This week's number one tune is unusual in that it gained fame two separate times, and in the hands of two different artists.
Originally, in 1973, famed British singer and actor David Essex released it. Apparently, the people thought that song the bee's knees, and before you knew it, Bob's your uncle, it became the ace of the UK charts. Clearly folks thought it brilliant, and there's no doubt Mr Essex felt well chuffed with the experience.
FYI, I may have pilfered some of those terms. Bollocks.
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| Every Brit is snickering at this right now. If only they were classy like us. |
Sixteen years after "Rock On" initially left people gobsmacked and knackered, American Michael Damian took a turn, recording and releasing his own version. And, in doing so, he did what mister knickers couldn't quite do; reach number one in the states. USA! USA! USA!
See, this is why they're Brexiting and we're not.
I'm pretty sure that's the reason. I mean, uh, I guess it is. Ok, I don't know for sure. Brexit sounds really bad though, right? Why are they doing it? Does it have something to do with their elected leader being a racist and ignorant circus peanut? Because, well, uh, that's a bit of a problem, at least on our side of the Atlantic. So, wait, who's worse off?
Sigh, let's call it a draw. A big, fat, imminently depressing draw.
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| Kirk Van Houten is the metaphor for politics in 2019. Yikes. |
In looking a bit deeper at both singers, it became apparent there are a lot of similarities between them. Aside from getting a lot of airplay for the same song, they also follow somewhat similar career trajectories.
Screen Things
David Essex starred in the movie That'll Be the Day alongside rock luminaries Ringo Starr and Keith Moon. Michael Damian worked in soap opera The Young and the Restless for twelve years. Both things are pretty cool. I mean, yeah, The Beatles and The Who are all-timers. But were there any long lost twins? Separated-at-birth murder fantasies? The relish. The RELISH! Yeah, thought not.
Stage Things
David appeared in the West End onstage in Evita, while Michael did Joseph and the Amazing Technicolar Dreamcoat on Broadway. Both impressive achievements. Or, so I'm told. I'm not great with musical knowledge. And, to be honest, I'm still bummed that those songs Luke Skywalker sing weren't really in Guys and Dolls. What a waste.
Cool Things
The fine sir Essex was named "Officer of the Order of the British Empire", which seems like a pretty big deal. How can Mr Damian compete with that? Oh, just by marrying the daughter of James Best.
That's right, THE JAMES BEST!
Who's that you ask? Well, you stupid millennial, just Rosco P Coltraine, the greatest cop this side of Barney Fife.
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| Get those Duke boys! Their car doors don't even work. |
So, yeah, winner winner, American dinner.
But, we don't need to stop there. Surprisingly, there's even more oddly-connected awesomeness than the remarkableness of the above. This song has lived on (or rocked on, I suppose I should say) in many other ways.
Musically, it has a lengthy history with a multitude of other artists doing their own versions. Def Leppard, Smashing Pumpkins, Blondie, even Toni Basil(!) have taken turns rocking on in their own distinguished way.
It has also been used in a wide range of flicks, from the horror movie The Devil's Rejects to the seldom-seen yet remarkably-casted comedy Dick (Will Ferrell, Harry Shearer, Ryan Reynolds, and TWO Kids in the Hall!). The Sopranos also shoehorned it into a particular episode.
And, then, there are the Corey's.
There's a lot that can be said about those guys, more than we have time for today. Suffice it to say, this week's song certainly had its greatest impact at about the same time they did. And, getting to include them in the same post as a Beatle and a Deadpool pretty much sums up popular culture, I think.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Before starting this post, I figured that I'd spend most of the writing about Dream a Little Dream, the Corey's film that helped carry this song to number one. Instead, I got wrapped up in the singers themselves, and what connections a number one hit can sometimes forge. It was a fun path to take, and somewhat interesting, I think. However, I am slightly disappointed in omitting a discussion of the movie.
You see, I never saw Dream a Little Dream, and I really had no idea what it was about. I assumed, based on the attractive girl on the film's poster, that this was some sort of teenage John Hughes-esque romantic comedy. And then, I read the film's description.
Wow.
So, instead of rating "Rock On" or Michael Damian or David Essex or anything else, I'm going to end today's rambling by pasting just the first paragraph from the Wikpedia entry of this movie. It's bizarre and all over the place. And, in a way, it represents the twists and turns songs can take after it leaves the hands of its creator. I like that. And, I've really got to see this movie. It truly sounds like the bee's knees.
"Bobby Keller (Corey Feldman) is a slacker high school student who, while running through a short cut through a backyard in his neighborhood one night, collides with Lainie Diamond (Meredith Salenger), over whom Bobby has recently been obsessing. During the collision, elderly professor Coleman Ettinger (Jason Robards) is performing a meditation exercise in the yard with his wife Gena (Piper Laurie), theorizing that if he and his wife can enter a meditative alpha state together voluntarily, they will be able to live together forever. However, just as the Ettingers are on the verge of completing their meditation experiment, the teenagers' collision renders both teens unconscious, enacting a type of body switch between the four characters"
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| Yeah. Rock on indeed. |
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