Saturday, September 30, 2006

Justin Timberlake Future Sex/Love Sounds hit #1

Future Sex/Love Sounds

Dixie Chicks


Released: September 12, 2006


Peak: 12 US, 12 RB, 11 UK, 12 CN, 11 AU


Sales (in millions): 4.72 US, 1.18 UK, 11.2 world (includes US and UK)


Genre: pop


Tracks:

Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts.

  1. Future Sex/ Love Sound
  2. SexyBack [with Timbaland] (7/15/06, 1 US, 1 UK 11 RB, sales: 1 million)
  3. Sexy Ladies
  4. My Love [with T.I.] (9/23/06, 1 US, 2 UK, 2 RB)
  5. Lovestoned (6/30/07, 17 US, 12 UK)
  6. What Goes Around…Comes Around (12/23/06, 1 US)
  7. Chop Me Up
  8. Damn Girl
  9. Summer Love (4/28/07, 6 US)
  10. Until the End of Time [with Beyoncé] (4/7/07, 17 US, 3 RB)
  11. Losing My Way
  12. Another Song All Over Again


Total Running Time: 66:12

Rating:

3.906 out of 5.00 (average of 25 ratings)


Awards:

(Click on award to learn more).

About the Album:

As “the leading heartthrob in *NSYNC, [Justin Timberlake] drove the teen pop quintet to the top of the charts” AMG before jumping ship for a solo career. His first solo album, 2002’s Justified, “largely centered on how he reworked the dynamic sound of early Michael Jackson.” AMG “Prince provides the cornerstone of FutureSex/LoveSounds.” AMG Timberlake’s chief collaborator, Timbaland, devotes his attention to “refurbishing the electro-funk of Prince’s early-‘80s recordings” AMG while “Timberlake’s obsession with sex does indeed recall Prince’s carnivorous carnality of the early ‘80s.” AMG

“A quick listen to the album’s opening triptych proves that Justin doesn’t quite bring the robotic retro-future funk he’s designed to life…Each of the three opening songs has ‘sex’ sandwiched somewhere within its title, as if mere repetition of the word will magically conjure a sex vibe, when in truth it has the opposite effect: it makes it seem that Justin is singing about it because he’s not getting it. Surely, his innuendos are bluntly obvious, packing lots of swagger but no machismo or grace. They merely recycle familiar scenarios – making out on the beach, dancing under hot lights, acting like a pimp – in familiar fashions, marrying them to grinding, squealing synths that never sound sweaty or sexy; if they’re anything, they’re the sound of bad anonymous sex in a club, not an epic freaky night with a sex machine like, say, Prince.” AMG

“But Prince isn’t the only idol Justin Timberlake wants to emulate here. Like any young man with a complex about his maturity, he wants to prove that he’s an adult now by singing not just about sex but also serious stuff, too – meaning, of course, that drugs are bad and can ruin lives…Justin has read about the pipe and the damage done – he may not have seen it, but he sure knows that it happens somewhere, and he’s put together an absurd Stevie Wonder-esque slice of protest pop in Losing My Way, where he writes in character of a man who had it all and threw it all away...or, to use Justin’s words, ‘Hi, my name is Bob/And I work at my job,’ which only goes to show that Timberlake lacks a sense of grace no matter what he chooses to write about.” AMG

“Timberlake yearns to be taken seriously, to be a soulful loverman like Marvin Gaye coupled with the musical audaciousness of Prince, yet still sell more records than Michael Jackson – and he not only yearns for that recognition, he feels entitled to it…There is no subtlety to his music, nor is there much style – he’s charmless in his affectations, and there’s nothing but affectations in his music…He is undeniably an auteur of some sort, one who has created an album that’s stilted and robotic…so the club jams and slow jams both feel equally distant and calculated. There is, however, a flair within the production, particularly in how foreign yet familiar its retro-future vibe sounds.” AMG

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First posted 3/26/2008; last updated 2/28/2024.

Friday, September 29, 2006

50 years ago: Fats Domino charted with “Blueberry Hill”

Blueberry Hill

Glenn Miller

Writer(s): Vincent Rose, Al Rose, Larry Stock (see lyrics here)


First Charted: August 10, 1940


Peak: 11 US, 14 GA, 2 HP (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): --


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Blueberry Hill

Fats Domino


First Charted: September 29, 1956


Peak: 2 US, 4 HP, 4 CB, 3 HR, 111 RB, 6 UK, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): 1.0 US


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 25.43 video, 42.32 streaming

Awards (Miller):

Click on award for more details.


Awards (Domino):

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

“It’s hard to believe that any other performer could have found in [‘Blueberry Hill’] the excuse for sly lasciviousness that Fats did. And it’s surely true that nobody else could have made that sly lasciviousness seem so harmless as this jaunty Creole pianist.” DM The song that established Fats Domino as one of the pivotal figures in transforming R&B into rock and roll began life as a number in the 1940 Western The Singing Hill SF sung by Gene Autry. It quickly entered the public conscience with Sammy Kaye, Gene Krupa, Glenn Miller, Kay Kyser, Russ Morgan, Connee Boswell, and Jimmy Dorsey WK all taking a crack at it. After Autry’s original, the song charted three times in 1940. Kyser and Morgan each took it into the top 20 while Miller went all the way to #1 on the U.S. pop charts with his take on the song.

In 1949, Louis Armstrong added a more R&B vibe to “Blueberry Hill.” Armstrong’s interpretation informed Fats’ recording NRR as he birthed a “rock and roll standard.” WK The song was Domino’s biggest hit, giving him his greatest audience but his producer, Dave Bartholomew, opposed doing a song which had already been a hit several times, TB insistent that it would ruin Domino’s career. AH He even called Lew Chudd, the president of Imperial Records, begging him not to release it. SS He later admitted what a huge mistake it had been to try to block it. AH

Fats Domino’s success is significant. He was a black R&B artist who ended up being successfully marketed to white teens who’d jumped on the rock and roll bandwagon. Rockabilly star Carl Perkins said, “In the white honky-tonks where I was playin’, they were punchin’ ‘Blueberry Hill.’ And white cats were dancin’ to Fats Domino.” RS500 “The wave of white rockabilly acts that had hits throughout 1955 and ’56 had all fizzled – Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent, and Bill Haley would between them never have another major hit in the U.S.” AH Domino, however, had over 60 entries on the Billboard pop chart from 1955 to 1968. Then of those were top-10 hits and “Blueberry Hill” was the biggest of all, reaching #2.

The song reemerged in the ‘70s as a sort of theme for a television character on the popular series Happy Days. High schooler Ritchie Cunningham, played by now famous director Ron Howard, would break into the song whenever he’d scored a dating coup. SF

The Doors’ Ray Manzarek confirmed the song’s influence on future generations of rock and roll when he revealed on a BBC Radio 2 program that the Doors’ classic #1 hit “Light My Fire” took its baseline from “Blueberry Hill.” SF The song has also been cited as influence from artists as diverse as Mick Jagger and Leonard Cohen. AH


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Last updated 3/25/2023.

Saturday, September 9, 2006

Justin Timberlake hit #1 with “SexyBack”

SexyBack

Justin Timberlake

Writer(s): Justin Timberlake/Tim Mosley/Nate "Danja" Hills (see lyrics here)


Released: July 18, 2006


First Charted: July 14, 2006


Peak: 17 US, 14 BA, 15 DG, 15 RR, 18 A40, 11 RB, 11 UK 1 CN, 12 AU, 22 DF (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): 4.9 US, 0.65 UK, 6.22 world (includes US + UK)


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.5 radio, 223.3 video, 623.31 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

“Even back in N Sync’s heyday, you always got the feeling that Timberlake was just a little bit…well, funkier than those other boy band singers.” MX Naysayers couldn’t help but ask who is “this skinny, pasty, curly-haired, girly-singing, Walt Disney World teeny-bopper to talk about bringing sexy back? And BACK? Back from where?” LR However, doubters were “forced to sign off…on Justin’s hot, hot hit” LR and acknowledge that he could “do no wrong. Two great albums after leaving a boy band, television and movie appearances where he’s proven to be pretty damn funny and a collaborator with many, he’s almost untouchable.” PD Kanye West said at one point that “Justin Timberlake should be the #1 artist on the planet (right before stating that he himself is actually that guy, of course).” PD

Timberlake told Observer Music Monthly, “The chorus is very James Brown-ish…It’s a very physical song, meant to provoke sexual dance. ‘Sex Machine’ is the closest reference.” SF He also said the song’s vocals were influenced by Prince, WK but that he sang the song in a rock style instead of an R&B style, as if David Bowie and David Byrne were covering James Brown’s “Sex Machine.” WK He said the end result “doesn’t qualify as rock or straight funk” WK but that he liked it being described as “club funk.” WK

Andrew Murfett of The Age said the song “introduced a new phrase into the pop cultural lexicon.” WK Billboard’s Katy Kroll said one “can almost feel beads of sweat rolling off” WK the track and that when Timberlake “claims to be bringing sexy back to pop music…indeed he is.” WK Entertainment Weekly amusingly wrote, “We didn’t even know that sexy was missing until 2006. We’re just happy Justin brought it back safe and sound.” WK

The instrumental backing is built on “a pounding bass beat, electronic chords, and beat box sounds.” WK Instead of his “famous falsetto,” WK Timberlake’s voice is distorted on the track and features backing vocals from Timbaland, who also produced the track. He’d previously worked on Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River” and also produced Nelly Furtado’s #1 hit “Promiscuous.” SF PopMatters.com’s Quentin B. Huff called “SexyBack” a ‘fraternal twin” with “Promiscuous.” WK

Timberlake had top five hits with “Cry Me a River” and “Rock Your Body” from his previous album, 2002’s Justified, and hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with *NSYNC on “It’s Gonna Be Me” from 2000. This, however, was his first #1 as a solo artist. The song also won a Grammy for Best Dance Recording, a People’s Choice Award for Favorite R&B Song, and and MTV Video Music Award for Male Artist of the Year.


Resources:


Last updated 4/25/2023.