Sex. That’s all you need to know. This song oozes sex. There’s that bluesy guitar riff that repeats throughout the song. Then there’s the skeletal groove-a little funky, a lot sleazy. Finally, there’s Michael Hutchence’s vocal delivery. Half whispered, half screamed, all sexual longing and tension. This was the song that established Hutchence as a Grade “A” frontman and gave his band INXS their first and only #1 American single.
That paragraph was 69 words. Somehow, that seems appropriate.
INXS were a killer singles band: “What You Need” and “New Sensation” were among the Eighties’ best songs-thanks to the tight musicianship of the band and Hutchence, who played the sexy angle but had genuine soulful grit in his voice. Although the hits dried up long before Hutchence’s tragic death in the late Nineties, the good music didn’t-“Not Enough Time” and “Disappear” are top-notch singles. Hell, Hutchence even held his own against Ray Charles for one single. Check this video out and tell me these guys don’t deserve more props.
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Revisionist history has cast Taylor Hicks’ win in Season 5 of “American Idol” as a mistake or a joke, but I think it’s one of the only times that America actually made the right decision. Unlike most of the winners, Hicks seemed less preoccupied with being a star than with actually being a successful musician. “Idol” just gave him a platform to bring his sound to a larger audience, but without the show, something tells me that Tay-Tay would still be touring the country in a van, singing his grey-haired little lungs out.