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Pop Rock Nation

Category: People

all-about-musicians-and-the-people-who-help-them-make-music

  • I Bette You Wanna Win A Free Midler CD

    For nearly four decades now, Bette Midler’s name has been synonymous with entertainment. From her early days in the Seventies providing the house entertainment (with piano accompaniment from some guy you might know named Barry Manilow) at gay bathhouses to a dual movie & music career that has seen her win Grammys and win at the box office with films ranging from “The Rose” to “Ruthless People” and “Outrageous Fortune”, Midler has been one of the most successful media hyphenates of recent times.

    This past week, Midler released a greatest hits compilation entitled “Jackpot: The Best Bette”. This collection features everything from “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” to 1989’s Grammy Record of the Year “Wind Beneath My Wings”. Now guess what, folks? You can WIN a copy of Bette’s latest CD by answering one simple question. Here goes:

    Which Rolling Stone hit did Bette cover in the early Eighties, and which Stone appeared in the song’s video, dirty dancing with Ms. Midler?

    Send responses to musicpublisher@consumerhelpweb.com. The winner will be chosen on Friday, October 3rd.

    Employees of consumerhelpweb.com and musichelpweb.com and their immediate families are ineligible for this contest.

  • Out There!- Dario (Can You Get Me Into Studio 54) by Dana & Gene

    I’ve always said that if I could ever go back in time, I’d love to experience  New York City during the Summer Of Sam.  The mean streets, the peep shows, the filth.  But most of all I would want to turn the beat around at Studio 54.  I’ve talked to a few people who have been there back in 1977 and they refuse to discuss because either they were too coked up to remember or choose not to remember what they did there.

    Studio 54 was known for the drugs, the mix of random celebrities, the tunes, and of course the debauchery.  Open sex on the dance floor, cross dancers, and owner Steve Rubell being obnoxious as all hell.  This place wasn’t just a dance club, it was the buzz of the pop culture world, and the place you had to be if you lived in the metropolitan area.  So much so that a band recorded a song about how difficult it was to get in.   We all have heard the story of Chic’s classic 1978 song Le Freak being a reaction to not getting into the club.  Nile Rodgers is adamant that the song was originally called “Fuck off!  Who knows?  The song that really defines Studio 54 to me was a little-known novelty tune by Dana And Gene called Dario (Can You Get Me Into Studio 54) in 1979 which was a tribute to the guy at the velvet rope who gave access to the club.

    This probably may be the obscurest of the obscure songs I’m going to feature in this article.  Good luck finding this one.  It’s not on any music sites, compilation albums, Yadda yadda.  It took us a few months for us to track it down. It’s so rare to find, that not even Youtube has any clip using the song.  It was released as a 12” single, but didn’t chart on the Top 100 Single chart, although it may have hit the Dance Charts.  It’s your typical cheesy disco tune with the catchy bass groove, electric drum beat, and strings.

    Dario is a fun little song that pays tribute to one of the most influential dance clubs in our nations’s history.  Is it one of the most influential disco songs of the 70s’?  No way!  Is it one of the best novelty tunes?  Maybe.  Is it one of the rarest songs to find from the 70’s?  Absolutely!  Youtube doesn’t even have a video for it.  The closest I got was what you see below: A cover version by Kid Creole which doesn’t do the original tune much justice.

    I wonder if Dario would grant access to me and my brother?  Probably not!

  • New Music In Stores & Online 9/30/08: Robin Thicke, Ben Folds, T.I. & More!

    Talk about ending with a bang. This last day of September 2008 (which, if I’m not mistaken, is also the last day for Grammy eligibility for next year’s ceremony) brings out some big guns (I just realized I made a bunch of firearm references in a column that strongly features an artist who just got sentenced to jail for firearms possession… I swear it was unintentional). Nevertheless, there’s something for just about everyone in stores this week. Here’s what you have to look forward to :

    Robin Thicke “Something Else” : You know, a lot of folks like to say “I loved (name artist) when no one else liked them”. Robin Thicke is one of those artists I can say that about. The blue-eyed soul singer broke through two years back with his second album, “The Evolution of Robin Thicke”. Although he had to tone down his sound a little bit to get a hit, it was a pretty solid album. His third album, “Something Else” hits stores today and promises yet another collection of uptempo soul thumpers (like the first single “Magic”) and romantic ballads. Not bad for the son of Jason Seaver.

    Robin Thicke's "Something Else" hits stores today.

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