Top 5 Philadelphia bands of all time
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Carl's list bonus) Kenn Kweder 5) Cinderella 4) Joan Jett 3) Will Smith and Dj Jazzy Jeff 2) The Roots 1) Daryl Hall and John Oates
So many bands / acts out of philly - this podcast is essentially an impossible task - we may need to do a philly music bracket next March to do this full just but until then
Here who we are trying to whittle down-
The roots, Joan Jett, patty labelle, Erykah badu, eve, will smith and dj jazzy Jeff, hall & Oates, Cinderella, Jim Croce, jill Scott, boys II men, diplo, Pink, Jedi mind tricks, chubby checker, disco biscuits, g love & special sauce, dead milkmen, Britny Fox, teddy pendergrass, the delfonics. Left out freeway and charlie Baltimore, Beanie Seigel
This is a bit like boxing - the different genres are like different weight classes - so you’ve got to look at this as a bit of a pound for pound analogy
The Roots 1.3m monthly spotify listeners, the house band for Fallon (plus or minus depending), The backing band for J-Zay on MTV unplugged, single handedly saved 4th of July concert in Philly. Too many strong songs and albums to even count - staying power - first record was in 1993 - they will be tough to beat
Joan Jett - 365,702 monthly listeners - Hate myself for loving you (pop metal punk mix) 11 mil listens (and the model for NFL on NBC sunday night theme song). Did i dirty deeds ac/dc cover. most of her most popular stuff is cover songs ranging from beach boys to ZZ top - all covers of male fronted songs - which makes it very easy on her vocally. I’m passing hard on Joan Jett - I do like what I believe are her originals "Little Liar" and "I wanna be your dog”
Her similar artists are Billy Idol, Cheap Trick, the Runaways and Pat Benatar
Patti LaBelle - 342,942 listeners on spotify - Lady Marmalade 6 mil listens and it’s a 40 year old song or older and that song has been a mega hit twice. On my own, duet with Michael McDonald, The underrated “Stir it Up” on the Beverly Hills Cop Soundtrack — not gonna lie — song is a sneaky good jam.
Patti didn’t sing a ton of songs in my wheel house - but mama can sing it and bring it — mega pipes, mega range - If we’re going by straight singing voices, Patti LeBelle is top 5 material
Erykah Badu - 1.5m monthly spotify listeners - She might hold the record for most songs with 2 mil + listens on spotify that never got on main stream radio.
The song "Phone Down” heard it for first time last night and I love it - came out on a 2015 record and has 5.2m listens
She sings the hook on the Roots’ You got me, and makes the song
Badu collaborated with great artists like Andre 3000 on “Hello” - this song is also on her 2015 record But you caint use my phone (Mixtape)
Didn’t Cha know - Totally jam - 7 mil listens — a song that proves the Badu is the queen of chilled out soul
If we’re talking artistic originality Erykah Badu is in the top 5
Eve - 1.2 mil listeners per more on Spotify - Let me blow ya mind with Gwen Stefani - 38 mil plays / Cross over start who are up as part of the Rough Riders
The track on Tambourine is actually about as hot as humanly possible — and then Eve ruins it by rapping - and here’s my point — Eve is a pop star whose medium is lackluster rhymes wrapped in mad street red — respect her pop star power, but not top 5
Who’s that girl - total Jam - gotta give Eve that
Eve had fantastic producers - Even “Gotta Man” is catchy despite being whack lyrically - Love is blind another example of this
Gotta give props to Jill Scott — Mami takes a lot of the best elements of Patti LeBelle and Erykah Badu she’s got 10+ songs on spotify over a million plays with a couple near 7 mil
Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff - I’m putting their whole body of work into one listing - Here’s an A-list movie star who still gets 2.4 mil spotify listens a month
Getting Jiggy Wit it - 40 millions listens and Miami got 33 mil listens - He made the “Men in Black Theme Song” a “thing” like a mega thing in 1990s.
Wild Wild west a terrible song that is somehow greats - cuz stevie wonder is involved,
Just the two of us - ballard about his song — which is just a remake with some rap lyrics - mega hit
And when you combine the movies, and the high production of his solo career with his Epic run on the Fresh Prince of Bel Air — that’s unbelievable success.
And then we see where he started — Girls Aren’t nothing but trouble (with the I dream of Genie track as a sample), Parents just don’t under stand — old school b-boy tracks — and this one was about parents - these guys “Cross over appeal” to the max
It’s like comedy rap — Nightmare on my street … sampling Nightmare on elm street score and rapping about Freddy Kruger - genius
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air Theme song is an american hit And then we get “Summer Time” — this song is a MASTERPIECE — the vibe, the feel, the lyrics, the video, everything is perfect and still holds up - Will smith is Top 5 for sure
Hall & Oates - 3 mil monthly listeners - hard to get these guys out of the number 1 spot in my mind
You make my dreams come true, Rich Girl, Man-eater, Sara Smile, Out of Touch, I can’t go for that, She’s Gone, Private Eyes, Kiss is on my list - that’s 9 hits Ranging from 5 mil plays all the way to 69 mil plays
Love me some Cinderella - they did very well in the Filibuster Freestyle Glam Rock Bracket - but i just don’t think they’ve got the chops to go top 5 here - These guys can write a ballard with the best of them - Don’t know what you got til it’s gone — fantastic. Nobody’s fool - very strong. And I love me some Gypsy Road — but I don’t even think Cinderella is better than…. wait for it… the Hooters
The Hooters - much different type of 80’s band - more like Bryan Adams, Rick Springfield, and solo era Don Henley - but they have a cool Irish / Celtic vibe and their top 5 songs are arguably better and def more popular than Cinderella
Johnny B 3.6 mil, And we Danced 2.1 mil listens (should be 100 times higher), All you Zombies 5 mil plays, 500 Miles has 10 mil plays somehow (my guess is people are confusing it with I would walk 500 miles by the proclaimers which has 74 mil plays - even Satellite has 5.2 mil plays
Jim Croce — sorry Jim but, in my book, you’re a Junior Varsity love child of Cat Stevens and Bob Dylan - Time in a Bottle (Nope), LeRoy Brown (Nope), Operator (Still a hard pass), he’s a whiny, folksy jamoke and I can stand his stuff.
Here’s the issue with Diplo - thanks to the rise of Electronic Music and his partnership with Beiber and Skrillex — he has 9.9 mil monthly listeners
Where Are U Now has 548 million listens - Hey- Zues Cristos
With that said — I saw him at some pool party in Vegas with my boy Ben Greene - he’s weak live and I actually was secretly beefing with Skrillex for about 4 years
He’s very good and popular world wide — but my guess is Philly doesn’t embrace him like Vegas and Ibiza do
If we want to Talk electronic music - we gotta give a shout to the Disco Biscuits (they are electric like Diplo and do it with live instruments like the Roots do with Hip hop — these dudes are special and shout out to Alex Viano who’s a huge supporter of the band
Boyz II Men - 1.6 mil monthly listeners - End of the Road 30 mil listens, I’ll make love to you 27 mil listens, Motown Philly 6.6 mil listens, one of the best videos of it’s era and all I can say is that they are a rich man’s version of Babyface, K-Ci& JoJo, Keith Sweat, et al
Water Runs dry 8 mil listens, Hard to say good bye to yesterday - NO INSTRUMENTS - a cappella, playa! These guys spawned Silk, Shai & Jodeci, even Dru Hill - which means no Sisqo and no “Thong Song”
Pink - Pink is from Norristown, PA - she has 9.3 million monthly spotify listeners
She’s been doing this for about 15 years in the limelight in a genre that chew artists up and spits them up (Female Teen Pop singers) - Raise your glass is kind of a jam, Get the Party Started 31 mil listens and it came out around the time Napster did
“Try" has 115 million listens - i don’t love it - but she basically out kelly clarkson’s kelly clarkson on this one
Just give me a reason — 234 million plays — the ladies love it, man and this show is all about supporting the listening interests of the ladies (as well as the gents)
Just like a Pill - another song that for some reason, only Pink can pull off and she does. 34 mil listens
So What 50 mil listens, Blow me one last kiss (61 mil) - Pink can write a jaded / jilted lovers jam better than most
Pink’s “related artists” are listed as a Buzz Saw of the industry - Kelly Clarkson, Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez, Rhianna - that’s murder’s row of pop stars from late 90s to today
I’m giving Pink props on this — i don’t want to — but the results are in
I’m going Boyz II Men, Will Smith and Jazz, Pink, the Roots, and Hall & Oates (Diplo, Cinderella and the Disco Biscuits all get an honorable mention)
Will Smith’s related artists include MC Hammer, Coolio an Sir Mix a lot / the Roots are related artists with Mos Def, Black Star, Taleb Kweli and Common - different level of rapper
Hall & Oates - related artists Huey Lewis, Steve Winwood, Kenny Loggins, Robert Palmer and Chicago - that’s real competition
Carl's list bonus) Kenn Kweder 5) Cinderella 4) Joan Jett 3) Will Smith and Dj Jazzy Jeff 2) The Roots 1) Daryl Hall and John Oates