Tag: The Music of My Life

The Music of My Life – 2006

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.

I started this feature with 1970 and we have come to 2006. As each year progresses, it has been interesting. I have noticed that some years it is difficult to get 10 songs, while other years I have trouble narrowing my picks to 10. I have a feeling that as I get closer to the end, there may be the need to pick less than 10. We’ll see.

2006 was a year of ups and downs. It became clear that my mom’s cancer battle may be drawing to an end. There was quite a change in her. After ten years of fighting, she was tired. She passed in October.

In October, just 11 days before my mom passed, the Detroit Tigers went to the World Series for the first time since 1984. My dad and I were so excited. Of course, the high was brought low when they lost it in 5 games.

Musically, 2006 wasn’t a bad year. My list has a variety of genres and a few songs that mean more now than they did in 2006. So let’s turn on the radio …

I love the sound of a good acoustic guitar and a simple vocal. If you look back over the years I’ve covered, there are quite a few songs like that. In 2006, Hey There Delilah jumped out of the radio for me. I loved the sound.

Delilah is a real person. Her name is Delilah DiCrescenzo. She is a steeplechase runner Plain White T’s lead singer Tom Higgenson met through a friend. He thought she was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen.

He told Songfacts:

“I was like, ‘Well, all right, I’ve got to write a song for this girl.’ I literally started playing it. The first verse just poured out exactly as it is, all the way through to the chorus. I didn’t really know the girl, you know? So, it was like, ‘What’s it like in New York City? Tonight, you look so pretty'”

He told Clickmusic that he felt this was possibly the most well-crafted song on the album:

“I think I definitely spent the most time on the lyrics with that song. It’s a lyric-driven song, so every line was important. It’s very exposed and vulnerable, but it’s very simple.”

Tom didn’t get the girl – Delilah was dating somebody and wasn’t interested – but he did get a number one song out of the encounter.

Hey There Delilah

The next song was one that I played when working in country radio. It was one of those songs that surprised me and became a country hit. I don’t know that country music would have ever been associated with Bon Jovi!

Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora wrote two versions of Who Says You Can’t Go Home. Both are on their Have a Nice Day album. One version is just the band and was a hit on the Adult Contemporary charts. The other is a country version featuring Jennifer Nettles of the band Sugarland.

At first, Jon Bon Jovi wanted Keith Urban to sing with him on the country version and play the banjo. It didn’t work out since their voices were so similar and the banjo didn’t sound right, so they used Nettles. The song went to #1 on the Country charts, the first time a rock band has done that.

Jennifer was a bit anxious about singing with Bon Jovi. In an interview she said,  “I had his New Jersey posters on my door when I was in the seventh or eighth grade. It made me nervous because the last thing I would want is to ruin a Bon Jovi song.” I think it is safe to say that she didn’t.

Who Says You Can’t Go Home

The next song is just one that struck a chord lyrically. When I heard the story behind the song, it took on a deeper meaning. Isaac Slade of The Frey explained to Songfacts how he came up with How To Save A Life. He explained that he wrote this song about an experience he had working at a camp for troubled youths:

“One of the kids I was paired up with was a musician. Here I was, a protected suburbanite, and he was just 17 and had all these problems. And no one could write a manual on how to save him. I got a lot of email about it. One kid died in a car accident, and I guess it had been the last song he downloaded from his computer. They played it at his funeral, and some of his friends got ‘Save A Life’ tattooed on their arms. The response has been overwhelming.”

Lead guitarist David Welsh told I Like Music the story of this song:

“The song came about very organically. Isaac had this idea on the piano of this kind of lullaby. Then he concocted this repetitious drum beat that moved the lullaby along with Ben. The lyrics came from an experience Isaac had with a teenager he was mentoring who was struggling with drugs and addiction. It was just a very natural process, the song developed and the lyrics fitted very well.”

The Fray is comprised of devout Christians, and this song certainly has some religious subtext, with specific references to God:

And I pray to God he hears you

The Christian music community embraced the song, sending it to #4 on the Christian Songs chart, but it wasn’t marketed as a religious song and was also a hit in the secular community – it made #3 on the Hot 100 and was also a #1 Adult Contemporary hit.

How To Save A Life

The first and only cover song on my 2006 list is a classic. In 1960, The Drifters recorded Save The Last Dance For Me. It was originally a B-side. The legendary Dick Clark thought Save the Last Dance For Me was the better of the two songs and started playing it on the radio. Bingo – it became a number one song.

It is a song that has been covered by many artists including Buck Owens, Dolly Parton and John Davidson! In 2006, Michael Buble’ released it as the third single from his It’s Time album. There were many remixes of the song before the single was released. After Bublé performed the album version of the song during the closing credits of the film “The Wedding Date,” that version was released to radio, peaking at No. 5 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.

I love his version! I love entire feel of it. It is so different from the original and the instrumentation is SO good. Every time I hear that horn line, it gives me chills. I like that it gives a little nod to the original by going from the strong brass sound to the lone guitar with the opening vocal.

Save The Last Dance For Me

If I mention the song Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol to my wife, she will immediately remind me that it was used in an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. A friend of mine will remind me that it was used in an episode of One Tree Hill. I have seen neither one of these shows – by choice.

It was a song I heard on the radio and I remember thinking was a great love song it was. It’s a great song about just getting through day by day with just you and your significant other. Lead singer Gary Lightbody, who called it “the most pure and open love song I’ve ever written.”

It’s such an amazing song, and Lightbody was even impressed with it. He wrote it under unique circumstances. He says he wrote it in the garden of producer Garret “Jacknive” Lee’s cottage one night while in “a blur of red wine and Percocet.” He says he wrote about 10 songs that night, and when he looked at them the next day nine of them were terrible, but “Chasing Cars” stood out like “a diamond in the s–t.”

It took 35 weeks to get there, but the song did reach #1 on the Top 40 charts. It was the only Top 40 hit foe the band in the US.

Chasing Cars

Country music listeners can get offended easily. In my years working in the format I can recall the division that songs like Goodbye Earl and Honky Tonk Badonkadonk stirred up. You had people who loved them or people who were offended by them. So when Love You by Jack Ingram hit my desk, I wasn’t sure about adding it.

You ask, “Why? Why would a song called ‘Love You’ be one you didn’t want to add?” Well, the “love” in the song means anything but “love.” Wikipedia says that this is a “kiss off” song. “Its lyrics feature several phrases where the F word is replaced with the word “love.”

It’s the ultimate “radio edit!” Here is part of the chorus –

“Love you, love this town / Love this mother-lovin’ truck that keeps breakin’ lovin’ down”.

There are also more traditional replacements in the song, with “dang” (“damn”), “heck” (“hell”), and “shoot” (“sh*t”) appearing several times in the first verse.

The song took on a whole new meaning for me when I was going through my divorce. It was a song that I would often listen to after a heated interaction with my ex.

My next song is here because I have a distinct memory of my oldest song when he was about 5 singing it in the back seat. I remember thinking, “Where did he hear that?!” Nothing like hearing your 5 year old singing, “You got soul, you got class. You got style, you’re badass!” Thanks a lot, Christina Aguilera!

It had been 4 years since Aguilera had released an album. Ain’t No Other Man was the first single from her Back To Basics album. The song samples a 1968 Latin soul tune called “Hippy Skippy Moon Strut” (aka “I’ll Be a Lucky Man”) by Dave Cortez and the Moon People, and “The Cissy’s Thang” by Soul Seven.

She said of the song, “I wanted to make it light and easy for people to dance to and sing along to, so the whole song is based on feel-good elements of soul and blues and jazz. Lyrically, I just got married, so it’s about someone in particular, but it’s all about feeling good and not taking anything too seriously.”

It’s definitely a catchy tune and people still like to dance to it. I dig the horns.

Ain’t No Other Man

The next song on my list is one that many can relate to. At any workplace, you are going to have people who will stand around and tell you what would make life better or what the government needs to do. They are right there with “solutions” to the world’s problems, but all they do is talk. They are not doing anything to make a change in things, instead, they wait on the world to change.

When you hear the lyrics of Waiting on the World to Change, you can see just how deep John Mayer is. You’d think it was written by someone in their 40’s, but he was only 28 when he wrote it.

Songfacts says that this song is how most people deal with problems in the world. When Mayer sings, “Me and all my friends, we are all misunderstood, say we stand for nothing but there’s no way we ever could,” he’s talking about his generation and their lack of faith in the government – all we can do is wait, and it seems like everyone is waiting for the world to become a better place. We sit on our hands and watch as the government takes control.

In an interview with the Daily Mail December 21, 2007 Mayer explained why he wrote this song that makes a point without laboring matters: “I wanted to start a debate. Most of us are happy to wait for things to change.”

Waiting on the World to Change

The next song is another example of a song that didn’t mean much to me in 2006, but means more to me now. In 2006, I had only my one son. My second son arrived in 2007. Until 2020, I was a “boy dad.” In 2020, my daughter was born. All of a sudden, all of those Daddy/Daughter songs started to hit hard.

Working in country radio, there is no shortage of songs about kids, songs about family and songs about daughters. If I had a dollar for every time I played My Little Girl by Tim McGraw as a Bride/Bride’s father song …. I could go on a long trip!

It was featured in the film Flicka. It is one of many that I want to dance with my daughter to.

My Little Girl

My final song for this week is one that I heard while visiting a church. Many of the modern churches will sing contemporary Christian songs instead of traditional hymns. I love those hymns, I won’t lie. I get chills singing many of them.

My brother-in-law at the time invited us to their church. It was odd for me, as I felt like I was watching a play or production instead of being in church. To me, it should be about the message and not so much the “tug at your heartstrings to make you cry” production. Anyway, I heard this song there and I did like it.

Chris Tomlin has had many Christian hits. Songfacts interviewed him about the song:

Tomlin said, “I wrote that song when I was living in Austin, Texas. I remember sitting on my sofa in my little apartment. And Psalm 104 was the psalm I was looking at. It said, ‘You our lord are very great. You’re clothed with splendor and majesty, wrap yourself with light as with a garment’ – through those opening verses and just describing a little bit of God, the glory of majesty, that little chorus came out. I started singing the chorus and, man, I had no idea, I thought the chorus was just a little simple thing and it was. And I had no idea it would become such a song in the church, and a song that finds its way in so many different cultures, different languages. It’s so transferrable, so accessible. I had no idea that it would ever become that.

I remember I had the song, I thought it was finished. I didn’t have a bridge to the song, and I met Ed Cash who produced that record it was on. First time meeting him and talking to him about maybe producing my new record. And I remember he picks his guitar up and says, ‘This ‘How Great is Our God’ song, I think it’s pretty good, but it’s not finished.’ And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? Who do you think you are?’ And I remember him grabbing his guitar. I believe it was something about, ‘What if you do something like this?’ And I remember he just started singing, ‘You’re the name above all names, you are worthy of our praise.’ And it’s really good, but when you open up and let somebody else sneak in, it just makes it better. So that’s when we knew it was taking it to another level.”

How Great Is Our God

With all I have been through, I know my faith got me through. They say that it is often played with the hymn, How Great Thou Art. I can totally see the two songs complimenting each other.

So what song from 2006 did I miss that was your favorite? Tell me in the comments.

Next week it is 2007. My list includes one of the biggest dance crazes of the 2000’s, a song about murder, a song about time flying, and a fantastic song by a classic group from the 70’s and 80’s. Join me next week …

Thanks for reading and listening!

The Music of My Life – 2005

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.

I turned 35 in 2005. There was plenty going on in my personal life at this time. We were doing various therapies for my son, who had been diagnosed as being on the Autism spectrum. I had settled into my position at 94-5 The Moose in Saginaw as their afternoon guy and music director. I was certainly loving that. And at some point during the year, my mother’s cancer returned.

At the time, My Space was pretty popular. I was blogging a lot on there. Somewhere, I have a Word document with every one of those blogs. I had to contact them to get them. I had stopped posting there after joining Facebook, and at some point they moved content. I was thankful to get those blogs as they covered the time leading up to my wedding, the birth of my sons and the death of my mom.

I posted a lot about new songs we were playing on the radio, too. A few of them make this list. Let’s head into 2005:

The legendary Ray Charles passed away in 2004, but before he did, he recorded an amazing duets album. Genius Loves Company was the best selling recording of Charles’ more than 50-year career. It was a collection of duets with Norah Jones, Natalie Cole, Elton John, B.B. King, Gladys Knight, Diana Krall, Michael McDonald, Johnny Mathis, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor.

The album entered the Top 10 on the US album chart more than 40 years after Charles’ previous appearance on that same chart. This broke the record held by another act who also made his comeback with a duets album. In 1993 Frank Sinatra’s Duets reached the Top Ten 25 years after his previous Top 10 album.

Here We Go Again was a song that Ray had recorded in 1967. Then in 2004 he re-recorded this as a duet with Norah Jones for Genius Loves Company. She recalled collaborating with Charles on this song in a 2010 interview with Billboard magazine:

“I got a call from Ray asking if I’d be interested in singing on this duets record. I got on the next plane and I brought my mom. We went to his studio and did it live with the band. I sang it right next to Ray, watching his mouth for the phrasing. He was very sweet and put me at ease, which was great because I was petrified walking in there.”

This song won Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration in 2005 eight months after Charles passed away. In addition Genius Loves Company was awarded Album of the Year among six other awards, as the American music industry paid lavish tribute to him.

Unlike Frank Sinatra and Willie Nelson, Ray Charles’ voice is as strong as ever on this recording. I felt Sinatra’s voice was weak on his duets albums. Willie is still putting out albums and at times he sounds like he’s just speaking the lyrics. Ray, however, sounds fantastic. I love the blending of these two voices.

Here We Go Again

The next song is an example of a song that I first heard in a polka. You read that right – a polka. Weird Al Yankovic has done quite a few polka medleys on his albums. The medley usually contains a verse or chorus from a pop song done as a polka. When I first heard Beverly Hills by Weezer on the radio, I found I liked it.

Weezer lead singer (Rivers Cuomo) explained in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine that this song is about how he could live in Beverly Hills, but he wouldn’t fit in. “I could live in Beverly Hills, sure,” he says, meaning he could afford it easily. “But I couldn’t belong there.'”

Songfacts explains:

The song comes off as satire, but that wasn’t what Rivers Cuomo had in mind when he wrote it. “I was at the opening of the new Hollywood Bowl and I flipped through the program and I saw a picture of Wilson Phillips,” he said. “And for some reason I just thought how nice it would be to marry, like, an ‘established’ celebrity and live in Beverly Hills and be part of that world. And it was a totally sincere desire. And then I wrote that song, ‘Beverly Hills.’ For some reason, by the time it came out and the video came out, it got twisted around into something that seemed sarcastic. But originally it wasn’t meant to be sarcastic at all.”

The music video was shot at the Playboy mansion. It included appearances by Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and some of the Playboy bunnies. Two of those bunnies were Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt.

Beverly Hills

When I was music director at the Moose, I spoke with a lot of record people. One of the industry folks knew I loved music from the Rat Pack. She asked me if I had heard of Michael Buble’. I hadn’t. She sent me some MP3’s of his music and I was hooked.

The song could have been sung by just about any artist who tours. The lyrics sound as if they could be autobiographical. It is sung by someone who spends a lot of time on the road with great success. With that success, there is sacrifice. He is missing his home, particularly the woman he loves.

Despite the fact that Home only reached #72 on the Hot 100 chart, it was a breakthrough song for him. The song hit #1 on the Adult Contemporary survey in July 2005. Three years later Blake Shelton reached #1 on the Country chart with his cover of Bublé’s hit.

Bublé and Blake Shelton teamed up in 2012 to record a holiday version of this song for Shelton’s, Cheers, It’s Christmas album. The collaboration happened after Shelton sent Bublé an email saying he hoped to record a yuletide-themed rendering of the tune. “I had the idea of doing a Christmas version of ‘Home,'” he said.

This was the song that proved to folks that Michael was more than a cover artist. His original songs are just as good as the standards he records. He is also more than just a Christmas artist. It bugs me that people pigeon hole him and label him like that. He’s one of my favorites.

Home

My on air name was “Keith Allen.” As a music director, I got to hear all the new music before it went on the air. I popped Play Something Country by Brooks and Dunn in the CD player and loved it. On my first listen, I thought they said my name – Keith Allen. I suppose, in a way, they did. But the lyrics refer to Toby Keith and Alan Jackson:

Said, I’m a whiskey drinking, cowboy chasing, hell of a time
I like Kenny, Keith, Alan and Patsy Cline.

I have to tell you my favorite story about this song. When my program director and I first heard this, we said, “That’s a number one song!” We told our consultant that we wanted to add it. He said he didn’t feel like it was a hit. We were both shocked. We both told him that we felt it would be number one. He fought us.

He fought us for a few weeks on this one. He finally said that if we really felt it was a hit, we should add it. We wound up making a wager. I told him that if it didn’t go to number one, we’d buy him dinner. He said if it did hit number one, he would buy US dinner. The week it hit number one, he called us for our weekly music call. When we answered we started giving him restaurants we could go to!

His issue with the song? The “wolf-like” howl of the chorus.

Play Something Country

The next song is one that everyone jokes about on October 1st every year. “Someone needs to go wake up the guy from Green Day!”

This song reminds me of Fastball’s The Way. I say that because it starts with a simple acoustic guitar behind lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong. Then the song kicks in with drums and the rest of the instrumentation. I love the sound of that.

Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong wrote this song about his father, who died of cancer on September 1, 1982. At his father’s funeral, Billie cried, ran home and locked himself in his room. When his mother got home she knocked on the door to Billie’s room. Billie simply said, “Wake me up when September ends,” hence the title.

“My father died in September of ’82, and I purposely, up until that point, never went there,” Armstrong said in an interview. “I think really what I was doing was processing that loss that I had with this person that I never really knew. So I wrote that song for my father and about that loss and how 20 years had passed. I remember right after I wrote it, I felt this huge weight off my shoulders.”

Wake Me Up When September Ends

Another country newcomer makes my list this week. I have actually written about him, and the song. Here is that blog:

Tune Tuesday – Must Be Doin’ Something Right

Must Be Doing Something Right

The next song is  one of the slowest chart climbers in history. It was on the American Hot 100 chart for 23 weeks before it entered the Top 40. KT Tunstall’s “Suddenly I See” was inspired by another artist, Patti Smith. Tunstall said, “The inspiration for the song was Robert Mapplethorpe’s photograph of Patti Smith on the cover of her album Horses. I was staring at it one day thinking it was incredible. It’s everything I love about music – mysterious, inviting, frightening.”

Suddenly I see
This is what I wanna be
Suddenly I see
Why the hell it means so much to me

“The chorus was me thinking, ‘that’s what I want to be,'” Tunstall told The Guardian. “Not a famous pop star with lots of money, but like this woman who’s living her life as an artist. I’d been trying for more than 10 years to be a professional musician. I was just exhausted from trying to persuade other people I was good enough.”

I remember hearing this song shortly after realizing that my first marriage was over. After all I learned and discovered through therapy, the title spoke to me. Suddenly, I saw just what was going on and I realized that I couldn’t do it anymore.

Suddenly I See

There were some really good country songs around this time. There were many new artists and some really distinct sounds that were on the radio. I was impressed with Josh Turner from the first time I heard him. I couldn’t believe the tone of his low voice.

Your Man is a song that I wish I could have written. Here is a guy who has been thinking about his woman all day long. He tells her to lock the door, turn the lights down low, and play some music.

I’ve been thinking about this all day long
Never felt a feeling quite this strong
I can’t believe how much it turns me on
Just to be your man

That’s LOVE right there!!

I love the entire feel of this song. It’s the perfect song to “sway” to.

Your Man

As the “Nostalgic Italian,” I think it is safe to say that I believe in the power of a photograph. The memories that can come from looking at an old picture just amazes me. My Friday Photo Flashback is always fun to do. I think that is because of the stuff that comes to mind with those old pictures.

I know there are plenty of people who hate Nickelback. However, Photograph is a song that I can relate to in so many ways. (From songfacts): This song is about reviewing the memories (missed and forgotten) from the band’s childhood in Hanna, Alberta. The lyrics are a chronicle of real events and personal landmarks lead singer Chad Kroeger recalled as he wrote it.

“It’s just nostalgia, growing up in a small town, and you can’t go back to your childhood. Saying goodbye to friends that you’ve drifted away from, where you grew up, where you went to school, who you hung out with and the dumb stuff you used to do as a kid, the first love – all of those things. Everyone has one or two of those memories that they are fond of, so this song is really just the bridge for all that.”

Someone once said, “If you don’t think photos are important, wait until they are all you have left.” I couldn’t agree more.

The photograph Kroeger is holding in the video is the one that inspired the song: It’s a shot of him and their producer, Joey Moi, at a New Year’s Eve party.

Photograph

We wrap up 2005 with a One Hit Wonder. Defining a “one hit wonder” isn’t really easy. Most feel it is when the artist fails to have their follow up released crack the Top 25. There are certainly many songs that fit into that category.

Daniel Powter’s album was released in America in 2006. Bad Day was released in the UK in 2005. In the fifth season of Americal Idol, the song was played over a video montage of the contestant that was being sent home that week. This helped the song gain popularity.

Powter is from British Columbia who later moved to Los Angeles. “Bad Day” was his first single released on a major label (Warner Bros.), and his only hit. He later described it as “a blessing and a curse.” Powter said:

“I was touring the world and performing for thousands of people, but I felt like the song was starting to define me. I actually found myself getting almost angry about it.”

This was the top-selling digital download of 2006. This was the star of people prefer downloading songs to buying CDs. It was part of a shift toward digital distribution of individual songs. In America, the album sold 500,000, but the single was digitally downloaded over 3 million times!

My mom was doing chemotherapy and radiation for her breast cancer at this time. She found the song to be inspiring. It basically says that even if you have a bad day once in a while, things will get better. My mom always tried to have a positive outlook. She battled cancer for 10 years and by this point she was tired.

My mom had the gift of gab. She was always on the phone. She assigned Bad Day to be the ringtone for her cell phone. I believe it was on there until she passed away. When I hear this song, I am taken back to those final weeks of her life.

Bad Day

What song from 2005 did I miss that was your favorite? Drop it in the comments.

Next week, we’ll focus on 2006. On my list is a song about a steeplechase runner, a song that became a hit because of Grey’s Anatomy, and a song that was a hit on the Adult Contemporary Chart and the Country charts. It also has a great Drifter’s cover song, one that took on a whole new meaning for me when my daughter was born, and a creative way to insinuate profanity without actually using it.

Thanks for reading and for listening! See you next week.

The Music of My Life – 2004

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.

I turned 34 in 2004. By then, we had figured out that there was something not right with my son’s development. We went through a ton of testing with him. Blood work ruled out a lot. We began intensive therapies. They helped. As time progressed we moved from “developmentally delayed” to “autism” and finally to “Asperger’s.” He overcame so many obstacles and today has a job and is ready to move out on his own.

When you deal with something like this, it is difficult to remember all that was going on at the time. You are consumed with all the various therapies and appointments. As I tried to look back on 2004, I felt a disconnect to much of it. There were things I remembered, but most of the year was a blur.

How about we dig into the tunes?

I was on the phone one day catching up with my old country Program Director Brian. They had let him go and it didn’t take him long to land another job. It was at an Adult Contemporary station. He joked around about trying not to laugh whenever he had to say “Hoobastank.” This phone call would be recalled by me years later. I was working part time at an AC station and had to talk into or out of The Reason.

It was the first time I had really heard the song. I related to it so much now. Here is a guy who admits to his lover that he isn’t perfect. He is going to disappoint and hurt them, but he wants to change. The reason for it – is his lover.

“I’ve found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
And the reason is you”

It is often a struggle to deal with our personal issues. Those things that you’ve carried around all your life. Things that are almost habitual. For the right person, you want to do whatever you can to move past those things and be a better person. I try this daily – and don’t always get it right.

The Reason

The next song is one that I wrote about for a round of Turntable Talk. In 2004, one of the hottest country songs introduced us to Gretchen Wilson. Her debut was like an M80 exploding. It was huge.

Rather than writing it all again here, you can click below to read the original blog.

Turntable Talk – “Out of the Blue”

Redneck Woman

My son loved Shrek. So naturally, he loved Shrek 2. The next song was written especially for the movie. It wasn’t an easy song to write.

Counting Crows lead singer, Adam Duritz, told the story of Accidentally in Love to Billboard magazine:

“I was really struggling with it. I generally don’t write songs on demand, and I almost got to the point where I thought I wasn’t going to do it. They just told me that the song had to be uplifting. They actually said, ‘Don’t write a song about Shrek. Write a song that’s about you.’ The funny thing is, the song ended up reflecting a lot of what was going on in my life at the time: falling in love with someone you’re not supposed to fall in love with because it’s inconvenient. My songs for Counting Crows are mature and generally don’t get a chance to reach kids. To be part of something like that is pretty cool.”

The song appears toward the beginning of the movie and barely broke the Top 40 (#39). It is an uplifting song that is fun to sing along with. It baffles me that it didn’t do better on the charts.

Accidentally in Love

The next song is one that not many have heard. It only went to #40 on the country chart, but it really connected with me. I have been accused of being a hoarder. I tend to save a lot of things that are special to me. Some of those things caused riff between my wife at the time and me.

I had old prom pictures, ticket stubs and mementos from past girlfriends. I had cards from my grandparents and many other things that really held a special meaning to me. I was told that those things meant more than she did and stuff like that. That wasn’t true, but I can see how it might be taken that way.

Chely Wright wrote the song with then-unknown songwriter named Liz Rose. (Liz would go on to co-write a lot of early stuff with Taylor Swift.) The lyrics of the song were written from Wright’s own experiences of saving mementos in small spaces. “I’m 33 years old, I’ve got a couple of champagne corks, and those are my stories, and I don’t have to tell about it.”

Again, it was a song I could totally relate to.

I don’t keep these things ’cause I’m longing to go back
I keep them because I want to stay right where I’m at
I’m reminded of my rights and wrongs
I don’t want to mess this up
But I wouldn’t know where I belong
Without this box of stuff

I am who I am today because of my past. You cannot delete your past. The things from it helped to shape you. They helped you to grow. They helped you to think a bit more before you acted. It really is amazing how something like a ticket stub can bring change in your behavior based on what happened when you used it.

Back of the Bottom Drawer

The next song is here only because I played it at almost every party, dance, or wedding I DJ’d. Sometimes a line dance will come and go, but this one is still being played at events. What is funny to me is the story behind it.

When you do the Cha Cha Slide, does it count as a workout? Apparently it does. DJ Casper created this song for the American health club chain Bally’s Fitness, who developed a workout routine around it. The song caught on with gym members, which led to its release as a single. In 2001, the song gained traction in America at dance clubs, weddings and other celebrations.

It had been around a few years prior. According to DJ Casper: “I wrote Cha Cha Slide in 1996 as an aerobics workout program for a gym trainer friend of mine, David Wilson, and I recorded and released my own version in 1998.”

In 2003 the song resurfaced in clubs across Europe and All Around The World Records picked it up for a UK release. On March 20th 2004 this rose from #2 to #1 on the UK singles chart.

Cha Cha Slide

I laughed when I first heard the name Bowling For Soup. I had forgotten about them after this song. Then I realized that they were the band singing the theme song to the cartoon Phineas and Ferb.

1985 wasn’t a big hit, but I remembered hearing it on the radio. It only went to #23 on the charts. I liked it because of the nostalgia factor. This song is about a woman who is still living in the past. She is reliving her glory years when she was a teenager in 1985. She had big dreams, but now spends her time immersing herself in ’80s pop culture.

Jaret Reddick, the lead singer for Bowling For Soup told Songfacts:

“‘1985’ was interesting because we were coming off our biggest record, which was Drunk Enough To Dance. And we went in thinking that we had a complete album, and we recorded a complete album. We did Hangover You Don’t Deserve, and it was pretty much done. Butch Walker produced three songs on that album, and we recorded the whole record at his place. And his manager called and said, ‘Hey, a song came across my desk. You know Mitch Allan, right?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah.’ ‘Well, he wants you to call him.’ So I call Mitch Allan from SR-71, he’s like, ‘Dude, I’ve got this song. It’s a freakin’ hit for you guys. It sounds like you.’ And evidently that whole conversation happened because Mitch was pitching his band to Jonathan Daniel, who is Butch’s manager, trying to get this record that they had put out in Japan released here in the United States. And JD said, ‘Dude, that sounds like a Bowling for Soup song.’ And Mitch said, ‘You know what? You’re right.’

So anyway, he sends me the song. And I’m actually like, ‘Man, we’re done. We’re literally leaving tomorrow. This album is complete.’ We had a little studio apartment that we were staying in and I listened to the song a few times, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s good.’ And the night goes on, had a few more beers, me and Gary (Wiseman – BFS drummer) sat in our kitchen and listened to it twice. And we’re just like, This is a great song. We don’t really know that it’s going to be a single, but it is great. We might as well just do it. So we went back in the next day and we cut it.

1985

I DJ’d a lot of Daddy/Daughter dances before having my daughter. I remember watching dads dancing with their little girls and tearing up. It made me understand why so many father’s cry when the dance with their daughter on her wedding day.

John Mayer’s Daughters was a song that was always requested at Daddy/Daughter dances. Sometimes, more than once. It took on a whole new meaning to me when I danced with Ella to it. The bond is a special one.

The song won Mayer Grammy Awards for Song Of The Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. 

I wonder if people know his inspiration for the song. According to Songfacts:

Part of the inspiration for this song was a Chris Rock comedy bit. In the bit, he talks about how a father’s main responsibility is to keep his daughter “off the pole.” In other words, to make sure she doesn’t become a stripper.

Daughters

The next song was originally done by the group Supertramp in 1977. It was written by singer/guitarist Roger Hodgson. He told Songfacts in 2012:

“That song has really taken on a life of its own, and I think it’s even more relevant today than when I wrote it. Because we really are needing to value love in a much deeper way, and also we’re needing to care. The song is basically saying: just show you care. You know, reach out and show you care. So in concert it’s the perfect show closer, because what I try to do in my show over two hours is unify the audience and unify all of us. So that at the end, when everyone stands up for ‘Give A Little Bit,’ they’re open and ready to open their hearts and sing at the top of their lungs and go away with a smile on their face. And that song really does, it has a very pure energy. The moment I start, people just start smiling. It’s amazing.”

The Goo Goo Dolls released it on their 2004 album Live From Buffalo. Their version had a lot of success on Top 40 and light rock stations. It made #37 on the Hot 100. It is on my list because I love the song and I think this is a great cover!

Give a Little Bit

One of my favorite country bands was Montgomery Gentry. I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with them when they were touring. They were so good! The next song is probably my favorite track from them.

Eddie Montgomery and the late Troy Gentry often swapped singing lead on their songs. Troy is doing the singing on Gone. It is a classic “break up” song.

Songfacts says:

Bob DiPiero and Jeffrey Steele wrote the song. DiPiero explained to the Tennessean that he and Steele had arranged a writing session at his place on the Florida Gulf Coast. After a fruitless morning, DiPiero wanted to come up with something simple and quick so they could go to lunch. He suggested they write a song with a one-word title and two chords that tip a hat to old time country tunes. They came up with “Gone.”

The song starts off by explaining his lover has walked out on him and is definitely not coming back.

This ain’t no temporary, typical, tearful goodbye
his ain’t no breakin’ up, then wakin’ up and makin’ up one more time
This is gone (gone), gone (gone), gone (gone), gone

For the rest of the song, a series of similes is used to illustrate how his baby has certainly departed forever.

She’s gone like a:

Freight train
Yesterday
A soldier in the Civil War
A ’59 Cadillac
And like all the good things, that ain’t never comin’ back

The writing on this one is just SO good.

Gone

My last pick is one that has brought me to tears on many occasions. It is a song that makes me think of my mom and those who have passed away. Homesick by MercyMe.

The song is an expression of grief and longing. It was written after the band experienced the deaths of nine people they were connected to in a short period of time.

Wikipedia states:

Lead singer Bart Millard initially wrote the chorus to “Homesick” following a funeral service for two infants that died in utero. He did not finish the song, as didn’t want to fake his way through writing the song. However, following the death of Millard’s brother-in-law, Chris, in a car accident, Millard finished the song so as to play it at Chris’s funeral. Millard and the rest of MercyMe intended the song only to be played once—at Chris’s funeral—but Millard’s mother-in-law encouraged them to record it.

It was a top 5 song on the Christian charts and a top 10 song on the Adult Contemporary charts.

When I hear this song, I remember that there is a reunion with my mom and others who have passed on. I cannot wait for that day.

Homesick

So there are my ten picks from 2004. I’m sure that I left a few of your favorites out. Let me know which ones you loved from 2004 in the comments.

Next week, we will head to 2005. My list includes an amazing duet, a band people love to hate, a song that is the subject of October first jokes, a song that mentions ME, and the song my mom used as her ringtone the last year of her life.

Thanks for reading and listening! See you next week.

The Music of My Life – 2003

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.

This will post on January 1, 2025, so let me start off by saying Happy New Year! I am sure that I will be posting something of a New Year’s Wish as well today.

Off to the side of my 2003 list I wrote, “Difficult year!” This could mean that it was difficult to pick ten songs. It could also mean that it was difficult to narrow the list down to ten songs. With my life, it could mean that 2003 was a difficult year personally. I’m not sure. I know that as I got deeper into the 2000’s, there were fewer songs that I liked. Maybe that is it?

Anyway, let’s drift into 2003:

Drift Away was a top 5 hit for Dobie Gray in 1973. In 2002, Gray recorded this as a duet with Uncle Kracker. When the song reached the Billboard top 10 in 2003, 30 years later, it broke a record. Dobie broke the record for the biggest gap between top US top 10 appearances and held that record for 17 years.

How did Uncle Kracker come to record it? You can thank a radio DJ for that. Songfacts explains:

“Although Uncle Kracker liked this song, he only performed it out of necessity at first. He was making the rounds on the morning radio shows to promote his solo debut, Double Wide (2000), which was mostly rap-rock tracks except for the mellow hit single “Follow Me.” Because he was expected to perform a few songs during his appearance, he needed something else to sing in the same vein, and the DJ Scott Shannon suggested the Dobie Gray tune.“

Kracker said, “If it wasn’t for him, that song would have never gotten cut, he pretty much put the bug in my ear for that.”

I like the fact that the cover included the original singer. People liked it, too. It was #1 for 28 weeks in 2003-04 on the Adult Contemporary chart. It broke the record for the longest run atop the tally and held the record for 15 years.

Drift Away

I had my first child in 2002. Over that first year, it was amazing to see the changes in him. I never really understood how fast time flies, until having children.

I was working in country radio in 2003 and I remember hearing Then They Do for the first time. I knew that it would be a huge hit because any parent could relate to the lyrics. They are delivered perfectly by Trace Adkins.

The song begins and describes a typical morning where the singer’s children are causing trouble on the way to school. Naturally, he thinks things will be easier when the children grow up. In time, the children go off to college and get married. It is then that the parents realize that they have more time to themselves now. Their children have accomplished their dreams, but their house and lives feel a lot emptier nonetheless.

It’s sort of a “be careful what you wish for” kind of thing. Be present and enjoy the memories.

Then They Do

The next song is one that I really liked. I don’t necessarily pray to angels when I am down or when I am hurting, but I do pray. I pray to God and ask Him to give me guidance or comfort. I did an in depth study for Sunday School at our church about angels once. That is why I don’t pray to them.

That being said, I do understand that in certain situations, people will often pray. Some, pray to angels. I think in essence, they pray to heaven for help. That’s kind of what I got from Train’s Pat Monahan’s inspiration for the song.

From Songfacts:

The song was inspired by something his therapist, Judy Bell, told him. Monahan told Buzzfeed, she said: “Just remember that we are made up of angels and traitors, and the angel is the one that says, ‘You’re beautiful and you can do anything you want,’ and the traitor is the one that says, ‘You’re ugly and you can’t get anything right.'”

“That song just came from that conversation of, if we all called our angels, what a cool life this would be for all of us,” he said.

The song went to number one on the Adult Contemporary chart.

Calling All Angels

I have always loved Willie Nelson. Some of his duets are just fantastic. I loved Pancho and Lefty with Merle Haggard. I loved To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before and Spanish Eyes with Julio Iglesias. I loved Seven Spanish Angels with Ray Charles. Last week, I could have included Mendocino County Line, his duet with Lee Ann Womack. When he did his duet with Toby Keith, it was a monster country hit.

Toby posted the story behind Beer For My Horses on his website:

“When I was a kid I worked for a rodeo company,” says Toby. “The old timers who worked the stock and stuff in the back would carry a pint of whiskey in their pocket – they were just old cowboys. They would pull it out and say, ‘Here’s to me, here’s to you, we got screwed, so screw you, here’s to me.’ They always had some little toast. One was to hold up the bottle for a drink and say, ‘Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses.’ I kept that in my head a long time thinking I’d write it some day.“

“We did finally, trying to say that maybe it’s time that justice gets back into the judicial system. The big posse goes out and catches the bad guys and everybody comes back to lick their wounds, remember the ones they lost and celebrate with the ones that made it back. You raise your glass and say, ‘Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses, bartender.’ One of those conceptual deals. Soon as we got done writing it I thought man, it’d be cool if we could talk Willie Nelson into singing the Texas verse on that. Obviously he went for it and I think it’s the biggest multi-week #1 either of us ever had.“

In 2008, Toby and Willie starred with Rodney Carrington in the movie of the same name.

Beer For My Horses

The next song was a top five hit for 3 Doors Down. Lead singer, Brad Arnold told Songfacts:

“The song’s just about being away from someone, or missing them,” he clarifies. “And it really doesn’t matter if you’re here without them for all day or all month. It’s just kind of about the lonely and missing of somebody, but people kind of take that sort of as a little bit of a sad song. And in a way, I kind of meant it as a happy song. And the reason being because it’s talking about being here without you, but she’s still with me in my dreams. ‘And tonight, it’s only you and me,’ so the song was really just about that dream. And being in a state of peace, because you’ve got that person there with you in your sleep. And in that way I kind of meant for it to be a little bit of a happy song.”

The song means a lot to many military personnel. Especially those who find themselves away from their loved ones with their lives in danger. At the same time, many think about someone who has passed away and that miss them. However you interpret it, it really is a great song.

Here Without You

Josh Turner is one of the nicest singers I’ve ever had the chance to meet. His voice can rattle things hanging on a wall it is so deep. I remember when his first single (Long Black Train) hit my desk. Personally, I loved it. I got it. I understood it. However, it had a Christian theme to it and I wondered how the listeners would like it.

I love hearing him tell the story of how the song came about. He told AOL Music:

“‘Long Black Train’ was inspired by a vision that I had of a long, black train running down this track way out in the middle of nowhere. I could see people standing out to the sides of this track watching this train go by. As I was walking, experiencing this vision, I kept asking myself, ‘What does this vision mean and what is this train?’ It dawned on me that this train was a physical metaphor for temptation. These people are caught up in the decision of whether or not to go on this train. And this came about in a time of my life where I was trying to figure out who I was as an artist and as a person… I was trying to learn how to deal with the freedom that I had away from home for the first time. ‘Long Black Train,’ the song and the album, are very special to me. It was just one of those things that I felt like God gave to me for a purpose, and I’ve been out here promoting that purpose.”

He wrote the song after listening to some old Hank Williams Sr. songs. He was a college senior. He said he started strumming the guitar and the verses came to him. He never had any intention of releasing the song and noted that when he wrote it, “I didn’t even have a record contract yet!”

Long Black Train

Next is song that has been covered a few times. The First Cut is the Deepest was written by Cat Stevens. He did a demo of the song in 1965. In 1967,  it was a hit for P.P. Arnold in Britain reaching #18 in the charts.

In America, the first version to chart was by Keith Hampshire, who took it to #70 in 1973. Rod Stewart covered it in 1976, taking it to #21 US and #1 UK. Sheryl Crow released her version in 2003, which made #14 in the US and #37 in the UK.

Sheryl recorded it for her hits compilation, “The Very Best of Sheryl Crow.” It was one of her biggest radio hits. It also became her first solo top-40 country hit following the success of her duet with Kid Rock (“Picture”)

First Cut Is The Deepest

Next, the third duet on my 2003 list. This was another one of those songs that after hearing it, I knew it would be a hit. How could it NOT be with Jimmy Buffett on it?

The song came about when writer Don Rollins had with the line “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere.” It was written for another artist whose album wanted a Jimmy Buffett vibe to it. The artist passed on the song and eventually it came to Alan Jackson. Rollins explains,

“I got the call that it was on hold for Alan, which I thought was strange, because if you hear the demo it’s very island-ly. There are acoustic guitars and steel drum samples, very much Buffett. The idea that someone as country as Alan Jackson might be interested in that song never even occurred to me. Then I got wind that he was wanting to do a duet with Buffett, and it made a little bit more sense at that point.”

This song spent eight weeks at #1 on the Country charts, and won the 2003 Grammy for Best Country Song. It was the first #1 song on the Country chart for Jimmy Buffett.

It’s Five O’clock Somewhere

Last week I picked a remix of Elvis Presley’s A Little Less Conversation. In 2002, the remix had worldwide success. Because of that English record producer Paul Oakenfold took another Elvis song and did a remix of it. This time it was Rubberneckin’.

Rubberneckin’ was a song that Elvis sang in the movie A Change of Habit. It was released as the B-side of Don’t Cry Daddy. It was a top ten hit for him.

The remix only reached number 94 on the Hot 100 chart in the US, but it was big elsewhere. It peaked at number two in Canada, and number three in Australia. It also reached the top 10 in Denmark, Finland, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

Some folks dislike these remixes. I can see where a bad remix would make me feel that way. I really thought these two Elvis remixes were great. I was loving how many people danced to them at parties.

Rubberneckin’

The final song of 2003 is probably the most bizarre. It just sticks out, and the band knew this! I’m talking about I Believe in a Thing Called Love by The Darkness. This was a song that was brought to my attention by my ex. I had never heard it before, but one time I was asked to play it at a party and the crowd went crazy!

From Songfacts:

The British magazine Classic Rock named this as their Greatest Rock Song of the ’00s. The band’s frontman Justin Hawkins commented: “All The Darkness ever tried to do was bring a little joy into the glorious realm of rock, but ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ crossed over big time and changed our lives forever. To have been awarded ‘Song Of The Decade’ is overwhelming and I’m very grateful to Classic Rock for everything.”

The band’s former guitarist, Dan Hawkins, told Classic Rock the story of the song: “‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ was such an important song for The Darkness, but when we wrote it I really wasn’t sure about it. The chorus is so stupidly catchy, I thought people were just gonna take it as a complete joke! Right from the start, this song stuck out like a sore thumb.

We started with the riff, which Justin came up with. It sounded really great right away. But when he sang the chorus for the first time, I just said, ‘No, you can’t do that – it sounds ridiculous!’ I really thought people would just laugh at us when they heard it. So for the rest of the song, I tried to make it sound cool, more ‘rock.’ The rest of the song is all in minor key.“

Songfacts also presents this very funny review:

The New York Times wrote that this song “sticks to the listener like hair gel.”

I Believe in a Thing Called Love

So there you have it. Did I miss one of your favorites from 2003? Make sure to tell me about it in the comments.

Next week, I’ll present my list from 2004. The list include one of the funniest group names to say on the radio, a monster debut song, movie music, a dance craze that is still going strong, and a song that still brings me to tears.

Thanks for reading and listening!

The Music of My Life – 2002

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.

This particular year is posting on Christmas Day. I wasn’t sure about skipping it or moving it to another day, so here it is. That being said, Merry Christmas to you and yours!

In 2002, I turned 32 years old. I also became a father for the first time. It was a year of change to be sure. I was also a year of struggle, as I would be let go from my radio job shortly after my son was born. I was able to find another radio job, but the rate of pay was so much lower that I would have been better off on unemployment.

Music has always been a way for me to get through tough times. Here are my favorites from 2002:

In February of 2002, the world was introduced to the amazing Norah Jones. The album was Come Away With Me and it was something that really stood out amongst the rest of what was going on musically at the time.

According to Songfacts.com, Norah started performing this song with Jesse Harris (the write of the song) after moving to New York City. Harris “thought it was a good fit for a female voice. Jones changed the key to fit her voice, added a drum beat, then recorded a demo of the song with Harris in October 2000. That demo got the attention of the jazz label Blue Note, which signed Jones and sent her to the studio to record with a group of session musicians. The results were too convoluted, so Jones was assigned to a different producer, Arif Mardin, who had worked with many famous artists, including Aretha Franklin. He was brought in to capture Jones’ distinctive sound, which he did by keeping the original demo take and adding some guitar and a vocal harmony, making Jones harmonize with herself.”

Jesse Harris played guitar on the original demo, which ended up being used on the final recording. He almost stopped the take because he didn’t like the mix in his headphones. He kept going and was glad he did, since that was the keeper. Jones and her band were willing to do another take, but the engineer, Jay Newland, thought it was perfect and wouldn’t let them.

Songfacts says, “Grammy voters were enamored with Jones, nominating her in five categories, with “Don’t Know Why” up for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. After the nominations were announced, the album went to #1 in America, claiming the top spot on January 25, 2003, 11 months after it was released.

Jones cleaned up at the Grammys, winning all five awards she was nominated for, with Come Away With Me earning Album of the Year. Jones also won Best New Artist and performed “Don’t Know Why” on the show.”

It wasn’t long after this that I was watching Sesame Street with my son. Norah sang this with altered lyrics about the letter “Y.”

I Don’t Know Why

The Come Away With Me album is a rare massive seller with no big hits. The only song to land in the Hot 100 was “Don’t Know Why,” which made #30. “Come Away with Me” was the third single, released in December 2002 after the album had been out for nine months. By this time, it has already sold millions of copies, but many were just discovering it.

I love that these two songs really show off the unique voice of Norah Jones.

Come Away With Me

I don’t recall the first time I heard A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton. It is entirely possible that it was years after it was released. I probably heard it for the first time when I was at the Adult Contemporary station I was working for.

I just know that I really liked it. I loved the melody and her voice. I had never seen the video before I watched it to post here.

Vanessa wrote the lyrics after coming up with the song’s piano riff in the summer of 1998 at her parents’ house in Philadelphia. She revealed in a documentary for Vice that she penned the words about a Juilliard student she had a crush on while studying at the School of American Ballet. However, her love was unrequited. “I would never talk to this person,” Carlton said. “I was very shy. I was like, ‘There’s just no way on God’s creation that this would ever happen.'”

She refused to reveal the subject’s name to Vice because he’s a “famous actor” now, apparently.

The song was used in the Shawn and Marlon Wayans movie “White Chicks.” When asked about the song being in the movie, Vanessa said, “I thought it was hilarious. Those guys are really nice, too. I ran into them backstage or something, and they asked me if they could use it. They’re like fans, they’re so cute. But the scene that was in was hilarious.”

A Thousand Miles

Brad Paisley was just coming on the scene when our station brought him to town for a show. He was friendly and a bit shy. When he hit the stage, he was a marvel to watch. I’d watched a lot of people play guitar, but I was in awe of his playing!

His second album, Part II, was released in 2001. One of the songs from it showcases Brad’s playful lyrics and sense of humor. I’m Gonna Miss Her (The Fishing Song) is about a wife who gives her man an ultimatum. He needs to pick between fishing and her. I would imagine this could be re-written as The Golf Song or The Hunting Song, too.

The video is something that takes the song up a notch. Songfacts, quotes Brad:

“I’ve always written with a little humor. Even my saddest songs have a little smile to them,” Paisley recalled in his spotlight interview during the 2018 Country Radio Seminar in Nashville. “So for the [‘I’m Gonna Miss Her’] music video, I pitched this whole idea: I said, ‘I’m gonna do a video that’s gonna take the song to whole other places.’ I was going to get Dan Patrick, who was at ESPN at the time, and have him officiate a fishing tournament. And then Jimmy Dickens was gonna be my fishing buddy. Then, we were going to end up on The Jerry Springer Show. The wives were going to be upset with us, throwing chairs and stuff. [The guy from the label] said, ‘Can you really make this happen?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely.'”

“I walked out of that meeting,” Paisley added, “called my agent and said, ‘I really, really need Dan Patrick’s number.'”

His real life wife, Kimberly Williams, also appears in the video.

I’m Gonna Miss Her

The next song is one that I can relate to quite well. I have been very lucky to still have friends from elementary school (as well as middle and high school). Those elementary school friendships that last are treasures. I have written here many times about my best friend, Jeff, who I have known since second grade.

“We’re Going To Be Friends” by the White Stripes was released on the band’s third album, White Blood Cells. At that time, they were little known outside of their Detroit stomping grounds and in the UK, where they got a lot of love from the music press. But thanks to a surprise hit movie, they gained lots of recognition and fans.

This song plays at the beginning of the 2004 movie Napoleon Dynamite, where it’s used under a clever opening sequence where the credits appear on various everyday objects (lip balm, bag lunch). The film, of course, was a surprise hit and earned a great deal of exposure for the song. The main character, Napoleon, is a strong-willed, talented, quirky type with big ideas. Kinda like the White Stripes frontman, Jack White.

The movie was my first exposure to the song. It led me to dig deeper into their musical catalog.

We’re Going To Be Friends

I have always loved a song that has a Spanish feel to it. There is something about the sound of a Spanish guitar that I really dig. When I first heard My Heart is Lost to You by Brooks and Dunn, I was impressed on many levels. The thing that stuck out most was just how good Ronnie Dunn’s voice fit this type of song.

It only went to #5 on the country charts, and faded away afterward. You rarely hear it on the radio today. It is one of the songs that really got me through a rough patch. It always made me feel good when I heard it.

My Heart Is Lost To You

The 9/11 attacks were still very fresh in our minds in 2002. Patriotism was still on the rise, too. The next song became a sort of anthem for the country, but almost was not released.

Toby Keith wrote Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue shortly after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. He said he wrote the song based on what he thought his father’s thoughts on the terrorist attacks would have been. Keith’s father was a veteran and a patriot.

He told the CBS show 60 Minutes that he wrote this song in just 20 minutes, a week after 9/11. His intention was to play it for troops on USO tours, but not to be part of a commercial release. However, after playing it for Pentagon brass in Washington, the Marine Corps commandant said, according to Keith: “You have to release it. You can serve your country in other ways besides suiting up in combat.”

This was one of many country songs that were written and released after 9/11.

Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue

Elvis Presley had been dead 25 years in 2002, yet, here he is on my list!

Songfacts explains: Mac Davis and Billy Strange wrote A Little Less Conversation for the 1968 Elvis movie Live A Little, Love A Little, which was one of Presley’s last. Davis wrote the original version for Aretha Franklin, but when Billy Strange, who was handling music for the film, approached Davis about contributing a song, he realized that “A Little Less Conversation” fit the scene perfectly, so he reworked it with Strange and Elvis sang it for the film.

This was a fairly obscure Elvis song, peaking at a very un-Kingly #69 in America when it was released in 1968. But when it was remixed and released as a single in 2002, this new version went to #1 in the UK, giving Elvis 18 #1 hits there, the most of any artist. Previously, he was tied with The Beatles at 17. The remix topped the charts in several other countries as well, but only reached #50 in the US.

I do remember the first time I heard this. I was blown away. I thought it sounded modern and fresh. It was great to hear his vocals preserved and this take on the song. I was surprised when high school kids were asking for it at dances, too. They loved it and so did I.

A Little Less Conversation

The band Weezer has made some fantastic and memorable music videos. The next one is no exception.

Maladroit was Weezer’s fourth album. Keep Fishin’ was the second song released from the album. It received some high praise from critics. The AV Club stated: “It’s the kind of infectious, impeccably crafted power-pop rocker Cuomo can probably bang out in his sleep”.

The video is just a joy to watch, especially for folks like me who grew up watching The Muppet Show. The music video features Weezer as guests on The Muppet Show as drummer Patrick Wilson is held captive by none other than Miss Piggy. As noted in the Weezer Video Capture Device DVD, it marks the acting debut for the band members in a music video.

The video premiered on July 14, 2002, on MTV2. It was accompanied by a half-hour special showcasing behind-the-scenes footage from the video’s shoot.

Despite the Muppet Show wrapping in 1979 after five seasons on the air, I can see them having more fun with Weezer and other artists if it were still airing. (The new version from a few years ago took it to a more adult level with themes that I felt were not “Muppet-ish”)

Keep Fishing

Speaking of growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, the next song was like a time capsule. It tossed in many things that I remembered, and many others did, too. It was a crossover hit for Mark Wills called 19 Something.

The song begins with singer’s reminiscence of his formative years, the 1970s and 1980s. In the first verse and chorus, various 1970s-related bits of pop culture are referenced, such as Farrah Fawcett, eight track tapes, and Stretch Armstrong. The first verse also mentions the videogame Pac-man (“I had the Pac-Man pattern memorized.”). The first chorus begins with the line “It was 1970-somethin’ / In the world that I grew up in.” Verse two, similarly, references 1980s pop culture, such as the Rubik’s Cube, a black Pontiac Trans Am, and MTV. The second chorus likewise begins with “It was 1980-somethin’.” In the song’s bridge, the singer then expresses his desire to escape to his childhood years: “Now I’ve got a mortgage and an SUV / All this responsibility makes me wish sometimes / That it was 1980-somethin’.“

It was released as a single from Mark Wills’ Greatest Hits CD. It went to number one on the Country Charts and peaked at number twenty-three on the Hot 100 charts.

19 Something

The final song on my list is a cover of a Joni Mitchell song, Big Yellow Taxi. The song was a hit for her in 1970. She said in an interview: “I wrote ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart… this blight on paradise. That’s when I sat down and wrote the song.”

The Counting Crows covered the song as an afterthought and originally for a hidden track on their 2002 album Hard Candy. It was only released as a single after Vanessa Carlton’s back-up vocals were added for a new version that featured on the soundtrack to the 2003 movie Two Weeks Notice. Their version became the band’s only Top 20 single in the UK, peaking at #13. In the US it reached #42.

If I had to choose between the original and the cover version, I’d choose the original. I don’t think this is a bad cover, but many did. It appears on a few “worst cover song” lists.

I think the song itself is why it is on my list, I love the song. This version doesn’t touch the original, but it did introduce younger folks to the song.

Big Yellow Taxi

Did I leave off one of your favorites from 2002? If so, mention it in the comments.

Next week, we kick off the New Year with 2003. Next to my list for ’03, I wrote “difficult year.” Whether that means that it was hard to narrow my list down to 10 songs or that it was hard to find 10 songs, I don’t remember. I can tell you it features a couple covers songs, a song every parent can relate to, and we learn what beverage equestrians give to their horses.

See you then!

The Music of My Life – 2000

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 2000, I turned 30. It was one of those big milestone birthdays that people joke about. “You start to fall apart at 30,” I was told. I was lucky. Right around my 30th birthday I achieved my 30 pound weight loss. I was on my way to better health and actually felt good. I was married, had a steady full time job, was doing radio part time, and still DJing on the side.

It has been interesting to look back year by year to see the changes in music. It’s funny to see how certain things come and go. For example, “Boy Bands.” When the New Kids on the Block faded away in the early 90’s, many folks thought the boy bands were done. However, in 1999, two new boy bands brought the genre back into the spotlight.

When the Backstreet Boys stormed on the scene in 1999, they helped pave the way for ‘N Sync. ‘N Sync’s No Strings Attached album would go on to be the best selling album of the 2000’s according to Billboard magazine. Bye Bye Bye was one of the songs from it that helped the sales of the album.

The song is on my list because it was one of my “go to” songs at parties. It never failed to get all of the younger females out on the dance floor. It always made me laugh because when it started to play, you’d hear a bunch of high pitched screams. I liked it to the girls you’d see watching the Beatles or Elvis!

Bye Bye Bye

Next, it’s a one hit wonder that really stuck out on the radio. The group Nine Days took Absolutely (The Story of a Girl) to the top ten on the charts, but wound up being a “one and done” group.

The song was written by lead singer Josh Hampson. The song is actually an autobiographical song about him and his wife. In an interview with Impose magazine, he says, “I exaggerated things and used tons of figurative language to express something, but it’s about me, and it’s about my wife – who was then my girlfriend – and her wanting to get engaged. I just wasn’t ready. I was basically stalling her and making her cry. I was good at that.”

Their first album didn’t produce any further hits. They recorded a second album, but their label dropped them and said that the album would not be released. They said that there were “no hits” on it.

John left the music business and became a teacher.

When a song opens cold (with no musical intro), that first line really has to grab you. The first time I heard this on the radio, it grabbed me. I thought, “Okay, tell me more about the girl who cried a river and tried to drown the whole world…”

Absolutely (The Story of a Girl)

We’ve seen throughout this series how tough times can often lead to amazing songs. That is the case for the country cross-over hit, I Hope You Dance.

The was written by Tia Sillers and Mark Sanders. Sillers told Songwriter Universe magazine:

“For ‘I Hope You Dance,’ I had written the opening line, ‘I hope you never lose your sense of wonder.’ I had just broken up with someone, going through a brutal divorce. I needed to get away, so I went to a beach on the Florida Gulf Coast. Sitting on the beach and reflecting about the breakup, I felt so small and inconsequential. But out of this difficult time came the inspiration to write ‘I Hope You Dance.’ As I was leaving the beach, I remember thinking that things weren’t really so bad, that I would get through it. That’s when I came up with the line, ‘I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean.'”

In a Song facts interview, Bill Withers talked about this song. He stated that this is a song that says something that everyone can understand and remember: “There are lines that are so profound… ‘And when the time comes for you to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.’ Come on man, you can’t say that any better.”

This was a song that became big for Daddy/Daughter and Mother/Son dances at weddings. It wasn’t odd for it to be the bridal dance either. I think Lee Ann Womack’s voice is perfect for this song and I was thrilled to see it get pop airplay.

It really is one of those songs that is a “wisdom song.” It could easily be something someone would tell a loved one if they knew it was the last time they’d see each other in my opinion. It’s just a really great song.

I Hope You Dance

it would be two years before my first child would be born. I won’t lie, the thought of being a dad scared me. The next song is one that was still being played on the radio when my son was born. It struck a chord and I know now, why.

According to Song facts, Creed’s lead singer, Scott Stapp was due to be a father. Once he found out that he was going to have a son, Stapp wrote this song because he didn’t want his child facing the same problems he faced while growing up. He was from a very strict, very devout Christian household and he didn’t want his son to grow up questioning himself and his faith like Scott did. Stapp told us: “Don’t we always want our kids to be better than us? Don’t we always want them to have a better experience in this life and this journey than we did? So I think that from my point of view I’m beginning to see why that song struck a chord with multiple generations: because it touches on a feeling and sentiments that are universal for fathers, and for parents in general.”

Scott says that he still connects with the song when he performs it. He says he remembers the fear of being a father, but also knows with time, the fear has gone and he loves being a dad.

The song would be Creed’s only #1 on the Pop chart.

With Arms Wide Open

Next is a song that I hated to include. I never really cared for the song, but it was a part of my life. Heck, it was a part of everyone’s life. It seemed like you couldn’t go anywhere without hear it or a reference to it. It may surprise you to know that despite this, it barely did anything on the charts.

Songfacts says, “Considering what a sensation this song was in America, it had a surprisingly low chart position, peaking at just #40. While the song seemed to be everywhere, its omnipresence was due more to cultural references than to record sales or airplay. Few radio stations put the song in rotation, and in this pre-download era, consumers had little interest in owning the single.”

So just how did it get so popular??

Songfacts answers that, too. “Knowing most radio stations would have no interest in this song, it was marketed through sports, with the single sent to various baseball, basketball, football, hockey and soccer teams in hopes that they would play it at games.

Most of the music played during sporting events is during lulls in the action – after a foul ball in a baseball game or when a football team is in the huddle – which is only room for about 12 seconds of a song. Songs with quick, high energy, easily understood hooks work well, and “Who Let The Dogs Out” fit the bill for these jock jams.”

Who Let The Dogs Out?

I was working in Country Radio when Tim McGraw released “My Next Thirty Years.” Talk about a song that hit home at the time. I think when you hit any milestone birthday you think about the past and the future. The lyrics conveyed things that I was feeling at the same time.

The song mentions focusing on “where I go from here,” and forgetting about “the crazy things I’ve done.” He says he is going to “cry less” and “laugh more!” He’s going to “eat more salads” and watch his weight. Then he says he’ll try “not to stay up too late.” Can you relate? I know at the time I did.

Actually, I found myself pondering those exact same things when I hit forty and fifty. You look back and hope that you’ve learned from your past experiences. You look forward with a plan to make what lies ahead the best yet. I know so many people who connected with this song. Rightfully so, it went to number one for Tim McGraw.

My Next 30 Years

How can a song that starts with the lines, “Hey, Mr. DJ, put a record on! I wanna dance with my baby!” not make my list? Music from Madonna was a song that a lot of people asked for when I was DJing. It was almost like the song was doing the talking for the crowd.

Madonna has always been a complex sort of person. This album brought back the “fun” Madonna, if you will. She told Billboard magazine, “Everything in life moves in cycles… there’s a period where you’re quiet, and there’s a period where you explode. In the time leading up to Ray of Light, I was in a quiet space – making lots of discoveries and going through lots of changes. It was an introspective, questioning time. Then, almost without warning, I felt like I needed to explode. I didn’t feel the need to be so introspective. I felt like dancing. And that’s reflected in these songs.”

When Madonna shot the video for this song, she was expecting her son. She hides it by wearing a lot of coats and such. There is one section of the video that was difficult for her to shoot due to her pregnancy, so it was animated.

Music

My next song was one that I heard first from my ex-wife. She had Beth Hart’s CD and listened to it often. I was very familiar with LA song and my pick, Delicious Surprise because of her. When I heard it on the radio, it struck me a bit differently. I can’t explain why. Maybe it was because it was just her singing (and not my ex joining in).

We all like to dream. Many of us dream big. “What if I won the lottery?” “What if I was the President?” “What if I was a movie star?” Those are questions pondered by the singer in this song. Then she offers up the advice to “see and believe” those dreams.

Jo Dee Messina did a country version of the song in 2005.

Shortly after the song was released, Beth was dropped from her record label. While it was never given as a reason, many believe it was because of her drug addiction. She battled this and bi-polar disorder for some time yet continued to make music. Today, she has been long sober and lives in California.

Her last album was a Led Zeppelin tribute album in 2022.

Delicious Surprise

The world can always use a bit more gratitude. Don’t we spend the first few years of their lives teaching our children to say “please” and “thank you?” Sadly, we don’t say it enough.

I love Dido’s song, Thank You. I love the simplicity and complexity of it. The song features all of the troubles and and stress of life in general. It also features how that all goes away when that special someone is there.

According to Songfacts:

“Dido wrote “Thank You” after meeting her boyfriend, a lawyer named Bob Page, in 1995 and falling for him hard. She thanks Page for giving her the “best day of her life,” which is when they met in a club and had their first encounter. Page sparked a creative fire in Dido, who also wrote the song “Here With Me” about him. They got engaged in 2001, but broke up a year later, inspiring another Dido song: ” White Flag.”

Dido owes a lot of thanks to Eminem. He sampled the song for his song, “Stan.” He did not ask permission to use this on “Stan” until after the song was produced. However, Dido loved it agreed to let him use it. She recalled to Billboard magazine in a 2013 interview: “I just got a letter saying, ‘We heard your track. We love it. We’d like to use it for this track ‘Stan.’ Can you take a listen? I hope you like it and can we use your song?’ It was completely out of the blue. I put it on like, ‘I wonder what he could have done.’ You just don’t know. And I was a big Eminem fan, so it was pretty cool. And then I heard it. I remember because I had some friends staying in the same hotel. They were literally running down the hall, like ‘You gotta listen to this; it’s just brilliant!'”

Thank You

The final song for this week’s list is one that never cracked the Hot 100. It was the second single and title track from Green Day’s Warning album. Songfacts says, “by this time they were mellowing out a bit, with lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong playing more acoustic guitar. This was a product both of the band getting older and the pop-punk sound they ushered in falling out of fashion. The album sold poorly, but the band was well established by this point and wasn’t watching the charts.”

Billy Joe Armstrong has said that the original concept was to create a song whose lyrics were made up of all of the everyday warning signs and labels and the idea grew from there. I love his description of the content.

“The world is being filled with warnings and instructions of what not to do. The song states that it’s important to trust your instinct and do what you believe is right, but also to not be stupid enough to be the cause of another warning sign to be established. Take risks and question your surroundings, but don’t fall victim to your own stupidity.”

Well, alrighty then….

It wasn’t the words that made me like the song. It was actually the guitar and bass licks. It was so simple, but I loved the chord progressions. Someone compared it to the Kink’s Picture Book. I can hear that …

Warning

Well, that wraps up Y2K! I’m sure your list looks different than mine. What were your favorite songs from 2000? Let me know in the comments.

Next week, I may play the theme from 2001, just because, ha ha! My list only includes 2 cover songs, a must have party song, movie and TV music, a song that moves me and a song that moved the entire country.

Thanks for listening and reading! See you next week.

The Music of My Life – 1999

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 1999, I turned 29 years old. In September of that year, I would venture into a marriage that would fail years later. Two great sons came out of it though, and that was a great thing.

1999 was also the year that I began receiving monthly CDs with new music on them. It was a great was to always be sure to have clean edits of songs and be current. I received my first CD in May of that year and thankfully so!

I had been hired to DJ a prom. It was the first one I had ever done. I had been able to scrounge up some of the “newer” songs thanks to friends. However, a lot of the brand new stuff not in stores yet. (This is probably before I got my iPod and iTunes). Two days before the prom, that CD had the hottest song on the radio at the time. The song was Ricky Martin’s Livin’ La Vida Loca.

That night, I had requests for it and was surprised (and thankful) it was on the CD! I played it at least three times that night and knew my investment was a good one. Those CDs saved me plenty of times.

Frank Sinatra died on May 14, 1998, which was around the time this song was conceived. Co-writer Desmond Child told Songfacts that Sinatra’s music was a strong influence on this song. He said, “Frank Sinatra’s music was coming out of the airwaves, and we were all of a sudden into this Rat Pack idea, and also the Latin Elvis concept that we had for him. So we put that into the songs, as well – there was a swing aspect to it. So the verses were more like that, and then the choruses were all out rock anthems, with horns. Because horns had fallen out of favor, we brought horns back.”

Paul McCartney’s guitarist, Rusty Anderson, played on the song. Co-writer Robi Rosa asked him to put some guitar on some sections that were blank slates. He remembers: “I was thinking more of a James Bond vibe actually. But I kinda liked the way it counter-balanced the song.”

Anderson recorded his guitar work at his studio intending it to just be a demo. “I didn’t have a reverb to print that I was happy with so I figured the mixer would have the perfect reverb in mixdown,” he explained. “That recording turned into the single. When I heard it on the radio, I was shocked that they left it dry!”

Many years later, the song re-entered my life when I took my son to the movies. In Shrek 2, Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) and Donkey (Eddie Murphy) sing it as the credits roll.

Livin’ La Vida Loca

Next is a song that I always felt should have been a bigger hit. I Know How The River Feels was a song that was recorded first by country singer Ty Herndon in 1996. His version was never released. Diamond Rio recorded it for their Unbelievable album and it was their third single from it.

I liked it because it gave Diamond Rio a different sound. This was the first song of theirs to feature outside instruments as they added a string section to the arrangement. The song, however, was met with some negative reviews from critics. It only went to #33 on the Country charts.

I love the way the song uses a river with its twists and turns to describe the search for love. Finally, when it reaches the sea – the search, the twists, and the turns – you reach the final destination.

Now I know how the river feels
When it reaches the sea
And finally finds the place
It was always meant to be
Holding fast, home at last
Knowing the journey’s through
Lying here with you
I know how the river feels

I Know How The River Feels

Hey Leonardo by Blessid Union of Souls is a song that I liked for a few reasons. First, the parenthetical title is “She likes me for me.” Isn’t that what love is about? It’s not about the physical things, the status and such. It is about loving a person because they are that person. Next, I like when a song tosses in some pop culture references.

Songfacts says: This song is written in the form of a letter to someone named Leonardo – a reference to actor Leonardo DiCaprio. In the song, the singer lists many celebrities and the qualities they possess making them attractive to women. He emphasizes that while he does not have the same qualities, his girlfriend loves him just the way he is.

The celebrities that are referenced include: Tyson Beckford, Robert Redford, Steve Buscemi and the movie Fargo. It also references opera singer Pavarotti, model Cindy Crawford, Clint Eastwood’s characterization of Dirty Harry, and Jim Carrey in the movie The Cable Guy.

Hey Leonardo

For the longest time I had only ever heard the clean edit of the next song. When I downloaded “Why Don’t You Get a Job” by the Offspring, it was the album version. It certainly was not edited. As I think of the words that are edited from it, I chuckle. They seem tame compared to what words are allowed on the radio today.

Offspring’s Americana album was a concept album. It examined the unpleasant side of life in America. Songfacts says, The song fits the concept by examining how so many people get by in the country without being productive and contributing to society.

If you listen closely, the melody might sound familiar. That is because it is based on The Beatles song “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” with some elements of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Cecilia.”

Why Don’t You Get A Job

I’ve told this story before. When the Dixie Chicks first hit the radio, I did not think they would last. I felt that they had too much of a traditional sound and that listeners would not like it. I was wrong and I am glad that they went on to have radio success.

Their album Wide Open Spaces was full of hits. I came to really love the harmonies of the Dixie Chicks, especially on the last single from the album.

The Chicks’ version of “Tonight the Heartache’s on Me” was released in April of 1999. It had been recorded in 1994 by singer/songwriter Joy Lynn White, whose version was much slower. The Chicks version has a tempo and attitude that conveys all the feelings of the lyrics.

I love the play on words in the title. “The next round’s on me” is something you might hear in bars all over the country. The story of the song takes place in a bar. A gal sees her ex walk in with another woman and “Boom” – the hurt is there. “Bartender, pour the wine, ’cause the hurtin’s all mine. Tonight, the heartache’s on me!”

The song is a guilty pleasure, I suppose.

Tonight The Heartache’s On Me

I hate to say that Sheryl Crow is a cover artist, because she is not. However, her cover songs are really good! Take for example, her cover of 1987’s Sweet Child ‘O Mine.

It was originally done, of course, by Guns N’ Roses. The lyrics came from a poem Axl Rose was working on. Songfacts says that “he wrote the song about his girlfriend, Erin Everly, the daughter of Don Everly of the Everly Brothers. After dating for four years, they got married at a quickie wedding in Las Vegas on April 28, 1990, but just nine months later, the marriage was annulled, with Everly claiming abuse.“

The Sheryl Crow version appeared in the Adam Sandler movie Big Daddy. It earned her the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance in 2000. Her version appears near the middle of the movie right after they take the kid away. The Guns N’ Roses original is also played in the movie (at the end with the credits.)

I think her voice compliments this song very well. Her voice is much better than some of the folks who attempted to sing this when I hosted karaoke!

Sweet Child O’ Mine

The aforementioned green ogre, Shrek, ties in with my next song. I think this is the one that most people associate with the Shrek films. I’m talking, of course, about All Star by Smash Mouth.

Like most Smash Mouth originals, it was written by their guitarist, Greg Camp. He said in a Songfacts interview:

“When we were on tour for the first record, it’s still when people were writing fan mail, like, in the form of paper and pencils and typewriters and stuff,” said Camp. “We would get these big bags of fan mail and we would take them to the Laundromat and do our laundry and read all this mail while we were sitting around waiting for our clothes to get dry. And about 85-90 percent of the mail was from these kids who were being bullied or their brothers or older siblings were giving them s–t for liking Smash Mouth or liking whatever they’re doing or the way they dressed and stuff. So we were, like, ‘We should write a song for fans.’

Before I stopped DJing a couple years ago, this song was still being requested at high school dances.

All Star

It is always great to see an artist from the past make a come back. 1999 was a great year for Carlos Santana!

Most music people are aware of Clive Davis. He is a legendary record executive who has worked with many artists and even appeared on American Idol. He was the mastermind behind Santana’s Supernatural album.

Santana hadn’t had a hit since “Hold On” in 1982, so Davis teamed him with contemporary musicians like Wyclef Jean, Everlast and Lauryn Hill to make sure the younger generation took notice. The result was a wildly successful album that went over well with Santana’s old fans and created a legion of new ones. “Smooth” was the first single; it spent 12 weeks at #1 in the US.

Rob Thomas sang lead on “Smooth,” but that wasn’t the plan. He had never written a song for someone else before, so he jumped at the chance to write a song for Santana. When he finished it, Thomas suggested George Michael, one of his musical heroes, as the vocalist. Arista Records ended up asking Thomas to do the vocals, and when he did, it was in Michael’s style. “If you listen to the melody and the cadence, it’s an attempt to emulate his style in so many ways,” Rob said.

Smooth” won Song Of The Year and Record Of The Year at the 2000 Grammy Awards. Supernatural also won for Best Rock Album and Album Of The Year. Santana picked up a total of eight awards that night.

Fun fact: Santana has the distinction of waiting the longest between his first charting single and first #1 hit. In 1969, “Tango” hit #56 in the US, and 30 years later, “Smooth” was #1.

Smooth

The next song was probably THE ear worm of 1999. It was certainly one of those songs that got into your head. Believe it or not, Lou Bega’s “Mambo No 5” was a cover song! The song was originally done in 1952 by the Cuban-Mexican bandleader Perez Prado. Known as the “King of the Mambo,” Prado recorded numerous mambos. When he ran out of inspiration, he would simply number them. “Mambo No 5” was one of a series of eight.

The difference between the two versions? Perez Prado’s version was instrumental. In 1999, Lou Bega added lyrics to it. By doing so, he transformed it into a love song for several women. Those women: Angela, Pamela, Sandra, Rita, Monica, Erica, Tina, Mary and Jessica. It was reported that the girls he mentioned were all Lou’s former girlfriends. It is probably beyond coincidence that eight of the girls in the song have names that end in “A,” making them quite singable.

Why is it on my list? Because I will forever link it to Barbara Eden. Let me explain. My buddy Steve said to me one day, “Hey. Did you know that you can sing the I Dream of Jeannie Theme song to Mambo No 5 and it fits perfectly?” I looked at him like he was nuts…until I heard it.

So, when you give it a listen, when Lou says, “A little bit of (Girl’s name)…” when he says the girls name, start singing the theme song and watch how it fits. It’s uncanny and it is ridiculous! Now, every time I hear it, that is ALL I hear!

If you’d like me to punch my friend for you, I will.

Mambo #5

Finally, this week a song that I literally just mentioned because of a birth anniversary. Last Tuesday, I featured this for Tune Tuesday and Robert Goulet’s birthday. I didn’t realize that it would coincide with this week’s list. You can read about that here:

Tune Tuesday – A Pixar Classic

…or you can just listen to it here.

You’ve Got A Friend In Me

Alright, which one of your favorites did I miss from 1999? Tell me about it in the comments.

Next week, we enter a new decade with the year 2000. It was a year that seemed SO far away for many of us. We all breathed a sigh of relief when the world didn’t shut down at midnight on January 1st (the Y2K fiasco!). Remember that?

My list next week is straight forward, and has no cover songs on it (I may have to double check to be sure). There are a few songs that strike a chord with me, especially as I celebrated birthday #30. Another good mix comes your way in 7 days.

Thanks for reading.

The Music of My Life – 1998

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 1998, I turned 28. I was still working in the mail room at EDS and spent a lot of time driving and making deliveries. Most of my radio listening was to the morning show on the alternative station or the rock station. The gal I was dating at the time would go on to become my first wife. She also listened to the same stations and we’d talk about stuff we heard on the shows. I will have to talk about her in more detail in a few. But only because it ties in with a song, that I suppose had to be on this list.

Let’s dive into the music.

If you are a regular reader to this blog, you are familiar with the Turntable Talk feature. Dave, from the A Sound Day blog hosts it and gives us a monthly topic. This month is was to write about a song that was based on a real event or a real person. My first song was almost my pick, but I knew this week it was on my list. Surprisingly, not one of the other bloggers chose it.

Here is the story from Songfacts:

The Way, by Fastball, is based on the true story of Lela and Raymond Howard. They were an elderly couple from Salado, Texas who drove to the annual Pioneer Day festival 10 miles away in Temple and didn’t return. She had Alzheimer’s disease and he was recovering from brain surgery.

When they disappeared, a reporter from the Austin American-Statesman wrote a series of articles about the missing couple. Fastball bassist Tony Scalzo came up with the idea for the song after reading the articles (the band is from Austin). “It’s a romanticized take on what happened,” he said. Scalzo pictured them “taking off to have fun, like they did when they first met.”

Thirteen days after the Howards went missing, they were found in Hot Springs, Arkansas, about 400 miles from their destination. They were still in the vehicle (an Oldsmobile Delta 88), which had veered off the side of the road and was hidden in brush. Scalzo had finished writing the song when he learned that the couple had died.

The song itself has a sort of retro feel to it. It also incorporates a lot of little sound effects into the mix. “There was this brief moment in time when people were having hits with really weird stuff,” Fastball’s Miles Zuniga said. “We got lucky that we came around at that time. Even two years later was too late.”

I think that is what I loved about the song. It starts off someone tuning a radio dial. It has a hollow sound to it. All of a sudden, you are hearing a full produced cut. That change in sound really grabbed me.

Songfacts puts it this way, The song opens with the sounds of an analog radio going up and down the dial, briefly tuning in stations amongst the static. When “The Way” starts, it’s as if the listener has found a song he likes and is going to give it a listen. For the first 40 seconds, the dynamics are restricted to simulate the limited frequency of a radio signal. At the line, “they drank up the wine,” the full range comes in.

Despite the sad story of the song, it is one of my favorite 90’s songs.

Listen carefully: The guitar solo was inspired by the song Secret Agent Man. Guitarist Mike Zuniga was a big fan of 50’s and 60’s songs.

The Way

Before you hear the next song. Here is a vocabulary lesson for you.

Jiggy. (adj.) (1) To be cool and trendy. (2) Often associated with a style of dress. (3) Dancing effectively. (4) Making a name for yourself. (noun) (1) sex.

Will Smith’s Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It was a monster hit. It was a song that packed the dance floor when it came out and for years afterward. It was often the song I played as the first fast dance when I was DJing weddings.

This song has so many different things piled into it. For example, This samples the beat from “He’s the Greatest Dancer” from Sister Sledge. Now add the “na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na” hook, which is from a song called “Sang and Dance” by the Bar-Kays. Finally it also incorporates some lyrical elements from the 1980 song “Love Rap” by Spoonie Gee and The Treacherous Three. (Who?!) Because of all of that, 12 different writers are credited as composers on the song!

I’m not really into rap music. While many consider this song rap, I think of it as more a pop/rock/dance/rap song. My favorite lines in the song, which make me laugh every time:

Women used to tease me
Give it to me now, nice and easy
Since I moved up like George and Weezie

Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It

Prior to 1998, I was spending a lot of time at the karaoke bar. It was a regular thing to close the bar for me. This song became the “Bar Closing Anthem” in 1998 and beyond. Many DJ’s used it at the end of the night, too.

Closing Time was Semisonic’s only American hit. Dan Wilson told The Hollywood Reporter how he wrote this song in 20 minutes:

“My bandmates were tired of ending our sets with the same song, so there was kind of an uprising where they demanded something different to end our nights with. So I thought, ‘OK, I’ll write a song to close out the set,’ and then boom, I wrote ‘Closing Time’ really fast.

There was one little adjustment later, which I credit to our A&R guy, Hans Haedelt. He said, ‘It’s too simple. You need to break up the rhythm of the verses.’ So that line, ‘Gather up your jackets, move it to the exits, I hope you have found a friend’ is the first time it deviates from the rhythmic pattern. He was right – it’s a great moment in the song.”

I used this for a while as my last song of the night, but it never felt right to me to end a DJ gig with a semi-upbeat song.

Closing Time

The next song is one that could be featured on my Movie Music Monday feature. The song appeared on the Can’t Hardly Wait soundtrack.

Can’t Get Enough of You Baby is a song that was written back in 1966! Denny Randell and Sandy Linzer wrote the song for the Toys. It was also recorded by The Four Seasons and Michigan’s ? and the Mysterians. ?’s version of the song was the more Rocking/Swinging version. When Smash Mouth recorded it, they copied that sound. Smash Mouth became the first group to bring it into the Top 40. They released it as the lead single from their Astro Lounge album.

This is one of those songs that immediately makes you feel good. Well, it does for me anyway. I mean, it’s a love song, but it rocks!

Fun Fact: Running just 2:29, this was the shortest Top 40 hit of 1998.

Can’t Get Enough of You Baby

Speaking of love songs, Diane Warren sure knows how to write them! I could write an entire blog about all of the hits that she has written! Maybe one day I will.

This is another song that could be a Movie Music Monday song. It appeared in the film, Armageddon, which starred Liv Tyler, the daughter of Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.

Originally, U2 was asked to perform I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing. The idea for Aerosmith performing it only came after Liv was cast in the film. The song was “A grand production featuring a 52-piece orchestra. This was by far Aerosmith’s biggest hit on the US Hot 100, and their only chart-topper. It was #1 US for four weeks in September 1998, becoming one of the most popular songs of the year.” – songfacts.com

Diane Warren found inspiration for this song after hearing about an interview with James Brolin. He said that when his wife Barbra Streisand was away, he missed her even when he was sleeping. When she set out to write a song for Armageddon, she thought this was a good sentiment to express, since the film deals with the impending destruction of all on Earth.

This was another one of those “pack the dance floor” songs. Most of the time, it was used as the bridal dance. When it wasn’t I often played it in my first slow song set. As the DJ, it was always heart warming to see couples dancing to a song like this. Staring into each others eyes, or singing the lyrics to each other. I played this one a lot!

I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing

My introduction to Barenaked Ladies was If I Had $1,000,000. The more I heard from them, the more impressed I became. I remember the first time I heard One Week on the radio. It really was something to hear them rattling off the lyrics.

Songfacts says: The band has said that this song is about a big fight in a relationship. The lyrics are essentially meaningless, but wildly entertaining. It showed off their clever wordplay in a rapid-fire interplay between their lead singers, Ed Robertson and Steven Page. Robertson wrote the song.

Robertson said, “I wrote the chorus structure of the song, but I couldn’t figure out the verses at all. I got together with Steve a bunch of times and said, ‘I have this idea for a song, and I couldn’t figure out where to go with it.’ And finally Steve said to me at some point, ‘Just freestyle it! Just do what you do onstage every night. It’s gonna be great.'”

The song One Week was a number one hit for the band – for one week.

One Week

Trivia Question: What was the most-played radio song in 1999 in 11 different countries, including Canada, UK, Australia, Japan and Israel? Answer: Kiss Me from Sixpence None The Richer.

Here in the US, the song got a lot of help and exposure from the media. Songfacts explains: It was used on the second season of the WB TV show Dawson’s Creek, first on November 11, 1998 and then on another episode that aired April 28, 1999. In between, it was used in the movie She’s All That, which premiered January 29, 1999. With just about every teenage girl in America hearing the song on the TV show, the movie, or the many radio stations that put the song in rotation, it cracked the Top-40 on February 27, 1999 and made it all the way to #2.

TV soundtracks helped a lot of songs in the 1990’s. Shows like Ally McBeal, Friends, Mad About You, and Party of Five were just a few that released soundtracks.

To me, I love the sound of the song. The guitar and the vocal of Leigh Nash blend so well together. It’s no wonder that Taylor Swift says it was the first song she learned how to play on the guitar.

Kiss Me

Last week, I mentioned the Swing Revival that was taking place and mentioned Zoot Suit Riot. The Cherry Poppin’ Daddies and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy were a part of that, but I believe that it was Brian Setzer who took it to a whole new level.

Brian Setzer had success with the Stray Cats in the 80’s. When he formed the Brian Setzer Orchestra and started covering jazz and swing songs, we saw a resurgence in his career.

The first album came out in 1994 and featured covers of Route 66 and Lady Luck. It also featured originals like the beautiful September Skies. The second album came out in 1996 and featured covers of Stevie Ray Vaughn, Roy Montrell, and Gene Pitney. In 1998, The BSO released the Dirty Boogie and the lead single was a Louis Prima classic.

Jump, Jive, an’ Wail originally appeared on a Louis Prima album called The Wildest. It was recorded live in Las Vegas in 1956. Setzer’s version went to #23 on the Hot 100 chart, but I always felt it was more popular than that. We used to get requests for it when we DJ’s so that people could swing dance to it.

I absolutely love this version. To me, Prima’s version sounds like the Demo and Setzer’s is the finished product! The song won Setzer a Grammy in 1999 for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

Jump, Jive an’ Wail

The next song is hard to include on this list. I almost skipped it, but in a feature that is called The Music of My Life, how could I not list it? Let me explain.

When my ex and I decided to get married, we didn’t have a wedding song. I had some suggestions that were pretty much shot down immediately. Looking back at this now, I understand why. I was never really going to have a say in the song. I had a list of great songs. I was a wedding DJ for crying out loud, I had all kinds that we could make work.

For weeks, I attempted to suggest song after song. For each song I would be told why it was a bad choice. I finally accepted that anything I offered up was going to be turned down for some reason. So when she came to me with Edwin McCain’s I’ll Be, I listened to it and told her okay.

That being said, I have to admit that I never really felt like this was a wedding song. Not surprising that Edwin didn’t feel it was either! In a songfacts interview he said the track was not intended as a love song at all: “It was kind of a Hail Mary prayer for me, personally. And it’s been obviously linked as a romantic song. It’s one of those things that I hesitate to say too much, because sometimes songs become what they were supposed to be, and it’s not really up to the songwriter to determine what that is.”

He went on to say that a break-up prompted him to pen this song: “It was the end of a relationship for me, and it was also an admission of my inability to function in a relationship, hence the love suicide line. And it was the hope that I would be better, grow and be better as a person. I was struggling with some personal problems at the time, as well, so it was all of those things. It was this admission of failure and this prayer that I could be a better person, wrapped up as sort of the end of a relationship kind of thought. And it was something that I said to a girl that I’d been going out with. I knew that she was waiting, and I always said to her, ‘Don’t ever look back on this in any other way than I’ll be your biggest fan.’ You know, ‘I’ll always be a fan.'”

So my first wedding song was about a break up. Maybe it was prohetic?

I’ll Be

The final song brings us back to Barenaked Ladies. It wasn’t until I researched this for this feature that I realized it wasn’t really a hit. It only got up to #44 on the charts, which is surprising to me. I almost like this more than One Week. For what it is worth, it did go to #1 in Canada.

As you watch the video, keep in mind that the band was not happy with it. They had a concept of what they wanted. It was to be seen from the point of view of various household pets. (A cat, a dog, a goldfish, and a bird). The band was disappointed with the filming of the video while it was being shot, as they did not feel it was fitting their concept.

Many times, a video helped a band with their song. This was not one of those times, obviously. I have to wonder how the release date played into the song’s poor performance. It was released in late December. The charts are pretty much done at that time, and you’ve got two weeks where nothing really changes. The song could have been dead in the water the week it was released. Sorry, that’s my radio mind spewing out thoughts.

It’s All Been Done

Did I miss one of your favorites from 1998? Let me know in the comments.

Next week, we’ll party like it’s 1999! On my list is a song that was so popular I played it 4 times at a prom. The list also features one of the songs that was shot down by my ex, movie music from two big animated films, an artist who waited 30 years for his first #1, a song that makes me think of Barbara Eden, and one of my favorite cover songs.

Thanks for reading! See you next week!

The Music of My Life – 1997

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.

I have found it interesting to do this feature every week. First, I am reminded about the things that were going on in my life at the time. Second, I find it funny how an old song can apply to my future life events. This feature has been like therapy for me. I don’t always write down everything that these songs bring to mind, but I am made aware of them. I appreciate you letting me indulge myself by sharing these songs.

I would turn 27 in 1997. I had gone through a break up that hurt me bad. I was spending a lot of time at the karaoke bars and drinking much more than I should. I felt lost and alone. Alcohol numbed a lot of the pain. It was a very dark time.

When I wasn’t singing karaoke, I was hosting it or DJing a wedding or party. I enjoyed doing that because it was almost like being in radio again. There was interaction with people and that was something that I desperately needed.

1997 was a decent year for music. Many of the songs on my list were first heard while I was driving for EDS. I would play many of these songs while DJing. Some of them bring back memories of bad times, but most of them have a good memory attached to them.

I will stop rambling now and jump right into 1997 –

I like the next song because it was so different from what people were used to hearing from them. Green Day was known for some pretty heavy sounding songs that were “in your face.” So an acoustic song from them comes from out of left field. Believe it or not, the song could have been on their first album, but wasn’t.

Songfacts.com explains: “Billie Joe Armstrong wrote this song in 1993 and submitted it for the band’s first major-label album, Dookie, which was released in 1994. Both the band and their label felt it was a great song but didn’t fit on the album, which was loaded with punk blasters. The song was held back and didn’t make their next album, Insomniac (1995) either. It was finally included on the Nimrod album in 1997.

In 2010, Armstrong told Spin Magazine, “That was really the first time we attempted a ballad. The first time we ever played that song was during an encore in New Jersey – I had to pound a beer backstage to get up the courage. I knew we were gonna take a tomato to the face.” A very poignant song, this is quite popular at graduations and weddings despite the kiss-off title “Good Riddance.” Billie Joe Armstrong wrote it about a very specific event in his life, but he’s thrilled when others relate it to their own experience.

This song was played over a montage of clips in a “look back” Seinfeld special. The special aired before the finale of the show. I would have never expected that this song would work for something like that. But it certainly did.

This song is very poignant and gives me chills when I hear it. The blending of the guitar, the strings, and his voice is just beautiful to me.

Good Riddance

In Good Riddance, Green Day sings about the “photographs and still frames in your mind.” Believe it or not, that kind of fits how the next song was described by one of the members.

You either like or dislike Hanson. That like or dislike probably comes from the song MMMbop. Why? It is one of those songs that sticks in your head forever after you hear it. It is very catchy and the lyrics make you think. But just what in the world is this song all about?

Drummer Zac Hanson says,  “What that song talks about is, you’ve got to hold on to the things that really matter. MMMBop represents a frame of time or the futility of life. Things are going to be gone, whether it’s your age and your youth, or maybe the money you have, and all that’s going to be left are the people you’ve nurtured and have really built to be your backbone and your support system.”

Zac tells the story of how the song happened, “That song started out as the background part for another song,” he said. “We were making our first independent album and we were trying to come up with a background part. We started singing a slightly different incarnation of what is now the chorus of ‘MMMBop.’ That sort of stuck in our heads but never really worked as a background part. Over a couple of years, we really crafted the rest of the song – the verses and bridge and so on. It was something we almost stumbled upon.”

Zac made me laugh when I read that because the song even got stuck in THEIR heads!

What is truly amazing to me is that the song was released as their first single in 1997. At the time, Isaac Hanson was 16 years old, Taylor was 13, and Zac was 11. The song quickly became a huge worldwide hit. It was getting constant airplay on radio stations and MTV, and going to #1 in 27 countries.

It is on my list because I was DJing a high school dance once and a student asked for it. He was very shy and didn’t dance much. He may have had autism, I am not sure. When I played it, this boy came out of his shell and danced like crazy! The students formed a circle around him as he danced. It was one of those things I will always remember.

Mmmbop

Before you listen to the next song, I need you to hear this. I had no idea that this song was sampled for the 1997 hit.

I had never heard of the Andrew Oldham Orchestra. I had no idea that there was an instrumental album of Rolling Stones songs. The Verve did, however, and sampled it for the song Bittersweet Symphony.

The Verve took the sample and added vocals, strings, guitar and percussion. This led to trouble. After a lawsuit by the Rolling Stones’ former manager, Allen Klein, the Verve had to relinquish all royalties from the song. Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were added to the songwriting credits. Things worked out in 2019. After Klein died, Jagger, Richards, and Klein’s son ceded the rights to the Verve songwriter, Richard Ashcroft.

If I had to put why I like this song into words, I would find it hard to do. There is something about it. It is mesmerizing to me. MTV’s Gil Kaufman wrote “Bitter Sweet Symphony” was “built on a slow-rolling fat beat, a pomp and circumstance violin loop.  And (was like an) … elliptical, snake-swallowing-its-tail lyrics” Rolling Stone magazine wrote that it “intertwines baroque strings worthy of Pachelbel with sedated vocals and shimmering guitar lines”.

The song is built around one simple chord.

Bittersweet Symphony

Much like Bittersweet Symphony, I was hooked on the next song as soon as I heard the intro. Again, the intro was “borrowed” from another song. This time it was from Perrey and Kingley. They were considered pioneers of electronic music. They were together from 1965-1967. Smash Mouth interpolates the keyboard line from their 1966 single, Swan’s Splashdown. You don’t need to listen to but 15 seconds of the song to know the Smash Mouth song …

Smash Mouth’s guitar player Greg Camp wrote Walkin’ on the Sun. He said, “The song was basically a social and racial battle cry. It was a sort of ‘Can’t we all get along?’ song for the time when I wrote it. It was just about all the things that were going on around me as a young person. And I’m, like, God, what is going on? I don’t understand why this is happening. It’s like we might as well be walking around a planet on fire.”

The songs has a 1960’s sound to it, which made the song stick out on the radio. It was their first hit song. The song itself was never sold in stores as a single, so it never made the Hot 100 chart. However, it went to #1 on the Modern Rock chart and #2 on the Airplay chart. Because it was not released as a single, the album Fush Yu Mang sold over 2 million copies. The album was the only way to get it.

I was one of those 2 million people who bought the album.

Walking On the Sun

Kevin Sharp’s story is a moving one. He was born in 1970, the same year as me. In school, her performed in musicals and was an active musician. When he was 19, he started to feel tired and dizzy. This led to a diagnosis of a rare form of bone cancer. His chance of recovering was not good.

Through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses, Kevin met the record producer David Foster. They became friends fast. He went through two years of chemo and radiation therapy, which caused him to lose his hair permanently.

While in remission, he recorded a demo that wound up in the hands of his friend David Foster. Thanks to him, Kevin was signed to a record deal in 1996. His first album was Measure of a Man. The first single was a cover of Tony Rich’s Nobody Knows, which went to #1 on the Country Charts. His next two singles were both top ten hits for him.

He would go on to became a motivational speaker and spokesperson for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He was awarded the foundation’s Wish Granter of the Year award, in 1997. Sharp wrote a book, Tragedy’s Gift, and published it in 2004. Despite releasing two more albums, he never ever matched the success of his first album. He died at age 43 of complications from stomach surgeries and digestive issues in 2014.

If You Love Somebody is one of his three top 10 songs. Deborah Evans Price, of Billboard magazine reviewed the song favorably. She said that the record grabs the listener immediately and doesn’t let go thanks to the “energetic percussion that opens this track and gives way to a spree of sassy fiddle lines.” She goes on to say that the song is a fine example of the “vibrancy and passion he can bring to a great uptempo cut.”

The song is a fun love song that speaks of all the things you would do because you love someone.

If You Love Somebody

In 1997, there were still music videos being made – and played on MTV. While I love the next song, it is the video that really stands out. More on that in a second.

The Backstreet Boys were very big in Europe. When they returned to the US, no one really knew them. In 1997, they released their first album in the states. Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) was the band’s choice for a single. However, because they had been in Europe, the record label felt that the song wouldn’t make sense to audiences and it wasn’t even on the US release.

The song was the first single from the international release. It started gaining steam on Canadian and nearby US stations. The label finally added the song to the US album after a million units had already been produced. It was released as the fourth single.

Joseph Kahn was approached to do the music video for the song. When he met with BSB and saw their smooth dance moves, he thought they were more like “little Michael Jacksons.” This led to him thinking about the Thriller video which had the singer leading a choreographed dance with zombies. Kahn developed a similar concept for the Backstreet Boys.

In the video, the boy band’s tour bus breaks down near a spooky mansion. It is where they’re forced to spend a harrowing night. The haunted manor has a transformative effect on the boys, and each one changes. (Brian Littrell changes into a werewolf; AJ McLean into Erik, The Phantom Of The Opera recluse; Kevin Richardson into the two-faced Dr. Jekyll & Hyde; Howie D into Dracula; and Nick Carter into a mummy.) They converge in the ballroom and bust out “Thriller”-esque moves with a group of dancers. At the end, they’re relieved to discover the whole experience was just a nightmare – that is until their driver turns out to be a monster. The driver? Antonio Fargas, who was known for his role as Huggy Bear on the ’70s cop show Starsky & Hutch.

Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)

Up next, a group who got its name from a story created by one of the members. In the story, the men were Chumbas and the women were Wambas. Tubthumping was the first single from Chumbawamba’s eighth album – Tubthumper.

I suppose it is important to point out a few “vocabulary” words here. In England, a tubthumper is a politician. Here in the US, tubthumping is like “campaigning.” “Pissing” has a very different meaning in the UK. “Pissing the night away” would translate to “Drinking alcoholic beverages all night.” To be pissed in England is to be drunk, while in the US it is to be angry.

Whenever we played this song DJing, we’d go out on the floor and do a dance that we made up. It was basically an easy thing that matched the lyrics. “I get knocked down (crouch down), but I get up again (jump up) you’re never gonna keep me down (stand shaking our heads and wagging our finger side to side). Easy and no instruction needed because of the lyrics.

We had empty booze bottles that we’d pretend to swig when the band said, “He takes a whiskey drink, he takes a vodka drink”. It was silly and stupid, but it always got a laugh from the crowd.

At 54, I doubt that I could crouch down and jump up again like I did when I was 27!

Tubthumping

The next song was the debut single for the group Everclear. Everything to Everyone is true of many of us. I remember when I was with my ex, that I would do things that I didn’t necessarily want to do because I wanted to please her. I spent a lot of time in my life trying to please people and never really standing up for myself. It’s like the Sheryl Crow song – “If it makes you happy….”

In an interview with Songfacts, lead singer Art Alexakis says:

“It’s kind of an angry song. That person is within everybody, I think everybody has this ability to try and be everything to everyone, to try to please. I think there are 2 aspects of it – there’s the pleaser, who doesn’t always show his true self, always plays nice and as time goes on shows more and more of himself, but there’s also the people who are everything to everyone who are manipulators and users.”

When asked if the song had “anything to do with the record business”, Alexakis replied, “Oh yeah. Anything in the entertainment business you’ll find people who are slimy.”

I believe that you will not only find them in the entertainment business, but in much more than that!

Everything to Everyone

You cannot say that country music doesn’t have some great song titles! Take the next song on my list. Did I Shave My Legs For This?

Deana Carter’s father was a songwriter. The legendary Dean Martin recorded one of his songs, and perhaps as a thank you, named her Deana. Another legend, Willie Nelson, heard one of her demo tapes and invited her to play Farm Aid in 1994. That same tape, led to her being signed to Capitol Records.

Did I Shave My Legs For This is also the title track of the album. The album gave Deana three #1 songs (Strawberry Wine, We Danced Anyway and How Do I Get There?). The title track was the fourth single released from the album. It didn’t fair as well as the previous songs as it only went to #25 on the Country Charts.

I have learned from DJing and hosting karaoke that just because a song wasn’t a hit, doesn’t mean it isn’t liked. I always got requests for this song and people were always singing it. At weddings or parties, groups of women would sing along at the top of their lungs to it. It reminded me of what people did when Friends in Low Places would play.

Back in the day, we used to play Karaoke Roulette. This was where a friend would pick a song for you to sing. You wouldn’t know what song until you got to the microphone. My friends always made me sing songs like “I Am Woman,” “I Touch Myself,” and such. This was one they gave me one night and I nailed it! I knew the song and hammed it up all the way through it.

Did I Shave My Legs For This?

My final song is one that brought back a genre of music that overtook the nation in the 1930’s and 1940’s. I grew up listening to Benny Goodman, Harry James, and other swing bands. It was almost mind blowing to hear swing music on the radio in 1997.

The 1996 movie Swingers and t he Cherry Poppin’ Daddies are credited with the “Swing Revival.” Other groups like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and The Brian Setzer Orchestra had success in the genre, too. The BSO’s version of Jump, Jive and Wail turned the revival into what songfacts called “a full-fledged craze!”

Zoot Suit Riot was a song that was inspired by real events. Songfacts explains:

The Zoot Suit Riots began in Los Angeles in 1943, triggered by conflict between the American servicemen stationed in Southern California and the Los Angeles Mexican-American community. Tensions had been building since the 1942 murder of a Latino man named Jose Diaz, a case referred to as the Sleepy Lagoon murder case.

The riots took place when swing music was the hot sound and everyone was doing the jitterbug. Lead singer Steve Perry says, “I wrote it inspired by the Zoot Suit Riots. I guess it seemed like a Pachuco rallying cry that could double as a dance anthem for those of us interested in swing music and culture at a time when nobody else was. It was an expression of a proud marginalism. That’s not that deep, but there you go.”

It wasn’t odd around this time to have a bride and groom request a swing song as their first dance. Most had taken a dance class and had a routine for that dance. It was always cool to watch that.

One day, I hope to get around to seeing Setzer, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, or any swing band live. I love the energy that they put out as they play.

Zoot Suit Riot

That’s it for 1997. There were many songs that didn’t make my cut, maybe your favorite is one of them? Let me know what your picks are in the comments.

1998 is on the horizon and we’ll check out my tunes from that year next week. They include a song that I almost picked for this month’s Turntable Talk Topic (songs based on historical events or people), a song that is often played as the last song of the night at DJ gigs, a song I mentioned in this week’s post, and a great song I can barely listen to anymore. Find out why next week

Thanks for reading!

The Music of My Life – 1996

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.

I suppose it is when you are on the backside of 20, you begin to really understand how fast the years go by. I turned 26 in 1996 and I was told, “30 is just around the corner!” One co-worker told me that every thing starts to fall apart when you turn 30. I learned that he was right!

My first pick from 1996 has a Meatloaf vibe. “I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that. The Gin Blossoms will “follow you down, but not that far.” Follow You Down was their first single from the “Congratulations…I’m Sorry” album. The album got its name because that was what people said to the band finally having hits (Hey, Jealousy & Found Out About You) after struggling to get one for years.

The song was a last minute addition to the album. “We were working on the record, and I’d come home at night to my hotel room, and I had those chords, and finished writing by the time we got home,” guitarist Jesse Valenzuela told songfacts.com. “We’d already finished the record, but I had this great song, so I demoed it up and I sent it to my main A&R man, David Andaly, the great David Andaly, and he said, ‘Why are you hiding this thing? Let’s put it on the record.’ So we went and recorded it right away.”

This is one of those songs that really stuck out to me on the radio. I loved the little harmony on “Anywhere you go.” It was another one of those songs that I would crank up the radi.

Follow You Down

Let it be known that I am not the biggest Celine Dion fan. However, I think Diane Warren is one of the best songwriters ever. Diane wrote the song Because You Loved Me for the movie Up Close & Personal.

From songfacts.com:

Diane Warren explained in the book Chicken Soup For the Soul: The Story Behind The Song how she honors her father in this song. Said Warren: “I saw the film with the director, Jon Avnet, on a Friday. I thought, ‘What would I want to hear at the end of the movie?’ Jon played me a tape of a gospel singer to give me a sense of what he was looking for – something really soulful.

I went into my office on Saturday, the following day, and the chorus came quickly. Michelle Pfeiffer’s character is thanking Robert Redford’s character for believing in her. The song became personal at the same time that it was telling the story of the film. Once I began, it became a way of thanking my dad for everything he did for me and the support he has always given me. He believed in me and my music from the time I was a little girl. When I was 15, he took me around to music publishers. Not only did he support my goals, he supported me financially while I was struggling in the beginning.

I had to wait for months to see if my song would be chosen to use in the film or if they would select one of the other four submissions. Thank goodness I had just started therapy! It got me through it.”

When I was DJing weddings, I would say that 8 out of 10 couples used it as their wedding song. Even Vince Gill and Amy Grant used it for their first dance. Lyrically, it is just spectacular.

On a Billboard podcast, Diane Warren said, “I feel like it was a leap in my craft. I felt that when I wrote that song, it was better than I was at the time, if that makes sense. I was like, ‘Whoa, this is probably my best song.’ There’s something lyrically about it.”

Because You Loved Me

My next pick was actually a hit back in 1973 for BW Stevenson. My Maria was written by Daniel Moore and Stevenson. It is basically Three Dog Night’s Shambala written about a woman.

In 1996, it was covered by Brooks and Dunn and it went straight to number one on the Country Chart. It was also named Country Song of the Year.

This version made Moore happy as it made him more money than any other version. He said, “The original sold 950,000 singles, Brooks & Dunn’s version has sold over 6 million. The original version got about 1,500,000 US radio performances. The Brooks & Dunn version is over 6,500,000 US radio performances and still going.”

It was one of Brooks and Dunn’s biggest hits, but it almost wasn’t recorded. Ronnie Dunn admitted he was reluctant to cut the song when the idea was first presented to him. “I thought, ‘Oh man, it’s just that falsetto thing,'” he remembered. “It’s a rock song, in my opinion. And I was very much wrong.”

Personally, I like the Brooks and Dunn version better than the original. I also have fond memories of a few of the country stations I played this one on.

My Maria

Next is a song that was never released on a Weird Al album. The song Spy Hard was recorded and used as the title song for the Leslie Neilsen movie of the same name.

Anyone who has seen a James Bond film knows the importance of the opening credits. They were all very unique and this song (and video) were a nod to those Bond intros. Spy Hard is unique in that it was recorded with an orchestra (which was conducted by Bill Conti of Rocky fame).

There is a Bond Urban legend that says that for the song Thunderball, Tom Jones held the song’s final note long enough to pass out; in this film, Yankovic holds it long enough to make his head explode. Originally, Yankovic had planned to loop the note to the required length, but in the studio, he discovered he was able to hold the note long enough that no looping was required. What a talent!

As for the movie itself? Let’s just stick with the song ….

Spy Hard

One of the first songs I remember playing when I started at my first country station was by a group called Ricochet. Many of the “older” songs I was playing were new to me at the time and that included Daddy’s Money.

This song was their second single and it was a number one hit for them. I could relate to the song in a way. Whenever the choir at church there, I often found myself staring a a pretty girl singer. The opening lyric:

Can’t concentrate on the preacher preaching
My attention span done turned off
I’m honed in on that angel singing
Up there in the choir loft

I love the line, “My attention span done turned off!” The only thing that makes me chuckle more in this song is the fact that it goes out of the way to make sure you know that she is “a good bass fisher!” Now, what man doesn’t want that in a woman?!

This is on my list because I love singing along to it.

Daddy’s Money

I knew Alanis Morissette from the children’s comedy show You Can’t Do That On Television. When her Jagged Little Pill album was released I was struck by the deep and profound lyrics of many of the songs. Some of the lyrics shocked me, honestly.

At a live show, she explained how the song came about:

“When relationships get healthier and healthier we somehow equate that with not being as passionate or as sexy,” she explained. “I’ve kind of realized that it’s actually sexier when there’s less drama. It’s been better, and I never thought that that would be the case because of the whole clingy, overly dependent roller coaster that often times seemed very passionate and very sexy. And when I wrote ‘Head Over Feet’ about this particular person it was the first time that I actually had a glimpse of what it would be like to be in love and have it be something that was inducing of the heart palpitations, yet at the same time I could spend a couple minutes and actually not think about that person. It was very new to me.”

I was dating a gal in 1996 who was not as vocal about her feelings as me. I have always believed in letting people know how you feel about them. I always thought it was odd for me to say “I Love You” and not hear it back in return.

I had made a cassette tape of love songs for this gal and it had a huge variety of singers. She actually liked it a lot. She told me that she had a song that made her think of me and told me to listen to it. The song was Head Over Feet.

Knowing this gal like I did, it made perfect sense for her to use this song. She was exactly like the gal in this song and I was exactly like the guy. It wasn’t exactly the way I wanted her to express her emotions, but it worked.

Later on, she broke up with me by putting a note on my windshield. That even led me to some pretty dark times.

Head Over Feet

Some of my music blogger friends are familiar with the next song. I love it because it has that 60’s Beatles feel to it. It’s from the imaginary group called The Wonders. That Thing You Do becomes a hit for the group in the movie of the same name.

The song was written by Fountains of Wayne bass player, Adam Schlesinger. He said, “That was 1995 I think I first heard about it, or ’96, and I was just starting out. I had a publishing deal as a writer and they told me about this movie – they said that they were looking for something that sounds like early Beatles. And they knew that that was an era that I liked a lot. So I just took a shot at it and got very lucky and they used the song.”

Adam says he is better known for this song than Fountains of Wayne’s Stacy’s Mom.

I admit that this is a song that I play over a couple of times when it comes up on my music playlist. I just love this one.

That Thing You Do

One of the best interviews I’ve ever done was with Jewel. She promoting a country album when I chatted with her on the air, but I was very familiar with her music. Some folks wanted to write her off as a one hit wonder after her song Who Will Save Your Soul, but You Were Meant For Me stopped that!

Jewel wrote the song during the time she was homeless and living in her car. During that period she started having panic attacks and anxiety, and came up with her own way of coping, using mindfulness exercises to retrain her brain. In an interview with ABC radio, she said the line, “Dreams last for so long even after you’re gone” is about “the love of fantasy versus the actual reality.”

Songfacts.com says, “Jewel wrote the song during the time she was homeless and living in her car. During that period she started having panic attacks and anxiety, and came up with her own way of coping, using mindfulness exercises to retrain her brain. In an interview with ABC radio, she said the line, “Dreams last for so long even after you’re gone” is about “the love of fantasy versus the actual reality.”

At the time, this was the biggest-selling single in the history of Atlantic Records, and Jewel became the label’s first artist to grace the cover of TIME magazine (July 21, 1997). She is such an amazing singer and songwriter.

You Were Meant For Me

Beavis and Butthead were so successful that they got their own movie – Beavis and Butthead Do America. The soundtrack included songs from Ozzy Osbourne, White Zombie, No Doubt, Isaac Hayes, and AC/DC. It also included a cover of the Ohio Players’ song Love Rollercoaster by the Red Hot Chili Peppers!

While the original was a number one song, the Chili Peppers’ version didn’t do much in America. It did go Top 10 in the UK.

It’s not that I love this song, but I do like the more modern take on it by the RHCP. The video is kind of fun to watch too.

Love Rollercoaster

Remember the movie The Mirror Has Two Faces? Me either.

I Finally Found Someone was a hit for Barbra Streisand and Bryan Adams. Streisand initially wrote the love theme with veteran composer Marvin Hamlisch, but her producer, David Foster, envisioned it as a duet. That’s when Bryan Adams and his producer, Mutt Lange, were brought on to the project.

Barbra says, “Bryan played our track and heard me humming and fell in love with this little theme that I wrote, and then he and his producer Mutt Lange wrote a counter melody based on the track that I sent him. And they wrote the lyrics. So that’s how that happened.“

The single gave Streisand her first Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 since 1981 and was a top ten hit. This was a song that I would often suggest to couples who did not want the most popular wedding songs (like the aforementioned Celine Dion). This was also a song that I mentioned to my wife as a possible “our song.”

Adams and Streisand have two very distinct voices, but they blend well together and this is really a fantastic and underrated love song.

I Finally Found Someone

This year was a difficult one for me to narrow down to ten songs for some reason, so I am sure I left off a few of your favorites. Tell me about yours in the comments.

Next week, we’ll look at 1997. I can see that this was another difficult year to pick ten songs as below the ten I have another nine artists names! The list does lean a bit alternative, but there is also some pop, country and swing!

I mentioned that my breakup of 1996 began some dark times. In 1997, there is a song that ties in way to closely with what I was doing in my personal life … More on that next week.