by

Song of the Day #5,218: ‘Whatsername’ – Green Day

It’s time for another installment of the Decades series, wherein I write about the albums released in a given year across multiple decades. I’ve been on the 4s, having covered 1974, 1984 and 1994 so far. Which brings us to 2004.

I find I’m usually disappointed once I get to the first decade of the new millennium. My personal taste starts to veer away from the critical consensus. And indeed, almost none of the albums I picked as my ten favorite from this year showed up on lists of critic’s darlings.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #5,217: ‘Rose’ – Patti Scialfa

I remember buying Patti Scialfa’s second album, 2004’s 23rd Street Lullaby, after reading rave reviews.

Scialfa, longtime E-Street Band member and wife of Bruce Springsteen, had put her solo career on hold for 11 years after the release of her debut album, and 23rd Street Lullaby was celebrated not just for its music but for the fact that it put the spotlight on somebody perennially relegated to the background.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #5,216: ‘Hello, Goodbye’ – The Beatles

Even the most basic and uninspiring Beatles songs have interesting back stories.

‘Hello, Goodbye’ is the sort of fluff that Paul McCartney could write in 15 minutes, and that’s kind of what he did. When Alistair Taylor, one of Brian Epstein’s assistants, asked McCartney about his songwriting process, Paul sat down at a harmonium and asked Taylor to do a call-and-response. Taylor would say the opposite of whatever word McCartney offered up, and Paul built the song around that framework.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #5,215: ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ – Puff Daddy

Yesterday I speculated that one reason we haven’t seen a song repeat at #1 in the last 22 years is that modern artists are more likely to sample an old hit than cover it.

Perhaps the most notorious (pun intended) example of that is Puff Daddy’s 1997 release ‘I’ll Be Missing You,’ written about and released a couple of months after the murder of The Notorious B.I.G. Puff Daddy’s tribute to his late friend debuted at #1 on the Hot 100 and spent 11 weeks there, a record for a rap song until Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ topped it in 2002.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #5,214: ‘Lady Marmalade’ – Moulin Rouge!

Our final song to reach #1 by two different artists is also the one with the longest span between releases — 27 years.

‘Lady Marmalade’ first reached the top spot in 1974, recorded by the girl group Labelle (Patti Labelle sang the lead vocal). Patti later claimed to not know the French-language refrain (“Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?”) meant “Would you like to sleep with me tonight?”

Continue reading →