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psychicdeath

Member
Jan 21, 2015
955
1,521
Dave's Song of the Day

Barbie Girl – Aqua

Friday song of the day: Today’s song was inspired by an exhibit of kitsch culture that included dolls.



In 1997 the Danish group Aqua released their first album, Aquarium. Included was a song that made a statement about Barbie and other children’s toys encouraging sexist roles. Members of the band had seen a display in Denmark that included various Barbie dolls and wrote a song about how sexist and vapid they were. The song, Barbie Girl, was bouncy Eurodisco, but the lyrics played up Barbie’s blatant sexualization and subservience.

Barbie Girl was the third single from the album and ended up being a huge hit. It sold over 8 million copies and was #1 in numerous countries, especially in Europe. I happened to be in Germany at the time and you just could not escape hearing that song everywhere. In the United States it was not quite the phenomenon it was in Europe, but the song still did very well, reaching #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Aqua remained popular in several European countries – especially their native Denmark – for several years, but soon fizzled in the United States after the novelty wore off. Other than Lollipop (Candyman) the now mostly forgotten follow-up to Barbie Girl placing at #23 on the Hot 100, the group has not had another US hit since.


View: https://youtu.be/ZyhrYis509A


Tomorrow: Standing in the sunlight laughing
 

SongExotic2

ATM 3 CHAMPION OF THE WORLD. #FREECAIN
First 100
Jan 16, 2015
39,772
53,672
I diddnt see this until now, years for fears reminds me of a buddy of mine, gringo, I replaced him on sqn (hilarious coincidence they replaced a white Mexican with another? ) 2 years later we were back on a training sqn and holy fuck it was funny. We are both what u call "social hand grenades" and wound up working and hanging out together. We would listen to all the tears for fears and shit like this and get hammered, then go down to the bowling alley on base and play it all again on the jukebox there.

He knocked some tart up and had to go to basket weaving class in the end. Fucken gringo ha, what a legend.
 

psychicdeath

Member
Jan 21, 2015
955
1,521
Dave's Song of the Day

Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison

Saturday song of the day: Today’s song was originally about interracial love.




In 1967, Van Morrison was beginning a solo career after leaving the group Them, who had had a big hit with the song Gloria. One of the songs he wrote for his first album was Brown Skinned Girl, about a relationship with a girl of a different race. When recording the song, however, he changed it to Brown Eyed Girl, and the racial element became much less obvious.

Brown Eyed Girl was released as a single in June 1967, a few months before the album Blowin’ Your Mind was released. Some stations refused to play the song because of the line “making love in the green grass.” This led the record company to release a censored version, with the offending line replaced with a repeat of the line “laughin’ and a-runnin’” from an earlier verse. The censored version is rarely played these days.

Brown Eyed Girl was a big hit for Morrison and established his solo career. It placed at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has since become a classic, placing on numerous lists of the top songs of all time. It has been covered over 100 times by other artists, including Bob Dylan, Adele, U2, Johnny Rivers, and Bruce Springsteen.


View: https://youtu.be/UfmkgQRmmeE


Tomorrow: Roundin’ third he was headed for home
 

psychicdeath

Member
Jan 21, 2015
955
1,521
Dave's Song of the Day

Brown-Eyed Handsome Man – Chuck Berry and his Combo

Sunday song of the day: Like yesterday’s song, today’s song is about race.




While Van Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl was changed from its original title of Brown-Skinned Girl and lost much of its racial component, Chuck Berry intended Brown Eyed Handsome Man to be only slightly ambiguously about race. While the lyrics might go over the heads of some naïve teenagers, most would know that Berry was talking about minorities.

Berry recorded the song in April 1956, and it was released that September as the B-side of Too Much Monkey Business. The A-side of the single placed at #4 on the Billboard R&B chart, and despite Brown Eyed Handsome Man being only the B-side it has become one of Berry’s signature songs over the years.

It was billed as performed by Chuck Berry and his Combo, but in reality, the backing music was performed by musicians available at Chess Records at the time rather than a formal band. Musicians included Johnnie Johnson on piano, Willie Dixon on bass, L.C. Davis on saxophone, and Fred Below on drums. Chuck Berry himself provided the guitar, of course.

The song’s verses place the concept of a brown-eyed handsome man in various situations, including a courtroom, ancient history and a baseball game. The baseball verse was inspired by Jackie Robinson, who had broken the color barrier in the major leagues only a few years earlier.


View: https://youtu.be/ZBJoKSpPsxg


Tomorrow: Anyone can understand the way I feel
 

psychicdeath

Member
Jan 21, 2015
955
1,521
Dave's Song of the Day

Centerfield – John Fogerty


Monday song of the day: Today’s song borrows a line from yesterday’s song.




After leaving Creedence Clearwater Revival and releasing two solo albums in the 1970s, John Fogerty was embroiled in a legal dispute with his old label for close to ten years. During this time he did not record. Once he was ready for a comeback, his first album was 1985’s Centerfield.

The title song was an ode to baseball, and featured references to the poem “Casey at the Bat”; famous centerfielders Ty Cobb, Willie Mays, and Joe DiMaggio; and Chuck Berry’s Brown Eyed Handsome Man. In Berry’s song, he used the lyric “Roundin’ third, he was headed for home, it was a brown-eyed handsome man.” In Centerfield, Fogerty used the very similar “A-roundin’ third, and headed for home, it’s a brown-eyed handsome man” as an homage to the Chuck Berry classic.

Centerfield was released as the B-side of the Rock and Roll Girls single in March 1985. [Note: Rock and Roll Girls was Song of the Day on September 30th, 2019 here: Rock and Roll Girls – John Fogerty ] The record turned out to be a single where both the A and B-sides were charted hits. After Rock and Roll Girls had its run and placed at #20 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April, Centerfield became popular and peaked at #44 on the Hot 100 in June.

While only a #44 hit, Centerfield has had an enduring legacy. It has been played at many ballparks over the years, and in 2010 it became the first song ever inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Just a few days ago, Thursday May 28th was John Fogerty’s 75th birthday, and he played Centerfield at Dodger Stadium to celebrate. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, it was at an empty stadium instead of for a gameday crowd.


View: https://youtu.be/GlHecxZV42g


John Fogerty performing at Dodger Stadium, 28 May 2020


View: https://youtu.be/s94GcyEL2K4


Tomorrow: Free of any made-to-order liabilities
 

psychicdeath

Member
Jan 21, 2015
955
1,521
Dave's Song of the Day

Endicott – Kid Creole & the Coconuts

Tuesday song of the day: Today’s song is about not wanting to live the normal life.




Thomas August Darnell Browder, who went by the stage name August Darnell, was in a band with his brother in the mid-1970s. That band, Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, had a gold record and a Grammy nomination. In 1980, he left to form his own band, Kid Creole & the Coconuts. Like the earlier project, Kid Creole was influenced by big band, Latin, and Swing music.

One of their more familiar songs was Endicott, the story of a bit of a scoundrel who disliked being compared to his strait-laced neighbor Endicott. The singer decides that he prefers to be free and chooses to continue his bad-boy lifestyle instead of doing what society expects.

Endicott was the second single from the 1985 album In Praise of Older Women and Other Crimes. It reached #21 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, but did not hit the overall Hot 100 chart. It was more popular overseas, though, particularly in France and the Netherlands. While they have never had a significant hit, Kid Creole &the Coconuts continue to tour today.


View: https://youtu.be/vdk32Mackgk


Tomorrow: Like a small earthquake
 

psychicdeath

Member
Jan 21, 2015
955
1,521
Dave's Song of the Day

Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show – Neil Diamond

Wednesday song of the day: Today’s song was inspired by the singer visiting a revival show out of curiosity while in college.




Neil Diamond released his fourth album, Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show, in April 1969. As was the custom, the album’s first single was released a few months earlier, in January 1969, in the hopes that it would be a hit and increase demand for the forthcoming album. That single was the title track and told the story of a gospel service held in a tent, which was common in the South. Diamond got the idea earlier when he was in Mississippi and attended a revival to see what it was all about.

As he explained it, “This song was written about a revival meeting I was at in Jackson, Mississippi. I went there because I was curious, and also because I was a college kid who had all the answers – no one was going to teach me anything and I could lay a few answers on them. I sat in the back of this tent meeting and I got really caught up in the music – clapping, the singing – tremendously exciting. After a while I felt something about the people – there was a tremendous yearning, looking for answers. Trying to ease a very hard burden of very rough lives. After a while the music stopped and a preacher walked out. I remember thinking that all the education I had, all the books, all the words, all the learning I went through at college didn’t mean anything to these people, I had nothing for them. So I found myself pulling for this man who was about to give them something that I couldn’t even begin to give them.”

Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show was a moderate hit, peaking at #22 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, but has become a staple of Neil Diamond’s live shows and opened him up to writing character-driven songs instead of just introspective personal stories.


View: https://youtu.be/6pCxPNuokfM


Tomorrow: Disappointment was my closest friend