I'm not thrilled with most of the new Katy Perry music. She's trying too hard.
But this song is a refreshing throwback to her earlier stuff. It's like, she spent all those years on American Idol listening to other people cover her first two albums and decided that she wanted to recapture that magic.
Mine is an unpopular opinion. The song did OK in Europe but bombed in the US.
It's a new song, so she's not performed it live much yet, but I can tell you that her fans alredy know the words.
I swore up and down that I had already published this song.
I'm glad I hadn't yet, because it is the CURRENT #3 song in the contry as I write this. Released in April, it's October, and still riding high on the charts.
The lead single from Carptenter's SIXTH solo album - Six. She's released six albums - Short n' Sweet - it is her FIRST song to hit the top ten in the US. It also won the MTV Video Music Award for song of the year, but that seems secondary.
It's a very confident song that has garnered a lot of praise for its catchiness. Which, well, that's true. It's catchy.
What do you get when you put Charli XCX and Billie Eilish in the same room to write a song?
A pretty big worldwide hit. The very hot and sexy song peaked at #12 in the US - Charli's fourth trip to the top 20, people. This is her biggest hit since "Boom Clap".
Technically, this is a remixed version of a Charli XCX song of the same name from her album, and this is real, Brat and it's the same but there's three more songs so it's not. Yes, it's an extended version of her very popular Brat album, but this is one of the three more songs.
Anyway, the original is good but this remix is way better. And this is the version that charted.
And yeah, they did perform it together at Charli's birthday party.
As I was driving yesterday, this song, for some reason, popped into my head.
I had to look up the band because I had forgotten about the existence of Daisy Chainsaw, who existed between 1989 and 1994. I don't know how I did - KatieJane Garside was such a unique force of nature that when she disappeared from the music scene in 1993, people thought she had been committed.
She had not. She just went into seclusion for a few years.
We get it, though. Her stage presence was something otherworldly and quite manic.
The Vengaboys are from the Netherlands. Dutch bands don't usually have worldwide hits, but in 1998 and 1999, it did. It was a top 10 hit in most of Europe, and a top 30 hit in the US.
There's nothing particularly special about the song. It's a typical dance song, with a great beat - 136 bpm, for those who pay attention to such things. You could probably work out to it, or ride a rollercoaster to this tune.
Wait....
Why did I mention rollercoasters?
Because in 2004, the song had a bit of a resurgence in the US, when Six Flags used it in a pretty popular set of commercials.
They were.... weird.
There absolutely was more than one, yes. Why do you ask?
Of course, if you don't like the song, The Vengaboys later released a "silent" version of the video, without the music, but with some sound effects and speaking parts. It's..... weird. But it's satisfying.
But you aren't here because you don't like the song.
You're here because you want to know if they are still togehter and if they actually perform the song live.
They are. And they do. And THE CROWD KNOWS THE WORDS.
So. we are bookending this week of covers and revisiting with another repost, from Month 3 of the blog.
The other major change we're making is why we're doing this repost. Well, that, and because it's a great song that we didn't get its full due in 2023, and we're going to correct that.
This next change, though, isn't coming yet - we don't know how to do it. We may end up with another blog. But we know that wicked guilty pleasures go way beyond music. With Paris Hilton, you have her music, plus her reality television show The Simple Life, that cinematic masterpiece The Hottie and The Nottie, and so much more. You've also got her YouTube documentary, which shows a completely different side of her (and GO WATCH THAT NOW)
We're going to start exploring that. We just don't know what it's going to look like yet.
But now, revisit this great and sweet song.
If you watched This Is Paris, you know that she is actually a sought-after DJ now. Seriously. She's also a champion of LGBTQ+ rights, and she performed this song during one of her DJ gigs at LA Pride in 2022.
It's great that she's embracing this part of her career, because it was more solid that we thought it would be.
And if you need proof, here she is performing with two Grammy nominees (Sia has NEVER won a Grammy, oddly) with famously huge voices, Miley Cyrus and Sia.
Oh, and yeah, she's here with Kim Petras at NYC Pride 2023.
