SONG OF THE DAY
“Walking In Memphis” by Marc Cohn (Marc Cohn, Atlantic, 1991). Written by Marc Cohn.
INTERESTING FACTS
– “Walking in Memphis” is the signature song of American singer-songwriter Marc Cohn, from his self-titled 1991 album.
– The song became Cohn’s biggest hit, peaking at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and, after being re-released in fall 1991, reached #22 on the UK chart.
– The popularity of this song helped Cohn win the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1991.
– Notable covers: (1) Cher from her twenty-second studio album, It’s a Man’s World. Her version peaked at #11 on the British charts. This version is noteworthy in that it is reversed in regard to gender, replacing Muriel with Gabriel and “ma’am, I am tonight” with “man, I am tonight”. The Cher version of the song was a notable part of the conclusion of The X-Files episode “The Post-Modern Prometheus”. Cher also performed the song on the following concert tours: Do You Believe? Tour, The Farewell Tour (sung on the fifth leg, the sixth leg, the seventh leg, the eighth leg and the ninth leg of the tour), and Cher at the Colosseum. (2) British breakbeat hardcore duo Shut Up and Dance sampled the melody and added amended lyrics as the basis for their #2 UK Singles Chart single “Raving, I’m Raving.” But due to not having properly cleared the sample, the single was released only as a limited edition. To further avoid more complications, all proceeds from the single were ordered to be given to charity. (3) The second season of the Belgian version of Idol runner-up Wouter de Clerck released his version of the song in 2005. (4) In 2007, the song was covered by German group Master Blaster, with vocals by Rachel Hiew. (5) The song “I’m Raving” by German group Scooter used the melody and similar lyrics to the Shut Up and Dance version but with certain words slightly changed such as ‘energy pouring down on me’ instead of ‘ecstacy pouring down on me’ (the original lyric being ‘won’t you look down over me?)’. (6) The song was sampled by Oddz N Endz for rapper Yo Gotti off his 2008 album King of Memphis. (7) Tom Jones also performed the song as an encore during his 1990’s world tour. It can be found on the live album/tour edition CD of the same era. (8) Eli Mattson made a sang a cover of “Walking in Memphis” on America’s Got Talent in 2008. (9) The Vineyard Sound on their 2005 album, “Across the Sea.” (10) American country music band Lonestar also released a cover version of the song. The song, which reached #8 on the Hot Country Songs chart and #61 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2003, can be found on their album From There to Here: Greatest Hits
MY TAKE
Technically, the 1990’s Week theme was a Thursday to Thursday gig, and was supposed to end yesterday. But I needed to do just one more day; that way, I could talk about one of the songs that I listened to religiously in the actual ’90’s. This album (on cassette tape, of course) was one of the strongest influences on my understanding of music in my childhood. It began innocently enough, and probably not too dissimilar to many young musical tastes: I listened because my dad listened. But this song in particular really hit me. I can still remember sitting with my headphones and walkman, pen in hand, starting and stopping the tape to get every single lyric down in my notebook. It took me forever, but I got better at it, eventually even getting my time down to an hour a song! With this song, though, WE HAD ISSUES. Dad and I fought well into my high school years about the translation of one particular line of song: “Man, I am tonight” is what I say. “Ma’am, I am tonight” is what he says. I’m still not really sure, but I am sure that this was a memorable battle in my life.
BTW, now, I’m a total pro, and usually I have a voice recorder in my purse or backpack in case a song should ever hit me.