11 January 2023 - Dolly Parton - I Will Always Love You

I grew up with country music loving parents.  

My mother's nickname was Dolly.  (Not a joke - a lot of people thought it was her real name)

So, naturally, I grew up listening to a lot of Dolly Parton.  That includes this song.  I used to not really like it.  I found it boring.  As I grew older, I see the beauty of it.  

The song was written for Porter Wagoner, on whose show Dolly Parton (not my mom) got her start.  She had been on his show for five years and was leaving for a solo career - and this song was her resignation letter.  

You thought it was a romantic breakup song, didn't you?  It wasn't.  

Anyway, the song topped the country charts twice.  The first time was in 1974, and this was what the song sounded like then.

In 1982, Dolly Parton (not my mom) did a movie with Burt Reynolds called The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and she rerecorded and rereleased this song - and it topped the country charts AGAIN.

She would, of course, release the song AGAIN, as a duet with Vince Gill, in 1995.  This version didn't top the country charts - it only reached #15.  

Disappointing.

This version started off as THIS live performance, and was picked up by country music radio, which pressured Dolly's label to release it as a single - and it became a hit again.  

As big a hit as this song was, it was an even bigger hit for another artist who shall remain nameless.

10 January 2023 - Steve Winwood - Valerie

In 1982, Steve Winwood released an album - Talking Back to the Night - that featured this single, which ended up being a minor hit - hitting #70 on the Billboard charts, and getting the former Spencer Davis Group member some attention.  

The song is about a former lover that the narrator hopes will return to him someday.

In 1986, Steve Winwood had a huge enough year to warrant a greatest hits album - Chronicles - in 1987. Included on that album was a remix of "Valerie", which ended up being a much bigger hit (US Top 10) than the original.  

Both are among my favorite unsung songs by any artist.

9 January 2023 - Megan Thee Stallion - Plan B

Megan Pete really knows how to write a really, really dirty song.  

More to the point, she knows how to write a great, strong breakup song - which she says was based on a lot of past relationships and had nothing to do with being shot by Tory Lanez.

Yes, she was shot by Tory Lanez, in 2020.  In both feet.  She was in bad shape.  

The song, with the title a reference to the popular post-coital birth control, is angry and bold and.... really really good.  I hope we have her as an artist for a long time to come. 

You know, I appreciate the need for a helper track, but Megan is raw and honest in this live performance, even with that.

6 January 2023 - The Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight

The first hip hop song to be a radio hit samples "Good Times" by Chic pretty heavily, so much so that Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards sued for songwriting credits.  The song, ironically, started when the Sugarhill Gang and Fab Five Freddy JOINED Chic on stage and came up with an impromptu rhyme to go along with the LIVE bassline of this song.

That wasn't the only sample they used.  "Here Comes That Sound Again" by Love De-Luxe was also sampled.  Did Alan Hankshaw get a songwriting credit?  Noooooooooo.

More importantly, this was the song that brought hip hop to a broad audience.  No, it wasn't the first, but it was the first hit.  It would go on to be one of the most influential one-hit wonders in history.

5 January 2023 - Latto - Big Energy

No, Mariah Carey didn't get a songwriting credit here.

You know who did?

Tina Weymouth.  Chris Frantz.  Adrian Belew.  Steven Stanley.

This really dirty song reached #3 on the pop charts - and #8 on the year end chart - and was a worldwide starmaking hit for Latto.  The winner of the 2016 TV reality competition The Rap Game, she's come out strong with a bravado that Megan Three Stallion no one can match. 

Plus, lyrically, Latto does pay tribute to Mariah here, even if it's a Tom Tom Club sample.

Mariah DID get a songwriting credit on this remix (100% true)...... as well as a vocal one.  DJ Khaled gets his two cents in at the beginning and end of this as well.  

If you read this far, you know today is our 12th birthday.  Celebrate with us all year long as we bring the BDE and make this our biggest year yet.

4 January 2023 - Mariah Carey - Fantasy

Two things you should learn from this post.

1) Not every week needs a theme.  This one, however, does.

2) Don't assume I hate a song just because it samples one of the greatest songs ever written.

I'm not a huge Mariah Carey fan.  I am really, really not.  I am especially sick of her right now, when we have all heard that goddamn Christmas song on repeat, everywhere.  Little known fact: this song was THAT song's follow up single.  

But this song - which she lyrically co-write with Dave Hall (musically and partially lyrically, it was written by Adrian Belew, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Steven Stanley) - really understands the song it sampled, and doesn't disrespect it.  It's not a ripoff.  It's an homage.  And it's probably the best thing Mariah Carey has ever done.

3 January 2023 - Beastie Boys - No Sleep Till Brooklyn

If you listen to the lyrics, you know that the Beasties are talking about being on a long tour, as a lot of young musicians have to do, where you don't get to sleep much.  Their home base being Brooklyn, that would be when sleep would come.

Now you know.

This song, produced by Rick Rubin, fuses rock and hip hop, with a guitar riff straight out of "TNT" by AC/DC and a title that invokes Motörhead (No Sleep 'til Hammersmith),  However, the three part harmonies were boastful and bold, typical of late-1980's rap music.

The song was a band and crowd favorite at their shows, with the group frequently using this as their closing song. Who could resist the frantic, energetic feeling of this tune?