Idina Menzel “Let It Go” released

Let It Go Idina Menzel

Writer(s): Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez (see lyrics here) Released: November 25, 2013 First Charted: December 4, 2013 Peak: 5 US, 47 RR, 9 AC, 20 A40, 11 UK, 18 CN, 16 AU, 8 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 9.0 US, 2.4 UK, 14.38 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 4889.02 video, 665.92 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The Disney animated movie Frozen earned more than a billion dollars on its way to becoming not just the highest-grossing film of 2013, but (at least for a time) the highest-grossing animated film of all time. The soundtrack also did astonishing well, spending thirteen weeks atop the Billboard album chart and selling four million copies. Idina Menzel provided the voice of the character Queen Elsa in the movie and sang “Let It Go,” which became the film’s inescapable hit. The husband-and-wife songwriting team of Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez wrote the song with her in mind, calling her “one of the most glorious voices of Broadway and an icon in musical theater.” WK In terms of the context of the song, they wanted a song that presented Elsa as someone coming to terms with her gift instead of as a villain. In the movie, Elsa sings the song after she loses control of her ability to generate ice. She rejoices that her secret is now out and she can use her power freely and shed the expectations others have of her as a queen. WK Menzel described the song, saying, “It’s about finding that thing that makes you different that’s going to make you special and extraordinary.” SF While Menzel was a Tony-winning Broadway actress, she wasn’t a known entity in the world of pop music. The plan had been to release a pop version of the song by Demi Lovato (as performed over the film’s closing credits). However, it was Mendel’s version which took off and became what The Boston Globe’s Yvonne Abraham called “musical crack” which “sends kids into altered states.” WK Menzel became the first Tony winner to reach the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the first Disney song in nearly two decades to reach the top ten. The last time had been Vanessa Williams with “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas in 1995. The song won the Oscar for Best Song as well as a Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media. The song made writer Robert Lopez a member of the exclusive EGOT club for people who had won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Idina Menzel SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 8/16/2023.

 

Adele “Skyfall” released

Skyfall Adele

Writer(s): Adele Adkins, Paul Epworth (see lyrics here) Released: October 5, 2012 First Charted: October 7, 2012 Peak: 8 US, 11 AC, 14 A40, 3 AA, 2 UK, 3 CN, 5 AU, 7 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 1.3 UK, 7.2 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 537.5 video, 489.16 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Singer/songwriter Adele Adkins was born in 1988 in London, England. She released her debut album, 19, in 2008. It was a huge success in her home country, reaching #1 and selling more than two million copies. It also got to #4 in the United States and sold three million copies. She also won a Grammy for Best New Artist. Her next album, 2011’s 21, made her a superstar. It spent 24 weeks at #1 on the Billboard album chart and sold more than 31 million copies worldwide. Three songs from the album went to #1 in the United States. It also won the Grammy for Album of the Year. It was hard to imagine how she would follow it. In 2011, Lia Vollack, the Sony Pictures President of Music, approached Adele about recording a theme song for the next James Bond movie, Skyfall. he thought her music had a “soulful, haunting, evocative quality” WK that would evoke the “classic Shirley Bassey feel” of early Bond films. WK Adele read the script and then she and co-writer Paul Epworth “aimed to capture the mood and style of the other Bond themes, including dark and moody lyrics descriptive of the film’s plot.” WK She said “it was one of the proudest moments of my life…I’ll be…60 telling people I was a Bond girl back in the day.” SF Daniel Craig, who played James Bond, said he cried when he first heard the song. “From the opening bars I knew immediately, then the voice kicked in and it was exactly what I'd wanted from the beginning. It just got better and better because it fitted the movie. In fact the more of the movie we made, the more it fitted it.” SF The song premiered at 0:07 BST on October 5, 2012 – Global James Bond Day – in elebration of the 50th anniversary of Dr. No, the first James Bond film. WK In a Dave’s Music Database ranking of the Bond themes, “Skyfall” came in at #2 (only behind “Live and Let Die” by Paul McCartney & Wings). It topped the charts in 15 countries and won the Oscar for Best Song as well as a Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media. It also took home the Brit Award for British single, the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, and the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Song. Resources: Dave’s Music Database (10/5/2022). “James Bond Movie Themes Ranked” SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 1/18/2023.

Sixpence None the Richer “Kiss Me” released

Kiss Me Sixpence None the Richer

Writer(s): Matt Slocum (see lyrics here) Released: July 14, 1998 First Charted: October 17, 1998 Peak: 2 BB, 12 GR, 12 RR, 2 AC, 2 A40, 17 AA, 4 UK, 13 CN, 13 AU, 10 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 3.0 US, 1.2 UK, 4.48 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 0.70 radio, 52.58 video, 995.17 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The alternative-rock band Sixpence None the Richer formed in Texas in 1992. The band took its name from a phrase in a C.S. Lewis book. TB Singer Leigh Nash teamed up with guitarist/songwriter Matt Slocum and bassist T.J. Behling to record a demo and eventually the album The Fatherless and the Widow, released by R.E.X. Records in 1994. They released aother album, This Beautiful Mess, in 1995. By this time, they had expanded to a quintet. They gained a wider audience with 1997’s self-titled album released by Squint Entertainment when the single “Kiss Me” became a hit. The album had been out seven months when “Kiss Me” was finally released as a single. It didn’t hit the Billboard Hot 100 until November, peaking at #90 and falling out the next week. However, the song gained attention as the theme song of the teen romantic comedy She’s All That, released in January 1999, and again from an appearance on the April 1999 soundtrack for TV’s Dawson’s Creek. It eventually reached #2 in May 1999. The song has been compared to the Sundays, Cranberries, and 10,000 Maniacs. It was written by Slocum, the band’s chief songwriter, in a Dutch motel while the band was on tour. Nash said, “We performed it that night…It was an instant hit with fans, but it was still like a year and a half before we recorded it.” WK It had a “more lighthearted, poppier sound compared to the band’s prior work.” WK They were reluctant to include it on the album until persuaded otherwise by their producer. WK Music historian Steve Sullivan said, “This absolultely delightful midtempo pop ballad is a celebration of new love so giddy that it sweeps the listener up in its happiness, and possesses a timeless quality that’s rare in contemporary pop.” SS It is “proof that a winning melody will always come through.” TB “Kiss Me” was “a breath of fresh air in the nu-metal-plagued music scene of 1999.” TB Allmusic.com’s Rick Anderson called it “an utterly irresistible slice of swoony guitar pop…[that] could be this generation’s ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand.’” AM “Kiss Me” was nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Resources: AM AllMusic.com album review by Rick Anderson SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 648-9. TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 288. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 2/1/2025.

Peter Gabriel “In Your Eyes” released as single

In Your Eyes Peter Gabriel

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Huey Lewis & the News "The Power of Love" hit #1

The Power of Love Huey Lewis & the News

Writer(s): Johnny Colla, Chris Hayes, Huey Lewis (see lyrics here) First Charted: June 28, 1985 Peak: 13 US, 13 BA, 12 CB 13 GR, 13 RR, 6 AC, 12 AR, 9 UK, 11 CN, 12 5 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.6 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 26.39 video, 372.31 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Hugh Anthony Cregg III (later known as Huey Lewis) was born in New York City in 1950, but grew up in the San Francisco bay area. In 1971, he joined the band Clover. After they disbanded in 1978, he formed Huey Lewis & the News. They released a self-titled album in 1980 which went nowhere, but their second album, 1982’s Picture This, featured the top-ten hit, “Do You Believe in Love?” The band exploded with their next album, 1983’s Sports. “Huey Lewis’ rise was perfectly timed to the beginning of MTV, a place where he carved out a persona as a handsome, self-effacing goofball everyman” SG amidst “the colorful, flamboyance of the British new-romatic artists.” MM The band “looked like working-class guys who spent their Sundays together watching football on TV.” MM The multi-platinum, #1 album sent four top-ten singles up the charts and made Lewis “one of the biggest stars in rock ‘n’ roll.” SG Lewis & Co. were tapped to write the theme song for Back to the Future, which became the biggest movie of 1985. It set the band up for “an unstoppable smash,” SG “The Power of Love.” “It’s got the sleek pulse of mid-’80s pop” SG and “has hooks on hooks on hooks, with all the keyboard stabs and shiny-bluesy riffs in the exact right places.” SG Lewis “wails out nonsensical…philosophical nuggets about how love is tougher than diamonds, rich like cream, and stronger and harder than a bad girl’s dream” SG while “the rest of the band gets in some nice Billy Joel-style fake doo-wop harmonies on the bridge.” SG It was one of two songs the group wrote for the movie. “Back in Time” actually fit the plot of the movie, but “The Power of Love” had nothing to do with the film. It showed up early in the film as star Michael J. Fox (Marty) skateboards out the door of his friend Doc Brown’s house. It shows up again when Marty and his band audition to play for the high school dance with a crude version of the song (the actual early demo) and one of the judges – played by Lewis – proclaims, “I’m afraid you’re just too darn loud.” The song was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Huey Lewis & the News MM Marc Myers (12/6/2022). Anatomy of 55 More Songs. Grove Press: New York, NY. Pages 335-9. SG Stereogum (10/21/2020). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 220-1. First posted 8/6/2023.