Curio Cabinet / Song Curio

Sometimes you get a hit song and a film title in one fell swoop. On this day in 1978, the soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever, a movie about New York’s disco scene, began a 24-week run at number one on the U.S. album chart. It remains the only disco album to ever win a Grammy for Album of the Year. But its name (and sound) would have been very different if the Bee Gees hadn’t been approached to work on the film. In 1977, the Bee Gees’ manager, Robert Stigwood, told them about a movie he was producing called Saturday Night and asked them to write a song with the same name for it. Instead, they gave Stigwood a song they had already written, called Night Fever, and persuaded him to change the movie’s title to Saturday Night Fever to fit it. The rest is disco history. Night Fever is one of the best-remembered disco songs of all time, featuring a danceable beat, the Bee Gees' signature harmonized falsetto, and lyrics about (what else?) dancing all night. The song helped make the movie and its soundtrack a resounding hit. The Bee Gees really knew how to work smarter, not harder!

He may be gone, but his legend drums on. On this day in 2020, the rock world lost one of its most iconic drummers: Neil Peart, of Canadian rock band Rush. Famed for his epic solos, which he often played on drum kits consisting of over 30 pieces, Peart was also a talented lyricist. In fact, he wrote one of Rush’s best-remembered songs: The Spirit of Radio. The song is a tribute to radio’s heyday, when music choice was left mostly in the hands of DJs, and tuning in could mean hearing a song you’d never heard before or revisiting an old favorite. Neil captured this excitement with his repeated lyrics, “Invisible airwaves crackle with life/Bright antennas bristle with the energy.” Though the song doesn’t feature one of Peart’s drum solos, its energetic guitar riffs and classic, hardline drums pay tribute to the era that the lyrics celebrate. In a 2004 interview with Billboard, Peart explained that the song was meant to be both a celebration of classic radio and a critique of the “formulaic, mercenary programming of most radio stations.” The song was a hit on the radio regardless, so Peart obviously struck the right balance.

This holiday season, you’ve almost certainly heard the carol of Good King Wenceslas...but you probably don’t know all the words, or who the main character really was. You could be forgiven for both, since many versions of the carol stop after the first verse, and the real Wenceslas, who was born around 907 CE., wasn’t actually a king. Rather, he was the Duke of Bohemia, a historical region that once existed in the Czech Republic. Wenceslas was renowned for his kindness to the poor. When he was assassinated by his own brother, people of the region were so aggrieved that they made him a saint and referred to him as a king. Almost 1,000 years later, English songwriter John Mason Neale took an existing folk tune and wrote the words to the carol atop it. The song tells of Wenceslas following a poor man through the snow, determined to give him food and drink. Most versions of the jaunty tune feature an acoustic sound, with stringed instruments and a flute. The song has three verses, though even in the full version we never find out whether Wenceslas reached the man he was seeking. Still, it’s quite a kingly carol.

These Carpenters sure knew how to craft a great song. On this day in 1982, Karen Carpenter, of the brother and sister duo the Carpenters, performed on stage for the last time. The show was a lowkey Christmas concert for students at the Buckley School in Los Angeles, and Karen Carpenter unfortunately passed away from congestive heart failure just weeks later. At the height of her career, Karen Carpenter’s unique, clear-as-a-bell voice made the Carpenters' unique brand of soft, melodious, folk-adjacent music stand out from the crowd. Most of their songs had a firmly optimistic flavor, especially their 1972 hit, Top of the World. The song’s lyrics describe a woman who’s so in love, she feels as if she’s sitting “on the top of the world lookin’ down on creation.” The track’s bouncy guitar, shimmering tambourine, and ethereal harmonies evoked the feeling of both folk and gospel music, despite it being considered a pop song in its time. Top of the World is one of the Carpenters best-remembered hits, and has popped up in everything from commercials to sitcoms. If you’re looking for some optimism in these uncertain times, this one might be worth a listen.

Pop goes the weasel, but monkees can perform in any genre! American musician Mike Nesmith, who passed away on this day in 2021, achieved fame as a member of The Monkees. Formed in 1966, The Monkees served as a sort of American answer to The Beatles throughout the late 1960s. But Nesmith was writing songs long before he joined The Monkees. In fact, one of his most successful songs was never performed by them at all. Different Drum, a folk song in which the narrator rejects any love that would tie them down, is a far cry from The Monkees’ flashy, pop-rock hits. Nesmith wrote it for his first band, a bluegrass group called The Greenbriar Boys. With its acoustic instrumentation, including a jangling tambourine, it’s no surprise that Different Drum was picked up by the folk-rock trio The Stone Poneys. Nesmith did try to pitch Different Drum to The Monkees, but producers turned it down, saying that it didn’t fit the band’s image. Surely there are worse images to have than that of a genre-spanning hitmaker.

Don’t try to p-p-put them down! On this day in 1965, British rock band The Who released My Generation, their most famous album. The title track was an extremely unusual song for its time, harnessing the angst of young people in the UK and abroad. At the time, young nonconformists in the UK were known as “mods”, and they had little time for what they saw as the outdated social norms of their parents. Mods were known for staying out late, partying to loud music, and doing drugs. In fact, vocalist Roger Daltrey sang My Generation with a stutter at his manager’s request, to make it sound as if he was on drugs. While the song was considered crass by plenty of older folks, its raw vocals and clashing beat combined with its counterculture lyrics made it an instant hit with its intended audience, and today it’s considered one of the first proto-punk songs, which helped pave the way for full-blown punk in the 1970s. The Who still performs the song to this day, including the line “I hope I die before I get old.” Lucky we don’t always get what we wished for when we were young.

It’s a sad song for a sad anniversary. On this day in 1983, Tom Evans of Welsh rock band Badfinger died by suicide at age 36. Though Evans had many musical accomplishments to his name, he’s best-remembered as the co-writer of Badfinger’s 1970 hit, Without You. The haunting ballad about losing the love of one’s life was actually a mashup of two different songs. During a near-breakup with his future wife, Evans wrote the song’s intense chorus, including the famous lines, “I can’t live, if living is without you/ I can’t live, I can’t give any more.” At the same time, bandmember Pete Ham was working on another sad love ballad called If It’s Love, but wasn’t happy with its chorus. The two men combined their songs, creating a hit that went on to be covered by over 100 artists, including pop star Mariah Carey and American singer Harry Nilsson. Nilsson’s version, with its plaintive vocals and minimalistic piano, is considered particularly heartwrenching. Memorable songs aren’t always fun, poppy earworms. Sometimes, it’s the sorrow that really sticks with you.

Happy almost-Halloween! Most synth-pop dance songs are all glitter and sunshine, but not the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s 2009 hit, Heads Will Roll.. In fact, it’s so spooky that it’s made appearances in several pieces of Halloween-y media, including 2015’s Goosebumps and this year’s MCU show, Agatha All Along. The song’s thumping beat, synthesizer effects, and distinct, punk-esque vocals (provided by Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O) meld into something truly macabre when combined with lyrics about dancing til’ you’re dead and heads rolling on the floor. By the time the song was released, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were already known for their dark, alternative sound, and any song they made—even a dance song—needed to fit that vibe. In 2009, Karen O told New Musical Express, “I figured if we were going to write a dance song it should be about heads bouncing on the floor and murder and slaughter.” It was a bold choice for the band, but it certainly paid off, as the song is now a Halloween staple. Off with your head!

His music wasn’t happy, but there’s no doubt it touched lives. 21 years ago today, the indie rock world lost one of its most important figures. 34-year-old Elliott Smith passed away on this day, leaving behind a body of work that helped turn Portland, Oregon, into an indie rock hub. Though he might be best remembered for his contributions to 1997’s Good Will Hunting soundtrack, Smith’s self-titled album, released in 1995, is beloved by fans to this day. One track, Needle In The Hay, uses minor chords, acoustic instrumentation, and rough-yet-echoey vocals to tell the story of a drug addict who uses substances to distract from life’s sadness and stress. It’s a story that Smith was uniquely positioned to tell, as he was open about his own struggles with drugs. At the time of his death, Smith had been working on what would have been his sixth studio album, From a Basement on the Hill. The album was released posthumously a year later, and two albums of his live performances have also been released, the most recent in 2020. At least fans have plenty to remember this brilliant rocker by.

Do you believe in miracles? Famed British soul band Hot Chocolate certainly did, and they were good at making them happen too! Between 1970 and 1984, the group had at least one hit song per year on the UK charts. Founded by Errol Brown and Tony Wilson, the latter of whom was born on this day in 1947, Hot Chocolate performed everything from soulful love ballads to danceable funk tunes. Their best-remembered hit, You Sexy Thing, was a bit of both. Brown and Wilson co-wrote the song together, though it was mostly inspired by Brown’s feelings for his wife, Ginette. The tune’s famously funky baseline and spoken-word lyrical style immediately set it apart. It hit number two in the UK and number three in the U.S., but was remembered long after it fell off the charts for its frequent pop culture appearances. The song has been featured on movie soundtracks and in commercials, helping to sell everything from cars to cookies. Hey, when you play something this funky, it’s a good bet that people will stop and listen.

Chappell Roan isn’t the only pop girlie who has rocketed to fame this year. Sabrina Carpenter has taken the music industry by storm in 2024 with her biting humor and famously short stature (the star is just 5 feet tall, hence her latest album’s name, Short n' Sweet). Her breakout hit, Espresso, is the kind of earworm that all pop stars dream of releasing. The song’s bopping beat is perfectly danceable while its lyrics are easy to remember and also sharply funny: “I know I Mountain Dew it for ya/walked in and dream-came-trued it for ya.” The frothy tune was inspired by a trip to France in which Carpenter drank espresso at a cafe while feeling on top of the world. As fast as her ascent to fame may seem, though, Carpenter has actually been in the entertainment industry for a while. At age 11, she had a small acting role on Law & Order SVU. Then, from 2014 to 2017, she had a recurring role on Girl Meets World. She began releasing music around the same time—in fact, Short n’ Sweet is the star’s sixth album, though it’s already the one she’s best known for. Sometimes fast fame takes a while!

You can’t talk about music in 2024 without talking about Chappell Roan. The breakout pop star has catapulted to fame in just a few short months. To give an idea of her meteoric rise, Roan made her late-night debut on The Late Show in February of this year, and by September she had already gotten big enough to perform her latest single, Good Luck, Babe!, at the VMAs, complete with pyrotechnics and backup dancers. The song, like Roan herself, serves to show how far the music industry has come in terms of LGBTQ+ representation. As an openly lesbian performer, Roan often pens songs about her romantic experiences. With its bright vocals and danceable beat, Good Luck, Babe! is, in many ways, a classic pop breakup song. However, the lyrics reveal a story about a female narrator dating a woman who is ashamed of her sexuality and attempting to hide it. In press materials for the song, Roan wrote, “I needed to write a song about a common situationship within queer relationships—where someone is struggling with coming to terms with themselves.” One thing’s for sure: audiences sure aren’t struggling to come to terms with Roan’s new superstar status.
 

Jeremiah might be a bullfrog…but who is he? That question is still asked by fans of American rock band Three Dog Night, whose co-lead vocalist, Danny Hutton, was born on this day in 1942. The band’s best-remembered hit, 1970’s Joy to the World, features cryptic lyrics, opening with the shouted declaration, “Jeremiah was a bullfrog!” The song’s overall messaging is clear: the upbeat rock romp is about humans and animals coming together in peace and—yes—joy. Yet, even those closest to the song have different stories for how its famous opening line came to be. Chuck Negron, another of the band’s vocalists, told Goldmine that Jeremiah was a frog character in the kid’s TV special for which the song was originally written. Joy to the World was, indeed, written for an unaired children’s program. Yet, according to the song’s writer, Hoyt Axton, Jeremiah wasn’t actually a bullfrog. He told Oregon News-Review that the lyrics were meant to be placeholders. “It was meaningless. It was a temporary lyric. Before I could rewrite it, they cut it and it was a hit,” he said. Meaningful or not, there’s no doubt that Jeremiah remains one of the most famous figures—er—frogs in rock history.

This hit is easy to groove to…if only it was as easy to understand. On this day in 2017, Walter Becker, co-founder and guitarist of American rock band Steely Dan, passed away. He left behind a legacy of hits, the best remembered of which just might be 1972’s Do It Again. The song features interesting instrumentation, including an electric sitar and a Yamaha YC-30 organ, the latter of which included a tool called a portamento ribbon. This “ribbon” controls what is known as the “portamento effect”, where the pitch of a note is gradually changed as it becomes another note. In other words, it creates a funky “slide” effect that helps give the song its unique flavor. The song’s lyrics are a bit harder to understand, as they fluctuate between talking about fighting on the street, to sorrow over a cheating partner, to issues with addiction, with a repeating refrain of “you go back, Jack, do it again,” suggesting that the song’s narrator probably hasn’t learned a lesson from his experiences. Hey, when you sound this good, you don’t have to make perfect sense.

This has to be one of the strangest hits by one of the strangest musical duos of all time. Born on this day in 1942, American musician Daryl Dragon, along with his then-wife, Toni Tennille, formed the soft-rock duo Captain & Tennille. For their performances, Dragon would dress as a cruise ship captain while Tennille wore outfits typical of stylish cruise ship passengers. But the absurdity didn’t stop at their costumes. Their best-remembered hit is a song called Muskrat Love...and the title really says it all. The soft-rock tune, which features gentle, romantic piano and Tennille’s soft vocals, is a love song about two muskrats (yes, muskrats) named Susie and Sam. The song wasn’t actually written by or for Captain & Tennille. It was originally conceptualized as a country song called Muskrat Candlelight by Texas singer/songwriter Willis Alan Ramsey in 1972. America even recorded a cover of it the following year. But it really took off when Captain & Tennille took the helm. Under their captainship, the song reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Easy Listening chart. Who says rodents aren’t romantic?

Stop that funky music! It was recently announced that the estate of late songwriter Isaac Hayes is suing former President Donald Trump for using one of his songs at political rallies without permission. Strangely, this isn’t the first time that the 1966 hit Hold On, I'm Comin', which was written by Hayes and producer David Porter for the soul duo Sam & Dave, has been at the center of a controversy. When it was first released, the song’s funky saxophone and soulful lyrical delivery had some listeners (and radio stations) convinced that its title was a sexual innuendo. In reality, the title was a sly reference, just not in the way that people thought. It originated when David Porter and Isaac Hayes were leaving the recording studio together one day, and Hayes was taking longer than Porter wanted. Porter pestered Hayes by shouting through the bathroom door that they needed to go, to which Hayes replied “Hold on, I’m coming!” Thus, the song’s title was born. This hit was never as lascivious as people made it out to be, but it clearly wasn’t intended to be political either.