Members I Am A Swede Posted October 21, 2012 Members Share Posted October 21, 2012 "When a Man Loves a Woman" is one of those songs that I think everyone has heard. It's not really a personal favourite of mine, but it is not a bad song by any means. Michael Bolton is one of those artists whose success has always baffled me. I simply can't stand him or his whiny voice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DRW50 Posted October 21, 2012 Members Share Posted October 21, 2012 When a Man Loves a Woman is another song I've heard too many times. With that said, the lyrics and structure of the song (not the technical terms, obviously, I don't know what those would be) are very good, and you can see why it became an enduring song. It also inspired the title of that Meg Ryan drunk movie. There's always an audience for white artists who make R&B and soul and hip hop and early rock a little more mainstream. From Pat Boone to Michael Bolton, to, more recently, Eminem or Robin Thicke, among others. I'm just glad Bolton eventually cut that hideous hair. Memories... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLVTZ8qB31s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MissLlanviewPA Posted October 23, 2012 Members Share Posted October 23, 2012 Lesley Gore turns her second biggest hit into a PSA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XMxtbAP2cyU Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DRW50 Posted October 23, 2012 Members Share Posted October 23, 2012 That wasn't very good, but it's a nice idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alphanguy74 Posted October 23, 2012 Members Share Posted October 23, 2012 You all might hate me for posting this, but here goes: Michael Bolton is just annoying as hell. I love long hair, but that giant Diana Ross do he sported was just terrible in every way. And I hated his voice as well. I guess he had his day, and then fell out of popularity very fast. Percy Faith's version is something that I frankly have grown tired of, although it's a good song. I think what bothers me about it is that it is not nuanced in any way, it's just him singing as loud as he can through the entire song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members quartermainefan Posted October 23, 2012 Members Share Posted October 23, 2012 If I never heard this song again it would be just fine. This is like a Big Chill song. The 80s was filled with movies and TV recycling music from the 60s trying to evoke something, and I guess I am just evoked out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alphanguy74 Posted October 29, 2012 Members Share Posted October 29, 2012 I'm gonna backtrack for a second, when we were discussing "Sound Of Silence, I forgot to post this great cover of it by Pickettywitch, I think this is the best cover of that from anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alphanguy74 Posted November 10, 2012 Members Share Posted November 10, 2012 I'm taking over the thread and continuing on since Max asked me to... next is the Rolling Stones with "Paint It, Black" which was number one for two weeks, from June 11 - June 24, 1966. This is one of the first pop songs to feature the Sitar, played by Brian Jones, which gives it it's distinctive riff. The Rhythm was dreamed up by Bill Wyman and is played on the organ pedals with his fists. Jagger who wrote the lyrics, has said that the song is about a young girl's funeral, which adds even more to the dark nature of the song. I'm no fan of the Rolling Stones, but I think this is one of their better efforts, cutting edge, dark, and moody. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members I Am A Swede Posted November 10, 2012 Members Share Posted November 10, 2012 I've never been a fan of the Rolling Stones either, but there is something about this song that appeals to me. It was also used as the theme song for the tv-show "Tour of Duty" (1987-90) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alphanguy74 Posted November 15, 2012 Members Share Posted November 15, 2012 Next is the Beatles once more, with "Paperback Writer" which was number one for two non-consecutive weeks, June 25 - July 1, and again from July 9 - July 15, 1966. This was the Beatles only number one hit for the year 1966, this, coupled with the Seekers outselling the Beatles in the UK for the last half of 1965 must have signaled to some that Beatlemania was winding down, but 1967 would bring a change to all of that. In Britain, the single was promoted with a photograph depicting the Beatles with raw meat and decapitated baby dolls tossed about (the same photograph was later used as an album cover in the US and became infamous as the butcher cover. For the American release of the single, the cover depicted the Beatles playing live, but with Lennon and Harrison's images reflected so that it appears that they are playing left-handed. The promotional film for the song, one of the first of its type, shot amongst ornate garden statuary, was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who went on to direct the Beatles' final film, the documentary Let it be. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e3DA-Uctvw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alphanguy74 Posted November 16, 2012 Members Share Posted November 16, 2012 I always felt the falsetto background vocals on this song sounded so weak and quavery, and while the singature guitar riff is catchy, it's not a song I care for at all, performed by anybody. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alphanguy74 Posted November 20, 2012 Members Share Posted November 20, 2012 Sandiwched in between Paperback Writer's reign at #1 is Frank Sinatra with "Strangers In The Night", which was number one for 1 week, July 2 - July 8, 1966. Recorded on April 10, 1966, this song, while hated by Sinatra himself... is best remembered for the "Doo be doo be doo" singing he does at the end of it. The song won the Grammy for best pop make vocal performance, and record of the year. the song was embroiled in a copyright dispute, In 1967, French composer Micxhel Phillipe Gerard (more commonly known just as Philippe-Gérard) established a claim that the melody of "Strangers" was based on his composition "Magic Tango", which was published in 1953 through Chappells in New York. Royalties from the song where thus frozen until a court in Paris ruled in 1971 against plagiarism and stated that many songs were based on similar constant factors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DRW50 Posted November 20, 2012 Members Share Posted November 20, 2012 I always associate that song with SNL's Frank Sinatra parodies, one he enjoyed (Joe Piscopo) and one which enraged him (Phil Hartman). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members quartermainefan Posted November 20, 2012 Members Share Posted November 20, 2012 Parodie Eddie Murphy & Joe Piscopo by PeteRock Piscopo was excellent playing Frank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members alphanguy74 Posted November 25, 2012 Members Share Posted November 25, 2012 Next we have Tommy James and the Shondells with "Hanky Panky", which was number one for two weeks, from July 16 - July 29, 1966. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7y4oTGDEsM This is the song that set in motion the strange events that led to the rise of Tommy James & the Shondells, and their journey recording for a record company controlled by the Mafia. The song was written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, which is the team responsible for the hits "Be My Baby" and "Leader Of The Pack." Barry and Greenwich recorded it themselves as The Raindrops, and released it as the B-side of their 1963 single "That Boy John." Shortly after the release of the Raindrops' version, 13-year-old Tommy Jackson, who would later become Tommy James, slipped into a club in South Bend, Indiana and listened to a local band, the Spinners (not the hitmakers of the '70s) play the song. After hearing "Hanky Panky" drive the crowd wild, Tommy wanted to record it for his second single - he had released one locally the previous year. He and his group, The Shondells, recorded the song at a radio station in his hometown of Niles, Michigan. The song was released on the tiny Snap label, the first issue of the record label owned by a DJ friend of Tommy. It sold well in the midwest, then faded into obscurity. A year and a half later - in 1965 - Tommy Jackson graduated from high school and the Shondells went their separate ways. In late 1965, a Pittsburgh DJ started playing the two-year-old single and touted it as an "exclusive." Another Pittsburgh DJ played HIS copy of "Hanky Panky" at various dance parties and the resulting demand caused a "Hanky Panky" war as bootleggers sold an estimated 80,000 illegal copies of the record. DJ "Mad Mike" Metro called Tommy to inform him of the single's popularity and asked if the Shondells could perform it in Pittsburgh. One minor problem: by then, Jackson was a solo act. When he arrived in Pittsburgh, he asked a local band, the Raconteurs, if they would like to be the new Shondells. They accepted the offer and he adopted the new stage name of Tommy James. Record companies took notice and lined up to sign the band. Atlantic, Columbia, Epic and Kama Sutra all courted them along with a smaller label called Roulette. But, things didn't go as expected: Tommy stated: "One by one all the record companies started calling up and saying, 'Look, we gotta pass.' I said, 'What? What are you talking about?' 'Sorry, we take back our offer. We can't…' There was about six of them in a row. And so we didn't know what in the world was going on. And finally Jerry Wexler over at Atlantic leveled with us and said, Look, Morris Levy and Roulette called up all the other record companies and said, 'This is my freakin' record.' (laughs) And scared 'em all away – even the big corporate labels. And so that should have been the dead giveaway right there. So we were apparently gonna be on Roulette Records." The band did sign with Roulette and did a great job promoting the record, which hit #1 in the summer of 1966. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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