"Say You'll Be There" by The Spice Girls

What up, Dialophiles? The Dial’s receivers are in an unapologetic, and unabashed late ‘90s pop mood tonight, and no group symbolizes that lighthearted genre and era better than those five babes from Britain, known worldwide as The Spice Girls! Give it up for the forgotten former top 10 hit “Say You’ll Be There”! 

Last time that we had this conversation I decided we should be friends, yeah, But, now we're going round in circles, tell me will this deja vu never end? 

The second single from their 1996 debut LP Spice, SYBT tells the tale of two friends who realize that they have genuine romantic emotions for each other, and the subsequent admission that they should become lovers. The song is sung from the woman’s point of view (shocker!), and details how she initially dismissed the guy as “friend-only” material, but has since decided to give in to romance, as long he promises to always be there for her.

It’s worth noting that there is a peculiar lyric in the bridge leading to the chorus, which manifests in the line “any fool can see they’re falling”. Based on the “voice” of the female storyteller/singer, the line SHOULD be “any fool can see WE’RE falling”, especially given that the lyric that immediately follows is “I gotta make you understand”. Clumsy lyric notwithstanding, SYBT is a jubilant and funky nugget with elements of soul, disco, and a slight hint of new wave styled 80’s pop.

Despite reaching US #3 on the Hot 100, SYBT quickly disappeared from American airwaves several months after its peak, and has been rarely heard on terrestrial radio since. I suspect this is because its release was sandwiched in between the monster breakout hit “Wannabe”, and the huge adult contemporary ballad “2 Become 1”. It simply became lost in the shuffle.

If you, put two and two together, you will see what our friendship is for... If you can't work this equation, then I guess I'll have to show you the door.

SYBT is accompanied by a very stylish and memorable video, in which the girls demonstrate karate know-how, blast targets with ninja stars, boomerangs, and laser guns, and apprehend two guys that appear to be minding their own business, all while looking hot (in more ways than one…) in the Mojave Desert. There’s a cowboy-looking-dude who ends up blindfolded and tied down to stakes on the hot sand (though truth be told, he does look rather shady…), and another guy who pulls up in a red pickup, and quickly finds himself strapped to the roof of the Spices’ car, who then proceed to drive off into the sunset! Talk about windburn!

It’s really hard to tell if the girls are supposed to be heroines, or villainesses in this clip. It’s also likely they are simply mischievous femmes taking crap from no man, regardless of how threatening he actually is. I suppose since the Spices’ entire public persona was based on “GIRL POWER”, this video serves as an exaggerated extension of that ideal, however, it approaches self-parody here. Even still, the video is great fun, with the ladies being introduced movie-credits style with crazy names like “Katrina Highkick”, “Trixie Firecracker”, and “Blazin’ Bad Zula”, and some nifty effects when glass beakers and fishbowls are blasted off of fence posts in the desert sun. 

There is no need to say you love me… it would be better left unsaid… 

The video also serves as quite a treat for classic car enthusiasts, as the “cowboy” character drives a greenish-grey 1963 Lincoln Continental, the hapless pickup driver tools around in a red ‘63 Chevy Corvair Rampside, and the girls themselves drive a blue ‘69 Dodge Charger Daytona. Also, the beginning of the clip features a vintage mid ‘50s Burgermeister Beer “Burgie Man” flying saucer store display, which should please any beer historian or student of pop culture.

So take a spin with Mel B, Mel C, Geri, Emma, and Victoria, and groove to their unfairly-neglected-by-current-radio late 90s smash. And despite what you may be expecting, I am not going to close out this review with a “Zigga Zig Ha” reference. Wait, did I just... yes I sure did. Well, shoot.

I'm giving you everything, all that joy can bring this I swear, yes I swear…

And, all that I want from you, is a promise you will be there.

 

"Bad Thing" by Cry of Love

Happy February, Dialophiles! Tonight, the Dial brings you a stomping rock track from the early 90s, a jam that would have sounded perfectly at home on any Bad Company LP from the mid ‘70s! Crank up your speakers for Cry of Love, and “Bad Thing”!

“Just a new way, you got over me, you got it all wrong… just a new song, that I gotta sing, you got over me… just a new way!”

“Bad Thing” proved to be anything but for the Raleigh, North Carolina based band, as it quickly rose to a #2 smash hit position on the US Mainstream Rock chart. Despite this success, the track wasn’t pushed to Top 40 radio, therefore, no Hot 100 position was earned for this truly deserving track. Bad Thing was pulled from the 1993 debut LP Brother, which also contained Cry of Love’s “Too Cold in the Winter”, a #13 on the aforementioned MR chart, and their biggest hit, the MR chart topping “Peace Pipe”.

“God, you’re so wrong, when you wanna play, but way down inside, you wanna stop while you’re playing, girl.”

Featuring Kelly Holland’s bluesy lead vocals, “Bad Thing” describes the aftermath of a breakup, one in which the guy is critical over how quickly his former girl “got over” him, though he makes sure to declare that he’s much better off without her, a point that defines the chorus. However, Holland’s ad-libbed lyrics over the final seconds may actually indicate that the guy really does miss her… or, is at least bored without her in his life. Consider the following:

“No, ain’t got no hard feelings now, baby, no, no. I’m just sitting round baby, yeah, yeah, yeah.”

Twenty years ago, I worked at the Square Circle record store in St. Charles Towne Center Mall in Waldorf MD, and Brother was played rather frequently in store… on cassette tape, as a matter of fact. I always looked forward to hearing the song that reminded me of a mix of Bad Company and Deep Purple with a soulful influence, but I eventually forgot about it when the tape was retired from the playlist. Years later, the opening “Just a new way, you got over me, you got it all wrong” verse popped into my head, but I couldn’t pull any other lyrics, chorus included, which made tracking it down rather tricky.

I vaguely recalled that the band name was “(blank) of (blank)”, and for some reason, I was convinced the first word was “house”. I thought I was on to something when I located the band House of Love… I was so close, but yet so far. Every few months I would search the internet for songs by House of Love, House of Lords, and any other “House of …” band name (at least I knew darn well it wasn’t a House of Pain track!), until last year, in which that opening lyric finally came up in a search engine, and I discovered the band was CRY of Love.

So join the guys of Cry of Love in their swaggering boast about being better off without a destructive person in your life. However, why stop there? This great track could just as easily represent any situation in which you may be ecstatic to leave a BAD THING behind… not just a relationship, but also a money pit of a house, a old beater car, even a soul crushing job! No more of a bad thing, INDEED!

“No more of a bad thing… No more of a bad thing… No more of a bad thing… No more, no more, no more!”

TWO-FER TUESDAY: "FREAKY" OLD SCHOOL !

Word up, Dialophiles! Ya know, sometimes the Dial catches two signals at the same time, and each track is equally strong and deserved of the spotlight. When this happens, we serve up a little platter called TWO-FER TUESDAY! In this installment… “FREAKY OLD SCHOOL HIP HOP”, featuring Whodini and Midnight Star! 

“Freaks Come Out At Night” by Whodini 

“Discos don’t open ‘til after dark… and it ain’t ‘til twelve ‘til the party really starts… And I always had to be home by ten… right before the fun was about to begin.” 

Hailing from Brooklyn NY, Whodini were among the first hip-hop bands to break into the mainstream alongside early pioneers like The Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force.

Comprising of lead vocalist Jalil Hutchins, John “Ecstasy” Fletcher, and Grandmaster Dee, the trio’s largest success was “Friends”, a US R&B #4 and US #87 hit, which through covers, samples, and remixes by acts including Will Smith, Bone Thugs N Harmony, MF Doom, and The Prodigy, has proven itself as an iconic hip hop classic.

However, our first spotlighted track, “Freaks Come Out At Night”, despite its catchy chorus and infectious beat, only peaked at #43 on the US R&B charts, and made no appearance on the hot 100 singles chart. However, 1985’s Escape LP, from which both “Friends” and “Freaks…” were extracted, made #35 on the album charts, a.k.a, the Billboard 200.

The first few times I heard “Freaks…”, I visualized iconic horror movie monsters like Jason Voorhees and Freddy Kruger stalking victims through the streets, and it wasn’t until a few years later that it clicked in my mind that the “freaks” spoken about are the wild revilers that often party after the sun goes down.

“The freaks come out at night… The freaks come out at niiiiiight”

 

“Freak-A-Zoid” by Midnight Star 

“Freakazoids… robots… please report to the dance floor.”

Midnight Star is a funk ensemble from Frankfort, Kentucky known for merging elements of soul, disco, early electronica, and what would become to be known as hip-hop. Their biggest hit was the 1984 classic “Operator”, which topped the US R&B singles chart, and hit a respectable US#18 on the Billboard Hot 100. Other tracks like “Wet My Whistle”, “Headlines“, and “Midas Touch” achieved top 10 positions on the R&B charts, but charted very low as crossover hits.

“Freak-A-Zoid”, (correctly spelled with the two hyphens, and taken from the 1983 No Parking on the Dance Floor LP), was a US #2 smash on the R&B charts, but earned lower positions on the US dance chart (#44), and the Hot 100 (#66).

The group’s line up contained brothers Reginald and Vincent Calloway, (Star’s trumpeter and producer, and trombonist, respectively) who, during a hiatus from Midnight Star, charted highly in 1990 under the Calloway name with “I Wanna Be Rich” US #2, US R&B #5.

“Freak-A-Zoid”, at least lyrically, is your basic “party/dance song”, as Midnight Star orders the Freak-A-Zoid robots to stand guard as the band rocks the floor, which they won’t stop doing! However, there is an “adult” undercurrent to the lyrics, as female vocalist Belinda Lipscomb declares herself to be the one to take care of all your physical needs… although how and if the robots are involved is wholly left to interpretation.

Featured among both songs futuristic electronic rhythms, are cool “robotic” voices, probably made using a vocoder. I always felt these voices really tied in with that mid 80s “exciting technological age” mindset that was seen in the exploding popularity of items like home computers, video games, VCRs and laserdisc players, cable and satellite television (especially MTV), Sony Walkmans and Watchmans, the earliest CGI in movies, etc. Whodini and the Freak-A-Zoids are leading us into the future, even as they bring us to the dance floor.

“I’ll be your freakazoid… c’mon and wind me up”

 

I was introduced to both of these songs via Piccowaxen Middle School, in Newburg, Maryland, where dances were held in the gym, several times a school year. The cool thing, was that the dances were held during the school day. This meant that one or two class periods were eliminated on a dance day, allowing the students to bust it down to the latest hits. Both Whodini and Midnight Star’s tracks were played at these dances, and at the time, my friends and referred to these tracks as “breakdancing tunes”. (The term “hip-hop” had yet to make it to my part of Maryland.)

The ‘80s is by far my favorite era of hip-hop. Way before Auto-Tune, Gangsta Rap, and long before “East Coast vs. West Coast” feuds; rap music, at least those songs that gained mainstream acceptance, tended toward light hearted party music, with songs about dancing, and partying down. The songs are fun to listen to, and if you feel like getting up and “popping” your body… well, we won’t think you’re a freak. Unless you’re a robot… then you’re kind of a freak.