Gloria Gaynor's 30th anniversary of I Will Survive

Gaynor to appear on nationally syndicated show Better TV

– February 27th Nashville, TN – After 30 years of its release, Gloria Gaynor continues to ride the success of "I Will Survive," touring the country and the world over and performing her signature song on dozens of TV shows. A few successful remixes of the song during the 1990s and 2000s along with new versions of the song by Diana Ross, Chantay Savage, rock group Cake and others as well as constant recurrent airplay on nearly all Soft AC and Rhythmic format radio stations have helped to keep the song in the mainstream.

Now in 2008, Gloria celebrates the 30th Anniversary of her Grammy Award winning song. The lyrics of this song are written from the point of view of a woman, recently dumped, telling her former lover that she can cope without him and does not want anything more to do with him. The song has become something of an anthem of female emancipation, and is still a staple of office parties and karaoke nights.

This past weekend you may have seen Gloria Gaynor appear on The Food Network as part of Paula’s Party where she and Paula Deen cooked up some Chicken ala Gaynor!! Tomorrow, February 27th Gloria will appear on the nationally syndicated talk show Better TV and in the coming weeks she will make an appearance on Fox’s highly-rated Don’t Forget The Lyrics with host Wayne Brady as well as Showtime at the Apollo.
Our 2008 interview with Gloria Gaynor
Gloria Gaynor official website

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Grammy whining, Justice and injustice

The selection of Grammy nominees for 2008 seems fairer this time compared to last year. Or maybe the quality of music is for something, or maybe, for a change, they are more open to artists from abroad. How else can you explain that Justice is nominated for best album in the dance category, head to head with LCD Soundsystem and the Chemical Brothers. For this reason I will look forward to sit in front of the TV in the hope of seeing James Murphy or Justice pick up the trophy, I think Murphy will win. When most complain that some were not nominated crying and whining, let's be analytical.

Now for the injustice part that no one noticed... How come one can get a second chance, that is, get nominated for whatever after being nominated the previous year, even if the song has been released the previous year, even though it is clearly stated that this year's nominees are nominated ...

For recordings released during the Eligibility Year
October 1, 2006 through September 30, 2007

and for last year ...

For recordings released during the Eligibility Year
October 1, 2005 through September 30, 2006

Justin Timberlake's Future Sex/Lovesound was nominated for album of the year and Best Pop Vocal Performance and SexyBack for best dance recording and "My Love" for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration last year, and this year, "What Goes Around…Comes Around" is nominated for Record Of The Year AND Best Male Pop Vocal Performance AND Best Dance Recording for "LoveStoned/I Think She Knows" all from from the Future Sex/Lovesound album.

Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous" from the album "Loose" was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Collaboration last year, "Say it right" also from the "Loose" album" is nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance this year.

Christina Aguilara for Best Pop Vocal performance for "Ain't no other man" from the "Back to Basics" album last year, and this year also nominated in the same category for "Candy Man" also from the "Back to Basics" album.

Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for "Ring The Alarm" from the "B'Day" album also nominated Best Contemporary R&B Album for Beyoncé last year. This year Beyoncé is nominated again in the record of the year category for "Irreplaceable" also from the same "B'Day" album AND Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals for "Beautiful Liar".

Out of the five nominees for Record of The year this year, 2 of them are "old news", Beyonce and Justin head to head with Rihanna, Foo Fighters and Amy Winehouse. Amy or Rihanna should win this one.

Now you know where the real injustice lies.

Image source: Beyonce Live DVD at Amazon.com

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Chips TV Show DVD... and CD

Now you probably heard of the release of the Chips DVD recently, but we just found out a soundtrack cd was issued a few years back. Expect the usual car chase themes and a few disco stylish instrumental nuggets.

70s Shows like Chips, Wonder Woman, Battlestar Galactica are not only very popular on DVD format, they also cater to the younger generations looking for an alternative to violent, uncool and overtly explicit TV shows.

CHiPs Volume One: Season Two 1978-79

Here's the tracklist... :

1. Main Title (Parker, arr. Silvestri) 1:18
2. Peaks and Valleys 3:52
3. Family Crisis 5:41
4. Disaster Squad 6:19
5. Neighborhood Watch 3:33
6. High Flyer 6:15
7. Trick or Treat (Bruce Broughton) 5:56
8. The Grudge 5:12
9. The Sheik 5:44
10. Return of the Turks 5:37
11. Supercycle 2:45
12. High Explosive 4:46
13. Down Time 2:48
14. Repo Man 2:12
15. Mait Team 4:03
16. Pressure Point 2:43
17. Rally 'Round the Bank 2:24
18. Matchmakers 2:39
19. Ponch's Disco (From "Peaks and Valleys") 3:59
20. End Credits (Parker, arr. Silvestri) :26



Find the cd here
or the DVD here

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Nominee hosting a music award show = 1-2 trophies

I have not seen all award shows ever produced in the last 12 month, so wanna make this clear before you read further.

Is it me? or isn't it suspicious that everytime a nominee host an award show, they always leave with a trophy.

There should be a law that prohibits a nominee in hosting a show, cause in recent times I have never seen a nominee artist leave empty handed.

So until they implement this new rule, next time a nominee artist host a music award show, you can predict what's gonna happen before it happens.

Is it because some artist have big egos? or "the corporates" will never let artists from their stable, host a show if they don't win, simple! I assume it's more often the later.

Most blatant example was the Canadian Juno Awards 2007 on April 1st that was taped before broadcast.

So when is the next music award show and who will host it...

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Prince, blobs and interpretation

Freudian Psychodynamic theory, tell me what you see.

Psychologists sometimes uses images, show them to their patients and ask: "What do you see?". Those images most often are like globs and blobs of various shapes.

Prince? Some have complained that during the Superbowl, Prince's guitar looked way too phallic, during the behind the huge winded drape episode. A veiled attempt to cause another scandal like the Janet Jackson nipple incident? Nope, didn't happen, thanks Prince, that was hilarious.

See the image that shocked a few here along with the story

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Isn't she lovely; Amy the powerhouse

Once in a while comes an incredible performer that blows your mind.

It was another average evening where I was working on the computer and the TV was on in the background. The Brit Awards were being broadcasted that night. The Scissor Sisters performed and surely caught my attention. Thinking nothing could top them off, afterwards, went back to the keyboard, then later, that big female voice echoed in the room, I looked at the TV and saw an incredibly stunning singer looking strangely like Eva Mendes with a huge beehive, dressed retro, backed up with what looked like a blues band all dressed in black, she had tatoos on her arms, who is she? Amy Winehouse. She later grabbed an award that night and I've been hooked on her ever since.

People have said all sort of things about her, some true some not, that she's a transgender, a junkie, an alcoholic, a lesbian. Artists have the right to be freaks or outside the norm, they don't have to be role models. At least Amy is being herself, not molded by her manager or a record company like most artists in the US right now.

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Oscar winner Ennio Morricone's disco style

Morricone received a well deserved and long overdue honorary Oscar for his outstanding contribution to movie scores at the Kodak Theatre February 25th.

Let's look briefly to disco gems bearing his name...

Pictured here is "Disco '78" 12 inch EP, with the disco version of Come Maddalena arranged by Ennio himself and produced by Laurent Rossi, a gem in mellow orchestra disco. It is also amongts Jussi Kantonen's top 100 classics of all time -mentionned here- in 7 inch 45 version.

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly - starring Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef- received the disco treatment by Jurgen Gordulestch (Gaz) on the oh-so-famous Salsoul label in 1979. Its extended break is a delight to savour, arrangements were provided by Thor Baldursson, orchestral and super groovy to boost. If that wasn't enough, the B-Side is the disco breaky Sing, Sing, in which parts have been sampled countless times in early hip-hop and rap classics from the late 70s well into the early 90s. It was pressed in "marbled" lilac vinyl laced with pink and blue streaks, it's been in our disco records section since 2002 here.

There are a few other disco interpretations of Ennio Morricone's songs around. Black Light Orchestra had "A man and his harmonica" discofied beautifully, again, orchestral and soothing, it is also mentioned on the site here.


Thank you Ennio for your music.

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Lionel Richie at the AMA failed to show he was a legend

You've heard that one numerous times from judges on those "I wanna be an idol" shows; "That's the wrong song for you!"

Lionel Richie sang "All Night long" in its entirety at the AMA (American Music Award) last week and failed to get the audience dancing (they did but forcibly, like almost at the end), you might have noticed how hard he worked to get the audience to respond, saying "Come on! Come on everybody! All night loooong!!! Come on!", with arms waving to get up, Jay-Z didn't have to 20 minutes or so earlier.

No one can sing it better than Richie himself but old school fans and those who look at Richie as the master of cool, (remember how he played the sax and was the essence of the Commodores), he could have tored the house down with a potpourri starting with Machine Gun followed by Brick House, Truly, Lady you bring me up, Three times a lady and do a sax solo to top it off, Kenny Rogers could have showed up to give an accolade, remember when Kenny and Lionel worked well together for a few years in the late 70s period.

I'm sorry Lionel, I have tremendous respect for you, but if I would have been your advisor that night, that's exactly what I would have orchestrated and the promotion of your new CD ("I call it love" wasn't a good choice either) should have been relegated to another award show. This was an achievement award and you missed a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate the three times a legend that you truullllllyyyyyyy are.

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MTV's European Music Awards

Non stop entertainment at the EMA.

I usually don't care for "mainstream" commercial music but I have to admit mainstream commercial music is getting fun again.

The edited TV version of MTV's EMA started with Justin Timberlake's performance of Sexy Back and My Love, absolutely amazing I was blown away. Nelly Furtado with her 80s pop dance style "Maneater" was delicious to watch. I've seen Nelly Furtado live back in her "Like a bird" days and can confirm she is truly talented and a real artist.

Christina Aguilera won, unfortunately we would have like a performance, her latest album is refreshing.

Christina, Nelly and Justin's latest releases all have a point in common, going back to the old school, bringing back the funk/soul/pop-dance, the synthesizers, the horns, catchy melodies and sometimes silly fun lyrics.

And Soft Cell's Tainted Love from 1981 reprised by Rihanna, I don't know what's up with Soft Cell by thanks to royalties, they are getting due recognition for a one hit wonder.

Genius Pharell Williams gave a hug to Justin, Kanye West made a fool of himself, Snoop was doing the same 'ol tired gangsta/pimp rap crap. Snoop is good as long as he has Pharell behind him production wise (Beautiful, Drop it like it's hot, Signs, etc.) ...

And there's this new crazy rock band from Danemark dressed like ghoulish monsters, KISS they ain't, these guys are funny to watch, forgot their name.

Borat gave more of himself , the guy dressed as Madonna was edited out of the Edited TV version, both Borat and the Madonna cross dresser made fun at Madonna's latest adoption.

There was a sketch filmed in Copenhagen with Justin and a cardboard life size David Hasselhoff, Justin was asking passerbys,"Who's sexier, me or Hasselhoff". In the last minutes, Rachel Dratch formerly of Saturday Night Live was dressed as an old lady, Rachel is hilarious, like all others she answered "Hasselhoff".

If you missed it, you missed a lot. YouTube has a few excerpts.

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