Tuesday, April 29, 2003

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Fever to Tell released

Fever to Tell

Yeah Yeah Yeahs


Released: April 29, 2003


Peak: 55 US, 13 UK, -- CN, 80 AU


Sales (in millions): 0.64 US, 0.21 UK, 1.0 world (includes US and UK)


Genre: post-punk revival


Tracks:

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

  1. Rich [3:36] (7/22/03, --)
  2. Date with the Night [2:35] (4/1/03, 16 UK)
  3. Man [1:49]
  4. Tick [1:49]
  5. Black Tongue [2:59]
  6. Pin [2:00] (7/1/03, 29 UK)
  7. Cold Light [2:16]
  8. No, No, No [5:14]
  9. Maps [3:39] (10/31/03, 87 US, 9 MR, 26 UK)
  10. Y Control [4:00] (6/1/04, 54 UK)
  11. Modern Romance [7:28]
All songs written by Yeah Yeah Yeahs.


Total Running Time: 37:25


The Players:

  • Karen O (vocals, piano)
  • Nick Zinner (guitar, keyboards)
  • Brian Chase (drums)

Rating:

3.954 out of 5.00 (average of 19 ratings)


Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album:

Indie-rock band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs formed in New York City in 2000. They released a self-titled EP in 2001 followed by another EP, Machine, in 2002. Their debut album, Fever to Tell, came in 2003. They were instrumental in establishing the post-punk revival scene in New York along with the Strokes, Interpol, and TV on the Radio. Rolling Stone’s Dan Epstein called Fever to Tell an “NYC art-punk landmark.” WK

The band even shared a producer with TV on the Radio in David Andrew Sitek. Karen O and Nick Zinner met him while working at a Brooklyn clothing store. Karen O said they asked him to produce because “he was just a buddy, and we felt immediately like we were family with him.” WK

The New York Times’ Jon Pareles said the band “are closer to Siouxsie and the Banshees (but with a grin) and Led Zeppelin (but with estrogen) than to the blues.” WK Music historian Nick Kent compared Karen O’s singing style to PJ Harvey. The Guardian’s Alex Denney called it “ecstatic dance punk” WK while The Daily Telegraph’s Andrew Perry called it an “exhilarating dose of lo-fi garage-rock.” WK

Regarding some of the specific songs, journalist Alex Petridis said of Y Control that it “was based on a riff from art-rockers Big Black, then transformed into spacey new-wave pop.” WK “The slow closing track Modern Romance was compared to a Velvet Underground drone.” WK

Resources and Related Links:


First posted 3/12/2022.

Friday, April 11, 2003

50 years ago: Hank Williams’ “Your Cheatin’ Heart” topped the country chart

Your Cheatin’ Heart

Hank Williams

Writer(s): Hank Williams (see lyrics here)


Released: January 1953


First Charted: February 21, 1953


Peak: 25 US, 3 CB, 16 CW, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.)


Sales (in millions): 1.0 US


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 3.0 radio, 7.8 video, 17.75 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

In Hank Williams’ short career, he established himself as one of country music’s most legendary artists. The “barely literate farm boy became the eloquent scribe” AC who was even hailed as the “Stephen Foster of the twentieth century.” AC “Your Cheatin’ Heart” has become “synonymous with the myth of Hank Williams as a haunted, lonely figure who expressed pain with an authenticity that became the standard for country music.” WK All Music Guide described it as “an unofficial anthem of country music.” WK Country music historian Ronnie Pugh wrote that “the song – for all intents and purposes – defines country music.” WK

The song came about while he was driving with his fiancée Billie Jean to visit her family in Louisana to announce their engagement. SF He talked about his ex-wife, Audrey, and how she’d hurt him. Williams summed up his frustrations about what Bob Dylan called “the swindler who sold me a faulty bill of goods,” BD saying, “her cheatin’ heart will pay!” He realized it would make a good song and asked Billie Jean to scribble down the words. They both knew it was a hit. AC He told his friend, Braxton Schuffert, “It’s the best heart song I ever wrote.” WK

Hank and his band went into the studio with producer Fred Rose to record the song in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 23, 1952. It ended up being his last recording session before his death. The song was released posthumously in 1953. His version topped the country charts while Joni James and Frankie Laine each reached the Billboard’s Most Played in Jukeboxes chart that year, hitting #2 and #18 respectively. Ray Charles took the song to #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #23 on the R&B chart in 1962.

He was only 29 when he died, but he “was used up, worn out, and despondent.” AC He was “a young man dying of old age.” AC He died of heart failure on January 1, 1953 in the back of a car while headed to a gig in Charleston, West Virginia. There is some suspicion over what led to his death, but he suffered from alcoholism and dependence on prescription drugs.


Resources:

  • AC Ace Collins (1996). The Stories Behind Country Music’s All-Time Greatest 100 Songs. New York, NY; The Berkley Publishing Group. Pages 79-80.
  • BD Bob Dylan (2022). The Philosophy of Modern Song. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Pages 163-66.
  • RS500 RollingStone.com (12/11/2003). “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
  • SF Songfacts
  • WK Wikipedia


Related Links:


First posted 10/27/2021; last updated 11/2/2022.

Thursday, April 10, 2003

On This Day in Music (1853): Bach/Gounod version of “Ave Maria” performd

Ave Maria

Franz Schubert (music), Walter Scott (words) / Johann Sebastian Bach/Charles Gounod (music)

Writer(s): Schubert/Scott (see lyrics here), Bach/Gounod (see lyrics here)


Published: 1825 (Schubert/Scott), 1859 (Bach/Gounod)


First Charted: June 4, 1910 (Alda/McCormack)


Peak (different versions): 7 PM, 16 UK (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): --


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 321.40 video, -- streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.


Awards (Marian Anderson):

About the Song:

“Ave Maria” has become a favorite at funerals and weddings alike. It is a traditional Catholic prayer also known as “Hail Mary” which asks for “the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus.” LD It is “one of the most widely spoken prayers of Christianity.” BB As for its connection to song, however, its history is confusing as it has been set to music by both Johann Sebastian Bach and Franz Schubert.

In 1825, Schubert set a piece of music to Sir Walter Scott’s epic poem The Lady of the Lake. The music was called “Ellens dritter Gesang,” which translates into “Ellen’s Third Song.” CL While it does have the words “Ave Maria,” it was only a reference to the famous prayer. Over time, however, people found it simpler to refer to the work as “Ave Maria.” BB

In 1772, Johann Sebastian Bach published Book 1 of Well-Tempered Clavier which included his famous “Prelude in C major.” It has been a favorite of piano students ever since. French opera composer Charles Gounod was introduced to Bach’s work in 1840. In 1852, He improvised a melody over Bach’s “Prelude in C” while at the home of his fiancée Anna Zimmermann.. Her father, Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann was a famous composer and was overwhelmed by what Gounod had done. He organized a house concert a few days later where the piece was performed with a small choir, piano, and violin. GM The first performance was on April 10, 1853. GM

In 1853, the work was published under the name “Mediations on the First Prelude of Sebastian Bach. Words were not added until 1859. The first words were not “Ave Maria,” but a poem by Alphonse de Lamartine called “Vers écrits sur un album.” He sent it to his student Rosalie Jousset. When her mother-in-law, Aurélie Jousset, saw it she considered it inappropriate and replied to Gounod with text from “Ave Maria.” GM He used her version and the first version of “Ave Maria” was recorded in 1859. GM

Chart versions of the song include Frances Alda & John McCormack (#9 PM, 1910), Enrico Caruso (#7 PM, 1913), John McCormack (#7 PM, 1915), Perry Como (#22 PM, 1949), Shirley Bassey (#31 UK, 1962), and Lesley Garrett with Amanda Thompson (#16 UK, 1993). Marian Anderson’s 1936 version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Beyoncé, Andrea Bocelli, Maria Callas, and Luciano Pavarotti are among those to perform one version or the other.


Resources:


First posted 9/2/2023.

Tuesday, April 1, 2003

The White Stripes' Elephant released

Elephant

The White Stripes


Released: April 1, 2003


Peak: 6 US, 12 UK, 5 CN, 4 AU


Sales (in millions): 2.1 US, 0.86 UK, 5.7 world (includes US and UK)


Genre: garage rock revival


Tracks:

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

  1. Seven Nation Army (3/8/03, 76 US, 12 AR, 1 MR, 7 UK, 17 AU)
  2. Black Math
  3. There’s No Home for You Here
  4. I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself (8/5/03, 25 MR, 13 UK, 54 AU)
  5. In the Cold, Cold Night
  6. I Want to Be the Boy
  7. You’ve Got Her in Your Pocket
  8. Ball and Biscuit
  9. The Hardest Button to Button (8/9/03, 8 MR, 23 UK, 54 AU)
  10. Little Acorns
  11. Hypnotize
  12. The Air Near My Fingers
  13. Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine
  14. It’s True That We Love One Another


Total Running Time: 49:56


The Players:

  • Jack White (vocal, guitar, piano)
  • Meg White (drums, vocals)

Rating:

4.393 out of 5.00 (average of 30 ratings)


Quotable: “Everything rock should be.” – Goliath


Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album:

The Stripes exploded out of Detroit with a minimalist garage-blues attack: just Jack White on guitar and Meg White on drums, taking on the world. These kids insisted they were a brother and sister, even after people learned they were secretly a divorced couple. But against all odds, the low-budget duo became a global sensation for their sheer rock power” RS’20 after their third album, White Blood Cells, sold more than a half million copies and made stars of the duo.

For their follow-up, Elephant, the White Stripes “built out the raw garage rock from their first three albums into an entirely re-imagined sound, taking their pissed-off swagger and channeling it into ambition: blistering blues, whimsical folk, Stooges-esque punk, contemplative love tunes.” GQ Elephant “sounds even more pissed-off, paranoid, and stunning than its predecessor.” AMG It “seethes with raw desperation and lust.” RS’20 “It’s more consistent, exploring disillusionment and rejection with razor-sharp focus.” AMG It is “everything rock should be; it’s fiery and loud on one track, soft and slow on the next, with poignant lyrics and absolutely devastating electric guitar.” GL

“In case we’d forgotten, we were reminded that Jack can fucking shred on guitar. GQ “This album contains some of the finest guitar work of this, or any, generation, both from a technical standpoint and an affective standpoint.” GL “You can almost feel the breeze from the amps on your face as the riffs strut out – and he squeezed more tone out of the electric guitar than almost anyone else that decade.” GU

The album “cemented Jack White’s reputation as a musical purist” PM and “much-lampooned fetish for analogue production.” GU “By recording the album entirely on pre-1960s equipment, White encapsulated the gritty open-wound rawness of the early delta blues masters he is heavily influenced by. Yet there is an indisputable modernism to Elephant that makes…[the White Stripes as] fresh sounding today as they did” PM then.

“Chip-on-the-shoulder anthems like the breathtaking opener, Seven Nation Army, which is driven by Meg White’s explosively minimal drumming, and The Hardest Button to Button, in which Jack White snarls ‘Now we're a family!’ – one of the best oblique threats since Black Francis sneered ‘It’s educational!’ all those years ago – deliver some of the fiercest blues-punk of the White Stripes’ career.” AMG “It’s now impossible to imagine a world without ‘Seven Nation Army,’ chanted from football terraces to political rallies.” GL What has been “coined the most recognizable riff in rock” GL “set the template for Elephant: brooding moods, measured out in eighths by Meg White, would tip over into cathartic squalls of blues rock.” GU

There’s No Home for You Here sets a girl’s walking papers to a melody reminiscent of ‘Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground’ (though the result is more sequel than rehash), driving the point home with a wall of layered, Queen-ly harmonies and piercing guitars, while the inspired version of I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself goes from plaintive to angry in just over a minute, though the charging guitars at the end sound perversely triumphant.” AMG

“At its bruised heart, Elephant portrays love as a power struggle, with chivalry and innocence usually losing out to the power of seduction. I Want to Be the Boy tries, unsuccessfully, to charm a girl’s mother.” AMG The “twisted acoustic soul” RS’11 of You’ve Got Her in Your Pocket, “a deceptively gentle ballad, reveals the darker side of the Stripes’ vulnerability, blurring the line between caring for someone and owning them with some fittingly fluid songwriting.” AMG

“The battle for control reaches a fever pitch on the ‘Fell in Love with a Girl’-esque Hypnotize, which suggests some slightly underhanded ways of winning a girl over before settling for just holding her hand.” AMG “Jack plays guitar hero” RS’20 in “the show-stopping Ball and Biscuit. [It is] seven flat-out seductive minutes of preening, boasting, and amazing guitar prowess” AMG and “electric-blues freakery” RS’11 “that ranks as one the band’s most traditionally bluesy (not to mention sexy) songs.” AMG “Interestingly, Meg’s star turn, In the Cold, Cold Night, is the closest Elephant comes to a truce in this struggle, her kitten-ish voice balancing the song’s slinky words and music.” AMG

“While the album is often dark, it’s never despairing; moments of wry humor pop up throughout, particularly toward the end. Little Acorns begins with a sound clip of Detroit newscaster Mort Crim’s Second Thoughts radio show, adding an authentic, if unusual, Motor City feel. It also suggests that Jack White is one of the few vocalists who could make a lyric like ‘Be like the squirrel’ sound cool and even inspiring.” AMG

“Likewise, the showy Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine – on which White resembles a garage rock snake-oil salesman – is probably the only song featuring the word ‘acetaminophen’ in its chorus.” AMG

It’s True That We Love One Another, which features vocals from Holly Golightly as well as Meg White, continues the Stripes’ tradition of closing their albums on a lighthearted note.” AMG

“Almost as much fun to analyze as it is to listen to, Elephant overflows with quality – it’s full of tight songwriting, sharp, witty lyrics, and judiciously used basses and tumbling keyboard melodies that enhance the band's powerful simplicity (and the excellent The Air Near My Fingers features all of these).” AMG

“Crucially, the White Stripes know the difference between fame and success; while they may not be entirely comfortable with their fame, they've succeeded at mixing blues, punk, and garage rock in an electrifying and unique way ever since they were strictly a Detroit phenomenon. On these terms, Elephant is a phenomenal success.” AMG

Resources and Related Links:


Other Related DMDB Pages:


First posted 3/24/2008; last updated 5/1/2022.