May 17th is the anniversary of Donna Summer’s death, which came as a shock to her fans around the world having kept her illness a secret to even those she regarded as close friends. Though her…
Tag: Whitney Houston
Blog posts
Dionne, Whitney, Luther & Stevie Performing “That’s What Friends Are For” (1987)
In the 1980s it seemed like everything was big: big shoulder pads, big hair, and big music sales. But even by that decade’s exaggerated proportions, composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Carole Bayer Sager’s “That’s…
Dolly Parton: The Soundtrack Of My Life
Despite the increasingly snarky vibe of the formerly essential Entertainment Weekly, it still can suggest a flicker of its former cultural primacy when it drops the disaffected tone and uses its grown-up voice (don’t they know…
Shanghai’s Jinjiang Hotel Has Its Very Own Pop Song and It’s One Hell of An Ear Worm
One of the highlights of breakfasting in the dining room of the lovely Jinjiang Hotel in Shanghai, was the cognitive dissonance of reading the International Herald Tribune’s coverage of North Korea possibly restarting its…
Leon Russell’s A Song For You: When a “Song” Becomes a “Copyright”:
There is a great chance that regardless of your demographic profile you are familiar with Leon Russell’s A Song For You, one of the really towering copyrights of the last 40 years. Aside from…
Songs That Should Have Been Top-Ten Pop Hits, Volume 2
1. Anastacia, “Left Outside Alone” (2004): In 1999, Anastacia’s debut single, “I’m Outta Love,” and album, Not That Kind, were a spectacular success all over the world except in her native country, America, where the single did…
Songs That Should Have Been Top-Ten Hits, Vol. 1: or, Has the Beat Killed Melody on American Radio?
Pop music has become as disposable as an mp3 file. There are many terrific things about the Internet, but one of the negative consequences of so much information is that our connection to even…
How a 45-Minute Visit with Michael Jackson Led to Years of Nightmares
In the years since Michael Jackson’s tragic death, passion for all things related to the brilliant, troubled superstar has only increased. From the profound—his peerless musical legacy, to the perverse—endless speculation about his nose and…
Cassingle White Female: The Stargayzing Mix Tape Explosion!
Cassette tapes: they broke, they melted, they got dirty, they unspooled and they they sounded terrible. Other than that they were awesome! It’s hard to imagine anyone could feel nostalgic for an audio format…
What Really Killed Whitney Houston? On the Mainstream Media’s Cover-up of the Star’s Sexuality: “The Greatest Love of All”
Was Whitney Houston killed by homophobia? In the weeks since Whitney Houston’s tragic death which, given the circumstances of her very public struggles, seemed at once shocking and inevitable, I’ve been a bit surprised…
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