28 June 2018 - Seven Mary Three - Cumbersome

Few songs scream "90's" more than this one. This song, from 1995, was a big hit for them early in their career.....

Unfortunately, this great song, brilliantly constructed with alternating conventional and muted chords (that's right - we notice these things) was their only major commercial success.  And, as with a lot of one-hit wonders, the song was a monkey on their back - there was a lot of pressure to recreate that, and it's really hard to do that.



Here's a little bonus for you.  I said this song was from 1995.  So why is the band performing it in 1993?  Seven Mary Three were a local grunge band from Florida, and this song caught fire on Central Florida radio in 1993, catching the attention of Atlantic Records.



Here is that original recorded version.  Notice that 1. it's a little quieter and 2. it's got an extended bridge. Is it better?  We can't decide that for you.  It's good, though.

27 June 2018 - Camila Cabello - Havana

Look, we love this song, she's touring with Taylor Swift, used to be in Fifth Harmony, X Factor, blah blah blah

I'm sorry.  I can't do this right now.  I'm just too excited.  We have a domain name now.  We're at wickedguilty.com!  Now it's going to be easier to find us!!!!



OK, so now I feel bad giving Taylor Swift's new bestie the short end of the stick.  Really, that was a fun video, and it's a fun, Latin-tinged song. 

So here, enjoy this acoustic version that somewhat proves that Ms. Cabello is really singing this one.



Aquí, para nuestros lectores en español, hay una versión en español ... ok, en spanglish de esta canción. Por qué no pudo traducir "la mitad de mi corazón está en Habana" está más allá de mí, pero una vez más, no soy una gran estrella del pop.

21 June 2018 - Public Enemy - Fight The Power

From the 1989 Spike Lee joint Do The Right Thing, this song transcends the movie, which itself ends in a race riot.

This version of the video (which, yes, Spike Lee was involved with) isn't a real riot or even a rally, but it looks like one.  It IS a pretty clear demonstration of the group's political stances in the day.  Flavor Flav has moved on to a less political stance where he doesn't say "motherf*** him" about Elvis or John Wayne.  The video also featured Tawana Brawley in a cameo appearance - I won't go into her story here except to say that it was a very polarizing one in this community.

It's a great, powerful song - I'd almost say manifesto - that just happens to have been featured in a movie.

20 June 2018 - Aimee Mann - Save Me

Few movie songs come with a better story than this one.

This song, along with the rest of the mostly-Aimee-Mann performed soundtrack, is from the P.T. Anderson movie Magnolia. I recommend this odd but delightful movie, just for the frog scene.  Trust me.  Right before she was approached by Anderson to do this movie, Mann had been dropped from her record label, and didn't have an easy future ahead of her in the music industry - and this is despite the huge "Voices Carry" in her past.

This song ended up being nominated for an Oscar (losing, somehow, to perhaps the worst ever Oscar-winning song, "You'll Be In My Heart" by Phil Collins, to whom she now dedicates this song when performing it live) and a Grammy (which she lost to a deserving Macy Gray).  She went on to found her own music imprint and remains a successful artist to this day.

The video - featuring Mann inserted into scenes from the movie - is even more interesting.  Perhaps the most star-studded music video of all time, this effect didn't happen by digital manipulation.  That's really Tom Cruise sitting in the same scene with Aimee Mann.  P.T. Anderson directed the video and asked the actors to stay in place at the end of shooting days while they shot this.

The song itself is a work of art.  Nearly two decades old, it sounds like it could have been written yesterday.

 

19 June 2018 - Kasey Cisyk - You Light Up My Life

If you read this blog yesterday, you probably saw this coming a mile away. This is the song that denied "Nobody Does It Better" an Academy Award and a #1 spot on the Billboard charts.

If you didn't read this blog yesterday, you're probably wondering who Kasey Cisyk looks like Didi Conn (she doesn't - Cisyk sang, Conn lipsynced in a brilliant movie performance) and, more importantly, why this isn't Debbie Boone (her immense hit was a cover).

Either way, yesterday's blog got me to listening to this song, and I remembered how well-constructed it was.  Give it a listen and a chance.

18 June 2018 - Carly Simon - Nobody Does It Better

James Bond movie themes are a different animal than most other movie songs.

Before this one, they all shared the name of the movie. In this case, although the Marvin Hamlisch-penned song referenced the movie's title, it wasn't called The Spy Who Loved Me.

This song, although fondly remembered today, only made it to #2 on the Billboard charts... because the biggest hit of all time pre-Whitney was Debbie Boone's version of "You Light Up My Life", which spent 13 weeks at #1, in front of this song for three of them. "Nobody Does It Better" went on to also lose the Academy Award to Kasey Cisyk's version of "You Light Up My Life". AAAARRRGGGGGHH!

But enough about THAT song.  This song is great.  We should enjoy it today.  Tomorrow is another day.

15 June 2018 - Coolio feat. L.V. - Gangsta's Paradise

From the 1995 movie Dangerous Minds, this was Coolio's biggest hit by far, and one that he took very seriously.  I'm sure you've heard it, but I always want to give you a fact about these songs you didn't know.

This song doesn't have a clean version - because it doesn't need one.  There's no profanities in it, at all.  This is because the song leans heavily on a sample of the song "Pasttime Paradise" by Stevie Wonder, who wouldn't approve the sample unless there was no profanity used in the song (which, by the way, was loved by Stevie in its last version).

So, feel confident that Stevie Wonder is keeping your kids safe.