M.I.A. “Paper Planes” released

Paper Planes M.I.A.

Writer(s): Maya "M.I.A." Arulpragasam, Wesley "Diplo" Pentz, Topper Headon, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Joe Strummer (see lyrics here) Released: February 11, 2008 First Charted: August 2, 2008 Peak: 4 US, 10 RR, 36 RB, 12 MR, 19 UK, 7 CN, 66 AU, 18 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, 1.2 UK, 5.68 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 284.15 video, 558.93 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Nothing says pop hit quite like a Sri Lankan-born singer using “negative, violent stereotypes of immigrants as source material,” AB’00 “mocking the perception of dark-skinned immigrants as somehow dangerous,” PD and giving “shout-outs to Third World slums.” RS’09 Rapper Maya Arulpragasam, better known as M.I.A., combined those unlikely commercial elements for “one of the unlikeliest Top 10 jams ever” RS’09 with “Paper Planes,” the third single from her second album, Kala. It was “the sound of the third world and the digital age colliding head-on, with results that were equal parts scary and thrilling.” MX She took “third-world survivalism and, while not glamorizing it, certainly [made] us feel it at a level far more elemental than easy sympathy.” LR A year after its initial release, the trailer for Pineapple Express gave the song a second life, letting it expand “from its hipster dance-music niche into broader consciousness.” PF It also packs a whollop at a pivotal moment in Slumdog Millionaire, “the Oscar-winning film that was the late-00’s other great border-hopping underdog story.” PF The song wraps “irresistible catchiness, political relevance, and musical surprises in one tight package” AB’00 “with global-minded beats and revolutionary chic.” PF The song is built over “a beat sampled from the Clash’s ‘Straight to Hell,’” RS’09 “which itself was an indictment of immigrants’ treatment in the West, permeated with southeast-Asian tonal influences” PD and wrapped in a “gently rolling, almost lazy sounding package so laidback that the first time you hear the gunshots it may jolt you out of your seat.” AB’00 The song’s success suggested “that given the right synergy of personality, topicality, and marketing, something like a mass audience could still gather around even the unlikeliest of phenomena.” PF Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for M.I.A. AB’00 About.com (2009) “Top 100 Pop Songs of the 2000s” MX Atlanta Metromix (11/24/09) Best songs of the decade PF Pitchfork.com (8/19/09) The Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s PD PopDose.com (11/24/09) The Best Songs of the Decade LR LowResolution.blogspot.com “Retrospecticus: 100 Favorite Songs of the Decade” (1/4/2010). RS’09 Rolling Stone (12/9/09). “Songs of the Decade” (12/9/09). WK Wikipedia First posted 8/2/2012; last updated 11/7/2022.

Billy Joel’s Storm Front released

First posted 5/9/2011; updated 9/22/2020.

Storm Front Billy Joel

Released: October 17, 1989 Peak: 11 US, 5 UK, 4 CN, 12 AU Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, 0.3 UK, 8.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: pop/rock singer-songwriter

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. That’s Not Her Style (12/2/89, 18 AR, 77 US, 97 UK) We Didn’t Start the Fire (9/27/89, 1 US, 5 AC, 6 AR, 7 UK, 2 CN, 2 AU, platinum single) The Downeaster ‘Alexa’ (4/14/90, 57 US, 18 AC, 33 AR, 76 UK, 25 CN) I Go to Extremes (1/13/90, 6 US, 4 AC, 10 AR, 70 UK, 3 CN, 48 AU) Shameless (1/4/92, 40 AC) Storm Front Leningrad (53 UK) State of Grace When in Rome And So It Goes (10/20/90, 37 US, 5 AC, 30 CN) Total Running Time: 44:34

Rating: 3.293 out of 5.00 (average of 12 ratings) Awards:

About the Album: For 1989’s Storm Front, Joel was looking for a new sound. He jettisoned most of his longtime band and producer Phil Ramone. He hired Mick Jones, “the Foreigner fat cat, not the Clash founder,” DB in pursuit of “big-rock pomp and power chords” DB in the vein of “Foreigner’s big AOR sound.” AMG “Joel packed all the strongest numbers into the first half of Storm Front.” AMG The album opened with “That’s Not Her Style, a weirdly defensive song about his model wife, Christie Brinkley.” AMG It then transitioned to “the boomer-centric history lesson We Didn’t Start the Fire” DB, Joel’s third and final Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper. Next up is his ode “to the fisherman's plight” AMG with The Downeaster ‘Alexa’, which is followed by I Go to Extremes, which gave Joel another top-10 hit. Then we get “the power ballad Shameless, which Garth Brooks later made a standard.” AMG The second half, however, isn’t quite as strong. It “perks up only mildly with Leningrad and And So It Goes.” AMG “It’s upbeat, varied, melodic, and effective, but when it’s compared to…such high-water marks as The Stranger or Glass Houses…it pales musically and lyrically. The five singles…were catchy enough on the radio to propel the album to multi-platinum status, but in retrospect, Storm Front sounds like the beginning of the end.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: Billy Joel’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine DB David Browne (6/07). Blender magazine. Pages 114-5.

Foreigner hit #1 with “I Want to Know What Love Is”

I Want to Know What Love Is Foreigner

Writer(s): Mick Jones (see lyrics here) Released: November 13, 1984 First Charted: December 7, 1984 Peak: 12 BB, 12 BA, 11 CB, 11 GR, 12 RR, 3 AC, 85 RB, 11 AR, 13 UK, 13 CN, 15 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 2.0 UK, 4.14 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 865.93 video, 1000.27 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Prior to “I Want to Know What Love Is,” Foreigner had never hit #1. They came close – in 1978 “Double Vision” made it to the runner-up spot and “Waiting for a Girl Like You” spent a whopping 10 weeks at #2 in 1981/1982. The latter was a ballad, not the typical fare for a group who’d built its following based on its classic rock hits. It made the group a little leary of releasing the “balladish” “I Want to Know What Love Is.” As guitarist Mick Jones said, “That was the one thing I was sort of dubious about – the fact that people might think we’d gone soft or something.” FB After all, the band had built their reputation on “simple, straight-ahead rock & roll…[with] crunching guitars and lyrics about hot girls.” SS Bassist Rick Wills called the tune “fluffy” and singer Lou Gramm said, “We worried that it might do irreparable damage to our rock image.” FB However, Jones said, that “the song was so strong, and because it was coming out at Christmas, and it had the right kind of mood.” FB Ahmet Ertegun, the head the band’s label Atlantic, cried when he heard the song. SF Gramm had been “given the best tune of his life.” DM Thomas Ryan said, “It is as powerful a single as I have ever heard.” SS Jones was inspired to write “the soul-searching rock ballad” SS after a series of failed relationship. He said, I “was still searching for something that could really endure. It became more of a universal feeling. I adjusted that during the recording of it, and ended up putting a gospel choir on it.” RC The backing vocals from the New Jersey Mass Choir marked the first time a gospel choir appeared on a #1 pop hit. SF The song also featured keyboard work from Tom Bailey of the Thompson Twins, and backing vocals from Jennifer Holliday, the star from the Broadway musical Dreamgirls. The New Jersey Mass Choir released its own version of the song and hit #37 on the R&B chart. In 1998, Tina Arena recorded the song with an extended bridge written by Jones and it was a hit in Europe. WK In 2004, Wynonna Judd took the song to #14 on the adult contemporary chart; Mariah Carey went to #10 on the same chart in 2009. WK Resources: FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 601. RC Rod Couch (2015). The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era: 1955-2015. Pages 263-4. DM Dave Marsh (1989). The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. New American Library: New York, NY. Pages 467-8. SF Songfacts SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 140-1. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/26/2020; last updated 1/31/2025.