Coldplay’s Parachutes hit #1 in UK

Parachutes Coldplay

Released: July 10, 2000 Charted: July 16, 2000 Peak: 51 US, 11 UK, 10 CN, 2 AU Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 2.78 UK, 13.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: alternative rock/Britpop

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Don’t Panic (1/11/99, --) Shiver (3/6/00, 26 MR, 35 UK) Spies Sparks Yellow (6/26/00, 48 US, 20 RR, 11 A40, 2 AA, 4 UK, 6 MR, 5 AU) Trouble (10/26/00, 23 A40, 10 UK, 28 MR) Parachutes High Speed We Never Change Everything’s Not Lost Total Running Time: 41:29 The Players: Chris Martin (vocals, piano, synthesizers, guitar) Jonny Buckland (guitar, backing vocals) Guy Berryman (bass) Will Champion (drums, percussion, backing vocals)

Rating: 4.001 out of 5.00 (average of 26 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “The London foursome Coldplay are constant critic’s darlings in the band’s native U.K., showcasing melodic pop in a slew of EP releases and constant live shows since the spark of the new millennium. Not as heavy as Radiohead or snobbish as Oasis, Coldplay is a band of young musicians who are still honing their sweet harmonies on the debut release Parachutes.” AMG The album is “a record’s worth of moody and atmospheric tunes.” WK Combining bits of distorted guitar riffs and swishing percussion, Parachutes is a delightful introduction and also quickly indicates the reason why this album earned Coldplay a Mercury Music Prize nomination in fall 2000.” AMG “The imagery captured on Parachutes is exquisitely dark and artistically abrasive, and the entire composition is tractable thanks to gauzy acoustics and airy percussion.” AMG Drummer Will Champion said the “lryics are beautiful and they’re really, really happy, but the music is really, really sad. It’s that kind of thing, where you can create moods through the music and lyrics.” WK “Coldplay’s indie rock inclinations are also obvious, especially on songs such as Don’t Panic and Shiver, but it’s the dream pop soundscapes captured on High Speed and We Never Change that illustrate the band’s dynamic passion. This basic pop is surely a refreshing effort in the face of big productions like the Spice Girls and Westlife. Parachutes deserves the accolades it has received because it follows the general rule when introducing decent pop songs: keep the emotion genuine and real. And Coldplay has done that without hesitation.” AMG MusicOMH’s Michael Hubbard called Parachutes “an album of remarkable depth.” WK NME’s Slobhan Grogan said “it’s incredible that this is a debut album,” nothing that it is “accomplished, yet subtle.” WK Uncut’s James Oldham said the album “more than justifies the plaudits.” WK

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide review by MacKenzie Wilson WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/26/2008; last updated 5/1/2022.

 

100 years ago: “Bird in a Gilded Cage” hit #1

A Bird in a Gilded Cage Steve Porter

Writer(s): Arthur J. Lamb (words), Harry Von Tilzer (music) (see lyrics here) First Charted: May 26, 1900 Peak: 16 US, 12 GA, 15 SM (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 2.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Harry Von Tilzer was a composer, songwriter, publisher and vaudeville performer born in 1872 in Detroit, Michigan. He got started playing piano and writing tunes for burlesque and vaudeville shows. His first major success was “My Old New Hampshire Home” in 1898. It sold more than two million copies of sheet music and prompted him to become a professional songwriter. WT Arthur J. Lamb was a lyricist born in 1870 in Somerset, England. He had his first major success with “Asleep in the Deep” in 1897. WL Two years later, Lamb approached Von Tilzer with lyrics for “A Bird in a Gilded Cage.” Von Tilzer liked it, but asked Lamb to change some words so it was clear the woman in the song was married and not a mistress. The song details the story of a trophy wife who is “surrounded by wealth yet impoverished socially and emotionally.” PS In the first verse, a couple talk about the woman, saying she only married for money, setting up the chorus which refers to her as “a bird in a gilded cage.” In the second verse, the woman dies and it is even speculated that she may be happier that way. Von Tilzer became “the most prolific composer of this decade.” DJ He said the song was “the key that opened the door of wealth and fame for him.” WB It also opened the doors for ballads to dominate popular music in America through 1914. WB The two went on to work together on more songs, including hits like “The Mansion of Aching Hearts.” W2 The sheet music billed “Cage” as “the most beautiful ballad ever written.” It certainly was “an enormously successful sentimental ballad” TY2 and one of the most successful songs of 1900, selling more than two million copies of sheet music. The first charted version was by Jere Mahoney in April 1990 and it reached #1 on Billboard. It spent five weeks on top, knocked out by Steve Porter’s version of the song. It bettered Mahoney’s, staying at the pinnacle for six weeks. Harry MacDonough also charted with the song that October, reaching #2. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Steve Porter DMDB encyclopedia entry for Jere Mahoney DMDB encyclopedia entry for Harry Von Tilzer DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 22. SM Sharon Mawer Charts (1900-1968) PS ParlorSongs.com (2001). “Tear Jerkers in American Song, Part 1” TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Pages 9-10. WT Wikipedia page about Harry Von Tilzer WL Wikipedia page on Arthur J. Lamb WB Wikipedia page on “A Bird in a Gilded Cage” First posted 12/1/2022; last updated 12/15/2022.

June 13, 2000: B.B. King and Eric Clapton collaborate on Riding with the King

First posted March 6, 2011. Last updated September 10, 2018.

Riding with the King Eric Clapton with B.B. King

Released: June 13, 2000 Sales (in millions): US: 2.89 UK: 0.27 IFPI: 1.0 World (estimated): 5.0 Peak: US: 3 UK: 15 Canada: 13 Australia: 5

Quotable: --

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Genre: blues

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Album Tracks:

1. Riding with the King (Hiatt) [4:23] (6/17/00, #26 AR)
2. Ten Long Years (King/ Taub) [4:40]
3. Key to the Highway (Broonzy/ Segar) [3:39]
4. Marry You (Bramhall/Melvoin/ Ross/ Segar) [4:59]
5. Three O’Clock Blues (King/ Taub) [8:36]
6. Help the Poor (Singleton) [5:06]
7. I Wanna Be (Bramhall/ Sexton) [4:45]
8. Worried Life Blues (Merriweather) [4:25]
9. Days of Old (Bihari/ King) [3:00]
10. When My Heart Beats Like a Hammer (King/ Taub) [7:09]
11. Hold On! I’m Comin’ (Hayes/ Porter) [6:20]
12. Come Rain or Come Shine (Arlen/ Mercer) [4:11]

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Singles/Hit Songs:

Click here for the chart codes for singles/hit songs.

Review: For his second full-fledged blues album, the 55-year-old Clapton collaborated with B.B. King, his senior by nearly 20 years. The pair first performed together in 1967, but didn’t record together until 30 years later when Clapton guested on King’s Deuces Wild album. WK For Riding with the King, “Clapton arranged the session using many of his regular musicians, picked the songs, and co-produced with his partner Simon Climie.” WR That would seemingly relegate King to guest status, but “because of Clapton's respect for his elder, it nearly works the other way around.” WR Indeed, PopMatters’ Don Moos called the album “strong blues cocktail…with one part Mr. Clapton slickness mixed with three parts of Mr. King’s blues stature.” WK Entertainment Weekly’s Steve Futterman called the “father” and “son” collaboration “triumphant.” WK In the Columbia Daily Spectator, Nicole Bode offered specific praise for the “call and response guitar and vocal duet…on…Hold On, I’m Comin’, an Isaac Hayes’ song originally released as a single for Sam & Dave in 1966. Of Come Rain or Come Shine, from the 1946 musical St. Louis Woman, she said it was “a mournful vibrato so tender it almost breaks your heart.” WK The album also included covers of standards such as “the Big Bill Broonzy-penned Key to the Highway (which Clapton had recorded in the early 1970s with Derek and the Dominos) [and] Chicago pianist Maceo Merriweather’s Worried Life Blues.” WK Alongside those standards are “five ‘vintage’ King songs from the 1950s and 1960s: Ten Long Years, Three O'Clock Blues, Help the Poor, Days of Old, and When My Heart Beats Like a Hammer.” WK The title cut was written by John Hiatt and first appeared on his 1983 album of the same name. The song came about when producer Scott Matthews told Hiatt about his dream of flying on an airplane with Elvis Presley. WK The album was rounded out “with some specially written and appropriate recent material.” WR The “danger is that Clapton will defer too much…but the two players turn out to have sufficiently complementary, if distinct, styles so that Clapton’s supportive role fills out and surrounds King’s stinging single-string playing…The result is an effective, if never really stunning, work.” WR That sentiment was echoed by the Mobile Register’s Dave Ferman who said that while it “was a ‘great idea well-executed,’ it is not as good as it could have been.” WK He also said Clapton has never been a great blues singer and critiqued the overall result as too “squeaky clean…antiseptic and clinical.” WK However, Cosmopolitan’s Louis Gerber called it a “refreshing and sensational album” WK which “goes directly to the heart and soul.” WK while Bode said King takes Clapton “deeper into blues territory than he has ever gone alone” WK and draws out a “raw, growling” side of Clapton’s voice. WK Like Clapton’s 1994 From the Cradle album, this one also won a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album. Review Source(s): WR William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide WK Wikipedia

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Awards:

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Related DMDB Link(s):

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Eric Bazilian released first solo album, The Optimist

 

The Optimist Eric Bazilian

Released: June 10, 2000 Peak: -- Sales (in millions): -- Genre: rock

Tracks: Song Title [time] Driving in England [4:19] Until You Dare [4:17] Gemini Yo Yo [4:32] Bye Bye Baby [5:24] U.G.L.Y. [3:45] When I Was the Man [3:54] Kid from Outer Space [5:03] Be My Woman [4:46] Fiddlesticks [4:03] Hopelessly, Relentlessly [5:11] Mind Going Down [3:27] The Optimist/ One of Us (unlisted bonus track) [9:30]

Rating: 3.262 out of 5.00 (average of 12 ratings) Quotable: “A gift to the pop canon” – Karl J. Valentine, customer review on Amazon.com Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “For many the name Eric Bazilian will bring about blank stares. But once you start naming some of the songs he has written or co-written (‘One of Us,’ ‘Kiss the Rain’ to name two) usually a spark of recognition begins. His work as a hit song writer came a few years after success as a member of the Hooters began to dwindle.” JB “Now eight years after the last Hooters studio album we have The Optimist…It comes with a sigh of relief that some artists do care about music and lyric content.” JB “He’s constantly evolving, consistently honing his craft (both as a musician and songwriter), and digging as deep as he can to keep the spirit alive.” KV “The songs…pick up where the Hooters Out of Body left off and go in an entirely new direction. Eric plays the majority of the instruments with the familiar mandolin and saxophone making appearances here and there.” JB “At the core, Eric is deeply methodical, and cut very much out of the Lennon/McCartney cloth, but his lyrics tend to venture more into the sardonic...Eric may be unknown to most in the pop world…, but he's very accessible for all his eccentricities.” KV “Because he’s gifted at his craft…and can spin a pop lyric with the best of them, Eric has created a work that is highly personal, while comfortably familiar.” KV “Don’t be fooled by the fact that this album is a hybrid of basement demo tapes, because these songs smoke most contemporary studio albums.” KV Bazilian “seems to clearly remember what it's like to be an alienated pre-adult. The pleasing assortment of songs on his self-produced solo debut, The Optimist, attest to this.” AMG “The songs grab at you and don’t let go until the final note ends.” JB “Tracks such as the sullen Kid from Outer Space, the lightly comical Driving in England, and the very pretty Until You Dare are a few such gems, reminiscent of radio-friendly pop/rock from the late '80s and early '90s.” AMG The latter would later be recorded by the Hooters on their Time Stand Still album and Bazilian would revisit it yet again on his 2012 album What Shall Become of the Baby? with Mats Wester. There’s also “the humorous lyrics of Be My Woman about the relationship between two individuals that have an age difference, or the pessimism of The Optimist.” JB Both show “that Eric loves his profession. It’s a shame that his profession has become one of writing hit songs for other artists.” JB “If you want to hear Eric open up and reveal himself [down to the core], simply go straight to track # 10. The song, Hopelessly, Relentlessly includes a guitar solo [that] gives…chills, and when his voice cracks, [it is clear] he’s spilling out his heart with abandon, and has the skill to cut us to the quick. For that reason alone, this album will enjoy a long shelf life.” KV “The rest of this album falls along similar, non-threatening lines, never veering from the middle-of-the road path Bazilian paved for other artists from Billie Myers to Amanda Marshall and the Hooters. It stands to reason – if the formula worked for them, why not for the craftsman himself? With a graceful and uncomplicated approach, eschewing major labels and going the self-released route is apparently the biggest risk Eric Bazilian takes with this easy to like recording.” AMG “The album is really a gift to the pop canon.” KV

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide review by Roxanne Blanford JB Amazon.com customer review by Jody Batik KV Amazon.com customer review by Karl J. Valentine WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: Last updated 8/9/2021.

Eminem hit #1 with The Marshall Mathers LP

The Marshall Mathers LP Eminem

Released: May 23, 2000 Peak: 18 US, 14 RB, 12 UK, 113 CN, 11 AU Sales (in millions): 10.21 US, 2.23 UK, 23.35 world (includes US and UK) Genre: rap

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Public Service Announcement 2000 (performed by Jeff Bass) (Bass) [0:25] Kill You (Bradford/ Mathers/ Young) [4:24] Stan (with Dido) (Armstrong/ Herman/ Mathers) [6:43] (10/7/00, 51 US, 31a RB, 1 UK, 1 AU, 2x platinum) Paul (skit by Paul “Bunyan” Rosenbert) (Rosenbert) [0:10] Who Knew (Bradford/ Elizondo/ Mathers/ Young) [3:47] Steve Berman (with Steve Berman) (Mathers) [0:53] The Way I Am (Mathers) [4:44] (8/5/00, 58 US, 22a RB, 8 UK, 34 AU, platinum) The Real Slim Shady (Coster/ Elizondo/ Mathers/ Young) [4:50] (5/6/00, 4 US, 10a RB, 19 MR, 1 UK, 6 CN, 11 AU, 4x platinum) Remember Me? (with RBX & Sticky Fingaz) (Collins/ Doctor Dre/ Eminem/ Jones) [3:38] I’m Back (Bradford/ Doctor Dre/ Mathers) [5:10] Marshall Mathers [5:20] Ken Kaniff (skit) (?) [1:01] Drug Ballad [5:00] (3/17/01, 65a RB) Amityville (with Bizarre) (Bass/ Bass/ Johnson/ Mathers) [4:14] Bitch Please II (with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, & Xzibit) (Bradford/ Broadus/ Elizondo/ Joyner/ Mathers/ Young) [4:48] (7/8/00, 51a RB) Kim [6:17] Under the Influence (with D-12) (Carlisle/ Holton/ Johnson/ Mathers/ Moore/ Porter) [5:22] Criminal [5:19] Songs by Bass/ Bass/ Mathers unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 72:04

Rating: 3.922 out of 5.00 (average of 27 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “It’s hard to know what to make of Eminem.” AMG “His debut, The Slim Shady LP, established [him] as a major force in both hip-hop and broader contemporary culture, but there was still doubt as to whether he would be the latest in a string of short-lived white rap novelties.” TL “Even if you know that half of what he says is sincere and half is a put-on; the trick is realizing that there’s truth in the joke, and vice versa. Many dismissed his considerable skills as a rapper and social satirist because the vulgarity and gross-out humor on The Slim Shady LP were too detailed for some to believe that it was anything but real.” AMG “To Eminem’s credit, he decided to exploit that confusion on his masterful second record, The Marshall Mathers LP.” AMG Songs like “The Real Slim Shady and Bitch Please II vaulted Eminem from a shock rapper with a sense of humor to the voice of a generation.” RS’20 “Rap’s superlative wordsmith blurs the line between autobiography and cartoons in hilarious and vulgar high-velocity rhymes.” UT It is “a fairly brilliant expansion of his debut, turning his spare, menacing hip-hop into a hyper-surreal, wittily disturbing thrill ride. It’s both funnier and darker than his debut, and Eminem’s writing is so sharp and clever that the jokes cut as deeply as the explorations of his ruptured psyche.” AMG “He lashed out at the hypocrisy of American society, exposed the prejudices that fuelled rap music, and held his constituency’s psychosis up to the light.” VU “The Marshall Mathers LP raised the stakes, raised his profile, and damn near raised the dead.” TL “Eminem delivered dizzying, blistering rhymes that laid bare his neuroses, his fury, and his confusion. He jumped from laugh-out-loud funny to chillingly menacing from one line to the next, and went after his critics (The Way I Am) and his fans (Stan, the mesmerizing high-wire act in a stalker’s voice) with equal fever.” TL With the latter, he “created a verb and a meme to describe extreme fandom in our era. “ RS’20 “The production is nearly as evocative as the raps, with liquid basslines, stuttering rhythms, slight sound effects, and spacious soundscapes. There may not be overpowering hooks on every track, but the album works as a whole, always drawing the listener in. But, once you’re in, Eminem doesn’t care if you understand exactly where he’s at, and he doesn’t offer any apologies if you can’t sort the fact from the fiction. As an artist, he’s supposed to create his own world, and with this terrific second effort, he certainly has. It may be a world that is as infuriating as it is intriguing, but it is without question his own, which is far more than most of his peers are able to accomplish at the dawn of a new millennium.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine RS’20 Rolling Stone (9/22/2020). “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” TL Time Magazine’s All-TIME 100 Albums by Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light (11/13/06). UT USA Today, Top 40 Albums – the USA Today Way (12/5/2003). VU VH1 Ultimate Albums TV series (2002-03). Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/12/2008; last updated 4/23/2022.