Get ready…

The music industry should miss Freddie Mercury.  As they try to invent “eccentric” performers like Lady Gaga, one of the truly eccentric performers has been gone for 20 years.

Mercury claimed to have written this song in “5 or 10 minutes” as a tribute to Elvis – and yes, you can certainly picture the King doing a song like this – and was allegedly recorded in 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, we lost Mercury far too soon when he became one of the highest-profile casualties of AIDS in 1991.  Queen managed to go on, though… Brian May and Roger Taylor kept the group alive through the ‘90s by doing concerts together as “Queen + (special guest lead singer)”.  In 2004, they committed to one lead singer – and picked merely one of the best ever in Paul Rodgers.  They worked together for 5 years before Rodgers, who never seems to stay in one group for too long, exited.

There have been off and on reports that Queen will restart in 2012 with American Idol Adam Lambert (who seems himself as a reinvention of Freddie Mercury, but is more like a dollar-store knockoff) – something that both sides have both denied and sort-of confirmed at various times. 

Of course, Lambert is more of the manufactured-eccentric that the music industry loves.  But he’ll never be Freddie Mercury, no matter how hard he tries.

I’m sure you’re surprised I noted this as Queen’s first Billboard #1 – but it’s true that  “Bohemian Rhapsody” never hit #1, either on its original 1976 release (#9) or its 1992 Wayne’s World-fueled re-release (#2). 

Tomorrow, a Canadian female singer who isn’t Céline Dion…

Other songs that reached #1 on February 23:
1991 – “All The Man That I Need” by Whitney Houston (her ninth, 2 weeks)
2002 – “Always On Time” by Ja Rule feat. Ashanti (his first, 2 weeks)

What DID they really really want?

They started as a response to the mid-‘90s boy-band craze in the UK.

A couple of producers put an ad in a trade magazine.  They were looking for 18-23 year old women who could sing and dance, and who brought a bit of attitude.  They got 400 responses.

On one level, of course, the Spice Girls succeeded – they sold millions of records, made tons of money, one of them married the most famous soccer player of our generation – but musically, what did they really accomplish?

This song.

That’s about it.  There’s probably as much of a cautionary tale about taking five strangers, throwing them in a studio, and telling them “go be famous” as there is a success story here.

After all, the Spice Girls barely made it 4 years before their first breakup… two more before their second… and never fully got the act together again.  Individually, they’re all famous, somewhat successful, and popular – but they never quite made the impact we thought they were destined for when “Wannabe” came out.

Sure, they did a lot.  But… again… what did they accomplish?

They’re all rich.  I guess that counts.

If you visit their website (linked above), you can read about their upcoming 2007-08 world tour… I suppose that says something, too…

Tomorrow, the first #1 from a band that accomplished a hell of a lot… and after having two rock legends as lead singers over the years, may be about to reinvent themselves with an American Idol up front…

Other songs that reached #1 on February 22:
1960 – “The Theme From ‘A Summer Place’” by Percy Faith & his Orchestra (their first, 9 weeks)
1975 – “Pick Up The Pieces” by AWB (Average White Band) (their first, 1 week)

Joined in progress… oops…

Ah, yes… Dolly Parton… big hair, big voice, big ambition, big… yeah, that joke’s been made a few million times.

Dolly Parton circa 1981 is roughly equivalent to Taylor Swift circa 2011 – only without Taylor’s modesty.  Dolly wasn’t even going to pretend – she wanted to own the world… which is why she made the effort in 1981 to do a pop single for a movie she was co-starring in.

It didn’t really work out exactly as she planned – while Dolly is (and always will be) a country icon, her pop success was limited mostly to this song and a couple of crossover duets.  That’s not a bad thing, as she’s still well-known and much-loved by fans of all genres of music.

And she’ll always have Dollywood.

Tomorrow, we spice up the blog with one of the more notorious pre-fab pop groups…

Other songs that reached #1 on February 21:
2004 – “Slow Jamz” by Twista feat. Kanye West & Jamie Foxx (his first, 1 week)
2009 – “Crack A Bottle” by Eminem feat. Dr. Dre & 50 Cent (his second, 1 week)

Seasons, and groups, change

The group we all heard as Exposé in 1988 isn’t the group that started in 1984.

They started in Miami as X-Posed – with three women you haven’t heard of as the singers.  This lineup, renamed Exposé, released “Point of No Return” in 1985 as a local dance single.  You also haven’t heard this version, probably.

In 1986, the original group was either fired or quit, depending on whose version you believe.  They went on to be part of the Will To Power album in 1988.  The new lineup, featuring the three women seen in the video, re-recorded “Point of No Return” and went on to complete the Exposure album.  And it’s that lineup that has pretty much been Exposé ever since.   There was one change as one of the singers developed a node on her vocal cord and was replaced in the early ‘90s, and the group took most of the ‘90s and early ‘00s off, but the 1986 lineup is the one doing reunion shows today.  They have even kept open the possibility of doing shows with a four-woman lineup including the replacement singer from the ‘90s.

Of course, if they hadn’t had to sue their producers and record label for a fair cut of the profits, you wonder if they’d have made it past Exposure.  Artists being cheated by their producers and/or labels… hmm… that never happens… tell me again why we should trust the record industry?

So I guess today’s moral is that seasons may change, but a successful music group lineup can last a long, long time…

See you tomorrow for a crossover country star, known for her big… voice, and one of her best-known pop hits…

Other songs that reached #1 on February 20:
1965 – “This Diamond Ring” by Gary Lewis and the Playboys (their first, 2 weeks)

What’d they say?

It’s all about the lyrics – the difficult-to-decipher lyric that has led inner children of all ages to giggle about douches running in the night.

Ironically, in the live version I linked to above, it’s clear exactly what Mann sang (which isn’t exactly what Bruce Springsteen wrote) – “revved up like a deuce”.   Springsteen’s original lyric was “cut loose like a deuce”… the reference is to a “deuce coupe” like the one the Beach Boys sang about back in 1963. 

Once you clear that up, it becomes obvious that the lyrics are pretty much incomprehensible…  really, you go read the lyrics and try to figure out just what the hell Springsteen was getting on about.   Calliopes crashing, a “go-cart Mozart”, “little Early-Pearly in his curly-wurly”?  Honestly?   If I thought Springsteen did drugs, I could at least justify the lyrics, but as far as I know, that’s not his thing.   It does make a good karaoke song if you’re bombed, though, as you can mumble just about anything and people will think you’re singing the song (especially if they’re bombed, too).

What’s most interesting, to me, is that this is the only #1 single Springsteen has ever written (to date).  All the coherent message songs he’s written, those never made the top.  This slightly psychedelic, poetic, off-beat composition?  It goes to #1.  Go figure.

Tomorrow, a girl group whose first version was fired two years after forming, and whose second version almost immediately scored a then-record four top 10 hits from their debut album…

Other songs that reached #1 on February 19:
1966 – “Lightning Strikes” by Lou Christie (his first, 1 week)
1972 – “Without You” by Nilsson (his first, 4 weeks)
1983 – “Baby, Come To Me” by Patti Austin with James Ingram (her first, 2 weeks)
2000 – “Thank God I Found You” by Mariah Carey featuring Joe and 98 Degrees (her fifteenth, 1 week)
2011 – “Black and Yellow” by Wiz Khalifa (his first, 1 week)

Kind of a hit…

The Buckinghams were a band out of Chicago that hit hard, hit fast, and disappeared completely.

Yeah, that’s about right.  “Kind Of A Drag” is an example of mid-‘60s “sunshine pop”, the upbeat, quick, easily singable form of pop music that had a brief moment between the Beatles and the Summer of Love.  The Buckinghams were one of the best at it, with 5 top-15 hits in 1967-68… and then they fizzled out as the music business changed.

The two leads continued as a duo for a while, which ended in the early ‘70s.

Then, in 1980, the legendary WLS radio was putting together a show for the 1980 ChicagoFest.  The Buckinghams decided to give it a shot, and played Navy Pier.

They’ve been touring ever since.  They’ve done more touring and released more music in the ‘00s than they did in the ‘60s – which, I think, proves that good music is good music whenever it was made.  And since the songs are short and uptempo, you can butcher them at your local karaoke bar and get off-stage quickly.  No, I haven’t done that.  But if I’m ever forced (at gunpoint) to sing karaoke, I have an out…

Tomorrow, a song whose lyrics you have absolutely, definitely, completely gotten wrong at some point in your life.

Other songs that reached #1 on February 18:
1956 – Two songs reached #1 on this date:
”Rock and Roll Waltz” by Kay Starr (her first, 7 weeks, Best Sellers in Stores chart)
”The Great Pretender” by The Platters (their first, 2 weeks, Top 100 and DJ charts)

I wasn’t expecting this…

For those of us who really weren’t paying attention (oops), you’d think a song by a hip-hop group titled “Ms. Jackson” was about a certain Indiana-based member of a famous singing family.

You’d be wrong.

OutKast’s “Ms. Jackson” is André 3000’s apology of sorts to Erykah Badu’s mother, Kolleen (who isn’t named Jackson) – an apology for “making [Badu] cry”, and a dissertation on how relationships go wrong.

The success of the single set the stage for the unusual Speakerboxx/The Love Below project, which was in no way, shape, or form an “OutKast” album, except by name.  The Love Below was an Andre 3000 solo album, and Speakerboxx was a Big Boi solo album.  To make the point even clearer, both men released singles nearly simultaneously (“The Way You Move” from Speakerboxx, “Hey Ya!” from The Love Below).  

Since then, the two members of OutKast have weaved in and out of each other’s work, with a new album supposedly coming this year.

For now, André 3000 appears to be happy being one of Gillette’s “Masters of Style”, along with actors Gael Garcia Bernal and Adrien Brody (who has a face that makes me want to punch it, and I’m non-violent, and I suspect that isn’t the reaction Gillette wanted).

Tomorrow, a Chicago band that hit quickly, broke up quickly, then reunited for a one-time event that’s lasted over 30 years…

Other songs that reached #1 on February 17:
1958 – “Sugartime” by The Maguire Sisters (their second, 4 weeks, Disk Jockey chart)
1962 – “Duke of Earl” by Gene “Duke of Earl” Chandler (his first, 3 weeks)

Yes, it’s by George Michael

This was only a Wham! single in the USA.  In the rest of the world, Columbia/Epic Records felt comfortable enough that George Michael’s name could sell records that they released it as a solo.

Ironically, Andrew Ridgeley (the other guy in Wham! – you know, the guy with the darker hair?) co-wrote this song, unlike most of the songs he was part of in Wham!.

As to why Columbia wanted to release this as a Wham! single, keep in mind that despite the success of “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” (or perhaps because of it), American audiences wouldn’t know who George Michael was.  European and Japanese audiences seemed to have no problem figuring it out, of course.

Also remember this was a year before Wham! broke up, two years before Michael’s duet with Aretha Franklin that really established him as a solo star Stateside, and many years before he was caught showing his… interests in a Beverly Hills sting operation.

Right now, Michael is recovering from a bout with pneumonia that affected his singing, but is expected to go back on the road this fall.

Tomorrow, a song whose title isn’t about the person you might think it is…

Other songs that went to #1 on February 16:
1957 – “Young Love” by Tab Hunter (his first, 8 weeks, Top 100 and DJ charts)
1980 – “Do That To Me One More Time” by The Captain And Tennille (their second, 1 week)

We’re all everyday people.

Man, do we need this song today.

In an America thisclose to being shredded on class lines (many of which are fueled by racial and gender divide), we all need a reminder that we’re just everyday people.

The irony, of course, is that Sly Stone was anything but an everyday person. 

He took his stage name from one of his early bands, The Stoners.   Indeed, Stone was – and is – dogged by addiction problems.  Ironically, the most recent headline on the family website is that Sly was released from rehab in January 2012.  Some things never change.

Stone’s work was generally more trippy and eclectic than this simple, understated request that “we got to live together” – a request the band lived with their very unusual (for their day) lineup that included blacks and whites, men and women.  It’s been said that the Black Panthers pressured Stone to drop the white musicians… he didn’t, of course, and clearly, the Panthers missed the message of “Everyday People”.  Then again, so have a lot of people over the years.

Maybe someday we’ll get it.  I’m not holding my breath.

Oddball sidebar: yes, the line “and so on, and so on, scooby doobie doo” is believed to have inspired a certain cartoon dog’s name (and, perhaps, the era inspired that dog’s stoned human sidekick – and please don’t tell me that Shaggy wasn’t comfortably numb).

Tomorrow, a song that was a solo hit in the UK, but a group hit in the USA, because the record label didn’t think the lead singer was well-known enough.

Other songs that reached #1 on February 15:
1975 – “You’re No Good” by Linda Ronstadt (her first, 1 week)
1986 – “How Will I Know” by Whitney Houston (her second, 2 weeks)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Of course, I had to find a song about love (OK, in this case it’s about sex, but it’s almost the same thing) for Valentine’s Day.

This was the first #1 for Usher Raymond (not that he generally uses his last name, he does spell it out in the lyrics of this single).  For many listeners, it was an introduction – he had released four singles off two albums before “Nice and Slow”, and hadn’t really made much of an impact.  This one, that hit the charts two weeks before Valentine’s Day, struck a nerve and marched straight to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

It turned out to be the launchpad for Usher’s career.  If this single hadn’t hit big, you have to wonder if his label would have kept trying – meaning we wouldn’t have heard the “Confessions” epic, the 7 subsequent #1 singles, Raymond v. Raymond, “OMG”… or Justin Bieber, who got his mainstream start when Usher took him under his wing.

OK, so not everything from Usher’s career has been positive.  I kid, I kid.

Happy Valentine’s Day… tomorrow, we look back a truly eccentric band, and lead singer…

Other songs that reached #1 on February 14:
1970 – “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again)/Everybody Is A Star” by Sly & The Family Stone (their second, 2 weeks)
1987 – “Livin’ On A Prayer” by Bon Jovi (their second, 4 weeks)
2004 – “The Way You Move” by Outkast feat. Sleepy Brown (Outkast’s third, 1 week)