WHEN YOU PLAY IT...: I'm sure many of you, over the years, have heard a song on the radio, or in a commercial and wondered, "who sings it?" In fact, sometimes I've wracked my brain trying to figure it out. Well, this past week, I cracked a mystery that has taken me all of twenty-six years to solve.
Once upon a time there was AM Top 40 radio, complete with excitable deejays, jingles, and of course music. The deejay would announce the title and the song, and perhaps its position on the station's weekly survey. Then a few commercials, then back to a couple more songs. Then perhaps news right before the hour, then more music!
By the mid 1980's, that began to change. The birth of MTV turned popular music upside down, and created a new approach to top 40 radio, now mostly on FM, and rechristened "Contemporary Hit Radio". They still played the hits, but now there were catchy "ten in a row" songs, followed by 15 minutes of commercials. Rarely, if ever, did jocks announce the songs and who did them, unless it was the first or last song in a music blog. This began some concern in the music industry as to how consumers could buy the record (or cassette single, as by now this became the dominant medium). But stations cared more about listeners tuning in to the station, as opposed to buying the song.
Around the mid-1980's, Billboard launched a campaign, 'When You Play It, Say It!" that appeared on each Hot 100 throughout the rest of the decade. Did it work? Probably not, but it was worth a try.
Which comes to my story. It was April 1989, and my tastes had drifted more towards Modern Rock, which started making an impact on pop music, with bands like Depeche Mode, The Cure, and R.E.M. starting to infiltrate the charts. My top 40 station of choice was WPST which was out of Trenton NJ. I had discovered the station back in 1981 when much of the top 40 was skewing towards older, boring adult contemporary selections. 'PST, however, kept its rock edge and maintained it throughout the decade. One listener called it "thinking man's top 40 radio". Songs that were on the charts, but not necessarily #1, many with a rock or modern rock edge to it.
Well, one of the songs came one that was very eclectic. Some electronic, synth-pop. feedback, sampling along with instrumentation and a very understated vocal. As I did back then, I taped many songs off the radio, and this song was very intriguing. Extreme modern rock, synth-pop, whatever you call it. I was waiting for the deejay to announce it, but they never did. I listened every night for the next few weeks, never heard it again. Who the heck did this song?
I played my tape back a few times. I couldn't make out the lyrics but some of it sounded like "fire down" or "follow down" maybe "fire woman", "follow on", something like that. I subscribed to Billboard so I checked the charts to see if any titles were similar. Nothing on the pop charts. There was a song on the Modern Rock chart, "Fire Woman" by The Cult. Maybe that was it!!! So I went with that....
...Until I heard "Fire Woman". More of a straight-ahead rock song by a rock band, sounding nothing like the song in question. Oh well. Maybe it was some album cut by The Cure, but the vocals didn't sound like Robert Smith's. Depeche Mode? ditto. Perhaps the fuzz guitars that reminded me of U2, but they wouldn't experiment like that for another few years, until the Zooropa era, at least. Futile, to say the least!. The song started out with something like "Little Darling", but again, no clue.
As we progressed into the 1990's, alternative music took off. Yes there was grunge from Seattle like Pearl Jam and Nirvana but also more guitar-driven rock bands were getting airplay and not just the synth-pop that had dominated the format in the 1980's. During the summer down the shore, a great station was FM106.3 WHTG-FM, "Real Rock Radio", later "Modern Rock at the Jersey Shore". Bands such as Sonic Youth and The Jesus & Mary Chain were popular in that medium (the latter, I had seen at Lollapalooza 1992 at Waterloo Village). Very experimental in nature, they excelled in "feed-back" rock. Both of those bands started in the eighties, so could they be the authors of the tune in question? Into the record store I go but no title even remotely resembling the lyrics from any of the albums released circa 1988-89. Maybe I should give up.
So I did. Until 2001. Earlier that year I got my first home computer. A friend told me of the Napster phenomenon, where just about any recording, no matter how obscure could be found. Songs I heard once in my life some 30 years ago and never heard again, were there. Memories came flooded back. But, inputting the possible titles and the bands named above, not one clue. Oh well, it's not a big deal at this point in time. I was burning and buying CD's but would only occasionally play my cassette tapes anyway.
Then came Wikipedia. Discography's on those bands didn't yield anything whatsoever. Well, it was now 2010, and I was at a get-together at my friend Alan's house. They were talking about a smartphone app which can detect any song if you hold the phone up to a source, and it will tell you the title and artist of it. Can you believe such a thing? And it worked too...Alan, of course has a very wide range in music, much of it obscure. But I held the thing up and voila, the title and name of the song! However, I couldn't remember the name of the app at the time so I just let it go,
Last year, I found an app called SoundHound, which essentially does the same thing, identifying a song and artist. As a result, I discovered many great recent songs, many of them, such as "Take It As It Comes" by Vivian Girls, "Heart of Steel" by Yast, and "Red River" by The Launderettes, just to name three. I even used it on my television for songs featured in commercials, such as "Breakdown" by Alice Russell and "All That I Needed" by Fremont. So I think to myself, would it work on this song on an old twenty-six old cassette and I could finally solve this problem? One problem is that I no longer had a tape player in the house. I junked my SUV a year ago, and with it, my cassette player. My dual 2-cassette boom box sits in dust in the basement, and it no longer works. It's been a while since I used my Walkman, but that only has ear-phones. Can't hold a phone up to that. But wait! My other car, a 2008 Lexus, has a tape deck!
So I find my tape from April 1989 and go into the Lexus, start it up, and hit the SoundHound app and hold it too the car speakers. First it says, "unable to determine the song. try again."...OK, it was just a few seconds into it, so that's understandable. So, after about twenty seconds, I try again. I hear a vibrate sound. I look at the screen and it says:
"Anitina" by M|A|R|R|S!
MARRS? The one-hit wonder that scored a #13 with "Pump Up the Volume" from the winter of 1987-88? Didn't sound like that song at all. Did they have another song I didn't know about a year later? Well as it turned out, MARRS was a one-hit wonder for a reason. "Pump Up the Volume" was their only release. No follow-up singles, no albums, no nothing. And "Anitina" was the B-side of that single. It was not listed as a double sided hit on Billboard's Hot 100, but could it have been on the dance chart back in early '88. Still, why did I hear this on 'PST a full year later then? That will still remain a mystery going back to the day. Both sides were listed in the UK, but a disclaimer that "Anitina" didn't get much airplay or demand was listed on their chart.
So perhaps, I should have looked at a Billboard issue from the year before, and checked the Dance chart (which, given that it contained many Depeche Mode, Cure and Erasure songs anyway, would have been the way to go), and it wouldn't have been on my mind for over a quarter of a century. And for the record, the lyrics went like this:
Little dolly
Follow
I’ll feed you sugarcane
Keep me close, hold me tight
Keep me close, hold me tight
Oh my little dolly, follow
Follow, holler
Follow, hollering
Oooh, sweet, oooh sweet
You can touch me where it’s forbidden
You can touch me where it’s forbidden
Dolly. Hollar. Close, but no cigar. But, after 26 years, a relief!
DOWNWARD FUNK: After a 14-week run on Billboard, "Uptown Funk" finally falls from #1 to #2 on the Hot 100; it's replaced by "See You Again" by Hip-hopper Wiz Khalifa which jumps from #10 to the top spot. Khalifa was on my SNS 100 a few years back with "Black and Yellow". As a result, I went with Alabama Shakes, "Don't Wanna Fight" which becomes the band's first SNS #1 song. "Uptown Funk" does inch up to #2. I do like Mark Ronson's follow-up, "Daffodils" which I think is more catchier, so we haven't heard the last of him. The Black Keys great song "Weight of Love" drops to #3 after a six-week run at #1; unfortunately it appears the song will not crack the top 10 on either the Alternative or Triple-A charts in Billboard. Too bad.
Alt-rock fans do have a shining light, however. "Shut Up and Dance" by Walk the Moon enters the Billboard top 10; the song has been #1 on the Alternative chart, and regains a bullet here on SNS 100 at #85. It's good to see a variety of styles on the upper echelon of the pop chart again.
SHAKE IT BABY: It's a great week for the Alabama Shakes. Not only is their second album, Sound & Color coming out on the 21st, but they have both my #1 "Don't Wanna Fight", and the Top Debut with "Gimme All Your Love" coming in, by far ahead of the pack, at #48. The song was now available commercially ahead of the album, and if you really want to know what this great band is all about, give it a listen (click on its chart entry below). Both songs were performed on Saturday Night Live several weeks ago. And as good as "Fight" is, this one is blues all the way, and Brittany Howard is a force to be reckoned with. This stands up to the best blues-rock of all time, and if you have listened already, do it now! Could this be the commercial return of real music? Well, it's worth a shot!
SORRY, KATY: A distant second is the new one by Meg Myers, "Sorry", her follow-up to "Desire" which had a lengthy stay on SNS and peaked at #37. Upon first hearing the song, it has a feel similar to Katy Perry's "E.T.", a Billboard #1 but barely dented my list after a couple of tries. But after several seconds, the comparisons stop. Yes, a hip hoppish beat, but it builds with soul and emotion to make it a powerful effort. And it's a much a haunting record as her previous song. Originally from Nashville, Myers moved to L.A., a scene which is more suited for her voice as this effort is anything but country. She has been compared to Fiona Apple or Sinead O'Connor, but at the same time, at her most emotional best, to Nirvana. I would like to see this songstress go places. She has released two EP's thus far; "Sorry" for now is a standalone single. She goes on tour shortly, and will be at New York's Webster Hall on May 11. Her first full length album will come out most likely this summer (and contain "Sorry").
Cheerleader is a band hailing from Philadelphia, debuts with "The Sunshine of Your Youth". This all male band delivers a solid indie-pop performance that if there was a current mainstream for alternative music, this would be it. A nice performance that should stick with you listen after listen. Like Myers, the band has only released an EP thus far; the new single will be the title track of a forthcoming album due shortly. It debuts at #89.
ANOTHER HIT, MAYBE? Next is Carly Rae Jepsen's "I Really Like You". Of course, she'll always be remembered for "Call Me Maybe" back in 2013 which was a #1 national hit, but only managed to reach #61 here despite a 20-week run (and my getting a geocache with that name as my 500 milestone, but I digress). This one is pure pop, and an upbeat effort at that. It is a worthy effort for sure, assuming you don't take it too seriously. Sure, it's interchangeable with any other pop female singer, and perhaps that is a consequence of it all. It looks like the song has already peaked at #48 on the Billboard chart. Unless it rebounds, she'll most likely be known as a "one hit wonder" for "Call Me Maybe" (in spite of that song's follow-up, "Good Time", with Owl City, peaking at #8 on the Hot 100). But, it's a worthy effort from a pop standpoint. Incidentally, she is no longer dating Matthew Koma, who has yet to have a pop hit on his own, but has two SNS top 10's.
The remainder of the debuts include a solo effort from fun. lead singer Nate Ruess, with "Nothing Without Love". Ruess hit #1 three times on my list, including two with fun., "We Are Young" (one of the few songs to hit the top both on Billboard and SNS), "Carry One", and his duet with P!nk, "Just Give Me a Reason". And finally Ariana Grande's follow-up to her dual top 10 "Love Me Harder" (which inches up to a peak of #7 here) "One Last Time", which has just broken into the top 15 at Billboard.
Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves 100
April 12,
2015
| This Week | Last Week | ARTIST-Title | Weeks on List |
| 1 | 2 | NUMBER ONE:
ALABAMA SHAKES
Album: Sound & Color
|
8 |
| 2 | 3 | Mark Ronson f. Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk | 12 |
| 3 | 1 | The Black Keys- Weight of Love | 10 |
| 4 | 7 | Omnia Hegazy - Dust | 6 |
| 5 | 4 | Belle and Sebastian - The Party Line | 10 |
| 6 | 9 | Future Islands - Seasons (Waiting On You) | 11 |
| 7 | 8 | Ariana Grande - Love Me Harder | 13 |
| 8 | 12 | Corinne Bailey Rae - Bluebird | 8 |
| 9 | 5 | Florence + the Machine - What Kind of Man | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | Hozier - Angel of Small Death and the Codiene Scene | 9 |
| 11 | 6 | White Arrows - We Can't Ever Die | 12 |
| 12 | 15 | Jungle - Busy Earnin' | 6 |
| 13 | 16 | Phoebe Ryan - Mine | 10 |
| 14 | 17 | Launderettes - Red River | 11 |
| 15 | 18 | Modest Mouse - Lampshades on Fire | 10 |
| 16 | 13 | The Raveonettes - Killer in the Streets | 14 |
| 17 | 10 | Calvin Harris f. John Newman - Blame | 12 |
| 18 | 19 | Taylor Centers - Wild | 10 |
| 19 | 28 | MOVER OF THE WEEK:
TENNIS
Album: Ritual In Repeat
|
4 |
| 20 | 14 | Waters - I Feel Everything | 15 |
| 21 | 20 | Sir Sly - You Haunt Me | 10 |
| 22 | 21 | Ellie Goulding - Love Me Like You Do | 9 |
| 23 | 24 | Maroon 5 - Sugar | 7 |
| 24 | 23 | The Big Takeover - Dolphins | 8 |
| 25 | 26 | Kjband - Man of Few Words | 12 |
| 26 | 32 | Catfish & the Bottlemen - Kathleen | 13 |
| 27 | 30 | Fitz and the Tantrums - Fools Gold● | 21 |
| 28 | 29 | Alvvays - Archie Marry Me | 13 |
| 29 | 35 | Kongos - I Want to Know | 5 |
| 30 | 22 | The Kooks - Bad Habit | 11 |
| 31 | 25 | Foster the People - Are You What You Want To Be | 18 |
| 32 | 31 | Kelly Clarkson - Heartbreak Song | 9 |
| 33 | 27 | Lucius - Hey, Doreen | 16 |
| 34 | 37 | Alice Russell - Breakdown | 7 |
| 35 | 33 | TV on the Radio - Happy Idiot | 13 |
| 36 | 53 | The Decemberists - Calvary Captain | 3 |
| 37 | 34 | St. Paul and the Broken Bones - Call Me● | 20 |
| 38 | 38 | Fitz and the Tantrums - 6AM● | 30 |
| 39 | 42 | Django Django - First Light | 7 |
| 40 | 43 | Glass Animals - Gooey | 8 |
| 41 | 46 | Avi Buffalo - Think It's Gonna Happen Again | 5 |
| 42 | 36 | Meghan Trainor - Lips are Movin' | 13 |
| 43 | 44 | The Drums - I Can't Pretend | 8 |
| 44 | 50 | Zella Day - Hypnotic | 6 |
| 45 | 40 | Fall Out Boy - Centuries | 12 |
| 46 | 47 | The Mowglis - Through the Dark | 7 |
| 47 | 57 | Tame Impala - Let It Happen | 3 |
| 48 | --- | TOP DEBUT:
ALABAMA SHAKES
Album: Sound & Color
|
1 |
| 49 | 52 | Madonna - Living For Love | 6 |
| 50 | 63 | Mark Ronson f. Kevin Parker - Daffodils | 4 |
| 51 | 56 | George Ezra - Budapest | 10 |
| 52 | 39 | Foxygen - Cosmic Vibrations | 13 |
| 53 | 73 | MOVER OF THE WEEK:
MY MORNING JACKET
Album: The Waterfall
|
2 |
| 54 | 45 | Interpol - My Desire | 12 |
| 55 | 41 | Fremont - All That I Needed | 14 |
| 56 | 55 | Lana Del Rey - Shades of Cool | 18 |
| 57 | 65 | Awolnation - Hollow Moon | 3 |
| 58 | 51 | The Big Takeover - Children of the Rhythm● | 24 |
| 59 | 48 | Stater-Kinney - Bury Our Friends | 15 |
| 60 | 78 | Mumford & Sons - Believe | 2 |
| 61 | 49 | Rihanna, Kanye West, Paul McCartney - FourFive Seconds | 6 |
| 62 | 69 | Real Estate - Talking Backwards | 3 |
| 63 | 67 | Best Coast - California Nights | 4 |
| 64 | 62 | The Wombats - Greek Tragedy | 7 |
| 65 | 58 | Yelawolf- Till It's Gone | 12 |
| 66 | 60 | The Griswolds - If You Wanna Stay | 7 |
| 67 | 64 | Blondfire - Waves | 9 |
| 68 | 68 | Locksley - Let It Ride | 5 |
| 69 | 54 | Cage the Elephant - Cigarette Daydreams | 18 |
| 70 | 66 | Ed Sheeran - Think Out Loud | 8 |
| 71 | 71 | Courtney Barnett - Pedestrian At Best | 5 |
| 72 | 61 | Death Cab for Cutie - Black Sun | 7 |
| 73 | 59 | Hozier - Take Me To Church● | 32 |
| 74 | 82 | Jessica Lea Mayfield - Standing In the Sun | 2 |
| 75 | 77 | Taylor Swift - Style | 3 |
| 76 | 75 | In the Valley Below - Peaches | 4 |
| 77 | 84 | Elel - 40 Watt | 2 |
| 78 | 70 | Jungle - Time | 28 |
| 79 | 83 | Kid Rock - First Kiss | 3 |
| 80 | 89 | Life In Film - Get Closer | 2 |
| 81 | 72 | Deers - Bamboo | 12 |
| 82 | 87 | Houndmouth - Sedona | 5 |
| 83 | 81 | Matt & Kim - Get It | 6 |
| 84 | 80 | Christina Perri - The Words | 5 |
| 85 | 92 | Walk the Moon - Shut Up & Dance | 5 |
| 86 | --- | Meg Myers - Sorry | 1 |
| 87 | 74 | SomeKindaWonderful - Reverse● | 36 |
| 88 | 99 | Rival Sons - Open My Eyes | 2 |
| 89 | --- | Cheerleader - The Sunshine of Your Youth | 1 |
| 90 | 90 | Linus Young - Fun In the Sun | 3 |
| 91 | --- | Carly Rae Jepsen - I Really Like You | 1 |
| 92 | 79 | Vivian Girls - Take It As It Comes● | 30 |
| 93 | 76 | The Fresh & Onlys - Animal of One● | 28 |
| 94 | 93 | Robert DeLong - Long Way Down | 2 |
| 95 | 86 | The New Basement Tapes - Kansas City | 6 |
| 96 | --- | Nate Ruess - Nothing Without Love | 1 |
| 97 | 88 | Vance Joy - Mess Is Mine | 6 |
| 98 | --- | Ariana Grande - One Last Time | 1 |
| 99 | 98 | Harts - Red & Blue | 2 |
| 100 | 97 | Offspring - Coming For You | 2 |
Tremors:
| 101 | ---- | Incubus - Absolution Calling |
| 102 | 101 | Genevieve - Colors |
| 103 | 103 | Sam Smith - Lay Me Down |
| 104 | 104 | Sleater-Kinney - A New Wave |
| 105 | ---- | Broncho - Class Historian |
|
|
Songs
with the greatest increase in favorite points over the prior week.
● Songs
with 25 or more plays on my iPod.
▲ Songs with 50 or more plays on my iPod.
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