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.

Song facts (Songs from the 80's)

‘Forever Young’ (by Alphaville)

On the surface, this is a hopeful song celebrating the virtues of youth, but a closer listen reveals a fear of aging and death. The song was written during the Cold War, where the singer is "hoping for the best, but expecting the worst; are you gonna drop the bomb or not?"

Alphaville was a German Synthpop/Rock music group. The song was not a big hit when it was released, but has become well known as a result of its use in movies and TV shows. Among its uses:

The TV show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (episode 103: "Underage Drinking: A National Concern")

Queer As Folk (season 1, episode 18)

One Tree Hill (season 4, episode 16).

The movie Listen To Me

Napoleon Dynamite in the school dance scene.

commercials for Saturn ION automobiles.

A year after this was released, Laura Branigan covered it for her album Hold Me and began performing it as an encore at her concerts. The Canadian dance group Temperance recorded the song in 1996.

In 2005 the Australian band Youth Group recorded this for an episode of the TV show The O.C.. Their release was a hit in Australia.

‘Human Nature’ (by Michael Jackson)

"Human Nature" was written by Steve Porcaro, keyboardist with the band Toto. "I had written the song for my daughter Heather. Something had happened at school and it just inspired me. I wrote the song while we were mixing "Africa" and was just tinkering on the piano and wrote 'Human Nature.' It was one of a batch of three songs I had written in a certain time period. I had written the lyrics, which were the same verse I was singing over and over again. I had the 'why, why' chorus with the slap echo. Like most of my songs it was an unfinished song."

Steve Porcaro and fellow Toto member David Paich worked with producer Quincy Jones on the Thriller album, doing some synthesizer programming and playing. Said Porcaro: "Quincy had been asking David for songs and he was sending a messenger almost every day to David's house - where I was living at the time - to pick up anything David was working on. And so David was sending him stuff. One time, he had gotten a call that the messenger was on his way and he called down to me and told me to throw something we'd been working on onto a cassette. I didn't have any blank cassettes, so I took a cassette that had 'Human Nature' on one side and turned the B-side over, rewound it and put on these two songs of David's. and then gave them to the messenger."

Jones played both sides of the cassette and was excited about "Human Nature." Quincy called David the next day and was raving about this tune that went 'why, why.' It took David half an hour to tell Quincy that it wasn't his song! But the song was incomplete lyric-wise and Jones asked Porcaro to finish them. Porcaro recalls: "I forced myself to write the lyrics and Quincy was less than thrilled with them and he asked me if I would mind if he brought in John Bettis to finish them. I was completely thrilled with what John did with the lyrics."

Quincy Jones assembled an impressive array of talent to work on the Thriller album, including four members of the band Toto. These guys knew the ropes because they were session musicians before they formed the band, and in 1982 they were red hot, scoring hits with "Rosanna" and "Africa" from their album Toto IV, which would win the Grammy for Album of the Year at the 1983 ceremony (Thriller would win the next year).

Four members of the band played on this track:

David Paich: synthesizer

Steve Porcaro: synthesizer

Steve Lukather: guitar

Jeff Porcaro: drums

Paich, Steve Porcaro and Lukather also did the arrangement.

In our interview with David Paich, he explained that Jackson gave them lot of support and creative freedom. "Michael was very involved in it, and he's a perfectionist," said Paich. "He was always in the room with us, privately, saying, 'I just want you to have total freedom to do whatever you want. Just think of Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel - do whatever you need to do here. Sky's the limit.'"

The Jazz legend Miles Davis recorded this song in 1985. Steve Porcaro was thrilled when he first heard Miles' version of his tune. "My father was a jazz musician and when I was growing up, most of the music we heard in our household was classical music and jazz - Miles Davis. He was my father's hero. My brother Jeff learnt to play drums listening to 'Bag's Groove.' Miles Davis was ingrained in all of us, so I was completely thrilled. I was so honored. I remember doing a session with the bassist Neil Stubenhaus about six months after Miles did You're Under Arrest. He just cornered me and said 'do you realize how great it is to have Miles do one of your tunes? Do you have any idea what it means?' I certainly did. It's one of the things I'm most proud of out of everything I've done."

In 1985, Miles moved to Warner Brothers records and teamed with Porcaro to record new material for his first Warner album. They went to Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro's studio (The Villa) and tried recording "Exist" and "Walk of Life," but the sessions were unsuccessful. While at The Villa, Miles ended up playing on the Toto tune "Don't Stop Me Now." (Thanks to George Cole, author of The Last Miles: The Music of Miles Davis, 1980-1991. Cole interviewed Steve Porcaro for the book.)

This was the fifth of seven singles released from the Thriller album. All of them made the Top 10 in the US.

In 1993, SWV (Sisters With Voices) hit #2 in the US with a medley of this song combined with their own release "Right Here."

Sheryl Crow performed with Michael Jackson on his Bad tour, joining him on stage for "The Way You Make Me Feel" and "I Just Can't Stop Loving You." In 2010, she told Rolling Stone, "My favorite memory of Michael was watching him do 'Human Nature' every night. he'd cry, and those tears were so directly linked to the wounds that drove him to anesthetize himself."

On November 7, 2008, Britney Spears and Madonna performed this at Madonna's Dodger Stadium concert in Los Angeles. Justin Timberlake also performed at the show, joining Madonna on stage for "4 Minutes."

‘The Greatest love of all’ (by Whitney Houston)

This was written by songwriters Michael Masser and Linda Creed. Linda Creed was recovering from breast cancer when they wrote the song in 1977. Originally recorded by George Benson, his version went to #24 in the US. In 1985, the song was revived by Whitney Houston, and on May 17, 1986, it went to #1 for the first of three weeks.

Creed's cancer claimed her life on April 10, 1986. She was later inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on the strength of this song and the many hits she co-wrote for The Spinners, The Stylistics, and other acts on the Philadelphia International label. Phil Hurtt, who also wrote for the label, told us, "There are thousands of ways to say I Love You, and the difficulty is trying to find a nuance, a new way to say what's been said thousands of times, and Linda Creed is someone who was able to do that.

Masser and Creed wrote this for the 1977 film biography of Muhammad Ali, The Greatest, and the song first appeared on the film's soundtrack recorded by George Benson. Ali played himself in the movie, essentially recreating his defining moments intercut with clips of his actual fights. Ali was the heavyweight champ at the time of the film's release.

Houston's version was originally the B-side of "You Give Good Love" but the amount of airplay it received persuaded Arista to release it as a single.

‘Let’s go crazy’ (by Prince)

The lyrics are about getting through life and the battle against evil, Satan being the de-elevator. We are encouraged to not allow the devil to break us down and instead to turn to God to help us by going crazy and punching a higher floor (God).

This is the opening song from Prince's film Purple Rain. The album was a soundtrack to the film, and a huge hit, spending 24 weeks at #1 in America. Much of the movie takes place at a club where Prince performs - these scenes were shot at the First Avenue nightclub in Minneapolis, where Prince really was a regular player. When Prince and his band, The Revolution, embarked on their tour to promote the album, they used most of the choreography from their film performance of this song for their concert performances.

The beginning of this song is one of the most famous spoken intros in pop history. Prince takes the persona of a preacher and is joined by a church organ as he gives what amounts to a sermon, reminding us that we should enjoy this life, knowing that we can look forward to a world of never-ending happiness when we die. Credit this to George Clinton, who did many similar bits ("free your mind, and your ass will follow...") with P-Funk.

The rock band Incubus recorded a cover for their 2009 two-CD compilation album Monuments and Melodies. It was released as the second single from the set.

Following Prince's death, The Minnesota Wild ice hockey team made the decision to honor him by playing this song when celebrating goals at their home stadium. The song was chosen after a fan poll was conducted to help find a goal theme to replace Joe Satriani's "Crowd Chant."

Bruno Mars, dressed in full Prince regalia, performed this in tribute to Prince, who died the previous year, at the Grammy Awards in 2017.

‘Material Girl’ (by Madonna)

This was written by the songwriters Peter Brown and Robert Rans. The song is about a woman who craves the finer things in life and will manipulate men to get them. Like A Virgin was only Madonna's second album, and she was still developing her image. Much to her dismay, "Material Girl" became Madonna's nickname, but over the next few years she was able to dissociate from the song and establish many new looks. Later in her career, Madonna wrote and recorded many more substantive and personal songs, and adapted a lifestyle that stressed harmony and mindfulness over materialism and excess. This is apparent in her 2003 song "American Life."

The video re-created a classic scene from the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, with Madonna as the Marilyn Monroe character. MTV played the video constantly, which associated Madonna closely with the song. Fortunately for her, "Like A Virgin" was an even bigger hit, and after she performed that song on the MTV Video Music Awards she became much more identified with that one.

Mary Lambert, who worked on most of Madonna's early videos, directed the clip, but Keith Carradine portrayed the director in the video (this "film within a film" concept was an early MTV staple, first seen in the Human League video for "Don't You Want Me"). He is the son of actor John Carradine and half-brother of David, but despite his pedigree, this video may have been his biggest role. He did have a hit song called "I'm Easy" in 1976.

The song and video were widely misinterpreted as Madonna playing a capricious gold digger. The video concept was Madonna as an actress playing this role, but as soon as she's off camera, she's a regular gal who likes the simple things - we see her drive off with a regular dude in a crappy car. The irony was lost on or ignored by journalists looking for a storyline or moniker for Madonna, so the name and the image stuck.

In a 2009 interview with Rolling Stone, Madonna was asked about her first impressions hearing the demos for this song and "Like A Virgin." She replied: "I liked them both because they were ironic and provocative at the same time but also unlike me. I'm not a materialistic person, and I certainly wasn't a virgin." Expanding on her "not materialistic" statement, she said, "I feel lucky to be able to afford a Frida Kahlo painting or live in a nice house, but I know that I can live without it. I'm resourceful, and if I ended up in a log cabin in the middle of the forest, that would work too. These things are not mandatory for my happiness."

The video shoot for this song was where Madonna first met her future husband, Sean Penn. The connection was Meegan Lee Ochs, who was working on the shoot and had been Penn's assistant (she's also the daughter of the late folk singer Phil Ochs). Penn came by the shoot and got his first look at Madonna when she was in full costume.

The characters on Sesame Street did a version of this song called "Cereal Girl."

In 2010, Madonna and her 13-year-old daughter Lourdes launched their "Material Girl" juniors clothing line at Macy's. Many of the looks are inspired by Madonna's '80s outfits.

‘I just called to say I love you’ (by Stevie Wonder)

This was featured in the movie The Woman In Red, starring Kelly LeBrock as the woman and Gene Wilder as the married man who is mesmerized by her. Stevie wrote the score for the movie. He got the gig after Dionne Warwick, who was working on the soundtrack, suggested him to the producers of the film. Wonder ended up contributing songs as well, and the soundtrack contains songs from both Stevie and Dionne. The movie's producers rejected some demos written by Jay Graydon and David Foster, and one of those songs became "Who's Holding Donna Now," which was a hit for El DeBarge.

This is Motown's biggest-selling single ever in the UK, where it was Wonder's first #1. It was his eighth #1 in the US

This won the Oscar for Best Original Song, beating out "Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)," "Footloose," "Let's Hear It For The Boy" and "Ghostbusters."

Wonder claimed that he wrote the music for this song in 1978, and then "modernized" it when he added lyrics for the soundtrack. Wonder is an extremely prolific composer and was constantly coming up with songs that he would sometimes revisit much later.

In the 2000 movie High Fidelity, this is the subject of a rant by a character played by Jack Black. In the film, a man walks into the record store and asks for this song so he can give it to his daughter. Black's character, who is working there, scolds him for wanting such and awful song and goes on to explain that his daughter probably hates it and it was clearly the low point of Wonder's career.

Wonder had moved to a much more adult contemporary sound when he released this song. His early hits like "Superstition" and "Higher Ground" were often filled with funk, but in the '80s, songs like this one and "Part-Time Lover" had a smoother sound, resulting in big hits, but disappointment for those hoping for a classic Wonder groove.

Stevie sang some of this when he made an appearance on The Cosby Show in 1986. The episode was called "A Touch of Wonder," and was later cited by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson as an inspiration to many young musicians who became interested in samplers and making music after seeing Wonder on the show.

‘Call me’ (by Blondie)

This song is about a prostitute. It was featured in the film American Gigolo in a scene where the lead character is "working."

European disco producer Giorgio Moroder wrote this with Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry, who thus became the first woman in British chart history to write three #1 hits. However she hadn't been Moroder's first choice. The Italian disco king had originally wanted Stevie Nicks to provide vocals on the track but the Fleetwood Mac vocalist declined the offer.

This was the most successful of all Blondie singles in their native USA. It was the best-selling single of 1980.

In 2002, The Box Tops recorded this for the compilation album When Pigs Fly: Songs You Never Thought You'd Hear. Cevin Soling, who was executive producer on the album, explains: "I got the Box Tops back together again, and that was a blast. That was so much fun working with the Box Tops. Especially with Alex Chilton there singing. I didn't produce that. I was in the studio, but the producer on that one was a buy named Benji King, who was the keyboard player for the band Scandal. That studio experience was pretty funny, because he's so full of energy. He's always excited and always really into things. The Box Tops are each one degree more laid back to the next. Coming from the South, they're all kind of very chill. Until you get to Alex Chilton, who's practically catatonic. And so you have that contrast." (Check out our interview with Cevin Soling.)

In 2009, Franz Ferdinand covered this song for the War Child Presents Heroes charity album.

This song was covered by the heavy metal band In This Moment on their 2008 album, The Dream.

Giorgio Moroder told Billboard magazine that his difficult experience of recording this song with Blondie taught him not to work with rock bands. "There were always fights," he recalled. "I was supposed to do an album with them after that. We went to the studio, and the guitarist was fighting with the keyboard player. I called their manager and quit."

‘Another one bites the dust’ (by Queen)

This is one of the hardest Queen songs to understand. The opening line reads, "Steve walks warily down the street, his brim pulled way down low. Ain't no sound but the sound of his feet, machine gun ready to go..." Also, the last phrase spoken in the song is not "Shoot Her" or "Shooter," but "Shoot Out."

Though probably not intentional unless someone did an excellent splicing job, the "Another one bites the dust" line quite clearly says "...Decide to smoke marijuana" when played backwards. This is especially clear toward the end of the track when Mercury repeats the line with only the drums playing.

Queen bass player John Deacon wrote this song. All four members of Queen wrote songs, and each wrote at least one hit. Deacon also wrote "You're My Best Friend."

Deacon was influenced by the Chic song Good Times. In an interview with the New Musical Express, Chic bass player Bernard Edwards said: "Well, that Queen record came about because that bass player spent some time hanging out with us at our studio. But that's OK. What isn't OK is that the press started saying that we had ripped them off! Can you believe that? 'Good Times' came out more than a year before, but it was inconceivable to these people that black musicians could possibly be innovative like that. It was just these dumb disco guys ripping off this rock 'n' roll song."

Deacon played most of the instruments on the track: lead and rhythm guitars, bass, reversed piano and additional percussion. Brian May did some guitar effects with harmoniser (in the interlude), and Roger Taylor played the drum loop. Surprisingly, there are no synthesizers.

While the band and producer Reinhold Mack were mixing the track, Brian May's roadie suggested it to be released as single; the band didn't like the idea but were finally talked into doing it when Michael Jackson, after a concert, suggested the same idea.

John Deacon claimed in a 1980 interview that Roger Taylor opposed the song's drum beat. This is backed up by the comments of several figures in the Days of our Lives documentary, who noted that Taylor hated having tape put on his drums to deaden the sound.

However, the drummer denied this in an interview with Mojo magazine October 2008. He insisted: "I'd already had an ineffectual pop at that kind of music with 'Fun It,' on the Jazz album. I was never against 'Another One Bites The Dust,' but I was against releasing it as a single."

In 1998, this was used in a commercial for AIWA sound systems. In the ad, a guy drives around with this blaring from his car stereo. At the end of the commercial, we realize he is driving a hearse.

Freddie Mercury loved this track. Brian May recalled to Mojo: "Freddie sung until his throat bled on Another One Bites The Dust. He was so into it. He wanted to make that song something special."

During production of the movie Rocky III, this was used in a key scene where Rocky is training for a fight. Producers could not get permission to use the song, so Sylvester Stallone hired Survivor to write an original song instead, which turned out to be "Eye Of The Tiger."

Queen were originally reluctant to release this as a single, but backstage after a Queen gig at the Los Angeles forum, a visiting Michael Jackson convinced them it would be a hit. "Michael and all his brothers were all going, 'That's a fantastic track. You must release it,'" recalled Queen drummer Roger Taylor to Q magazine December 2009.

This meeting lead to several recordings and collaborations between Freddie Mercury and Jackson, all of which remain unreleased.

Weird Al Yankovic got his first chart placing with his parody of this song: "Another One Rides The Bus." It bubbled under on the Hot 100, placing at #104 in 1981. After a few more minor hits, he landed "Eat It" at #12 in 1984.

This was the single that really broke the band in America, and it garnered a huge following amongst American Disco audiences, with many fans and journalists convinced it was a black man singing lead vocals (these people obviously hadn't heard of Queen before so didn't know what Freddie looked like). The band occasionally were unsure of how to deal with this - Roger Taylor jokes in the Days of our Lives documentary of having fans shouting "you guys are bad!" in the street, and he had to ask "does that mean good or what?"

This was used in a 2016 commercial for the Hyundai Genesis that first aired on the Super Bowl. In the spot, Kevin Hart uses the Car Finder app to track down the guy who is using it to take his daughter on a date. After tormenting her suitor, Hart says, "A dad's gotta do what a dad's gotta do."

‘(Just like) starting over’ (by John Lennon)

This song embodied the sense of renewal in Lennon and Yoko's professional and personal lives during the writing and recording of Double Fantasy. "It was kinda obvious what 'Starting Over' was about," said journalist David Sheff, who did the last major interview with Lennon, to Mojo. "He'd been untrusting of Yoko, she'd been untrusting of him, all that kind of stuff. But in that one song was this incredible optimism and joy."

This was released in the United States October 27, 1980, which was the same day Mark David Chapman bought the gun he would use to kill Lennon on December 8. "Starting Over," which came out in the UK on October 24, was Lennon's first release since 1975. The Double Fantasy album was issued on November 17.

Lennon wrote this while vacationing in Bermuda earlier in the year.

Despite being the first single in five years from one of the most famous musicians on the planet, this song took a while to catch on. In America, it entered the Hot 100 on November 1, 1980 at #38 and made a slow but steady climb up the chart. Here's the progression:

Nov. 8: #32

Nov. 15: #10

Nov. 22: #9

Nov. 29: #8

Dec. 6: #6

Dec. 13: #4

Dec. 20: #3

Dec. 27: #1

When Lennon was killed, fans quickly scooped up the single along with lots of other Lennon material, but it took a few weeks for the chart to reflect these sales. When it hit #1, it stayed there for five weeks.

This was recorded at The Power Station in New York City. Musicians included Tony Levin on bass, Earl Slick on guitar, and Andy Newmark on drums.

Double Fantasy was released on David Geffen's record label, DGC. Many labels were competing for the album, but Geffen impressed Lennon when he wrote directly to Yoko and agreed to release it without hearing it first. All of Lennon's previous albums were released on The Beatles' label, Apple.

John and Yoko were considering doing a tour when this was climbing the charts.

This was one of the last songs recorded for the album. Lennon was not sure he should record it, but his producer and session musicians convinced him it would be a hit. It became the first single from Double Fantasy.

The day this was released, Yoko Ono hired a skywriter to write "Happy Birthday" above New York.

Lennon said in his last Rolling Stone interview in 1980: "All through the taping of 'Starting Over,' I was calling what I was doing 'Elvis Orbison.' It's like Dylan doing Nashville Skyline, except I don't have any Nashville, being from Liverpool. So I go back to the records I know - Elvis and Roy Orbison and Gene Vincent and Jerry Lee Lewis."

The copy of Double Fantasy that Mark Chapman asked Lennon to autograph might be the most valuable record in the world. The record, which figured in the court case, not only has Lennon's autograph but also boasts Chapman's fingerprints on the cover. In 2003, the record was sold for £525,000 but its value has since rocketed.

‘Take me home’ (by Phil Collins)

Often misconstrued to be about a man returning home, Collins stated on VH1 Storytellers that the song's lyrics refer to a patient in a mental institution, and that he was inspired by the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Sting and ex-Genesis band mate Peter Gabriel sang backup vocals. Also featured is former Culture Club backing singer Helen Terry.

In 2003 the hip-hop group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony heavily sampled the song for their single "Home." Their version reached #19 in the UK (the same as the original version), and Collins appeared in the video.

Collins explained in Rolling Stone: "Bone Thugs-N-Harmony called me up and said, 'We've done a version of your song 'Take Me Home' and we'd like you to be in the video.' I said, 'No, I'm not in America.' They said, 'They can come wherever you are.' I said, 'Don't make me say, 'No, f--k off.'' But then I heard the song, and I quite liked it, and they agreed to come to Geneva. How could I disappoint these guys? They were nice lads."

The video features Phil Collins singing a couple of lines from the song in various cities around the world, including London, Moscow, New York, Paris, Tokyo and Sydney.

This was originally released in the UK in 1985. It released in the US in March 1986, only after Phil Collins appeared in the TV series Miami Vice.

The music of Genesis featured in the 2000 film American Psycho, which examines greed and insanity with the financial industry as a backdrop. This song found its way into a key scene of the Season 2 premiere episode of the TV series Mr. Robot, which takes on these same issues. The lead character in the episode suffers from blackouts, so the refrain, "'Cause I don't remember," makes sense.

Song facts (popular songs)

‘Vogue’ (By Madonna)

"Vogueing" was a dance craze popular in the gay community where dancers used elaborate hand gestures and frequently stopped to pose. This song brought the dance style to the mainstream and solidified Madonna's standing as an icon in the gay community.

Madonna's best friend Debi Mazar first noticed the Vogue craze while they were out clubbing. She was fascinated by the way these men would "Strike a pose" while holding their bodies in strange positions. Madonna took the idea to the New York producer Shep Pettibone, who she had recently begun working with, and they wrote the song together. Pettibone was a DJ at Sound Factory, which is the club where Madonna saw the dancing.

This song was originally written as the B-side to "Keep It Together," a single release in America only. However, when Shep Pettibone played "Vogue" to the record company executives at Sire, they decided that the song was too good to waste on a B-side.

Madonna mentions many glamorous actors and actresses in the lyrics, including Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire and Jean Harlow. Some of the mentions are a little forced: "They had style, they had grace, Rita Hayworth gave good face."

Lauren Bacall was the last surviving legendary actor or actress mentioned in this song. She passed away after a stroke on August 12, 2014. Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Joe DiMaggio (the only non actor mentioned), Marlon Brando, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, and Lana Turner all previously departed before the husky-voiced Hollywood icon.

The video featured the "House Of Extravaganza," a group of New York City dancers who "Vogued" along with Madonna. Before fading into obscurity, they performed on talk shows as America became interested in the Vogue phenomenon.

The video was directed by David Fincher, who directed Alien 3. He went on to direct Seven (1995), Fight Club (1999) and Zodiac (2007). Fincher also directed Madonna's "Express Yourself," "Oh, Father" and "Bad Girl."

This was included on Madonna's album I'm Breathless, which was "inspired by" the movie Dick Tracy. Madonna starred in the movie with Warren Beatty, and they became a couple. Speaking about this song in the October 29, 2009 issue of Rolling Stone, Madonna said, "I wrote it when I was making Dick Tracy. After we shot the movie, Warren Beatty asked me if I could write a song that would fit my character's point of view, that she could have conjured up. She was obsessed with speakeasies and movie stars and things like that. The idea for the lyrics came through that request."

One of the dancer's striking a pose in the video was Belgian dancer Salim "Slam" Gauwloos, who went on to choreograph and create ballets. He recalled to Q magazine June 2009: "I first auditioned for her tour with 2000 other hopefuls. People turned up with flowers and gifts for Madonna, which was weird to me - I just danced." He added: "Shooting a video in two days, 16 hours a day, required a lot of focus. David Fincher told me to stand and hit different poses with my body and face. I was ambitious and became frustrated I wasn't dancing that much and thought, 'Great - no one's going to see me.' So I was really surprised I got so much focus in the video."

Madonna was the subject of a lawsuit in 2012 claiming that portions of the song borrowed the horns and strings heard in Salsoul Orchestra's 1983 dance tune, "Ooh, I Love It (Love Break)." Music Bosses at American record company VMG Salsoul only discovered the apparent sample thanks to new technology designed to identify specific sounds. VMG claimed that Pettibone had access to "Love Break," because he had been hired by them to remix the song before beginning work on "Vogue."

The suit was resolved in November 2013 with a ruling in favor of Madonna and Pettibone. A District Court judge out of California ruled on summary judgment that the sampling of the horns and strings was "trivial," in that they could not be recognized.

The word vogue was very fashionable in 1990. Not only did this song top the charts, but the magazine Vogue was enjoying a resurgence under the guidance of Anna Wintour, and the group En Vogue emerged with their first hit, "Hold On."

‘Supermodel (you better work)’ (by Rupaul)

Before this song made him the most famous drag queen of his time, Rupaul (born Rupaul Andre Charles), was hustling work in Atlanta as an actor, model and dancer. Born in San Diego, Rupaul moved there with his sister in the early '80s, and one day auditioned for a stage show called The Shaggy Dog Animation. He brought with him a sign reading "Rupaul is Starrbooty," which got the attention of the composer Jimmy Harry, who was working on the show. Rupaul got a role in the production and started a working relationship with Harry.

After Rupaul moved to New York and became a star of the Drag scene, he got a record deal with the Tommy Boy label. For his first single on the label, Rupaul and Harry joined the producer Larry Tee to write "Supermodel," a song about "working it" on the runway. A natural extension of Rupaul's Drag act and model persona, he exuded confidence on the track, as if he was a master instructor drilling his charges. (This came full-circle in 2009 when Rupaul's reality/competition show RuPaul's Drag Race debuted on the Logo network.)

The song was a huge hit in dance clubs, going to #1 on the Dance charts. It also did surprisingly well on the Pop charts, making #45 in America and #39 in the UK despite garnering very little airplay.

Rupaul's career took off - he got a radio show, an endorsement deal with MAC cosmetics, and a number of TV and movie appearances. The song also launched the career of Jimmy Harry, who became a top songwriter/producer. His writing credits include "Low" by Kelly Clarkson, "True" by Ryan Cabrera, and "Funhouse" by Pink.

Rupaul is not a gifted vocalist in any traditional sense, but he can add flavor to a Dance production and provide striking visuals to support it. His music is a corollary to his performance art, which proved very popular within his niche. Following the release of this song, Rupaul had several more encounters with the Hot 100. "Back To My Roots" bubbled under at #106 in 1993, and the following year his duet with Elton John on "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" made #92. In 1996, he reached #95 with "Snapshot."

This song was first released as a "maxi-single" with four different mixes on the first side:

Ready To Wear Mix  

7" Mix)           

Couture Mix   

La Wanda In Your Face

The B-side contained three mixes of a song called "House of Love." When the single took off, Tommy Boy commissioned a full album, which was released in 1993 as Supermodel of the World.

The song tapped into America's fascination with Supermodels, which was the new crop of models whose reach extended far beyond the pages of magazines. Madonna and George Michael had each brought modeling into the musical realm, with Madonna's "Vogue" channeling model culture and Michael's "Freedom '90" featuring five of the most famous supermodels: Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington and Tatjana Patitz.

The Randy Barbato-directed music video has RuPaul strutting around New York City on various fashion shoots and selling perfume in a mock commercial. The scene with him splashing through a fountain was inspired by the 1975 Diana Ross film Mahogany.

‘Dance Hall Days’ (by Wang Chung)

Jack Hues of Wang Chung told Eric Greenberg on the Just My Show podcast: "It begins quite innocent: 'take your baby by the hand,' and then the last verse with 'take your baby by the wrists, and in her mouth an amethyst,' it's all a bit more hallucinogenic in a way, how things that start off simple get complex.

My dad was a musician, and he had a band that played in an old-fashioned dance hall. I used to play with him in that band, so maybe there's sort of the nostalgia that's in the track. It's all quite real, actually, as far as experiences that I had when I was first starting out playing, and playing in public.

Musically, it's that sort of rhythm and that kind of shuffly beat. Technically it's sort of like 3 against 2 (laughs), but we're not gonna talk about all that. It's a particular feel that was sort of unusual at the time, I suppose. It was partly inspired by one of the Adam and the Ants tracks, and that's part of the thinking of using Chris Hughes, who produced Adam's Kings of The Wild Frontier album. I think the record company were keen that we sort of met up with him, and Chris and I have been friends ever since that time - Chris works with me on my jazz records that I've made in the last couple of years. It's been one of the most important friendships of my life."

Even though they are British, this was Wang Chung's only hit in the UK. After it proved to be a bigger hit in the US and was featured in the film To Live And Die In LA, they decided to ignore the UK market and concentrate on the US. This proved an astute decision as they recorded two more American top 10 hits, "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" (#2 in 1986) and "Let's Go!" (#9 in 1987), whilst not even recording a minor chart placing in the UK.

Hues explained on Just My Show: "I think it has perhaps created a slight air of unreality around it. Because Wang Chung in Britain is sort of obscure '80s band. I think 'Dance Hall Days' was a fairly substantial hit over here, although it didn't chart high, it was in the charts for a long time. It took a long time going up, and a long time going down, like a proper record should do. And we did Top of the Pops a couple of times, which was a big BBC show where promising bands - or not so promising bands - got their exposure. But I think the divide between the US and the UK for me probably worked, in that I'm quite a private person, and at the time of 'Dance Hall Days' I had three children, and I wasn't married at the time, but my family life is very important to me. Being able to come home and be low key was great. I could leave all of the craziness behind in the States and just be myself, as it were, when I got back here."

This was featured in the 1997 movie Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.

Wang Chung frontman Jack Hues' real name is Jeremy Ryder. He took the stage name as a persona, which British musicians like Joe Strummer and Johnny Rotten were doing at the time. He is the biological father of British actor Jack Ryder, who played Jaime in the British Soap Opera Eastenders.

When this song was on the charts, Wang Chung was touring in America as the opening act for The Cars, who were supporting their album Heartbeat City.

‘Dancing Queen’ (by Abba)

This was written by ABBA members Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. According to ABBA's official site, it was conceived as a dance song with the working title "Boogaloo." They drew inspiration from the 1974 George McCrae disco hit "Rock Your Baby," and from the drumming on the 1972 album Gumbo by Dr. John. Their manager Stig Anderson came up with the title "Dancing Queen," and after several months working on the track, ABBA came up with arguably the world's first europop disco hit.

ABBA recorded this about a year before it was released. It was written and recorded around the same time as "Fernando," which was chosen as the single. They knew "Dancing Queen" would also be a hit, so they held it until the album was released before issuing it as a single.

ABBA performed this song on June 18, 1976 at a televised tribute to Queen Silvia and King Gustaf XVI of Sweden, who were married the next day.

This was the only one of ABBA's 14 US Top 40 hits to make it to #1.

Regarding the lyrics, "Night is young and the music's high," many listeners interpret this as a statement that the music makes you feel high. In ABBA's part of the world, however, it simply means that the music is loud.

Along with many other ABBA songs, this was featured in Muriel's Wedding, a hit Australian movie starring Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths.

According to the BBC Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans, when this song was played at a Windsor Castle event Queen Elizabeth said: "I always try to dance when this song comes on because I am the Queen and I like to dance."

This song also reached #1 in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Rhodesia, South Africa, Sweden and West Germany.

When Benny first played Frida the song's backing track, she burst into tears. "And that was before me and Agnetha had even sung on it!" she smiled to The Guardian. "I knew it was absolutely the best song Abba had ever done."

This came top of a 2014 poll conducted by Blinkbox concerning the most commonly misheard lyrics in Pop. 22% of the people polled admitted they had mistaken the lyric "See that girl, watch that scene, diggin' the dancing queen" for, "See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen."

Chris Stein of Blondie says that his group's 1979 hit "Dreaming" is "pretty much a cop" of "Dancing Queen."

U2 covered this during the band's Zoo TV tour in 1992, and were joined onstage by Bjorn and Benny when the show hit Stockholm. "ABBA have a purer joy to their music," Bono explains in the documentary ABBA: The Winner Takes It All, "and that's what makes them extraordinary."

The American disco singer Carol Douglas covered this song in 1977, taking it to #110 in America. The other two covers to chart are by ABBA clones A*Teens (#95 in 2000) and the Glee Cast (#74, 2011).

‘I want to break free’ (by Queen)

Queen bass player John Deacon wrote this from the male perspective of the women's liberation movement.

This song became an anthem for the ANC in South Africa in the late-'80s when Nelson Mandela was still in jail and the white government's apartheid policies were still in place.

The video for this song parodies a popular British television soap, Coronation Street. The opening sequence features all the band members in drag (Mercury as a housewife, Deacon as grandmother, Taylor as a schoolgirl, and May as a housewife). This confused many people who didn't catch the reference. Brian May was asked in an interview with Q magazine March 2011 whether each band member's character in the video was an accurate reflection of their personalities? He replied: "Of Course! Everybody thinks that was Freddie's idea because it looks like something that he would love to do but it actually came from Roger's girlfriend at the time, strangely enough. It was her idea to pastiche the Coronation Street women."

Singles are often edited down from the album version of songs, but this was the opposite, as the version on The Works is about 30 seconds shorter - the single has a longer synthesizer intro and a longer solo.

Lisa Stansfield sang this at the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. She came on the Wembley Stadium stage wearing hair curlers and pushing a vacuum cleaner in tribute to the song's video.

Sadly, for some the Coronation Street pastiche video didn't go over so well, and it was actually banned on MTV, meaning the single died in America. Fred Mandel, who played the synths and signature solo on the track, explained in the Days of our Lives documentary: "It's a very British kind of humor, and I don't think it went over too well in the States. I'm Canadian, so I get it!"

Roger Taylor seemed visibly annoyed: "In those days on MTV, it was Whitesnake, and f--king Whitesnake, and then another Whitesnake track! They must've thought men dressing up in drag wasn't 'rock' enough, I suppose." Brian May added, "I think at that point we lost America, which is a shame, as it means there's a whole chunk of Queen songs which never got played or heard there."

Many people assume the solo is played on guitar. Actually it's not - it's a synth solo by talented keyboardist Fred Mandel. "John did NOT want a guitar solo" notes Roger Taylor. "So he got Fred, who's a very brilliant keyboard player, to improvise something around the main tune, and Fred did this brilliant take."

Brian May didn't seem to initially agree with it: "I didn't exactly agree with it at the time, but I gave it my blessing... that's the deal." Mandel himself joked about how it clashed with Queen's previous no-synthesizers policy on their early 1970s records: "All the old records used to say prominently "no synthesizers"... then I come in like another schmuck and put synthesizers on everything!"

Freddie Mercury was all set to shave off his trademark mustache for his turn as a woman in the video, but director David Mallet put a stop to it. He told the documentary series Video Killed the Radio Star: "I said, 'No, the one thing you musn't do, the funny thing is that your mustache is there and you're in drag!' To this day, when he comes around the corner with that hoover I laugh." Mercury did ditch the 'stache for a later segment in the video, where he is surrounded by the Royal Ballet in a nod to the French ballet L'Après-midi d'un faune and its clean-shaven Russian star Vaslav Nijinsky.

Mallet, who directed several other Queen videos like "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Radio Ga Ga," said he had the most fun with this clip.