La Roux - "I'm Not Your Toy" (2009)

"I'm Not Your Toy" is a song by English electropop duo La Roux from their self-titled debut album, La Roux. Written and produced by Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid, the song was released as the album's fourth single on 28 September 2009. It is available on CD, 12" and digital formats including two new remixes by Jack Beats and DatA. The single made its debut on the UK Singles Chart at number ninety-one on the issue dated 20 September 2009—due to digital downloads from the La Roux album—, peaking at number twenty-seven two weeks later.


The setting of the AlexandLiane-directed video appears to be a futuristic spa resort with tropical plants and fruits surrounding a swimming pool. The video shows Jackson sitting on a throne, watching an alter ego version of herself performing the song. Slowly her music attracts a large audience of all ages. Originally they listen with skeptical expressions on their faces, but they begin to enjoy the rhythm of the song. Knowing that the onlookers are happy, Jackson relaxes, and enjoys singing the song alongside four female dancers. Jackson looks again into another room, where several people from the previous scene and others put on sunglasses that seem to be playing the music. The people then start dancing while two children watch with further skepticism. The scene then swaps back to the spa location, where all the group are dancing and laughing. La Roux bandmates Mickey, Mikey and Will have a brief cameo amongst the crowd that Jackson attracted.


"I'm Not Your Toy" received mixed reviews from music critics. Luke Turner of the NME, however, wrote that the song's "calypso flick no doubt had Lily Allen green-faced during La Roux's recent support slot." The magazine later placed the song at number forty-one on its list of the 50 Best Tracks of 2009, further commenting that "Elly's voice never embodied heartbreak more sharply."

Cascades - "Rhythm of the Rain" (1962)

"Rhythm of the Rain" is a song performed by The Cascades, released in November 1962. It was written by Cascades band member John Claude Gummoe. It rose to number three on the US pop chart on March 9, 1963, and spent two weeks at number one on the US Easy Listening chart. The song was also a top 5 hit in the United Kingdom and a number-one single in Ireland. In 1999, BMI listed the song as the ninth most performed song on radio/TV in the 20th century.


In 1990, Dan Fogelberg scored a #3 hit on the US Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, with "Rhythm of the Rain" being part of a medley alongside The Beatles' song "Rain."


Also in 1990, Australian star Jason Donovan reached #9 on the UK charts with his version; however, he failed to reach the top 10 in his home country. The music video features Donovan and another actress starring in a film set in Hong Kong. Donovan sings outside in the rain in a backyard. It also features the actress posing as Audrey Hepburn and kissing Donovan on a ship. In 2008, Donovan re-recorded the song for his album "Let It Be Me" (2008).

The Monkees - "Daydream Believer" (1967)

"Daydream Believer" is a song composed by John Stewart shortly before he left the Kingston Trio. The song was originally recorded by The Monkees, with Davy Jones singing lead vocals. The single hit the number one spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in December 1967, remaining there for four weeks, and peaked at number five in the UK Singles Chart. It was The Monkees' last number one hit in the U.S. It was also recorded by Anne Murray in 1979, whose version reached #3 on the U.S. country singles chart and #12 on the Billboard Hot 100.


Producer Chip Douglas introduced the Monkees to the song. It was recorded during the sessions for their 1967 album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. but was ultimately included on their 1968 album The Birds, The Bees & the Monkees (it proved to be bandmember Peter Tork's only appearance on the album). All four Monkees appear on the track, with Michael Nesmith on lead guitar, Peter Tork on piano (he also came up with the arrangement), and Micky Dolenz on backing vocals. Davy Jones wasn't sure of the song's potential at first, and admitted later that he'd recorded the vocal with a hint of annoyance at the ongoing takes. His feelings changed when the song became a hit.


John Stewart's original lyrics in the second stanza were "You once thought of me as a white knight on a steed, Now you know how funky I can be". When the Monkees recorded the song, "funky" was changed to "happy."

Tommy James - "Draggin' the Line" (1971)

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Julie Andrews - A Spoonful of Sugar (1964)

"A Spoonful Of Sugar" is a song from Walt Disney's 1964 film and the musical versions of Mary Poppins, composed by Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman.


It is an uptempo song sung by Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews), instructing the two children, Jane (Karen Dotrice) and Michael (Matthew Garber) to clean their room. But even though the task is daunting, with a good attitude, it can still be fun. The melody is heard throughout the film as Mary's leitmotif. As part of the interlude, she sees that Michael couldn't get out of the closet doors that open and close rapidly.


In the musical, Robertson Ay and Mrs. Brill are helping Mrs. Banks for a tea party she's planning. Mrs. Brill tells Robertson Ay to make the frosting, which the kids try to do instead, despite Robertson Ay giving them warnings. After Jane sends him to get hot water, it comes out with the force of a cannon and causes Robertson Ay to run into the furniture, destroying the kitchen in the process. Mrs. Banks is shocked to see the kitchen in this shape, when she came down with Mary Poppins. Mary sends her upstairs to get dressed, while she gives Jane and Michael some medicine, which comes out in different colors and flavors, much like in the film. Cleaning the kitchen up is similar to cleaning up the nursery in the film with Mary magically putting it back together.


The song is mixed with It's A Small World, also a Sherman song in the final number of On the Record, a short lived revue of Disney songs. The song has characteristics of the fast-paced one-step, a popular dance in the 1910s.


Julie Andrews had not yet committed to do the part of Mary Poppins. She didn't like the song that was written for her, believing it didn't have enough snap to it. The original song was called "The Eyes of Love". Walt Disney instructed the Sherman Brothers to come up with something more catchy. Robert Sherman, who is the primary lyricist of the duo arrived home from work one evening, having worked all day trying to come up with a song idea. As he walked in the door, his wife, Joyce informed him that the children had gotten their polio vaccine that day. Bob asked one of his children if it hurt (thinking the child had received a shot). The child responded that it (the medicine) was put on a cube of sugar and that he swallowed it. Realizing what he had, Robert Sherman arrived at work early the next morning with the title of the song "A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down". Sherman suggested the lyric to his brother, Richard, who was at first dismissive but slowly came around. At his brother's behest, Richard put melody to the lyric and with that, the song was born.

Ricky Nelson - "Garden Party" (1972)

"Garden Party" is a 1972 hit song for Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band from the album Garden Party. The song tells the story of Nelson being booed off the stage at Madison Square Garden, seemingly because he was playing his newer, country-tinged music instead of the 1950s-era rock that he had been successful with earlier, and his realization that "you can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself".


On October 15, 1971, a Rock 'n Roll Revival concert was given at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The playbill included many greats of the early rock era, including Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and Bobby Rydell.


Nelson came on stage dressed in the then-current fashion, wearing bell-bottoms and a purple velvet shirt, with his hair hanging down to his shoulders. He started playing his older songs "Hello Mary Lou" and "She Belongs to Me", but then he played The Rolling Stones' "Country Honk" (a country version of their hit song "Honky Tonk Women") and the crowd began to boo. While some reports say that the booing was caused by police action in the back of the audience, Nelson took it personally and left the stage. He watched the rest of the concert backstage and did not reappear on stage for the finale.


The "Garden Party" song tells of various people who were present, frequently in an oblique manner ("Yoko brought her Walrus", referring to Yoko Ono and John Lennon), with a chorus:


But it's all right now, I've learned my lesson well
You see, you can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself


One more reference in the lyrics pertains to a particularly mysterious and legendary audience member: "Mr. Hughes hid in Dylan's shoes, wearing his disguise". The Mr. Hughes in question was not a Howard Hughes reference, as is widely believed, but refers to ex-Beatle, George Harrison, who was a good friend and next-door neighbor to Nelson. Harrison used Hughes as his traveling alias, and "hid in Dylan's shoes" is most likely in reference to an album of Bob Dylan covers Harrison was planning, but never recorded. "Wearing his disguise" fits in with the fact that Harrison traveled incognito.


The lines "Out stepped Johnny B. Goode / Playing guitar, like a-ringing a bell" refer to Chuck Berry and his song "Johnny B. Goode".   In the final verse of his song, Nelson sang, "But if memories were all I sang / I'd rather drive a truck."

Robbie Williams - "Millennium" (1998)

"Millennium" is a song by Robbie Williams, released as the first single from his second album, I've Been Expecting You. The song was released in 1998.


The song heavily borrows the musical arrangement from John Barry's "You Only Live Twice", the title track for the James Bond film of the same name, reported to be one of Williams' favourite Bond films.


The song was the 30th best selling of 1998 in the UK.


"Millennium" was Williams' first solo single to top the UK Singles Chart. In 1999, the song also received extensive airplay in Canada and the USA, where it was the lead single for Williams' North American compilation album, The Ego Has Landed.


To date Millennium its his third-best selling Single in the UK with 480,000 copies sold.

The Rubettes - "Sugar Baby Love" (1974)

"Sugar Baby Love", recorded in autumn 1973[1] and released in January 1974, is a bubblegum pop song, and the debut single of the Rubettes. Written by Wayne Bickerton and Tony Waddington and produced by Wayne Bickerton, engineered by John Mackswith at Lansdowne Recording Studios, "Sugar Baby Love" was the band's one and only number one single in the UK, spending four weeks at the top of the chart in May 1974.


Bickerton and Waddington had been writing songs together since they were both members of the Pete Best Four in Liverpool in the early 1960s. Their biggest success had been writing "Nothing But A Heartache", a US hit for The Flirtations in 1968. In the early 1970s, they came up with the idea for a rock 'n' roll musical. They co-wrote and produced a demonstration recording of "Sugar Baby Love", originally intending to submit it for the Eurovision Song Contest but instead offering it to Showaddywaddy, who turned it down. It has also been suggested that the song was originally offered to former Move singer Carl Wayne, but he also turned it down.[citation needed] They then offered it to the demo musicians, provided that they would become an actual group. The musicians agreed, became The Rubettes, and "Sugar Baby Love" became a UK #1 hit in 1974, also reaching #37 in the US charts. It also reached #1 in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and Australia, and #2 in South Africa.


Bickerton said:
"We had Paul DaVinci singing in that incredibly high falsetto voice and then a vocal group sings 'Bop-shu-waddy' over and over for about 3 minutes. Gerry Shury, who did the string arrangements, said, 'This is not going to work: you can't have a vocal group singing 'Bop-shu-waddy' non stop.' A lot of people said the same thing to us and the more determined I became to release it. The record was dormant for 6 or 7 weeks and then we got a break on Top Of The Pops and it took off like a rocket and sold 6 million copies worldwide. Gerry said to me, 'I'm keeping my mouth shut and will concentrate on conducting the strings.'

The Doors - "Touch Me" (1968)

"Touch Me" is a song by The Doors from their album The Soft Parade. Written by Robby Krieger, its riff was influenced by The Four Seasons' "C'mon Marianne." It is notable for its extensive usage of brass and string instruments (including a powerful solo by featured saxophonist Curtis Amy) to accent Jim Morrison's vocals. It was one of the most popular singles by The Doors.


It was released as a single in December 1968. The song reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 in the Cashbox Top 100 in early 1969 (the band's third American number-one single). The single also did well elsewhere, peaking at #1 in the RPM Canadian Singles Chart and at #10 in the Kent Music Report in Australia. However, despite the band's commercial success the previous year, "Touch Me" did not chart in the UK Singles Chart.

We Five - "You Were On My Mind" (1965)

We Five was a 1960s folk rock musical group based in San Francisco, California. Their best-known hit was their 1965 remake of Ian and Sylvia's "You Were on My Mind", which reached #1 on the Cashbox chart, #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The original group split after recording their second album in 1967, but a re-formed band produced three more albums between 1968 and 1977. The original group is probably best remembered for the vocal qualities of its lead singer Beverly Bivens.


"You Were On My Mind" is a song written by Sylvia Tyson in 1964. It was originally performed by her and Ian Tyson as the duo Ian & Sylvia and they recorded it for their 1964 album, Northern Journey. It was published in sheet form by M. Witmark & Sons of New York City in 1965.


The song was covered in an up-tempo version, with slightly altered lyrics and melody, the following year by the California pop quintet We Five. Their recording reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in September 1965 and topped the Billboard easy listening chart for five weeks. The performance by We Five is noteworthy for the gradual buildup in intensity, starting off somewhat flowing and gentle, increasing in intensity in the third stanza and remaining so through the fourth stanza. The fifth and final stanza starts off gently and concludes very intensely, ending with a series of guitar chords.


Other notable recordings include versions by:


Barry McGuire covered the song on his 1965 album, Eve of Destruction, as a rare solo vocal performance
Joe Dassin recorded a french language version, called "Ça M'avance À Quoi" on his 1966 album A New York
Crispian St. Peters, who had a number two hit with it in 1966 in the United Kingdom. The song was released in the United States in 1967 and went to #36 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Nanci Griffith included the song in her album of covers Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful) in 1998
Les Fradkin covered it on his 2006 album Jangleholic
Italian group Equipe 84, who recorded a successful version in Italian under the title "Io ho in mente te" ("You Are On My Mind")
Paul Anka, who also recorded it in Italian
Susanna Hoffs