Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is  “Come/Go/Leave/Stay.”

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Easy song selection choice for this week’s prompt… but we have to get in the Wayback Machine and travel back to 1986.

Written by S. S. Wilson and Brent Maddock, Short Circuit was a comic science film directed by John Badham. The film’s plot centers upon an experimental military robot that is struck by lightning and gains a human-like intelligence, with which it embarks to explore. Short Circuit starred Ally Sheedy and Steve Guttenberg, but the real star was Johnny 5 (Number 5), the “living robot.”

The film was cute, but it wasn’t a blockbuster. However, it was a favorite of my late husband and me, and we couldn’t wait to grab a copy when the movie was released on VHS. (Remember, I said it was 1986! 😀 )

No soundtrack was forthcoming at the time because there really weren’t any memorable songs… except for the song that played over the end credits.

Come and Follow Me was sang by Max Carl and Marcy Levy–two artists we’d never heard of… or since–but we fell in love with the lyrics and music and it sort of became our theme song, especially on family outings with our children. My husband warbling the song at the top of his lungs was something to behold… and hear! 😀 😀 😀  I really miss his silliness.

The video is Come and Follow Me played over montages from the movie.

FUN FACTS

• Although no soundtrack album was released at the time, El DeBarge had a chart hit with the single Who’s Johnny (Theme from Short Circuit).
• The sequence in the film depicting Number 5 watching the movie Saturday Night Fever (and imitating John Travolta’s dance moves) is an in-joke: Saturday Night Fever and Short Circuit were both directed by John Badham.
• During Stephanie’s impromptu news interview, director John Badham makes a cameo appearance as the news cameraman.
• Number 5 was the most expensive part of the film, requiring several different versions to be made for different sequences. Almost everything else in the film was relatively inexpensive, allowing them to allocate as much money as they needed for the robot character. Number 5 was designed by Syd Mead, the “visual futurist” famous for his work on Blade Runner and Tron.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for FeliciaDenise.com.

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is  “I/Me/Them/Us/You/We.”

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I found over three dozen songs in my playlists that included the word you. I narrowed it down to ten, then two, based on song rotations… and I still couldn’t decide.

So you get both! 😀

So Into You, performed by Canadian R&B singer Tamia, was released as the third single from her self-titled debut album on June 23, 1998. The song became an R&B hit, peaking at number seven on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

Soul rock power ballad, Move You, is from Kelly Clarkson eighth studio album, Meaning of Life. It was released as a promotional single only in September of 2017. While I love the entire album, Move You, IMHO, is the best track and should have had a wide release.

FUN FACTS

• The music video for So Into You was created by Harvey White and premiered on American TV in June 1998. It reached the top ten on BET’s video countdown and received a Directorial Debut of the Year nomination at the MVPA Awards.
• The concept of the video was based on Tamia and Grant Hill (her future husband) having to be in a sort of long distance relationship at the beginning due to his travel. (They married in 1999.)
• In 2003, amid the recording of her third album More, doctors at Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina diagnosed Tamia with multiple sclerosis. The singer went into subsequent treatment, using corticosteroids to help delay the onset of more severe symptoms. Diagnosed early, the illness has since been in remission though she has occasional but controllable symptoms.
• Kelly Clarkson premiered Move You live on The Today Show on September 8, 2017, followed by a reprise on the television special EIF Presents: XQ Super School Live the same evening.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for FeliciaDenise.com.

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is  “Babe/Cutie/Doll/Honey/Sweetie.”

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I’ve chosen another smooth groove R&B oldie that has remained on my playlists in one form or another since my teen years.

Oh Honey was a Top Ten hit for Delegation in 1978. The song about a man’s undying affection for his lady-love was the go-to slow dance song at house parties and clubs, and always in the line-up for any Quiet Storm jam session.

No one knew anything about Delegation at the time, so imagine everyone’s surprise to find out they were a British group! That made them a novelty and even more popular for the next two years.

Oh Honey reached #6 on the U.S. Billboard R&B Chart and #45 on the U.S. Billboard Pop chart.

While Delegation would enjoy success internationally well  into the 80s (especially in France), their last song to chart in the U.S. was In Love’s Time in 1981 which peaked at #54 on the  U.S. R&B.

FUN FACTS

• Ricky Bailey founded Delegation — a three-man group that changed members frequently, with Bailey the only constant — in the United Kingdom in 1975. Bailey, a native of Jamaica, moved to Britain with his parents as a teen, settling in Birmingham, where he formed his first group, the Five Star Cadets. The short-lived group provided invaluable experience and helped Bailey when he was putting Delegation (Bailey, Len Coley, and Roddy Harris) together.
• In 1979, Delegation released Eau De Vie, on the Ariola label and had international hits with Heartache #9, You And I and Put A Little Love On Me.
•  Bailey and Ken Gold formed Euro-Jam Records in the mid-90s to repackage Delegation recordings and record artists.
• The band still occasionally perform their old hits at gigs around Europe led by Rick Bailey and several former band members, most recently appearing in a sold out gig at an intimate venue in Paris in October 2018.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for FeliciaDenise.com.

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is  “Duets.”

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I’m in my third year of participating in Song Lyric Sunday and I cannot remember a more difficult theme than this week’s duets simply because there are SO MANY to choose from!

Whether it’s by generations/decades, genres or music eras, anyone can easily name a dozen.

As I narrowed my choices down, my love of duets from movie soundtracks became more than apparent. With a list of nine, I couldn’t say any one song was my favorite and choose just two–one for here and one for FeliciaDenise.com–so I went with which songs spoke to me the most.

That helped me choose All I Want is Forever sang by James “J.T.” Taylor and Regina Belle and written by the phenomenal Diane Warren. The song is the first single released from the soundtrack of the 1989 dance drama, Tap, starring Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis, Jr.

The movie centers around Hines as Max Washington. Just released from prison, he must decide which of his previous professions to return to: burglary or tap dancing… and the woman he’s never forgotten.

All I Want is Forever didn’t chart but it did receive an official video with
Taylor and Belle singing inter-spliced with scenes from the movie.

FUN FACTS

• While not big box office, Tap is notable for being the final film appearance of Sammy Davis, Jr, who died the following year, and for a dance challenge sequence by dance legends Arthur Duncan (known as a performer on the Lawrence Welk show from 1964 to 1982), Bunny Briggs, Howard Sims (Sandman Sims of the Apollo Theatre), Steve Condos, Harold Nicholas (of the Nicholas Brothers. He and older brother, Fayad are known as two of the world’s greatest dancers), and Jimmy Slyde.
• Tap also features a young Savion Glover as Davis’ grandson. He would go on to win Broadway’s 1996 Tony Award for Best Choreographer for the musical he starred in and co-created with George C. Wolfe called Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk; which also brought him a Best Actor (Musical) Tony nomination.
• Before his rise to fame, Taylor was a schoolteacher and amateur night club singer.
• He joined Kool & the Gang in 1978 and became the band’s lead singer in 1979.
• Regina has had notable success with soundtrack duets. The theme song Far Longer than Forever from the animated movie The Swan Princess, performed with Jeffrey Osborne, was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1995 for Best Original Song, and A Whole New World, the main theme of the Disney’s animated feature film Aladdin, recorded in 1992, which Belle and Peabo Bryson won the 1994 Grammy award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. A Whole New World also is the first and so far, only song from a Disney animated film to top the US Billboard Hot 100.
• Regina successfully battled a brain tumor in 2009. However, she is now deaf in her left ear.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for FeliciaDenise.com.

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is  “Written or sung by Tom/Dick/Harry or including one of these names in the lyrics.”

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Though it never charted on the Billboard Hot 100, Funkin’ for Jamaica hit number one on the U.S. R&B chart in 1980 and stayed there for a month. It also peaked at number nine on the dance chart and made the Top 10 on the UK singles chart.

Jazz trumpeter Tom Browne co-wrote the hit with Toni Smith (Thomassina Carrollyne Smith), who performs the vocals, as an homage and memoir of the neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens where Browne was born and raised.

FUN FACTS

• Funkin’ for Jamaica appears on Browne’s second album, Love Approach.
• The song became one of the most interpolated melodies in R&B with the chorus’ chord sequence used by dozens of artists.
• During its initial release, some thought Funkin’ for Jamaica was done by Chaka Khan, mistaking Toni Smith’s wailing vocals for that of the Rufus lead singer.
• Oscar and Grammy-award winning composer and music producer, Dave Grusin, played the piano during the recording session for Funkin’ for Jamaica. He also produced the song, along with Larry Rosen.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for FeliciaDenise.com.

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is  “Bottom/End/Middle/Side/Top.”

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Released as a single from the soundtrack of Boomerang staring Eddie Murphy, End of the Road is not only one of the most successful songs for the R & B group, Boyz II Men, it is widely considered as one of the most successful songs of all time.

The song spent a then record breaking 13 weeks at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, and was the number one single of 1992 on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Singles of 1992. It is ranked by Billboard as the sixth most successful song of the decade 1990–1999. It is also ranked at number 55 on Billboard‘s “All Time Top 100 Songs”.

Internationally, End of the Road reached number one in Australia, United Kingdom and the Hot 100 Eurochart, among others, and won Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best R&B Song at the 1993 Grammy Awards.

FUN FACTS

• End of the Road’s number one streak was broken a year later by Whitney Houston’s 14 weeks at number one with I Will Always Love You. Boyz II Men would later match Houston’s record with I’ll Make Love to You, which spent 14 weeks at number one in 1994, and then reclaim the record with One Sweet Day (a duet with Mariah Carey), which spent 16 weeks at number one from 1995 to 1996.
• End of the Road debuted at number fifty-three on the Billboard Hot 100 on July 18, 1992. It reached number one August 15, 1992.
• Michael McCary, the bass singer of the group, left in 2003 after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for FeliciaDenise.com.

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is  “La.”

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Happy New Year and welcome to the first Song Lyric Sunday of 2020!

To me, this week’s prompt has more than one meaning.

It could be an abbreviation for the state of Louisiana or for the city/county of Los Angeles, or

La la is a style of Louisiana Creole music, or

La (Javanese) (ꦭ), is a letter in the Javanese scrip, or

La is the feminine definitive in several languages, or

La is a genus of moths.

But, of course, I went the musical route where it’s an enhancer/filler for holiday songs, love songs or silly, fun songs.

Minnie Riperton was semi-retired, raising two young children with her husband, Richard Rudolph, in Florida when they completed writing Lovin’ You.

After signing a contract with Epic Records a few years later, the couple moved to Los Angeles to record the album Perfect Angel. When Epic asked Riperton whom she wanted to produce the album, she named Stevie Wonder. Wonder, then at the height of his popularity, was a fan of Riperton’s work, and agreed to the collaboration.

Lovin’ You made its debut on the Billboard Hot 100 on January 18, 1975; twelve weeks later, on April 5, 1975, it peaked at number one. The song remained on the Hot 100 for a total of eighteen weeks.

FUN FACTS

• Due to contractual obligations, Wonder’s name could not appear on the credits, so he’s listed as “Black Bull Productions” (Wonder’s zodiac sign is Taurus, thus the bull).
• Lovin’ You was one of the first songs to top the US Billboard Hot 100 without the help of a percussion instrument.
• Maya Rudolph of Saturday Night Live is the daughter of Riperton and Rudolph, and Riperton mentions her in the lyrics. In the end, she sings “Ma-ah-aha-aha-ah-ya.”
• Riperton died of cancer in 1979 at age 31. While this was her only hit, she is still held in high regard in the music community.

The video is from a 1975 live performance on Midnight Special. Generally, we see live performances differ from recordings because artists can’t re-create some of the higher notes we’ve grown accustomed to. Minne Riperton doesn’t have that problem here, in fact, she even adds a couple!

Enjoy!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for FeliciaDenise.com.

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.

Song Lyric Sunday was created by Helen Vahdati from This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time and author Jim Adams from A Unique Title For Me is our current guest host. For complete rules or to join in the fun, click here.

This week’s theme is  “Crazy.”

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Many thanks to my oldest son, David, visiting for the holidays from Phoenix, AZ for choosing this selection for SLS.

The opening song of Prince’s legendary film, Purple Rain, sets the tone for the entire movie.

Let’s Go Crazy was one of Prince’s most popular songs, and was a staple for concert performances, often segueing into other hits. When released as a single, the song became Prince’s second number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and also topped the two component charts, the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Dance Club Play charts, as well as becoming a UK Top 10 hit.

The lyrics are about getting through life and the battle against evil, Satan being the de-elevator. We are encouraged to not allow the devil to break us down and instead to turn to God to help us by going crazy and punching a higher floor (God).

FUN FACTS

• The beginning of Let’s Go Crazy is one of the most famous spoken intros in pop history. Prince takes the persona of a preacher and is joined by a church organ as he gives what amounts to a sermon, reminding us that we should enjoy this life, knowing that we can look forward to a world of never-ending happiness when we die.
• Let’s Go Crazy is also the opening song on the Purple Rain soundtrack which was a huge hit, spending 24 weeks at #1 in the U.S.
• Following Prince’s death, Let’s Go Crazy re-charted on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart at number 39 and rose to number 25 by the week of May 14, 2016. As of April 30, 2016, it has sold 964,403 copies in the United States.
• Much of Purple Rain takes place at a club where Prince performs – the First Avenue nightclub in Minneapolis, where Prince really was a regular player.

Enjoy and Happy New Year!

See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for FeliciaDenise.com.

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Disclaimer: I have no copyrights to the song and/or video and/or hyperlinks to songs and/or videos and/or gifs above. No copyright infringement intended.