Song 9:
"According to You” by Orianthi
Peak: 8
Year: 2009
Year end position: 55
Alphabetical Songs by Artist: 1/1
Chronological Songs by Artist: 1/1
Video?: Yes
Spotify?: Yes
This song is nice to follow up
yesterday’s, as they are both songs by one-hit wonders that frame the first
decade of the 2000s. Yesterday’s song hit #6 in 2000, and today’s hit #8
in 2009. This song also marks the first act we have seen from Australia,
and the second time we have seen a one-named solo artist (after Dion). I
just did an informal count, and I was able to come up with about 170 such
one-named acts to hit the top 20. There are some of the more known ones
such as Cher, Madonna and Prince, but I was a little surprised at the number of
one-named acts associated with rap and R&B music (think Nas, Eminem and
Mario). My guess is that similar to one-word titles for songs, there has
also been a rise in the use of one-named artists over time. There’s
another song by a one-named act coming up in a few weeks, so I’ll try to pull
that data together in graphic form and present it then.
I dug a little into the background
of Orianthi, and I think that the first time I was aware of her was when she
performed with Carrie Underwood at the 2009 Grammy Awards, and shortly
afterwards was announced as the lead guitarist on Michael Jackson's “This is
It” tour. That seemed like a short, meteoric rise to prominence.
Unfortunately for Orianthi, that Michael Jackson tour never made it past the
rehearsal stage as he overdosed on pills a few months into preparation.
If you ever want to see a decent record of those rehearsals, there was a movie
made called “Michael Jackson’s This is It” that has all the backstage
preparations. Orianthi makes an appearance in that movie playing the
guitar solo in “Black or White”. “According to You” came out in 2009 as
well, which makes me wonder how this song came to be released. Was the
song recorded before joining the tour and then released after the tour was
cancelled? It seems strange to release a solo song when you are about to
go on tour with Michael Jackson. When would you have time to promote
it? However it happened, she certain was able capitalize on her exposure.
Given that she is currently
classified as a one-hit wonder, you can see that her flirtation with fame was a
little short-lived. Since this song came out, she was hired as the lead
guitarist on at least two world tours with Alice Cooper. Her story kind
of reminds me of Lisa Fischer. She starred in the movie “20 Feet from
Stardom”. Her song will come up later, but she was an immensely talented
background singer who had one top 20 hit, but decided that being a back-up
singer was where she felt most comfortable. I get the feeling that
Orianthi might fit in that mold. She’s a very accomplished guitarist, but
her career would make you think that she feels better suited to performing and
not having to carry the burden that comes with being out front. I have no
real way of knowing, obviously. It’s all just conjecture on my part.
The real draw for this song is the
guitar work throughout the song, and especially in the bridge section.
I’ve heard the song described as a bit of a throwback to the 80s classic rock
sound, which makes it somewhat amazing that it was a hit in 2009. The Hot
100 charts didn’t have a wealth of actual rock pop songs on them at that time,
so full credit to Orianthi for breaking through to hit the top 10 with this
song.
The lyrics for this song are pretty
straight forward. There are 2 guys vying for Orianthi’s affection,
although the first guy seems like he’s really just doing everything he can to not
vie for her affections. The first guy doesn’t say a single thing in the
entire song that would make you think that she should end up with him.
That makes the line “Too bad your making me decide” a little strange.
What’s the decision here? Guy #2 may not know her as well as guy #1, but
at least guy #2 isn’t criticizing her all the time. This should be a
total no-brainer for Orianthi. Maybe that’s the message of the
song. It’s designed to relate to someone that’s thinking of leaving one
person for another. It reads a little like a list of pros and cons.
The video is pretty much Orianthi
playing the song at various venues. There is one effect that they use in
the video that is somewhat different. It looks like they occasionally
strapped a GoPro camera to the neck of her guitar, so you can see the fretwork
while she plays. Unfortunately, they put that in the foreground of the
shots, so you have a hard time focusing on the guitar as well as anything that
is going on in the background.
I think the draw of this song is
less about the lyrics and mostly about the guitar-work. I also think that
Orianthi would be pretty happy if that was the legacy that it has.
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