Posted on October 7th, 2007 by Scraps.
Categories: Music, Songs, 70s Survival.
The Commodores, Three Times a Lady
I can no longer hear this song without hearing Eddie Murphy singing "Fee Times a Mady". There's nothing objectively wrong with this song -- nothing outstandingly mockable, apart from perfectly ordinary cliche-mongering like "the moments I cherish with every beat of my heart" -- and the arrangement is inoffensive, spare, with relatively light use of the mandatory strings, and I like the trembly effect on the -- guitar? I'm not sure -- after "nothing to keep us apart". I just can't stand Lionel Richie's treacly singing -- I'm sorry, Jason -- and the way he puts extra-sincere emphasis on "twice" drives me crazy. Why is "twice" important? What does it mean, damnit? How was she a lady the first time? Does "three times a lady" mean anything at all? Bah.
Fancy, Wild Thing
I despise the neanderthal original, but this leering remake is worse. Features an unconvincing moaning Penthous Pet. One of the low points of the 1970s, unredeemed by, well, anything. Okay, the watery sound of the bass is kinda interesting. Has an electronic keyboard solo and a bridge for no good reason. Fancy were a studio creation, and had one more hit, "Touch Me".
Major Harris, Love Won't Let Me Wait
More female moaning! Well, this is a much better song, at any rate. Awfully hard to take seriously though, as the moaning gets pretty silly -- and this is the five and a half minute extended-moan mix -- while Harris sings a long string of gems like "take my hand / we will take a flight / and spend the night / in a wonderland", and "I need your love so desperately / and only you can set me free / when I make love to you / we will explode in ecstasy". The whole song is a beg for sex, not withstanding that she's already moaning up a storm. Anyway, it's a tasteful, restrained arrangement in the Philly style -- Harris had been a member of the Delfonics -- played by MFSB, and has a non-obvious chord change the first time through the chorus. "Love Won't Let Me Wait" was Harris's only top 40 hit, and he eventually returned to the Delfonics.
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