This clip of Sophie Ellis-Bextor covering an obscure 1970's classic (I don't think it charted in the States which would explain why my encyclopedic mind didn't register it) got me thinking about what I liked about pop music and, specifically, why I more and more preferred female vocalists over male vocalists.
I can't pin it down. If I could, I probably wouldn't have to blog about music ever again.
(Since the best Kenickie clips have been yanked off of YouTube, they will not make this countdown.)
Sophie Ellis-Bextor "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie"
Sophie's limited dancing skills, her pronunciation of the word "dance," and her look; Susanna Hoffs, looking ridiculously hot, as she sings "Some have a style that they work hard to refine..."; The way the song speeds up in "Secrets" and Tracy Tracy sings: "Paint the sun up in the sky" with renewed urgency; the vocals in Puffy's "Yume No Tame Ni" right before the guitar solo -- around minute 1:37; theres more drama and genuine emotion poured into a seemingly ironic bit of retro like "Judy" than in any po-faced Radiohead track; the silly, breathy, overwrought emotion in the Supremes song -- so over-the-top that it starts to have meaning again without any irony; and the song that turned me into a big fat puddle of jelly when I was a 9-year-old looking up at the TV: "Sam" by Olivia Newton-John; and Blondie, adding the sexy that Olivia was missing only a few years earlier.
The Bangles "If She Knew What She Wants"
The Primitives "Secrets"
Puffy AmiYumi "Yume No Tame Ni"
The Pipettes "Judy"
Diana Ross & The Supremes "Love Is Here And Now You're Gone"
Olivia Newton-John "Sam"
Blondie "Heart of Glass"
I can't pin it down. If I could, I probably wouldn't have to blog about music ever again.
(Since the best Kenickie clips have been yanked off of YouTube, they will not make this countdown.)
Sophie Ellis-Bextor "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie"
Sophie's limited dancing skills, her pronunciation of the word "dance," and her look; Susanna Hoffs, looking ridiculously hot, as she sings "Some have a style that they work hard to refine..."; The way the song speeds up in "Secrets" and Tracy Tracy sings: "Paint the sun up in the sky" with renewed urgency; the vocals in Puffy's "Yume No Tame Ni" right before the guitar solo -- around minute 1:37; theres more drama and genuine emotion poured into a seemingly ironic bit of retro like "Judy" than in any po-faced Radiohead track; the silly, breathy, overwrought emotion in the Supremes song -- so over-the-top that it starts to have meaning again without any irony; and the song that turned me into a big fat puddle of jelly when I was a 9-year-old looking up at the TV: "Sam" by Olivia Newton-John; and Blondie, adding the sexy that Olivia was missing only a few years earlier.
The Bangles "If She Knew What She Wants"
The Primitives "Secrets"
Puffy AmiYumi "Yume No Tame Ni"
The Pipettes "Judy"
Diana Ross & The Supremes "Love Is Here And Now You're Gone"
Olivia Newton-John "Sam"
Blondie "Heart of Glass"