So Fine is a song written by Johnny Otis and performed by The Fiestas. It reached #3 on the U.S. R&B chart and #11 on the pop chart in 1959.
Jim Gribble is credited as the writer of the song, however, Otis filed a lawsuit claiming the copyright of the song, which had been recorded in 1955 by The Sheiks, a group that included Jesse Belvin. Otis’ side won the case.
The song was ranked #69 on Billboard‘s Year End Hot 100 singles of 1959.
Don’t You Worry Child is the sixth single released by Swedish house music supergroup Swedish House Mafia. It is the last single from their second compilation album, Until Now, featuring vocals from Swedish singer John Martin. In the United States, it is the act’s second #1 single on Billboard‘s Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart, following Save the World. It is the group’s biggest hit single to date, as well as the final single released before their disbandment in early 2013. It was released to widespread acclaim and received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Dance Recording.
In May 2010, songwriters John Martin and Michael Zitron were in the latter’s studio in Stockholm writing material, both recalling their lives when Zitron started opening up his upbringing in a broken home in Stockholm, mentioning the divorce between his parents. The song’s chorus was taken verbatim from Zitron’s father, while the pre-chorus derives from the songwriters’ discovery of young love, inspiring the lyrics “Upon a hill across the blue lake/ That’s where I had my first heartbreak.” Martin and Zitron wound up finishing the song later in the month and recorded a demo of the complete writing product. The song was originally meant to launch their own “electro-pop indie duo”, however Zitron would later send the demo to Swedish House Mafia group member Sebastian Ingrosso alongside a few other demos in December 2010. Ingrosso would later contact the songwriters to help work on what would later become Save the World, which was released over a year prior to Don’t You Worry Child.
The following year in January, while in a Los Angeles music studio with fellow supergroup members Axwell and Seteve Angello, Ingrosso phoned Zitron and Martin to “send [him] those three songs that [Zitron] played to [him] in the studio”. Ingrosso called back Zitron after receiving the files to tell Zitron that Axwell was “lying on the fucking couch, almost crying” after listening to Don’t You Worry Child, before requesting to have the song for themselves. The supergroup then started to become embroiled in a long production process that “revealed personal tensions” as depicted in their 2014 documentary Leave the World Behind.
The song was announced during the Swedish House Mafia’s tour of Australia while they played at Future Music Festival 2012. They say it was made from the inspiration they took from the beauty of Australia. When it was announced that the tour the Swedish House Mafia was about to set on would be their last, a farewell single was also announced – Don’t You Worry Child being that single.
I Wanna Be Bad is a song by American singer Willa Ford from her first studio album, Willa Was Here (2001). The song features a guest appearance from rapper Royce da 5’9″. Ford wrote it alongside Brian Kierulf and Josh Schwartz, who both handled the production, when her record label, MCA Records, told her to tone down her music. Ford refused, deciding to create a track with a rebellious message. After Jason Flom of Lava Records heard the song, he signed Ford to the label and included it on Willa Was Here. Lava and Atlantic Records released the song as Ford’s debut single on April 24, 2001. A dance pop track, it has Ford explaining that she wants to be a “bad girl” because her partner makes bad behavior look so good. The lyrics contain messages of rebellion and being oneself against the influences of other people.
Several critics compared “I Wanna Be Bad” to songs by fellow American singer Britney Spears, whom Ford was trying not to imitate with her music. Immediately picked up by American radio stations, it reached #22 on the Hot 100. The song also charted in Australia, where it peaked at #52.
Relax is the debut single by English synth pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, released in the United Kingdom by ZTT Records in 1983.
The hit version, produced by Trevor Horn and featuring the band along with other musicians, entered the UK top 75 Singles chart in November 1983 but did not crack the top 40 until early January 1984. One of the decade’s most controversial and most commercially successful records, “Relax” eventually sold a reported two million copies in the UK alone, easily ranking among the ten biggest selling singles in the UK. It remained in the UK top 40 for 37 consecutive weeks, 35 of which overlapped with a radio airplay ban by the BBC (owing to lyrics perceived as overtly sexual).
In June 1984, bolstered by the instant massive success of the band’s follow-up single Two Tribes, the single re-entered the top ten for a further nine weeks, including two spent at #2 (behind Two Tribes). At that time, Frankie Goes to Hollywood were the only act apart from the Beatles and John Lennon to concurrently occupy the top two positions on the chart. Several 12 inch single versions (and the “Frankie Say Relax” T-shirt craze) further fed the Relax phenomenon. The single re-entered the UK top 75 in February 1985 and, more successfully, in October 1993, when it spent three weeks in the top ten.
In the United States, Relax was also comparatively slow in reaching its chart peak. Released in March 1984, albeit with a different mix and nearly a minute shorter in length, the single stalled at #67 on ‘Billboard‘s Hot 100 in May during a seven-week run, but it ranked number one for the year by Los Angeles alternative rock station KROQ, as voted for by listeners. In January 1985, a release of Relax that was far more similar to the UK hit version entered the Hot 100 at #70, and in March it reached #10 during its 16-week run. In January 1989, the single was certified Gold by the RIAA.
In February 1985, the record was awarded Best British Single of 1984 at the Brit Awards, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood won Best British Newcomer. A version of the song features on Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s debut album Welcome to the Pleasuredome, released in October 1984.
Dominique is a 1963 French language popular song, written and performed bu Belgian singer Jeannine Deckers, better known as Soeur Sourire (Sister Smile) or the Singing Nun. The song is about Saint Dominic, a Spanish-born priest and founder of the Dominican Order, of which she was a member (as Sister Luc-Gabrielle). The English-version lyrics of the song were written by Noel Regney. In addition to French and English, Deckers recorded versions in Dutch, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese.
Dominique reached the top 10 in 11 countries in late 1963 and early 1964, topping the chart in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It reached the top 5 in Norway, Denmark, Ireland and South Africa, with the song making it into the lower reaches of the top 10 in the Netherlands, West Germany, and the United Kingdom.
The song won the Grammy Award for Best Gospel or Other Religious Recording (Musical) in 1964. It was also a nominee for Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Soeur Sourire was a nominee for Best Female Vocal Performance. It was the second foreign language song to hit #1 on the Hot 100 in 1963, the first being Sukiyaki by Kyu Sakamoto.
Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive is a popular song published in 1944. The music was written by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 18th Academy Awards in 1945 after being used in the film Here Comes the Waves.
It is sung in the style of a sermon, and explains that accentuating the positive is key to happiness. In describing his inspiration for the lyric, Mercer told the Pop Chronicles radio documentary “[my] publicity agent … went to hear Father Divine and he had a sermon and his subject was ‘you got to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.’ And I said ‘Wow, that’s a colorful phrase!'”
Mercer recorded the song, with The Pied Pipers and Paul Weston’s Orchestra, on October 4, 1944, released by Capitol Records. The record first reached the Billboard charts on January 4, 1945, and lasted 13 weeks on the chart, peaking at #2. On the Harlem Hit Parade chart, it went to #4.
On March 25, 2015, it was announced that Mercer’s version would be inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry for the song’s “cultural, artistic and/or historical significance to American society and the nation’s audio legacy”.
Flat Beat is an instrumental by French musician Mr. Oizo. It was released on March 22, 1999 through F Communications and was included as a bonus track on his debut studio album, Analog Worms Attack. The music video features Flat Eric, a puppet, head banging to the track.
Widely publicized by Flat Eric’s appearance in many commercials for Levi’s and the popularity of the music video, Flat Beat became a surprise European hit. Flat Beat peaked at #5 in France and topped the charts in Austria, Finland, Flanders, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.
Never Forget You is a song by Swedish singer Zara Larsson and British singer MNEK. It was released on July 22, 2015 in the UK by TEN Music Group, Virgin EMI and Epic as the second single from Larsson’s second studio album So Good (2017).
The song peaked at #1 in Larsson’s home country as well as the top ten in eight additional countries, and became both Larsson and MNEK’s first U.S. entry on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #13 in May 2016 and becoming the best rank on the chart for both artists. The single is certified Platinum or higher in sixteen countries. An orchestral version of the song was later released on May 21, 2021 as a track off the Summer edition of Larsson’s third studio album Poster Girl.
The End is a song with music by Jimmy Krondes and lyrics by Sid Jacobson. In 1958, the song was released in the United States as a 1958 single by Earl Grant. Grant’s single on the Decca label, featured the orchestra of Charles “Bud” Dant; some pressings of the single were shown with the title (At) The End (Of A Rainbow).
The single was Grant’s only entry into the U.S. top 40, and spent 19 weeks on the Hot 100 reaching #7 and #16 on the R&B chart.
Grant also released a German version of the song, titled Jeder Tag geht zu Ende(Every Day Comes to an End), which reached #12 on the German charts.
The Rapper is a song by The Jaggerz, written by band member Donnie Iris. Released as a single, it reached #2 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart, behind Simon & Garfunkel’s smash Bridge Over Troubled Water and on March 20, 1970, it reached #1 on the Record World Singles chart. It was certified Gold by the RIAA in 1970 for selling over a million copies
The song is addressed to a girl, or girls in general; it describes the method of a man who seduces women with untruths (“rapping”). The singer says, “You know what he’s after;” he concludes by saying there comes a point at which the man has his target where he wants her, and the girl has to “face reality.” The record ends with a small burst of applause heard in the studio.
The “rapper” of the title and “rappin'” in the lyrics have only some coincidental resemblance to the vocal style of rapping.