I would like to wish a very happy 4th July to all my American readers. I thought I would choose my top 5 songs by American artists to celebrate, but then I decided that it would take me way too long. So I put the iPod on shuffle and here are the first five US artists to pop up.
“Crazy” – Gnarls Barkley. This act is one of the many collaborations that have involved DangerMouse (aka Brian Burton). This time he pairs himself with Cee-Lo Green (aka Thomas Callaway). The song was a worldwide hit and comes from their debut album ‘St Elsewhere’
“Diamonds And Pearls” – Prince. As a boy Prince Rogers Nelson’s nickname was Skipper and he released his first album ‘For You’ way back in 1977. Apparently he is planning to give yet another album away with a UK newspaper later this year
“LOL” – Little Jackie. Sadly Little Jackie is not a part of the band, it is in fact the band’s name. It comes from the Lisa Lisa And Cult Jam hit from 1989 “Little Jackie Wants To Be A Star“. The band is made up largely of Imani Coppola and Adam Pallin. This song comes from the album ‘The Stoop’, probably my favourite R & B album in recent years by a long way.
“Refugee” – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Tom Earl Petty will reach the grand old age of 60 later this year. He was also Charles T Wilbury off of the Travelling Wilburys. He also appeared in the 1997 Kevin Costner movie, ‘The Postman’ apparently appearing as his future self having become the Bridge City Mayor
“Shoorah Shoorah” – Betty Wright. The first Betty Wright song I ever heard was also the first one I ever bought, it was “Clean Up Woman” from 1971. It was a massive US hit but didn’t really trouble the UK charts, sadly.
I will close with a song which made me want to visit America back when I was a teenager, it was Mr Bowie’s Plastic Soul adventure “Young Americans”
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 