When U Were Mine is one of my favorite songs ever. It is lyrically and musically perfect in every way. It is my favorite Prince song. It is also my favorite Cyndi Lauper song and my favorite Casiotone For The Painfully Alone song. I’ve been known to make people mixtapes where I include all three versions, because all three of them are so very good.
For reasons having mainly to do with gender pronouns, I’ve always liked Cyndi’s the best of all, because hers adds a whole other dimension to the “going with another guy” and clothes-borrowing that other pop singers wouldn’t really approach in 1984. Also her voice is crazy. Here she is (unembeddably) performing it at the 1985 American Music Awards.
There’s one version of the song that majorly disappoints me, though, and that’s Cristina’s. I’ve talked about the early eighties singer/Broadway critic here before, citing her ridiculously over-the-top New York attitude as a direct forebear* of the comparatively watered-down Lady GaGa. She is wonderful. But her version of When U Were Mine adds a jerkier delivery, though seemingly not for any particular reason, and the song’s production hasn’t aged well.
[nb: This video only has 12 (!) views on Youtube.]
In case you’re unfamiliar with Cristina, there’s more after the jump:
Things I would have said on Twitter today, were Twitter working:
1. This new Ying Yang Twins song (Centipede) is AWESOME. [via mp3waxx.com]
2. The progressive writer Brian Hull has written a long (3800+ word!) description laying out the options for legislators looking at the prostitution issue in RI. You can read it here, it’s very thorough. I really love the idea of the state facilitating unionization of street workers, though I can’t actually imagine that ever flying here.
3. Breakfast is AWESOME. Eggs are AWESOME, olives and red onions and blue cheese are AWESOME, etc.
4. I forgot until today how much I like reading about classical music. I am so very ignorant of it, yet completely fascinated by other people’s explanations of its technical aspects and the emotional responses people have to it.
Popbitch reports that Andy Parle, drummer from 90′s Britpop band Space, died very suddenly while crossing a Liverpool street the other day. I really like Space, in the way that all their singles were fabulous though singer Tommy Scott’s voice got a little grating over the length of an entire 15-song album. But, to be fair, it was the mid-nineties and almost everybody’s albums had about four songs too many.
Here’s their biggest hit, Female of the Species. It’s pretty representative of their sound, which had all the drama and feyness of the Divine Comedy but without any of the sexy Neal Hannon vocals:
