I'm genuinely impressed.
I could have very easily found a GUTS tour opening act performance of this song - and I did. I chose INSTEAD to share a more intimate club perforance of this song, which sounds better anyway. She engages the crowd, and they respond. She doesn't even need a background vocalist (she supplied her own on the album anyway).
This 1978 disco classic was co-written by Sylvester and James Wirrick. It was not more than a minor hit in the US - not nearly his biggest - and was a huge hit in Europe.
But that is only the start of the story.
The song was also a hit in discos - a club hit, as we would call it today. It is here where his star would truly shine - and endure. The song has been used as an anthem for LGBTQ+ pride in the years since the song was released - the magazine Time Out ranked it #8 on a list of songs to celebrate Pride all year long.
Sylvester himself, with his androgynous looks and the fact that he was, in fact, gay, was propelled by this song into icon status within the gay communitiy, and beyond, because the man was fabulous. Sadly, he passed away in 1988 from complications from HIV - I'm so grateful that that disease is not the killer it was in the 1980s but we still need a cure.
We are so happy to bring you a live version of this - not every disco song has that, but Sylvester did perform live. The laser sounds in the song are replaced with horns, and my goodness, it's a fantastic sound.
Olivia Rodrigo released one of my 2 or 3 favorite albums of 2023 - GUTS - in September.
Last week, she released GUTS (spilled) with five more songs.
Do I buy the new vinyl? Probably not. But this, the first new single, is pretty spectacular. Co-written by Rodrigo, Dan Nigro, and Annie Clark, it rocks hard and is already a top 20 hit. Fun fact - this is the 2nd Olivia Rodrigo song on which Annie Clark is listed as a songwriter ("deja vu", which borrows heavilty from "Cruel Summer" being the first), but the first on which they truly collaborated.
Anyway, it's a banger. Check it out.
Even before the expanded album, the song existed - and was on some special versions of GUTS (although not the one I own, dammit). It is included on the GUTS tour playlist.
