Ed Sheeran “Bad Habits” released

Bad Habits Ed Sheeran

Writer(s): Ed Sheeran, Fred Gibson, Johnny McDaid (see lyrics here) Released: June 25, 2021 First Charted: July 3, 2021 Peak: 2 BB, 12 BA, 11 AC, 17 A40, 111 UK, 14 CN, 12 AU, 24 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 3.0 US, 3.6 UK, 11.15 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 806.18 video, 1819.87 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Ed Sheeran was born in England in 1991. He released his first solo album in 2011. A decade later, Equals (=), marked his fifth time to ascend to the top of the UK album charts and fourth time atop the U.S. charts. The lead single, “Bad Habits,” was his eighth chart topper in the UK. It also topped the charts in 27 other countries and was the best selling song of the year in the UK. “The moody song” SF is “part ballad and part dance track.” Sheeran is “in a deep internal conflict about his bad habits. His unhealthy lifestyle, such as nighttime drinking and partying, is leading him to make some poor choices, which le later regrets.” SF He addressed his drinking when his first daughter was on the way. Sheeran’s wife, Cherry, expressed concern about him being too drunk to drive her to the hospital safely when she was ready to give birth. WK Originally Sheeran had a slower, acoustic song in mind as the album’s lead single. However, when Covid-19 restrictions were beginning to be lifted in England in 2021, he thought, “I don’t know if the world needs a depressing, sad, slow acoustic song when [the country is] opening up.” WK He inserted a “dancy vibe” into the song to make it a more “upbeat dance tune.” SF The video for the song was compared to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” WK The video was also inspired by the American TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. WK Sheeran portrays a vampire in a hot pink suit. He and other monsters attack people during the night. He said he chose vampires as a way to “play on the nature of habits in a fantastical way.” WK Resources: SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 4/13/2024; last updated 10/14/2024.

Rick Astley “Never Gonna Give You Up” hit #1 in UK

Never Gonna Give You Up Rick Astley

Writer(s): Matt Stock, Mike Aitken, Peter Waterman (see lyrics here) Released: July 27, 1987 First Charted: August 8, 1987 Peak: 12 US, 2 GR, 11 RR, 13 AC, 15 UK, 13, 17 AU, 8 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 5.0 US, 1.12 UK, 7.09 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 3.0 radio, 1301.85 video, 606.03 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Some songs are hits of the moment, to be quickly forgotten in passing years. Others – for sometimes bizarre reasons – enter the public consciousness and never go away. In 2007, an Internet phenomenon known as rick-rolling emerged. People received links and opened them, but instead of getting what they expected they were subjected to a video clip of Rick Astley singing his 20-year-old hit “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Stereogum’s Tom Breihan said, they “could’ve presumably used any song in the vast history of recorded music, but they went with ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’…[because it] is a bad song, and it’s a catchy bad song. It could get stuck in someone’s head, and it could ruin that person’s day.” SG Ruin a person’s day? Lighten up. Astley himself had a much better sense of humor and perspective about it. He said, “I think it’s just one of those odd things where something gets picked up and people run with it. But that’s what brilliant about the internet…If this had happened around some kind of rock song, with a lyric that really meant something – a Bruce Springsteen, “God Bless America,” or an anti-something kind of song, I could kind of understand that. But for something as – and I don’t mean to belittle it, because I still think it’s a great pop song – but it’s a pop song. Do you know what I mean? It doesn’t have any kind of weight behind it, as such. But maybe that’s the irony of it.” SG “The pasty and deep-voiced young man…came from a rural English village called Newton-Le-Willows.” SG He started as a drummer with bands like Give Way and FBI, but “pulled a Phil Collins and became the singer” SG because, as he said, he was writing most of the songs. FB He got his big break when producer Peter Waterman heard him sing. The famed Stock-Aitken-Waterman team “basically colonized the UK charts” SG in the late ‘80s with hits from Kylie Minogue, Bananarama, and Dead or Alive. All told, they had more than a hundred top 40 UK hits. LW The ”shy vocalist with the boy-next-door looks” FB started working at Waterman’s PWL studio – making tea while also learning the technical aspects of recording and making demos. FB When they released Astley’s first single in the summer of 1987, it “practically made Astley an overnight star.” SG “The blippy bassline and handclap-driven drum track” SG is “pretty much swiped wholesale” SG from “Trapped,” a 1985 house single by Colonel Abrams which hit #3 in the UK. However, “Give You Up” “has none of the gospel-descended euphoric desperation that drives so much house” SG being marked instead by “the chintziest, shallowest Motown pastiche you’re ever going to hear. The strings are transparently fake. The horn stabs might be even faker. Over that beat, Rick Astley bellows thoroughly generic love-song lyrics from straight off of the Stock-Aitken-Waterman assembly line.” SG “Astley’s voice has all the chesty showiness of his British white-soul ancestor Tom Jones, but he has absolutely none of Jones’ swagger.” SG The song became the biggest hit of 1987 in the UK and went on to top the charts in America in 1988. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Rick Astley FB Fred Bronson (2007). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (4th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 693. LW Alan Lewens (2001). Popular Song – Soundtrack of the Century. Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 160. SG Stereogum (4/21/2021). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan WK Wikipedia First posted 10/18/2022; last updated 11/24/2022.