News
Entertainment
If “getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant,” as has been said, then sometimes, the water's gone bad.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the attribution of songs. Ever since the late 1990s, when Napster first allowed fans to share MP3s, it has become sadly commonplace to find songs attributed incorrectly.
No, the Cure didn't sing the ‘80s alternative hit, “I Melt With You,” and it wasn't New Order, either. (It was Modern English.) R.E.M. didn't record a cover of the old Tears For Fears song, “Mad World.” (But Gary Jules did.) Bad Company didn't perform “The Boys are Back in Town” or “Smokin' in the Boys' Room” -- that would be Thin Lizzy and Brownsville Station, respectively -- but they did do “Feel Like Makin' Love,” which, on the internet, is commonly attributed to Foghat.
However, if there is one misattribution that particularly gets Craven's goat, it's the erroneous notion that Janis Joplin recorded “Brand New Key.”
Even if you weren't around in 1971 when Melanie Safka's song (also sometimes called “The Roller Skate Song”) went to #1 on Billboard's Hot 100, you probably know the tune, since it has lived on in commercials (most recently, for Hewlett-Packard printers last year), film soundtracks and in cover versions by acts as diverse as the Four Freshmen, Deana Carter and the Dollyrots.
But never, ever — EVER! -- was it recorded by Janis Joplin.
You'd think the fact that Joplin died in October 1970 -- almost exactly a year before “Brand New Key” was first released — would clue folks in to the fact that she didn't sing the blamed thing. But fact-checking is a dying art in the internet era (despite the fact that it's easier than ever in our Google-ized world), and many people today are surprisingly satisfied to be misinformed.
The mistaken idea that Joplin recorded “Brand New Key” probably stems from the fact that Melanie's voice, like Janis', had a slightly grainy, whiskey-soaked quality. Still, there's no justifiable explanation for why so many sites — lyric repositories, Joplin forums, YouTube posts, etc. -- continue to foist the errant belief that Janis sang the song.
Indeed, Answers.com, which posits itself as a “site (that) knows the best answer to give you,” offers the following in its WikiAnswers section, in answer to the question, “When did Janis Joplin sing ‘Brand New Key?'”:
“She sang it in 1970, before her death. This song was written by Melanie Safka, a folk singer, a year previous. When Joplin died, it helped popularize the song for Melanie and took her to number one with it in December 1970.”
This answer manages to get not one, not two, but three facts wrong.
Janis Joplin never sang “Brand New Key.” Melanie wrote it in 1971, not 1969. And it went to #1 in December, 1971, not 1970. Which just goes to prove that, while Answers.com — or the internet in general — might know the “best” answer to give you, it isn't guaranteed to deliver the correct one.
------------------------
Notes is supported by the Gay and Lesbian Fund, promoting the success of youth leadership and mentoring programs throughout Colorado in cooperation with Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Craven Lovelace produces Notes, a daily cultural history of popular music, for KAFM 88.1 Community Radio, kafmradio.org. You can visit cravenlovelace.com for more of his musings on the world of popular culture.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the attribution of songs. Ever since the late 1990s, when Napster first allowed fans to share MP3s, it has become sadly commonplace to find songs attributed incorrectly.
No, the Cure didn't sing the ‘80s alternative hit, “I Melt With You,” and it wasn't New Order, either. (It was Modern English.) R.E.M. didn't record a cover of the old Tears For Fears song, “Mad World.” (But Gary Jules did.) Bad Company didn't perform “The Boys are Back in Town” or “Smokin' in the Boys' Room” -- that would be Thin Lizzy and Brownsville Station, respectively -- but they did do “Feel Like Makin' Love,” which, on the internet, is commonly attributed to Foghat.
However, if there is one misattribution that particularly gets Craven's goat, it's the erroneous notion that Janis Joplin recorded “Brand New Key.”
Even if you weren't around in 1971 when Melanie Safka's song (also sometimes called “The Roller Skate Song”) went to #1 on Billboard's Hot 100, you probably know the tune, since it has lived on in commercials (most recently, for Hewlett-Packard printers last year), film soundtracks and in cover versions by acts as diverse as the Four Freshmen, Deana Carter and the Dollyrots.
But never, ever — EVER! -- was it recorded by Janis Joplin.
You'd think the fact that Joplin died in October 1970 -- almost exactly a year before “Brand New Key” was first released — would clue folks in to the fact that she didn't sing the blamed thing. But fact-checking is a dying art in the internet era (despite the fact that it's easier than ever in our Google-ized world), and many people today are surprisingly satisfied to be misinformed.
The mistaken idea that Joplin recorded “Brand New Key” probably stems from the fact that Melanie's voice, like Janis', had a slightly grainy, whiskey-soaked quality. Still, there's no justifiable explanation for why so many sites — lyric repositories, Joplin forums, YouTube posts, etc. -- continue to foist the errant belief that Janis sang the song.
Indeed, Answers.com, which posits itself as a “site (that) knows the best answer to give you,” offers the following in its WikiAnswers section, in answer to the question, “When did Janis Joplin sing ‘Brand New Key?'”:
“She sang it in 1970, before her death. This song was written by Melanie Safka, a folk singer, a year previous. When Joplin died, it helped popularize the song for Melanie and took her to number one with it in December 1970.”
This answer manages to get not one, not two, but three facts wrong.
Janis Joplin never sang “Brand New Key.” Melanie wrote it in 1971, not 1969. And it went to #1 in December, 1971, not 1970. Which just goes to prove that, while Answers.com — or the internet in general — might know the “best” answer to give you, it isn't guaranteed to deliver the correct one.
------------------------
Notes is supported by the Gay and Lesbian Fund, promoting the success of youth leadership and mentoring programs throughout Colorado in cooperation with Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Craven Lovelace produces Notes, a daily cultural history of popular music, for KAFM 88.1 Community Radio, kafmradio.org. You can visit cravenlovelace.com for more of his musings on the world of popular culture.
