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Pop Rock Nation

Author: Money Mike

  • Infatueighties #50: Genius of Love

    tomtomYou’re the bassist and the drummer of an influential new wave band? Whatcha gonna do when you’re on an extended vacation and you still have the urge to make music?

    They’re gonna have some fun.

    Not to say Talking Heads music wasn’t fun before, but prior to Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth breaking off temporarily to form Tom Tom Club, it was kind of stiff. “Genius of Love” is what a Heads record would sound like after a couple of spliffs. Loosey-goosey and effortless, the song’s rubbery groove is irresistible. Shouting out Hamilton Bohannon, Smokey Robinson and James Brown while giving props to the then-growing hip-hop sound (as well as a nod to reggae), it appealed to those graffiti drawing kids as well as the downtown arty types in similar fashion to Blondie’s “Rapture” (which you’ll find a few places back on this list).

    There’s a small percentage of folks who probably now know this from Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy”, which samples it heavily, but like most sampled cuts, ain’t nothin’ like the original.

    The video is awesome as well.

  • Shoulda Been a Hit: Daryl Hall’s “Someone Like You”

    daryk

    After an amazing run of success in the early Eighties, Daryl Hall & John Oates took a well-deserved break. While Oates tried his hand at producing (particularly Icehouse’s Top 10 hit “Electric Blue”), Daryl worked on and released his second solo album, 1986‘s “Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine”. The album paired Daryl with Eurythmic Dave Stewart and found him joined by guests like Joni Mitchell. “Three Hearts” was a mildly successful album, spawning the Top 10 hit “Dreamtime” (YouTube the trippy video if you feel so inclined), but it was something of a letdown sales-wise after H2O’s track record of the previous six years.

    That’s not to say that “Three Hearts” was a bad album. Qualitatively, it was as good as anything Hall & Oates released during their “hit” period, and Stewart gave Hall a more punchy, slightly avant-garde dance rock sound. However, given Hall’s penchant for soulful vocals, it makes perfect sense that “Three Hearts”’  best song is a ballad. “Someone Like You” may have only peaked at #57 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart, but it stands as one of the best vocal performances of Hall’s entire career.

    The song itself is a rock steady swaying groover with hints of Motown in both the rhythm and the background vocals, embellished with the airy synthesizers that were a hallmark of the era. However, you’re not exactly paying attention to the background arrangement during this song. Hall’s vocals are alternately forceful and pleading as he laments the loss of a love and hopes that he finds someone exactly like her the next time around. A guitar solo in the song’s bridge matches the intensity of Hall’s vocal, and the song ends with Hall begging “please send me down somebody to love” with an urgency that will bring tears to your eyes.

    Not quite sure why this song wasn’t bigger than it was…perhaps because it was the third single from the underperforming “Three Hearts”, it wasn’t given the proper promotional push. If you manage to get your paws on a copy of “Three Hearts”, however (it’s been out of print for some time), it’s worth it for this show-stopping performance alone. (Note: “Someone Like You” is also available on Hall & Oates “Ballads Collection”).

  • Mini Chart-Chat: Flo Rida Spins “Right Round” to The Top!!

    floridaA week after Eminem, 50 Cent & Dr. Dre broke the record for most downloads of a single in it’s first week with “Crack a Bottle”, that record is once again smashed by…Flo Rida? Yep, the guy who everyone thought was banished to one-hit wonderdom after “Low” became a huge hit a year and a half ago has struck again. His new single “Right Round” becomes his fourth Top 40 hit, third Top 10 and his second #1. Amazing how you can get so far on so little talent, innit?

     Since I don’t believe there’s a video available for “Right Round” yet, and because you don’t need to hear the song anyway, I’ve decided to post the video of the song that “Right Round” interpolates it’s chorus from-Dead or Alive’s 1985 hit “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)”. While the two songs may not be a hell of a lot different from one another from a qualitative standpoint, Dead or Alive at least has the uber-campy aspect going for it. Man, that Pete Burns was scary, eh?