Video hit Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Want To Have Fun

This was Lauper's first single as a solo artist. She released an album in 1981 as a member of the group Blue Angel, but "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" made her famous.

The song was a huge part of '80s culture. It became an anthem for female attitude, and set fashion trends as the video showed Lauper wearing bright, outrageous clothes that looked like they came from a thrift store (they often did). It set the stage for artists like Madonna - independent women wearing cheap, yet fashionable clothes with a taste for garish accessories.

Ellie Greenwich sang backup vocals on this song and helped come up with the distinctive counterpoint. Greenwich was a legendary songwriter who worked with Phil Spector on many classic songs of the '60s, including Be My Baby and Leader Of The Pack. Other songs she sang on include "Evil Woman" by Electric Light Orchestra and "Dreamin'" by Blondie.

The video, which ran constantly on MTV, featured the wrestler Captain Lou Albano as Lauper's father, and also Lauper's real-life mother, who had no acting experience but did just fine. It won the first ever award for Best Female Video at the 1984 Video Music Awards. Albano was also in her next video, "Time After Time."

Lauper co-wrote many of her own songs, but not this one. Like "I Will Survive," it's a girl power song written by a man. A Philadelphia singer/songwriter named Robert Hazard, who had a band called Robert Hazard and the Heroes, wrote it. Hazard recorded his demo of the song in 1979.

A year before this song hit for Lauper, it was Hazard who was on the charts with his song "Escalator Of Life," which made #58 in the US. Yes, the video is on YouTube.

A theme in Lauper's work, as evidenced in her song "True Colors," is acceptance. Most of the women seen on MTV were the kind of beautiful people rarely seen in the real world, but Lauper made sure that her video was populated with regular folks doing their thing. In the book I Want My MTV, she explained: "I wanted 'Girls Just Want To Have Fun' to be an anthem for women around the world - and I mean all women - and a sustaining message that we are powerful human beings. I made sure that when a woman saw the video, she would see herself represented, whether she was thin or heavy, glamorous or not, and whatever race she was."

This song has been used in numerous TV shows and commercials. One of the more successful uses was in the 1995 movie Clueless, starring Alicia Silverstone. It was Silverstone's first big role after playing a vixen in some Aerosmith videos, and helped establish her as a legitimate actress. Other movie uses include To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995), Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007), and Baby Mama (2008). TV shows include The Simpsons, Friends, Bones, Gilmore Girls and Miami Vice.

It didn't take long for the title of this song to get its own movie. In 1985, the unknown actresses Sarah Jessica Parker, Helen Hunt and Shannen Doherty starred in the film Girls Just Want To Have Fun, where the song was also used.

When all of the party guests in the video are shown falling out of the bedroom in a pile when the door is opened, it was a tribute to a similar scene from the classic Marx Brothers film A Night at the Opera.

In 2004, Carnival Cruise Lines used this in a series of commercials.

Weird Al Yankovic wrote a parody of this for his 1985 album Dare To Be Stupid called "Girls Just Want To Have Lunch." He wasn't keen on doing that would make fun of women, but his label insisted on having him do a Cyndi Lauper send-up as this song was very popular.

Based on the success of this song, Lauper became part of "The Rock and Wrestling Connection." She appeared at matches for the World Wrestling Federation and managed the women's champion, Wendi Richter.

The lyrics:

I come home in the morning light

My mother says when you gonna live your life right

Oh mother dear we're not the fortunate ones

And girls they want to have fun

Oh girls just want to have fun

The phone rings in the middle of the night

My father yells what you gonna do with your life

Oh daddy dear you know you're still number one

But girls they want to have fun

Oh girls just want to have

That's all they really want

Some fun

When the working day is done

Girls, they want to have fun

Oh girls just want to have fun

Some boys take a beautiful girl

And hide her away from the rest of the world

I want to be the one to walk in the sun

Oh girls they want to have fun

Oh girls just want to have

That's all they really want

Some fun

When the working day is done

Girls, they want to have fun

Oh girls just want to have fun,

They want to have fun,

They want to have fun

Video hit Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers

The lyric repeated at the beginning and end is "Jeux Sans Frontieres," which is French for "Games Without Frontiers."It is frequently misheard as "She's So Popular."

This song is about the childish antics of adults, which is especially prevalent when their countries are competing in the Olympics.

Gabriel wrote this before the US boycotted the Moscow Olympics in 1980. This reinforced the theme of adults acting like children over the Olympics.

Kate Bush sang backup - that's her singing "Jeux Sans Fronteires."

Gabriel got the idea for the title from a 1970s European game show of the same name where contestants dressed up in strange costumes to compete for prizes. A version of the show came out in England called "It's a knockout," giving him that lyric.

This was Gabriel's first UK Top 10 as a solo artist. It had an interesting impact on his American distribution: Gabriel's first two solo albums were distributed in America by Atlantic Records, but they rejected his third album (which contained this track), telling Gabriel he was committing "commercial suicide." Atlantic dropped him but tried to buy the album back when "Games Without Frontiers" took off in the UK and started getting airplay in the States. At this point, Gabriel wanted nothing to do with Atlantic and let Mercury Records distribute the album in America.

The whistling is Gabriel along with producers Steve Lillywhite and Hugh Padgham.

In 1991, Gabriel's performance of this from Holland was beamed to Wembley Stadium in England as part of "The Simple Truth" concert for Kurdish refugees.

The video includes film clips of Olympic events and scenes from the 1950 educational film Duck and Cover, which used a cartoon turtle to instruct school kids on what to do in case of nuclear attack. (thanks, Patrick - Conyers, GA)

Part of the song goes: "Andre has a red flag/ Chiang Ching's is blue/They all have hills to fly them on except for Lin Tai Yu.

Andre could refer to Andre Malraux (1901-1976) the French statesman and author of the book Man's Fate, about the 1920s communist regime in Shanghai. Red flag may refer to Malraux's leftist politics. Chiang Ching could refer to Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) Chinese leader of the Kuomintang who opposed the Communists - hence, the rightwing Blue Flag. Chiang's forces lost the civil war in 1949 and fled to Taiwan, where they set up a government in exile.

Lin Tai Yu may be Nguyen Thieu (1923-2001), South Vietnamese president during the height of the Vietnam war. After the Communist victory of 1975, Thieu fled to Taiwan, England, and later to the United States where he died in exile.

The lyric could refer to the fact that while leftist politicians like Andre Malraux had a secure position in France, and rightist leaders like Chiang Kai Shek had a secure country in Taiwan, those caught in the middle like Nguyen Thieu were pawns in the Cold war and had no secure country. This could also be a reproach to either Thieu or his United States backers, saying that he was now a nobody.

A remix by Lord Jamar was used for the theme for the 2009 Winter X Games. The new version was dubbed "X Games Without Frontiers."

The lyrics:

Games Without Frontiers

Hans plays with Lotte, Lotte plays with Jane

Jane plays with Willi, Willi is happy again

Suki plays with Leo, Sacha plays with Britt

Adolf builts a bonfire, Enrico plays with it

Whistling tunes we hid in the dunes by the seaside

Whistling tunes we're kissing baboons in the jungle

It's a knockout

If looks could kill, they probably will

In games without frontiers-war without tears

Games without frontiers-war without tears

Jeux sans frontieres

Andre has a red flag, Chiang Ching's is blue

They all have hills to fly them on except for Lin Tai Yu

Dressing up in costumes, playing silly games

Hiding out in tree-tops shouting out rude names

Whistling tunes we hide in the dunes by the seaside

Whistling tunes we piss on the goons in the jungle

It's a knockout

If looks could kill they probably will

In games without frontiers-wars without tears

If looks could kill they probably will

In games without frontiers-war without tears

Games without frontiers-war without tears

Jeux sans frontieres

Video hit Steve Winwood

Steve Winwood - Back In The High Life Again

Winwood played on a number of hits in the '60s and '70s as a session musician and as a member of Traffic, The Spencer Davis Group and Blind Faith. In the '80s, he established himself as a solo artist with songs he wrote with Will Jennings, who put lyrics to Winwood's music. The first album they worked on was Arc Of A Diver in 1981, followed by Talking Back To The Night in 1982 and finally Back In The High Life. Jennings told us:

"We wrote those songs in the fall of '84, and it was a long spell before he got in the studio in New York. We had 'Higher Love' and several other songs, including 'The Finer Things.' And then it was toward the end of my stay over there and we still needed some other songs. I had 'Back in the High Life Again' in this book that I carry with me of titles. I pulled that out and I suddenly found the rest of the song, and I wrote that in about 30 minutes, and left it with Steve to put a melody to. So this is in '84. And then I went back to California, and it was a year, I guess, before he went in the studio, sometime in '85. I called one day and talked to Russ Titelman who was producing the album. They were doing it in New York. I asked him how it was going, and he said, 'Oh it's going great.' He said 'Higher Love' came out great and 'The Finer Things.' I asked him how 'Back In The High Life' would come out. There was this little pause, and he said, 'Steve hasn't shown me that song.' So turns out that Steve had not written the music to it yet and he at that time was going through a divorce. And because of the divorce, his wife got everything in the house, this big house in England. So he came up from London and went out to this house, which he still lives in and he had for years before he was married, and everything was gone, except there was a mandolin over in the corner of the living room. It was winter and it was dreary. He went over and picked up the mandolin, and he already had the words in his head, and that's when he wrote the melody. He went back and not only cut a big hit which still is played so much today, but it was the title track of the album. And if I hadn't asked about it, it would have just gone by, so that's one that was saved at the last minute."

Jennings has written lyrics for Eric Clapton, Roy Orbison, Peter Wolf, Jimmy Buffett, B.B. King and many others. Says Jennings, "You just need to get the feel of what they want to do, where they're coming from and what their life has been. The soulfulness comes into writing the truth of the singer. If you're writing with or particularly for a singer, you try to get inside them."

When listening closely and carefully, at the end of the song, after Steve Winwood sings, "High life," you can hear singer/songwriter James Taylor sing the line, "Back in the high life." Taylor isn't the only famous singer to appear on the Back In The High Life album: Chaka Khan sang on "Higher Love."

The lyrics:

It used to seem to me that my life ran on too fast

And I had to take it slowly just to make the good parts last

But when you're born to run it's so hard to just slow down

So don't be surprised to see me back in that bright part of town

I'll be back in the high life again

All the doors I closed one time will open up again

I'll be back in the high life again

All the eyes that watched me once will smile and take me in

And I'll drink and dance with one hand free

Let the world back into me and on I'll be a sight to see

Back in the high life again

You used to be the best to make life be life to me

And I hope that you're still out there and you're like you used to be

We'll have ourselves a time

And we'll dance till the morning sun

And we'll let the good times come in

And we won't stop till we're done

We'll be back in the high life again

All the doors I closed one time will open up again

We'll be back in the high life again

All the eyes that watched us once will smile and take us in

And we'll drink and dance with one hand free

And have the world so easily and oh we'll be a sight to see

Back in the high life again

We'll be back in the high life again

All the doors I closed one time will open up again

We'll be back in the high life again

All the eyes that watched us once will smile and take us in

And we'll drink and dance with one hand free

And have the world so easily and oh we'll be a sight to see

Back in the high life again

Cel mai amplu turneu de teatru românesc pentru copii din Spania

Între 31 mai şi 10 iunie va avea loc cel mai mare turneu de teatru românesc pentru copii desfăşurat vreodată în Spania.

Barcelona, Valencia, Castellón de la Plana, Alicante, Ciudad Real, Alcalá de Henares, Salamanca şi Zaragoza sunt oraşele în care va ajunge “Capra cu trei iezi” a lui Creangă.

Cu ocazia Zilei Internaţionale a Copilului şi pentru al doilea an consecutiv, ICR Madrid, în colaborare cu Direcţia Generală Românii de Pretutindeni din cadrul ICR, împreună cu numeroşi parteneri, organizează în Spania, între 31 mai-10 iunie, un turneu de teatru pentru copii. 

Teatrul "Luceafărul" din Iaşi va prezenta spectacolul "Capra cu trei iezi" în Barcelona, Valencia, Castellón de la Plana, Alicante, Ciudad Real, Alcalá de Henares, Salamanca şi Zaragoza.

La organizarea acestui amplu turneu participă: Teatrul „Luceafărul” din Iaşi, Consulatul General al României la Barcelona, Consulatul României la Castellón de la Plana, Asociaţia Suflet Românesc/Alma rumana din Valencia, Universitatea din Alicante, Asociaţia ARIPI din Alicante, Centro „Las Cigarreras”, Primăria oraşului Alicante, Asociación Hispano-Rumana de Castilla-La Mancha din Ciudad Real, Centro Hispano-Rumano din Alcalá de Henares, Consejería de Cultura y Turismo de la Junta de Castilla y León, Festival Internacional de las Artes de Castilla y León “FÀCYL” din Salamanca, Asociaţia ACASĂ din Zaragoza.

Turneul cuprinde un număr de 8 reprezentaţii cu spectacolul „Capra cu trei iezi” al Teatrului „Luceafărul” din Iaşi care vor avea loc în: Barcelona, Valencia, Castellón de la Plana, Alicante, Ciudad Real, Alcalá de Henares, Salamanca şi Zaragoza. Aceste zone nu sunt doar provincii importante din Spania, ci şi regiuni în care se concentrează o mare parte din comunitatea românească.

Spectacolul de teatru, bazat pe clasica poveste a lui Ion Creangă cu o dramatizare de Ion Agachi, este impresionant la nivel vizual (decorurile sunt inspirate din pictura naivă a lui Gheorghe Ciobanu), iar artiştii ieşeni care contribuie la realizarea acestei performanţe sunt: Ion Ciubotaru (regia), Mihai Pastramagiu (scenografia), Matilda Andrici (muzica) şi actorii Beatrice Engel, Dumitru Georgescu, Ioana Iordache, Ileana Ocneanu şi Mariana Teleman.

Spectacolul va fi jucat în română şi în spaniolă (versiunea spaniolă se datorează grupului de traducători coordonaţi de Cătălina Iliescu de la Universitatea din Alicante: María Antelo, Lucica Nichistroi, Claudiu Picu).

Spectacolul programat la Salamanca, pe 9 iunie, a fost inclus în cadrul Festivalului Internaţional de Arte din Castilla y León “FÀCYL". 

Programul reprezentaţiilor:

• Barcelona, 31 mai, ora 09.15, la Colegio Escuelas Pias Lluria (C/ Aragó, nr. 302, Barcelona), spectacol în limba spaniolă

• Valencia, 1 iunie, ora 18.00, la Centro Cultural Ca Revolta (Santa Teresa nº 10, Valencia), spectacol în limba română

• Castellón de la Plana, 2 iunie, ora 16.30, la Pabellon La Pérgola – Parque Ribalta (Paseo Ribalta s/n – Avda. Barcelona Castellón de la Plana), spectacol în limba română

• Alicante, 4 iunie, ora 10.30, la Centro Cultural Las Cigarreras – Caja Negra (C/ San Carlos, 78 Alicante), spectacol în limba spaniolă; ora 14.30, la Colegio Mayor de la Universidad de Alicante (San Vicente Del Raspeig , Alicante), spectacol în limba spaniolă; ora 19.00, la Colegio Mayor de la Universidad de Alicante (San Vicente Del Raspeig , Alicante), spectacol în limba română cu subtitrare în limba spaniolă

• Ciudad Real, 5 iunie, ora 17.00, la Museo López Villaseñor (C/ de los Reyes, 11  Ciudad Real), spectacol în limba română

• Alcalá de Henares, 8 iunie, ora 12.00, la CEPI Hispano-Rumano (C/ Goya nº 5 local, Alcalá de Henares - Madrid), spectacol în limba română

• Salamanca, 9 iunie, ora 12.00, la Teatro Juan del Enzina (C/ el Tostado 2, Salamanca, reprezentaţie programată în cadrulFestivalului Internaţional de Arte din Castilla y León  “FÀCYL” din Salamanca, spectacol în limba spaniolă

• Zaragoza, 10 iunie, ora  16.00, la Teatro Arbolé (Parque del Agua Luis Buñuel. Paseo del Botánico, 5 - Junto al Puente del Tercer Milenio, Zaragoza), spectacol în limba română. 

Video hit Phil Collins

Phil Collins - Another Day In Paradise

This addresses the problem of ignoring the needy and homeless. It's a rare Phil Collins hit with a socially conscious message.

David Crosby of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, sings on this. Crosby worked with Collins on and off through the late '80s to early '90s; Collins performed background vocals for Crosby's 1993 song, "Hero," from the album Thousand Roads.

"Another Day in Paradise" is a song by Phil Collins released as the first single from his number-one album ...But Seriously (1989). As with his song for Genesis, Man on the Corner, Another Day in Paradise has as its subject the problem of homelessness; as such, the song was a substantial departure from the dance-pop music of his previous album, No Jacket Required (1985). The song was a number-one hit worldwide, and the most successful song of his solo career. It eventually won Collins and producer Hugh Padgham the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1991, while it was also nominated for Song of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male and Best Music Video, Short Form. The song also won an award for Best British Single at the Brit Awards in 1990. In the US, it was the final number-one single of the 1980s on the Billboard Hot 100, and Collins' first and only number-one single of the 1990s.

This won a Grammy Award for Record Of The Year.

Collins told The Mail on Sunday: "I wrote this after being in Washington DC where I was amazed by how many people I saw living in boxes."

The song won the 1990 Brit Award for Best Single.

The lyrics:

She calls out to the man on the street

'Sir, can you help me?

It's cold and I've nowhere to sleep,

Is there somewhere you can tell me?'

He walks on, doesn't look back

He pretends he can't hear her

Starts to whistle as he crosses the street

Seems embarrassed to be there

Oh think twice, it's another day for you and me in paradise

Oh think twice, 'cause it's just another day for you,

You and me in paradise, think about it

She calls out to the man on the street

He can see she's been crying

She's got blisters on the soles of her feet

She can't walk but she's trying

Oh think twice, 'cause it's another day for you and me in paradise

Oh think twice, it's just another day for you,

You and me in paradise, think about it

Oh Lord, is there nothing more anybody can do

Oh Lord, there must be something you can say

You can tell from the lines on her face

You can see that she's been there

Probably been moved on from every place

'Cause she didn't fit in there

Oh think twice, 'cause another day for you and me in paradise

Oh think twice, it's just another day for you,

You and me in paradise, just think about it, think about it

It's just another day for you and me in paradise

It's just another day for you and me in paradise, paradise

Just think about it, paradise, just think about it

Paradise, paradise, paradise 

Video hit The Proclaimers

The Proclaimers - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)

The Proclaimers are the Scottish twins Craig and Charlie Reid. This is their only hit in America, but four of their other songs made the UK Top 40, including their first hit, "Letter From America," which went to #3 in 1987.

This song is about being devoted to a woman and wanting to spend the rest of your life with her. And it's all sung in a Scottish accent.

In the line "I'm gonna be the one who's havering for you," 'havering' means babbling on.

This was written in 1988 and released on The Proclaimers album Sunshine On Leith. It became a hit when the song was used in the 1993 movie Benny And Joon, starring Johnny Depp and Mary Stuart Masterson.

Craig Reid in the Daily Mail, March 23, 2007: "I can remember sitting at the piano and the chords just came to me. I reckon I just wrote the whole thing in 45 minutes. I knew that it was a good song, maybe even a single, but I had no idea how popular it would become."

This was a hit in the US after being featured in the movie Benny & Joon after the director heard the song being played on his personal stereo by Mary Ann Waterston. The Proclaimers had no idea it would be featured in the film.

It was a #1 hit in Australia.

This song was adopted as a theme song by Hibernian Football Club in Scotland.

In March 2007 The Proclaimers teamed up with British comedians Peter Kay and Matt Lucas to release a new version for the charity Comic Relief, which topped the UK charts. Peter Kay stars as his wheelchair bound character the Phoenix Club boss Brian Potter and Matt Lucas in turn appears as his similarly wheelchair bound Little Britain character Andy Pipkin. The comedians duet on the first 2 verses of the song before the Proclaimers take over.

The original version returned to the British chart at #37 the same week the Comic Relief version entered the chart at #3 making The Proclaimers become the first act in over 20 years to chart simultaneously with 2 different recordings of the same song. The last person to achieve this was Lulu, who in the last week of July 1986 had both her original 1964 recording of "Shout" in the Top 75 alongside a brand new "86" version.

By 2002, 500 miles just wasn't enough, as Vanessa Carlton used the same lyrical theme, but with twice the distance, in her song "A Thousand Miles."

The lyrics:

When I wake up yeah I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you

When I go out yeah I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you

If I get drunk yes I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who gets drunk next to you

And if I have yeah I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who's havering to you

But I would walk 500 miles

And I would walk 500 more

Just to be the man who walked 1,000 miles

To fall down at your door

When I'm working yes I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who's working hard for you

And when the money comes in for the work I'll do

I'll pass almost every penny on to you

When I come home yeah I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who comes back home to you

And if I grow old well I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who's growing old with you

When I'm lonely yes I know I'm gonna be

I'm gonna be the man who's lonely without you

When I'm dreaming yes I know I'm gonna dream

Dream about the time when I'm with you

Video hit OMC

OMC - How Bizarre

Lead singer Pauly Fuemana was a gang member in Auckland, New Zealand before achieving pop immortality with this song. He received his musical training in a New Zealand juvenile prison. Pauly Fuemana died after suffering from an illness for several months on January 31, 2010, aged 40.

OMC stands for Otara Millionaires Club, after the neighborhood in Auckland where Fuemana grew up. It's a somewhat fanciful name, as the Auckland suburb of Otara is a ghetto/slum.

This reached #1 in 8 different countries. The first of which was New Zealand in early 1996. Others include Australia, Canada, and the US.

The album How Bizarre didn't get released until 1997, over a year after the single was first released, because they had not completed the remaining tracks.

Despite being a big radio hit, topping the Airplay/Radio Songs, the song did not enter the Billboard Hot 100. The reason being it was released as a radio-only promo single, and was thus ineligible to chart on the Hot 100 according to rules in place at the time.

The other influential musical presence on this album is producer Alan Jansson whose only major credit is this song, which he co-wrote.

The song won the award for "Single of the Year" at the 1996 New Zealand Music Awards.

The lyrics:

Brother Pele's in the back

Sweet Seena's in the front

Cruising down the freeway

In the hot, hot sun

Suddenly red blue lights

Flash us from behind

Loud voice

"all will please step out onto the line"

Pele breathes words of comfort

Seena just hides her eyes

Policeman taps his shades

Is that a Chevy 69?

How bizarre

How bizarre

How bizarre

Destination unknown

As we pull in for some gas

A freshly pasted poster

Reveals a smile from the pack

Elephants and acrobats,

Lions next monkey

Pele speaks righteous

Sister Seena says funky

How bizarre

How bizarre

How bizarre

Ooh baby, (ooh baby)

It's making me crazy, (it's making me crazy)

Everytime I look around (I look around)

Everytime I look around

Everytime I look around

Everytime I look around

It's in my face

Ringmaster steps up

Says the elephants left town

People jump and jive

And the clowns inch back around

T.V. news and cameras

There's choppers in the sky

Marines, police, reporters

Ask the where, for and why

Pele yells "we're outta here"

Seena says "right on"

Make your moves and starting grooves

Before they knew we're gone

Jump into the Chevy

Headed for big lights,

Want to know the rest

Hey, buy the rights,

How bizarre

How bizarre

How bizarre

Ooh baby, (ooh baby)

It's making me crazy, (it's making me crazy)

Everytime I look around (I look around)

Everytime I look around

Everytime I look around

Everytime I look around

It's in my face

It's in my face

Ooh baby, (ooh baby)

It's making me crazy, (it's making me crazy)

Everytime I look around (I look around)

Everytime I look around

Everytime I look around

Everytime I look around

It's in my face

Ooh baby, (ooh baby)

It's making me crazy, (it's making me crazy)

Everytime I look around (I look around)

Everytime I look around (I look around)

Everytime I look around

It's in my face

Video hit Coolio

Coolio ft. L.V - Gangsta's Paradise

Gangsta's Paradise is a rap song by Coolio featuring L.V.. The song was released on the Coolio album Gangsta's Paradise, as well as the Dangerous Minds soundtrack in 1995. Coolio was awarded a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance, two MTV Video Music Award's for Best Rap Video and for Best Video from a Film and a Billboard Music Award for the song/album. The song was voted as the best single of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll.

It sampled the chorus and music of the song "Pastime Paradise" by Stevie Wonder (1976). Wonder performed the song with Coolio and L.V. at the 1995 Billboard Awards.

The song was also listed at number 69 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of All-Time and number one biggest selling single of 1995 on U.S. Billboard. In 2008, it was ranked number 38 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop.

The song has sold over 5 million copies in the U.S., U.K., and Germany alone, and at least 5.7 million worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time. Coolio has performed this song live at the Billboard Music Awards with L.V. and Stevie Wonder and also with Dutch singer Trijntje Oosterhuis.

The music is a reworking of Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise", a song from his album Songs in the Key of Life. "Gangsta's Paradise" uses the same melody, but a different orchestration of the same music. Coolio's main contribution to the song was in changing the original's attack on materialism to the story of a young African-American "gangsta", regretting the life he has chosen.

The song begins with a line from Psalm 23:4 from the Bible: As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but then diverges with: I take a look at my life / And realize there's nothin' left. Adding to some of the religious overtones are choral vocals in the background.

This song is one of the few Coolio tracks which does not feature profanity.

The music video for the song was directed by Antoine Fuqua of Propaganda Films, and featured Michelle Pfeiffer reprising her earlier role in Dangerous Minds.

When Coolio won the Best Rap Video at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1996, he said in a press conference that Bone Thugs-n-Harmony deserved the award for "Tha Crossroads".

This song was used in the Angel episode Double Or Nothing during a flashback to 1995, and in the 2011 films The Green Hornet and Bad Teacher.

The lyrics:

As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

I take a look at my life and realize there's not much left

'Coz I've been blastin' and laughin' so long, that

Even my mama thinks that my mind is gone

But I ain't never crossed a man that didn't deserve it

Me be treated like a punk you know that's unheard of

You better watch how you're talkin', and where you're walkin'

Or you and your homies might be lined in chalk

I really hate to trip but I gotta, loc

As I grow I see myself in the pistol smoke, fool

I'm the kinda G the little homies wanna be like

On my knees in the night, sayin' prayers in the streetlight

Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

They got the situation, they got me facin'

I can't live a normal life, I was raised by the stripes

So I gotta be down with the hood team

Too much television watchin' got me chasin' dreams

I'm an educated fool with money on my mind

Got my 10 in my hand and a gleam in my eye

I'm a loc'd out gangsta set trippin' banger

And my homies is down so don't arouse my anger, fool

Death ain't nothin' but a heartbeat away

I'm livin' life, do or die, what can I say

I'm twenty-three now, but will I live to see twenty-four

The way things are going I don't know

Tell me why are we, so blind to see

That the one's we hurt, are you and me

Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Power and the money, money and the power

Minute after minute, hour after hour

Everybody's runnin', but half of them ain't lookin'

What's going on in the kitchen, but I don't know what's cookin'

They say I gotta learn, but nobody's here to teach me

If they can't understand it, how can they reach me

I guess they can't, I guess they won't

I guess they front, that's why I know my life is out of luck, fool

Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Tell me why are we, so blind to see

That the one's we hurt, are you and me

Tell me why are we, so blind to see

That the one's we hurt, are you and me

Video hit Semisonic

Semisonic - Closing Time

Jacob Slichter, drummer of Semisonic, said in his book, So You Wanna Be A Rock N' Roll Star: "This song was written about when the lead singer was waiting for his first child to be born. When it was written it was meant to be one big simile to waiting for a child to be born."

This remains a popular song at bars when they are ready to pack it up. There no mistaking the message: "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here." Semisonic vocalist and songwriter Dan Wilson told The Hollywood Reporter in a 2010 interview: "I really thought that that was the greatest destiny for 'Closing Time,' that it would be used by all the bartenders, and it was actually. It still is. I run into people all the time who tell me, Oh I worked in this one bar for four years and I heard your song every single night."

Wilson explained in an interview with American Songwriter that he wasn't consciously trying to write a song about the birth of his first born child, but it became obvious as he was writing the tune. Said Wilson: "I was initially trying to write a song to end the Semisonic shows with. We had always ended with a song called 'If I Run,' and I really liked it a lot. John and Jake, the other two members of the band, were always impatient with ending the show with the same song. So I set out to write a new closer for the set, and I just thought, 'Oh, closing time.' Because all the bars that I would frequent in Minneapolis, they would yell out 'closing time.' There was one bar where a guy always would scream really loud, 'You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here,' and I guess that always stuck in my mind.

So I started writing this song and it's just, 'Okay, you've got to go out into the light, make your way home, or wherever you're going to be.' Part way into the writing of the song, I realized it was also about being born. My wife and I were expecting our first kid very soon after I wrote that song. I had birth on the brain, I was struck by what a funny pun it was to be bounced from the womb."

Wilson told The Hollywood Reporter how he wrote this song in 20 minutes: "My bandmates were tired of ending our sets with the same song, so there was kind of an uprising where they demanded something different to end our nights with. So I thought, 'OK, I'll write a song to close out the set,' and then boom, I wrote 'Closing Time' really fast.

There was one little adjustment later, which I credit to our A&R guy, Hans Haedelt. He said, 'It's too simple. You need to break up the rhythm of the verses.' So that line, 'Gather up your jackets, move it to the exits, I hope you have found a friend' is the first time it deviates from the rhythmic pattern. He was right - it's a great moment in the song."

The song features in the 2011 romantic comedy movie Friends with Benefits in a scene where Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake are having sex. She asks him to distract her with, what she calls, 'a Third Eye Blind song' and he proceeds to sing this tune. Dan Wilson told The Hollywood Reporter that seeing the scene in the trailer made him laugh. He said: "It is kind of funny to be looking at it from another perspective. And while I really like Justin Timberlake's music and singing, when he's doing a Dan Wilson impression, I'm not sure I like that. But it's very cute. I enjoyed that slight mockery. And the thing about Third Eye Blind is really funny."

The lyrics:

Closing time

Time for you to go out go out into the world.

Closing time

Turn the lights up over every boy and every girl.

Closing time

One last call for alcohol so finish your whiskey or beer.

Closing time

You don't have to go home but you can't stay here.

I know who I want to take me home.

I know who I want to take me home.

I know who I want to take me home.

Take me home

Closing time

Time for you to go back to the places you will be from.

Closing time

This room won't be open 'til your brothers or you sisters come.

So gather up your jackets, and move it to the exits

I hope you have found a

Friend.

Closing time

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

Yeah, I know who I want to take me home.

I know who I want to take me home.

I know who I want to take me home.

Take me home

Closing time

Time for you to go back to the places you will be from

I know who I want to take me home.

I know who I want to take me home.

I know who I want to take me home.

Take me home

Closing time

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

Video hit Afroman

Afroman - Because I Got High

Afroman (real name: Joseph Foreman) wrote this as a joke for his friends. The song is about his experiences with marijuana and all the things he couldn't do because he was high. He said in 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh: "I wanted to take my negativity and generate something positive. I would wake up in the morning ready to take on the world and I was doing it, but then I got high and I messed around and I lost the entire day doing nothing." He added to Rolling Stone, "Some chronic weed inspired it. It took me two minutes and eleven seconds to write."

The first song Afroman released was called "Sell Your Dope" in 1999. You can see a pattern developing.

Afroman released this on an independent label in 2000. It got him signed to Universal Records, who released it the next year. The song gained a great deal of popularity when Howard Stern started playing it on his radio show.

The B-Side of the single is a song called "She Won't Let Me F--K."

This plays over the closing credits of the 2001 movie Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Recalling getting the call from the film's director Kevin Smith, Afroman said, "I was high and was like, whassup, dude."

This was included on Afroman's second album. His first major-label album in 2001 is a combination of songs from his first 2 independent albums.

In England, this was the most popular ringtone downloaded to British mobile phones in 2002. It beat out "Somethin' Stupid" by Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman and "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" by Kylie Minogue.

In December 2001, a judge ordered a 17-year-old boy to listen to this and write a 3-paragraph summary of the song after he was caught driving with a marijuana pipe. The judge also told him he was an embarrassment to his mother.

On the music-swapping service Napster, this song was huge. When a fan started circulating the song on Napster, it created a lot of buzz and led to Afroman's record deal with Universal. Many artists objected to having their songs swapped on the Internet, but for an unknown singer who couldn't get much exposure, Napster could lead to a big break.

This was a worldwide hit. It has sold over 1 million copies across the globe, and was #1 in Germany, The UK, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia. Afroman was not able to follow it up with another hit, despite efforts like A Colt 45 Christmas and Waiting to Inhale. By the late '00s, he was on the college bar circuit, playing about 250 shows a year to frat boys with fond memories of the song.

The lyrics:

I was gonna clean my room until I got high

I gonna get up and find the broom but then I got high

My room is still messed up and I know why

'Cause I got high (repeat 3X)

I was gonna go to class before I got high

I coulda cheated and I coulda passed but I got high

I am taking it next semester and I know why

'Cause I got high

'Cause I got high

'Cause I got high

I was gonna go to work but then I got high

I just got a new promotion but I got high

Now I'm selling dope and I know why

'Cause I got high

'Cause I got high

'Cause I got high

I was gonna go to court before I got high

I was gonna pay my child support but then I got high

They took my whole paycheck and I know why

'Cause I got high

'Cause I got high

'Cause I got high

I wasn't gonna run from the cops but I was high

I was gonna pull right over and stop but I was high

Now I am a paraplegic, because I got high

Because I got high

Because I got high

I was gonna pay my car note until I got high

I was gonna gamble on the boat but then I got high

Now the tow truck is pulling away and I know why

Because I got high

Because I got high

Because I got high

I was gonna make love to you but then I got high

I was gonna eat yo pussy too but then I got high

Now I'm jacking off and I know why

'Cause I got high

'Cause I got high

'Cause I got high

I messed up my entire life because I got high

I lost my kids and wife because I got high

Now I'm sleeping on the sidewalk and I know why

'Cause I got high

'Cause I got high

'Cause I got high

I'm gonna stop singing this song because I'm high

I'm singing this whole thing wrong because I'm high

And if I don't sell one copy I know why

'Cause I got high

'Cause I got high

'Cause I got high

Video hit Deep Blue Something

Deep Blue Something - Breakfast At Tiffany's

Lead singer Todd Pipes was inspired to write this song after seeing Audrey Hepburn in the film Roman Holiday, but he thought "Breakfast at Tiffany's" would be a better title.

Breakfast at Tiffany's is a 1961 movie based on a book by Truman Capote. It starred Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly, a high-priced escort looking for a rich man to marry. The movie made the song "Moon River" famous.

The song is a humorous and optimistic look at a failing relationship. One partner focuses on how different the two people are and how they aren't going to last as a couple:

"You say that we've got nothing in common

No common ground to start from

And we're falling apart"

The other partner, however, focuses on one small detail they have in common which is that they both like the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's. The speaker clings to this one detail and repeats it five times as the chorus in the song:

"And I said, What about Breakfast at Tiffany's

She said, I think I remember the film

and as I recall, I think, we both kinda liked it.

And I said, "Well, that's one thing we got."

Deep Blue Something was formed by 4 college students from the University of North Texas. This was their only hit, and they did not release another album until Byzantium in 1998.

Todd Pipes recalled to Q magazine November 2008 that promoting this song got to be pretty tiresome. He explained: "As the song had Breakfast in the title, radio stations thought it would be genius to have us on at breakfast time. We'd be up till 3am and they'd wonder why we were pissed off playing at 6am."

Truman Capote (1924 - 1984) was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays and non-fiction are recognized literary classics. He was born in Louisiana and his early works, including The Glass Harp, are about the South. He then moved to New York, where he wrote scripts for plays and films plus further novels including his 1958 novella Breakfast at Tiffany's. In the early 1960s, Capote's career flagged until In Cold Blood (1965), his journalistic work about the murder of a Kansas farm family in their home, made Capote a celebrity.

Capote was 5 feet 3 inches tall and openly homosexual. His distinctive, high-pitched voice and odd vocal mannerisms were bought to life in Philip Seymour Hoffman's Oscar-winning portrayal of him in the 2005 movie, Capote.

Apart from this song, Capote has several other connections to rock music. They include:

(a) In 1972 Capote was commissioned by Rolling Stone to cover the Rolling Stones' tour of North America. And though he set out on the tour and began taking copious notes, he quickly fell out with Mick Jagger and refused to write the article. "Mick Jagger is about as sexy as a pissing toad," he later cattily averred.

(2) Capote posthumously appeared on the sleeve of The Smiths' 1985 single, The Boy with the Thorn in His Side. English fashion and portrait photographer Cecil Beaton took the picture in 1949.

(3) Capote was name-checked along with a number of other famous people in the Red Hot Chili Peppers' 1991 track, "Mellowship Slinky In B Major."

The lyrics:

You'll say we've got nothing in common

No common ground to start from

And we're falling apart

You say the world has come between us

Our lives have come between us

Still I know you just don't care

And I said "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?"

She said "I think I remember the film

And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it"

And I said "Well, that's the one thing we've got"

I see you, the only one who knew me

But now your eyes see through me

I guess I was wrong

So what now? It's plain to see we're over

I hate when things are over

When so much is left undone

And I said "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?"

She said "I think I remember the film

And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it"

And I said "Well, that's the one thing we've got"

You say we've got nothing in common

No common ground to start from

And we're falling apart

You say the world has come between us

Our lives have come between us

But I know you just don't care

And I said "What about Breakfast at Tiffany's?"

She said "I think I remember the film

And as I recall, I think we both kinda liked it"

And I said "Well, that's the one thing we've got"