Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “Bird/Fly/Sky/Wing.”

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His first single in seven years, neo-soul artist, Maxwell described the 2009 Pretty Wings to MTV as “a bittersweet love song about meeting the right girl at the wrong time.” Maxwell also told Billboard Magazine: “I met this girl who I still respect very much, and although it didn’t work out, I got lots of inspiration from it. This track speaks of my time with her. ”

Pretty Wings won the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and was nominated at the 52nd Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Best R&B Song in 2010.

FUN FACTS:

• Pretty Wings reached the top forty on the Billboard Hot 100. It also topped the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, making it Maxwell’s first song in ten years to have done so (the last having been Fortunate in 1999). It remained at number one on that chart for fourteen consecutive weeks, which remains tied for the third-longest run at the top in the chart’s history.
• The lyrics of the song express “pretty wings” as a metaphor; “If I can’t have you, let love set you free to fly your pretty wings around.”
• Along with fellow musicians D’Angelo and Erykah Badu, Maxwell has been credited with helping to shape the “neo soul” movement that rose to prominence during the late 1990s.

To date, the music video has been viewed on YouTube over 50 million times. The video takes place in a dim household and some scenes show five separate women in their beds sleeping. Maxwell served as an Incubus who is in bed with the women in their own scenes. In the final minutes of the video the women all levitate above their beds after reaching a state of euphoria by the Incubus. The final shot is Maxwell leaving one of the bedrooms of one of the five women. The music video was ranked #9 on BET’s Notarized: Top 100 Videos of 2009 countdown.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for Nesie’s Place!

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “Cowboy/Gun/Hat/Horse/Western.”

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Looks like I’m stuck in the 60s this week! 😀

“It’s a story. Little kids grow up, and they’re beating the girls up, pulling their hair – they don’t treat them tenderly. Then all of the sudden they realize that girls are made for kissing. And the girls go from baby dolls to boys. We were trying to write lyrics that were different, take a different angle and be as clever as possible, ” is what Leon Huff said about one of the songs he co-wrote with partner, Kenny Gamble.

Cowboys to Girls, recorded by R&B group, The Intruders in 1967, was a crossover hit becoming the group’s first Top 40 single.

A Top 10 smash on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #6, Cowboys to Girls was the biggest hit of The Intruders’ career.

FUN FACTS:

• Cowboys to Girls was also The Intruders’ only number one song on the R&B singles chart.
• Gamble and Huff were constantly writing down ideas for songs, and often started with a title, which they also did for Cowboys to Girls.
• The Intruders were the first band Gamble and Huff recorded on their own label, and the success of this helped them launch the Philadelphia International label, where they wrote and produced songs for Billy Paul, The O’Jays, and Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes.

The video is from… a Sooouuul Train performance! 😀

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for Nesie’s Place!

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “Dream/Lullaby/Sleep.”

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Her 1993 album, Passion, not only includes her Grammy-winning duet with Peabo Bryson, A Whole New World, from Disney’s animated film, Aladdin,  but artist Regina Belle also executes the powerful Dream in Color.

The song is about having the courage to live life fully and with integrity.

FUN FACTS:

• A student at Rutgers University in the early 80s, Regina left to pursue a singing career. She returned to her studies in 2013 and received her degree as a member of the 2015 graduating class. Regina performed Dream in Color during the commencement ceremony.
• Belle is married former NBA basketball player John Battle and they have five children, three of which are adopted.
• Regina successfully battled a brain tumor in 2009. However, she is now deaf in her left ear.

Impossible to find a good video of the wonderful song so I had to settle for a static of the Passion album cover.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for Nesie’s Place!

~~~

Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “Songs that reference another group.”

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I’m Every Woman was the 1978 debut hit for Chaka Khan after she left the funk group, Rufus.

Whitney Houston’s 1992 cover of the song for The Bodyguard soundtrack not only mentions Chaka near the end, but she’s also featured in the official video.

FUN FACTS:

• The music video features a very pregnant Houston performing the song, while scenes from The Bodyguard are intercut into the clip. The video also features cameo appearances by Houston’s mother Cissy Houston as well as by Chaka Khan, Valerie Simpson, Martha Wash and labelmate TLC. The song won Houston a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Music Video, and received a Grammy Award nomination in 1994 for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
• When I’m Every Woman was released, Houston’s preceding single, I Will Always Love You, was still at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 (it remained there for eight more weeks).
• Chaka’s version reached number twenty-one on the Billboard Hot 100, number one on the Hot Soul Singles,
• Houston’s version peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 in just its seventh and eighth week of release; remaining in the top 40 for nineteen weeks. The song became number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart, reached number five on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and cracked the top 40 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart.

It’s a fun, energetic video!

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for Nesie’s Place!

~~~

Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.