“I’ve got a chip on my shoulder that’s bigger than my feet”…you didn’t see lines like this in early pop songs very much. The song was the A Hard Day’s Night album released in 1964. The song was going to be in the film but it got replaced by Can’t Buy Me, Love. “I wrote that for ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ but Dick Lester didn’t even want it,” John explained, “He resurrected ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ for that sequence instead.”
The song did get released as a single in the US in 1964 and peaked at #25 in the Billboard 100.
John Lennon on the Dylan influence – “I’d started thinking about my own emotions,” “Instead of projecting myself into a situation, I would try to express what I felt about myself, which I’d done in my books. I think it was Dylan who helped me realize that – not by any discussion or anything, but by hearing his work.”
Cynthia Lennon said this: “It reflects the frustration he [John Lennon] felt at that time. He was the idol of millions, but the freedom and fun of the early days had gone.”
I’ll Cry Instead
I’ve got every reason on earth to be mad ‘Cause I just lost the only girl I had If I could get my way I’d get myself locked up today But I can’t, so I’ll cry instead
I’ve got a chip on my shoulder that’s bigger that my feet I can’t talk to people that I meet If I could see you now I’d try to make you sad somehow But I can’t, so I’ll cry instead
Don’t want to cry when there’s people there I get shy when they start to stare I’m gonna hide myself away But I’ll come back again someday
And when you do you’d better hide all the girls I’m gonna break their hearts all round the world Yes, I’m gonna break them in two And show you what your lovin’ man can do Until then I’ll cry instead
When I think of the Everly Brothers this is not the first song that springs to my mind but it is a lovely ballad by them. The melody of this song is beautiful. It is a reworking of a French song recorded in 1955 by Gilbert Becaud called Je T’Appartiens.
The song peaked at #7 in the Billboard 100, #13 in the UK in 1960.
Just before this became a hit, The Everly Brothers left their original label, Cadence Records, and signed with Warner Brothers for a $100,000 bonus, which was huge at the time.
From Songfacts
The first English version of this song was released in 1957 by an actress named Jill Corey, who recorded it with Jimmy Carroll and his orchestra. This version went to #57 in 1957, two years before The Everly Brothers version.
Don Everly heard an instrumental rendition on the 1959 album Chet Atkins In Hollywood and fell in love with the melody. When he found out there were lyrics, he brought the song to producer Archie Bleyer. Wesley Rose, owner of the publishing company Acuff-Rose that signed the Everly Brothers as songwriters and connected them with Bleyer’s Cadence label, sparred with Bleyer over the tune but lost. Don recalled: “I went to Archie and told him I wanted to do it with strings. Wesley just sat there pouting through the whole session like a kid.”
This was one of the first pop songs to use a string section – eight violins and a cello were used. It was also the first Everly Brothers song to use strings.
This was the first Everly Brothers song they did not record in Nashville. It was done in New York.
In America, six other versions of this song charted in the ’60s:
Betty Everett & Jerry Butler (#5, 1964) Arthur Prysock (#124, 1966) Nino Tempo & April Stevens (#127, 1968) Glen Campbell & Bobbie Gentry (#36, 1969)
Willie Nelson returned the song to the charts in 1982 when he took it to #40.
Bob Dylan recorded this on his 1970 album Self Portrait. We asked Ron Cornelius, who played guitar on the album, why Dylan recorded it. He replied: “No one would be being truthful with you to tell you what was ever in Bob Dylan’s mind. No Way.”
Gilbert Becaud – Je T’Appartiens
Let It Be Me
I bless the day I found you I want to stay around you And so I beg you, let it be me
Don’t take this heaven from one If you must cling to someone Now and forever, let it be me
Each time we meet love I find complete love Without your sweet love what would life be
So never leave me lonely Tell me you love me only And that you’ll always let it be me
Each time we meet love I find complete love Without your sweet love what would life be
So never leave me lonely Tell me you love me only And that you’ll always let it be me
There is probably not a song on Who’s Next that hasn’t been played to death…but I dont’ hear this one as much as some of the others.
One of my favorite Keith Moon drum tracks… It’s not the most noticeable part he played but no other drummer would have played it this way. I included an isolated drum track of this song at the bottom.
Pete Townshend wrote this and sang it… it was part of his “Lifehouse” project, which was a film script featuring The Who in a future world where rock ‘n’ roll saves the masses. The Who scrapped plans for the concept double album and released most of the songs on Who’s Next…pretty much agreed their best album and one of the best in rock.
The song was the B side to Behind Blue Eyes in 1971.
From Songfacts
This is about taking a vacation by riding around in a car with no particular destination. It was something Pete Townshend liked to do.
This was much lighter and more simplified than the other songs on the album.
For the solo, Townshend ran his guitar through a device called an Envelope Follower. It was a type of synthesizer distortion that made it sound like he was playing under water.
Keith Moon’s isolated drums on Going Mobile
Going Mobile
I’m going home And when I want to go home, I’m going mobile Well I’m gonna find a home on wheels, see how it feels, Goin’ mobile Keep me moving
I can pull up by the curb, I can make it on the road, Goin’ mobile I can stop in any street And talk with people that we meet Goin’ mobile Keep me moving, mmm
Out in the woods Or in the city It’s all the same to me When I’m driving free The world’s my home When I’m mobile, ey woo, beep beep
Play the tape machine Make the toast and tea When I’m mobile Well, I can lay in bed with only highway ahead When I’m mobile Keep me moving
Keep me moving Over fifty Keep me groovin’ Just a hippie gypsy Come on move now Movin’ Keep me movin’ yeah
Keep me movin’, movin’, movin’, yeah Movin’ yeah Mobile, mobile, mobile, mobile, mobile, mobile, mobile
I don’t care about pollution I’m an air-conditioned gypsy That’s my solution Watch the police and the taxman miss me! I’m mobile! Oh yeah he he Mobile, mobile, mobile, yeah
I remember seeing the video and MTV would play the version with the word “joint” in reversed…like people would wonder what Tom was rolling. Another version I heard on the radio was… instead of “roll another joint” it was “hit another joint”… which is…worse?
“The strangest thing happened. I wrote this song not thinking that it was controversial in any way and I nearly left this song off the album ’til the very end, and we put it on. Imagine my surprise when this song comes on television and they say, ‘Let’s roll another noojh,’ which sounded worse to me than joint. Because, I don’t know if you’ve ever had a noojh, but it sounds really wicked.”
I do miss Tom…
This song peaked at #13 in 1995 in the Billboard 100.
Tom Petty on this song: “Every blue moon or so, I might have a toke on somebody’s… cigarette. It’s an OK way to live your life, but it’s not to be advised. I’m not going to say it’s good or bad.
But I wrote this song a while back and I was trying to do this character in the song who was kind of down and looking for some company. And instead of having him say, ‘Let’s have another beer’ – they always have to have that in the song – I thought this guy should roll another joint.”
From Songfacts
“You don’t know how it feels to be me” is something many of us have said to seek empathy for our burdens. Typical of Petty’s songwriting, the lyric is couched in ambiguity, which could be the point: We don’t know how it feels to be him, so how can we possibly know what the song is about? It’s certainly not entirely autobiographical, at least literally, as Petty’s father was not born to rock – he was leery of his son’s career in music.
We’ll get to the point: marijuana had a little something to do with this song. Here’s what Petty said about it on his VH1 Storytellers special:
The video was directed by Phil Joanou. It’s one continuous shot, with the camera revolving around a microphone as all kinds of crazy stuff happens in the background, including a circus act and a bank robbery.
Tom Petty was one of MTV’s biggest stars, but they wouldn’t play the video as delivered because of the drug reference (sex and violence were generally OK on the network, but they were very sensitive about drugs). When the video aired, the word “joint” was reversed so it came out sounding like “noojh.”
Perhaps to atone, MTV awarded it Best Male Video at the VMAs.
This won a Grammy in 1995 for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. >>
The band performed this on Saturday Night Live when they were the musical guests November 19, 1994. Their drummer, Stan Lynch, had left the band, so Dave Grohl, who had not yet formed Foo Fighters, sat in for the performance. Steve Ferrone got the gig as Heartbreakers drummer a short time later.
You Don’t Know How It Feels
Let me run with you tonight I’ll take you on a moonlight ride There’s someone I used to see But she don’t give a damn for me
But let me get to the point, let’s roll another joint And turn the radio loud, I’m too alone to be proud You don’t know how it feels You don’t know how it feels to be me
People come, people go Some grow young, some grow cold I woke up in between A memory and a dream
So let’s get to the point, let’s roll another joint Let’s head on down the road There’s somewhere I gotta go And you don’t know how it feels You don’t know how it feels to be me
My old man was born to rock He’s still tryin’ to beat the clock Think of me what you will I got a little space to fill
So let’s get to the point, let’s roll another joint Let’s head on down the road There’s somewhere I gotta go And you don’t know how it feels No, you don’t know how it feels to be me
A great little pop/rock song. The song was on the album Labor of Lust and the album peaked at #31 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1979. Rockpile recorded this album and at the same time recorded Edmunds solo album Repeat When Necessary.
12 was popular with this song…The song peaked at #12 in many charts… Billboard 100, Canada RPM, New Zealand, and the UK… In Ireland, it only reached #19.
Nick Lowe said about the song: “I wrote that when I was with a band, Brinsley Schwarz, that I was with from the early ’70s to about the mid-’70s. … We recorded it on a demo, it never came out, and when I signed to Columbia Records the A&R man [Gregg Geller] there at the time suggested I record it again. And I didn’t think it would do anything, but he kind of bullied me into it.”
The video featured Nick’s wife Carlene Carter who had just got married Nick shortly before and included some real footage of the ceremony in the video. Rockpile guitarist Dave Edmunds plays the chauffeur in the video. Drummer Terry Williams was the photographer. Guitarist Billy Bremner also got a role, playing the guy who serves the cake.
This would be Nick’s only top forty hit in Billboard.
From Songfacts
This song reflects on a lover’s rather antagonistic attitude. Nick Lowe co-wrote the song with his Brinsley Schwarz bandmate, Ian Gomm, for the Brinsley Schwarz album, It’s All Over Now, though said album was never officially released. In 1979, Lowe re-recorded the song for his second solo album, Labour of Lust.
Lowe and Gomm were hoping the song would be a pop hit for Brinsley Schwarz, and crafted it for mass consumption. Lowe only grudgingly recorded it, and he considered it an aberration – a pop sell-out song. When he performed the song on The David Letterman Show, he called it “wimpy” and had little interest in discussing it.
Lowe cribbed the phrase “cruel to be kind” from Shakespeare, who used it in Hamlet:
I must be cruel only to be kind
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind
Lowe revealed the musical influence behind this song to The A.V. Club: “I wrote with ‘The Love I Lost’ by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes in mind.”
This was Lowe’s highest charting hit in the US, where it peaked at #12 (coincidentally, it also peaked at #12 in the UK, Canada and New Zealand). Lowe spoke to The A.V. Club about his chart success: “I remember coming to Los Angeles when it was a hit, and did that thing where you change the radio station, and it was on about two or three at the same time. You could hear it starting on one station and finishing on another. Amazing.”
The official video is a comedic reenactment of Lowe’s marriage to Carlene Carter, who plays herself in the clip.
The couple was married on August 18, 1979 after Lowe had just finished a tour with his band Rockpile. Figuring he could kill two birds with one stone, Lowe made the wedding the theme of the video, and used some actual footage of the event, turning his wedding day into a video shoot (although aren’t they all, sort of?). The day before, director Chuck Statler shot staged footage of Lowe preparing for the nuptials and Rockpile performing the song outside of the Tropicana Hotel in Los Angeles, where the reception was held.
The wedding took place at Carlene’s house in Hollywood. Guests at the wedding show up in the clip – you can spot Carter’s stepsister Rosanne Cash sitting on the couch.
Carter and Lowe toured together in 1982, opening for The Cars, with both singers sharing the same band. The couple divorced in 1990.
“We were having great fun,” Edmunds said in his Songfacts interview. “In that band, the four years we were together, we never had any falling out – it was a little club of our own.”
The drum kit in the video says “The Textones.” That’s because Rockpile didn’t have a drum kit handy, so they borrowed one from a local band. Kathy Valentine, who would later join The Go-Go’s, was a member of this band.
In 1982, Enjoh Santyuutei released a Japanese cover version of this song and in 2010, Stavros Michalakakos recorded it in Greek.
The video was one of 206 that aired on MTV’s first day of broadcasting: August 1, 1981.
Cruel To Be Kind
Oh I can’t take another heartache Though you say you’re my friend, I’m at my wit’s end You say your love is bonafide, but that don’t coincide With the things that you do And when I ask you to be nice, you say
You’ve gotta be cruel to be kind, in the right measure Cruel to be kind, it’s a very good sign Cruel to be kind, means that I love you, baby (You’ve gotta be cruel) You gotta be cruel to be kind
Well I do my best to understand dear But you still mystify and I want to know why I pick myself up off the ground To have you knock me back down, again and again And when I ask you to explain, you say
You’ve gotta be cruel to be kind, in the right measure Cruel to be kind, it’s a very good sign Cruel to be kind, means that I love you, baby (You’ve gotta be cruel) You gotta be cruel to be kind
Well I do my best to understand dear But you still mystify and I want to know why I pick myself up off the ground To have you knock me back down, again and again And when I ask you to explain, you say
You’ve gotta be cruel to be kind, in the right measure Cruel to be kind, it’s a very good sign Cruel to be kind, means that I love you baby (You’ve gotta be cruel) You gotta be cruel to be kind
(Cruel to be kind), oh in the right measure (Cruel to be kind), it’s a very very very good sign (Cruel to be kind), it means that I love you, baby (You’ve gotta be cruel) You gotta be cruel to be kind
(Cruel to be kind), oh in the right measure (Cruel to be kind), yes it’s a very very very good sign (Cruel to be kind), it means that I love you, baby (You’ve gotta be cruel) You gotta be cruel to be kind
(Cruel to be kind), oh in the right measure (Cruel to be kind), yes it’s a very very very good sign (Cruel to be kind), it means that I love you
I was forced to listen to country music at work around this time…but this one and other songs off of the album Time I really liked. It crossed over to pop/rock stations also. I always liked bitter breakup songs like this one.
It peaked at #2 in the Hot Country Songs Chart in 1993… It also peaked at #2 on the “US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles” Charts (way too many charts) and #3 on the Canada Country Tracks.
The song was written by James House and Kostas Lazarides.
From Songfacts
This tale of a girl trying in vain to win back her ex was written by Greek-born songwriter, Kostas (Patti Loveless’ “I Can Love You Better”) and country artist James House (Martina McBride’s “A Broken Wing”).
House told American Songwriter the story of the song.
“We had already been working on another song idea for a couple of hours but it had gotten stale so we decided to take a break,” he said. “We started talking and Kostas asked me if I was going to get back together with my estranged girlfriend and I said, ‘I ain’t that lonely yet,’ and we looked at each other and said, ‘let’s write that’.”
“I grabbed my guitar and started singing the verse melody and Kostas was furiously writing lyrics,” House continued. “After 10 or 15 minutes he sang the first verse to the melody I was playing. The chorus fell out of him as we were jamming it out. I knew it was a special song when Kostas looked up with a smile and sang the lyric about the spider in my bed. You know you’re onto something when the lyrics are coming as fast as you can write them, I think there were four or five more verses that we didn’t use.”
The song was recorded by Dwight Yoakam and released as the lead-off single to his This Time album.
“Kostas was writing with Dwight a couple of weeks later and played him the cassette work demo we did,” House recalled. “If I remember right it was recorded fairly soon and released within a couple of months.”
The song earned Yoakam his first Grammy award, which he won for Best Male Country Vocal Performance.
Ain’t That Lonely Yet
You keep calling me on the telephone You say you’re all alone Well that’s real sad
And you keep leavin’ Notes stuck on my door Guess you’re hungry for some more Girl that’s too bad
‘Cause I ain’t that lonely yet No I ain’t that lonely yet After what you put me through I ain’t that lonely yet
Once there was this spider in my bed I got caught up in her web Of love and lies
She spun her chains around my heart and soul Never to let go Oh but I survived
‘Cause I ain’t that lonely yet No I ain’t that lonely yet After what you put me through I ain’t that lonely yet
There’s nothing left that you can do To try and bring me ’round ‘Cause everything you do Just brings me down
‘Cause I ain’t that lonely yet No I ain’t that lonely yet After what you put me through I ain’t that lonely yet
‘Cause I ain’t that lonely yet No I ain’t that lonely yet After what you put me through No I ain’t that lonely yet
‘Cause I ain’t that lonely yet No I ain’t that lonely yet After what you put me through No I ain’t that lonely yet ‘Cause I ain’t that lonely yet No I ain’t that lonely yet
That guitar intro and tone hooked me into this song. Gray said in an interview that the song’s hook of “Gimme the beat boys and free my soul” has been misheard and incorrectly sung as “Gimme the Beach Boys,” “Gimme the wheat boys” (proposed for a cereal commercial), “Gimme the peat moss,” and “Gimme the meatballs.”
The song was recorded at Quad Studio in Nashville. Drift Away was written by producer/songwriter Mentor Williams in 1973. Mentor is the brother of Paul Williams.
The Rolling Stones recorded a version of Drift Away for their “It’s Only Rock and Roll” album in November of 1973 but it didn’t make the album and has never been released except on bootlegs.
Drift Away peaked at #5 in the Billboard 100 in 1973.
From Songfacts
This was originally sung by John Henry Kurtz, an actor whose 1972 Reunion album also featured Kenny Loggins and a cover of Loggins’ “Danny’s Song.”
Virtuoso guitarist and session man Reggie Young Jr. played on this track, which is known for its distinctive intro. His son, Reggie Young III, told us that his father had to re-learn the signature guitar lines for a live radio broadcast around 1993, when Lonnie Mack did a special out of Nashville and invited several people to perform as guests. Said Young, “Dobie Gray asked my father to join him in playing ‘Drift Away’ live. This was the first time since 1973 that they had played the song together. In the ’80s my father was showing another guitar player how to play the intro to ‘Drift Away,’ but the other guy said he thought that my father was playing it wrong. In fact he was playing in the wrong key. Also, when this was re-recorded in 1997 for Gray’s CD Diamond Cuts, he declined, as he didn’t think he could do it any better than he did on the original.”
In 2002, Gray recorded this as a duet with Uncle Kracker. When this track reached the Billboard top 10 in 2003, 30 years later, Gray broke the record for the biggest gap between top US top 10 appearances.
His record of 30 years, two months and one week was broken in 2018 by Andy Williams. The late crooner had a gap of 47 years, eight months and three months between his two visits to the upper reaches of the chart with “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” in 2018 and “(Where Do I Begin) Love Story” in 1971.
This song was not only a commercial breakthrough for Mentor Williams but also a breakthrough as a recording project. He explained to American Songwriter MagazineMarch/April 1988: “I think one of the hardest things for me to learn about songwriting was to really expose my feelings and weaknesses and to write personal, emotional things. As soon as I started doing that, I realized other people were relating to my songs. You can study how to write and spend a lot of time writing, but without this emotional content in a song, it’s just not there. ‘Drift Away’ was a big breakthrough for me. It was a song where it suddenly was okay for me to write about being hurt and let people know that I had been hurt and I wasn’t afraid to expose my feelings.”
The updated version with Uncle Kracker holds the record for the longest run atop the Adult Contemporary chart, having reigned for 28 weeks in 2003-04.
This has been featured in several movies, including the 1988 comedy Heartbreak Hotel (starring David Keith as Elvis Presley), the 2003 drama Wonderland (starring Val Kilmer), and 2006 sports biopic Invincible (starring Mark Wahlberg). It was also used on The Office (US), in the 2007 episode “Product Recall.”
Drift Away
Day after day I’m more confused So I look for the light in the pouring rain You know that’s a game that I hate to lose I’m feelin’ the strain, ain’t it a shame
Oh, give me the beat boys, and free my soul I want to get lost in your rock and roll and drift away
Beginning to think that I’m wastin’ time I don’t understand the things I do The world outside looks so unkind I’m countin’ on you to carry me through
And when my mind is free You know a melody can move me And when I’m feelin’ blue The guitar’s comin’ through to soothe me Thanks for the joy that you’ve given me I want you to know I believe in your song Rhythm and rhyme and harmony You help me along makin’ me strong
Great song by Crosby, Stills, and Nash. It peaked at #18 in 1982 in the Billboard 100. The song was on the album Daylight Again that peaked at #8 in 1982. I like some of their catalog…mostly the radio songs. I did see them live in 1987 and you had to appreciate their voices live.
This was written by Stephen Stills, Richard Curtis, and Michael Curtis. Stills said: “The Curtis Brothers brought a wonderful song called ‘Seven League Boots,’ but it drifted around too much. I rewrote a new set of words and added a different chorus, a story about a long boat trip I took after my divorce. It’s about using the power of the universe to heal your wounds. Once again, I was given somebody’s gem and cut and polished it.”
From Songfacts
The “Southern Cross” is a constellation also known as the Crux Constellation that can be viewed from most of the Southern hemisphere. The 4 brightest stars within the constellation form a cross pattern. Sailors have relied on the “Southern Cross” to help in navigating their boats. The national flags of Australia and New Zealand have versions of the Southern Cross on them.
Jimmy Buffett covered this on his 1999 album Buffett Live: Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays.
There is a vocal mistake in the line “But it’s as big as the promise, the promise of a coming day.” One of the vocalists says “coming” on the first “promise.” >>
Since this song is based on a song called “Seven League Boots,” it bears mentioning that seven-league boots are a common magical artifact which crops up repeatedly in many European folk and fairy tales. They’re a pair of boots which allow the wearer to take strides that are seven leagues (21 miles, 33.8 kilometers) long. The same concept of footwear that greatly increases one’s traveling speed or stride is adapted into many role-playing and video games.
This same year that “Southern Cross” came out also saw David Crosby arrested on drug-related charges. He would be in and out of court on them numerous times until he finally turned himself in for an 8-month sentence.
The video for this song, with a ship a-sail, saw heavy rotation in the early MTV years, providing a soft rock respite from the European pop acts that dominated the network at the time.
The cover art for the Daylight Again album features an enigmatic domed structure on a rocky hilltop, flanked by three glowing blue flying saucers. The US was in the midst of a resurgence in UFO popularity in the late-’70s and early-’80s, bolstered by the writings of Chariots of the Gods author Erich von Daniken and renewed interest in Area 51.
Southern Cross
Got out of town on a boat goin’ to Southern Islands Sailing a reach before a followin’ sea She was makin’ for the trades on the outside And the downhill run to Papeete
Off the wind on this heading lie the Marquesas We got eighty feet of the waterline nicely making way In a noisy bar in Avalon I tried to call you But on a midnight watch I realized why twice you ran away
Think about Think about how many times I have fallen Spirits are using me, larger voices callin’ What Heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten
Around the world (I have been around the world) Lookin’ (lookin’ for that woman girl) Who knows she knows (who knows love can endure) And you know it will
When you see the Southern Cross for the first time You understand now why you came this way ‘Cause the truth you might be runnin’ from is so small But it’s as big as the promise, the promise of a comin’ day
So I’m sailing for tomorrow my dreams are a-dyin’ And my love is an anchor tied to you (tied with a silver chain) I have my ship and all her flags are a-flyin’ She is all that I have left and music is her name
Think about Think about how many times I have fallen Spirits are using me, larger voices callin’ What Heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten
I have been around the world (I have been around the world) Lookin’ (lookin’ for that woman girl) (Who knows love can endure) And you know it will And you know it will
So we cheated and we lied and we tested And we never failed to fail it was the easiest thing to do You will survive being bested Somebody fine will come along make me forget about loving you And the southern cross
All I have to hear is the intro and I always finish the complete song. The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100 and #2 in the UK.
This was written by a team of Motown writers called The Corporation. The head of the label, Berry Gordy, was one of the writers. They were based in California, unlike most Motown writers who were in the Detroit offices.
Michael Jackson reminded Berry Gordy of Frankie Lymon, another teenage star. Gordy helped write this as if he was writing for Lymon. The song was originally envisioned as a vehicle for Gladys Knight but Berry saw it as a way to break the Jackson’s into the charts.
From Songfacts
This was the first Jackson 5 single released by Motown Records. It launched their career and went to #1 in the US, as did their next three releases: “ABC,” “The Love You Save” and “I’ll Be There.”
Michael Jackson sang lead. He was 11 years old and the youngest of the group. There was one younger Jackson brother named Randy, who replaced Jermaine in the group in 1977.
The original title was “I Want To Be Free.” It was Gordy’s idea to change it to “I Want You Back” and make it more of a love song.
This was intended for Gladys Knight & The Pips, and at one point Diana Ross was going to record it, but Berry Gordy decided to change the title and some of the lyrics and use it for his newly signed group of boys, the Jackson 5.
Gordy went out of his way to make this a hit. He was very high on The Jackson 5 and felt they were the perfect group to prove that Motown could continue its success through the ’70s. At the time, this was the most expensive Motown single ever recorded.
When this topped the Hot 100, the 11-year-old Michael Jackson became the youngest person to feature in an American #1.
Two popular songs sampled this in 2001: Jay Z used it on “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” and it was also used on Lil’ Romeo’s “My Baby.” In 1992, it was sampled on the Kris Kross hit “Jump.”
The sci-fi soul singer-songwriter Janelle Monáe covered this as a bonus track on the deluxe edition of her The Electric Lady album. She explained to A.V.Club that she chose this particular tune as it resonated with her. “There are so many amazing Michael Jackson songs from different stages of his career,” she said, “and that happened to be one of my favorite stages. It makes people happy, and I love the tone, and musically, it has a lot of places to go for our orchestra. It has a lot of odd instrumentation.”
“The version I did does not sound like the Jackson 5 original recording,” Monáe continued. “I wanted to interpret it my way and record it differently, while continuing to pay homage to him, but I saw it in a different light. I’m really excited to let you guys hear it because you’ll get a chance to hear that song from my perspective. I had a dream about it and how I wanted it to be recorded.”
This song appears in the films Now and Then (1995), Drumline (2002), Daddy Day Care (2003) and Friends with Benefits (2011). It also plays under the end credits of the 2014 movie Guardians Of The Galaxy and is included on the soundtrack, which was a #1 hit in America for two weeks.
I Want You Back
When I had you to myself, I didn’t want you around Those pretty faces always make you stand out in a crowd But someone picked you from the bunch, one glance is all it took Now it’s much too late for me to take a second look
Oh baby, give me one more chance (To show you that I love you) Won’t you please let me back in your heart Oh darlin’, I was blind to let you go (Let you go, baby) But now since I’ve seen you it is on (I want you back) Oh I do now (I want you back) Ooh ooh baby (I want you back) Yeah yeah yeah yeah (I want you back) Na na na na
Trying to live without your love is one long sleepless night Let me show you, girl, that I know wrong from right Every street you walk on, I leave tear stains on the ground Following the girl I didn’t even want around
Let me tell ya now Oh baby, all I need is one more chance (To show you that I love you) Won’t you please let me back in your heart Oh darlin’, I was blind to let you go (Let you go, baby) But now since I’ve seen you it is on
All I want All I need All I want! All I need!
Oh, just one more chance To show you that I love you Baby baby baby baby baby baby! (I want you back) Forget what happened then (I want you back) And let me live again!
Oh baby, I was blind to let you go But now since I’ve seen you it is on (I want you back) Spare me of this cost (I want you back) Give me back what I lost!
Oh baby, I need one more chance, hah I’d show you that I love you Baby, oh! Baby, oh! Baby, oh! I want you back! I want you back!
This song is so smooth and has a great groove to it. Add in Mark Knopfler’s guitar and it turns into a very good pop song. It was on the album Making Movies which peaked at #19 in 1980.
Skateaway peaked at #58 in the Billboard 100 in 1981.
From Wiki
After the Communiqué Tour ended on 21 December 1979 in London, Mark Knopfler spent the first half of 1980 writing the songs for Dire Straits’ next album. He contacted Jimmy Iovine after hearing Iovine’s production on the song “Because the Night” by Patti Smith—a song she had co-written with Bruce Springsteen. Iovine, who had also worked on Springsteen’s Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town albums, was instrumental in recruiting E Street Band keyboardist Roy Bittan for the Making Movies sessions.[1]
Making Movies was recorded at the Power Station in New York from 20 June to 25 August 1980. Jimmy Iovine and Mark Knopfler produced the album.
Skateaway
I seen a girl on a one way corridor Stealing down a wrong way street For all the world like an urban toreador She had wheels on on her feet Well the cars do the usual dances Same old cruise and the kerbside crawl But the roller girl she’s taking chances They just love to see her take them all
No fears alone at night she’s sailing through the crowd In her ears the phones are tight and the music’s playing loud
Hallelujah here she comes queen roller ball Enchante what can I say don’t care at all You know she used to have to wait around She used to be the lonely one But now that she can skate around town She’s the only one
No fears alone at night she’s sailing through the crowd In her ears the phones are tight and the music’s playing loud She gets rock n roll a rock n roll station And a rock n roll dream She’s making movies on location She don’t know what it means But the music make her want to be the story And the story was whatever was the song what it was Roller girl don’t worry D.j. play the movies all night long
She tortures taxi drivers just for fun She like to read their lips Says toro toro taxi see ya tomorrow my son I swear she let a big truck grease her hip She got her own world in the city You can’t intrude on her She got her own world in the city ’cause the city’s benn so rude to her
No fears alone at night she’s sailing through the crowd In her ears the phones are tight and the music’s playing loud She gets rock n roll a rock n roll station And a rock n roll dream She’s making movies on location She don’t know what it means But the music make her want to be the story And the story was whatever was the song what it was Roller girl don’t worry D.j. play the movies all night long
Come slipping and sliding Life’s roller ball Slipping and a sliding Skate away that’s all Shala shalay hey hey skate away She’s going singing shala shalay hey hey Skate away
This song would make my personal top ten of Beatle songs… Rain was the B side to Paperback Writer. Personally, I like this song better. First off the sound was different compared to previous songs…the bass comes through like never before and Ringo’s drumming complimented the bass so well.
They experimented with a new way of recording bass. This technique involved “using a loudspeaker as a microphone,” explains engineer Geoff Emerick. “We positioned it directly in front of the bass speaker and the moving diaphragm of the second speaker made the electric current.”
The peaked at #23 in the Billboard 100 in 1966.
Ringo on this recording is outstanding and some think it’s his best moment on record. Personally, I like his playing on A Day In The Life but this one is great.
At the end of the song, the vocals are backward. There are different stories on how this happened. One was that a stoned John took the tape home and put it in backward and was astonished at what he heard and wanted the whole song backward. George Martin remembered it differently: “I was always playing around with tapes,” Martin explains, “and I thought it might be fun to do something extra with John’s voice. So I lifted a bit of his main vocal off the four-track, put it onto another spool, turned it around and then slid it back and forth until it fitted. John was out at the time but when he came back he was amazed…They all thought it was marvelous.”
Whichever way it was…it fits this song perfectly
Paul McCartney said this about who wrote the song:
I don’t think he brought the original idea, just when we sat down to write, he kicked it off. Songs have traditionally treated rain as a bad thing and what we got on to was that it’s no bad thing. There’s no greater feeling than the rain dripping down your back. The most interesting thing about it wasn’t the writing, which was tilted 70-30 to John, but the recording of it.
From Songfacts
John Lennon wrote most of “Rain.” It was his first song to get really deep, exploring themes of reality and illusion – after all, rain or shine is just a state of mind.
This was the first song to use a tape played backward, which created the strange audio effect. John Lennon discovered the technique when he put the tape for “Tomorrow Never Knows” on the wrong way. He was stoned at the time, and producer George Martin had to convince him that using a backward recording for the entire song was a bad idea.
Ringo Starr has said this is his best drumming on a Beatles song.
The backward vocal at the end fade out is actually the songs first line: “When the rain comes they run and hide their heads”.
This was one of the first Beatles records to feature loud, booming bass. McCartney’s bassline is extremely recognizable, in contrast to The Beatles’ older records.
This was released as the B-side of “Paperback Writer.” It was recorded during the Revolver sessions.
As part of the studio manipulation that gave this song such an unusual sound, the rhythm track was played fast and then slowed down on tape.
The Beatles shot a video for this song with director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who was tapped because he worked on the UK music show Ready, Steady,Go!. The videos for “Rain” and “Paperback Writer” were shot at the same time, with some footage recorded at Abbey Road studios, but most of it outdoors at the Chiswick House gardens in London.
These videos were done so The Beatles could promote the single without actually performing on the various TV shows that drew huge audiences and drove sales. In doing so, they set a standard for music videos, as other bands followed suit. The “Rain” video uses many elements that would become commonplace, including candid shots from between takes.
Rain
If the rain comes They run and hide their heads They might as well be dead If the rain comes If the rain comes
When the sun shines They slip into the shade And sip their lemonade When the sun shines When the sun shines
Rain, I don’t mind Shine, the weather’s fine
I can show you That when it starts to rain Everything’s the same I can show you I can show you
Rain, I don’t mind Shine, the weather’s fine
Can you hear me That when it rains and shines It’s just a state of mind Can you hear me Can you hear me
Natalie has a unique voice and a style of her own. I saw her in the 80s with 10,000 Maniacs and they were great.
When she was a teenager, Natalie Merchant worked at a day camp for special needs children, many of whom had been institutionalized since infancy and abandoned by their parents. This song was inspired by that experience.
The song peaked at #20 in the Billboard 100 and #10 in Canada in1996. Wonder was on the album Tigerlily that peaked at #13 in Billboard album charts in1995.
From Songfacts
She explained on a VH1 Storytellers appearance: “When I was 13 years old, we’re talking 1976, I spent my summer working as a volunteer for a bunch of hippies, basically, that got a seed grant from the Carter administration, which had a lot of really wonderful programs for the arts. These people started a day camp for handicapped children, and I worked for them the whole summer. A lot of these children were institutionalized – their parents had left the scene a long time ago. They didn’t function so well in a conventional sense, but it seems that a lot of the children had developed like a private language or new senses so they could navigate through the world, especially the blind and the deaf children that we worked with.
From an early age, I had that contact with children who had special needs. I had lost my fear of intimacy with them – especially with Down syndrome kids, they could be really unpredictable and up to that point I had been a little frightened of them. I maintained some of the friendships with those kids and I was always open to meeting children with special needs. So when I wrote the song ‘Wonder,’ I wrote the song about a woman who was born with handicaps that seemed insurmountable, but she did overcome them, greatly because she had a loving family, especially her adoptive mother – she had been given up to an institution at birth.”
This is a very meaningful song to many people who grew up with special needs and their caretakers. The song views these people as “wonders,” with doctors having no explanation for their condition, but seeing the work of God in the creation.
“I’ve met a lot of people through this song, and they’ve told me that they’ve taken it on as their song, that it describes them,” Merchant said. “It describes their strengths in spite of what others would see as deficiencies.”
Natalie Merchant performed this song, along with “Carnival,” on an episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by David Schwimmer in 1995.
Wonder
Doctors have come from distant cities, just to see me Stand over my bed, disbelieving what they’re seeing
They say I must be one of the wonders Of God’s own creation And as far as they see, they can offer No explanation
Newspapers ask intimate questions, want confessions They reach into my head to steal, the glory of my story
They say I must be one of the wonders Of God’s own creation And as far as they see, they can offer No explanation
Ooo, I believe, fate, fate smiled And destiny laughed as she came to my cradle Know this child will be able Laughed as my body she lifted Know this child will be gifted With love, with patience, and with faith She’ll make her way, she’ll make her way
People see me I’m a challenge to your balance I’m over your heads how I confound you And astound you To know I must be one of the wonders
They say I must be one of the wonders Of God’s own creation And as far as they see, they can offer No explanation
Ooo, I believe, fate, fate smiled And destiny laughed as she came to my cradle Know this child will be able Laughed as she came to my mother Know this child will not suffer Laughed as my body she lifted Know this child will be gifted With love, with patience and with faith She’ll make her way, she’ll make her way
Patti Smith has always had a cult following and is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame yet this is her only top 40 hit…it peaked at #13 in the Billboard 100 ad #5 in the UK in 1978.
Bruce Springsteen started writing this song in 1976, but he couldn’t come up with verses. He couldn’t finish it but he couldn’t record it anyway because he was in a legal battle with his manager, Mike Appel, that kept him from recording for almost three years.
The song lay dormant until his producer, Jimmy Iovine, convinced him to give a copy to Patti Smith, who eventually got around to filing in the verses and recording the song. Iovine was also producing Smith’s Easter album and convinced her to record it for the set.
Bruce talked about the song: “It was a love song and I really wasn’t writing them at the time. I wrote these very hidden love songs like For You, or Sandy, maybe even Thunder Road, but they were always coming from a different angle. My love songs were never straight out, they weren’t direct. That song needed directness and at the time I was uncomfortable with it. I was hunkered down in my samurai position. Darkness… was about stripping away everything – relationships, everything – and getting down to the core of who you were. So that song is the great missing song from Darkness On The Edge. I could not have finished it as good as she did. She was in the midst of her love affair with Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith and she had it all right there on her sleeve. She put it down in a way that was just quite wonderful.”
From Songfacts
For many not familiar with Smith’s career or the history of punk, this is the only recognizable song of hers. The producers of the 2013 movie CBGB played to this audience when they portrayed Smith singing this song at the famous club in 1975 – two years before she recorded it and a year before it was written. In the film, Smith is played by Mickey Sumner, who is Sting’s daughter.
Smith wrote the verses in one night in 1977 while waiting for her boyfriend, Fred “Sonic” Smith, to call. Fred, a founding member of the MC5, lived in Michigan and performed with his band Sonic’s Rendezvous; Patti was in New York. They relied on phone calls to stay in touch, but they were both poor and long distance calls were very expensive, so they limited their talks to about once a week, always at night when the rates were cheaper. One night, Patti was expecting his call at 7:30, but it didn’t come. That’s when she played Springsteen’s cassette demo for the first time, listening to it over and over while she wrote lyrics about her yearning love. She got rather specific:
Love is a ring, a telephone
By the time Fred called around midnight, the song was done. This was very unusual for her, as she typically took a lot longer to compose lyrics.
Springsteen didn’t release a studio version of this song until 2010 for his album The Promise, but he often played it at his live shows with different lyrics. The first time his version was released came in 1986 on the boxed set Live 1975-1985.
Smith’s producer on the Easter album was Jimmy Iovine, who would go on to great things as a producer and entrepreneur, but was still getting started in the business at the time. “Because The Night” was his first hit as a producer, and he credits Bruce Springsteen for granting him the opportunity. Iovine had worked on Bruce’s 1975 Born To Run album, and Springsteen gave him the song to deliver to Smith. This “really launched by career,” Iovine said.
Smith was hesitant to use a song written by someone else, and even after writing the verses she wasn’t sure she would record it. Jimmy Iovine and her band members helped convince her to give it a go. “In the end, we were a good match for that particular song,” she told Billboard. “I could have never written a song like that. I’d never write a chorus like that.”
10,000 Maniacs covered this song in 1993, outcharting Smith at #11 US. When Smith’s husband (and the song’s muse), Fred, died of a heart attack on November 11, 1994, at age 45, royalties from that cover helped keep her solvent financially – she had two young children, son Jackson and daughter Jesse, and little money.
The song became a lasting tribute to Fred; Smith later took to performing it with Jackson and Jesse, who became musicians.
Springsteen and Smith performed the song together at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on April 23, 2018. Smith said: “This song always makes me think of three men: Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith who inspired it, Jimmy Iovine who produced it, and Bruce Springsteen who wrote it.” Springsteen insisted they sing her lyrics, not the ones he typically sang.
This wasn’t the first time they shared a stage: Springsteen joined Smith onstage several times from 1976-1977, while legal battles kept Bruce from recording.
Smith bought her dad a new 1978 Cordoba with the money she made from this song.
Because The Night
Take me now, baby, here as I am Pull me close, try and understand Desire is hunger is the fire I breathe Love is a banquet on which we feed
Come on now try and understand The way I feel when I’m in your hands Take my hand come undercover They can’t hurt you now Can’t hurt you now, can’t hurt you now Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to lust Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to us
Have I doubt when I’m alone Love is a ring, the telephone Love is an angel disguised as lust Here in our bed until the morning comes
Come on now try and understand The way I feel under your command Take my hand as the sun descends They can’t touch you now Can’t touch you now, can’t touch you now Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to lust Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to us
With love we sleep With doubt the vicious circle Turn and burns Without you I cannot live Forgive, the yearning burning I believe it’s time, too real to feel
So touch me now, touch me now, touch me now
Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to lust Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to us Because tonight there are two lovers If we believe in the night we trust Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to lust Because the night belongs to lovers Because the night belongs to us
This was before Eric Carmen went solo and started doing ballads. One of my favorite Power Pop groups. This song was the big one…their only top 10 hit but they had 4 top 40 songs altogether. Go All The Way peaked at #5 in the Billboard 100 in 1972. The song has a mixture of Who, Beatles, and Beach Boys styles.
It’s back in popularity because of the Guardians of the Galaxy movie.
From Songfacts
Raspberries lead singer and bass player Eric Carmen wrote this song. He went on to fame as a solo artist (“Hungry Eyes”) and songwriter (“All By Myself”).
This song is about a girl trying to convince a guy to “Go all the way,” meaning to have sex with him. Carmen told Blender magazine in 2006 that he was inspired by The Rolling Stones performance of “Let’s Spend The Night Together” when Mick Jagger had to sing it as “Let’s spend some time together.”
Said Carmen, “I knew then that I wanted to write a song with an explicitly sexual lyric that the kids would instantly get but the powers that be couldn’t pin me down for.”
The Raspberries dressed in matching suits. “Go All The Way” was part of their first album, and it was their only hit. They made two more albums before breaking up.
The album contained a raspberry-scented scratch-and-sniff sticker.
When the group was trying to think of a name, one of the four members rejected a suggestion with the phrase, “Aw, Raspberries” (an old Our Gang line). They had their name. , IL)
Eric Carmen explained: “I remember ‘Go All The Way’ vividly. The year was 1971. I was 21. I had been studying for years. I had spent my youth with my head between two stereo speakers listening to The Byrds and The Beatles and later on The Beach Boys – just trying to figure out what combinations of things – whether it was the fourths harmonies that The Byrds were singing on ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ – I must have worn out 10 copies of that first Byrds album listening to it over and over, and turning off the left side and turning on the right side trying to figure out why these certain combinations of instruments and echo and harmonies made that hair on your arms stand up. I did the same thing with Beatles records, and I tried to learn construction.
Then I went to school on Brian Wilson. That was a real breakthrough for me because he was doing things that I thought were so incredibly sophisticated before anybody was doing anything even close. The Pet Sounds album is, to me, the best pop album of all time. Brian introduced me to the idea of writing a bridge for a song that really had nothing to do with the verse and chorus.
In the early days, I spent a lot of time concentrating on writing bridges that took you someplace that you didn’t expect to go. Many songwriters wrote a song, the song’s in the key of C, it comes time for a bridge and they go to A minor. That bored me. Brian would go to E flat or somewhere strange, and he managed to do it smoothly. He also had a way of delivering you out of the bridge in such a way that you felt like maybe the song had modulated up a step, but you were really back in the original key. That, to me, was artwork. So when I sat down to write ‘Go All The Way,’ there were a couple things I had in mind. I thought, ‘What part of the song is it that people really want to hear? It’s the chorus.’ As a result of all that, ‘Go All The Way’ has a 10-second verse, and then the chorus is a minute long. I figured just to get to the chorus as fast as I can. That was the plan behind the song. I repeated that when I wrote ‘I Wanna Be With You.'”
This was an early example of “Power Pop,” which were rock songs with radio-friendly hooks.
The title was inspired by a book Carmen came across by Dan Wakefield called Going All The Way.
The Killers covered this song for the 2012 film Dark Shadows.
This song appears in the 2000 film Almost Famous but was not included on the soundtrack. It did make the soundtrack to the 2014 film Guardians Of The Galaxy, which went to #1 in America and revived many ’70s hits.
Go All The Way
I never knew how complete love could be ‘Til she kissed me and said
Baby, please, go all the way It feels so right (feels so right) Being with you here tonight Please, go all the way Just hold me close (hold me close) Don’t ever let me go
I couldn’t say what I wanted to say ‘Til she whispered, I love you
So please, go all the way It feels so right (feels so right) Being with you here tonight Please, go all the way Just hold me close (hold me close) Don’t ever let me go
Before her love I was cruel and mean I had a hole in the place Where my heart should have been
But now I’ve changed And it feels so strange I come alive when she does All those things to me
And she says (Come on) Come on (Come on) Come on (Come on) Come on (Come on) I need ya (come on) I love ya (come on) I need ya (come on) Oh, oh, baby
Please, go all the way It feels so right (feels so right) Being with you here tonight Please, go all the way Just hold me close (hold me close) Don’t ever let me go no
I did not dislike Hot Space like some Queen fans and non-Queen fans. I would not rate it as high as The Game but it had some decent songs. The album peaked at only #22 in the Billboard Album Chart in 1982 after the hugely successful album The Game.
Queen incorporates a little of Lennon’s style in this one and Mercury’s voice sounds great in this song.
From Songfacts
Freddie Mercury wrote this song as a dedication to John Lennon. The music emulates different John Lennon song styles, and the lyrics are mostly about Freddie’s realization that John was dead, and how real life was. “Life is Real” is related to the John Lennon lyric “Love is Real.”
The death of John Lennon sparked Queen to play “Imagine” during concerts, something they did during their tour with Paul Rodgers.
This song took on a new life after Freddie Mercury’s death, and is now regularly performed as a tribute to Mercury as well as Lennon – particularly when performed by Kerry Ellis and Brian May on their tours (notably the Born Free tour) where a montage of Freddie Mercury images would play on screens behind the artists.
Life Is Real (Song For Lennon)
Guilt stains on my pillow Blood on my terraces Torsos in my closet Shadows from my past Life is real, life is real Life is real, so real
Sleeping is my leisure Waking up in a minefield Dream in just a pleasure dome Love is a roulette wheel Life is real, life is real Life is real, oh yeah
Success is my breathing space I brought it on myself I will price it, I will cash it I can take it or leave it Loneliness is my hiding place Breast feeding myself What more can I say? I have swallowed the bitter pill I can taste it I can taste it Life is real, life is real Life is real
Music will be my mistress Loving like a whore Lennon is a genius Living in ev’ry pore Life is real, life is real Life is real, so real Life is cruel, life is a bitch Life is real, so real Life is real, life is real, yeah Life is real.
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 