During my weekend away I spent a lot of time listening to Chicago-area radio, and one song that jumped out at me amidst the endless spins of Elliot Yamin, “Gimme More,” and whatever ’90s retread was being thrown up by Q101 was an uptempo track that pulled together the chorus from Little Richard’s terrific “The Girl Can’t Help It” (above), a 1985 Casio beat, and a super-affected bridge that caused me to wonder, for more than a few seconds, if I was actually listening to the new single by Saturday Night Live‘s Maya Rudolph.
As it turns out, the single was “Clumsy” by Fergie, and guess what? Repeated listenings of the song reveal that it’s still kind of OK–at least as long as you avoid watching its attendant clip, which starts off kinda cute (if familiar) before veering into product-placement/scary-Stacy-arched-eyebrow territory. (Hence the embedding of the Little Richard clip up top.) I suspect that I’ll be pretty sick of “Clumsy” by the time November rolls around–and really, girl does sound straight out of a last-half-hour-of-SNL skit during that spoken-word bit–but let this be a warning that The Dutchess‘ iron-fist grip on the top reaches of the album charts won’t be over anytime soon. (Which makes me wonder if my predictions about Her Name Is Nicole‘s floppiness are going to be as wrong as the ones I was hurling around last year have turned out to be. Where’s that wet noodle?)
Fergies new video “Clumsy” [YouTube]
Little Richard “The Girl Can’t Help It” (OLDIE) [YouTube]
Not to divert attention away from the Dutchess [sic], but the Yamin mention reminded me. Does anyone else think that the piano part sounds suspiciously like S Club 7′s “Never Had a Dream Come True”?
I’m a little surprised to see only one comment here so far. Maura and Jess, if you’ll indulge me on a lengthy comment, I may be able to induce more. As perhaps the only resident fanboy for this genre of music around here, I have a few things I’d like to say.
1) Maura, major props to you for linking back to your post from last year expressing some surprise that The Dutchess was underperforming upon its release. I know your [effected, I suspect] distaste for all things Fergie-related is perhaps exceeded only by your distaste for all things Nicole-related, but at least you were neutral in the post. The commenters, however, must all had just come from a Fergie Haters convention sponsored by Haterade or something. I mean, two words — WOW!
But I guess Fergie gets the last laugh, especially to all those people who predicted poor sales because “the music is crap” or “people want original music now”, or whatevs.
2) And, major props again for ‘fessing up to your opinion that “Clumsy” is “still kind of OK” after repeated listenings. Here’s my story about this track, which I’ve always loved…
I had pre-ordered The Dutchess from the iTMS [yeah, I said that] fully expecting it was gonna suck hard. I couldn’t stand “London Bridge” — and remember, I like this genre — but I figured there would be stuff on the record I would have to play at my DJ gigs, so I figured, why not? [Besides, the pre-order version came with the video for "London Bridge" and three extra tracks, so it was a "bargain".] I loaded it up on my iPod for my walk into work and figured I’d check it out. I thought the first track, “Fergalicious”, was alright. Yes, I knew it was just “Supersonic” with Fergie boasting about how hot she is, yadda yadda yadda. But it was better than “London Bridge”, so I kept listening. When the second track, “Clumsy”, opened with its sax-and-drum riff, I literally stopped dead in my tracks. I started the track over to make sure I had heard that right. Yep. I let it play, and then came the male chorus of “she can’t help it, the girl can’t help it…”
I am a HUGE Little Richard fan. HUUUUGE fan! And “The Girl Can’t Help It” is my favorite Little Richard track.
So I immediately had much more respect for Fergie — and will.i.am, of course — and a greater appreciation for what I was hearing. Plus, I knew that probably no one in the disc’s target demo had any idea where that riff came from, so that made me feel a little special. I kept listening, and the third track was “All That I Got (The Make Up Song)”, which shows a completely different, more vulnerable Fergie asking her lover if he would still love her without the hair and the makeup and the gym, and so on. Plus, it bites Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T.” for its hook. I knew I had completely mispredicted how this record would turn out.
Around this time is when I made it in to work. The very first thing I did at my desk was to IM a friend of mine who also loves this genre — she had even put “London Bridge” on a mixtape she gave me a few weeks earlier. I think I wrote something like: “You MUST get the new Fergie record if you haven’t already. It’s absolutely fantastic!” Premature evaluation, for sure, although I do still think it’s a terrific record and was better as a whole than the records Nelly F., Beyonce, and Gwen put out last year.
So, I’m very happy to see some love for this track.
3) Maura, I’m a bit surprised you didn’t get more specific/pun-erific in calling out Fergie for the product placement. Ya know, something about “her rather ‘clumsy’ shilling for MAC and Motorola”. Yeah, obvious, but still would’ve made me grin.
4) Changing the subject but not really, I highly recommend to the Idolators, as well as anyone who reads this site, the 1956 Jayne Mansfield film The Girl Can’t Help It. The film is an entertaining light-hearted rom-com which you will enjoy much better if you remember that it is set in 1956. But the reason I recommend it is because it was one of the first films of “the rock and roll era” to feature the new musical genre, and to make “pop and rock music” actually part of the story. Further, the film actually features “performances” by several of the biggest popular music stars of that rock-and-roll’s-early-days period — Little Richard, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, and The Platters. [Of course, Little Richard does perform "The Girl Can't Help It".] In case you’re wondering why these artists were in the film, the plot has Tom Ewell as an agent who has turned several ingenues into big movie and recording stars. Jayne Mansfield is the girlfriend of a two-bit gangster who hires Ewell to make Mansfield a star. To get her seen by entertainment biz types, Ewell takes her to several clubs and recording studios, each of which showcases a performance by one of the big-name artists in the film.
More here, in case you’re interested:
[en.wikipedia.org]
Bonus fact completely unrelated to Fergie or the video for “Clumsy”: Jayne Mansfield is the mother of L&O: SVU star Mariska Hargitay.
@maura: Ouch! Whilst clicking your link, I was hoping I could respond, “well, that was when you guys were still in invite-only beta!” But, alas, it was not.
Maybe “next time, I’ll do a little research” before I bloviate.
[idolator.com]
@Idolatees: I hope Maura’s endorsement seals the deal for you. This really is a terrifically enjoyable film. And “important” in many ways, even though that may seem odd if you think “Jayne Mansfield film = cheap Marilyn Monroe knockoff flic”.
Also, if you don’t have a “Little Richard’s Greatest Hits” disc in your collection, please get one soon.
kthxbai
@DHMBIB: That movie is terrific. I actually saw it for the first time way back around the time Idolator launched.
And my distaste for Fergie isn’t all that affected. But I dislike La Scherzinger a *lot* more.