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. Much of the information presented with the help of Songfacts.com.
I would turn 45 in 2015. I was still DJing school dances and proms, which helped me become familiar with some of the new music. I was still getting music sent to me monthly via a service. I would just download everything and play songs that were requested (if it was clean) or songs I was playing on the Adult Contemporary Station.
Maroon 5’s Sugar was one I played on the radio. When I first heard it, I thought of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” I thought I was weird, but apparantly I wasn’t the only one. Songfacts even said “both songs have a similar chorus structure with an almost-identical syllable count.”
The song always got folks on the dance floor. The kids loved it, probably because of the amount of sexual innuendo in the lyrics.
The music video was directed by filmmaker David Dobkin and shot in Los Angeles during December 2014. The clip follows the plot story of Dobkin’s 2005 romantic comedy film Wedding Crashers as we witness the band drive across Los Angeles, surprising a handful of newlyweds on their big day. “Adam and I are old friends and have been talking about doing something together for over a decade,” said Dobkin. “Plus, it’s very meaningful because the band was in New York ten years ago and attended the original Wedding Crashers première.”
Sugar
I first heard Ellie Goulding’s Love Me Like You Do when it played on my radio show. Whether it was the instrumentation of the song, or her unique voice, something stuck out to me. I really liked this song. Honestly, I had no idea she recorded it for that 50 Shades of Grey movie.
Songfacts says:
This song was the first time that Ellie Goulding worked with producer Max Martin. She subsequently teamed up with the Swedish hitmaker for several Delirium tracks. Goulding explained to Billboard magazine how he unlocked her voice. “He directed me on a couple of songs and he’d be like, ‘Can you do this? And I’d be like, ‘Do you mean this?'” she said. “and he’d be like, “Where did that come from? Never heard that before. Never heard you sing low on any of your records before.” And yeah, it was great. It just came out of nowhere. He was good at bringing that confidence out of me.”
That confidence is evident in the song and its powerful chorus.
Love Me Like You Do
In 2015, there were many things happening in my life which I couldn’t control. I became a “yes man” and began to let people walk over me. I seemed to cave every time there was conflict. I just tried to make everyone, but me, happy.
I can still remember hearing the line, “I’ve still got a lot of fight left in me” In Rachel Platten’s Fight Song. It slapped me in the face. It was instrumental in me trying to take back things in my life. Unfortunately, it was that change that only led to more conflict.
Rachel had been playing music for a long time, but nothing ever really came from it. This song changed everything. She said,
“I grinded and worked so hard for so long and got to the point of… I didn’t think it was going to happen. I thought I might need to figure something else out. That moment bred ‘Fight Song.’ So that song came because I had to make a decision, ‘Am I going to keep going or am I going to give up on myself?'”
“I came up with the answer to the decision, I guess through writing the song,” she added. “I didn’t even realize it was happening, but through writing the song I made the decision to not give up on myself. Even if it’s only getting to play to a handful of people a night, that’s enough. At least I get to spread this message. Then funnily enough, by releasing the song, I got this amazing opportunity.”
Fight Song
What drew me to Dear Future Husband by Meghan Trainor was the sound. It sounded like a 50’s song and I liked it. This baffled me because I hated her debut song, “All About That Bass.”
Meghan revealed to The Miami Herald that the song’s subject matter was inspired by an ongoing joke between her and her father that Meghan’s future husband is out there somewhere, “chilling.”
The lyrics list the various things she expects from her future “groom-to-be.” They include “flowers every anniversary.” “open doors for me” and, “don’t have a dirty mind.” She says, “Girls need to be treated better. I never got that growing up.”
Hopefully, there are still men who do those things for their woman. Society tends to make those things old fashioned, but I disagree.
Dear Future Husband
Long before Sam and I were married, we were friends. We both work in sleep medicine. We would chat on the phone and talk about work. She knew I worked in music and told me that her new favorite song was Stressed Out by Twenty One Pilots. I hadn’t heard that one yet.
What has the guys stressed out these days? Tyler Joseph explains:
“I think one of the toughest things is that balances act of trying to maintain relationships while being on the road. It’s been a crazy few years. Josh and I are both very close with our families. It’s one of our favorite moments in our careers is being able to have our families in that video at the end. With that being said, it has been tough trying to maintain those relationships. The other stress is trying to outdo ourselves we either write a song or we play a show. Josh and I, we come from a local scene where every time you played your hometown you had to do something new. You can’t just play the same set. So we kind of apply it to the way that we approach every show, always trying to outdo ourselves.”
Fun Fact: Much of the video was filmed at Josh Dun’s childhood home. Because the home number is listed, Dun’s parents had to cancel the landline to put an end to the calls that were coming in all day and all night!
The song always reminds me of the early days of our friendship.
Stressed Out
Remember earlier in this series when I said “Gangnam Style” was the worst dance song ever? Well, I forgot about the annoying craze started by Silento. I didn’t know what the “Whip” or the “Nae Nae” were! Oh, the requests that I got for their piece of garbage! I would often have to play this two or three times at school dances. URGH!!!
According to songfacts:
“Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” was the soundtrack to the biggest dance craze of 2015. It’s actually two dances. For The Whip, just keep your arm straight and swing it in front of your face like you’re driving a car. The Nae Nae is similar, but with an open hand. They combine very well.
The Nae Nae is based on the character Sheneneh, played by Martin Lawrence in his ’90s TV series Martin. Sheneneh is a very brash woman who is extremely confrontational but gets offended easily. When she gets excited or upset, she makes an exaggerated “talk to the hand” gesture, which is the dance move here.
This song launched his career, but his success didn’t last long. A few years later, in 2021, he was indicted for murder after killing his cousin.
Watch Me
Another song that stuck out to me on the radio was 7 Years by Lukas Graham. The song has some really powerful lyrics.
Lukas Graham explained the song’s message to radio.com:
“The song’s basically just about becoming a good father, and being such a good father that your children would want to come and visit you when you’re an old, boring man,” he said. “I had a really, really cool father, so that’s what I wanna be too.”
“A lot of older people are actually very, very young,” he continued. “And they look at their age as some stamp that now they can point fingers at all the people that are younger than them; in reality I am probably a lot smarter than some of them anyway, at least. I’ve read more books; I’ve tried more stuff; I’ve seen more things.”
“And I think that’s why I can write a song like ‘Seven Years,’ because I might only be 27, but I know what my dreams are,” Graham concluded. “I knew when I was a young man that I wanted to be a father, and I knew I was gonna be a good father at that.”
I can totally relate to that. I have really tried to be a good father to all of my children.
If you listen closely, the sound of a film projector comes in during the quite parts of this song, including the intro. This gives it a nostalgic feel as if watching home movies.
7 Years
I also think of my wife when I hear the next song. I was unaware of her love of country music early in our relationship. Then she started to talk about Thomas Rhett. Die A Happy Man happened to be the first Rhett song I played when I was working at the country station.
He wrote the song for his wife, who’d been asking him to write her a love song. When he played it for her, he said watching her listen to it for the first time was very rewarding. He said:
“I’ve written love songs but never to the extent of that personal,” he said. “We strictly wrote that song about me and my wife’s relationship. I just think this song shows how me and Lauren love each other, and I hope this song is an encouragement to other married couples or people that are dating.”
It certainly was an encouragement to me!
Die A Happy Man
There was a student at one of the schools that would always ask for the group Panic! At The Disco. I’d see him walk up the me and I knew exactly what he wanted to hear. He’d come up multiple times with different songs. It is because of him that I became familiar with Death of a Bachelor.
In 2015, Frank Sinatra would have turned 100. The band used this song as a tribute to him. Brendon Urie posted on his Instagram in reference to the song’s release.
“I attach his music to so many memories: opening presents on Christmas day, my grandparents teaching the rest of the family to swing dance, watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit with my siblings (Sinatra makes a cameo in the form of a cartoon sword singing ‘Witchcraft’).”
“His music has been a major player in the soundtrack of my life. So it’s only right that I return the favor and/or pay it forward. I wrote a new album this year and even in the few songs that don’t sound remotely similar to any of his music I still felt his influence in the writing and the need to relate so personally to each song.”
He said of the song, “It’s like if Sinatra and Beyoncé made a song together. It’s like some Beyoncé beats with some Sinatra vocals. It’s really crazy.”
You even get a Sinatra vibe from the video
Death of a Bachelor
The next song is one that didn’t mean much to me until my divorce – Love Yourself by Justin Bieber. After a break up, the singer is still dealing with an ex. He tells her he’s not crying about things and she should really just go lover herself. It’s a great “blow off” song.
It was written by Ed Sheeran. Out of the many songs he has co-written for other artists, he considers this his favorite.
“I feel like the one that is the slam dunk, whenever I’m at a gig, to play someone else’s song that I had written is “Love Yourself” by Justin Bieber because it was so massive for him. I think it’s his biggest song… anywhere in the world, if I picked up a guitar and played that, they’d be like ‘oh my god, you wrote that!'”
“People always say, ‘Why didn’t you keep it?’ And to be honest, he was on such a roll at that point that I think it wouldn’t have been as big if I’d sung it,” he continued. “He had his whole period of his life that was a bit… you know what I mean. And America loves a comeback story.”
Love Yourself
As a bonus song, here is one that I really like because of its soulful sound. It is the debut single for Charlie Puth – Marvin Gaye. He wrote the chorus the first day he came to Los Angeles. Puth says he was at a coffee shop when the melody struck – he found himself tapping his foot and clapping out the beat.
The song is a duet with Meghan Trainor. Charlie explains how it all came about:
“Meghan and I were at a party one night, and we were exchanging the new music, and she heard ‘Marvin Gaye; and asked, ‘Who else is singing on this? It should be a duet. Let me sing on it!’ So I’m like… OK, Meghan Trainor just asked me to sing on my song, absolutely! In one day, she knew the whole thing. We did it all in one take.”
Asked if Marvin Gaye inspires his music, Puth replied:
“I listened to a lot of Marvin Gaye and Motown records. When I was making my record, I just wanted to make this soulful sound. When Marvin Gaye made his music, he evoked this feeling that would reach everybody.”
The video takes place at a school dance. There is plenty of sexual innuendo, but the music is so smooth and soulful that the people can’t help but dance.
Bonus: Marvin Gaye
So that wraps up 2015. Did I miss one of your favorites? Tell me in the comments. Next week, will be a little different. You may recall me mentioning that the further I got into the 2000’s, the less I connected with the music. I may have been familiar with a song or two, but if I couldn’t connect with it personally or call it a favorite – I didn’t add it.
Because of that, next week will feature the years 2016 & 2017. My list will feature a song with a life lesson, a suggestion for “our” song from my wife, movie music, a song that has a bit of a 60’s sound, and a song that pushes blame. I hope you’ll come back next week.
Thanks for reading and for listening.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 