You had me at ’Hello’
The amazing life cycle of Adele’s new single,
Such is the significance with which her upcoming release is being freighted that the questions dominating the conversation around 25 aren’t “How much will it sell” or “Is it as good as the last one” but rather “Will Adele be the last hurrah of the album era?”
That is a formidable responsibility to heap upon what is, after all, a modest collection of 11 songs, even if the video for one of them, “Hello,” was, at its peak, being streamed almost a million times an hour.
As impressive as that statistic is, however, it doesn’t begin to convey just how deeply that single has left its mark.
First, there are the cover versions — dozens of them.
Some have already racked up hundreds of thousands of YouTube views on their own, from sensitive guy Doug Panton to Norwegian pop-metal act PelleK.
Then there are all the the jokes, highlighted by a 12-second mash-up, viewed more than two million times, in which Lionel Richie tries and fails to call Adele to say, well, you know (check it out at bit.ly/ adelerichie).
Richie even jumped into the joke by posting a photo of the doomed phone call on Instagram.
And that’s not counting the dance remixes , homemade videos, fan mash-ups . . . Vinyl: To mark the 30th anniversary of its release, John Mellencamp’s Scarecrow is returning to vinyl in Canada on Nov. 27. That date coincides with the last big week of the year for vinyl releases, as well as the day on which the folks behind Record Store Day celebrate Black Friday.
Among the other releases that day will be a Nine Inch Nails box set, Halo I-IV, which the band selfreleased in small quantities in 2008; soundtracks to Pretty in Pink and High Fidelity; a reissue of Linda Ronstadt’s second album, Silk Purse (the one picturing the singer lounging with a bunch of pigs on the cover); and a slew of seasonal releases, from Vince Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown Holiday Hits to the glad tidings of the Eazy-E single “Merry M----F----- X-mas.” Streaming: With Ryan Adams using his cover of Taylor Swift’s 1989 to insert himself back into the conversation, it’s a good time to visit the wide range of concert recordings available on the Live Music Archive.
Among the highlights are his 23song show at Massey Hall in 2007 (bit.ly/ryanmassey) and a memorable webcast for David Letterman’s show, performed at the Ed Sullivan Theater in 2011 (bit.ly/ryanletterman).
Airing live online this week: Yahoo Screen streams a concert Wednesday night by Chvrches from the Fillmore in Charlotte, N.C. . Friday, meanwhile, kicks off three days at New Orleans’ Voodoo + Arts Experience. Among the artists scheduled to perform are Deadmau5, Chance the Rapper, Public Image Ltd., Ozzy Osbourne, Jane’s Addiction and Peaches. Video: “She’s so big/She’s so strong/ She’s so energetic in her sweaty overalls.”
Yes, it’s the return of Weezer, the only band that can make a lyric video that revolves around the wanton destruction of defenceless cannoli.
With its torrent of idiosyncratic lyrics — we defy you to find another song that includes both “centrifuge machine” and “osprey eggs” in the same verse — the song sounds more like the XTC of “Dear God” than the band that brought us “Buddy Holly.”
Finally, this might be the longest shot ever at winning Britain’s annual Christmas No. 1 single derby: the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir performing a medley of Coldplay’s “Fix You” and Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” to protest cuts to Britain’s National Health Service.