How did INXS become an afterthought on the US charts? The answer may surprise you.
This 1993 single, the lead one from their album Full Moon Dirty Hearts, featured a video that MTV would not air, because it had "controversial images" - specifically Gulf War images, something that was still pretty fresh in the American psyche.
It was, and is, still a great and exciting song. It is a true shame that it was ignored to the extent that it was.
Even though Michael Hutchence passed away in 1997, he still have time to give spirited live performances of this song. Here is the band, performing the song to an excited crowd in 1994.
This joke, co-written by and primarily performed by reality show dating star Flavor Flav, is about the paramedic response in predominantly black neighborhoods. It is not about police response - only paramedic/ambulance response.
I think a lot of people look at Flavor Flav is a joke because, well, the clocks, Flavor of Love's three seasons. Come on, man - just pick New York. However, he wrote and performed poignant songs like this one - and delivered the hard messages with a side of humor. It's somewhat brilliant, really.
Leo Graham and Paul Richmond, record producers, were nominated for a Grammy for this 1980 hit song, the biggest by The Manhattans for several years - their second and final trip to the Billboard top 5 (although they'd continue to be the R&B chart hitmakers they had been for more than a decade).
But hey, that's not the point of this post. The point is to make sure you know it's The Manhattans, and not Earth, Wind, and Fire, who perform this song. Yes, EWF has a song by the same name. It's not this song.
"Actually, today we're going to feature Ten Second Epic. Yeah, they're Canadian. Maybe I should have saved this for Maple Leaf March, but whatever. They have other songs."
"OK, sir, I am impressed. Good way to break the mold. Or do they spell it mould?"
"Good question. I'll have to ask all my favourite Canadians."
"Well, tell me about this song!"
"OK! This song was off their 2009 album Hometown, This video, for the third single from that album, was directed by Sean Michael Turrell, and centers around a guy asking his lady to forgive him for some ambiguous wrongdoing."
"Oh, I love ladies in videos. Anything else you need to tell me before I watch this?"
"My computer doesn't know what to do with the weird o-e thing and just drops it. So the links just say Pirate Stray Dog or something."
"(facepalm) OK, well, she did a video game soundtrack. The song you hear when you finish the game is really beautiful and quite possibly the most epic video game song ever written."
"What game was it?"
"Child of Light. By Ubisoft. Critics loved it and it's been released for just about every major gaming platform."
"Wait - that's an old game and it's all childhood stories."
"I mean... 2014, but it's still being released for new platforms."
"OK, that's cool. I suppose you're going to want to say something about the soundtrack and how Béatrice Martin wrote the whole soundtrack, not just for piano, but for symphony, and worked with the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra to record a good portion of these tracks?"
"Um... yeah. That's pretty much exactly what I was going to say."
The old people reading this are wondering who Dua Lipa is. So, let's set that up.
Dua Lipa started her professional life as an alt-pop artist a la Charli XCX. Somewhere along the way, she dropped the 'alt".
There. You know enough.
"Levitating" was a worldwide hit in 2021, peaking at #2 in the US and topping the charts elsewhere. Despite peaking at #2, it spent a LONG time at #2 - long enough to end up being the year end #1 single, according to Billboard - onyl the fourth song to ever accomplish that and the first in two decades.
It's also a damn catchy song, and a great disco throwback. It was time. This is version #3 of the song, a remix featuring DaBaby.
The first (original) and second (a remix by Missy Elliott and Madonna) were released on the same day, and they each got different official videos (as did that third version with DaBaby). Here is that original:
....and here is the Blessed Madonna remix. Yes, that's Missy Elliott in the video as well.
For me, this song about a woman in love with a gay man was my first introduction to the Hayden Triplets.
Even though the Haydens are widely associated with that dog, this song, as well as every other one from their 2nd album, Totally Crushed Out (which is amazing), was written by Anna Waronker, lead vocalist and frequent Beck backing band member.
Why this band isn't as big as Weezer is a question that is often asked. And I agree. They should be.
that dog is a band that is still together. Here they are, performing this song in 2019.
