web analytics

Pop Rock Nation

Blog

  • Friday Throwback – Party All The Time

    Before Eddie Murphy was bagging Scary Spice and Babyface’s ex-wife in the same month, he was a fairly insecure young man when it came to women. Actually, he probably still is. Recorded in 1985, the song was produced by Rick James. This must’ve been before he kicked mud on Eddie’s couch. And I’m not sure if everyone knows this, but Party All The Time peaked at number 2 on the Billboard charts. Not bad for a comedian. The song isn’t great, but it’s very 80s.

    • Who put the dirty mop on Rick James’ head?
    • How come Eddie didn’t say, “Yo, turn me up in the headphones,”?
    • Is Rick wearing leather pants?
    • That one dude in the studio looks like a tall Michael Bivins.
    • And were all those people in the studio Eddie’s posse?
    • This might possibly be the greatest verse in music history: I’ve seen you in clubs just hanging out and dancing/You give your number to every man you see/You never come home at night because you’re out romancing/I wish you bring some of your love home to me.
    • Why is that one dude touching himself at the 2:28 mark?
    • I wonder if Rick burned the naked girl before or after the making of this video?

    That was the only song that you could get through on his debut album How Could It Be. I guess the world wasn’t ready for sensitive Ed. He would go on a release a much better album (we are talking Eddie Murphy here) called Love’s Alright which included a very memorable song with Michael Jackson called Whatzupwitu which featured Eddie and MJ floating in the video. No word on if Mike gave him a kick and a “hee hee” for making fun of his crying in the song She’s Out Of My Life.

  • Mandy Moore Does “Umbrella”

    You know how Rod Stewart’s latest albums have been those Great American Songbook titles where puts his touches on “classic” songs of yesteryear? Well, this isn’t exactly that.

    There are certain songs that are horrid, yet hit so big and are so catchy that you eventually like them even though you’ll deny it to everyone. Think Black Eyed Peas’ My Humps, Fergie’s London Bridge, Patrick Swayze’s She’s Like The Wind, or Nick Lachey’s What’s Left Of Me. Ok, maybe only I like those last two. But you get the picture. I think Rihanna’s single, Umbrella, was headed that way except that everyone figured that it was actually good and even though they thought they were supposed to hate it, even music snobs kind of dug it, so people could joyously singing it aloud without worry that they’d get hated on. Even Mandy Moore likes it.

    Mandy Moore has covered Rihanna’s hit single Umbrella. And I have proof. Thanks to Speeddeezy for sending this to me.

  • A Mocha Latte And A Case of You

    Paul mcCartney on stage

    I guess these two interesting things are sort of related…
    Well, folks, in a lead up to iTunes’ most popular holdouts-The Beatles-finally allowing their music to appear for purchase on the site (my spidey sense tells me that it’ll happen right before the lucrative holiday season), John Lennon’s solo work is now available. This follows Paul McCartney’s Apple/Capitol work being made available earlier this summer. The countdown to being able to download “Hey Jude” (and make Paul, Ringo, Olivia Harrison, Yoko Ono and Michael Jackson a LOT more money) begins now…

    Joni Mitchell

    Speaking of Paul, there was quite a hubbub earlier this year when Paul jumped from Capitol, which had (aside from a stint with Columbia in the early/mid Eighties) been his recording home for 40+ years to Starbucks’ Hear Music imprint. It proved to be a smart move for Macca, as his latest album, “Memory Almost Full” has, in about 10 weeks, almost outsold what his previous albvum, “Chaos & Creation in the Backyard” has sold in two years. Of course, where one starts, others follow, and fellow legendary artists Joni Mitchell and James Taylor are now both signed to Hear Music, after lengthy stays with Warner/Reprise and Columbia, respectively. This should be an interesting litmus test, especially with a notoriously prickly artist like Joni (it strikes me as kind of strange that she would align herself with a company like Starbucks, but then again, despite her grande dame singer/songwriter status, she has complained long and hard about her treatment in the record industry). At any rate, while JT could probably sign to any label in existence and sell hundreds of thousands of albums to his fervent (and record-buying) fan base (which includes me), I scratch my head wondering whether Joni will do the promotional work that would be needed to make her album a success.
    These three career artists jumping ship (along with the rumor that Madonna will be parting with Warner Brothers after a quarter century) makes me wonder who the next artist to move to Starbucks will be. And with McCartney’s success still fresh, will other companies follow suit? Is it too farfetched to think of McDonald’s or Radio Shack forming record companies and selling CDs? Who knows??