My Personal Chart, April 29, 2000

YouTube playlist with the songs from Part 4

Part 4, Cover Your Jazz Hands and the Long and Winding Road to #1

Guster /Fa Fa (Never Be The Same Again) (4)

 

This Boston band first hit my chart in 1998 with “Airport Song” from their second album “Goldfly”, which hit #19 on my chart. It starts with an acoustic guitar line; it brings in their signature harmonies and the lead vocals are traded off. Bongos, bass and electric guitar eventually enhance the song and it builds to a cacophony by the end (with the sound of a ping pong game to close it out). This sets the tone for a lot of their work. Interesting instrumentation, alternate percussion, and humor.

The 1999 album “Lost and Gone Forever” solidified my appreciation with 2 #1’s on my personal chart, “Barrel Of A Gun” (which uses a typewriter in the bridge) and “Fa Fa”. This song ended up as my #2 of the year. ‘Barrel’ would have been in the top 10 if it didn’t straddle 2 years. These 2 songs established their presence on the Adult Alternative chart (AAA as it is commonly known), both reaching the top 20 (#12 and #17 respectively). “Fa Fa” also made the top 30 on Adult Pop. The addition of horns, flute and sax in the last third of the song bring a nice nuance to the song. 2 other songs from the album charted for me “Center Of Attention” and “Happier’ in 2000 and third this year “What You Wish For” after producing 1 of the current episodes of the podcast which featured ‘Barrel’ (Castlist 005, Ep. 2, posted April 24).

The band met at Tufts University and scored a number of movie and TV placements for their songs over the years, including “Wedding Crashers” (“I Hope Tomorrow Is Today”) and “The OC” (“Keep it Together”). At concerts they like to do humorous covers of other artists’ songs like Temple of The Dog’s “Hunger Strike” (a thoroughly unfunny song). Last year they landed another top 10 AAA hit with “Overexcited”, a song sung in a British accent by member Ryan Miller, who felt it was the best way to get into character. The song, which is sung from the protagonist’s point of view, is about a “nice guy looking for a future lover”. There are now 7 or 8 versions with guest vocalists in different languages (French, Hebrew, etc.). The best is the Canadian version with Tyler Stewart of Barenaked Ladies.

 

See the Rest Here

 

My Personal Chart, April 29, 2000

YouTube playlist with the songs from Part 3

Part 3, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi , pronounced “Ricky, Mickey, Robbie”

Ricky Martin featuring Meja /Private Emotion (3)

 

I cannot say I was deeply influenced by the Latin invasion of Pop in 1999 and 2000 but Ricky Martin was an exception. He reached my top 10 4 times during that period with this ballad placing the best, peaking at #2 (though in Dec/Jan “Shake Your Bon-Bon” spent 4 weeks at #3). “Private Emotion” was written by Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman of the Philadelphia band the Hooters. It was featured on their 1993 album “Out Of Body”.  They saw their greatest success in the mid-80’s with songs like “All You Zombies” and “Day By Day”.

His duet partner Meja is a Swedish singer who had modest top 40 hit (#36) in 1998 called “All ‘Bout The Money”. This song as well, was not a huge hit, only making it to #29 on the Pop airplay chart.  It was the harmony on ‘Emotion’ that hooked me. Martin had a large following in Turkey and recorded a separate version with Turkish singer Sertab Erener.

On ‘Bon-Bon’ he paid homage to his Middle Eastern fan base, mixing musical influences from that region with the Latin vibe. This was a top 10 hit and was also featured in an ad for the Toyota Corolla featuring Brad Pitt that only aired in Japan. There was a remix of the song that is hard to find. “Shake Your Super Bon-Bon” (69) which mixes it with Soul Coughing’s 1996 Alternative hit “Super Bon Bon”.

His self-titled album from which these are culled sold 15 million copies. He has been dubbed the King of Latin Pop and started his career at the age of 12 in the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, that had a revolving cast of teenage boys between 1977-2009. Martin was a member from 1984-89. During his tenure they had their only Hot 100 hit, “Hold Me”, peaking at #63. The lead singer of that song, Draco Rosa, has gone to be a Grammy winning songwriter and record producer who was involved in most of the tracks on this album. Of note, the previously discussed William Orbit co-wrote and produced with Madonna, her duet with Martin on the album “Be Careful”.

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