Lie To Me (Gary Barlow)

The best Gary Barlow single that never was. The song was supposed to be the third single from his "Twelve Months Eleven Weeks" album, but the record company cancelled the single and dropped him after poor sales and media backlash. I firmly believe that if this had been the first single the album would have had a very different reception. I could have easily been the equivalent to Robbie's "Angels" but alas, it didn't happen. It's a beautiful song with a heartfelt lyric and remains my favourite song of his. If only I could find that elusive radio edit...

I Just Don't Have the Heart (Cliff Richard)

Cliff Richard joined forces with Stock Aitken Waterman in 1989 for his 101st single. It hit the top 3 and is one of the few Cliff Richard songs that could be played in a club at the time.

This is a good example of a song with a happy singalong tune but lyrics that don't match the mood of the music. In the original, Sir Cliff sings about being a complete coward and leaving his lover without so much as a by-your-leave. How unkind. This is a theme that Mike Stock also used in the Jason Donovan / Sam Fox track "Too late to Say Goodbye". So pop stars can be bastards who'll leave you and not even bother to tell you. Who knew?

Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money) (Pet Shop Boys)

80s greed, Thatcherite economics, looks over talent... This song has it all. After the disappointing chart position of "Love Comes Quickly", the follow-up to "West End Girls", Pet Shop Boys came back with this amazing single (an early mix of which had actually been released before "West End Girls"). Of course, nowadays the relative failure of their second single would have got them dropped from their record label, so let's be glad that this single was a hit. It was their last single to miss the top 10 until four years later, when "Being Boring" only reached number 20. 

A straight reading of the lyrics. Let's make loadsa money!

You Came (Kim Wilde)

I loved this song from the moment I first heard it in 1988. I also loved the lyrics, about being in love with someone whose presence changes you for the better. Only I was wrong. Many years later I found out that the song (written by Kim and her brother Ricky) was actually about the love of a parent for their child, which made it even lovelier. 

This song became very special to me after my husband and I adopted our son. I used to sing it to him when he first came to us. He's now a bit old to appear here, but it still feel the same way. 

Thank you very much to Nico, who was a complete star during the recording, and to his mum and dad for letting me "borrow" him. He's a scene stealer!

Live your Life Be Free (Belinda Carlisle)

From the very first moment I ever heard this song, I thought to myself that the lyrics about seeing your (ex?) lover with his current girlfriend (or wife), yet offering to be there should he change his mind, would work a lot better if the chorus went "leave your wife, be free". Of course such a statement would not have been deemed conducive to radio airplay, particularly in conservative early 90s USA. 

As it was, this song, the lead single from Belinda Carlisle's fourth solo album, wasn't a hit in the US. Her career as a solo artist was a lot longer and more successful in other territories. 

Interpreted from a man's point of view, there's an implication that the object of the performer's desire is a closet case, and he's being encouraged to come out. I hope the writers don't mind the slight change of lyrics. I think they bring a whole new meaning to the words.

I Should Be So Lucky (Kylie Minogue)

Kylie's debut hit in many territories (The Loco-motion came first and was Australia's biggest hit of the 80s before Stock Aitken Waterman became involved) and still one of her most remembered hits (despite zero airplay even from 80s radio stations). General opinion is that the song encapsulates the prototype S/A/W song: banal lyrics and repetitive chorus. It is, no matter how many times she tries to make it somehow credible. Kylie had a bit of an epiphany when she read part of the lyrics at the 1996 poetry Olympics: after a period of denial of her pop persona and her PWL catalogue, she reclaimed the song and her past. She did not embrace it, though, wanting to give her past and edge it simply doesn't have. During the following years and sometimes to this day she tends to perform it as a torch song ballad, but thankfully she performs it in its original form too.

Her reading at the poetry Olympics was self-deprecating and full of irony. I think the lyrics CAN be the basis of an honest performance of longing and the realisation that one's hopes for love sometimes are only dreams. Here's my attempt.

P.S.: I'm going to give the Minogueologues a rest for a bit. It's been one every other one so far! I'll keep posting Minogue-unrelated PopMonologues, though. As always, comments welcome.

Ziggy (Céline Dion)

Written for the French musical "Starmania", the song "Un garçon pas come les autres (Ziggy)" was revived for the English adaptation of the Musical, retitled "Tycoon", with English lyrics by Tim Rice. Céline Dion recorded both French and English versions of the song, and the French version was a huge hit in France in 1993.

The song is about a woman who is in love with a gay man. With a little lyric tweak (forgive me Sir Tim) here's my version of it about a gay man in love with a straight man. Comments welcome.

Can't Get You Out of My Head (Kylie Minogue)

Another Minogueologue! Kylie's career-reviving biggest international hit. The dreamy vocals, multi-layered production, futuristic video, relentless promotion and THAT dress helped it to become a huge robotic-dance-inducing floorfiller. Written by pop royalty, the legends that are Cathy Dennis and Rob Davis, the lyrics convey an almost-painful sense of longing. Whilst Kylie's delivery is sensual, I've gone for a regret and sadness-filled reading, verging on the obsessive.

You'll Never Stop Me Loving You (Sonia)

Quite why the "From" which is clearly part of the chorus was left out from the title is anyone's guess.

This was Sonia's debut single and only number one. In its original form it's meant to be a happy song from an infatuated teenager, but without the Stock Aitken Waterman pop production the lyrics reveal an all-out obsessed stalker, possibly a murderer. I don’t think this is the interpretation Mike Stock was aiming for when he wrote it, but it’s the angle I've gone for. Does it work for you? 

Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi (Kylie Minogue)

Kylie. The ultimate pop princess. She's one of very few acts who've managed to transition from pop puppet to pop legend. Despite some misguided attempts at credibility, acting sometimes like a teenager who needed to show the world how mature she was, she appears to have come to terms with what her audience wants from her and balance it with enough creativity and style to still be herself.

The key to Kylie's early success was of course the behemoth that was The Hit Factory. Stock, Aitken and Waterman are among Britain's top producers, and Mike Stock one of the best British songwriters ever. Their legacy should be similar to that of Michael Gordy's Motown. Yet the latter get critical acclaim and radio play and the former gets derided, endlessly referred to as cheesy, naff, throwaway, and forgettable, with radio all but banning them. Even 80s radio stations stay away from them - trying to erase a legacy of literally hundreds of hits - with very few exceptions which don't stretch much further than Better the Devil You Know, This Time I Know It's for Real, Never Gonna Give You Up and, rarely, Say I'm Your Number One.

I always loved the bit at the beginning of the video for Je Ne Sais Pas Pourquoi where Kylie is waiting (stood up by some moron who clearly hasn't realised he's keeping KYLIE MINOGUE waiting) and - after doing that thing that French people do of replying in English when you're actually doing your best to speak their language - a wise "old" French woman offers the timeless advice: "if a man is involved, do not be so sure". I also absolutely love the bit in the out-takes of "Kylie - the videos" where we see Kylie getting her umbrella jammed in the door, but I digress.

Although my reading of this particular song is very literal, I think it's a lyric that lends itself to a little PopMonologue. I guess you could call this one a Minologue, or a Minogueologue! I recorded just one take and decided that it was good enough. I have played with the meaning of some of SAW's other hits. All will be revealed...

All feedback welcome.

I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor)

For years I've thought that the lyrics of this song would make a great audition piece, so this was the first video I recorded. There's so much emotion in the text, which reads like a monologue (don't most pop songs? - except duets, which sometimes read like dialogues, with the exception of the frankly godawful "When You're Gone" by Bryan Adams and Mel C, what's the point of duetting if you're both singing the same lines at the same time). Back to topic: the character in this song takes us from vulnerability to strength, from victimhood to empowerment. Gloria Gaynor delivered it beautifully on the original recording, but as it's nearly always the case with pop songs - and even more in the case of disco - the depth of the text gets lost in the music, often shouted out with abandon at wedding discos and hen nights.

Love feedback. Feel free to comment.

Another side of pop!

This blog collects short videos I’ve recorded using the lyrics from well-known pop songs. The videos are not meant to be a self-indulgent display of any acting abilities I may have. I'm not an actor. I've never had any training of any sort. I did lots of theatre at school and university, but that’s it. I've recorded the videos for fun and because I like the idea of seeing something that we're all familiar with from a different angle.

Pop songs are often dismissed as throw-away in terms of lyrical content, and I wanted to bring new meaning to them, or at least present them in an alternative way. I'm not interested in doing "credible". It wouldn't cross my mind to do a Nirvana, Bob Dylan or Oasis song (to the relief of those performers and their fans, I'm sure). It’s not art. It’s pop!

So far all the videos I've done we're originally sung by women. And the songs I've chosen rather camp affairs. Looking at my list of possible ideas for other videos, I can see a definite pattern emerging. Does that make me a stereotypical gay man? How one hates to see one's individuality is in fact a stereotype. Meh. The fact of the matter is that the songs lent themselves to the concept of what I want to do with PopMonologues. And camp work for little drama queen moments, which is how one could easily define these videos.

All the videos have been recorded in single takes using my iPad, so excuse the poor sound quality and lighting.

Although it somehow feels wrong to deliver these songs without their tunes, I had a lot of fun planning the setup and recording them. I hope you like them. All feedback welcome!

PopMonologues