Pop

16 Jun 2023

Lorde Celebrates ‘Melodrama’ Anniversary, Reveals Taylor Swift’s Advice About Album Sales

Lorde is giving fans a supercut of memories to look back on in celebration of Melodrama‘s six-year anniversary, from the anxiety-ridden days she spent writing lyrics for the 2017 album to the sage advice Taylor Swift gave her after its release.

“Apparently Melodrama is 6,” the pop star began a flurry of throwback photos and videos posted to her Instagram Story Friday (June 16), going on to share snaps from when she was 18 or 19 years old putting the album together.

In one picture, she eats breakfast during her longterm stay at the Park Hyatt hotel in New York City — where she made a majority of the album with producer Jack Antonoff — revealing at the time she had “truly no idea that it was an extremely expensive hotel and thus spent most of my

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advance on hotel bills.”

“Lots of dramatic lyric writing sessions such as this,” she captioned another photo of her sitting with a laptop in an empty bathtub. “I was so anxious all the time, my heart was like a little bird’s.”

Upon its June 16, 2017 release, Melodrama debuted atop the Billboard 200 and sold an impressive 109,000 equivalent album units in its first week. Lorde’s debut record, however, not only spawned a nine-week No. 1 hit with “Royals,” but sold 129,000 copies in its first week.

It appears that 2017 Lorde was a little disappointed that Melodrama didn’t perform quite as well as its predecessor, based on a text conversation with none other than Taylor Swift. But the “Royals” singer’s longtime friend and role model was able to cheer her up with a piece of advice, which present-day Lorde remarked was “very kind and not wrong.”

“You will always be imagined in my mind in a rowboat with Annie Lennox floating down a river of cool cerebral ethereal dreams but don’t-f–k-with-me vibes all around you,” Swift wrote in her text to Lorde at the time, as seen in a screenshot posted by the latter artist. “And I don’t think first week record sales singularly define a legacy.”

The “Green Light” musician, who released her third album Solar Power in 2021, closed out her trip down memory lane with a tease at what’s to come. “Lots of love and see you …soon,” she wrote, sharing a recent photo of herself in the studio, recording vocals.

Revisit to Melodrama below.

16 Jun 2023

Cincinnati QB Joe Burrow Says ‘Maybe I’ll Stop By’ Taylor Swift Show at Bengals Stadium

If there’s one thing Joe Burrow has established in his four years leading the Cincinnati Bengals it’s that he’s unfathomably icy under pressure. Hence, the nickname “Joe Cool.” But when Sport Illustrated reported this week that the former No. 1 draft pick who has led a historic revitalization of the formerly moribund team was on the fence about the biggest event to come to Paycor Stadium in ages, the chill was absolutely sub-zero.

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“I have a lot of respect for what Taylor Swift has done with her career,” Burrow told SI. “I can’t say that I’m listening to too much Taylor Swift on the speakers in the headphones. I know a lot of people that are, but that’s just not me. I’ve heard the tour is a lot of fun, though.”

While fellow NFLers Aaron Rodgers and J.J. Watt are certified Swifties, Joey Franchise was predictably relaxed about whether he’d be in a suite at Paycor — the Bengals’ home stadium — when Swift pulls in for a two-night stay on June 30 and July 1.

“Maybe I’ll stop by,” he said. Maybe?! Say it ain’t so, Joe!

No. 9’s tastes are known to tilt toward another Ohio native, Kid Cudi, who often serves as Burrow’s hype-up soundtrack. But the QB told the magazine that he’s kind of “all over the place” when it comes to playlists. “I’ll listen to some indie, I’ll listen to some hip hop, some pop,” he said. “I’ll listen to just about anything but country. I’m not a country guy.”

Check out Burrow’s Swift talk below.

16 Jun 2023

Friday Music Guide: New Music From Doja Cat, Gunna, Queens of the Stone Age and More

Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.

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This week, Doja Cat demands your “Attention,” Gunna contemplates a new reality, and Queens of the Stone roar back after too long away. Check out all of this week’s picks below:

Doja Cat, “Attention”

Following a commercial run that has included a string of huge singles and an indelible mark on pop music, Doja Cat can go anywhere she wants — and on highly anticipated new single “Attention,” the multi-hyphenate flaunts her power by crashing sounds into one another and cutting off anyone trying to crash her party. After an intro that combines harp and finger-picked guitar, the melodies and rhythms of “Attention” snap into place, and Doja rattles off a pair of highly impressive rap verses; Doja had been teasing a more hip-hop-leaning project to follow 2021’s Planet Her, and here, she combines influences like Tyler, The Creator’s internal rhyming and Eminem’s wordplay into molten-lava bars about the balance of body image and artistic gravitas. “I am not afraid to finally say s–t with my chest,” Doja proclaims — a sentiment that “Attention” makes abundantly clear.

Gunna, A Gift & A Curse

In the spring of 2022, Gunna was riding high off of his DS4ever album and its standout single “Pushin P,” leading Young Stoner Life alongside Young Thug as a new hip-hop powerhouse. Soon after, YSL was the target of a sprawling RICO case, and Gunna was able to strike a plea deal last December after months behind bars — although many hip-hop fans perceived his release as an untrustworthy sign of cooperation with the authorities. Gunna unpacks his complex circumstances on the aptly named A Gift & A Curse, the formerly vibed-out rapper adopting a somber tone while reflecting on his journey and ultimately finding a semblance of peace in his craft on a compelling, guest-free project.

Queens of the Stone Age, In Times New Roman…

Six years after linking up with Mark Ronson and aiming to dance a little with 2017’s Villains, Queens of the Stone Age are back to what they do best: grand, crunchy rock, with the bluesy exterior and Josh Homme’s innate gift for hook-writing inviting a beer-hoisted boogie. In Times New Roman… follows a difficult period in Homme’s life that included a cancer diagnosis and subsequent surgery, and the painful life experiences have been mined for a batch of snarling, self-produced songs –QOTSA hasn’t sounded this invigorated since 2005’s Lullabies to Paralyze, and Homme deserves credit for guiding this return to form.

Don Omar, Forever King

Don Omar has been a reggaetón pioneer long before the sound fought its way into the U.S. mainstream, and maintained his stature during a recording break following 2019’s The Last Album. With Forever King, however, Omar visits a variety of different sounds, from mambo to tropical to urban, expanding the contours of his reggaetón aesthetic while welcoming a slew of collaborators (Residente, Wisin, Nio Garcia and Maluma among them) and asserting his dominance within Latin music as a whole. Forever King plays out like the perfect type of album from a veteran artist: tasteful experimentation abounds, with plenty for longtime fans.

Read a full review and track ranking for the new Don Omar album.

Carly Pearce feat. Chris Stapleton, “We Don’t Fight Anymore”

“This song embodies a place that I think, if we are honest with ourselves, we’ve all felt at some point in a relationship,” Carly Pearce shared in a press release of her new Chris Stapleton collaboration, “We Don’t Fight Anymore.” “The distance that feels heartbreaking, yet you’re also indifferent.” Both country greats bring their A-game to this story of a relationship cold war, but Pearce and co-producers Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne nail the song’s atmosphere: an uncluttered country arrangement is marked by mournful fiddle and guitar, bubbling up as if to remind the voices of the fond memories before once again disappearing.

Asake, Work of Art

Fast-rising Nigerian artist Asake has delivered his second album, Work of Art, to lofty expectations: he’s touring North America in a few months, including a headlining show at Barclays Center in Brooklyn; collaborating with stars like Davido and Fireboy DML; and working with a handful of producers who know how to elevate artists on an international scale. Fortunately, Work of Art addresses the professional pressure with pure joy, a confident synthesis of different African music styles heavy of wide-reaching vocal harmonies and string flourishes, with a few clear hits (“Basquiat,” “Amapiano” with Olamide, “2:30”) headlining the potential breakthrough.

Editor’s Pick: Peggy Gou, “(It Goes Like) Nanana”

Need to physically shake off a long work week? “(It Goes Like) Nanana,” the first new track from dance auteur Peggy Gou in nearly two years, has arrived to inspire uninhibited movement with nods to classic house anthems, ‘90s jock jams and modern club sounds. Gou has long been capturing feelings of bliss, but “(It Goes Like) Nanana” is immediately one of the producer’s most self-contained and accessible singles to date; her first release on XL Recordings and the lead single of a long-awaited debut album, the song precedes an exciting artistic period, as well as a summer full of dance breaks.

16 Jun 2023

Trent Reznor’s Daughter Turned Him on to Dua Lipa and the NIN Singer Said Her Songs Made Him Cry: ‘It Felt Good’

Trent Reznor has spent 35 years making the most outrageously dissonant, elegant and dark rock possible. But, as it turns out, the Nine Inch Nails leader is not totally immune to the charms of a great pop song. On the latest edition of producer Rick Rubin’s Tetragrammaton podcast, Reznor fessed up that not only has he learned to appreciate a well-crafted pop ditty, but, thanks to his kids, he’s actually been brought to tears by one of today’s biggest mainstream stars.

“For while, I kept them in a kind of hermetically sealed way from pop music. Because I think it sucks generally — I had thought that,” Reznor said of his kids with wife singer Mariqueen Maandig. Then, Reznor said, he heard his six-year-old daughter singing along to Dua Lipa recently and it gave him pause.

“She is so into it and it is so cool. Like this is her music, you know, this is her thing,” he said. “It really reminded me the art of writing a well-crafted song — I teared up listening to a Dua Lipa track. Because it was just a really well-done piece of music, you know? It was clever. It felt good.”

The Grammy, Oscar and Golden Globe-winning songwriter then made a startling admission. “It’s a difficult thing to do. I don’t know how to do that,” Reznor said. “When I’m trying to think of what to say, I’m saying it from the unvarnished me. And that requires me thinking about who I am and where my position is now and all of that together becomes something that feels the stakes are higher.”

That’s why he said he prefers film scoring, which has become his second full-time job thanks to acclaimed work on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl, Mank, The Social Network, Soul and Empire of Light, among others. “Sitting there and arranging stuff — I know what’s right… I don’t have to assess my thoughts on how I feel about a thing,” he told Rubin. “What it comes down to is I really enjoy weirdly working in service to something. It’s like cracking a code. It feels good to crack the code, whatever it is.”

As for the future of NIN, Reznor said because he has young kids at home he’s not really interested in “endlessly” touring any more and, frankly, given where he thinks the culture is now and the importance of music in it, “[it’s] a little defeating,” he said during the pair’s two-hour chat that ranged from the very beginnings of Reznor’s life and career in Cleveland through his thoughts on working with director David Fincher and his songwriting process.

“It feels to me in general, and I’m saying this as a 57-year-old man, music used to be the thing that, that was what I was doing when I, when I had time, I was listening to music,” Reznor said. “I wasn’t doing it in the background while I was doing five other things, and I wasn’t treating it kind of as a disposable commodity.”

Reznor also fessed up that he missed the attention music used to get, even from critics, who’s opinions he still doesn’t really care about. “But somebody heard it, it got validated in its own way culturally. Culturally, that feels askew,” he added. “Like I can’t think of any review I care about today that I even trust. I could write it before it comes out because it’s already written. In fact, ChatGPT could probably do a better job, you know? Or is currently doing the job. That makes for what I feel is a less fertile environment to put music out into –in the world of Nine Inch Nails.”

Listen to the full chat with Reznor below (Dua Lipa segment begins at 1:49:00).

16 Jun 2023

Barry Manilow’s 25 Top 40 Hits, Ranked From Worst to Best: Critic’s Picks

06/16/2023

The entertainer turns 80 on Saturday. To mark the occasion, here are all 25 of his singles that made the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, fearlessly ranked by an OG Fanilow.

06/16/2023

Barry Manilow had one of the most impressive hit streaks of the 1970s and early ’80s. Of his 26 commercially-released singles between “Mandy” in late 1974 and “Read ‘Em and Weep” in late 1983, 25 made the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100.

If you’re a young pop fan, 25 top 40 hits may not sound all that impressive to you. Artists can amass that many top 40 hits with just a couple of albums these days, thanks to big, streaming-sparked debut weeks. But, back in the day, artists had to earn every hit one by one, single by single. If fans or radio didn’t care for a song, your streak was interrupted. (That happened to Manilow just once in his heyday, when “Lonely Together” stalled at No. 45 in April 1980.)

For those of us who were Manilow fans from the first time we heard “Mandy” on the radio in the fall of 1974, it’s hard to imagine that he is turning 80 on Saturday (June 17). (This doesn’t mean we’re aging too, does it?!).

Just as impressive as Manilow’s hit streak is the fact that he has sustained his stardom and drawing power decades after his last top 40 hit. Part of the reason for that is that he gained a reputation as a strong live performer.

Surviving in this business is a feat to celebrate. So, whether you’re a Fanilow from way back or you just want to understand why your mom always tears up when she hears “Mandy,” here are Manilow’s 25 top 40 hits on the Hot 100 – ranked from worst to best.

“Oh Julie”

Hot 100 peak: No. 38 (Sept. 18, 1982)

Songwriters: Shakin’ Stevens

Notes: Shakin’ Stevens had a No. 1 hit on the Official U.K. Singles Chart in January 1982 with this rockabilly-infused song. Manilow’s four singles preceding this release had missed the top 10, so the idea here was to try something completely different. This didn’t really help. Just two of Manilow’s top 40 hits were left off his 2005 two-CD collection, The Essential Barry Manilow. “Oh Julie” was one of them. This was the second of Manilow’s top 40 hits to include a person’s name in the title. Let’s just say “Oh Julie” was no “Mandy.”

True Fanilows Know: Three months after Shakin’ Stevens’ rendition of this song hit No. 1 in the U.K., Manilow had his only No. 1 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart with Barry Live in Britain.
“Some Kind of Friend”

Hot 100 peak: No. 26 (April 30, 1983)

Songwriters: Adrienne Anderson/Barry Manilow

Notes: Manilow’s friend and Arista labelmate Melissa Manchester scored her highest-charting Hot 100 hit in late 1982 with the atypically up-tempo “You Should Hear How She Talks About You,” so it’s easy to see how people in Manilow’s camp may have thought an up-tempo track might revive his pop fortunes, too. And this trendy pop/dance synth track did indeed get Manilow back on pop radio, but the record is generic – it could have been by anybody. Both “Oh Julie” and “Some Kind of Friend” first appeared on a four-song EP, Oh, Julie!, in 1982.

True Fanilows Know: Anderson and Manilow also co-wrote “Could It Be Magic,” “Daybreak” and Lady Flash’s “Street Singin’,” a 1976 hit (No. 27 on the Hot 100) that Manilow co-produced.
“Read ’Em and Weep”

Hot 100 peak: No. 18 (Jan. 7, 1984)

Songwriter: Jim Steinman

Notes: Steinman wrote and produced this song, which was first recorded by Meat Loaf on his 1981 album Dead Ringer. Manilow’s version was released in November 1983, one month after Steinman reached his commercial zenith, writing and producing the top two songs on the Hot 100 for three weeks running: Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and Air Supply’s “Making Love Out of Nothing at All.”

Bob Giraldi directed the big-budget “Read ’Em and Weep” video, in which Manilow played the dual roles of Barry Manilow and a sad clown. (He was more convincing as Barry Manilow.) Giraldi was among the hottest video directors at the time, with credits that include Michael Jackson’s “Beat It,” Pat Benatar’s “Love Is a Battlefield” and Lionel Richie’s “Hello.” This was Manilow’s final top 40 hit. Perhaps his later singles were too anonymous. Perhaps his time at top 40 had simply passed.

True Fanilows Know: The success of this song, which Manilow had little creative involvement in, brought him little satisfaction. One year after the release of this song, Manilow returned with a passion project, 2 AM Paradise Café. The album featured such jazz greats as Gerry Mulligan, Sarah Vaughan, Mel Torme, Mundell Lowe and Shelly Manne. The album was warmly received, and brought Manilow his first Grammy nomination in six years – best jazz vocal performance, duo or group for “Blue,” a duet with Vaughan.
“Memory”

Hot 100 peak: No. 39 (Jan. 15, 1983)

Songwriters: Andrew Lloyd Webber/T. S. Eliot/Trevor Nunn

Notes: This was the highest-charting version of this standout ballad from the Broadway musical Cats. (Barbra Streisand had the second-highest charting version of the song. Her rendition reached No. 52 in 1982.)

True Fanilows Know: The two Brooklyn-born superstars finally collaborated on “I Won’t Be the One to Let Go,” which was featured on her 2002 album Duets.
“Could It Be Magic”

Hot 100 peak: No. 6 (Sept. 20, 1975)

Songwriters: Barry Manilow, Adrienne Anderson

Notes: Manilow wrote and first recorded this song in 1971 as an up-tempo bop when he was in the studio group Featherbed featuring Barry Manilow. Two years later, a ballad version of the song, which was inspired by Chopin’s Prelude in C Minor, appeared on his eponymous debut album. The ballad was re-released in 1975, reaching No. 6 on the Hot 100, which made it the highest-charting song Manilow had a hand in writing. He co-wrote two other top 10 hits – “Copacabana (at the Copa),” which peaked at No. 8 (lower than you probably imagined) and “I Made It Through the Rain” (which peaked at No. 10).

True Fanilows Know: Tony Orlando produced the original Featherbed version of this song in 1971 — the same year his Dawn group topped the Hot 100 for the first time with “Knock Three Times.” Donna Summer released a disco treatment of the song, which reached No. 52 on the Hot 100 in 1976. (Perhaps Summer and Manilow discussed their two versions of the song backstage at the Oscars in April 1979, when they both performed best original song nominees. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.)
“I Don’t Want to Walk Without You”

Hot 100 peak: No. 36 (May 24, 1980)

Songwriters: Frank Loesser/Jule Styne

Notes: This was a curious choice for a single – a remake of a 1942 hit by big band leader Harry James (with a lead vocal by Helen Forrest). “Clive suggested ‘I Don’t Want to Walk Without You’ and when he did, I jumped at it,” Manilow wrote in The Complete Collection and Then Some… “My mother used to sing this song to put me to sleep when I was a baby. When we were done recording it, I presented it to her as a thank you.”

True Fanilows Know: Manilow had produced and arranged Bette Midler’s hit revival of The Andrews Sisters’ 1941 smash “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.” But Midler’s recording was a hoot, a wink. Manilow’s rendition of “I Don’t Want to Walk Without You” was pretty straightforward. The outro echoes Gene Kelly’s 1952 classic “Singin’ in the Rain.”
“I Write the Songs”

Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (Jan. 17, 1976)

Songwriters: Bruce Johnston

Notes: Manilow didn’t want to record this song when Arista president Clive Davis presented it to him. He thought the opening lyrics, “I’ve been alive forever and I wrote the very first song,” would make him sound like an egomaniac. (He was right on that one.) Davis was sure it would be not only a hit record, but a signature song.

After resisting the song for many weeks, Manilow finally worked up an arrangement they were both happy with. Manilow’s tender vocal warmed the song up a bit, but the “I am music” line is still grandiose. Manilow’s best arrangement idea: The Beatlesque piccolo trumpet line right before the lyric “I wrote some rock and roll, so you can move.”

Davis was right about the song’s potential: The song became Manilow’s second No. 1 on the Hot 100, won a Grammy for song of the year (for Johnston) and brought Manilow his second nod for record of the year in as many years. And, as Davis predicted, it has become a lifelong signature song. This was the play-on music when Manilow and Melissa Etheridge took the stage at the Tony Awards on Sunday to present an award.

True Fanilows Know: “Songs” was also the closing track on Captain & Tennille’s Love Will Keep Us Together album, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in August 1975. They didn’t release it as a single. C&T were probably kicking themselves when Manilow turned the song into such a smash. They evened the score in February 1976, when “Love Will Keep Us Together” won the Grammy for record of the year, beating “Mandy.”
“Weekend in New England”

Hot 100 peak: No. 10 (Feb. 26, 1977)

Songwriters: Randy Edelman

Notes: “Weekend in New England” was hardly an obvious hit – for one thing, it’s a waltz. Also, the title never appears in the song, a detriment in the era of “(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty.” Despite the lack of commerciality, the song made the top 10 in February 1977. But it didn’t come easily: The song took 14 weeks to climb into the top 10, longer than any other Manilow hit.

True Fanilows Know: This song was a hit around the same time as Olivia Newton-John’s similarly elegant ballad “Sam.” In The Complete Collection and Then Some… Manilow wrote, “‘Weekend in New England’ was a ballad that started out very tiny and ended very tiny.”
“Can’t Smile Without You”

Hot 100 peak: No. 3 (April 22, 1978)

Songwriters: David Martin/Chris Arnold/Geoff Morrow

Notes: The Carpenters recorded a mellow version of this song on their 1976 album A Kind of Hush, but Manilow couldn’t imagine recording a straightforward version. So when he recorded a demo of the song, “I decided that I would treat it with a big smile; like a vaudeville piece, with lots of key changes, a whistle in the intro and a real take-home ending,” he wrote in the liner notes for A Complete Collection and Then Some… “After hearing the playback, I realized that the song was absolutely irresistible and decided to treat it with the same smile, but less silly and we made a record of it that I’m still proud of to this day.”

“Can’t Smile Without You” nearly became Manilow’s fourth No. 1 hit on the Hot 100. Instead, it got stuck at No. 3 for three weeks behind a pair of hits from Saturday Night Fever: Bee Gees’ “Night Fever” and Yvonne Elliman’s “If I Can’t Have You.” It wasn’t the last time Saturday Night Fever would best Manilow — in February 1979, the soundtrack won the Grammy for album of the year, beating his Even Now.

True Fanilows Know: This cracked the top 10 on the Hot 100 in just six weeks, which puts it in a tie with “I Write the Songs” for Manilow’s quickest sprint to the top 10.
“Let’s Hang On”

Hot 100 peak: No. 32 (May 8, 1982)

Songwriters: Bob Crewe, Sandy Linzer, Denny Randell

Notes: More than 20 years before Jersey Boys became a theatrical sensation, Manilow staged a one-man Four Seasons revival with this smartly-arranged cover of the group’s 1965 hit. It’s the second of Manilow’s top 40 hits that doesn’t appear on the 2005 compilation The Essential Barry Manilow. It’s probably not essential, but it sure is fun.

True Fanilows Know: This song would have been perfect for Manilow’s 2006 album The Greatest Songs of the Sixties, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200. But since he’d already done it, he instead included Frankie Valli’s solo smash “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”
“Somewhere in the Night”

Hot 100 peak: No. 9 (Feb. 17, 1979)

Songwriters: Richard Kerr/Will Jennings

Notes: Helen Reddy had a top 20 hit on the Hot 100 in early 1976 with this song. Manilow opened for Reddy on her No Way to Treat a Lady tour in 1975, one of his last opening stints before he became a headliner. Manilow’s version did even better, reaching the top 10.

True Fanilows Know: Manilow had a wickedly funny joke about Reddy in his act in the ‘70s. He introduced a member of his backup trio Lady Flash by saying “Her biggest credit before this was saying ‘I love you, mommy’ at the end of Helen Reddy records.” (The record in question is “You and Me Against the World,” a lovely Kenny Ascher/Paul Williams ballad which Reddy had a hit with in 1974. Manilow was right: the “mommy” bit on Reddy’s record was a little corny.)
“Daybreak”

Hot 100 peak: No. 23 (Nov. 19, 1977)

Songwriters: Barry Manilow/Adrienne Anderson

Notes: Having a bad day? Put “Daybreak” on. Manilow is such a cheerleader on this song he could bring anybody out of a funk. The song’s irrepressible cheer, with a hint of underlying melancholy, echoes Sammy Davis Jr.’s “The Candy Man,” a No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 in 1972. Near the end of the recording, Manilow channels Judy Garland and says “Somebody yell ‘One More Time,’ and then we’ll go all the way!”

True Fanilows Know: This live recording was taken from Barry Manilow Live, which was Manilow’s first No. 1 album. It interrupted Fleetwood Mac’s long reign at No. 1 with Rumours. This was the third highest-charting live single of 1977, trailing Wings’ “Maybe I’m Amazed” (No. 10, from Wings Over America) and Elvis Presley’s “My Way” (No. 22, from Elvis in Concert). The studio version of this song appeared on Manilow’s This One’s for You album.
“The Old Songs”

Hot 100 peak: No. 15 (Nov. 28, 1981)

Songwriters: David Pomeranz/Buddy Kaye

Notes: This distinctly old-fashioned ballad (co-penned by the writer of “Tryin’ to Get the Feeling Again”) has all of the hallmarks of earlier Manilow smashes. But times and tastes were changing. Two months before this record hit the Hot 100, MTV went on the air.

True Fanilows Know: If this sounds like an old, vintage song, there’s a reason for that: Co-writer Buddy Kaye had hits dating back to the 1940s, including Perry Como’s “Till the End of Time” and “‘A’ – You’re Adorable,” on which the crooner collaborated with The Fontane Sisters.
“Ships”

Hot 100 peak: No. 9 (Dec. 1, 1979)

Songwriters: Ian Hunter

Notes: “Ships” represented a promising new direction for Manilow – leaner, edgier and less schmaltzy, and pushing him closer to mainstream pop/rock. The inspiration for the song was Hunter’s strained relationship with his father. “Ships,” Hunter has said, “was a coming to terms with, and an appreciation of my dad.”

True Fanilows Know: Hunter was the lead singer of the glam rock band Mott the Hoople, which had a top 40 hit on the Hot 100 in 1972 with the David Bowie-penned “All the Young Dudes.”
“When I Wanted You”

Hot 100 peak: No. 20 (March 1, 1980)

Songwriters: Gino Cunico

Notes: Manilow followed “Ships” with “When I Wanted You,” which doubled down on his new direction – leaner and less sweet. It’s a great record, but the song had a bitter undertone (“Now you’re on your own /How does it feel?/ To feel the way I used to feel”), that wasn’t what Manilow’s fans were used to or seemed to prefer from him.

True Fanilows Know: Cunico, an Australian guitarist and singer, recorded this song on his own Arista album, Gino Cunico, in 1976. Vini Poncia produced the album.
“Somewhere Down the Road”

Hot 100 peak: No. 21 (Feb. 20, 1982)

Songwriters: Tom Snow/Cynthia Weil

Notes: “Somewhere Down the Road” was co-written by two songwriting pros, who had earlier teamed to write The Pointer Sisters’ “He’s So Shy,” and who would go on to co-write Peabo Bryson’s “If Ever You’re in My Heart Again” (with Michael Masser joining them on that one). Both of those songs were top 10 hits on the Hot 100. This one, for all its excellence, fell a little short.

True Fanilows Know: Manilow and Weil (who died on June 1 at age 82) have both been voted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame – Weil in tandem with her husband and usual collaborator, Barry Mann.
“Ready to Take a Chance Again”

Hot 100 peak: No. 11 (Nov. 18, 1978)

Songwriters: Norman Gimbel/Charles Fox

Notes: Manilow sang this song over the opening credits of the Chevy Chase/Goldie Hawn film Foul Play. The song’s beautiful melodic sweep was matched by the gorgeous scenery as Hawn drove along the California coastline. Manilow performed the Oscar-nominated song on the Academy Awards telecast in April 1979. The show also included performances by two other A-list superstars: Donna Summer (“Last Dance”) and Olivia Newton-John (“Hopelessly Devoted to You”). (“Last Dance” won, though I would have been happy with any of the three winning.)

True Fanilows Know: This was Manilow’s fourth top 20 hit on the Hot 100 in 1978, making this his peak year.
“It’s a Miracle”

Hot 100 peak: No. 12 (May 10, 1975)

Songwriters: Barry Manilow/Marty Panzer

Notes: Manilow followed his breakthrough hit “Mandy” with this dynamic, disco-accented pop smash. The stylistic range of these two singles showed his versatility and got his career off to a great start. Manilow repeats the title phrase from Martha & the Vandellas’ 1964 classic “Dancing in the Street.”

True Fanilows Know: Manilow covered another Martha & the Vandellas hit, “My Baby Loves Me,” on Barry Manilow II, the same album that included “It’s a Miracle.”
“Mandy”

Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (Jan. 18, 1975)

Songwriters: Scott English/Richard Kerr

Notes: This graceful ballad reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 and later received a Grammy nomination for record of the year. That Grammy nod was fateful: Looking for a way to celebrate it and draw attention to it, Clive Davis threw a post-Grammys party at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Davis’ annual Grammy party (which has shifted to being a pre-Grammys affair) has long since become legendary.

True Fanilows Know: English’s recording of “Brandy” (as the song was originally titled) reached No. 91 on the Hot 100 in March 1972. The name of Manilow’s single was changed to avoid confusion with Looking Glass’ “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl),” a terrific pop single that reached No. 1 in the summer of ’72.
“I Made It Through the Rain”

Hot 100 peak: No. 10 (Jan. 31, 1981)

Songwriters: Gerard Kenny/Drey Shepperd/Barry Manilow/Bruce Sussman/Jack Feldman

Notes: Manilow’s two singles before this one – “When I Wanted You” and “I Don’t Want to Walk Without You” – both missed the top 10, the first time since he became a star that Manilow had missed the top 10 with back-to-back singles. This survivor’s anthem put him back in the top 10 for what turned out to be the last time. The song has some great lines, none better than this excellent piece of advice: “Start your own parade.”

True Fanilows Know: Kenny and Shepperd wrote the original song, which Feldman, Manilow and Sussman doctored. In the end, all five writers shared the songwriter credit. Like the protagonist in the song, Manilow “found [himself] respected/by the others who/got rained on too/and made it through.” In 2006, he won his second Primetime Emmy – 29 years after his first – at least in part because his fellow professionals respected the way he had outlasted his critics and weathered countless changes in musical fashion.
“Tryin’ to Get the Feeling Again”

Hot 100 peak: No. 10 (May 22, 1976)

Songwriters: David Pomeranz

Notes: This plaintive ballad was Manilow’s third consecutive single to make the top 10 on the Hot 100, following “Could It Be Magic” and “I Write the Songs.” That was his longest streak of consecutive top 10 hits.

True Fanilows Know: The Carpenters also cut this song, but their version wasn’t released until 1995, a dozen years after Karen’s death. The Carpenters were the top adult contemporary/pop crossover artist of the first half of the 1970s, just as Manilow was for the decade’s second half. Trivia note: Their “Please Mr. Postman” bumped “Mandy” from the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100.
“This One’s for You”

Hot 100 peak: No. 29 (Oct. 30, 1976)

Songwriters: Barry Manilow/Marty Panzer

Notes: “This One’s for You” has a great opening line, “This one’ll never sell/ They’ll never understand.” This is one of Manilow’s finest songs, but it inexplicably was his lowest-charting Hot 100 hit in his streak from “Mandy” through the end of the ‘70s.

True Fanilows Know: This was the second of three title songs to Manilow albums to become a hit, following “Tryin’ to Get the Feeling Again” and preceding “Even Now.” “One Voice” might have joined them, but it was never released as an A-side. It was, however, the B-side of two of Manilow’s top 40 hits – “I Don’t Want to Walk Without You” and “Read ’Em and Weep.”
“Even Now”

Hot 100 peak: No. 19 (June 24, 1978)

Songwriters: Barry Manilow/Marty Panzer

Notes: This sublime song speaks to how someone’s feelings for someone can last long after the relationship has ended. Manilow’s album of the same name received a Grammy nod for album of the year. It was Manilow’s only nod in that marquee category as an artist, though he had been nominated in that category five years earlier as a co-producer of Bette Midler’s smash debut album The Divine Miss M.

True Fanilows Know: You’ll notice that a lot of Manilow/Panzer songs are high on this list. Panzer was born and raised just blocks away from Manilow in Brooklyn. They first met while working together in the CBS-TV mailroom in New York. Panzer had one big hit that Manilow didn’t record. He teamed with Steve Dorff to write “Through the Years,” a big hit for Kenny Rogers in 1982. (Rogers’ record is pretty, but bland. Manilow would have found a way to liven it up.)
“Looks Like We Made It”

Hot 100 peak: No. 1 (July 23, 1977)

Songwriters: Richard Kerr/Will Jennings

Notes: “Looks Like We Made It” is more modest in scale than many of Manilow’s Big Ballads – and is all the more appealing for that reason. If you don’t listen to the lyrics and just react to the title, you might think this is a song about a couple celebrating their relationship. Actually, as Jennings has said, “It is a rather sad and ironic lyric about making it apart and not together.”

Manilow’s first two No. 1 singles, “Mandy” and “I Write the Songs,” were both the first singles from those albums. This was the third single from This One’s for You, which suggests that its success was a surprise. Manilow was one of just three artists to top the Hot 100 in 1975, 1976 and 1977. The others: Bee Gees and KC and the Sunshine Band. (Bee Gees extended their chart-topping streak in 1978 and 1979.)

The exhilarating “New York City Rhythm” was on the B side, making this quite possibly Manilow’s strongest double-sided single.

True Fanilows Know: Kerr and Jennings also co-wrote “Somewhere in the Night” and Dionne Warwick’s smash “I’ll Never Love This Way Again,” which Manilow produced and arranged. The song brought Warwick a Grammy for best female pop vocal performance. Manilow was nominated for his arrangement of the song – his only Grammy nod as an arranger. Though Manilow never won a Grammy as an arranger, he did win “a Clive.” In his liner notes for Manilow’s 1978 greatest hits album, Davis called Manilow “the unquestioned best arranger of songs in America today.”
“Copacabana (at the Copa)”

Image Credit: Robin Platzer/Images/Getty Images

Hot 100 peak: No. 8 (Aug, 12, 1978)

Songwriters: Barry Manilow, Bruce Sussman, Jack Feldman

Notes: Clive Davis and Manilow were effective partners, for the most part, but they disagreed on something fundamental. Manilow saw himself as a singer-songwriter, and wanted to focus on his own songs. Davis saw him first and foremost as an interpreter and an entertainer and wanted him to be open to outside material. They worked out a deal where Davis would bring him two songs per album (many of which became singles) and Manilow would write the rest. Of his 25 top 40 hits, eight were songs he had co-written.

Given the way his own songs often took a back seat in singles selection to outside songs, there’s a certain poetic justice that one of Manilow’s own compositions became his most famous song. “Copacabana (At the Copa)” brought him his only Grammy win (best male pop vocal performance).

“We thought we were writing the novelty cut for Barry’s Even Now album,” Sussman wrote in The Complete Collection and Then Some… “‘Copacabana’ surprised everyone – certainly us, and especially Arista Records, for they were faced with the first of Barry’s hits that was forced off an album.”

True Fanilows Know: Just about everybody, from Broadway legend Ethel Merman to The Rolling Stones, cut a disco record. This was one of the best. The song inspired a television movie that Manilow wrote and starred in, which aired on CBS in 1985.

16 Jun 2023

Little Mix’s Leigh-Anne Drops First Solo Single ‘Don’t Say Love’: Stream It Now

Little Mix’s Leigh-Anne is stepping out to launch her solo career.

The British singer drops “Don’t Say Love,” her first solo number after 11 years with the award-winning, chart-topping pop act.

Produced by Jon Bellion and Pete Nappi, and co-written by Aldae, “Don’t Say Love” is a beats-heavy nugget with lashings of U.K. garage.

The single, through Warner Music, “is about no longer seeking external validation and regaining my confidence and sense of self in a world where I often felt misunderstood and unheard,” she explains.

It’s accompanied with an official music video, helmed by Emil Nava, which creatively captures Leigh-Anne’s transformation — out with the old, in with the new era. The video is a “visual representation of me finding my voice,” she continues. “I’m excited to continue to do so with my first love, music.”

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Little Mix capped a massive career with the 2021 Brit Award for best group, becoming the first girl group to win the category. “It’s not easy being a female in the U.K. pop industry,” Leigh-Anne said from the BRITs podium. “We’ve seen white male dominance, misogyny, sexism and lack of diversity. We’re proud of how we’ve stuck together, stood our ground, surrounded ourselves with strong women, and are now using our voices more than ever.”

Formed in 2011 on the U.K.’s X Factor, with an original lineup of Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall, Perrie Edwards and Jesy Nelson, who split from the act in December 2020, Little Mix were major hitmakers in their homeland.

Prior to entering an extended hiatus in 2022, Little Mix racked up five U.K. No. 1 singles, and a best-selling album, 2016’s Glory Days. They’re the first girl group to log 100 weeks in the U.K. singles chart top 10, landing 19 titles in the top tier. Two of their albums 2012’s DNA (No. 4) and 2014’s Salute (No. 6) cracked the top 10 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Career record sales top 75 million, and the act have accumulated over 15 billion streams, according to Warner Music.

Stream “Don’t Say Love” below.

15 Jun 2023

Jack River Talks Parenthood and How the Climate Crisis Inspired New Album ‘Endless Summer’

Life is non-stop right now for Jack River, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

The singer and songwriter (real name: Holly Rankin) has never been shy of piling on a heaving workload, which has included festival and events organizing, advocating for women in music, and rallying broadcasters and businesses in her homeland, Australia, to lift their game when it comes to supporting homegrown talent.

River recently took on life’s most challenging project — parenthood.

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Joining the club hasn’t changed her. Indeed, “it has magnified and re-ignited parts of my mind and spirit that have been sleeping, or out of view,” she tells Billboard. “It has uncovered a whole load of stamina, as every day is some kind of marathon, even if it’s a peaceful day – there is hardly any stopping. I am grateful for the way it has let me see the world again for the first time, suddenly flowers and lights and bubbles and leaves are magical and new again.”

Just prior to finding out she was expecting her first child, the Sydney-based creative got down to writing Endless Summer, her sophomore album which drops Friday (June 16).

Endless Summer spans 10 songs, each of which captures completely different places on the emotional spectrum, River explains. The record is an oasis, she continues, something to retreat to amid the unfolding disaster that is climate change.

River’s homeland is at the frontline, with millions of her countrymen and women confronted by bushfire, drought and floods in recent years.

Endless Summer is inspired by activism, and sounds of the ‘60s and ‘70s when artists “were living through political turmoil but making escapist music,” she continues. Think the Beach Boys, the Beatles, Joni Mitchell.

Its production and narrative “speaks to the endless summer we are living through – in our minds; the delusional holiday that pop culture seems to be living in,” she says, “and the physical endless summer we are entering as the climate crisis engulfs our future.”

Hailing from the NSW coastal hometown of Forster, River — a pirate name Rankin inherited in her teens — enjoyed a breakthrough with the indie-pop gem “Fool’s Gold,” from 2017. The song blew up on the triple j network, cracking the youth network’s annual Hottest 100 poll and establishing River as an elite talent.

Endless Summer is the followup to her debut LP Sugar Mountain, which followed in 2018, peaking at No. 11 on the ARIA Albums Chart and earning multiple award nominations, and the 2020 EP Stranger Heart.

The new collection features the previously-released cuts “Real Life,” “Nothing Has Changed,” “Lie In The Sun,” the title track “Endless Summer” with Genesis Owusu, and “Honey,” which she wrote with Matt Corby and Jarryd James, at the former’s studio Rainbow Valley.

As it finds its way into the world, “I want to walk a fine line between explaining what this album means to me and where it came from,” River notes, “and just letting people take the album and let it dissolve into their own lives for their own reasons.”

Endless Summer arrives via Nettwerk in North America and I Oh You, part of the Mushroom Group, in Australia.

Stream it below.

15 Jun 2023

Someone Help Troye Sivan Get in Contact With Stray Kids’ Hyunjin

Looks like Troye Sivan has got a new celebrity crush, and he’s playfully made a plea to his followers on Thursday (June 15) to help reach out to him.

While teasing his upcoming single “Rush,” the singer posted a thirst trap fan edit of Stray Kids‘ Hyunjin, in which the 23-year-old K-pop star is seen dancing onstage in slow motion. “I feel the rush / Addicted to your touch,” the chorus of the unreleased song chants over a thumping beat to accompany the video.

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“Anyone know how to reach this man,” Sivan hilariously captioned the clip. Watch it here.

So far, there’s no update on Sivan’s quest to find Hyunjin, but in the meantime, the Australian star has been teasing his first full-length album in five years. “It’s not lost on me that some of you guys have been following along since i was the kid w the stye in my eye in that first video,” The Idol captioned a series of videos posted to Instagram last week. “Btw — I didn’t mean to take 5 years to make this album.”

“Enough excuses now. Enough saying ‘soon’ [upside down smile emoji] this is for YOU and it starts NOWWW,” he wrote. “I love you from the bottom of my heart.”

While he didn’t reveal any more information about the upcoming album, his third project will mark a follow-up to 2018’s Bloom.

15 Jun 2023

Taylor Swift Earns Second Top 10 on Adult Alternative Airplay Chart

For the second time, Taylor Swift earns a top 10 song on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart.

The National’s “The Alcott,” on which Swift is a featured vocalist, bounds from No. 15 to No. 10 on the tally dated June 17.

Swift first reached the region in 2020 when “Exile,” featuring Bon Iver, peaked at No. 9. In between her two top 10s, she appeared on Adult Alternative Airplay with two tracks, first with the No. 18-peaking “Coney Island,” featuring The National (March 2021), and then via “Snow on the Beach,” featuring Lana Del Rey (No. 30 this January).

As for The National, “The Alcott” is the band’s sixth top 10 and third in a row, following the No. 6-peaking “Weird Goodbyes,” featuring Bon Iver (November 2022), and five-week ruler “Tropic Morning News” in March-April. The Matt Berninger-led act’s other top 10s are “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness” (No. 1, two weeks, August 2017), “Day I Die” (No. 7, December 2017) and “You Had Your Soul With You” (No. 9, May 2019).

Concurrently, “The Alcott,” which Berninger and The National’s Aaron Dessner and Swift co-wrote, and which The National produced, jumps 45-40 on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay list with 748,000 audience impressions, up 18%, June 2-8, according to Luminate.

Following its April 28 release, the song debuted at its No. 13 high on the multi-metric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart dated May 13.

“The Alcott” is the second single, following “Tropic Morning News,” from First Two Pages of Frankenstein, The National’s ninth studio album. The set debuted at No. 1 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums survey dated May 13 and has earned 62,000 equivalent album units since its release.

15 Jun 2023

George Michael & Andrew Ridgeley Detail Their Path to Stardom in Netflix’s ‘Wham!’ Documentary: Watch the First Trailer

Wham! is the latest group to get the documentary treatment. On Thursday (June 15), Netflix shared the first trailer for its upcoming film about the duo — consisting of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley — about their road to stardom and the success that followed throughout the ’80s.

“We met when I was 11 and Andrew was 12,” a young Michael says in archival footage in the trailer. An older Ridgeley adds, “And there was only ever one thing that I wanted to do — be in a band with George.” The admiration was mutual, the “Careless Whisper” singer admits, saying that “Andrew changed my life in exactly the way someone needed to change my life if I was gonna be a pop star.”

Before finding major commercial success with singles such as 1984’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” Ridgeley shared that Michael often struggled with Wham!’s music not being taken seriously enough. “I never felt our music defined me in the same way it did for George. For George, chart position was the ultimate validation,” he says in the trailer.

In Michael’s own words, chart success acted as a mask for his sexual identity: “As a young gay man, I was just uncomfortable ’cause I was closeted. I was forging an identity through my success and by necessity, I went with full gusto into the progression of Wham!”

The trailer for the documentary features “access to both George and Andrew’s personal archive including remarkable and never-before-seen footage, alongside rare, candid and previously unheard interviews, WHAM! charts their incredible journey from school friends to superstars,” according to a press release from Netflix.

Wham! will arrive on the streaming platform on July 5. Watch the trailer above.

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Doja Cat, “Attention”

Gunna, A Gift & A Curse

Queens of the Stone Age, In Times New Roman…

Don Omar, Forever King

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Editor’s Pick: Peggy Gou, “(It Goes Like) Nanana”

“Oh Julie”

“Some Kind of Friend”

“Read ’Em and Weep”

“Memory”

“Could It Be Magic”

“I Don’t Want to Walk Without You”

“I Write the Songs”

“Weekend in New England”

“Can’t Smile Without You”

“Let’s Hang On”

“Somewhere in the Night”

“Daybreak”

“The Old Songs”

“Ships”

“When I Wanted You”

“Somewhere Down the Road”

“Ready to Take a Chance Again”

“It’s a Miracle”

“Mandy”

“I Made It Through the Rain”

“Tryin’ to Get the Feeling Again”

“This One’s for You”

“Even Now”

“Looks Like We Made It”

“Copacabana (at the Copa)”

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