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The National
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The National
Let's Get Loud: Ten Jennifer Lopez songs that defined her career
back on the road. The Up All Night: Live in 2025 tour kicked off on July 8 in Spain and is set to stop next at Abu Dhabi's Etihad Arena on Tuesday. The show is a greatest hits set, blending early classics like Let's Get Loud and Jenny from the Block with tracks from This Is Me... Now and her latest song, Wreckage of You, which she performed on stage for the first time earlier this month. With a career spanning more than two decades, Lopez has an expansive catalogue, covering everything from RnB, pop, EDM, Latin ballads and trap, sung in both English and Spanish. It shows an artist who, despite the fame, the peaks and the backlash, has yet to lose her drive. This tour isn't a comeback but an affirmation of where she is today. Here are 10 songs that soundtrack that evolution. 1. If You Had My Love (1999) Glossy and emotionally distant, J-Lo's debut single isn't really a breakup song and more like the coda to one. There's no pleading, no anger, just a cool detachment, as if she's already walked away. Its distant tone is what makes the track interesting. It's not a kiss-off but a finale. The production is sleek and the vocals are composed while Lopez sounds capable and assured, proving to naysayers she could sing. It is smart and calculated start. 2. Let's Get Loud (1999) Originally written by Gloria Estefan and her husband Emilio, the song was first considered for Estefan herself. But she felt the track – with its vibrancy and urban pulse – was better suited to a younger artist. Lopez, then on the cusp of launching her music career, took on and owned it. You can still hear Estefan's imprint throughout: the congas, the brass and the chant-like chorus. It's the sound of Latin pop being rejigged for a mainstream stage – something Estefan pioneered, paving the way for artists like Lopez and Shakira. Where If You Had My Love kept things cool, Let's Get Loud puts Lopez's vocals in the front and centre. It's full of attitude and became a staple of her live shows, from Vegas residencies to stadiums and sports events around the world. 3. Love Don't Cost a Thing (2001) With its percolating percussions and streamlined groove, it is an almost a picture-perfect snapshot of early-2000s RnB. The sound is sleek, mid-tempo and driven more by attitude than vocal fireworks. A reason the track works so well is Lopez herself, as she serves the song. The delivery is sharp, each line clipped with precision. The lyrics became a kind of cultural slogan, a meme before memes were a thing. At this point, Lopez was in transition to full-blown pop star and you can hear that confidence all over the record. 4. I'm Real (Murder Remix) with Ja Rule (2001) When people talk about the track, they're almost always referring to the remix with hip-hop star Ja Rule. He was at the height of his run back then and his rumbling verses gave the piece the grit it needed. The original version felt flat by comparison. This remix, though, was hazy, unhurried and full of the kind of RnB-rap chemistry flavour defining the early 2000s. Lopez's soft, sultry coos is a great foil for Ja Rule's raspy raps. It was a great collaboration, and a chart-topping summer hit. 5. Jenny from the Block (2002) Maybe it was inspired by the movie roles she was taking at the time, but with this track, Lopez fully orchestrates her origin story. The samples – from The Beatnuts and Boogie Down Productions – nod to her hip-hop influences, but the bigger play here is brand-building. This was less about the music and more about shaping the J-Lo identity: grounded, street-smart and media-savvy. It worked then – but the same strategy hasn't always resonated. You can draw a straight line from Jenny from the Block to the more calculated moments in her later career, like the misfire of her latest album. This was one of the times she got the balance right. 6. Get Right (2005) Lopez has a bunch of tracks that feel like outliers and Get Right is one of them. Built around a squawking sax loop and twitchy percussion, it's one of her most rhythm-driven songs. There's no real hook to speak of, just forward motion. The vocals are clipped, staccato, almost functioning like another part of the beat. It works though. The whole thing holds together, and it quietly marks one of her first proper steps into club territory – something she would go on to perfect with On the Floor a few years later. 7. Que Hiciste (2007) This marked Lopez's move into Spanish-language pop – taken from her album Como Ama una Mujer – but instead of chasing the bright pop energy of someone like Shakira, she leaned into balladry. The production is heavy on cinematic strings and slow builds, but what really stands out is how it opened up her voice. Unlike her RnB material, which is often heavily treated, this kind of Spanish-language pop demands vocal umph – and Lopez rises to the occasion. It's one of the few records where we hear her relatively unadorned vocals. While it didn't make much noise in English-speaking markets, it remains a well-regarded effort. 8. On the Floor with Pitbull (2011) By the the blazing track arrived Lopez had been relatively quiet on the charts for a few years. Hence she went to Moroocan-Swede RedOne – one of the hottest pop producers at the time – best known for his bombastic, dancefloor-ready work with artists like Lady Gaga. The result was On the Floor: a stomping club-ready track that takes the familiar Lambada melody, gives it a new bassline and turns it into a stadium-sized banger. Lopez, ever the strategist, released the song in tandem with her debut as a judge on American Idol, ensuring maximum exposure. And it worked, with the song introducing her to a new generation of fans while still giving a nod to her Latin roots. Even if the whole thing feels a little too calibrated, it still sounds glorious. It topped the charts in more than 20 countries and brought Lopez back to pop's top tier. 9. El Anillo (2018) Coming with its dose of real-life drama, as fans linked the lyrics to the approaching dissolution of her relationship with then-partner and baseball athlete Alex Rodriguez, the real change here is musical – with Lopez stepping deeper into Latin trap that was gaining ground through artists like Bad Bunny and Ozuna. Earning a Latin Grammy nomination, El Anillo proves Lopez still does her share in evolving in the evolving Latin pop space. 10. Wreckage of You (2025) Lopez's latest song, which premiered live in June during her tour stop in Spain, forms one of the most dramatic moments of the show – a stripped-back piano ballad that sounds more like a confession than a performance. 'Thank you for the scars you left on my heart,' she sings. 'Now watch me climb out of the wreckage of you.' How you want to interpret that is up to you. Is it about Ben Affleck? It doesn't really matter. It's a big, inspirational ballad about life after divorce. Her fans will lap it up and it could very well shape the sound of whatever Lopez is working on next.
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
John Fogerty on the stories behind 5 of his turning-est, burning-est hits
In a time of exploding success and creativity in rock music, Creedence Clearwater Revival was quite possibly the finest singles band of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Formed in suburban El Cerrito in Northern California by frontman John Fogerty, his brother Tom on guitar, bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford, CCR put up an absurd number of all-timers in the space of about 2 1/2 years, including most of the 20 collected on 'Chronicle,' the 1976 greatest-hits LP that still sits on the Billboard 200 album chart today, nearly half a century later. The band's instantly identifiable sound — which the members began developing first as the Blue Velvets and then as the Golliwogs — combined blues, rock, psychedelia and R&B John Fogerty's voice, preternaturally scratchy and soulful for a guy in his early 20s, gave the music a feeling of sex and grit even as he flexed his commercial pop smarts as a producer and hook-meister. For all their popularity, Fogerty refused to play Creedence's biggest hits for decades due to a prolonged legal battle with his old label, Fantasy Records, over the rights to his songs — a feud that reached a kind of apex when Fantasy's head honcho, Saul Zaentz, sued Fogerty for plagiarizing himself with his solo song 'The Old Man Down the Road,' which Zaentz said sounded too much like CCR's 'Run Through the Jungle.' (Fogerty eventually won; Zaentz died in 2014.) Yet two years ago, Fogerty regained control of his publishing, and now he's made an album of Taylor Swift-style rerecorded versions of the band's songs called 'Legacy: The Creedence Clearwater Revival Years,' due Aug. 22. Ahead of a concert Sunday night at the Hollywood Bowl, where he'll be accompanied by a band that includes his sons Shane and Tyler, Fogerty, 80, called from the road to tell the stories behind five of his signature tunes. After charting in 1968 with covers of Dale Hawkins' 'Susie Q' and Screamin' Jay Hawkins' 'I Put a Spell on You,' Fogerty scored his first hit as a songwriter with this funky and propulsive country-soul jam. 'Proud Mary' came as a bolt of lightning and inspiration from heaven. I'd received my honorable discharge from the Army in the middle of 1968, and I was overjoyed — I mean, absolutely euphoric. It meant that I could now pursue music full-time. So I went in the house with my Rickenbacker guitar and started strumming some chords, and the first line I wrote was 'Left a good job in the city / Working for the man every night and day.' That's how I felt getting out of the Army. But what is this song about? I really didn't know. I went to my little song book that I'd only started writing in a few months before — it was a conscious decision to get more professional — and, lo and behold, the very first thing I'd ever written in that book was the phrase 'Proud Mary.' I didn't know what it meant — I just wrote it down because that was gonna be my job. I've got this little book, and I'm gonna collect my thoughts. At the very bottom of the same page was the word 'riverboat.' I remember saying to myself, 'Oh, this song's about a riverboat named Proud Mary.' How strange is that? Who writes a song about a boat? But after that I was off and running — finished the song within the hour, and for the first time in my life, I was looking at the page and I said, 'My God, I've written a classic.' I knew it was a great song, like the people I admired so much: Hoagy Carmichael or Leiber & Stoller or Lennon & McCartney. I felt it in my bones. Where did the narrator's accent come from? 'Big wheel keep on toinin'' and all that?Howlin' Wolf was a huge inspiration to me when I was 10, 11, 12 years old. He said things like that a lot, and I guess it went into my brain. I didn't do it consciously — it just seemed right to me when I was writing the song. CCR had five singles that got to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, including 'Proud Mary.' Do you recall what was at No. 1 when 'Proud Mary' reached No. 2?Let's see, this was early 1969 — I'd love to think that it was [Otis Redding's] 'Dock of the Bay.' 'Everyday People' by Sly and the Family kidding. How cool. Read more: Bruce Springsteen's 'Tracks II' is an epic act of rock-star lore Did you know Sly?I never met Sly Stone. I really loved the records. I was at Woodstock, and he was a couple acts after me. I watched Janis [Joplin] and then some of Sly, and then we retired to our Holiday Inn — must have been 4 in the morning by then. Ike and Tina Turner remade 'Proud Mary' for almost a different song. First time I heard it, I was driving in my car — was one of those times you pump your first and go, 'Yeah!' This twangy account of a musician fallen on hard times first appeared on the B-side of the 'Bad Moon Rising' single. My mom and dad loved traveling from our little town of El Cerrito. We would drive up San Pablo Avenue — I don't think there was a freeway back then — and cross the Carquinez Bridge into Vallejo and keep going up into the northern-central part of California and all those wonderful places like Stockton and Tracy and Modesto. I got to know all these towns like Dixon and Davis, and I heard my parents talk about Lodi. As a youngster, that was one of the words I saved in my book, like I was talking about earlier. I told myself, 'That's important, John — you need to save that and remember it.' As I started to get a little older, I remember playing on campus at Cal Berkeley with a ragtag group of guys — a local dance kind of thing for the students. The guy from Quicksilver Messenger Service with the afro [David Freiberg], he was there too playing with his band, and they did a song where it sounded like he was saying 'Lodi.' I was heartbroken. When he got done with his set, I went over and asked the gentleman, 'What was that song you were doing? Was it called 'Lodi'?' He said, 'Oh, you mean 'Codeine.'' Boy, did I crack up. Here I am, the farmer boy thinking about Lodi, and he's the downtown guy talking about drugs. Anyway, all that meandering my family did through the Central Valley was very important to me. There came a time when I was inspired to write a song framed in a place that was kind of out of the way. I was 23 or so, but I was picturing a much older person than myself — maybe Merle Haggard when he gets older. There he is, stuck in this little town because he'd drifted in and he doesn't have the money to get out. Immediately adopted as an anthem among those opposed to the Vietnam War, Fogerty's searing protest song was later inducted into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry. You said in 2014 that you weren't entirely satisfied by your lead vocal.I still feel the same way. The basic tracks for 'Down on the Corner' and 'Fortunate Son' were both recorded, and one afternoon I went over to Wally Heider's studio to finish the songs. For 'Down on the Corner,' I did the maracas and the middle solo part, then sang all the background vocals, then sang the lead. So I'd been singing at the top of my lungs for probably an hour and a half, then I had to go back and finish 'Fortunate Son.' I was screaming my heart out, doing the best I could, but later I felt that some of the notes were a little flat — that I hadn't quite hit the mark. I always sort of cringed about that. There's an argument to be made that the raggedness in your voice is what gives the song its urgency.I know that in the case of the Beatles, John would just sit in the studio screaming and screaming until his voice got raw enough, then he'd record some takes. Perhaps the fact that it was a little out of tune made it — what's the word? — more pop-worthy. I don't know. 'Fortunate Son' was heard at President Trump's recent military parade, despite your asking him not to use it during his 2020 campaign.I didn't watch other than a few seconds. I was trying to find the Yankee game and came across the parade. I was expecting it would be like the Rose Bowl Parade on New Year's morning, but it seemed really kind of sleepy. Somebody emailed me later that night and told me. I thought it was strange — thought it would be something that someone would be wary of. Because of the cease-and-desist — and because the song is literally about a person of privilege avoiding military service.I thought to myself: Do you think somebody did it on purpose? Are they doing it as some weird kind of performance art? I might be giving too much credit to the thought that went into it. Read more: The 25 best songs of 2025 so far 'Fortunate Son' is one of the great rock songs about class, which is a concept that Trump has deeply reshaped in his time. He's a rich guy but he manages to make himself look like the underdog and the victim. I'm from the '60s — the hippie era — when young people were much more unified in the sense that everybody should be equal and everyone should be tolerant and respectful of each other. It's a little different now, even though I'm very happy that people are protesting and making noise and pointing out injustice — I'm thrilled that's going on instead of just standing by and watching somebody get lit on fire. But we're so polarized in America now. I'm hopeful, though. You didn't ask me the question, but I am. I think we're all starting to get tired of that. It doesn't work very well — what we're doing right now is certainly not working. If we fire everybody and quit all knowledge and science and education and manners and morality and ethics and kick out all the immigrants — well, I guess you and me are probably gone along with everybody else. I mean, it's just such complete negativity. As Americans, that's not us — that's not how we roll. With worries about the spread of gun ownership in his head, Fogerty devised one of his eeriest productions for this swampy psych-rock number. I was trying to do a lot with a little — certainly got the band cooking and got a good groove going. For the intro, I wanted to create maybe a Stanley Kubrick movie soundscape, but of course I didn't have a symphony orchestra or synthesizers or any of that kind of stuff. I had to imagine: How do I use these rock 'n' roll instruments — basically guitar and piano and a little bit of percussion and some backward tape — and create that ominous, rolling vibe? Along with the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, you were one of the few rock and pop musicians of that era who produced your own records. To me, it was natural. I remember a time in the little shed that Fantasy had built outside the back of their warehouse to use as a recording studio — I was working there one day, had the earphones on and I was at the mic. This was Golliwogs time, probably '65 or '66, and I was trying to get something accomplished that was not getting accomplished. I said out loud, 'Well, I guess Phil Spector's not gonna come down here and produce us, so I'm gonna have to learn how to be a producer myself.' Saul Zaentz famously took you to court for self-plagiarism. Is there anything at all in your mind that connects "Run Through the Jungle" and "The Old Man Down the Road"?Other than both of them having a very deep footprint within the blues, which is what has influenced me greatly in my life, I never thought they were even similar. The whole thing was preposterous. After CCR's 'Pendulum' LP — which included this tender ballad that now boasts more than 2 billion streams on Spotify — Tom Fogerty quit the group; the remaining three members went their separate ways less than two years later. I loved my band — I thought it was the culmination of everything I'd been working for — and to watch it sort of disintegrating, I just felt powerless. That's why I use the strange metaphor of rain coming down on a sunny day: We had finally found our sunny day, and yet everybody seemed to be more and more unhappy. I just felt completely befuddled by what was going on — I didn't know what to say or do that was gonna fix it. Up to that time, I'd thought the way to fix it was: Well, I'll just write more songs and we'll have more success — that'll take care of all our problems. That's how I felt — pathetically so — even as far as my relationship with Saul Zaentz and the horrible contract. I thought if I just showed that I was a great songwriter and could make these records that perhaps he would have some empathy and go, 'I should treat John better because I want to have more of these songs.' When I say that now, it sounds utterly foolish. In spite of the pain you were in at the time, this song is one of your true. It's like an atom bomb going off in your backyard — it's so horrible that you just sort of cling to your positive human emotion. Even if it's painful, you try to feel rather than be numb. 'Have You Ever Seen the Rain' has been covered widely: Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, the Ramones, Rod Stewart. You have a favorite rendition besides yours?I really liked Bonnie Tyler's version. Get notified when the biggest stories in Hollywood, culture and entertainment go live. Sign up for L.A. Times entertainment alerts. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Fans Are All Asking the Same Thing After Reba McEntire Makes Major Announcement
Fans Are All Asking the Same Thing After Reba McEntire Makes Major Announcement originally appeared on Parade. Reba McEntire may be celebrating her past, but her fans are looking to the future. On Friday, the country music icon took to Instagram to announce that her hits including "Can't Even Get The Blues" and "Turn On The Radio" would be available on a platinum vinyl, entitled "The Hits," later this year. And while fans were happy to see a nod to McEntire's previous beloved songs, most were asking for something new. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Reba (@reba) "Love you Reba, I am totally going to buy this!!" one fan wrote. "But, we have a million greatest hits compilations already, we don't need anymore. We want new music!" "Love everything you do @reba but when will we get new music, it's been a string of compilations," another mused. "You mean all the same ones we can just go stream?" a third commenter blatantly put, while another said, "We need the new album!!!!!"The vinyl release comes as McEntire celebrated the 40th anniversary of her first song on the Billboard charts which was "Can't Even Get The Blues." "43 years ago 'Unlimited' was released," she wrote. "Thanks to y'all, this album gave us our first #1 with 'Can't Even Get the Blues'!" "Can't Even Get The Blues" was released in 1982 while "Turn On The Radio" was released over two decades later in 2010. 🎬SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬 Fans Are All Asking the Same Thing After Reba McEntire Makes Major Announcement first appeared on Parade on Jun 20, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 20, 2025, where it first appeared.
