Inside Nokia Music

Haha!… sorry, how could I resist?

Nokia’s Comes With Music service has revealed the world’s top crooners after research into the listening habits of music fans around the world.  It showed 34 year old Michael Bublé was even more popular than classic crooners such as ‘Ol Blue Eye’s himself Frank Sinatra and has dubbed him “King of Heart’s” this Valentine’s. The Canadian singer (news to me) is the only artist in a top 10 love songs list who is under 60 and still recording music… here’s the list

NOKIA COMES WITH MUSIC LOVE SONG TOP 10

Micky Bubbles “King of Hearts”
Elvis Presley
Frank Sinatra
Marvin Gaye
Barry White
Nat King Cole
Donna Summer
Nina Simone
Leonard Cohen
Dionne Warwick

If you’ve already downloaded Michael Bublé’s back-catalogue and are after more musical inspiration for Valentine’s Day, Comes With Music has over 376,291 songs with the word “Love” in the title – All of which can be downloaded free and legally, and kept forever as the perfect soundtrack for any romantic occasion.

From pop ballads to songs from Bollywood love scenes, awkward Indie love songs, romantic Rock ballads or even Anti-Valentine’s songs, check out our Valentine’s Day playlist

Chin-Chin!

This week Neilsen SoundScan data reveals that Low by Flo Rida (featuring T-Pain) was the most downloaded song of the decade in the US. Wow! Of the decade! That’s really quite an achievement for a song that was the first single off the rapper’s debut album, Mail On Sunday.

I don’t know why our American friends went so nuts about this song, the only real reason I like it is because it reminds me of Tom Cruise as the brilliant Les Grossman, dancing to it during Tropic Thunder. Check it out:

Could its success all be down to that silly little scene? I strongly doubt it, but I’ll need to ask an American in the know for sure. I’m guessing instead it’s just down to the fact that they just like this mainstream hip-hop stuff. A lot.

But it’s given me food for thought on how a song featured in a movie with a silly dance can always stick in your mind. My personal favourites are:

1. Jon Heder in Napolean Dynamite: track Canned Heat by Jamiroquai. This dance routine at the end of the movie is so good I have actually tried to learn it, sober, in my living room, on more than five occasions. You’d think I might be embarrassed to admit that but sadly, I’m not. And now everytime I hear this song, which I previously didn’t think much of at all, all I wanna do is grab some snow boots and act like a complete geeky mong on the dancefloor.

2. John Travolta and Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction: track You Never Can Tell by Chuck Berry. Ooo lets go out on a fake date, ooo lets have a groovy dance and look all cool in front of everyone, ooo lets snort some heroin and OD like a skank. Not looking so cool now, are we Uma?

Actually, she really does look cool:

3. Tom Cruise (again! I know!) in Risky Business: track Old Time Rock & Roll by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band. Here he is looking all cute, and being all normal dancing around in his socks and shirt. There’s no science to this scene, even L Ron would have to accept that it is truly magical. Simply can not hear this song without picturing this scene. Check it out here.

Bloggy bonus

Now, while trawling the net to make my sure my tiny little brain hadn’t forgot to include anything AMAZING I stumbled upon this extraordinary dance scene from the 80s classic movie Mac & Me. The song isn’t memorable (in fact there’s a prize up for grabs for whoever can name it), but I simply had to share this with you dear reader as it is pure, unadulterated, cheesy, 80s goodness. In my view, any scene where some American football jocks dance in time for no apparent reason is worth a watch. Enjoy.

Oh my, the new Jay-Z & Alicia Keys song, Empire State of Mind, does funny things to me. Admittedly a middle-of-the-road Jigga man rap to start, you might even be inclined to zone out or turn it off, but as soon as Alicia starts her warbling about New York, everything changes. I literally YEARN for New York city when she starts that up. A city I have never even been to either, so that’s pretty good going. I’m seeing the city streets in my mind, I’m inhaling the smoky air, I’m sat in the back of a yellow cab on my way to Central Park looking up at the skyline, and anything is possible… you get the picture.

This isn’t the only song to do such a thing though. In much the same way, when Friendly Fires sing about Paris in their second single, the promise to a girl of “One day! We’re gonna live in Paris” is both exciting and romantic. Then the dreamy backing vocals pipe up with stories about stars and I’m lost. I’m not massively keen on France, but listening to this track I really really really want to live in Paris one day. Well, as long as it’s with a hot guy like Ed from Friendly Fires.

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Let me drop a little news on you: the Inside Nokia Music blog is growing. I’m Mike, the first of a new bunch of chancers who’ll be joining Gaz here, regaling you with musical anecdotes, factoids and opinions. This is actually my third post – I’m the guy writing about Mary-Louise Parker and Muppets rather than Rihanna, and I’m going to keep that run going here. Just.

Because it turns out that among the big-name guest stars (and with nary a J, Z, or Y to be seen in his name) playing at she-who-will-not-be-named’s album launch last week was Nuno Bettencourt, guitarist extraordinaire and member of Extreme. Turns out he’s going to be Rihanna’s lead guitarist on her world tour, which is only the latest in the series of bands, guest spots and solo projects that Nuno’s been involved with.

While Extreme was part of this last year’s band-reformation craze (and the only one I was genuinely excited about), Nuno’s Population 1 album (2002) marks his creative high-point. A deft mix of musical styles, incorporating everything from electronica to metal to irreverent pop, he wrote and performed the entire thing pretty much on his own. Joined by Kevin Figueiredo (drums), Joe Pessia (bass) and Steve Ferlazzo (keyboards) for live shows, the four would release a 5-track EP Sessions From Room 4 in 2004 and performed here on The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson:

A year later Population 1 became Dramagods, releasing just one album titled Love, in 2005. The release received relatively little interest outside the Far East, but Nuno’s always retained an enthusiastic fanbase in Europe eager for anything he’s involved with. The Rated R tour will, I suspect, have to sustain most of them until Extreme hit the road again, hopefully some time in 2010.

- Mike