Violetta Zironi : Let Her Go

Now this is kinda an odd one. I came across this song when it was featured on an episode of Law & Order : Special Victims Unit and I was immediately struck by the haunting melody. I first thought the voice was British singer Ellie Goulding but then I decided to investigate further and I came across Italian singer Violetta Zironi.

Violetta Zironi is a country singer-songwriter who was one of the finalists in The X-Factor Italy where she finished the competition in third place. She was best known for playing her ukelele. Let Her Go was featured in her debut EP Dimmi Che Non Passa.

The song itself is a cover version of the hit by English singer-songwriter Passenger. While I'm not diminishing the significance of his version, I'm actually a huge fan of Violetta's version. I have to say more so than the original.

Check out Violetta's version of the song :-

And for the fans of Passenger's version here is the original :-

Hazell Dean : Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go)

The year was 1984 ... Hazell Dean had just had a top 10 hit with Searchin' (I Gotta Find A Man) and was looking for a follow-up single. Her record company contacted then-up and coming producers Stock Aitken Waterman who had just had a hit with You Think You're A Man, a UK no. 8 hit by American drag queen, Divine, and the trio wrote the song Dance Your Love Away.

Hazell Dean hated the chorus and the song was re-written as Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go) and the rest, as they say, was history. The song was a huge hit for Dean, reaching no. 4 in the UK. The song was fresh and catchy even to this day (even if I do say so myself).

Check out Hazell Dean performing the song on Top Of The Pops :-

Stock Aitken Waterman, of course, went on to have huge hits with such diverse artistes as Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue, Bananarama, Donna Summer and Sir Cliff Richard and Hazell Dean herself had further chart entries, both with Stock Aitken Waterman and other producers.

Singles like Who's Leaving Who (UK No. 4), Maybe (We Should Call It A Day) (UK No. 15) and cover of Kylie's Japanese hit Turn It Into Love (UK No. 21) provided Dean with further forays into the UK charts although perhaps not quite matching the chart glory of Whatever I Do (Wherever I Go).

The song was covered by the late American singer Laura Branigan which was also produced by Stock Aitken Waterman. I'm not such a huge fan of her version because to me it seems so tame and sanitised compared to Dean's version but you can check out the song here :- 

Blondie : Rapture

Ahh ... the legendary American band Blondie ... they epitomised the early American new wave and punk movement of the 1970s.Their trademark is, I would say, lead singer Debbie Harry. She is classy with a capital "C" ... very much the gorgeous uberblonde with the commanding presence. Harry is the recognisable face of Blondie.

Their eponymous debut album spawned their first single X Offender. Originally titled Sex Offender, that song is a whole story in itself. Apparently, the original lyrics were about an 18-year-old boy being arrested for having sex with his younger girlfriend which was then changed to a story about a prostitute being attracted to the police officer that had arrested her. The record company insisted the title to be changed because they were worried the title might be too much.

Blondie really came into their own with the album Parallel Lines which produced the UK No. 1 singles Heart of Glass and Sunday Girl. Further hits followed including UK No. 1 singles Atomic and The Tide Is High. 

One of my most favourite Blondie songs is Rapture which came from Autoamerican, the same album that gave us The Tide Is High. Blondie has a talent for recording different genres of music. They had given us disco (Heart of Glass), reggae (The Tide Is High) and they were soon to give us calypso (Island of Lost Souls). Rapture was the first song to top the US Billboard Hot 100 to feature a rap.

In the UK the song failed to top the charts but still peaked at a respectable No. 5. Check out the video here :-

Justin Timberlake recreated Rapture as part of a medley of songs at the 2003 Brit Awards with the Princess of Pop herself, Kylie Minogue, performing the rap. Check out the video here :-

Memorable Movie Music - Diana Ross : Theme From Mahogany

In 1975, Diana Ross, ex-lead singer of The Supremes and arguably one of Motown's most popular female artistes, starred in Mahogany. In the romantic drama, Ross starred as a poor African-American woman who rose to become a big-time fashion designer but found that "success is nothing without someone you love to share it with".

The film also starred Billy Dee Williams (of Dynasty) and Anthony Perkins (of Psycho) as Ross' love interests. 

The film was not critically acclaimed but was a box-office hit.

Ross also sang the theme song for the film sub-titled "Do You Know Where You're Going To".

The song written by Michael Masser (who wrote hits like Whitney Houston's Saving All My Love For You  and Tonight I Celebrate My Love For You) by Roberta Flack & Peabo Bryson and Gerry Goffin (one half of the songwriting team of Carole King & Gerry Goffin responsible for hits like The Loco-Motion (a huge hit for Kylie) and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow) was a huge hit ... topping the charts in the States and reaching No. 5 in the UK. The song was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song in 1975.

The song lost out to "I'm Easy" from the movie Nashville. I honestly don't know ... perhaps the movie was bigger than the song.

This song has been covered by the likes of Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez. JLo's version has a Latino flavour with flamenco guitars added in while Mimi's overblown (in my opinion) version has her doing her trademark runs and improvisations and ends with her signature screech.

Feel free to compare the 3 version. My opinion - Diana's version is still the best.



ABBA : Dancing Queen

Once in a while a song comes along that not only defines its artiste but also an era. Dancing Queen is one such hit.

 

ABBA had been the darlings of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 when they so triumphantly won it (for the first time) for Sweden. However the group was dismissed by some circles as a one-hit wonder. As ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus said once in an interview people expected ABBA to be a one-hit wonder because they were perceived as a "Eurovision group" and that's what usually happens to "Eurovision groups" ... they have one huge hit and they go away.

 

 

 

As it happened, ABBA was to prove the critics wrong as they went on to have hit after hit and ABBA became Sweden's hottest pop export and, arguably, one of the biggest groups of the 1970s and early 1980s.

 

 

Dancing Queen was released in August

1976 and included on the album Arrival.

 

 

Upon its

release this monster hit went on to top the charts of more than 15 countries. It is easily ABBA's most recognised hit. It is also one of the songs to define the disco era and once topped a most popular disco hits poll on British telly - this despite ABBA not actually being a disco group.

 

 

The song has been covered by many artistes as diverse as U2, Donna Summer, The Sex Pistols and Kylie Minogue who performed it at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. In fact, Dancing Queen was to be the inspiration for what was later to become Kylie's showgirl persona.

 

 

As a special treat I also feature ABBA singing Dancing Queen in Swedish costumes specially for the royal wedding of King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden to Silvia Sommerlath (who would soon be Sweden's own Dancing Queen). Enjoy ...