These are turning out to be my favorite Todd videos. I learn a lot with them, as I did with this one.
One Hit Wonderland - Come On Eileen
Written by Todd In The Shadows Saturday, 28 July 2012 23:50
Image art by Krin
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Comments (108)
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07.29.2012 - 00:44 | That Nineties Guy
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07.29.2012 - 02:14 | The_Awesometeer
I feel so informed
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08.25.2012 - 05:31 | violinisthamel
Feel even more informed; Too ra loo ra is actually an Irish lullaby.
http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Too_Ra_Loo_Ra_Loo_Ral
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07.29.2012 - 02:14 | LikaLaruku
They were singing in English the whole time?
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07.29.2012 - 02:21 | DrQ
i always like it when people on this site talk about how good the material is instead of making fun of it and talking about how bad it is. great review.
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07.29.2012 - 02:28 | Not already in use?I hate this video. I remember watching them on Top of The Pops as a kid. I am feeling very, very old right now.
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07.29.2012 - 03:16 | FishEyenoMiko
Hee! Yeah, I'm old enough to remember when "Come On, Eileen" was huge. I think I liked it, then got tired of the overplay; but I like it again. (-:
And I'd heard that (like A-Ha) there was a lot more to Dexys than the one hit. It was nice to the background on them.
I'm glad Todd started this series, I'm really enjoying it!
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07.29.2012 - 02:35 | Ancel De Lambert
I didn't know that was the title of this song. I freakin love this tune! Tooraloo indeed.
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07.29.2012 - 03:12 | Guild Navigator
There were many great Brit bands in the 70s and 80s that sadly were largely ignored by the American mainstream. One of them was Uriah Heep who was rocking looong before metal became popular. Even bands that had some degree of success -live Level 42- only became known after putting out half a dozen albums in the UK. Ask even the most jaded 80s music fan if they've heard of Big Country or Midge Ure and you're likely to be met with a frown.
This One Hit Wonder series is the dog's bollocks. Todd needs to put new chapters more often. Hopefully he'll cover Madness' Our House one of these days.
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08.31.2012 - 09:19 | Kryss LaBryn"In the big country dreams stay with you like a lover's voice on a mountainside..."
I remember these guys. They were pretty big in Canada too for a while there, I think...
I don't think anyone outside of Canada has heard of our national band The Tragically Hip, though.
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12.10.2012 - 04:33 | PlayMp1
There's plenty of people over here who've heard of Uriah Heep.
And the first certifiably, definitely, 100% metal band is Black Sabbath, who are British and certainly weren't ignored here in the States. They hit it big in the US with Paranoid in 1971, getting Paranoid (the album) to #12 on the charts.
Given that metal basically is incapable of being as popular as other genres (it has narrow appeal), getting to #12 on the overall charts with basically the second pure metal album ever isn't too bad.
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07.29.2012 - 03:11 | clammyWow!
I dont normally post under vids.. but i LOVE this series!
My only complaint was it didnt last long enough - i'd love a more in depth analysis of the song itself.
I'm a brit - and i recongised the two other songs featured.. But i have to admit, i never realised it was the same band!
Tod.. Whoever you are... Please please please make more of this series! It is imho the best series on this site - (as it's not played for bad jokes - but done to educate/inform and stuff).
Hell you could make a tv series out of this!
Just please please please please .. can we have even more info and longer vids for this stuff?
Thanks!
Clammy.
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07.29.2012 - 04:15 | ColbyJ
I saw this song once on MTV or Vh1 video of old school songs. Man this song is so corny, and forgive me "white" in all it's context. It's so boring that I just dont know what else to say...so Todd I'll leave it to you.
Also wow just noticed the set of this video was in "Hey Soul Sister."
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07.29.2012 - 06:50 | Flaregun
I don't think it's literally the same set, but the idea, the band as a group of street musicians busking on a street corner, is identical & even filmed in much the same way.
Not that it's a particularly uncommon idea to begin with; whenever I see this video it reminds me of the cover to the Creedence album Willy & The Poor Boys and the "Down On The Corner" song therein.
Fun Fact: Lou Reed has claimed that the in year before he officially formed The Velvet Underground, he & John Cale made more money per day busking together on the street corners & subways of NYC than they would ever make in the Velvets.
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07.29.2012 - 04:18 | ColbyJKinda of an interesting idea to pick a UK group during the London Olympics.
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I always got the impression the song was more about persuading Eileen to have sex with him. He says all these positive things, but he might not believe them himself, while the chorus says he has a dirty mind and asks her to take off her dress. The song near the end almost becomes sexual harassment with just the endless pleading of "come on Eileen"...
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07.29.2012 - 04:20 | Karma KollapseThese One Hit Wonder videos are superb, can't wait for the next one!
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07.29.2012 - 04:42 | PlayMp1I can honestly say I've never heard this song. I'm sure if I mentioned it to my mom she'd say "I love that song!" considering she was a new wave (though more darkwave) fan in the eighties.
My experience with 80s hits is almost solely that placed firmly in the hard rock realm. From glam like Poison to bluesy hard rock like AC/DC, I know that quite well.
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07.29.2012 - 04:51 | DeadCobra
I don't care much about this
But there songs are ok
Cross dressing wtf
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07.29.2012 - 04:52 | THOOM
I hate this song. Hate Hate Hate it. I was 11 when it came out and it didn't cheer me up. It got me down. Between their look and that one awful song, I couldn't stand that band. To me, "Come on Eileen" was as down as the towns people that Rowland sang about in the song. It's one of the worst, depressing pop songs of all time, alongside Todd Rundgren's "Hello It's Me" and Leo Sayer's "When I Need You".
I never had heard another song by Dexy's until now, but I have heard how underrated they were. I am glad I got to hear some of their other stuff on this video. Sounds unremarkable to awful. I will give some of their stuff a more thorough listen, though.
P.S. The reason the Van Morrison cover and Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland didn't chart and have critical success wasn't because the artists and subjects were "too obvious" for each other. If you are obvious and the music or film is well executed, you will be a success. No, they failed because that cover song and that movie were awful and boring. I love the visual fx in "Alice" though.
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07.29.2012 - 04:58 | thedudewiththePS3nice series, keep 'em coming, todd.
I love your videos.
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07.29.2012 - 05:13 | Omi-san
The lead singer looks a lot like Daniel Craig with his third album's suit.
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08.31.2012 - 09:22 | Kryss LaBrynI kept thinking Mr. Bean for the first two... XD Kind of explains his pronounciation of the lyrics, eh? *Grin*
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07.29.2012 - 05:19 | UsagiqueenI know they have similar melodies, but Kid Rock was using "Sweet Home Alabama", not "Werewolves of London."
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07.29.2012 - 05:46 | DustLast time I heard K.R's version, sounded like he used both - just in different parts of the song.
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07.29.2012 - 05:23 | PeddlingCome on I'll lean/ What I swear (what he needs)/ At this moment/ you go every-thuuu/
I had so much trouble finding this song when I first heard it.
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07.29.2012 - 05:43 | RedrallyWhile I found the video very informative and entertaining...
nope, I still hate this song.
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07.29.2012 - 06:04 | FunkyM
Okay, Loved this.
Come on Eileen was reworked as "Come on England" in the 2000s sometime to whip up national fervour for the Footy (Soccer) tournament. (Either Euro or World, I forget)
Also, through my IRL connections, I happen to know bandmember Pete Williams. Good times.
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07.29.2012 - 06:10 | Mz Doom
I laughed at Todd trying to do a British accent and saying the town names.
I remember this song so well, even in the nineties it was played in any school discos.
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07.29.2012 - 06:24 | alexthed
No joke about Homer saying we haven't heard the last of Dexy's Midnight Runners. All I have to say to that is tisk squared. Seriously, good video.
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07.29.2012 - 06:35 | othyIt's funny when Todd say Birmingham with emphasis on the 'ham'. The northern way of saying it is, actually, I think they say it this way down south too, is Birming-um... not Birming-ham.
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07.29.2012 - 07:18 | pilight
When Todd said he knew Johnny Ray from one other place, I thought for sure he was going to go with another bizarre, sounds like nothing else going now one hit wonder from the late 90's called "Are You Jimmy Ray?"
@othy Todd pronounces Birmingham the way the city in Alabama is pronounced, and likely the way most Americans would say it.
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07.29.2012 - 08:17 | OwenGlyndwr
Just as an fyi Todd, B'ham and Manchester aren't Northern towns, they're in the Midlands. Northern towns would be places like Leeds, Liverpool, pretty much anything in Yorkshire, and of course Newcastle.
Other than that though, good review, I'd never heard of this song, but then again I don't really listen to the eighties. Like. ever.
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07.29.2012 - 12:03 | Magpie Dandy
Well, Manchester is north.
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07.29.2012 - 16:26 | othy... don't forget Blackpool as a northern town.
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07.31.2012 - 17:05 | ApplemaskAre you confusing Manchester with Nottingham or something?
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07.29.2012 - 08:33 | Captain SiberiaDexy's midnight runners was actually a three-word street name for the drug. There are no extra words there.
The audio during the Looney Tunes segments is way too quiet.
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07.29.2012 - 08:35 | Carteeg_Struve
Good video. I think Todd wouldn't do bad making another series that just explains what the hell many song's lyrics mean, or (in the case of the songs where you can't understand what they are saying) are.
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07.29.2012 - 08:38 | hordrisstheconfuserGreat video, but I must ask you to please refrain from attempting any sort of British accent again. Your effort is appreciated, and certainly much better than most attempts made by your fellow countrymen, but they still make me wince slightly.
My impressions of American accents are appalling; this is why I never use them :D
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07.29.2012 - 08:51 | No1stormie@OwenGlyndwr, Manchester most definately is a Northern city.
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