When I first saw this pop up on my Spotify last year, I had to do a double take. You see, I recognized the artist's name.... but not from music.
One of my favorite TV series of all time is a show from the 2010s called Orphan Black. Seek it out - I highly recommend it. Evelyne Brochu was the name of an actress on the show (for those who know the show, she played Delphine). And yes, it's the same Evelyne Brochu, I found out in my research. The even wilder thing I found out? She's Canadian - growing up outside of Montreal and a native speaker of French in Quebec (although also learning English at a very young age). I always thought she was French.
She did reprise her role of Delphine in Orphan Black: Echoes, which was also good but not quite matching the original.
But let's talk about "Paris". A sincere love letter to the city, Brochu sings the song with a sincerity and a brightness. It also seems like she recorded the video on her cell phone - because she did. She was the cinematographer.
Her performance is just as genuine and sweet live as it is recorded.
This has been the toughtest Maple Leaf March so far for me.
You see, I live in the United States, but I have been a long time fan of Canada. In 2011, one of my first attempts at blogging, I wrote an article about several of the things I love about Canada. It really needs an update - I have, for example, had poutine on several occasions and been to many poutineries at this point, and I did spend about 6 months in Calgary more than the States, so I have kind of lived in Canada, too.
But hell, I had pictures of Canadians in my locker at school as a teenager.
OK, Canadian. Singular.
And it was Carling Bassett.
I was 16. Don't judge me.
But this month, the United States President, Donald Trump, has escalated a trade and culture war with Canada by
Imposing significant tarriffs on Canadian goods when there once was none
Requiring Canadians - including snowbirds who winter in Florida - in the United States to register with the US government
Continually joking, but not actually joking, about annexing Canada as the 51st state, ignoring the fact that Canada has TEN unique provinces and 3 territories (also unique)
Blamed Canada for the fentanyl crisis, when in fact, very little fentanyl enters the United States from Canada.
In short, this administration has damaged one of the most enviable partnerships - the one between Canada and the United States - and I hope this isn't irreparable, but it's probably going to be a few years.
This has made me sad on so many levels. On an economic level, Canada is our biggest trade partner and the United States has now demolished that. On a foreign policy level, Canada has had our back in many conflicts. On an entertainment level, Toronto has been a stand in for New York City because it WAS cheaper to film there - I doubt that's going to continue.
On a personal level, I have many excellent friendships with Canadians that have been damaged because my President is being an asshole. There's no other word for what he's doing. He's being an unprovoked, egotistical, misguided asshole to Canada.
So, to my Canadian friends, I don't blame you for keeping your elbows up, and don't for a second believe that the current administation at all reflects the love and respect the American people have for our Canadian neighbors.
Today's post is one of the last I wrote for this month, because it's been so hard, and because I needed a great song that sounded vaguely Irish and that completely misunderstands the geography of Saskatchewan (the nearest shore to Regina is about 140 km away), and it is a great and funny song. And yeah, because of the current world situation, this song is getting the shaft - I mean, I pretty much guaranteed the thumbnail most people are going to see is going to be Carling Bassett - but listen to it anyway.
A video by The Stellas with their daughters in the back seat of the car. Really, about their daughters in the back seat of that car.
This video would have been pre-Nashville. This means that The Stellas were driving with their then-anonymous daughters who happen to be named Lennon and Maisy - which, of course, we know because Nashville (and the fact that Lennon was a Juno Award nominee a couple of years ago herself and Maisy just did a movie with Aubrey Plaza - My Old Ass - that was pretty well recieved and earned her an Independent Spirit Award just last month).
But even though the Stellas are talking about their daughters, can we just take a minute to appreciate the beautiful country harmonies they bring?
But, in all seriousness, Girl Prometheus was one of my 2 or 3 favorite albums of 2024. It is something of a meloncholic masterpiece, with a LOT of great songs.
Honestly, I was always going to post something by Flower Face this month - but I was going to go older. Last week, I was listening to this album again and this song jumped out at me, and I knew what I had to do.
Also, listen closely. She name-checks herself. See if you can catch it.
The cool thing is, a couple of months after Girl Prometheus was released, Flower Face released an all-instumental version of the album. She's a unique multi-instrumental talent, so this makes so much sense - but also, it is incredibly cool to hear the music stand on its own.
Yep. Literally more than any other artist. More than any of our Hall of Fame entries.
But, she's got a LOT of output that is excellent. She has released five full length albums, plus a bunch of EPs, a few reimagined versions of those albums which in their own rights are full length albums, a large number of collaborations, and, for good measure, a charity nighttime instrumental synthwave album to benefit Black Lives Matter Vancouver. Every one of them is a banger.
Lights's sixth full length album, A6, will be released in early May. She's already begun to release singles from the album - this is the second, and it's arguably the best she's sounded.
I consider this to be her breakthrough song - it was of course a hit in Canada, and also did hit the US Billboard Hot 100 - the first time she had done that.
Written by McLachlan, the song is inspired by creepy fan letters she received - and many of them are quoted in the song. One of the "fans" sued McLachlan for using his words and inspiration without his consent - but the case never made it to trial.
The song worked. She stopped getting fan letters like that.
Anyway, it is natural that this would be her breakthrough song. It was full of emotion and was still pretty dark while sounding sunny.
McLachlan actually made two music videos for this song. The one above is the one Americans saw on MTV. The one below is the one Canadians saw on MuchMusic. I kind of think Americans wouldn't really get the one below - it's biblical and a lot of videos that use biblical references get backlash in the States - so I understand.
If you are one of the lucky people who bought her album Fumbling Towards Ecstacy, you know that this song actually appears TWICE on that album. A piano version appears as a hidden track. Go ahead - put the CD in. We'll wait.
Anyway, this live version is more reminiscent of the 2nd version of the song.
Wanna feel old? This song is 32 years old - released in 1993. And yet, here she is in 2024 - when the song was 31 years old. And, rather than piano, she's playing rhythm guitar. And it still sounds amazing.
There's just not enough time in the month to post everything I want to, but c'mon - I get to make the rules.
And for this gem, from their 2021 EP Losers Weepers, is just brilliant enough to make me want to bend them, hard. It's a chipper breakup song - and it really shows their depth.
But, at the last minute, I moved them to the best spot of the whole year - my birthday, this year.
Here they are, performing the song in an quieter set, more as a ballad. I absolutely love these guys, and can't help but think they're going to be huge soon.
This commercial parody from the late 1980s was actually banned from MTV, mostly because MTV didn't want to piss off Coke, Pepsi, or Budweiser. Also, Michael Jackson threatened to sue them.
MuchMusic, which is essentially Canadian MTV for those who don't know what it is (don't @ me. I know what it is. Most of my readers wouldn't), did NOT have the same concerns and started playing the video. It ended up being a hit and MTV reconsidered its decision.
It went on to win Video of the Year at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards, which was both ironic and amazing, because it's a great video. And song. We haven't even talked about the song.
And no, Michael Jackson never did end up suing them over this video.
Because his label blocks the actual video from being posted, here it is side-by-side with its ad parodies
I have to admit, Neil Young is such a ubiquitous musician, he feels like he belongs to no country.
But he is not only proudly Canadian, he is a Canadian Music Hall of Famer.
And he put on some great live shows, like this one, where he did an acoustic version of this song.
Last year, Elisapie's fantastic album Inuktitut was nominated for a Juno.... and WON. Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year.
This year, the SAME ALBUM is nominated for TWO Junos. And, I looked it up. The eligibility periods of the 2024 and 2025 Junos overlap by a couple of months, and this album - arguably my favorite of 2023 - happened to have been released in the overlap window.
I am rooting for this to win Album of the Year. The album is great and deserves the attention. It's also nominated in the Adult Alternative Album of the Year category, and I think it WILL win that one.
This song was not on the initial release of the album, but was released as a single, with video, on the occasion of the first anniversary of its release. Yes, it was written by Sheryl Crow, but she didn't write her song in Inuktitut... and this version has a very different, dreamier feel than the original.
Yep, original Canadian jazz has made it to Wicked Guilty Pleasures.
Nominated for a Juno this year for her album Hello! How Are You?, Gyorgy is a talented jazz vocalist and songwriter from Calgary.
Also, it is, for some reason, pronounced "George".
This song was from her 2022 album Featuring, which also won a Juno (and that wasn't her first). The song was written by Gyorgy, in the style of, in her words, the "Great American Songbook". I suspect she means North American. Isn't it weird that people from the United States call themselves American and the rest of the world has gone along with the identity of two continents being given to one county's residents? I really need to stop it with these political tangents.
AR Paisley dreams of winning a Grammy, which is why he listens to Grammy-award winning music.
He's nominated for a Juno Award this year (Breakthrough Artist or Group of the Year), so he's off to a flying start.
Born Amarit Rehal, and a native of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, his hip-hop takes a page from Jay-Z's playbook, but also combines English and Punjabi rhymes. He also counts Ludacris as an influence. I hear it.
Anyway, he's making good, original rap music that deserves your attention, so here it is.
This is not a song title most Americans know. They do, however, know "The Kids In The Hall Theme Song". And sure, most Americans don't know about this Calgary-Toronto instrumental band with punk roots and a surf sound.
But I didn't rearrange my whole blog posts for March 2025 just to highlight a long-overdue song to highlight. No, I wrote this post as a tribute - to great Canadian television and the great impact that Canadian entertainment has had on American culture.
In an era where the United States President is for some idiotic reason imposing a 25% tarriff on goods from Canada, starting a moronic trade war, I felt like we needed a reminder of what Canada has given the States (Update: I'm told the tarriff is paused).
By the way - the band performed it live for EVERY KITH show.
SMOASP broke up in 1996 but they did reunite, and wow, did they sound great live in 2012.
By the way, Kids In The Hall did reuinte as well, and my sister saw them not too long ago. Let's just say they didn't forget their theme song.
I promise you this isn't going to be a nothing-but-Canadian music blog. While I could VERY EASILY do that, that's not happening here. There's SO MUCH. It's hard for me to prune stuff every March - so tough that I have sincerely considered a Canadian music blog.
And I wrote this post in July.
But yeah, these four women formed their rap group in Toronto in 2016. You met one of them last year - after they broke up in 2019, these ladies built solo careers in their own rights.
Guys, these ladies are bad-ass. Check them out.
There are a LOT of live versions of these songs, but the best was one of the first, which they did for CBC.
Tate McRae was nominated for something like five Junos this year. In fact, she's nominated for EXACTLY five. That's a lot, for those of you who don't know the Junos so well.
Well, last year was kind of a fever dream for her.
Well, her new album was released on February 21st, and it took all sorts of restraint to not post about her that day and start MLM a week early.
This song isn't from her new album, So Close To What, or even her last one, Think Later. This is from her first full length album, I Used To Think I Could Fly. Co-written by McRae, this song went through a lot of mixes and iterations to get to this final form.
This is probably the song that made McRae a pop star. It was sad - adressing real-life feelings of envy and jeolousy that she was experiencing - but also upbeat and punky.
I'm not gonna lie - I love that the audience knows the words THIS well.
Today's feature was an outtake from her 2015 album Emotion. It got cut from the album for its cinematic over-the-top feeling, but was slated for a follow-up EP.
Then came the French animated movie Ballerina, which was called Leap in the US. Jepsen was actually a voice actress in that movie, and also contributed the heart of the movie with this song.
Like the movie, it ended up being a pretty solid hit song for her.
And yes. The "Lucky Star" sample was intentional.
She did make a real adult video for the song, too.
You know we love the live versions.
But this one is different.
It's from a Carnival Cruise.
And it's perfect.
I think we all know that she's a singer-songwriter, and that means, she can actually SING her songs, in a stripped down setting, and they still slap.
Anyway, the breakout stars of late 2023 - who won a couple of Junos last year - teamed up with multiple-Juno winner Lights (who we are guessing is going to be nominated for a Juno this year as of this writing, but as of the time we are writing this, which is mid-2024, we don't know that yet) (Edit: she wasn't) for this song, which the band co-wrote with her.
It's a bop. Check it out.
Oh yes, Lights did show up at a Beaches show and yes, they did it live.
And yes, the crowd went bezerk. Rightfully so. Hell, I would have!
This is probably the most exposure Les Cowboys Fringants have gotten outside of Quebec, but they deserve a wider reach from their néo-trad musical style that draws on folk and rock influences.
The reigning champions of the Juno Awards Francophone category, the group released new music in 2024 to accompany a musical, Pub Royal, that featured their music. That album is absolutely a 2025 nominee, by the way.
This was the last album to feature Karl Tremblay, the band's lead vocalist. He passed away from prostate cancer in 2023. The song does feature vocals by Tremblay, and was written by blacground vocalist and rhythm guitarist Jean-François Pauzé.
I hope it's clear by the title that this was probably the last thing Tremblay recorded. It is a POWERFUL performance.
Did I choose March because it starts with the same letter as "Maple Leaf"? Maybe. More likely I started it because the Junos take place in March - for now. It seems to be slowly moving to April.
Which makes it even weirder that I started the month with never-nominated Sophie Powers, a Toronto native who has made great music tailor-made for the TikTok generation. Co-written by the artist (no, Powers is not her real last name and the credits tell me that), the song is very much a declaration of independence by an musician who is making bold, different music from a nation who refuses to be annexed by the United States.
THAT'S as political as I will ever get here.
She has performed a stripped-down version of the song live, which shows me that she's both not manufactured (a little cringe, in fact) and is a uniquely talented performer.
I at first discounted this song. It's a little more country than my tastes skew - no knock on country. Modern country just doesn't bring me much pleasure. So, after about thirty seconds, I turned the song off.
In the leadup to the Grammys a couple of weeks ago, where Boone was nominated for a couple of awards, snippets of the song led with the chorus - and that's what hooked me. It's a country-rock hybrid that ended up being a huge worldwide hit, and it took a couple of nominations to get my attention.
It's not surprising that it changes tone so dramatically. It began life as two separate songs, with co-author Jack LaFrantz recommended combining.
For some reason, I find that Grammys performance even more dramatic. I don't know if it's the tearaway suit or the flip off the piano....
Where does a song cross the line into being a cover?
Well, this song started off life in 2017, as a fun studio exercise built off an Eiffel 65 sample but never intended for release.
Fast forward to 2022, when TikTok was a thing and the snippet leaked. Guetta and Rexha very quickly finished their song and, well, instant hit. It ended up being her biggest hit everywhere in the world EXCEPT for the United States, where it was a huge hit but she's had bigger that we'll probably never mention here again.
Anyway, the song clearly takes the beat from "Blue (Da Ba Bee)" but these are, for the most part, brand new lyrics. And yeah, the song is a LOT of fun.
The video above was largely compiled from a live appearance Rexha and Guetta made together, where they seemed to be having a LOT of fun. Here is that live performance.
Not that she needs David Guetta to have a good time.
Even with a slowed-down version and a full orchestra, she seems to still be having fun. Also, the pipes! You can hear the helper tracks on the other performances, but not here. She's singing the hell out of this.
I don't know why, but I have been in a Kim Petras mood lately. As a child, she wanted to be a fashion designer. It's kind of interesting where she ended up.
This was her first single on a major label, in 2021, and was a hit in US clubs and, weirdly, in Japan.
Of course she performs it live. Here's the first time she did that, from Lollapalooza 2021.
I can't say when I went from absolutely despising this song to liking it, but it happened in the last few months. And it's the chorus that gets me - absolutely gives me chills. Adele has always had a huge voice, and when she hits the chorus, it just hits for me.
Critics love the song, too. It was the 2017 Song and Record of the Year winner at the Grammys.
But what I think got it for me was the version she did with Jimmy Fallon, the Roots, and classroom instruments.
Spotify now has an AI DJ, who they call X. Usually, X nails my musical tastes pretty closely. but sometimes, he goes off the reservation.
This song started off like that. I like Megan Thee Stallion, but I wouldn't say she's a go to.
But X kept serving this song up a lot.
Over and over.
And it grew on me.
A clear diss track that does not name its target, who is, in my opinion, clearly Nicki Minaj, this song very quickly hit #1 on the US pop charts - the first time she's been there as a solo artist and her third trip overall - and was a worldwide hit.
And before anyone starts with me. Yes, I see the video is billed to Megan Thee Stallion and Tina Snow. I hope it's clear they are the same person.
By the way, those rhymes that she's spittin' so fast?
This song from a movie soundtrack was BY FAR Dan Hartman's biggest solo hit. BY FAR. It reached #6 on the US charts and was a big hit elsewhere.
Written by Hartman and co-produced by him alongside Jimmy Iovine, the song in this version did not actually appear in the movie.It was a stipulation in Hartman's contract that his version be released as a single if any single was released. That worked out well for him.
Notice how I have not mentioned the movie? That's because it's hardly worth mentioning. It was not a great movie. It was a HUGE flop at the box office. History has forgotten what this movie was about.
Two videos were made for this song. In this one, Hartman is hitting on actress Joyce Hyser.
In this one, the fictional band from the movie is "performing" with Hartman's vocal.
Streets of Fire. Are you happy? Do you even remember this was a movie?
Gee, Happy Valentine's Day. Why are we featuring such a bummer-titled song?
Because this song - the one you see below - is a cover of a song that came in 4th in the 1967 Eurovision competition. This cover by Paul Mauriat - an orchestral easy-listening version of a song that no one in the United States really knew - ended up topping the US Pop Charts for two weeks.
This remains the most popular Eurovision song to ever appear on the US Pop Charts.
I kind of love how the kids try to dance to this on American Bandstand. It's really not a song that fits that show, but it was a huge, HUGE hit.
The original was performed by an artist named Vicky (Leandros) at the 1967 Eurovision competition. This Greek singer - 17 at the time - represented Luxenbourg. How that works is beyond me - but I don't make the Eurovision rules.
Anyway, the song came in 4th.
She would go on to record the song in several languages, including English. In my opinion, not as good as the French, it is still a beautiful song.
She also recorded it in Dutch.
Luxembourg still loves her song, by the way. Here she is performing a multilingual version on their annual song competition in 2024!
Riding the wave of "Love Is Blue" fever, A/C superstar, Franco-American singer, wife of Andy Williams, and later convicted killer Claudine Longet (it was negligent homicide) recorded a version that did, indeed, hit the US Pop Charts. It would be her highest charting pop hit in the United States.
It's a pretty version.
The song hit the charts a couple of additional times. In 1968, Manny Kellem, His Orchestra and Chorus, brought it all the way to #96 on the US Pop Charts, although it was a huge adult contemporary radio hit.
Again, it's pretty. Again, it was Manny's only Hot 100 appearance.
Al Martino's version hit #57 in 1968.
It was by no means his biggest hit on the Hot 100, but it was a hit, and despite its different feel than the others, included the classic harpsichord riff.
Weirdly, so did Jeff Beck's version, which was more guitar-driven but didn't forget the most famous harpichord riff in music history.
This was not a US hit, but it was a hit in the UK and Ireland.
This version by Kim Kwang Suk is definitely a first for this blog.
First North Korean version.
Seriously. NORTH Korean. And French.
But we come back to that big hit - the one that made it a worldwide sensation.... the second biggest instrumental hit song of all time ("Theme From 'A Summer Place'" to answer your inevitable question).
It is a work of absolute art. Paul Mauriat took a great song and made it so much better.
Yeah, of all the surprises from 2024, this one might have blindsided me the most.
Punjabi rock.
And yet this Juno-nominated artist brings us just that.
And that fact that he brings it so excellently is why we're posting about him on a Tuesday and not on a Sunday.
Orignally from India, former Best Buy employee Dhillon now calls British Columbia his home base. His 2024 album, The Brownprint, was released to wide critical acclaim, and it was deserved. Not an exageration to call it one of my five favorite albums of 2024.
You don't have to understand Punjabi to understand this song and its fantastic accompanying video.
This falls firmly in the category of songs you have heard, but you didn't know the title of.... or the artist.
Edward Maya is Romanian, and he enlisted Moldovan-Romanian artist Vika Jigulina to provide the vocals for what ended up being a slow burn of a worldwide hit. The song was a huge hit worldwide starting with its release in 2009, culminating with its peak on the US pop charts (#16) in 2011.... so yes, it was a three year build.
But there's more. It's 2025, and this song is STILL on the Moldovan and Polish pop charts - and has remained a huge Eastern European hit.
It is also the rare hit to include significant accordion.
Oh, you know they've performed this song live, and you know there was a signficant amount of accordion involved.
Yes, this is the song that Kendrick used to close his Superb Owl halftime performance, and it was a brilliant choice.
You might notice that there's a significant tempo change at about the 1:55 mark of this song - and that's because the song was recorded at two different times... and that means a little Mustard on the beat was needed for the transition.
And no. This isn't an official video. C'mon, it's mostly footage from the "Not Like Us" video. I used it anyway.
It's rare that we get to post a song that came in EIGHTH in the Eurovision song competition.
Especially when it's a song by a non-European singer.
Gina G is very much from Australia.
But she did represent the UK, and it is there that this song hit #1. In the United States, it hit #12 on the pop charts in 1996, and would be the last Eurovision song to hit the US charts for more than 20 years. The upbeat song also garnered a Grammy nomination - the ONLY Eurovision song to ever get that.
So Mr. Worldwide and Xtina performed a song together that ended up being a big hit but has the biggest songwriting team I've ever seen on a song, and that's even before you include all the members of a-ha, whose big hit song was DEFINTELY lifted for this song.
Well, the song was special and a worldwide HUGE hit. You're gonna feel every one of those 136 beats per minutes. Seriously, we counted.
Despite being obviously not together in this video, they have performed this song together several times. My personal favorite was at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards, where Morten Harket - who you might recognize from a-ha - took his song back at Mr. Worldwide's urging.
This song was written by Marianne Fathfull's boyfriend, Mick Jagger, along with Keith Richards, reportedly for her (she denied that). The Stones version came after hers, and yes, was better known, but her version - her debut single in 1964 - was also a hit in the US, UK and Canada.
Marianne Faithfull passed away on January 30th, aged 78. Her voice is one that will live on in music history.
Look, I've been clear about how very cool I think The Cardigans were and are.
This song is yet another log on that fire.
A cool, slower song than was their norm, it followed "My Favourite Game" as a single and, like that song, was a big hit all over Europe and not so much in the States. That whole Gran Turismo album is a classic and more people should listen to it.
As was their style at this point, there are multiple versions of this video. In this one, the walls close in to the point of almost crushing the band, but then a door opens. It's better than a beheading, right?
This version of the video intersperses scenes from the movie The Thirteenth Floor, which featured this song prominently.
The band is still getting crushed, though.
Yes, there's a version where the band clearly gets crushed. No one wants to see that one, though, right?
I feel like a recurring theme here is songs that I could not freaking stand when they were out, and songs I actually like in hindsight.
THIS song is absolutely and firmly in that category. God, I hated this song. I thought it was drivel.
Now, I appreciate the pop pleaure of the rapid-fire lyrics and what sounds like a Fine Young Cannibals sample running throughout the whole song. (As far as I can tell, it isn't, and I hope I didn't just spark a lawsuit).
This was their debut single, and not nearly their biggest hit (although it was top 5 around the world), but it's possibly their most enduring.
This band was, of course, a bigger hit in their home country of Australia than elsewhere - and this song was a hit there first. Since this was their debut song, their original video was a little lower budget...
So, a lot of the appeal of this song is that it's a duo and the song is immaculately produced. It sounds polished.
So how would a song with that production and that energy play live?
Surprisingly and exceptionally well. If you didn't like this song already, you likely will after this performance.
I remember HATING this song when it came out. I don't know why I did. It's a great song.
It was their first single in the United States, and it made it to #1 on the Billboard pop charts. In the UK, it was the FOURTH single off their SECOND album. Annie Lennox and David Stewart - the band and songwriters - recorded the song in their attic with Stewart producing - which, for a pop hit at the time, was unheard of.
But here's something you didn't know: the song almost didn't get a US release because RCA did not like that the song didn't have a chorus. Did you even notice the lack of a chorus? No, because people don't care. They just like interesting, catchy music.
And this song is interesting and catchy.
When performing the song live, the band, and later Annie Lennox solo, performed the song in a higher key and with a lot less monotone.
When inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, they were back to the original key, but still with a lot of emotion and inflection.
So, we're tempted to let AI write this classic post about a classic song that wasn't really a hit other than a short stint in MTV heavy rotation.
We're resisting.
The song refers to the phenomenom of the border blaster - a radio station in one country with a signal targeted towards another country but sitting where it is to subvert broadcast rules. Yes, there are a lot of Mexican border radio stations targeting the United States. Famed disc jockey Wolfman Jack built his career at a couple of border blaster stations.
Mexican radio stations have to play the Mexican national anthem twice daily and include some Spanish-language content, but for the most part, these border radio stations target the United States.
The song, written by the band, is fun but was probably a hit because of the bizarre video, which featured Stan Ridgway emerging from a bowl of beans. This song and its success allowed Ridgway to pursue a solo career soon after this single's run.
When I was a kid, I associated Simply Red with boring, overblown ballads.
But really, they made great dance music, too. Take this song from 2003 - which was something of a comeback for them in the UK and pretty much everywhere in the world that's not the US - where they had not had a hit since the late 1980 (and this song wasn't either).
The song was written by Mick Hucknall - who is the only original member of Simply Red (it's not just him, but it might as well be) and, shockingly, Sara Allen, Darryl Hall and John Oates, the writers of "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)". Paul Carrack does NOT get a credit for the obvious borrowing from "How Long"(presumably because he doesn't say "How long" in the song?). Sarah Brown provides additional vocals.
The song owes a large debt to this video, filmed near Rio de Janeiro, for its success.
Anyway, the song is fun and hot and not at all a boring, overblown ballad.
You all know by now I love including a live performance, and I chose their show in Cuba for this one. I don't think I've ever featured a Cuban performance. Well, anyway, it's a gooder.
This is a case where there is an obvious original and an obvious cover, and yet both are iconic.
But you weren't expecting THREE songs, were you?
In 1981, Falco released this song as a single in Germany and Austria. He really wanted it to be a B-side because he thought the bassline was too-"Super Freak"-y. He may have been right, but his record label insisted, and, well, they were right.
The song hir #1 in both countries.
So they all decided to release it broader. And it did really really well in Europe, and hit #11 in Canada in 1982.
It only made club hit status in the US, despite this amazing US-only video with terrific special effects. Don't worry, though - he had hits later.
We jump to early 1982, and struggling UK prog rock band After The Fire. In a last-ditch effort to stay together, they recorded a version of this song, and it was a hit everywhere Falco's version was not, except Canada, where not only were both hits, but - remember above, where I said Falco's version hit #11? ATF's version hit #12, the SAME WEEK.
Anyway, this was a more popular song in the US, but both are great.
Falco, who HATED the ATF version with a passion, would not agree with me that both are great.
ATF would break up in late 1982 - ON STAGE, during an opening gig supporting Van Halen - but they did reform in 2004, and yeah, they did perform this song live. And well.
But c'mon. Falco did live better, if just for the trenchcoats.
But wait. There's more. Around the time of ATF's breakup, Laura Branigan was recording and preparing for release her own version of the song, with a different translation and in a very different key.
Here she is lip-syncing to "Deep In The Dark" on American Bandstand. It did get a 1983 single release but went nowhere on the charts, and was quickly overshadowed by "Self Control".
"Dance The Night" is what you'd get if ABBA and Daft Punk had a baby and raised it on a strict diet of glitter and confidence. It's proof that movie soundtracks don't have to be as forgettable as your ex's birthday or as bland as tofu at a steakhouse.
Yep. It's gonna be that type of post today.
Mark Ronson crafted a production smoother than a buttered dolphin. The bass line struts around like John Travolta practicing for "Saturday Night Fever" in a zero-gravity chamber, while strings sweep in like the ghost of Barry White conducting an orchestra of velvet.
Dua's vocals are more polished than a Buddhist monk's head, showing growth that would make a redwood tree jealous. She's evolved faster than a Pokemon with a Fire Stone since "Future Nostalgia," and this track is her final evolution. The lyrics, ostensibly about dancing through your problems, are more layered than a Matryoshka doll wearing an onion costume.
The song, from the soundtrack to the Barbie movie, dominated summer 2023 like a benevolent earworm dictator, climbing to #6 on Billboard faster than a spider monkey hopped up on espresso. It's the rare movie tie-in that doesn't feel more forced than small talk in an elevator, actually enhancing both the film and Dua's artistic journey like some sort of pop music alchemy.
Remember when Pat Benatar was on MTV all the time?!
This song was a lot of the reason. The video itself tells a story of a 30-year-old teenage runaway leaving home to become a taxi dancer, only to lead a dance rebellion by her fellow taxi dancers and escaping the lifestyle.
No, really. That is the storyline of the video.
It was somewhat groundbreaking because it was one of the first music videos to feature dialog - not THE first, but the first well-known video. It is the Oreo to Phillip Bailey's "I Know" Hydrox.
The song was written by Mike Champan and Holly Knight - each of them hitmaking songwriters - and would become one of Benatar's celebrity-making early hits.
This song was a hit in 1983 and 1984. So, imaging the surprise when she appeared on Austin City Limits in 2024 and brought the SAME LEVEL of energy to the song 40 years after its initial release, at age 71.
I'm not overselling this performance. It's incredible.
I have always loved the song, and it's been in my drafts for five years. Today is the day.
It was the biggest hit of 1968, by far. It led year-end charts worldwide.
The song started out as "Hey Jules" in May 1968 - the titular Jules being Julian Lennon, son of John and Cynthia, who had separated in the wake of John's affair with Yoko Ono. Listen to it as not a love song, but as encouragement for a five year old kid who blames himself for his parents' divorce, and you will get it.
Did Paul McCartney ever admit to John Lennon that it was about his son? No. John thought it was about himself.
The seven-minute long magnum opus was, at the time, the longest #1 song in history (later eclipsed by "American Pie" by Don McLean, which was a minute longer, itself eclipsed by Taylor Swift's "All Too Well").
In 1998, I travelled to California with my then-wife for a training class.
The only tolerable radio station we could find was, no joke, Radio Disney.
This song was on super heavy rotation, so, shockingly, we got a quick affinity for the song.
It's clearly a strong attempt to have the word "Spice" repeated over and over in a song.
The song was the lead single from their 2nd album, SpiceWorld, and was a significantly lower performer than their previous songs. Still, it was a hit, and not a bad song (although there are some questionable lyrics).
But can we talk about the B-side? You see, they didn't have any songs left for the B-side, so Virgin Records hired songwriting/producing team Absolute to come up with something. The "something" they came up with was "Spice Invaders" - literally a generic dance beat over hot mics on all the Girls just talking.
It is both horrifyingly awful and amazing at once.
But back to "Spice Up Your Life". This was one of the two songs (the other OBVIOUSLY being "Wannabe") the group performed at the London Olympic closing ceremonies - their first performance together in over a decade.
They did leave out the line about the yellow man in Timbuktu.
So, rather than saying a million words about a song, I want to give you an epic song.
But I can't say nothing about it.
The song was released as a single in 1978 and was a huge UK hit and a minor US one (her first!). But the history of the song was much longer than that. It was originally recorded in 1975 and produced by Andrew Powell and David Gilmour (it is rumoured the latter is the subject of the song, but Bush, the songwriter, has not clarified that).
But she had begun writing songs in 1970, and this song was written in 1972.
Kate Bush was 13 when she wrote this song and 16 when she recorded it. I suppose her youth contributes to the innocent nature of the song - it exudes a sweetness that is rare in music, even in the 1970's.
And, to be fair, she was 19 when she made this video.
Despite the epic nature of this song, it is, at its core, Kate Bush and a piano. Never has that been more clear than her 1978 Christmas special.
Let's start by remembering that, when Jesus Christ Superstar, the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical, was first recorded, Yvonne Elliman was 18.
18.
And she sang it with such maturity, and such gravitas, that it quite literally stole the show.
This version is from the 1973 version of the movie, when she was 21.
The song is sung from the point of view of Mary Magdelene, and the "Him" is Jesus Christ himself, in the last couple of days before his crucifixion. Written by Rice (lyrics) and Webber (music), the song owes a huge debt to Mendelssohn's "Violin Concerto in E Minor", and if you don't believe me, go check out the 2nd movement about 5 minutes in.
And, more than fifty years after its initial release, it is a song that stands on its own as a classic.
But this wasn't the version I grew up with.
No, in fact, when I first saw Jesus Christ Superstar in the early 1990s, my initial reaction to that song was 1) "that's not Helen Reddy" 2) "this is WAY better than Helen Reddy!"
Now, before you go off and say "OMG, you are being so disrespectful", hear me out.
I was in the early 20s when I saw the musical. I had grown up with parents - especially a mother - who were very passionate about music - especially music they had either purchased on eight-track tape or via a Columbia House membership, or in the case of Helen Reddy's Greatest Hits album, BOTH - and therefore, I grew up with this Helen Reddy cover of the song (a song she initially did not like)....
.... which was actually a hit first, and a bigger hit. The single release of the Elliman version was a reaction to Reddy's - and both were legitimately hits.
Now, as I am older, I appreciate Helen Reddy - the queen of 70's pop - a lot more than I did when I was 20. Her music brings me back to road trips in the van, short trips to school... a simpler time. And her voice was spectacular - let's not pretend otherwise.
I do stand by my statement that the original is the best, though.
And Elliman is still around to perform the song, and she does. The song would be one of her most recognized and one of her biggest hits. And even in this version, where her voice has lost some of the higher register, the passion she still exudes gives me goosebumps.
