Candi Staton "I Ain't Easy To Love"

Candi Staton had a strange path to a mainstream comeback.

Her vocals from her 1971 song "He Called Me Baby" were sampled in 2009 for the One Eskimo hit "Kandi."

And with that attention, she's poised for a more traditional-style comeback---an album of new recordings, featuring some young supporters, including John Paul White of The Civil Wars and Jason Isbell.


Hear the song on Youtube.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Gotye "Eyes Wide Open"

So here's the follow up post . . .

After writing about Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know" as a "phenomenon" song, the follow-up question in the follow-up post is . . . what do we think of the follow-up song?

Phenomenon songs don't have a great track record.  By definition, they probably can't . . .

Songs like Dido's "Thank You" caught on due to forces much larger than the song itself.  And those forces aren't in play on the second single.  Eminem couldn't have sampled Dido's "Hunter" too (which was her follow-up single to "Thank You").

Many of the phenomenon songs that stick out in my mind, like One Eskimo's "Kandi" and Primitive Radio Gods' "Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand", relied heavily on guest vocals (in both of these cases, sampled vocals) for their weird phenomenonic charm.

And other phenomenon songs just struck a particular, peculiar emotional chord, like Yael Naim's "New Soul" or Des'ree's "You Gotta Be."

Both of these traits apply to the first (successful) Gotye song.

And then there are phenomenon songs that herald the beginning of a long career, not unlike Sheryl Crow breaking through with "All I Wanna Do."

Gotye could go either way, building on early, surprise, massive success . . . or, just fading away.

The only way to answer the question, I guess, is to listen to the song . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

One Eskimo "Kandi"

This one recently went into the mix at mvyradio. What do you think of it?

Did it ring any bells for you? It uses the hook from a song called "He Called Me Baby" by Christian/Dance music legend Candi Staton. It cribs a pretty healthy chunk of the original, but the songs is surprisingly strong.

Do you like this one? Care to hear more of it?

Hear a sample of One Eskimo "Kandi", here.

See the video and hear the whole song for "Kandi," and see Candi Staton do the original, here

Buy the One Eskimo album, here; get Candi's album here