Special Edition!

Happy 2013! I feel like I should be writing something profound about resolutions and thankfulness, or reflecting on 2012 or something, but that's too much pressure.So instead of musing about eating more vegetables and breaking my nail biting habit,  it's WORLD'S CREEPIEST SONGS WEEK! 

Nothing like a few hot jams to ring in the new year. 

1) Every Breath You Take- The Police. Obviously. Even Sting knows it's totally weird. He said, "One couple told me 'Oh we love that song; it was the main song played at our wedding!' I thought, 'Well, good luck.'"

2) Silhouettes - Herman's Hermits. Don't get me wrong, I love Herman's Hermits. But this song is a little stalker-y.

3) Young Girl - Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. This might as well be the theme to To Catch a Predator. Young girl, get out of my mind/My love for you is way out of line. Gary, you aren't supposed to broadcast that sort of thing

4) One Way or Another - Blondie. The ultimate anthem for a crazy ex-girlfriend. Telling someone that you're going to get them is not a way to win friends.

5) All My Life - K-Ci and JoJo. This one has a lot going for it. It's a pretty great romantic R&B song, but things take a turn for the weird with one verse... Girl, you are close to me just like my mother/Close to me just like my father/Close to me just like my sister/ Close to me just like my brother. Um, what? Gentlemen, ladies don't want to compared to your family members. Keep that in mind.

Slow Jam Week Day 2: Rain!

Day 2 of slow jam week. Today's topic is rain.

Rain makes everything more dramatic. Oh the pain! Baby I love you so much I'm standing out in the rain!

Example 1: Usher's U Got It Bad, released in 2001. It spent 6 weeks at number 1 on the Billboard Charts and was song number 99 on Billboard's Hot 100 50th Anniversary Chart. Pretty good considering that chart was based on all the number one songs between 1958 and 2008.



Example 2: Crazy by K-Ci and JoJo (told you they were a slow jam powerhouse) Crazy has it all: rain, scenes from Save the Last Dance, things happening in reverse, fight scenes, ballet, AND it turns out K-Ci and JoJo have super powers over morality. Who knew?! Crazy didn't reach as high on the Billboard Charts as All My Life (only #11) but it did spend 23 weeks there.

Special edition!

Surprise! It's slow jam week here at a few of my favorite things! That's right, I'm frustrated with a lot of things right now, so I figured it's probably best to remind myself of things that I love everyday this week. And there are few things I love more than a good slow jam, everyday I'm going to write about a common attribute found in all slow jams (with musical/video evidence, of course)

So dim the lights and pop a bottle of Cristal because it's slow jam week: day 1


Picture it: Sicily, 1912. Wait, that's Sophia Petrillo

Picture it: Jefferson Middle School, 1999. Ah yes, nothing like a middle school dance. And what's the DJ playing? Slow jams. Because the 90s and early 2000s produced some of the best slow jams of all time. I'm talking Boyz II Men, Brian McKnight, Joe, Brandy, Monica, K-Ci and Jo Jo, All 4 One, Babyface, R. Kelly, Usher etc etc etc

All good slow jams have the same beat. You know it, it's the step-snap beat. It's perfect for slow dancing and performances featuring stools and/or microphone stands.

For example. K-Ci and JoJo's All My Life. K-Ci and JoJo are a slow jam powerhouse. They know exactly what they are doing. All My Life, realeased in 1998 was a  big hit for them. It debuted at number 15 on the Billboard charts and eventually made it to number 1. But the real success of a slow jam is measured in how many weddings it's played at and you can bet that All My Life is played at the majority of weddings. (Although, I've always found the lyrics a little odd for a romantic song. "Close to me just like my mother..." Um what?)