SONG OF THE DAY
“I Want You To Want Me” by Damhnait Doyle (Lights Down Low, Turtlemusik, 2008.) Written by Rick Nielsen.
INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)
– “I Want You To Want Me” is (obviously) a song by Cheap Trick, which first appeared on their second album In Color in 1977.
– It was the first single released from that album but it didn’t chart in the US.
– However, it was a #1 single in Japan. Its success in Japan helped pave the way for Cheap Trick’s famous concerts at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo in April 1978 that were recorded for the group’s most popular album, Cheap Trick at Budokan. A live version of “I Want You to Want Me” from the album Cheap Trick at Budokan was released in 1979 and became their biggest selling single, reaching #7 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
– It was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, representing sales of one million records. It was also the band’s highest charting single in Britain, where it reached #29.
Other notable covers of the song: Letters to Cleo – 10 Things I Hate About You soundtrack (1999); Dwight Yoakam – Tomorrow’s Sounds Today (2000); Lindsay Lohan – A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005); Chris Isaak – Best of Chris Isaak (2006).
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE ARTIST (a la Charlotte Dillon, All Music Guide)
– Singer Damhnait Doyle began her professional music career in the middle of the ’90s. After the release of a debut album in 1996, the young singer landed award nominations for Female Artist of the Year, Single of the Year, Album of the Year, Entertainer of the Year, Best New Solo Artist, and Video of the Year. Not a bad start.
– Damhnait Doyle was born in Labrador City, Newfoundland, in the winter of 1975. Her mother was a teacher and her father a professor. After graduation, Doyle fully planned on attending the National Theater School, but didn’t make it in. Wanting to stay in touch with the music world in any way she could, she found a job that would keep her close to it — working in an office for a music distributor company. As if in some fairy tale right from a childhood story, Doyle was overheard singing while she worked one day, and the rest is kind of history, at least hers. From that one lucky break, she landed a contract with Latitude Records.
WHERE I FOUND THIS SONG
Thanks to the brilliant minds of the soundtrack staff for Showtime’s Californication, I was introduced to this flirty, soft, evasive cover of a classic bit of 1970’s rock history. Incidentally, I want to make soundtracks for a living. Have wanted to all my life. Can someone please hire me into this field so I can stop blogging about other people doing brilliant work, and start doing some of my own?