Just A Little

"And you're so innocent

Please don' take this wrong

'Cause it's a compliment..."

One of the songs I enjoyed hearing most at Pop 'Til You Drop on Saturday was Liberty X's 'Just A Little'. A mega-hit from 2002, it surprised many by proving that, occasionally, great records can emerge from the ashes of TV talent contests such as ITV's 'Popstars'. That series was, of course, won by those rampant disrespectors of the apostrophe, Hear'say - 'a veritable banquet of British pop talent', as Paul Adam, director of A&R at Polydor Records described them at the time.

'Just A little' - a number one - was followed cannily by a cover of Mantronix's 'Got To Have Your Love' (#2) and then Christmas single 'Holding On For You' (#5) . The latter, an arid, featureless ballad topped off with some very nasty drum programming, nevertheless burrowed its way into my affections that December. I love the harmonies, particularly evident at 2.51, and suspect that in the right producer's hands it could have been a gorgeous TLC-esque swoonathon.

Yeah?

Pop Til You Drop - Maiden Voyage!

Nasty Girl

"That's right, I can't control it

I need seven inches or more

Tonight, I can no longer hold it

Get it up, get it up, I can't wait anymore..."

'Nasty Girl' is a song written by Prince for his protégé girl group Vanity 6. Prince gave the songwriting credit to lead singer Vanity, although he was the writer and composer. It was the second single taken from their debut album 'Vanity 6' and was released in 1982.

Vanity is now a Christian preacher and has denounced 'Nasty Girl', telling members of her congregation who've listened to it to 'keep praying to the Holy Spirit'.

[Wikipedia]

Inaya Day had a hit with the track in 2004. Her version, which I used to love listening to in the car with an ex who always drove too fast, also tips a hefty wink to 'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough', and was produced by the redoubtable Mr. Mousse T.

Orchestra Hit

(Waveform of an orchestra hit played on a Yamaha MU50 - XG mode)

An orchestra hit, also known as an orchestral hit, orchestra stab, or orchestral stab, is a sound created through the layering of the sounds of a number of different orchestral instruments playing a single staccato note or chord. The orchestra hit sound was propagated by the use of early samplers, particularly the Fairlight CMI where it was known as the ORCH5 sample. The sound is used in pop, hip hop and techno genres to accentuate passages of music.

[Wikipedia]

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I've been playing with this all day:

http://free-loops.com/6976-orchestra-hit-4.html

This Is Pop?

"In a milk bar and feeling lost
Drinking sodas as cold as frost
Someone leans in my direction
Quizzing on my juke-box selection
What do you call that noise
That you put on?

This is pop
Yeah Yeah

This is!

On a walkway and moving fast
All I get is transistor blast
Someone leans in my direction
Quizzing on my station selection
What do you call that noise
That you put on?

This is pop
Yeah yeah

This is!

We come the wrong way
We come the long way
We play the songs much too loud

I consider this song to be a manifesto. The 1978 re-recording (starts 25 seconds in - TURN IT UP!) is superior to the original album version. I love the cheeky 'circus polka' keyboard solo at 1.18.

Before playing Girls Aloud to glaring indie boys in bars, I always give 'This Is Pop?' a spin. Like it or lump it, dickwads!

Isn't It Midnight

"Isn't it midnight

On the other side of the world?"

An overlooked Christine McVie song, 'Isn't It Midnight' was the vastly less successful follow-up to 'Everywhere' from 'Tango In The Night'. McVie wrote it with her then husband, the keyboard player Eddy Quintela, a non-member of Fleetwood Mac.

Having always had a soft spot for the track I snook it on at a friend's house a long time after midnight on Sunday morning just gone. Halfway through the guitar solo my friend delivered her verdict, head in hands:

'It's just so (long, drawn-out sigh of exasperation)....gash.'

This is an alternate mix taken from 'The Chain' box set - one of my favourite comps of all time.

I Do, I Do, I Do

"Love me or leave me

Make your choice, but believe me..."

Three years ago today the great Ola Brunkert, drummer for ABBA, died after an accidental fall at the age of 61. Brunkert hit his head against a glass door in his dining room in Mallorca, shattering the glass and cutting himself in the neck. He had managed to wrap a towel around his neck and leave the house to seek help, but collapsed in the garden.

Strangely enough, when I was in M&S today snatching a few stolen moments with Myra, my favourite mannequin, 'I Do, I Do, I Do' came on. Not one of Ola's grooviest moments, I'll concur, but nevertheless an ABBA song of which I am unwaveringly fond. Its torpid post-glam triplets, sleazy saxes and screamingly predictable key lift at the end all say 'IT'S CHRIIIIIIIIIISTMAS!' to me. Albeit Christmas on your own with a pale ale down the Emmanuel Street Labour Club in Plungington.

This ABBA performance is notable for those electric blue suits and the palpable tension between Agnetha and Frida, who loathed each other's guts at this point.

Play The Game

"When you're feeling down and your resistance is low

Light another cigarette and let yourself go..."

'Play the Game' is my favourite Queen song. It opens with a spacey rush of Oberheim OB-X synth and features one of Brian May's most rhapsodic solos. The exquisite Gershwin-esque vocal melody and 'fuck it!' lyrics are among Freddie's best. This is Queen at the peak of their powers: a four piece perfectly quartered.

Some years ago I saw a sketch on TV by (I think) Bill Bailey, which involved him dissecting the 'Play the Game' video. He pointed out that at exactly two minutes into the clip, John Deacon steadfastly refuses to play said game. A hilarious pop moment.

In an NME review of a Queen gig in the eighties, a journalist described John Deacon's bass-playing style as 'like a man trying to flick a wasp off his waist'.