Bradley's Buzz

New Bubbatunes - Divas 4 & 5 (&6,7,8)

Well we are near the end of February and that means Black Diva Month is coming to a close, and while you're all debating whether Tina, Whitney or Donna Summer are the ultimate diva, I have our final two new Bubbatunes to throw at you - I tell you when we celebrate a diva month, we go all out...

bub 74 Janet - 861704 (February 27, 2007)
I love me my Miss Jackson, and that's cuz I'm nasty y'all.. through her chubby years, her svelte bod and even through her latest attempts at commercialism, I have loved just about everything she has ever done. However, we only had limited time to do the very best of the Miss J, so a few things had to be thrown out, including anything off of her newest album 20 Y.0. which I do have but I'm still kind of wrapping my little white boy mind around it, and I definitely didn't want to push off one of my favorite Janet songs just to be a completist, and of course there's also the fact that her first two albums from 1982 and 1984 aren't represented at all, which is how we got our name kids - 861704 stands for 17 songs from the years 1986-2004 I know I'm so clever. Like our other divas Janet has her own official greatest hits out there and it's good but it came out in 1996 and our girl has had a number of hits in these past almost 11 years. Then there's also some kick ass killer album tracks that will never make a greatest hits...

Because I wanted to make sure I didn't forget any of my ultimate favs, we begin 861704 with one, two, three, four, five, six pop of my very favorite Janet singles starting with "Just A Little While" from 2004 - this song was rushed out right after Boobgate and had it done been for all that stupid boobla, I think it would've been a huge hit - the rest of the Damita Jo album is kind of boring and overly sexual but this was a perfect piece of pop confection and is my personal favorite Janet single ever. We then move into more pop/guitar fun with 2001's "Someone To Call My Lover" which is a lip flapping piece of fun, "maybe we'll meet in a bar/ he'll drive a funky car/ maybe we'll meet in a club/ and fall so deeply in love" try to sing along with this one, and though I love me some fun Janet, I also love the sexual crazed lunatic she started to become with the 1993 janet. album so my fav single from that time period is representin' with "If" - a sexy jaunt with those awesome synth strings and the fast paced 'rap' verse, it's unforgettable, and the first time Miss J finally dropped some clothing was in the video for one of my other favorites, "Love Will Never Do (Without You)" which is another piece of ultimate fun. It's so catchy and lovable it's no wonder it went up to #1 and made Janet want to finally show off her body - plus does anyone not remember all those hot guys in the video.. mmm bop. Her first big hit was in the feisty "What Have You Done For Me Lately" and though some of the songs from Control sound a tad dated ("Nasty" I'm talking to you) this one stands up very well, plus I love the lyrics ("soap opera says you have one life to live/ who's right/ who's wrong?) and the bridge is great since I too have never asked for more than I deserve. Then our final sixth song of the ultimate fav singles ends with the ballad "Again" which was used in her film Poetic Justice but was also included on the janet. album. It's simple and sweet and very touching.

But there's more than just ultimate favorites on our compilation because I pretty much love all these songs in one degree or another, we have the hit singles from all those years, the guitar drenched "Black Cat", the sweet fun of "Together Again", "The Pleasure Principle" and "Control" from that insanely popular 1986 album, "Rhythm Nation" and "All For You" which is another of the early 2000's great janet singles, I mean when you start out with, "got a nice body all right/ guess I'm gonna have to ride it tonight..."

But there are a few feisty and superb album tracks that anyone with half an ear on Miss J would know - the house thump of "Throb", the super entrenched bitch fest of "This Time" which includes an operatic solo and ends with J saying, "You're dismissed" and a super cool send off called "What About" from 1997's The Velvet Rope. "What about the shit you done to me/ what about that?/ what about that?" I frickin' love it. Now if only she would start making more songs like the ones represented here, we could get her back on the top where she belongs.

Janet - 861704 (bub74)
Track List -
01. Just A Little While
02. Someone To Call My Lover
03. If
04. Love Will Never Do (Without You)
05. What Have You Done For Me Lately
06. Again
07. Black Cat
08. Together Again
09. This Time
10. The Pleasure Principle
11. Doesn't Really Matter
12. Throb
13. Scream (with Michael J)
14. Control
15. What About
16. Rhythm Nation
17. All For You

bub 75 Pointer Sisters - ON FIRE (February 27, 2007)
With this little compilation we end up adding four more divas to our list in one shot - the sisters that were the Pointers, Anita, June, Ruth and for a short time in the early days Bonnie came up with solid hits through out most of their career. From the 40's style bop tunes and even country twinged anthems in the early 70's to their shot at rock and pop in the late 70's and early 80's into the stuff they're most associated with - the synth laden dance pop of the 80's. Yes, these girls did it all and after listening to a bunch of songs (I was on a downloading frenzy) I realized how much I loved them. Of course Ruth's death last year, made me really want to go after the Pointer Sister's catalog and I found a few CD's to purchase but found the best compilation out there, is of course the one I'm presenting here, after all they did have a score of hits, some well known, some a little known, and some forgotten so it's my goal to try to represent the very best of the Pointers, from all the years and included a lot that aren't on every compilation including one of my all time favorite overlooked singles of the 80's "He Turned Me Out" a funky dance invocation that was featured in the film Action Jackson (one of the more overlooked action adventure films of any era), plus my favorite singles like their fun rendition of Springsteen's "Fire", and the pop laden mega hits "Neutron Dance," "I'm So Excited", "Jump (For My Love)" and my ultimate fav of that bunch, the slow robotic voice of Anita on "Automatic", I also discovered a few gems I never knew existed like a superb rendition of "Steam Heat" and their first single, a rousing fun harmonized confection called "Yes We Can Can" - then there's the girl group sounds of forgotten hits like "Should I Do It" (which Tanya Tucker also made in 1981) and "Could I Be Dreamin'" and a super cool Springsteen song that ended up on the follow up album that had included "Fire" - "(She's Got) The Fever)" is a moody rock song with super cool harmonies (their speciality) and a really cool rock track. In fact I've recently learned the whole album Priority from 1979 is essentially a rock album and a very good one at that - unfortunetly it's not on CD but should I happen to come across it on vinyl, I have a feeling Luther will be getting it and it will be a bubbatunes reissue in days flat.. until then enjoy the Pointer Sisters in their glory cuz these ladies were on fire!

Pointer Sisters - ON FIRE (bub75)
Track List:
01. Yes We Can Can
02. (She's Got) The Fever
03. Automatic
04. American Music
05. Fire
06. I'm So Excited
07. He's So Shy
08. Dare Me
09. Neutron Dance
10. He Turned Me Out
11. Steam Heat
12. Could I Be Dreamin'
13. Freedom
14. Slow Hand
15. Goldmine
16. How Long (Betcha Got A Chick On The Side)
17. Jump (For My Love)
18. Should I Do It
19. Wang Dang Doodle

Labels: Bradley, bub74, bub75, Bubbatunes, Janet Jackson, Pointer Sisters, Throb

posted by swivek @ 8:40 AM 0 comments

Name That Baby

My little baby sister is preggers, that's right I'm gonna be an uncle again. Actually it's pretty exciting but being close to my sister particularly at this time has made me realize something I never thought of - what do you name your child? For some reason all of my other friends either had no problem naming their kids or I just wasn't involved in the process, but this time around I'm hearing all the trouble that goes into finding the perfect name for a little guy who's going to be called that for the rest of his life. But even more importantly, it's a name I'm going to have to use for the rest of MY life. At least she found out what sex the baby will be so we can at least narrow it down to a boy's name, but since the actual name is still up in the air I thought I'd invite you all to start to giving your ideas - I'm sure she'll love it. A lot of mine have already been shot down and I suppose it's a good thing she isn't having a girl since I'd call her Ciji no matter what her mother named her. So as of right now, Evan is a big runner and her husband is Matthew so that's always in the running as are Jonathon (named after his father) and James (named after our father) so what can you guys come up with? For some reference here is a list of names already rejected - Jared, Jake, Jacob, Dexter (my favorite), Desmond (Des), Logan, Lucas, Luke and a whole bunch more, but come on give it your best shot - who ever gets the winning name will get a prize. Either a picture of me and the baby or a Swivek CD - your choice!

Labels: Baby names, Bradley

posted by swivek @ 10:37 PM 6 comments

New Bubbatunes - Diva 3

bub73 Whitney Houston – Call Me Nippy (February 20, 2007)
I’m sure the biggest question is where the title for this delve into the balladry of that high-octane diva came from – well it wasn’t me. From the time she was but a little model running around her house, everyone (including cousin Dionne Warwick & Auntie Aretha Franklin) called little Whitney, “Nippy.” Since those days, the Whit has even named her production company Nippy Inc. So hey if that’s what makes the crack ho feel comfortable then who am I to judge. Okay, that was pretty harsh but kind of funny. And before we actually get into her music let me just say that though her life was on quite a tragic spiral I kind of liked the wacky Whitney, it made her seem a little more human I think. Of course she wasn’t as great as the whacked out Mariah who only became interesting to me at all when she was all out of control. For Whitney I think all of us really wanted to see her get better and it seems with her impending divorce we may get the wish.

The problem when these divas hit bottom is they always insist on staging some kind of come back to prove they are still wonderful. It becomes quite apparent that they are not. In the midst of Mariah’s downfall she made two bad albums and a bad movie, Whitney tried to win fans back with Just Whitney but she was so bitchy on the album no one cared. So unfortunately for her, but lucky for us our little compilation has overlooked the mistake that was her last album and we instead concentrate on her great outputs.

Whitney’s debut album in 1985 pretty much arrived under my radar, living in Rhinelander Wisconsin, the R&B hits weren’t exactly played on the radio but I recall stepping into the record store and seeing her single for “You Give Good Love” right there in the top 10. I had no idea who she was or what the song was as I had never heard it. Of course it was only a matter of months before her second single, the bombastic “Saving All My Love For You” was all over the radio and I (or anyone else) would never wonder who Whitney Houston was again.

When I was a kid I used to fall asleep to the radio, I would hop into bed to the bristling sounds of WIFC 95.5 FM and fall asleep to the hits of the day. One night in 1985, there I was in bed and I recall hearing “Saving All My Love For You” and actually getting out of bed hoping to find out who sang the song. Now I’m not the sentimental mush type and wasn’t even back then but there was something utterly captivating about the voice and the whole song. The song isn’t so much a love song about someone leaving you or even how so much how in love you are, she is basically the mistress in the song refusing to get a man of her own because she wants to keep it going with this one. It was and still is interesting.

Of course the single became big and by the time Whitney was dancing around with her third single, the more pop jumpy “How Will I Know” she had become a bonafide star. I bought the cassette and actually listened to it all the time. Of course her dancy stuff from those days has a more dated sound while her ballads are pretty much timeless, there’s something kind of safe and comfortable in those 80’s synth dance beats. When Whitney made her official Greatest Hits album one CD was her ballads while the second CD was the dance cuts, all of which had been remixed and updated. I understand the reasoning but I really wanted the originals. How can it be a greatest hits if her greatest hits are unrecognizable?

Lucky for you, Bubbatunes went with the originals on her dance hits, so “How Will I Know” is exactly how you remember it from that summer of ’85, as is her first single from her follow up album “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” which is another song that gives me the warm fuzzies. Apparently when asked if Whitney had any regrets about her career, she said she had two and they were the videos for “How Will I Know” and “I Wanna Dance…” which is sad because I love the videos, particularly the Dance one – those boys she was dancing with were hot especially the cowboy in his underwear…

Where was I? Oh yeah, Whits, and our little Nippy can take any ballad and completely charge it full of power and though I’m not one to love ballads, Whitney’s ballads have always touched me in some way. I absolutely adore “Didn’t We Almost Have It All” with its so sad our love is over but what can you do? Type of mentality, and “All The Man That I Need” which Whitney claims as a song about God but to me it’s really about that perfect man. I love it.

Of course her other big ballad from her self titled debut is her cover of “Greatest Love Of All” – I know what you’re thinking, “That’s a cover song?” Yeah, someone else sang it first but like Whitney, we’ve all claimed it as our own. She belts the shizz out of the song and where it could run into cheesiness it never actually makes it hilarious to me, as I really love those lyrics, “I believe the children are our future/ treat them well and let them lead the way…” but of course it’s the idea that the greatest love of all is found within yourself and I love, love the lyrics, “Everybody’s searching for a hero/ people need someone to look up to/ I never found anyone to fulfill the need/ a lonely place to find/ so I learned to depend on me…” It is striking and scathing yet beautifully true.

Our heaviest album featured on Call Me Nippy is Whitney’s debut album and with the highlights of the hits “Saving All My Love For You”, “Greatest Love Of All” and “How Will I Know”, so there is room for others as well including my all time favorite song on that debut “All At Once” – a slightly over the top ballad that’s set to a more upbeat contemporary tempo that just piano, Whitney cries out that her man is gone and it all just hit her at once. It’s a great performance and it really struck a chord for me for some reason.

Whitney first came to prominence by singing back up and doing a duet with Teddy Pendergrass (“Hold Me”), so it was probably a no brainer to include duets in her early career and for Whitney Houston, they hooked her up with Jermaine Jackson. The best of the cuts they do together is “Nobody Loves Me Like You Do” which once again, just strikes some strange chord in me. I think it’s sweet and nice and tender. I guess I can be a sucker sometimes too.

Lest we forget Whitney had a top ten hit before I ever heard of her, we’ve included “You Give Good Love” a soft mid tempo R&B celebration of love that is actually one of the weaker songs in her catalogs but one that still can’t be ignored. It’s still so hard to believe at the time of all these songs she was a mere 19 years old.. oh Nippy how far you’ve come.

By 1987, Whitney was ready for her second album and the first release was “I Wanna Dance…” which had me be bopping along, then came that wonderful ballad Of “Didn’t We Almost Have It All” but the Nips wasn’t done pushing the singles out quite yet – two more dance tracks would follow “So Emotional” and the interesting and somewhat strange for Whitney, “Love Will Save The Day” and there was even another hit ballad “Where Do Broken Hearts Go”, another song that I always liked though apparently it’s one Whitney almost didn’t record because she didn’t like it. Well, huh?

I’m Your Baby Tonight was Whitney’s third album and since so many years had passed in between albums so had the music scene, but that isn’t enough to stop Whitney. No, siree she just hopped on the trail and hired LA Reid and Babyface to produce a few songs. The big hit was the title cut and those boys proved a great find behind the power house Whitney, she was a little more carefree, a little more sure and a lot more funky.

But funky was only for funky’s case because the second single was the aforementioned “All The Man I Need” and her very next recording would be the one to blow the lid off of the world. “I Will Always Love You” a bombastic cover of a fairly restrained Dolly Parton song, Whitney was heard everywhere belting and belting. Personally, the song or rather her performance grew tired rather quickly but occasionally it’s all right to hear and it should really be included on a Whitney mix so I threw it on at the end.

“I Will Always Love You” was from The Bodyguard, Whitney’s big film debut but it’s hardly the only song that came from the soundtrack album and the much more enjoyable cover of Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman” is a great time every single time I hear it. Although I am starting to think I only go through the song so I can get to the end where Whitney screams, “Chaka! Chaka Kahn!” which I always thought was awesome.

Rather than rely too heavily on her ballads that sprung from The Bodyguard I decided I wanted other Whitney songs on my compilation so we moved right past the rest of the soundtrack and went to her next film Waiting To Exhale, which is also a better movie if you want my honest to Jesus. The film is a great sound off to the African American woman and Whitney isn’t the only star so it’s much easier to watch and once again with the help of Babyface, her “Exhale (Shoop Shoop)” showed Whitney could be just as musically current as any Hottie hitting the scene. A slower mid tempo declaration of life, and how no matter how bad it can get, if you’ve got friends who care, you will reach the point where you can exhale.. shoop, shoop.

I originally had the single “I Believe In You & Me” from her film The Preacher’s Wife on the first editions of Call Me Nippy, but the song’s a bit of a bore and I really wanted the more urban world of Whitney that she created when she bounced back from fairly lackluster sales with the 1998 album My Love Is Your Love. It’s really the only other Whitney album (besides the debut) to own and some would probably argue its miles above even the debut. Full of great singles that went from “Heartbreak Hotel” to “I Learned From The Best” it showed a current and new side to Whitney.

But two other singles that captured my attention were the title track and “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay” – both were big hits and became even bigger hits when remixed with just slightly more dance feelings. I love the remix that was used on the single for “My Love Is Your Love” and that is the version we use here. The song is our opening track as it is probably my all time fav Whitney tune, full of love and what would happen if’s, the song sets an urban tale of woe should the whole world just implode at least she knows that her love is your love and my love is your love and that is love, or something like that. It’s an excellent song.

The remix of the single for “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay,” is used here as well. The song in its original form is a already a great song and definitely one of her better singles but when Thunderpuss remixed it into a full on attitude dance hit, Whitney liked it so much she went back and redid the video to use the new remix version; and if it’s good enough for Nippy then it’s good enough for Bubba.

Whitney Houston – Call Me Nippy (bub73)
Track List:
01. My Love Is Your Love (Wycleaf Jean Remix)
02. Didn’t We Almost Have It All
03. How Will I Know
04. All The Man That I Need
05. All At Once
06. So Emotional
07. Greatest Love Of All
08. I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)
09. I’m Your Baby Tonight
10. Saving All My Love For You
11. Where Do Broken Hearts Go
12. I’m Every Woman
13. You Give Good Love
14. Love Will Save The Day
15. Exhale (Shoop Shoop)
16. It’s Not Right But It’s Okay (Thunderpuss Remix)
17. Nobody Loves Me Like You Do
18. I Will Always Love You

Labels: bub73, Bubbatunes, diva, Whitney Houston

posted by swivek @ 12:24 PM 0 comments

New Bubbatunes - Diva 2

bub72 Donna Summer – Sweet Summer Songs (February 20, 2007)
Where Tina Turner may have more soul than any of her contemporaries, her songs tend to be more of a hit and miss where Donna Summer seems to have come up with consistently great songs at least from 1975 through 1989 because as I was looking through her catalog I came up with way more songs I loved than what a one CD collection could handle. Perhaps that’s the reason there’s about 20 Donna Summer compilations out there. I own two of them, one is a double disc full of her singles from the beginning of her career to the middle 90’s and the other is her first official greatest hits collection 1979’s On The Radio; both of them are great of course but like most performers, I have personal favorites that never seem to make it onto compilations and so Donna gets the bubbatunes treatment with Sweet Summer Songs, a 19 track set that compiles some of her more famous singles through out the years and some of my favorite album tracks.

Again we skip the obvious chronological track list and instead go for a big beat fast paced opener with her brilliant 1979 single “Bad Girls”. We spend a lot of time with Donna through her 1970’s output but that’s really where she did do most of her gleaming. I mean Donna’s 1970’s output was nothing short of brilliant, mixing it up between dance styled ballads, full on disco and pushing electronic dance music into the mainstream, she was never boring. We’ve included most of her hits during the time, the sexy and dirty debut of 1975’s “Love To Love You Baby”, her duet with Brooklyn Dreams “Heaven Knows” (1978), the string driven disco ballad “On The Radio” (1979), the introduction of electronics on “I Feel Love” (1977), the so insane it’s genius “Macarthur Park” (1978) and one of the very first songs I ever heard by Donna, 1978’s brilliant though still slightly overplayed “Last Dance.” A Donna Summer mix wouldn’t be complete without the mandatory sheer brilliance of the rock/dance hybrid known as “Hot Stuff”, so of course that is also here.

Although all those songs are legendary and brilliant some of her more under appreciated songs came from that era as well including two songs from 1979’s Bad Girls album, the smooth and bouncy story of Hollywood found in “Sunset People” which has been referred to as “the best Donna Summer album cut of her career” though it was released as a single in the UK in the summer of 1980. “Our Love” is another electronic based song and one that doesn’t get as much press as her others. The simplistic lyrics about love lasting even when you can’t be together isn’t exactly poetry but it’s sweet and the bleeping pulsing electronic backbeat including the drum machine solos is pure brilliance. I’ve always felt that “I Feel Love” had really poor lyrics and they were put in essentially to put Donna’s voice above the real purpose of the song – to introduce an all electronic sound where with “Our Love” Donna was actually able to express some real emotion and real drive while doing it above an excellent back beat.

Because of Donna’s amazing talent as a singer and her ability to change musical styles effortlessly, when disco died Donna’s career didn’t. Instead she was the second person signed to David Geffen’s new label (right behind John Lennon) and made one of my favorite albums 1980’s The Wanderer. We’ve included the brilliant title track which tells the story of a woman who just likes to go, go, go and refuses to stand still for a 9 to 5 life. When the song was released as a single the powers that be put the song “Stop Me” as it’s B-side and as the years progressed that song eventually got more play than the single. One of my favorite songs by Donna, it’s a simple little pop song that changes from a slightly mid tempo to full fast rocker as Donna hiccups the verses trying to get her man to believe she isn’t as awful as he thinks she is, as the chorus progresses however she has to ask the man if all of her pleading is just old hat, “So if you’ve heard this all before/ don’t let me carry on no more/ stop me/ stop me if you think you’ve heard this one/ this one/ stop me/ stop me if you think you’ve heard this one/ stop me/ stop me/ stop me!” It’s incredible and I wonder if Morrissey used this as the basis for his Smiths number???

Because of her diversity, we get to ride with her into the rock arena with 1980’s “Cold Love” an awesome guitar synth driven track that was the second single from The Wanderer album. I read a book a few years ago that had the best rock singles ever and believe it or not this song was one of them. Donna’s voice is in super form as she struts around looking for love, “Hope in the dark/ love in the light/ I keep on looking for someone who’s right/ a face and a name/ it’s always the same/ so sick of playing love’s foolish games/ tell me why/ tell me whyyyyy… cold love/cold love/ another shot of rock and roll love/ cold love/ cold love/ whatever happened to that sweet old love/ tell me why/ tell me why/ tell me why…”

After The Wanderer, Donna went back to the studio with her long time collaborators Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte to create a two-disc album known as I’m A Rainbow. Geffen Records rejected the album and they set her up with Quincy Jones instead so for years the I’m A Rainbow album sat on the shelves until it was finally released on CD in 1996. But what happened between those 15 years of shelf life is a few songs ended up here and there - usually on a soundtrack. One of those songs is actually one of her best songs ever – the synthy pop fun of “Romeo”. As Geffen shelved the album, they let Giorgio Moroder use it for his mega hit soundtrack to the film Flashdance. The song is full of fast paced Donna cooing and announcing how great a man she has. The music is full on early 80’s synth pop and her vocals and sort of 60’s girl group delivery makes it one of my favorite songs by Summer ever.

With the I’m A Rainbow album shelved, Donna was hooked up with Quincy Jones for 1982’s Donna Summer album. Of the Quincy Jones productions came the top ten hit, “Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger)” which is a high hitting gem if ever there was one. Full of energy and personality, it’s one of those hits that you forget about it until you hear it and then you can’t get the damn thing out of your head. Also from the Donna Summer album came an interesting foray into new music territory with the slightly reggae religious themed “State Of Independence.” I’m not huge on songs about Jesus when I’m not in church and Donna seems to know this so instead of a full on gospel choir type of song like she had done before (1980’s “I Believe In Jesus”), she used contemporary beats, ethereal lyrics and one of her best vocal performances. It probably didn’t hurt any that her chorus of back up singers were actually Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Dionne Warwick and Lionel Richie.

Sweet Summer Songs delves even further into Donna’s more unrecognized 80’s work with the 1987 single “Dinner With Gershwin” which is set to a kind of creepy little metallic synth track as she registers low trying to get close to her man, “I wanna have dinner with Gershwin/ I wanna watch Rembrandt sketch/ I wanna fly double with Earheart/ impossible I guess…” The clever lyrics by Brenda Russell (“Piano In The Dark”, “Get Here”) tell the story of a fantasy as the list of what Donna wants to do really consists of getting “next to you.”

Donna’s material through the early 80’s continued to keep her career in fairly high momentum, in 1983 a contractual obligation to old label Casablanca had her record an album for them, the result was one of her biggest hits ever with “She Works Hard For The Money.” If new wave and guitar rock were ushering in a new wind in the early 80’s pushing music like Donna’s crafted dance into the wings, this was Donna’s effort at pushing back. Using full on rock guitars but keeping some synthy and dancey bass lines, Donna’s song about the workingwoman hit a thread with the public and both the single and video were in constant play.

The 80’s ended with Donna working with yet another group of boys who were changing dance and pop music – those Brits known as Stock/Aitken/Waterman whose songs had been on rotation for most of the late 80’s with Banarama, Rick Astley and Kylie Minogue being just a few who had worked with the boys. The Donna Summer resulting album Another Place & Time may not have been quite up to par with other Donna albums but it was obvious by 1989 that both the boys of SAW and Donna were pretty good at creating brilliant singles and “This Time I Know It’s For Real” is no exception. It’s almost perfect in the delivery by the boys and with Donna writing the lyrics and singing in her Summer style, it’s one of the best singles the boys ever produced.

Donna Summer – Sweet Summer Songs (bub72)
Track List:
01. Bad Girls
02. Cold Love
03. Dinner With Gershwin
04. Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger)
05. Last Dance
06. The Wanderer
07. Our Love
08. Heaven Knows
09. On The Radio
10. Hot Stuff
11. Romeo
12. State Of Independence
13. I Feel Love
14. Stop Me
15. Sunset People
16. She Works Hard For The Money
17. Macarthur Park
18. Love To Love You Baby
19. This Time I Know It’s For Real

Come back to see our next new Bubbatune compilation with a diva who can certainly knows where broken hearts go even if she gets so emotional she has to exhale... any guesses? Until next time, beep beep aaah toot toot or just shoop shoop...

Labels: Bradley, bub72, Bubbatunes, diva, Donna Summer

posted by swivek @ 11:27 AM 2 comments

New Bubbatunes - Divas Pt 1

February is Black History Month, and we here at Bubbatunes (Brad's house) are nothing if not diverse, so we are going to spend the next few posts looking at some new Bubbatunes compilations that show how truly diverse we can be as we celebrate Diva Month, and first up is one of the most legendary set of pipes and legs to ever hit the top 100...

bub 71 Tina Turner - Soul Survivor (February 13, 2007)
I like my Tina rockin’ and full of attitude so with our Bubbatunes compilation of that leggy broad, we opted to go the rock route, throwing out most of the songs that end up on her compilations. Instead of the adult contemporary type of ballads she likes to do these days we went to the back vault and her soulful renderings done with Ike and then moved up picking and choosing the most soulful and rocking songs. Of course the height of Tina’s popularity was the huge bombastic Private Dancer album from 1984 and as I truly believe it’s a classic album and the only essential full album to own by Tina we ended up using 8 of the 9 songs from that album. What can I say, it really is a great album and it’s definitely her most rock album of her big solo career that the album launched.

I’m not big on chronological order for some reason, and since I did use so many songs from Private Dancer, it would’ve felt a little too samey I think, so we go from the early days to the later days and back again through 20 classic Tina performances. Opening with the Ike & Tina Turner debut single “A Fool In Love” – Tina is in top form as she belts through the song asking her Ikettes why she’s so crazy in love. We get more of the Ike & Tina years with the classic 1970 “Proud Mary” and the two ultimate highlights, Tina’s own “Nutbush City Limits” which she redid in the 90’s but this 1973 rendering is the quissessential version and Ike’s band is in super funk form and one of her best vocal performances ever is found on the Phil Spector produced “River Deep Mountain High”, she would never sound so raw again.

After her Ike years, Tina stayed relatively low key, and if anyone (and who doesn’t) knows her biography, we all know why. But there were a few albums here and there and of course her performance in the Who’s Tommy, but since I don’t own any of those songs and there is more than enough released after these years, we kind of skip ahead to 1982 when Tina met up with BEG, which is really just a front for Martyn Ware & Greg Walsh. The funky electronic rock vibes on their cover of “Ball Of Confusion” is another highlight in Tina’s career. The song kicks ass literally with Tina belting politics faster than she can move those legs, and that’s pretty damn fast.

Because of her work on the BEG project, those boys decided to produce another song for Tina and thus her cover of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” produced by Walsh & Ware was her Capitol Records debut. Of course Tina is great vocal shape for the song and the more contemporary production makes the song a perfect comeback single. But the highlight of the single is actually the flip side on the 7” – a B-side only rocker called “I Wrote A Letter” which is now my all time favorite Tina Turner song. Why it didn’t end up on the album I’m not sure, although her rocking performance, the guitars and that raw performance may not have fit in with the songs that ended up on Private Dancer. Nonetheless, it’s a song that shows Tina can and should really rock out.

The Private Dancer album came out a few months after the comeback single and anyone who was around at the time knows what a phenomenon it was. In terms of a comeback, Tina surely holds a huge record. Suddenly the 40 plus year old singer was the hottest thing in pop music, and even then that’s really saying something about the music world. Of course Tina’s back story was enough to keep a soap opera going for a few years so add that into the great selection of songs and it’s no wonder she was taken into the heart of the mainstream. People love diversity stories and the downtrodden coming into their own is always appealing. Of course that theme was the basis for her album and it comes across on a number of the songs from the album, “Show Some Respect” is a funky little rock number that was released as the fourth single in the US where it struck in the top 40, and with it’s feisty lyrics, it’s always been one of my favorites from the album. The huge rocking hit “Better Be Good To Me” is the one that really struck the chord in both the masses and Tina’s own personal life, her gutty performance still stands strong all these years later, and when she does that low register, I swear it can still send a chill up my spine.

There were a few of the mellower sounds to be found on Private Dancer but because of her re-emergence into a more rock sound, they aren’t as AC as some of her later things, the title cut was another huge single and for some reason the song of a woman who is basically a whore really stands up on his own. I find myself turning it up time and time again and I love the lyrics particularly her pondering about having a family and of course that killer bridge with the forms of payment spread out for her client. The first single and main thing she will probably always be remembered for is the huge ass hit “What’s Love Got To Do With It” which is also in a more slow ballad type of production, though it’s up tempo and Tina seems genuinely pleased that she is able to realize the hook up and the relationship she’s in doesn’t mean all that much. I know it’s been played to death but if you go back and actually pay attention to the lyrics, it’s a very sophisticated little number.

The rocking side of Tina is firmly involved in the Private Dancer album and nowhere does she rock out more than on “Steel Claw”, my very favorite song on the album. This one needs to be turned up at insane volumes and if you can catch a breath you may even be able to sing along to Tina’s rapid fire delivery.

Though in more of a mid tempo vein two more album cuts made our compilation because they are killer tracks, the keyboard punches of Ann Peeble’s “I Can’t Stand The Rain” was released in the UK as a single and did fairly well. My mom loves this song because of how it sounds in headphones, and it really is a great performance all around. The first cut on Private Dancer is a strange lyrical tune called “I Might Have Been Queen (Soul Survivor)” which seems to be talking about reincarnation and past lives and with Tina’s penchant for Buddhism and the whole process of coming back from the career dead, it’s a perfect testament of Tina and one of my favorite songs.

After the success of Private Dancer, Tina was in hot demand and she appeared everywhere including a rocking little single called “It’s Only Love” with Bryan Adams. One of those singles you remember when you hear it but because of Tina’s otherwise more subtle singles we tend to forget about it. Well not me, and it’s not because I’m a Bryan Adams fan (I’m not) but because this song really is good and like I said I love Tina rocking out.

Tina also went back to the movies and starred in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome which is mostly important because of the two singles the film launched, the subtle meandering and cynicism of “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)” which is a killer track complete with a kids choir and the more rocking and always overlooked Holly Knight written “One Of The Living” which has a more apocalyptic tone than the hit single. Tina rocks it in that soulful way only Tina can, and once again it’s one of my all time favorite Tina Turner songs.

After all the hoopla of 1984/85 Tina went back to the studio and gave us the inferior Break Every Rule and though it launched a few hit singles, I don’t think it lived up to Private Dancer, of course that is an almost impossible feat. What Break Every Rule did give us though was the great bluesy rock of “What You Get Is What You See”, one feisty little single about those bastards in the night who think they’re so wonderful but Tina can see right through them.

Tina’s next album of new material was 1989’s Foreign Affair and for that album we all go back to Holly Knight for the clever single “The Best.” Holly had co-written “Better Be Good To Me” and “One Of The Living” so Tina would’ve been a fool not to go for the girl for another hit single and she got that, if not one of her most recognizable hits.

The years after Foreign Affair have been very hit and miss for Tina, at least with me. There are a few highlights including songs she did for the film version of her autobiography but there wasn’t anything that ever really threw me for a loop and the only two that came up worth really highlighting were “I Don’t Wanna Fight” the soundtrack hit and her 1999 single “When The Heartache Is Over”, the former is played to death and the latter though a hit in the UK is somewhat forgotten so we went with that one. It has a more contemporary feel since it has that pseudo electronica dance production a la Cher’s “Believe” and the lyrics are the feisty Tina kind I love.

Tina Turner – Soul Survivor (bub71)
Track List:
01. A Fool In Love
02. Show Some Respect
03. Ball Of Confusion
04. Better Be Good To Me
05. Nutbush City Limits
06. One Of The Living
07. I Can’t Stand The Rain
08. I Wrote A Letter
09. We Don’t Need Another Hero
10. I Might Have Been Queen (Soul Survivor)
11. River Deep Mountain High
12. What’s Love Got To Do With It
13. It’s Only Love
14. Let’s Stay Together
15. What You Get Is What You See
16. When The Heartache Is Over
17. Steel Claw
18. Proud Mary
19. Private Dancer
20. The Best

Next time we look at another diva with her finger on the trigger and ready to strut some hot stuff baby...

Labels: Bradley, bub71, Bubbatunes, Tina Turner

posted by swivek @ 8:56 AM 0 comments

Top 100 Singles Of The 70's - #1

Well here we are at long last - the top spot in the Top 100 Singles Of The 1970's - According To Bradley - and just to keep you at the edge of your Lazy Boy, let's take one more look at how we got to the top - here is a rundown of the past 99 songs we've talked about:

• 100 - The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia - Vicki Lawrence
• 99 - Nobody Likes Lovin' More Than I Do - Lisa Hartman
• 98 - I Am Woman - Helen Reddy
• 97 - Copacabana - Barry Manilow
• 96 - Lady Marmalade - La Belle
• 95 - You Needed Me - Anne Murray
• 94 - YMCA - Village People
• 93 - Rock & Roll - Led Zeppelin
• 92 - Walk On The Wild Side - Lou Reed
• 91 - I Think I Love You - Partridge Family
• 90 - Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel
• 89 - Fly Like An Eagle - Steve Miller Band
• 88 - Orgasm Addict - Buzzcocks
• 87 - Rock Lobster - B-52's
• 86 - Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell
• 85 - Don't Leave Me This Way - Thelma Houston
• 84 - So Far Away - Carole King
• 83 - Changes - David Bowie
• 82 - Renegade - Styx
• 81 - Lay Down (Candles In The Rain) - Melanie
• 80 - Don't Cry Out Loud - Melissa Manchester
• 79 - Dark Lady - Cher
• 78 - Proud Mary - Ike & Tina Turner
• 77 - Long Long Time - Linda Ronstadt
• 76 - Piano Man - Billy Joel
• 75 - Sad Eyes - Robert John
• 74 - Boogie Woogie Dancin' Shoes - Claudja Barry
• 73 - The Ballad Of Lucy Joran - Marianne Faithfull
• 72 - Because The Night - Patti Smith Group
• 71 - Dream On - Aerosmith
• 70 - Hotel California - The Eagles
• 69 - Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin' - Journey
• 68 - Love Hurts - Nazareth
• 67 - More Than A Feeling - Boston
• 66 - Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
• 65 - I Feel Love - Donna Summer
• 64 - Another Brick In The Wall Pt 2 - Pink Floyd
• 63 - Pop Muzik - M
• 62 - I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
• 61 - Denis - Blondie
• 60 - ABC - Jackson 5
• 59 - I Love The Nightlife (Disco 'Round) - Alicia Bridges
• 58 - Shadow Dancing - Andy Gibb
• 57 - Rhiannon - Fleetwood Mac
• 56 - Dancing Queen - ABBA
• 55 - Your Song - Elton John
• 54 - Walk This Way - Aerosmith
• 53 - Le Freak - Chic
• 52 - I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend - The Ramones
• 51 - Stayin' Alive - Bee Gees
• 50 - My Life - Billy Joel
• 49 - Rip Her To Shreds - Blondie
• 48 - Me & Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin
• 47 - Let It Be - The Beatles
• 46 - Don't Stop - Fleetwood Mac
• 45 - Mama Mia - ABBA
• 44 - Bad Girls - Donna Summer
• 43 - Jolene - Dolly Parton
• 42 - Cars - Gary Numan
• 41 - Don't Bring Me Down - ELO
• 40 - Knock On Wood - Amii Stewart
• 39 - Brand New Key - Melanie
• 38 - Dancing Barefoot - Patti Smith Group
• 37 - Vengeance - Carly Simon
• 36 - Hopelessly Devoted To You - Olivia Newton-John
• 35 - Can't Smile Without You - Barry Manilow
• 34 - If You Think You Know How To Love Me - Pat Benatar
• 33 - I Was Made For Dancin' - Leif Garrett
• 32 - I've Got The Music In Me - Kiki Dee Band
• 31 - Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac
• 30 - X Offender - Blondie
• 29 - Alison - Elvis Costello
• 28 - Would You Lay With Me (In A Field Of Stone) - Tanya Tucker
• 27 - Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen
• 26 - Brass In Pocket (I'm Special) - Pretenders
• 25 - Just What I Needed - The Cars
• 24 - Love Will Keep Us Together - Captain & Tennille
• 23 - Dreams - Fleetwood Mac
• 22 - I Want You To Want Me (live) - Cheap Trick
• 21 - American Girl - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
• 20 - Magic Man - Heart
• 19 - Paradise By The Dashboard Light - Meat Loaf
• 18 - Time For Me To Fly - REO Speedwagon
• 17 - A Little More Love - Olivia Newton-John
• 16 - One Way Or Another - Blondie
• 15 - How Deep Is Your Love - Bee Gees
• 14 - Hot Stuff - Donna Summer
• 13 - My Sharona - The Knack
• 12 - Hanging On The Telephone - Blondie
• 11 - You're No Good - Linda Ronstadt
• 10 - I Don't Like Mondays - Boomtown Rats
• 9 - Ballroom Blitz - Sweet
• 8 - Hot Child In The City - Nick Gilder
• 7 - Dreaming - Blondie
• 6 - You're So Vain - Carly Simon
• 5 - Video Killed The Radio Star - The Buggles
• 4 - You're The One That I Want - Olivia Newton-John & John Travolta
• 3 - Heart Of Glass - Blondie
• 2 - Heartbreaker - Pat Benatar

and now that I've wasted enough time, I proudly present to you the

#1 SINGLE OF THE 1970's :

Imagine – John Lennon
(John Lennon)
Apple single #1840 US / #6009 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 10/23/1971 #3 / UK 11/01/1975 #6
As you can see there are some things that just have to outweigh my love for Debbie and Pat and that would have to be a peaceful ditty by a peaceful god known as John Lennon. “Imagine” is probably John’s most famous solo recording if not his most famous of all, the simple piano and the somewhat (for 1970) controversial lyrics, “Imagine there’s no Heaven/it’s easy if you try/ No Hell below us/ above us just sky…” For the religious of the world they probably thought John may be the anti-Christ but the fact is what causes most if not all wars is religion. It’s so frightening to think that faith in a higher being was something that would bring people together not tear them apart. Of course believing in God and letting regular old people run religion is where people get into trouble.


But John knows it’s not only religion and the belief in Heaven and Hell that causes people to fight, there’s also politics ripping up the world, “Imagine there’s no countries/ it isn’t hard to do/ Nothing to kill or die for…” In fact, John asks us to, “Imagine all the people living life in peace…” It isn’t hard to do, or is it? Like most of us, who would love for the world to come together and live as one we are called dreamers (if we’re lucky), “You may say that I’m a dreamer/ but I’m not the only one/ I hope someday you will join us/ and the world will live as one…” It’s a very harsh world where someone so sensitive and longing for a feeling of world unity would end up the victim of a ruthless bullet, and leave us at such a critical stage in his own life. Paul McCartney may have been the cute one and I’d never try to even imply Sir P’s contributions aren’t incredible, but I’ve always been in the John Lennon camp of the Beatles and with songs that can make you fill you with such thrilling beguilement as “Imagine” and that very song can have just as big of a punch over 30 years after its release shows what an incredible influence and talent John Lennon was. Imagine a world with no John, it’s very hard to do.

Well I hope you enjoyed our trip back to the days of shag carpets, disco and Tab that was the Top 100 Singles Of The 70's. Did it surprise you? Were you in agreement? Do you think I don't know sheatt about music? Let us know, I appreciate all feedback as long as it's full of praise. And you needn't worry that this is the last of those Top 100 According To Bradley's because we have others in the work including a look at singles of the 90's and the 60's not to mention the ones that will probably show up sooner including my somewhat eclectic look at films with the top 100 Movies According To Bradley and the Top 100 TV Shows According To Bradley - both of which I think you'll find quite amusing... but until that day we return tomorrow to some normally scheduled blogging including a few new Bubbatunes I whipped up while you've been reading these posts!

Labels: 70s, Bradley, Imagine, John Lennon, Retro songs, Top 100 of the 70s

posted by swivek @ 12:33 PM 0 comments

The Top 100 Of The 70's - THE TOP FIVE

THE TOP FIVE
After what seems likes months and months, we have finally made it into the top 5 singles of the entire decade in the 1970's and as I know you're just itching to find out what my warped little ears picked up on, here they are the top 5 Singles Of The 70's - According To Bradley:


#5 – Video Killed The Radio Star – The Buggles
(Downes/Horn/Wooley)
Island single #49114 US /
Chart Debut: US Pop 11/10/1979 #40 / UK 09/29/1979 #1
A song about the future, where the future was really only a few months away. Most people know this jumpy little synth track from the early days of MTV, but the song was actually released and a hit two summers before MTV ever even debuted, it’s just that some genius thought of “Video Killed The Radio Star” as the perfect first video to be played on a new medium they hoped would take over radio programming. The boys at MTV got their wish but there was a time when no one thought it would ever work. The song itself is a cool ditty full of metallic synths and overdubs telling the tale of radio star who just can’t get the praise in the video age she used to get in the days of radio. It’s almost creepy how in touch the Buggles seemed to be in determining how music would be shaped. But I’m sure it was just coincidence and they were just trying to make a catchy new wave song. They succeeded for sure because “Video Killed The Radio Star” has to be one of the most clever and memorable songs to come out of the new wave era. With the bee bop girls singing along behind the lead vocals and the different instrumentations and melodies coming in, it really ushered in the age of plastic, just as the title of the album it came from, had announced.

#4 – You’re The One That I Want – Olivia Newton-John & John Travolta
(John Farrar)
RSO single #891 US / #6 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 04/01/1978 #1 / UK 05/20/1978 #1
When I was but a wee tyke, my mommy took me out to the bar with her and it ended up being the very first time I ever took to the stage. Yes, I was a child protégé, can you even believe it? That night, there was a band playing and they asked the audience if anyone would like to come up and join them in a song, well of course this kid shouted and screamed to get up on stage. When they asked me what I wanted to sing all I could think of was “You’re The One That I Want” from the movie Grease. Actually it wasn’t that hard of a choice since I had already seen the movie about 8 times, having convinced every single relative that came within hearing distance, that I had yet to see the movie, so one by one they all took me to see the film. I instantly fell in love with Olivia and John and Stockard and well, the whole gang. I also ran out and had my mother buy me the soundtrack, on 8 track of course so I could hear it in the car. Anyhoos, the highlight of the film is of course Livvie coming out as “Sandy II” in her tight leather pants and red Candie heels, and as she snubs out her cigarette and kicks Travolta’s chest, the whole world goes wild, and they break into “You’re The One That I Want.” The song is interesting as it wasn’t part of the original Grease play, the song was once again written by John Farrar, Olivia’s main producer and writer, but to show how good and how loved the song is, it’s become synonymous with Grease and I’m sure anyone who put on the play post-film would be a fool not to include the song. I mean even the new reality show where they are trying to find a new Danny and Sandy to play on Broadway is called You’re The One That I Want. As for the reasons the song struck such a chord, I really believe it has a ton to do with the sweet lovable but push over that Olivia was at the time prior to her transformation into Sandy. She goes from sissy to sassy in two minutes and turns the tables on her man defending her actions as a way to make sure he can handle her for all that she is. The fact that John Travolta was huge at the time didn’t hurt either. “You’re The One That I Want” begins with that great John high pitched “I’ve got chills/ they’re multiplyin’/ and I’m looosin’ control…” and the combination of the piano and that jazzy bass beat pump the song through plus the speedy chorus is so catchy everyone sings along with it yet no one can sing it like those two, try it, and you end up sounding like you’re talking and not singing at all. I guess that’s just the talent of Miss O, as for my debut all those years ago, you can bet that little white haired boy nailed it. I mean I didn’t even sing it with someone else, I took a duet and made it all my own. I’m sure I seemed rather schyzo but still I was able to blow them away. I was great and even if I wasn’t, in my memory I remember it being a magical time and I’ll keep it that way forever .


and for a special treat to imagine what I may have looked like at the time I made my big debut here's a little pic to put it into perspective:

#3 – Heart Of Glass – Blondie
(Deborah Harry/Chris Stein)
Chrysalis single #2295 US / #2275 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 02/17/1979 #1 / UK 01/27/1979 #1


Like so many other people, “Heart Of Glass” was my first taste of Blondie music. I remember being up with my mom one late New Year’s Eve night and seeing Blondie perform the song. I fell in love instantly with Deborah Harry and when my mother informed me that my father liked her I was even more stoked. I thought maybe we’d finally bond over something. As it turns out, we didn’t bond but boy did I bond with Blondie. My aunt had the Parallel Lines album and informed me she had done some cheerleading routine to the song so I stole the album. Psst, don’t tell her. Later, some relatives of our neighbors had the album and were more than impressed to know that I knew every single song back and forth. As for the single itself, “Heart Of Glass” is so often miscast as the band’s disco single it used to drive me nuts. For the record even early renditions of the song was called “The Disco Song” by the band so I suppose it was what they were going for, but if you listen to the music itself, “Heart Of Glass” is so much more than a run of the mill disco song, in fact there’s more of a smooth new wave feel to it than something KC & The Sunshine Band would do. There are the winding synths, the tic tic of the keyboard and the drums, the guitar, and Debbie’s oh so cool passivity in her vocals. The song is one of their most famous and still plays in clubs from here to England. Of course it doesn’t hurt that there are about 100 different versions of the song available. The original single faded out right after Debbie’s fab line, “Once I had a love/ it was a gas/ soon turned out to be a pain in the ass…” but when some radio felt uncomfortable playing it, a second version was released with it fading out before the line, then of course there was the 5:50 ‘disco version’ that showed up on 12” and on most of the pressings of Parallel Lines; and from there it just got remixed and remixed. But it’s the original that stands up the best, I get a thrill from the intro and when Debbie’s bridge comes in you can’t help but sing along, “Lost inside adorable illusion/ and I can’t hide/ I’m the one you’re using/ please don’t push me aside/ we could’ve made a cruisin’ yeah” and the boys “na, na, na, na”’s are an excellent touch until we get to the part that everyone loves, the breakdown and the “oooh wahoh”. “Heart Of Glass” is so full of little things to make it awesome, it’s almost amazing there could be a group of people so talented they could put all of this together. “Heart Of Glass” is a classic single that has definitely stood the test of time.

#2 – Heartbreaker – Pat Benatar
(Gill/Wade)
Chrysalis single #2395
Chart Debut: US Pop 12/22/1979 #23
If all Pat Benatar had ever offered to us was “Heartbreaker” I would still be a die Benatar fan. From the moment the intense drumbeat begins you are taken into a whole new level of high-energy new wave rock. Then the voice comes in and there’s no turning back, “Your love is like a tidal wave/spinning over my head/ drowning me in your promises/ better left unsaid…” in that now familiar Benatar growl but then she goes up three octaves to give us a bridge, “You’re the right kind of sinner/ to release my inner fantasy/ the invincible winner/ and you know that you were born to be” before growling the chorus, “You’re a heartbreaker/ dream maker/ love taker/ don’t you mess around with me/ no, no, no!” and if you’re smart you wouldn’t mess with the little petite firecracker. After listening to song after song from the 70’s I knew Benatar’s first big single would hit high and to be perfectly honest it was just a hair from being our #1 single of the 70’s, that’s how much I love this song and how much I believe you should love it too. There wasn’t another rocker like Miss Benatar when she hit the scene – there were the hard rocking boys in endless bands, and there were women hitting the scene like my Debs, Chrissie Hynde, Heart and Patti Smith but Pat had more of a gleam to her, she used a boy’s use of sexiness to get her gut wrenched messages across. Not as centerfold in looks in Debbie and not as lyrical as the Blondies, nor as political as Patti or Chrissie or even as hard rock as the Wilson sisters, Pat blended pop and rock with banging guitars on this single being meshed together by a new wave production done by Mike Chapman’s right hand band Peter Coleman. “Heartbreaker” bashes through the supposed prejudice that women can’t rock like men, Pat reestablishes the first verse with the second and then there’s a guitar solo and the drums come pounding back with Pat’s intense bridge only for all the music to fall away and an accapella rendering of the chorus which sounds amazing turned up to almost full volume. The music comes back and as Pat winds up the chorus, her soon to be husband Neil Geraldo creates one of the best guitar solos (almost 30 more seconds of the song) of the entire decade. Of course, the most thrilling part of it all is that voice, you never heard a woman sing like that behind those incredibly hard rock sounds. In fact the radio stations didn’t want to play the song at first as they felt it was too hard of a sound. It would take over 3 months to even move into the top 40 in March of 1980 but would eventually reach the lower 20’s and help put Pat Benatar on the map. Of all of her wonderfully crafted and exciting singles nothing punches like “Heartbreaker”, and the song and its album In The Heat Of The Night made a life time fan out of this little blonde, and that’s why it made it all the way to our number 2 spot. I couldn’t live without this song in my life.

On a side note I don’t think it hurt any that Pat looks smokin’ hot on the record jacket, in the UK, where the song didn’t chart or sell I blame completely on the record jacket issued, I mean it’s just downright goofy.

and just to keep things a little on the edge, before we get to the very best single of the 1970's let me give you a little trivia about our list... I love this stuff, even if you don't...

1. Completely coincidentally but so wonderful is the fact that every single year of the 70's has been represented in our list of the top 100. Being a child of the 80's it's probably not terribly surprising that the year with the most entries is 1979, with a total of 25 singles, including 5 of our top 10; 1979 is followed by 1978 (23), a tie between 1977 & 1976 (11), 1970 has 8 singles, 5 singles are a tie between 1971 and 1974 and there are 4 singles from 1972x1973 and 1975, so it looks like a fairly good representation.

2. Blondie (of course) has the most singles entries in our list with 7, followed by Fleetwood Mac with 4 singles, and then third place finds a tie between Donna Summer & Olivia Newton-John each with 3 hits, and the total number of artists with double entries is 11 - Linda Ronstadt, Barry Manilow, Melanie, Billy Joel, Patti Smith Group, Aerosmith, Queen, ABBA, Bee Gees, Carly Simon and our #2 entry winner Pat Benatar, but should you feel that's a lot of songs by repeated artists there are still 61 songs that are by artists with only one entry.

3. Producer Mike Chapman produced the most singles on our countdown with 6 but since he did produce 4 of Blondie's 7 that's not a big surprise but he also produced Benatar's "If You Think You Know How To Love Me" (#34), The Knack's "My Sharona" (#13), Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz" (#9) and Nick Gilder's "Hot Child In The City".

4. It's not surprising considering the size and period of time they were in business but Columbia Records has the most chart entries with 11 including Elvis Costello, Billy Joel & Boomtown Rats on their roster. And because of Blondie's prominence on the chart the record label with the second most entries goes to Chrysalis Records but they also had Pat Benatar, Nick Gilder, and Claudja Barry; and the third is another big sized company Capitol Records with 7 entries including Anne Murray, The Knack and Sweet.

now stay tuned for the #1 Single Of The 1970's According To Bradley

Labels: 70s, Blondie, Grease, In The Heat Of The Night, John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Pat Benatar, Retro songs, The Buggles

posted by swivek @ 8:48 AM 0 comments

Top 100 Singles Of The 70's - 10-6

THE TOP 10!
10-6
We have done it, we have gone through 90 songs from that decade of decadence the 70's; and here we are in the top 10 - the ten best reasons to love music from the 70's - according to me.


#10 – I Don’t Like Mondays – Boomtown Rats
(Bob Geldof)
Columbia single #11117 US / Ensign #30 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 02/02/1980 #73 / UK 07/21/1979 #1
With “I Don’t Like Mondays” we end up with a story song that doesn’t really tell a story per se but is based upon a true story - a tragic true story if ever there was one. Long before Columbine which found disgruntled students shooting and killing their fellow classmates, On January 29th, 1979, the first day of school after Christmas break, 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer opened fire on kids arriving at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego from her house across the street, killing two men and wounding eight students and a police officer. Principal Burton Wragg was attempting to rescue children in the line of fire when he was shot and killed, and custodian Mike Suchar was slain attempting to aid Wragg. The girl used a rifle her father had given her as a Christmas gift. As to what impelled her into this form of murderous madness, she told a reporter, ''I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day.'' The "Mondays" comment was not the only eyebrow-raising declaration to issue from Spencer that day. According to a report written by the police negotiators who spoke with her during the six-hour standoff, she made such comments to them as ''There was no reason for it, and it was just a lot of fun''; ''It was just like shooting ducks in a pond''; and ''[the children ] looked like a herd of cows standing around, it was really easy pickings.'' The stand off eventually ended after 6 ½ hours with Brenda surrendering and she is still in prison, but the story doesn’t end there. Instead Bob Geldof wrote this keyboard laced cry about the girl, “The silicone chip inside her head gets switched to overload/ and no one’s gonna go to school today/ she’s gonna make them stay at home/ and Daddy doesn’t understand it/ he always said she was good as gold/ and he can see no reason/ casue there is no reason/ what reason do you need to know..” before a choir type vocal comes in for the chorus, “Tell me why!” and Bob’s answer, “I Don’t Like Mondays” “Tell Me Why!” “I Don’t Like Mondays/I wanna shoot/ oooh / the whole day down.” Intense subject matter for a song, and no doubt what the song is talking about, in fact it was banned in the US long before 2 Live Crew ever got that major distincition. By the early days of 1980 however, the song was being played on some radio stations and eventually cracked our top 100 but in the UK it was released in the summer of ’79, less than 6 months after the actual shooting and Brenda Spencer didn’t even go to trial until early October. The really strange thing about it all is the song is very catchy and sing songy. I love singing it and for some reason the subject matter doesn’t terrify me as I belt out the song. But isn’t art supposed to have a grain of truth and some actual substance and meaning behind it? For that “I Don’t Like Mondays” should be an automatic Best of in just about any music list.

#9 – Ballroom Blitz – Sweet
(Mike Chapman/Nicky Chinn)
Capitol single #4055 US / RCA single #2403 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 06/14/1975 #5 / UK 09/22/1973 #2
I love me some high energy and Sweet certainly delivers that on “Ballroom Blitz”. Sure it’s a tad cheesy, it’s also a tad over the top but it is also a heaping help of fun. I love singing this song because of the different voices you get to use. The song begins with a crazed shout out to band mates before going slightly calm in the lyrics and then taking off again for the bridge before the awesome, “yeah/yeah/yeah” leads us to the rapid fire chorus, “And the man in the back said ‘everyone attack’/ and it turned into a ballroom blitz/ and the girl corner said ‘boy I wanna warn ya/ it’ll turn into a ballroom blitz” and then there’s the awesome drum breakdown in the middle that always gets me. I’ve been meaning to do a cover of this song for years and perhaps someday I’ll get to it, but for now I just bring the energy levels of Karaoke night up a few notches.

#8 – Hot Child In The City – Nick Gilder
(Nick Gilder/James McCulloch)
Chrysalis single #2226
Chart Debut: US Pop 06/10/1978 #1
“Hot Child In The City” was one of my favorite songs when I was a kid, though I always thought it was a woman singing. Of course all I could ever remember was the chorus so for all I knew it could’ve been a woman. As it turns out, Nick Gilder is not a girl but a slightly high voiced male who performed awesome new wave rock songs usually about sex. Nick was originally the singer of the band Sweeney Todd until he went off on his own. “Hot Child In The City” comes from his second album, 1978’s City Nights. The whole song is a huge homage to some seductive teenage runaway ruling the streets of the city. I love the imagery as I wanted to be that slutty teen running along the streets of Los Angeles. “Danger in the shape of something wild/ stranger dressed in black/ she’s a hungry child..” replace she with he and I tell you this was me! In recent years I’ve been able to get most of Nick’s great Chrysalis Records releases all of which contain some form of city slick teens running wild and sharing their sex, and I love every single one of them. Another killer track of his titled “Rated X” would end up on Pat Benatar’s debut album In The Heat Of The Night, another record full of stylistic seductiveness and Nick would also go on to write for others including “The Warrior” by Scandal, but “Hot Child In The City” is his most famous song and his one and only single to make it into the top 40 which if you ever heard “Here Comes The Night” proves to be a real shame.


#7 – Dreaming – Blondie
(Deborah Harry/ Chris Stein)
Chrysalis single #2379 US / #2350 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 09/29/1979 #27 / UK 09/29/1979 #2
Blondie drummer Clem Burke has claimed “Dreaming” was just one long giant drum roll and in some aspects he may be right. The song starts with his drumming before the guitars and keyboards come in and the fact that the whole 3 minute song is one smashing drum hit after another makes it pack a whole hella punch. Of course it’s Blondie so every little musical aspect borders on genius, from that punching drum, to Jimmy’s too cool for the real world keyboards, Nigel’s bass and Chris and Frank etching out the guitar work, and of course not only do we get Debbie’s icy cool vocals but we also get her ambiguous lyrical workout. I love songs that talk of reflective dreaming, the type that walk you through how your dreams can come true, or even how daydreaming the day away can make your whole life seem a lot better. Debbie does a fantastic job with “Dreaming” by taking a lyric that could easily have played in a ballad and putting it into a jaugernat of a rock song. “When I met you in the restaurant/you could tell I was no debuante/ you asked me what’s my pleasure/ a movie or a measure/ I’ll have a cup of tea/ and tell you of my dreaming/ dreaming is free…” Oh Debbie, how your sometimes incoherent ramblings can turn the world on its ear, I’m not sure what a measure is, and Debbie probably doesn’t know anymore either but it makes for a very interesting line, and when we go to our next verse we get even more brilliant yet random thoughts, “I don’t want to live on charity/ pleasure’s real or is it fantasy/ reel to reel is living rarity/ people stop and stare at me/ we just walk on by/ we just keep on dreaming…” I love that line. Then Clem goes into hyper drive and the song shifts gears a bit, “Beep/beep/ walking a two mile/ meet/ meet/ meet me at the turstile/ never met him/ I’ll never forget him/ dream/ dream/ even for a little while/ dream/ dream/ filling up an idle hour/ fade away/ oooh / radiaaaaaaattee..” Which I always thought was such a cool line because well fade away, radiate is just an awesome line but it’s also a song from Blondie’s previous album so it’s kind of like a shout out to themselves. The song goes back to its original beat for our final and favorite verse, “I sit by and watch the traffic go/ I sit by and watch the river flow/ Imagine something of your very own/ something you can have and hold/ I’d build a road in gold/ just to have some dreaming…” and after Debbie informs us a few more times that Dreaming is free, we fade out with Jimmy’s keyboards coming up and taking over. A clever and classic little single of daydreaming, ethereal images, awesome musicianship and cooler than cool lyrics,“Dreaming” would hit #2 in the UK but only scored in the top 30 here, I guess we were too busy dreaming to pay attention to the brilliance.


#6 – You’re So Vain – Carly Simon
(Carly Simon)
Elektra single #45824 US / #12077 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 12/02/1972 #1 / UK 12/16/1972 #3
In the past few months I have discovered that Carly Simon kicks ass. Perhaps not in the leather clad Joan Jett style but in a very real way nonetheless. After hearing a ton of her early albums and the chances she takes in both lyrics and music styles, she has now made me a life long fan, and it only took about 23 years to catch up. One song that didn’t need any reintroduction to the Carly canon is our #6 single “You’re So Vain.” The single is a song that is so famous it has its own urban legend. Of course perhaps it’s the urban legend that has made the single last so long in our concioussness. For all purposes, “You’re So Vain” is a piss off to someone from Carly and when it came out who exactly that someone was had everyone’s mind buzzin. Was it Carly’s boyfriend soon to be husband James Taylor that she was singing about? Was it Mick Jagger who sings a very audible appearance on the back up? Was it Warren Beatty who had dated our girl for a while? The question has never been answered and Carly liked it that way, stating in a not too long ago interview that if she told who it was about then the whole mystique of the song may be taken away. Finally, after over 30 years of prodding she did a fairly interesting thing by auctioning off to a high bidder who the song was really about. The deal was she would whisper in the winner’s ear who she wrote about and then perform the song for them. Of course they had to sign wavers as to not repeat the information. So some guy won and she did perform him and now there are at least two people who know who the real scheister is. As for us momo’s who can’t win auctions or have the ability to whip Carly into a corner at an exclusive party, we are left just imagining who she is singing about. But thanks to the power of the lyrics we could put just about anyone in the song, the theme that the person is a bastard in the night who is so vain he may actually think we’re singing about him can be fairly universal.
Perhaps it’s the appeal of the attitude behind the song that makes it so great. I know that it surely doesn’t hurt that Carly has a pretty cool reserve about her in her vocal performance and her lyrics are always three notches higher than the normal intellect, I mean just look at her rhymes, “You walked into the party like you were walking onto a yacht/ your hat strategically dipped below one eye/ your scarf it was apricot/ you had one eye in the mirror as you watched yourself gavotte/ and all the girls were dreaming that you’d be their partner…” Who writes like that? I tell you who, Carly Simon. A woman who would seem above reproach to the lowlies who didn’t grow up in Manhattan or vacation in the Hamptons, but with her willingness to let us into her very personal feelings, she never seemed the hardened upper crust New Englander, instead she came off very folky, very mature, and very sexy. Add to the mix with that filtering bravado of a guitar at the beginning, her refrain about her dreams being clouds in her coffee and Mick Jagger’s incredible backing vocal and you have a song that will last long after Carly’s unable to even remember who she wrote the song about.

And so you have the first batch of our top 10 singles of the 70's - I hope I'm not terribly disappointing all of you with my somewhat prejudiced and eclectic tastes but these really are the songs I listen to over and over and deserve to be in the top 10 according to Bradley - oh and because I'm such a trivia buff here's a little trivia about our latest list - 3 of the 5 songs are produced by Mike Chapman, I know strange huh? And completely coincidental - Mike produced some of the best music ever from the 70's on up and on this list he produced and co-wrote Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz", and produced the Nick Gilder single "Hot Child In The City" and pretty much reinvented Blondie with his produced albums including Parallel Lines which has a few singles on our countdown and today's "Dreaming" which is from the Chapman produced Eat To The Beat album - okay, until next time when we have that long awaited post which will give you not only the top 5 singles of the 70's but the very best - the #1 single of the 70's - According to Bradley.

Labels: 70s, Blondie, Boomtown Rats, Bradley, Carly Simon, Nick Gilder, Retro songs, Sweet

posted by swivek @ 8:54 AM 1 comments

Top 100 Singles Of The 70's - 15-11

#15-11
We are almost at the top 10; can you even believe it; can't you feel the excitement in the air? I thought so, well let's wrap up this little thing called the top 20 and see what that strange little ear of mine has come up with...

#15 – How Deep Is Your Love – Bee Gees
(Barry/Robin/Maurice Gibb)
RSO single #882 US / #2090 259 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 09/24/1977 #1 / 10/29/1977 #3
The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack launched Bee Gees into the stratosphere and secured them a place in the history of the 70’s, the jive talkin’ fun of the hit “Stayin’ Alive” (see #51) was one of the reasons, but the sweet soulful sound of the disco balladry found in “How Deep Is Your Love” stands up even better than the other single. That oh so breathy high falsetto Barry Gibb lead vocal with Maurice and Robin lending a smooth backing vocal, I’m sure this song had many a Hottie swooning on her high stilettos, and the romanticism isn’t lost in the gutsy and seductive disco beats behind the lyric. It’s a sweet song that’s not overly sweet, a sex song not completely sexual, it just is what it is, a great single.

#14 – Hot Stuff – Donna Summer
(Pete Bellotte/Harold Faltermeyer/Keith Forsey)
Casablanca single #978 US / #151 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 04/21/1979 #1 / UK 05/12/1979 #11
I mentioned earlier how Donna’s 1979 Bad Girls album helped change not only Miss Summer’s image but also launced new styles of dance music. The lead off single “Hot Stuff” came out just months after Donna had been hailed the Queen Of Disco with her starring turn into the very disco-ish Thank God It’s Friday and its hit single “Last Dance”. When the guitar rhthym of “Hot Stuff” hit the radio it must’ve had Donna fans in a tither, there is a hundred and fifty degree turn from this single and her previous hits. The rousing guitars, the thumping metallic back beat, Donna’s impassioned vocals looking for some hot loving shot straight to number one and helped launch the album into the huge seller it would become. Not just a song of the 70’s but a song that lasts all time, “Hot Stuff” is a hybrid of dance, rock, pop and soul all wrapped up into one and it proved that Donna Summer wasn’t going to just fold into the sequined dust left once disco died, she still had a few more things to prove.

#13 – My Sharona – The Knack
(Averre/Fieger)
Capitol single #4731 US /
Chart Debut: US Pop 06/23/1979 #1 / UK 06/30/1979 #6
The Knack was supposed to be the next coming of Beatles style mania when they were launched in the summer in 1979, that big thing never really happened for them but they did leave behind a number of high energy new wave rock singles including their most famous “My Sharona”. A huge hit and likely so, opening with that thumping drum you can’t help but shake your head in a robotic new wave dance of happiness. Add the high energy of the vocal performances and the changing melody and you have one of the most memorable singles of all time.

#12 – Hanging On The Telephone – Blondie
(Jack Lee)
Chrysalis single #2271 US / #2266 UK
Chart Debut: UK 11/11/1978 #5
Yes, I know another Blondie song so soon? Well what can I say? Blondie is the kicks kids. A cover of the little known band The Nerves, “Hanging On The Telephone” was the lead off track from 1978’s Parallel Lines. The song begins with a nice little touch by throwing in the sound of a ringing phone as we wait for someone to answer, what we get instead is Debbie manically pounding the phone booth to find out why her man isn’t picking up the phone. “I heard your mother now she’s walking out the door/ did she go to work or just go to the store/ all those things she said I’ve chosen to ignore…” Hilarious and seductive, just like our Debbie. “Hanging On The Telephone” goes into hyper overdrive for less than 2 and ½ minutes and unlike Debbie you are left breathless by the time it’s over. The single was the second released from the album and the first that was released in both the US and the UK – “I’m Gonna Love You Too” was the lead off single in the US and “Picture This” was the UK lead off – and though it didn’t manage anything chart wise here, Blondie scored their third top 10 hit in the UK. Meanwhile, we all got a great taste of Blondie’s rocking new wave side right before they took over the world with “Heart Of Glass.”

#11 – You’re No Good – Linda Ronstadt
(Clint Ballard Jr.)
Capitol single #3990 US / #15804 UK
Chart Debut: US Pop 12/07/1974 #1
Sometimes Linda Ronstadt can really surprise me. On one hand she did so many covers it’s almost hard to differentiate her from an overrated lounge singer but when that voice of hers kicks in she is somehow able to take any song she sings and make it her very own. Of course she was always happy playing the pitiful victim in her songs, and that probably comes from the ballads she was so intent on singing and even when she decided to rock out, it was usually to the tunes of the poor, poor pitiful me, but every once in awhile the girl would show the gusto lying beneath the vulnerablitly and the rocky stylings of “You’re No Good” is that persona in full effect. Opening with a bass that kicks itself into rampaging gear, Linda coos, “Feeling better now that we’re through/ feeling better now that I’m over you…” and you know you’re in for something good, when the chorus kicks in “You’re no good/ you’re no good/ baby you’re no good” you want to join Linda when she belts, “I’m gonna say it again/ you’re no good/ you’re no good…” The second verse puts Linda in the hot seat, “I broke a heart that’s gentle and true/ I broke a heart over someone like you/ I’ll beg his forgiveness on bended knee/ but I wouldn’t blame him if he said to me/ you’re no good…” The guitar solo is killer and when Linda ends with her acapella “you’re no good…” it’s excllant, but the song isn’t over yet. Instead, “You’re No Good” turns into a moody bass and keyboard solo as it fades out making it one of the more clever singles to come from the early 70’s when everything was usually so formulated it lacked any kind of creativity. The instrumentation added to the fact that Linda is for all intents and purposes is a singer, it’s surprising they used that ending for the song but it completely works and makes it even more moody, bitchy and cool.

There you have it, the final five of the top 20 in our Top 100 Singles Of The 70's - we've managed to get through so much music including all the repeat offenders found on today's list, so stay tuned to find out what happens next - with my strange little tastes you never know what lies ahead... perhaps you could play a little game - what songs would Bradley pick for a top 10? Mmmm... it's a question I've had to ask myself quite often.

posted by swivek @ 8:51 AM 0 comments