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Say something NICE about M's AMERICAN PIE.


acko

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I adore both the song and the video. I remember when it was premiered on tv, I couldn't see it, a friend of mine asked me - Have you seen Madonna's latest video? She shows her ass in it !!!, and I was like hell, I didn't see it, I thought he made fun of me, but late night I stayed on MTV to catch it and I fell in love with it. She was just like a silly girl and sweet in the video.

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Its fine. Lovely vocals and nice, slightly naff but easy to listen to, production.

I've never really understood why people get hot and bothered by covers. Most artists cover songs that they loved in their past, or inspired them to make music themselves. Someone covering your song is surely the ultimate tribute?

I am glad it wasn't on GHV2. IMO Madonna's own compositions are superior to any song she has covered herself.

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Ive always liked the song. I became fan of her around the time it was released, I started to watch mtv and those two cute british girls with their ugly white dog were saying M was number one yet again with AP.

Even Don Mclean likes it, come on, its a good song.

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I love the video though - it's very playful and it is nice to see Madonna share the spotlight with ordinary folks. Love her jeans too.

She's not running for president. :lmao:

I've never ever had a problem with the song. It's cute actually. But at the same time I've probably never ever listened to it since though.

But it was huge in Europe! is always the reply to an American Pie discussion :lol:

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Yes because the song was HUGE, so if this new release is going to be a greatest HITS (and not just a collection) the song must be included.

exactly

it was successful

its an important piece of her catalog

would you rather have me against the music instead??

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I like Madge's cover version. It's shorter, catchy than the original. It's understandable that most Americans audience can't accept it 'cos they had got used to the original version and even considered as heritage. Europeans are more into dance/techno/electro music therefore it was well embraced by them. That explained why it was #1 in almost all European countries.

Well, the single went #29 on the Billboard Hot 100, and since the single release was scrapped last minute, I think it did very good based on ariplay only.

I think WB made the right choice for not releasing the single in the US 'cos based on previous singles airplay history (peaked at top 30 in airplay), it could have ended up in top 15 (American Pie peaked at #23 in airplay).

There's only 4 songs peaked at top 30 in airplay:

Single - Airplay Peak / Hot 100 single

Oh Father - #22 / #20

You Must Love Me - #25 / #18

The Power Of Goodbye - #26 / #11

Ray of Light - #26 / #5 <- This was an exception 'cos the album itself, as well as the 1st single Frozen, were well received and the physical single includes an unreleased track. And these were mentioned in Billboard columns.

Someone (MaddysMuff, I think) said this, too, but "Beautiful Stranger" suffered the same fate. It did very well -- I think it cracked the top 20 -- on airplay alone, with no proper physical CD single release (and there weren't downloads in those days -- well, legal ones, anyway, that were part of a chart formula). So sad.

BS was more well received in airplay (peaked at #11), it could've been easily her top 5 single if it was released commercially.

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Surprisingly this was her biggest hit since Vogue in terms of chart positions.

Plus the remix:

Victor Calderone?

I like getting unused/outtake footage in video remixes... and this one is no exception. There's some cute stuff of her in it. That isn't Victor Calderone's mix, though. (One of his mixes really only featured her vocals going "the music ... the music" ... Sorry, but I thought that was one of his laziest remixes.) No, the remix in that video is Richard "Humpty" Vission's remix. (It's the one I referred to earlier, that I'd heard described as very aerobic. I really only like the bit at the end that's almost a cappella -- just her and the beat, when everything else drops out.)

There was a cute making-of segment on Entertainment Tonight about this vid back in the day -- it has some cute on the set footage and described how the audio playback was sped up while she filmed it so that when it was played at regular speed she would look like she was in slow motion. (That always sort of blew my mind. I can kind of understand, but then I think, shouldn't she just be moving in regular speed with her lips matching the words? LOL. She must have altered her movements somehow, too.) I have it on tape (VHS) -- someday I'll get around to converting those to digital files. (It might be on YouTube somewhere...)

BS was more well received in airplay (peaked at #11), it could've been easily her top 5 single if it was released commercially.

Thanks, Horn, for the analysis. Interesting... I'm bad with understanding chart stuff -- especially since the rules/formula have changed over the years (like, don't people say that Power of Good-bye would have been a top 10 hit, but the rules changed the week it would have entered that area of the chart?)... Glad someone understands it all.

I guess I can understand WB not releasing the single for AP -- the remixes weren't really that strong, anyway. I bought it as an import (I think it's a German version with both Calderone and Vission remixes, with multiple versions of each). But that's so expensive. These days, they'd probably just release that as a download only, I bet.

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Yes, but APie was charting at a time when not all songs on the Hot 100 had a CD single. YMLM was as well, but there were notably more CD singles released for radio hits in 1996 than there were in 2000. So, a commercial release around the time it peaked at radio would have propelled it into the top 10, at the very least, with a very likely shot at top five and higher. But, there never were any plans for APie to be released as a CD single in America; Fred Bronson wrote about it in ChartBeat one week, how it was No. 1 in the UK, but American fans didn't have the option of buying the single.

"Beautiful Stranger," on the other hand, was planned for release (remember Icon reporting as much?) Billboard listed a catalog number for it on the dance chart- if it wasn't going to be released, it would have just said "PROMO," as id did with BS. The Austin Powers soundtrack sold 1.5m, so Maverick/WB hoped TNBT soundtrack would follow suit- though it stood no chance of coming close to that, since TNBT was not going to be a box office smash. I guess WB couldn't predict that AP wouldn't be as popular as BS, though.

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Yes, but APie was charting at a time when not all songs on the Hot 100 had a CD single. YMLM was as well, but there were notably more CD singles released for radio hits in 1996 than there were in 2000. So, a commercial release around the time it peaked at radio would have propelled it into the top 10, at the very least, with a very likely shot at top five and higher. But, there never were any plans for APie to be released as a CD single in America; Fred Bronson wrote about it in ChartBeat one week, how it was No. 1 in the UK, but American fans didn't have the option of buying the single.

"Beautiful Stranger," on the other hand, was planned for release (remember Icon reporting as much?) Billboard listed a catalog number for it on the dance chart- if it wasn't going to be released, it would have just said "PROMO," as id did with BS. The Austin Powers soundtrack sold 1.5m, so Maverick/WB hoped TNBT soundtrack would follow suit- though it stood no chance of coming close to that, since TNBT was not going to be a box office smash. I guess WB couldn't predict that AP wouldn't be as popular as BS, though.

Interesting... So the reason neither of them was released was to try to push soundtrack album sales. That makes sense (sort of) -- I can't believe I never realized that before.

The big difference between the Austin Powers 2: Spy Who Shagged Me and Next Best Thing soundtracks was new material... Most of the recordings on the Austin Powers soundtrack were new or new recordings/covers from established artists -- versus TNBT soundtrack, which really only seemed to have new material from Madonna and Christina Aguilera. Everything else was available elsewhere, right? (Or maybe not. Maybe Olive and Mandalay, etc., weren't on other recordings previously.) The song selections on the TNBT soundtrack are pretty good, but it's not like that was the only place to hear the songs. So it boiled down to Madonna fans mostly buying it. Whereas the Austin Powers soundtrack had REM covering a song, Lenny Kravitz covering a song, Scary Spice covering a song, and the Will Smith parody from Dr. Evil, to name a few. That's hitting more/different music fan bases, I'd think. Plus there were two music videos: Madonna's and Lenny's.

PS - I might be wrong in my post above about the lazy remix of American Pie. That might have been a different Vission mix, after all. I just looked at the track listing on my CD single and there's "Richard Vission Visits Madonna" and the Vission radio mix. I think the mix I described was the 'visit' one, and the one you hear in that remix video is the radio mix. (Again, THAT mix really shouldn't have been played on mainstream radio, I don't think... Orbit's mix -- post-RoL and BS and Frozen -- was much more radio friendly.)

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Guest bluejean

Something nice about Madonna's 'American Pie?'

The cheesy backing track and shortening of the song work well for renditions in cheap karaoke bars.

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Guest bluejean

That's true :p

Well in all honestly, I don't mind hearing her version. I mean her voice sounds great. Her singing those lyrics is abit silly.

It's more the whole concept of doing that song, and also cutting it into pieces that was just not appropiate imo. Also, the video was very cheap and uninspired. One of her worst. But I will say another good thing about it... It was the BEST thing about 'The Next Best Thing' along with 'Time Stood Still.'

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Her vocals are warm and there's a certain melancholy to them.

I NEVER play this song and don't think it's ever been on my ipod. There's just something horribly naff about it and it's awful that it TAINTS some editions of Music.

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The song is actually not that bad. Nice vocals by M. She looks beat and haggard in the video though,

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I actually like M's version. I don't see what's so terrible about it. Stellar vocals and like always, she made the song her own. It was so Madonna. I like it.

An appreciation thread of sorts.. :fag:

2 me it will always b synonymous with the horrible 'The Next Best Thing' film.And she said 'I kind of had my arm twisted by my record company 2 include

it on my Music album' when asked why it wasn't included on GHV2. So maybe even

Madonna don't like it that much. Anyway, it just popped up on my Media Player..

& I love her vocals on this..& the lyrics sortof work 4 her. So there...I'm being nice. :america:

What is it with the hate for that film?! It's my favorite Madonna movie next to "Desperately Seeking Susan". I love "The Next Best Thing". I own the dvd and watch it all the time.

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What is it with the hate for that film?! It's my favorite Madonna movie next to "Desperately Seeking Susan". I love "The Next Best Thing". I own the dvd and watch it all the time.

Kopievanprincedvd3.gif

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What is it with the hate for that film?! It's my favorite Madonna movie next to "Desperately Seeking Susan". I love "The Next Best Thing". I own the dvd and watch it all the time.

...

If anyone has any doubt that strawberry is a Madonna fan, here's his most honest confession.

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