Unfairly forgotten song #11: Erotica by Madonna

I can hear you now:  "Really, Snowed?  A Madonna song?  How can anything by Madonna be forgotten?"  (This may not in reality be what you are saying, but as this is my blog I get to assume that you are in fact saying these things just after reading the title to this entry, and so we'll proceed from that assumption.)

Well, if I were to consider Madonna's career in pop music, I would say that the Erotica album/era is in fact the most forgotten portion.

(Erotica peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200 and spawned four Top 40 hits.  And I don't think any of them get airplay.)

And why is this?  Perhaps it is because Madonna was at that time infamous for making a coffee table book in which she was wearing very little, if any, clothing.  (Now she's just infamous for continuing to dress like she were still that age.)  Or it may have been because the songs from this album were not as successful as singles from other albums of hers.  Wikipedia* reports that no song from the album Erotica charted any higher than number three.  Or maybe the pop-music populace didn't care as much for the songs of that era in which, as Idolator.com says (in a list of the 10 most forgotten Madonna songs--in which "Erotica" does not appear), Madonna "gabbed through tracks rather than singing on them."

In any case, regardless of the reason, I personally do not believe that I have heard the title track on any radio station since its original run on the Hot 100 in late 1992/early 1993.  And this I find rather strange, since it had such a strong debut, per Wikipedia*; it debuted at number thirteen and reached its peak position of number three the next week, lasting 18 weeks on the Hot 100.  It also reached number two on Billboard's airplay chart (debuting and peaking at that position on October 17, 1992), which makes it doubly strange to me that it now receives, as far as I can tell, absolutely no airplay now.

According to commenter "BLT" at SongMeanings.net, Madonna intended this song to serve as a fantasy of "crazy and nasty things that go through [one's] mind," but are never acted on.

The video, which may presently be found on YouTube, was banned by MTV for content reasons, which, given the high standards of MTV, should tell you a lot.  This video will not be presented here, sorry.  (No, this is not a SOPA thing, this is me not wanting to show it.)  A portion of the audio, however, is presented here for your pleasure through the courtesy of our friends at Amazon.com.

You can also buy the whole album here:

*Note:  some information on this blog comes from the always-reliable Wikipedia; as such, its veracity may be questionable.

Second note: I get a pittance from Amazon sales through links from this blog.

Unfairly forgotten song #10: Girls With Guns by Tommy Shaw

I'm not gonna lie:  what made me think of this was a comment by politician who stated, "I’m all in favor of girls with guns who know their purpose."

How could this child of the 80s not think of Tommy Shaw?

Tommy Shaw, as most students of pop music history probably know, was the lead guitarist for Styx through the late 70s and early 80s but left the group due to dissatisfaction with the direction in which other members wanted to take the band.  (Meh, go look it up on Wikipedia.*)

Mr. Shaw's first solo album, which came to mind after I heard the statement above, was called "Girls With Guns", and its title track was Mr. Shaw's only Top 40 solo appearance, spending a grand total of three weeks on the Top 40 charts and peaking at #33 on November 17, 1984, before falling completely out of the Top 40 the following week.  All in all, it spent 12 weeks in the Hot 100.

(Tommy Shaw's debut solo album, Girls With Guns, peaked at #50 on the Billboard 200.)

It should be noted that, as I and others (such as "cassiemay10" over at SongMeanings.net) understand it, Mr. Shaw was writing not necessarily about girls carrying actual guns, but about strong, independent women. (It should be noted that in a comment on the original version of this post, Cassie May commented: "I agree; this is an unfairly forgotten song. 'Girls With Guns' is a great song, and an overall pretty good album.")

An interesting trait about the video for this track is that it is all one take; there are no cuts, which is quite different from the frenetic editing seen in most videos that I've ever watched.  Last I checked, it was pretty easy to find on YouTube.

And, as usual, I have never heard this song on the radio in the past 20 years apart from "Crap From the Past".



*Note:  some information on this blog comes from the always-reliable Wikipedia; as such, its veracity may be questionable.

Unfairly Forgotten Song #9: Whirly Girl by OXO

This post has moved.  Find it here at the new Unfairly Forgotten Songs site.

Unfairly Forgotten Song #8: Shakedown by Bob Seger

You wouldn't think a popular song from the soundtrack of a movie such as Beverly Hills Cop II would be listed as a "forgotten song".  You wouldn't think that a song that hit number one on Billboard's Hot 100 would be listed as such.  You certainly wouldn't think that a song that won an Oscar as Best Song would be forgotten.  (Or, at least, I wouldn't think so.)  And yet, when the word "shakedown" hit the public discourse a couple of years ago as the result of a sitting congressman using it to discuss the government's treatment of BP after the Gulf oil spill*, at least one person (that I knew of) was not familiar at all with this song, so I figured it deserved to be dug out.

(The soundtrack to Beverly Hills Cop II spent 26 weeks on the Billboard 200, peaking at #8 and spawning several Top 40 hits.)

"Shakedown" was actually written for Glenn Frey, but Bob Seger stepped in when Mr. Frey lost his voice just before the recording session.  This was Mr. Seger's only number one single (it spent 18 weeks on the Hot 100, and, per the song's Wikipedia entry**, it also hit number one on the Album Rock Tracks chart) and his next-to-last top 40 hit overall.  And, as is usual for songs I list as "forgotten songs", I don't think I have ever heard a station in Austin play this song in many years of living here.  Actually, for that matter, I think I might have heard this song once on the radio since it hit the charts back in 1987.  I'm pretty sure that one time was a 1987 flashback feature, played the week that "Shakedown" hit number one (that being the week of August 1, 1987).

*As stated in the introductory post to this blog, I am only interested in discussing music here.  Political statements, especially those of a couple of years ago, are not a topic of discussion in this post...it only inspired the choice of this song.

**Note:  some information in "forgotten songs" entries comes from the always-reliable Wikipedia; as such, its veracity may be questionable.

Unfairly Forgotten Song #7: Piece of My Heart by Tara Kemp

A few months before my last forgotten song honoree hit the charts, a California girl named Tara Kemp hit the top ten with two songs from her eponymous and only album.  The first, "Hold You Tight", went gold and is, to my knowledge, still somewhat familiar to people.  For years, this song was the only Tara Kemp offering available for request at Austin's Bob FM.  (Since then, they now show all tracks from her album as being available.  Yeah, right.  I've never even heard them play "Hold You Tight" in eight years of operation.)  The second, "Piece of My Heart", is notable for, among other things, using the exact same rhythm track as "Hold You Tight" had.  (Seriously, listen to the two songs together sometime.  Part 2 of the October 4, 2002 Crap From the Past show actually plays the two together for comparison:  a Tara Kemp-a-thon.)  "Piece of My Heart" peaked at #7 during July 1991, spending a total of 18 weeks on the Hot 100.

(Tara Kemp's self-titled album hit #109 on the Billboard 200 in 1991.  It also hit #34 on the Top R&B Albums chart.)

In any case, for some reason, as "Hold You Tight" held on through the years, "Piece of My Heart" seemingly disappeared entirely (as did Tara Kemp, apparently after her record company went under). In more recent years, Ms. Kemp has reappeared on social media; you can find her on Facebook here, and on Twitter here.

It should be noted, though, that while the MP3 in the audio excerpt is the 7" single version (with which more people are probably familiar), the MP3 sold on Amazon's page is the album version.  You can buy the 7" single through this link:

Unfairly Forgotten Song #6: Love Me All Up by Stacy Earl

By 1991, contemporary hit radio (top 40) was splintering. There were still top 40 stations playing the full spectrum of songs that were actually on the top 40, but some stations were trending toward more of a hip-hop sound. At the same time, some stations (notably in my part of the country, 97.1 the Eagle (KEGL) in Dallas/Ft. Worth) trended toward rock, while still other formerly great stations (such as, off the top of my head, KAY-107 (KAYI) in Tulsa) turned to a format called "adult top 40", which they advertised as having "no hard rock and no rap". Basically, adult top 40 was watered-down radio.

Anyway, some of these adult top 40 stations, such as, for example, KAY-107, didn't even play some of the best dance tracks from the period, such as this one from Stacy Earl, who recorded one album and then disappeared for some reason. "Love Me All Up" was Ms. Earl's first hit and made it to the top 20 of Billboard's Hot 100 Airplay list (which "American Top 40" was using by then), peaking at #18 and spending a total of 17 weeks on the list (as well as 18 weeks on the Hot 100, where it peaked at #26) before inexplicably being dropped from the playlist of pretty much every station everywhere (though it still occasionally pops up on Ron "Boogiemonster" Gerber's "Crap From the Past").

(Stacy Earl's self-titled album apparently did not chart, but it did spawn three Top 40 hits.)

And how forgotten is "Love Me All Up"?  Amazon doesn't even offer it as an MP3 download, but you can still buy the album through the links in this post.

Incidentally, "Love Me All Up" was co-written by Richard Rudolph, who was the husband of Minnie Riperton.

As promised, you can use this link to purchase Stacy Earl's self-titled album:

Unfairly Forgotten Song #5: Here We Go by Minnie Riperton

Minnie Riperton is pretty much universally known for her #1 hit "Lovin' You", but quite honestly, I prefer some of her other, lesser-known songs. Sadly, Ms. Riperton died, way too soon, in 1979. A final album, Love Lives Forever, came out in 1980, featuring some tracks Ms. Riperton had recorded in a 1978 session, combined with vocals contributed by several other artists as a tribute to her.

(Love Lives Forever hit #35 on the Billboard 200 in 1980.)

"Here We Go" was the first single released from Love Lives Forever, and it apparently hit #14 of what was then called the Hot Soul Singles chart. In this song, you can hear that Ms. Riperton is able to enunciate "here we go" quite clearly in the "whistle register".

And as usual in this feature, no station in town has ever played this as long as I've been here, to the best of my knowledge.

Buy the entire album here: