sometimes, we hear a song so often
that we forget that it's actually a very, very strange record.

examples:

"when doves cry" stormed the radio without a bass line.

"crazy" is so out there, that the first time i saw the
video i thought to myself, "what a great record. too bad
it's too bizare to ever blow up..." man, was a i wrong,
that song is a monster.



so add on.


btw, does anybody else think that anita baker's "rapture"
album as very unusual production sensabilities?
the entire album has a jazzy vibe to it that you wouldn't think
would make it on the radio.

but not jazzy in a boring, kenny g sort of way...
it's a dynamic album. but nothing else really
sounds like that.

i mean, if somebody said "hey, i like this anita baker album.
can you recoomend similar stuff?" then i would be at a loss...
because nothing else really sounds like "rapture."

not even her later material... which got TOO laid back.



anyway... add on.

i didn't think her fans would be into it. *i* loved it from the start (i heard the leaked demo) and i thought it was too not-like-Madonna and too funky for her gay white fans to embrace it. i was totally off.

Especially didn't know why there was that annoying limo driver in it either (Guess I was wrong in 2 ways).

also "Smells Like Dirty Teenage Sex Orgies" by The Nirvana

where i use to live we had this female dj that mocked the dumb blonde jokes and when i first heard that song, i thought ain't no way that is a real song i thought it was a studio joke and little did i know that song ended up blowing up.

"Strokin" Clarence Carter that cracked me up because this is going to be a CHitlin and pigsfeet local Hit at best, wrong again, that thang blew up and got much play.

co-mf-sign.

"I stroke it to the east
And I stroke it to the west
And I stroke it to the woman that I love the best
I be strokin'

Let me ask you somethin'...
What time of the day do you like to make love
Have you ever made love just before breakfast
Have you ever made love while you watched the late, late show
Well, let me ask you this
Have you ever made love on a couch
Well, let me ask you this
Have you ever made love on the back seat of a car
I remember one time I made love on the back seat of a car
And the police came and shined his light on me, and I said..."

Anything Biz Markie got on the radio

out of all of his songs that is his biggest hit(nu pun intended) and how it made it WOW!

also "double dutch Bus" frankie smith couldn't believe it and yet it was a big hit.

I think it was a natural progression of the "elegant" R&B style that had developed at the tail end of the 1970s and carried throughout the 1980s until artists decided they were going to join the DX7/Simmons Drums/Snap-Bass bandwagon.

I don't think a lot of people followed Anita with that style and those that did were doomed to night-time radio but it was definitely a breath of fresh air in that regard.

the whole career because in truth there have been some big hits but the fans stayed loyal and kept it moving with whatever she does.

Anita made two strong records IMO and then hit that formula but had the right songs at the right time.

i love her whiskey and pinapple juice sounding voice.

when it was all Jheri Curl and Creamy Crack All The Time

yea the song was weird, but the second I heard it I thought "hit". So I think this only fits half of the criteria posed in the OP.

but the one that still really surprises me is Bombs... it wasn't even a sleeper, that thing hit right away... with all the musical change-ups and the sort of outright schizophrenia of the tune, it's amazing it took on like it did. *on the other hand* it's not that hard to see why: catchy hook, that insistent, driving beat, and indeed the frenetic quality of the tune combined to make a real immediate epic.

man, that song is still epic.


-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

my teammates would huddle around me and yell out the "1-9-9-9", and "hot" parts of the verse. Would get the team all hyped up before games.

Random memory. But yes, that song is 10000% epic. Both verses are insane. Beat is insane. Etc. etc. etc.

i heard it... it was more of a "wow, andre has lost his damn mind" than " than "haha this sucks"... it was catchy, but i honestly didn't think ppl were ready for that.. i think the public love for ms. jackson helped ppl get over that initial hump to realize how cool that song is

at first, i kept waiting for the bass to come in...
you know, just waiting for the rest of the beat to drop.

then, it never did... clipse just kept rapping...


and all of a sudden it hit me...
this song is AWESOME!


then folks started playing it everywhere.

so yeah... that's a weird ass record.

and they always had songs months before radio...so they had this, and the description said "This is the worst song the Neptunes have EVER done. This might be the beginning of their demise. The fuck did they do, just bang on a trashcan?" and I heard it in low quality, so I was like wow, yeah this is crap.

Then I saw the BET video n said "oh this shitty song? Well..............hmm, it's actually not that bad" and then I heard it at a party and said ohhh!!!

Even funnier was the production websites I went to back then, and how folks argued about it...some gave props for how the drums were, and even said "they really sampled themselves banging on a table!" n shit til somebody proved it was just a stock Triton kit.

>Even funnier was the production websites I went to back then,
>and how folks argued about it...some gave props for how the
>drums were, and even said "they really sampled themselves
>banging on a table!" n shit til somebody proved it was just a
>stock Triton kit.

Burning down the house by Talking Heads

Pump up the Jam by technotronic

Johnny come Home by Fine Young Cannibals....and in retrospect...those guys had some really catchy songs.

I mean the chorus is catchy but mostly just a guy talking about his existential realizations, not exactly the secret to success.

I mean, now looking back and even shortly after it blew I was like "that's a clever ass record", but gimme that shit months in advance and I was like "these fuckin clowns...". So yea. Weird track.

said...we all just said "ohh....this beat kinda hard tho" and when the hook dropped, we were like ohhhh ok!

hearing it in the club changed my entire view on it, and obviously that's what it was meant for so it made sense.

I didn't think Kreayshawn's "Gucci Gucci" would be played nationwide on urban radio, either.

Repetitive pitched down vocal sample that never ends,
unorthodox, pinball-type rhyme style by Weezy
no hook, chorus, structure or concept what so ever..

going by conventional wisdom..nothing about that song should translate into a radio hit..

Wound up being a massive smash and Lil Wayne's signature song..

I remember Drama played it when he DJ'd at FAMU n I was like wow, an established DJ is actually playin this random mixtape Wayne shit?

by saturating the market up til that point.. i think ppl were familiar enough w/ his voice to let that and his punchlines alone be the main sell.. i dug it the first time i heard it, but def. didn't think anyone would release a huge rap single w/ no hook.. cool shit tho

I remember it back then, and it was always weird to me that the song was like a minute acapella

n/m

-------------------------
“The other dude after me didn’t help my case. It was just like…crazy nigga factory going on.”
Dre makes no apologies for his own eccentricities. “I was young, and searching, trying to find myself,” he says. “Never did.”-- Andre B

I mean it wasn't his style at the time, not really a catchy chorus, very minimal especially compared to the other songs on radio. Not that I think it'd flop but it definitely surprised me when it went top 5. "Runaway" as well surprised me that it went top 20 but since it's in a similar vein of "Love Lockdown" it's not THAT much of a left turn. Just didn't think that in today's euro-pop and over-produced radio market that it would be pushed, which is why I was so surprised that "Paranoid" flopped since I thought that had all the makings of a hit.

some of the most you gotta be kidding tracks that got big on radio.

Kev