Music history was made on this day in 1968. Otis Redding’s Dock of the Bay reached #1 on the charts, making it the first ever posthumous single in the United States. Redding died in a plane crash just 3 months earlier in December of 1967. It was released on January 8, 1968.
The song was written by Otis and guitarist Steve Cropper (of Booker T & The MG’s). Otis started writing the lyrics in August 1967 while staying on a rented houseboat in California. It was there where Redding started writing the lines, “Sittin’ in the morning sun, I’ll be sittin’ when the evening comes” and the song’s first verse, under the abbreviated title “Dock of the Bay.” In November of 1967, he completed the song in Memphis with Cropper and recorded it.
Allmusic states: Redding’s restrained yet emotive delivery is backed by Cropper’s succinct guitar playing. The song is somewhat different in style from most of Redding’s recordings. While discussing it with his wife, Redding said that he wanted it to “be a little different”, to “change his style”.
There were concerns that the song had too much of a pop feel. There were discussions of contracting the Stax gospel group the Staple Singers to do some background vocals. This never did happen. Otis considered the song “unfinished” and planned to finish it, but he died before he could do so.
After Redding’s death, Cropper mixed “Dock of the Bay” at Stax Studios. He added the sound of seagulls and crashing waves. This was was Otis had requested. He did so because those were the sounds he had heard staying on the houseboat.
Happy 67th Birthday to Sharon Stone! She has been in some fantastic films including Basic Instinct, Total Recall, Above The Law, The Quick and the Dead, Action Jackson and, of course, Casino.
In the Blu-ray commentary, Sharon relates the story of how she came to be in the film. She says her first two auditions for Martin Scorsese ended up being cancelled for various mundane reasons (such as that Scorsese was held up by another meeting) and Stone’s paranoia convinced her that he was blowing her off. When the director’s people contacted her to try it a third time, she turned them down and went out to dinner with a friend instead. Scorsese tracked her down and showed up at the restaurant where she was dining to make a personal appeal.
The soundtrack to the film contains some classic songs, and I could have chosen any of them, but since it is Sharon’s birthday, I decided on the song that plays when her character, Ginger, meets the eyes of Robert Deniro’s character, Ace. From across the casino floor, as they eye each other, Mickey and Sylvia’s Love Is Strange plays.
For many, the song will forever be connected with Dirty Dancing, but for me, it is Casino.
If you are looking for something to make you chuckle, laugh or guffaw, may I suggest a book I just finished? The Naked Truth by Leslie Nielsen.
If you have been a reader of this blog for awhile, you are aware of my silly sense of humor. Airplane!, Top Secret, and the Naked Gun Trilogy are among my favorite laugh out loud movies. Airplane! was the catalyst that threw Leslie Nielsen into many comedic roles.
If you take a look at the top of the book’s cover, it says that the book tells Leslie’s “Incredible Life Story – Uncensored, Uninhibited, and COMPLETELY MADE UP! The book reads just like Leslie is doing a voiceover in the Naked Gun films. It is one crazy line after another. Nielsen “offers a zany account of his life and career, providing outrageous anecdotes about his four decades in show business, famous people, and more.”
One reviewer states: This is two books in one- a parody and honest retelling of one’s life couched in blatant lies.
Sewn into this fabric of fantasy is about 25% truth-telling. The lies ares so obvious that it is not difficult to detect. Yet, within the blatant hyperbole there is much to learn about the underpinnings of an actor’s mind and motivation.
I guess hindsight gives everyone the right to distort the facts. Who cares- as long as it makes for a good story, and this book does.
I had to get the full book at the library, because the audio book was abridged. I wanted to read the whole thing after hearing the shortened version.
All in all, it was a funny way to relax and waste some time without having to think too much. Who doesn’t need that now and then?
One week. That’s all I did. One week and I am exhausted!
As she recovered from surgery, I took on all the responsibilities of my wife for one entire week. I look back in amazement. I just don’t know how she does it. How does she manage the calendar that she keeps while I am at work? I don’t even know!
Before I explain just what a crazy week it was let me share an incident to set the stage for you.
The first night the kids are home, I am getting them ready for bed. I administer the bedtime medications, I get them in pajamas, we brush teeth, etc… From my bedroom, my wife calls from the bed,
“What are you doing?!”
“I’m getting the kids ready for bed, why?” I reply.
“Well, that’s not the way I get them ready!!!” she says.
As she laid in bed, it drove her stir crazy to know that she wasn’t doing the bedtime routine! She likes things done a certain way, and she hates to not to be able to do it THAT WAY.
So just what did my week entail? What rollercoaster ride of craziness was I on for a week? Here’s just a peak…..
Wednesday of last week the kids came home. Without time to even acclimate to this new schedule, I was caught up in it with no time to look back! I guess I never knew just how much she juggled each week.
One night there is dance class, which runs well past dinner time. So then there has to be dinner before bedtime because tomorrow is a school day. Bedtime is later on dance night. It isn’t easy to fit it all in unless you drive through somewhere.
The next day, you drive to school and drop off. You squeeze a few little things in before you are off to the school again to pick up. From school, you have time to grab lunch in time for Occupational and Physical therapy. Then you are finally off to get home by mid afternoon. Bath’s before bed on this night, followed by story time, teeth brushing and bedtime.
Chances are there is a doctor appointment the next day, so you are up early and hurrying around to get yourself ready as well as the kids. If one is staying with Nana, you drop off there and head down to the appointment. Maybe it is the ENT, the sleep doctor, or a visit to the primary care doc. You never know.
The next day you are at the mercy of when the grocery shoppers have finished your order. Hop in the car and go to the designated spot, text them that you are there and wait for them to bring the groceries out. Drive back home and unload the groceries. Clean out the fridge and freezer so you can put what needs to be cold in there. Maybe you get a minute to enjoy half a cup of coffee here while you wait for the dryer to ding. When it does, swap loads and fold the clean stuff.
Make dinner. What’s for dinner? Who knows?! But it needs to be something that they will eat. It’s anyone’s guess if they will eat what is on their plate, even if they loved it a week ago. While eating, be on the look out for the kitten, who seems to think human dinner time is also her dinner time. Shoo her off the table!
Bedtime again. Bath’s first? I don’t know, depends on the day! When the kids fall asleep, sneak out so you can pick up the toys from the front room floor. Maybe you can sweep, vacuum or even mop the floor before a child knows you are not in bed and they come looking for you.
In between the semi-schedule, you have to break up fights. You have to explain why you don’t put forks in electrical outlets, and answer the 18 “why?” questions that will ultimately follow your explanation. You have to switch food from the pink plate to the green plate because today that is the color they want. You have to drink a glass of white milk because they wanted chocolate milk when they asked for “milk.” You have to be the bathroom police and ask “Do you have to go pee?” every now and then because they might forget and have an accident. You call both children by their first and middle names because they are doing something they aren’t supposed to. You have to go get a “snack” for them, even though dinner was over 12 minutes ago. You have to watch the same episode of Blippi for the 87 millionth time and restrain yourself from wanting to punch him through the screen. On and on the list goes…..
… and my wife MASTERS this chaos EVERY NIGHT! My God, she is truly a marvel.
I have walked a week in her shoes and they do not fit! There are not enough kudos to bestow upon her for all that she does to make our house run smoothly. She is a miracle … and I love her so very much.
I found a stack of pictures this week that I had stuck in an envelope. I probably did that so I could scan them for this feature, but I don’t really remember. Anyway, I found this great picture of my brother and me.
I love this picture because I actually look cute in it! I see that smile and I can see each of my kids in it. How weird is that?
I love the little swoop curl on my forehead. I’m staring at this photo trying to make out what is on my shirt. Is it a cartoon character? Is it some generic shirt design? I really can’t tell.
I’m going to guess this was taken in early 1973, based on the fact that my mom is holding up my brother. Look at how cute he is in those footie pajamas! I wish he’d been looking at the camera and that we could see my mom’s face in this picture.
It’s weird to think that if this is 1973, I am probably 3 years old here – my son, Andrew’s, age today. I can really see him most in this picture.
So, not much to really flash back on, other than I just love this picture.
I have been meaning to do a little interview with Eddie Deezen for a couple of years. I was always afraid to ask. You see, we’ve been friends on Facebook for some time and I’ve found that we share a lot in common. He has shared a lot of great personal stories about his interactions with other Hollywood celebrities, as well as some amazing trivia on just about everything.
I had noticed that he did a few podcasts with other Facebook friends and thought, “Maybe, he’ll allow me to ask him some questions for my blog.” As scared as I was to ask, Eddie said yes almost immediately. What follows in the transcript, if you will, of our chat. My questions are in bold and his answers follow.
Today is Eddie’s birthday, by the way, so what better way to celebrate than sharing a few minutes with him?
Keith: You and I have been Facebook friends now for almost 10 years. You have a very active social media presence. For fans like me, it is a wonderful way to connect with you. Like a true friendship, you share your life with us and you share your laughs with us. Many celebrities avoid social media or have someone run their page for them. What is it about social media (Facebook) makes you love it so much?
Eddie Deezen: I love Facebook. I am 100% pure Facebook. I know I could reach more fans and have more followers on other sites, on Facebook I am limited to just 5,000 fans. This is the only thing about Facebook I dislike. The 5,000 friend limit makes no sense to me. I am a compulsive writer and joke writer. I fill up notebook after notebook with my jokes and stuff. With Facebook I have an avenue of people to see my stuff. Before I joined Facebook in 2009, I would write jokes and stories and trivia to a list of about 200 friends. My Facebook friends are wonderful. I love them very much. Also, I get told by people who are not on my Facebook friends list that they read my posts too. So that makes me happy.
One of the things I look forward to on your Facebook posts is your personal stories about your movies, behind the scenes tid-bits, and your interaction with other actors. Many folks know you as Eugene from Grease. You have shared so many wonderful stories about John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John (and others). Do you have a favorite Grease story you love to share?
My favorite Grease story would be how I got Grease in the first place. Ok, I went to my Grease audition in my little suit, with a bow tie and I put Vitalis or some greasy stuff in my hair (The movie was called “Grease”, so I figured Grease in my hair made sense). I went in to Paramount Studios (by the way, Paramount has always been my favorite studio) and the place was packed with guts in leather jackets and girls in poodle skirts and saddle shoes.
I read for Allan Carr the producer), Randal Kleiser (the director) and Joel Thurm ( the casting director). As I was talking to them and reading my two or three lines, I saw them nudging each other. I figured the nudges were a good sign. Anyway, a few days later, my agent calls and tells me I got the part. I was ecstatic, I called my parents and my friends and told them I was going to be in a movie with John Travolta and all.
Then, a few days later, my agent calls me and tells me “Eugene is a small role and the studio decided they’re going to cut out your role from the film”. Of course, I felt like jumping off a cliff. My agent said “We’re going to church to pray”. I swear to God, we go in, my agent gives me a match and tells me to light candies and pray at the alter. I prayed fervently to God. “Please God, let something good happen”. A few days later, the studio calls my agent and tells her they want me back in the movie.
True story. Divine intervention? Or just a lucky break? Who knows? I have wondered about this first 48 years now. You can believe whatever you want, but this really did happen..
That is a GREAT story! I’m glad you got back into the film! Speaking of Grease, you worked with comedy legend Sid Caesar. Did you have any interesting interactions with him?
Well, I was chauffeured home each night with Sid Caesar. I was carefully instructed “Don’t speak to Mr. Caesar unless he speaks to you first”. So I would sit in the back seat and Mr. Caesar would sit in the front seat and I would just sit silently as he spoke to our chauffeur. One day He turned around to me and said “So you’re the water boy, huh?”. I replied sarcastically “ Oh, is it okay if I speak?”. This was very rude of me, but I was a twenty year old kid. Very immature.
Mr. Caesar was a very intelligent man. I would listen to him pontificate about history and religion and stuff. Our chauffeur was named Kirk or Kurt. He was a nice guy.
One of my favorite movies of yours is 1941. What a cast for that movie! You had the chance to work with John Belushi. On Facebook, you have shared that Belushi was actually pretty quiet and was very nice to you. Can you elaborate on that?
John was always extremely kind and nice to me. I loved him so much. We had met previously in New York. He was at the premiere of my movie “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”. At the party after the premiere I sat with John and we chatted for about 15 minutes. He was serious and thoughtful. No jokes. He spoke earnestly. I loved seeing him on the set of “1941”
The last time I saw John was around 1980. I was just leaving a really bad audition. I felt bad and who comes walking down the street but John Belushi. He saw I was sad and said “What’s the matter, Eddie?”. I said, “ I just had a terrible audition, John. These guys hated me”. He replied “They’re assholes”. And he just walked away. That was the last time I ever saw John Belushi.
To John’s credit, he was probably right!
I wasn’t going to ask, but I’d kick myself if I didn’t ask you to share a bit about Murray Hamilton and the dummy from the Ferris Wheel scene….
Murray was a wonderful, very nice guy. We had many great talks up on that Ferris wheel. Murray was a big time smoker. He smoked three or four packs a day. So every once in a while he would have trouble breathing up there. Steven had a. Oxygen tank he kept for Murray. If Murray was having trouble breathing, Steven would let us down and Murray would take a few hits of oxygen.
One of my favorite holiday films is the Polar Express. Your work as the Know It All kid is just wonderful! How did you and Tom Hanks get along? Is he as nice as he seems?
Tom has always been my favorite movie star. The first day of the table read, there were a bunch of us all gathered to greet Tom. He was the biggest movie star in the world. He spots me in the bunch, walks up to me first and says, “Hi Eddie. I’m Tom”. No shit Sherlock.
He was a total pro. Never flubbed a line or missed a cue. One day I made a bad mistake. I screwed up a line or some such thing. Our director, Bob Zemeckis, said “cut”. “What happened, Eddie?”, he asked me. Before I could say anything, Tom cut in. “That was my fault”, he said. He took the blame for my mistake. He was like an older brother to me.
After we finished filming “The Polar Express”, he took me to three Dodger games at Dodger Stadium. We sat in his box seats. We sang the National Anthem and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” together. He was just as cool as you’d expect him to be.
That’s awesome. What an experience for you!
You got to work with Dick Shawn in an episode of Magnum PI.
He seemed like a pretty unique guy. His comedy was so different and manic at times. I don’t think there is anything I’ve seen him do that didn’t intrigue me. What was it like to work with him?
Dick Shawn was a wonderful, nice, lovely, friendly, terrific, and delightful guy. I loved working with him. My career was pretty much movies, not a whole lot of television. But that “Magnum P.I.” episode I did (“Squeeze Play”) was probably the best thing I ever did on tv. I loved the entire Magnum cast and crew. Dick Shawn was a marvelous comedian and a fantastic straight man too. I loved playing his nephew.
You also shared the screen with two of the hottest gals of the 1980’s: Heather Thomas in Zapped! and Morgan Fairchild in Mob Boss.
Correct me if I am wrong but don’t you have a story about kissing Morgan Fairchild?
Yes, I did a movie called “ Mob Boss” with Morgan. Ok, we had a scene where the nerdy guy (me) kisses the ultra-sexy woman. We embrace and kiss and my glasses are all steamed up. Well, before we did that scene, Morgan said to me, “Eddie, do you want to rehearse?”. YOU THINK?? So she held me and kissed me at different angles and straight on, Etc. By the way, Morgan was a marvelous kisser. Her lips were so soft. She was also the most lovely lady ever. I loved her so much. She was a fabulous comedienne. Great straight woman too.
It was so much fun to work with Heather Thomas, too. Heather was a doll. She was very cool and incredibly nice. The episode of “The Fall Guy” I did with her was very fun to shoot. I loved all the cast and crew of “The Fall Guy”.
As a voice over actor, you have appeared in countless cartoons and series.
I always love when I hear your voice on something my kids are watching. You showed up recently on an episode of Handy Manny and also on Oswald. Do you find voice acting to be easier than acting on screen or are the about the same? Do you prefer one over the other?
Well, I have never been great at memorizing lines. Now, on camera stuff, you have to learn your lines by heart. For “The Polar Express”, our director Bob Zemeckis, knew my problem, and he let me read my entire role using cue cards.
I enjoy voiceovers and doing cartoons because you can just read your role from a script, no memorization involved. But as a performer, you get a bigger rush doing a movie, because it’s fun seeing yourself onscreen.
A show that many folks don’t remember is the Weird Al Show from the late 90’s. Can you tell me how you got to play “Guy Boarded Up in the Wall?”
Yes, Weird Al is a marvelous, very nice guy. He also knew of my problem remembering lines and he wanted me on his show. So he created the “Man in the Wall” character. I was “ on camera” but I was behind a wall, so I could just read my lines. It was a very fun gig.
Your fans are well aware of your love for the Beatles and their music.
A while back, my blogger friend, Dave from A Sound Day ran a feature. He had some of us bloggers write about the Beatles and if they were still relevant today. I wrote my piece about songs I would use to introduce the band to someone. So, if YOU had to introduce someone who had never heard of the Beatles or their music, what 5 (or ten if you wish) songs would you play for them?
My favorite Beatles song is “A Hard Day’s Night”, so I would have to include that one. Now, you did not ask first my favorite Beatle songs, however, you asked first five or ten Beatle songs I would use to introduce a new fan to the Beatles. So here are my choices:
Love Me Do
She Loves You
I Want to Hold Your Hand
Help!
Yesterday
In My Life
Penny Lane
A Day in the Life
Strawberry Fields Forever
Let It Be
There are so many great Beatles tunes to choose from, and you have some classics there!
You and I share many of the same likes, the Beatles being one of them. However, you are also as big a Stooge Fan as I am. I have loved The Three Stooges since my dad introduced me to them as a kid. You have said often that Curly is your favorite.
It is hard NOT to like him. Is there any one thing in particular that makes him your favorite?
Yes, Curly Howard is my all- time favorite comedian. He was as great as Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton physically. Plus, he was a hilarious verbal comedian, something Chaplin and Keaton were not. He made 97 shorts. About 70 or 80 are comedy classics. He was amazingly prolific. He was all finished and retired by the age of 42. 42!!!! He just wore himself out. He was spent and got progressively sicker. The poor guy was gone at the age of 48. 48!!!
You could really see how sick he was in his last few shorts. The world certainly got a lot less “funny” when he passed away. So, do you have a favorite Stooges Short?
My favorite Three Stooge shorts are “Punch Drunks” and “Micro-Phonies”
Those are both in my top ten Stooges shorts, too. One last question for you, my friend. Do you think Shemp gets a bum rap for following Curly?
Well, yes. Shemp is obviously anticlimactic because he followed Curly. That’s Iike following Elvis or Paul McCartney, anyone would suffer in comparison. That said, Shemp was a fair to good comedian. He was not great. He did not have Curly’s innate sense of humor or timing or sense of what makes a line funny or what makes a gag funny.
He had his great moments, yes, but he has a lot of very unfunny scenes too. Plus, his character was not as original or lovable or magical as Curly’s. I always love what Leonard Martin said about him- Shemp was an indisputably good comedian, but he never had Curly’s “otherworldliness.” A perfect word that captures it all. Curly was otherworldly.
I’d forgotten that you wrote a piece about Shemp for Mental Floss back in 2011. It’s a great piece that readers can see on the Mental Floss Site.
Eddie, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. Thank you for your friendship. I truly hope to meet you in person one day. Maybe a trip to the Stoogeum in Pennsylvania one day? I wish you all the best and lots of happiness on your birthday, my friend! Cheers to another year of friendship and laughs!
Thanks Keith. I’m glad to answer these questions for you. You are a wonderful guy and I am proud to have you as a friend both on Facebook and in my life. That trip to the Stoogeum sounds like a plan on my bucket list, so let’s hope! See you on Facebook!
I need to once again extend a huge thank you to Eddie for taking the time to chat with me. If you are a fan, Eddie also does do personalized messages for birthdays and such on Cameo. I had him do one for my dad a year or so ago! You can check out the information on Eddie’s Cameo Page.
Happy Birthday, Eddie! May your day be filled with laughter and happiness!
It is time for another edition of Turntable Talk hosted by Dave from A Sound Day. This is round #35, which means next month I’ll have been contributing to this feature for 3 years! Wow. As long as Dave keeps coming up with interesting topics, I’ll keep writing.
This time around, Dave says that “we’re going Sans Sophomore Slump. We all remember the triumphant debuts to the scene by The Knack, Meat Loaf, the Ramones…but how many recall, let alone listen to ‘But the Little Girls Understand’, ‘Dead Ringer’s or ‘Leave Home’… the follow-ups for them? This month, pick a SECOND album by a group or singer you thought was a standout and at least as good as the first.
When I worked in country radio we often referred to the “Class of ’89.” This was a group of four guys who all stormed onto the scene in 1989. Those guys were Clint Black, Travis Tritt, Alan Jackson, and Garth Brooks.
The four of them were so popular that the brought an entire new group of listeners to the genre. Much of their music focused on storytelling, which also made for some amazing music videos. They helped to make Country music more popular than ever.
Garth Brooks’ self titled album was released in April of 1989. It peaked at #13 on the Billboard 200 and went to #2 on the Top Country Albums chart. From the album, there were four singles, two of them went on to become number 1 hits.
Much To Young (To Feel This Damn Old) went to #8 on the charts for Garth. Not Counting You also went top 10, and was the first hit that Garth completely wrote himself. The Dance and If Tomorrow Never Comes were both #1 smashes! Today, they have reached “classic” status. If Tomorrow Never Comes was so big that it won the Academy of Country Music’s Song of the Year in 1990.
So how do you follow that kind of success? If you are Garth Brooks, you release your sophomore album and watch in amazement.
Like the other members of the class of 1989, fans wanted more of their music! Garth released No Fences in August of 1990 and it was just HUGE! It went to #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. It went to #3 on the Billboard 200 and stayed in the top 40 on that chart for a whopping 126 weeks!
As for the singles from the album, they have gone on to become Garth classics (just like the ones from album #1). All four singles from the album went to #1 on the Country chart!
The Thunder Rolls not only went to #1, but won the CMA Video of the Year for 1991. The video is a powerful one. When Garth plays the song at live shows he adds another verse where the cheater gets what’s coming to him.
Two of a Kind, Working On a Full House, Unanswered Prayers, and Friends in Low Places also all reached #1. Friends in Low Places also won the Academy of Country Music’s Single of the Year for 1990.
That song is familiar to country music fans and non-fans alike. It still plays everywhere. It was always on the Mobile Beat Top 200 songs for mobile DJs. It plays at parties, weddings and even sporting events. I’d love to see the money that this one song alone makes for Garth Brooks.
Garth’s Sophomore album, No Fences, helped to pave the way into super stardom for him. A simple search of “Awards won by Garth Brooks” will show you just how popular and successful Garth went on to be. One has to wonder what might have happened if No Fences bombed.
Thanks again to Dave for hosting this edition of Turntable Talk. I appreciate him reaching out and including me in such an amazing feature. As always, I look forward to the next topic.
Welcome back to The Music of My Life, where I feature ten songs from each year of my life. In most cases, the ten songs I choose will be ones I like personally (unless I explain otherwise). The songs will be selected from Billboard’s Year-end Hot 100 Chart, Acclaimed Music, and will all be released in the featured year.
We’ve come to 2012 – the year I turned 42. Once again, as I look over the list, many of these songs took on personal meaning after 2012. I was probably programming the Classic Rock station and beginning the sleep program in college in 2012. So let’s look at my ten picks.
____
When I worked in radio, I had to watch American Idol to be able to talk about it on the air the next day. I truly loved Kelly Clarkson. I was glad that she won in the inaugural year of the show. She has also proven herself to those who thought she’d be here one day and gone the next.
What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger) appeared on Kelly’s fifth album and went to number one on the charts. Would you believe it was inspired by one of the great philosophers? The song was inspired by a quotation from German philospher, Friedrich Nietzsche who said, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
Kelly told the folks at MTV why they chose Stronger as the name of the album:
“There were a few different titles that were going around and I think the reason why we came up with Stronger was just because every song was about empowerment and almost like overcoming stuff,” she explained. “So, even if it was a bad situation and a sad song, it was about overcoming that. So by the end of the song, it’s kind of more inspiration than sad. So I think that’s why [we named it that], and I think after 10 years of doing it you feel a little stronger personally and musically. People know you better. It’s just easier, I think.”
For me, the song took on new meaning while going through my divorce. Believe me, there were times during it that I was so frustrated. The yelling, the fighting and all of that was just awful. But, I came through it. It didn’t kill me, but it certainly made me stronger.
What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger)
Next is a song from another American Idol winner, Phillip Phillips. Honestly, I had no idea until I starting researching this post that he was from American Idol. After the first couple years, it got old to me and I stopped watching.Songfacts.com says:
Phillips was so ill with kidney problems during his Idol run, he had to be hooked up to IVs before going onstage and wear extra makeup to disguise his sickly pallor. Because he was so focused on his health, he never really knew what was going on with the show and didn’t expect to win in the final moment – which led to some confusion when his name was announced.
I was familiar with this song because I played it on the Adult Contemporary station. I liked the guitar work in it and thought it sounded a bit like Mumford and Sons.
Home
Entertainment relationships cannot be easy. It is almost rare to see one that lasts more than a couple years. Some of the break ups, though, have led to many a hit song (just ask Taylor Swift!). This song is said to be directed at Katy Perry’s ex, Russell Brand.
It is the lyric that hit me, once again, after the divorce.
“I’m wide awake, not losing any sleep/ I picked up every piece, and landed on my feet,”
Wide Awake was written for her movie, Part of Me. She says, “I was doing this movie and they asked me if I wanted to write an end-title song for the movie, and I was like, ‘I know exactly what I want to say.’ I was really kind of dying to write another song at that point. I didn’t want to wait until I did a whole new record, and it’s kind of the perfect last word of me at this moment.”
Wide Awake
The next song is on my list because of job dissatisfaction. It is Icona Pop’s I Love It.
There were a few of us who were kind of miffed that we weren’t getting things we needed to do our job. A co-worker said, “Well, they obviously don’t care.” He began to sing the line, “I don’t care … I love it” whenever something went wrong.
No supplies? “I don’t care …” Computer keeps crashing? “I don’t care…..” Someone asked what you thought of the situation? “I don’t care…..” Yeah, it was not a very positive vibe around that time.
Whenever I hear the chorus of this song, I think of my former coworker ad chuckle a bit.
I Love It
Owl City is really Adam Young. He did this as a duet with Carly Rae Jepson. Asked about the song, he said,
“I feel like every artist is inherently granted one shot to sing about having a good time in his or her life, and six months ago, I realized I hadn’t cashed in my chips yet. So I thought, ‘I’m gonna sit down and I’m gonna give this a shot… and get my friend Carly to sing on it’. The final product rarely exceeds your expectations, and this thing just kind of happened.”
Did he like working with Jepson? He says,
“I feel like every artist is inherently granted one shot to sing about having a good time in his or her life, and six months ago, I realized I hadn’t cashed in my chips yet. So I thought, ‘I’m gonna sit down and I’m gonna give this a shot… and get my friend Carly to sing on it’. The final product rarely exceeds your expectations, and this thing just kind of happened.”
Who doesn’t love having a good time? This was a pretty big song at proms I did in 2012.
Good Time
One of the things about seeing a band live is the amount of audience participation. Some artists throw the microphone toward the audience so they can sing the next line. Sometimes there’s a question and answer chant between artist and audience. It’s gotta be cool for the artists to hear his or her song being sung by thousands.
The Ho’s and the Hey’s in The Lumineers song, Ho Hey, were not meant to be on the song. Yes, if the song was performed live, they had intended it to be something the audience would shout during the song. They decided after working on the song that they needed to be in the studio version.
Songfacts says,
The repetitive melodies and familiar section structure are kept interesting by the song’s sonic progressions that perfectly match the emotional developments in the song’s story. In the second verse, the lyrics move away from the dejection of the previous verse’s lyrics and take on a tone of hope and resolve. Fittingly, the melody is invigorated by a surprising octave jump and a more gravely, assured vocal performance. Also, a kick drum is introduced and synchronized with the “ho” and “hey,” which acts as a sort of exclamation point, encouraging the sing-along nature of the track.
I loved that the song sounded folky and stood out on the radio.
Ho Hey
In my years of DJing, I have seen dances come and go. In most cases, the dances are all the same with a different steps. One of the most annoying dances ever was Gangnam Style by Psy. The only reason it is here is because of the many times I had to play it at DJ gigs.
The lyrics are all in Korean except for the line, “hey… sexy lady.” It’s about a guy flossing his fashionable “Gangnam style,” and the sexy girl he’s after.
Here are a few of the lines translated to English:
I’m a guy who has bulging ideas rather than muscles That kind of guy Beautiful, lovable
A girl who covers herself but is more sexy than a girl who bares it all A sensible girl like that
Yeah, the English doesn’t make it better.
Gangnam Style
Passenger is really a guy named Mike Rosenberg. He wrote Let Her Go. He told VH1,
“It didn’t take long to write, at all. Under an hour, I think. When I wrote it, I definitely felt like it had something… I never had a song on the radio, I didn’t believe I could have a song on the radio, because generally, folk music doesn’t get on commercial radio, it just doesn’t. I kinda thought that that kind of success was for other people, people who really tried to get that kind of success, because I never have.”
The song itself stands out not only for its sound, but the way it is laid out. It’s almost odd. Songfacts explains:
Structurally, this is a very unusual song. Based on acoustic guitar and strings, it has a 25-second intro before going directly into the first chorus (“Only need the light when it’s burning low…”). On the line “And you let her go,” the song picks up, introducing drums and going into an instrumental break before finally hitting the first verse at 1:03.
Beginning with the chorus is the equivalent of a movie that is shown out-of-sequence (like Pulp Fiction) – we know the big scene, but don’t know what led up to it. Passenger tells us the conclusion up front, then explains what he went through – the anguish he endured before he could just let her go.
The chorus comes back three more times, including at the end of the song where it repeats twice, ending with the voice isolated on the last lines to accentuate the conclusion: “You let her go.”
It is probably that strange lay out that makes me like the song. That and it is about finally letting go of someone.
Let Her Go
IF you want proof that real life inspires hits, listen to ANY Taylor Swift song. As a matter of fact, here is the story of how she came to write We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.
Songfacts says,
The empowering kiss-off to an ex was inspired by an incident when during a session in the studio with Max Martin and Johan Shellback, a friend of the singer’s former boyfriend happened to walk in. Swift told ABC News’ Nightline: “[My friend] starts talking about how he’s heard [my ex and I] were getting back together and that was not the case. When he leaves, Max and Johan are like, ‘So what’s the story behind that?’ And so I start telling them the story of ‘break up, get back together, break up, get back together,’ just, ugh, the worst.”
“Max says, ‘This is what we’re writing; we’re writing this song,'” continued Swift. “And I picked up the guitar and just started singing ‘we are never.’ It just happened so fast. It was so much fun.”
After the songs she has written about her many exes, I’m surprised anyone would want to date her.
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
The last song on the list is about never quitting. If you have dreams, you gotta keep going, keep trying. Pink’s lyrics state,
“Where there is desire there is gonna be a flame, Where there is a flame someone’s bound to be get burned. But just because it burns doesn’t mean you’re gonna die. You gotta get up and try.”
I think many can relate to this. Pick yourself up and get back in the race.
Pink has claimed this is her favorite video. She does some pretty risque dancing. As a matter of fact, she showed it to her mom and posted her reaction on her Twitter page. Pink says,
“My mom, after seeing the new video… ‘Wow, honey. I’m speechless. And uncomfortable. No one can ever say you play it safe.'”
Try
So that wraps up 2012. Did I miss one of your favorites? Tell me in the comments.
Next week we head into 2013. The list from that year looks like a playlist from the Adult Contemporary station and a high school dance combined. It’s actually a good year for good tunes. I hope you’ll come back next week and check it out.
Today’s tune comes from the Between The Button’s album from the Rolling Stones.
It was on this day in 1967 that the Stones took Ruby Tuesday to #1. It was their fourth chart topper in the US.
Songfacts.com says that Keith Richards said of “Ruby Tuesday”:
“That’s one of those things – some chick you’ve broken up with. And all you’ve got left is the piano and the guitar and a pair of panties. And it’s goodbye you know. And so it just comes out of that. And after that you just build on it. It’s one of those songs that are easiest to write because you’re really right there and you really sort of mean it. And for a songwriter, hey break his heart and he’ll come up with a good song.”
Mick Jagger told Rolling Stone in 1995:
“‘Ruby Tuesday’ is good. I think that’s a wonderful song. It’s just a nice melody, really. And a lovely lyric. Neither of which I wrote, but I always enjoy singing it.”
This was supposed to be the B-side of “Let’s Spend The Night Together” but many radio stations shied away from that one due to the sexual implications, so they played “Ruby Tuesday” instead, helping make it a hit. It’s funny how pale in comparison the sexual implications of this song is compared to what actually gets played on the radio today!
We go back to one of my favorite movie soundtracks today for Movie Music Monday.
There were many pop and soul singers who made cameos in The Blues Brothers! They include Aretha Franklin, John Lee Hooker, James Brown, and Ray Charles. It also includes a man who had been making music since the 1930’s! I’m talking, of course, about the legendary Cab Calloway.
Cab was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem. He was an amazing scat singer and led his own band. His career spanned over 65 years!
In the film, Cab plays Curtis, a friend of Jake and Elwood Blues. He lives in the basement of the orphanage that the Blues Brothers were raised in. When they need to raise money for the orphanage, they hold huge concert. It is here that Cab gets to shine on stage.
It was on this day in 1931 that Cab and his band recorded the song that would forever be connected with him – Minnie The Moocher. He performed this song in the Blues Brothers.
From wiki:
The lyrics describe the story of a woman known as “Minnie the Moocher”, a “moocher” being American slang for a person who constantly asks others for money or who takes unfair advantage of generosity. She is described as a performer of the sexually-suggestive Hoochie Coochie dance. The lyrics are heavily laden with drug references, and describe Minnie’s vivid dreams after drug use. The character “Smokey” is described as “cokey”, meaning a user of cocaine; the phrase “kick the gong around” was a slang reference to smoking opium. The song ends with Calloway wailing “Poor Min!” insinuating an untimely end for the protagonist. The “hi-de-ho” scat lyrics came about when Calloway forgot the lyrics to the song one night during a live radio concert.
First, here is the original:
And from the Blues Brothers, featuring Mr. Fabulous, Alan Rubin on Trumpet:
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 