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Pop Rock Nation

Category: People

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

  • Infatueighties: “Tender Love”

    It’s safe to say that Janet Jackson and her production team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis rode one another to the top of the charts with 1986’s Control. Janet went from Michael’s cute little sister to Madonna’s counterpart, while artists from The Human League to New Edition clamored to work with the former members of The Time.

    However, Jam & Lewis were on their way to building quite the impressive resume at that point,having already scored huge R&B hits on Cheryl Lynn (Encore) and The S.O.S. Band (Just Be Good To Me). A couple of months before Control’s first single, What Have You Done For Me Lately, became a Top 5 smash, the production duo scored their first Top 10 pop single with Tender Love by the Force MD’s (also featured in the film Krush Groove).

    The MD’s were a group of kids who were discovered singing aboard New York’s Staten Island Ferry. Their sound mixed doo-wop harmonies with hip-hop rhythms damn near a decade before Boyz II Men blew up. Tender Love, quite simply, is one of the most simple, elegant and beautiful ballads of the Eighties. In contrast to Jam & Lewis’s generally noisy production style, this song is pretty much just electric piano, synthesized strings and voice.

    While The Force MD’s were definitely more talented vocalists than their counterparts New Edition, they had the misfortune of having primarily hip-hop & dance label Tommy Boy behind them, so they were never given the quality material or the promotion that N.E. ultimately got. Tender Love was the group’s only Top 40 pop record, although they scored a few hits, including 1987’s #1 R&B charting Love is a House.

    Sadly, two of the Force MD’s original five members have since passed away way too soon (“Mercury” from a heart attack and lead singer “T.C.D” from Lou Gehrig’s disease), but this song leaves a hell of a legacy. It’s been covered by artists ranging from Alicia Keys and Kelly Rowland to Jordan Knight, but no one can ever top the original.

    This YouTube clip cuts out the song’s intro, but the only other option appeared to be a mega-fuzzy TV performance. Oh well.

  • Compare & Contrast: “Free Fallin’”

    I feel kinda stupid writing a John Mayer fanboy post less than two weeks after my most recent John Mayer fanboy post, but, fuck it.

    As many of you know (well, you do if you read my new release column on Tuesdays), John Mayer recently released a live album called “Where The Light Is”. Technically speaking, it’s his *third* live album (although to be fair, one of the three included almost all new material). However, since I already own one Mayer live album, I decided to bypass this one and purchase the two songs that interested me most. One of the two is a remake of one of the most revered rock songs of recent years, “Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty. Mayer’s acoustic remake plays around with the melody a little bit, giving it more of a plaintive feel than Petty’s version. While I can’t necessarily say that Mayer’s version is the equal of Petty’s version, I think it’s pretty damn close, and it’s pretty much been ruling my iPod for the past week or so. Check both versions out for yourself (if you haven’t already decided that the first 40,000 times you’ve heard Petty’s version is enough) and let me know what you think.

    Here be the original version…

    And there be Mayer’s remake:

  • Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road: Elton John & Ben & Jerry’s Team Up For Charity

    I’m not the world’s biggest Elton John fan (yeah, sacrilege, I know) and I’m not the world’s biggest Ben & Jerry’s fan. Well…correction, I could potentially eat the entire contents of the average Ben & Jerry’s, but I’m diabetic.

    At any rate, to honor Elton John’s upcoming show in the state of Vermont (fun fact: Vermont is the only state that Sir Elton has never played in), B&Js is creating a flavor called Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road. Consisting of chocolate, cookie dough and peanut butter, the flavor is obviously named for Elton’s massive hit album from the mid-Seventies.

    I am definitely in admiration of the Rocket Man’s charity work over the years, and all the proceeds for sales of this ice cream flavor will go to benefit the Elton John AIDS foundation, an organization which has raised hundreds of million dollars for AIDS research since its inception in the early Nineties.

    So, forget your calorie counter and do something good for the world…pick up a tub of this stuff.

    Now, off to find out what “brickle” is…

    http://www.benjerry.com/

    http://www.eltonjohn.com/

    Want a bonus? Here’s a vid of my favorite EJ song.