Songs Lyrics and YT- Youtube Music Videos

Green Day - When I Come Around

Green Day - When I Come Around Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Dookie
Released: 1994

When I Come Around Lyrics

I heard you crying loud, all the way across town
Cause you been searching for that someone
And it's me out on the prowl
As you sit around feeling sorry for yourself

Well, don't get lonely now, and dry your whining eyes
I'm just roaming for the moment
Sleazin' my back yard so don't get
So uptight you been thinking about ditching me

No time to search the world around
'Cause you know where I'll be found
When I Come Around

Well, I heard it all before, so don't knock down my door
I'm a loser and a user so I don't need no accuser
To try and slag me down because I know you're right

So go do what you like, make sure you do it wise
You may find out that your self-doubt means nothing
Was ever there
You can't go forcing something if it's just not right

No time to search the world around
'Cause you know where I'll be found
When I come around

No time to search the world around
'Cause you know where I'll be found
When I come around

When I come around

Writer/s: ARMSTRONG, BILLIE JOE / COOL, TRE / DIRNT, MIKE
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

When I Come Around

A track from Green Day's first major label album, this is a very personal song lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong wrote about being away from his girlfriend, Adrienne Nesser, and the frustrations they both felt when he was on the road. Billie Joe met Adrienne in 1990 when Green Day performed in Minnesota, where she lived. He was just 18, and found it difficult to maintain a long distance relationship, especially with his touring schedule. In this song, he affirms his devotion for her, assuring her that when he does get to see her (when he "comes around") he will make it up to her.

Billie Joe and Adrienne got married in July, 1994, a few months after Dookie was released and right in the midst of the band's rapid ascent to stardom (the band was touring at the time). The marriage endured, and couple had two children together.

MTV aired two different videos for this song. A concept video for the song was directed by Mark Kohr, and MTV also showed a live version from Green Day's infamous Woodstock '94 performance (lots of mud was in the air). They used this video to promote the MTV Woodstock '94 retrospective video tape.

Jason White, who sometimes played as a second guitarist for Green Day, is in this video. He's the guy kissing the girl.

When performing this song at Woodstock '94, a fan threw a clump of mud onstage and Billie Joe stuck it in his mouth. This caused the fans to keep throwing mud and started the infamous mud fight. A security guard (in a rush to get fans off of the stage) accidentally slammed bassist Mike Dirnt into an amplifier, causing him injuries to his arm and three of his teeth.

This song was not released as a single, which was a strategic move by Green Day's label (Reprise) to goose sales of the album. Airplay pushed the song to #6 in America.

Elton John - Can You Feel The Love Tonight

Elton John - Can You Feel The Love Tonight Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Lion King Soundtrack
Released: 1994

Can You Feel The Love Tonight Lyrics

There's a calm surrender to the rush of day
When the heat of the rolling world can be turned away
An enchanted moment and it sees me through
It's enough for this restless warrior just to be with you

And Can You Feel The Love Tonight? It is where we are
It's enough for this wide-eyed wanderer that we got this far
And can you feel the love tonight? How it's laid to rest
It's enough to make kings and vagabonds believe the very best

There's a time for everyone, if they only learn
That the twisting kaleidoscope moves us all in turn
There's a rhyme and reason to the wild outdoors
When the heart of this star-crossed voyager beats in time with yours

And can you feel the love tonight? It is where we are
It's enough for this wide-eyed wanderer that we got this far
And can you feel the love tonight? How it's laid to rest
It's enough to make kings and vagabonds believe the very best
It's enough to make kings and vagabonds believe the very best

Writer/s: RICE, TIM / JOHN, ELTON
Publisher: Walt Disney Music Company
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Can You Feel The Love Tonight Song Chart

This was featured in the Disney movie The Lion King when the main character, Simba the Lion, falls in love with his childhood friend Nala, to the dismay of his friends Timon and Pumba. This version was performed by the voice actors in the film (including Nathan Lane, who voiced Timon); the Elton John version plays over the end credits of the film.

Working on The Lion King was a welcome opportunity for Elton, who had a say in how the songs he wrote for the film were used. He contributed most of the songs on the soundtrack, including "Circle Of Life," which was also hit (Elton says that "Circle" is a better song and more deserving of the Academy Award).

Just a few years out of rehab, the soundtrack provided a career resurgence for Elton and led to more work writing for musicals - he would later write for Aida and Billy Elliot.

Elton wrote the music, Tim Rice wrote the lyrics. Rice made a name for himself putting lyrics to showtunes by Andrew Lloyd Webber. They wrote songs for Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ, Superstar, and Evita. Like Elton, Tim Rice has been knighted.

Elton had the Academy Award for Best Original Song locked up tight in 1995 with this song, along with two of his other Lion King contributions - "Circle of Life" and "Hakuna Matata" - nominated along with "Look What Love Has Done" by Patty Smyth (from the movie Junior) and "Make Up Your Mind" by Randy Newman (from The Paper).

"Can You Feel The Love Tonight" was the winner, and Elton performed the song at the ceremony. After the ceremony, Elton hosted his lavish after-party for the third year; the event was a benefit for his AIDS foundation.

This is performed as part of the Lion King Broadway show - a lavish, wildly successful production based on the movie. It is also featured in the Lion King show at the Animal Kingdom park at Disney World.

A #1 Adult Contemporary hit, this was the most played song on US radio and TV in 1994.

Kiki Dee, Rick Astley, and Gary Barlow sang backup. Kiki Dee sang a duet with Elton on the '70s hit "Don't Go Breaking My Heart," Astley had a series of hits in the early '90s, and Barlow was a member of the group Take That.

This won the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal, marking just the third Grammy win for Elton.

Sam Phillips - Baby, I Can't Please You

Sam Phillips - Baby, I Can't Please You Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Martinis and Bikinis
Released: 1994

Baby, I Can't Please You Lyrics

Baby I can't please you I can't please you

Every time you start to criticize
I can see the misery in your eyes
You say I make your pain
You're trying to turn the blame all around you

You take the words I say and make them mean
Everything they don't baby you're obscene
You don't listen you don't hear
You're blinded by the fear that surrounds you

I know you say love when you mean control
You buy the truth and your heart is cold
So you live in shadows

You try to tell the world how it should spin
But you live in terror with the hollow men
Who stun you with their lies
With fever in their eyes as they drown you

Writer/s: SAM PHILLIPS
Publisher: DOWNTOWN MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Baby, I Can't Please You

The meaning behind this song has caused a bit of confusion over the years. With its politically charged video that alternates the breakdown of a right wing spy with flashes of Rush Limbaugh's face on a TV screen, most fans assume the song was aimed at the conservative radio host. The lyrics even seem to accuse Limbaugh and his contemporaries of a fear-mongering agenda: "You try to tell the world how it should spin, But you live in terror with the hollow men, Who stun you with their lies, With fever in their eyes as they drown you."

But, according to Phillips, the possibility of a political interpretation is just that - a possibility. She said in our interview: "It's not specifically about Rush Limbaugh, but it might be about what's wrong with Rush Limbaugh. But that might also be what's wrong with somebody else who's liberal. I try to make them a little bit more human than specific in that sense, so that 'Baby I Can't Please You' is a broader concept. It could be in a love relationship. It could be in a political relationship. Hopefully there are many levels you can take any of my songs on. That is always my aim."

The music video for this song ends with a quote by Christian author C.S. Lewis: "People in fear are always attempting to gain power... People in love are always willing to give up power."

This song was used in the 1999 TV movie It Came From the Sky (starring Christopher Lloyd, John Ritter and Jo Beth Williams) and also appeared on the Melrose Place: The Music soundtrack in 1994.

Green Day - Welcome To Paradise

Green Day - Welcome To Paradise Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Dookie
Released: 1994

Welcome To Paradise Lyrics

Dear mother,
Can you hear me whining?
It's been three whole weeks
Since I left your home
This sudden fear has left me trembling
'Cause now it seems that I
Am out here on my own
And I'm feeling so alone

Pay attention to the cracked streets
And the broken homes
Some call it slums
Some call it nice
I want to take you through
A wasteland I like to call my home
Welcome To Paradise

A gunshot rings out at the station
Another urchin snaps and
Left dead on his own
It makes me wonder why I'm still here
For some strange reason it's now
Feeling like my home
And I'm never gonna go

Pay attention to the cracked streets
And the broken homes
Some call it slums
Some call it nice
I want to take you through
A wasteland I like to call my home
Welcome to paradise

Dear Mother,
Can you hear me laughing?
It's been six whole months since that
I have left your home
It makes me wonder why I'm still here
For some strange reason it's now
Feeling like my home
And I'm never gonna go

Pay attention to the cracked streets
And the broken homes
Some call it slums
Some call it nice
I want to take you through
A wasteland I like to call my home
Welcome to paradise

Paradise

Writer/s: ARMSTRONG, BILLIE JOE / COOL, TRE / DIRNT, MIKE
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Welcome To Paradise

Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt wrote the lyrics to this song about a slum in Oakland where they lived together for a while as teenagers - they had a band at the time called Sweet Children. Armstrong explained: "It's about West Oakland, living in a warehouse with a lot of people, a bunch of artists and musicians, punks and whatever just lived all up and down, bums and junkies and thugs and gang members and stuff that just lived in that area. It's no place you want to walk around at night, but it's a neat warehouse where you can play basketball and stuff."

The video was compiled from footage shot when Green Day performed the song at the San Francisco club Slim's on February 1, 1994 - the same day Dookie was released. As shown in the video, the crowd of about 500 went absolutely nuts. Green Day would soon be playing to much larger crowds that showed a similar enthusiasm.

This was first released on Green Day's 1992 Kerplunk LP on Lookout! Records. When the band signed to the major label Reprise Records and cut the album Dookie, they re-recorded the song and included it on the album. It was one of 2 old Green Day songs they recorded during the Dookie sessions - they also re-recorded "409 In Your Coffeemaker" which originally appeared on their first EP, 39 Smooth. That song did not make it onto Dookie but was released on the international "Basket Case" single.

Green Day's drummer Tre Cool wrote the guitar riff for this song, and Billie Joe Armstrong wrote the drums. In their early days, Green Day would often swap positions in the band.

The forebear to this song is a track called "Sweet Children," which Green Day released in 1990 on an EP issued by Skene! Records (Sweet Children is also the name of the band Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt were in before they called it Green Day). This EP was sold at the band's early shows; if you listen to the melody, you'll hear how it was repurposed into "Welcome To Paradise."

Tre Cool said of this song: "It's like, 'Everything sucks but we're having fun anyway.' We'll look you in the eye and still smile, even if horrible things are happening."

Pentatonix - Mary, Did You Know?

Pentatonix - Mary, Did You Know? Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: That's Christmas to Me
Released: 2014

Mary, Did You Know? Lyrics

Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you

Mary did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God

Mary did you know, Mary did you know, Mary did you know

The blind will see, the deaf will hear and the dead will live again
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak, the praises of the lamb

Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you're holding is the great I am

Mary did you know, Mary did you know, Mary did you know

Writer/s: LOWRY, MARK/GREENE, BUDDY
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Mary, Did You Know? Song Chart

The words for this song were written by former Gaither Vocal Band baritone singer Mark Lowry after his pastor asked him to write a Christmas musical for their church. Lowry ended up penning a series of monologues based on Christmas songs including a conversation with Mary about the birth and life of her son Jesus. "I wanted to ask her what it was like to raise God," he told The Lubbock Avalanche Journal. "We read that the word became flesh, and it was just a very powerful thought, to look at those little hands of Jesus that had scooped out oceans, land and rivers."

Lowry worked on the lyrics for years, until he approached southern gospel singer-songwriter and harmonica player Buddy Greene on a tour bus and told him he had written some "questions for Mary." Greene agreed to Lowry's request to come up with some music for his words, completing the instrumentation within a few days. The result was this Christmas classic. "That's what happened," said Lowry. "Really, all I did was write a poem. Buddy turned it into a song."

American Christian singer Michael English was the first artist to record and release the song when he included it on his 1991 self-titled debut solo album. English had been in the Gaither Vocal Band between 1985 and 1994, for the last six years with Mark Lowry.

Pentatonix recorded the song for their 2014 album That's Christmas to Me. Their a capella version became a Hot 100 Top 40 hit, after its video took the internet by storm.

The song had its first widespread exposure to country radio when Nashville artist Kathy Mattea recorded her version of the song in 1993 for her Christmas album Good News. Other recordings of the tune by country artists include a 1997 duet version by Wynonna Judd and Kenny Rogers, which peaked at #55 on the country chart. Reba McEntire, Rascal Flatts and Scotty McCreery are some of the other Nashville artists who have recorded the song.

Many gospel and R&B artists have also covered the song. The first African-American performer to record the tune was Vickie Winans, who included it on her 1994 self-titled album. Cee Lo Green's 2012 rendition reached #22 on the R&B chart in 2012.

The song was used as the basis for a Bruce Greer penned stage musical, also titled Mary, Did You Know. The production won the 1999 Dove Award for Musical of the Year.

Kevin Olusola of Pentatonix told Artist Direct why the a capella group recorded a festive album. "Christmas is such a great time, especially for a cappella music," he said. "People are more willing to listen to that style."

"We realized that after our Christmas single 'The Little Drummer Boy,'" he continued. "It did so well. We knew we wanted to do something more extensive. That's when we got the idea of doing a full-length Christmas album."

Jordan Smith performed this song during the 2015 season nine finals of The Voice and went onto to win the competition. The following week his version debuted at #24 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Blues Traveler - Hook

Blues Traveler - Hook Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Four
Released: 1994

Hook Lyrics

It doesn't matter what I say
So long as I sing with inflection
That makes you feel I'll convey
Some inner truth or vast reflection
But I've said nothing so far
And I can keep it up for as long as it takes
And it don't matter who you are
If I'm doing my job then it's your resolve that breaks

Because the Hook brings you back
I ain't tellin' you no lie
The hook brings you back
On that you can rely

There is something amiss
I am being insincere
In fact I don't mean any of this
Still my confession draws you near
To confuse the issue I refer
To familiar heroes from long ago
No matter how much Peter loved her
What made the Pan refuse to grow

Was that the hook brings you back
I ain't tellin' you no lie
The hook brings you back
On that you can rely

Suck it in, suck it in, suck it in
If you're Rin Tin Tin or Anne Boleyn
Make a desperate move or else you'll win
And then begin to see
What you're doing to me
This MTV is not for free
It's so PC it's killing me

So desperately I sing to thee of love
Sure but also rage and hate and pain and fear of self
And I can't keep these feeling on the shelf
I've tried, well no, in fact I lied
Could be financial suicide but I've got too much pride inside
To hide or slide
I'll do as I'll decide and let it ride till until I've died
And only then shall I abide by this tide
Of catchy little tunes
Of hip three minute diddies
I wanna bust all your balloons

I wanna burn of all your cities to the ground
But I've found, I will not mess around
Unless I play then hey
I will go on all day
Hear what I say
I have a prayer to pray
That's really all this was
And when I'm feeling stuck and need a buck
I don't rely on luck

Because the hook brings you back
I ain't tellin' you no lie
The hook
On that you can rely

Writer/s: WILLIAMS, JOHN T.
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Hook

Put simply, the song is a sort of satire. A hook is the part of the song that people like; the part that makes you remember the song. Normally it's the chorus, but not always. Lead singer John Popper, who wrote this song, is saying that no matter what you put in a song, if it has a hook people like, you can say whatever you want and people will like the song and buy into it - "It doesn't matter what I say as long as I sing with in-FLEC-tion." He knows that a hit song needs to have a catchy hook, whether or not it takes any talent or emotion. "The hook brings you back" is the hook of the song, so he can say whatever he wants in this part and get away with it. The message is that you don't need deep, meaningful lyrics to make people like your music. You need a good hook, and it helps to be charismatic. On a deeper level, this can relate to superficial society in general, which is demonstrated in the video which shows beauty pageant contestants and a politician singing the song - they're all show and no substance, but most people don't notice or care.

This song's entire melodic line is directly based on a piece of classical music: Pachelbel's "Canon in D." The well-recognized melody can also be considered an aural "hook," giving the title another amusing twist. (thanks, Ianna - Richmond, VA)

This was the follow up to Blues Traveler's first hit, "Run-Around." The band formed in high school in 1986 and released their first album 1990. Four was their fourth album, released in September, 1994. By the time "Hook" hit the charts, the album had been out for about a year.

The second verse contains an interesting bit of wordplay, with Popper singing, "To confuse the issue I refer to familiar heroes from long ago," before getting into the Peter Pan story, as he sings about Captain Hook trying to bring Peter Pan back to Neverland - another way the "Hook" brings you back. Popper puts a lot of literary references in his songs, also mentioning Rin Tin Tin and Anne Boleyn in this one. When we spoke with Blues Traveler guitarist Chan Kinchla, he told us that the Peter Pan story was a favorite of the band. "I think all musicians in rock bands have kind of a Peter Pan complex," he said. "We always loved that innocent wonder and that vibe."

Hootie & the Blowfish - Hold My Hand

Hootie & the Blowfish - Hold My Hand Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Cracked Rear View
Released: 1995

Hold My Hand Lyrics

With a little love and some tenderness
We'll walk upon the water
We'll rise above the mess

With a little peace and some harmony
We'll take the world together
We'll take them by the hand

'Cause I've got a hand for you, oh
'Cause I wanna run with you

Yesterday, I saw you standing there
Your head was down, your eyes were red
No comb had touched your hair

I said, get up, and let me see you smile
We'll take a walk together
Walk the road awhile, 'cause

'Cause I've got a hand for you
I've got a hand for you
'Cause I wanna run with you
Won't you let me run with you, yeah

(Hold My Hand)
Want you to hold my hand
(Hold my hand)
I'll take you to a place
Where you can be
(Hold my hand)
Anything you wanna be because
I wanna love you the best that
The best that I can

See I was wasted, and I was wasting time
'Til I thought about your problems
I thought about your crimes

Then I stood up, and then I screamed aloud
I don't wanna be part of your problems
Don't wanna be part of your crowd, no

'Cause I've got a hand for you
I've got a hand for you
'Cause I wanna run with you
Won't you let me run with you

(Hold my hand)
Want you to hold my hand
(Hold my hand)
I'll take you to the promised land
(Hold my hand)
Maybe we can't change the world but
I wanna love you the best that
The best that I can, yeah

Let me walk, oh won't you let me, let me
(Hold my hand)
Want you to hold my hand
(Hold my hand)
I'll take you to a place where you can be
(Hold my hand)
Anything you wanna be because

I oh no, no, no, no, no
(Hold my hand)
Want you to hold my hand
(Hold my hand)
I'll take you to the promised land
(Hold my hand)
Maybe we can't change the world but
I wanna love you the best that
The best that I can
Oh, best that I can

Writer/s: SONEFELD, JIM / FELBER, DEAN / BRYAN, MARK / RUCKER, DARIUS
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Hold My Hand

The band performed this in their early years when they played a lot of colleges in the South Carolina area, and a shorter version of the song was released on cassette they put together in 1993 called Kootchypop, which they sold at shows. This version had very little background vocals and few instruments. When Atlantic Records signed the band, they had them re-record the song and released it as their first single.

David Crosby, famous for his work with Crosby, Stills, and Nash, sang backup on this and some other songs on the album. Crosby is known for his ability to harmonize.

This song got a lot of airplay and helped make the Cracked Rear View album (named for a line in the John Hiatt song "Learning How To Love You") the bestseller of 1995 in the US. The single was released shortly before the album came out, and it was a slow build: The group made appearances on The Tonight Show and The Late Show With David Letterman in 1994, but their first US tour was as the openers for Big Head Todd & the Monsters.

It was in February 1995 when "Hold My Hand" reached its peak chart position, as Hootie & the Blowfish filled a niche of mellow pop that wasn't being served by the grunge and gangsta rap that was prevalent at the time.

Frontman Darius Rucker told The Boot that this was the first Hootie song he heard being played on the radio. He recalled: "The first time I heard a Hootie song, Dean Felber - our bass player for Hootie - and I were driving in his car and 'Hold My Hand' came on the radio - first time we had heard it on the radio. We were in Columbia, S.C. It came on the radio, and we were listening to it and about halfway through the song, he reached over and he turned it [up], and we just started giggling.

That was in early 1994. My heart raced. For me, it was a moment where I thought, 'Wow! This is radio... not just some college radio, we're on pop radio!' We had been playing for nine years! It thought this might really be starting to happen. I thought we might be played on the radio. I didn't think we'd get played on the radio like we eventually did. That was a great day! You never forget the first time you hear your first song on the radio - that's hard to forget."

The group did a special version of this song for the kid's TV show Sesame Street about how children should hold a grownup's hand when they cross the street. (thanks, Lisa - Bowling Green, KY)

Hootie & the Blowfish suffered a bit of a backlash from overexposure, but they were really cool in 1995. Even MTV thought so, and gave them Best New Artist Video for "Hold My Hand" at their Video Music Awards that year. Still questioning the cool? They also performed the song with Al Green in December, 1995 at the Billboard Music Awards, where Cracked Rear View was named Album of the Year.

U2 - One Tree Hill

U2 - One Tree Hill Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Joshua Tree
Released: 1987

One Tree Hill Lyrics

We turn away to face the cold, enduring chill
As the day begs the night for mercy love
The sun so bright it leaves no shadows
Only scars carved into stone
On the face of earth
The moon is up and over One Tree Hill
We see the sun go down in your eyes

You run like river, on like a sea
You run like a river runs to the sea

And in the world a heart of darkness
A fire zone
Where poets speak their heart
Then bleed for it
Jara sang, his song a weapon
In the hands of love
You know his blood still cries
From the ground

It runs like a river runs to the sea
It runs like a river to the sea

I don't believe in painted roses
Or bleeding hearts
While bullets rape the night of the merciful
I'll see you again
When the stars fall from the sky
And the moon has turned red
Over One Tree Hill

We run like a river
Run to the sea
We run like a river to the sea
And when it's raining
Raining hard
That's when the rain will
Break my heart

Raining, raining in the heart
Raining in your heart
Raining, raining to your heart
Raining, raining, raining
Raining to your heart
Raining, raining in your heart
Raining in your heart
To the sea

Oh great ocean
Oh great sea
Run to the ocean
Run to the sea

Writer/s: ADAM CLAYTON, DAVE EVANS, PAUL HEWSON, LARRY MULLEN
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

One Tree Hill Song Chart

U2 wrote this about Greg Carroll, a Māori from New Zealand who became an assistant and close friend of Bono after he met the band in 1985 while they were in his country. He was killed a year later when he was hit by a car while running an errand for Bono on Bono's motorcycle. The album The Joshua Tree, as well as this song, are dedicated to Greg Carroll.

One Tree Hill is the tallest of 5 volcanic islands in Auckland where Greg Carroll took Bono his first night in New Zealand. It is a tourist attraction in Auckland, with a monument at the summit dedicated to John Logan Campbell, one of Auckland's founding fathers.

The lyrics describe the traditional Māori burial that Greg Carroll was given at One Tree Hill.

In 1994, the One Tree Hill tree was the victim of a chainsaw attack by a Māori activist which almost ringbarked it. A further attack in 1999 all but finished the job and the life expectancy of the tree was estimated to be only three years. By October 2000, the pine had become unstable and was a danger to the public. After careful study of the condition of the tree, the decision was made to take it down. The felling operation was successfully carried out on October 26 amid much public attention, and the Auckland skyline was changed forever. (thanks, Copper - Auckland, New Zealand)

"Jara" refers to Victor Jara, a folk singer from Chile who was killed after a military uprising for his political beliefs.

Bono felt he could perform this only once, and did just one take in the studio.

There is a place in England called One Tree Hill, but it has nothing to do with this song.

The American TV show One Tree Hill, which went on the air in 2003, was named after this song. The show takes place in a fictional North Carolina town called Tree Hill. The show's creator, Mark Schwahn, decided to use the name after hearing the song. The title implies that there is only one Tree Hill- one place the characters can really call home.

Johnny Nash - I Can See Clearly Now

Johnny Nash - I Can See Clearly Now Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: I Can See Clearly Now
Released: 1972

I Can See Clearly Now Lyrics

I Can See Clearly Now, the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day.

I think I can make it now, the pain is gone
All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is the rainbow I've been prayin' for
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day.

Look all around, there's nothin' but blue skies
Look straight ahead, nothin' but blue skies

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)
Sun-Shiny day.

Writer/s: GAMBLE, KENNY / HUFF, LEON
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

I Can See Clearly Now

This is not a song about suicide, as has been hypothesized. It is a song of hope and courage for individuals who have experienced adversity in their lives but have overcome it. (thanks, Robert - Trumbull, CT)

Johnny Nash is a Texas singer/songwriter who recorded reggae-influenced music. In 1967 he went to Jamaica and recorded his song "Hold Me Tight" and a cover of Sam Cooke's "Cupid" with a local rhythm section. Both songs became hits in Jamaica, and over the next two years also charted in England and the United States. By 1972, "Cecilia" and "Mother And Child Reunion" found some success in the States incorporating reggae rhythms, and Nash followed that trend with "I Can See Clearly Now."

Nash had legitimate reggae credentials: Bob Marley (before he became crazy famous) was an assistant producer and session player on the album, and also wrote three of the songs, including "Stir It Up," which became Nash's next - and final - hit.

A cover version by Jimmy Cliff (for a time, a bigger reggae star than Bob Marley) went to #18 in the US in 1994. His version was used in the John Candy movie Cool Runnings, about the Jamaican bobsled team.

Nash wrote this song himself. He recorded it in London with members of The Average White Band, who in 1974 had a hit of their own with "Pick Up The Pieces."

This was #1 in the US for four weeks late in 1972.

This was featured in the opening sequence of the 1997 John Cusack film Grosse Pointe Blank. It was also used in the movie Themla And Louise. (thanks, Kristy - La Porte City, IA)

According to the official biography of Barclay James Harvest, "I Can See Clearly Now" sold seven million copies, and arranger Martyn Ford received the princely sum of £35 for his services. (thanks, Alexander Baron - London, England)

On November 12, 1977, Ray Charles performed this song when he was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live.

Inez & Charlie Foxx - Mockingbird

Inez & Charlie Foxx - Mockingbird Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Mockingbird
Released: 1963

Mockingbird Lyrics

Everybody have you heard?
He's gonna buy me a Mockingbird
And if that mockingbird won't sing
He's gonna buy me a diamond ring
And if that diamond ring won't shine
He's gonna surely break this heart of mine
And that's why I keep on tellin' ev'rybody, sayin'
Wo, wo, wo, wo, wo

Hear me now and understand
He's gonna find me some peace of mind
And if that peace of mind won't stay
I'm gonna find myself a better way
And if that better way ain't so
I, I, I'll ride with the tide and go with the flow
And that's why I keep on shoutin' in your ear sayin'
Wo, wo, wo, wo, wo

Everybody have you heard?
She's gonna buy me a mockingbird
And if that mockingbird won't sing
She's gonna buy me a diamond ring
And if that diamond ring won't shine
She's gonna surely break this heart of mine
And that's why I keep on tellin' ev'rybody, sayin' no, no, no, no,no

Listen now and understand
She's gonna find me some peace of mind
And if that peace of mind won't stay
I'm gonna find myself a better way
I might rise above , I might go below
I, I, I'll ride with the tide and go with the flow
And that's why I keep on shoutin' in your ears y'all
No, no, no, no, no, no, now, now, baby

Writer/s: CHARLIE FOXX, INEZ FOXX
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Mockingbird

This is based on a traditional American folk song sometimes known as "Hush Little Baby." The song is a lullaby, intended to soothe a young child to sleep with promises of expensive gifts. Northern Mockingbirds were often kept as pets in America, which explains the significance of the lyrics.

Bo Diddley used the traditional lyrics for his 1955 song "Bo Diddley," but his song had a completely different arrangement.

Inez and Charlie Foxx were brother and sister. In 1974, James Taylor and Carly Simon, who were married at the time, recorded their version, which was also a hit. Country singer Toby Keith recorded it with his teenage daughter Krystal in 2004, and that same year, Eminem made it into a song for his daughter Hailie. Eminem's song veers from the traditional lyrics as he details his struggles to raise his daughter and threatens to break the bird's neck if it doesn't sing.

Toby Keith did a duet of this song with his daughter, Krystal, for his 2004 Greatest Hits Volume 2 album.

This song is part of a key scene in the 1994 movie Dumb and Dumber , where Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels sing it for musical entertainment.

Trace Adkins - There's a Girl in Texas

Trace Adkins - There's a Girl in Texas Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Dreamin' Out Loud
Released: 1996

There's a Girl in Texas Lyrics

When I rode out of Dallas
Chasing down a dream
I thought I knew what I was looking for
But the neon nights have blinded me
'Til I'm lost in Tennessee
Not sure I know who I am anymore, but

There's a Girl in Texas
There's a girl in Texas
There's a girl in Texas
That does

You're a truly lovely lady
And you sure light up the night
I'm a lonely man but I'm leaving here alone
I won't try to lie to you
About this heart of mine
That I can't give, that I don't really own, 'cause

There's a girl in Texas
There's a girl in Texas
There's a girl in Texas
That does

If this dream that I've been chasing
Ever sets me free
And I wake up to find it don't need me, yes

There's a girl in Texas
There's a girl in Texas
There's a girl in Texas
That does

Yes, there's a girl in Texas that I still love

Writer/s: ADKINS, TRACE / VIPPERMAN, VIP
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., THIRD TIER MUSIC, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

There's a Girl in Texas Song Chart

On his Live Country! DVD, recorded on August 1, 2014 at The Paramount in Huntington, New York, Adkins said this was his "new favorite old song." Telling the story behind it, he said: "In 1992 I moved to Nashville, Tennessee. I'd been living in Dallas, playing honky-tonks out there in Texas. Fast forward to 1994, and I'm trying to get a record deal with Capitol Records. The guy says, 'Is there a girl in Texas?' I said, 'Hell yeah there's a girl in Texas. There's a bunch of girls.' He said, 'Write me a song about it.'"

With that in mind, Adkins came up with this song about leaving Texas - and in many ways his identity - behind. He knows that no matter what happens, there's a girl back in Texas who gets him.

Adkins' reality was a little different than what he sings about in this song. He moved to Nashville at the urging of his second wife, who wanted to put some distance between them and his first wife. Around the same time, he got a call from his former booking agent, who urged him to pursue his music career.

This was Adkins first single; it made a respectable showing on the Country chart, peaking at #20. He would go on to become one of the biggest names in the business, selling over 10 million albums.

Adkins wrote this song with Vip Vipperman, whose credits include "1982" by Randy Travis and "Sideways" by Darryl Worley.

The video did very well on CMT and helped launch Adkins' career. It was directed by Michael Merriman, who also did the clips for "Boot Scootin' Boogie" by Brooks & Dunn and "If I Lost You" by Travis Tritt.

Steely Dan - Deacon Blues

Steely Dan - Deacon Blues Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Aja
Released: 1977

Deacon Blues Lyrics

This is the day of the expanding man
That shape is my shade
There where I used to stand
It seems like only yesterday
I gazed through the glass
At ramblers, wild gamblers
That's all in the past

You call me a fool
You say it's a crazy scheme
This one's for real
I already bought the dream
So useless to ask me why
Throw a kiss and say goodbye
I'll make it this time
I'm ready to cross that fine line

[Chorus]
I'll learn to work the saxophone
I play just what I feel
Drink Scotch whiskey all night long
And die behind the wheel
They got a name for the winners in the world
And I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues

My back to the wall
A victim of laughing chance
This is for me
The essence of true romance
Sharing the things we know and love
With those of my kind
Libations
Sensations
That stagger the mind

I crawl like a viper
Through these suburban streets
Make love to these women
Languid and bittersweet
I'll rise when the sun goes down
Cover every game in town
A world of my own
I'll make it my home sweet home

[Chorus]

This is the night of the expanding man
I take one last drag
As I approach the stand
I cried when I wrote this song
Sue me if I play too long
This brother is free
I'll be what I want to be

Writer/s: BECKER, WALTER CARL / FAGEN, DONALD JAY
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Deacon Blues

This song has the curious chorus line of:

They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues

At the same time, the University Of Alabama was a football powerhouse, winning the National Championship in 1973 and losing just one game in each of their next two seasons under the direction of their famous coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. Alabama is known as "The Crimson Tide," a grandiose name that Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagen found amusing.

The "Deacon" is often thought to be the Wake Forest University "Demon Deacons," whose football team struggled for much of the '70s, winning just 7 games from 1972-1975. According to Fagen, however, that name came from Deacon Jones, a star football player with the Rams and Chargers who got a lot of attention in the media because of his aggressive play and outsized personality. The name fit well into the song, with "Deacon" matching up sonically with "Crimson."

The song is about a guy who Becker describes as a "Triple-L loser." He told The Wall Street Journal: It's not so much about a guy who achieves his dream but about a broken dream of a broken man living a broken life."

Fagen added: "Many people have assumed the song is about a guy in the suburbs who ditches his life to become a musician. In truth, I'm not sure the guy actually achieves his dream. He might not even play the horn. It's the fantasy life of a suburban guy from a certain subculture. Many of our songs are journalistic. But this one was more autobiographical, about our own dreams when we were growing up in different suburban communities—me in New Jersey and Walter in Westchester County."

When asked about the line, "They call Alabama the Crimson Tide, they call me Deacon Blues," Donald Fagen told Rolling Stone magazine: "Walter and I had been working on that song at a house in Malibu. I played him that line, and he said, 'You mean it's like, 'They call these cracker a--holes this grandiose name like the Crimson Tide, and I'm this loser, so they call me this other grandiose name, Deacon Blues?' and I said 'Yeah!' He said, 'Cool, let's finish it.'"

The Scottish rock group Deacon Blue, who enjoyed seven Top 20 UK hits between 1988 and 1994, took their name from this song.

Regarding the opening line, "This is the day of the expanding man," Donald Fagen cites the 1953 sci-fi novel The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester, as an influence. The book finds the main character "expanding" is mind and thinking of all the possibilities in his life.

When our hero is "ready to cross that fine line" in this song, that's the line between being a loser and being a winner, a line that according to Becker he has tried to cross before, but without success.

Musicians on this track are:

Lead Vocals, Synthesizer: Donald Fagen
Bass: Walter Becker
Drums: Bernard Purdie
Electric Piano (Fender Rhodes): Victor Feldman
Guitar: Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour
Tenor Saxophone: Pete Christlieb
Backing Vocals: Clydie King, Sherlie Matthews, Venetta Fields

The 12-second intro on this track is one of the most distinctive openings in rock. It was created by having guitarist Larry Carlton and piano player Victor Feldman play the same chords, which were layered together with drummer Bernard Purdie's cymbals.

When this song was near completion, Becker and Fagen decided they wanted a sax solo, and they had a very specific sound in mind: the tenor sax that played going to commercial on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. They tracked down the sax player in the Tonight Show band, Pete Christlieb, who recorded his part after a taping of the show. There are many tales of musicians being asked to do take after take during a Steely Dan session, but Christlieb was done in 30 minutes, and it was his second take they used. His part, and the rest of the horns, were arranged by Tom Scott.

Crash Test Dummies - Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

Crash Test Dummies - Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: God Shuffled His Feet
Released: 1993

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm Lyrics

Once there was this kid who
Got into an accident and couldn't come to school
But when he finally came back
His hair had turned from black into bright white
He said that it was from when
The cars had smashed him so hard

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

Once there was this girl who
Wouldn't go and change with the girls in the change room
But when they finally made her
They saw birthmarks all over her body
She couldn't quite explain it
They'd always just been there

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

But both the girl and boy were glad
Cause one kid had it worse than that

Cause then there was this boy whose
Parents made him come directly home right after school
And when they went to their church
They shook and lurched all over the church floor
He couldn't quite explain it
They'd always just gone there

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm

Writer/s: ROBERTS, BRAD
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm Song Chart

The song tells the story of three children whose strange experiences seem normal to them. The theme is the strength of the family unit.

The Crash Test Dummies are Canadian. They began as a cover group while lead singer Brad Roberts studied to be a professor in English literature. Roberts played guitar in the group but did not sing because he thought his voice was too deep. A vocal coach convinced him that he had a good, distinctive voice, and Roberts' deep baritone made this stand out on the radio. Even today, very few people sing as low as he does on rock records.

In 2000, Roberts was nearly killed in a car accident, but escaped with a broken arm before his car exploded. The band is named after the devices used to test the effects of car accidents on humans. They once toured with Alanis Morissette, who might consider this ironic.

This was a success on the adult album alternative (AAA) format that was gaining momentum at the time. Other artists who found success there are the Cranberries and Counting Crows.

This was the group's only US Top 40 hit, although three years earlier they had a big song with "Superman's Dead," which reached US #56 and sold over 400,000 copies in Canada.

Talking Heads guitarist Jerry Harrison produced this. He has also produced other modern rock artists like Stroke 9, Live and No Doubt.

Between the title and the unconventional vocals, disc jockeys made lots of jokes about this when they played it. Some said it sounded like "Sylvester Stallone on Quaaludes."

The band released their first album in 1991 and put out the single "Superman's Song," which hit #56 in the US. "Superman's Song" was used as the B-Side of this.

As a result of this song, The Crash Test Dummies were nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy in 1994, even though they formed in the late '80s and released their first album in 1991.

This is the longest song title made up of one letter repeated. (thanks, Adam - Wrexham, Wales)

Like black licorice or the Grateful Dead, people tend to either love this or hate it. Despite its popularity, VH1 named it one of the "Top 50 worst songs of the '90s," outraging fans of the song. (thanks, Ricky - Cabot, AR)

The Crash Test Dummies once played at the MuchMusic awards singing "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody, "Headline News" with Yankovic. They both played the music and Brad Roberts sang in his low low voice. The Weird Al version calls for the sound of kazoos right at the end. Al wasn't expecting to have this feature live on stage when singing with Roberts, but was pleasantly surprised when all the Crash Test Dummies suddenly whipped out kazoos and started "quacking" through the end of the song. (thanks, Jason - Wairoa, New Zealand)

The Clash - Jail Guitar Doors

The Clash - Jail Guitar Doors Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Clash US
Released: 1978

Jail Guitar Doors Lyrics

Let me tell you 'bout Wayne and his deals of cocaine
A little more every day
Holding for a friend till the band do well
Then the D.E.A. locked him away

Clang clang, go the Jail Guitar Doors
Bang bang, go the boots on the floor
Cry cry, for your lonely mother's son
Clang clang, go the jail guitar doors

An' I'll tell you 'bout Pete, didn't want no fame
Gave all his money away
"Well there's something wrong, it'll be good for you, son"
And so they certified him insane

And then there's Keith, waiting for trial
Twenty-five thousand bail
If he goes down you won't hear his sound
But his friends carry on anyway
Fuck 'em!
Jail guitar doors
Fifty four/forty six was my number
Jail guitar doors
Right now someone else has that number

Writer/s: STRUMMER, JOE / JONES, MICK / SIMONON, PAUL / HEADON, TOPPER
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Jail Guitar Doors

"Jail Guitar Doors" started life as a song written by singer Joe Strummer for his previous band, the 101ers, either as presently titled or given the different title "Lonely Mother's Son" - reports vary. Strummer brought the song with him to The Clash, but wasn't comfortable with playing it in his new band as he wanted a totally clean cut from the past. It was only in late 1977 that guitarist Mick Jones revisited the song and rewrote the lyrics, eventually having the band re-record it at CBS Studios in September of that year. Roadie Johnny Green remembers the session, and stated that "that funny noise at the beginning is the hi-hat, which was bent. We amplified it right up and everyone loved it."

Musically, the song takes cues from the New York Dolls' back catalogue, as well as David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel." The closing refrain is a direct lift of Toots and the Maytals' "54-46 That's My Number."

The three verses tell the story of one guitarist who gets in trouble for drug possession, which ties together with the sadness and regret of the chorus; seeing people you look up to throw their lives away in such fashion ("Clang clang, go the jail guitar doors, bang bang, go the boots on the floor").

The first verse mentions a character called Wayne ("Let me tell you 'bout Wayne and his deals of cocaine, a little more every day"), which is likely a reference to the MC5's Wayne Kramer.

The second verse discusses the fate of a Peter ("An' I'll tell you 'bout Pete, didn't want no fame, gave all his money away"), which is more than likely Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green.

The final verse is about a Keith ("And then there's Keith, waiting for trial, twenty-five thousand bail") which is very clearly The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards.

All three men were guitar heroes of Mick Jones growing up, so it would make sense that the "what a shame" feel of the lyrics would relate to Jones' own feelings upon seeing his childhood heroes locked up. After his own drug bust in July 1978, Jones would add a fourth verse into live performances discussing his hope that he doesn't end up meeting the same fate as his heroes.

The first live performance of the song came in Zurich in October 1977, a month after it was recorded, and it remained a solid feature of The Clash's live set for the next 18 months (including with Jones' self-inflicted extra verse after July 1978). It would later be released as the B-side to the "Clash City Rockers" single in 1978, and would only appear on the US version of The Clash's self-titled first album. It would eventually get a UK release on Super Black Market Clash, and in the enormous Singles Box compilation in 2006.

A number of artists have covered this song, including the Rockabilly band The Caravans in 2003, and Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke for his first solo album Pawnshop Guitars in 1994. This version featured other members of Guns N' Roses, as well as Pixies vocalist Frank Black and freelance guitarist Ryan Roxie.

The popular folk musician Billy Bragg used the title "Jail Guitar Doors" as the name for his independent initiative with the aim of providing musical equipment and funding recording projects in prisons and for ex-inmates to help use music as a way of rehabilitating prisoners and ex-convicts. A US version of the Jail Guitar Doors initiative was set up by Wayne Kramer (apropos considering his name-check in the original song) with much the same aim: to use music and performing to help rehabilitate prisoners and cut down on prison violence.

Led Zeppelin - Heartbreaker

Led Zeppelin - Heartbreaker Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Led Zeppelin II
Released: 1969

Heartbreaker Lyrics

Heartbreaker Song Chart

This opens Side 2 of Led Zeppelin II and goes right into "Livin' Lovin' Maid (she's just a woman)" on the album. Radio stations usually play them together, but "Maid" was never performed live by Led Zeppelin.

A crowd favorite, Led Zeppelin sometimes opened live shows with it.

At concerts, Jimmy Page would stretch out the guitar solo and incorporate bits of other songs, like "Greensleeves," "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)," and Bach's "Bouree in C minor."

Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones performed this at the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary concert in 1988 with Jason Bonham sitting in on drums for his late father.

Led Zeppelin opened many of their live shows in 1971 and 1972 with "Immigrant Song," followed by a segue right into this. (thanks, Adrian - Wilmington, DE)

Jimmy Page's legendary guitar solo on this song inspired a young Eddie Van Halen to create his "tapping" technique after he saw Led Zeppelin perform live at the Long Beach Arena in 1972, which can be heard on the CD How The West Was Won.

Page's unaccompanied solo is pitched slightly higher than the rest of the song. The guitarist explained to Guitar World in 1998: "The interesting thing about the solo is that it was recorded after we had already finished 'Heartbreaker' – it was an afterthought. That whole section was recorded in a different studio and it was sort of slotted in the middle."

Eddie Kramer, sound engineer on Led Zeppelin II, told Guitare & Claviers in 1994 how he ended up working on the album:

"I met Page for the first time in Pye studios when I was working on sessions of The Kinks. Page had earned a certain reputation as a studio guitarist. I also worked with John Paul Jones on a few sessions, and we became friends. Jones was a brilliant musician. He wrote arrangements for chord orchestras and he could play many instruments extremely well. Before I left England to work with Jimi Hendrix at Record Plant studio in New York, in April 1968, Jonesy had invited me at his place to have me listen to a few demos of his new group, Led Zeppelin. I remember it sounded very heavy, and I was surprised that Jimmy Page played guitar because I didn't know they were friends. Jonesy was very proud of John Bonham, an ex-mason from the north of England who could hit it hard on the drums, as well as of Robert Plant, their wild singer. While I wasn't convinced by the name they had chosen, I wished them good luck. Then in '69, I was working at Electric Lady studios when I received a call from Steve Weiss, Jimi's right-hand man, saying that Led Zeppelin was in town. Page called later to tell he wanted I help him release what they had recorded and to make a few more tracks. Led Zeppelin had been a major success for Atlantic and they were urging Jimmy to finish the second album. Their schedule however wasn't very arranging. So we ended up listening, doubling, recording and mixing in many different studios around New York, including Groove Sound, a nice R&B 8-track studio. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

The Clash - This Is Radio Clash

The Clash - This Is Radio Clash Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Essential Clash
Released: 1981

This Is Radio Clash Lyrics

Interrupting all programs

This Is Radio Clash from pirate satellite

Orbiting your living room,
Cashing in the bill of rights
Cuban army surplus or refusing all third lights
This is radio clash on pirate satellite

This sound does not subscribe
To the international plan
In the psycho shadow of the white right hand
Then that see ghettology as an urban Vietnam
Giving deadly exhibitions of murder by napalm

This is radio clash tearing up the seven veils
This is radio clash please save us, not the whales
This is radio clash underneath a mushroom cloud
This is radio clash
You don't need that funeral shroud

Forces have been looting
My humanity
Curfews have been curbing
The end of liberty

Hands of law have sorted through
My identity
But now this sound is brave
And wants to be free - anyway to be free

This is Radio clash on pirate satellite
This is not free Europe
Not an armed force network
This is Radio Clash using audio ammunition
This is Radio Clash can we get that world to listen?
This is Radio Clash using aural ammunition
This is Radio Clash can we get that world to listen?
This is Radio Clash on pirate satellite
Orbiting your living room,
Cashing in the bill of rights
This is radio Clash on pirate satellite
This is radio Clash everybody hold on tight

A-riggy diggy dig dang dang

Go back to urban 'nam

Writer/s: STRUMMER, JOE / JONES, MICK / SIMONON, PAUL / HEADON, TOPPER
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

This Is Radio Clash

The initial idea for "This Is Radio Clash" apparently came from a conversation between singer Joe Strummer, aide Kosmo Vinyl and manager Bernie Rhodes about the band setting up their own radio station. Having read Dispatches by Michael Herr, Strummer wrote the line "ghettology is an urban Vietnam" and later fleshed out the lyrics at Marcus Music in Kensington in April 1981 in the inaugural sessions before the song was completed at the Electric Lady studios in New York in November of that year.

Joe Strummer admitted in an interview with Melody Maker in 1988 that he had nicked the bassline from the Queen hit "Another One Bites The Dust" (which in itself shares many similarities with another Disco classic, Chic's "Good Times").

The song as a whole is the band's tribute to New York rap acts such as the Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - indeed, Strummer's sinister high-pitched laugh at the start of the song was directly inspired by Grandmaster Flash's "The Message."

Two sets of lyrics exist for "This Is Radio Clash" - the original, featuring references to the Bill of Rights, Napalm and the American Armed Forces Network, and a separate set that was recorded onto another take, later named just "Radio Clash." Confusingly they are both identical tracks bar the lyrics, and even feature as A and B sides on the single, which led to some mistakes in later re-releases - on the Story of the Clash Volume 1 compilation, the tracklisting lists "This Is Radio Clash," but it is in fact the "Radio Clash" version on the CD.

After the musical mish-mash of the Sandinista! album, many critics were hoping the band would get back to more traditional sound, which probably explains some of the more scathing reviews of this song when it came out, as critics tired of the band's dalliance with Hip-Hop influences. Gavin Martin, usually a supporter of the band, ripped it apart upon release in NME: "Another rag-bag of musical clichés and political simplifications sprawling, splintered fantasy which presents the zombified vision of would-be guerillas with rampant hysteria."

It's worth noting that many UK critics really took against The Clash from 1980 onwards when the band started spending more and more time in America, which in turn meant the band resented coming home more and more. Ironically, by the time of the 30th Anniversary of London Calling's release, NME were desperately trying to backtrack on their more negative comments from 1979-83, claiming that their original review of the album was highly rated. It wasn't!

Don Letts' music video for "This Is Radio Clash" drew on footage shot for the unreleased Clash on Broadway film, which was a documentary shot by Letts during 1981 as he accompanied The Clash on their New York residency in Bonds Casino, including two full gigs from their 16-gig stay at the venue across two weeks and footage of the band backstage and living life in New York. It was mooted for a November 1982 release, but perhaps due to turmoil within the band, the project was quietly forgotten about, and by 1994 Joe Strummer told Mojo magazine that "as far as I know the reels were stored in a rental place in New York. Bernie (Rhodes, their manager) forgot to pay the rent and the footage was destroyed."

A cutting copy of 30 minutes' worth of footage was found by Letts in a cupboard in the mid-1990s, and what is left of the film was put together for release on the Westway to the World DVD. One of the few surviving live performances from the Bonds shows is, ironically, of "This Is Radio Clash" in one of it's first live outings.

Me'Shell Ndegéocello - If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night)

Me'Shell Ndegéocello - If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night) Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Plantation Lullabies
Released: 1993

If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night) Lyrics

You say that's your boyfriend
You say I'm out of line
Funny he said I could call him up anytime
You can say I'm wrong say I ain't right
But if that's you boyfriend he wasn't last night

Now I'm the kind of woman
I'll do almost anything to get what I want
I might play any little game
Call me what you like but you know it's true
You're just jealous â??cause he wasn't with you
Don't mean no harm I just like what I see
And it ain't my fault if he wants me
Got what I wanted and the feeling was right
So if that's your boyfriend he wasn't last night!!!

Boyfriend boyfriend yes I had your boyfriend
Now late at night he calls me on the telephone
That's why when you call
All you get is the busy busy tone
You're upset â??cause you're one stuck-up bitch
Maybe he needed a change a switch
And who am I not to oblige
Especially if the man is fly
So call me what you like
Call me what you like
While I boot slam your boyfriend tonight

Writer/s: NDEGEOCELLO, MESHELL
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night) Song Chart

In our Meshell Ndegeocello interview , she called this "The most misunderstood song there is." She explained: "It has such bravado, but it's more about how at that time I was seeing somebody and I didn't know they had been seeing someone else. That person confronted me in public. I wasn't as pretty as they were, and they just really gave a scathing attack on my person. So that's what came to mind: 'Well, if that's your boyfriend, he wasn't last night.' That's what that song is about."

The video for this song was directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino, who made strikingly artistic videos with a cinematic quality - he previous work included Madonna's "Justify My Love" and Don Henley's "The Boys of Summer."

The video integrates the images and voices of different women who don't appear in the recording. Throughout the clip, they make statements like "I have no one to speak to" and "I'm a very jealous person, I don't like other women." The idea was to deconstruct the ideals of beauty and what they do to women. This is something Ndegeocello struggled with as soon as she gained a modicum of fame. She found that she was suddenly being judged based on her looks, with industry types trying to calibrate her weight and forge her image.

The video did well on MTV, earning MTV Video Music Awards nominations for Best New Artist in a Video and Best Female Video.

This was the most popular song on Ndegeocello's first album. It was her only Hot 100 hit as a solo artist, although in 1994 her duet with John Mellencamp on "Wild Night" went to #3.

Ndegeocello showed a lot of swagger in this song, which belied her true personality. She is actually very soft-spoken and introspective, which posed a problem when she was expected to aggressively promote her work. After a period of frustration, she retreated from the spotlight, choosing instead to focus on intimate shows. She continued to make albums that earned high acclaim - Peace Beyond Passion (1996), Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape (2002), and The Spirit Music Jamia: Dance of the Infidel (2005) were each nominated for Grammy awards - but were consumed by a smaller audience.

"I like my personal space," she told us. "I wanted to figure out how I could make music, yet not be so much into promoting myself or trying to create some sort of image."

The break in this song where Ndegeocello chants, "yes, I've got your boyfriend" was done in the style of a nursery rhyme as if she was taunting her rival. "That tone and that sort of melody is for taunting, and that's how it came to mind," she told us. "I'm going to taunt you with this, no matter what bad things you say about me. Why aren't you berating him?"