Saturday, July 23, 1994

Sheryl Crow charted with “All I Wanna Do”

All I Wanna Do

Sheryl Crow

Writer(s): Sheryl Crow/Wyn Cooper/Bill Bottrell/David Baerwald/Kevin Gilbert (see lyrics here)

Released: April 4, 1994

First Charted: July 23, 1994

Peak: 2 US, 2 CB, 2 GR, 16 RR, 18 AC, 35 AR, 4 MR, 4 UK, 14 CN, 11 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.2 UK, 0.81 world (includes US + UK)

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 1.0 radio, 7.35 video, 151.44 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Sheryl Crow signed to A&M in 1991 after working as a session singer, most notably for Michael Jackson. TB She recorded her debut album with Hugh Padgham, who had produced the Police. His “polished pop sheen” TB wasn’t much better than the major labels who wanted “to turn her into a grown-up Debbie Gibson.” TB Her boyfriend, Kevin Gilbert, introduced her to an informal collective of musicians known as the Tuesday Night Music Club.

The group served as session musicians to Crow’s resulting album of the same name. Released in August 1993, it didn’t take off until a year later when “All I Wanna Do,” the fourth single, started garnering attention at radio. “Carefully driven by lilting slide-guitar and handclaps, the single was – somewhat ironically…much more slick and polished than the rest” TB of the album.

The song went all the way to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, stuck for six weeks behind Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love to You.” It went to #1 in Australia and Canada and made the top 10 in Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. WK It also won Grammys for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

The lyrics were adapted from Wyn Cooper’s 1987 poem “Fun.” Crow said “it encapsulated what was going on in LA, a real extreme feeling of apathy and defeat. It’s masked in this light pop ditty, but it’s about somebody down and out, sitting in a bar watching their life go by.” SF Bill Bottrell, a member of the Tuesday Night Music Club, and the producer for the album discovered the book of poetry, The Country of Here Below, in a used bookstore in Pasadena. The original run was for only 500 copies, but the success of “All I Wanna Do” spawned multiple reprints as well as earning considerable royalties for Cooper. WK

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First posted 4/9/2020; last updated 2/3/2023.

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Tuesday, July 19, 1994

The Rolling Stones’ Voodoo Lounge released

Voodoo Lounge

The Rolling Stones

Released: July 19, 1994

Peak: 2 US, 11 UK, 12 CN, 11 AU

Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 0.1 UK, 6.0 world (includes US and UK)

Genre: classic rock veteran

Tracks:

Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts.

  1. Love Is Strong [3:46] (7/5/94, 91 US, 2 AR, 14 UK, 2 CN, 47 AU)
  2. You Got Me Rocking [3:34] (7/23/94, 2 AR, 23 UK, 29 CN, 64 AU)
  3. Sparks Will Fly [3:14] (1/7/95, 30 AR, 57 CN)
  4. The Worst [2:24]
  5. New Faces [2:50]
  6. Moon Is Up [3:41]
  7. Out of Tears [5:25] (10/7/94, 60 US, 48 CB, 37 RR, 31 AC, 14 AR, 36 US, 3 CN, 43 AU)
  8. I Go Wild [4:19] (4/1/95, 20 AR, 29 UK, 45 CN, 57 AU)
  9. Brand New Car [4:13]
  10. Sweethearts Together [4:46]
  11. Suck on the Jugular [4:26]
  12. Blinded by Rainbows [4:32]
  13. Baby Break It Down [4:07]
  14. Thru and Thru [5:59]
  15. Mean Disposition [4:09]

All songs written by Mick Jaggers and Keith Richards.

Total Running Time: 62:08

The Players:

  • Mick Jagger (vocals, guitar, percussion)
  • Keith Richards (guitar, vocals, bass)
  • Ronnie Wood (guitar, backing vocals)
  • Charlie Watts (drums)

Rating:

3.591 out of 5.00 (average of 23 ratings)

Quotable: Voodoo Lounge exults in the Stones’ reason for being: transcendent, fundamental rock & roll.” – Paul Corio, Rolling Stone

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album:

“Voodoo Lounge is a remarkable experience, the most visceral, daring Rolling Stones album since...who knows when.” CD “It’s a gas gas gas to hear the truth, the guts of rock and roll peek through the curtains of time.” CD 1989’s Steel Wheels, “which vaulted stylistic barriers, was in fact the riskier bid. But Voodoo Lounge exults in the Stones’ reason for being: transcendent, fundamental rock & roll.” RS

For their first studio album in five years, the Stones “strip their sound back to its spare, hard-rocking basics…turning out a set of songs that are pretty traditionalist.” AMG “They revive some of the English folk and acoustic country-blues that was on Beggars Banquet” AMG although “there are no new twists or turns in either the rockers or ballads (apart maybe from the quiet menace of Thru and Thru, later used to great effect on The Sopranos).” AMG These are “songs that may not be classics, but are first-rate examples of the value of craft.” AMG

Part of the sound can be attributed to Don Was, “a neo-classic rock producer… helming the boards with the Glimmer Twins.” AMG “Without seeking to alter their basic approach, [he] has given this classic band a contemporary perspective.” CD “Because [he] insisted Mick have actual lyrics ready for the basic tracks, it obliged the Stones to return to the kind of live, spontaneous rhythm section feel that made even their most humble throwaways just jump out and bite you on the ass.” CD

“The departure of bassist Bill Wyman has forced the Stones to dig deep, and the arrival of Darryl Jones has given drummer Charlie Watts, if not a new lease on life, a different point of view. Watts and Wyman were like the Benny Benjamin and James Jamerson of rock ’n’ roll, and without his trusted rhythm mate, the drummer has to listen like his life depended on it.” CD

“This is the Stones…playing as a band. The Richards/Ron Wood guitar interplay is peerless, Charlie Watts swings easier than any other rock drummer, and the leanly muscled material flexes deep attitude.” RS

“There’s an edge and a sense of danger to Voodoo Lounge that is palpable from the reassuring crunch of Richards and Wood on the opening Love Is Strong, through the honky tonk bump of Baby Break It Down and the blue suede groove of Mean Disposition.” CD

“It’s on formula pieces (You Got Me Rocking, Brand New Car), rather than on experiments like Blinded by Rainbows, that the boys kick fiercest, realizing an essential truth: Rock & roll – like its revered forebears, blues and country – soars higher off blessed authenticity than off original expression.” RS

The hour-run time is “an ironically bloated length for an album whose greatest strengths are its lean, concentrated classic sound and songcraft.” AMG Had this been released “even five years earlier, this would be a near-triumph of classicist rock, but since Voodoo Lounge came out in the CD age, it’s padded out to 15 tracks, five of which could have been chopped to make the album much stronger.” AMG

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First posted 3/23/2008; last updated 10/25/2021.

 
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Saturday, July 16, 1994

Green Day “Basket Case” charted

Basket Case

Green Day

Writer(s): Billie Joe Armstrong (see lyrics here)

Released: February 1, 1994 (as album cut)

Released: November 29, 1994 (as single)

First Charted: July 16, 1994

Peak: 26 BA, 23 GR, 20 RR, 9 AR, 15 MR, 7 UK, 12 CN, 85 AU, 10 DF (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): -- US, 1.2 UK, 1.88 world (includes US + UK)

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 370.30 video, 1023.99 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Green Day formed in 1987 in California. The punk rock trio exploded in 1994 with Dookie, their major-label debut that sold over ten million copies domestically. It churned out three alternative rock chart-toppers, all of which made the Billboard top 40 airplay chart as well. It was one of the decade’s most influential albums in how it introduced pop-punk to the mainstream.

The album’s first single, “Longview,” captured the slacker ‘90s vibe and a sense of irreverence with its ode to boredom and masturbation. As the follow-up, however, “Basket Case” proved to be something more. “A supremely snooty – and supremely catchy – burst of radio-friendly punk that offered throw-yourself-around guitars and a breeziness that belied the fact that for once Billie Joe Armstrong wasn’t singing about masturbation. Instead, this was Armstrong in serious mode, wondering if the panic attacks he suffered meant he was cracking up.” XFM

Armstrong was suffering from anxiety and what would be later diagnosed as panic disorders. He said, “The only way I could know what the hell was going on was to write a song about it.” WK He said he wrote the original lyrics while on crystal meth, but then discarded them and re-approached the song, leading to “a powerful anthem about mental health” SF and what he called “an anthem for weirdos.” SF

British music critic James Masterson said the song “could potentially open the door for a flood of the post-Nirvana young American rock bands.” WK Music Week called it “the Generation X-flag-wavers’ splenetic slice of Bay Area punk.” WK Pierre Bouvier, from fellow-pop-punk band Simple Plan, said, “’Bakset Case’…took that style and really blew up in a way that had never been done before.” SF In 2006, BBC Radio 1 listeners ranked it the greatest punk song of all time. WK

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First posted 4/10/2024.

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July 16, 1994: The Lion King soundtrack hit #1

image from fanpop.com

Originally posted June 10, 2011. Last updated September 3, 2018.

The Lion King (soundtrack/cast)

Elton John/Tim Rice/Hans Zimmer

Soundtrack Released: May 30, 1994

Stage Debut: July 8, 1997

Sales (in millions):
US: 11.0 S, 1.0 C
UK: 0.3 S
IFPI: --
World (estimated): 18.4 S+C

Peak:
US: 110-S, 162 C
UK: 4 S
Canada: 15-S
Australia: --

S soundtrack
C cast album

Quotable: --

Genre: Disney/show tunes

Album Tracks – Soundtrack:

  1. The Circle of Life (CARMEN TWILLIE)
  2. I Just Can’t Wait to Be King (JASON WEAVER)
  3. Be Prepared (JEREMY IRONS)
  4. Hakuna Matata (NATHAN LANE/ ERNIE SABELLA/ JOSEPH WILLIAMS)
  5. Can You Feel the Love Tonight? (JOSEPH WILLIAMS/ SALLY DWORSKY)
  6. This Land (HANS ZIMMER)
  7. To Die For (HANS ZIMMER)
  8. Under the Stars (HANS ZIMMER)
  9. King of Pride Rock (HANS ZIMMER)
  10. The Circle of Life (ELTON JOHN) ((8/27/94, #15a US, #11 UK, #2 AC, airplay: 2 million)
  11. I Just Can’t Wait to Be King (ELTON JOHN)
  12. Can You Feel the Love Tonight? (ELTON JOHN) (5/21/94, #2a US, #14 UK, #1 AC. sales: ½ million, airplay: 1 million)

Notes:

A 2004 special edition added “an unreleased song, ‘The Morning Report,’ sung by Jeff Bennett, James Earl Jones, and Evan Saucedo” SL and written by John & Rice, “and yet another remix of Elton John’s ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight,’ this time with added percussion.” SL

Click here for the chart codes for singles/hit songs.

Album Tracks – Cast Album:

  1. Circle of Life (Tsidii Le Loka)
  2. Grassland Chant (Ensemble)
  3. The Morning Report (Samuel E. Wright)
  4. The Lioness Hunt (Ensemble)
  5. I Just Can’t Wait to Be King (Scott Irby-Ranniar)
  6. Chow Down (Tracy Nicole Chapman)
  7. They Live in You (Samuel E. Wright)
  8. Be Prepared (Ensemble)
  9. The Stampede (Ensemble)
  10. Rafiki Mourns (Tsidii de Loka)
  11. Hakuna Matata (Max Casella)
  12. One by One (Ensemble)
  13. The Madness of King Scar (Heather Headley)
  14. Shadowland (Heather Headley)
  15. The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Lebo M)
  16. Endless Night (Jason Raize)
  17. Can You Feel the Love Tonight (Heather Headley)
  18. He Lives in You (Reprise) (Jason Raize)
  19. Simba Confrots Scar (Robert Elhai)
  20. King of Pride Rock/Circle of Life (Reprise) (Heather Headley)

Review:

“Walt Disney Pictures had its fourth straight massive hit with an animated movie musical in the summer of 1994 with its tale of the coming of age of a young lion. The movie studio changed composers, replacing Alan Menken, who wrote The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin, with Hans Zimmer (instrumental score) and Elton John (songs); lyricist Tim Rice, who took over on Aladdin after the death of Howard Ashman, remained in place.” WR

“Elton John doesn’t seem like a natural choice to write for a Disney musical, but he rose to the task on The Lion King, transcending his usual penchant for the softest of soft rock.” AZ He “took a leaf from the Paul Simon Graceland songbook and filled his music with references to South African mbaqanga.” WR John’s “collaboration with Tim Rice (former writing partner of Andrew Lloyd Webber) helps connect the soundtrack to the theatrical lineage of all Disney musicals – so much so that, like Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King was eventually adapted for Broadway.” AZ

However, from a content standpoint, “there wasn’t that much of it.” WR “but that didn’t keep this album from topping the charts as the movie harvested hundreds of millions of dollars all summer.” WR “Undistinguished songs like Can You Feel the Love Tonight? are far outnumbered by stirring, stately tunes that lent the film so much of its sense of pageant and play.” AZ

However, “while it is hard to argue with the ecology lesson behind Circle of Life or the impossibly infectious rumba of Hakuna Matata,” SL there’s really only “about five songs here, three of which are repeated at the end in versions by John.” WR

Then this “already padded soundtrack was further padded with four excerpts from Zimmer’s score.” WR Of course, some would suggest that “the true heart of the original soundtrack…was the…inspiring and majestic score.” SL

In 1997, The Lion King was turned into a stage musical directed by Julie Taymor. It featured “actors in animal costumes as well as giant, hollow puppets.” WK It debuted on July 8, 1997 at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota and premiered on Broadway on October 15, 1997 at the New Amsterdam Theatre. It is still running (although now at the Minskoff Theatre) after 8500 performances, now making it the “third longest-running show in history and the highest grossing Broadway production of all time, having grossed more than $1 billion.” WK

It opened in London on October 19, 1999 at West End’s Lyceum Theatre and is still going after 7500 performances. “In September 2014, The Lion King became the top-earning title in box-office history for both stage productions and films, surpassing the record previously held by The Phantom of the Opera.” WK

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