2000s – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

U2 – Vertigo

Uno, dos, tres, catorce

I remember seeing this in commercials before I heard the song…I knew times were changing. It had been a little while at that time since I really liked a new U2 song…this one I really did.

The song peaked at #31 in the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, #1 in the UK, and #5 in New Zealand in 2004. It was on the album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and it peaked at #1 in the Billboard Album Charts, Canada, The UK, and New Zealand.

This won three Grammy Awards: Best Rock Song, Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal and Best Short Form Music Video.

Adam Clayton: “Bono and Edge rewrote it when we started work with Steve Lillywhite. The bass and drums have a little bit of Echo & the Bunnymen in there – a nice wink to where we came from.”

From Songfacts

Vertigo is a sensation of dizziness or a feeling of disorientation. It can be a serious medical condition, but in the context of this song, it seems to be about opening your mind and looking at things in a different way.

This was used in commercials as part of a big promotional deal with Apple. The commercials, where many people first heard the song, promoted Apple’s iPod. Apple also released a special-edition iPod with the signatures of the band members engraved on the back, and made the entire U2 catalog along with special bonus tracks available for download at iTunes for $150.

U2 made many high-profile appearances to promote the album, including performances on Saturday Night Live and the Grammy Awards. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, U2 often stayed away from these kind of appearances to avoid the feeling of commercialism, but by the 2000s, it became clear that these appearances were crucial if U2 was going to continue selling millions of albums and fill arenas.

This song is notorious for its intro, in which Bono says “Uno, dos, tres, catorce,” which is “1, 2, 3, 14” in Spanish. One theory is that Bono was directing listeners to The Bible: 1st Testament, 2nd Book, 3rd Chapter, 14th verse – “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” Another theory is that he did it because How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb was U2’s 14th album.

Vertigo is the name of a popular 1958 movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

U2 played this when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.

This song was ruthlessly parodied on the South Park episode “More Crap.” The plot of the episode revolved around the character Randy Marsh breaking the world record for largest piece of crap, which was previously held by Bono. Bono is featured throughout the episode trying to beat, and then preserve this record. Almost everywhere he goes (including poor nations in Africa) he sings run around pointing and singing his “yeah, yeah, yeah” outro of “Vertigo.” He also answers his cell phone with the “Hello, hello” part of the chorus. >>

This was originally called “Native Son” and had a very different feel. Adam Clayton explained to Q Magazine November 2004:

Adam Clayton said of this album: “It’s very much a guitar record, ‘Vertigo,’ ‘Love and Peace,’ ‘City of Blinding Lights,’ ‘All Because of You’ – all pretty up, rocky tunes. A lot of them are a kick-back to our very early days, so it’s like with each year we have gathered a little bit more and this is what we are now.”

Vertigo

Unos, dos, tres, catorce
Turn it up loud, captain

Lights go down, it’s dark
The jungle is your head, can’t rule your heart
A feeling’s so much stronger than a thought
Your eyes are wide and though your soul, it can’t be bought
Your mind can wander

Hello, hello (hola)
I’m at a place called Vertigo (¿dónde está?)
It’s everything I wish I didn’t know
Except you give me something
I can feel, feel

The night is full of holes
‘Cause bullets rip the sky of ink with gold
They twinkle as the boys play rock and roll
They know that they can’t dance, at least they know
I can’t stand the beat, I’m asking for the check
Girl with crimson nails has Jesus around her neck
Swinging to the music, swinging to the music (whoa, whoa)
(Whoa, whoa, whoa)

Hello, hello (hola)
I’m at a place called Vertigo (¿dónde está?)
It’s everything I wish I didn’t know
But you give me something
I can feel, feel

Checkmate
Jazz funk
Show made it in, yeah

All of this, all of this can be yours
All of this, all of this can be yours
All of this, all of this can be yours
Just give me what I want and no one gets hurt

Hello, hello (hola)
We’re at a place called Vertigo (¿dónde está?)
Lights go down, and all I know
Is that you give me something
I can feel your love teaching me how
Your love is teaching me how
How to kneel
Kneel

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Peter Green (1946-2020)

Peter Green has passed away at age 73. I’ve been listening to that version of Fleetwood Mac a lot lately and he was a great guitar player and songwriter.

https://www.nme.com/news/music/fleetwood-mac-co-founder-peter-green-died-2715066

Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green has died at the age of 73.

His family have confirmed his death in a statement released by solicitors Swan Turton, who are acting on their behalf.

“It is with great sadness that the family of Peter Green announce his death this weekend, peacefully in his sleep,” the statement read. “A further statement will be provided in the coming days.”

The guitarist was born in London on October 29, 1946. He played in several bands after beginning to play professionally at the age of 15, including Bobby Dennis And The Dominoes, and The Muskrats.

In 1965, he met drummer Mick Fleetwood while a member of Peter B’s Looners, with whom he would go on to form Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac alongside guitarist Jeremy Spencer. John McVie later replaced Bob Brunning on bass and the band released their self-titled debut album in February 1968.

Mad and Cracked Magazine…a quick look

To those that it applies…Happy Independence Day! I’ll have a couple of songs coming up related to Independence Day.

I never got into comic books like Marvel or DC…I would save up my allowance for Cracked and Mad magazine…and records of course. Mad Magazine was by far the most popular out of all of the satire comic magazines. William Gaines was the publisher of Mad magazine and was brilliant.

1952 – Present…now you an only get Mad from Comic Book Shops or order it. The new editions consist of mostly material from their archive.

Cracked was known as the poor man’s Mad but I still liked it and the magazines shared some writers and artists through the years. I bought my first Cracked Magazine when Mad was sold out but I never missed an issue after that.

1958-2007 Now the name is alive on a website but no longer a comic.

Alfred E Newman and Sylvester P. Smythe

Don Martin was my favorite artist. He was one of Mad’s most famous artists. He was there from 1956 to 1988. He was known as “Mads Maddest Artist” and then moved to Cracked and was jokingly known as “Cracked’s Crackedest Artist.”

Fellow Cracked artist Dan Clowes: “As far as I could tell, he was happy, don’t think he ever seemed to notice that Mad was respected, whereas Cracked was loathed.”

The Like – I Can See It In Your Eyes —-Powerpop Friday

I featured this band a few months ago. Elizabeth Anne “Z” Berg the singer and guitarist wrote this song. It’s on the album Release Me which was released in 2010.

The band has some cool power pop songs. They were formed in Los Angeles in 2001 and unfortunately have been on an indefinite hiatus since 2013.

The Like’s lineup consisted of Z Berg (vocals and guitar), Tennessee Thomas (drums), Laena Geronimo (bass), and Annie Monroe (organ). The band released three extended plays (EPs) and two studio albums.

Their influences were The Kinks, Beatles, Dylan, Motown, and The Who. Also the Motown sound of the 60s.

Now the lead singer “Z Berg” is fronting a band called the Phases.

Z Berg interview in 2005: We timed this band perfectly so we’d never have to get a job. We started the band when we were all 15, and once we started, we were in school for the next three years and worked on the band during the summer and weekends. There was no real way to argue with it because we were playing shows, touring, and working a lot. So the worse day job I’ve ever had is being in a band, which is pretty lucky so far.

I Can See It In Your Eyes

Knock knock knock, you’re knocking
On my window last night
This fire’s been out for some time
You told me it was over with her
That’s not quite right
You said I was your life
So be min, so be mineThings are rough enough
Won’t you toughen up
Please just make up your mind
How could I be so blindI can see it in your eyes
I can see it in your eyes
When you lie
I see it in your eyesYou’ll never leave her will you, baby? I understand
You’ll never grow up, or be a man
And I’d wait a thousand years for you
But this I demand
Just tell me where I stand
Take my hand, I know you canShe keeps calling me
I can’t take it
She thinks I’m really her friend
I think we’re near in the endI can see it in your eyes
I can see it in your eyes
When you lie
I see it in your eyes

So crooked mouths speak crooked words
That ruin you for other girls
I don’t know how to conjugate a lie
My crooked eyes have crooked tears,
You turned the tables on me, dear
I was so shocked I couldn’t even cry

I can see it in your eyes
Yes, I see it in your eyes
When you lie
I see it in your eyes
Yeah, I see it in your eyes
I can see it in your eyes

Ken Osmond (Eddie Haskell) 1943-2020

Ken Osmond who portrayed Eddie Haskell on “Leave It To Beaver” has passed away at age 76. I grew up watching this show after school in syndication in the late 70s.

After watching it again as an adult…I see that it was a well-written show from a child’s point of view. Ken Osmond played Eddie Haskell…who was the pot-stirrer on the show and he was needed. He kept it from becoming too sweet…plus we all know an Eddie Haskell or two.

RIP Ken Osmond.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ken-osmond-dead-mischievous-eddie-haskell-leave-it-beaver-was-76-1246683

Tom Petty – Mary Jane’s Last Dance

I like the rawness of the song and the lyrics are fun. Tom was making his second solo album Wildflowers but the record company wanted a couple of tracks to go on the greatest hits album. Mary Jane’s Last Dance is one of Tom’s most successful songs. This would be the last song Stan Lynch played drums on for the Heartbreakers.

To tell you the truth…I always thought the title was Last Dance of Mary Jane.

Petty made some strange videos, and this was no exception. Tom played a mortician who takes home a corpse played by Kim Basinger. When he gets her home, he puts her in a wedding dress and dances with her. Then he puts her in a pickup truck and throws her into the ocean, and she opens her eyes as she sinks. It won Best Male Video at the MTV Video Music Awards.

The song was released as part of the band’s 1993 Greatest Hits compilation The song peaked at #14 in the Billboard 100, #5 in Canada, and #52 in the UK in 1994.

Kim Bassinger: Now that was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life. It was classic, wasn’t it? He was a doll, and he was so sweet and asked me to do it, and both of us are extremely shy so we just said three words to each other the whole time. I’ll never forget how heavy that dress was! And I had to be dead the whole time. You know, it’s really one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, because I had to be completely weightless to be in his arms the way I was. It won all those awards, and the kids love it even today!

Mike Campbell : “That song took on a few shapes. It was written in my garage. I didn’t write it, but we were jamming in the garage and Tom was playing one of my guitars. It was called ‘Indiana Girl,’ the first chorus was ‘Hey, Indiana Girl, go out and find the world.’ We liked the song and Rick Rubin suggested we cut it. It had actually been around for a while, just the basic riff and that chorus. We cut the song and Tom was singing the chorus, and he decided he just couldn’t get behind singing about ‘Hey, Indiana Girl,’ so we went back and about a week later he came in and said ‘I’ve got a better idea,’ so he changed the chorus to ‘Last dance with Mary Jane.’ In the verse there is still the thing about an Indiana girl on an Indiana night, just when it gets to the chorus he had the presence of mind to give it a deeper meaning.”

Songfacts

Petty has not said what this is about, but there are two common interpretations. It could be about Petty’s divorce from his wife Jane, which happened a year before this was recorded. Another possibility is that it is about marijuana, as “Mary Jane” is slang for pot and the lyrics refer to killing the pain, which the drug is known for. Campbell offered this explanation: “My take on it is it can be whatever you want it to be. A lot of people think it’s a drug reference, and if that’s what you want to think, it very well could be, but it could also just be a goodbye love song.”

The clip was directed by Keir McFarlane, who later did Sheryl Crow’s “If It Makes You Happy.” If Petty seems strangely comfortable in the role of mortician, it might be because he used to be a gravedigger.

Basinger was not the first choice for the video. Petty wanted Sharon Stone, but she didn’t answer his request. Petty wanted a raving beauty to play the corpse so it would make sense why his character keeps her around.

Petty played the guitar solo at the end after Campbell persuaded him to do it. Mike is known as an outstanding guitarist, but he thought Tom had a good sound going, so he told him to play a fuzzy sort of guitar solo. Says Mike, “He actually played a nice little bit at the end of that.”

Campbell: “An interesting thing about that record, the same day we did the last overdubs, that guitar and a few little bits, we did a rough mix here at my house, just did it by hand. Then we went to 3 or 4 different studios over the next couple of weeks and tried to do a proper mix, and we could never beat that rough mix, so that was the mix we put out. It’s an interesting track, it’s very inaccurate, it’s kind of greasy and loose. That day we just gelled and every time we mixed it we could clean up the sound and make it more posh, but it just didn’t have the juice that one mix had.” (Read more in our interview with Mike Campbell.)

In 2006, The Red Hot Chili Peppers released “Dani California,” which sounded very similar to this and was also produced by Rick Rubin. Petty showed no interest in suing the band, as they felt it was not malicious. The first eight bars of both songs sound similar, but the chords are different. In this song, the chords are “Am, G, D, Am” and in “Dani California,” the chords are “Am, G, Dm, Am.” Both of these chord progressions are very common in rock music. >>

Petty told Mojo magazine January 2010 that Mary Jane is the same character as the female in “American Girl,” “with a few hard knocks.

Mary Jane’s Last Dance

She grew up in an Indiana town
Had a good lookin’ momma who never was around
But she grew up tall and she grew up right
With them Indiana boys on an Indiana night

Well she moved down here at the age of eighteen
She blew the boys away, it was more than they’d seen
I was introduced and we both started groovin’
She said, “I dig you baby but I got to keep movin’…on, keep movin’ on”

Last dance with Mary Jane
One more time to kill the pain
I feel summer creepin’ in and I’m
Tired of this town again

Well I don’t know what I’ve been told
You never slow down, you never grow old
I’m tired of screwing up, I’m tired of goin’ down
I’m tired of myself, I’m tired of this town
Oh my my, oh hell yes
Honey put on that party dress
Buy me a drink, sing me a song,
Take me as I come ’cause I can’t stay long

Last dance with Mary Jane
One more time to kill the pain
I feel summer creepin’ in and I’m
Tired of this town again

There’s pigeons down in Market Square
She’s standin’ in her underwear
Lookin’ down from a hotel room
Nightfall will be comin’ soon
Oh my my, oh hell yes
You’ve got to put on that party dress
It was too cold to cry when I woke up alone
I hit the last number, I walked to the road

Last dance with Mary Jane
One more time to kill the pain
I feel summer creepin’ in and I’m
Tired of this town again

Columbo

I remember Columbo well when I was a kid but I never watched it much…until the lockdown that we all are going through. Now I know why this show was popular. A detective show that shows you “who done it” before you are into it for 10 minutes. You get enjoyment out of seeing how Columbo can find the killer. Back in the early seventies…Columbo was one of the most popular characters on television.

Peter Falk played Columbo for 35 years and in five different decades (1968-2003) counting the pilots. He looked like a walking unmade bed but was brilliant at solving cases. He would pester his suspect to death…very polite with “I’m sorry” and the main phrase as he was walking away…”There’s just one more thing.” that is followed by “There’s something that bothers me” and so on.

The killer would end up confessing or probably wanting to beg for jail simply to escape him.

The show lasted for 69 episodes. Each episode was over an hour long. It was part of The NBC Mystery Movie program that worked on a rotating basis – one per month from each of its shows. The shows were McMillian and Wife, McCloud, Hec Ramsey, and Columbo. Columbo was taken off the air in the late seventies but came back on the air in the eighties.

Falk had to wear a glass eye because his eye was taken out because of a tumor when he was 3 years old. That made Columbo’s trademark squint. He wore his raincoat and later on had a basset hound. Stories of his wife were always at hand all the while studying his suspect to see if they would slip.

Falk really made that role. If you get a chance to see it…try it. The stories are interesting and you will see some stars you might have forgotten about.

Falk died on June 23, 2011, aged 83.

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Janglin’

Alex Ebert and Jade Castrinos starting this hippie type band in 2007. The consisted of 10-12 members at once. They tried to have a so-called campfire feel. If a musician messed up that was alright. Musicians would drop and reappear on a tour. They had one song that got a ton of airplay called Home in 2010.

This song resembles Instant Karma by John Lennon.

Janglin’ was used in commercials and it spiked its popularity in 2010.

In 2014, the band parted ways with Jade Castrinos, changing the dynamic of the band considerably…she and Ebert had broken up.

The band is named after a character from a novel Ebert was writing – Edward Sharpe is an otherworldly figure who comes to Earth to offer enlightenment to the masses, but finds himself getting distracted by the beautiful women.

Most listeners who weren’t buying this hippie vibe agreed that it was convincing, and even after they found an audience with this song, Ebert stayed steady to his creed, often blurring the lines between Edward Sharpe and his true self.

Janglin’

Well our mama’s they left us
And our daddy’s took a ride
And we walked out of the castle
And we held our head up high
Well we once were the Jesters
In your Kingdom by the sea
And now we’re out to be the masters
For to set our spirits free – set free

[Chorus]
We Want to feel ya!
We don’t mean to kill ya!
We come back to Heal ya – Janglin soul
Edward and the Magnetic Zeros

Well your wartime is Funny
Your guns don’t bother me
I said we’re out to prove the truth of
The man from Galilei
Well your laws are for Dummies, yes
Your institutions dead
I say we’re out to blow the trumpet
To wake you all from bed – from bed

[Chorus]

We carry the mail
We carry it home
We carry the Mail now
We carry it home
Scare up your Letters
Give us your Tails
Blowing like Whale now to
Magnetic Ears
WOW!

Quick Martha Update part 2

We got her October the 4th and she was 7 months old March 18, 2020. She is like a teenager right now….a big body with a toddler’s mind. She loves grabbing a shoe…not both but one…taking off with it. Many mornings I’ve had to search for my other shoe because of her shenanigans. She is getting much better about chewing…she doesn’t do it much if any now.

She wants to play 24 hours a day though. Our other Saints were much calmer when they were her age but she is starting to slowly calm down just a little bit. Sometimes though when she is full of energy you brace yourself and get ready for the adventure. She still has a lot of growing to do and so far so good.

I will update again when she is a year old.

Martha at 2 months old…Oct 4

Martha at 3 Months old

Martha at 4 Months old

Martha at 7 months and 8 days in our driveway…March 26, 2020

World Upside Down

Well, this post isn’t about pop culture…but come to think of it… in time, this will be part of it. In years to come, anniversary articles of the coronavirus of 2020 will be posted. We are living in a time that will be in history books one day.

You sure learn a lot about human nature in times like this. Go into a grocery store and if someone coughs… it’s like the old EF Hutton commercials…everyone stops and looks. In the south where I live…I can see people wanting to be nice and expressive…but they stop themselves and move on. It’s like we are living in a TV Movie of the Week right now.

Who would think that going shopping would take a tactical military movement? I guess at this time we do have future pop-culture items like Lysol, wipes, and toilet paper (if you’re lucky) that will remind us of the spring of 2020…hopefully the memory will stop there.

We have learned… Don’t touch your face (that can be hard), be sure to cough in the bend of your arm… not your hand (really hard), and you need to wash your hands before you…do anything…we are learning all sorts of new things.

How long will this go on? Will we learn to appreciate things? Like going to a movie, baseball game, concert, or even a…I don’t know…a simple trip to a store without avoiding everyone.

This is allergy season for some people like me. Itchy eyes, runny nose, sore throat equals instant paranoia…hmmm is this a symptom? Is that a symptom? This makes you long for the old days… uh…about 3 weeks ago. Traveling without a worry. When this ends…what is the first thing you will do?

Right now…I’m breaking out my 1970s tv shows, movies, books, music, and…washing my hands.

I’ll leave you with the Steelers – Cowboys Superbowl from 1979… Why? Because it was one of the great Superbowls and just to see people gathered together again without that other phrase we have learned… social distancing.

Tornadoes in Nashville

I was driving to work this morning oblivious to the world around me listening to an audiobook. I got a call from the Mother In Law asking if I was ok. I was confused but she then told me about tornadoes on the ground in Nashville last night.

I live around 20 miles outside of Nashville in a small county. We had bad weather last night but nothing like that. I started to run into traffic and I saw huge tree branches on the interstate.

I got to work this morning and found out they touched down around 2-3 miles from where I work. I’ve seen a few buildings destroyed and it is heartbreaking to witness this. Over 40,000 are out of power and right now the death toll is 22 on the last report that I heard. In 1998 a tornado went through downtown Nashville.

This is the worst damage Nashville has had since the 2010 flood.

Where is…The original Death Star model from Star Wars now?

It’s unbelievable how close this famous movie prop came to being lost.

The model used in the film along with some other props were thought to be garbage after the movie finished filming.

Many of the props were kept in a facility called Dollar Moving and Storage. The storage unit was rented by the studio and upon completion of postproduction, the studio decided they no longer wanted to pay rent and ordered everything in storage to be discarded. An employee named Doug W. rescued many of the props from the garbage including the Death Star. In a world before ebay…who knows what was lost.

Doug displayed the Death Star in his home in California for about a decade. Around 1988, Doug moved to Missouri and stored the Death Star at his mother’s antique shop (Sutter’s Mill Antiques, later renamed The Mexican Hillbilly) in Missouri.

Todd Franklin, a Star Wars collector living in the area, drove by the antique shop and was immediately convinced it had to be the original Death Star model. Todd wondered how and why the original Death Star was in Missouri. He made some calls and was convinced it was the one. He was going to buy it but before he got back it was sold to another person named Mark who was the owner of a country and western music show called Star World. Mark displayed the Death Star in the lobby.

In 1994 Todd, his brother Pat, and friend Tim Williams traveled to Star World who was going out of business. The Death Star was being used as a trash can in the corner! Todd made an offer and bought it on the spot. All three owned it and contacted Lucasfilm but they did not want to buy it back.

In 1999 Gus Lopez contacted Todd, Pat, and Tim and negotiated a price. Now, Gus owns the famous Death Star.

Since then, Lopez has had the original Death Star on display in a custom-made case in his home, and he even loaned it to the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle (though Lopez refers to it by its former name: the EMP (Experience Music Project) Museum) for a five-year stint.

Gus Lopez: “The EMP gave it top billing in the museum with a prominent spot at the center of one of the main rooms. I got a kick out of reading about the Death Star in local tourist literature and walking by the Death Star on display at the museum to hear conversations from people telling their stories about what Star Wars meant to them. And now the Death Star is back home, where I see it every day. And when I look at it, I am still amazed it survived its long journey and is sitting right in front of me.”

New Beatles Let It Be Movie attempts to “bust the myth”

Peter Jackson combed through 55 hours of video footage to give a broader picture of the Let It Be sessions. A short preview was shown and it showed the Beatles in good spirits…against what we have read about. There was drama, but from what is being said…there was more good than not.

It will be interesting to get more of a broader picture of that time in the Beatles career…right before they made Abbey Road.

I will be there when it’s released. Here are a couple of articles.

https://variety.com/2020/music/news/beatles-peter-jackson-film-let-it-be-sessions-jolly-1203486729/

https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/music/1235056/The-Beatles-movie-Peter-Jackson-Let-It-Be-documentary-John-Lennon-Paul-McCartney

Elvis Presley – A Little Less Conversation

Mac Davis and Billy Strange wrote this for the 1968 Elvis movie Live A Little, Love A Little.

A remix of this song drove it up the UK charts in 2002

This was a fairly obscure Elvis song until it was remixed and released as a single in 2002. The new version went to #1 in the UK, giving Elvis 18 #1 hits there, the most of any artist. Previously, he was tied with The Beatles at 17. Because of rereleases he now has 21 number ones in the UK. The original release went to #69 in the Billboard 100 in 1968. In 2002 the remix version peaked higher at #50 in the Billboard 100.

I usually don’t like remixes like this but I do like this one somewhat.

The distinctive drum part on this song was played by Hal Blaine, who along with Earl Palmer was the top session drummer on the West Coast at the time.

The remix was released shortly before the 25th anniversary of Elvis’ death. It was added as a bonus track to Hits, an album of 30 #1 hits released on the 25th anniversary of his death. The record company was hoping to attract a new generation of Elvis fans the same way The Beatles did when they released their album of #1 hits in 2000.

From Songfacts
Davis wrote the original version for Aretha Franklin, but when Billy Strange, who was handling music for the film, approached Davis about contributing a song, he realized that “A Little Less Conversation” fit the scene perfectly, so he reworked it with strange and Elvis sang it for the film.

The remix gained popularity in England when it was used in a Nike World Cup commercial featuring British soccer player Eric Cantona. The remix was done by Dutch DJ Tom Holkenburg, a member of the group Junkie XL. For the remix, the name of the group was changed to JXL because Presley’s estate did not welcome the drug reference. This was the first time an Elvis song was allowed to be remixed.

The official title of the remix is “Elvis vs. JXL – A Little Less Conversation.” Presley’s vocals were left intact.

The original version was used in the 2001 remake of the movie Ocean’s Eleven, starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts.

Elvis’ daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, was born the year this was released.

The remix helped introduce Elvis to a younger generation. The memory of Elvis also got a boost when 8 of his songs were used in the Disney movie Lilo And Stitch around the same time.

Former Vermont governor Howard Dean used this as his campaign song when he ran for the Democratic nomination in 2003. His message was that he was a man of action, not words. Another candidate considered the song, but decided it had too much sexual innuendo.

This is used as the theme song to the television show Las Vegas.

Mitt Romney used this as his campaign song when he ran for president of the United States in 2008. According to Romney staffer Alex Burgos, this song “Underscores Governor Romney’s promise to bring change to a broken Washington. He believes there needs to be more action to address our nation’s challenges, with less talk and partisan bickering.”

A Little Less Conversation

A little less conversation, a little more action, please
All this aggravation ain’t satisfactioning me
A little more bite and a little less bark
A little less fight and a little more spark
Close your mouth and open up your heart and, baby, satisfy me
Satisfy me, baby

Baby, close your eyes and listen to the music
Drifting through a summer breeze
It’s a groovy night and I can show you how to use it
Come along with me and put your mind at ease
A little less conversation, a little more action, please
All this aggravation ain’t satisfactioning me
A little more bite and a little less bark
A little less fight and a little more spark

Close your mouth and open up your heart and, baby, satisfy me
(Satisfy me) Satisfy me baby (satisfy me)
Come on, baby, I’m tired of talking
Grab your coat and let’s start walking
Come on, come on (come on, come on)
Come on, come on (come on, come on)
Come on, come on (come on, come on)

Don’t procrastinate, don’t articulate
Girl, it’s getting late, gettin’ upset waitin’ around
A little less conversation, a little more action, please
All this aggravation ain’t satisfactioning me
A little more bite and a little less bark
A little less fight and a little more spark
Close your mouth and open up your heart and, baby, satisfy me
(Satisfy me) Satisfy me baby (satisfy me)

Come on, baby, I’m tired of talking
Grab your coat and let’s start walking
Come on, come on (come on, come on)
Come on, come on (come on, come on)
Come on, come on (come on, come on)

The Simpsons

I could write pages on this show but I’ll keep it short.

I’ve covered a lot of cartoons but this one is special. This Simpsons is probably my favorite of all time. It has influenced countless TV shows. This show appealed to young and older audiences alike.

The Simpsons was created by Matt Groening, who thought of the idea for the Simpsons in the lobby of James L. Brooks’s office. He named the characters after his own family members, substituting “Bart” for his own name. The family debuted as shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. In 1989, the shorts were spun off into the series The Simpsons which debuted on December 17, 1989.

The family members’ animated bodies have changed shape a bit since, but they have not aged much, aside from shows that looked into characters’ futures. In fact, most people would agree that Matt Groening’s goofy humor hasn’t gotten old either.

The town of Springfield has a cast of characters that really made the show. You get to know them weekly from Mr. Burns, Ned Flanders, Disco Stu, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Moe Szyslak, Marge, Lisa, and the list goes on.

Other shows such as Family Guy, American Dad, and South Park were influenced by The Simpsons but they are cruder and use more shock value. Nothing wrong with that but I always thought the Simpsons was more clever. The two cartoons that I have really liked since the Simpsons started are King of the Hill and Futurama, the later also created by Groening.

In the early stages, the show revolved around the young Bart Simpson’s trouble-causing antics, making it appeal to a younger crowd. Over the years, however, the writers, which have included Conan O’Brien, found viewers responded more to the father figure Homer Simpson, and he became the show’s main character.

In 2007, the family finally made its way to theaters in the Simpsons Movie.

The Simpsons have ran for 31 seasons and nearly 700 episodes (676 as of this writing). The show is the longest-running scripted series in TV history.

A few of the Catchphrases that have worked into our everyday life.

Don’t Have a Cow, Man

Eat My Shorts

Mmm, donuts

Release The Hounds

Hidely Ho…Okily Dokily

D’oh!

Woo Hoo!

Eeeeeeexcellent