Rihanna and Calvin Harris log 10th week at #1 with “We Found Love”

We Found Love Rihanna with Calvin Harris

Writer(s): Calvin Harris (see lyrics here) Released: September 22, 2011 First Charted: September 25, 2011 Peak: 110 US, 112 BA, 15 DG, 17 RR, 14 AC, 5 A40, 54 RB, 16 UK, 111 CN, 2 AU, 22 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 10.0 US, 2.4 UK, 14.68 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 1267.6 video, 1224.48 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Rihanna launched her sixth album with the Calvin Harris-penned, “uptempo electro house song” WK “We Found Love.” The Scottish electro-pop producer had worked with Dizzee Rascal, Kelis, and Kylie Minogue. He’d also had top ten hits on his own in the UK, including the #1 “’m Not Alone” (2009). 2011 marked his first foray onto the U.S. pop charts with his own Feel So Close (#12) and this monster duet with Rihanna. Originally the song was intended for Leona Lewis; Nicole Scherzinger turned it down as well. When it was recorded by Rihanna, her fans pressured Harris on Twitter that “The song better not be rubbish.” SF Critical reception was mixed. New York magazine’s Amanda Dobbins said “Harris’s electro fingerprints are all over this one – it plays like a straight house track, with some dreamy Rihanna vocals added in over the beat.” WK Idolator’s Robbie Daw called the song’s line “We found love in a hopeless place” the best lyrics in pop music in 2011. WK On the flip side, NME’s Priya Elan said the over-all effect is underwhelming WK and Rolling Stone’s Jody Rosen called it “an inspid tune” and the worst single of her career. WK The song hit the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 2011, making for her 20th time in the top 10. She first landed there in June 2005 with “Pon de Replay,” giving her a span of six years and four months to land 20 songs in the top ten, besting Madonna’s record of six years and nine months to accomplish the same feat. SF “We Found Love” spent ten non-consecutive weeks, breaking Rihanna’s previous record of seven weeks on top with “Umbrella.” SF Her 11th trip to the top also became the longest-running U.S. #1 song of 2011, topped the charts in 25 other countries, WK and was the most played song on U.S. radio in 2012. SF The video was directed by Melina Matsoukas, who’d also done Rihanna’s “Rude Boy” and “S&M.” Rihanna is depicted as “a drug-abusing thrill-seeker in a relationship that quickly spirals downward into addiction and violence.” WK Matsoukas said the video was intended to be a warning about the dangers of addiction and not a reference to the singer’s past experience with domestic violence, but not everyone found the video’s message favorable. Eileen Kelly of the Rape Crisis Centre told the Daily Star that the “video is a disgrace. It sends the message that she is an object to be possessed by mne, which is disturbingly what we see in real violence cases.” SF Despite the controversy, it won the Grammy for Best Short Form Video and MTV’s Video of the Year. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Calvin Harris SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: Last updated 7/29/2023.

Aretha Franklin held her first Atlantic Records recording session: January 27, 1967

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Aretha Franklin launched her recording career in 1960, releasing her first single for Columbia when she was 18. The song, “Today I Sing the Blues”, reached #10 on the R&B charts and led to a handful of other hits, including two more top tens (“Won’t Be Logn” and “Operation Heartbreak”).

However, she opted not to resign with Columbia when her contract expired in 1966. She’d made nine albums with the company, but didn’t have any money to show for it. Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records quickly signed her and took her to Alabama’s legendary FAME Studios for her first recording session with the new company on on January 27, 1967. Along with the famed Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, Aretha was joined by Stax Records’ Chips Moman and Tommy Cogbill. While she had largely covered standards while with Columbia, Atlantic would help her forge a new direction which allowed her to display her gospel roots and become one of the most important acts in R&B history.

One of her first endeavors at forging her new direction was a blues ballad called “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You”. The song topped the R&B charts for eight weeks, peaked at #9 on the pop charts, and gave Aretha her first gold single. During Aretha’s Atlantic stint, she sent more than 30 songs into the top ten of the R&B charts; 17 of those went to #1.

Aretha’s 1967 album I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You also featured the classic “Respect”, a #1 pop and R&B song. The album comprised those first legendary recording sessions as well as recording she did in New York City. The “Queen of Soul” had been born.

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Awards for Aretha Franklin:

• one of the top 100 acts of all time
  
• Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
  
• Hollywood Walk of Fame stars for people in the recording industry
  
• Kennedy Center Honors for musicians
  
• R&B Foundation
  
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee
  
• one of the top 100 singers of all time
  

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Resources and Related Links:

• the DMDB page for I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
  
• the DMDB Music Maker Encyclopedia entry for Aretha Franklin
  
• Historyofrecording.com: Aretha Franklin
  
• Wikipedia.org: I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (song)
  

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Lana Del Rey Born to Die released

Born to Die Lana Del Rey

Released: January 27, 2012 Peak: 2 US, 12 UK, 3 CN, 11 AU Sales (in millions): 5.0 US, 1.5 UK, 18.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: alternative rock

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Born to Die (12/30/11, 9 UK, 34 AU) Off to the Races (1/6/12, --) Blue Jeans (4/6/12, 32 UK) Video Games (10/10/11, 91 BB, 15 AA, 9 UK, 72 CN, 23 AU) Diet Mountain Dew National Anthem (7/6/12, --) Dark Paradise (3/1/23, --) Radio Carmen (1/26/12, --) Million Dollar Man Summertime Sadness (6/22/12, 6 BB, 2 RR, 16 A40, 4 UK, 7 CN, 3 AU) This is What Makes Us Girls Total Running Time: 49:28

Rating: 3.590 out of 5.00 (average of 31 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Singer/songwriter Lana Del Rey was born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant in 1985 in New York City. She released her self-titled debut album in 2010 but it got pulled from stores after the label was unable to properly fund it. She then signed with Stranger Records in 2011 and released the song Video Games, which she described as “Hollywood sadcore.” WK After the video went viral it was released as a single and eventually reached the top 10 on the UK charts. Her major-label debut, Born to Die, followed in 2012. It was her first of six #1 UK albums as of 2023. In the United States, the album reached #2, the first of eight consecutive top-ten albums through 2023. The album became only the second by a woman to spend more than 500 weeks on the Billboard album chart. Del Rey said most of the album was written about her experiences with alcohol. She was sent to boarding school in Connecticut at age 14 to get sober. She said, “I would drink every day. I would drink alone…A great deal of what I wrote on Born to Die is about these wilderness years…I feel like I’m writing about alcohol because that was the first love of my life.” WK Albumism’s Chris Lacy called it “a realistic portrait of addiction, sexual obsession, abnormality and fear.” WK Del Rey cited Britney Spears, Elvis Presley, and Antony & the Johnsons as influences. WK AllMusic.com’s John Bush called her ”a femme fatale with a smoky voice.” AMG Born to Die has been characterized as “a predominantly baroque pop and trip hop album.” WK The album was praised for its “distinctive sound” WK while also criticized for “repetitiveness and melodramatic tendencies.” WK NME’s Alex Denney said the album “marks the arrival of a fresh – and refreshingly self-aware – sensibility in pop.” WK Off to the Races is “a freak show of inappropriate co-dependency” that “recalls Sheryl Crow’s ‘down and out drunken loner persona’ in her 1994 single ‘Leaving Las Vegas’.” WK Her vocals on Million Dollar Man were compared to those of “a highly medicated Fiona Apple.” WK About.com’s Bill Lamb said National Anthem has a “rousing yet graceful arrangement that solidifies the song’s point of view as a clever critique of a society that is just as messy as these words.” WK A dance remix of Summertime Sadness with French DJ Cedric Gervais proved to be the biggest hit from the album. “Lana is cruising down the coast with her bad boy beau by her side, but she is sad” SF because she fears losing him. She penned the song with Rick Nowels, who also has credits on Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is a Place on Earth” and Dido’s “White Flag.” SF

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Lana Del Rey AMG All Music album review by John Bush SF Songfacts.com entry about “Summertime Sadness” WK Wikipedia First posted 3/13/2024.

Today in Music (1912): Harry MacDonough “Down by the Old Mill Stream” hit #1

Down by the Old Mill Stream Harry MacDonough

Writer(s): Tell Taylor (see lyrics here) First Charted: December 11, 1911 Peak: 17 US, 13 GA, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 6.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: With hundreds of songs under his belt, Tell Taylor was “one of the powerhouses in musical composition during the early 20th century,” PS but of all his songs, probably none is more familiar than “Down by the Old Mill Stream.” He wrote it in 1908 while sitting on the banks of the Blanchard River in Ohio, WK although it has been reported that it was modeled on “Down by the Old Stream,” a Joseph P. Skelly song from 1874. SS The lyrical focus is on someone older looking back on a lifelong romance, but true to form for post-1900 songs, it focuses more on reality than sentiment. SS Musically, MacDonough’s version was unique in that he sang the first half with an orchestra, but then the orchestra is replaced by a quartet – most likely the Haydn Quartet, of which MacDonough was a member. The rest of the song is then handled a cappella by the quartet. SS That combination of four-part harmony alongside the “beautifully flowing melody with romantic lyrics” PS made the song a barbershop quartet favorite RCG and arguably the song that defines that genre. PS The song was one of only four from 1890-1954 to sell 5 million in sheet music. PM One of those, “Let Me Call You Sweetheart,” shares other traits with “Stream.” Both songs were published in 1910 and first charted in 1911. The first chart versions of each were by Arthur Clough. Usually the first charted version of a song was the biggest, but the Peerless Quartet and Harry MacDonough each topped the chart for seven weeks with, respectively, their recordings of “Sweetheart” and “Old Mill Stream,” leaving poor Arthur Clough the dubious distinction of also-ran status – twice. “The song was originally published with not only the piano version but also with an arrangement for male vocal quartet.” PS The song resurfaced in the 1936 film Her Master’s Voice JA and the Mills Brothers revived the song in the 1940s “with a more swinging style to it.” RCG In 1965, Alvin and the Chipmunks recorded the song and Snoopy played the song in the 2000 animated special It’s the Pied Piper, Charlie Brown. WK Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Harry MacDonough JA David A. Jasen. (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 51. PS ParlorSongs.com RCG RimChiGuy.com The Old Songs (1900-1929) SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Page 436. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Menomonee Falls, WI; Record Research, Inc. Page 634. WK Wikipedia First posted 12/11/2016; last updated 7/25/2022.

Etta James: 1938-2011

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Etta James, “one of the great voices of the 20th century who fused R&B with gospel and blues,” ^RS died January 20, 2012, less than a week shy of her 74th birthday. The Grammy winner was an inductee in the Blues Hall of Fame, R&B Foundation, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Her song “The Wallflower (Roll with Me Henry)” (1955), was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and “Tell Mama” (1967) was selected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. However, she may be most associated with wedding favorite “At Last” (1961), a Grammy Hall of Fame inductee, National Recording Registry entry, and one of the top 100 jazz songs of all time according to the DMDB. At his inauguration, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama danced to “At Last” as sung by Beyoncé, who portrayed James in the 2008 film Cadillac Records.

James was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010 and battled other health problems such as drug addiction, dementia, and hepatitis C. At one point, she ballooned to a reported 400 pounds and then cut that weight in half. Lupe DeLeon, her longtime friend and manager, said “This is a tremendous loss for the family, her friends and fans around the world…She was a true original who could sing it all – her music defied category. I worked with Etta for over 30 years. She was my friend and I will miss her always.” ^CNN

She was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles in 1938. Her teen mother largely abandoned her and never revealed the father’s identity, although James suspected it was famed pool player Minnesota Fats. ^CNN Johnny Otis, best known for the song “Willie and the Hand Jive”, discovered James when she was 14. She hit #1 on the R&B charts with “The Wallflower”, a song Otis wrote as an answer song to Hank Ballard’s “Work with Me Annie”.

Over the next decade, James charted a dozen top ten hits on the R&B charts, most with Chess Records. Her most successful run on the pop charts was “Tell Mama” with a #23 peak. She discussed her songs with CNN in 2002: “Most of the songs I sing, they have that blue feeling to it. They have that sorry feeling. And I don’t know what I'm sorry about.” ^CNN

She continued touring until sidelined by illness in 2009. She has been cited as an influence by current British singer Adele. In 2008, Bonnie Raitt told Rolling Stone, “There’s a lot going on [in] Etta James’ voice…A lot of pain, a lot of life, most of all, a lot of strength. She can be so raucous and down one song, and then break your heart with her subtlety and finesse the next. As raw as Etta is, there's a great intelligence and wisdom in her singing.” ^RS She also said, “Anybody who has a bluesy side to what they do can point to Etta James as the bridge between R&B, blues and pop singing.” ^UT

As James told Rolling Stone, “Life’s been rough…But life’s been good. If I had to go back and do it all over again, I would live it the exact same way.” ^RS

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Awards:

• one of the top 1000 music makers of all time
  
• Blues Hall of Fame inductee
  
• one of the top 100 blues acts of all time
  
• Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
  
• Hollywood Walk of Fame
  
• R&B Foundation
  
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee
  
• one of the top 100 singers of all time
  

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Resources and Related Links:

• the DMDB Music Maker Encyclopedia entry for Etta James
  
• ^CNN CNN.com Singing legend Etta James dies at 73 by Todd Leopold (1/20/2012)
  
• ^RS RollingStone.com Etta James Dead at 73 by Andy Greene (1/20/2012)
  
• ^UT USAtoday.com Singing legend Etta James dies at 73 by Steve Jones (1/20/2012)
  

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