The Music of My Life – 2001

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.

In 2001, I turned 31. It is a year that I will not forget. It was that year that I found out I was going to be a father for the first time. To say that I was freaking out a little was an understatement. My mom continued to get treatment for breast cancer. There was a time where I prayed that she would be around for my wedding. Now I was praying that she’d be around to meet her first grandchild. My first song was inspired by, coincidentally, a mother with cancer.

It was also the year of the 9/11 attacks. I, of course, was around for the Challenger accident. Many folks called that the “JFK assassination” of my generation. As sad as the Challenger accident was, 9/11 was on an entirely different level. I remember sitting alone wondering about the world we were welcoming our baby into. The event caused many of us to think … more on that shortly.

Train’s Drops of Jupiter came from devastating loss for lead singer Pat Monahan. In a VH1 interview, he revealed that he wrote this song about the death of his mother. Train was were touring in 1988 when Monahan’s mom was dying of lung cancer – she was a heavy smoker. Cell phones had not yet become widely used. This found Monahan making many stops to pay phones on the tour to speak with his mom. It was in December of that year, his mother died.

In early 1999 Train was working on their next album when their record company started pressuring them for a hit. Monahan returned to his childhood home in Pennsylvania, and woke one morning with the words “back in the atmosphere” in his head. Beginning a time of healing, he started to compose the song. Pat said: “Loss of the most important person in my life was heavy on my mind, and the thought of ‘what if no one ever really leaves? What if she’s here but different. The idea was, she’s back here in the atmosphere.”

He recorded a demo of the song and played it for the president of their record company at Columbia. The president loved it and told him it was his Grammy song. He was right: It won Grammys for Best Rock Song and Best Instrumental Arrangement With Accompanying Vocalist. The label had Train record the song quickly. That way they could put it on the album and use it as the title track.

Pat Monahan is quoted as saying, ““It was an obvious connection between me and my mother. ‘Drops of Jupiter’ was as much about me being on a voyage and trying to find out who I am. The best thing we can do about loss of love is find ourselves through it.”

That is SO true.

Drops of Jupiter

I mentioned when I did my list in 1999 that I’ll Be by Edwin McCain is hard to listen to. It was the wedding song my ex and I used. In 2000, Edwin released I Could Not Ask For More, which is a more beautiful song, in my opinion.

This song itself is about spending time with your true love. It is about realizing you do not need anything else in life to make you happy. The song was written by Diane Warren, who has written quite a few songs that I have written about. McCain said that he had to speed the song up to suit his voice. He said, “The tempo of the song was actually half of what it is now. At first, I wasn’t into it. Now it’s a popular wedding song; every night on tour people tell me that it was their wedding song.”

It was in 2001 that country singer Sara Evans covered the song. While not too different from McCain’s version, I love her version more. I have always felt that she has one of the best female voices in country music. She is also one of the most beautiful singers I have met. I loved watching her perform this live.

I Could Not Ask For More

This next song is on my list for one reason and one reason only – the video! I can still remember the first time I watched it and was blown away by Christopher Walken. I had no idea he could dance like this!

Weapon of Choice appeared on Fatboy Slim’s third album and featured Bootsy Collins. Bootsy is, of course, known for his work with Parliament-Funkadelic and Bootsy’s Rubber Band. Boosty co-wrote the song and plays bass on it.

According to Songfacts:

The official music video for “Weapon of Choice” reveals a surprising side of Christopher Walken, known for his intense, often villainous roles in films like Pulp Fiction, The Deer Hunter, and True Romance. What most of us didn’t know until this video appeared is that Walken is a great dancer – he trained at the Washington Dance Studio and appeared in musicals such as 1981’s Pennies from Heaven. In a 2014 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Walken said he accepted the role before he became “too decrepit to dance.”

He choreographed the video with Michael Rooney, son of Mickey Rooney, and performed stunts, including flying across the mezzanine in a harness. Reflecting on the humor and playfulness of the video, Fatboy Slim told Higher Frequency in 2006: “I think it’s full of irony, and to see an actor that I really admire but who’s famous for playing psychopaths, to see him do that silly un-psychopathic dancing made me smile and made everyone else smile.”

The “Weapon of Choice” music video was a huge hit! It won six MTV Video Music Awards in 2001. It won for Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, Best Choreography, Best Art Direction, Best Editing, and Best Cinematography. It also went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Music Video. To top it all off, it was named the greatest music video of all time by VH1 in 2002.

Weapon of Choice

I recently saw where Brian Cranston, Jane Kaczmarek, and Frankie Muniz announced that they will reunite for a reboot of Malcolm in the Middle. The show debuted in 2000 and did very well. I always watched it because I could relate to the constant fighting between the brothers. I also loved the humor of the show.

They Might Be Giants recorded this song specifically for Malcolm in the Middle, and can be found on the show’s soundtrack. The show used other songs from the band throughout the run of the show.

The rumor is that the song is about guitar player John Flansburgh’s brother. I can totally see this. We may not have used the exact phrase growing up, but I know my brother and I often said that the other couldn’t boss the other around. It hits home in that way for me.

Boss of Me

The next song was a triumphant return for Weezer. Their fans were a little worried about the band in the late ’90s. After touring for their 1996 album Pinkerton, they took some time off and went through some lineup changes. It was during this time that Rivers Cuomo was taking classes at Harvard. He enrolled there in 1995 and attended sporadically when it suited his schedule. “Island In The Sun” was welcome relief for fans, showing that the band was back and in a good place. (Cuomo did eventually graduate Harvard, earning a degree in English in 2006.)

Songfacts says, “Unlike many Weezer songs, there’s no trace of pathos and no deeper meaning, making it an easy song to enjoy even if you’re not a big fan of the band. It became one of their most popular songs, although it was never a bit hit, reaching a chart peak of just #111 in the US.”

This is another one of those songs that I remember hearing a lot on the radio. I find it hard to believe that it only reached #111 on the charts. It was obviously good enough for them to play on TV. Weezer played it along with “Hash Pipe,” when they were musical guests on Saturday Night Live, May 19, 2001. It was their only guest appearance on the show.

Sing along…. “Hip. Hip.”

Island in the Sun

What do Neil Diamond, The Monkees and Smash Mouth have in common? One MONSTER hit!

Neil Diamond wrote I’m a Believer in 1966. Don Kirshner was looking for material for the Monkees to record and liked it. Neil was allowed to record it as well as part of their deal and did so in 1967. The Monkees version went to #1in ’66.

Jump ahead 35 years to 2001. Smash Mouth recorded a version of the song for the Dreamworks animated movie, Shrek. The song was picked because it fit the movie’s theme, as it was a sort of fairy tale. The opening line of the song is “I thought love was only true in fairy tales.”

Smash Mouth’s version is a great modern take on the song and still fun to sing along with. When I hear it, I am taken back to watching this movie with my oldest son. He loved Shrek and we watched it MANY times.

I’m a Believer

The next song was one that I often used as a first song at parties and weddings. It was a good one because it was the “kick off” song and literally got the party started.

Songfacts.com says: Get the Party Started was written by Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes. After the group broke up in the early ’90s, Perry released two solo albums and started writing for other artists. She learned that hits of the ’00s were made digitally. She bought Akai MPC and Korg Triton digital workstations and started experimenting with them. As she was learning how to use them, she came up with the track by adding layer after layer, then she quickly banged out a lyric with every party cliché she could think of, arriving at lines like:

I’m your operator, you can call anytime
I’ll be your connection to the party line

It worked: “Get The Party Started” was a huge hit for Pink and launched Perry’s songwriting career. Her next hit was “Beautiful” for Christina Aguilera.

The song is synonymous with Pink, but it was almost offered to another singer. Thankfully, a phone call changed that. Perry initially thought this could be a hit for Madonna. However, Pink happened to call her the week after she wrote the song. Pink was a huge 4 Non Blondes fan. She sought out Perry, who was very surprised to get a call from a pop star. When they met, Perry gave Pink an MP3 copy of the “Get The Party Started.” Pink’s management loved the song and arranged for them to work together on her second album.

Get The Party Started

When an artist’s first single is a ballad, it is usually because the ballad is amazing. Most record labels want uptempo songs. (Honestly, most radio stations want uptempo stuff, too!) There are no shortage of ballads waiting to get airplay!

When it came time to release his first single, Enrique Iglesias fought to get “Hero” released. “Everybody thought first singles at the time had to be uptempo,” he told People. “But I knew that it was one of those songs that when I wrote it it just felt special.” It was, and he was right. Iglesias attributes the success of this song to a combination of good lyrics, melody, and excellent production. He feels those three qualities need to work together to make a timeless hit.

The song took on a whole new meaning shortly after it was released. This song was released on August 14, 2001, just a month before the September 11 attacks on the US. The song doesn’t describe the type first-responder heroes, but the theme of standing by a loved one resonated at this time. The song became quite popular because of that, reaching a chart peak of #3.

One pastor taught a message on husbands and wives. He stated that what a husband wants is to be his wife’s hero. That’s the guy who will take away her pain and be there through thick and thin.

Hero

MercyMe is a contemporary Christian group. They had an Adult Contemporary crossover hit with a song that was written by their lead singer Bart Millard. I Can Only Imagine is simply about imagining what it will be like meeting Jesus for the first time.

In a Songfacts interview, Bart said that he that he wrote the song in about 10 minutes. He said that it was one of just three songs he wrote where he felt like he was “a spectator watching the song being written.”

Regarding the song’s meaning, Millard stated: “When my father died of cancer in 1991, he left me with the assurance that he was headed to a better place. For several years following his death, I would find myself writing the phrase ‘I can only imagine’ on anything I could find. That simple phrase would give me a peace thinking about what my dad was finally experiencing. Years later, in 1999, MercyMe was writing songs for an independent project. I remember coming home from a show and being wide awake on our bus at 2 o’clock in the morning. I was trying to write lyrics in an old notebook of mine, when all of a sudden, I stumbled across that phrase. About ten minutes later, the song was written. Some people say it’s amazing that it was written in ten minutes, when really it had been on my heart for almost ten years.”

This one means a lot to me personally. I am so grateful for my faith and my Savior. It is an amazing thing to imagine….

I Can Only Imagine

I can still vividly remember the morning of 9/11. I was in a meeting with my boss at the radio station when the morning gal came in and told us that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. We went into the newsroom and were shaken to the core when we watched the second plane it the Twin Towers. That would be one of the longest and most emotional days in my radio career.

I worked at a country station at the time. We saw a lot of patriotism come out of those attacks. Songwriters wrote songs about being an American and such, but none of the equaled the contribution made by Alan Jackson.

The 9/11 attacks made a lot of us stop and think about life. We were left with so many questions. We were left shocked and scarred by the images we watched on TV. It was constantly on our minds. Alan Jackson seemed to be on the same page as everyone else, and conveyed it all perfectly in the song Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)

He wrote the song alone, with the idea coming to him at 4am in the morning. He explained to The Boot that the lyrics really “came out of nowhere.” “It was just a gift,” he said. “I got up and scribbled it down and put the melody down so I wouldn’t forget it, and the next day I started piecing all those verses together, thoughts I had or visuals I had.”

The song made its debut on the Country Music Association’s annual awards show on November 7, 2001. I still cannot believe that he was able to sing the song without breaking down. Alan considers this to be one of his biggest (if not the biggest) accomplishment. He said in an interview: “I [recently] did a radio interview, and the guy was talking about being at the [CMA] Awards the night I sang ‘Where Were You,'” he explained. “Even though that was a hard performance for me and an emotional time, I still get so many comments about that. Of all the awards, and all that kind of stuff, the music is still what I like. To be able to create a song that really affects people and makes a mark in the music industry, I would have to say that would be a highlight.”

To this day, the song still gives me chills. I’m sure you will never forget where you were when the events of that day unfolded either.

Where Were You

Sorry to wrap up the year on a somber note, but that wraps up my list. How about you? What song from 2001 did I miss that was your favorite. Mention it in the comments.

Next week, we’ll head to 2002. My list features movie music, an in your face patriotic song, a song full of 70’s and 80’s nostalgia, a cover song, an appearance by the Muppets, and the return of the King! I hope you’ll check it out.

Until next week, thanks for listening and for reading!

The Music of My Life – 1993

In 1993, I turned 23 and was still coping with the fact that my girlfriend had broken up with me. It wasn’t until a year later that I began going out with a buddy and hitting the Karaoke bars. It was while we sat and waited for our turn to sing that I heard many songs that were new to me. The first was by Expose.

Expose had success with dance/pop music. When they crossed over and had a #1 song with Seasons Change, they decided to go in a different direction. Their focus was shifted to more mature audiences. The label picked some great songs for their third album, including the Diane Warren song “I’ll Never Get Over You Getting Over Me.”

When one of the gals we hung out with at Karaoke got up and sang this, I watched the words on the screen. The heartache was still pretty fresh and it actually choked me up. It was the break up that I really never saw coming and the fact that she moved on so quickly rubbed salt in my wound.

Today, I appreciate the song for the powerful lyrics, the beautiful arrangement, and the lovely vocals.

I’ll Never Get Over You Getting Over Me

Elvis Presley recorded two songs called “Trouble”. The first was back in 1958. The second was in 1975, but that time he spelled it out. The latter was written by Jerry Chesnut. Travis Tritt covered it on his third album and it was the title track.

Tritt’s version went to #13 on the charts and got some positive reviews. Geoffrey Himes, of Billboard magazine, reviewed the song favorably, saying that Tritt transforms it with “boogie-woogie piano, slide guitar and super-fast tempo into a bar romp reminiscent of (the band) Little Feat.”

Not to diss on Elvis, but Tritt’s version is superior.

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

I’m not the biggest Rod Stewart fan. I can’t give you a reason for that. However, there are a few songs that I feel he does a really good job with. One example of this is from his 1993 Unplugged performance – Have I Told You Lately.

The song was originally done by Van Morrison. According to songfacts.com, the song is widely considered to be about Van Morrison’s relationship with God and religious convictions. Although we’ve never heard him speak specifically about the song, he does acknowledge a spiritual element in his music.

In 1993, during his Unplugged show, Rod dedicates the song to his wife Rachel Hunter (They divorced in 1999). You can really hear the emotion as he sings this, and when you watch the video, those emotions are more apparent.

The song was a huge hit, reaching #5 in both the US and the UK. It remains one of the most popular bridal dance songs.

Have I Told You Lately

Every once in a while, there a song that just pops out of the radio at me. That was the case for Every Little Thing by Carlene Carter. From the opening guitar strums and the drum that kicks into the beat, I was hooked.

Carlene is the daughter of June Carter Cash and her first husband Cal Smith. I’d never heard of her prior to this song, but she’d been recording and writing for some time. As a matter of fact, the album Little Love Letters was actually her seventh album!

To me, this was one of those songs that just made me feel good. It’s happy. It’s uptempo. It’s about a gal who loves her man so much everything reminds her of him. Isn’t that what we all want? Someone who loves us like that?

Every Little Thing

The next song was another one that hit me in the emotional gut. The song could be taken a few ways I suppose. I think you can look at a variety of situations and wonder, “What Might Have Been”. Our lives are full of “What ifs” and such.

When I heard this song, I thought about my ex girlfriend and wondered what our lives would be like if we had stayed together. Depression makes you dive deep into those hurtful thoughts. In hindsight now, I am glad to be where I am and realize that things happened the way they did to get me where I am today. At the time, though, this one ripped me apart.

It’s a truly beautiful song by Little Texas.

What Might Have Been

The early 90’s was a great time for dance music. There were some really awesome songs that kept folks out on the dance floor. As opposed to years later, I never really had to struggle to find a good follow up song back then.

One of my go-to songs was from the German group Real McCoy. The group was a dance trio formed in Berlin in 1993. They were made up of 2 female dance singers and a male rapper. This quickly became a huge hit in European dance clubs, and hit #2 UK. It went to #3 in the US.

It featured a good beat and the signature 90’s synthesizer. The song caught the attention of Clive Davis, who worked a deal with the band and the song took off!

Another Night

The next song was written before the band who sang it was ever created. Blind Melon’s bass player, Brad Smith, was not exactly feeling great. That’s when he wrote No Rain. He says, “The song is about not being able to get out of bed and find excuses to face the day when you have really, in a way, nothing.”

At the time, Brad was dating a girl who was going through depression (she would sleep through sunny days and complain when it didn’t rain), and for a while he told himself that he was writing the song from her perspective. He later realized that he was also writing about it himself.

He once said, “A lot of my songs come from a darker place. And if you just met me walking down the street, you’d say, ‘Oh, you’re such a happy guy, Brad. Why the dark songs?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know.’ For me, it just has more meaning if you can get inside someone’s soul and identify with them on a heavier level and try to connect with them on that level. Because when you’re sad and you’re down, you’re the most vulnerable, and you feel the most alone.”

This is one of those songs where I really got lost in the lyrics. I felt like there was something more to them, and I couldn’t figure it out.

No Rain

The next one is another one of those songs I heard at the karaoke bar. Sadly, many of the people who tried to sing it were awful!

Linda Perry, the front woman for 4 Non Blondes, said, “There are times when we just need to take a deep breath and scream from the top of our lungs, ‘What’s going on!?'” On a podcast, she said that was the way she felt when she wrote the very cathartic song, “What’s Up”. “It’s like, ‘Why does it always seem like either I’m struggling, or there’s some f–king political mess happening? Why is this all happening in the world?'”

Fun fact: After the “And I scream at the top of my lungs, what’s going on?” line in the chorus, Linda Perry sings, “Hey hey hey hey…” She put this part in as filler, planning to insert lyrics, but the song sounded so good that way she left it in.

The song is sort of an anthem I suppose. I tend to agree with Linda. There are plenty of times where I wonder exactly what’s going on ….

What’s Up

The next one reminds me of my former sister-in-law. She always made me laugh and there are plenty of songs that make me think of her. This one is no exception. She loved Jim Carrey and this song was featured on the soundtrack. It is Boom-Shack-A-Lak by Apache Indian.

I can’t recite any of the lyrics except the chorus. and all I know is that it had a bouncy feel to it and was loaded with wacky sound effects. It is actually kind of silly.

Larry Flick of Billboard magazine described the song as “a wacky blend of guttural toasting and retro-pop shuffle beats.” He felt that “the hook has the potential to take up permanent residence in your brain, while the fun array of sound effects are sure to get those shoulders shakin’ out of control.” He also encouraged, “Seek it out and give it a whirl.”

I can hear my former sister-in-law laughing at this as I type…

Boom-Shack-A-Lak

The final song for this week is one that really didn’t mean much to me in 1993, but it sure did in 1999. When my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, there was a lot of uncertainty. I recall many times wondering about how long she was going to be around. She was in and out of remission so many times.

When I got engaged to my ex wife, there was a lot of talk about whether or not she’d make it to see us get married. Her battle was a long one and she struggled so much with the chemo and radiation. It was through this time that I realized just how strong she was!

She would battle that disease and fight like no one’s business. So when it came time to choose a song to dance with my mom for the mother/son song, I thought long and hard about it. With every passing day, I realized just how much of a hero my mom was to me. She was stronger than I could have ever imagined. So, I chose Mariah Carey’s Hero.

I remember walking out to the dance floor and meeting her there. I remember her telling me how much she loved me and how handsome I looked. I told her how amazing she was and how much I loved her. We both shed tears and it is four minutes of my life that I wish I could revisit every day. I miss her terribly.

Hero

So what song from 1993 was your favorite? What did I miss? Drop it in the comments.

Next week, we visit 1994. There are a couple cover songs, but no Elvis covers. There’s a tribute to a Rock and Roll legend. There’s a bit of country and a bit of alternative music. I’ll share a great story about a singer who appreciates the veterans of our country, and feature my favorite “last song of the night” at weddings and parties.

Thanks for reading!