Even if like me you have only periodically watched episodes of Glee, you will be moved by Lea Michele’s emotional performance of Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love” from last night’s episode. The song is a moving tribute to Cory Monteith, Michele’s real-life and on-screen love who passed away of an accidental drug overdose at age 31 in July. The episode did not delve into the way that Monteith’s character Finn Hudson died, but the show and the song were appropriate tributes to the actor and man who died at such a young age.
The song “Make You Feel My Love” was an excellent choice too. Chimesfreedom previously wrote about how the often-covered “Make You Feel My Love” is one of Bob Dylan’s late-career classics.
What did you think of the Cory Monteith tribute? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In this video, director Brian Billow imagines how Kiss might have come to write their hit song “Beth” from their 1976 Destroyer album. Bob Winter, executive creative director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, had the idea for the story. Check out this “historically inaccurate tale of the song’s inspiration.”
[2015 Update: If the video does not work for you, it is also available on Vimeo.]
The video, however, is not as “historically inaccurate” as it claims. Guitarist and songwriter Stan Penridge wrote a version of “Beth” while he was in the band Chelsea, which future Kiss drummer Peter Criss joined for awhile. In the song’s original version, the title name was “Beck” after Becky, Chelsea bandmate Mike Brand’s wife, who often called during practices.
Penridge later explained that the genesis of the song is not that far from Billow’s funny video. Penridge stated that the lyrics came “almost word for word, from Mike Brand’s responses to his wife’s constant calls that interupted our rehearsals. It got to the point where I wrote down his remarks over a period of 3 or 4 days . . . ”
Although I have always heard “Beth” as a love song, Penridge explained that one might see the song as “a hen-pecked hubby’s remarks to his nagging wife.” While in David Leaf’s and Ken Sharp’s book KISS: Behind the Mask Penridge acknowledges that the song was “basically written as a joke,” he also appreciates that the song evolved into something different that he also likes.
There are some questions about how much writing credit for the final version of “Beth” should be given to Criss, who sings lead on the Kiss recording of “Beth” and is listed as a co-writer with producer Bob Ezrin. Although sources name Criss as one of the co-writers of the final version, band co-founder Gene Simmons claims that the song was written only by Penridge and Ezrin. Simmons and Criss on not on the best terms, but Penridge seemed to confirm Simmons’s version in a 2000 interview (“Another poorman’s copyright by me in ’70”).
Still, Criss’s relation with the song goes back before Kiss. After Criss was in Chelsea and even before he was in Kiss, he recorded “Beck” with a band called Lips.
The name of the song was later changed to “Beth” so it would be a more recognizable woman’s name. Here is a Kiss version of the song we all know from the 1978 TV-movie Kiss Meets in Phantom of the Park.
After “Beth” was recorded, nobody realized it would become such a big hit. Some band members did not want it on the album, and it was initially released not as a single but as a B-side to “Detroit Rock City.” But then “Beth” became Kiss’s first gold record and one of their most recognizable songs.
No matter what role he played in the lyrics, Criss’s great vocals on the recording certainly helped make it a hit. Others have sang the song too. Eric Singer has rotated in and out and back into Criss’s seat behind the drums with Kiss, so Singer also has performed “Beth.”
There are a number of covers of “Beth,” including a nice one by Adam Lambert when he was on American Idol in 2008. Not surprisingly, the Glee cast performed the song too. Perhaps the most unusual cover appears in the movie Role Models (2008), where Paul Rudd wins back his girlfriend named Beth by making up some new lyrics to the song.
I have not been able to find what happened to Mike Brand and “Becky,” the two who inspired the song. But I hope they are still together and that she still calls him at work after all these years. It would make a great love song.
What is your favorite version of “Beth”? Leave your two cents in the comments. Note: This post was updated March 2014 to include Gene Simmons’s comments about the writing of the song.
Happy April Fool’s Day. Today, we consider the prank played by Train’s song, “Hey, Soul Sister,” where upon hearing the title you expect the song to be some type of soul song. Train’s joke is revealed from the moment you hear the strumming of the ukelele and you soon realize instead that “Hey, Soul Sister” is a boy band song. And a darn good one at that.
I liked Train since they released their first self-titled album in 1998. And when they later released “Drops of Jupiter” in 2001 on the album of the same name, I loved the song even as it was played endlessly on the radio. But then I did not hear about them for years, and suddenly there was this big hit I saw referenced several times before I actually heard it, “Hey, Soul Sister” from Save Me, San Francisco (2009).
According to Wikipedia, “it is the 8th most downloaded song in history, the most downloaded song of all time for Columbia Records, the top-selling song on iTunes in 2010.” Eighth in history? And I realize that it may not be fair to compare songs that were not released for the first time in the age of the Internet, but if it is the most downloaded song of all time for Columbia, it has been downloaded more times than Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run.” It was huge.
While “Hey, Soul Sister” is a good song, I must admit I never understood why it became such a gigantic hit for Train. According to Train lead singer Patrick Monahan, who co-wrote the song, he was inspired by imagining what it would be like to attend Burning Man, a party in the desert with naked people running around. But for some reason, I doubt they listen to “Mr. Mister” at Burning Man, so I do not know what he was thinking. Here’s the acoustic ukelele-only version.
Monahan has an excellent voice, and you cannot help but sing along, but it seems odd that a man of Monahan’s age (40 the year the song was released) sings the cheesy line, “You’re so gangsta, I’m so thug.” Yet, the line works when someone young sings the song, as a young man might be so naive — and sincere — to make such a silly claim to the object of his affection. The rest of the lyrics fit better for a naive young singer too.
You gave my life direction, a game show love connection we can’t deny; I’m so obsessed, my heart is bound to beat right out my untrimmed chest; I believe in you, like a virgin, you’re Madonna, and I’m always gonna wanna blow your mind.
“My untrimmed chest”?
That is why the song works so much better as a boy band song, and why I never particularly “got” the song until I heard it performed by singers on Glee on one of the few episodes of the TV show I have seen. While I am not a fan of of the boy band era of music, I am not so snooty that I can resist a good pop song. And if you are going to do a boy band song, it should be left to the boy bands. And the song works much better for Darren Criss and the Warblers, who make the hit song their own on Glee.
Which version do you like? Is there any soul in “Hey, Soul Sister”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In case you have been too busy this week angrily Tweeting about American Airlines because a flight attendant interrupted a game you were playing on your phone, here are some of the pop culture stories you might have missed this week. FYI, see below for a funny video relating to the American Airlines incident. Three of the big stories that were already covered this week in Chimesfreedom were the passings of actor Harry Morgan, singer Dobie Gray, and blues man Hubert Sumlin, so check out those stories too. But here are some of the lesser known reviews and stories from the fields of movies, music, and popular culture.
—— Movies —–
Filmmakers are clashing with each other over access to West Memphis 3 witnesses.
The Hangover III may be set in Los Angeles and may try a new formula.
Billboard named Adele the top artist of 2011 as she makes history.
—– Television —–
In Wookie news, Chewbacca is going to guest star on Glee.
The Mythbusters guys apologized after they accidentally fired a cannonball into a residential area earlier this week.
“Very funny.” — Tonight Show bandleader Kevin Eubanks on the Roots’ controversial entrance song for Michele Bachmann.
Laugh-In star Alan Sues, who also was in the Twilight Zone Episode “The Masks,” passed away this week.
Was it too soon for Saturday Night Live to spoof the Penn State scandal? Colin Quinn thinks so. In other SNL news, Alec Baldwin appeared on the show last night to apologize about the American Airlines incident to . . . Alec Baldwin, “an American treasure.”
—– Other Pop Culture News —–
Manny Ramirez un-retired from baseball. That’s Manny being . . . Brett.
Jerry Robinson, the comic book artist who created Batmans’s The Joker, passed away yesterday. RIP.
In the way that all sci-fi alien horror movies begin. . . NASA just discovered an earth-like planet. Assuming the aliens do not attack us, we will see you with more pop culture stories soon. . .
Last week’s American Idol shocked viewers when Pia Toscano went home in ninth place. There are various theories about why the audience did not vote for the excellent singer, who reportedly will come out okay with a new record contract anyway. Perhaps voters felt confident that Toscano would advance and so did not vote for her. Some have argued that this season’s judges — without Simon Cowell — are praising everyone to the same degree, so the judges do not help viewers distinguish the wheat from the chaff. There is another possibility: Maybe Toscano lost because of her divisive song, “River Deep, Mountain High.”
“River Deep, Mountain High,” originally by Ike and Tina Turner with a Phil Spector production, is both loved and hated. Some see it as one of Phil Spector’s last great songs, while others see it as overblown crap. Rolling Stone magazine recently listed it as number 33 on the “500 Greatest Songs of All-Time,” as ranked by people in the music industry and updated last year. But in The Heart of Rock & Soul (1989), critic Dave Marsh did not even list the song among the top 1001 singles every made. He explained that the song is not on his list “because it sounds to me like a muddle, an album’s worth of sounds jammed onto one side of a 45, with a little girl lyric that completely contradicts Tina Turner’s true persona as the Queen of R&B Sleaze.” (p. 545.)
When “River Deep, Mountain High” was released in 1966, critics gave it mixed reviews. The song went to number 5 in the U.K., but on the other side of the pond, it flopped and only went to number 88 in the United States. As one critic later reasoned, “The general consensus in America was that the record was too black for white radio stations to play, and too white for the black stations to play.”
Even the recording of the song was divisive. Tina Turner noted that working on the song was like “carving furniture.” One of the songwriters threw the finished acetate across the room in disgust. In her autobiography, singer Darlene Love described the sessions as “a miserable experience,” adding that only Phil Spector was happy with the results. The now-incarcerated Phil Spector later explained that “River Deep, Mountain High” “was like my farewell. I was just saying goodbye, and just wanted to go crazy, you know, for a few minutes—four minutes on wax, that’s all it was. I loved it, and enjoyed making it, but I didn’t think there was anything for the public.” After the disappointing public reaction to the song, Spector went into early retirement and into his decline with personal demons.
So maybe when Pia Toscano sang the song on American Idol, the haunted song was too much for the public. Or maybe some viewers did not like her singing a song unfortunately associated with men like Phil Spector and Ike Turner. I do not know if the song choice had anything to do with the American Idol elimination. I just know I am in the camp that loves the music. Every time I hear it, it gets stronger in every way.
Bonus “River Deep, Mountain High” Versions: Although Ike Turner is listed with his wife on the original recording, Darlene Love later recounted that he had nothing to do with the sessions for the song. Tina Turner later recorded another version of “River Deep, Mountain High.” In addition to the American Idol Pia Toscano version, there is a recent Glee television show version. Both do a good job, and it is great to see the song still appearing in mainstream performances, but neither rivals the original Tina Turner version. As far as I can tell, the song only appeared on American Idol once before. Amanda Avila sang it when she was in the top 16 during Season 4 (2005). The judges did not love her performance. And, like Pia Toscano, she was eliminated after her performance of the cursed song.
[May 2012 Update: During the 2012 season, Hollie Cavanaugh sang “River Deep, Mountain High” when she was among the five finalists. Perhaps she broke the curse, as Skylar Laine, not Hollie, was sent home after that show. Hollie was in next-to-last place.]
What do you think of “River Deep, Mountain High”? Was Pia Toscano’s elimination the most surprising ever on American Idol? Leave a comment.
Penridge acknowledges that the song was “
