“All the songs I record fall into one of two categories, as a rule,” Kenny Rogers once said. “One is ballads that say what every man would like to say, and every woman would like to hear. The other is story songs that have social significance.” The 1978 country-pop crossover classic “The Gambler” fits squarely […]
Orianthi shreds more than preconceptions on ‘According to You’
Orianthi was an anomaly in the testosterone-heavy realm of 2000s-era rock music. The mononymous guitar virtuoso transitioned from stints behind superstars Carrie Underwood and Michael Jackson to solo success with “According to You,” which appended her hair metal shredding onto American Idol-inspired pop stylings. KSID::P4Za51Y604Z09
The Four Tops’ ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ remains a pillar of strength
“Reach Out I’ll Be There” is a light in the darkness — an achingly tender declaration of commitment and compassion delivered with the force of rolling thunder. Released in August 1966 following a summer of mounting civil unrest and violent rebellion, the Four Tops’ humanist anthem remains a bottomless reservoir of strength and succor through […]
Slick Rick’s ‘Children’s Story’ tells one of hip-hop’s greatest tales
Hip-hop in the 1980s was a wonderfully weird scene. No one quite epitomized that creative weirdness as totally as the eyepatch-wearing, “truck jewelry”-festooned, British-sounding kid from the Bronx known as Slick Rick (a.k.a. Rick the Ruler, MC Ricky D). “Children’s Story,” the second single from Slick Rick’s classic debut album The Great Adventures of Slick […]
benny blanco meets Halsey and Khalid on the ‘Eastside’
Before he was the impish foil of rapper Lil Dicky on the FX network’s must-watch cringe comedy Dave, benny blanco was merely one of the biggest music producers in the universe. His shapeshifting, kitchen-sink production ethos is the sound of pop radio in the post-millennium age, midwifing career-defining records for superstars Ed Sheeran, Rihanna, Justin […]
How “la petite mort” inspired Cutting Crew’s biggest hit ‘(I Just) Died in Your Arms’
“(I Just) Died in Your Arms” topped the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1987, more than a year after the Parents Music Resource Center compiled its “Filthy Fifteen” — the now-infamous list of pop songs the committee’s founders blamed for the moral decay of America’s youth. Censors were asleep at the wheel by the time […]
‘I Can’t Get Next to You’ returns the Temptations to the top
When the Temptations released their debut Motown Records single “Oh Mother of Mine,” Paul Williams was firmly ensconced as the group’s lead singer. But by the time the Tempts topped the charts with “I Can’t Get Next to You,” Williams’ life and career were in irreversible decline, his formidable baritone confined almost exclusively to backing […]
Thirty Seconds to Mars’ ‘The Kill (Bury Me)’ rockets Jared Leto to emo immortality
Even in 2006, it was hard to separate Thirty Seconds to Mars from its frontman, Jared Leto. Though he and his brother Shannon founded the band in the late 1990s, Jared’s success as a Hollywood actor long overshadowed his musical reputation. It took a record like “The Kill (Bury Me)” for the Leto brothers to […]
‘Bad Girls’ showcases Donna Summer at her very best
Toot-Toot! Heyyy, Beep-Beep! “Bad Girls,” Donna Summer’s biggest-selling single, may seem on its surface a frivolous disco concoction. The song’s Latin-flavored beat, brassy, exuberant riffs and joyous hooks made it a dancefloor staple and propelled it to the top of the charts, and its onomatopoeic singalong refrain has been getting stuck in people’s heads ever […]
Sex and synth-pop collide to create Animotion’s ‘Obsession’
“Obsession” perfectly captures the zeitgeist of mid-Eighties pop. Animotion’s signature hit marries sinister human emotion and ominous state-of-the-art production to generate synth-pop soap opera precision-made for the ascendent MTV. KSID::Z245a228c026464
