Loading summary
Transcript39 lines
- [00:00]
Amazon Music Announcer
You're listening ad free on Amazon Music.
- [00:14]
Chris Melanfi
Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of pop chart history from Slate magazine about the hits from coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfi, chart analyst, pop critic and writer of Slate's why Is this Song Number One Series. On our last episode we started to compare the hits hit making careers of Lenny Kravitz and Bruno Mars, two showbiz kids, fellow admirers and genre chameleons. With more than 20 years separating them but a remarkable amount in common, we walked through Kravitz's career in the 90s and aughts, the rock heroes of yesteryear he emulated and the criticism he received for his stylistic borrowings. We're now into the late aughts when Lenny's career is on the wa Bruno's is primed to explode. Lost was a song Bruno Mars originally intended to record for himself. He had already been in LA for more than four years with little to show for it. Like Lenny Kravitz in his Romeo Blue phase, he had played in cover bands. One of Bruno's regular troupes was called Sex Panther and he held out for the right kind of deal. A label rep wanted to sign Bruno as a Latin act and have him sing in Spanish, but the former Peter Gene Hernandez demurred. Bruno even signed with Motown Records for a year, but no recordings resulted from that deal. About the only good thing Mars got from Motown was was an introduction to an equally hungry songwriter named Philip Lawrence. Lawrence and Mars began writing songs together, among which was Lost, right around the time the duo were thinking of packing it in and moving back home from LA. An A& R man who used to manage Mars contacted contacted them looking for songs for the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo. Remember them? A former Menudo member replaced Lenny Kravitz in one of his bands. Mars and Lawrence had to be talked into giving up their song to Menudo, but they finally sold it to him for $20,000. The songwriting duo got to stay in LA and Menudo got themselves.
- [03:06]
Bruno Mars (singing)
I'm losing my mind I'm losing control.
- [03:09]
Chris Melanfi
Of myself this time, Menudo's version of Lost cracked the top 40 on Billboard's pop radio chart. Word got around that Bruno Mars and Philip Lawrence were hit songwriters and they got more gigs.
- [03:26]
Bruno Mars (singing)
Cuz I'm too sexy in this club Too sexy in this club so sexy it hurts if you feel sexy for.
- [03:36]
Chris Melanfi
The British girl group Sugababes, Mars and Lawrence co wrote Get Sexy, which hit number two in the UK in 2009. Mars and his co writers were banking on familiarity. Get Sexy was an unabashed interpolation of Wright said Fred's 1991 hit I'm Too Sexy. I'm too sexy for my shirt Too.
- [04:01]
Bruno Mars (singing)
Sexy for my shirt. So sexy it hurts.
- [04:05]
Chris Melanfi
By then, Mars and Lawrence had added a third songwriter to their team, Ari Levine. Together, the trio of Bruno Mars, Philip Lawrence and Ari Levine began marketing their songwriting collective under the goofy name the smeezingtons. And by 2009, the Smeezingtons were about to hit some serious pay dirt with another interpolation of an even older dance pop hit. The story goes that Mars and Lawrence had the idea to Adapt Dead or Alive's 1985 smash you spin Me Round Like a Record into a new club pop hit. They brought this idea to hit making producer Lucas Gottwalt, aka Dr. Luke, who turned it into a smash for rapper for Flo Rida. His Dead or Alive reboot was called Right Round and It topped the Hot 100 in February 2009, The Smeezingtons had writing credits on another number one hit, and now their phones really began blowing up. Not unlike Lenny Kravitz's Madonna hit early in his career, Bruno Mars was going to leverage his songwriting to boost his own career as a frontline pop star. On Justify My Love, Kravitz had sung some barely noticeable background vocals, but Mars was going to position himself as a full blown hook singer for Hit Making Rapp a model that was not as available to Lenny in the early 90s. For example, for rapper and Gym Class Heroes frontman Travie McCoy, the Smeezingtons not only wrote his solo single, Billionaire Bruno sang the chorus hook. It peaked at number four in 2010.
- [06:28]
Bruno Mars (singing)
A different city Every Night.
- [06:36]
Chris Melanfi
But Mars would score an even bigger breakthrough that same year with a rap and be ballad he and the Smeezingtons originally wrote for the rapper Lupe Fiasco. Before Lupe could release his version, Atlantic Records nabbed the song to give it to their rising rapper B O B, who recorded it with Bruno Mars as the hook singer. The lovelorn ballad was called Nothing on you. Though Bruno Mars was listed as the featured artist on Nothing on you. Honestly, the song was more of a showcase for him than for Bob. Though the rapper would score a couple more hits, Bruno emerged as the far bigger hitmaker. His sweet crooning on the chorus of Nothing on youn was the song's most memorable part, and it sent it to number one on the Hot 100 in May of 2010. The Atlantic label, which had been waiting for Mars to develop before signing him to his own artist contract, finally pulled the trigger in 2010. While Mars and his smeezington's buddies began writing and recording material for his official debut, they kept writing hits for other artists, including the EDM club collective Far East Movement, for whom the Smeezingtons wrote the number nine hit Rocketeer. And former Goody Mob and gnarls Barkley singer CeeLo Green, for whom the Smeezingtons penned the comically foul mouthed retro Motown style pastiche Fuck you, better known on the radio as forget you, bet you didn't know Bruno Mars co wrote this number two Hot 100 smash. The stylistic breadth of the Smeezington's hits foreshadowed the eclecticism of Bruno Mars's own career. Like Lenny Kravitz, who held out for a contract with artistic control, Mars had earned the right to explore the full rang of his musical interests. And like Kravitz, Mars had been raised to be a showman. From his years as Little Elvis to his covers performances in Honolulu and la, Bruno had a killer instinct for what audiences wanted, and he wasn't above borrowing a sound, a genre, a hook, or even just a song title.
- [09:48]
Bruno Mars (singing)
I want you Just the Way you Are.
- [09:58]
Chris Melanfi
Just the Way you Are was a number three smash for Billy Joel eight years before Peter Gene Hernandez was even born. It connected with generations of pop fans by encouraging an insecure listener that she didn't need to change herself to be worthy of love. Mars and his co writers took this gentle sentiment and turned it into a soaring anthem, a completely different song with the same title and same sturdy concept. Bruno Mars Just the Way you are subtitled amazing in certain countries to avoid confusion with the old Billy Joel hit does not beat around the bush. Mars later told Blues and Soul magazine. I'm a big fan of songs like Joe Cocker's yous Are so Beautiful and Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight, songs that go straight to the point. You know, there's no mind boggling lyrics or twists in the story, they just come directly from the heart. And to me, Just the Way youy Are is one of those songs, unquote. Just the Way youy Are was the leadoff single to Bruno Mars debut album, Doo Wops and Hooligans arriving in the late summer of 2010. By October, the single was atop the Hot 100, Bruno's second number one hit after Nothin on youn, but the first under only his own name. Doo Wops and Hooligans arrived just days after the single hit number one and it entered the album chart at number three. Soon, Just the Way youy Are would not be the album's only chart topping single. Grenade, a heart rending mid tempo ballad about the lengths a desperate suitor would go to win a lover's affection, became Bruno Mars second straight number one song. Several critics pointed out that the tension was filled. Grenade and Bruno's pleading vocal bore an uncanny resemblance to his childhood hero Michael Jackson, most especially Jackson's 1988 number one hit Dirty Diana. But as with Bruno's prior reimagining of Billy Joel, Grenade wore its retro clothing, lightly giving off urgent Jackson style 80s vibes, but rebuilding that sound with a 2000s digital burble, Grenade held the top of the Hot 100 for four weeks in January and February of 2011. As with Lenny Kravitz, a gener before each new Bruno Mars single found the artist trying on a new outfit of pop clothing, some retro, some contemporary. At a moment on the charts when Jason Mraz was scoring with reggae inflected so called Jawian surf pop, Mars showed he could do Jawian just as well as Mraz. He reached the top five with the kitschy ode to Sloth, the lazy song, Though it never rose above number three on the album chart, Doo Wops and Hooligans would become a perennial celebration, spending more than 600 weeks on the Billboard 200. It's still on the chart this week, by the way, and it was certified septuple platinum by the Recording Industry association of America. After scoring this first round of Bruno branded hits, Mars and his Smeezingtons partners continued to churn out hits for others, including rappers Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa, who teamed with Bruno on the 2011 seven hit Young, Wild and Free, And American Idol alumnus Adam Lambert, who took the Smeezingtons Never Close Our Eyes to number six on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart. Mars now had a high enough profile that he and his mates were asked to contribute a song to the Twilight movie franchise. Their composition for the breaking Dawn Part 1 soundtrack, the pop soul ballad It Will rain, reached number three in December 2011.
- [16:00]
Bruno Mars (singing)
Every day it'll rain, rain rain.
- [16:11]
Chris Melanfi
Sharp eared critics pointed out that the verses of It Will Rain had the same chord progression as the Rolling Stones classic Wild Horses, but the similarity was subtle.
- [16:25]
Bruno Mars (singing)
Wild Horses.
- [16:32]
Mark Ronson
Couldn'T drag me.
- [16:34]
Chris Melanfi
By the time Bruno Mars came back with his sophomore album in late 2012, these allusions to classic rock and vintage pop would become even more noticeable among the musical acts Bruno Mars grew up admiring were the Police, the reggae inflected new wave band fronted by Sting. Though they had broken up by the time Mars was born in 1985, Mars claimed that in his days playing covers in bars, he had tried his hand and his falsetto voice at Police songs like Roxanne, Roxanne, you Don't have to.
- [17:17]
Bruno Mars (singing)
Wear that Dress Tonight, Walk the Streets for money.
- [17:24]
Chris Melanfi
For the lead single from Bruno's second album, he chose to lean into that influence hard. Locked out of Heaven was as lustful as Roxanne. Its pre chorus refrain was your sex takes me to paradise. And it was built from the same reggae tinged economical post punk groove of the Police, complete with Mars keening Sting like vocals. In short, it was the best Sting song of the 21st century that Sting himself had nothing to do with. Apparently both Gen Xers and Millennials were nostalgic for that sound in 2012, because locked out of Heaven quickly rose to the top of the Hot 100 in December and stayed there through January 2013. After a six week run at number one, Mars and his band were invited to perform Locked out of Heaven as part of a tribute to reggae music. On the 2013 Grammy Awards. Where this happened, None other than Sting himself came on stage to sing Bruno Mars homage to him, an approving gesture from a roth elder statesman. About a minute later, Bruno and Sting made the connection even more direct, segueing from Locked out of Heaven right into the police's even more regified 1979 UK number one hit Walking on the Moon. Talk about an unorthodox jukebox. That by the way, was the name of Bruno Mars second album. And rarely has an album title been so descriptive track for track. On unorthodox Jukebox, Mars was emulating the Lenny Kravitz approach of rebooting sounds and styles of other artists. And not all of those styles were decades old. Some were quite contemporary. In 2011, British singer Adele had scored an exceptional smash with the stark drumless ballad Someone like you, a meditation on heartbreak. When it topped the hot 100, someone like you became the first ever piano and vocal only number one song in chart history. Seriously. Bridge Over Troubled Water, Let It Be, Candle in the Wind. All of them included orchestration or rock instruments on top of the piano and vocals. Adele's hit was literally exceptional, I wish.
- [20:58]
Bruno Mars (singing)
Nothing but the best.
- [21:01]
Chris Melanfi
While working on his sophomore album, Bruno Mars presumably thought, well, I can do that. When I Was yous Man, Mars own reflection on a Love Gone Wrong became the second ever piano and vocal only number one hit when it topped the Hot 100 in April 2013. When I was yous man helped push the Unorthodox Jukebox album to the top of the Billboard 200. Bruno's first ever number one album I.
- [21:43]
Bruno Mars (singing)
Should have brought you flowers and held your hand should have gave you all my hours.
- [21:52]
Chris Melanfi
By the way, a quick aside, if the lyrics to this 2013 Bruno Mars hit sound especially familiar in 2023, it's because this year's number one smash, Flowers by Miley Cyrus. Is an answer record to Mars When I Was yous Man. More to the point, it's a clapback to Cyrus's ex husband Liam Hemsworth, who once dedicated the Bruno song to Miley. Please read my why is this song number one entry on Cyrus's Flowers? For more detail on that whole contretemps. But I digress. As each single from Unorthodox Jukebox took its turn on the charts, Bruno Mars queued up a different pop song template with the same knowing wink. Lenny Kravitz brought a generation earlier to such hits as It Ain't over till it's over or Are you gonna go my Way? The difference was Bruno's imaginary jukebox had an even wider array of hits to imitate. For his summer 2013 single, Bruno adapted the stylings of peak Quincy Jones era Michael Jackson. Into the electro disco pop and B track Treasure, a number five hit for Bruno Mars.
- [23:41]
Bruno Mars (singing)
I know that you don't know it, but you find some.
- [23:48]
Chris Melanfi
Next Mars picked up the anthemic Sound of late 80s hair metal a la Def Leppard. And turned that into his chest thumping pop rocker gorilla, a number 22. You might say that all of these referential hits lay the groundwork for the most referential and reverential and biggest hit song of Bruno's career, a mega blockbuster on which Mars was billed as the featured artist, but was clearly the song's animating force. Uptown Funk was credited officially to Mark Ronson, the British born American raised producer who had already won Grammys for helming hits by Amy Winehouse and Adele. He would later win an Oscar for co writing Lady Gaga's Shallow. In 2012, Ronson produced three tracks on Bruno Mars unorthodox jukebox album, including Locked out of Heaven and Ronson and Mars vowed to work together again. But even though Uptown Funk sounded like a party perfecting it took months. Beginning with an improvisation by Bruno Mars in a studio in la, the sessions for the song spread across studios in five more cities, from Memphis to New York to London to Vancouver. It involved three different horn sections, including Mars band the Hooligans and frequent Mark Ronson collaborators the Dap Kings. It required more than 100 takes to get right. The bass line was so hard to get right. The final recording is just Philip Lawrence singing the bass line with his mouth. When the final version of Uptown Funk finally dropped in November 2014, music critics praised its recreation of turn of the 80s electro funk and R B. And they had a field day identifying all of the references and allusions to prior material embedded in Uptown Funk. Only one borrowing in the song was modern Bruno Mars had nicked the line. Don't believe me? Just watch. From Atlanta rapper Trinidad James, 2013 hit hit all Gold Everything. James was given songwriting credit for the interpolation, But the rest of Uptown Funk was in essence, a grand studio mega mashup of elements borrowed from a raft of 70s and 80s hits by the likes of Godfather of Soul James Brown, Early hip hop by female rap troop. The Sequence. Funk pop group Cool in the Gang, German synth funkster George Kronz, Punk funk king Rick James, Parliament Funkadelic mastermind George Clinton, Electro funk troupe Zap featuring Roger Troutman. And Most prominently Tulsa Oklahoma family funk trio the Gap Band, whose 1979 R&B hit Oops up side youe Head sounded so much like the refrain up town, funk you up that the Gap Band successfully sued and settled for a belated songwriting credit. Virtually all of this music had only ever cracked the R B charts in its heyday and rarely crossed over to pop audiences at the time, especially in the wake of the early 80s disco backlash. Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars then essentially reintroduced and mainstreamed this electro funk sound for pop audiences.
- [30:03]
Bruno Mars (singing)
Just Don't Believe.
- [30:05]
Chris Melanfi
And the result was a smash credited to Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars. Uptown Funk spent 14 weeks at number one on the Hot 100 in early 2015. At the time, that was the second longest run in chart history after Mariah Carey and Boyz II men's 16 week number one, one sweet day and the following winter, Uptown Funk took home the Grammy for Record of the Year, prompting Ronson and Mars live at the podium to give credit where it was due.
- [30:41]
Mark Ronson
Being some of the greatest musicians, producers and arrangers around, and I see George Clinton over there, a man who has done more for the word funk than we could ever hope to dream of in our entire life. So I want to thank James Brown, George Clinton, Jamon Lewis, Prince, the Meters, Earth Wind and Fire of course. And I'm sure these guys want to say something really quick.
- [31:05]
Bruno Mars / Lenny Kravitz / Other Guest Speakers
Thank you guys so much. This is dedicated to the fans right here. We wouldn't be up here if it wasn't for the people dancing in this song. Thank you guys so much.
- [31:15]
Chris Melanfi
Through the mid 2010s, Bruno Mars had enjoyed a relatively charmed hit making existence. Unlike Lenny Kravitz, who endured criticism from the start of his career for emulating his 60s and 70s heroes in an era of baby Boomer rock critics, Mars came up in the digital era of pop when eclectic genre crossing music was considered normal by a millennial audience. However, Bruno's self proclaimed jukebox approach to songwriting was drawing its share of reproach. Critics called his albums trend hopping and show offy. One critic called unorthodox Jukebox a reasonably listenable exercise in genre fetishization. The complaints grew louder after Mars, who is multiracial but not black, began leaning more heavily on the history of black music tropes in his hits. One year after Uptown Funk completed its chart run, when Mars dropped his third album, 24 Karat Magic, this controversy would be kicked up a notch. By his own admission, Bruno Mars conceived 24 Karat Magic, the song as a sequel to Uptown Funk, burrowing deeper into 80s electro R& B tropes and amping up the boastful approach with lyrics that echoed west coast hip hop. The song was a hit, albeit a slightly smaller one, as it peaked at number four on the Hot 100. His two prior albums had each led off with a number one. Nonetheless, the 24 Karat Magic album proved to be a mainstay, spending months lodged in the top 10 on the album chart and spinning off multiple singles. Once again, on each hit, Mars was knowingly alluding to other songs and styles, but this time the album more narrowly targeted a vintage RB sound. In fact, you might say 24 Karat Magic was one long homage to 80s black boy band New Edition. For example, the second single, that's what I like, a number one hit in May 2017.
- [34:08]
Bruno Mars (singing)
Strawberry Champagne on Nice Lucky for you, that's what I like, that's what I like, Lucky for you echoed.
- [34:16]
Chris Melanfi
The new Jack swing sound of New Edition vocalist turned soloist Bobby Brown. On the number three hit Finesse, whose remake remix featured rapping from Cardi B, Mars emulated the slamming hip hop club sound of New Edition spin off group Belle Biv DeVoe, And on the ballad Versace on the floor, a number 33 hit, Mars channel the silky sound of New Editions Hate Day, The following winter at the 2018 Grammys, 24 Karat Magic took home album of the year in a somewhat predictable upset over albums by Jay Z, Childish Gambino, and Kendrick Lamar. In his acceptance speech, Mars acknowledged the competition he had defeated.
- [35:57]
Bruno Mars / Lenny Kravitz / Other Guest Speakers
First off to the other nominees in this category, Lord Kung Fu, Kenny, Jay Z. Gambino, you guys are the reason why I'm in the studio pulling my hair out, man, because I know you guys are gonna only come with the top shelf artistry and music. And thank you guys for blessing the world with your music. I mean that.
- [36:14]
Chris Melanfi
One month later, on the Grapevine, an online video series covering African American issues, participants debated whether Bruno Mars was a cultural appropriator. Wake of his Grammy win, Mars came in for some especially harsh criticism from cultural critic Seren sensei.
- [36:36]
Amazon Music Announcer
Bruno Mars 100% is a cultural appropriator. He is racially ambiguous, he is not black at all, and he plays up his racial ambiguity to be able to cross genres and go into different places. People have realized that they prefer their black music and their black culture from a non black face. And I also want to say that Bruno Mars is not an original artist in the same way that Michael Jackson was an original artist in the same way that Prince was an original artist. What Bruno Mars does is he takes pre existing work and he just completely, word for word, recreates it, extrapolates it. He does not change it, he does not improve upon it, he does not make it better. He's a karaoke singer, he's a wedding singer. He's the person who hired to do Michael Jackson and Prince covers. Yet Bruno Mars has an album of the year Grammy and Prince never won an album of the year Grammy.
- [37:15]
Chris Melanfi
Wow. The Grapevine debate over Bruno Mars continued online for weeks after the 2018 Grammys. Black artists including Stevie Wonder and the Gap Band's Charlie Wilson came to Mars defense. Wonder told tmz, God created music for all of us to enjoy. Bruno is a great talent, so all the other stuff is just bullshit. He was inspired by great musicians and great artists and songwriters, so it's cool. Unquote. Years later, Bruno Mars himself told a radio interviewer, the only reason why I'm here is because of James Brown, is because of Prince, Michael, that's it. This music comes from love. And if you can't hear that, then I don't know what to tell you. Truthfully, Mars real answer to his critics seems to be to continue making hits that cross genres. His music provides answers that his cultural background cannot not in 2019 Mars teamed with pop singer, songwriter Ed Sheeran and country star Chris Stapleton on Blow, a single that got Mars on Billboard's rock charts for the first time. The song reached number 36 in rock airplay. And in 2021, Mars and his friend and collaborator, West coast rapper Anderson Paak announced that they had recorded an album as a duo under the group name Silk Sonic. And Bruno had not only continued to mine classic black music tropes, he and Pac doubled down. Silk Sonic was in essence, a musical costume in which Mars and Pac play acted the roles of 70s style soul men with songs bathed in the tropes of Barry White, the Delphonics, Teddy Pendergrass and Aretha Franklin. The first single, a quiet storm ballad called Leave the Door Open. Its title, a knowing wink to Pendergrass's slow jam classic Closed the Door, not only reached number one on the Hot 100, it also topped Billboard's R B airplay chart. It was a smash on top 40 and black radio. The duo's debut album, An Evening With Silk Sonic, earned Mars some of the best reviews of his career. Critics found the music cheeky, but also sincere and admired Bruno's chemistry with Anderson Paak. The album spun off multiple hits on the Hot 100 and R B hip hop charts, including the number five pack top number two R B hit Smoking out the Window. In short, three decades after Bruno's honorary big brother Lenny Kravitz scaled the pop and R B charts, mining the very same 70s style slow jam sounds, Mars is keeping audiences happy by continuing to wear his own musical disguises. Arguably, both men were ahead of the curve in a streaming music era that makes a mockery of genre limitations. To be sure, sure, questions of cultural appropriation are as relevant today as ever, but Leni and Bruno have answered their critics by producing music bathed in love, not snark. And to go back to that night at Bruno's concert with Lenny Kravitz on.
- [41:45]
Bruno Mars / Lenny Kravitz / Other Guest Speakers
Stage, this guy's one of my favorites. Ladies and gentlemen, show some love to Mr. Lenny Kravitz.
- [41:59]
Chris Melanfi
It doesn't hurt that both men are born performers who know how to rock a crowd. Will the real Bruno Mars ever show his face? Is there a real Lenny Kravitz behind the fashion icon? Maybe all this time they've played musical dress up. They were showing us their real selves all along. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Hit Parade. Our show was written, edited and narrated by Chris Melanphy. That's me. My producer is Kevin Bendis. Kevin also produced the latest installment of our monthly Hit Parade the Bridge show, which are available exclusively to Slate plus members. In our latest Bridge episode, I talk to Stereogum editor and Number One's columnist Tom Bryan about how he rates chart topping hits and what he thinks of Bruno Mars number ones as his column enters the 2010s. To sign up for Slate plus and hear not only the Bridge but but all our shows the day they drop, visit slate.com hitparadeplus Derek John is Executive Producer of Narrative Podcasts and we had help from Joel Meyer. Alicia Montgomery is VP of Audio for Slate Podcasts. Check out their roster of shows@slate.com podcasts. You can subscribe to Hit Parade wherever you get your podcasts, in addition to finding it in the Slate Culture Features feed. If you're subscribing on Apple Podcasts, please rate and review us while you're there. It helps other listeners find the show. Thanks for listening and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade back your way. Until then, keep on marching on the one. I'm Chris Melanvy.
- [44:04]
Bruno Mars (singing)
Sam.