Sunday, September 17, 2006

Number 816 - Harry Connick Jnr



Number 816

Harry Connick Jnr

"(I could Only) Whisper Your Name"

(1994)
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Genre:Jazz
I will never forget his portrayal in the film "Copycat", here was this jazz singer, who i like as a singer, playing a very spooky role as a serial killer and very convincing.The guy is talented, there are no doubts about that.
With very few exceptions, the career of Harry Connick, Jr. can be divided in half -- his first two albums encompassed straight-ahead New Orleans jazz and stride piano while his later career (which paralleled his rising celebrity status) alternated between more contemporary New Orleans music and pop vocals with a debt to Frank Sinatra. Born in New Orleans on September 11, 1967, Connick grew up the son of two lawyers who owned a record store. After beginning on keyboards at the age of three, he first performed publicly at six, and recorded with a local jazz band at ten. Connick attended the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts and studied with Ellis Marsalis and James Booker. A move to New York to study at Hunter College and the Manhattan School of Music gave him the opportunity to look up a Columbia Records executive who had asked to see him, and Connick's self-titled album debut -- a set of mostly unaccompanied standards -- appeared in 1987. Jazz critics praised Connick's maturity and engaging style as well as his extended stays at New York hot spots during the year. His second album, named for his age in 1988, was the first to feature him on vocals.

Already well known within jazz circles, Harry Connick, Jr. entered the American consciousness with the soundtrack to 1989's popular film When Harry Met Sally. Director Rob Reiner had asked Connick to compose a soundtrack, and he recorded several warm standards ("It Had to Be You," "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," "Don't Get Around Much Anymore") with a big-band backing. A world tour followed, and When Harry Met Sally eventually reached double-platinum status. With Connick a major celebrity, he diverged into an acting career, playing a tail gunner in 1990's Memphis Belle. That same year, he released two albums simultaneously: one, We Are in Love, was another vocal outing with similar standards as had appeared on When Harry Met Sally, while Lofty's Roach Souffle was all-instrumental. (Of course, the vocal album performed much better in the pop charts, hitting double platinum, while the instrumentals worked better with jazz audiences.) Connick toured again, this time with a big band, and recorded the group on 1991's Blue Light, Red Light. Though his celebrity decreased slightly during the mid-'90s, Connick's albums continued to reach platinum status, including 1992's 25, a 1993 Christmas album, and 1994's She. Connick continued his acting work with a starring role in 1995's Copycat (where he played a serial killer) and married actress Jill Goodacre. In 1996, he had a brief role in the year's biggest blockbuster, Independence Day, but his album Star Turtle failed to connect with pop audiences." ~ [John Bush, All Music Guide]
For Frank Sinatra see Number 933
Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number (Hey do we look like the Golden Globes?) and the Album ranked at Number (Spare us will'ya)
This song has a crowbarred rating of 63.1 out of 108
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posted by crowbarred at 12:13 am 0 comments

Number 815 - Pantera



Number 815

Pantera

"Floods"

(1996)
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Genre:Hard Rock
Be warned! This music is not for the faint hearted ok? If your quite happy singing to Beatles tunes and whistling Abba, then move along, nothing to see here.
For the musically challanged we have much to discuss.
Fist question is why Pantera is in The Definitive 1000 Songs?
Why? Because the fragging song rocks, thats why, its guitaring and down right eeriness make this an instant classic. Put away the predjudice about metal and scream thrash and you will see why.
"By the time Pantera unleashed Far Beyond Driven in 1994, they were the most popular metal band in the land, as the frenzy surrounding that Billboard chart-topping album testified. However, the band began to self-destruct around this same time as well. Drug abuse certainly played a role, with lead vocalist Phil Anselmo ODing on heroin at one point, for instance, and tensions within the band also playing a role in its ultimate, acrimonious dissolution. The final nail in Pantera's coffin came during the early to mid-2000s, when Anselmo began engaging himself in a multitude of side projects and when, very sadly, guitarist Dimebag Darrell was bizarrely murdered on-stage in late 2004. This much-publicized murder shone the spotlight back on Pantera for a brief moment, and amid all of the emotional outpours and media commentary, a consensus arose: Pantera had indeed been a landmark band, somewhat undervalued during their reign, with practically every contemporary metal band of the time openly paying tribute to their legacy"
After Pantera............
"Following the release of their debut album, New Found Power, and some club shows, Damageplan met a tragic end on December 7, 2004. That night -- 24 years after John Lennon's shooting to the day! -- a homicidal fan shot Dimebag at a small club show in Columbus, OH. The band hadn't gotten more than a song into its show before the murderer breached security, jumped on-stage, and shot the guitarist numerous times at point blank, murdering a few others in the process. The tragedy was big news in the States, grabbing headlines everywhere the day afterward. For a sad moment that day, the spotlight shone once again on Pantera, arguably the greatest metal band of the '90s and, no doubt, one of the greatest and most influential metal bands ever."
Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number (To loud for us man) and the Album ranked at Number (Please dont shove a copy of R.S up Nathan Gale's ass)
This song has a total rating of 63.3 out of 108
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posted by crowbarred at 12:59 am 0 comments

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Number 817 - Bruce Springsteen



Number 817

Bruce Springsteen

"Glory Days"

(1984)
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Genre:Rock
An American Icon that needs no introduction.
But you will get one anyway..........
"Bruce Springsteen had become increasingly downcast as a songwriter during his recording career, and his pessimism bottomed out with Nebraska. But Born in the U.S.A., his popular triumph, which threw off seven Top Ten hits and became one of the best-selling albums of all time, trafficked in much the same struggle, albeit set to galloping rhythms and set off by chiming guitars. That the witless wonders of the Reagan regime attempted to co-opt the title track as an election-year campaign song wasn't so surprising: the verses described the disenfranchisement of a lower-class Vietnam vet, and the chorus was intended to be angry, but it came off as anthemic. Then, too, Springsteen had softened his message with nostalgia and sentimentality, and those are always crowd-pleasers. "Glory Days" may have employed Springsteen's trademark disaffection, yet it came across as a couch potato's drunken lament. But more than anything else, Born in the U.S.A. marked the first time that Springsteen's characters really seemed to relish the fight and to have something to fight for. They were not defeated ("No Surrender"), and they had friendship ("Bobby Jean") and family ("My Hometown") to defend. The restless hero of "Dancing in the Dark" even pledged himself in the face of futility, and for Springsteen, that was a step. The "romantic young boys" of his first two albums, chastened by "the working life" encountered on his third, fourth, and fifth albums and having faced the despair of his sixth, were still alive on this, his seventh, with their sense of humor and their determination intact. Born in the U.S.A. was their apotheosis, the place where they renewed their commitment and where Springsteen remembered that he was a rock & roll star, which is how a vastly increased public was happy to treat him" ~ William Ruhlmann
Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number (What do you think this is? Gift Week?) and the Album ranked at Number 85
This song has a crowbarred rating of 63 out of 108
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posted by crowbarred at 3:56 pm 0 comments