27 December 2023 - The Ting Tings - Great DJ

It's been a while since we posted The Ting Tings.  

We actually wrote that first line in 2021.  Mostly because, in 2021, it had been a while since we posted the Ting Tings.  In fact, it's now been more than ten years.  And, frankly, every post about the Ting Tings have been about songs from their debut albim, 2008's We Started Nothing.  

Which is a shame, because they're still making music, all these years later.  The duo are a talented pair.

This song, which was a UK minor hit and a US club hit, was written by the band, with Katie White writing that guitar riff you hear throughout (despite not being terribly proficient on the guitar at the time).  It's a simple, sparse song (like a lot of theirs) but also a rich banger.

Anyway, just because we aren't posting about them incessantly doesn't mean we don't still love the Ting Tings.

If you are wondering where some of the synthesized sounds are coming from when there's only two people in the band (even live!), watch Katie's feet during this live performance.

26 December 2023 - The Smithereens - Top of the Pops

From their fourth album, Blow Up, this song was a mainstream and alternative rock hit song.  Written entirely by Pat DiNizio, it's a straight-forward rock song, off what is arguably their most accessible album.  

The video was directed by John Lloyd Miller (who directed several of their videos) and filmed in Atlantic City, NJ.  

We think the best tribute to the band is that they live on, years after Pat DiNizio has passed.  Here is the best underrated rock band on the planet, with Robin Wilson as a guest vocalist, still crushing it more than 30 years later.  

Of course, we miss Pat, and nothing beats their live performances with him, like this one from 1991.

25 December 2023 - Lights - Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

Why exactly are you reading my blog on Christmas morning?!

Well, since you're here, Merry Christmas!  Here's Lights, one of our #MapleLeafMarch highlights, with her take on a Christmas classic.

And yes, we did say this once before, exactly.  This was part of a double A side with another Christmas song.  

24 December 2023 - Cœur de Pirate, Pierre Lapointe, Garou, Marc Dupré - Noël des enfants / Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

This is starting to become an annual tradition, isn't it? 

I mean, it's Christmas Eve, and here I am with the œ on my clipboard again.  

La Voix is the French Canadian version of The Voice, a singing competition show I'm sure most of you have heard of.  These were the four judges in the 2020 version of the show - right around the beginning of the pandemic.  Do you remember the pandemic?  

(I'm writing this in 2021.   I really hope the pandemic is something we are remembering and not still living) (2023 update: yes)

This song was released in late 2019, ahead of the 2020 season as something of an announcement.  It is, of course, a cover of a John Lennon classic.

22 December 2023 - Olivia Newton-John - Hopelessly Devoted To You

Let's talk about Grease.  An adaptation of a stage musical of the same name, it starred Olvia Newton-John and John Travolta.   The soundtrack was the second biggest selling album of 1978 - second only to the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever.    

By the way, both movies were definitely in theaters at the same time, because I remember going to see Grease in 1979 with my mother and literal one-month old sister and seeing posters for both.

Written by longtime ONJ collaborator John Farrar, this song did not appear in the original stage musical (the movie, to be fair, took several liberties with the source material), but was accepted into the movie immediately.  It ended up being one of Olivia's biggest hits, reaching #3 on the Billboard charts and earning Farrar an Academy Award nomination (he also earned a Golden Globe nom for a different original song for the movie, "You're The One That I Want").

Because it was an Academy Award nominated song, Olivia performed the song at the 1979 Oscar ceremony.  The backing was by the Oscar ceremony orchestra - and, if it's possible, she sang it bigger on that stage.

Olivia performed this song at least through 2017, as it was one of her favorites (mine, too).  Here is one of her last performances (she retired from live performance soon after, and passed in 2022).

21 December 2023 - Bee Gees - Night Fever

In 1978, the Bee Gees owned the music world.  This song spent eight weeks at #1, on the strength of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack album that was, essentially, a Bee Gees album.  That soundtrack is the best selling soundtrack of all time, and one of the ten biggest selling albums of ANY kind.  

It ended up being the second biggest hit song of 1978, behind their brother Andy Gibb's "Shadow Dancing", which, well, they wrote.  In fact, five of the top ten songs of 1978 were either by the Bee Gees or Andy Gibb and written by the Brothers Gibb.  8

To put that in perspective, Debby Boone's cover of "You Light Up My Life", one of the biggest singles of all time, was the #3 song of 1978.  In the moment, "Night Fever" was the bigger hit.  

By the way, the movie was originally called Saturday Night, but the band, who hated that as a song title, convinced the director to rename the movie to match THEIR song.  It was the right choice.  The song began life as something of a disco-based rerecording of Perth Faith's "Theme From A Summer Place", which, now that you know that, you cannot unhear.

The song is pure disco perfection.  

20 December 2023 - BLACKPINK - Pink Venom

I promise I didn't plan a theme week this week.  Sometimes, I go where the posts take me.

And this week, they took me to "Pink Venom", the 2022 hit song by BLACKPINK.

Fun fact - this song was BANNED in Korea.... not because it was dirty or anything.  No, it's because Lisa rapped about the French brand Celine - which she endorses - and that level of product placement in songs is not allowed in music in Korea.  

The song brings direct references to Taylor Swift, Rhianna, and Notorious B.I.G., all of whome are quoted in the lyrics - see if you can find them.  It is a confident and bold song that critics have compared to musical anarchy - with shifting musical styles between pop, rock, hip hop and Middle Eastern influence - almost as if each member chose a style and shifted it every time it was their turn to sing.  

It works, though.  It remains one of the group's biggest hits.  

We've mentioned that a live performance in the K-Pop world is more about dance than singing - but these ladies are getting better at the live singing part, too.