#6: From the Top to the Bottom To the Top

But when she left
Gone was the glow of 
Blue velvet

- "Blue Velvet", Bobby Vinton

Stanley Robert Vinton, Jr. scored big with his cover of this sentimental tune, hitting #1 on the Top 100 in '63 well after its double debut by The Clovers and Tony Bennett:

This son of a bandleader was ready to play any instrument in his band as well as sing, and it seems like the workings of fate that he shared a birthplace, deep in the rust belt, with Perry Como, and appeared on Guy Lombardo's television show on his way to the top. He's also one of that handful of top artists dramatically shadowed by the British Invasion; his last #1 hit, "There! I've Said It Again" was supplanted by "I Want To Hold Your Hand." But he was destined for sustained success in any case, cashing in on songs with "Lonely" in the title, and even getting some more mileage out of the syrupy "Sealed With a Kiss" well after Brian Hyland's hit version.

One of the more remarkable projects of the "Polish Prince" ended up being the only American hit with Polish lyrics, "My Melody of Love."

(A quarter century later at this slot we find the ubiquitous Whitney Houston doing a dance tune, "So Emotional." One obsession of the time was electronic drums, a fairly new item, and the percussion sound here is similar in particular to the Bee-Gee-tinged, been-there-done-that Fine Young Cannibals hit "She Drives Me Crazy.")

Nigga, I just think it's funny how it goes
Now I'm on the road, half a million for a show

- "Started From the Bottom", Drake

Part of the disproportionate representation of Canada in the flow of popular music, since Joni Mitchell and Neil Young (and before), is Aubrey Drake Graham, who chose to go by his middle name on the way to the top. He is a little unusual among those  who achieved fame in hip hop in breaking into acting on the way there, and having had a Bar Mitzvah on the way there.

And his song is a little unusual in that genre as well, because it suggests a different (and to me welcome) direction for rap motifs. I think it's arguably not rap, or rap-related; all of the vocals have a chartable melody rather than the knowing monotone that was the enforced motif of performers in this realm. He goes yet further into what could be called, relatively to the softening center, an experimental direction here:

Another interesting facet of this song is that it's the only one of its top ten, as far as just song length, that would have passed muster fifty years before, since it is the only one under three minutes. But it's also the first we've encountered on our march to #1 that would probably have been categorically rejected for use of the word "nigga" as well as prohibited vulgarity.

Regnant Couples (Ten at Fifty)

I've waited so long for school to be through
Paula, I can't wait no more for you

- "Hey Paula", by Paul and Paula

Number 7 in 1963 was sappy even by the era's standards, even including a sentimental, watery organ. In addition, "Hey Paula" had the fewest lyrics of its top ten, partly because of its relaxed pace, partly because it was on the short side with a longish intro. It explicitly promoted the post-high-school wedding and the glories and isolation of young love. And it was typical of the kind of song, like those of the Chordettes or Dickie Lee, or this:

which would not survive the transition to the Beatles/Beach Boys era.

Paul and Paula didn't have those first names, but were "packaged" as a couple in an era that saw great success for singing couples like April Stevens and Nino Tempo, who had a smash with a more pop cover of "Deep Purple" that year, and culminated with couples like Ian and Sylvia, Richard and Mimi Farina, and Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood.

(Former Go-Go Belinda Carlisle managed to score an eighties comeback with the upbeat "Heaven is a Place on Earth", which channeled the "Imagine" sensibility of abandoning the promise of the afterlife in the name of strengthening the couple's love.)

See the girls in the club
They looking at us

- "Scream and Shout", will.i.am and Britney Spears

There is a rap element to this song, but its agenda and tempo are all dance, the lyrics insubstantial and vain. I have to align myself with some negative reviewers:

"... it lacks the extra "oomph" and originality that would make "Scream and Shout" a truly memorable single. It's the kind of club track that's serviceable enough in the moment, but it's not likely to stick in your head on the cab ride home at 2 a.m.".[37] Emily Exton of PopDust contributor wrote that Spears' contribution is an improvement from "will's monotonous requests to 'lose control', 'let it go' and 'hit the floor'..."

Perhaps they were contrasting with

or Swedish H.M. at #10. Could you say that this is kind of a "It's All Right" for the millenials? I sort of think not, but I can't, of course, inhabit the context, my tastes diverge too much from this. I think of the blues context of the earlier song, sounding in its context a bit pagan perhaps to a white audience, and some of the Black America context persists in this song, but it seems self-consciously self-indulgent, arrogant, "oh, yeah, we're bringing it." But maybe we'll have to defer judgment until we've seen a little more of what the dance realm offers in these most popular songs.

The Kid Grows Up (Ten at Fifty)

"Let me hear you say 'Yeah!'"
- "Fingertips, Part II", Little Stevie Wonder


The #8 position juxtaposes the two longest songs of their respective top ten lists this week. "Fingertips" at over three minutes, is one of a very short list of songs of its era to be essentially ad libbed, "What'd I Say" representing one of the most famous. As a result, its lexicon is more limited than the other nine of its list, with only 56 distinct words employed, with the most frequent, "yeah", being used almost as many times as the three title words of "It's All Right". And each word appears to have motive force, with the virtuosic chromatic harmonica serving as dressing as much as musical core, and the orchestra can be kind of an afterthought:

It would be difficult to imagine another 13-year-old in such control.

(But it is impressive, nonetheless, that "Could've Been" launched a 17-year-old Tiffany to this position twenty-five years later. Even if there is nothing particularly exciting about the song.)

"But the album’s first single, 'Suit & Tie,' is widely acknowledged to be a misstep. At more than five minutes, it’s a single knocked slowly past first base at best. In the video (and it is uncharacteristically helpful to the song), we learn that Timberlake is friends with Jay-Z, knows attractive women, and has an iPad. After almost a minute, the track brings in a clipped horn section and a fleet, rapid beat, a bit like Chicago Steppers music blended with Earth, Wind and Fire. The vocal harmonies, like those on many of Timberlake’s recordings, are creamy and dense enough to distract you from what’s little more than a plea to put on a suit."

 - Sasha Frere-Jones, The New Yorker

"Suit and Tie", with a running time of about 5:30, is in no hurry to cover what the producers might have viewed as two bases, the first being hip-hop, the second being more or less 80's pop. Born thirty years after Wonder, and ten years after Tiffany, Timberlake hit it big with 'N Sync in teen pop at the same age as Stevie was in that Ed Sullivan appearance. Their early hit "I Want You Back" is more or less in the musical mode of an icon near his birth, Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". His more recent bid to enter the mainstream is ubiquitous enough to spawn some spoofs, and the spirited Jazz adaptation among others:

.

 "Suit and Tie" has the highest word count of any song of the two top ten sets, partly because it's the only song employing anything like a rap motif - perhaps a clear indication that the door is closing on that era, given the fact that several songs each quarter or so made the top ten a decade ago.

Heaven and Squares (Ten at Fifty)

#9 - "Washington Square", The Village Stompers

The Washington Square scene was folk central for the U.S., Bob Dylan, Buddy Holly, Jesse Colin Young, Dave van Ronk and company becoming entranced with Americana and other influences, and feeding the popular end of a scene in the form of the Kingston Trio and the Village Stompers, who had the sole instrumental in the two top ten lists I've elected to cover. The instrumental was not unusual, however; the Peter Gunn theme did very well, Lawrence Welk managed several top ten entries through the early sixties, as did the Ventures and others. But a banjo lead was, and continues to be, only found in this song near the top of the charts.

Allmusic.com reminds us that the Stompers were a Dixieland outfit first and foremost, and much of their material started with a more emphatic Dixieland orientation than either their lone hit or, for instance, Pete Seeger's reading of "If I Had a Hammer",

which they also covered in their brief frenzy of releases (above they rethink what was more of a country hit of a few years before.)

(The mega-pop band Breathe introduced the "heaven" theme we would see in 25 years at this position with their greatest hit "Hands to Heaven", a song of unhappy departure like "Louie Louie" or its source song "Havana Moon". Although a Peabo Bryson or an Air Supply could spin out a decade's success on their kind of smooth, they weren't able to capitalize to that extent, and ended up as a short-lived if strong success.)

"You make me feel like I've been locked out of heaven for too long"

- Bruno Mars, "Locked Out of Heaven"

In something that sounds quite a bit like The Police in the late Seventies, Bruno Mars cuts a swath on the pop scene with this tune, partly because he elects to talk about sex. Hawaiian-born, steeped in Elvis and Prince, he relies on bluesy singing skills to deliver this song, which is simultaneously pop, rock, and blues, with the Police-like ska feel with the Sting-like high tenor, and not a little Michael Jackson.

Mars is ready for smooth as well, here in what might be a more customary "hatted" mode:

He is enough of a powerhouse this year that we will see him again on our march to #1.

#10 - A Word of Solace (Ten at Fifty)

"When you wake up early in the morning
Feelin' sad like so many of us do
Hum a little soul
Make life your goal
And surely something's got to come to you"

"It's Alright", The Impressions, 1963

A precursor of the Temptations' "The Way You Do the Things You Do", the relaxed, finger-poppin' "It's Alright" was one of the first top ten hits to broaden the appeal of the Southern Black Gospel sound, which Sam Cooke exemplified in songs like "There's Not a Friend Like Jesus" when he was with the Soul Stirrers, but was already diverging from with the more bluesy "Chain Gang" a couple of years earlier.

It was longish for its time, flirting with the three-minute mark sometimes considered a deal-breaker by labels. And it had more lyrics than any of the other top ten songs of that year. The Impressions had broken into the top ten a year earlier with another Curtis Mayfield creation "Gypsy Woman", which bore little relationship to either that gospel sound or "Superfly". But what "It's Alright" did have in common was enough appeal to push it beyond the R&B charts and into the mainstream, and it represented the charting apex for the group. It was one of two songs in the top ten which propelled artists formerly thus pigeonholed into the mainstream.

(Sixties icon Steve Winwood staged a comeback in 1987 with his upbeat, but decidedly non-disco "Roll With It", which as it happens was another song of reassurance. It was at position number ten for that year.)

"Upon the hill across the blue lake,
That's where I had my first heartbreak.
I still remember how it all changed.
My father said,
'Don't you worry, don't you worry, child.'"

"Don't you worry, child", Swedish House Mafia, 2013

If you type just the two letter "sw" into a browser at google.com today, it's a fair bet that the first match presented to you in the popup list will be Swedish House Mafia, a deejay trio of a short but prosperous life span. They are the only current top ten entry that no longer exists, having disbanded about three years into their history, just about the time I took my "top ten snapshot" early last month. They had pretty much one speed, the 130 beats per second well-known to ravers and American Idol fans, and they seem to have little difficulty keeping their hands free. Their videos are predominantly fleeting shots of the audience and long shots of the venue, and it's hard to imagine a show in daylight. (... but here's one...)

An unfortunate association they have is with violence at a concert in Ireland. The Irish Times reported, "... Saturday’s show by “rave” act Swedish House Mafia was characterised by suspected drug overdoses and multiple incidents of stabbings. The contrast between two nights of feel-good, all-in-it-together sentiment with the drugs-and-violence mayhem of Saturday’s show was striking."

Ten at Fifty

In 1963, the Beatles were huge in the UK, but close to unknown in the U.S. – but that would change in a month. You wouldn’t know that by looking at Google Images for the sole search term “1963”, where a significant percentage of the images are of them; you also would not guess that the equally represented Bob Dylan was also close to unknown, although it was in that year that Peter, Paul, and Mary made a hit of “Blowin’ in the Wind”. More indicative of the style of the time are images of Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, Kennedy, Koufax, and Miss Kitty. The mood was mellower, with Little Richard’s frenzy at least partly replaced by the likes of the ultra-smooth Fleetwoods doing “Mr. Blue”, and the stage was perfectly set for the jangly production values of the Fab Four, although some of that sound had already surfaced in the Chantay’s “Pipeline”.


So it seemed to me that it would be a good time to look back 50 years, when I was a resident of Sonora, CA, a sleepy gold country town with as much a taste for Johnny Cash as The Ventures, and figure out what interesting things can be learned from the path from there to now, as seen through the strange lens of popular music. I’ve decided, in my geeky way, to employ a statistical approach, among other things, to compare the most popular songs then and now. And I’m inclined to take an occasional look at the midpoint in 1987, since that snapshot also represents an era in interesting ways.

I decided that my snapshot would not quite match between Billboard's idea of the top now and then. First, even though the British Invasion had not yet occurred, there was plenty of volatility in music in 1963, and there was already a well-established trend of more repetition and less production in the summertime, so it seemed like it would be hard to pick a particular week or month then to focus on as the analogous time to the early April week I picked for this year, so I elected instead to compare the 1963 year's top ten to the songs that floated to the top a couple of weeks ago.

And really, is it any wonder that it's a Bieber, and not a Wonder, who represents teen-idol-dom this year? Even if we'll see another Justin in my 2013 countdown, there's something timeless about the profiles of those elected to personify something like "Teen America", and even in the information era, the clustering of performer obsession retains its essential nature.

Next week we kick off at the number ten position, with a look at The Impressions and Swedish House Mafia.

The Dreamers of Tierra del Fuego

I recently saw an article about a sense of real-life awareness during dreaming. And all at once I remembered having dreams when I was seven or eight, frightening dreams about large birds sitting on me in what I would later hear called the incubus pattern. 

And on the heels of that remembering was the memory of a series of nightmares I had shortly after I lived alone in an apartment for the first time: sparks blowing up a curtain in front of a closet; a War-of-the-Worlds-like red-lighted periscope peering into the room where I slept, which was otherwise exactly as the room actually was at the time; the sense of an intruder rapidly going through my bedroom toward the kitchen, but without having been, exactly, visible. 

And then, more memories. Somewhere around my thirtieth birthday, the dreams involving threats that I had began to develop a porosity into the real world, in that I would recognize a repeating pattern and diagnose it as dream content, and hence something against which I could literally invent an opposing and overwhelming force. I would be retreating down a cave of diminishing size away from some invisible threat, where as the cave became impassable, the dream would have ended; but now, seeing a pattern, I suddenly realize I can simple turn back, think a large club, ray gun, or whatever seemed effective - and suddenly the point of my weapon is gone, suddenly there is no more threat. I just go back up the cave toward whatever foolishness was the dreamlike order of the day before the appearance of the threat.

After that year's dreams, I almost never had nightmares that would wake me up. I had repeating dreams of impassable or barely passable sequences of rooms and passages, or shaky floors, or repeating needs for Sisyphus-like effort - but they all represented frustration rather than fear, annoyance instead of terror.

And so I wondered - is this something that most people experience, and if they do, when? Does it ever go retrograde? Can a person be reliably trained to get that awareness? Was I extraordinarily lucky?