Nic and Vince talk about Usher Nice and Slow and The Black Crows Hard to Handle, and the history of the songs and how they made us feel plus our experience with them over the years and Karaoke singing. This week we start adding in us singing these songs at the end of the show so stay tuned till the end. Find us on: Instagram : @nostalgicjukeboxpodcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA04mfG6q-kOj0o7aWvZhIg Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1W5xn11CxwCZDG32GCf6II Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nostalgic-jukebox-podcast/id1661588683
Nic and Vince talk about Usher Nice and Slow and The Black Crows Hard to Handle, and the history of the songs and how they made us feel plus our experience with them over the years and Karaoke singing. This week we start adding in us singing these songs at the end of the show so stay tuned till the end.
Find us on:
Instagram : @nostalgicjukeboxpodcast
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA04mfG6q-kOj0o7aWvZhIg
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1W5xn11CxwCZDG32GCf6II
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nostalgic-jukebox-podcast/id1661588683
Nic (00:03):
Hey everybody. Welcome back. Nostalgic Jukebox Podcast.
Vince (00:07):
Hello. Hello, hello everyone. I'm Vince.
Nic (00:10):
All right. Well, it looks like we're going to go to the nineties, late nineties little bit reminiscent of Montel Jordan, but we're going to go with this song right here. Yeah. The song, when the Guitar Riff Kicks Off, usher Nice and Slow is again a very, very special song for me because again,
Vince (00:40):
Oh, yeah, usher back in the day. I believe this was off his second album. Yeah, his first album was a smash, and then with this one he hit another level with Nice and Slow too. That was, I don't want to be canceled, but this one is a panty dropper and always has been. And I think that's why it's one of Nick's favorites.
Nic (01:06):
Oh, I don't know if I'd sing it because it's a panty dropper, but
Vince (02:04):
On. It's a slow jam, and pretty much anybody over the age of 30 these days just goes nuts for this song. Whatever Nick does it, he harken back to the seventies days of just talking to his lady and telling him what he's going to do to him. And yeah, it's one of those songs that's become a classic for this age group in the genre,
Nic (02:31):
His artwork or his photo for My Way, the album that the song is off of is Iconic nineties. With him looking up, he's got a beanie on, he's got those oversized goggles, he's got his chains. He's just those oversized goggles, Missy, Missy Elliot was used wearing 'em and The Buster Rhymes and all those averages from the nineties, early two thousands if you had giant goggles.
Vince (03:00):
Oh, they're trying to bring them back now too. I know. Have you seen Kanye lately? I I. That guy. Whew. Man, please. Let's just leave that trend in the past, shall we?
Nic (03:10):
Vince (03:23):
Ooh, Hitmaker back then, man. Wow.
Nic (03:26):
I think I pretty much, Jermaine Dupree probably has written almost probably got to be half of Usher's songs. And then because you confessions both one and two that those are from Jermaine Depree's Life. So Jermaine Dupree wrote those for Usher
Vince (03:44):
And produced and he
Nic (03:46):
Produced
Vince (03:46):
'em. Yeah, his fingerprints are all
Nic (03:47):
Over it. So people always thought like, oh, Usher's had this baby mama drama and stuff. Like, nah, Jermaine had the problems, but Jermaine Jermaine, he had his heyday of his songs that came out. He had some good songs, but mainly he was just known as a
Vince (04:06):
Producer, A producer, and he would just star on other people's tracks. And actually there is a few of 'em out there that he killed. I mean, that's what he was better for, just being the guest appearance on tracks, I think.
Nic (04:23):
And my other number one favorite is Money Anything by Jermaine Dupree and Jay-Z back when Jay-Z was first starting out. And that song Slaps, I love that song. You can't really find it karaoke because it hasn't really been converted to karaoke, but that's another one. Anyway, so we can go on the whole tangent of my Jermaine Dupree and
Vince (04:43):
You got to be on your game for that one man, because that song flows
Nic (04:46):
Fast, fast and furious. For sure. It got all the way to number nine on the billboard top 100 in 98. So it definitely did very well goal certification. So it took off. It did well. It sold well his music video for this song. All of his music videos for this time were great. I always remember My Way music video because it was more of that carnival theme. So he had, Tyrese was the bad guy, but they were kind of like, oh, in the videos. That's right. Yeah. He was in this, it was kind of carnivalesque theme. He in the Face makeup and a lot of jumping around, a lot of fake karate dancing from the back. So again, if you could find that music video on YouTube, I hit it
Vince (05:30):
Up and the face makeup a little bit kind now that I'm thinking about it kind of harken back to a Little Clockwork Orangey. Yes. Movie wise, if you remember that movie.
Nic (05:40):
It's it's a great one. But this one is one of those ones that you can add on. So my karaoke is different on this song because it's Usher sings in a little bit Higher Octa, but I'm lower. But since it's a slower r and b song, it seems to work a lot of people. They seem to the usher, and mine is a country twang, so a lot of people think it's like a country low country version of Usher is nice and slow. So I'll take it. It's good. I enjoy the song, so I just have fun with it.
Vince (06:10):
Oh yeah. People enjoy your voice, man on certain songs. And this one is it, it's a low version like you said, and it works.
Nic (06:19):
Yeah. So the radio edit is, I'll freak you right at Will, but the, I've heard it only a few times and I must have been on an album that I had of his, but it's The Real World is like, I'll fuck you right at Will. So I always switch up the lyrics to that because one, nobody ever expects it. And two, it's fun just to curse every once in a while when he had a karaoke bar. So yeah, one's always fun and people, the Reaction to People is pretty funny. So definitely fun to switch the world of the lyrics up.
Vince (06:49):
Don't get it fooled. He likes the explicit version a lot better than The Clean.
Nic (06:53):
Yes, it's more fun. And this song was number eight of the All Time Greatest Usher song. So Steph's still definitely up there for, I mean, all the songs that he has plus the ones that he's still making, it's still one of those ones that everybody knows and iss A Chart Topper and Vince says, A Panny dropper as
Vince (07:13):
You will. I'm kidding. Exactly. Just don't cancel me. Anyway. But what were some of the other songs off this album?
Nic (07:20):
The Party continues, you Make Me
Vince (07:23):
Want It. That was another big one. He had a few on those
Nic (07:26):
First. Yeah, just like me, three or four albums, slow Jam with Monica Comeback with Jermaine Dupree bedtime one day you'll be mine and you make me want to, so you make me want to and Nice and Slow more the two and then My way, obviously. So the three big hits that you had, again, all written by Juma Dpri Manuel Seal and Usher All Round The Solid album, three top three top 10 hits on one album.
Vince (07:57):
Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah.
Nic (07:59):
Vince (08:02):
Said, yeah, his sophomore effort, so to
Nic (08:04):
Speak. All right. You ready for you the next one?
Vince (08:07):
Sure. Yeah,
Nic (08:17):
No, so it's a Black Crows hard to handle, which again, Vince does this song magnificently. I can't even get anywhere close to this song cause it's so fucking fast.
Vince (08:30):
Oh yeah.
Nic (08:30):
But he kills this song and this is one of those ones that, another one, you hear the beginning intro and most people, I've heard the song enough that you hear the intro and you're like, okay, this song is going to is Next Level song.
Vince (08:48):
Yeah. It's those first five notes that on the piano. Yeah. I mean this song Classic By was written by the great Otis Redding, so written in 1968 with him and his writing partners, Al Bell and Alan Jones just to give a little shout out to Otis. let's see. He recorded it shortly before his death, unfortunately in 1967, he died in a plane wreck when he was way too young. I believe he was only about 26 or 27, I believe. But yeah, he wrote and had countless hits. He wrote Respect, which Aretha Franklin took and made it a massive hit. And that's what she's known for these days. Let's see what other ones sitting on the Dock of the Bay, which is another karaoke great.
Nic (09:56):
Yeah, that's a
Vince (09:58):
Classic for sure. Speak, yeah. Yeah.
Nic (10:03):
Can watch Chill and have a nice, fun song sitting on the dock of the past. Oh
Vince (10:07):
Yeah. Sitting Bay Try a Little Tenderness. Yeah, he wrote a bunch of classic r and b songs
Nic (10:15):
But isn't it hard to handle? It's like two minutes, right? Two 17, something like that.
Vince (10:19):
No, it's two 17. His version, the Black Crow's version, which we'll get to in a second, is a little over three. Oh, right. Yeah. They added little, but yeah, just a little bit more on Otis. His nickname was The King of Soul and his style of singing was gained inspiration from gospel music. His singing style influenced countless other soul artists of the sixties. But going to, or speaking of the Black Crows version that their cover was released in August of 90 and apparently there's two versions of the song that exists. There's an original album version and the single that was remixed with an Overdub the Brass section, which I think is the one that we usually hear. But again, this is in my top 20 of karaoke songs myself.
Nic (11:18):
Yeah, I mean it's just a fun, upbeat song. I mean, the chorus gets a little wild. I think most people just say whatever comes to mind when the chorus comes out. Cause nobody knows the actual words because it's so fucking fast. But yeah, this one, I mean, came out peaked at number 45 on the Hot 100, the number one on the rock charts. So it definitely came out, hit Hard and it's fast, it's in your face and you know, really have to understand how to breathe during the song cause it's pretty fast.
Vince (11:52):
But it was one of those songs where it peaked at number 45 on the Hot 100, but then their single she Talks to Angels came out and that was a massive hit, so hard to handle, actually re-entered the top 100 and made it all the way to 25 in 91. So it's just one of those songs that was around for a while, for a whole year, almost a year and a half. It was around, and it was the Black Crow's highest position on the chart that they had up to that point. And again, this, and to talk about sampling this song, hard to handle doing some background on it countless people have sampled this song. A lot of hip hop artists. For myself specifically there's a song called The Symphony by Marley Marl that came out back in the late eighties. And that five note is played throughout the whole song and just mixed into that cut, which was one of my Fs back then. Also, groups like another r and b group, Rex in Effect, actually has had a song they sampled with it, and so did Snoop. Snoop Dogg had one called Ghetto Symphony that sampled it in 99.
Nic (13:17):
There's looking at all the other, there's like a reggae version of it, like a soul. So many from the Soul artists, they, they're
Vince (13:26):
All pretty covered
Nic (13:27):
It. Yeah. It's just, yeah, coupled a coupled people sampled it, like you said. Yeah. There's like a Sunshine Pop group made it. And then the hip hop
Vince (13:36):
Producer. Yeah, that Sunshine Pop group it was called, I can't remember. Harper's Bizarre. Harper's Bizarre. I mean, they came out with that cut of their song, not even a year or two after the original song came out. And it was kind of a whitewashed version of it, if I may say if you have a chance, listen to it. It just sounds like a sixties version that, I don't know. I don't know if I should say, I mean, Tom Jones even does a version of it that's much better. Tom Jones does a version of it. There's a reggae version of it, I believe. I can't recall the artist that does it, but
Nic (14:17):
The reggae one,
Vince (14:18):
The reggae girl, Carl,
Nic (14:19):
The Carl Carl Owens. I
Vince (14:21):
Think that's who it is.
Nic (14:23):
Or I mean, there's, I don't know, there's probably like five reggae ones.
Vince (14:26):
Yeah. Yeah. Look, I think Government Mule does one too. Yeah. So any way you want this song, you can find it. There's even a country version of it by Joe Duffy. Oh yeah. But it's it, they speed it up. So it's almost in the realm of Devil Went down to Georgia by Charlie Daniels, the Charlie Daniels band. So it's, yeah, it's fast, but I still like it too. I listened to a few versions of it and I liked all of them. And I have to say, this can't be remiss, but A Grateful Dead has a few live versions of this song. Granted, the versions are nine minutes, 10 minutes long, but they're actually pretty good.
Nic (15:12):
Oh yeah, the vocals are sung by their keyboardist.
Vince (15:15):
Oh really? Oh, I
Nic (15:15):
Didn't know that. But they occasionally sang it between the sixties and seventies. Yeah,
Vince (15:19):
Yeah. So yeah, shout out to Grateful Dead Band
Nic (15:24):
The one I didn't know is that the Rex in effect, that band they sampled in 92 for a song called Hard, which is the Reon Effect is just like a hip hop r and b dance.
Vince (15:41):
You might know a couple of their songs. Well, one for sure was Rump Shaker. Yeah, that was probably their biggest hit back in the nineties. Yeah. Yeah. Zoom, zoom and a boom Boom. And yeah, that's all I have to say, if you remember that one. But if not, check it out. Rum Shaker Rex. In effect, it's a good
Nic (15:59):
Party jam that, yeah, that was for sure their top hit. But just to say, if you hear just rum shaker and then they hear just them sampling Otis, and it's just a very fun idea that those all came about.
Vince (16:16):
Oh yeah. That was only a couple of the samples that, I mean, yeah, there were pages,
Nic (16:31):
So that covers a couple of 'em. So we're trying something new. We're going to try to see if we can add in the couple, a little bit of karaoke of these into the end of this. So stick around and check it out, and we'll have a little karaoke experience for these songs at the end. But like I said, thanks again for tuning in and we'll see you next week. Thanks,
Vince (16:51):
Al. Have a good one.
Nic (16:54):
Hey everybody, thanks for sticking around. All right, we got Vince up first with Black Crows. Hard to handle.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
I'm come home when I get, come back tomorrow, come down cause aint nothing. Hey, little thing, let Mama, I'm sure hard to now gets around.
Nic (17:35):
Wow. I mean, doesn't Vince just nail that song? All right, well, here's my shot at Usher. Nice and slow.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
Oh
Speaker 5 (17:55):
Yeah, I got a real, don't keep me waiting. I got plans to put my hands. Some places I've know take, I just take nice, slowly. See, I've been waiting for this for so long. I just slow. Thanks
Nic (18:55):
For tuning in. And as always, new episodes every Monday, follow us on Instagram, YouTube, hit the likes with all the buttons that all the follows, do all the things you need to do, and we'll see you next week.