Aqua – Barbie Girl (US 12″ Promo)

Burning The Ground Exclusive 1997

BTG BARBIE Rewind: Bubblegum Pop Inspired by BARBIE!

“Barbie Girl” is a song by Danish dance-pop group Aqua. It was released in April 1997 as the third single from the group’s debut studio album, Aquarium (1997). The song was written by band members Søren Rasted, Claus Norreen, René Dif, and Lene Nystrøm, and was produced by the former two alongside Johnny Jam and Delgado. It was written after Rasted saw an exhibit on kitsch culture in Denmark that featured Barbie dolls.

The song topped the charts worldwide, particularly in European countries such as the United Kingdom, where it was a number-one hit for four weeks and remains one of the best-selling singles of all time. It also reached number two in the group’s homeland and peaked at number seven on the US Billboard Hot 100, where it became Aqua’s only top-ten hit until “Barbie World” (2023). It is Aqua’s most popular work and was also performed as the interval act in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001. It also became the subject of the controversial lawsuit Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records, Inc.

The lyrics of the song are about Barbie and Ken, the dolls made by Mattel. Both the song and its music video feature Lene Nystrøm as Barbie and René Dif as Ken. As such, the lyrics drew the ire of Barbie’s corporate owners, and a lawsuit was filed by Mattel.

A footnote on the back of the Aquarium CD case precisely stated that “The song ‘Barbie Girl’ is a social comment and was not created or approved by the makers of the doll.”

“Barbie Girl” has sold more than eight million copies worldwide. It went on becoming a huge hit on several continents, remaining the most successful song by the band. It reached number one in more than 10 countries. In Europe, the single peaked at the top position in Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, as well as on the Eurochart Hot 100. In the band’s native Denmark, the song debuted and peaked at number two. In the United Kingdom, it debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number two and reached number one the next week, on 26 October 1997. It stayed at that position for four weeks and has sold 1.84 million copies in the United Kingdom as of April 2017, making it the thirteenth best-selling single in the UK. Outside Europe, “Barbie Girl” peaked at number-one in Australia and New Zealand, number four in Canada and number seven on the US Billboard Hot 100. On the latter, it debuted at that position. It sold 82,000 copies in its first week and debuted at number five on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart.

In September 1997, six months after the release of the song by Aqua, Mattel, the manufacturer of the Barbie doll, sued MCA Records, Aqua’s North American record label. Mattel claimed that “Barbie Girl” violated their trademark and turned her into a sex object, referring to her as a “blonde bimbo”. It alleged that the song infringed its copyrights and trademarks on the Barbie doll and that the song’s lyrics had ruined the longtime popularity and reputation of their trademark and impinged on their marketing plan. Aqua and MCA Records claimed that Mattel injected their own meanings into the song’s lyrics. They contested Mattel’s claims and countersued for defamation after Mattel had likened MCA to a bank robber. The lawsuit filed by Mattel was dismissed by the lower courts, and this dismissal was upheld, though Mattel took their case up to the Supreme Court of the United States, but that appeal was later rejected.

In 2009, Mattel released a series of advertisements and a promotional music video of the song, with modified lyrics, as part of a new marketing strategy brought in to revive sales. Despite this, the Mattel-produced film Barbie released in 2023 does not feature the original song, as stated by Ulrich Møller-Jørgensen, who manages lead singer Lene Nystrøm. “Barbie World”, a remake of the song by Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice and Aqua, was later announced to be featured in the film and on the film’s soundtrack.

SIDE A:
Barbie Girl (Spike’s Plastic Mix) 8:45
Remix –  Spike (33)

Barbie Girl (Radio Edit) 3:15

SIDE B:
Barbie Girl (Spike’s Anatomically Correct Dub) 7:57
Remix –  Spike (33)

Barbie Girl (Extended Version) 5:14

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

U.S. CHART HISTORY:

Year Single Chart Position
1997 Barbie Girl U.S. Billboard Hot 100 #7
1997 BBarbie Girl U.S. Billboard Music Club/Play #21

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: MCA Records – MCA8P-4040
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, Promo
Country: US
Released: 1997
Genre: Electronic
Style: Euro House

CREDITS:

  • Mastered By – BAJ*

NOTES:
PROMOTIONAL ONLY – NOT FOR SALE
The song “Barbie Girl” is a social comment and was not created nor approved by the makers of the doll.

“LIFE IN PLASTIC, IT’S FANTASTIC!

Buy the 12″ at DISCOGS

VINYL TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

THE GEAR:
Turntable: Technics SL-1200MK7
Cartridge/Stylus:  Ortofon 2M Black PnP MkII
Turntable Isolation Platform: ISO-Tone™ Turntable Isolation Platform
Platter: Pro Spin Acrylic Mat
Stabilizer: Pro-Ject Record Puck
Phono Pre-amp: Pro-Jec Tube Box DS2
Tubes: Genalex Gold Lion 12AX7 ECC83/B759 Gold Pins Vacuum Tube – Matched Pair
DAC: Alpha Design Labs GT40a USB DAC
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Epson Workforce WF-7610 Professional Printer/Scanner

SOFTWARE:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling/Dither: iZotope RX Advanced 2
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

**24bit FLAC Only Available For Seven Days!


Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.



Sinéad O’Connor 1966 – 2023

Sinéad O’Connor, the Irish singer known for her intense and beautiful voice, her political convictions and the personal tumult that overtook her later years, has died. She was 56 years old.

O’Connor’s recording of “Nothing Compares 2 U” was one of the biggest hits of the early 1990s. Her death was announced by her family. The cause and date of her death were not made public. The statement said: “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad. Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time.”

Alternative radio in the late 1980s rang with the voices of female singers who defied commercial expectations of what women should look like and how they should sound. But even in a crowd that included Tracy Chapman, Laurie Anderson and the Indigo Girls, O’Connor stood out.

The cover to her first album, released in 1987, was so striking — not just because of her beautiful face. It was her head, bald as an eaglet, and her wrists locked defensively across her heart. The album’s title, The Lion and the Cobra, refers to a verse from Psalm 91 about believers, and the power and resilience of their faith. And throughout her early life, Sinéad O’Connor was resilient.

“I grew up in a severely abusive situation, my mother being the perpetrator,” O’Connor told NPR in 2014. “So much of child abuse is about being voiceless, and it’s a wonderfully healing thing to just make sounds.”

O’Connor started making sounds in a home for juvenile delinquents, after a childhood spent getting booted out of Catholic schools and busted, repeatedly, for shoplifting. But a nun gave her a guitar and she began to sing, on the streets of Dublin and then with a popular Irish band called In Tua Nua.

O’Connor came to the attention of U2’s guitarist The Edge, and she got herself signed to the Ensign/Chrysalis label. Her second studio album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, went double platinum in 1990, partly because of a hit love song written by Prince: “Nothing Compares 2 U.”

I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got was a distillation of O’Connor’s prayerful sense of music and her fury over social injustice. She rejected its four Grammy nominations as being too commercial — and, in her words, “for destroying the human race.” She was banned from a New Jersey arena when she refused to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” for its lyrics glorifying bombs bursting in air.

Rock critic Bill Wyman says O’Connor belonged to a proud Irish tradition of speaking up against the established order. “You know she’s always on the side of the victims, and the vulnerable, and the weak,” he observes.

In 1992, at the height of her fame, Sinéad O’Connor appeared on Saturday Night Live. In her performance, she raised her voice against racism and child abuse. There was dead silence when she ended the song, a version of Bob Marley’s “War,” by ripping up a picture of then-Pope John Paul II.

What followed in the media was a collective howl of outrage. It drowned out a prescient protest against abuse in the Catholic church. Years later, in 2010, O’Connor told NPR she’d known exactly what to expect.

“It was grand, to be honest,” she said. “I mean, I knew how people would react. I knew there would be trouble. I was quite prepared to accept that. To me, it was more important that I recognized what I will call the Holy Spirit.”

Rock music’s Joan of Arc, as she began to be called, became increasingly erratic in her convictions. O’Connor was a feminist; then she wasn’t. She supported the Irish Republican Army, until she didn’t. She got ordained as a Catholic priest by a rogue sect. She converted to Islam. She went from celibacy to oversharing about her tastes in sex. She changed her name several times, calling herself Shuhada’ Sadaqat after her conversion, though she continued to release music under her birth name. And her music veered unpredictably, from New Age to opera to reggae.

Even though O’Connor never produced another notable hit, tabloids kept covering her: Her four marriages, four divorces and four children; her feuds with celebrities, ranging over the years from Frank Sinatra to Miley Cyrus.

“I think people lost respect for her credibility,” says Bill Wyman. “And her later records just aren’t as much fun. They’re poorly produced, and they’re odd. They’re just not as enjoyable.”

In later years, O’Connor took to Facebook and Twitter to write about her struggle with mental illness. She brought up suicide — and she attempted it more than once.

If you came of age in the 1980s, one song you heard over and over from Sinéad O’Connor’s first album was “Never Gets Old.” If only — somehow — she could have gotten old as powerfully as her strongest songs.

After her death, the prime minister of Ireland, Leo Varadkar, issued a statement on social media, saying: “Really sorry to hear of the passing of Sinéad O’Connor. Her music was loved around the world and her talent was unmatched and beyond compare. Condolences to her family, her friends and all who loved her music. Ar dheis Dé go Raibh a hAnam [may her soul rest at the right hand of God].”

Wham! – Bad Boys (US 12″)

Burning The Ground Exclusive 1983

NEW 2023 Transfer
NEW Meticulous Audio Restoration

Originally posted March 18, 2014

“Bad Boys” is a song by English pop duo Wham! which was a hit in 1983. It was written and co-produced by George Michael, one half of the duo, and released on Innervision Records.

The song was an energetic but endearing tale of a rebellious teenage lad’s struggle against his parents who are concerned about his late-night activities. Although Michael wrote and sang it from the teenager’s perspective (he was himself only 19 when he composed it and the character refers to being that age in the song), he also penned a middle eight in which the “parents” (Michael putting on more “adult” voices) aired their concerns, which included late nights and cigarettes and ultimately asking, “Why do you have to be so cruel?”. Michael’s father was played by Anthony Souter who was 18 and made up to look older.

It was the third single to be taken from Wham!’s debut album, Fantastic, and reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart, going on to become the 26th best selling single of 1983. At the time, Wham! was projecting a hard, politically motivated image, with “Bad Boys” one of a number of songs projecting a stance of mood and youthful independence, a “soul boy – dole boy” theme. The single was also released in the United States, peaking at number 60. It was the duo’s first time on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, although they were listed as Wham!-UK.

“Bad Boys” became the biggest hit from the debut album, although it would be usurped by “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” from the album Make It Big in 1984, which became the first of four UK number-one singles the duo would enjoy. Michael quickly denounced “Bad Boys” as a song he hated, stating it was “like an albatross round my neck”. The song was famously omitted from the 1997 compilation album The Best of Wham!: If You Were There…, despite the album including tracks that were not released as singles.

Also of note the 12″ Mix was omitted from the 2023 The Singles (Echoes From The Edge Of Heaven) CD single box set.

SIDE A:
Bad Boys (12″ Mix) 4:58

SIDE B:
Bad Boys (Instrumental) 3:25

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

U.S. CHART HISTORY:

Year Single Chart Position
1983 Bad Boys U.S. Billboard Hot 100 #60
1983 Bad Boys U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play #28

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Columbia – 44-03933, Innervision Records (2) – 44-03933
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, Single
Country: US
Released: 1983
Genre: Pop/Rock
Style: Pop/Rock, Synth-pop

CREDITS:

NOTES:
Pressed By – Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Pitman
Mastered At – Sterling Sound
Mastered At – Customatrix

Buy the 12″ at DISCOGS

VINYL TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

THE GEAR:
Turntable: Technics SL-1200MK7
Cartridge/Stylus:  Ortofon 2M Black PnP MkII
Turntable Isolation Platform: ISO-Tone™ Turntable Isolation Platform
Platter: Pro Spin Acrylic Mat
Stabilizer: Pro-Ject Record Puck
Phono Pre-amp: Pro-Jec Tube Box DS2
Tubes: Genalex Gold Lion 12AX7 ECC83/B759 Gold Pins Vacuum Tube – Matched Pair
DAC: Alpha Design Labs GT40a USB DAC
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Epson Workforce WF-7610 Professional Printer/Scanner

SOFTWARE:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling/Dither: iZotope RX Advanced 2
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

**24bit FLAC Only Available For Seven Days!


Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.



Don Henley – All She Wants To Do Is Dance (US 12″)

Burning The Ground Exclusive 1985

“All She Wants to Do Is Dance” is a song written by Danny Kortchmar and performed by Don Henley, co-lead vocalist and drummer for Eagles. It was released as the second single from Henley’s second studio solo album, Building the Perfect Beast (1984), and was Henley’s sixth solo single overall. It was one of Henley’s most commercially successful singles, peaking at No. 9 on Billboard Hot 100 and also became his third song to top the Top Rock Tracks chart.

The song critiques the US intervention in Central America, particularly in the then-ongoing Contra War, in which the Reagan administration funded the right-wing rebel group Contras to overthrow the socialist Sandinista National Liberation Front government in Nicaragua.

Backing vocals for the song was provided by Patty Smyth of the band Scandal, and Martha Davis, lead singer of the Motels.

When Kortchmar was asked about the song, he said, “I had the groove and the music going. That record was made back when the technology had just started to really take over in music. I had one of the first Yamaha DX7s, which was a keyboard that was used a ton in the ’80s, but we ended up luckily getting one of the first ones in the United States. It’s a synthesizer keyboard, and I used it to get that sound that you hear the record starting with.”

** As a BONUS TRACK I have included the “Remix Edit” which was taken from the U.S. 12″ Promo.

SIDE A:
All She Wants To Do Is Dance (Extended Dance Remix) 7:36

SIDE B:
All She Wants To Do Is Dance (Dubb Remix) 5:15

BONUS TRACK:
All She Wants To Do Is Dance (Remix Edit)** 4:29

VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint

U.S. CHART HISTORY:

Year Single Chart Position
1985 All She Wants To Do Is Dance U.S. Billboard Hot 100 #9
1985 All She Wants To Do Is Dance U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks #1
1985 All She Wants To Do Is Dance U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play #10
1985 All She Wants To Do Is Dance U.S. Billboard Hot R&B Singles #65

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Geffen Records – 9 20314-0 A, Geffen Records – 0-20314
Format: Vinyl, 12″, Maxi-Single, 45 RPM
Country: US
Released: 1985
Genre: Rock, Pop
Style: Pop Rock

CREDITS:

NOTES:
Original version available on the Geffen album Building The Perfect Beast
Made in USA.

The cover art says
Don Henley: All She Wants To Do Is Dance.
Don Henley: Ella solo quiere bailar.

Buy the 12″ at DISCOGS

Buy the 12″ Promo at DISCOGS

VINYL TRANSFER & AUDIO RESTORATION:
-DjPaulT
burningtheground.net

THE GEAR:
Turntable: Technics SL-1200MK7
Cartridge/Stylus:  Ortofon 2M Black PnP MkII
Turntable Isolation Platform: ISO-Tone™ Turntable Isolation Platform
Platter: Pro Spin Acrylic Mat
Stabilizer: Pro-Ject Record Puck
Phono Pre-amp: Pro-Jec Tube Box DS2
Tubes: Genalex Gold Lion 12AX7 ECC83/B759 Gold Pins Vacuum Tube – Matched Pair
DAC: Alpha Design Labs GT40a USB DAC
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Epson Workforce WF-7610 Professional Printer/Scanner

SOFTWARE:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling/Dither: iZotope RX Advanced 2
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removal: Manual
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator

RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi

**24bit FLAC Only Available For Seven Days!


Password: burningtheground

You can help show your support for this blog by making a donation using PayPal. Thank you for your help.