CHART ATTACK!#2: 10/6/90
Welcome back to another edition of CHART ATTACK! Where were you on October 6, 1990? Here’s what was on the radio!
10. Release Me – Wilson Philips Amazon iTunes
9. Do Me! – Bell Biv DeVoe Amazon iTunes
8. Oh Girl – Paul Young Amazon iTunes
7. Ice Ice Baby – Vanilla Ice Amazon- only $4! iTunes
6. Blaze Of Glory – Jon Bon Jovi Amazon iTunes
5. I Don’t Have The Heart – James Ingram Amazon iTunes
4. Something Happened On The Way To Heaven – Phil Collins Amazon iTunes
3. (Can’t Live Without Your) Love And Affection – Nelson Amazon iTunes
2. Praying For Time – George Michael Amazon iTunes
1. Close To You – Maxi Priest Amazon iTunes
10. Release Me – Wilson Phillips Come on, baby. Come on, baby. You knew it was time to just let go. ‘Cause we wanna be free, but somehow it’s just not that easy. I know I should do something better here than just quote these lyrics. But what else is there to say? All five of the singles from their debut album reached the AC top 10 between 1990 and 1991. A couple of modest (especially by comparison) hits in 1992, but after that, it was pretty much over for them. Yeah. That’s all I have to say. I’m not going to say anything embarrassing like "I know all the words to this song" or "I had this CD and played it all the time" or "I gifted it to my buddy Raz and he knows all the words too, and sometimes we sing it together." Nope. That chorus says it all.
9. Do Me! – Bell Biv DeVoe Like Wilson Phillips, Bell Biv DeVoe really only had one successful album in their arsenal. Still, there’s not a damn thing wrong with "Do Me!," except that it somehow made it okay for white kids to utter the phrase "smack it up, flip it, rub it down, oh nooooo!" I still don’t exactly understand all of that phrase. Flip it? Can someone send me a diagram?
8. Oh Girl – Paul Young Quick, name three Paul Young songs you’ve heard on the radio. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Okay. I personally think you only came up with two. But if you got three, here’s what I think you’ve got: "Every Time You Go Away," "Oh Girl" and "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted." (If you’re a music geek, you may have also come up with "Love Of The Common People.") Nothing wrong with that, except that every single one of Paul Young’s US hits have been covers. "Every Time You Go Away" is by Hall & Oates. "Oh Girl" is by the Chi-Lites. "What Becomes" is a Jimmy Ruffin song. "Love Of The Common People" is by Nicky Thomas.
In the UK, he’s also released covers of "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home)" (Marvin Gaye), "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (Joy Division), "I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down" (Ann Peebles), "Softly Whispering I Love You" (The Congregation), "Both Sides Now" (Joni Mitchell), and "Don’t Dream It’s Over" (Crowded House). He named his son Levi after The Four Tops’ Levi Stubbs. Even his offspring is a cover of sorts. Anybody else wondering how this guy made it?
Paul Young, I award you no points for originality, and may God have mercy on your soul. At least Robbie Dupree had his own lyrics.
Fun Paul Young Fact: "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted" (which we’ll never cover here, as it peaked at #22) was included on the 1991 soundtrack to Fried Green Tomatoes. Prior to its release, Whitney Houston had been planning on covering it for her upcoming movie soundtrack to The Bodyguard. Once hearing Young’s release, Houston decided to switch her cover to "I Will Always Love You."
Dolly Parton should be sending monthly thank-you notes to Paul Young.
7. Ice Ice Baby – Vanilla Ice The scary thing is that apparently he’s still trying to convince people that he didn’t rip off Queen’s bassline.
The less said about "Ice Ice Baby," the better. However, as I mentioned above, you can get The Best Of Vanilla Ice, which includes such hits as "Cool As Ice" and "Ninja Rap" ("Go ninja, go ninja, go!"), for a sweet $3.99. Go without your mochaccino for one morning. That’s all you have to do. Be sure to read the "Reviewer Comments."
6. Blaze Of Glory – Jon Bon Jovi Who wants to explain to me what distinguishes this solo song from a Bon Jovi group effort? I mean, when Gwen Stefani did a solo album, it was somewhat different from No Doubt. Darius Rucker’s solo album was a flop infused with a hip-hop feel, far from Hootie’s work. Freddie Mercury’s shitty solo albums were nothing like Queen. And so on. If you’re going to do a solo project, at least try to do something you can’t do with your current band. I’m not saying that "Blaze of Glory" isn’t a good song; I’m just saying that I don’t hear anything on the single that Tico Torres couldn’t have handled.
5. I Don’t Have The Heart – James Ingram James Ingram is the man. You know more James Ingram hit songs than you think you do: "Just Once," "Baby Come To Me" (with Patti Austin), "Yah Mo Be There" (with Michael McDonald) and "Somewhere Out There" (with Feivel Linda Ronstadt). And yet, "I Don’t Have The Heart" was considered Ingram’s first real solo hit. ("Just Once" was sung by Ingram but appeared on Quincy Jones’ abum The Dude.) I just listened to all these songs, and I personally think ANY of them could have been sung by Michael McDonald. I’m just saying.
My favorite part of this song is that guitar solo. The backing vocals continue and Ingram sings/speaks, "I DON’T HAVE THE HEART!" The man has conviction.
4. Something Happened On The Way To Heaven – Phil Collins Here’s what this song had going for it:
1) great horn section
2) Lee Sklar
3) Video featuring a shaggy dog, with a shaggy dog dream sequence
4) Shaggy dog doing something nasty on Lee Sklar’s foot. Poor Lee Sklar! He doesn’t deserve this shit! (hahahahahah!)
Watch for yourself.
[youtube]VW7SwXPVqqI[/youtube]
3. (Can’t Live Without Your) Love And Affection – Nelson (download) Wilson Phillips, Bell Biv DeVoe, Vanilla Ice, and Nelson…this was a week for one-album wonders, wasn’t it? Still, I really do like this song. And "After The Rain," too. I remember think it would be so cool if I could learn this on guitar and perform it. Then, I learned it on guitar and didn’t feel much like performing it anymore.
I’m trying to figure out why Nelson didn’t make it big after the early 1990s….hmmmm….
(Yeah, I know, cheap shot.)
2. Praying For Time – George Michael "Praying For Time" was the long-awaited first single from Listen Witout Prejudice: Volume 1. This was before the public knew that George Michael didn’t intend on doing any real publicity to promote the album. MTV heavily promoted the World Premiere of the video at least two weeks’ prior. I eagerly sat in front of the TV that night. And all I saw were a bunch of fucking words on a screen. What kind of bullshit is this? And speaking of, I call "bullshit" on anybody who calls this video "poignant," "fitting," or "brilliant." I call it "lame." No, wait. I call it "bullshit."
1. Close To You – Maxi Priest (download) Beyond this song and his duet of "Set The Night To Music" with Roberta Flack, I don’t really know much about Maxi Priest. He has great hair, though.
"Close To You" is both funky and sexy, despite sounding like a Soul II Soul song. And those lyrics are sexy, too: "I just wanna be close to you/and do all the things you want me to." Oh yeah! "Something deep inside of me/wants to love you endlessly!" Bring it, Maxi! "A fatal attraction is where I’m at/there’s no escaping me."
uh…what?
Suddenly, I feel differently about "Close To You." Now it’s one of those songs, like "Possession" and "Every Breath You Take," that sounds almost romantic at first but is really sung from a psycho’s point of view. This is the only lyric in "Close To You’ that has this vibe, but I think it’s enough for me. I offer it to you, in case you are stalking someone and want to let them know how you feel. "Close To You" will do the trick, thank you, Mr. Priest.
And that’ll do it for another week of CHART ATTACK! Will our next Top 10 feature artists with more staying power? Come back next Friday to find out!
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October 6th, 2006 at 9:55 am
The only Paul Young song worth anything is "come back and stay". I occasionally hear that one on the radio, and I think it’s pretty good considering it’s Paul Young and all. I like your blog, btw.
October 6th, 2006 at 10:56 am
He isn’t kidding about his Wilson Phillips obsession folks. Really. He’s not.
Bel Biv DeVoe…Now You Know. BBD’s hit songs, (Do Me and Poison) were the PERFECT example of what was going on with r&b in the early 90’s, Boyz II Men, Blackstreet and etc all had that pseudomotown harmony thing happening and mixed it with (usually hysterically bad) rapping in the middle. Michael Bivins was the MASTER of this (The time, was 6:00 on the SWATCH WATCH, no time to chill, gotta date, can’t be late HEY! The girl is gonna do me). Perhaps because they were so perfectly early 90’s, they became dated almost immediately after they came out. I would love it to death if someone would cover either of these songs now.
I had no idea I Don’t Have The Heart was by Ingram. If you had held a gun to my head and made me guess who did that song, I would have said Michael Bolton. Poor James Ingram.
Blaze of Glory was different than a Bon Jovi song because:
It was done for the soundtrack of Young Guns 2: Electric Boogaloo and the producers thought it would sell more soundtracks if it was Jon Bon Jovi’s first solo effort rather than a lame retread of Wanted Dead or Alive.
Along the same lines, the movie folks thought Jeff Beck playing the solo was sexier than Richie Sambora playing the solo. (That said, it’s a lame solo, there’s nothing that screams Jeff Beck in it to me).
Lee Sklar, RULES.
Colleen (who was 10 at the time) LOVED Nelson. I believe she said she had an After the Rain poster.
October 6th, 2006 at 11:28 am
Looking at these songs, I have mirror image opinion of the state of pop in 1990 than I did in 1984. It’s a diverse collection of songs, but they don’t really have the staying power some of those songs in 1984 did. Of course many of these songs are still played on the radio (at least in my neck of the woods), but they are just "wallpaper for the ears."
October 6th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
Aw, don’t be so hard on Paul Young. So he’s not a writer. Lots of people are vocalists without being writers. You know, Sinatra. Um. Tom Jones. Does Celine write her stuff? I bet "Let Her In’ was ghostwritten for Travolta. Or he’d claim it was, in either case. "Love of the Common People" was one of my very favorite songs in the HS era. I was lucky enough to live close to WHFS in Annapolis, MD in 1985, and got to hear cool stuff on the radio. And Heather’s right, "Come Back and Stay" is a great song. So, I have a soft spot for ol’ Paul.
October 6th, 2006 at 1:40 pm
Elaine, did you talk with Jeff this morning? Because we had the same argument. So let me be perfectly clear here:
I do not have a problem with the fact that Paul Young is not a writer, or that he performs songs written by other people. I have a problem with the fact that all his hits are covers.
Wikipedia defines cover version as "a new rendition (performance or recording) of a previously recorded song." This is different from performing a song that someone else has simply written.
Whitney Houston’s "I Will Always Love You," for example, is a cover. If Dolly had written it but not recorded it, and Whitney was the first to release it, it wouldn’t be a cover.
And since this is an example Jeff tried to mention: "Sweet Freedom" by Michael McDonald? Written by Rod Temperton. But not a cover. Unless Rod Temperton himself recorded and released a version. I have challenged Jeff to contact Rod Temperton and find out if he’s recorded and released a version of "Sweet Freedom." (Which, by the way, is an awesome song.)
I can’t believe I even have to explain this.
PS Since you mentioned Celine: her one cover, to my knowledge, is "The Power Of Love," which was originally a song released by Air Supply in 1985. I don’t care who wrote it. It’s an Air Supply cover.
October 6th, 2006 at 1:43 pm
Raz has been having some trouble posting, so here’s what he has to say:
*************
I have to correct Mike on what separates Blaze of Glory from your standard Bon Jovi.
Solo version:
Jon Bon Jovi – "I’m going dowwwwwwwwwn in a blaze of glory! Take me now – but know the truth!"
Bon Jovi version:
Jon Bon Jovi – "I’m going dowwwwwwwwwn in a blaze of glory!"
Richie Sambora – "YES HE IS!"
Jon Bon Jovi – "Take me now – but know the truth!"
Richie Sambora – "YOU GOTTA KNOW!"
*****************
October 6th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
So are you saying that if Rod Temperton released his own version of "Sweet Freedom" now, that he’d be covering Michael McDonald?
October 6th, 2006 at 1:46 pm
In the case of covers, the song belongs to the artist who recorded it. Not the writer who wrote it. But I suppose in the case you mentioned, it could go either way..
October 6th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
I was squarely on Jason’s side before Jeff’s Temperton example. Now, I’m still on Jason’s side, but I think we can definitively say that if the songwriter records a song they wrote which has a definitive version by someone else, the songwriter’s version is not a "cover." Still, if Temperton records Sweet Freedom, and next year the Arcade Fire records Sweet Freedom, I would still refer to the Arcade Fire version as a MMD cover, and so would everyone else but Jefito. =) You can’t discount the definitive, first on the scene version of songs recorded by artists who are not songwriters. Calling them "covers" because they aren’t the songwriter just doesn’t make any kind of sense. It’s Not Unusual is a Tom Jones song. An interesting exception/quirk are uber powerful and well known songwriters like Burt Bacharach, Diane Warren and Linda Perry. I would call Beautiful a Linda Perry song, but I wouldn’t refer to the Christina Aguliera version as a "cover." It’s not. It was written for her. Her version was first and definitive. Subsequent versions are covers. Hers is not. Maybe Jefito is arguing that we shouldn’t treat the Termperman’s of the world differently than the Bacharachs. That if you write a song, by fiat, every version of that song not by you is a cover. While that argument scans logically, there’s no common sense to it. We should not be obligated, as music fans, to know who wrote every song not written by the definitive recording artist (can you imagine trying to do that with Motown? Country? Ridiculous.) Smokey Robinson wrote My Girl. Does anyone call My Girl a Smokey song? Of course not. It’s a Temptations song and every cover of my girl is a cover of the Temptations version. This is too long as it is. Interesting arguments on both sides. Can’t we all just get along?
October 6th, 2006 at 2:14 pm
Bravo, Mike.
Speaking of Smokey, Stevie Wonder wrote "Tears of a Clown." But it’s not a Stevie cover, JEFF.
October 6th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
Hmm. So it’s Rod Temperton’s fault that people are too lazy to know he wrote "Sweet Freedom"? Look, asscheeks, if you didn’t write the song, you covered it, regardless of whether your version winds up becoming the definitive one. Nobody’s saying you’re obligated to do anything. Jesus H. Christ. I’m sure there are people who think Michael Bolton recorded the "definitive" version of "When a Man Loves a Woman." You and I would call these people stupid. However, there are also people who would call anyone who doesn’t know who wrote "My Girl" an idiot. Rather than debating the degrees of stupidity here, I submit that if you record something someone else wrote, it’s a cover, and that’s the end of the goddamn story, regardless of what Actor Boy dug up on Wikipedia.
October 6th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
Mike: "there’s no common sense to it."
Jeff: "asscheeks."
October 6th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Hey JASON, the Celine Dion song, “Power of Love” was also done by Air Supply like you mentioned but it was actually first recorded by JENNIFER RUSH. I think Laura Branigan covered it before Celine.
October 6th, 2006 at 5:50 pm
Of course, you’re right. My bad. Carlos, you da man.
October 6th, 2006 at 7:01 pm
Paul Young: I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down. Good stuff.This is the year I started to lose touch with the top 10.BTW, is there a substantive difference between Bon Jovi’s Blaze of Glory and the song of the same title by the Alarm?
October 6th, 2006 at 7:02 pm
Jeez. Don’t hurt yourself getting mad at me — I wasn’t arguing that Paul Young’s songs weren’t covers, just that I didn’t care, and have a soft spot for him. But either way, if someone can sing, but can’t write for shit, I’d rather that they put out covers. Another cover-or-isn’t-it example: Michael Bolton wrote "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You," which was recorded and made famous by Laura Branigan, and then he recorded his own, which also became famous. (God only knows why.) This kinda reminds me of the lawsuit where Fogerty was sued for plaigiarizing himself. Anyway, in conclusion, Jefito and I did talk this morning and decided to gang up on you. And we both decided to wear blue to school.
October 10th, 2006 at 2:14 am
Thanks, Heather – I forgot about "Come Back and Stay" unitl your note, so I went and bought it on iTunes. I don’t begrudge Paul Young his hits, covers or not. I liked his songs at the time, and his version was the first I heard of the great "Every Time You Go Away" (by Hall & Oates). Now, Hall & Oates had a hit (semi-hit?) with the great "Starting All Over Again", but that was a Mel & Tim cover. (It was written by Phillip Mitchell, who apparently never had a recorded version.) Given the good discussion on this point, I must wonder, am I using "cover" correctly?
October 10th, 2006 at 10:20 am
I never imagined any of these conversations happening – the defending of Paul Young, the question of what constitutes a cover song.
I love it.
BTW, I didn’t know "Starting All Over Again" was a cover. Thanks for the info. And I didn’t know "Family Man" was a Mike Oldfield cover until Jefito mentioned it in his Idiot’s Guide.
October 10th, 2006 at 3:07 pm
Jason – Very interesting fact about the Whitney Houston’s decision to do "i’ll ALways Love You"
Talk about how life can change in an instant!
November 3rd, 2006 at 10:23 am
[…] This week’s Chart Attack! is dedicated to my buddy Raz. Raz has hated just about every post I’ve done with the exception of Chart Attack! #2, because it covered a week in 1990. Raz’s rule is "if I don’t know it already, it sucks," and apparently he didn’t listen to the radio except for somewhere around 1990. Well, this isn’t 1990, but it’s close. So let’s look back and see what was going on the week of November 4, 1989! […]
December 16th, 2006 at 1:31 am
Hey, I just came across this over at Coverville: "The new Vibez mp3 player from TrekStor has most of the same bells and whistles as every other mp3 player on the market these days…except one. According to the New York Times, the Vibez can generate "playlists based on variables like the number of times played, and has a ‘cover version’ feature that finds songs re-recorded by other artists". The article didn’t elaborate too much, but does that require you to have two songs with the same title in order for it to work? What about song titles like "Stay", that have been done in numerous original versions by multiple bands? And of course the big question: "Layla" by Derek and the Dominoes vs. "Layla" by Eric Clapton… cover or no? Whoa – it does crossfades between tracks. Are you listening, Apple?" I thought of you guys arguing about what’s a cover. Also, the Vibez sounds pretty freakin’ cool.
December 16th, 2006 at 9:21 am
Can’t iTunes do a lot of the same things with their "Smart Playlist" feature? The crossfading is cool, I do admit. I’m not sure I’d walk around with a player called "Vibez," though… :)
December 17th, 2006 at 6:06 pm
You’re right about a Smart Playlist, but in order for that to work, you’d have to have each cover file labeled properly, and etc. It could certainly be done. I think you’re right about the name Vibez anyway. (is it one syllable or two?)It looks kind of odd, too. http://www.trekstor.de/en/products/mp3.php Half of them look like personal massage devices.
July 6th, 2007 at 8:42 am
[…] readers might remember that I have a beef with Paul Young. (Read the comments section, which goes from an argument about what defines a "cover […]