14 June 2021 - Katy Perry ft Kanye West - E.T.

On this blog, we've had three Hall of Fame inductees - Nirvana, P!nk, and the first, Katy Perry.  When we inducted Katy Perry, she had only TWO albums released.

TWO.

We had so much material JUST from what she had released thus far, we left stuff OUT.  

This song, from her landmark 2nd album Teenage Dream (this version technically from Teenage Dream; The Complete Confection 2012 reissue), was one of those outtakes.  This, the fourth single from that album, was also her 5th #1 hit in the US, and the 4th from that album, making it (at the time) only the 7th album to achieve that milestone - it would go on to produce a 5th #1 single, only the second album to ever achieve that (Michael Jackson's Bad being the first).  (The Complete Confection would spawn a 6th #1, by the way)

So, on the strength of two albums, Katy Perry was a Hall of Famer in our eyes.  History has already been kind to both Katy Perry and to Teenage Dream.  And this collaboration with Kanye West is quite interesting and a bit of a departure from the rest of the album, taking a harsher edge tone.  

Katy still performs this song live - but this is one of the FIRST times she ever did.

11 June 2021 - Kesha ft. 3OH!3 - Blah Blah Blah

I feel like this blog has grown up with Kesha.  Our 3rd ever post - and my 2nd - was a Kesha song..... back when she was Ke-Dollar Sign-Ha.

This song, her second single, was a top 10 hit, but mostly off digital download, as it was a bit of an explicit song - "just turn around boy, and let me hit that" - and GOD FORBID a woman be as explicit as the men. 

Kesha herself co-wrote the song, as she has done with most of her music.  Her performance overshadowed any participation by 3OH!3 (whose Sean Foreman was also a co-writer), who had their biggest hit with this song as well.  

We know that, since these songs came out, that Kesha has had some troubles and some tribulations, which we have discussed extensively in other posts.  Because of all that, we're also still happy to have these songs and happy that Kesha is still making music.

10 June 2021 - Poppy - Eat

The best laid plans sometimes get disturbed by new releases.  Indeed, in this little review of the first 1000 posts, I had not intended to highlight Poppy, who isn't someone we've posted MUCH on this blog, but who has been an interesting and unusual force in the recording industry and performance art.  Not that she doesn't deserve the attention - she's been featured previously on this blog.  We just haven't found a place to slot her in more. There's a lot of guilty pleasures, folks!!!!  

However, I promised myself that I would post this at the soonest opportunity I could, as soon as it was released.  

Poppy first performed this song on the 63th GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony, unexpectedly debuting a new song as opposed to the song for which she was nominated.  She finally released it on Tuesday (June 8th, if you are reading this later) as part of the Eat EP, which is a sonic wonder in and of itself.   The song is an angry, appealing, noisy revelation.  

This did bump another post, but we will feature that at a later date.  Don't worry.  

9 June 2021 - Fleetwood Mac - Gold Dust Woman

A few years ago, we did a week of Fleetwood Mac posts.  

Several of those posts are the most popular we've ever written.  By a lot.  

Clearly, we leaned heavily on Rumors, but not just.  However, because of that, we had to leave out a few great songs that really deserved a highlight.

This song. which was recorded in the middle of the night in 1976 and features some unusual instruments, like breaking glass and an electric harpisicord.  It quickly became a classic and a signature Stevie Nicks tune. 

8 June 2021 - Mandy Moore - Candy

On this very blog, in 2012, my friend and former co-author Scott Colvin posted a surprising XTC cover as performed by Mandy Moore.  This song was actually one of the catalysts that sparked our OTHER blog, Totally Covered, but we didn't have that back then, so this is where he put it.  

My immediate internal reaction when I saw that was, "you mean that girl who sang 'Candy'?"

There is a large subset of you reading this who are a little surprised that the mom from This Is Us was not only a pop star - at 15! - but a peer of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera who was actually making the same kind of music.  And she was mentioned in the same breath as those huge stars, because her music was that catchy, and her voice was that strong - and still is.

So, big TV star Mandy Moore, who does XTC covers and classy folk-pop music now..... you might think she'd be embarrassed by this song now..... right?

Wrong. 

I've got to be honest.  When I started writing this, I expected to find an old performance of this song from year 2000 late night television - and I found a LOT of those.  I didn't expect to find this. This incredibly solid performance that brings a fair bit more soul to the song is from February 2020.  

7 June 2021 - Lorde - Perfect Places

Next week, we post our 1,000th blog entry.  Let's spend some time looking back on some of the more important posts on this blog.

Lorde has always been popular on this blog.  Our post about her song "Tennis Court" is the most popular by any solo artist on here.  You would have thought it would be a different song, but no.  Every Lorde post has done well, though.  

In 2017, Lorde released her long-awaited 2nd album, Melodrama.  She hasn't released anything since, despite the critical acclaim she received for songs like this, which was co-written by Lorde and Jack Antonoff.  

While this song didn't chart in the US, it was a minor hit worldwide... and it's an incredible, epic song.

Lorde performed this song live many times, in different versions.  In this version, she stripped it down, making it less epic and more intimate.  I almost like it better. 

4 June 2021 - Sheena Easton - Strut

This 1984 single, the lead single from her album A Private Heaven, was a huge hit almost everywhere in the world.... but not her native UK.  Go figure.  It was a departure from her more innocent love songs to a more adult, more suggestive sound - a sound she'd continue to pursue in a future collaboration with Prince.

I found early Sheena Easton to be boring, but 12-year-old Tony really enjoyed this song... and I still do.  Also, great, now you know how old I am.  

It seems noteworthy to say that she performed the song in a 1986 commercial in Japan while dressed as a geisha.