#lo2

Evanescence - Bring Me to Life 2003

"Bring Me to Life" is the debut single by American rockband Evanescence from their debut studio album, Fallen (2003). It was released as the album's lead single on January 13, 2003, following its inclusion in the soundtrack of the 2003 Marvel film Daredevil. Amy Lee wrote "Bring Me to Life" at age 19, after a then-acquaintance (who later became her husband) asked her if she was happy; Lee was in an abusive relationship and in turmoil, and was shocked the person saw through her facade as she felt she "was completely outwardly acting normal". "I felt like he could just see straight into my soul. That inspired the whole song", she explained. The song is about "open-mindedness" and "waking up to all the things you've been missing for so long". After the moment that inspired her to write it, she "realized that for months I'd been numb, just going through the motions of life." Guitarist Ben Moody and David Hodges share songwriting credits on the song, which includes guest vocals from Paul McCoy of the band 12 Stones.

It is stylistically a nu metal and rap rock song. In order to market it, the label forced them to add the male rapping vocal, which Lee did not want, or the song and album would not be released. The male vocal was a compromise after the label originally demanded they include a rap on eight of the songs on the album. During an interview, Lee stated: "It was presented to me as, 'You're a girl singing in a rockband, there's nothing else like that out there, nobody's going to listen to you. You need a guy to come in and sing back-up for it to be successful.'"

"Bring Me to Life" peaked within the top 10 of more than 15 countries, and within the top 20 of several other countries, making it the band's most successful single to date. It was certified triple-platinum in 2019 for selling more than three million copies in the US. It won the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance and was also nominated for Best Rock Song. At the 14th annual Billboard Music Awards, it won the award for Soundtrack Single of the Year. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked the song at number 43 on their "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time" list. The song was re-worked and re-recorded on Evanescence's orchestral-electronic fourth studio album, Synthesis (2017).

"Bring Me to Life" received a total of 92,8% yes votes! Previous Evanescence polls: #44 "Imaginary", #513 "Whisper".

During Easter Holiday I realised that I hadn’t designed book covers in a long time with the exception of my short story covers. It was a pity since I like to edit so much, and I decided to try a graphic design challenge. I have known about the 30DCC (30 Day Cover Challenge) for a long time, which was created by @/GraphicSociety in Wattpad a couple of years ago. Even though it consists of designing book covers each day for 30 days, I decided to do it in less time and didn’t follow the specific order since there were covers that required a more complex planning. spent more than an hour on some of those covers but in general terms I finished the designs in between 15 and 40 minutes.

[Week of the 11/04/2021]

My favourites are Day 15, 18, 26, although I am very proud of all of the designs. The ones that took me the most time to do in levels of execution were number 17, 18 and 23, since they required either lettering and sketches or a more complex photographic composition. Despite the time used on these covers, I struggled more with coming up with an idea for the 7th (cover with your greatest fear on it) and 22nd cover (a romance-horror cover), since the first one was about a personal question and the second was about a genre I don’t know much about.

I only used Adobe Sketch, Phonto and Lightroom in some designs, and some of the recommended palettes of the first app. Almost all the images from the covers were taken from Unsplash, which means that they are Creative Commons photographs. It’s surprising how I evolved in terms of composition because in the past I usually didn’t make any illustration/lettering based covers and in this challenge I used my own illustrations and backgrounds for ⅓ of all the covers. (N°: 2, 5, 9, 10, 12, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25). Four of these designs I’d done previously, but I was fond of using them for this challenge since they also fit in these categories.

This is an initiative that I had wanted to try for some time now and CAS was the perfect excuse to finally do it. Here’s a link that will direct you to a file I created with all the covers in high resolution and a speed video of the lettering cover and a video of the covers in order:

(Song: Saturday Sun by Vance Joy.)

Sixpence None the Richer - Kiss Me 1998

"Kiss Me" is a song by American Christian alternative rockband Sixpence None the Richer from their self-titled third album (1997). The ballad was issued in the US in August 1998 and in international territories the next year. It was nominated for a Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 42nd Grammy Awards. "Kiss Me" peaked at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 and becoming the country's sixth-best-selling single of 1999. Worldwide, the song reached number one on the Australian and Canadian charts as well as number four on the UK Singles Chart, entering the top 10 in 16 countries altogether.

In January 1999, Miramax used "Kiss Me" as the theme song of its teen romantic comedy film She's All That, starring Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook. The film's box office success helped "Kiss Me" gain widespread mainstream attention and chart success. In Italy, the film was retitled Kiss Me. The song was also included on Dawson's Creek's first soundtrack in April 1999. The original music video pays tribute to François Truffaut's film Jules and Jim, made in black and white and recreating many of the classic scenes from the film. A second music video was released later, that feature the band sitting on a park bench, performing and watching footage of themselves on a portable television or projected on an outdoor screen. Two alternate versions of this video were made with them watching scenes from either She's All That or Dawson's Creek instead.

"Kiss Me" received a total of 85,3% yes votes!

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a song by the American rockband Nirvana, released as the lead single from Nirvana's second album, Nevermind (1991) on September 10, 1991, but it did not initially chart, and it sold well only in regions of the US with an established Nirvana fanbase. The single was intended to be a base-building alternative rock cut from the album, and was not expected to be a hit; the follow-up "Come as You Are" was planned as the single that could cross over to mainstream radio formats. However, campus and modern rock radio stations placed "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on heavy rotation. Danny Goldberg of Nirvana's management firm Gold Mountain said: "None of us heard it as a crossover song, but the public heard it and it was instantaneous … They heard it on alternative radio, and then they rushed out like lemmings to buy it." Having sold over 13 million copies worldwide, it is one of the best-selling songs of all time. The success propelled Nevermind to the top of several albums charts and is often marked as the point when grunge entered the mainstream. It was Nirvana's biggest hit, charting high on music industry charts around the world in 1991 and 1992, and was number one on the charts in Belgium, France, New Zealand, and Spain.

The lyrics to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" were often difficult for listeners to decipher, both due to their nonsensicality and because of Cobain's slurred, guttural singing voice. This problem was compounded by the fact that the Nevermind album liner notes did not include any lyrics for the songs aside from selected lyrical fragments. This incomprehensibility contributed to the early resistance from radio stations towards adding the song to their playlists; one Geffen promoter recalled that people from rock radio told her, "We can't play this. I can't understand what the guy is saying." MTV went as far as to prepare a version of the video that included the lyrics running across the bottom of the screen, which they aired when the video was added to their heavy rotation schedule.

The guitarist and singer, Kurt Cobain, described "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as an attempt to write "the ultimate pop song", inspired by the soft-and-loud dynamics of the Pixies. The title derives from a phrase written by his friend Kathleen Hanna, the singer of the riot grrrl band Bikini Kill: "Kurt smells like Teen Spirit." Hanna was referencing the deodorant Teen Spirit, but Cobain misinterpreted it as a revolutionary slogan. When Cobain presented the song to his bandmates, it comprised just the main guitar riff and the chorus vocal melody. Bassist Krist Novoselic dismissed it as "ridiculous"; in response, Cobain made the band play it for an hour and a half. Eventually, Novoselic began playing it more slowly, inspiring drummer Dave Grohl to create the drum beat, which drew from disco artists such as the Gap Band. As a result, it is the only song on Nevermind to credit all three band members as writers.

The music video depicts a high school pep rally which ends in chaos, inspired by Jonathan Kaplan's 1979 film Over the Edge and the Ramones' film Rock 'n' Roll High School. It won two MTV Video Music Awards, and was in heavy rotation on MTV throughout the 1990s. Amy Finnerty, formerly of MTV's programming department, said the video "changed the entire look of MTV" by giving the channel a whole new generation to sell to. In 2000, the Guinness World Records named "Smells Like Teen Spirit" the most played video on MTV Europe. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was met with acclaim and described as an "anthem for apathetic kids" of Generation X. It was nominated for two Grammy Awards: Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal and Best Rock Song. It was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of "The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll". In 2017, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" had reached two billion Youtube views by June 12, 2025.

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" received a total of 93% yes votes! 🥳🎉 Previous Nirvana polls: #118 "The Man Who Sold the World", #367 "Drain You", #637 "Rape Me".

Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) 1983

"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" is a song by British synth-pop duo Eurythmics. It was released in January 1983 as the fourth and final single from their second album of the same name. It was their breakthrough hit, establishing the duo worldwide. It reached number two on the UK Singles Chart in March 1983, and number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 six months later; it was their first single released in the US. According to Dave Stewart, their record label RCA Records did not think the song was suitable as a single in the US as it lacked a chorus. After a radio DJ in Cleveland kept playing the song from the album, and it generated a strong local response, RCA decided to release it in the US. The song also peaked at number one in Canada, and reached the top ten in a number of countries including Australia, West Germany, Spain, and South Africa.

With Annie Lennox appearing with orange cropped hair and wearing a man's business suit in the accompanying music video, the BBC stated Lennox's "powerful androgynous look" was the music video that "broke the mould for female pop stars". In 2020, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2023, it was selected by the US Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry.

Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart wrote the song after the Tourists had broken up and they formed Eurythmics. Although the two of them also broke up as a couple, they continued to work together. They became interested in electronic music and bought new synthesizers to play around with. According to Stewart, he managed to produce the beat and riff of the song on one of their new synthesizers, and Lennox, on hearing it, said: "What the hell is that?" and started playing on another synthesizer, and beginnings of the song came out of the two dueling synths.

According to Lennox, the lyrics reflected the unhappy time after the breakup of the Tourists, when she felt that they were "in a dream world" and that whatever they were chasing was never going to happen. She described the song as saying: "Look at the state of us. How can it get worse?" adding "I was feeling very vulnerable. The song was an expression of how I felt: hopeless and nihilistic." Stewart thought the lyrics too depressing and added the "hold your head up, moving on" line to make it more uplifting.

"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" received a total of 96,7% yes votes and is the new most liked song on this poll blog, beating A-ha's long reign! 🥳

Radiohead - Creep 1992

"Creep" is the debut single by the English rockband Radiohead, released on 21 September 1992 from their debut studio album Pablo Honey (1993). Radiohead had not planned to release "Creep", and recorded it at the suggestion of the producers, Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie, while they were working on other songs. They took elements from the 1972 song "The Air That I Breathe" by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood. Following legal action, Hammond and Hazlewood were credited as co-writers. Kolderie convinced EMI to release "Creep" as a single. It was initially unsuccessful, with BBC Radio 1 finding it "too depressing" and excluded it from playlists, but achieved radio play in Israel, New Zealand, Spain, and Scandinavia and became popular on American alternative rock radio. It was reissued in 1993 and became an international hit, likened to "slacker anthems" such as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana (poll #797) and "Loser" by Beck (poll #124). Reviews were mostly positive. Rolling Stone later named "Creep" one of the greatest debut singles and included it in the 2021 and 2024 editions of its "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Asked if the lyrics were inspired by a real person who made him feel like a "creep", singer Thom Yorke said: "Yeah. It was a pretty strange period in my life. When I was at college and stuff and I was really fucked up and wanted to leave and do proper things with my life like be in a rock band." Yorke said he was not happy with the lyrics, and thought they were "pretty crap". Asked about "Creep" in 1993, Yorke said: "I have a real problem being a man in the '90s… Any man with any sensitivity or conscience toward the opposite sex would have a problem. To actually assert yourself in a masculine way without looking like you're in a hard-rock band is a very difficult thing to do… It comes back to the music we write, which is not effeminate, but it's not brutal in its arrogance. It is one of the things I'm always trying: to assert a sexual persona and on the other hand trying desperately to negate it."

Before the chorus, lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood plays three blasts of guitar noise ("dead notes" played by releasing fret-hand pressure and picking the strings). Greenwood said later: "I suppose the nauseating adolescent in me found it a bit wimpy and wanted to make it the opposite. Can't be having ballads!" Guitarist Ed O'Brien said: "That's the sound of Jonny trying to fuck the song up. He really didn't like it the first time we played it, so he tried spoiling it. And it made the song." Yorke said the sound was like the song was "slashing its wrists. Halfway through the song it suddenly starts killing itself off, which is the whole point of the song really. It's a real self-destruct song, there's a real self-destruction ethic in a lot of the things we do onstage." The producers boosted the sound so "it punched you in the face".

I want to give a shout-out to the person performing it at a karaoke bar in Ixia, Rhodes in September 2023. I think about you every time I hear that song, especially that part. I'm not sure what that was but it sure was something.

"Creep" received a total of 87% yes votes!

Lady Gaga featuring Beyoncé - Telephone 2010

"Telephone" is a song by American singer Lady Gaga from her third extended play (EP), The Fame Monster (2009) — the reissue of her debut studio album, The Fame (2008). Featuring American singer Beyoncé, it was released as the EP's second single on January 26, 2010. Gaga and Beyoncé wrote "Telephone" with Rodney Jerkins, LaShawn Daniels, and Lazonate Franklin. Jerkins was responsible for the production, with Gaga co-producing with him. Gaga originally wrote the song for Britney Spears. "Telephone" conveys Gaga's fear of not finding time for fun given the increasing pressure for her to work harder as an artist.

"Telephone" received positive reviews from critics who called it a stand-out track from The Fame Monster and praised Gaga's chemistry with Beyoncé. Several critics included it in their best-of list of 2010. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, and it won a ASCAP Pop Music Award and a BMI Award. Peaking at number three in the US, it was particularly successful in Europe where it topped the charts in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, and the UK. The song sold 7.4 million digital copies worldwide in 2010, making it the year's fourth-best-selling single.

The accompanying music video for "Telephone", shot as a short film, is a continuation of the video for "Paparazzi" (2009), the fifth single from The Fame. It follows Beyoncé as she bails Gaga out of prison for killing her boyfriend; they go to a diner and poison the customers' breakfast. The video ends as they attempt to escape a high-speed police chase. It references Quentin Tarantino and his films Pulp Fiction (1994) and Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003). In January 2015, Billboard named it the best video of the first half of the decade. NME listed it as one of the 100 greatest music videos of all time. Retrospective reviewers analyzed the video's themes, including feminism, lesbianism, and commentary on fame and celebrity culture.

"Telephone" received a total of 90,1% yes votes! Previous Lady Gaga polls: #497 "Poker Face". Previous Beyoncé polls: #51 "Jumpin', Jumpin'", #198 "With Me", #234 "Hymn for the Weekend", #340 "Work It Out".

Smash Mouth - All Star 1999

"All Star" is a song by the American rockband Smash Mouth, released as the first single from their second studio album, Astro Lounge (1999). It was one of the last tracks to be written for Astro Lounge, after the band's record label Interscope requested more songs that could be released as singles. In writing it, guitarist Greg Camp drew musical influence from contemporary music by artists like Sugar Ray and Third Eye Blind, and sought out to create an "anthem" for outcasts. In contrast to the more ska punk style of Smash Mouth's debut album Fush Yu Mang (1997), the song features a more radio-friendly style.

It received generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised its musical progression from Fush Yu Mang as well as its catchy tone. It was nominated for the Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards. Subsequent reviews from critics have regarded "All Star" favourably, with some ranking it as one of the best songs of 1999. The song charted around the world, ranking in the top 10 of the charts in Australia, Canada, and on the US Billboard Hot 100, while topping the Billboard Adult Top 40 and Mainstream Top 40 charts.

The song's accompanying music video features characters from the 1999 superhero film Mystery Men, which itself prominently featured "All Star". The song became ubiquitous in popular culture following multiple appearances in films, most notably in DreamWorks Animation's 2001 film Shrek. It received renewed popularity in the 2010s as an internet meme and has ranked as one of the most-streamed rock songs from 2017 to 2021 in the US. In June 2019, the music video was remastered in high definition and received subtitles in commemoration of its 20th anniversary. By that point, it had received over 219 million views on Youtube. In 2020, The New York Times listed the song as #1 in their top ten climate change songs.

"All Star" received a total of 90,9% yes votes!