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 “Promise/Oath/Vow.”

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The music world lost one of its brightest stars on March 20, 2020.

Kenneth Ray “Kenny” Rogers passed away under hospice care of natural causes. He was 81.

In a career which spanned more than sixty years, Kenny moved from teenage rock’n’roll through psychedelic rock to become a hit country-pop crossover artist of the 1970s and 1980s. His songs appeared in top-selling motion pictures and television movies, including movies based on some of his songs and, in which he starred.

The multi-award winner was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. He worked with some of the biggest names in the record industry, charted more than 60 top 40 hit singles (including two number ones—Lady and Islands in the Stream), and sold more than 165 million records.

My love for Kenny Rogers goes all the way back to 1967 when he was with the First Edition and had hits like Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) and Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town… and my age was in single digits. 😀  He recorded songs that were special to me in every decade after that, especially the 80s when I met and married my late husband.

None of the words of this week’s prompt actually appear in the title or lyrics of 1981’s Through the Years, but it was a very special song for us. The song looks back at a relationship “Through The Years” and mentions the ups and downs, but the singer proclaims to his loved one: I’m so glad I stayed right here with you / Through the years.

Rest in peace, Kenny, and thank you for the music through the years.

FUN FACTS

• • Kenny Rogers topped the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone.
  • Rogers was the fourth of eight children and is said to be of Irish and Native American heritage.
  • On his 50th anniversary TV special, Rogers performed a version of Through the Years with his two friends Lionel Richie and Dolly Parton which also included archive footage of him working with both on various projects through the years.
  • Through the Years reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1982, remaining in the Top 40 for eleven weeks and went to number one on the adult contemporary chart, becoming Rogers’ fifth single to top this chart.

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.

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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 “Give/Get/Take/Receive/Send.”

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Released in 1969 on the Brunswick label, Give It Away is the debut album by American soul group The Chi-Lites.

Seven of the album’s eleven songs are originals, including the title cut. It reached #88 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #10 on R&B chart, making it the group’s first top ten hit.

FUN FACTS

• • Four of the songs on Give It Away were Motown standards and one was a song made popular by Johnny Mathis, The Twelfth of Never.
  •  Led by lead singer, Eugene Record, the Chi-Lites scored eleven Top Ten R&B hits from 1969 to 1974.
  • The group was formed at Hyde Park High School in Chicago in the late 1950s as the “Chanteurs”. The original members were Eugene Record, Robert “Squirrel” Lester, and Clarence Johnson. This quartet introduced themselves at the Hyde Park High School “Senior Varieties” talent show. They later recruited Marshall Thompson and Creadel “Red” Jones from the Desideros to form the Hi-lites.  Noting that the name Hi-lites was already in use and wanting to honor their home town they changed their name to “The Chi-Lites” in 1964.
  • Eugene Record was the musical group’s sole songwriter and lead singer. Record never collaborated with members outside his singing group.

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.

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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 “North/South/East/West.”

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As a female pop singer, Kelly Clarkson has expressed frustration that for years her appearance, particularly her weight, has been a constant topic of discussion. This led her to write a song that said “Yeah, you’re right, I am a whole lot of woman, and it’s okay. I came with a brain, and I came with drive and passion and sensuality, and these things that are awesome. If you can’t handle it, that’s totally cool, but you’re not tall enough to ride this ride, then move along. It’s fine.”

Clarkson, who grew up in Texas, remarked in a profile on The New York Times that the song’s inspiration came from the challenges of being a financially secure woman looking for a man after internalizing the paradoxes of growing up in the South. Clarkson says that in the South women are told, “We want to educate you and we want you to be intelligent, but not too intelligent to where you’re intimidating; we want you to be beautiful, but not too sexy to where you’re a slut; we want you to be successful but not so successful that you make someone feel uncomfortable.”

After a conversation Clarkson had with the NOVA Wav duo–Denisia Andrews and Brittany Coney–in a session in Los Angeles, the anthem Whole Lotta Woman was penned.

Whole Lotta Woman is from Kelly’s eighth studio album, Meaning of Life, and to promote the album’s release, Clarkson debuted Whole Lotta Woman in a performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on October 31, 2017.

FUN FACTS

• • The song lyrics allude to the size of Clarkson’s waistline, her attitude, her self-worth, and her mouth using references to Southern cooking and singer Tina Turner.
  • Members of the American soul band Earth, Wind & Fire, led by bass player Verdine White, were invited by Atlantic Records CEO Craig Kallman to play on the track.
  • Critical reception of the song was mixed. It reached number 142 on Billboard’s US Digital Songs chart.

Alas, I was incapable of choosing a favorite video, so I posted THREE! 😀 😀 😀 No harm, no foul though. They’re all live performances from 1) a Nashville studio session, 2) the 2019 Billboard Music Awards, and 3) The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Watch one or watch all three…they’re all amazing!

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.

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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 “Listen/Hear/Talk/Speak.”

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Anita Baker’s 1990 album Compositions, won the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 1991 Grammy Awards, and includes one of my favorite baker songs, Talk to Me.

The song is about the determination of men to be strong and silent, not showing emotions or sharing feelings about what they’re going through in tough times. The song is representative of the woman in a man’s life who knows he’s going through something and it’s damaging everything in his life. She simply tells him to talk to me.

FUN FACTS

• • The song was released as the lead single in support of her fourth studio album, Compositions.
  • The album peaked at #5 on the US Billboard 200 and was certified platinum in 1990, making it Baker’s third platinum selling album.
  • Talk to Me became a top five R&B hit, peaking at number three on Billboard’s Hot Black Singles and number four on Adult Contemporary Songs.
  • Anita Baker is regarded as one of the most popular singers of soulful romantic ballads during the height of the quiet storm period of contemporary R&B in the 1980s.
  • Baker has won eight Grammy Awards and has five platinum albums and one gold album.

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 “Ankles/Hands/Feet/Fingers/Toes/Wrists.”

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Using this week’s prompt in the group name instead of the lyrics this week, and posting a song I know very little about other than I like it!

I first heard One Thing in late 2003 when my son and his friends were listening to music and I fell in love with the slow, easy rock ballad about taking chances and risking it all… or missing out.

I listened to other songs on the CD and didn’t connect with any the way I did with One Thing, but it has been with me from mp3 players to iPods to Pandora, Amazon Music and Spotify.

Sang by Canadian rock band Finger Eleven, One Thing was released in September 2003 as the second single from their self-titled album. The song hit number five on Modern Rock Tracks and stayed on the chart for twenty-six weeks, and number two on the Adult Top 40 chart.

FUN FACTS

• • Finger Eleven first formed at Lester B. Pearson High School in Burlington, Ontario as “Rainbow Butt Monkeys.”
  • The group got signed by Coalition Entertainment in 1996, and changed their name to “Finger Eleven” in March, 1997. The name Finger Eleven came from a demo of their song “Thin Spirits”.
  • One Thing enjoyed exposure on TV series such as Smallville, Scrubs, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Third Watch.
  • The song was used on WWE’s June 25, 2007, edition of RAW during a tribute video featuring Chris Benoit, who had been found dead along with his wife and son at their home shortly before the show started (unbeknownst to WWE, Benoit had murdered his wife and son, then killed himself).
  • The song won the 2004 MuchMusic Video Award for Best Video. The music video features black-and-white footage of the band in a surreal nocturnal environment featuring a beach with a checkered pattern shore.

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 “Come/Go/Leave/Stay.”

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Don’t park the Wayback Machine yet, 1973 is calling!

American singer-songwriter Linda Laurie wrote and released Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress) in early June of 1973 with little success. At the same time, the song was shopped to Australian Helen Reddy, considered by some to be the pop diva of the 70s. She added a cover of the song to her Long Hard Climb album released in August of the same year.

Leave Me Alone was released in October as a single and became a million-selling, Gold-certified hit single and was also the second of Reddy’s six consecutive No. 1 songs on the Billboard Easy Listening Chart.

FUN FACTS

• • Capitol Records issued Leave Me Alone as the follow-up single to Reddy’s No. 1 hit Delta Dawn despite the misgivings of Reddy herself who felt Leave Me Alone was a thematic retread of Delta Dawn as both songs concern a Southern woman – alliteratively named – whose reason has been undermined by an ill-fated tryst.
  •  Capitol Records was correct in believing the resemblance to Reddy’s precedent hit would work in Leave Me Alone’s favor as the song reached the American Top Ten chart six weeks after its single release, making Long Hard Climb the only one of Reddy’s albums to feature two Top Ten songs.
  • Reddy found the song’s chorus with its repetition of the phrase “leave me alone” monotonous. It’s repeated 43 times.
  • During Helen’s retirement from performing, she earned a degree in clinical hypnotherapy and neuro-linguistic programming. She was a practising clinical hypnotherapist and Patron of the Australian Society of Clinical Hypnotherapists.
  • When Reddy came out of retirement in 2013, playing US club dates with an act focused on songs she’d recorded which were not released as singles, she cited Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress) as “one song I will never ever sing again” disparaging its lyrical repetitiveness: “that sort of songwriting doesn’t do much for me, but it was a hit. However, I don’t have to sing it anymore if I don’t want to, and I don’t want to.”
  • In August 2015, unnamed sources revealed that Reddy was diagnosed with dementia and had moved into the Motion Picture and Television Fund’s Samuel Goldwyn Center where she is cared for by family and friends.

The music video is notable not just for being a ‘live’ performance, but also for taking place on The Johnny Carson Show.

Knowing the back story of Reddy’s disdain for the song explains her near-bored look during the performance in comparison to other songs like Delta Dawn and Angie Baby.

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 “I/Me/Them/Us/You/We.”

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The first song I thought of for this week’s prompt was We Are Family by Sister Sledge. Having five sisters (two older, three younger), it’s been our sibling theme song since its release in 1979.

But then, I realized my second favorite We song had just passed a milestone too. We Are the World, a charity single originally recorded by the supergroup, USA for Africa, turned thirty-five last month.

Following Band Aid’s 1984 Do They Know It’s Christmas? project in the UK, an idea for the creation of an American benefit single for African famine relief came from activist Harry Belafonte, who, along with fundraiser Ken Kragen, was instrumental in bringing the vision to reality. Several musicians were contacted by the pair, before Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie were assigned the task of writing the song. The duo completed the writing of We Are the World seven weeks after the release of Do They Know It’s Christmas?, and one night before the song’s first recording session, on January 21, 1985. The historic event brought together some of the most famous artists in the music industry at the time.

The song was released on March 7, 1985, as the first single from the album. A worldwide commercial success, topping music charts throughout the world and becoming the fastest-selling American pop single in history. The first ever single to be certified multi-platinum, We Are the World received a Quadruple Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America.

In all, more than 45 of America’s top musicians participated in the recording, and another 50 had to be turned away. Upon entering the recording studio, the musicians were greeted by a sign pinned to the door which read, “Please check your egos at the door.” They were also greeted by Stevie Wonder, who proclaimed that if the recording was not completed in one take, he and Ray Charles, two blind men, would drive everybody home.

FUN FACTS

• • Awarded numerous honors—including three Grammy Awards, one American Music Award, and a People’s Choice Award—the song was promoted with a critically received music video, a home video, a special edition magazine, a simulcast, and several books, posters, and shirts. The promotion and merchandise aided the success of We Are the World and raised over $63 million (equivalent to $147 million today) for humanitarian aid in Africa and the US.
  •  The song became the first single since The Beatles’ Let It Be to enter Billboard‘s Top 5 within two weeks of release.
  • Outside of the US, the single reached number one in Australia, France, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. The song peaked at number 2 in only two countries: Germany and Austria.
  • Elias Kifle Maraim Beyene, a survivor from Ethiopia being asked about his memory of Michael Jackson after his death remembers:
    

    I won’t ever forget Michael Jackson because his contribution to the song We are the World had a very significant effect on my life. I am 50 now but 25 years ago I was living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which at that time was suffering from a long drought and famine. It was a terrible situation. Lots of people became sick and many more died. Around one million people in all were killed by the famine. In 1984 Michael Jackson, along with a number of other leading musicians, made the song We are the World to raise money for Africa. We received a lot of aid from the world and I was one of those who directly benefited from it. The wheat flour that was distributed to the famine victims was different to the usual cereal we bought at the market. We baked a special bread from it. The local people named the bread after the great artist and it became known as Michael Bread.

USA for Africa participants:

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 “Babe/Cutie/Doll/Honey/Sweetie.”

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The driving beat and horn section in the beginning of this song tells you 1) it’s 80s music and, 2) it’s time to dance!

Detroit funk band, One Way, had only enjoyed modest success until the second release from their 1982 album, Who’s Foolin’ Who, Cutie Pie. A dance club favorite, the song soared to #4 on the US Billboard R&B Singles chart and #29 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart. It peaked at #61 on the pop chart and would be the band’s only appearance on the Billboard Hot 100, leaving One Way to join the list of one-hit wonders.

FUN FACTS

• • Though One Way disbanded and reformed several times over the years without another hit song, in 2019, after a 31-year hiatus and now called One Way featuring Al Hudson, they  released their 12th album, New Old School.
  • Lead vocalist, Alicia Myers, left One Way before the release of their second album and went on to a moderately successful solo R&B career in the early 1980s.
  • Alicia’s older brother, Jackie Myers, also a musician, would later become part of the beach band, Chairman of the Board.
  •  Alicia is a survivor of childhood tuberculosis. She later survived breast cancer in 1998 and has since become an advocate for the disease.

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 “Duets.”

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If I Never Knew You is sang by Jon Secada and Shanice over the end credits of  Disney’s 1995 animated feature film, Pocahontas. It was the second single released from the movie soundtrack after Vanessa Williams’ pop and R&B rendition of the Academy Award-winning Colors of the Wind.

The song was originally developed for the prison scene where Pocahontas visits Captain John Smith before he is sentenced to death for the alleged murder of Kocoum, Chief Powhatan’s warrior whom Pocahontas was supposed to marry. Composer Alan Menken decided it had to be cut because he felt that it slowed the pace of the movie and too closely followed another song.

If I Never Knew You charted on the U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles and U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, reaching #8 and #24, respectively. It also reached #51 on UK charts.

FUN FACTS

• • Performed by Mel Gibson (Captain Smith) and Judy Kuhn (singing voice of Pocahontas), If I Never Knew You was added to the tenth anniversary edition of Pocahontas in 2005, fully animated and integrated as a viewer option on the DVD.
  • In 2001, If I Never Knew You was covered by Michael Crawford and Sherie Rene Scott for The Disney Album.
  • Jon Secada has written songs for Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, and Jennifer Lopez. He has toured with Luciano Pavarotti and recorded duets with Jim Brickman, Olivia Newton John, and Frank Sinatra, as well as winning two Grammys for his own music releases.
  •  Also an actress, Shanice became the first black performer to star in the role of Eponine in the musical Les Misérables on Broadway in 1997.  She also starred in the made-for-TV movie One Special Moment, an adaptation of Brenda Jackson’s 1998 novel of the same name. Shanice and her husband of twenty years, actor/comedian Flex, starred in their own reality show Flex & Shanice, for three seasons on OWN.

Filmed in New York City, the music video features Shanice and Secada performing the song with clips of Pocahontas being projected on buildings behind them.

I could listen to this song on endless repeat. And, maybe I have! 😀 😀 😀 😀

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 “Written or sung by Tom/Dick/Harry or including one of these names in the lyrics.”

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Although she was responsible for writing the bassline and intended to play it on record, Genius of Love co-writer and lead singer, Tina Weymouth, had to wake up the assistant engineer – he was asleep under the console – when her right arm seized up in a terrible cramp during the abbreviated 1981 recording session. “Chris (Frantz) was mad, but I really couldn’t play; my hand wouldn’t even close. So we did what we had to do. These things happen.”

Genius of Love became a commercial success and reached number one on the Billboard Disco Top 80 chart, number two on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard), and number thirty-one on the US Billboard Hot 100.

The lyrics and video imply that the singer is in jail although why she’s imprisoned is not explained. The singer tells her fellow inmates about her boyfriend whom she describes as the “genius of love”.

FUN FACTS

• • Genius of Love was the first song I danced to with my late husband, Dennis.
  • The lyrics pay tribute to many notable African-American musicians and singers, including George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Smokey Robinson, Bob Marley, Sly and Robbie, Kurtis Blow, Hamilton Bohannon, and James Brown.
  •  In May 2016, a version of the song by Tinashe was used in a television advertising campaign for Target Corporation.
  •  Frank Zappa, in an interview with MTV, mentioned that the music video was his favorite at the time, due to it being “animated and clever.

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.