“Fantasy” – This song is so busy and loud and unrelenting in its head pounding awfulness. Can we just acknowledge the sample and put Tom Tom Club here instead? 1/5 Top 10: 1. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) – Bruce Springsteen 2. Rapper’s Delight – Sugar Hill Gang 3. Help Me – Joni Mitchell 4. Midnight Train To Georgia – Gladys Knight & The Pips 5. Cannonball - Breeders 6. The House Of The Rising Sun - Animals 7. Our Lips Are Sealed – Go-Go’s 8. You're So Vain - Carly Simon 9. White Rabbit – Jefferson Airplane 10. Limelight – Rush
RS #419 Fantasy - Mariah Carey Never been a fan of melismatic singing and Carey is a main offender of the style. Combine that with a sample from "Genius of Love", a song I really dislike, and you have a train wreck. This is the kind of song, if it comes up on the radio, I would switch to another station. Ol' Dirty Bastard manages to add another layer of annoyance to the track.
Fantasy (Mariah Carey) "Fantasy" is a decent song and a good showcase for Carey's vocal abilities. Overall I think Carey's chart numbers have outweighed her actual talent, but in this case the hit is deserved. This would be the one Carey song I would possibly put in my own top 500. RATING: 4/5 My List: 1. Rosalita-Bruce Springsteen 2. Help-Beatles 3. California Dreamin-Mama's & Papa's 4. Loser-Beck 5. House Of The Rising Sun-The Animals 6. White Rabbit-Jefferson Airplane 7. Criminal-Fiona Apple 8. Don't Fear The Reaper-Blue Oyster Cult 9. You're So Vain - Carly Simon 10. Buddy Holly-Weezer 11. Cannonball-Breeders 12. Under Pressure-Queen & David Bowie 13. Help Me-Joni Mitchell 14. Get Lucky-Daft Punk ft. Pharell Williams 15. Summertime Blues-Eddie Cochran 16. Summertime Sadness-Lana Del Rey 17. I Can't Help Myself-Four Tops 18. Move On Up-Curtis Mayfield 19. Oy Como Va-Santana 20. Baby Love - Supremes 21. Without You - Nilsson 22. Rapper's Delight-Sugarhill Gang 23. Fade Into You-Mazzy Star 24. Come As You Are-Nirvana 25. LImelight-Rush 26. Passionate Kisses-Lucinda Williams 27. Our Lips Are Sealed-Go Go's 28. Crying-Roy Orbison 29. Midnight Train To Georgia-Gladys Knight & Pips 30. Sheena Is A Punk Rocker-Ramones 31. Fantasy-Mariah Carey 32. If I Ain't Got You-Alicia Keys 33. Sunday Morning Coming Down-Kris Krisofferson 34. Cross Road Blues-Robert Johnson 35. Solsbury Hill-Peter Gabriel 36. The House That Built Me-Miranda Lambert 37. They Reminisce Over You-Pete Rock & CL Smooth 38. Goodbye Earl-The Chicks 39. Boom Boom-John Lee Hooker 40. Pancho And Lefty-Townes Van Zandt 41. Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper 42. Africa-Toto 43. Into The Mystic-Van Morrison 44. Mannish Boy -Muddy Waters 45. So What-Miles Davis 46. West End Girls (Pet Shop Boys) 47. Cosmic Dancer-T Rex 48. Powderfinger-Neil Young 49. Stand By Your Man-Tammy Wynette 50. Living On A Prayer-Bon Jovi I've reached 50 I consider OK, so let the next cuts begin!
"Fantasy" Unlike with Craig Mack's "Flava in Ya Ear," the Puff Daddy remix of "Fantasy" was planned from the get-go. All of the six (yes, six) commercial formats of the single contain both the album version, which was the version played on the radio, and the "Bad Boy with O.D.B." remix, as it was labeled. "Fantasy" was issued as a 45, cassette single, and two-track CD single, all of which had the same two tracks. It also was issued as a maxi-cassette and maxi CD single, each of which has five versions of "Fantasy," and a two-record 12-inch single set with a total of nine mixes. Additionally, two promo CD singles were sent to radio. One has only one track, the 4:04 album version, which most stations played, and the other is a five-track alternative that includes four of the five mixes on the stock maxi-CD plus a 3:45 radio mix, remixed by David Morales, that was not available on any of the six stock versions. For those keeping score at home, that makes 10 versions. --- I am not a fan of Mariah Carey. I don't like her vocal histrionics, which tend to get in the way of rather than helping a song. I also think that almost all of her hits are as memorable as what I had for lunch two days ago. I hardly ever hear any of her 1990s hits on the radio today, even on stations that say they play hits of the nineties. As far as I'm concerned, Mariah made one great single, and when it was first released in 1994, it was only a radio single in the U.S. -- "All I Want for Christmas Is You." That is a modern classic. If she did more music like that, or even like most of the rest of her first Christmas album, I would likely feel better about her success. She's had way more #1 hits than she deserves, and a couple are among the worst chart-toppers ever, but I won't deny the greatness of her original Christmas song. Of her non-holiday fare, "Dreamlover" was decent, as was her MTV Unplugged remake of the Jackson Five's "I'll Be There." But once you get beyond that, there's a whole lotta nothin'. As for "Fantasy," once I played it -- the original, not the remix -- I remembered it immediately. It was hard to escape when it came out. But as is true with most of Carey's hits, it has vanished into oldies purgatory. I guess most of her hits don't test well with today's audiences. I probably hadn't heard "Fantasy" in 20-plus years, and hadn't really wanted to. In 76 volumes of A Few of My Favorite Things so far (Volume 77 is in progress), I haven't included a single Mariah Carey song (I have a separate Christmas series, and "All I Want..." is on one of those), and I'm not about to start now.
The Smiths - How Soon is Now? The Smiths were a great band with a unique vocalist and a unique guitarist. And the greatness of this song should be credited to both Marr and Morrissey. While this song is not representative of what their catalog sounds like, it is a really good song that creates an emotional response (from me, anyway). When I was in High School, the Smiths were considered one of the cool "college rock" bands. I liked them, but I grew to love them over the years. Is this a Top 500 song of all time? Yes, I think it is. I'll rank it #11 on my updated list. Could have been a little higher or a little lower, but 11 feels right. 1. John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom 2. Blue Oyster Cult – Don’t Fear the Reaper 3. Muddy Waters – Mannish Boy 4. Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up 5. Queen + David Bowie – Under Pressure 6. Gladys Knight & The Pips - Midnight Train to Georgia 7. Rush - Limelight 8. Neil Young - Powderfinger 9. Go-Gos - Our Lips Are Sealed 10. Santana - Oye Cómo Va 11. The Smiths – How Soon is Now? 12. Mötorhead – Ace of Spades 13. Carly Simon - You're So Vain 14. Joni Mitchell - Help Me 15. The Animals - The House of the Rising Sun 16. Lady Gaga - Bad Romance 17. Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle 18. Nirvana - Come As You Are 19. Lucinda Williams – Passionate Kisses 20. Roy Orbison – Crying 21. The Four Tops – I Can’t Help Myself 22. Pixies - Where is My Mind? 23. Beatles – Help! 24 Ramones – Sheena is a Punk Rocker 25. Van Morrison - Into the Mystic 26. Fiona Apple - Criminal 27. Bruce Springsteen - Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) 28. Tammy Wynette - Stand by Your Man 29. Pet Shop Boys – West End Girls 30. Robert Johnson - Cross Roads Blues
The Mamas and the Papas - California Dreamin Wow, two worthy songs in a row! This is easily my favorite song by this band. The vocals and melody are great, but I gotta admit it's the guitar intro that I like the best. It would likely make my Top 500, but so would Bobby Womack's cover. Have any of you heard it? I'll rank it #19 out of 81. 1. John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom 2. Blue Oyster Cult – Don’t Fear the Reaper 3. Muddy Waters – Mannish Boy 4. Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up 5. Queen + David Bowie – Under Pressure 6. Gladys Knight & The Pips - Midnight Train to Georgia 7. Rush - Limelight 8. Neil Young - Powderfinger 9. Go-Gos - Our Lips Are Sealed 10. Santana - Oye Cómo Va 11. The Smiths – How Soon is Now? 12. Mötorhead – Ace of Spades 13. Carly Simon - You're So Vain 14. Joni Mitchell - Help Me 15. The Animals - The House of the Rising Sun 16. Lady Gaga - Bad Romance 17. Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle 18. Nirvana - Come As You Are 19. The Mamas and the Papas - California Dreamin 20. Lucinda Williams – Passionate Kisses 21. Roy Orbison – Crying 22. The Four Tops – I Can’t Help Myself 23. Pixies - Where is My Mind? 24. Beatles – Help! 25 Ramones – Sheena is a Punk Rocker 26. Van Morrison - Into the Mystic 27. Fiona Apple - Criminal 28. Bruce Springsteen - Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) 29. Tammy Wynette - Stand by Your Man 30. Pet Shop Boys – West End Girls
Adore B+ There are a bunch of other songs I like on this album more as individual songs, but Adore is an inextricable part of the Sign o the Times whole. Under Pressure B+ I like David Bowie, don't particularly like Queen, and this collaboration ends up being better than I would have predicted. I lived through Vanilla Ice in real time, though, and this doesn't work as well for me anymore, as it might have. Rapper's Delight B+ Classic and historically important, but I think of this more as a fun novelty song. Super Bass B- Eh. Mannish Boy A- Historically huge, but there are also other versions that I like as much or more. No Diggity B I like the video. Pretty good soul/hip-hop. Criminal B- OK-ish bluesy shuffle, but nothing particularly special about it, IMO. Flava In Ya Ear B How Soon is Now? A Contender for my favorite Smiths song. It just goes to show that a little Bo Diddley can be incorporated into just about anything if you're creative enough - even Morrissey's self-flagellations. California Dreamin' A- One of my favorite songs from Mamas and Papas; though I can't really call myself that big a fan of the ensemble; they seem to me more like definitive period wall art than a band whose fortunes and output I felt the desire to dig deep into . Also, if given the choice I think I'd prefer listening to the Wes Montgomery version, but then again I'm a pretty big Wes Montgomery fan. Fantasy B If you're going to put a peppy pop song on top of a Genius of Love loop, you've got me in for the duration, even if it's Mariah Carey. Not the greatest stretch of tunes here, IMO.
#420 The Mamas and the Papas - California Dreamin' I can't help but associate this song with the Beach Boys, which makes sense given its release date. The superior Mamas and the Papas version is an excellent 60s pop song, breezy but with tension at the same time, where all parts of the songs work in harmony. The Mamas and the Papas are a band that I would quite like to appear on the album thread, as I don't know their material as well as I ought and it would give me impetus to review it. #419 Mariah Carey - Fantasy Better than the majority of Mariah Carey songs, although that is very much a backhanded compliment to the doyenne of vocal excess.
Fantasy: I don't mind this, although that's probably mostly because of the borrowed beats. But their rhythm is so good that melismatic vocals, normally the bane of my existence (or one of them at least) can't really detract from it. Listening to (an abbreviated "official" YouTube video) Genius of Love after Mariah, it's fairly easy to see that there's not really much of a song there, as the rhythm is paramount, but it's such a good one that it hardly matters. Ironically, for the past few weeks I've been frequently subjected to a YouTube commercial featuring precisely this borrowed song (for the record, the video has a white guy and a black woman who are dating, and they're out in the boonies somewhere roughing it, and it's probably about a car with lots of space or something). I knew I had heard the song before (not true for Mariah though), but couldn't identify it. But now I can! LOL. I reckon it was a CFNY staple for a while in the '80s. Anyway, to sum up, I like Fantasy, despite not being a Mariah fan at all before (although I don't mind All I Want for Christmas is You). But that's really because I like Genius of Love, despite its shortcomings.
It's a little puzzling sometimes when during most of the '90s labels seemed to want to get away from releasing singles, but sometimes they'd be available on SIX formats. Didn't it cost them a lot of money to manufacture and distribute six different formats? Let alone all those remixes? They must have had to sell a lot to break even. The '90s were a strange time. Some singles would get all six formats - and others just one! Not to mention that by the mid-90s, there were a handful of 45s released with picture sleeves again. Mariah had a few coming up soon after this one. I'm glad that the album version was on all six of these formats, because sometimes it was very hard to get the exact mix of the song you wanted.
Releasing six different formats at the same time was a good way to game the numbers in an era when sales still made up a significant part of the Billboard Hot 100 chart formula. It was one of the many games that labels started playing once they realized that, based on radio-play numbers, a song could actually debut at #1 if it was sent to, and played by, radio a few weeks before it was released for sale. Other games came along in addition to the six-format release. The biggest other two were the all-but-free cassette single, which was the dominant single format in the mid-1990s (shortly replaced by the CD single in card stock). Labels would give them away to chain record stores, who then sold them for a pittance to help the sales numbers. (SoundScan was based on quantity, not dollar amount; a cassette single that sold for 29 cents counted the same as one that sold for $2.99.) And the other one: Once a song was released to stores, labels often deleted the single format(s) immediately, thus forcing those who snoozed and lost to buy the album if they wanted the song. This latter scheme would have long-term negative effects on the industry. Once in a while, a label would cancel a single entirely if it didn't get the airplay numbers it was expecting. The most notable case I can think of is a 1997 song called "Tell Him," a duet by Celine Dion and Barbra Streisand. Some copies of the 45 and CD single escaped, but in the U.S., it was never officially released.
Mariah Carey – Fantasy What's to be said here? Well, I am no Mariah fan. But I am a Talking Heads fan, and to an extent a Tom Tom Club fan. So since she's just basically singing over Genius of Love, that means I'd consider it to be one of my favorite Mariah songs (an easy #2, since I can only think of two Mariah songs I would choose to listen to). I wouldn't put this in my Top 500 songs, Genius of Love would have a better shot, but I'm not sure it would make my list either. I like ODB, but the so-called remix does zero for me. Our friend @Terrapin Station nailed my thoughts on the looped sample. I'll rank it #61 out of 82 - above Rapper’s Delight but below In da Club.
California Dreaming epitomizes a certain sound, and is as such a great pop record. Not a M&P fan generally, but this would almost certainly make my top 500 list, if I were to compile one. At least as a record if not necessarily as a song. Mariah's "Fantasy" is so awful to me that I can't even begin to express that without being insulting in ways that could get me banned for violating forum rules. Banal is just the beginning. Just no.
I remember those days! You had to decide really quickly if you wanted the single or not, because if you waited too long odds are you wouldn't be able to find it. Some of those '90s singles are very limited. I know about Tell Him - I'd love to have a copy but have never seen one. I guess the copies that did leak out are pretty hard to find.
I was away for a few days and figured that I had quite some reading up to do with this thread. But it seems there haven't been any updates/new songs posted since Friday. I hope the OP finds some time soon to continue with the countdown. It's interesting to read the (at times very varying) opinions of the participats.
I don't know why we would be complaining about the services we are receiving for free from Terrapin Station. When he posts the next song, I will be here to give my opinion.
According to his profile, he's not been online since Friday, so let's give him a break and hope all is well.
I forgot he was the one doing this - I think he made a post somewhere indicating that he was going to be traveling for several days. I guess that explains it.
"Flava in Ya Ear (Remix)" - Craig Mack feat. Notorious B.I.G., LL Cool J, Busta Rhyms & Rampage (1994) Never listened to this before. It’s ok. Wouldn’t listen to it again.
How Soon Is Now - The Smiths One of my favourite songs. Bought the 12” when it was released and played it all the time. On the one occasion I saw them live at the Edinburgh Playhouse this was the highlight and at the end of the whole audience were chanting “Johnny Marr, Johnny Marr, Johnny Marr”. One of the greatest moments of any show I’ve been to. As others have mentioned it is a bit different from most Smiths songs but it’s one of their best. Definitely a very high ranking song for me.
"California Dreamin'" - The Mamas and the Papas Absolutely wonderful song. Love the words, music, vocals and harmonies. A genuine classic. The instrumental performance is so 60s but the vocals still sound so fresh. A top tier song for me
