Felicia Denise's Blog, page 15
March 22, 2020
Song Lyric Sunday | “Through the Years” – Kenny Rogers
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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.
The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “Promise/Oath/Vow.”
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The music world lost one of its brightest stars on March 20, 2020.
Kenneth Ray “Kenny” Rogers passed away under hospice care of natural causes. He was 81.
In a career which spanned more than sixty years, Kenny moved from teenage rock’n’roll through psychedelic rock to become a hit country-pop crossover artist of the 1970s and 1980s. His songs appeared in top-selling motion pictures and television movies, including movies based on some of his songs and, in which he starred.
The multi-award winner was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. He worked with some of the biggest names in the record industry, charted more than 60 top 40 hit singles (including two number ones—Lady and Islands in the Stream), and sold more than 165 million records.
My love for Kenny Rogers goes all the way back to 1967 when he was with the First Edition and had hits like Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) and Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town… and my age was in single digits. 
March 18, 2020
March 15, 2020
Song Lyric Sunday | “Give It Away” – Chi Lites
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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.
The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “Give/Get/Take/Receive/Send.”
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Released in 1969 on the Brunswick label, Give It Away is the debut album by American soul group The Chi-Lites.
Seven of the album’s eleven songs are originals, including the title cut. It reached #88 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #10 on R&B chart, making it the group’s first top ten hit.
FUN FACTS
Four of the songs on Give It Away were Motown standards and one was a song made popular by Johnny Mathis, The Twelfth of Never.
Led by lead singer, Eugene Record, the Chi-Lites scored eleven Top Ten R&B hits from 1969 to 1974.
The group was formed at Hyde Park High School in Chicago in the late 1950s as the “Chanteurs”. The original members were Eugene Record, Robert “Squirrel” Lester, and Clarence Johnson. This quartet introduced themselves at the Hyde Park High School “Senior Varieties” talent show. They later recruited Marshall Thompson and Creadel “Red” Jones from the Desideros to form the Hi-lites. Noting that the name Hi-lites was already in use and wanting to honor their home town they changed their name to “The Chi-Lites” in 1964.
Eugene Record was the musical group’s sole songwriter and lead singer. Record never collaborated with members outside his singing group.
Enjoy!
See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for Nesie’s Place!
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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.
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Give It Away
by Chi Lites
Songwriters: Clifford Smith / Collin W. York / Lynford Marshall
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Give it away
Ooh, hoo, give it away
Give it away
Ooh, hoo, give it away
What’s the sense in giving you love
When you’re gonna give it away
Oh, yeah [Give it away]
And what’s sense in giving you kisses
When you’re gonna give it away
Oh, yeah [Give it away]
You say you have nothing to live for
Baby, baby, I’m here knockin? at your door
Give it away, it?s all right (You can do what you wanna)
Give it away, it?s all right (?Cause I know you’re gonna)
Give it away, give it away
What’s the sense in having my love
When I’m gonna give it to you [Give it away]
Give it straight to you, baby [Give it away]
And I don’t mean maybe
What’s sense denying I love you
When you’re mad and I’m proud of you [Give it away]
Oh, yeah [Give it away]
Baby, love was made for two
I know, I know, I know it?s meant for me and you
Give it away, it?s all right (You can do what you wanna)
Give it away, it?s all right (?Cause I know you’re gonna)
Give it away, give it away
I love you no matter what you do
Baby, baby, baby, baby
Ah… ah… ah… ah… ah…
It’s alright
It’s alright
Baby, love was made for two
I know, I know, I know it?s meant for me and you
Oh, what’s the sense in having my love [Ooh, hoo, give it away]
When I’m gonna give it to you
And what’s sense in giving you kisses [Ooh, hoo, give it away]
When it’s you I’m gonna be missin’
And what’s sense in giving you honey [Ooh, hoo, give it away]
When you’re takin’ away my money
Oh, baby, baby, baby, baby, baby [Ooh, hoo, give it away]
Yeah, yeah
What’s the sense in giving you love [Ooh, hoo, give it away]
What’s the sense in giving you money
~~~
Compiled from Google, Lyric Find, Genius Lyrics, Wikipedia, and Songfacts.com
March 11, 2020
#WordlessWednesday Off the Beaten Path
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Image from Pinterest
March 7, 2020
Song Lyric Sunday | “Whole Lotta Woman” – Kelly Clarkson
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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.
The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “North/South/East/West.”
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As a female pop singer, Kelly Clarkson has expressed frustration that for years her appearance, particularly her weight, has been a constant topic of discussion. This led her to write a song that said “Yeah, you’re right, I am a whole lot of woman, and it’s okay. I came with a brain, and I came with drive and passion and sensuality, and these things that are awesome. If you can’t handle it, that’s totally cool, but you’re not tall enough to ride this ride, then move along. It’s fine.”
Clarkson, who grew up in Texas, remarked in a profile on The New York Times that the song’s inspiration came from the challenges of being a financially secure woman looking for a man after internalizing the paradoxes of growing up in the South. Clarkson says that in the South women are told, “We want to educate you and we want you to be intelligent, but not too intelligent to where you’re intimidating; we want you to be beautiful, but not too sexy to where you’re a slut; we want you to be successful but not so successful that you make someone feel uncomfortable.”
After a conversation Clarkson had with the NOVA Wav duo–Denisia Andrews and Brittany Coney–in a session in Los Angeles, the anthem Whole Lotta Woman was penned.
Whole Lotta Woman is from Kelly’s eighth studio album, Meaning of Life, and to promote the album’s release, Clarkson debuted Whole Lotta Woman in a performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on October 31, 2017.
FUN FACTS
The song lyrics allude to the size of Clarkson’s waistline, her attitude, her self-worth, and her mouth using references to Southern cooking and singer Tina Turner.
Members of the American soul band Earth, Wind & Fire, led by bass player Verdine White, were invited by Atlantic Records CEO Craig Kallman to play on the track.
Critical reception of the song was mixed. It reached number 142 on Billboard’s US Digital Songs chart.
Alas, I was incapable of choosing a favorite video, so I posted THREE!
March 4, 2020
#WordlessWednesday Friends and Family
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Image from Pinterest
February 29, 2020
Song Lyric Sunday | “Talk to Me” – Anita Baker
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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.
The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “Listen/Hear/Talk/Speak.”
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Anita Baker’s 1990 album Compositions, won the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance at the 1991 Grammy Awards, and includes one of my favorite baker songs, Talk to Me.
The song is about the determination of men to be strong and silent, not showing emotions or sharing feelings about what they’re going through in tough times. The song is representative of the woman in a man’s life who knows he’s going through something and it’s damaging everything in his life. She simply tells him to talk to me.
FUN FACTS
The song was released as the lead single in support of her fourth studio album, Compositions.
The album peaked at #5 on the US Billboard 200 and was certified platinum in 1990, making it Baker’s third platinum selling album.
Talk to Me became a top five R&B hit, peaking at number three on Billboard’s Hot Black Singles and number four on Adult Contemporary Songs.
Anita Baker is regarded as one of the most popular singers of soulful romantic ballads during the height of the quiet storm period of contemporary R&B in the 1980s.
Baker has won eight Grammy Awards and has five platinum albums and one gold album.
Enjoy!
See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for Nesie’s Place!
~~~
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.
~~~
Talk to Me
by Anita Baker
Songwriters: Michael J. Powell, Vernon Fails & Anita Baker
Oh -oh – Yes sir
Baby, baby, baby, baby
You stand all alone, on your own
Please come inside from that storm
Stand where it’s warm
I can see, you’re in need, baby, please talk to me now
Swear nothing is wrorng, you’re so strong
Baby, don’t hold this inside, relax your pride
Let it go, set it free, my baby talk to me now
What’s wrong, wrong with you
Why don’t you tell me what cha goin’ through, darling
What’s wrong, wrong with you
Why don’t you tell me
I can help if you let me, baby,
Yes, I can
I understand, here’s my hand
Why stand alone in the dark, open up your heart
Let it’s go, setit free, now my baby, talk to me now
What’s wrong, wrong with you…
What’s wrong, wrong with you…
I understand, that you’re only one man
So much you can take, baby
Yes, I understand that you’ve only got two hands
Stare into space
I see shadows of pain cross your face
You avoid my advice, you avoid my embrace, baby
Whats wrong, wrong whit you
Why dont you tell me
I wont tell a single soul, my, my, my, baby
Yeah- uh
Yeah, you gotta, I gotta, we gotta talk about it – uh
No doubt about it, uh
Let it go, ho-ho, set it free, hee, hee, hee – baby
Uh, I’d like to listen, huh, Id like to listen, ,baby, huh
Tell me everything, baby, babee – huh
I will understand, I will understand,
I promise, baby
Tell me now, tell me, huh, tell me
Oww-hey-hey, hey, hey-eee
I believe-hey-hey, baby
God almighty, baby, tell it all to me
Don’t cha hold nothin’ in , baby, don’t cha
Hold it baby
Compiled from Google, Lyric Find, Genius Lyrics, Wikipedia, and Songfacts.com
February 26, 2020
#WordlessWednesday Calm
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Image from Pinterest
February 22, 2020
Song Lyric Sunday | “One Thing” – Finger Eleven
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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.
The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “Ankles/Hands/Feet/Fingers/Toes/Wrists.”
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Using this week’s prompt in the group name instead of the lyrics this week, and posting a song I know very little about other than I like it!
I first heard One Thing in late 2003 when my son and his friends were listening to music and I fell in love with the slow, easy rock ballad about taking chances and risking it all… or missing out.
I listened to other songs on the CD and didn’t connect with any the way I did with One Thing, but it has been with me from mp3 players to iPods to Pandora, Amazon Music and Spotify.
Sang by Canadian rock band Finger Eleven, One Thing was released in September 2003 as the second single from their self-titled album. The song hit number five on Modern Rock Tracks and stayed on the chart for twenty-six weeks, and number two on the Adult Top 40 chart.
FUN FACTS
Finger Eleven first formed at Lester B. Pearson High School in Burlington, Ontario as “Rainbow Butt Monkeys.”
The group got signed by Coalition Entertainment in 1996, and changed their name to “Finger Eleven” in March, 1997. The name Finger Eleven came from a demo of their song “Thin Spirits”.
One Thing enjoyed exposure on TV series such as Smallville, Scrubs, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Third Watch.
The song was used on WWE’s June 25, 2007, edition of RAW during a tribute video featuring Chris Benoit, who had been found dead along with his wife and son at their home shortly before the show started (unbeknownst to WWE, Benoit had murdered his wife and son, then killed himself).
The song won the 2004 MuchMusic Video Award for Best Video. The music video features black-and-white footage of the band in a surreal nocturnal environment featuring a beach with a checkered pattern shore.
Enjoy!
See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for Nesie’s Place!
~~~
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.
~~~
One Thing
by Finger Eleven
Songwriters: Robert Anderson / James Black
Restless tonight
Cause I wasted the light
Between both these times
I drew a really thin line
It’s nothing I planned
And not that I can
But you should be mine
Across that line
If I traded it all
If I gave it all away for one thing
Just for one thing
If I sorted it out
If I knew all about this one thing
Wouldn’t that be something?
I promise I might
Not walk on by
Maybe next time
But not this time
Even though I know
I don’t want to know
Yeah I guess I know
I just hate how it sounds
If I traded it all
If I gave it all away for one thing
Just for one thing
If I sorted it out
If I knew all about this one thing
Wouldn’t that be something?
Even though I know
I don’t want to know
Yeah I guess I know
I just hate how it sounds
Even though I know
I don’t want to know
Yeah I guess I know
I just hate how it sounds
If I traded it all
If I gave it all away for one thing
Just for one thing
If I sorted it out
If I knew all about this one thing
Wouldn’t that be something?
Compiled from Google, Lyric Find, Genius Lyrics, Wikipedia, and Songfacts.com
February 15, 2020
Song Lyric Sunday | “Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)” – Helen Reddy
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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.
The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week is “Come/Go/Leave/Stay.”
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Don’t park the Wayback Machine yet, 1973 is calling!
American singer-songwriter Linda Laurie wrote and released Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress) in early June of 1973 with little success. At the same time, the song was shopped to Australian Helen Reddy, considered by some to be the pop diva of the 70s. She added a cover of the song to her Long Hard Climb album released in August of the same year.
Leave Me Alone was released in October as a single and became a million-selling, Gold-certified hit single and was also the second of Reddy’s six consecutive No. 1 songs on the Billboard Easy Listening Chart.
FUN FACTS
Capitol Records issued Leave Me Alone as the follow-up single to Reddy’s No. 1 hit Delta Dawn despite the misgivings of Reddy herself who felt Leave Me Alone was a thematic retread of Delta Dawn as both songs concern a Southern woman – alliteratively named – whose reason has been undermined by an ill-fated tryst.
Capitol Records was correct in believing the resemblance to Reddy’s precedent hit would work in Leave Me Alone’s favor as the song reached the American Top Ten chart six weeks after its single release, making Long Hard Climb the only one of Reddy’s albums to feature two Top Ten songs.
Reddy found the song’s chorus with its repetition of the phrase “leave me alone” monotonous. It’s repeated 43 times.
During Helen’s retirement from performing, she earned a degree in clinical hypnotherapy and neuro-linguistic programming. She was a practising clinical hypnotherapist and Patron of the Australian Society of Clinical Hypnotherapists.
When Reddy came out of retirement in 2013, playing US club dates with an act focused on songs she’d recorded which were not released as singles, she cited Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress) as “one song I will never ever sing again” disparaging its lyrical repetitiveness: “that sort of songwriting doesn’t do much for me, but it was a hit. However, I don’t have to sing it anymore if I don’t want to, and I don’t want to.”
In August 2015, unnamed sources revealed that Reddy was diagnosed with dementia and had moved into the Motion Picture and Television Fund’s Samuel Goldwyn Center where she is cared for by family and friends.
The music video is notable not just for being a ‘live’ performance, but also for taking place on The Johnny Carson Show.
Knowing the back story of Reddy’s disdain for the song explains her near-bored look during the performance in comparison to other songs like Delta Dawn and Angie Baby.
Enjoy!
See my Song Lyric Sunday selection for Nesie’s Place!
~~~
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.
Leave me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)
by Helen Reddy
Songwriter: Linda Laurie
Big ole Ruby red dress wanders round the town
Talkin’ to herself now, sometimes sittin’ down
Don’t you get too close now, Ruby runs away
Poor ole Ruby red dress born on a sorry day
I can hear her say
Leave me alone, won’t you leave me alone
Please leave me alone, now leave me alone
Oh leave me alone, please leave me alone, yes leave me
Leave me alone, won’t you leave me alone
Please leave me alone, now leave me alone
God leave me along, just leave me alone, oh leave me
Big ole Ruby red dress, everybody laughs
Say she’s got no future and never made no past
Something hurt that Ruby, something she can’t bear
You look at her real close now, you see a little tear
Oh when she says now
Leave me alone, won’t you leave me alone
Please leave me alone now, God leave me alone
Oh leave me alone, just leave me alone, please leave me
Leave me alone, won’t you leave me alone
Please leave me alone, now leave me alone
Oh leave me along, just leave me alone, oh leave me
Some folks say some farm boy up from Tennessee
Taught it all to Ruby, then just let her be
Her Daddy tried to hide it, tried to keep things cool
But something happened to Ruby, she broke down to a fool
Who just said now
Leave me alone, won’t you leave me alone
Please leave me alone, now leave me alone
Oh leave me alone, please leave me alone, yes leave me
Leave me alone, won’t you leave me alone
Please leave me alone, now leave me alone
God leave me along, just leave me alone, please leave me
Leave me alone, won’t you leave me alone
Compiled from Google, Lyric Find, Genius Lyrics, Wikipedia, and Songfacts.com
