Danny ChaiI realize that I’m the only person who even watches the show, much less loves it, but whatever. My review of the artists last night on Hit Me Baby One More Time:
- Greg Kihn – OK. He’s actually a DJ in San Jose now and I hear him on radio commercials for Stevens Creek Toyota. Anyway, his song was pretty good, but their cover of Boulevard Of Broken Dreams lacked the energy of the original. Although he went double time for the second verse, which was cool.
- Club Nouveau – I thought they were pretty bad. Individually, their vocals were great, but together, they sounded terrible. Lean On Me brought back memories though of my high school frosh retreat. Thank You was eh. The second Dido cover on this series. Interesting.
- Glass Tiger – Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone) was great, a perfect 80s performance. But their cover of Everything You Want, in addition to being a stale song, was awful. Did nothing different and was out of tune. Spicing things up in the cover is key for me. Else why do it? A disappointment.
- Billy Vera – Awesome. At This Moment is one of my favorite songs of all time, and it was featured in one of my favorite Family Ties episodes of all time, the one where Alex realizes he loves Ellen and drives hours to meet her at the train station. Great episode. Anyway, for some reason, I thought he might be black, but he’s this white guy, who was already old when the song came out decades ago. But seeing him sing it and hear the voice come out – good times. I don’t know True well enough to comment, but seeing the voice for At This Moment was the highlight for me.
- Thelma Houston – Sang her disco hit, Don’t Leave Me This Way. Yeah, I don’t recognize the title either, but you know the song if you hear it. Covered Fallin’. Neither of her songs were creative, but her vocals were absolutely amazing, and she deserved to win.
One interesting thing about this show is that you realize that nearly all of them still perform regularly. They’re nowhere near as popular as they were, but they still do it. Some people might think that’s sad, all these artists holding on to past glory. But I think it’s awesome. They get to spend all their time doing something they totally love to do. Who wouldn’t want to do that? If you can provide for your family while doing it, what’s the negative there?
And you can see it when they perform – they absolutely love doing it. I think that’s what I love about the show – seeing the palpable joy of people doing something they love to do. That’s awesome. I’d love to be a one-hit wonder.