Last year, I was feeling all boo hoo about the fact that no one, and I mean no one comes to our house on Halloween. Call it fear of strangers with candy (who might shove a razor blade in that Snickers bar, or snap off a hypodermic needle in that family size peanut butter cup), or, more realistically, it’s the fact that I live in a condo complex where the motto is “A place for the newlywed … and the nearly dead.” Yeah, there really aren’t any kids around here, so we just gave up buying candy for those non-existent trick or treaters. So, that leaves me with you, dear reader and lover of the ye olde Mix Six, to spoil you with musical treats. So grab a mug of bitches brew and get ready for a Mix Six Six Six for ‘09!
You can’t always start out a mix with a top of the hour cooker. Nope, sometimes you gotta dig a little deeper and find a song that signals the keynote of the mix in a “deep cut” kind of way. Sure, this tune by Whodini has a pretty long shelf life because, well, the title of this song pretty much guarantees that it’s going to end up on a Halloween mix. And look: it did! (more…)
As if you haven’t noticed, it’s Beatles Week here on Popdose. Hell, it’s Beatles Week all over the world. Well, far be it from me to stay away from any bandwagon, but as you know, I gotta give things a little bit of a twist. See, I could talk for days about the Beatles’ appearances on the Billboard Top 10. They hold a million records, too — “Hey Jude,” for example, was the first single in the history of the Hot 100 to enter the charts at #10, and stayed at the top for nine weeks, longer than any other Beatles single. But what can I really say about these songs that hasn’t been said before? So instead, I thought I’d present you with ten Beatles covers that appeared in (or at least hovered around) the Top 10. Okay, I’ll be stretching it a little: two of these songs were never recorded by the Beatles but were written by Paul and/or John. Still, I think it provides for a fun week. And as a little treat — every single song is available for download! (You can thank/curse me later.) Off we go with CHART ATTACK!: Beatles Edition!
10. Here Comes the Sun — Richie Havens (download) Peaked at #16 on 5/22/71
Okay, I have to admit that I’m cheating a bit here: a spot in this Top 10 legitimately belongs to Anne Murray and her cover of “You Won’t See Me,” which peaked at #8 in July of 1974. But we covered that song back in July, and I honestly couldn’t bear to talk about it again. So instead, we’ll talk about Richie Havens’ song, which is a live version taken from his album Alarm Clock and remains his only single to reach the Top 40. Havens’ version features his trademark bordering-on-frenetic rhythmic guitar work, and definitely takes the song in a different direction; sadly, the lead guitar riff that is featured so prominently in the original (both in the introduction and the chorus) is gone, but Havens’ gentle, assured voice gives this version its own kind of peace.
9. Goodbye — Mary Hopkin (download) Peaked at #13 on 5/31/69
In 1968, an 18-year-old Welsh singer named Mary Hopkin appeared on the British talent television show Opportunity Knocks. She sang “Turn, Turn, Turn” and won the competition. Twiggy happened to be watching the show that night, and called Paul McCartney to tell him about this fabulous new singer. The next Monday, Hopkin was in the studio with McCartney, recorded eight songs in a day and ended up with a contract offer at Apple Records. Her first single “Those Were the Days” (produced by Macca and recorded in English, French, German, and Italian) reached #1 in the UK and #2 in the US. Its catalog number was APPLE 2, behind APPLE 1, “Hey Jude.”
It was her follow-up single, “Goodbye,” that gives us a somewhat more direct Beatles connection — in addition to production, Paul also wrote the song (though, as with all songs at that point in time, it was credited to Lennon/McCartney). The 10th single released on Apple, it only reached #13 here but made it to #2 in the UK — held back from the #1 spot by “Get Back.”
I think “Goodbye” is a simple, sweet and charming little ditty. Hopkin’s vocal is pure and clean, and the percussion is quite charming. Paul’s demo, however, has a charm all its own, and in many ways, I prefer it to Hopkin’s version.
Here’s a promotional video for “Goodbye,” featuring Hopkin and McCartney in the studio. And if all that wasn’t enough, I found an absolutely stunning cover on YouTube. Check it out!
It’s been more than 25 years since Vanessa Williams was crowned the first black Miss America. But once nude pictures of the former photographer’s assistant were published without her consent in Penthouse magazine in the summer of ‘84, she was forced to relinquish the title. After all this time, the question remains: whatever happened to Bob Guccione?
Williams, of course, bounced back quickly from the scandal, scoring first as a singer with pop-R&B albums like The Right Stuff (1988) and The Comfort Zone (1991), and the hit ballads “Save the Best for Last” and “Colors of the Wind.” She then transitioned into acting, starring on the big screen in Eraser (1996) and Soul Food (1997) and earning a Tony nomination for Into the Woods. Since 2006 she’s played over-the-top villain Wilhelmina Slater on TV’s Ugly Betty, but if the Ritalin-deficient rhythms of that sitcom have you reaching for the remote, you may appreciate the subtler approach of her latest record, The Real Thing (Concord).
It’s Williams’s first album of (mostly) original, non-holiday material since 1997’s Next, and as she says in the liner notes, “My initial musical direction for this Concord CD kept morphing from Brazilian … to torch songs, big band and R&B.” All four styles show up on The Real Thing, along with four different producers, but Williams has the confidence and soft touch necessary to pull it off, not to mention that the album’s overall adult-contemporary sheen smooths out any and all bumps in the road connecting the various genres.
The track that best sums up the LP is a cover of Barbra Streisand’s “Lazy Afternoon” (1975) — The Real Thing is “grown folks’ music” for a do-nothing summer afternoon, something to put on in the background as the clouds drift past and you relax before hosting a dinner party. And guess what? The Real Thing is perfect background music for that occasion too! Ask for it by name at your local Starbucks, hotel bar, and/or smooth-jazz station, but ask gently — Vanessa’s trying to set a mood here, after all.
That’s meant as a compliment. At this point in her career, Williams has nothing left to prove; she can handle being the last thing on your mind as you coordinate table settings or order a latte. So even if the tempo rarely rises above mid- and the temperature remains a safe 98 degrees throughout, she made the album she wanted to make. The restraint pays off with the breezy charm of songs like “Loving You,” a jazzy slow-burner written by Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds and Carole Bayer Sager; the soft-rock track “Just Friends,” another ‘Face composition that also features his backing vocals; and “The Real Thing,” a Latin-flavored Stevie Wonder tune first recorded by Sergio Mendes in 1977. Wonder’s presence is also felt on “October Sky,” a duet with Javier Colon, who invokes the Motown legend’s effortless charisma.
Confidence and charm can’t rescue “I Fell In,” which sounds like it was discovered in a pile of rejected soundtrack ballads from the ’80s, and there’s nothing here that comes close to Williams’s smokin’ 1991 cover of the Isley Brothers’ “Work to Do” — which turned the original’s sexism on its ear — but her creamy vocals elevate even the weakest tracks on The Real Thing. A quarter-century after it looked like she’d become a footnote to pop-culture history, Vanessa Williams has proven she’s the real thing too.
Many thanks to Reader Jeff (an old pal from my Rutgers days) for reminding me about the time Uncle Donnie was invited up on stage at a D’Angelo show to play tambourine. Well, he wasn’t really invited; he just kinda wandered up there. But according to Jeff, Donnie had some mad percussion skills, so much so that D’Angelo didn’t notice him until the encore. Jeff also mentioned the air in the arena was thick with the scent of the stuff we used to smell coming out of “Boner” Bonaski’s room on the weekends. Anyway, Uncle Donnie recently had some words for D’Angelo, and I faithfully reprint them here. – RS
TO: D’Angelo
FROM: Don Skwatzenschitz
RE: Career advice
Nine years? Could it really be nine years since you dropped Voodooon us, made everyone who heard you a fan, wowed everyone who saw you live with one of the great soul tours of the last two or three decades, excited all the women who thought they were seeing you naked in that video (including Mitzi, my wife—you remember her, don’t you? Five-three, pink and blue floral housecoat, loves cooking with G-13)? Nine years? Halley’s Comet might not come around as often as you release records, but at least we know when we’ll see it again.
That Spin magazine article from last year got us all worried about your apparent drinking problem, but it also gave us hope. Half an album nearly done, maybe even a little more, and progress being made toward completing it? It reminded us you were out there, somewhere, working through your problems, yes, but also creating again. It whetted the appetite, but that’s all. And hell, Maxwell is even back with a new single, a tour, and (allegedly) an album on the way. He also looks like he’s taken to wearing a Mario Van Peebles mask around all day, every day.
Nine years? Time to get back in the game, buddy. But if you don’t want to, I understand. I have some alternatives for you, though. What do you think about the following? (more…)
Paul Simon And Friends: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song (2009, Shout Factory) purchase from Amazon: DVD | Blu-ray
I’d somehow blocked this out before sitting down to watch Paul Simon and Friends, but I think my earliest musical memory relates to Simon — specifically, of picking up There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, seeing the Warner Bros. logo on the album, putting it on the turntable expecting to hear some Bugs Bunny music, and being really pissed off when I got something completely different.
The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that this experience is what kept me from caring about Paul Simon’s music until I was in my 20s. I mean, sure, I had my Columbia Record House copy of Graceland just like everyone else, but before the mid ’90s, my interest in his work began and ended with “You Can Call Me Al,” which is now an almost physically painful admission — Capeman aside, I don’t think he’s ever released anything I couldn’t cherrypick at least two wonderful songs from, and even though I’m fairly confident that his best (or at least most approachable) music is behind him, he’s written some of my all-time favorites.
Which isn’t to say I’m not aware of his many flaws, one of them being his nigh-total lack of stage presence. Having seen him live, I can tell you that if you’ve watched a Paul Simon concert video and thought to yourself, “his shows can’t possibly be this boring in person,” you were wrong, because they totally, totally are — which is most of why I wasn’t expecting much going into Paul Simon and Friends, and part of why it ended up being such a wonderfully pleasant surprise. (more…)
Do you have about 45 minutes to spare? If so, you won’t want to spend it watching Neil Diamond … Hello Again, a television special that aired on CBS in 1986. (As you probably know already, we can apply the following formula here: CBS + 1986 = a world completely devoid of irony.) Our friends at Seventies Saturdays have just uploaded all five parts of this truly, truly awful/awesome special.
Part 1 “highlights”: Neil’s horrible song/music video “Headed for the Future,” which will forevermore be my answer whenever I rhetorically ask myself, “Why did Neil Diamond get a bum rap in the ’80s?” It’s all awful: the lyrics, the choreography, the Diamond. And how is it that I swear I hear Auto-Tune at 3:34? (more…)
Hi, everybody! This week’s CHART ATTACK! takes us back a whopping 22 years, and wow, do I feel old, considering I remember hearing just about every single one of these songs on the radio when they first came out. The songs this week aren’t that bad, actually, but as you’ll soon see, almost all of them are linked together in…well…just about the worst way possible. Stay tuned as we review the Top 10 from April 11, 1987!
“The Finer Things” is just one of the many collaborations between Winwood and his writing partner for most of the ’80s, Will Jennings. Jennings co-wrote almost all of Winwood’s hits, including “While You See a Chance,” which clearly inspired the opening of this song — all synths, baby! I’m usually anti-synth, but if it’s Steve Winwood, I’m okay with it. “The Finer Things” was the second biggest hit from Back in the High Life, peaking at #8.
Jennings, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, is quite the accomplished songwriter: in addition to his work with Winwood, he wrote/co-wrote songs such as “Tears in Heaven,” “Up Where We Belong” and “My Heart Will Go On.” There’s a nice interview with him over at Songfacts.
I had no idea I had ever heard this song before until I reached the chorus, although to be fair, it’s not like I can really remember the verses of “Everybody Have Fun Tonight,” either. While this song did make it to the Top 10 (peaking here at #9), it wasn’t a strong enough hit to make the overall Hot 100 for 1987. I do like this mention of the song over at Wikipedia, though (emphasis mine): “The single was a hit for Wang Chung in the United States, and it provided the band with their second (and so far, last) top-10 hit.” Isn’t that cute? Who knows, everybody — Wang Chung may be making a comeback! Simple Minds, you’re on deck!
Not much to say about “Let’s Go!” — It follows the same format as their previous hit: stupid lyrics, catchy chorus. But, uh, hey: if you liked Kids Incorporated, this should be a happy day for you. They covered it!
8. Midnight Blue — Lou Gramm
I remember what my father said. He said, “Son, life is simple. It’s either cherry red, or midnight blue.”
What the hell does that mean? Is that really the best advice you got from your father? ‘Cause that’s shitty advice. Really shitty advice. It’s just unhelpful. Is there some double entendre I’m missing here?
It’s no secret that tribute albums and charity compilations can be hit-or-miss affairs at best. In the case of the latter, all you can really do is be happy that you’re supporting a good cause, and hope that the music is more hit than miss. Two important charity albums have recently appeared, and when I say important, I don’t just mean for the causes they’re helping, but also for the virtual who’s who of contemporary indie artists that has contributed tracks to them. If you could somehow assemble all of the buzz that these artists have collected, you could light the universe. In other words, to the naked eye, it’s a music blogger’s dream.
The Red Hot Organization has been using pop culture to fight the good fight against AIDS since 1989. They have released 14 albums together with related television shows and media events, and have raised $7 million to date. Their most recent project is called Dark Was the Night (4AD Records). It’s an enormous 30-song effort that has been curated by brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner of the National. In addition to a track from the National, contributors include Bon Iver, The Decemberists, Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, Grizzly Bear, Andrew Bird, Feist, and a host of others.
Let me say right up front that apparently Bon Iver can do no wrong. From Justin Vernon’s nearly perfect debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, to his recently released Blood Bank EP, and now, this album’s best track “Brackett, WI,” there have been few, if any, missteps. Vernon is also involved here in an intriguing collaboration with Aaron Dessner called “Big Red Machine.”
Sufjan Stevens’ contribution, “You Are the Blood,” reminds me that it’s been too long since we’ve had new music from him. Antony and Bryce Dessner duet on a beautiful version of the traditional “I Was Young When I Left Home.” Yes, Feist is here, combining with Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie on “Train Song,” and with Grizzly Bear on “Service Bell.” (more…)
Welcome, everyone, to another installment of Bottom Feeders, your weekly look at the Billboard Hot 100 chart from #41 down during the 1980s. This week we tackle the first half of the letter I, and you should really pay attention this go-round since this might be the first time in all these 42 weeks that I can’t say even one song is bad. We’ve had many weeks stand out as really good, but I’d venture to say this is the top week overall. I guess I’ll find out in the comments if you agree.
Janis Ian
“Under the Covers” — 1981, #71 (download)
Though Janis Ian (”At Seventeen”) had been releasing albums and singles since 1966, “Under the Covers” was only her third song to hit the Hot 100. It was also her last. Ian is an outspoken critic of the RIAA and believes that downloading and enjoying a track for free will actually help album sales in the long run. Rock on, Janis.
Icehouse
“We Can Get Together” — 1981, #62 (download)
“No Promises” — 1986, #79 (download)
“My Obsession” — 1988, #88 (download)
“Touch the Fire” — 1989, #84 (download)
Show of hands — how many of you knew Icehouse had hits other than 1988’s “Electric Blue”? Okay, now keep your hand up if you knew they had a Hot 100 hit way back in 1981. Not too many, huh? Those of you who followed the Australian charts in the ‘80s probably knew, since Icehouse were one of the biggest Aussie acts of the decade. But in the U.S., after “We Can Get Together,” “No Promises” was their next charting single a mere five years later. It’s a shame — Icehouse are a severely underappreciated band here in the States. Their early sound is much more new wave than the slicked-up pop of the later years, but both periods yielded many quality tunes. “My Obsession” should’ve been huge: it was the follow-up to “Electric Blue,” which was cowritten by John Oates and reached #7, yet even with an almost perfect sing-along chorus, it couldn’t muster enough strength to make it into the Top 40.
Stevie truly is a wonder, but did you know his music has the power to generate profits not only for his record label but also his fans? When a friend of mine saw Mr. Stevland Morris perform in Chicago on September 11, 2007, a fellow audience member came up to him and said, “I’ve been watching you dance this whole time, and I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate the energy you’re giving off. Here’s $100.” Boom! He didn’t even have to sleep with the guy! All he had to do was shake some positive vibes out of his moneymaker and suddenly he was one Benjamin richer.
This week’s featured concert took place one week earlier in September of ‘07, when Wonder played at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, California, a venue where the hard-luck message of “Living for the City” must’ve really hit home. Wonder was touring for the first time in more than a decade; his most recent album, A Time to Love, was already two years old by the fall of ‘07, so for this two-hours-plus performance he focused on material from the ’70s, when he was at his creative peak. I still think Fulfillingness’ First Finale (1974) is sorely underrated and Songs in the Key of Life (1976) is overlong and overrated, but I won’t argue with anyone who wants to praise Innervisions (1973) to the high heavens.
One of Wonder’s backup singers on his 2007 tour was Aisha Morris, his daughter, who made her recording debut as a baby on Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely.” In April she turns 34.
It’s been more than 25 years since Vanessa Williams was crowned the first black Miss America. But once nude pictures of the former photographer’s assistant were published without her consent in Penthouse magazine in the summer of ‘84, she was forced to relinquish the title. After all this time, the question remains: whatever happened to Bob Guccione?
TO: D’Angelo
Paul Simon And Friends: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song (2009, Shout Factory)
Do you have about 45 minutes to spare? If so, you won’t want to spend it watching Neil Diamond … Hello Again, a television special that aired on CBS in 1986. (As you probably know already, we can apply the following formula here: CBS + 1986 = a world completely devoid of irony.) Our friends at 
Show of hands — how many of you knew Icehouse had hits other than 1988’s “Electric Blue”? Okay, now keep your hand up if you knew they had a Hot 100 hit way back in 1981. Not too many, huh? Those of you who followed the Australian charts in the ‘80s probably knew, since Icehouse were one of the biggest Aussie acts of the decade. But in the U.S., after “We Can Get Together,” “No Promises” was their next charting single a mere five years later. It’s a shame — Icehouse are a severely underappreciated band here in the States. Their early sound is much more new wave than the slicked-up pop of the later years, but both periods yielded many quality tunes. “My Obsession” should’ve been huge: it was the follow-up to “Electric Blue,” which was cowritten by John Oates and reached #7, yet even with an almost perfect sing-along chorus, it couldn’t muster enough strength to make it into the Top 40.
Stevie truly is a wonder, but did you know his music has the power to generate profits not only for his record label but also his fans? When a friend of mine saw Mr. Stevland Morris perform in Chicago on September 11, 2007, a fellow audience member came up to him and said, “I’ve been watching you dance this whole time, and I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate the energy you’re giving off. Here’s $100.” Boom! He didn’t even have to sleep with the guy! All he had to do was shake some positive vibes out of his moneymaker and suddenly he was one Benjamin richer.