SONG OF THE DAY

“Wild Nights” by John Mellencamp & Me’shell Ndegeocello (Dance Naked, Mercury Records, 1994). Written by Van Morrison.

MY TAKE

Eek! I love John/ny Cougar Mellencamp! He was my first concert as a music-conscious teen. It was summer at the beautiful Pine Knob (now DTE Music whatever, I still call it Pine Knob), and I went with my dad and a friend from down the street, Sarah. We were so dumb “who is this guy? I don’t know any of his songs.” And my dad was just like “shhh, shh, just come to the show, I promise you’ll like it.” That would be an understatement. Turns out we not only knew every song he played, but we knew all the words to most of them! He was Classic Rock Radio 101, we’d just never known who the guy was who sang all of those great songs! Needless to say, I became an official member of his street team after that, diligently wearing the tee-shirt from his concert and writing poetry with his lyrics, and putting him on all of the mix tapes I made for people for awhile.

Now, about this single. It was one of the first CD’s I ever bought, in 1996 I believe. My grandmiola (dad’s mother, obviously, and a believer in music worthy of praise) bought me a *gasp* portable cd player for my 8th grade graduation. I still had it until my recent move, so it lasted a good 13 years, lol. I went to the CD store with her and bought my first CDs: (1) a two disc set of orchestral and choral covers of famous songs from musicals, (2) Celine Dion’s “All By Myself” single, (3) Savage Garden’s “I Want You” single, (3) Jewel’s “Foolish Games” single, (4) John Mellencamp’s “Wild Night” single, and (5) the first Spice Girls CD. A bit of an eclectic mix, but certainly an indication of my wide tastes (and the Celine Dion is an indication of my grandmother being there ;) ). I probably listened to that “Wild Night” single 100 times. I was and still am really into listening to a song on repeat for days, breathing it, getting its beat under my skin and living to it, it’s like playing a character, and I love the rush. “Wild Night” was the first song I ever did that too. I’ll make a playlist sometime of all the songs I’ve ever done that with, it’s not that long. This song is SO fun to get under your skin: the bass line is ridiculously catchy (listening to it today, I regret not playing it at the wedding…), and it is a blast to dance along to. Even if your at work and can’t just get up and dance, let your cells dance, let the hairs on your arm dance, feel the bass line go down your spine, let this song take over you and trust me, you’ll be having a better day already!

By the way, in one of the final episodes of this season of Glee, there were many references to Mellencamp and a performance of his song “Little Pink Houses”, and although I appreciate them putting his stuff out there, I thought it was an incredibly narrow-minded view of Mellencamp’s music. They said all of his songs sound the same. Hello, the plot of EVERY single episode of Glee is the same, so of all the shows in all of the world to go there, it shouldn’t have been you guys making that criticism. But more than that obvious fact, the whole premise of all his songs sounding the same is simply not accurate at all. Hopefully my top 10 video list of my favorite Mellencamp songs will illustrate otherwise to you. Third, there was a whole biased presentation of Mellencamp music as working class, trucker uniform, man’s man sort of persona. That may be a large chunk of his fan base, for sure, but I think he speaks more to his times and what was happening in the country for EVERYONE economically, socially and politically, rather than to a specific demographic. No one would say Bruce Springsteen has such a narrow fan base, and just like Bruce, I think Mellencamp created music and lyrics that really transcends those stereotypes of middle America and is for every man. That’s my piece.

INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)

– “Wild Night” is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and included on his 1971 album, Tupelo Honey. It was released as a single in 1971 and reached #28 on the US pop chart.

– “Wild Night” as originally recorded by Morrison was rated at #747 on Dave Marsh’s 1989 book, The Heart of Rock and Soul, The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever.

– Tom Maginnis in Allmusic describes it as: “an effusive three and a half minutes of Stax-inspired R&B, buoyed by a sweet guitar lick from Ronnie Montrose of such quality that would make Steve Cropper proud.”

– David Cavanagh, reviewing Tupelo Honey in Uncut magazine, remarks on “Wild Night”: “Recorded live in the studio (as all Morrison’s albums are), it sounds intricately layered, highly sophisticated by 2007’s standards, like speeded-up Steely Danmeets Allen Toussaint. It’s fluid but meticulous; ultra-rehearsed but effortless. It promises a party to come.”

– “Wild Night” was recorded by John Mellencamp and Meshell Ndegeocello and released as a single in 1994. This version of the song reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the summer of 1994 and remained in the Top 40 for 33 weeks. It also topped the U.S. adult contemporary chart for eight weeks.

– The song was included on Mellencamp’s 1994 album, Dance Naked and an “acoustic” remix was released as a promotional single for radio.

– Martha Reeves covered the song on her first solo album Martha Reeves. She also released it as a single in 1974, charting at #74 on the R&B charts. Reeves’ version of the song was featured on the 1991 film Thelma and Louise.

– Other cover versions were recorded by Polly Brown, Richie Havens, Johnny Rivers, and The Amazing Rhythm Aces on the 1980 album How the Hell Do You Spell Rhythum?.

– Starsailor have covered this song in concert and in 2008, Elvis Costello covered “Wild Night” at the Hardly Strickly Bluegrass Festival.

– It has remained a popular tune performed by Morrison at many of his concerts and was one of the closing songs during his appearance as the first day headline act at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in September 2006.

– “Wild Night” is also one of the songs performed on Morrison’s 1980 concert disc on the Live At Montreux 1980/1974 DVD released in 2006.

– “Wild Night” was included on the 2003 (10 CD) set Ultimate Seventies Collection by Time-Life.

– Dance Naked is the 13th album by John Mellencamp released in 1994.

– The album was released in response to the record company’s accusations that Mellencamp’s previous album, Human Wheels, didn’t “fit the format.” Mellencamp was irritated with this remark, feeling that none of his albums ever fit the format. As a result, he wrote several purposely radio-friendly songs and recorded them within the span of 14 days at the Belmont Mall Studio in Indiana, intending to show the lack of effort required to produce the type of album they were asking for. Although Mellencamp claims that Dance Naked was merely an easy output to give the company what it wanted, the album was still well received.

– The most notable accomplishment was the largely successful single “Wild Night”, a cover of the 1971 song by Van Morrison. The song featured Me’shell Ndegeocello on a duet with Mellencamp as well as the prominent bass lead.

– Meshell Ndegeocello (born August 29, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, bassist, and multi-instrumentalist. Her music incorporates funk, soul, hip hop, reggae, R&B, rock, and jazz. She has received significant critical acclaim throughout her career, and has had ten career Grammy Award nominations. She is often credited for having “sparked the neo-soul movement.”

– She was raised in Washington, D.C. where she attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts and Oxon Hill High School.

– Named Michelle Lynn Johnson at birth, Ndegeocello has had numerous name changes. She adopted the surname Ndegeocello, which means “free like a bird”. Me’shell Ndegeocello is pronounced Mee-shell N-deh-gay-o-chel-o. Early pressings of Plantation Lullabies were stickered with the instructions. She has changed the spelling of this name a number of times during her career; however, the correct spelling of her stage name is now Meshell Ndegeocello, without apostrophes or any unusual capitalizations.

– Ndegeocello is bisexual and previously had a relationship with feminist author Rebecca Walker.

– She suffers from photosensitive epilepsy and is susceptible to seizures induced by flash photography when she is performing live.

– Her son Askia was born in 1989.

– She was one of the first artists to sign with Maverick Records, where she released her debut album, Plantation Lullabies. This recording presented a distinctly androgynous persona.

– Her biggest hit is “Wild Night”. Her only other Billboard Hot 100 hit has been “If That’s Your Boyfriend (He Wasn’t Last Night)”, which peaked at #73 in 1994. She had a Dance #1 in 1996 with a Bill Withers cover called “Who Is He (and What Is He To You?),” as well as Dance Top 20 hits with “Earth”, “Leviticus: Faggot”, “Stay” and the aforementioned “…Boyfriend”. Ndegeocello sang backing vocals on the song “I’d Rather be Your Lover” for Madonna on her album Bedtime Stories.

– Her music has been featured in a number of film soundtracks including How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Lost & Delirious, Batman & Robin, Love Jones, Love & Basketball, Talk To Me, Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls,The Best Man, Higher Learning and Down in the Delta.

– She has appeared on recordings by Basement Jaxx, Indigo Girls and The Blind Boys of Alabama. On The Rolling Stones’ 1997 album Bridges to Babylon she plays bass on the song “Saint Of Me”. On Alanis Morissette’s 2002 album Under Rug Swept she plays bass on the songs “So Unsexy” and “You Owe Me Nothing in Return”. On Zap Mama’s album “ReCreation” (2009) she plays bass on the song “African Diamond”.

– She can also be seen in the documentary movie Standing in the Shadows of Motown, singing The Miracles’ “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me” and The Temptations’ “Cloud Nine”.

– In the late 1990s, she toured with Lilith Fair.

– She also did a remake of the song, “Two Doors Down” on the 2003 release, Just Because I’m A Woman: The Songs of Dolly Parton.

– Ndegeocello was also a judge for the 2nd annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists’ careers.

– Her song “Tie One On” was chosen as the Starbucks iTunes Pick of the Week on February 23, 2010.

– John Mellencamp, previously known by the stage names Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, (born October 7, 1951) is an American rock singer-songwriter, musician, painter and occasional actor.

– He has sold over 40 million albums worldwide and has amassed 22 Top 40 hits in the United States.

– In addition, he holds the record for the most tracks by a solo artist to hit #1 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, with seven, and he has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, winning one.

– His songs are known for their populist themes. Mellencamp is also one of the founding members of Farm Aid, an organization that began in 1985 with a concert in Champaign, Illinois to raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on their land. The Farm Aid concerts have remained an annual event over the past 25 years, and as of 2010 the organization has raised over $36 million to promote a strong and resilient family farm system of agriculture.

– Mellencamp was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008 by Billy Joel.

– Mellencamp was born in Seymour, Indiana with a mild form of spina bifida that necessitated a lengthy stay in the hospital as a baby.

– He formed his first band, Crepe Soul, at the age of 14.

- In 1975, Mellencamp finally found someone receptive to his music and image in Tony DeFries of MainMan Management. DeFries insisted that Mellencamp’s first album, Chestnut Street Incident, a collection of covers and a handful of original songs, be released under the stage name Johnny Cougar. The album sold 12,000 copies.

– Mellencamp recorded The Kid Inside in 1977, the follow-up to Chestnut Street Incident, but DeFries eventually decided against releasing the album and Mellencamp was dropped from MCA records.

– He then drew interest from Rod Stewart’s manager, Billy Gaff, after parting ways with DeFries and was signed to the tiny Riva Records label. At Gaff’s request, Mellencamp moved to London, England for nearly a year to record, promote and tour behind 1978’s A Biography. The record wasn’t released in the U.S., but yielded a hit in Australia with “I Need a Lover”. Riva Records added “I Need a Lover” to Mellencamp’s next album released in the U.S., 1979’s John Cougar, where the song became a #28 single in late 1979.

– In 1980, Mellencamp returned with the Steve Cropper-produced Nothin’ Matters and What If It Did, which yielded two Top 40 singles — “This Time” (No. 27) and “Ain’t Even Done With the Night” (No. 17). “The singles were stupid little pop songs,” he told Record Magazine in 1983. “I take no credit for that record. It wasn’t like the title was made up — it wasn’t supposed to be punky or cocky like some people thought. Toward the end, I didn’t even go to the studio. Me and the guys in the band thought we were finished, anyway. It was the most expensive record I ever made. It cost $280,000, do you believe that? The worst thing was that I could have gone on making records like that for hundreds of years. Hell, as long as you sell a few records and the record company isn’t putting lot of money into promotion, you’re making money for ’em and that’s all they care about. PolyGram loved Nothin’ Matters. They thought I was going to turn into the next Neil Diamond.”

– In 1982, Mellencamp released his breakthrough album, American Fool, which contained the singles “Hurts So Good,” “Jack & Diane” and “Hand to Hold On To”. “Hurts So Good” went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance. “To be real honest, there’s three good songs on that record, and the rest is just sort of filler,” Mellencamp told Creem Magazine in 1984. “It was too labored over, too thought about, and it wasn’t organic enough.”

– Mellencamp had the record company add his real surname to his stage moniker. The first album he recorded as John Cougar Mellencamp was 1983’s Uh-Huh, a top-10 album that spawned the top 10 singles “Pink Houses”, “Crumblin’ Down” and “Authority Song”.

– In 1985, Mellencamp released Scarecrow, which spawned five Top 40 singles: “Lonely Ol’ Night”, “Small Town”, and “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. (A Salute to ’60s Rock)”, “Rain on the Scarecrow” and “Rumbleseat”. Scarecrow was also the first album Mellencamp recorded at his own recording studio “Belmont Mall,” located in Belmont, Indiana and built in 1984. Mellencamp sees Scarecrow as the start of the alternative country genre.

– Shortly after, Mellencamp helped organize the first Farm Aid benefit concert with Willie Nelson and Neil Young in Champaign, Illinois on September 22, 1985.

– Prior to the 1985–86 Scarecrow Tour, Mellencamp added fiddle player Lisa Germano to his band. Germano would remain in Mellencamp’s band until 1994, when she left to pursue a solo career.

– Mellencamp’s next LP, 1987’s The Lonesome Jubilee included the singles “Paper in Fire”, “Cherry Bomb”, and “Check It Out”. “We were on the road for a long time after Scarecrow, so we were together a lot as a band,” Mellencamp said in a 1987 Creem magazine feature. “For the first time ever, we talked about the record before we started. We had a very distinct vision of what should be happening here. At one point, The Lonesome Jubilee was supposed to be a double album, but at least 10 of the songs I’d written just didn’t stick together with the idea and the sound we had in mind. So I just put those songs on a shelf, and cut it back down to a single record. Now, in the past, it was always ‘Let’s make it up as we go along’ – and we did make some of The Lonesome Jubilee up as we went along. But we had a very clear idea of what we wanted it to sound like, even before it was written, right through to the day it was mastered.”

– As Frank DiGiacomo of Vanity Fair wrote in 2007, “The Lonesome Jubilee was the album in which Mellencamp defined his now signature sound: a rousing, crystalline mix of acoustic and electric guitars, Appalachian fiddle, and gospel-style backing vocals, anchored by a crisp, bare-knuckle drumbeat and completed by his own velveteen rasp.”

– During the 1987–88 Lonesome Jubilee Tour, Mellencamp was joined onstage by surprise guest Bruce Springsteen at the end of his May 26, 1988 gig in Irvine, California for a duet of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”, which Mellencamp performed as the penultimate song during each show on that tour.

– In 1989, Mellencamp released the personal album Big Daddy, which Mellencamp called at the time the most “earthy” record he’d ever made, is also the last to feature the “Cougar” moniker.

– Mellencamp was heavily involved in painting at this time in his life, and decided not to tour behind Big Daddy, stating “Whats the point?… This other step that people keep wanting me to take to become another level of recording artist – to be Madonna? To sell out? To bend over? To kiss somebody’s ass? I ain’t gonna do it.” In his second painting exhibition, at the Churchman-Fehsenfeld Gallery in Indianapolis in 1990, Mellencamp’s portraits were described as always having sad facial expressions and conveying “the same disillusionment found in his musical anthems about the nation’s heartland and farm crisis.”

– Mellencamp’s 1991 album, Whenever We Wanted, was the first whose cover was billed to just John Mellencamp. “It’s very rock ‘n’ roll,” Mellencamp said of Whenever We Wanted. “I just wanted to get back to the basics.”

– In 1993, he released Human Wheels. “To me, this record is very urban,” Mellencamp told Billboard magazine of Human Wheels in the summer of ’93. “We had a lot of discussions about the rhythm and blues music of the day. We explored what a lot of these (current) bands are doing — these young black bands that are doing more than just sampling.”

– Mellencamp’s 1994 Dance Naked album: “This is as naked a rock record as you’re going to hear,” Mellencamp said in a 1994 Billboard magazine interview. “All the vocals are first or second takes, and half the songs don’t even have bass parts. Others have just one guitar, bass, and drums, which I haven’t done since ‘American Fool.’ “

– He returned to the concert stage in early 1995 by playing a series of dates in small Midwestern clubs under the pseudonym Pearl Doggy.

– In September 1996 the album Mr. Happy Go Lucky was released. “It’s been fascinating to me how urban records use rhythm and electronics, and it’s terribly challenging to make that work in the context of a rock band,” Mellencamp told Billboard magazine in 1996. “But we took it further than an urban record. The arrangements are more ambitious, with programs and loops going right along with real drums and guitars.”

– After the release of Mr. Happy Go Lucky, Mellencamp signed a four-album deal with Columbia Records, although he wound up only making three albums for the label.

– Issued a day before his 47th birthday in 1998, his self-titled debut for Columbia Records included the singles “Your Life is Now” and “I’m Not Running Anymore”. “Initially, I wanted to make a record that barely had drums on it. Donovan made a record (in 1966), Sunshine Superman, and I wanted to start with that same kind of vibe—Eastern, very grand stories, fairy tales.”

– He released a book of his early paintings, titled Paintings and Reflections, in 1998.

– In 1999, Mellencamp covered his own songs as well as those by Bob Dylan and the Drifters for his album Rough Harvest (recorded in 1997), one of two albums he owed Mercury Records to fulfill his contract (the other was The Best That I Could Do, a best-of collection).

– The early 21st century found Mellencamp teaming up with artists such as Chuck D, Trisha Yearwood and India.Arie to deliver Cuttin’ Heads.

– In 2003, he released Trouble No More, a quickly-recorded collection of folk and blues covers originally done by artists such as Robert Johnson, Son House, Lucinda Williams and Hoagie Carmichael. Columbia Records then engaged him to record an album of vintage American songs.

– Mellencamp participated in the Vote for Change tour in October 2004 leading up to the 2004 U.S. Presidential election.

– In 2005, Mellencamp toured with Donovan and John Fogerty. The first leg of what was called the Words and Music Tour in the spring of ’05 featured Donovan playing in the middle of Mellencamp’s set. Mellencamp would play a handful of songs before introducing Donovan and then duetting with him on the 1966 hit “Sunshine Superman.” Mellencamp would leave the stage as Donovan played seven or eight of his songs (backed by Mellencamp’s band) and then return to finish off his own set after Donovan departed. On the second leg of the tour in the summer of ’05, Fogerty co-headlined with Mellencamp at outdoor amphitheaters across the United States. Fogerty would join Mellencamp for duets on Fogerty’s Creedence Clearwater Revival hit “Green River” and Mellencamp’s “Rain on the Scarecrow.”

– Mellencamp released Freedom’s Road on January 23, 2007. “Our Country” began being featured in Chevy Silverado TV commercials in late September 2006. He sang the song to open Game 2 of the 2006 World Series. “Our Country” was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award in the category Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance but lost out to Bruce Springsteen’s “Radio Nowhere.” The record peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 album chart by selling 56,000 copies in its first week on the market. Freedom’s Road included “Jim Crow”, a duet with Joan Baez.

– His 18th album of original material, Life, Death, Love and Freedom, was released on July 15, 2008, and produced by T Bone Burnett. In an interview with the Bloomington Herald-Times in March 2008, Mellencamp dubbed the album “The best record I’ve ever made.” He signed with Starbucks’ Hear Music label to distribute the album and said, “they think it’s a fucking masterpiece.” It sold 56,000 copies in its first week on the market.

– In its list of the 50 best albums of 2008, Rolling Stone magazine named Life, Death, Love and Freedom No. 5 overall and also dubbed “Troubled Land” No. 48 among the 100 best singles of the year.

– On September 3, 2008, Mellencamp made available on his website a home-video recording of his solo acoustic cover of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin'” as a sign that the 2008 Presidential Election is going to bring about change in America.

– Mellencamp filmed a concert at the Crump Theatre in Columbus, Indiana on September 23, 2008 for a new A&E Biography series called “Homeward Bound”. The show, which features performers returning to small venues they performed at during the early stages of their careers.

– Mellencamp released an eight-track live album called Life, Death, Live and Freedom on June 23, 2009. This is the first official live album of Mellencamp’s career.

– In 2009, Mellencamp recorded a new album, No Better Than This, and was again produced by T Bone Burnett. The tracks for the album were recorded at historic locations, such as the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia as well as at the Sun Studio in Memphis and the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, where blues pioneer Robert Johnson recorded “Sweet Home Chicago” and “Crossroad Blues”. Mellencamp recorded the album using a 1955 Ampex portable recording machine and only one microphone, requiring all the musicians to gather together around the mic. The album was recorded in mono. Mellencamp wrote over 30 songs for the record (only 13 made the final cut), and he wrote one song specifically for Room 414 at the Gunther Hotel. “It’s called ‘Right Behind Me’. I wrote it just for this room,” Mellencamp told the San Antonio Express-News. No Better Than This is scheduled to be released on August 17, 2010.

- Mellencamp has been working on a musical with horror author Stephen King, entitled Ghost Brothers of Darkland County since 2000. Liv Ullmann said in a March 2010 radio interview that she will direct. According to Mellencamp’s website, production of the Ghost Brothers of Darkland County CD/book package began on June 15, 2009, when Burnett began laying down tracks in Los Angeles for the 18 new songs Mellencamp has written for the musical. The recording will be available in a book package containing the full text, two discs featuring the entire production of the spoken word script and songs performed by the cast, and a third CD of the songs only. There’s no orchestra, just two twangy acoustic guitars, an accordion, and a fiddle.

– Mellencamp has made several forays into acting over the years, appearing in four films: Falling from Grace (which he also directed) (1992), Madison (2001, narration only), After Image (2001), and Lone Star State of Mind (2002). Roger Ebert called Falling from Grace “one of the best films of the year” in 1992.

– Mellencamp lives in Bloomington, Indiana, and has been married to former supermodel Elaine Irwin Mellencamp since September 5, 1992. Mellencamp has five children from his three marriages.

– In a 1987 TV interview, Mellencamp said: “The biggest joke for me was when they cleaned the Statue of Liberty off and all these people who were getting screwed by these corporations were going, ‘yeah, man. Great.’ I was embarrassed by all that. I wouldn’t watch that, I wouldn’t go to it, I’d be no party to that kind of stuff. That’s how manipulated we are….I can live without the landmark. Get the starving people and the mentally ill people who need help off the streets of New York. You wanna do something with that money? Get those people off the streets. Don’t spend millions of dollars to clean the Statue of Liberty. Who gives a shit? I don’t care if it falls down. It don’t mean anything to me. What means something to me is trying to help these people.”

– He has also been bestowed with the Nordoff-Robbins Silver Clef Special Music Industry Humanitarian Award (1991), the Billboard Century Award (2001), the Woody Guthrie Award (2003), and the ASCAP Foundation Champion Award (2007). On October 6, 2008, Mellencamp won the prestigious Classic Songwriter Award at the 2008 Q Awards in London, England. Mellencamp was nominated for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2009 but was not elected. He’s been nominated again for the Class of 2010.

– Mellencamp’s biggest honor came when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Class of 2008. The induction ceremony took place in New York City on March 10, 2008, and Mellencamp was inducted by good friend Billy Joel, who asked Mellencamp to induct him into the Rock Hall back in 1999 (Mellencamp had to opt out because of another commitment, so Ray Charles inducted Joel). During his induction speech for Mellencamp, Joel said:

MY JOHNNY COUGAR TOP 10

I love Johnny Cougar so much, so I thought I’d lay out a Top 10 list for y’all. It’s fun for me to do too because I get to listen to his music all day to write this blog! What a great day I’m having! I couldn’t put this list in any sort of order of greatness, so it’s just my 10 favorite, no order, with videos!:

1) “Wild Night”…this is for sure my #1 all-time favorite JC song. I love it above all others. It’s actually one of my favorite songs of all time, if you must know. I, of course, included it’s video below, rather than in the list, since the post is about this song and all. Below, I also included a video of the original version of the song by Van Morrison, since it was his in the first place. The JC video is so amazing to watch because (a) Me’shell is so supremely rocking that bass guitar, and it makes me want to learn bass just so I can have as much fun as she looks like she’s having, and (b) do you see how much fun they’re both having? This song rocks.

2) “I Need A Lover”: Definitely my #2 Mellencamp song, I sing this song all the time…”Some girl that knows the meaning of, uh, hey, hit the highway!”:

3) “I’m Not Running Anymore”:

4) “Small Town”:

5) “Cherry Bomb” :

6) “Hurt So Good”:

7) “What If I Came Knocking”: What the hell is this video?:

8) “Paper In Fire”:

9) “Check It Out”:

10) “Lonely Ol’ Night”:

Runners up:
“Pink Houses”
“Crumblin’ Down”
“Just Another Day”
“Authority Song”
and I guess “Jack & Diane” but I’ve definitely tired of that song and am okay with never hearing it again (too much other great Mellencamp, why would I go to that?).

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Here’s the cover I am blogging about today by JC & MN:

And here’s the original track by Van Morrison: