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The Week In Music: The Weezer Breakup Fund
Weezer's Rivers Cuomo performs at the 2010 US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, Calif.

Photo: Noel Vasquez/WireImage.com

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The Week In Music: The Weezer Breakup Fund

Disgruntled fan starts donation campaign to raise $10 million to freeze Weezer

GRAMMYs/Dec 3, 2014 - 05:06 am

The rock band that penned such catchy tunes as "Buddy Holly," "Island In The Sun" and "Hash Pipe" is being asked to permanently extinguish its fire. Seattle resident James Burn (of no known relation to the evil nuclear power plant owner on "The Simpsons") is soliciting online donations via the Point in hopes of raising $10 million to pay Weezer to call it quits. "Every year, [frontman] Rivers Cuomo swears that he's changed and that their new album is the best thing that he's done since Pinkerton," said Burns. "And what happens? Another pile of crap like 'Beverly Hills' or 'I'm Your Daddy.'" Burns is also concerned for his friends and other former Weezer fans. "This is an abusive relationship, and it needs to stop now. I am tired of my friends being disappointed year after year." Fortunately for fans who welcomed the band's latest Top 10 album, Hurley, the campaign has only raised approximately $2,000 as of this report. According to Weezer drummer Patrick Wilson, negotiations are welcome. "If they can make it $20 [million], we'll do the deluxe breakup," Wilson responded via Twitter.

Bret Michaels went the au naturel route for the cover of Billboard's Oct. 2 Maximum Exposure issue. Or did he? Speculation ran rampant that Michaels' glossy six-pack was the work of Photoshop trickery. Photographer Blair Bunting, however, shot down the rumors. "When he took off his shirt, I was like, 'This guy's in shape for 47!'" said Bunting. "It's always easy for someone to cry 'Photoshop,' so I wasn't too surprised by that...but he takes his shape seriously." As for Michaels' cover shoot regimen? "I didn't eat for a day and I did about 2,000 sit-ups," he told E! Online. For those seeking abs like Bret's, please consult your physician before doing sit-ups during repeated listens of Poison's "Unskinny Bop."

A newly engaged couple had a rare encounter in Manasquan, N.J., this past week. Ed Dwyer and Jennifer Smith were romantically frolicking along the beach for an engagement photo session when they spotted none other than Bruce Springsteen. The couple approached the Boss, who was sporting a low-key beachcomber look with no shoes, flannel shirt and sunglasses, and offered him Dwyer's acoustic guitar. "I figured if five people are hanging out and one of them is Bruce, he should have the guitar," Dwyer joked. "So I passed it to him." The wedding date is set for Oct. 23 and while the couple has promised the DJ will play some Springsteen at the reception, an encore from the Boss is pending.

In relationship news, Vanity Fair released its list of most eligible single women. The lone candidate representing music in the top 5 was Lady Gaga, who placed fifth with 5 percent of votes, trailing golden girl Betty White (11 percent), Tiger Woods' estranged Elin Nordegren (15 percent), actress Halle Berry (21 percent), and John Mayer's former flame Jennifer Aniston (29 percent). While we find it difficult to speculate on how to actually win Lady Gaga's fair heart, here are five solid starting tips: a game of poker, just dancing, bad romancing, anything having to do with monsters, or some A.1. Steak Sauce.

John Lennon mania is sweeping the globe this week with Oct. 9 marking what would have been the legendary musician's 70th birthday. Read our feature on the new Lennon monument to be erected in Liverpool, and also check out Gibson's list of 10 Things You Might Not Know About John Lennon. In more Lennon news, on Oct. 6 the FBI seized a set of Lennon's fingerprints from an auction at Gotta Have It!, a Manhattan, N.Y., memorabilia shop. The fingerprint card was made at a New York police station in 1976 and bears the signature of John Winston Ono Lennon, according to The New York Times, and was going for a minimum bid of $100,000. Spokesman James Margolin said the FBI is investigating how the item "came to be up for auction." Bungalow Bill, Polythene Pam, Prudence, Richard Starkey, and the walrus were unavailable for comment.

British politician Winston Churchill is continuing to expand his sphere of influence, this time in the realm of pop music. On the UK pop charts this week, Reach For The Skies debuted at No. 4 featuring a few of the former prime minister's most famous speeches, including the "Their Finest Hour" speech, set to music from the Central Band of the Royal Air Force. This marks the first time a British prime minister has ever entered the UK pop charts. "It is great that to a long list of stars including Elvis, Madonna, Cliff [Richard] and the Beatles, we can now add Winston Churchill," the UK Official Charts Company said.

Younger generation, meet Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan, meet a troop of hipster indie artists. This is the introduction that Reimagine Music is aiming to make between today's youth and the music of Dylan with the release of Subterranean Homesick Blues: A Tribute To Bob Dylan's Bringing It Back Home. The album features interpreted recordings of Dylan's 1965 Bringing It All Back Home from indie artists such as the Castanets, the Helio Sequence and Asobi Seksu. The album also features eight bonus tracks, including "Sitting On A Barbed Wire Fence" and "Mama, You Been On My Mind" off Dylan's The Bootleg Series Vol 1–3, recorded by Sea Wolf and Laura Veirs, respectively. No word on whether the artists also like to sport Dylan's signature Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses.

MTV may get Bieb'd. The artist, currently known as Justin Bieber, is in talks to host a new version of the MTV reality show "Punk'd," which was co-created, produced and hosted by actor Ashton Kutcher. The show, which hasn't aired since 2007, featured elaborately staged practical jokes to trick a chosen celebrity in an effort to "bring them back down to earth." Previous subjects included Beyoncé, Simon Cowell, Hilary Duff, Justin Timberlake, and Pete Wentz, among many others. Will the Bieb soon grace the television screens of homes worldwide, or are we all being "Punk'd"?
 
Bruno Mars' "Just The Way You Are" holds on to the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 while Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" is No. 1 on the iTunes singles chart.

Any news we've missed? Comment below.

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Last Week In Music


 

17 Love Songs That Have Won GRAMMYs: "I Will Always Love You," "Drunk In Love" & More
(L-R) Usher and Alicia Keys during the Super Bowl LVIII halftime show.

Photo: L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

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17 Love Songs That Have Won GRAMMYs: "I Will Always Love You," "Drunk In Love" & More

Over the GRAMMYs' 66-year history, artists from Frank Sinatra to Ed Sheeran have taken home golden gramophones for their heartfelt tunes. Take a look at some of the love songs that have won GRAMMYs.

GRAMMYs/Feb 14, 2024 - 09:42 pm

Editor's Note: This is an update to a story from 2017.

Without heart-bursting, world-shifting love songs, music wouldn't be the same. There are countless classic and chart-topping hits dedicated to love, and several of them have won GRAMMYs.

We're not looking at tunes that merely deal with shades of love or dwell in heartbreak. We're talking out-and-out, no-holds-barred musical expressions of affection — the kind of love that leaves you wobbly at the knees.

No matter how you're celebrating Valentine's Day (or not), take a look at 18 odes to that feel-good, mushy-gushy love that have taken home golden gramophones over the years.

Frank Sinatra, "Strangers In The Night"

Record Of The Year / Best Vocal Performance, Male, 1967

Ol' Blue Eyes offers but a glimmer of hope for the single crowd on Valentine's Day, gently ruminating about exchanging glances with a stranger and sharing love before the night is through.

Willie Nelson, "Always On My Mind"

Best Country Vocal Performance, Male, 1983

In this cover, Nelson sings to the woman in his life, lamenting over those small things he should have said and done, but never took the time. Don't find yourself in the same position this Valentine's Day.

Lionel Richie, "Truly"

Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male, 1983

"Truly" embodies true dedication to a loved one, and it's delivered with sincerity from the king of '80s romantic pop — who gave life to the timeless love-song classics "Endless Love," "Still" and "Three Times A Lady."

Roy Orbison, "Oh, Pretty Woman"

Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male, 1991

Orbison captures the essence of encountering a lovely woman for the first time, and offers helpful one-liners such as "No one could look as good as you" and "I couldn't help but see … you look as lovely as can be." Single men, take notes.

Whitney Houston, "I Will Always Love You"

Record Of The Year, Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, 1994

Houston passionately delivers a message of love, remembrance and forgiveness on her version of this song, which was written by country sweetheart Dolly Parton and first nominated for a GRAMMY in 1982.

Celine Dion, "My Heart Will Go On (Love Theme From Titanic)"  

Record Of The Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, 1999

This omnipresent theme song from the 1997 film Titanic was propelled to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 as the story of Jack and Rose (played by Leonardo DiCaprio and GRAMMY winner Kate Winslet) swept the country.

Shania Twain, "You're Still The One"

Best Female Country Vocal Performance, Best Country Song, 1999

Co-written with producer and then-husband Mutt Lange, Twain speaks of beating the odds with love and perseverance in lyrics such as, "I'm so glad we made it/Look how far we've come my baby," offering a fresh coat of optimism for couples of all ages.

Usher & Alicia Keys, "My Boo"

Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals, 2005

"There's always that one person that will always have your heart," sings Usher in this duet with Keys, taking the listener back to that special first love. The chemistry between the longtime friends makes this ode to “My Boo” even more heartfelt, and the love was still palpable even 20 years later when they performed it on the Super Bowl halftime show stage.

Bruno Mars, "Just The Way You Are"

Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, 2011

Dating advice from Bruno Mars: If you think someone is beautiful, you should tell them every day. Whether or not it got Mars a date for Valentine's Day, it did get him a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

Cee Lo Green & Melanie Fiona, "Fool For You" 

Best Traditional R&B Performance, 2012

It's a far cry from his previous GRAMMY-winning song, "F*** You," but "Fool For You" had us yearning for "that deep, that burning/ That amazing unconditional, inseparable love."

Justin Timberlake, "Pusher Love Girl" 

Best R&B Song, 2014

Timberlake is so high on the love drug he's "on the ceiling, baby." Timberlake co-wrote the track with James Fauntleroy, Jerome Harmon and Timbaland, and it's featured on his 2013 album The 20/20 Experience, which flew high to No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

Beyoncé & Jay-Z, "Drunk In Love"

Best R&B Performance / Best R&B Song, 2015

While "Drunk In Love" wasn't the first love song that won Beyoncé and Jay-Z a GRAMMY — they won two GRAMMYs for "Crazy In Love" in 2004 — it is certainly the sexiest. This quintessential 2010s bop from one of music's most formidable couples captures why their alliance set the world's hearts aflame (and so did their steamy GRAMMYs performance of it).

Ed Sheeran, "Thinking Out Loud"

Song Of The Year / Best Pop Solo Performance, 2016

Along with his abundant talent, Sheeran's boy-next-door charm is what rocketed him to the top of the pop ranks. And with swooning lyrics and a waltzing melody, "Thinking Out Loud" is proof that he's a modern-day monarch of the love song.

Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper, "Shallow"

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance / Best Song Written For Visual Media, 2019

A Star is Born's cachet has gone up and down with its various remakes, but the 2018 iteration was a smash hit. Not only is that thanks to moving performances from Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, but particularly thanks to their impassioned, belt-along duet "Shallow."

H.E.R. & Daniel Caesar, "Best Part"

Best R&B Performance, 2019

"If life is a movie/ Know you're the best part." Who among us besotted hasn't felt their emotions so widescreen, so thunderous? Clearly, H.E.R. and Daniel Caesar have — and they poured that feeling into the GRAMMY-winning ballad "Best Part."

Kacey Musgraves, "Butterflies"

Best Country Solo Performance, 2019

As Musgraves' Album Of The Year-winning LP Golden Hour shows, the country-pop star can zoom in or out at will, capturing numberless truths about the human experience. With its starry-eyed lyrics and swirling production, "Butterflies" perfectly encapsulates the flutter in your stomach that love can often spark.

Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber, "10,000 Hours"

Best Country Duo/Group Performance, 2021

When country hook-meisters Dan + Shay teamed up with pop phenom Justin Bieber, their love song powers were unstoppable. With more than 1 billion Spotify streams alone, "10,000 Hours" has become far more than an ode to just their respective wives; it's an anthem for any lover.

Lovesick Or Sick Of Love: Listen To GRAMMY.com's Valentine's Day Playlist Featuring Taylor Swift, Doja Cat, Playboi Carti, Olivia Rodrigo, FKA Twigs & More

Em Cooper's GRAMMY-Nominated Beatles Video Is A "Protest" Against Time
Em Cooper

Photo: John Ford

interview

Em Cooper's GRAMMY-Nominated Beatles Video Is A "Protest" Against Time

British animator and film director Em Cooper's immersive video for the Beatles' 'Revolver' track "I'm Only Sleeping" is the product of some 1,300 hand-painted frames. Here's how the 2024 GRAMMY nominee for Best Music Video came to be.

GRAMMYs/Feb 1, 2024 - 03:32 pm

The Beatles' discography can be heard as a long conversation between four brothers, and the songs on 1966's Revolver certainly talk to each other.

On "Love You To," George Harrison muses, "Each day just goes so fast/ I turn around, it's passed." On "Got to Get You Into My Life," Paul McCartney tunes in and drops out: "I was alone, I took a ride/ I didn't know what I would find there." And in every line of the somnambulant, gently roiling "I'm Only Sleeping," John Lennon declares war on awakeness itself.

Clearly, a shared energy flowed from each of their pens: an askance look at linear time, and how it pertains to modern society. And while painstakingly painting more than a thousand frames for "I'm Only Sleeping," oil painter and animator Em Cooper picked up exactly what Lennon was transmitting.

"I really love the fact that this is some major call towards rest and sleep and dreaming and allowing your mind to wander," the effervescent Cooper tells GRAMMY.com over Zoom. Productivity, efficiency, investment, return: as Lennon seemed to sing, they're for the birds.

As the lore goes, McCartney in 1966 was a man about town, soaking up Stockhausen and Albert Ayler and the avant-garde, while a suburbia-bound Lennon opted to drop acid and, well, lay in bed.

This is reflected in their contributions to Revolver, which got a 2022 remix and expansion: McCartney's tunes, like "Here, There and Everywhere" are borderline classical, while Lennon sometimes couldn't be bothered to add a third chord. But Lennon being Lennon, he made inertia into a transcendent force.

"It feels as though it's a bit of a protest against the calculus view of time and the idea that our time is for sale, we can just slice up our hours and sell it off by the chunk," Cooper says. "I feel like in John's desire for just letting himself sleep and rest, he's saying to the world, 'Let's allow ourselves our own time, our own lives.'"

But the experience of making the "I'm Only Sleeping" clip — which involved painstakingly painting each frame by hand — was anything but tranquil: at times, Cooper even found it painful. This labor of love paid off, though: it's nominated for Best Music Video at the 2024 GRAMMYs.

Cooper details the development of  "I'm Only Sleeping" video, her methodology for mapping the visuals to the music, and, after numberless listens, whether she's sick of this Revolver favorite.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

The Beatles' story is filled with unforgettable sights, and with the "I'm Only Sleeping" video, you added to their visual language. Was that a daunting responsibility?

Absolutely. It really was. And, I think maybe if I had really stopped to think about it too much, it would've really tightened me up. In a way, weirdly, I was quite lucky it was on a tight schedule. That took precedence. I was just in the flow, trying to just focus on each task ahead of me and get it done.

Sophie Hilton, who's the Creative Studio Director at Universal Music, commissioned the film with Jonathan Clyde from Apple Corps. They were very good at guiding the project in a very natural way, so that it made a very natural fit into where they needed it to fit, as it were, in that big, big legacy. So, the fact that I'm an oil paint animator and I work with archive footage — it's got that timeless quality a little bit to it anyway, as does the song.

I worked with the Beatles' archivist, Adrian Winter, who helped me find footage; managing to place it within the history of the Beatles was really important. I didn't get too worried until finally when it came out. 

And then, literally, that was the first moment it really hit me about the legacy — of what I suddenly realized I'd just done.

Em Cooper

*Photo courtesy of Em Cooper.*

Like the experience of sleep itself, "I'm Only Sleeping" is flowing, undulating. It looks like you picked up on that, with this impressionistic continuum of visuals.

Yeah, absolutely. I was inspired by the song itself, because the song has just that continuous rocking motion to the melody. It was as though it was a synesthetic reaction to the song. It felt almost like it just drew itself out in my mind — the movement all kind of choreographed itself around those moments where it's like [sings lyric in dramatic swoop]  "Yawning," and then it felt like it goes over the top.

But, I don't know whether everybody else hears that when they hear that lyric, but that's certainly what I heard, and I could just produce that movement to match. All I really felt I had to do was just stay incredibly true to the song and the movement that was already there, and it just flowed.

How did you do this under such a tight schedule? One thousand, three hundred oil paintings?!

Yeah, I'm not going to lie. It was painful. It was a very tight schedule to produce an entirely hand-painted oil paint animation in. I literally painted every frame on a cel; sometimes, I painted and wiped and repainted.

It's hard work, but I just love oil painting. Now that I've had enough projects that it flows out of me, I find I'm reasonably quick. Some parts were easier than others; doing the faces was particularly difficult. Trying to get John Lennon's likeness over and over again was a real challenge, but other parts of it were much easier.

Obviously, lots of people these days are working digitally to do drawings and things, but I just work in actual oil painting. I find that I'm definitely not quicker at doing something digitally than I am just manually.

I suppose I want to promote the real artforms, because actually there isn't anything that much quicker or different about dipping a brush in some red paint and doing a stroke than doing a digital stroke. If you just gain confidence, it's fine.

How did you collaborate with Apple Corps on this, whether they offered artistic direction or just moral support?

Jonathan Clyde really helped direct all of that. I put all my ideas together into a document, and there was lots of consultations with them and honing those ideas and making sure that they fit with everybody's vision and what everybody was thinking.

And then, carrying on honing and honing, so that by the time I got to actually going, Yeah. We're going for it. We're going to start making this, it was all very clear.

I did a pencil-drawn animatic, which was about, I think two frames a second, which is quite a lot for an animatic, so as to really show the flow of imagery, so that there were no questions. I think there were a couple of changes after that, but very, very few.

So, it was quite clear, and everybody agreed on all the imagery and everything. But, I came up with most of it andwould maybe put some suggestions.

And, we came up collectively with this idea of  the backwards guitar sequence going backwards through Beatles' history from that moment, from 1966 backwards as it were, so as to the feeling from Revolver back to the beginning of the Beatles.

And, I was trying to meld that all together with the magnetic tape in the magnetic tape recorders going in and out of that. It was group calls, so I would take one and spark off and think, Oh, yeah. I remember Adrian Winter, the archivist, mentioning how John Lennon often had a notebook with him because he was always just thinking of ideas; he suggested that. And so, I put the notebook next to his pillow and things like that.

Em Cooper

*Photo courtesy of Em Cooper.*

When Giles Martin's remix of Revolver came out, it was striking how modern it sounded. How did this project enhance your appreciation for this song, album and band?

I watched it again just before jumping on this call with you, and I love the song. I was listening to little individual parts of it over and over again, whilst I was working on it, getting really into the detail of tiny bits of each line. And, it holds up, it's so good. I do not get bored of it. I love it.

I just could carry on listening to it over and over, which really, to be honest, says a lot, because when you work very hard on something, you do tend to find yourself a little bit bored by it by the end. But, absolutely not the case with this.

And, actually, after it was all finished, we went to Abbey Road together as a treat to listen to the [remixed and] remastered version of Revolver that was being re-released, and wow! To listen in Abbey Road Studios with the surround sound, it was just mind-blowing.

I already had an incredible respect for the Beatles, and that has only grown.

2024 GRAMMY Nominations: See The Full Nominees List

'Meet The Beatles!' Turns 60: Inside The Album That Launched Beatlemania In America
The Beatles in 1964

Photo: Mark and Colleen Hayward / Redferns / Getty Images 

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'Meet The Beatles!' Turns 60: Inside The Album That Launched Beatlemania In America

A month before the Beatles played "The Ed Sullivan Show," they released their second American studio album — the one most people heard first. Here's a track-by-track breakdown of this magnitudinous slab of wax by the Fab Four.

GRAMMYs/Jan 19, 2024 - 06:48 pm

For many in America, Meet the Beatles! marked their first introduction to the legendary Fab Four — and their lives would be forever altered.

Released on Jan. 20, 1964 by Capitol Records, the Beatles' second American studio album topped the Billboard 200 within a month and stayed there for 11 weeks — only to be ousted by their next U.S. album release, The Beatles' Second Album.

It's almost impossible to put into words the impact of Meet
the Beatles! on an entire generation of the listening public. But Billy Corgan, of the Smashing Pumpkins, gave it a shot as an early fan of the Beatles in a series of LiveJournal remembrances — in this case, of himself at five years old, in 1972.

"I am totally overwhelmed by the collective sound of the greatest band ever blasting in mono thru a tin needle into a tiny speaker," he wrote. "I associate this sound forever with electricity, for it sends bolts thru my body and leaves me breathless. I can not stand still as I listen, so I must spin… I spin until I am ready to pass out, and then I spin some more."

So many other artists remember that eureka moment. "They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid," Bob Dylan said of the opening track, "I Want to Hold Your Hand." "I knew they were pointing the direction of where music had to go." Everyone from Ozzy Osbourne to Sting and Questlove agreed.

From Meet the Beatles!, the Fabs would have the most astonishing five-or-six-year run in music. And so much of their songwriting and production innovation can be found within its grooves; truly, the world had no idea what it was in for. In celebration of the 60th anniversary of Meet the Beatles!, here's a quick track-by-track breakdown.

"I Want to Hold Your Hand"

The Fabs' first American No. 1 hit may have been about the chastest of romantic gestures. Still, there's nothing heavier than "I Want to Hold Your Hand," because it's clamor and fraternity. That seemingly saccharine package also contained everything they'd ever do in concentrate — hints of the foreboding of "Ticket to Ride," the galactic final chord of "A Day in the Life," and beyond.

"I Saw Her Standing There"

A few too many awards show tributes have threatened to do in "I Saw Her Standing There," but they've failed. As the opening shot of their first UK album, Please Please Me, it's perfect, but as the second track on Meet the Beatles!, it just adds to the magnitude. What a one-two punch.

"This Boy"

Songwriting-wise, "This Boy" drags a little; it becomes a little hazy who "this boy" or "that boy"  are. But it's not only a killer Smokey Robinson rip; John Lennon's double-tracked vocal solo still punches straight through your chest. (Where applicable, go for the 2020s Giles Martin remix, which carries maximum clarity, definition and punch — said solo is incredible in this context.)

"It Won't Be Long"


Half a dozen other songs here have overshadowed "It Won't Be Long," but it's still one of the early Beatles' most ruthless kamikaze missions, an assault of flying "yeahs" that knocks you sideways.

"All I've Got to Do"

Lennon shrugged off "All I've Got to Do" as "trying to do Smokey Robinson again," and that's more or less what it is. One interesting detail is the conceit of calling a girlfriend on the phone, which was firmly alien to British youth: "I have never called a girl on the 'phone in my life!"he said later in an interview. "Because 'phones weren't part of the English child's life."

"All My Loving"

"All My Loving" was the first song the Beatles played on the American airwaves: when Lennon was pronounced dead, eyewitnesses attest the song came over the speakers. It's a grim trajectory for this most inventive and charismatic of early Beatles singles, with Lennon's tumbling rhythm guitar spilling the composition forth. (About that unorthodox strumming pattern: it seems easy until you try it. And Lennon did it effortlessly.)

"Don't Bother Me"

As Dreaming the Beatles author Rob Sheffield put it, "'Don't Bother Me,' his first real song, began the 'George is in a bad mood' phase of his songwriting, which never ended." Harrison wouldn't pick up the sitar for another year or two, but the song still carries a vaguely dreamy, exotic air.

"Little Child"

"I'm so sad and lonely/ Baby, take a chance with me." For a tortured, creative kid like Corgan, from a rough background — and, likely, a million similar young folks — Lennon's childlike plea must have sounded like salvation.

"Till There Was You"

McCartney's infatuation with the postwar sounds of his youth never ended, and it arguably began on record with this Music Man tune. As usual, McCartney dances right on the edge of overly chipper and apple-cheeked. But here, George Martin's immersive, soft-focused arrangement makes it all work.

"Hold Me Tight"

Like "Little Child," "Hold Me Tight" is a tad Fabs-by-numbers, showing how they occasionally painted themselves into a corner as per their formula. Their rapid evolution from here would leave trifles like "Hold Me Tight" in the rearview.

"I Wanna Be Your Man"

Tellingly, Lennon and McCartney tossed this half-written composition to the Stones — and to Ringo Starr. Mick Jagger's typically lusty performance works, but Starr's is even better — the funny-nosed drummer throws his whole chest into this vocal workout.

"Not A Second Time"

Meet the Beatles! concludes with this likable Lennon tune about heartbreak — maybe C-tier by his standards, but it slouches toward his evolutionary step that would be A Hard Day's Night

Soon, these puppy-dog emotions ("And now you've changed your mind/ I see no reason to change mine/ I cry") would curdle and ferment in astonishing ways — in "Ticket to Ride," in "Girl," in "Strawberry Fields Forever." And it all began with Meet the Beatles! — a shot heard around the world.

1962 Was The Final Year We Didn't Know The Beatles. What Kind Of World Did They Land In?

Justin Bieber's Biggest Hits: 12 Songs That Showcase His Pop Prowess And R&B Sensibilities
Justin Bieber performs on day three of Sziget Festival 2022 in Budapest, Hungary.

Photo: Joseph Okpako / WireImage / Getty Images

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Justin Bieber's Biggest Hits: 12 Songs That Showcase His Pop Prowess And R&B Sensibilities

As Justin Bieber's cult favorite album 'Journals' turns 10, listen to a dozen of the superstar's best songs from his storied career.

GRAMMYs/Dec 21, 2023 - 06:53 pm

When Usher first introduced the world to a young Canadian teen named Justin Bieber in 2009, no one knew the gravity of the moment. With a catchy debut single, the young Bieber clearly had talent, but it was hard to predict just how big he would become.

In the nearly 15 years since the release of that first hit, "One Time," Bieber has become one of the biggest pop stars of his generation. He first captured hearts and ears as a teen heartthrob with infectious pop hits, then expertly folded in his R&B influences; he's also experimented with dance, hip-hop, and even an acclaimed holiday album. The results speak for themselves: 23 GRAMMY nominations with two wins, eight No.1 albums, eight No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits, and 89 million monthly Spotify listeners with multiple billion-stream tracks. 

This month celebrates the ten-year anniversary of Journals, an album with an interesting spot in Bieber's discography. By his lofty standards, it was one of Bieber's more modest commercial successes. That hasn't stopped it from becoming a cult favorite amongst his fans, beloved for representing Beiber's first full commitment to R&B in his music.

In celebration of Journals and Bieber's career as a whole, GRAMMY.com is looking back at some of the singer's most important and most captivating tracks. 

"One Time" (2009)

"One Time" was Bieber's very first single, and it conveys many of what would become signature traits throughout his career. It's a complete earworm, with dance-pop production from Tricky Stewart bolstering a strong melody. It finds Bieber already exploring romance, a topic he would come to revisit throughout his career. And while it peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100, it stuck around on the charts for almost all the rest of 2009 after its release that May. 

Perhaps most notably, it showed early on that Bieber had a natural charm that was infectious and impossible not to like. The music video for "One Time," in which Bieber uses his mentor Usher's house for a party, is goofy fun and a vehicle to Bieber's personality. That magnetism continues to play a key part in Bieber's career — and it was there from the start.

"Baby" (2010)

xIf there is one song that has become synonymous with Bieber's initial rise to fame, it's "Baby." While not his first single, "Baby" was his first major success in both charts and reception. "Baby" debuted at No. 5 on the Hot 100, But it almost instantly became a cultural moment; it was almost impossible to not hear Bieber croon that catchy hook everywhere — and even more impossible to not sing along.. 

"Baby" was also proof that Bieber had star potential. Not only did he have a writing credit on the song, but within three years, it was certified 12x platinum by the RIAA.

"Mistletoe" (2011)

Bieber followed his star-making My World 2.0 with a Christmas album, 2011's Under The Mistletoe. It's a storied tradition for pop stars to tackle the holiday season, and Bieber did so with incredible success. A snap-along, guitar-plucked ballad, "Mistletoe" is another early ballad from Bieber, a peek at how thoughtful and sensitive he can be given room to explore his feelings.

"Mistletoe" also helped Bieber earn more historic accolades early in his career. Off the strength of its lead single, Under The Mistletoe made Bieber the only male artist to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with a Christmas album.

"Right Here" (2012)

After Under the Mistletoe hinted at his R&B sensibilities, Bieber continued to show his genre-spanning prowess with his next album, 2012's Believe. While the smoky lead single "Boyfriend" served as his biggest hit until that point,the silky smooth track "Right Here" is one of his best album cuts. Perhaps most notably, it serves as the first (and to date, only) musical collaboration between Bieber and Drake — and though it wasn't a single, it was an important team-up in pop music history. 

Drake was coming off of 2011's Take Care that solidified him a superstar, and Believe was doing the same thing for Bieber at the time. Both would go on to have hugely successful and influential careers, making "Right Here" a special monument to the rise of these two men.

"Recovery" (2013)

For the follow-up to Believe, Bieber embraced the rising popularity of streaming and digital releases. The compilation album Journals was initially released song by song, once a week over the fall and early winter of 2013. Leaning further into an R&B sound, Journals also saw Bieber step into an executive producer role, taking more control over the direction of his music. "Recovery" exemplifies his fine-tuning of R&B and pop together, with yet another winning hook and a lyrical focus on forgiveness and growth.

For all of the great production Bieber employs, his songs have always had a strong core that shine just as bright acoustically. "Recovery" is a good example of this, with Bieber's voice and the acoustic guitar threaded throughout is an easily trackable core for the production to build on.

"Confident" (2013)

"Confident" is perhaps the peak of Journals, a perfecting of the sound Bieber had been building towards over the previous two years. For "Confident," he enlisted an R&B specialist in producer Soundz, who previously worked with Ciara, Usher, and Rihanna. 

The song incorporates more hip-hop adjacent beats as well, another sign of Bieber refusing to stay complacent. He also brought in Chance The Rapper months after Acid Rap made Chance one of the hottest names in hip-hop — a smart choice professionally, but also personally, as the two have teamed on several songs since.

"Sorry" (2015)

If Journals was Bieber finding more of himself as an artist, 2015's Purpose is the moment he fully came into his own. That was immediately apparent upon the release of lead single "What Do You Mean?," which shot to the top of the Hot 100 — Bieber's first No. 1, but certainly not his last. 

Second single "Sorry" not only continued that success, also hitting No. 1, but it became one of his biggest hits to date. It remains one of Bieber's danciest hits, both thanks to its EDM-driven production and its wildly popular music video that now tallies more than 3.7 billion views as of press time.

On the whole, Purpose is Bieber having some of the most fun he's had in his entire catalog, with a whole track list of songs that fans will hum for days on end — with "Sorry" likely at the forefront.

"Love Yourself" (2015)

Besides being another artistic step forward, Purpose also garnered Bieber more recognition from the GRAMMYs. After a win in 2016 for Best Dance/Electronic Recording for his work on Jack Ü's "Where Are Ü Now," Purpose was nominated for Album Of The Year in 2017 — a first for Bieber. Alongside that nomination came another first, a Song Of The Year nod for "Love Yourself," the album's third single and a breakup song to end all breakup songs. 

The epitome of "kill them with kindness," Bieber sings this just like a love song. But don't let the sweet acoustic melody fool you — the lyrics are blistering (for one, "My mama don't like you and she likes everyone.") As his third consecutive No. 1 single, "Love Yourself" elevated Bieber even further as a pop star.

"All Around Me" (2020)

A lot changed for Bieber in the five years between Purpose and its aptly titled follow-up, Changes — perhaps the biggest of those changes was his 2018 marriage to Hailey Baldwin. While the singer had plenty of great love ballads in his catalog by then, marriage took Bieber to the next level in his romantic writing. 

Case in point, Changes opens with "All Around Me," an ode to Hailey. With a light touch on production from Poo Bear, the track gives Bieber room to show off vocally. 

Bieber has always been earnest in his work, and "All Around Me" is especially open. When he sings of finally being able to fully open himself up to someone, it's easy to believe. As an opening track, it serves as a perfect introduction to the older, more mature Bieber after his five-year album hiatus. 

"Yummy" (2020)

While Changes is undoubtedly a more subdued, grounded thematic work for Bieber, some of his best work has always come from him having fun. Changes doesn't entirely abandon that, with lead single "Yummy" a welcome sign Bieber still knows how to let loose. The track is silky smooth, letting Bieber flex his R&B prowess to the fullest extent. 

"Yummy" also reaffirmed Bieber's staying power after his long hiatus. It peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, along with his foray into country music with 2019's Dan + Shay collaboration "10,000 Hours" (which Bieber won his second GRAMMY), it showed that he had much more to give musically.

"Lifetime" (2021)

Bieber wasted no time once getting back in the studio after Changes, with his most recent album Justice dropping just a year later. It's his most collaborative work to date, with a plethora of guest stars, writers and producers lending a hand on the massive 25-song project — which makes a track like "Lifetime," with no guest appearance and minimal production, stand out even more. 

In a career full of love songs, "Lifetime" is perhaps the most touching. Again inspired by his wife, it's an ode to real commitment and dedication.

Besides being incredibly sweet, "Lifetime" is one of Bieber's most powerful vocal performances. The emotion and range he displays is breathtaking, and there's a sincerity that comes through more than any other Bieber track. Over a decade into his career, Bieber continues to grow and surprise with his artistry. 

"Peaches" (2021)

It's not a Justin Bieber album without a megahit, and Justice's offering in that regard is "Peaches." The track blends the R&B elements Bieber has embraced over the years with the pop sensibilities he first broke out with, creating a track that epitomizes both styles. It's a celebration of the good things in life, and that's reflected in both the wavy melody and its playful lyrics.

"Peaches" became yet another No. 1 track for Bieber, his first solo Hot 100 hit since "Love Yourself."  It also earned him four GRAMMY Nominations in 2022 — Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year, Best R&B Performance, and Best Music Video — alongside an Album Of The Year nomination for Justice. Between the positive vibes of the song and its widespread acclaim, "Peaches" is a testament to how far Bieber has come, and how much more he has to give.

Justin Bieber's Sonic Evolution: How He Transformed From Bubblegum Pop Heartthrob To Mature, Genre-Melding Artist