THROWBACK THURSDAY: ABBA

I've totally been on an ABBA kick this week, so here we go. Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Ani-Frid, also known as ABBA, were, believe it or you're stupid, and ARE one of the biggest selling groups in the history of music. The Swedish pop sensations have sold over 375 million records world wide. Yes, OVER 375 MILLION!!! That makes them the eighth biggest selling recording artists in music history. Suck on that. They STILL sell 2 to 3 million records a year and haven't even recorded new music as a group since 1982. Their greatest hits album, ABBA Gold, alone has sold 28 million copies world wide, making it one of the biggest selling albums of all time. They've inspired countless covers, cover bands, and even the musical Mamma Mia!, based on their songs. Their music was also heavily featured in the Australian films Muriel's Wedding and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Not too bad for four quiet kids from Sweden. ABBA is arguably more popular than ever, especially in the US where the official craze never hit like it did everywhere else. Although, they did ring up several top ten hits and a #1 with the classic Dancing Queen. ABBA are clearly influential in many forms of pop music (like Madonna's sampling of Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) for her song Hung Up) and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010 for their enduring legacy on popular music. There's no doubt we'll be hearing their songs for generations to come. I mean, they're just so damn fun!! Here are a few of my fave clips from ABBA. The beautiful and reflective Eagle; the wonderfully sad and hopeful The Name of the Game; the insta-classic Dancing Queen; their first international hit, the exuberant Waterloo; and the disco sexiness of Voulez-Vous. Enjoy and remember that "you can dance, you can jive" bitches!

KYLIE MAKES SHORT FILM/VIDEO 'SLEEPWALKER' AVAILABLE ONLINE!!

Kylie quietly released new music earlier this year that she worked on with producer/songwriter Fernando Garibay (Lady Gaga, Shakira) that would be used somehow on her Kiss Me Once Tour. Well here is the short film featuring that music that opens the tour and it's beautiful. Kylie called on her favorite designers from Dolce & Gabbana, Christian Louboutin to Jean Paul Gaultier Couture to transform her into different characters for the three songs in the video including Snow White and Ms. Havisham. You can download the Sleepwalker EP on Soundcloud for free!!!! The only thing better than Kylie is FREE Kylie!! Enjoy.

HAPPY MONDAY SONG: GROOVE IS IN THE HEART - DEEE-LITE

The early 90s saw a 60s revival in style and attitude and Deee-lite were the epitome of that movement. Towa Tei, DJ Dimitry and Lady Miss Kier, who made up the group, were young, fresh and straight of the New York club scene when they released the irresistible Groove Is In The Heart form their 1990 debut album World Clique. Groove was a hit in the clubs first, reaching #1 on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart before hitting radio and finally peaking at #4 on the Hot 100. The video was the perfect visual match for the funky song and Deee-lite were suddenly everywhere. Though they only had one more Hot 100 hit with the follow-up single Power of Love (#47), they did have continued success on the dance charts, posting five more #1s over the course of the next five years. Regardless, there is no denying that Groove Is In The Heart is a classic, get-up-and-dance masterpiece. Enjoy the Happy Monday Song Groove Is In The Heart and dance, dance, dance.

BETTE MIDLER POSTS HIGHEST DEBUT EVER ON BILLBOARD 200 WITH 'IT'S THE GIRLS'

Bette Midler may be in her sixth decade of making the charts, but her new album, It's The Girls, is officially her highest debuting set ever!!! 'Girls' lands at #3 on the Billboard 200 chart this week behind the compilation Now 52 (#2) and the unstoppable juggernaut of Taylor Swift's 1989, which sold an additional 402,000 copies this week, the second highest weekly total behind it's own 1.287 million last week. It's The Girls brought in a modest-in-comparison 40,000, but shutever!! Bette's still got it. Believe it or not, It's the Girls is also Midler's second highest placement on the chart ever as well, behind only the soundtrack to Beaches which hit #2 in 1988. Midler has never had a #1 album. GASP!!!!

KIM KARDASHIAN TO DEBUT "KIM TAKES EVERYTHING....IN THE BUTT" ON E!

Kim Kardashian is tired of watching Khloe and Kourtney take Miami, New York, The Hamptons, etc,  so she is stepping up her "taking it" game and taking us all around the world with her and her ever present posterior on 'Kim Takes Everything....In The Butt'. Kardashian's recent nude photos in Paper Magazine are just promo for her new, upcoming anal-sex themed docu-series on E! that will find the most famous slut on earth traveling to exotic locations all around the globe to insert things in her famous anus. Baguettes in Paris, the Colosseum in Rome, sushi in Tokyo, London; she'll take in all the local culture......literally. Mom-ager and co-producer Kris Jenner has even set up a special audience with Pope Francis and you won't wanna miss what HE puts in Kim's butt. 'Kim Takes Everything.....In The Butt' premiers on E! in January. Oh, and this is clearly made up.

MADONNA FRIDAY: FROZEN. IT'S COLD OUTSIDE,Y'ALL!!

In honor of having to wear gloves for the first time this season....... Madonna had undoubtedly bared her soul many times before the release of her 1998 album Ray of Light. Staring with 1989's Like A Prayer Madge had written about her personal life and inner thoughts many times, but with the release of Frozen, the first single from Ray of Light, things changed. Madonna released the song in the winter of 1998 and it was a complete departure from her earlier work. Only hinted at on Bedtime Stories with songs like Sanctuary and Bedtime Story, Ray of Light took electronic music and added emotion to create a mix that would impact the music industry. Frozen was lush strings, quiet vocals and stunning visuals all wrapped up in the already iconic image of Madonna. Acclaimed by music critics and fans alike, Frozen went to #2 on the Hot 100, making Madonna the artists with the most #2 hits in Billboard history, and #1 in the UK, Spain, France, Italy and Finland was a top 10 hit worldwide. The Chris Cunningham directed video was shot in the Mojave Desert and showed Madonna as an ethereal earth mother, floating and wielding the power of the elements and it displayed Madonna's (then-new) fascination with mysticism. It received an MTV VMA for Best Special Effects. Frozen is one of Madonna's most important singles because it symbolizes a shift in her music and her image. So on this day when it's starting to get frigid in NYC, here is Madonna's Frozen. Happy Madonna Friday!

THROWBACK THURSDAY: ASHLEE SIMPSON - AUTOBIOGRAPHY. SHE WAS A THING. A BIG THING.

10 years have past since Ashlee Simpson, Jessica's little sister, put out one of the best selling album of 2004, Autobiography. Boosted by the promotion MTV gave the process of making the album with the production of The Ashlee Simpson Show, Autobiography sold more than 2.5 million records in that year alone and went on to sell over 5 million worldwide. Yes. Ashlee Simpson sold 5 million copies of her debut album, and you know what.....she (and her songwriters) earned it. This album is pretty good, y'all!! I have it. I listen to it. It is nothing like her sister's music. Ashlee took a slightly more rough, rock vibe -- a la Avril Lavigne -- and set herself apart form her famous sibling in just the right way. Of course, Ashlee was a rougher version of Jessica as well. Autobiography came out before her much hyped nose job and, though still adorable, Ashlee took on a "be yourself" motto that would later come back to bite her in the ass after her surgery. Anyway, the singles from Autobiography were everywhere in 2004. Pieces of Me, the first and biggest hit from the album, hitting #5 on the Hot 100 and staying in the top 50 for seven months!!!! Shadow, the second single, was about living her life in the shadow of her older sibling. See what she did there? La La was released next. This is actually my favorite song from the album. It's pretty raunchy actually, considering Simpson was putting forth a clean image at the time, relatively. La La is pretty much about rough sex, y'all. Get it! Of course, all good things must come to an end and Ashlee's sales steadily declined with each of her next two albums. Her second album, I Am Me, DID manage to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200, but no singles really caught on. Third album, the more hip-hop flavored Bittersweet World, debuted at #4 and quickly faded from the charts. She'll always have Autobiography though, and that not too shabby. Check out the singles below and enjoy 2004 all over again.

MADONNA RELEASED THE ALBUM LIKE A VIRGIN 30 YEARS AGO TODAY

WOW! 30 years ago today Madonna officially started her rise to power! Sure, Madonna's first self-titled debut album was very successful, so much so, in fact, that the single and album Like A Virgin had to be pushed back from April to November 1984 to accommodate releasing more singles from the first album. But Madonna patiently waited and finally performed the song Like A Virgin live on the very first MTV VMAs on September 14, 1984, shocking the audience, popping out of a cake in a wedding dress and her "BOYTOY" belt, and starting a revolution. She writhed her way to one of the most iconic performances of all time and, despite her manager saying she had just ruined her career, the album gained momentum VERY quickly. Like A Virgin, the album, reached #1 on the Billboard 200 chart February 9, 1985 , but by July of that same year it became the first album by a female artist to reach sales of 5 million units in the US. The album's title track hit #1 on the Hot 100 on December 22, 1984 and stayed there for six weeks, becoming Madonna's first of 12 number-one singles. The video, shot in Venice, Italy, was sensual, girly and a perfect companion to take Madonna's girl-power, take-no-prisoners image to the next level. As a follow up Madonna released a song that she said she regrets ever releasing because it stuck her with a nickname she hates: Material Girl. We are glad she did. Further solidifying Madonna as an icon, Material Girl is undeniably one of her catchiest hits and also one of the most beloved. The video is absolutely a classic; Madonna as Marilyn. There's never been a better fit. Material Girl shot to #2 on the Hot 100, held off by REO Speedwagon's Keep On Loving You (what???), and briefly shared the top 5 with another Madonna single, Crazy For You, from the Vision Quest Soundtrack. (Crazy For You was later added to special editions of Like A Virgin, but was not originally on the album, so fuck that noise for now.) The one-two punch of Like A Virgin and Material Girl had Madonna on top of the world. The third single, and one that seems to be overlooked quite often, is the supremely light and lovely Angel. Angel became Madonna's fifth consecutive top 5 single on the Hot 100, reaching #5 in the summer of 1985. Though it did not have an accompanying video, Angel was released with a VERY famous B-side; Into The Groove. While a chart hit everywhere else in the world, Into The Groove was never officially released as a single in the US and therefore was ineligible to chart, but it was also added to later pressings of Like A Virgin. The fourth and final single released from Like A Virgin was the stylishly slinky Dress You Up. The last song to be included on the album, producer Nile Rogers initially was not sold on the song, but Madonna championed it and it eventually became her sixth consecutive top 5 single, hitting #5 in the winter of 1985. The music video was shot live on Madonna's Virgin Tour. Dress You Up was also famously added to The Filthy Fifteen, a list of songs complied by Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center in 1985 that they believed should be banned from radio for supposed adult content. HAHAHA!! Though not too far off stylistically from Madonna's debut album, Like A Virgin was definitely sharper and better produced, thanks to Chic's Nile Rogers. There was a sense of maturity that does not show on her debut. Any track could have easily been a single, from the bouncy pep-talk of Over and Over to the wanton loneliness of the final track Stay. Her cover of Rose Royce's 1978 song Love Don't Live Here Anymore is one of the first tracks on which Madonna-as-songstress appears, performing from her gut and showing that she could deliver a ballad. Critics and fans began to agree that Madonna was more than image and that Like A Virgin was a hit from beginning to end. Of course, the album and its singles are among the most famous of the 80s certainly, arguably ever, and to date the album has sold over 21 million copies worldwide. There is no denying the iconic images, videos and controversy the album produced and, because of all that, we are still here talking and reading about it 30 years later. Like A Virgin was Madonna's first #1 album and the birth of what would become THE pop star of this or any generation. Enjoy the singles below.

BETTE MIDLER NAILS 'BE MY BABY' ON THE TODAY SHOW

I love how much Bette we are getting these days!! The Divine Ms. M performed TLC's Waterfalls form her new girl-group inspired album It's The Girls on Jimmy Fallon two nights ago and yesterday gave us an excellent performance of The Ronette's Be My Baby on The Today Show. Go get her amazing new album now or you are a bad, bad person.

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MADONNA FRIDAY: GIRL GONE WILD

WOOHOO!!! Wanna take a peek at some man-cheek? Here's your chance. Madonna just can't help herself. She HAS to give us what we want. Madge's second single from her last album, MDNA, was grossly underappreciated but that didn't stop her from releasing one of her most glamorous, sexy videos in years with Girl Gone Wild. The electo-pop track's clip was directed by fashion photogs Mert and Marcus and features a bevy of studly men worshiping at the feet of the Queen. Madonna's looks amazing (obviously) and works it in some very high heels. What better way to get your ass moving on a Friday than by looking at some ass. Am I right, ladies?Here is the excellent Girl Gone Wild.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: BETTE MIDLER - BEAST OF BURDEN

In 1983 Bette Midler put out an album called No Frills. Not one of her big hits, it did produce one of my favorite Bette songs and an excellent cover in Beast of Burden. Originally recorded by The Rolling Stones in 1978, Bette's version stays true to the rock and roll feel of the song and the video even features Mick Jagger as Bette's no good boyfriend. It's great!!! Bette's version hit #71 on the Hot 100 and she still performs it occasionally in concert. The video is a real treat so you should watch it or I'll ruin your life. Bette Midler the a goddess. Get her new album It's The Girls now.

LORDE RELEASES VIDEO FOR HUNGER GAMES SONG 'YELLOW FLICKER BEAT'

Lorde is charge of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 soundtrack, y'all. She is 4 years old. Here is her own entry to the soundtrack, the excellent Yellow Flicker Beat. As per usual, Lorde is a little creepy and disconcerting in the surreal video, but that's just how I like my teens, creepy and disconcerting. Yay!! Anyway, check out the clip and the song below and like it.

MIRANDA LAMBERT JOINS MEGHAN TRAINOR ON 'ALL ABOUT THAT BASS' AT THE CMAs

A little pop snuck its way in the CMAs this year! Again. No, it wasn't newly popped-out Taylor Swift, but country queen Miranda Lambert dueting with new pop star Meghan Trainor on her #1 hit All About That Bass. The song is about women being empowered in their own bodies and, though Miranda has certainly slimmed down recently, she has gone through a lot of trash about her body image over the years. I'm sure that's why this cute, countrified duet happened. Watch and enjoy. All About That Bass just gave up the #1 spot on the Hot 100 this week to Taylor Swift's Shake It Off after eight weeks at the peak. Meghan Trainor's debut album, Title, is due January 13th and available for pre-order on iTunes now. Hurry up, girl!

BETTE MIDLER PERFORMS TLC'S 'WATERFALLS' ON JIMMY FALLON

S

till as divine as ever, Better Midler stopped by The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon last night to promote her excellent new album It's The Girls (out now) and treated us all with her cover of TLC's Waterfalls. The 68-year-old!!!! diva can still captivate an audience like no one else. Watch below and go get her album, people!! She'd get yours!

TAYLOR SWIFT DOES THE IMPOSSIBLE, SELLS RECORDS. A LOT OF THEM.

In this age of illegal downloads and digital singles, Taylor Swift has once again done the impossible: she sold over 1.287 million copies of her latest album 1989 in one week.  WOW! Seriously, NO ONE has sold a million records with their sales combined in this entire year. Taylor just surpassed every artist for the entire year in one week!!! The only album that has sold more is the Frozen Soundtrack, which was released last year, and this year has sold 3.2 million copies. Little girls buy fucking records, guys!!! I was definitely one of the 1.297 million who bough Taylor's album and if you don't like it you can suck it. It's good, y'all! Taylor's last two albums also sold over a million copies in their first week. 2010's Speak Now sold 1.047 million and 2012's Red sold 1.21 million. This makes Swift the first artist ever to have three albums sell over a million copies in one week. Damn!! She did not, however, break the record for the most albums sold in a week by a female artist. That record is still held by Britney Spears' Oops....I Did It Again, which sold 1.3 million in 2000. "It IS Britney, bitch" says Spears. Taylor's new single, the second from 1989, Blank Space is set to impact radio November 10th.

SINEAD O'CONNOR RELEASES THE EMOTIONAL TRACK '8 GOOD REASON'. MIND = BLOWN.

Sinead O'Connor has never been one to hide her feelings. As a matter of fact -- and much to her own detriment -- she often can't help herself. It doesn't always make for good publicity, but what it DOES make for is great music. Her latest album, I'm Not Bossy, I'm The Boss, is very emotional and one of her finest albums since her 80s/90s heyday. Sinead has stated that the songs on the album are written from the point of view of four different characters, one being herself, and there's no doubt new single 8 Good Reasons is about Sinead. The song talks about a very dark time involving "a bullet and a red light" when O'Connor was thinking about ending her life, but how she found hope in things to live for. With lines like, "You know I love to make music but my head got wrecked by the business" you know we are talking about Sinead. It's quite a stunning song and a brave statement from a woman who has had her share of troubles in this life. I've posted the lyrics below the beautiful video so you can read them because we all need a little hope sometimes and a reminder that there is so much to live for. Enjoy and I hope you get as much hope from this song as I do.


 Don't know if I should quite sing this song.
Don't know if it maybe might be wrong
But then again it maybe might be right
to tell you about the bullet and the red light
You know I'm not from this place
I'm from a different time, different space
And it's real uncomfortable
to be stuck somewhere you just don't belong
 But I've got 8 good reasons to stick around
8 good reasons... Well, maybe 9 now.
I had a dream one night About a bullet and a red light
You know it felt alright
You know it actually felt quite nice
If I coulda gone
Without hurting anyone
Like a child I'd find me mum
Like a bird I woulda been flown
You know I don't much like life
I don't mind admitting that it ain't right
You know I love to make music
But my head got wrecked by the business
Everybody wants something from me
They really ever wanna just know me
I became the stranger no one sees
Cut glass off crawl upon my knees
I had a dream one night About a bullet and a red light
You know it felt alright
You know it actually felt quite nice
But I've got 8 good reasons to stick around
8 good reasons... Well, maybe 9 now.

NEW ADORE DELANO: MY ADDRESS IS HOLLYWOOD

Adore Delano is one of the most successful drag queens to ever hit the mainstream pop charts and her album, Till Death Do Us Party, has now released is SIXTH song/video with My Address Is Hollywood. Finding our starlet in a more introspective mood, My Address Is Hollywood is the story of a girl coming to the City of Angels to make a name for herself. Beautifully directed by Jayson Whitmore, the video gives Adore the opportunity to show off lots of sickening looks and let the world know that she's more than a party girl. But she's that too. Take a look below and get her fucking album, you guys!!! Here's My Address Is Hollywood.

LADY GAGA COVERS 4 NON BLONDES CLASSIC 'WHAT'S UP'

Lady Gaga is touring the world on her ArtRave: The Artpop Ball trek and every now and then she'll throw in a little surprise for the fans. Well a few nights ago in Vienna she wowed the crowed with an oldie but a goodie, What's Up by 4 Non Blondes. Gaga can deliver a rocker when she wants to, y'all!! What's Up, written by one of today's top songwriters Linda Perry for her then-group 4 Non Blondes, was released in 1993 as the second single from their debut album Bigger, Better, Faster, More! and hit #14 on the Hot 100, eventually landing at #50 on the year-end chart for 1993. It has since been covered by about a bajillion artists, and now Gaga is putting her stank on it. I like. Watch. ArtRave: The Artpop Ball will end its run in Paris on November 24th.

ALL EIGHT MINUTES OF PRINCE'S ELECTRIC SNL PERFORMANCE

Need I say more?