CHART ATTACK! #31: 5/10/97
It’s pretty obvious that when it comes to CHART ATTACK!, I tend to stay within the ’80s, sometimes the late ’70s or early ’90s. This week, I decided to pick a year between 1980 and 2000 at random. As a result, I’m going to make all of us feel really, really old. In fact, I guarantee this will be the most unpopular Chart Attack! yet – how’s that for a reason to stick around? Hold on to your walkers and let’s check out the charts from May 10, 1997!
10. Wannabe – Spice Girls Amazon iTunes
9. Hard To Say I’m Sorry – Az Yet Featuring Peter Cetera Amazon iTunes
8. Where Have All the Cowboys Gone? – Paula Cole Amazon iTunes
7. Return Of The Mack – Mark Morrison Amazon
6. MMMBop – Hanson Amazon iTunes
5. For You I Will – Monica Amazon iTunes
4. I Want You – Savage Garden Amazon iTunes
3. Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down – Puff Daddy Featuring Ma$e Amazon iTunes
2. You Were Meant For Me – Jewel Amazon iTunes
1. Hypnotize – The Notorious B.I.G. Amazon iTunes
Where’s everybody going?
10. Wannabe – Spice Girls
Okay, so maybe this was a mistake. But I’m one sentence in. I can’t stop now. We’re just going to have to talk about these crappy songs, and we’re starting here. "Wannabe" was the very first single from the Spice Girls. I remember it being big, but I didn’t remember it being this big. Like, #1 in 25 countries big. In the U.S., it debuted at #11, becoming the highest debut for a non-American act at the time (stealing the record away from The Beatles). In truth, "Wannabe" set a number of records, and I feel like I might be wasting time trying to name them all; this is energy I need to save for shitty ’70s music, not ’90s music, dammit. You can see them all at the Wiki for "Wannabe." The only one I feel I need to call to your attention is the first one: ""Wannabe" started off as a jam the Red Hot Chili Peppers played in a live set in 1991." Oh, please, tell me this isn’t so. It can’t be true…can it? Because the more I think about it, the more I think it could actually be possible, and the more I hate myself.
9. Hard To Say I’m Sorry – Az Yet Featuring Peter Cetera
Just think: at least two generations of people going "Who?" for completely different reasons! How awesome!
"Hard To Say I’m Sorry" was the follow-up to Az Yet’s first single, "Last Night," which reached #9 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the R&B chart. I have absolutely no recollection whatsoever of "Last Night." I don’t know who felt that the universe needed a "Hard To Say I’m Sorry" cover; maybe it was Babyface, who "discovered" the group, signed them to his label, and wrote/produced the majority of the songs. Well, as was the case often in the late ’90s, Babyface was right. "Hard To Say I’m Sorry" reached #8, and also made a dent on the AC charts by climbing to #14 – no doubt a direct result of all those moms who were happy to hear Peter Cetera on the radio again, singing their favorite song. (Um, sorry, mom.) And not that Peter Cetera or David Foster need another cent in their piggy banks, I’m sure they were plenty happy for the royalties.
At the end of the day, though, I’m not quite sure what the difference was between this single and, oh, anything by Boyz II Men. In fact, a former member of Boyz II Men, Marc Nelson, was placed into Az Yet by Babyface shortly before they recorded their debut. I’m not trying to sound like your dad when he says "all of your rock music sounds the same." (Um, sorry, dad.) I just don’t hear what made these guys unique. Apparently I’m not the only one, as this was the band’s last single of any consequence. The group is supposedly back together after a breakup, but they’re going through that Spartacus/Beach Boys bullshit where there are multiple incarnations of the band arguing that they’re the real Az Yet. News flash, gentlemen: you’re not that important that anybody’s going to see you based on your original name. Just name yourselves Winger or something.
Cetera saw the opportunity for more success, and invited Az Yet to collaborate on a remake of "You’re The Inspiration." Check out this god-awful video, which features Cetera and the Az Yet crew dancing like complete schmucks on a bunch of rocks. I wonder if he was like, "you Color Me Badd guys are just fantastic!"
[youtube]eq4JSaZBMiY[/youtube]
8. Where Have All the Cowboys Gone? – Paula Cole
This is totally horrible of me, but when I think of Paula Cole, I immediately think of armpit hair. Cole made headlines in 1998 after appearing at the Grammy Awards unshorn beneath her arms, as she is wont to do. The same year, Entertainment Weekly airbrushed her forest-like pits out of a cover photo. Cole, wrote a letter of complaint (justified, in my opinion) to the editor: "Why the hell did you airbrush off my armpit hair? Cowardly move." EW claims they removed it because they thought it was "a smudge," but realized the truth after they saw the Grammies.
Fans of Paula Cole’s armpit hair can find solace (and shots of Paula’s pits) at the following website, one I wished I had never found: Armpits In The Media. There’s a chance this link might be down for exceeding data transfer. Lucky for you, I guess, but the question remains: why the hell are people this interested in her underarms?
Okay, enough cheap shots. I like "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?". I think Cole has a great voice, and I think the lyrics are great: she’s gonna do the dishes while I pay all the bills! What the hell’s wrong with that? I mean…oh, wait. I get it now. Dammit. On another note, I never noticed something about the verses before: although the prevalent vocal is one where she’s speaking in a whisper, there’s another vocal track low in the mix where she’s actually singing softly. I like it. This single hit relatively quick – it entered the Top 10 in early May, obviously, and nobody knew who she was five months earlier, when I saw her open for Barenaked Ladies.
Video without underarm hair:
[youtube]StbOPnGVC70[/youtube]
7. Return Of The Mack – Mark Morrison (download)
I kind of like this song. It’s ridiculously stupid, but there’s something about the beat and the chorus that appeals to me. Most notably, I like the fact that Mark Morrison sounds like he’s singing through a root canal. I’m assuming the line in the pre-chorus is "you lied to me," but it sounds more like "yo lied ta may," which is just fine with may me.
I went to do some research on Morrison’s career, and it seems like he’s well-known for reasons that have nothing to do with "Return Of The Mack." The man has serious problems with the law that, according to his fucking MySpace page, have "prevented him from consolidating his position as a star." In fact, Morrison started recording professionally while in jail in 1995 (what jail is this??), and continued to make it a second home of sorts for the rest of the decade. It’s not that Mark just had problems with the law; it’s that he didn’t seem to have much common sense. Here’s a list of places he went wrong.
1) Proclaimed his innocence by whipping out a gun during performances…that said "Not Guilty" on it. Did I mention that many of these performances were nationally televised?
2) Bought a stun gun. Tried to bring it on a plane. ON A PLANE!
3) Was forced to do community service…then paid a double to do the community service for him while he fled to Barbados.
4) Recorded a song called "Innocent Man"…and then invited DMX to join him on it! DMX!
In many ways, I’m upset that Morrison didn’t have more of a career here. These kinds of entries pretty much write themselves.
6. MMMBop – Hanson
I realize now that I might be the only Hanson defender in the room. That’s fine. I’m okay with that. I think Hanson got a bum rap (and still get a bum rap), for the following reasons:
1) Both radio and MTV played the hell out of this song.
2) Their core audience consisted of screaming 9 year-old girls.
3) 2/3 of the Hanson brothers were long-haired pretty boys. (We call the third one "Goon Hanson.")
4) They weren’t alone on their record or on stage, but they could actually play their instruments well, which created envy in just about anybody musically inclined over the age of 12.
"MMMBop" became incredibly, excruciatingly annoying, without a doubt – but it’s still a strong pop song, I still think their major-label debut, Middle Of Nowhere was a solid record. ("Man From Milwaukee," the bonus track, was my favorite, but "Where’s The Love" was a great song as well.) "MMMBop," produced by The Dust Brothers, soared to #1 in many territories across the world, and actually received high marks from critics. Anybody who thought that Hanson was just another teenybopper, flash-in-the-pan group has been proved wrong: the band is still together, now as indie artists, and continue to record and perform.
One of the nice things about Hanson is that even at their young age, they managed to have a sense of humor about themselves. I remember a sketch on SNL were they were kidnapped, forced into an elevator and forced to listen to "MMMBop" repeatedly until they eventually went batshit. And here’s a great little tidbit from the band’s Wiki entry for the song:
Delone Catholic High School in McSherrystown, Pennsylvania, for example, held a student-created fundraiser for victims of Hurricane Katrina called "Stop the Bop." The school played the song before classes begin in the morning, and between each period over the school PA system. The playing of this song was only stopped when the school raised $3,000 for hurricane relief and the school thereby "stopped the bop." After the fundraising had concluded, Hanson responded by matching the students’ donation as well as sending a copy of their 2004 album Underneath for every student in the school.
Love it!
5. For You I Will – Monica
How scary am I? I just heard this song for the first time, and jotted down some notes as I was listening: Sounds like "Because You Loved Me," ”Un-Break My Heart," and "I Believe I Can Fly." So of course, I look up the song, and find out that it sounds like "Because You Love Me" and "Un-Break My Heart" because they’re both Diane Warren/David Foster collaborations, and was on the Space Jam soundtrack, along with "I Believe I Can Fly." Seriously, do I scare anybody else? It scares me that I can pick out a Diane Warren song. Hmmm, I wonder if "For You I Will" was born out of a Red Hot Chili Peppers jam…
I don’t really have anything interesting to say about this song, but I can tell you that it was the fifth Top 10 single for Monica; her first eight singles all reached the Top 10, actually, with "For You I Will" peaking at #4. While her latest album did reach #8 on the Billboard Top 200, she hasn’t made any chart impact since ’99, and is unfortunately better known these days for her controversial love life; in 2000, her boyfriend locked himself in his car and committed suicide by shooting himself in the head while she was standing outside, trying to get in; she was also involved in a controversial relationship with rapper C-Murder. Not to make light of the situation, but this is why I never get involved with anybody with the word "Murder" in their name. Friendships are fine.
4. I Want You – Savage Garden (download)
Oh, you remember this one. Yes, you do. "Chicka cherry cola." Remember now? And remember how I was just talking about the similarities between Az Yet and Boyz II Men? Other than the vocal, I can’t see any difference between this song and one by Roxette.
"I Want You" was the debut single for Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones, the Australian men behind the name. It was a massive success in their native country (the highest selling Australian single of the year) and elicited a U.S. bidding war for the group. Columbia Records won out, and the song stayed in the Top 10 for almost two months. It also paved the way for "Truly, Madly, Deeply," the duo’s biggest hit.
What do you guys think of this one? I can’t really make up my mind on it. I like my pop sickly sweet, but this one may be a little too Europop for me.
3. Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down – Puff Daddy Featuring Ma$e
"Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down" is from back when we weren’t barraged with samples every two songs, and I actually thought the practice was relatively clever. Sean Combs made some good sampling choices on this song, most notably Grandmaster Flash’s "The Message" and Matthew Wilder’s "Break My Stride." Clearly, he never saw the video for the latter, or he might have felt differently about its inclusion. (And boy, I’d love to show you the video, but Viacom has taken it down. Bastards.) Oh well, I’m sure Matthew Wilder was happy with the money.
This is kind of where it all began for Diddy: the song sat at #1 for six weeks, and when it finally moved off the top spot, it was replaced by the Diddy-produced "Hypnotize." This is where it all began for Ma$e too, as this was his debut on the charts.
2. You Were Meant For Me – Jewel
We’ve all lamented the days of free-form radio, when you could hear completely incongruous artists being played one after the other, but let’s give the late ’90s a hand: any week where Jewel is essentially in a Diddy Sandwich is a good week to prove that diversity was alive and kicking on the dial.
Out of curiosity, did anybody hear Jewel on the radio, think "I gotta have this album," then pick up Pieces Of You and realize that they got screwed? All three of her singles from her debut – "Who Will Save Your Soul," this one, and "Foolish Games" – were re-recorded to make them more radio-friendly. If you wanted to hear the version you enjoyed on the radio or VH1, you had to purchase the single.
Maybe I’m a mushbucket, but I always liked this song. It took me a while to get used to Jewel’s habit of constant switching from deep voice to baby voice, but once I got over it, I found a sweet, simple love song that was catchy, but never reached truly annoying levels. (I expect it was probably different for many of you.) Plus, it didn’t hurt that Jewel was, well, hot. Really hot. I had a picture of her on my wall in college.
Let’s hand it to Jewel. Here it was, May of 1997, six months after the song’s release, and Jewel was still smokin’ the charts. The song was in the Top 10 from February 1, 1997 to June 7, 1997.
1. Hypnotize – The Notorious B.I.G.
This goes to show how little I listened to the radio in 1997. I only vaguely remember this song, mainly because of the chorus and because my friend Adam really liked that he rhymed "escargot" with "my cargo." Apparently it was huge. HUGE! For starters, at the time, "Hypnotize" was one of the higest debuts of all time, debuting at #2, and hit #1 the week after, making it one of the fastest movers to #1. And Biggie was the first artist in almost 20 years to have a #1 posthumous hit, following Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Jim Croce and John Lennon. Yes, this means that in 1997, the list became "Redding, Joplin, Croce, Lennon and Biggie." In fact, Biggie’s the only artist to have two posthumous #1 singles – this one and "Mo Money, Mo Problems." (An aside, since it’s doubtful I’m coming back to 1997 after this week’s debacle: I bought the CD single of "Mo Money, Mo Problems" back in ’97, and I keep it in the side door pocket of my car at all times. You never know when you’re going to need it.)
Because it was a Diddy production, the song included a sample, although it’s a bit harder to spot: the bass and drums are from Herb Alpert’s "Rise", which will appear on Mellow Gold sometime in the future.
Man, was that the worst experiment ever, huh? Hope it wasn’t too torturous for you. I just wanted to see if I could do something a bit outside my comfort zone. Come back next week – I promise I won’t be covering the hits of Dru Hill and Third Eye Blind. (Maybe.) Have a great weekend!
May 11th, 2007 at 7:53 am
" Other than the vocal, I can’t see any difference between this song [I Want You – Savage Garden] and one by Roxette."Wow, I always thought that song was by Roxette. Chart Attack is always educational!
May 11th, 2007 at 7:56 am
If I remember right, "You Were Meant for Me" was written by Steve Poltz, formerly of the Rugburns. Poltz is actually a pretty solid songwriter, but doesn’t have a fabulous rack, so he had to chart vicariously through Jewel…
May 11th, 2007 at 8:34 am
MMMMMBop is great! It’s a lost Jackson 5 song.
May 11th, 2007 at 9:10 am
I think you managed to pick the Last Great Top 10 ever. Actually, doesn’t Shawn Colvin’s “Sunny Came Home” hit the top 10 around this time? That would make it the best week of the 90s, no doubt…
10/6. Fabulous earworms. A colleague of mine at a book/record store I used to work at once took a poll to see which embarassing song was more well-liked: “Wannabe” or “MmmmBop” (he saw Hanson’s potential early on, much like Jason; I thought the Spice Girls were hot, except for Sporty). The Spice Girls won by one vote, although Hanson fans were more passionate about the song.
9. It took about 30 listens to this song before I could hear Peter Cetera’s part–he only sings the bridge, right?
8. “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone” had me believing in the top 40 for the first time since the 80s–both haunting and catchy, with a vaguely dancy beat and brilliantly dry lyrics. Sadly, the rest of her work was total Lilith Fair. More embarrasing than the armpit hair, however, was her unfortunate proclivity to human beatbox during live events.
7. As with “Cowboys”, “Return of the Mack” had me listening to radio again–badass Brit soul. Even without the thug problem, this song is so great I doubt Morrison had another one in him.
4. Savage Garden, at the time, were thought to spearhead the first wave of 80s revival. I don’t think it’s very 80s-sounding, but I appreciate that, after a decade+1/2 of grunge and gangstas on the radio, that we could hear stupid pop songs like this and “Wannabe” and “MmmBop”. (I don’t begrudge the subsequent rise of the Backstreet Boys and N’sync, because I’ll take them over Collective Soul or Live any day.)
3. Yes–everything changes for the bad here. It seems like every rap song for the next decade samples an 80s song. Bring back the gangstas.
2. I second Jewel’s fab rack; always hated her music. I also have it from someone who knew her back in the day that much of her “lived in a van” mythology is exaggerated. I’ll never forgive her for writing “poetry”.
The “radio mix different from the album version in an era when we don’t really manufacture singles anymore” nonsense is one of the lesser-appreciated evidences of major labels’ disdain for their consumers. They did it to rig the Top 40–which, at the time, was still anachronistically based on singles sales–and to prolong crappy artists’ shelf life (I believe this is the reason why Shania Twain dominated the late 90s–I think all of her hit singles were remakes from her album, forcing “fans” to continually by hear work in different formats.)
1. Also an 80s rip: the uber-catchy chorus comes from Slick Rick/Doug E. Fresh’s “La Di Da Di”.
I wouldn’t mind the occasional Chart Attack from the 90s. It’s like watching devolution in action…
May 11th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Actually, I think "You Were Meant for Me" and "Foolish Games" were the only singles from Pieces of You that got re-recorded for radio. Either that or the difference between single and album version on "Who Will Save Your Soul" was so miniscule as to be undetectable.
May 11th, 2007 at 10:19 am
I worked in a record store at this time, so I grew to really loathe both Jewel and the Spice Girls as our main clientelle were tourists and 20/30-something office workers on their lunch break. And I’ll never forgive Ms Fab Rack for unleashing her poetry on the world either.
"Rise" by Herb Alpert is one of my favorite tracks…can’t wait to read the eventual post about it, Jason!
May 11th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Jason, I’m longing for the day that you review Sarah McLaughlan’s "I Will Remember You" (as featured on The Brothers McMullen soundtrack). I know people love her, but talk about switching from low, belty, brass-horn, man voice to genteel, baby voice. That song is one of the worst offenders! Ah- that felt good to write…. Oddly enough, I never thought about it in association with Jewel until now and you are right, she is totally guilty too! Particularly in the ‘Wizard of Oz’ concert she did with Jackson Browne and Natalie Cole.
May 11th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Personally, I think the Savage Garden song sounds uncannily like this promo McDonald’s song:
http://wayoutjunk.blogspot.com/2007/02/mcdonalds-1000000-menu-song-with-some.html
…which apparently is itself a parody of a terrible, terrible song called “Life Is A Rock (And The Radio Rolled Me)”. Further details await at the link, if you dare.
Yeep.
May 11th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Liar! Liar!! Jason, you lie!! Don’t tell me this chart just came strolling along and jumped you like a mugger. You went after this lump of awfulness with specific evilness in your heart. (I commend you.)
10. Wannabe – Spice Girls Generations from now, our great grandchildren will hear this song and know instinctively why we voted for Dubya, not once, but twice.
9. Hard To Say I’m Sorry – Az Yet Featuring Peter Cetera So you want to jumpstart your career by hitching a ride on the tail-end of a celebrity. Fine. You wouldn’t be the first. It may be advisable to network with someone everybody gives a damn about, though.
8. Where Have All the Cowboys Gone? – Paula Cole …running for the hills, probably, ’cause they knew you were doing that damn Dawson’s Creek Song next (and, consequently, funkin’ up the audience with streams of hairy pit-sweat).
7. Return Of The Mack – Mark Morrison Ah, Mark. A defense attorney’s worst nightmare. "Mark, you’ll never get past this if you insist on referring to the judge as ‘my bitch’".
6. MMMBop – Hanson Mmmm, shit.
5. For You I Will – Monica Never heard this song, so even though Monica got the worst of your wrath, she gets points from me out of sheer ignorance. Sometimes, it ain’t such a bad thing!
4. I Want You – Savage Garden I remember when this came out that Rosie O’Donnell had her own talkshow and she loved, loved, loved, loved this song. And that’s when I knew Savage Garden was gay.
3. Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down – Puff Daddy Featuring Ma$e "This is kind of where it all began for Diddy" = "This was where Typhoid Mary first passed the disease on to an unsuspecting public".
2. You Were Meant For Me – Jewel So I want to jumpstart my career by hitching a ride on the tail-end of Jewel Kilcher. Doesn’t make me a bad person, does it?
1. Hypnotize – The Notorious B.I.G. If I shout out "West Coast Reprazent!!", will I be shot at?
Jason, I miss the 70s and 80s, but never more than this week.
DwD
May 11th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Whenever I think Jewel, I’ll always think of two things. First, that she was absolutely adorable when she did MTV guest VJ duty, coming across as sweet, funny and self-effacing even while realizing that every guy between the ages of 12 and 112 was turning the physical picture into a vivid mental picture of his choosing. Second, the great Ana Gasteyer — "I lived in a van and it made me pretty!"
I sometimes wonder if there are two Jewels. The cute, fun one who sang Standing Still (forgotten and underrated) and the one who wrote the poetry. But I suppose there are a lot of similar dualities. There’s the playful Tori Amos, the one who wrote Happy Phantom and adds fantastic, flirtatious piano riffs to her live performances, and then there’s the Tori Amos who seems like she might turn into a succubus. There are the singer-songwriters like Jonatha Brooke and Aimee Mann who turn out one depressing, tragic song after another but have a terrific sense of humor. And they’re both happily married, as is (and has been for a very long time) the Cure’s Robert Smith. Go figure.
Who the hell is Mark Morrison?
I can’t take Paula Cole seriously. Anyone who has that much underarm hair and sings "say a little prayer for I" has little concept of life outside a Wellesley English class.
I always wanted to hear more from Hanson. Obvious talent, good attitude.
May 11th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Off topic:
Eli,
You’re taking me way back — I haven’t thought of “Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)” in a long time.
Terrible x two? That may be a bit harsh. It’s lightweight, but it’s also incredibly goofy and catchy. ( Plus, it takes me back to my Junior High School days :-)
Those of you who are not familiar with the song can give a listen to it here:
http://www.bubblegum-machine.com/week82.html
Which, by the way, is a great site.
May 12th, 2007 at 12:21 am
The only good thing about radio on 5/10/97 was the off switch.
(Though I will confess to serenading my then-girlfriend with Jewel’s “You Were Meant For Me,” playing the opening verse with my band before launching into Bad Company’s “Feel Like Makin’ Love.” We’re ten years married now. Huzzah!)
May 12th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Love, LOVE, Return of the Mack. 1997 was our second year of college and one of my roommates was obsessed with this song, particularly the way Morrisson seemed to be commentating on the backing vocal in the chorus (re-TURN of the mack (There it is!) re-TURN of the mack (Oh my god!))
Hate, HATE, Savage Garden. If Savage Garden was in a room with Journey and I could only kill one group…well, I’d still kill Journey, but I’d THINK about it for at least, three seconds, and I’d totally punch the Savage Garden singer in the junk.
I cannot wait for you to cover Rise on MG. You should do a whole feature highlighting where hip hop samples come from.
May 12th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
BD, let’s go get a beer. I like the way you think.
I am a Hanson fan, and I’ll tell you why. Any band capable of dragging MTV (not kicking and screaming, but whining and unbathed) from the doldrums of GRUNGE and “Modern Rock” as a genre, is ay-okay with me. They were bubblegummy, but, like you said, they knew it. And they are solid musicians, and more or less upstanding dudes from what I can tell.
Just thinking about Jewel’s breaking egg yolks and making a smiley face makes me want to hurl. And that babydoll voice is even worse than the lyric. Let’s not even get into the future firehose-shooting-between-her-legs video, and her lies about how she intended for it to be satire.
Paula Cole. Have you checked her out lately? She’s somewhere back in her “authentic culture” of the eastern US, thinking too much. http://www.paulacole.com/ (I can dig someone ditching the shallow L.A. basin, but come ON.) In any event, her bad grammar, yucky man-hating outlook and haughty attitude embarrassed me in 1997. And it always bugged me that the doo-doot, d-doo-doot seems like a direct ripoff of Sarah Mac’s “Plenty” off her first album. Yeah I know they’re Lilith Faire buddies. That’s strike number six. And remember what Pop Up Video said about the crew during the video for this week’s song? They said she was so sexually charged that several crew members became aroused. Lord have mercy, gag me right down the street.
The only thing that comes to mind about Savage Garden is the way Rosie O’Donnell used to gush about them. This was way back in the Before Times, when she had her own afternoon talk show and was called The Queen of Nice.
May 13th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Two things:
I prefer wannabe to mmmbop, but I guess the satisfaction you get from either one of them is the same.
Az yet’s Last Night is a really beautiful ballad
May 13th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
I will help you defend Hanson. I loved that song, probably because I didn’t listen to a lot of radio during this time, so I had no idea it was overplayed. It’s a great pop song. Wannabe on the other hand, I heard it once and that’s all I needed to realize it was crap.
May 14th, 2007 at 9:48 am
I loathe Jewel. One of my closest friends saw her open for Nine Inch Nails (!) when she was just getting started for the first album. (Gotta love those completely idiotic industry gigs put together by the labels to help promote multiple acts on their roster, regardless of stylistic compatibility.) Needless to say she was booed off the stage by the NIN fans.
And "Rise" is one of my favorite tracks-I look forward to the eventual Mellow Gold posting about it, Jason!
May 14th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Michael – Oh. My. Goodness. 1997 was my second year in college too and I swear to you, the same scenario with the backing vocals went on in my dorm between me and a girl down the hall. I’d sing it before we went downstairs to play tennis. (I stink at tennis, but it got me pumped up to stink! Not stink like Paula Cole though, the figurative "stink.") So funny that you should write that. Thanks for the memory. It’s better knowing someone else has a similar one! (J – you were absolutely right about the "yo lied ta may"! – I sang that part. :-)
May 14th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
For a Top 10 no one seemed to like very much, the comments in general are much longer this week. The ladies and gents doth protest too much!
The Spice Girls’ first album, "Spice," is pretty good. I heard it for the first time three years ago and was surprised how many decent songs are on it. I’d always liked "Say You’ll Be There," but "Wannabe" was suddenly good now that it wasn’t being shoved down my throat, and there were several non-singles that I liked as well. I even told a classmate at the time that I liked "Spice" and she said, "Are you trying to be funny? Because if you are, I’ll be mad. I LOVE that album."
I didn’t realize that cover of "Hard to Say I’m Sorry" was from ’97. Or maybe the "You’re the Inspiration" cover is the one that I heard on nighttime radio call-in shows like "Delilah" over and over again around 2000. Either way, those covers have been tossed onto the same pile in my brain as All-4-One’s "I Swear" and the country cover of that song, which was performed by … ah, who gives a shit.
Thank you, BD, for mentioning Paula Cole’s "say a little prayer for I" lyric in "I Don’t Want to Wait." Did anyone mention that line over at Jefitoblog last weekend in his round-up of bad lyrics? It’s a line you’d miss if you weren’t listening closely, and I’m sure that’s what Paula was counting, but still … (Should I mention here that I became obsessed with "Dawson’s Creek" in syndication a couple of years ago? It’s terrible and brilliant all at once.)
I don’t remember "Return of the Mack," but it (obviously) wasn’t played on the adult-contemporary station we listened to at the UGA Library in 1997, and that was my only exposure to the radio in those days for the most part. Now that I’ve heard it, I dig it.
I didn’t like "MMMBop" at the time. Maybe I’d like it more now. (All I remember of it is the chorus.) But I do think Hanson still deserves respect.
"I Want You" hasn’t gotten better with age or my nostalgia for my junior year of college. Savage Garden was the Air Supply of the ’90s in a way — two Australian guys singing songs about heterosexual love even though at least one of them isn’t really into that sort of thing. A guy who directed a sketch show I was in two years ago LOVED Savage Garden and wanted to score one silent sketch with "I Want You." Eventually he went with Steve Winwood’s "Higher Love," thank goodness. But I don’t begrudge him his love for Savage Garden. Wave that freak flag high, sir.
I seem to remember the problem people had with Puff Daddy’s sampling back in ’97 was that it was too easy. Sampling had progressed quite a bit since "Rapper’s Delight" in 1979, but Puff Daddy seemed to want it to regress: a chunk of "I’m Coming Out" or "Let’s Dance" played throughout the entirety of the song was good enough for him. It almost seemed like he was thumbing through Top 10 lists from the ’80s, just like the ones we’ve seen on this site, and saying "Ooh, everybody remembers this song! Perfect. My homework is done." Has anyone else here heard Chris Rock’s "Champagne," a 1997 parody of Puff Daddy productions? He makes a good point — back in the ’70s the Isley Brothers weren’t singing "T-Neck in the motherfuckin’ house" the way Puff Daddy keeps reminding you he runs Bad Boy. Why? "BECAUSE NOBODY GAVE A FUCK."
May 15th, 2007 at 10:27 am
I was too busy listening to Stravinsky and Reich for school and Jonatha Brooke at this time to be bothered with the Top 10.
But one morning, the radio station on my alarm started Jewel’s “You Were Meant For Me” right when it went off so I decided to give it a chance. I listened to the whole thing, something I will never do again. I believe I started yelling something like, “What? She’s writing about making fucking breakfast? Breakfast?! If this girl made me pancakes and whined at me like this, I’d leave her too. Stupid pajamas! Stupid song! Now I’m hungry!”
My roommate just laughed hysterically. She was used to this sort of thing, I guess. I did have a parody version but it’s long been erased from my memory. Oh, it was “You Were Meant To Eat” or something, trying to keep the food theme. It’s been a while.
God, I hate that song.
May 15th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Ah, Goon Hanson. It’s been a while since I thought of him.
Fun game to play: Goon Hanson or Chlelsea Clinton?
http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Events/0482-jac/hanson_5
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1350000/images/_1352408_chelsea_two_pa_150.jpg
http://lonewacko.com/images/chelsea-clinton.jpg
http://www.imdb.com/gallery/granitz/1069/Events/1069/hanson4?path=pgallery&path_key=Hanson,%20Isaac