Pride Month: (facts about popular songs part three)

LET'S HAVE A KIKI by SCISSOR SISTERS

This fun-fuelled dance track starts as a message that co-vocalist Ana Matronic is leaving on someone's phone. She proceeds to describe her night out at a club, which gets shut down by the cops so she is forced to move the party home.

So what is a 'kiki'? "The term 'kiki' is a drag queen term," Matronic explained to Spinner, "and it's used in the drag community in America to describe a good time. You can have a kiki on the phone with your friend. It also means gossip. Or you might hear a conversation where somebody says, 'Did you go to the club last night?' and you're like, 'Wow, girl, you should have been there. It was a kiki.' It would mean that your friends were all there and you had a good time."

The song became an online hit after Anne Hathaway admitted she was a fan of "Kiki's" on Late Show With David Letterman.

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO HURT ME? by CULTURE CLUB

The four members of Culture Club wrote the songs for their first album Kissing To Be Clever together, with singer Boy George coming up with the lyrics. On this song, he later admitted that he wrote the lyrics about his relationship with their drummer Jon Moss. They had an affair for about six years that was kept hidden from the public, and George often felt hurt and emotional.

At first, Boy George didn't want this released as a single because it was such a personal song for him. When it was released, it hit #1 in 23 countries. Boy George told Q magazine September 2008: "Our first two singles failed. That single was our last chance. But I threatened to leave if (the label) released it. I didn't think it was us; it wasn't club music. It wouldn't stand up to Spandau Ballet. But I was wrong. It was so personal in a way that our other songs weren't. It was about Jon. All the songs were about him, but they were more ambiguous."

This was Culture Club's first single released in the United States. It was a huge and unlikely hit for the British band, who embarked on an American tour in 1983 to gain traction in that country. The song crossed over to Adult Contemporary radio, where most listeners had no idea the lead singer dressed like a girl. MTV, whose library was mostly British bands when they launched, had acclimated their US audience to guys in makeup, so Culture Club wasn't so shocking on the channel and the group developed a huge audience of young people who liked the sound and the look.

The "look" was authentic: Boy George had been wearing makeup and women's clothes since his school days, and while he exaggerated it for publicity, it was his preferred style. In a 1983 Trouser Press interview, the singer explained: "I wear my hair this way 'cause it makes my face look longer, my hat because it makes me look taller, black clothes because they make me look thinner, and makeup because it makes me look prettier."

The band came up with the soft reggae beat and put the song together when they found they had some spare studio time during a recording session for the Peter Powell show on BBC Radio One. Their bass player Mikey Craig brought a Caribbean influence to the band's sound.

Boy George surprised a lot of people who met him in person, as his substantial size and manly speaking voice belied his feminine appearance. At least one line in this song addresses how perceptions can be wrong. He told Musician magazine in October 1983: "There's a line from 'Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?' that says, 'Everything's not what you see,' which is basically what I believe. It's kind of boring when things are just what they are."

In the book 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, Boy George said: "'Do You Really Want To Hurt Me' is a really well-constructed song. It's probably the only proper song we've got with proper chord sequences and keyboard changes in it. It's just very musical. The most powerful songs in the world are love songs. They apply to everyone - especially kids who fall in and out of love more times than anyone else. At the end of the day, everybody wants to be wanted."

In the 1998 film The Wedding Singer, which is set in the '80s, a member of the wedding band named George is clearly modeled after Boy George. At one point, he is thrust into the spotlight and sings this - twice.

In January 2009, one TV news program reporting the demise of the former Culture Club frontman Boy George said it was a case of life imitating art. The previous month, the openly homosexual George O'Dowd was convicted of the false imprisonment of a male escort. He was said to have handcuffed the man to the wall in his London apartment and beaten him with a metal chain. A Guardian correspondent reported that in an apparently accidental allusion to the 1982 hit, Heather Norton for the prosecution, asked the jury: "Did he really have to hurt him?"

At least one newspaper used a similar headline; this was O'Dowd's second conviction in recent years; he had previously been ordered by a US court to sweep the streets of New York for wasting police time after reporting a non-existent crime. Ironically, the video Culture Club made for "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?" was set in a courtroom.

The concept of the video was Boy George as an outsider, getting kicked out of different places in various historical settings. It was directed by Julien Temple, who came up with the idea of jurors dressed in blackface. This was a shocking image for American audiences, who long associated blackface with racism, but in England it was far more accepted as part of their music hall tradition.

Temple explained in the book I Want My MTV: "'Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?" was about being gay and being victimized for your sexuality, which George was kind of emblematic of. It seemed appropriate to me that in the video he would be judged by jurors in blackface, to send up bigotry and point out the hypocrisy of the many gay judges and politicians in the UK who'd enacted anti-gay legislation."

This was released on September 3, 1982 in the UK to almost universal derision. Smash Hits, for instance, called it, "weak, watered-down fourth division reggae." It only became a hit after Boy George performed the song on BBC music program Top Of The Pops wearing something resembling a white nightie with dreads wrapped in colourful ribbons and a face caked in make up. George recalled in Q magazine: "Our plugger got called and was told. We can't promote this record. What is it? Is it a bird, is it a plane, is it a drag queen. The ensuing tabloid frenzy with the 'Is it a boy, is it a girl' headlines gave the song all the publicity it needed and it zoomed to the top of the charts."

(SING IF YOU'RE) GLAD TO BE GAY by TOM ROBINSON BAND

"(Sing If You're) Glad To Be Gay" by the Tom Robinson Band (TRB) was recorded as part of a live EP in November 1977 and appears on Robinson's critically acclaimed debut album Power In The Darkness. As might be expected, this song calls on homosexuals to "come out" and declare their sexuality with pride. Robinson was an out – though not effeminate – homosexual at the time, although in later life he married and raised a family.
The song contains the interesting couplet:

There's no nudes in Gay News, our one magazine
But they still found excuses to call it obscene

Those familiar with the story behind this claim might beg to differ.

In June 1976, Gay News published a poem by the academic James Kirkup, The Love That Dares To Speak Its Name (a pun on Oscar Wilde). This "poem" described a centurion performing sexual acts on the dead body of Christ, and caused grave offense to many people, especially Christians.

As a result of this, the Christian activist Mrs. Mary Whitehouse (one half of "Mary Long") brought a prosecution for blasphemous libel – the first in Britain since 1921 - against the paper and its editor, Denis Lemon. The trial, in July 1977, resulted in their conviction, a fine for both defendants, and a suspended sentence for Lemon; Kirkup was not prosecuted.

The same issue of the journal contained an article by an anonymous pedophile in defense of his perversion.

Cultural references aside, this song is a bitter attack on the police as much as on the law, a perennial favorite with Robinson.

DON'T LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON ME by ELTON JOHN

This is a song that was influenced by The Beach Boys, and contains contributions from members of the group; Carl Wilson and Bruce Johnston both sang backup. Elton said the Beach Boys "Sound, harmonies, and the way they structured their songs" was an influence on many of his tracks, including this one and "Someone Saved My Life Tonight."

As usual, Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics. Taupin is a student of words, and was always looking for new ways to present an idea. "I like to be more interesting than a good old 'I love you, you love me, my heart will break if you leave me," he told Esquire. "Throw in a curveball. 'Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me.' Put a dark twist on them."

Regarding the composition of this song, lyricist Bernie Taupin said: "My only recollections of this is that we wanted to write something big. I mean, big in that dramatic Spectory (as in Phil Spector) style, like 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'.' Hopefully being powerful without being pompous. I'm not sure that with this in mind it made me fashion the lyrics any differently. Although, in retrospect, they do seem to have a slightly more Brill Building flair to them, so it's entirely possible that I did.

Of course, I always seem to have to revert to a crib sheet to check these things, as I just seem to have a really bad memory of my own work. In fact, it makes me think of a situation that I found myself in a few years ago watching some TV with some friends of mine. There was a game show on where one of the categories happened to be my lyrics. And there were, I believe, five questions, and four of them I got wrong."

Toni Tennille and Daryl Dragon, who would later have several hits and their own TV show as The Captain & Tennille, performed on this. The idea was to have a huge chorus made up of semi-famous singers in the background. Dusty Springfield, as well as members of America and Three Dog Night recorded vocals for the song, but all the voices sounded terrible when mixed together so they just used Wilson, Johnston, and Tennille.

This was extremely difficult and frustrating to record. Elton was not satisfied with any of his vocal takes, and the producer Gus Dudgeon had fits trying to mix all the voices and instruments that went into this. In Philip Norman's book Sir Elton: The Definitive Biography, Dudgeon said, "When Elton recorded this track, he was in a filthy mood. On some takes, he'd scream it, on others he'd mumble it, or he'd just stand there, staring at the control room. Eventually, he flung off his headphones and said, "Okay, let's hear what we got." When Gus played it for him, Elton said, "That's a load of crap. You can send it to Engelbert Humperdinck, and if he doesn't like it, you can give it to Lulu as a demo."

Elton claims he would not have attempted a song like this early in his career. He feels his voice has improved over the years, and by 1974, he had enough confidence and ability to sing with a very broad range.

This was released as a live duet with George Michael in 1991. That version was taken from a George Michael concert in London on March 25, 1991, which was Elton's 44th birthday. Elton appeared as a surprise guest at the show. The duet was a #1 hit in both the US and UK.

If Elton's line "Don't discard me" sounds a little weird, that's because he was doing an exaggerated American accent. Producer Gus Dudgeon was going to bury the line in the mix, but Toni Tenille, who was singing some of the background vocals, convinced him to keep it out front.

The horns heard on the last refrain and at the outro to this song were played by the horn section from the band Tower of Power, who had a hit single in 1972 with "You're Still A Young Man" and another the following year with "So Very Hard To Go."

Oleta Adams recorded this for the album Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin. Other artists who covered the song include Joe Cocker, Obsession, and The Three Degrees. Various orchestras have also recorded the song, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Roger Daltry of The Who sang this song in 1987. This version was used in the hit motion picture The Lost Boys.

Nigel Olsson's drumming on this track was an influence on three Guns N' Roses songs. According to GnR drummer Matt Sorum, "November Rain,"
"Don't Cry" and "Estranged" started out as all one song. After they broke them up and were getting ready to record "November Rain," Axl Rose played "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me."

"I said, 'God, listen to the tom toms on that,'" Sorum told us. "Axl goes, 'Yeah, that's cool. So epic.'"

Sorum worked that drum phrasing into the song, and played the same fills on "Don't Cry" and "Estranged" to unify the tracks.

Caribou was mostly recorded in a mere nine days. It reached #1 in just its second week on the Billboard 200 chart and was certified double platinum by the RIAA.

THE SHOW MUST GO ON by QUEEN

Guitarist Brian May wrote this while lead singer Freddie Mercury was dying of AIDS. It was Mercury's last official album with Queen, and when it was released, very few people knew he had the disease.

The lyrics are about the need to press on and make the most out of life while you can still enjoy it. It is inevitably a comment on Mercury's worsening condition, and his attitude towards life - May noted his incredible courage in the Days of our Lives documentary. "He never moaned, he never said 'my life is s--t, this is terrible, I hate it,'" said May. "He had an incredible strength and peace."

The song's placing as the final track on Innuendo is notable, as it's likely that the band thought that this might be the last album Mercury would be healthy enough to perform on before his death. In the sessions, he made enough recordings to provide the band with material to release the posthumous 1995 album Made In Heaven.

This was used in the movie Moulin Rouge. It is performed in an operatic style by Jim Broadbent and Nicole Kidman in a scene that sets up the climax of the movie.

In a 2005 poll by digital TV channel Music Choice where 45,000 adults across Europe were asked which song they would like played at their funeral, this was the favorite.

The video is mainly just clips of old Queen videos and a few live performances, but it is so cleverly edited and spliced together that it works as a video of it's own.

This song was performed in dramatic style in 1997 with Elton John on guest vocals with an Italian ballet trope. It would be John Deacon's last performance with the band, and last public appearance - he retired from music after the performance.

Pride Month: (Popular song facts part two)

TRUE COLORS by CYNDI LAUPER

This was written by the songwriting team of Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, who also wrote Madonna's "Like A Virgin," Heart's "Alone," and Lauper's "I Drove All Night." The song is about looking below the surface to see what a person is really like.

In our interview with Billy Steinberg, the lyricist explained: "On 'True Colors' I had this verse and it was written about my mother: 'You've got a long list with so many choices, a ventriloquist with so many voices, and your friends in high places say where the pieces fit, you've got too many faces in your makeup kit, but I see your true colors shining through,' then it went on with the same chorus that the song has.

I often employ a sort of stream-of-consciousness lyric writing style and I remember writing that verse. The verse came first. So the 'true colors shining through' came out of the line that preceded it, 'You've got too many faces in your makeup kit.' We wrote that verse and chorus, Tom and I, and Tom said to me, 'Gee, that chorus has tremendous universal appeal, it could be sung by anyone to anyone. It could be a parent to a child, a friend to a friend, could be for or about anyone. On the other hand, the lyric to the verse you've written, although it's very poetic and very interesting, it seems to be specifically about someone with friends in high places.' He thought it had less universality and I agreed with him. In spite of the fact that I had written that verse about my mom and that it led to the chorus lyric and I was proud of it, I agreed to rewrite the verse lyric and then of course the song would need a second verse lyric.

I really got writer's block when it came to rewriting it. I remember I had something about sad eyes or something, I think Tom even said, 'Well how about 'you with the sad eyes'?' He kept encouraging me, 'Let's finish that song, it's a great song.' I said, 'Let's write something else, I can't do it, I'm stuck.' The song kind of languished because I just didn't know how to rewrite these verses. We had done a very rough demo of the song with the original verse and the chorus and I don't know how this happened, but somehow George Martin, The Beatles' producer, heard our very rough demo and Tom heard back that he loved it. Then Tom really got on my case to finish those lyrics. Tom and I sat together and I finished the lyrics with his help."

This was the only original song on the album that Lauper didn't help write.

Steinberg: "Tom sang the demo, it was based on a piano and it had gospel-flavored background vocals. I remember feeling that somehow there was something incomplete about the first verse. I always felt there was something wrong with it but I was just happy to have it done. On the other hand, the second verse, the part about, 'Don't be unhappy, can't remember when I last saw you laughing...' That second verse, I remember I was very happy with that, those first four lines of the second verse. And I was pleased when the Cyndi Lauper record came out because during the solo section she speaks the lines, 'Can't remember when I last saw you laughing.' She sort of says that again and it pleased me that she grabbed a line that I liked and spoke it rather than picking out something I didn't like."

Steinberg: "One of the things that one contends with as a songwriter is that when an artist records your song, unless you're producing it yourself or somehow involved in the production, you have very little input into how the song's being arranged and structured. Sometimes an artist will copy your demo exactly as you present it. That would be the case with 'Like a Virgin' or 'Alone' by Heart - the records copied the demos. In 'True Colors,' more than any other song, Cyndi Lauper came up with a very, very creative departure from our demo. The demo was sort of rooted in the Gospel ballad tradition of a song like 'Bridge Over Troubled Water', 'Let It Be' or 'Lean On Me,' that sort of thing with the piano. Cyndi completely dismantled that sort of traditional arrangement and came up with something that was breathtaking and stark. Tom and I were both elated when we heard her record of it because it was so much more adventurous than our demo, and to her credit, she produced it and did a beautiful job. That song, more than any other song I've written, has had tremendous life. I guess more than any other song that Tom and I wrote, that one seems to have the most universal appeal."

In the UK, this was released as "True Colours." It gave the title a little more British flavour.

This was used in a Kodak campaign to advertise their film processing.

Phil Collins recorded this for his 1998 Greatest Hits compilation. His version was released as a single and became very popular on Adult Contemporary radio stations.

This was covered by Australian country music star Kasey Chambers and used as the 2003 Rugby World Cup theme song.

Fredro Starr and Jill Scott reworked this into a song called "Shining Through," which was used as the theme song to the film Save The Last Dance. On "Shining Through," Jill Scott sings the first bit of the chorus - "I see your true colors shining through, I see your true colors and that's why I love you," and Fredro Starr adds a rap to the song.

In 2007, Lauper launched the "True Colors Tour" in an effort to support gay rights and fight hate crimes. The 2007 tour featured Erasure, The Dresden Dolls and Debbie Harry of Blondie. In 2008, artists included Joan Jett, Regina Spektor, and Tegan and Sara.

Justin Timberlake teamed up with actress Anna Kendrick in 2016 to cover this song for the soundtrack of the movie Trolls. Timberlake voices grey troll Branch in the film, while Kendrick plays a troll called Popp.

COME TO MY WINDOW by MELISSA ETHERIDGE

A song with a Shakespearian level of passion, "Come to My Window" finds Melissa Etheridge baring her soul to her lover, letting her know that she will go that she will go to great lengths just to be with her. Etheridge is imploring her to sneak in through the window (much more romantic than using the spare key) so she'll be there when she gets home.

At this time, Etheridge had been seeing Julie Cypher for a few years, and she was smitten. Many of her songs express her feelings for Cypher in some way, and in this case, it's amorous anticipation.

Yes I Am was a breakthrough album for Etheridge, selling over six million copies in America and launching her to arena-level stardom. "Come to My Window" was the first single, followed by "I'm the Only One." Both songs got extensive radio play across a variety of formats and were put in heavy rotation on VH1, where Etheridge was a core artist.

"Come to My Window" stayed in the Hot 100 for 44 weeks, peaking at #25 in August of 1994. "I'm the Only One" spent 40 weeks on the chart, peaking at #8 in January 1995. This made Etheridge the first artist with back-to-back singles that spent at least 40 weeks on the chart.

Etheridge came out as gay in early 1993, and the Yes I Am album title is a reference to this admission. Her songs of passionate longing were now revealed to be directed toward another woman, but most listeners had no problem with this. Any backlash came not because Etheridge was a lesbian, but because this song and "I'm the Only One" were inescapable, each holding a spot on many radio station playlists for nearly a year.

The black-and-white video stars Juliette Lewis, who recites some lines from the song at the beginning of the clip and in a break in the middle. In the video, Lewis plays a locked-up mental patient in various states of crazy (the following year, she would play an unhinged serial killer in the film Natural Born Killers). It was directed by Samuel Bayer, who was one of the most prolific directors of the '90s. His work includes Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Blind Melon's "No Rain."

This won a Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and was nominated for Best Rock Song. Etheridge performed the song on the telecast.

When Etheridge recorded this song, she almost left it off the album, since she thought it was "too simple." Her friends convinced her it was worthy, and Etheridge learned a valuable lesson: simplicity can be very effective.

Etheridge opened her set at Woodstock '94 with this song.

BATTLE CRY by ANGEL HAZE

This song was produced by Greg Kurstin (Kesha, Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson) and features Dirty Gold's only guest, Sia, who handles chorus duties. Haze told Billboard magazine of the Australian singer. "I had no clear she even knew who I was. And out of nowhere I'm doing a Greg Kurstin section and he's like 'Sia really wants me to play you something, but if you don't want to hear it we'd totally understand.'"

"We play it and the song ends up being so epic," Haze continued. "So she's one of my all time favorite artists ever, and that was amazing for me. Legitimately."

Explaining her decision to work with Sia, Haze said that she is a fan of her 2004 single "Breathe Me," adding: "When I was feeling suicidal, I'd go to sleep with that song on. And I'd either feel like my entire world was closing in on me or, in some strange, euphoric way, I was becoming stronger."

HANG WITH ME by ROBYN

This is the lead single by Swedish pop singer Robyn, from her sixth studio album Body Talk Pt. 2. An acoustic version of the song was previously released on Robyn's set Body Talk Pt. 1.

The song was produced by Robyn's friend and musical collaborator Klas Ahlund, who also co-wrote Britney Spears' "Piece Of Me." It was originally recorded in 2003 by Ahlund's ex-wife Paola Bruna on her album Stockcity Girl.

Robyn told the story of the song to MTV News: "Klaus wrote it but it sounded very different. It's a song that he recorded with his ex-wife! He re-wrote it and I was bombarded by him with his old music. And out of that came a few songs. It was more like a ballad in the beginning. It's a sweet song. Beautiful and bitter sweet, It's about falling in love and being scared."

Robyn explained the song's music video to MTV News UK: "I wanted to see if it could be organic too, Like Twitter and my website. We decided to make something simple that gives the feeling of touring intensity. Max Vitali directed it and I wanted a video which connected back through the touring which I'm doing all year."

MICHAEL by FRANZ FERDINAND

This is about one of the band's friends who was drunk and ended up dancing with a man.

The lyrics, "Come and dance with me, come and dance with me, so come and dance with me" are repeated throughout this song, mostly leading into the chorus. However, at a live performance recorded at the Amsterdam Paradiso in 2003, Kapronis sings instead, "come and dance with me, come and dance with me, so come all over me." If you look at the lyrics printed in the official Franz Ferdinand album booklet, the line, "So come all over me" is crossed out, and is not sung on the official album recording.