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The Songfactor's Choice Top Ten Facts


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"Down By The Water"

P.J.Harvey

A track of her album "To Bring You My Love". Written by P.J.Harvey, it was the first single of this album and her biggest hit (#2 in the Bilboard charts)

from Wiki:

...with its eccentric, eye-catching Maria Mochnacz-directed music video of Harvey drowning in an emerald pond while wearing an extravagant wig, heavy make-up and a slinky red satin evening gown
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Let me apologise profusely for disappearing over the last three weeks. I worked all through the Christmas break and any time I had left was spent with friends and family. Things are back to some kind of normality now :D

The Songfactor's Choice Top Ten #146

THREE songs without facts this time round:

When You Dance - Neil Young (1970)

Soon - My Bloody Valentine (1991)

Prelude/Angry Young Man - Billy Joel (1976)

If you have any info on any of the songs mentioned anywhere in this thread, please feel free to post your knowledge here. Submissions on songs will be collated and sent to the main site and you will receive credit for your contribution.

The Songfish thanks you.

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The Songfactor's Choice Top Ten #147

Just the one song:

Commotion - Creedence Clearwater Revival (1969)

If you have any info on any of the songs mentioned anywhere in this thread, please feel free to post your knowledge here. Submissions on songs will be collated and sent to the main site and you will receive credit for your contribution.

The Songfish thanks you.

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"Commotion"

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Written by John Fogerty.

From their third album, Green River, released in August 1969.

It was the B-side of "Green River", the second single from the LP. Wikipedia says:

a one-chord two-step about the perils of city life

It reached #30 at the Pop Charts.

...that´s all I could get.

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"When You Dance"

Neil Young

Written by Neil Young and released in his 1970 album "After The Goldrush". It was the second single released from this LP, in 1971. It reached #93 on the Billboard Charts.

According allmusic, Simplicity is the key that unlocks Young's "When You Dance I Can Really Love" (typically referred to as "When You Dance"), which retains a very old-fashioned shape in a heavy rock package. Eccentric producer Jack Nitzsche — who would go on to work with Young on Harvest — contributed the Morse code-like keyboards to the song, but as with most of Young's heavier songs, this one is all about the guitar which, fittingly, beckons the listener to dance. Reprised on Live Rust (1979), in its Crazy Horse-accompanied version, the song takes on new heights. The live version swings during the verse where the studio version does not; the tempo is adjusted only slightly but it lifts the song into a different dimension — perhaps a happier one as the original is drenched in the melancholia that envelops the whole of the album from which it was plucked, After the Gold Rush. It's quite possible, though scholars will argue it, that Young's own live recording of the song is the definitive and preferable take.

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"Commotion"

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Written by John Fogerty.

From their third album, Green River, released in August 1969.

It was the B-side of "Green River", the second single from the LP. Wikipedia says:

It reached #30 at the Pop Charts.

...that´s all I could get.

and it's about John Fogerty's adversity to busy city life and bustle. But I guess everybody figured that out by now, the lyrics are very clear.

Also succesfully covered by Triggerfinger, a Belgian band, in a 7 minutes version for their debut album. But that's probably not worth mentioning, I assume it has been covered a million times :P

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"Prelude/Angry Young Man"

Billy Joel

Written by Billy Joel. A track of his 1976 LP, "Turnstyles" .

Wikiepedia said:

"Prelude/Angry Young Man" is a song written by Billy Joel which appeared as the sixth song on the album Turnstiles in 1976. Two live versions would also be released as the second track of Kohuept and the 11th track of the first disc of 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert. It was also the opening track on the first disc of 12 Gardens Live, and in the Broadway show Movin' Out.

The instrumental "Prelude" lasts roughly a minute and forty-five seconds, starting with a rapid-fire piano riff, joined by various instruments, swinging through styles such an Aaron Copland-styled ballad to funk to a Southwestern beat. It's followed by "Angry Young Man", which paints a slightly sardonic picture of youthful, militant rebellion that is unflagging, trying to fight life's ills despite constant failure ("He refuses to bend, he refuses to crawl / And he's always at home with his back to the wall / And he's proud of his scars and the battles he's lost / And he struggles and bleeds as he hangs on his cross / And he likes to be known as the angry young man") The song contrasts the angry youth with the protagonist's mature, world-weary outlook ("I believe I've passed the age of consciousness and righteous rage / I found that just surviving was a noble fight / I once believed in causes too / I had my pointless point of view / And life went on no matter who was wrong or right".)

The song has become one of Joel's most popular, despite it being considered an "album track". He opens his shows while on tour with Angry Young Man

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The Songfactor's Choice Top Ten #148

A huge FIVE songs not on songfacts from this week's top ten:

I Just Want To Celebrate - Rare Earth (1971)

There's A Kind Of Hush - Herman Hermits (1967)

Hip-Hopopotamus vs Rhymenoceros - Flight of the Conchords (2008)

I Just Want To Make Love To You - Foghat (1977)

Space Cowboy - Steve Miller Band (1969)

If you have any info on any of the songs mentioned anywhere in this thread, please feel free to post your knowledge here. Submissions on songs will be collated and sent to the main site and you will receive credit for your contribution.

The Songfish thanks you.

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I Just Want To Make Love To You ~ Foghat

From Wiki:

Their 1972 album Foghat was produced by Dave Edmunds and had a cover of Willie Dixon's "I Just Want to Make Love to You" which received much airplay, especially on FM stations. :help:

This song is also on their 1977 Live Album... Foghat's best selling album with over two million copies sold and is certified 2x platinum in the United States.

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There's A Kind Of Hush ~ Herman's Hermits

From Wiki:

"There's a Kind of Hush" is a popular song written by Les Reed and Geoff Stephens.

Herman's Hermits version

The best-known version of the song is by Herman's Hermits, who took it to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967, eclipsing a cover version which had been released by Gary and the Hornets that had garnered regional success in the United States. It was the group's last Top 10 single.

Edited by Guest
I would try to find more info, but a gigantic spider just crawled across the desk, and I don't know where it went. I'm outta here!
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Hope the spider is gone, Laurie... :shades:

Sorry for the incident... I have just a bit more of info, but not much:

From wiki:

From their fifth album released by MGM Records in the U.S. and Canada (March, 1967). In the UK it´sthe band's third album, released by EMI/Columbia in May, 1967.

The B-side for the single was "Gaslight Street" in the UK and the hit "No Milk Today" in the US. It was released in February, one month before the album release. Produced by Mickie Most. They never had another Top ten song after this one.

The Carpenters released a cover of the song as a single in February 1976, and also as a track of their LP "There´s A Kinf Of Hush(All Over The World)"

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"I Just Want To Celebrate"

Rare Earth

From "One Wrold", their first LP, in 1971.

From allmusic:

Noted songwriters Dino Fekaris and Nick Zesses composed for Gladys Knight and The Four Tops (and would eventually collaborate with producer and arranger Tom Baird to write "Hey Big Brother" for Rare Earth ) along with penning this funky answer to a tune that charted 17 months before, Three Dog Night's "Celebrate", while perhaps inspiring a monster hit for Kool & The Gang 9 years later, the platinum selling "Celebration". RareEarth Records single #5031 went Top 10 in August of 1971, three minutes and thirty-five seconds closing out side one of the One World album. A riff that songwriter Buzzy Linhart says is a funk

standard (and which he correctly believes was a harbinger of disco) there's a joyful exuberance in the vocals answered by Ray Monette's exquisite wah wah guitar and reverb on the voices which has producer Baird taking cues from Motown legend Norman Whitfield. Perhaps as intiguing as this group landing five top 20 hits in a little more than a year and a half span was that this particular song seems to have strongly influenced a British group Rare Earth no doubt took some of its sound from. Traffic would record their landmark Low Spark Of The High Heeled Boys album in September of 1971, a month after "I Just Want To Celebrate" charted, Rick Grech and Jim Gordon composing the single from that lp, "Rock & Roll Stew", with a theme similar to Rare Earth's previous hit, "Born To Wander", and a lighter mutation of the riff found here. The big difference, though, is that Traffic kept it all very heady and subtle while Rare Earth totally explode all over this great moment of theirs. The funk here rocks hard, and the festive atmosphere that must've been present in the recording studio translated very well to vinyl and the AM airwaves.

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The Carpenters released a cover of the song as a single in February 1976, and also as a track of their LP "There´s A Kinf Of Hush(All Over The World)"

Yeah, I think it's a big call to say that Herman's Hermits' verson is the best known. I bet that there are many more people with a Carpenters compilaton in their collection than Peter/Herman could ever hope to reach. (I much prefer HH's version though.)

LBB

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Well, it´s not a "kinf" of hush, actually, but raher a "kind... :grin:

I think HH´s version is the most famous one... at least, outside of the US.

By the way, I remember my dad brought me that single when it was released. It had "No Milk Today" as the B-side and I remember I loved "No Milk Today" more than the A-side...

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"Space Cowboy"

Steve Miller Band

Written by Steve Miller and Ben Sidran.

A track frm their third album, "Brave New World", released in September 1969 and produced by Glyn Johns.

From Wiki:

"Space Cowboy" will be released as downloadable content for the video game Rock Band sometime in January.

Paul McCartney sung and played bass on three tacks of this album (not on "Space Cowboy" though)

The line up for the song is: Steve Miller (Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals), Tim Davis (Percussion, Vocals), Lonnie Turner (Bass, Guitar, Vocals), Ben Sidran on Keyboards and Glyn Johns (Guitar, Percussion, Vocals)

From allmusic:

A true FM radio staple of the late '60s, "Space Cowboy" was the second in a series of autobiographical songs that Steve Miller wrote, following "Gangster of Love" and culminating years later with the mega-hit "The Joker." This song is perhaps the best, based on a simple yet very effective boogie guitar figure which runs through the entire song. The band wails a storm behind Miller, who convincingly sings the decidedly tough-minded lyrics with a proper degree of machismo. Miller also addressed the counterculture here and, in a sense, makes a point of laughing at the revolutionary rhetoric that was extremely prevalent during the day. The overall feel of "survival of the fittest" is Miller's lyric agenda here, and the song succeeds quite well in this context. It has also aged quite gracefully and sounds better on "classic rock" radio than a lot of other songs of the late '60s.
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"Soon"

My Bloody Valentine

Written by Kevin Shields.

A 7min. track from their 1990 EP "Glider", later also released on their November 1991 album "Loveless".

It´s the last track of the album and, according to wikipedia, it features a dance-oriented beat behind three tracks of Shield´s "Glide Gitar" playing.

Shields wavers his guitar's tremolo bar as he strums, which contributes, in part, to the band's distinctive sound. This technique—nicknamed "Glide guitar"—causes the guitar strings to bend slightly in and out of tune. Shields said that due to his use of the tremolo bar, "People were thinking it's hundreds of guitars, when it's actually got less guitar tracks than most people's demo tapes have." The guitarist asserted that unlike other bands of the shoegazing movement of the early 1990s, My Bloody Valentine did not use chorus or flanger pedals. He insisted, "No other band played that guitar like me... We did everything solely with the tremolo arm". Shields aimed to use "very simple minimal effects" which often were the result of involved studio work. He stated, "The songs are really simply structured. A lot of them are purposely like that...

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I Just Want To Make Love To You ~ Foghat

From Wiki:

Their 1972 album Foghat was produced by Dave Edmunds and had a cover of Willie Dixon's "I Just Want to Make Love to You" which received much airplay, especially on FM stations. :help:

This song is also on their 1977 Live Album... Foghat's best selling album with over two million copies sold and is certified 2x platinum in the United States.

I have some info on the original song. I´ll highlight what

allmusic says about Foghat´s cover:

This Willie Dixon tune was custom composed for a Muddy Waters session (and originally titled "Just Make Love to Me"), but has proven to be a long-lasting staple of both blues and rock & roll bands. While Muddy's version was a slow and somber affair, full of menace and sexual braggadocio, it was considerably souped up for a white teen audience on the first Rolling Stones album. The Stones' version, played in a cut shuffle rhythm, then became the new way to approach the song, spawning similar cover versions by the Shadows of Knight and other garage bands until Foghat re-recorded it in the late '60s. The Foghat version put the song into a straight 4/4 rock groove and that's largely how the tune has been reinterpreted ever since, with multiple covers from artists like boogie-rocker Michael Katon and a swinging take of it by Etta James. Willie Dixon's songs are generally so resilient that they hold up to almost any kind of interpretation, and "I Just Want to Make Love to You" is no exception, a marvelously simple work that can be sung fast, slow, or anyplace in between and still gets its message across.
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  • 2 weeks later...

The Songfactor's Choice Top Ten #149

THREE songs this week:

Dangerous Type - The Cars (1979)

Hang On To Yourself - David Bowie (1971)

Love Will Find A Way - Pablo Cruise (1978)

If you have any info on any of the songs mentioned anywhere in this thread, please feel free to post your knowledge here. Submissions on songs will be collated and sent to the main site and you will receive credit for your contribution.

The Songfish thanks you.

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"Dangerous Type"

The Cars

Written by Ric Ocasek.

The last track from their 1979 album, "Candy O", the second one, also famous for its cover art by Vargas.

Here´s the review from allmusic.com :

"Dangerous Type" is the Cars' idea of a musical epic. Like a close cousin to "All Mixed Up," which closed their debut, "Dangerous Type" is likewise given the final slot in the running order, vamping on an upsweep of grand chord changes as the group's entire sonic palette eventually fills the tape to capacity for the big finish. Of course, this all has to be considered within the context of the Cars' cultivated new wave aesthetic — "Dangerous Type" will never be in danger of being confused with "Stairway to Heaven" or "Knights in White Satin." In fact, the song starts with a riff that is lifted from glam rock pioneers T. Rex's biggest U.S. hit, "Band a Gong," but the similarities are soon lost in the song's distinctly different vocal melody and the band's clipped rhythmic delivery — a signature of the new wave genre. Ric Ocasek assumes lead vocal duties on this one, furthering the track's quirk quotient with his odd low-toned warble. The lyrics are catchy, if a bit unremarkable, staying safely within the usual rock love song guidelines for the most part. One can sense a measure of offended hurt and indignation in some of the best lines (like "Can I touch you or are you out of touch?" and "Inside angel, always upset/Keep on forgetting that we ever met") that manages to cut through all the cool posturing. This emotion is carried into the more traditional-sounding chorus of sustained distortion and picked clean guitars that counter the more prickly music of the verses. Elliot Easton contributes a brilliant, stinging solo before the last verse, when Greg Hawkes becomes a little more liberal with the zippy keyboard effects. The vamp out on the chorus lyric "She's a lot like you — the dangerous type" builds gradually into a rising swell of sound, supported by billowy backing vocals, twisting guitar lines, counter-synth melodies, and extended drum fills that reach for a dramatic, album-closing fadeout. After the impossibly infectious leadoff single "Let's Go," "Dangerous Type" would become the album's second-biggest hit.

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"Hang On To Yourself"

David Bowie

Written by David Bowie.

Released in April 1971 as a single -face A was "Moonage Daydream"- under the name Arnold Corns... The main riff is quite representative of glam rock's influence as a bridge between the rock and roll of the past and the punk of the (then) future—it is quite similar in style to Eddie Cochran, and yet carries a distinctive sound which would be used in many punk records and songs. (wikipedia)

Also released -after being re-recorded- in June 6th 1972 as a track of Bowie´s"The Fall and Rise of Ziggy Sardust and the Spiders from Mars", and was also the B-side of the single "John, I'm Only Dancing" in September 1972.

Mick Ronson plays guitar.

Allmsuic says:

Although "Hang Onto Yourself" is best regarded as a mainstay of — and is, indeed, crucial to — his 1972 ^Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders rom Mars album, the song itself had been floating around for over a year before it was recorded for that album, originally appearing in vastly different form as a single by the pseudonymous Arnold Corns in 1970. Radically slowed with very different lyrics, the release drew a few bemused comparisons with the Velvet Underground, then sank into obscurity. (It subsequently resurfaced as a bonus track on Rykodisc's Man Who Sold the World reissue.) Another early version was, according to legend, recorded with rock & roll casualty Gene Vincent in 1971, although Bowie has since denied this.

The familiar Ziggy take on the song was recorded in late 1971, this time at a blistering pace, with tight, concise lyrics and a Mick Ronson guitar line to die for. An immediate highlight of both album and tours, "Hang Onto Yourself opened the show throughout 1972-1973 and kicks off both the Santa Monica 72 and Ziggy Stardust — The Motion Picture live albums in ineffable style. The version included on the Stage concert set, however, should be avoided if at all possible. There have been several dreadful covers of this song, but Bowie's 1978 persona managed to make the worst one of all.

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