Most of you know that I am a huge ONJ fan. Always have been. Perhaps part of it is the greatest movie musical involving roller-skating. I am, of course, speaking about Xanadu.
This song, a huge hit for Newton-John in 1980, was used in the movie when her character, Kira, whose origin you don't know at the time, meets Sonny, the Michael Beck character, and they fall in love. The song, although, in the context of the movie, is a lot more than this, stands alone as a love song - a love that's always been there, predestined.
Wikipedia considers this song "disco" and "soft rock". OK, I guess so, but it came at the tail end of the disco era, and still spent 4 weeks at #1 - finishing 1980 as the 3rd biggest hit of the year.
DJ Dan Murphy and Steve Peach remixed the song in 2011, for ONJ's charity, the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre. She did reenter the studio to rerecord the vocals for this project, which also featured a music video with a large cast.
I didn't want to let the day go by without acknowledging this.
You might have noticed in my last post, about an hour ago, that I included a songwriting credit. All I have to say that, if you noticed that, good 4 u.
Yes, Hayley Williams and Josh Farro from Paramore got a songwriting credit on Olivia Rodrigo's song because Olivia Rodrigo interpolated the chorus of "Misery Business" into "good 4 u". The two songs are distinct enough that there isn't overt stealing - but the right thing was done by giving the songwriting credit to Williams and Farro.
The lyrics of THIS song were written by Williams, about Farro, on whom she had a crush.
Olivia Rodrigo is PRESENTLY nominated for seven Grammy awards, including one for this angry, sarcastic, biting song that she wrote - more specifically, THIS music video.
The song itself, co-written by Rodrigo along with Dan Nigro, Hayley Williams and Josh Farro, was her 2nd #1 hit from her debut album, Sour - a feat that had never happened before. Musically, it flows between pop-punk, grunge, and, well, music that Taylor Swift could be making. In addition to its #1 performance on the US pop charts (where it also spent 11 weeks at #2, tying the record), it topped charts around the world and cemented Olivia Rodrigo as a superstar.
Here she is, performing the song on Saturday Night Live in 2021. Clearly, she couldn't drop the crowd-pleasing f-bomb in the 2nd verse, but her laugh right after stayed in.
Released on their 1988 album Green but intended for 1989 single release (hence the title), the story of this song isn't really the song - which is a pretty standard pop song parody lyrically, and unimaginative in its simplicity musically. The video featured three topless women and a topless Michael Stipe dancing. This is the age restricted video you can't see below.
However, you can't show nipples on MTV. So, Michael Stipe put black bars on all the nipples, including his - because, as he said, "a nipple is a nipple."
It's rare that a B-side to a single is the same as the A-side, and yet, an acoustic version of "Pop Song 89" was the B-side. It is, in my opinion, a better version of the song - showing the beauty of the arrangement and the biting parody of the lyrics a little more pointedly.
Ten years ago from this very point - 3:36 PM, Eastern Standard Time, January 5, 2012 - I started a blog. It was born of a shared appreciation of a particular former sister-in-law of Nick Lachey and star of Melrose Place 2.0, and a thought that she got way too much shit for the SNL debacle.
I didn't know what the hell I was doing back then. I made a few sus style choices that I've stuck with (I'm not changing the font, people). I didn't know that I should be researching these songs a lot more. So, this is what I said:
"Let's open up this blog with one of the guiltiest pleasure songs ever performed. It's hard to be bad-ass in argyle, but Ashlee Simpson tries, and pulls it off to some extent. It's really hard to say "Ashlee Simpson" and "bad-ass" in the same sentence while keeping a straight face."
For our tenth anniversary, I am PURPOSEFULLY revisiting this song that started it all. It deserves a full treatment.
This song was based on real life experience, and is being sung to a very specific person. When you hear Ashlee singing "I didn't steal your boyfriend", she's singing it to Lindsay Lohan. And the boyfriend in question was Wilmer Valderama. That's right. THAT Lindsay Lohan. Simpson did deny it for many years, but she has finally come clean.
The song, which came after her "career-ending" turn on Saturday Night Live, would be a worldwide hit, reaching the top 20 in many countries.
You know what? Before we get into this video, I'd like to address the SNL thing, directly. Ashlee had a SECOND SNL performance. That's right. She came back after the debacle. And performed THIS SONG. This song, the second biggest hit she had, came AFTER her career was supposedly destroyed. Video of that performance appears on nbc.com - but they keep their rights pretty tight, so I can't post it here.
I also want to apologize to Ms. Simpson-Ross (Diana Ross is her mother-in-law now). I no longer have trouble calling her a bad-ass, argyle or no argyle.
Also, I wish a video existed that included the original lyric. Because, it's important to note, Lindsay Lohan bought a lot of shit to Ashlee's door.
Stop hating on Ashlee, people. She's the Simpson we all need.
Despite what you might have heard, this song is NOT at all against short people. You are not supposed to sympathize with the narrator. He's supposed to be seen as a bigot.
But a lot of people didn't understand that. Including the Maryland legislature, who attempted to BAN the song. Clearly, on First Amendment grounds, that was a failure.
Still, this was Newman's first big hit. And it endures to this day.
John Wetton was the lead vocalist for King Crimson. Geoff Downes was in a band called the Buggles. They both wrote this song - John Wetton as a lyrical apology to a woman he had wronged. Together with members of Yes and ELP, they made up Asia, a prog rock supergroup.
This was their biggest and only major hit - but it was a really big hit, making the top 5 in the US and charts around the world. I mentioned the lyrics earlier - it was a lyrical apology - but you might notice that it has a very country feel. That's because it was originally written as a country song.
