Thursday, August 21, 2003

Well, Brendan's gonna do it soon, or so he says, and Rhonda's already done it, being inspired by Solonor. All the cool kids are doing it, so I will too.

What, you may ask?

My List of Top Five Guilty Pleasure Songs!

1. "It Might Be You" by Stephen Bishop.
The fact that this is a drop-dead lovely melody balances out its cloying sweetness, at least in my head. From the Tootsie soundtrack, by the way.

2. "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers.
Yeah, the Rollers as a group or a marketing concept or whatever they were was dumb as hell, all wrapped in tartan and high-water pants...but this song is a stomping gem from the late glam-rock period (I'll bet Marc Bolan wailed and gnashed his teeth with envy when he heard it) and it always makes me dance around the room, just like Charlie Mackenzie's dad in So I Married an Axe Murderer.

3. "Foolish Beat"-Debbie Gibson
Another song that I was probably too old to appreciate fully when it came out...but the gorgeous melody receptors in my brain hummed along with pleasure. It's amazing that she wrote, arranged and performed this all by herself, or so the story goes.

4. "Mr. Roboto"-Styx
Dennis DeYoung, the writer of this camp classic, was so far up his own ass by the time he did this that he honestly thought he was doing significant social commentary. Fortunately for us, by the time he and the rest of the boys got finished with it, it came out as cheesy as just about every Styx song did. I'm not really a hard core Styx-basher, though, don't get me wrong- they were as tuneful as the next mid-70s corporate rock band, even if they did take themselves way too seriously, and I defy you not to carry this around in your head all day after hearing it. When I took Japanese language classes in college, the teacher made it a point to mention that "Mr. Roboto" does not come after "domo arigato". Another Styx song I love that was nowhere near as big a hit as "Roboto": "Music Time", in which they made fun of themselves for a change and it was funny and catchy as hell. Which is why, I'm sure, that it was a flop as a single.

5."When 2 Become 1"-The Spice Girls
Hey, stop snickering. I liked the Spice Girls. What's not to like? Five good-looking girls, with manufactured but likeable personalities (well, I'm not sure about Posh on that account) and some of England's best hitmakers working their ass off to write them hit songs. Just like the Monkees, but better looking. Anywho, this is another gorgeous song which gets in my head from time to time. Another nice ballad is from their final record, Forever: "Goodbye". In fact, I like that song better than this one, but "2 Become 1" was a bigger hit, so I figure you've heard of it, at least.

And there you have it! And the title "guilty pleasures" is a misnomer- I regret nothing, do you hear! Nothing!

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