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The Rolling Stones - Get Off of My Cloud

The Rolling Stones - Get Off of My Cloud Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: December's Children (And Everybody's)
Released: 1965

Get Off of My Cloud Lyrics

I live in an apartment on the ninety-ninth floor - of my block
And I sit at home looking out the window
Imagining the world has stopped
Then in flies a guy who's all dressed up - like a Union Jack
And says, I've won five pounds if I have his - kind of detergent pack

[Chorus:]
I says, Hey! You! Get Off of My Cloud
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
Hey! You! Get off of my cloud
Don't hang around 'cause two's a crowd
On my cloud, baby

The telephone is ringing
I say, "Hi, it's me. Who is there on the line?"
A voice says, "Hi, hello, how are you?"
Well, I guess I'm doin' fine
He says, "It's three a.m., there's too much noise
Don't you people ever want to go to bed?
Just 'cause you feel so good,
Do you have to drive me out of my head ?"

[Chorus]

I was sick and tired, fed up with this
And decided to take a drive downtown
It was so very quiet and peaceful
There was nobody, not a soul around
I laid myself out, I was so tired
And I started to dream
In the morning the parking tickets were just - like a flag stuck on my window screen

[Chorus:Repeat x2]

Writer/s: RICHARDS, KEITH / JAGGER, MICK
Publisher: Abkco Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Get Off of My Cloud Song Chart

This followed "Satisfaction" as The Stones second #1 hit in the US. Keith Richards said of the song: "Get Off My Cloud was basically a response to people knocking on our door asking us for the follow up to 'Satisfaction,' which was such an enormous hit worldwide. This, to us, was mind-blowing. I mean not only was it a #1 record but, boom! We thought, 'At last. We can sit back and maybe think about events.' Suddenly there's the knock at the door and of course what came out of that was Get Off Of My Cloud. Because within 3 weeks, in those days hey, they want another single. And we weren't quite ready for that. So it was our response to the knock at the door: Get off of my cloud. And I'm surprised that it did so well. I mean it has a certain charm but I really remember it as a knee-jerk reaction. And it came out better than I thought."

Mick Jagger (1995): "That was Keith's melody and my lyrics. It's a stop-bugging-me, post-teenage-alienation song. The grown-up world was a very ordered society in the '60s, and I was coming out of it. America was even more ordered than anywhere else. I found it was a very restrictive society in thought and behavior and dress." (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France, for above 2)

There was a bit of controversy over this song, as it sounded like it could be about drugs. Some radio stations shied away from the song.

Stones manager Andrew Long Oldham produced this.

Ian Stewart played piano on this track. Keith Richards explained: "That was just one of those things you could do in those days - shadow a guitar with a piano. As long as you didn't make it obvious, it would add some different air to a track." (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

The B-side of this single was "I'm Free," which remained obscure until it was revived by The Soup Dragons in 1990.

In 1973 The Dramatics scored an R&B hit with "Hey You! Get Off My Mountain," which also contained the chorus lyrics, "Hey You! Get Off My Cloud."

Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors - Heartbreak

Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors - Heartbreak Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Medicine
Released: 2015

Heartbreak Lyrics

Heartbreak Song Chart

This heartfelt ballad was inspired by a good friend of Holcomb's that went through a painful heartbreak as the frontman was writing the Medicine record. "It was a relationship that had lasted for years, but in the end did not survive," he explained to The Boot . "As I watched him go through the pain of the hurt he caused and the hurt he received, it reminded me of my own heartbreaks and the universal scars that broken relationships cause us."

Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends

Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: With A Little Help From My Friends
Released: 1968

With A Little Help From My Friends Lyrics

What would you do if I sang out of tune
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song
And I'll try not to sing out of key

Oh, I get by With A Little Help From My Friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends

What do I do when my love is away
(Does it worry you to be alone?)
How do I feel by the end of the day
(Are you sad because you're on your own?)

No, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends

Do you need anybody
I need somebody to love
Could it be anybody
I want somebody to love

Would you believe in a love at first sight
Yes, I'm certain that it happens all the time
What do you see when you turn out the light
I can't tell you but I know it's mine

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends

Do you need anybody
I
Could it be anybody
I want somebody to love

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
with a little help from my friends

Writer/s: LENNON, JOHN / MCCARTNEY, PAUL
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

With A Little Help From My Friends Song Chart

John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote this song. The Beatles recorded it a year earlier, but never released it as a single. The Beatles were so impressed with Cocker's version of this that they sent him a telegram of congratulations and placed an ad in the music papers praising it.

This was recorded in 3/4 time - a waltz. The Beatles original version was in traditional 4/4 time.

Jimmy Page played guitar, BJ Wilson from Procol Harum played drums, and a gospel choir sang background on this track.

This song has topped the UK charts on three occasions: Cocker's version, then in 1988 Wet Wet Wet hit #1 again on a double A-sided charity single, and in 2004 Sam & Mark from the 2004 UK Pop Idol brought it to the top again.

Cocker also covered The Beatles "I'll Cry Instead," "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window," and "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away."

Sesame Street did a parody of this called "With A Little Yelp From My Friends." It was performed by "Moe Cocker," a Cocker Spaniel. This version of the song is about a dog who yelps for help when he can't find his bone or scratch a flea.

Cocker sang his devotional version of this song at Woodstock, giving his career a huge boost. The 25-year-old Cocker, wore a tie-dyed T-shirt and was drenched in sweat throughout the performance, securing his reputation as an entertainer who would give his all on stage. This performance appears in the Woodstock documentary. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

Joe Cocker is only one of two acts who performed at Woodstock to have had a UK #1 hit. The other was Jimi Hendrix, who had a chart topper with "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)."

The Joe Cocker version was the theme song to the TV series The Wonder Years, starring Fred Savage. The show ran six seasons, from 1988-1993. When it was added to Netflix in 2011, it was with a different version of the theme song, as Cocker's version wasn't cleared.

Securing rights to the theme song and most of the other nearly 300 songs that were used in the show, was a challenge, but in 2014 the series was finally released on DVD, with most of the songs - including the original theme - intact.

When Cocker died in 2014 at age 70, Paul McCartney issued this statement regarding his version of this song: "It was just mind-blowing, totally turned the song into a soul anthem, and I was forever grateful for him for having done that."

FKA Twigs - Pendulum

FKA Twigs - Pendulum Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: LP1
Released: 2014

Pendulum Lyrics

I'm a sweet, little love maker
Finding time, to make my words better (I)

Lately I
Not so present now
Not in love
For your constant fun

I've got time, but you're tired of waiting
You only want me in other spaces
Come fill your gaps with people
I know no one

So lonely trying to be yours
When you're looking for so much more

You forgot
How we fell in love
I'm your sweet
Little love maker

You're younger than I am broken
I dance feelings like that sparkle
Summer conversations, not enough

So lonely trying to be yours
What a forsaken cause
So lonely trying to be yours
When you're looking for so much more

(So lonely trying)
How does it feel to have me thinking about you?
Wishing the words were enough to consume you
So lonely trying to be yours
How does it feel to have me thinking about you?

So lonely trying to be yours
What a forsaken cause
So lonely trying to be yours
When you're looking for so much more

Writer/s: EPWORTH, PAUL / BARNETT, TAHLIAH
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Pendulum Song Chart

This somber cut finds FKA Twigs detailing a lover who doesn't take her seriously as she croons about being "so lonely trying to be yours."

The song title doesn't appear in the lyrics. However the production of Paul Epworth (Adele's 21, Coldplay's Ghost Stories) softly sways back and forth like a "pendulum."

Here's some pendulum history (from The Encyclopedia of Trivia ):

In 1656, Dutch inventor Christian Huygens, working independently, constructed the first pendulum clock. This allowed everyone from traders to farmers and military commanders to know precisely what the time was.

Until 1670 clocks had short pendulums and were hung on the wall. Then William Clements invented the longer pendulum and the grandfather clock came into being.

The song's music video was directed by FKA Twigs herself. The singer is a classically trained dancer, and is able to contort her body into many different positions. In this clip she is in a bondage type scenario tied up by her rope-like hair. The visual is playing on the idea of the constraints of love that Twigs is singing about.

Lenny Kravitz - Fly Away

Lenny Kravitz - Fly Away Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: 5
Released: 1998

Fly Away Lyrics

I wish that I could fly
Into the sky
So very high
Just like a dragonfly

I'd fly above the trees
Over the seas in all degrees
To anywhere I please

Oh I want to get away
I want to Fly Away
Yeah yeah yeah

Oh I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah yeah yeah

Let's go and see the stars
The milky way or even Mars
Where it could just be ours

Let's fade into the sun
Let your spirit fly
Where we are one
Just for a little fun
Oh oh oh yeah !

I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah yeah yeah

I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah yeah yeah

I got to get away
Feel I got to get away
Oh oh oh yeah

I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah with you yeah yeah
Oh Yeah !

I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah with you yeah yeah
I got to get away

I want to get away X4
Yeah
I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah with you yeah yeah
I got to get away

I want to get away X4
Yeah

I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah with you
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Writer/s: LENNY ALBERT KRAVITZ
Publisher: BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Fly Away Song Chart

This song was done very quickly, after the album was already finished. Kravitz originally intended it to be a B-Side only, but a friend who heard that song finally convinced him to call his record company, stop the whole procedure and added the song to the album. (thanks, Martin - Rostock, Germany)

This won a Grammy in 1998 for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. Kravitz won the same award the next 2 years for "American Woman" and "Again."

The lyrics are very simple, which makes the song great for sports montages and movie scenes where there is no deep meaning trying to be conveyed. Kravitz feels good songwriting can be done with very basic ideas.

Kravitz told Guitar World magazine that sometimes the sound of a guitar or amp you pick up makes you play a certain type of riff, and when he picked up the guitar that time, the sound made him play the riff for this song. (thanks, Josh - Atlanta, GA)

Gallows - Bonfire Season

Gallows - Bonfire Season Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Desolation Sounds
Released: 2015

Bonfire Season Lyrics

Bonfire Season Song Chart

This song began as an ode to Siouxsie And The Banshees. "I've always been a fan of that slightly gothic, dark style of punk and felt it was the time for Gallows to explore that style of music," said Gallows guitarist Laurent Barnard. "The verses still have that old school boot stomp feel but combined with atmospheric noises providing menacing undertones."

The video was shot by Canadian director and musician Josh Reichmann, who previously worked on the band's clip for Desolation Sounds' first single "Chains" in 2014.

The Rolling Stones - Play With Fire

The Rolling Stones - Play With Fire Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Out Of Our Heads
Released: 1965

Play With Fire Lyrics

Well, you've got your diamonds and you've got your pretty clothes
And the chauffeur drives your car
You let everybody know
But don't play with me, 'cause you're playing with fire

Your mother she's an heiress, owns a block in Saint John's Wood
And your father'd be there with her
If he only could
But don't play with me, 'cause you're playing with fire

Your old man took her diamond's and tiaras by the score
Now she gets her kicks in Stepney
Not in Knightsbridge anymore
So don't play with me, 'cause you're playing with fire

Now you've got some diamonds and you will have some others
But you'd better watch your step, girl
Or start living with your mother
So don't play with me, 'cause you're playing with fire
So don't play with me, 'cause you're playing with fire

Writer/s: a MICK JAGGER) / k / PHELGE, NANKER (a
Publisher: Abkco Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Play With Fire Song Chart

This started out as an up-tempo song called "A Mess Of Fire."

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are the only Stones to play on this. The other Stones went to sleep after a long session, while producer Phil Spector filled in on bass and his assistant, Jack Nitzsche played harpsichord. They left to tour Australia the next day. Nitzsche was a prolific producer who also scored many movies, including The Exorcist and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. He died in 2000 at age 63.

Mick Jagger (1995): "It's a very in-your-face kind of sound and very clearly done. You can hear all the vocal stuff on it. And I'm playing the tambourine, the vocal line. You know, it's very pretty. Keith and me (wrote that). I mean, it just came out. It was just kind of rich girls' families - society as you saw it. It's painted in this naive way in these songs. I don't know if it was daring. It just hadn't been done." (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

A janitor at the studio sang backup. At the end of an all-night session Jagger and Richards were the only Stones still awake, and they were desperate for another voice.

This was released as the B-side of "The Last Time," and does not appear on the English version of Out Of Our Heads. In England it was customary to not include single releases on albums.

This was featured in the 2007 movie The Darjeeling Limited. It's a rare instance of an entire song being used in a film.

HollySiz - Come Back To Me

HollySiz - Come Back To Me Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: My Name Is
Released: 2013

Come Back To Me Lyrics

Come Back To Me Song Chart

Cécile Cassel is a French actress whose credits include playing Chloé in an episode of Sex and the City. She is also a recording artist using the stage name HollySiz. This song was her first chart entry on the French singles chart, peaking at #22.

Asked about the song's meaning by The Metro, HollySiz explained it's about, "Grief, but in a good way – what is the good energy people can leave to you? It's about taking the good energy from the bad thing."

She added: "The lyrics are about the feeling of 'I'd love you to still be there and we can have a dance together."

The song soundtracked a BMW advert showing the BMW i3 zipping around some of Paris' famous landmarks.

Lenny Kravitz - Again

Lenny Kravitz - Again Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Greatest Hits
Released: 2000

Again Lyrics

I been searching for you
I heard a cry within my soul
I never had a yearning quite like this before
Now that you are walking right through my door

All of my life
Where have you been
I wonder if I'll ever see you Again
And if that day comes
I know we could win
I wonder if I'll ever see you again

A sacred gift of heaven
For better worse, wherever
And I would never let somebody break you down
Until you cried, never

All of my life
Where have you been
I wonder if I'll ever see you again
And if that day comes
I know we could win
I wonder if I'll ever see you again

At every time I've always known
That you where there, upon your throne
A lonely queen without her king
I longed for you, my love forever

All of my life
Where have you been
I wonder if I'll ever see you again
And if that day comes
I know we could win
I wonder if I'll ever see you again

All of my life
Where have you been
I wonder if I'll ever see you again
And if that day comes
I know we could win
I wonder if I'll ever see you again

All of my life
Where have you been
I wonder if I'll ever see you again
And if that day comes
I know we could win
I wonder if I'll ever see you again

I wonder if I'll ever see you again
I wonder if I'll ever see you again
I wonder if I'll ever see you again
I wonder if I'll ever see you again

I wonder if I'll ever see you again
I wonder if I'll ever see you again
I wonder if I'll ever see you again

Writer/s: LENNY ALBERT KRAVITZ
Publisher: BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Again Song Chart

This was the only new song on Kravitz' Greatest Hits album. It helped the album sell over 3 million copies and become the best selling album of his career.

Kravitz shows his butt in the video, which features actress Gina Gershon and model Theresa Lourenco.

This was intended for an album of original songs, but Kravitz felt it didn't fit the tone of the album and allowed it to be released with his Greatest Hits.

This won the 2000 Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. Kravitz won the same award in 1998 and 1999 for "Fly Away" and "American Woman." Kravitz made it four in a row when he won the next year for "Dig In."

Jazmine Sullivan - Mascara

Jazmine Sullivan - Mascara Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Reality Show
Released: 2014

Mascara Lyrics

Yeah my hair, and my ass fake, but so what!
I get my rent payed with it
and my tits get me trips to places I can't pronounce right
He said he'd keep it coming, if I keep my body tight

And them bitches stay mad 'cause I'm living the life
‘Cause I'm living the life, oh
Most people think I'm shallow
‘Cause I'm always dressed like I'm going out to the club
But I gotta keep up 'cause there's new chicks poppin' up every day
And they want the same things

So I never leave the house without make-up on
I keep Mascara in my pocket if I'm running to the market
‘Cause you never know who's watching you
So I got to stay on, I got to stay on
I got to stay on, I got to stay on
Said I got to stay on!

No, I ain't got a job but, so what!
I don't need it when I'm getting everything that I want
and everything that I ask for
I wear that freakum dress for daddy then he give me more

And them bitches stay mad 'cause they working so hard
While I'm working so smart, oh
It's a small price to pay when you're
Living this good and he keep me in the hills
And he kept me out the hood
‘Cause there's new chicks poppin' up
Every day and they want the same things

So I never leave the house without make-up on
I keep mascara in my pocket if I'm running to the market
‘Cause you never know who's watching you
So I got to stay on, I got to stay on
I got to stay on, I got to stay on
Said I got to stay on!

Now, I know why you're looking at me like that
It ain't attractive when you're looking at me like that
Girl, don't be mad 'cause while you're
Cooking dinner for your broke nigga
You could be in the gym working
On your figure like me. So

Don't I deserve to be privileged?
Don't I deserve to get the very best?
‘Cause it ain't easy being this fine all the tim
‘Cause if it was, then we all could do it
But we can't now no
So bitch don't kill my vibe, don't be
Mad cause you coach class and I'm in that G5
Beautiful girls run the whole world
So I got to stay on!

So I never leave the house without make-up on
I keep mascara in my pocket if I'm running to the market
‘Cause you never know who's watching you
So I got to stay on, I got to stay on
I got to stay on, I got to stay on
Said I got to stay on!

Oh
Yeah, she drive the dope boys crazy
She knows, that all them hoes so jealous
'Cause that ass, will make a man leave home, uh
That's why she keeps her mascara on

Writer/s: WEIR, DWANE / SULLIVAN, JAZMINE
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Mascara Song Chart

This paranoid song about the ways women are constantly scrutinized was one of a quintet of tracks on Reality Show produced by Key Wane (Drake's "All Me," Beyoncé's "Partition" and Ariana Grande's "Best Mistake").

"It was cool the way that happened," Sullivan recalled to Billboard magazine. "For most of the album I was just picking out tracks on a CD, no names or anything... Once I got finished, they were like, 'You know you picked like five Key Wane tracks?' It was cool to have a connection with somebody and not even have met them."

Whilst we're on the subject of the eyelash cosmetic, did you know a Roman woman's recipe for mascara might contain bear fat, ant eggs and squashed flies?

The Guess Who - American Woman

The Guess Who - American Woman Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: American Woman
Released: 1970

American Woman Lyrics

American Woman, I'm gonna mess your mind
American woman, you gonna mess your mind
American woman, I'm gonna mess your mind
American woman, I'm gonna mess your mind

Say A, say M, say E
Say R, say I, C
Say A, N

American woman, I'm gonna mess your mind
American woman, you gonna mess your mind
American woman, I'm gonna mess your mind

American woman, stay away from me
American woman, mama let me be
Don't come a hangin' around my door
I don't want to see your face no more
I got more important things to do
Than spend my time growin' old with you
Now woman, I said stay away
American woman, listen what I say

American woman, get away from me
American woman, mama let me be
Don't come a knockin' around my door
Don't want to see your shadow no more
Colored lights can hypnotize
Sparkle someone else's eyes
Now woman, I said get away
American woman, listen what I say-ay-ay-ay

American woman, said get away
American woman, listen what I say
Don't come a hangin' around my door
Don't want to see your face no more
I don't need your war machines
I don't need your ghetto scenes
Colored lights can hypnotize
Sparkle someone else's eyes
Now woman, get away from me
American woman, mama let me be

Go, gotta get away, gotta get away now go, go, go
I'm gonna leave you woman
Gonna leave you woman
Bye-bye bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye
You're no good for me
I'm no good for you
Gonna look you right in the eye
Tell you what I'm gonna do
You know I'm gonna leave
You know I'm gonna go
You know I'm gonna leave
You know I'm gonna go-o, woman
I'm gonna leave you woman
Goodbye American woman

Writer/s: RANDY BACHMAN, BURTON CUMMINGS, GARY PETERSON, MICHAEL KALE
Publisher: BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

American Woman Song Chart

One of the most misinterpreted songs ever, this is often heard as a patriotic ode or a tribute to American women. It's usually American listeners who arrive at the jingoistic conclusions, ignoring a very clear lyric: "American Woman, get away from me."

The Guess Who are Canadian, and Burton Cummings (the song's lyricist) insists it has nothing to do with American pride. "What was on my mind was that girls in the States seemed to get older quicker than our girls and that made them, well, dangerous," Cummings told the Toronto Star in 2014. "When I said 'American woman, stay away from me,' I really meant 'Canadian woman, I prefer you.' It was all a happy accident."

Some songs take months to write, others come quickly in writing sessions or during studio jams. This one, however, had a much more spontaneous genesis: it was written on stage. Randy Bachman explained the origins in our interview. The band was playing a show at a curling rink in Ontario when he broke a string on his guitar. In those days, that meant stopping the show until he could replace it. His bandmates left the stage, and Bachman put a new string on his '59 Les Paul. The next challenge was getting it in tune (he didn't have a tech or even a tuner in those days), so he went in front of Burton Cummings' electric piano and hit the E and B notes to give him reference. As he tuned his guitar a riff developed, then something magical happened.

"I started to play that riff on stage, and I look at the audience, who are now milling about and talking amongst themselves," Bachman said. "And all their heads snapped back. Suddenly I realize I'm playing a riff I don't want to forget, and I have to keep playing it. So I stand up and I'm playing this riff. I'm alone on stage."

The band's drummer Garry Peterson, who had made his way to the audience, jumped on stage and started playing. Bassist Jim Kale heard the ruckus and joined them, and finally Burton Cummings came up and grabbed the microphone. "Sing something!" Bachman implored him. Burton obliged: the first words out of his mouth were, "American woman, stay away from me."

In our interview with Randy Bachman , he called this "an antiwar protest song," explaining that when they came up with it on stage, but the band and the audience had a problem with the Vietnam War. Said Bachman: "We had been touring the States. This was the late '60s, they tried to draft us, send us to Vietnam. We were back in Canada, playing in the safety of Canada where the dance is full of draft dodgers who've all left the States."

The lines where the anti-Vietnam sentiment are most apparent are "I don't want your war machines, I don't want your ghetto scenes."

According to Burton Cummings, this song owes its creation to a piece of modern technology: a portable cassette recorder. He says that after his ad-libbed performance of the song, they discovered a kid in the crowd who was bootlegging the concert using the device (this is when bootlegging meant literally strapping the recorder to your leg). Listening back to his tape, they were able to jot down the words to recreate the lyric.

Fortunately for The Guess Who, American radio stations either didn't hear this as a protest song or didn't care. With a monster riff and the word "American" in the title, it was embraced and quickly added to playlists. By this time, the band were proven hitmakers, having scored with "These Eyes," "Laughing" and "No Time," so this single was widely anticipated. "Radio just played it automatically without even thinking we were saying antiwar words in there," Bachman told us.

This song's American success made The Guess Who stars in that country, and on July 17, 1970 they performed on the White House lawn for President Richard Nixon, whose daughter Tricia was a huge fan and asked her dad to bring them in.

It was a huge hit at the time, but The Guess Who didn't perform "American Woman" that day because they were asked not to "as a matter of taste." That request came from the press liaison for first lady Pat Nixon, who may have been turned off by what she perceived as anti-American sentiment or political overtones
in the song.

The performance served as a royal reception for Prince Charles and Princess Anne, who were guests at the White House. Looking back on the performance in 2014, Burton Cummings said it was a very stodgy affair, and that he felt the band was brought in to impress the royal guests. "It left a bad taste in my mouth," he told the Winnipeg Free Press. "They wanted a Commonwealth act when Charles and Anne went there. We were the token Commonwealthers."

The first time the band performed this in completed form was before 150,000 people at the Seattle Pop Festival in 1969. The crowd loved it even though they had never heard it.

Randy Bachman calls the distinctive guitar sound he used on this song "The Herzog." To get the effect, he would overdrive the preamp (setting it to 9 or 10) while the normal volume settings are turned down. The sound does not get any louder, but gradually it grows dirtier and finally ends up creating a cello-like effect.

Recorded at RCA Studios in Chicago with producer Jack Richardson, this was released as a double A-side with "No Sugar Tonight" and stayed at #1 in the US for three weeks. The Guess Who were already huge in Canada, but this broke them in the States.

In the late-'90s, this was used in a variety of commercials, including one for Tommy Hilfiger and another for Castrol motor oil. Nike also used in an ad featuring women's soccer.

Lenny Kravitz covered this in 1999, making #49 US. His version was used in the movie Austin Powers 2, The Spy Who Shagged Me.

Kravitz and The Guess Who performed this September 21, 2000 at the MuchMusic Video Awards in Toronto. The Guess Who were given a lifetime achievement award.

The album version contains a sultry 1:05 acoustic intro, with Cummings spelling out the title ("I say 'A'... I say 'M'...). Radio stations often skipped past it to get to the riff.

Randy Bachman left the group the month after this hit #1 in America because the band's lifestyle did not jibe with his religious beliefs. Because of his departure, they did not tour the US when this was hot, which could have made them a lot of money.

The Guess Who reunited and toured in 2000, 30 years after this was a hit.

This was featured in the Jim Carrey movie The Cable Guy, where it appears in a Karaoke scene, and American Beauty, where Kevin Spacey rocks out to it while going through a mid-life crisis.

Jack Richardson, who produced this song, was also responsible for other big hits like The Guess Who's "These Eyes" and Bob Seger's "Night Moves." (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

Acts to cover this song include Krokus and Ringo Starr. Perhaps the most bizarre cover is by the Butthole Surfers, who released their version in 1986.

Mark Ronson - Crack in the Pearl

Mark Ronson - Crack in the Pearl Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Uptown Special
Released: 2015

Crack in the Pearl Lyrics

'Cause there's always a flaw in the diamond
A lightning-fork Crack in the Pearl
A fault in the rock of the island
And it's usually shaped like a girl

I was the first one to see her
And you were the first one to fall
Like a half-drunken downhill skier
And she was the oncoming wall
Now I get that it's all gone awry
A joke I might like to take back
Wipe a bright star from the night sky
Nothing can fill in the black

Writer/s: MARK RONSON, MICHAEL CHABON, JEFFREY BHASKER
Publisher: UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUB GROUP, IMAGEM U.S. LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Crack in the Pearl Song Chart

The majority of the lyrics for Uptown Special were written by Michael Chabon, the author of Wonder Boys and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Ronson approached the novelist after turning up at a book signing in New York. "I wrote him a letter and he was just kind of instantly into it," he recalled to The Guardian.

Chabon fully immersed himself in the album's creation, working with Ronson and co-producer Jeff Bhasker (Kanye West, Drake, Alicia Keys). "He came down to the studio and it was like a Jeff Bhasker songwriting boot camp," Ronson recalled to The Observer. "You know, Jeff has all these amazing stringent policies on songs and what words sing good, and what you can't sing, how everything must adhere to the note, the chorus must start this interval higher than the verse, all these things. And Michael, obviously he has no problem in the words department, but he just seemed to love taking in all these songwriting boot camp ideas. He was incredibly patient."

The first set of lyrics that Chabon sent to Ronson were for this song. "As I started reading the words to the chorus ('Is this how you pictured it? Is this how you thought it would be?'), the melody began to form in my head at the very same time," Ronson recalled to The Guardian. "Melodies don't usually shoot into my head from nowhere like that, so it was like an amazing alley-oop pass to have these words."

Michael Chabon told NME about his lyric writing. "My understanding was Mark wanted me to create lyrics which had a point of view. Not lyrics from Mark's point of view, or my point of view - it was the point of view of characters - I thought he wanted songs with a narrative with a story."

"I wrote some lyrics and I sent it to Mark and Jeff Bhasker and I actually don't know what their first reaction was - it inspired Mark to sit down at the keyboard and try and put music to it, I don't think he'd had ever done that before. Those lyrics changed a lot over time. My first efforts were too hard to sing fundamentally. Those lyrics got edited, rewritten, cut down, two verses were cropped, they put a bridge in there. I had to work a lot on that. But that first song became 'Crack In The Pearl.'"

The closing track of Uptown Special is a second version of the song, "Crack in the Pearl, Pt. II," featuring Stevie Wonder's harmonica.