Welcome to Games 21 and 22 of the Ultimate Pop Song Tournament!
These games are OPEN. They will close on Monday, August 1. (OPEN GAMES)
To see the complete bracket, just go here. For info on how we chose the songs and everything else Tournament-related, go here.
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First, a purported witch and an actual dude go head to head. Then a Jersey hero takes on a funk daddy from Mars.
Game 21 (Rock Warrior Division)
“Edge of Seventeen” (Stevie Nicks) v. “Take Me Home Tonight” (Eddie Money)
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3. “Edge of Seventeen” (Stevie Nicks)
Remember when all VH1 programming consisted of countdown shows about the Top 100 Power Chords in Rock n Roll History and such? On one of those shows, I remember Grace Slick being asked about Stevie Nicks, and her response being a softly chuckled, “Oh, the witch! I love her, the magic witch!” I’ve always felt like that sums up the perfect way to consume Stevie, with a wry wink at her High Priestess of Sedona persona but also a deep and sincere appreciation of her musical chops, which are considerable. “Edge of Seventeen” combines both sides of Stevie in one guitar-driven package. While we’re waiting to hear the call of this mystical night bird, Stevie and her Harlettes (Sharon Celani and Lori Perry deserved a nickname as cool as the one Bette Midler bestowed upon her backup singers) are wailing on up the stairs and down the hall. Maybe it was so easy to buy Stevie as a magic witch because, at her best, her songs were spellbindingly dark and seductive? — Joe
14. “Take Me Home Tonight” (Eddie Money)
It can be tough to take this song seriously, especially if you actually look at Eddie Money, one of those beer-hall rocker types who in his prime already looked like the bloated has-been he’d become in 20 years. (Kind of like how Michael Madsen always looked like he was waiting to become what he looked like in Kill Bill.) But here’s where “Take Me Home Tonight” is kind of genius, because it pairs Money’s ham-fisted seductions (the title is not mincing words) with a really respectful and loving handoff to the one and only Ronnie Spector. This kind of cross-generational hand-holding between mullet-headed ’80s rock and ’60s girl grouping meant more back then than it would today, when everybody’s hooks are borrowed, begged for, or stolen. Back in 1986, it was a real homage. Watch the music video, where Ronnie (having the time of her life, from the looks of it) gets called from the back of the arena, like she’s the patron saint of last-call hookup anthems and Eddie’s just invoked her. At some point, Eddie does the smart thing and just lets her go, blowing the dust off of “Be My Baby” and folding it into Eddie’s bitchin’ sax solo. –Joe
Game 22 (Rock Warrior Division)
“Livin’ On a Prayer” (Bon Jovi) v. “Crazy” (Gnarls Barkley)
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6. “Livin’ On a Prayer” (Bon Jovi)
Just as there’s a nugget of truth inside every cliche, so too there is an inner core of acid-washed awesomeness inside “Livin’ on a Prayer.” Which means that no matter how many sporting events or busted karaoke excursions it endures, there can be no diminishing its power. There are few things that pack a punch quite like honest-to-God cheese that has the full force of its own convictions. That’s the best of Bon Jovi in a nutshell—utterly unconcerned with the party-boy posturing of its own genre and fully dedicated to cramming drama, longing, and gleaming-toothed enthusiasm into everything they went for. Which sums up this song pretty perfectly, from the earnest parable of Tommy and Gina to the soaring chorus to that explosion at the end of the bridge—this is cheese that knows exactly what it is, and I defy you not to feel something as it courses through your veins. — Joe
11. “Crazy” (Gnarls Barkley)
The one-time-only-ness of Gnarls Barkley’s St. Elsewhere album (even if it was only perceived as such) gives a once-in-a-lifetime air to “Crazy.” Which is how it should be for a song that is so singularly groovy. That word’s an anachronism but it’s the best way I can describe Cee-Lo’s slippery-smooth delivery and the bottomless beats courtesy of Danger Mouse. Perhaps the best thing about “Crazy” lies outside its considerable musical charms and more in the way that we all instantly adopted this one, all at once. There was no time for word of mouth to snake around through your friends and co-workers and Apple commercials. This one beamed into all out brains at the exact same time, bonding us in the same gnarly trance. — Joe
16 responses so far ↓
1 Helen // Jul 28, 2011 at 10:03 am
Crazy is a great song, but I can never actually think of the tune – I always start humming Seal’s Crazy, realise that’s wrong, and that I can’t remember this one. Still voting for this over Bon Jovi.
2 Jeff C // Jul 28, 2011 at 10:05 am
Take Me Home Tonight is such a great slice-of-the-80s song. It’s one of those songs that is never in the MTV-influenced 80′s Night type collections, but it is just unmistakeably of the decade – and represents a lot of other similar pop songs by similar artists (Lou Gramm and Robert Palmer immediately come to mind). Not sure if it’ll advance very far, but it barely edges out Stevie Nicks here.
We’ll see how history remembers it, but I’ve always thought of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy as a weird aberration, kind of like that weird jazz song Cantaloop from the mid 90s. Living On A Prayer is terrific – driving tempo, better-than-usual lyrics, soaring harmonies, and probably the best use of a vocoder in a hard rock/pop song. The song is like Springsteen with Aqua Net. Twenty-five years later, it still plays regularly at sporting events across the country, demonstrating either its timelessness as a song or undying loyalty by its Gen X fans. It wins this round easily.
3 Mark Blankenship // Jul 28, 2011 at 10:07 am
Jeff — Well argued on both counts! I voted for “Take Me Home Tonight” and “Crazy,” but the latter was mostly a weird impulse to support the underdog.
4 Richard // Jul 28, 2011 at 10:21 am
Eddie Money’s got a hunger. It’s a *hunger*.
5 adam807 // Jul 28, 2011 at 10:33 am
Wow, that “Take Me Home Tonight” video is really something! He plays air guitar with his tiny saxophone, you guys! For most of it I assumed that Eddie and Ronnie weren’t available to film together, but then there are those shots of him onstage with her on the floor. Maybe a body double for him? Very weird. But a great song.
Remember when everyone loved “Crazy?” And the Violent Femmes did a cover of it as an answer to Gnarls Barkley’s cover of “Blister in the Sun?” Am I the only one who got so sick of it a month in that I sort of never want to hear it again?
6 Joslyn // Jul 28, 2011 at 10:35 am
Huh, looking at the bracket ahead of time, I was expecting this to be Aerosmith’s ode-to-Alicia Silverstone’s-90′s-hotness “Crazy”. Seeing that it was Gnarls Barkley made the choice tougher, but, my general disdain for Bon Jovi aside, “Living On a Prayer” is undeniable.
Mark, I felt the same impulse to support the underdog, but with “Take Me Home Tonight”. Stevie Nicks is great, and I do love that magic witch, but “Edge of Seventeen” leaves me cold. Plus, Ronnie Spector!! Kind of getting her own Tina Turner moment here, finally free from a domineering husband and getting the musical appreciation she so deserves.
7 Dan Turner // Jul 28, 2011 at 10:45 am
Eddy Money never did it for me. Stevie is great in this, if only for being able to sell “Oooh” and it’s permutations as a legitimate lyric. And in a race of frontmen, I pick CeeLo over Jon BJ. Bald Man wins over Blow-Out Diffuser. How much conditioner was used on the original Slippery When Wet (Damaged When Dried) Tour?
8 Jeff C // Jul 28, 2011 at 11:24 am
I would add that Take Me Home Tonight was never intended to be watched as a music video – it is in its natural element playing in a rusted Pontiac with the windows down, driving around a Rust Belt city in June.
9 Emily // Jul 28, 2011 at 12:02 pm
How is “Edge of Seventeen” not KILLING Eddie Money?!
And I see you doing…
What I try to do for me
With the words from a poet…
And the voice from a choir
And a melody… nothing else mattered
Genius, people! The opening guitar riff alone is so insistent and urgent it sends my heart racing (like a 17-year-old! Boom!).
10 Michael // Jul 28, 2011 at 12:45 pm
This has been a great contest, but I have to include a write-in for a song that has been seriously overlooked–Sister Christian by Nightranger–probably the best power ballad of the eighties.
11 adam807 // Jul 28, 2011 at 1:49 pm
OMG, Michael, YES.
12 John // Jul 28, 2011 at 1:54 pm
I really have to watch the videos for the songs in this contest before deciding, because in a lot of cases, I’ve pigeon-holed songs into memory categories that most of them don’t deserve.
For example, “Edge of Seventeen”. I was like, that’s a has-been song from the 70s (early 80s?) that’s just tired. Then I listened to it again. Wow. Not only isn’t it tired, but it simultaneously evokes that late 70s, early 80s era in my head AND sounds like it was produced yesterday. How many songs can do both at once?
Not many.
Then add in Stevie Nicks’ bewitching ways, and I’m done for.
13 Maggie // Jul 28, 2011 at 2:05 pm
I was expecting Aerosmith too, which would have been a much tougher choice for me. I think Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” is the only song in the tournament I have active hatred toward. It makes me want to stab someone. But then I take a deep breath and remind myself that in a few short years Cee Lo will have the whole country singing “Fuck You” to each other in a way that’s way less aggressive than it sounds, and I feel slightly better.
Stevie Nicks and Bon Jovi for me.
14 SashaPT // Jul 28, 2011 at 5:16 pm
Voted for “Crazy” because UGH, I just cannot vote for Bon Jovi (even though I realize it probably had more pop-culture impact). I was there in the ’80s and we college-radio kids found hair metal so offensive to our L.L. Bean (pre-grunge, un-ironic) sensibilities.
15 Jessica // Jul 28, 2011 at 10:22 pm
adam807 – wasn’t it ‘Gone Daddy Gone’ that Gnarls Barkley covered? Or did they do ‘Blister in the Sun’ too?
16 Kitty // Jul 29, 2011 at 2:47 am
I never knew there was a video for “Edge Of Seventeen”; it’s a hoot! What a treat. Anyway, it easily got my vote because I only like 70s Eddie Money.
In the other race there was no question that I would be voting for Bon Jovi. Always and forever. The dichotomy of my music tastes in highschool and college included a love for hardcore punk AND cheesy hair metal. Bon Jovi, along with Skid Row were my faves. I was so in love with Jon Bon Jovi and his hair, I can’t even tell you.
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