I was a late bloomer when it comes to interest in the music of Judas Priest. In their hey day, my knowledge of them began and ended with "You've Got Another Thing Comin". Wait, the other thing I knew was that the album Turbo had synth bass which critics slammed but I had one friend who got into Priest just for that record. Felt bad for them when they were unfairly tried in court for the suicide of two kids in the late 80s and was as surprised as anyone else when lead singer Rob Halford came out of the closet.
I didn't dislike Judas Priest, I just didn't care. A few years back that began to change, my wife had some Priest Cds and they sounded good to me. A song here or there would catch my ear. Then VH1 made them the Rock Honors or something and featured their music for an hour or two. Godsmack was one of the bands playing tribute to Priest and they came storming out with-
Hell Bent For Leather from the album Hell Bent For Leather (1978)
Godsmack's performance sold me on this song, the pithy verse delivery that led to the near operatic chorus killed.
Eventually I got The Essential Judas Priest which included this track, giving me free reign to play that bad boy to death :)
The song is also noted for being Rob Halford's entrance song where he rides his motorcycle onto the stage.
The song has been covered by other bands as well, including Annihilator and Warrant.
Such an awesome song, that's why it makes my favorite tune list of all time!
"I want you to want...me. I want you to want...ME!"
And with the kick off of a shuffling drum starts the next number in my favorite all time song list:
Cheap Trick "I Want You To Want Me" (1977 / 1979)
As big a hit song as this is, it took a while to grow on me. I had heard the song on the radio of course before I had bought a Cheap Trick record, but couldn't tell you at the time that I had. Just one of those songs on the radio that I didn't care who sang it or why. Before buying their stuff, the song I knew Cheap Trick for was "Surrender" aka "Mommy's alright, daddy's alright, they're just a little bit weird". It seemed like their best known song, even the ticket scalper in Fast Times At Ridgemont High sang "Surrender" when trying to sell Cheap Trick tickets. "Surrender" came with the record At Budokan and since it was the Nice Price (i.e. permanently discounted) I was motivated to buy it. Thanks to my two music bibles in high school (The Encyclopedia of Rock and The Rolling Stone Magazine Rock Encyclopedia) I knew their biggest hit was also from that album, "I Want You To Want Me". So I figured bonus, I get the song I want plus whatever their biggest hit was.
I've been Tricked!
So I bought the At Budokan record and when I got to "I Want You To Want Me" I listened intently. This was Cheap Trick's biggest hit! Shuffling drums, springy bass line, guy singer whining sort of like Marilyn Monroe with a shot of testosterone...sounds kind of familiar...really? This is the big hit? A song with like six lines or something, one of which makes a huge deal about wearing a brand new shirt?? What kind of guy likes clothes that much??? The live audience on the record seems to like it, some weird chanting going on after the singer says something about seeing him crying. Decent guitar solo, huh not a lot of pace changes in this just the same beat going til the very end.
In high school, I thought this song was sooo overrated. I'd play it off the record sometimes, but usually when spinning that tasty piece of vinyl I'd throw on "Surrender" or the racuous "Clock Strikes Ten". Later when I had the song on The Greatest Hits cd I got a little more used to the song but wouldn't say I loved it.
So what changed?
Have a Coke and a smile
The song started to show up in other media, delivered in a way that hit my easily influenced mind the right way. In other words, it was used in a soft drink commercial. Edited down to 20 or so seconds, "I Want You To Want Me" in a Diet Coke ad completely changed my mind on this one. Hearing the live recording played loud in the advertisement with some guy singing along in the shower or rocking out in his apartment seemed cool to me. And the hook drilled it's way into my brain and wouldn't let go. Damn you ad execs, you nailed it! But I still prefer Pepsi, so you do not attain total victory on me.
Then, my brother started playing the soundtrack to the film 10 Things I Hate About You every time we saw him and it included "I Want You To Want Me", except it was finally sung by an actual girl. The group was called Letters For Cleo and the cover wasn't bad. Sometimes I would see a video for this version, with the band playing on top of a roof. It was pretty much a straight cover, except the girl went the pixie alterna girl route instead of the cooing Robin Zander delivery. I got a copy of this song off my brother and played it semi regularly. Never did get into Letters For Cleo, this cover is my only true exposure to the band. And it seems the internet remembers this version coming from the band Save Ferris instead, so Letters For Cleo don't even get credit for their own work anymore. Wonder where they are now?
I wanted to play the original song on my own time, but I had sold off my Cheap Trick's greatest hits CD before any of this happened (I had really needed the money) and the only Cheap Trick version I had on a 70s rock compilation cassette and it sounded real different. REAL different.
WTF? Who put Billy Joel in there?
The Cheap Trick "I Want You To Want Me" I had was the studio version, presumably from the In Color album. It was a little slower, cleaner (natch) and lighter. The gritty slightly ragged guitar from the live take was replaced with a polite piano that would say "please" and "thank you" instead of "hell yeah!". Yeah, that metaphor made no sense but you know what I mean. There's even a piano solo at the end, what the hell is this from The Sting soundtrack? You ever notice Robert Redford always plays like, liars in his movies? Wait, there's echo on the word "cryin" in the chorus, that's what that weird chanting was! The fans were singing the echo. Wow, that echo sucks.
After hearing this version off the tape, I felt like I was in a mirror universe. Up was down, left was right, The Enterprise wanted to destroy the Halkan counsel instead of negotiate, Sulu wanted to bang Uhura...it was sheer utter unmitigated...wait for it...madness.
I needed to get the original live version. Needed it bad, so I bought The Complete Budokan Concert on two cds so I could have it. Bwa ha ha ha!
Mad About The Mouse
"I Want You To Want Me" has continued to hold sway over me after my reassesment of it. When I bought the Cheap Trick box set it came with a cool alternate studio take of the song that, interestingly, sounds a lot like the live version but with some studio polish. This version quickly ramped up into my favorites and is the one I like the most of the many, many various takes on what's become a well worn classic.
On top of this, "I Want You To Want Me" seems to have become a rite of passage for female Disney actresses. They're all over You Tube, there's Lindsey used to be hot Lohan, some blond girl from a movie called Bandslam and then a group called KSM that flail through it like a Noxema ad. For whatever the reason, the Mouse is lovin' this one for the kids. Oh, that sounded really wrong.
The Want Ads
So when it comes to "I Want You To Want Me" I went from indifference to thinking it's the stuff of genius. Simplicity at its finest. And to their credit, any attempts at making a copy of their own smash hit weren't memorable enough to stay in my memory. That takes guts to not remake their own song with different words to milk the sucker dry, it's not like Cheap Trick is necessarily above that sort of thing (play "The Flame" and "Can't Help Falling Into Love" back to back and see if you o.d. on power ballad ice). Even the recent Weezer song "If You're Wondering If I Want You To (I Want You To)" owes a nod of debt to this sturdy classic. And now ladies and gentlemen, check out this dude Dr. K who sings the song with an Elvis styled voice. Awesome!
This is the inaugural post of what will be, in no specific order, my favorite songs of all time. They're in random order because, to be honest, I looked at my list of 190 songs and thought "I do not feel like putting these songs in a specific order, it's just too much damn work." Since I had organized on a playlist, I hit the "shuffle" button and now will post the songs in the order ITUNES placed it. I do have a favorite song and when I get to that one I will highlight it, otherwise get ready for some random action.
Entry #1: Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight (1981)
The song that may contain the greatest drum break in modern pop history and arguably Phil Collin's best tune. A dark, atmospheric song with distorted vocals, "In The Air Tonight" is relatively unique in Collin's song book for its tone. A similar song that I liked more than "Tonight" initially is Genesis' "Man On The Corner" which is a close match in tone and pattern. "Man On The Corner" was the first Genesis song I liked and used to play often for a little while.
The song starts out slow as Collin's sings about watching someone drown (not based on a true story as alleged by some) ending each line with the phrase "Oh Lord" (which for decades I thought he was singing "Oh no" until I read the lyrics). Phil Collin's voice gets increasingly echoey/ distorted like someone surfacing through water, building the tension until the cathartic drums come crashing in. In what would become his trademark, the drums have the famous "gated reverb" sound where they come across very loud and boxy. The rest of the song rides on a slightly lurching beat as Collin's goes on about feeling it calling (or is it comin'? I can't remember the lyric sheet) in the air tonight.
"In The Air Tonight" is a favorite song for me because of it's intensely quiet mood, it's kinda a creepy song - in a good way. One of my good friends in high school was a huge fan of Phil Collins, so for some random reason when I think of this jam I recall my friend saying there was a song called "Like China" from Collin's second solo album where he kept hearing the word "Vagina" instead. Heh, high school.
A Lonely Man There On The Corner
A predecessor to "In the Air Tonight", "Man On The Corner" has a similar structure of starting off with a muted keyboard and rippling percussion. Collins sings in a mysterious tone until 2/3rd of the way the drums kick in. In other words, the two songs are very similar. A bit of a precursor to "Another Day In Paradise" too with the homeless theme. Just "In The Air Tonight" is more downbeat and the cavernous guitars add atmosphere. "Man In The Corner" came from Genesis' Abacab album released a few months after Face Value, Collin's solo debut featuring "In The Air Tonight".
MTV Cops
When the song initially was released, I heard it a few times and it stood out in memory but I didn't think that much about it. It wasn't until the song was prominently used in the debut episode of Miami Vice that "In The Air Tonight" became a widely known hit by people, including me. Like the rest of America, I really dug the song in that setting of cool cops in cool cars driving in the night. Through Crockett and Tubbs, "Tonight" developed a cache of cool that it would never lose. The song would tie Collins to the NBC show long term, other Collins songs like "Take Me Home" would appear there. Eventually, Collins put his child acting skills to work in making an appearance as a character on Miami Vice. I didn't watch those episodes, just was aware that they happened. I did see the movie Buster, which is where his acting gigs led him to. It was a snoozer to say the least.
Live In The Air
When I saw Phil Collins perform live in 1985, I found him fairly boring in concert. "In The Air Tonight" still translated well for me, it was a highlight of the concert. He also performed the song with a piano at Live Aid.
Legacy of "Tonight"
After Collin's had his peak run as a solo performer, "In The Air Tonight" continued to be a cultural touchstone. Of the many samples and references to the song, the two that stand out in my mind are the Family Guy episode where Stewie is stuck inside the tv like Poltergeist and with his voice electronically fading in and out while singing this song and the Mike Tyson punch to the beat on another dude in The Hangover.
"In The Air Tonight" has had a second life in hip hop according to Wikipedia, being sampled and covered. The song has been remade and sampled by rappers like 2 Pac and Lil Kim. Eminem referenced the song and myth about the tune in rapping that Collins had witnessed a murder (thus inspiring the song) and fingered the killer at a concert. Collins has flatly denied this story for decades.
In addition, the song is popular at sporting events and commercials. While looking for a picture to put in this post, I came across a Wonderbra advert using the song. Because nothing says lift and support like Phil Collins.
I never understood why Collin's didn't re-release the single in the mid 80s to capitalize on the song's second lease on life. Guess he had enough charting hits that he didn't need the money. Nonetheless, "In The Air Tonight" is a modern classic and one of my favorite songs of all time.
