Wednesdays Featured Song - "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles

Yes its been almost 3 years since "Love Song" was released but hey its our first chance to feature it for Valentines week :) "Love Song" was offered as the free song of the week by Itunes in June 2007 and it gradually picked up steam from there week after week. After appearances by Sara on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the Today Show it eventually peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and went on to sell 3 Million copies. The album from which it came is called "Little Voices" and that managed to go Gold selling 500 thousand copies and peaking at #7 on the Billboard album chart. Unfortunately for Sara, recovering from this one monster hit song may prove to be impossible. "Love Song" is such a catchy uptempo tune - talking about how she doesn't have to write him a love song just to prove how she feels - it's infectious, so well written and performed that anything else Sara does will most likely pale by comparison. I have to say most likely because we just never know. Hopefully Sara will be out with a new CD sometime later this year or early next and we'll get to hear where she's going with her music. For now check out this amazingly good song and video for Valentines week called "Love Song"

"Love Song" by Sara Bareilles - YouTube

Ellen has arrived on Idol -and it was cool!

We all got a chance to see Ellen on American Idol for the first time and she was everything we hoped she would be. Funny, interesting and definitely honest when she needed to me (no more Paula praising how some one looks because the performance was terrible). Was absolutely a fun show and looking forward to more from Ellen. The one Paula related note that was a highlight was an amazing performance of Paula's "Straight Up" by 24 years old dad Andrew Garcia. His acoustic rendition and arrangement was exactly as fellow judge Kara Dioguardi stated last night...absolutely genius. I'm hoping Andrew can keep the momentum going as we go into group night tonight which always proves to be the undoing of some of the better contestants. Working well with others is such a hard thing to do for some :) For more info and clips of last night Idol show check out this article:

Ellen has arrived on American Idol

That's all for Wednesday folks - The snow is moving in again to the mid-Atlantic area so I see more snow shoveling in my future (as in today :)). Will be back tomorrow with another Valentines week feature and music news!

~Vincent

Tuesdays Featured Song - "Smile" by Uncle Kracker

Not as popular (or as egotistical) as his Top 5 hit "Follow Me", Uncle Kracker's newest hit "Smile" has a catchy bouncy hook with an upbeat message that feels so much better than "follow me cause I so goood la la la" ha ha :). Seriously I think "Smile" is the better song but unfortunately for Kracker his popularity had already started to wane (that old 15 minutes of fame thing) so this song didn't have as much of a chance. Uncle K also hit the Top 10 chart a few years back with a cover of Dobie Grays 1973 hit "Drift Away" with Gray singing again on the song bridge...it was nice to hear that song come back it was a good one. "Smile" did manage to hit 43 on the Billboard chart and if you want to hear a song that didn't get its due check it out here:

"Smile" by Uncle Kracker (YouTube)

Simon and Ellen together on IDOL - Tonight!

The long awaited pairing of Simon and Ellen DeGenerous on Idol will happen tonight as Hollywood round begins. Okay okay so it probably happened a few months ago but we're just getting to see it now. I'm looking forward to hearing the comments that come between them and how this years batch of performers holds up under the real pressure. If they thought auditioning was the hard part boy were they wrong :) When your in direct competition with other singers in the same room, on the same stage (and yes its a stage now) and with songs you haven't prepared forever its gonna be a lot harder. The audition round in the beginning is always amusing but when we hit the Hollywood round I think thats when the real fun starts.

Hope you all have a great Tuesday - we're due for another round of snow in the Northeast sheeeeesh its getting a little crazy up here :) Will be back tomorrow with another song, a LoveSongs.com newsletter and more!

~Vincent

Tuesdays Tune - "If You Only Knew" by Shinedown

I'm telling ya pop and pop-rock is making a comeback :) The band Shinedown from Jacksonville has had much success on the rock charts - every one of their 11 singles has cracked the Top 5 on the Mainstream radio charts - and now "If You Only Knew" went all the way to #42 on the Billboard Hot 100 - definitely the noise from their fans is getting louder you might want to join in. This is a great pop-rock song, beautiful message and the verse AND chorus melodys are a 1-2 knockout punch - Trust me listen to this and you'll be hooked:

"If You Only Knew" - YouTube

American Idol in LA tonight - taped :)

AI comes to us from the LA live auditions from last year and with any luck we'll have some interesting singers to hear and watch. Rumors are also swirling about who will replace Simon next year...Madonna? Jamie Foxx? I dunno I think we need another music biz exec who has the charisma and comebacks to match - there must be a music biz exec whose star is just waiting to shine. I'm sure we'll have to wait until this summer before any real announcement. I will definitely enjoy seeing Ellen on teh show this year and for Simon's replacement we'll just have to wait till summer.

Have a great nite all and we'll be back tomorrow with some notes on the Idol show tonight along with another pop'n'love tune!

~Vincent