I still maintain - it is SO much easier to criticize poor choices 40 years on than it was in January 19"whatever year you want". I wonder what some people here would have chosen if they were on the nominating committee for the best new artist of 2019. Wonder how right you would have been if we were discussing this in the year 2060. Do you see what I mean??
I think when the most memorable thing about your soundtrack is a 70 year old Scott Joplin tune, you probably don't merit a Best New Artist Grammy.
Pretty much sums that song up completely. "Da Da Da" peaked at #3 thanks to "Up Where We Belong" & "Gloria".
"Da Da Da" had a second run in the states in 96-97 because of a Volkswagen commercial that proved popular enough that Island threw together a Trio "Greatest Hits" to cash in and it made the charts. A lot of us had no idea it was already a 15 year old song because it sounded remarkably fresh in 1997. The passenger in the commercial, Antwon Tanner, went on to play Skillz on One Tree Hill
At #25 is a good one - The Spoons, Arias and Symphonies: It's maybe not quite Nova Heart or (my favourite) No Electrons, but still very good and the title track off their LP
If your soundtrack sparks the biggest interest in its genre in 70 years, and if you did the arrangements and also composed some new songs that were so stylistically accurate listeners couldn't tell they were new without looking at the writer's credit, I don't see the problem.
Now as to "Up Where We Belong": This has to be the most successful chart single to Buffy Sainte-Marie's credit, as she was the co-writer of this - along with Jack Nitzsche and Will Jennings (not Waylon). More so, it would seem, than what (by all the covers over the years, including Elvis) would have been her signature tune, "Until It's Time For You To Go." They would win an Oscar and Golden Globes Award for this - and Mr. Cocker and Ms. Warnes, a Grammy.
Right. This was what it was about before it turned into a s**t show. I actually don't have a problem with ATOH and they were certainly better than the 76 and 77 Best New Artist winners... it's just that hindsight is a bitch and a year that launched a substantial number of Hall Of Fame acts (Kate Bush isn't a Hall member but many have argued for her inclusion) lost when they turned out to be some of the biggest and most influential names of the next 10-15 years.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame doesn't get it any better than the Grammy Best New Artist awards, and the Hall has the benefit of decades of hindsight. So.
For a year with so much interesting stuff going on, so much tedious crap managed to top the charts. It's sorta the reverse of 1981, where the #1's were generally vastly superior to the rest of the countdown. I was so sick of Lionel Richie and these **** ballads by this point I spun the dial the second I heard some of his crap fire up. Who the hell was listening to this elevator muzak?
His Can’t Slow Down album flew off the shelf when I owned a record store. I’m sure the women loved his stuff. I thought it was okay but hard to listen to now. Especially Truly.
I am very surprised this song hit #1! It doesn't even sound like a #1 to me. It's not a bad song, and I like it, but it's a very unlikely song to hit the top spot, at least on the pop chart.
Yeah when I think back on Lionel’s run this couldn’t be further from what comes to mind. I started to lose track of what topped the charts from this point until 1986 or so outside of the obvious ones. This one definitely wasn’t obvious
“Truly” proves one thing: There is no “truly” such thing as rock bottom - it can always get worst. What a dreadful song. I really liked Lionel Richie when he was in the Commodores, and even liked some of his ballads. But, this is awful.
I like some of Lionel Richie's ballads, including one we'll be discussing here in a while. Never liked "Truly", however.
It’s a strange performance to dissect and critique...putting the impossibly dated production and era wardrobe choices aside...she’s actually singing to a canned track...by herself...in front of the entire music industry, with friends and collaborators in the audience...while essentially doing aerobics in heals...and she delivered a near pitch perfect vocal most folks would kill to be able to pull off without the use of auto tune or other production tricks. The net effect is still cringe inducing, but there’s a LOT about it to applaud.
I agree. Never cared for "Truly". It sounded to much like "Still" (another song that I'm not all that fond of). "You Are", one the other hand, boasts a memorable chorus that sticks in your head.
I don't remember this one at all, and I'm afraid to watch the YouTube clip and have my memory click into place. I know 15 year old me hated it in 1982.