YouTube weekend: Guilty pleasures

See, here's a problem with cooking up these blog posts days, weeks, or months ahead of time: Sometimes I come up with an idea for a post and put it on the back burner because the moment isn't right just then and there. And then, when I decide the moment is right, I realize that I've forgotten something essential to it.

A while ago I decided to do a confessional piece on how I actually liked some of the vapid product being churned out during the early days of the Pop Princess era. I thought of three good examples, songs that I actually made a point of listening to when I heard them on the radio. I had to do some digging to locate them. The identity of the first singer kinda shocked the hell out of me, because she's since established herself as a celebrity bimbo. The second creeped me out, a lot, because the song is by by a girl who has subsequently...developed quite a bit.

And I can't remember what the third song was.

So I'm combining these guilty pleasures with some others that centered around another theme.

The first pop princess guilty pleasure was one that I could only remember a few snippets of. The most significant feature of it was that it borrowed heavily from John Mellencamp's "Jack and Diane." A few minutes of research revealed that this was not how the song had started out its life, but the two songs were mashed-up by a D.J. and then re-mixed in the studio, a la Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand's "You Don't Bring Me Flowers." And the song? "I Think I'm In Love With You" by Jessica Simpson. Sony Entertainment is prohibiting embedding of this video, so you'll have to click the link to have the pleasure. Really, the "Jack and Diane" hook is what makes the song.

The second guilty pleasure does have an embeddable video, but I hesitate to embed it because...well, Mandy Moore looks a little, OK, a lot young in it. And she should, since she was only 15 or 16 when she did it. The song is "Candy", and, dammit, it's catchy.


And the third song I forget, but trust me, I'm sure it's just as disturbing as the other two.

In its place I offer you this. A few months ago Bill at Bill's Notes lamented the lack of variety in high school marching band music. Having put some thought into this very topic over the years, I was able to provide some suggestions. Here they are, in no particular order:

In 1993 K7 put out the song "Come Baby Come." The video...well, makes me wonder if anyone had any idea what the song was really about, or if they just decided to have fun with the production budget. But a great beat, and great marching band potential.

(And as with Kid Rock's "Bawitdaba", mentioned yesterday, this was also a great strip bar song, though I forget which strip bar I saw it in...I believe it was Th' Katch in Knoxville, Tennessee.)

When I first saw Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" (embedding disabled by request), I assumed it was being performed by a 17-year-old Gwen Stefani wannabe, not the real deal. All I can say is, Gavin Rossdale is one lucky bastard. And this video actually features a marching band at points.

Another song that has ginormous marching band potential is Destiny's Child's "Lose My Breath" (embedding once again disabled by request.) And with one degree of separation we have "Crazy in Love" by Beyoncé and Jay-Z, where at least some passages would be marching band-doable.

All of which has led me to another song, which will be showcased in a separate post.