Just WOW. 25 years. I was a full-fledged adult when this song came out, for goodness' sake.
I unashamedly and unabashedly admit that I have loved this song from the first time I heard it. and I especially loved the MTV Music Awards re-do of it, lip synching and all.
Pop music gets very little respect from music fans. For those of us who like it, it's just a fun confection, an enjoyable lark. From "real" music fans, pop music is disposable, meaningless, without artistic merit. The equivalent of Stephen King or Dean Koontz in the fiction genre. Well, you know what? I dig King and Koontz! And I dig pop music too!
There are numerous pop songs that just strike me as pop confection perfection. And this is my list of some of the best of the best.
1. Misery - Maroon 5 - This group, headlined by The Voice's Adam Levine, is one of the most successful acts at crafting pure pop perfection. Usually, they include a little profanity to add a little street cred. But their songs are just little balls of perfectly crafted song candy. Misery is one of the best, making an abusive relationship sound fun and bouncy! Yay! I'm in misery!
2. Express Yourself - Madonna - It would be impossible to narrow down Madonna's discography to find the best, most perfect pop song. That's why I didn't, and there is more than one. This one isn't just perfect, it has alternate versions that are equally perfect! And that shouldn't be possible!
3. Mony Mony - Billy Idol - This is an eighties version of a sixties song, that is largely meaningless. But it is absolute perfection in what it sets out to do: set dance floors on fire, and make people happy for no reason. Its recent inclusion in a Nissan Sentra ad is just proof. 4. Steal My Sunshine - Len - Usually, when an act samples parts of another song to put into their own, the result is derivative, uninspired and something of a retread. In this case, one-hit-wonder Len achieves pop perfection, using Andrea True's More, More, More disco tune as a foundation.
5. Just Can't Get Enough - Depeche Mode - You can tell when even an "alternative" band has become mainstream when their old tunes not only get mixed in on "80s and More!" radio stations, but get put into GAP ads. This song might be from a band with a heavy artistic cred, but the song is a pop meringue.
6. Vogue - Madonna - Leave it to Madonna to take an underground gay dance craze, and turn it into mainstream success. And then, make it enough of a classic that if you played it on any dance floor 20+ years later, it would still draw a crowd.
7. Waterloo - ABBA - I am of the opinion that ABBA's catalog--almost all of it--could be released today, and be successful. Many, if not most of their hit songs are masterpieces of pop music. Songs like Ring, Ring and On and On and On should be re-released, just to see what happens. But Waterloo, to me, is a perfect pop song. 8. A Little More Love - Olivia Newton-John - This one might seem like a stretch, but hear me out. Pay attention to Olivia's change-ups in melody. Notice that she changes the note structure in each lead-in to the chorus, and each chorus itself. Much like Adam Levine does in Maroon 5, Olivia plays with the notes, going all over the place, but always in tune, and sounding perfect.
Okay, kids, that's my bit for this week. Hope you had a great Easter and/or Walking Dead finale weekend! Have a great week, and happy Monday!
Still the reigning champions! Image from source, Billboard
This is a really interesting list (and there are several others on Billboard's site), compiling the top 100 acts of Billboard Hot 100, of all time. What's cool to me is seeing where modern acts, acts from my youth (1970s and 80s) and all-time greats stack up. The Beatles, no surprise, are still number one. But looky there, Madonna is number 2! And there are some real surprises in there. Would you have thought that Paula Abdul would make such a short list? Or Tony Orlando and Dawn? The Captain & Tenille? Yup!
Pop music gets very little respect from music fans. For those of us who like it, it's just a fun confection, an enjoyable lark. From "real" music fans, pop music is disposable, meaningless, without artistic merit. The equivalent of Stephen King or Dean Koontz in the fiction genre. Well, you know what? I dig King and Koontz! And I dig pop music too!
There are numerous pop songs that just strike me as pop confection perfection. And this is my list of some of the best of the best.
1. Misery - Maroon 5 - This group, headlined by The Voice's Adam Levine, is one of the most successful acts at crafting pure pop perfection. Usually, they include a little profanity to add a little street cred. But their songs are just little balls of perfectly crafted song candy. Misery is one of the best, making an abusive relationship sound fun and bouncy! Yay! I'm in misery!
2. Express Yourself - Madonna - It would be impossible to narrow down Madonna's discography to find the best, most perfect pop song. That's why I didn't, and there is more than one. This one isn't just perfect, it has alternate versions that are equally perfect! And that shouldn't be possible!
3. Mony Mony - Billy Idol - This is an eighties version of a sixties song, that is largely meaningless. But it is absolute perfection in what it sets out to do: set dance floors on fire, and make people happy for no reason. 4. Steal My Sunshine - Len - Usually, when an act samples parts of another song to put into their own, the result is derivative, uninspired and something of a retread. In this case, one-hit-wonder Len achieves pop perfection, using Andrea True's More, More, More disco tune as a foundation.
5. Just Can't Get Enough - Depeche Mode - You can tell when even an "alternative" band has become mainstream when their old tunes not only get mixed in on "80s and More!" radio stations, but get put into GAP ads. This song might be from a band with a heavy artistic cred, but the song is a pop confection.
6. Vogue - Madonna - Leave it to Madonna to take an underground gay dance craze, and turn it into mainstream success. And then, make it enough of a classic that if you played it on any dance floor 20+ years later, it would still draw a crowd.
7. Waterloo - ABBA - I am of the opinion that ABBA's catalog--almost all of it--could be released today, and be successful. Many, if not most of their hit songs are masterpieces of pop music. Songs like Ring, Ring and On and On and On should be re-released, just to see what happens. But Waterloo, to me, is a perfect pop song. 8. A Little More Love - Olivia Newton-John - This one might seem like a stretch, but hear me out. Pay attention to Olivia's change-ups in melody. Notice that she changes the note structure in each lead-in to the chorus, and each chorus itself. Much like Adam Levine does in Maroon 5, Olivia plays with the notes, going all over the place, but always in tune, and sounding perfect.
Okay, kids, that's my bit for this week. Hope you had a great Easter and/or Walking Dead finale weekend! Have a great week, and happy Monday!
What exactly is The Lost 80s? Its those songs from the 80s that are most often overlooked, even by "We play the 80s and MORE!" stations. These are songs that were maybe the second or third hit song by a minor artist. The second hit by a group that is now regarded as a "one hit wonder" because everyone forgets the second one. They're the third- or fourth-tier hits by groups much more famous for other songs. And they're songs that just somehow got lost in the shuffle. What they are not is the number one song then and now in retrospectives. They're not the main ones, the songs you remember. And they're not the songs that really weren't hits in their day, but get played all the damned time now (I Melt With You, Turning Japanese, Just Can't Get Enough, etc., etc. No, this is The Lost 80s:
1. No Myth by Michael Penn - Great song, haven't heard it much, even though he's Sean Penn's brother and Madonna's ex-brother-in-law.
2. Lost in Emotion by Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam - Lisa Lisa was popular for about 10 minutes in the eighties, enough time for a string of four or five hits (sometimes with Full Force).
3. Touch Me (I Want Your Body) - by Samantha Fox - Sam Fox had a similarly small run of hits in the 80s, with confections like this one.
4. Love is Like a Rock by Donnie Iris - A minor hit by a minor artist, but a fun one, nonetheless.
5. Crazy in the Night by Kim Carnes - A terrific song by an underrated singer, who is much more famous for Bette Davis Eyes.
6. State of Shock by Michael Jackson & Mick Jagger - These two singers couldn't be more famous. But ther duet is relegated to the dustbin of history.
7. Torture by The Jacksons - Not coincidentally from the same album as the one above, The Jacksons are not remembered for this one, which has a video that is torturous!
8. Come as You Are by Peter Wolf - The J. Geils Band was very famous. Its lead singer had a pair of hits including this one, but that's about it.
9. One of the Living by Tina Turner - Everyone knows that Tina Turner was in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and had a hit song We Don't Need Another Hero from it. But who remembers this one?
10. C'est la Vie by Robbie Nevil - This was one of the many two-hit wonders of the 80s, this one being his more successful. In my next edition, I'll include the other one.
And that will wrap it up for this week's edition of Blast from the Past.I hope you all got enough out of your weekend. It always seems to become part of the past too quickly, doesn't it? Happy Moonday!
I knew when Donna Summer died this week, I would definitely dedicate Blast from the Past to her. And today, Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees died. Sad, two disco legends gone. But I've done a recent BftP on Saturday Night Fever, partly inspired by the fact that Robin Gibb was ill. So, we're sticking with Donna. Both acts were plagued by having been so definitive of the disco era. Though they've had careers since, they both had a fallow period, and neither regained their former glory. But Barry's still around, and sadly, Donna is no more. But her music was so fun, so full of life, we will always have that to remember her by.
Those are the big ones. There were countless other dance hits that didn't make the top 40, and some more minor charting tunes. But this post is long enough already! Thanks and RIP, Donna Summer. For the rest of us, have a great Monday!
