Katy Perry hit #1 with “I Kissed a Girl”

I Kissed a Girl Katy Perry

Writer(s): Katy Perry, Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, Max Martin, Cathy Dennis (see lyrics here) Released: April 28, 2008 First Charted: May 18, 2008 Peak: 17 US, 16 DG, 2 RR, 16 A40, 27 MR, 15 UK, 19 CN, 16 AU, 7 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 6.0 US, 0.7 UK, 12.9 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.3 radio, 169.1 video, 723.35 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” marked a clear break from her earlier days as a Christian artist. The song’s homosexual theme whipped the prudish into a frenzy and guaranteed an audience looking for controversy. Of course, none of that would have mattered if “I Kissed a Girl” wasn’t “an extremely catchy pure pop hit.” AB’00 The “pop rock song with elements of new wave” WK was assembled by a hit-making machine. Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald helped write Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone,” which helped her jettison her own overly clean cut image. Max Martin penned “Baby…One More Time” and co-penned “Oops!...I Did It Again” for Britney Spears. Writer Cathy Dennis helped Spears and Kylie Minogue return to the spotlight with “Toxic” and “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” respectively. Perry has given conflicting accounts that the song was about a female friend she kissed as a teen and that it was a fantasy and she’d never actually kissed a girl. WK Miley Cyrus has said the song was about her; Perry has also said it was inspired by Scarlet Johansson. WK According to Perry, the chorus popped into her head one night, but she didn’t do anything with it for a year-and-a-half. When she was working in the studio with Dr. Luke on her album, they decided they had to finish it since “it’s so catchy because it won’t get out of our heads.” WK Dennis Reese, a VP at Capitol, saw the song’s potential and pushed it to radio despite the record company’s initial resistance to release it. It became the Billboard Hot 100’s 1000th number one song of the rock era, marking Perry’s breakthrough. It also topped the charts in 18 other countries. WK Critics weren’t completely sold on the song. The online All Music Guide said “the problem is not with Katy’s gender-bending, it’s that her heart isn’t in it.” WK Slant criticized the song “because its appropriation of the gay lifetstyle exists for the sole purpose of garnering attention.” WK Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Max Martin AB’00 About.com (2009) “Top 100 Pop Songs of the 2000s” SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: Last updated 7/27/2023.

Britney Spears “Toxic” charted

Toxic Britney Spears

Writer(s): Cathy Dennis, Christian Karlsson, Pontus Winnberg, Henrik Jonback (see lyrics here) Released: January 12, 2004 First Charted: January 9, 2004 Peak: 9 BB, 14 RR, 37 A40, 11 UK, 12 CN, 12 AU, 21 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 6.0 US, 1.3 UK, 8.66 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.2 radio, -- video, 1189.11 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: When Britney Spears (born 1981 in Mississippi) emerged as a teen pop star in the late ‘90s, it was understandable that she would be dismissed as a teen-pop, flash-in-the-pan who would fade quickly. How long could she skate on stirring men’s Catholic school girl fantasies and a thin voice? However, by 2003’s In the Zone album, she was still around. It was her fourth consecutive #1, multi-platinum album. Part of the attention was due to her becoming tabloid fodder. She garnered plenty of attention with her 55-hour marriage to a childhood friend in Las Vegas and later that same year a surprise marriage to backup dancer Kevin Federline, who she’d dated for three months. However, she’d also shown she could take on a more mature musical style and was still making hits. After a top-40 hit with Madonna on “Me Against the Music,” Spears released “Toxic.” The song was produced by the Swedish team of Christian Karlsson (aka “Bloodshy”) and Pontus Winnberg (aka “Avant”). The lyrics were penned by Cathy Dennis, a British singer/songwriter who had four top-10 hits in the U.S. in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. The techno/dance-pop song was written with Janet Jackson in mind WK and then offered to Kylie Minogue, but she turned it down. WK It featured “club-inspired backbeats and violin lines reminiscent of James Bond films.” TB It topped the charts in 11 countries and won a Grammy for Best Dance Recording. Thunder Bay Press declared it her “greatest musical triumph.” TB Resources: TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 310. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 4/6/2024.

Kylie Minogue released “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”

Can’t Get You Out of My Head Kylie Minogue

Writer(s): Cathy Dennis/Rob Davis (see lyrics here) Released: September 8, 2001 First Charted: September 17, 2001 Peak: 7 US, 3 RR, 23 A40, 14 UK, 14 AU, 12 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 0.53 US, 1.53 UK, 5.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.3 radio, 338.31 video, 319.77 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “There is no false advertising here.” AB’00 “Never has a pop song more effectively done what it says” TL With its “catchy hooks, a salaciously cool video and lyrical content” NME this “irresistibly fun, flirty dance-pop confection” MX “can be very very difficult to get out of your head.” AB’00 “The Cathy Dennis and Rob Davis-penned single sinks its playground chant of a hook into the brain and just refuses to let go as Kylie sexes it up.” TL Before penning this song, Dennis had a couple top 10 hits in the U.S. in the early ‘90s. This one was offered first to Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who turned it down. SF The song is also known as “The La La Song” because Kylie sings “la la la, la la la la la la” repeatedly in the chorus. SF That “hook wormed its way into several billion ears worldwide” PD as the song topped the charts in over 40 countries. It was her 20th top ten hit in the UK, where it was also the most played song of 2001 and her best-selling single. SF While Kylie had been a successful actress and sex symbol in her native Australia and musically was huge around the world, she hadn’t graced the American charts since her 1988 debut. However, “the pint-size Aussie disco dolly seduced the U.S. with this mirror-ball classic.” RS’09 So “how did Kylie make one of the decade’s finest dance-pop anthems” PF and what PopEater.com called “one of the greatest dance-pop cuts of all time”? PE “By offering less: less singing, less melody, less feeling. What’s left is a buzzy, insatiable desire, an itch you can’t scratch but maybe can dance out.” PF She knows “intuitively how each coy purr, each insouciant whisper can speak to and for the lust of her audience.” PF “If its sleek, synthetic surfaces feel hollow, it’s because fantasy is hollow, a shell for impossible expectation.” PF Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Kylie Minogue AB’00 About.com (2009). “Top 100 Pop Songs of the 2000s” MX Atlanta Metromix (11/24/2009). “Best Songs of the Decade” NME NME.com (11/11/09). 100 Tracks of the Decade PF “The Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s” PD PopDose.com (11/24/2009). The Best Songs of the Decade” PE PopEater.com (11/24/09). “Best Pop Songs of the Decade” RS’09 Rolling Stone (12/9/2009). Songs of the Decade” SF Songfacts.com TL Telegraph.co.uk (9/18/2009). “100 Songs That Defined the Noughties” First posted 10/24/2020; last updated 10/17/2022.