Music Monday

Okay, It's not quite Monday, but I couldn't wait. This week's topic is Best/Worst songs talking about a true event.

Best
1. Oliver's Army-Elvis Costello
I couldn't decide on this song or the Monty Python song about Oliver Cromwell but I think this is a better song.

• Oliver's Army is a song written by Elvis Costello, originally performed by Elvis Costello and the Attractions and appearing on the album Armed Forces in 1979.Written after the author visited Belfast in Northern Ireland, it criticizes the British Army for targeting disadvantaged young men leaving secondary school (when the song was written in the late 1970s, England had a high unemployment rate). The title refers to Oliver Cromwell, who as Protector of the CommonwealthNew Model Army, an earlier version of the modern British Army. The song also mentions specific "trouble spots" in the world, such as South Africa (at the time experiencing turmoil over Apartheid), Palestine, Cyprus, and most prominently Northern Ireland. In reference to the latter country, Costello included the controversial lyric "Only takes one itchy trigger/One more widow, one less white nigger", referring to the Irish, as they have historically been oppressed by the English, much as black people have been oppressed in many countries. Costello is himself of Irish descent.
  

2. I'll Stick Around-Foo Fighters

• It is largely believed to be a song about Courtney Love, widow of former Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain, in response to Love's alleged mishandling of the legacy of Cobain and Nirvana.

3. Hurricane-Bob Dylan
This is the story of Ruben "Hurricane" Carter
4. Sunday Bloody Sunday -U2
Okay so this isn't the U2 video, but I think it's funnier

• Bloody Sunday (Irish: Domhnach na Fola) is the term used to describe an incident in Derry, Northern Ireland, on 30 January 1972 in which 26 civil rights protesters were shot by members of 1st Battalion of the British Parachute Regiment, during a Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association march in the Bogside area of the city. Thirteen people, six of whom were minors, died immediately, while the death of another person 4½ months later has been attributed to the injuries he received on the day. Two protesters were injured when run down by army vehicles.[1] Many witnesses including bystanders and journalists testify that all those shot were unarmed. Five of those wounded were shot in the back.

5. Vincent-Don McLane
I've always loved this song

• Don McLean wrote Vincent in 1971 after reading a book about the life of artist Vincent Van Gogh. In the 1970s, the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam played the song daily and a copy of the sheet music, together with a set of Van Gogh's paint brushes, is buried in a time capsule beneath the museum.

Worst

1. Candle in the Wind-Both Versions

• I hated the orginal version about Marilyn Manroe and I despise the Dianna version. I feel like Elton John really wussed out when he just changed the lyrics and called it a "new song." I hate this song as much as I hate Wind Beneth my wings.

2. The Night Chicago Died-Paper Lace

• "The Night Chicago Died" is a song by the British group Paper Lace, written by Peter Robin Callander and Mitch Murray, that reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for one week in 1974. The single reached number 3 in the UK charts. The subject matter is a fictional gang shootout in Chicago between gangsters tied to Al Capone and Chicago Police. The narrator retells his mother's anguish in awaiting news of the fate of her husband, a Chicago cop.

Okay it's not really about a true event, but it's still a terrible song

3. I don't like Mondays-Boomtown Rats

• On 29 January 1979, 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer opened fire on children arriving at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego from her house across the street, killing two men and wounding eight students and a police officer. Principal Burton Wragg was attempting to rescue children in the line of fire when he was shot and killed, and custodian Mike Suchar was slain attempting to aid Wragg.Spencer used a rifle her father had given her as a gift. As to what impelled her into this form of murderous madness, she told a reporter,''I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day.''

I guess it's not a terrible song, but it is inspired by true events

4. I'll be missing you-Sean Combs, Faith Evans

I just hate this song and wish that Sting hadn't allowed them to steal his song. I mean really if I die and one of my friends is so broken up they want to write a song I hope they also take the time to write some music. Come On!!

Music Monday

Welcome to Music Monday. Justin suggested we look at commercial jingles this week and I aim to please. So, without further delay here is my list of the five best and five worst commercial jingles in no particular order. Please share your lists with me.

The Best

1. Shasta-I wanna pop pop pop I wanna Shasta
1. Shasta was the coolest of the generic sodas.
2. Budweiser Select
1. Ad tunes selected this as one of the best jingles of 2006. They say Some companies try to "brand" their television commercials with music. In the case of Budweiser, a campaign of ads ran with a single song: "Galvanize" (iTunes) by The Chemical Brothers. The crown logo of the Budweiser Select commercials backed by the Moroccan string sample in "Galvanize" (with rapping by Q-Tip) was hard to miss. The popular song also made an appearance in the 2006 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. I love Q-Tip and every time I see the commercial I'm singing the song.
3. Hamms
1. I loved this song when I was a kid. I had no idea it was for beer. I always thought it was for that expensive butter with the Indians on it (challenge butter)
4. Mr. Clean
1. What a great song.

The Worst

1. International Dyslexia Association
1. I'm not sure this is an official jingle but it's annoying
   
2. I feel like chicken tonight
1. Chicken Tonight is a Unilever brand (launched in the US in 1992 and the UK and Australia in 1993) of sauce that is added to chicken pieces in a skillet, available in flavors such as Apricot Chicken, Mustard Chicken and Thai Green Curry Chicken.
2. The associated advertising slogan is "I feel like Chicken Tonight". In one series of television ads, these words were sung by actors as they 'flapped' their arms in a movement similar to the chicken dance. This dance and song was performed by The Simpsons family in the episode "Lady Bouvier's Lover", as a parody of the effects on popular culture from persuasive television advertising.
1. The American version of the product quickly failed but it is still popular in Australia, The Netherlands and very popular in the United Kingdom where they even have a spin-off product Beef Tonight.
3. Eastern Motors
   
1. this is a really bad local commercial from LA
   
4. Hi-C.
1. Wow, with a jingle like that no wonder I always begged my mom for these tiny boxes of crap.
5. . Delta
1. We love to fly and our commercial bites hard

T.V. Show's Theme Songs

Here is a list of my top five favorite show theme songs
Magnum P.I.
I would always run to the living room when this came on
Hill Street Blues
Never watched the show but I loved the song
Mash
Again, I never really watched the show but the song is good
Twin Peaks
I liked it so much I bought the soundtrack
Fat Albert
The funkiest cartoon

Okay, now for the list of the five worst theme songs
Law and Order
Dunta dun dunna dun
Friends
It was good but I loathe it after hearing it a million times
Perfect Strangers
I love to hate it